USC part 2
week 4
Monday was
a fun day. We got all of our laundry and shopping done early, and we went to
this store that we finally found out that the produce is so much better and its
cheaper too! Score! We then went to go hang with Elder H and Elder B in
Westchester to play some paddleball. Now, I'm not the best at tennis, so I
sucked miserably at it. I had some good moments but lets just say it was really
bad. I had a lot of fun with those guys though, they were really nice. A member
from the Westchester 1st ward came to play with us, his name is Brother M.
He was really good (the paddles were his) so it was like having dad on your
team for racquetball. He isn't like a pro or anything, but you just feel good
when he is on your team. I sucked so bad that the only time he ever lost was
when he was with me:(. We then got dropped off at our apartment with all of our
clothes and laundry and Elder W couldn't find his keys. With his keys is his
lock for his bike, one of the apartment keys, and a church key, so he was
pretty stressed out. We then started to head to dinner. On the dinner calendar
it said "N L". We had called N L before to confirm
the appointment and she said 6:30. Well we headed to Hermano L's house and
walked right on in. Now Hermana L looked at us in a kind way and basically
said "I am not N L, I am J L"... freak! So we are
calling the other elders to find out who N is, and so we decided to call
the number back. We are talking to "N" and she tells us her
address, well lucky for us she lives by this one family that is super cool
called the C family, but then we realize that N L is Hermana C's
maiden name.... STUPID! We tell her that we will be there as fast as we can and
if they could just wait a little longer. We biked for a solid 23 minutes to get
to their house. When we got there we all just laughed about the whole story and
everything. Hermana C works at this restaurant that serves oaxaquena food
and she served us this 'pizza' thing call tlayuda oaxaquenas. It was the BOMB!
It was so good, you should definitely look it up cause that thing was so
amazing. We then made plans for them to go to the temple this week and they
also want to feed us more. They said that they want us to come over a lot so
that way they can feed us all this new food before I leave:)
Tuesday was
a fun day. We had a lunch appointment with the A family and she made
flautas and that was really good. She had this guacamole sauce that we put over
the flautas and they were delicious. We then went to met up with our DL because
the night before Elder W had lost his keys to his bike lock, the apartment, and
the church all with the DL so they gave us back the keys. We had an AMAZING
lesson with a girl named A. A is the best friend of S E.
Naturally we were invited to have dinner at the E home and when we
finished we taught A. A is super chill. She is part belizean so she
understands spanish but doesn't speak it. She also likes to dye her hair weird
colors with S, so S has purple hair and A has pink hair. They both
love to go to Disneyland and they go almost every other day, its crazy I know.
Cool thing about A, she wants to be baptized super bad! She remembers a lot
about the missionary discussions and she has read a good chunk of the Book of
Mormon. The only problem is that last year when school started she fell out of
meeting with the missionaries and going to church with S, so she has
decided that this is her time to learn, get baptized, and start fresh before
school starts. She is super funny too. The whole lesson all of us were smiling.
It was a really fun lesson and S bore her testimony to A which was
really nice. We then went to the C home because they are actually the
ones that signed up on the dinner calendar for the week sooo, double dinners!!
Wooo!!!! We ate with them and had some fun times telling jokes and riddles. At
the end we shared a message about prayer and we invited them to say their personal
prayers as well as family prayers. That family is just so cool... they are
awesome.
Wednesday
we started with service at Glen's again. Elder D was on exchanges with
Elder W and so the time there was a little different than with Elder B.
Elder D is the new missionary in the ward. His Spanish is very gringo,
like how we all start, and its kinda funny. It was funny cause we would be
putting stuff away or taking stuff out of boxes and he would come and get in
"the bubble" and I would think, bro! That is my bubble! But its ok. I
grabbed some of the chocolate candies that are there that wont expire till
March at the earliest so that there is some for all of you to try:) we got back
to the apartment and decided to have a little fun during our lunch time. We
opened a coconut. Now that is really hard when all you have for cutting is a
kitchen knife, but we managed to do it. We also but some lemon in the coconut
(hehehe oh my goodness) and that was pretty funny. The coconut was good, but I wish
we could've had more time to eat it or had something to help us cut out all of
the coconut yumminess. The day started out with S. We went to the usual
park that we meet her and her mom at and we got there a little earlier so we
decided to walk around the area for a bit. It was getting close to when we were
suppose to meet with S so we called her and her mom answered the phone to
tell us that S was still in school... oh the struggles of working with 9
year olds. We rescheduled the appointment and went on our way to go see the
O family. The RS president came out with us to teach them and introduced
herself and talked to them for a bit. Unfortunately she couldn't stay because
she had to go pick up B from school so she left in the middle of the
lesson. We were talking to the O family about how they liked church and
what they thought, questions they have, etc. P, the mom, just goes off on a
bunch of random stuff that she didnt like about church. She didnt like the
sacrament and how anyone can just take it, because you know, Christ only did it
with his Disciples and not just anyone... (stupid). She then says how some
people just wear makeup when they go to church or how some people wear pants
and how "in the Bible it says" blah blah blah. V, her
daughter, wore pants and makeup to church! She then says that the hymns were
really weird. WHAT!? Did you even listen or read what they say? UGH! It
frustrated me so much because that is TOTALLY not her real problem! She is just
throwing up stuff to hide something else. She told us that she just isn't
interested anymore. What? Her kids LOVE going to church. They really liked it,
and the whole time we were talking with her, her kids were looking at her like,
for real? They didnt say anything but they totally liked church. I was so
frustrated! This is such an awesome family and it looks like they are starting
to fall off. We have done so much on our part to help this family! It makes me
sad. We then went to eat dinner at the G home and we ate pupusas. K was there and we were able to talk to him for a little bit. It was a bad
scenario again cause C was there. C was trying to explain that Jesus
was a communist and that C has an uncle who is a revolutionary man... in
those moments you just have to look at your watch, then your companion, and say
that you have to leave cause you know it just isn't going to end the way you
want it too. At the church the C family came, the husband and the wife, so
that they could get their temple recommends for the temple! This Saturday we
are going to go to the temple with them! Totally going to take pictures and
everything:) we then gave K a tour of the church cause he didnt know what
some of the rooms were and where the bathroom and stuff were, you know,
important things like that. It also rained pretty hard that day and so we were
soaked.
