Week 26

Dear lovely family,

To ask questions: the mission office gets the packages and then sends them to the appropriate zones and districts to us, they don't just send out random goodies though, I thought that is what you asked. The tamales were legit, idk they just tasted different, but we're way good. So this week was a little different.  I don't know how long this letter will be because I forgot my journal, near with me.

We had so much craziness happen that idk if I will remember all of it! It all started with the air conditioning in the car. It went about 2 weeks ago and we had gone to a Pepboys and they told us to take it into the dealership. We took it into the dealership and they said that they would get it fixed and back to us the following day. Turns out that the mission office had to get special permission to get the car repaired because the cost was over a certain limit. We brought in the car on Wednesday morning and didn't get it back till Saturday afternoon. We walked Wednesday because the Zone Leaders had Elder P bike so we had to get to our area one way or another. It was really crazy. While we were walking along a street to visit Y, in the intersection was this crazy guy with his hands up in the air shouting "pray for my hood!" He was as muscular as the like Hulk. We stopped because he started to walk towards us and everyone was staring. Two cop cars were already on the scene and the cops were just following him because they probably would've been beaten up. Then three other cop cars came, so a total of 5! They all came for the one guy. We saw the whole thing as we slowly walked around the scene at a safe distance. The cops were talking to him and then they finally put handcuffs on them when we heard one cop ask if they needed to call for an ambulance, the other said no, so I think that the guy may have been high or something, who knows. 

The lesson with Y was way good, it always is. Her brother, J, is super smart. He is 14 years old, barely speaks a lick of English, but loves to read the Book of Mormon. We started Y in the 21 club and J as well. We asked him what he remembers from what he read and he told us word for word exactly what happens in the first 8 chapters of the Book of Mormon, I was soooo surprised.

The next day we biked. It was fun, but not fun at the same time. Elder P was sooo goofy that day, the picture of him says it all. We had a lesson with a member and tried to go and visit some of our potential investigators, but nobody responded, so it wasn't the best day. Both of us were extremely sore when we got home, we didn't even bike that hard. On the way home we had a race down the street towards our apartment. I didn't understand why gears are so cool on bikes until I was cruising past Elder P on the highest gear I could. The second biking day was not much better. We had a lesson scheduled with Y, but they weren't home so it was canceled, and they have never canceled before so it worried us a little bit, but not anymore. 

On our way to a dinner appointment this car was making a right turn into a gas station and almost hit this guy, so the driver said from outside his window "my bad black!" And kept driving. ARE YOU SERIOUS? Do we call each other by color now? Am I that far out of the world? It was ridiculous. 

We had a lesson with the A family (the guy who was electrocuted a while back) and his friend was drinking beer with him outside when we showed up. The friend left and we went inside to have a lesson. The wife told us about a lot of the problems that they have been having with their landlord and financial problems. A lot of it stems from the fact that they do not have papers to be citizens in the U.S. It was the first time that I've seen the wife get emotional and actually cry about a trial that they are going through. She told us that she loves it when we come by because it's. Actually someone to talk to because we speak Spanish. "It's like you have a gift or something. I don't know how you can speak both languages" are the translated words which she told us. It made me feel really blessed that I can communicate, although not even close to being fluent, in another language. We showed her a Mormon message about trials in our lives and how God gives us trial to fortify our faith in Him. It was a really good lesson and they told us that they were committed to coming church, but they didn't. It is really sad when investigators or people use that thing called agency. It is really frustrating when we have seen how blessed people's lives are when they follow the commandments, but nooooooope. 

This week was just full of craziness, but this week was not a good week lesson wise. We did set a baptismal date with an elderly man named E who is super sick with diabetes (the guy who threw up last week). We finished the video and asked him to be baptized. He asked us what he has to do and we told him. We visited him again and got a whole different look on things. He has no support in getting baptized. His family hates Mormons and E was joking with us about drinking beer and everything, it's really bad because he can't see very well so he doesn't try to read the Book of Mormon, it's just sad, but I have faith that all will work out. I think next weeks letter will be much bigger, I just don't have my journal with me right now, sorry, I'll do better next time.

