Week 45

Hello beautiful family! Your faces are so lovely!!

I am a little sick, I came down with the cold.

Monday was just a busy day. I felt like my head was cut off the entire day. We biked to the church so that I could send you that email, while being ready for the Elders that took us up to the mission office. While at the mission office I emailed a little bit while waiting for all the 'paperwork' stuff that I had to do. After all that was said and done we went back to the church and played some basketball while I was trying to figure out the iPad thing again... I am so not tech savvy. We played basketball with one of the youth who can dunk and plays for his high school team.... I almost beat him at 21... Almost. We then biked in the rain to our dinner appointment with W and C. They are a really nice couple, they just have some problems. We shared with them the Christmas story in Luke 2 in the New Testament and they liked that. We ate carne asada, guacamole, frijoles, and tortillas and it was soooo good. We then tried to contact a referral, but he wasn't there, so that was a little sad. We had a member give us a rotisserie chicken so BABOOM! That was really nice.

Tuesday was alright. We were told that there was a Christmas tree in the attic so we got that down during companion study and took a video as we put it all together. I am not going to lie, that tree looks sang good. There is a train track with lights around it, ornaments on the tree, lights, tinsel, and a picture of Jesus Christ as the star because we couldn't find a star or an angel on the top of the tree, so we figured that Jesus was better anyways. After that we waited till the elders with the car came to pick us up for the dentist appointment. That took 3 hours!! Sorry about all the.... Expenses... After that we had to bike from the church back to our apartment to drop stuff off and then straight to our dinner appointment with the E family. They gave us ham, rice, and beans to eat for dinner with lemonade that was amazing! Then after they even gave us stockings!! They are so nice. The daughter served her mission in Utah so we joke back and forth about a lot of stuff. 

Wednesday was a day of miracles and awesomeness! We needed to go get toilet paper from the 99 cent store when we got a call from a member who needed to have some service done for her. She was removing carpet in her home and needed help moving all of the furniture. It was pretty fun. She gave us breakfast from Mcds and we moved a lot of stuff. That house was super dusty and had lots of cobwebs, but it will look better now. We did that for about 2 ish hours... Not too bad for late notice. We then bought the toilet paper (nope didn't forget that) and then went back to our apartment to work on the Area Book app. We decided to go and visit P U. So we walked a good little bit, talking to lots of people along the way, the good, the bad, the ugly, everyone. We knocked.... And he answered! I don't know if you remember, but we gave the blessing to his wife a couple weeks back. It is the family that had the older lady say "these are Elders!" Ya, anywho. We had a lesson about a week ago with him in which we invited him to be baptized a gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon. The next lesson that we scheduled with him, he didn't answer the door. When we went in and started talking he told us that he heard us knocking, but didn't know it was us. He then went to look and so us walking away so he grabbed on his shoes to run after us, but we had already crossed the street. His wife is doing much better, she has a brain infection so that's real tough. We asked him if he had read in the Book of Mormon and he said yes. We asked him to bring his book because we would be using it in the lesson. He brought his book with pages doggy-eared and said "I've read this" the pages were Alma 5-10. I was so impressed! I was like "wow 5 chapters!". But then my draw dropped. He then said "No elder, I have read from the BEGINNING of the book to THERE"............ WHAT???!!! That's 279 pages in the Book of Mormon (Spanish) he told us how much he loves reading it, he was all smiley about it too. He told us that he reads for AN HOUR EACH DAY, unless he is tired then AT LEAST 40 minutes.... That's more then me. I cannot say that I read just the Book of Mormon for an hour a day.... Dang! He then told us the most coolest thing: he said "I know when I finish this book, that I will want to be baptized" BAM!!!! He does have some doctrinal issues here and there, and a problem getting to church because he has to take care of his wife, but STILL!! We then walked to H's house and read with him a bit and talked about the Word of Wisdom. He then showed us how to make his jalapeño salsa. This is all you do: cut the ends of the jalapeño, stick it in the frying pan with oil, fry that pretty good, then put those in a blender with some garlic and a titch of water. That's it. Caution though, the smell is AWFUL. It made all of us sneeze, cough, runny nose, watery eyes, everything... I felt like I was melting. We even opened the door, eveything. We then ate dinner with the M's, that was good. We had tamales chapines which is tamales  the Guatemalan style. They had green olives in it, which was weird, and chicken, masa, all of it. It was pretty good, but I do like my Mexican tamales better than Guatemalan style. We then biked to the N family to have an FHE with them, but the hermano was the only one there. We shared the Christmas story with him and then played the card game 'Burn' with him, remember that? Well I didn't win once. The hermano won twice and my comp won the last time. We then ended the day trying to set up all of our dinner appointments for Navidad y Noche Buena. 