Thursday
I'm pretty sure was the day we made the ninja bread cookies.. ya, that was fun.
We had weekly planning at the church and right after we had a lesson with
S. Ugh! So Sophia's mom is just a handful. Sophia is 9 years old and is
super smart and just full of life and off the wall crazy. We will be talking
about keeping the Sabbath Day Holy and she will say things like "God wants
us to go to church so we can be happy, and when we don't go to church, it makes
him sad". Then the mom will be like "Is Nephi in the Book of Mormon
the same person as Moses?" No, he isn't. We invited them to come to church
because they haven't been coming, and they committed to come. We also went to
go and visit with the G family. Funny story: we were sitting on the
couch talking with K and G when the youngest son, A, runs
through the front door straight to the bathroom (he is 6 years old) to find
that the great grandma is washing her hands in the bathroom and that the door
is locked. He looks at his mom in horror and I tell you, he has mastered the
potty dance. He grabbed his butt and said "ya viene!" Which means,
its coming!!! G went over to knock on the door to tell the grandma to
get out and then we all laughed about it afterwards... oh funny A. We invited
them to be baptized and they were really hesitant, and they didnt really say
no, but they didnt say yes either. We think that the lesson went in a good
direction at least because it is giving them that little push to help them
progress in the gospel rather than just stay in the normal spot. We also
stopped by the C family to check up on their reading, and they weren't
reading. We gave them a challenge to read 2 chapters every day and that we
would make questions for them, so hopefully they will be ready with the answers
the next time we stop by!
Friday was
an interesting day, and it was super long too. We had interviews with President
and Sister Haynie at 9:00 in the morning. Its kinda annoying me that whenever I
see other missionaries they remind me of how much time I have left. I first
talked to Sister Haynie and she started out "well this isn't going to be like
the long interview that you are going to have in a couple weeks when you go
home"... and then she started. We talked about a couple things and she
just reminded me that I always need to stay busy, no matter what. She says that
the sooner I get a job, the better I will feel. We talked about my mission and
what I have experienced, the hard things, the easy things, some things i have
learned... etc. I love Sister Haynie so much, she is totally the Mom of the
mission. I then talked to President Haynie and he said that the interview would
be a short one. I asked him if he could give me the endorsement and he was like
"it only takes me 5 minutes to do that" and then boom, done. We
talked a little bit more about stuff and he said some nice things about me
which made me feel really good. It was pouring rain. I put on that nice trench
coat and we headed out to go talk to people and knock some doors. We found and
taught a guy named E who is super cool. He has 3 kids and a wife and we
taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was a good lesson and he committed to
come to church this week with his wife, fingers crossed! We then headed towards
our dinner appointment and started to find some potentials around there. We
talked to this guy named J. J was a handful. He walked out the door and
he started to "tell us what we believe". He told us that the last
missionaries that came by were a little annoyed at him because he started to
teach them about Jesus (oh really, they were annoyed huh?). He then starts to
tell us what he believes about God, the way to baptize, everything. I zoned out
a couple times, cause you can do that sometimes, but then he would ask me a
question and I would have to answer. He said some crazy stuff like: we baptize
in the name of Joseph Smith, no. Do we believe in the Godhead (its called la
trinidad in Spanish or the trinity so its confusing at first) and we said that
we do, to which he told us that he didnt. He was also trying to tell us that if
we need to call The Son by His name, Jesus. That we cant call Him, the Son,
because he has a name. The makes no sense. We listened to him and then told him
that we had to go and visit someone else, he said that he liked us and to have
a nice day. We were so glad that at least he has a good impression about
missionaries:) We ate dinner with the A family. Hermano A use to
be the YM president but got released last Sunday. He has some of the coolest
kids, D and C. We talked to them for a bit and it was a good meal.