Spiritual thought for this week:

So President Uchtdorf's talk last conference about the Grace of God is probably my most favorite talk of all time (at least right now hahaha). Have I told you about how I learned to love it? It all started with a companionship study that I had with Elder W. Elder W told me about this talk and how is it we can reach heaven and live forever with our Heavenly Father. The talk goes like this (paraphrasing):

There is no amount of good that we can do in this world, no action that we can do or multiply that would allow us to enter into the kingdom of God. No matter how many times we attend our church meetings, how often we attend the temple or do good things, they do nothing to help open the gate to eternal life. The whole talk is about the Atonement. For those that may not know what the Atonement is, SIMPLY it is this: our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane for the sins of the world. He was lifted up and died on the cross for the world so that he could rise on the third day as a glorified, perfected, resurrected being. The Atonement is the ONLY reason we enter into the kingdom of God. The atoning sacrifice of our Lord and Savior is eternal and infinite, which signifies that it is for everyone. No matter what you have done or how little you know about the Savior, the Gift of Grace is available to all, the Savior made it possible. Why do we obey commandments then? Why go to church if that's not how we enter into the kingdom of God? The answer: because we LOVE God. John 14:15 says 'If ye love me, keep my commandments'. The Atonement that is holy and sacred. I know I did not have appreciation in my younger years (cough couple years ago) of the Atonement, that's because I didn't understand it. I love learning about the Atonement, it is what makes the world go round. 

We have this investigator, well it's a mother and daughter, and they are just going through s rough time. The daughter wants to kick out the mom, but the daughter is pregnant and says that she doesn't want her mom to have to do anything with her newborn baby, and the mom has said some hurtful things as well. It made me think long and hard about the things that I need to maybe leave behind me, or change in my life. It is also made me think about the people that I could show a little more love towards. Simply speaking, I just need to apply the Atonement more in my life. Well, that the spiritual thought for this week, go look up the talk! Gift of Grace by President Uchtdorf. 

I love you all and hope you have an amazing week.

Les Quiero tanto 

Elder Roberts

Week 25

Dear Lovely Family,

To answer questions: The tall guy was a less active whose family we eat dinner with a lot. I don't know how well homeade goodies work, I guess we just have to experiment and see, but I wouldn't send them frozen, just bake them and maybe put them in a tuberware container or zip lock bag probably. I know that E Parker has gotten some homeade stuff and that is how they did it. We never get anything from the mission office, they don't like the other zones, we are nicknamed "Inglehood" but thats just cause we work in some sketchy areas, but everyone knows who we are so there is nothing to worry about. I am almost positive that Tanner could've gotten his garments from the MTC but, who knows?

My new companion is pretty legit. His name is Elder P, he is from Dallas Texas and he is a left handed baseball pitcher. he is good enough at baseball to have made the BYU baseball team, which he played on for a year before going on his mission. He was a lefty specialist on the team. His original mission call was to El Salvador where he contracted Salmonela and appendicitis, so he had to get his appendix removed in El Salvador. He served there 8 months before returning home where he waited 2 months to go back out and now he is with me. He has been out about 13 months and he is super good at Spanish. 