Thursday was Christmas Eve and that was intense. We had already done the weekly planning that we needed to do because the Area Book Planner app helps a lot with that. We decided to do a gift exchange as a district, thinking that that was a good idea. I also called the dentist office so that they could "fix" the bonding on the tooth that came undone. We decided that as we would walk back from the dental office to the car we would buy the gifts, but we were told that we were not allowed to do that. That's ok, I guess. We still needed to buy something to validate our parking, so what do missionaries do in downtown LA at Figat7th? We go to the food court. We saw this really cool pizza place when this random guy standing in line told us "Elders, let me buy you all pizzas.".... BABOOM! He told us that he himself is not a member, but that he married one and that his whole family basically is and that he supports missionaries whenever he can. He said he knows that we are doing God's work and that we are becoming men, all that jazz. Then he bought each of us a pizza, took a picture, and then left. What a nice guy, he was just super nice. The pizza was pretty good to, and we got to validate! So the pizza only cost about 1$ a piece, not too bad. We then went to our apartment and headed out. After talking with people for a bit, it was time for dinner with the M's, who are our apartment managers and they are all members. They go to the English ward so we never see them and they invited us over for dinner because we are always busy. They had really good food. They had ribs, fried chicken, asparagus, potatoes, a dish with corn in it, ponche, and this freaking awesome Trader Joe's Apple Cider, wow. After that we went for round 2. We went to the A family to have dinner and open gifts. We got there and ate chicken, rice, Russian salad (it's just called that, it's not from Russia) and some bread. To drink we had ponche and lemonade, it was good. We then opened gifts. Latinos are super mean when it comes to celebrations. The three little girls A, J, and G were given presents from 'Santa' and what looked like boxes of something nice turned out to be wrapped boxes of old hamburger boxes from McDonalds with a rotten banana inside. The girls cried and the parents only laughed. J, one of the girls, got a scarf.... But she made it. Her parents rewrapped one of her gifts and gave it to herself. I told her that it looked good on her and she loved the gift after that. That happens for about 3 gifts... Poor girls. Then after they had all cried came the normal family gifts. They actually gave Elder G and me gifts too! I got a fancy gray sweater and Elder G got a nice gray hoodie. Then the day was done.

Friday I talked to you!!! Well, to the family family. But let's talk about the whole day shall we? We woke up at 6:15 so that way we could clean the apartment a little bit. We invited some other companionships to come over to our place to open gifts and to have a breakfast with us. We had Elders Z, H, G, and W there. I have thus been nicknamed "The District Mom" because I wanted to take pictures of everyone opening gifts and standing in front of the tree. We then cooked up some pancakes with chocolate chips and drank pumpkin flavored egg nog with some Martinelli after that, it was so good. It was a lot of fun, but then there was more. We were invited by our apartment manager to have breakfast with her family also, so we went over after and had leftovers from the night before and one of the daughter in laws made Monte Cristo, so that was real good. We then hurried home to get our stuff and bike super duper fast to go get our bikes and then Skype at the R house. That was really fun. You all are so awkward, I hope you know that. I think the best quotes from this time were "I love your face" "I got a sword for Christmas" "Talk in Spanish" - "no" and of course the jovial little time we had about Peggy;) that was cool. We then went home to get some stuff that we needed for our investigator H. We went to see him, but he was sleeping. His mom said that we could come back later, and that we should take a nap "because we looked bad" so we took the wise counsel of a member and took a quick power nap at our apartment to go back to H's. We watched The Prophet of The Restoration with him and it was really good. I love the movie, it gets me at different parts every time, that tear jerker!! We the. Biked to the R house for dinner and ate there. Elder G and W because they had just finished skyping their families. The food was soooo good! We ate actual desserts!! Brownies, Apple pie, ice cream, ate it all. All in all today we had a total of 3 meals, not the 5 that we were expecting. We had 2 breakfasts, some chips for lunch, a nap, and then an amazing dinner. All in all, it was a pretty epic Christmas in the mission.

Saturday I came down with the cold.... Ugh. It was not a fun day. We had District Meeting and I was just trying to survive, basically it's just my nose that's all stuffed up and so it's difficult to breath sometimes. After that we walked around for a bit, tried to go visit P, but he wasn't there. We had dinner with B, who is a Recent Convert and she always is forgetting things. She gave us a referral though! The food was really good, she cooks super spicy food, so I always try and go for the fruit or something else that she has that I know isn't too spicy. We biked back to the apartment because I did not have energy to continue, and I crashed out for the night.