After that we went back to our apartment to get our bikes and head to an
appointment that we had the E family. Hermano came out with us.
We started to teach A, J and G. G is crazy and it is really
hard for her to pay attention. A and J are super cool and they would
totally help G learn more, if G wouldn't randomly say during the middle
of the lesson "but my sister doesn't share with me" or ... whatever.
It makes me wonder how terrible little siblings really are.. glad I'm the
youngest;) Anywho, we committed them to come to church because they never come.
When we committed G to read the Book of Mormon she said "but my sister
never reads to me" and we just said "G, how old are you? You can
read the Book of Mormon by yourself". It was an interesting lesson and I
am slowly loosing my patience with that family!! Ugh! We then biked to go and
see Y. She had just woken up and the house was so quiet it was amazing.
We taught about the Plan of Salvation to see if she understood it all or had
any questions about anything, and she didn't. She said that she doesn't have any
questions about anything. Its nice to know that maybe she wont be baptized
while I am here, but that one day she will be baptized, and thats comfort enough
for me. They have a little dog named Lucky that is just crazy, but you just got
to play with the dog for a bit and then set him down by your side like Dad does
and he will fall asleep, its the best. That was the day.
Saturday
was a crazy day. We started out the day going on a nice little run to the USC
track in the morning and we ran on that for a little bit, so that was cool. We
had a lesson around 1:00 with the O family and we called E and M V to come out with us. They live a block away from the O family and
they helped out a lot during the lesson. During the lesson we talked about the
Plan of Salvation and it was really good. V had a friend over and she
also participated in the lesson too! She even said the closing prayer and
committed to come to church this week! After the lesson we went back to our
apartment to change into our suits to go to the temple with the C couple. It
was such a cool experience. We went to the temple and who knew that around 4:30
on a Saturday there wouldn't be ANYONE in the baptistery. Elder W and I were
asked to participate in the confirmations because there weren't any temple
workers in the baptistery. The Cs were asked if they were doing family names
and we told them that they would just do temple names cause they didnt bring
any names. Fortunately a temple worker who had just walked down the stairs
asked if they could do the names of her family. It was really cool. We got all
dressed and waited for a bit cause a member of the Temple Presidency needed to
come and do the cards for the baptisms cause there really wasn't ANYONE.
V kept asking me questions about this or that about the temple and it was
a really cool experience. The worker told us that he would baptize in english
but, if we would like, we could confirm in Spanish. I did the confirmations for
Hermana C and Elder W did them for V. It was an awesome experience,
the first time for me to do confirmations in the temple and it was as a
missionary with a recent convert family, so cool. V loved it and so did
Hermana C. When they found out that they can just go whatever day (except
Sundays and Mondays) to go to the temple, they were super stoked. They also
asked "what is keeping us from entering the temple and being sealed as a
family?" We told them that they just have to wait for a year to be members
and receive temple prep classes, they were so happy. We then got back to their
house and they gave us chipilins, which are basically tamales just made a
different way and with cheese and a sauce, it was nice. Not too bad for a
Saturday:)
Sunday we
had excessive rain! Like it actually rained super duper hard! In the morning we
had ward council and we talked about our investigators and then that was it for
us in the meeting. We didn't have as many people show up to church this week, we
had about 7 people show up which is still super good, but the O family
didn't come which was a little disappointing. We sat by the C family during
Gospel Principles and were having a fun time laughing with them about stuff, it
was good. OH! The N family came to church today! Idk if y'all remember me
telling you about them when I was in the Jungle area, but they came and I gave
the Hermano a hug and we talked for a bit, it was nice to see them again. After
church we gave the missionary moment for the baptism of the other elders. They
have been teaching this lady named M and she is about 70 years old and is
just the sweetest lady you can meet. After she was baptized and the RS gave her
a welcome to the ward she asked if she could say a few words (of course you
can). She got up and said thank you to everyone who was there. In her own words
she said "Thank you all for being a part of the happiness that I feel in
my heart" it was so cute, ah! We then got a ride back to the apartment
cause it was raining really hard and the streets had quite a bit of flooding
going on. A F swung by the apartment to give us some food cause he
didn't want to have us walk all the way to his house to eat dinner. When we went
to go meet him outside we accidentally locked ourselves out. Our keys and phone
were inside and so I just started to undo the screen on the outside of the
window. We popped that off and then reach through the window to unlock the
door. Who knew missionaries are really good at breaking into things??;) we then
received a message telling us that as a whole mission to stay in our apartments
because of excessive flooding and rainstorms that were happening and that
unless we had scheduled teaching appointments that we were to return to our
apartments when it was dark, so that explains why this letter is so much longer
than the usual ones, cause we had all this extra time:)
Today we
are going to go to the Pixar place thats here in the mission, definitely going
to get some souvenirs. These next couple weeks I will be probably spending a
little more money from my home card on stuff so, para que sepan and all.
Love,
Elder Roberts
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