So far for this past week we taught more lessons than any other lesson the past transfer with Elder C. We picked back up an investigator who I didn't even see for the entire transfer. Her name is W, and apparently another missionary offended her because she was making tamales on Sunday when the missionaries came by and she said that she was busy. Apparently the missionary told her off about how if she has time to sit around and make tamales, then she has time to listen to the missionaries (this is the story that she tells us, IDK how true it is because ella esta embarasada) but we started to teach M and W again. We showed them the Restoration video and they really liked it, they have even given us lunch and dinner this past week! They are from El Salvador so they like to chat with Elder P and it is pretty cool to see. We also taught this lady and her name is also W, but its a completely different W. We found her last week with E C, but she told us to come back, so we did. When we walked in, her boyfriend was there and he went off on how much he hates Mormon missionaries and how bad they made him feel one time, W then tried to defend us by saying "that's not them! They are not Mormons!" but then we said that we were and that we told her that when we first met up with her so that was a little awkward. He stormed out but we still had a lesson with her outside. She told us how she sees crazy things, like demons and darkness everywhere and it all started when her mom passed away. We tried to teach her the Plan of Salvation, but she just kept getting off track. By the end of the lesson we all were feeling pretty good and next time we visit her we are going to teach the Restoration and invite her to be baptized. That is something that this week we have struggled on, setting baptismal dates. Its really hard to set a baptismal date with a lot of the people that we teach because the moment that we will say 'B.." they will cut us off and go off about how they need to receive a sign from God to accept a baptismal date. I think a lot in those moments about a an example one time that I heard someone use by saying asking for a sign to change our habits or repenting is like asking a fireplace to give us heat without putting in the wood. I know that when we set goals and show that we are willing to do what God wants us to do, he will have the Spirit testify to us that we are doing is exactly what we need to do. 

We began to teach this father and daughter named H and E. H does Marijuana and E has extremely poor health that it is almost hard to watch. Helen told us that her dad was in the hospital and that she wanted us to pray for him and to swing by the next day. Well we did and we saw E!! he was out of the hospital, but still in really bad condition. We talked with him and told him that we could give him a blessing to help him feel better. he said that he would like that, BUT we didn't have any consecrated oil! We told him that we would come back later to give him a blessing. After we went back we gave him a blessing and he told us how much better he felt. He has really bad Diabetes and he is constantly shaking, but after the blessing he stopped for a while. At the end of the lesson Elder P decided that we should sing Yo Se Que Vive Mi Senor, so we did. The Spirit was there, it was intense. Even with our terrible voices, this old latino Elio was tearing up in his old and faded eyes. After we sang he told us how much peace he felt and that he would like us to come back. We went back about 2 days later and he invited us in. We decided to reteach the Restoration so that we could invite him to be baptized. We were showing him a video about Joseph Smith and right as Joseph Smith was about to kneel down and have the amazing experience of the First Vision, E said "I need to go throw up" got up, and went to the bathroom. If there is one thing that the adversary knows is the most powerful message missionaries share, its that of the First Vision. It happens SO often that there is some other 'noise' that is always going on during the First Vision, but this time it was just bad, funny, but bad. After he went to the bathroom, he came out and told us that he wanted us to leave and to finish the video later. NOOOO!!! ugh it was so sad. 

Something cool that happened this week was that the Familia R was confirmed! Remember them from my first area with Elder W? They decided that they would be baptized in Utah and confirmed here. Por Fin! Slow and steady is how they were able to make the covenant of baptism with the Lord and it feels so great knowing that i was a missionary who taught them. Our baptismal date, Y, we taught 3 times this week. We taught lessons 2 through 4 and even invited her to join the 21 club. The 21 club is something that E Parker told me about. We invite them to pray morning and night (2) for 7 days / the week (14) and to read the Book of Mormon for 5 minutes daily (7) so that all adds up 21. If they do that then we give them a candy bar. We also visited HP, he always confuses himself and always gets off track, but we always try to help him because his wife is the RS president and she keeps telling us that he is ready. He told us about how he believes in reincarnation and in spirits. He believes that we pray for their sins to be cleansed and they pray for ours to be cleansed. Well, if you believe in reincarnation, you don't believe in spirits, let alone spirits who pray for your salvation. He went on to say that our prayers do matter as much to God as those who have passed away. I know that prayer is a powerful thing. I know that God wants to hear each and every son or daughter pray to him daily, like any other father would. It is so sad to think that he feels that his prayers are not important to God because he hasn't died yet, so sad.