Sunday I woke up and my nose hit me like a train. We went to church and that was good. I really don't like it when teachers go off topic with the lessons. Sometimes I think teachers miss the principle part of the lesson and want to go on something that they think is cool or that they found out, but they don't stick to the lesson... Just saying. After fighting with my nose all through church, we arrived back at the apartment. I decided that I didn't want to be lazy the whole day so we went out and talked to people, tried to visit some investigators, but they weren't home. We stopped by the N family, a less active family. They are less active because the husband works on Sunday's at a golf course early in the morning, and if he doesn't go, the family doesn't go. We had a improv FHE with them and we played some card games. They gave us pupusas. Mom- learn how to make pupusas!!! I am so grateful that I have always been around a family that likes to play card games and play games together. I am glad that you as parents taught me (even though sometimes it doesn't show) how to be a good sport while playing. I think the mission has taught me more about being a good sport when playing games, cause hey, everyone plays soccer here and I don't. Let's just say that my comp is not use to playing card games and he really REALLY likes to win.

Week 44

Dear Lovely Family!!

I am so sorry about the late letter, but to answer questions real quick:

 When I am talking about beans, I am meaning the fried beans or regular beans like black beans, and no they don't hurt my stomach.The tires on my bike work good in the rain and THANK GOODNESS I have my trenchcoat because that thing saves my soooo much. My slacks get sopping wet though hahaha.

Monday was a little depressing because the sports are getting a little boring with how intense everyone is getting, plus the mission office told me that I would have to replace the iPad even though I didn't do anything.. ugh. We had dinner with the bishop and his wife and they are just so nice people. The bishop is a high school Spanish teacher and we joked for a bit, I know teacher lingo;) We then went to go and read with H, one of our investigators and he is actually reading!! His friend named F was there so we taught both of them.

Tuesday we had to go to the church to do a training because the ipads now have a new app that will help missionaries, its called the Area Book Planner, and it is pretty legit. The only downside is that we have to put in all of the information from all the huge heavy big blue books about our area into a little itty bitty ipad... every... last... person. The app is really cool though, it lets us keep better in touch with the mission president and ward leadership about our area. We then went and had a lesson with the R girl. She is always spacing out during the lesson. We told her the reason that we come and visit people is so that their faith in Jesus Christ can increase and that only happens if she will read the Book of Mormon. Our english opposite missionaries in the area stopped us for a bit and talked with us, after that we just kept walking and talking with people. I then got an impression that we needed to leave the area. We got on our bikes, headed back to our apartment, and started walking towards another investigator. We started walking to the A family (actually the U family). They were the ones that we gave the blessing to and told us that they wanted us to help them build their faith. Well we decide to go and visit them. I had set in my mind that we would invite them to be baptized, at least the husband. During the lesson we learned that the wife has a brain infection and that is why she cannot control her body like normal and also why she is slow of speech. We had a very powerful lesson about the Book of Mormon and when we invited P U to be baptized... he accepted! with tears in his eyes about not knowing how things were going to work out, he accepted a baptismal date. We were so pumped after that lesson. We biked to the area of our dinner appointment and stopped by a couple houses, but nobody was there. We talked to this random guy on the street who said that he was a mason... yeah, right. He told us that everything religion has to do with the solar system and the Son of God means the sun, really? anywho we invited him to check out more so that he could learn more about the Book of Mormon and he actually accepted!! We had dinner with the E family like every Tuesday and it was really good. We stopped by the A family too.

Wednesday morning we had the training as a mission on the Area book Planner. It was super boring because I didn't have an ipad because, you know... mine got stolen. It was really rough because my companion didn't pay too much attention, so basically I have had to figure out the app whenever I ask to use my companion's Ipad. After the training we went to Weinershnitzel with some other missionaries because they had coupons and let's just say... wow, that did not sit too good in my stomach. We had dinner with the R family and that is always good, you will all meet them on Christmas. We then had another lesson with H and then straight home to clean for an inspection.

Thursday We had the inspections and we received a 100!! bam! We then had weekly planning at the church because of the app and that was confusing because I was trying to figure out the app the entire time. We had a lesson with a less active member and it was really good. We stopped by J and her mom to teach them the Restoration and the mom asked me and my companion about the part in the book of Abraham where it talks about 'gods' and so she was scared and confused, but we are going to go back and teach her more clearly on Wednesday about it.