Last P Day was reidiculous. We went with the English Elders to The Alley, but they wanted to do the 50 piece Mcnugget challenge at McDonalds. I opted out of it, so all 3 of them did it. it was so gross, I just filmed certain parts, but all of them at one point was about to puke, it was bad. When we were packing up E C, I had on my slippers, (FYI they are falling apart its hilarious) and I stepped on a paper clip, yes a paper clip and it stuck through my slipper and went into my foot. It freaked me out, but I am all good, all healed, nothing gross or infected, its just funny that it was a paper clip. This last week we decided to fix the air conditioning. We got permission to go to Pepboys, but after 4 hours we finally found out that its a computer thing that is wrong in the car so we have to take it into the dealership this week to fix it. So we still haven't had air conditioning in the car, boy am I grateful for that, and a car ahaha. While we were waiting at Pepboys this guy asked us if he could buy us a coffee (he knew we were LDS) and he decided to chat with us (perfect). He asked us a lot of questions about how the LDS church is weird and set up wrong. We shared Ephesians 4:11 with him, which talks about prophets, teachers, evangelists, apostles, etc. We told him that that is how the church is set up, he then told us that he doesn't believe in that. WHAT? we just shared a scripture from the Bible, not even the Book of Mormon, and you are saying that you don't believe in that sort of stuff? Well he left and we had a pretty good laugh about that. This past Sunday we had a really good lesson in Priesthood about fatherhood and what the role of a father is. It made me think about all the things that you guys have done for me and how you have raised me. It also made me remember the Mormon Message that talks about how out of all the names that you could possibly give to deity, our Heavenly Father wants us to call him by that, Father. That personal connection with God is what he wants for all of his children, I think that is something that I have learned this week.

Any funny jokes? The spoons are from Yogurtland and i am trying to put them in every picture (that is appropriate) somewhere hidden, like the scenery during one of Dad's productions.

Les Quiero

Elder Roberts

(real tamales, apposed to the fake ones he has had before...haha)

Week 24

Hello Family!

 

"I wasn't born from a cabbage!" - Mauricio Castellanos

 

 

To answer questions:

 

I am staying in South Gate and Elder C is leaving to PV (its a zone just go with it) My new companion is Elder P, haven't met him yet, and nobody really knows who he is, but apparently he is kinda like me in the fact that he served a mission in another country, got sick, and now he is here. I am still Junior companion, but that really just means that he drives if he has priveleges and he signs more stuff than I do. I am really nervous about transfers because I don't know the area that well so I'm basically just gonna straight up tell Elder P what plans we have and then he knows as much as I do. Elder C is really upset about transfers because he loves this area, but its for the best. I didn't really get along with Elder C because he bucketed last transfer with his other companion that he killed so I had to help us work a lot in the area, but hey, I think we did pretty good. I am doing pretty good, trying to get in the swing of things, trying to always improve and continue. The days are long but the weeks are so short its crazy.

 

It actually would be fun if you sent a random letter during the week:)

We don't take turns baptizing, its whoever the investigator wants to baptize them, so A asked me to baptize him and K asked Elder C to baptize her. It is extremely humid over here, plus our air conditioning went out in the car so we always have the windows down, but its not enough. We live in the city, practically LA so no, I haven't seen any wildfires. I normally just have my tuna sandwiches and my breakfast stuff, I am almost done with the birthday packages though hahaha. I actually did get to go to the temple this last week, I'll talk about that later. That's really cool that you are doing the gym stuff, I am not exercising like I should be doing, hopefully the new Elder will help me:) OH! Elder W (my trainer) is being transferred to my district as well! He is the new district leader (there were problems in the other companionship) so I think it'll be a little awkward to have my trainer be my DL.. we'll see.

 

So the temple. We had the 6:45 session so we had to wake up at 4 because we had to get dressed, (I ironed a shirt) go over to the other Elders apartment because they were driving, then traffic is just terrible in LA, but we were able to arrive on time, so woo hoo! It was really funny because all the temple workers kept telling us that David Archuleta use to go do sessions in the temple before his mission, like all the workers were saying it, and I was just thinking "I am from Utah where all the girls in middle school liked David Archuleta, I don't." but of course I didn't SAY that so they just kept on talking. It was a really cool experience to be in the temple, I didn't remember a lot of the stuff so I am glad that I was able to go back. I did a lot of self reflection in the temple on how I could better work with my companion and be the type of missionary that I want to be, all that good stuff, and the temple was a pretty good experience. The only sad part was our ride wanted to leave the temple faster than we did.

 

We had a couple cool things happen this week. The day before the temple we biked (because we didn't have enough miles) and that was pretty fun. My pants got dirty, but I washed them and the majority is out, so I am not too worried. I am sending a picture of the sunburn I got, which was alright not too bad, but Elder C just got fried. He had such bad sunburns on his hand that they were purple (actually they were probably 2nd degree burns). Yes, we had aloe vera, yes it was in the fridge, and yes I used it. The only thing that I didn't use was sunscreen hahaha, because hey, I don't do that stuff. So while we were biking, we decided to visit a referral. We actually knocked on the wrong door, but it was all part of God's Plan. The lady that answered at first was really defensive because she thought that we were cops (because they are the only other white people that walk around our area) but we explained to her that we were missionaries and she just completely opened up to us. She told us about how her mother in law passed away and all the troubles and sadness that has happened since, we have a lesson scheduled with her on Wednesday, so hopefully that will go really well.

 

We had an apartment inspection this past week. Yes, I cleaned most of the apartment, yes I made sure we bought Febreeze to spray everywhere, and yes we got a Celestial score (90-100), we actually got a 98 out of 100. I didn't clean behind the flippen refrigerator and the toilet seat attachment is barely a speck away from being brand new so she docked us only 2 points, but she (her husband was sitting and talking with us the whole time) walked into a room, then out the next 30 seconds because gosh dang it, I cleaned everywhere! but now our apartment is a wreck haahaha ugh...

 

A lot of craziness happened this week. We had a lesson that took SO long, almost 2 hours, sooo bad. The investigator got so off topic (we taught the Plan of Salvation) and Elder C brought up Outer Darkness... oh boy did that just take a detour long ways away from the lesson. The investigator believes in reincarnation (see quote at beginning of letter) and says that the Bible talks about it, but he is also a die hard catholic... what? Anywho he says that we live in hell and that until we get 'it' right we will keep being reborn until we eventually live with God. After the lesson me and Elder C joked "Well it only took me 23 times to get life right to live in the kingdom of God, but Fred over here, well actually Sam I guess, it took him about 349 times" No! that's what I love about the Plan of Salvation, it actually makes sense, weird huh? We had a lesson with a part member family whose daughter, Y, is 10 years old but because they moved from El Salvador to here she was never baptized, so we set a baptismal date for the 16th of August because she has come to church like 10 times, is already reading the Book of Mormon, everything. The only worry (if any) is that we need to meet with them about 2-3 times a week before then to teach everything, but it's super possible to do that. We taught V Q, he is like a legend in the mission, and he never makes or keeps commitments with the missionaries because he loves his 'medication' meaning hit pot, that he just planted... while we walked up to him... awkward. We made him sign a sticky note that he would follow the 10 commandments (he hasn't yet cause he didn't come to church) but we are gonna visit with him this week with the new Elder so hopefully something changes.

 

I think I am going to send the package next week, because we are going to The Alley today with other Elders so idk if there will be something that I would think yall would like or anything. Let me know if my letters are getting smaller, this week was just really boring cause we biked and were sunburnt all week long.

 

AMOR,

 

Elder Roberts

Showing off his sunburn.  

Notice the matching colored ties :)

Week 23

Habiendo sido comisionado por Jesucristo....

So to answer questions:

I haven't been able to find anyone to hem my pants, because the lady that I thought could do it just got a new calling as a seminary teacher and she is super busy, plus I don't wear those pants unless it is for a special interview or mission meeting, so it's ok for now. I looked around at the dry cleaning places, but all of them are super expensive, 10$ for a tie.. what??  I really like the ties, I have lots of blues, but hey, the ties are awesome so I wear them. I shared goodies with my companion yes, just because I feel bad if I am eating all these snacks while he has nothing to eat because he doesn't budget his money. I am 'kinda' getting along with my companion, not as much as my last companion. We will see what happens at transfers this Sunday, who knows. I think that either he is leaving the area or we will stay together for one more transfer, any guesses?