Friday we walked around for a very long time and then had a lesson with W S. The lesson was intense because we told him that he needs to be baptized and our purpose as missionaries. He felt the spirit and still declined the invitation, so sad. We then had a lesson with H and F again, it was a pretty solid lesson. We then had the ward party that was just a mess. We got there and there was no food, the music was terrible, and it was just bad. A lot of our investigators showed up so hopefully some of them made friendships with people!! 

Saturday we had a christmas devotional as a mission and that was really cool, I will have to right about that later or tell it in other letters. That was the day that it downpoured and thank goodness I had my trench coat ahahha. We had another lesson with H an F and we ate pizza with them too.

Sunday was really crazy, we were asked last minute to help with the youth lesson because the teacher doesn't speak english so we had to improv a lesson on 'the signs of the second coming'... it was not good. We were given gifts from some of the members of the ward and that was really nice. We stopped by the M family because they invited us over and they gave us tortas (like a sub type sandwhich) when... my bottom retainer popped out. A part of the glue came undone on one side so its just sticking out right now, good thing I have an appointment Tuesday for that

Sorry this letter sucks, today has been crazy... LOVE YOU ALL!!

I will definitely see you this week

Love, 

Elder Roberts

Week 43

Dear Lovely family,

Monday, we went to Krispy Kreme to get some donuts, yes I used my card, sorry about that. A missionary then treated me to some Yogurtland (cause I shared my Krispy Kreme with him) and that was really good. The rest of the Pday part we basically played soccer, like we always do. It starts to get a little boring after a while, but I am learning so hopefully I can take Charlie on later or something;) Mexico vs. Italy anyone?? We stopped by the A family because J, one of the members and an investigator was to be baptized this Sunday. A (the grandma) came out and gave us bread with beans as a snack. I know that I would probably have never eaten that before the mission, but that stuff is good! Beans are no biggy for me now... did that just come out of my mouth?? 

Tuesday we walked around for a bit (this is the day that I sent your letter) and it was a pretty nice day. We had a lesson with a less active family, and it is just hard to help this family because the mom is the one who wears the pants in the family and she is never home. She is also the one that would tell her whole family to go to church, so we REALLY need to catch her one of these times. We stopped by this part member family that is the M family. C is the mom, and she has 2 kids: H and C. C is a member and H isn't. We talked with them for a bit and actually one of C's friends were over. He was really rude to C saying that she didn't understand English (when she totally does) and I replied back to him that we could all talk in Spanish if he wanted us to and C turned to me and said "Elder! Let's do it!!" but we were nice and stayed talking in English for the freshman. We shared a Mormon message about the 10 commandments and that was really good. C asked us if we wanted to eat some taquitos and we told her maybe a couple because we were going to our dinner appointment real soon, she then asked if we ate spicy, to which I said no. I didn't see her scrape it to the side of the plate because when I got the taquito, I thought the spicy salsa was guacamole (it was green) and WOW did that kick! I coughed a couple times an my eyes almost watered. Basically for that salsa they fry some jalapeños and garlic together, and a little water in a blender and that's it. So basically garlic jalapeños is what I tried. We then ate with the Estrada family, but we had to hurry and eat with them because Wendy (the mom of J in the A family) was having a baby reveal, so we quickly ate there, shared a spiritual thought, and left. We then went to the A family and they were all waiting for us to do the baby reveal. ITS GONNA BE A BOY! We also went over the baptismal interview questions with J and she was super ready, knew everything (except Law of Chastity, but hey, not our problem). 

Wednesday I got to meet a new missionary in the district named Elder W, Elder G is training him and he is from Chicago, hopefully he turns out ok, we will see. We ate at Subway for lunch and Elder G2 treated me out. While we were eating a member of the English ward gave us a gift card for Subway, baboom! We then had the baptismal interview for J and of course she passed with flying colors. We ate dinner with the R family (the family I will skype at) and that was good. We then had a lesson with G and the F Family. During the lesson G told us that she is wanting to start her relationship with God again. We told her that we could start giving her the missionary lessons with the F Family and she accepted. 

Thursday we stopped by the F Family to see how the rest of the family was doing, actually meet in their house. We then were invited to C's birthday party so we biked all the way there. It was fun. While we were waiting we taught hector The Restoration and that was a good lesson. For dinner we had pasole and some tortillas. The cake was amazing. It had blue frosting with oreos and strawberries. The cake was a tres leches cake, which is something that latinos just die for, its alright every now and then, but not like normal cake. H smashed C's face into the cake, which is apparently the tradition, but it still surprised me and was a little funny at the same time. 

Friday I got food poisoning, probably from something that I ate earlier. Basically the night before I was up, spending the entire night in the bathroom, not fun. I did not have energy on Friday so I got a priesthood blessing and rested the day. It was well needed and hey, the next day I was better. This is the part about the week that sucked.