Onto the week:

K came to church and was confirmed (phew) that was good. She wanted to be confirmed by the previous bishop whose voice is super deep and is almost like a Darth Vader and Morgan Freeman Spanish voice... it's pretty cool. Anyways, after the confirmation, she said 'wow' right after, we all chuckled and it was super cool.

I BAPTIZED A!! Ok so here's the story, brace yourselves:

So he had his baptismal interview this week and he passed (duh he's 12 and we taught him) well his mom told us that his little brother B was being baptized too because he is 8 years old and its for the primary. We were told this on Thursday, so we were freaking out. We tried getting a hold of a member of the bishopric, nothing. Oh so frustrating! so we decided to make a baptismal program based on what A told us he wanted the program to be. Yes, he asked me if I would baptize him so I was super stoked for Sunday. Anywho we took about 30 minutes or longer making the program from scratch on a Word Document and having to type and auto correct Spanish on a very old computer, remember how I have ZERO pacience? So the next day was Sunday and we scheduled to talk with the Bishop at 8 in the morning about the whole thing. He told us that he didn't hear anything about B (the brother) being baptized so we were freaking out. A's mom talked with the Bishop and everything apparently was fine. B was then going to be baptized by his grandpa, well we didn't know if he was worthy or held the priesthood... blah blah ya, so we found out after church and it was a go. So then we taught A the final lesson (lesson 5) after church and before the baptism (baptism was at 4 and church ended at 12:30) so after the lesson with him we went to change the program that we already printed 20 copies of. We went to the other church building where the font is (because our building is too small to have one) and there was another baptism going on! It finished around 3 so we went in, and everything was being picked up! The font was empty, everything, ugh!! (stress right?) so we filled up the font and I got dressed in my white stuff (pictures;) ) And then everyone showed up 10 minutes late, its a latino thing. So when they announced the baptism, the program said that I was baptizing A first and then the Grandpa would baptize B. So after that was announced, the crazy grandpa (he was crazy) just headed straight for the font, we all looked at each other and were like "hey! pssstt! A is first" but he already was in the font, so we had B go first. The grandpa then said A's name instead of B's name WHILE he was holding B in his arms... SERIOUS? so we stopped him and he said "I thought you said A was first?" well, ya, but then you went up and now B is there... ugh crazy loving guy right there. So then I went to baptize A, while I was walking in the font the drain wasn't plugged all the way, I didn't really think about it, but the water was at my hip so I thought "I hope A will go down the first time", ya nope. First time not even close. The water then continued to drain, second time was closer, but still no. We filled up the font a little more and FINALLY on the third time.... Got it:) It was so cool, amazing, wow. Yupp I think that's the only way I can describe it. So then there was a little part during the program for testimonies of the family and of course, crazy grandpa gets up. He pretty much gave a 30-40 minute talk. A's mom was so bored she went to the bathroom and prepared the refreshments. During his talk/testimony A's other brother J (the brother with Down Syndrome) was playing a video game the whole time, it was so funny it was awesome. Pictures will come.

So this week we had a random ZTM which the Zone leaders told us basically that our zone needs to step up on missionary work... yikes. They told us that our zone is actually leading the mission on certain areas so they want us to go crazy.. alrighty. We also got a call last night from them that said because A was baptized, we saved the zone's goal of how many investigators were to be baptized in the month of July, and our district alone almost got half of the baptisms. Remember how my area hasn't had a baptism before I got here in 9 months? Well, we just had 2 in the last month BOO YA! sorry, that was bad, but still, its been intense. We have had a lot of lessons with catholics this week, and trying to explain the whole Apostasy thing, ya no, for some reason it doesn't go through to them or they understand it... IDK. This lady asked us why we don't worship the Virgin Mary, she asked us "Who is more important? Joseph Smith or Mary?" answer: Jesus Christ. She was like.. touché. So then the lesson was actually pretty good. We had to bike one time this week because we are low on mileage for the car (only allotted certain miles each month, end of the month.. etc.) so we biked, I got a couple stickers, but nothing popped, however Elder C has like 5 holes in each of his tubes, its kinda sad and funny at the same time.

We had this lesson with this lady who likes Marijuana. She put it away for the lesson and we began to teach her (she is a former investigator). She asked us why we don't smoke Marijuana, we said "Because it's bad for you" she replied "But its natural" so I replied "So are most poisons". Bam. Done. We taught her how to pray so we'll see how everything goes. We have this part member family that I actually left out of last weeks letter. The dad is less active and drinks a lot and the mom and kids are super catholic, but they love us and we teach them, the only thing is is that they don't come to church. So the dad (J) was electrocuted on Saturday of last week. It rained and apparently they have some legal issues with their house so a wire was on the ground and he stepped on it and it fried his tongue. He was in the hospital and couldn't talk and they did an MRI to see if there was any brain damage. Well, wouldn't you know it, he was driving 2 days later just fine and dandy behind us one day on our way to visit them... WHAT? We tried to talk to him last night and ask why he didn't come to church and he told us that he has the drinking problems... so we will work on that.

Funny Conversations in the streets: So we were waiting to have a lesson with K before Sunday and this teenage girl ran across the street to talk to us, it was super awkward because she thought we were cops or something, idk. We told her what we do and that we wanted to invite her family and everyone to come to church, come to find out her mom is Lesbian (California) and that's why they don't come to church. We told her that we could explain why people think that homosexuality is a sin, which it is, and that it will help her grow her faith and understanding in Christ. (I wrote that really bad, I'll just leave it though). We also had this random lady last night tell us that the government is corrupt and that everyone is a spy looking for her, well, except us I guess. She told us that all the helicopters were looking for her and that it all started with her 'devil priest' of the Catholic church. We gave her a Mormon.org card for her to look up, I hope she does.

I will send the pictures. There is a movie called Straight out of Compton that is about rappers or something, well that's were I proselyte so IDK if you want to watch it or anything.

Hope the week is good.

Les Quiero tanto

Elder Roberts

Week 22

Amorosa Familia,

Gracias for the Birthday letters and the packages! THANK YOU!

Questions as always:  My companion is the short one that is by me in the baptismal picture (I think you got one of those). And in the picture of the zone, I am also right by him. My suit is clean, IDK what I said but it is clean. The only thing that is wrong with my suit is that the pants still need to come up about an inch. The bird poop came off super easy, don't worry about that, it was just a funny story that I wanted to tell you all. The deep cleaning is still going on, just because I try and do about 30-45 minutes a day because it is pretty bad.  I am doing good on contacting: let me explain what I mean by contacting because I think somebody might be confused. Contacting is like tracking but its in the streets instead of houses. I say contacting loosely but what I really mean is a conversation with someone in the street. A lesson with an investigator is not contacting, its a lesson, does that make sense? Starting conversations is really easy for me now, but sometimes I am just lazy and don't do it.