Saturday I was feeling about 70% about how I normally feel, still a little drained from the day before. We ate little Cesar's deep dish pizza during correlation an that is always a nice treat. We then made the baptismal program and then headed down to go and read the Book of Mormon with H. He really wants to read and I'm pretty sure that we will read far with him. We then ate dinner with the L family. I had not eaten with them before, but they are extremely active and he is the 2nd counselor in the bishopric. They gave us spaghetti and buttered rolls with chicken... mouth watering... it was so good. We then stopped by the As to watch The Prophet of the Restoration and that was a good time.

Sunday was game day, baptism, everything. We had to fill up the font during sacrament meeting because there was another baptism after us. It was incredibly stressful because basically I had to plan the whole thing and get everything organize. My companion didn't have any baptismal clothing, I don't know why, and so that stressed me out. Stressing is a sport and I am the coach FYI. It was craziness, but the baptism happened!! Afterwards, it POUREDD!!!! I don't think it was rained that hard since I have been here in LA. It sucked because we had to bike in it, which nobody in LA knows how to drive in the rain so they are all going crazy and here I am in my sweater and my trenchcoat, on a bike, in the middle of crazy drivers... but I survived!!! It was definitely a terrible, awful experience, and yes, I am a wuss about weather as a missionary.

Well that was this week, hopefully it made you laugh here and there.

11 more days yall!!

Love,

Elder Roberts

Week 42

MY type of WHITE Christmas

Dear Lovely Family!!

So sorry this letter is going to be short, I am just going to give you the highlights of the week. It's short basically because my IPad got stolen, so we'll see what happens with that.

I am staying here in LA 6th ward....with my companion. Yupp, we are staying together for one more transfer, we will see how that goes. We can listen to Christmas music, just as long as it doesn't take away from the spirit. We can go to the ward Christmas party as long as we have an investigator there. That is so cool about BYU! Hopefully they win. 

Monday was a little eventful. While we were shopping at the Food4Less that we always go to my bike seat was stolen! We walked out and woop! It slipped right out! My bike has a lot of easy release stuff, so its not that hard to steal stuff from my bike..Not the coolest thing ever. We played soccer with the other Elders and that got a little boring after a while. We then went to go get freezes and boss tacos, it was good. 

Tuesday was the first day of December!! We visited A A to see if the family went to church while they were on vacation, which they didn’t. We talked with her for a bit and we decided that we wanted the two girls to be baptized on the 13th of December. We then stopped by R G to show her the new Christmas video. Well afterward, she asked us something super weird. She asked us if we believed in Christmas.. naw, we just showed her a video about Christmas, but we don't believe in Christmas. She then asked us if we actually believed if the Savior was born... yes, yes he was. We then saw the A family and the husband basically told us that he wants us to baptize him. Too bad when we went back to his house he wasn’t there. We ate dinner with the E family and they gave us abuelita (which is like Mexican hot chocolate and pupusas, so that was good.

Wednesday I went on exchanges with Elder D and that was fun. I am so grateful for the apartment that I live in, because it is so much cleaner. We had a fun time, I would write about what we did, but it is pretty lame, just an awkward lesson with a non-member who is basically a member cause he comes to church, but he doesn't want to be baptized because that means that he would have to stop drinking.

Thursday We had a lesson with the Michelle family, which is a RC family and they are super cool. They even bore their testimonies at church!! What a blessing.

Friday we had ZTM and that was pretty fun. We had the baptismal interview for A and that is a funny story, but for later when I have more time. At one point during the interview Elder G asked A what she knew about the Law of Chastity. We had not taught her the law of Chastity because we told the parents that it was under their discretion and they apparently opted not to tell her anything. So when she told Elder G that she didn't know anything, he replied, neither do i.... 

Saturday we had correlation at Olympic Burger at that was pretty good. Basically all of our appointments fell through and that was sad. We stopped by A and her family to see if they were still excited about the baptism, which of course they were.

Sunday was amazing, except for the ending. We had 7 investigators at church and a lot of our less actives shared their testimonies. We had the baptism of A and that was awesome, I'll have to tell you more about it later in other letters. After the baptism a backpack that Elder A gave me and my Ipad were stolen, so that was the bad part. We saw the devotional because we saw it with members. We then got the calls that we both were staying so that’s that and we are gonna hit the ground runnin. 

Sorry that the letter isn’t as much as the others. We just are going to make the last pday in the transfer fun for some elders who are leaving. 

Love, 

Elder Roberts