Investigators: K was not confirmed this last Sunday. It was so sad. She needs a ride to come to church and there was a big confusion as to who her ride was so she didn't have a ride. Her baby boy, T, apparently had an accident because of the heat in her house so she wasn't even ready to go to church. She can still be confirmed next week (fingers crossed) but Elder C was really upset about the whole thing. I would try to help him brush it off, but for some reason he just wouldn't listen, understandable... K was flawless up to that point in everything, but its a part of life and we can move forward. A (12 year old) we are teaching him because his brother with Down Syndrome doesn't want to change wards so estamos ensenando a el. He is really prepared to be baptized, the only problem is that he is shy, but he is slowly opening up to us. Cross your fingers that we have a baptism this coming week!! We also taught the husband of our relief society president. He has a lot of doubts about the Book of Mormon and we always end up talking forever. He tried to tell us that he saw on Discovery Channel that historians have found that Jesus had a children, even a daughter. I was thinking, "Maybe you have just watched The Davinci Code recently" anywho, when he told us that we just looked at him.. it was a little awkward. I think this week we will try and talk to him more about eternal families because apparently (no sabiamos) que he made a promise to his catholic parents that he would die a catholic... Temple to the rescue! We are planning on teaching him about baptisms for the dead and all that amazing jazziness. We also taught this lady named R A and her husband. We had heard that she was a little crazy but didn't really believe it. The first lesson we decided to see what she remembered and she tried to tell us that in our church we have a wheel with all the dead peoples faces on it to serve as a memorial or something... uh no. I was thinking, the only thing that I can think that is close to that is when we do baptisms for the dead in the temple, but even then that's a stretch. The teaching record said that they have been taught the restoration a lot but don't seem to understand it. Well, we taught the restoration to see where they don't understand and yep, its the whole authority thing. During the lesson they seemed super solid, we invited them to be baptized and WOOP, nope, didn't want to. We asked them if they understood what we had taught them or if they had any questions and they said "No"... hmmmm 'I do not think that means what you think it means' so we will try to help them.

Contacts/ Funny conversations: To start things off, J the green haired skateboarder. So we decided to walk to our area one day (because we are allotted a certain amount of miles each month and the zone leaders took away 200 because last month they went over 200) so we walked to save miles. The English missionaries picked us up and we went to the Branch building to exchange referrals and to tell them how some of their investigators were doing that they gave us. All of a sudden J came into the Branch and decided to tell us, basically, his life story. How he was shot, grew up around drugs, had seen crazy visions of demons and everything. The worst part about it was that the English elders were right about to tell him the First Vision when he interrupted them... ENSERIO?? anywho it was really weird, he was saying that he is 'the type of guy' that could convince us to do drugs.. uh no! Let me give you this pamphlet called the Word of Wisdom J... it was really weird so we just left. Elder C got WAY sunburnt and then he had a random rash on his leg so it hurt him to walk a bit. This random lady stopped us and asked us to pray with her, she tried to hold our hands to pray, but I just folded my arms like a good reverent boy. During the prayer she stopped and asked "Bless her?" man this prayer is boring, goodbye! and left... alright, have a good one. This week we also made a lot of phone calls. We decided to call up the potentials in the area book and a lot of them didn't remember talking to the missionaries so we would say something to the fact of "We are the guys in white shirts and ties that talk about Jesus Christ, we talked in the street remember?" but in Spanish. Most of them said that they remembered, but to call them back. We did get a few return appointments though, that was good.

Food: I have been eating either oatmeal, bagels, or cereal for breakfast. For lunch I have had leftovers (laugh all you want) and tuna sandwiches. Dinner this week was a humbling experience. We have a ward member who wanted to feed us and the family doesn't have a lot of temporal things. They fed us rice and a little chicken, but I was completely full. They are so nice and super active, they are just an amazing family. Members took us out to eat a places like Burger King and Subway this week, so nothing really to show for pictures.

We also had a different district meeting this week. We only have 4 missionaries total in our district (1 other companionship) and the Zone Leaders asked if they could come to district meeting. Then, right before it started the APs called and asked if they could come as well. It was really weird because we just got a new AP (because one is leaving this coming transfer) and so we had 9 people in District meeting. They had some pretty crazy stories and it was crazy. The APs now know Spanish, Spanish, and Japanese, so that means that the next one will know Spanish (I think) just because the ward that the APs go to are in the same building as the Spanish ward in the Inglewood building (my last ward).

Personal study, I am a little behind on my Old Testament reading, but that's just because I am in Leviticus and its super boring right now hahaha. I have actually read a lot of Jesus the Christ and man, my mind gets blown every page, practically every paragraph. I am already a third done with it. Remember how I said that I would start it later in my mission, ya, NOPE! let me know if I forgot anything, 

I will try and send letters back home ASAP cause today I am going to go buy cool paper to write on with my favorite pens (.38) they are really small and cool.

Les quiero tanto,

Elder Roberts