Week 65

Week 4 Korea Town

Monday was a crazy day, so I'm just gonna get right into it. We finished up our laundry and went to go shop. Elder B bought some interesting stuff this week and you know me, I just love trying new things. He bought Silk Almond Coconut milk and I just had to try it to see if I liked it. It's not too bad, milk is still good, but it's not bad. While shopping we figured that we would bike home with 1 hand like I did last week. Well as I began to get on my bike, there is this little holder on the frame on my bike for my U-Lock which totally snapped in half, idk why. Elder B was struggling to get on his bike and ride with one hand so we decided to walk back to our apartment instead of bike (ugh). We got back to the apartment and cleaned while we waited for Elder J and Elder L (trainee) to come pick us up so we could go to the Hollywood sign. We went up there and started the hike. It was the first time for me, Elder J, and Elder L so we followed Elder B... Bad idea. We got lost so many times and took the long way to the Hollywood sign we even tried to get right in front of the sign, but ended up behind it. Gonna quote some kid president right now: two roads (trails) diverged in a yellow wood (led up to the Hollywood sign) and I took the road (trail) less traveled by... And it hurt man! We had to slide down this very uneven part of the trail and Elder L slid down it like a ninja who surfs mountains or something. I on the other hand, start to slide down, when my foot twisted and I slid down on my right side. I got scraped up pretty bad and I was covered in dirt. We finally got to the Hollywood sign, or the lookout behind it, and took some pictures. Hopefully I can get them to you soon. We then wanted to go and get Cream real quick before Pday ended. We were all so tired from the hike, and it took longer than we thought. None of us brought water and it was a very hot day. Yes I got burned, yes I was stupid, yes I will bring water next time I do it. We went to cream (which is on USC campus) and it was graduation day! Everything was so packed it was crazy. They dropped us off at our apartment and we showered cause I was still covered in dirt. That shower seriously felt like coming home from camping, it was so good. We then went to our appointment with a family and lo and behold they canceled on us. My goodness. I could totally go off about that family right now, but I won't, cause it's not going to change anything. 

Tuesday we had this awesome day planned where some of our Rc were going to come with us to a lesson with a part member family, but the part member family canceled so that kinda put a fork in our whole plans for the day. We ended up talking to the RC individually and it is cray to see the difference in the conversion of some people. I am amazed by how much faith people can have sometimes. So much childlike faith that they just want to learn about everything, it's so awesome. The. You have others who... Aren't so hungry and thirsty for the gospel. We went to go and visit a less active named S C. Her family is moving to Colorado and in preparation for that the dad has had to work a lot, even on Sundays. We stopped by and I got to know her a little bit because I had never met her before. She told us about her prom that she went to, you won't believe what happened. Basically one of the teachers at her school is a twin to an actor, so they got this hook up at a really cool hotel for the dance. Well let's just say that the students and teachers didn't behave themselves. The teachers were drunk and the kids where all high. S was good though, don't worry about her. Turns out she is going to attend Mesa state college in GJ! Small world right? Isn't that the college right by Stoker Stadium and JUCO?? I think so... I also remember y'all telling me to never go to that school 😂. Afterwards we had coordination at the church and man, did we try to drop a HINT! There is a member in the Ward who is very chismosa, which means she likes to gossip. Almost all of the members that we visited last week told us about some form of chisme that was going around. We told in coordination that it needs to stop. We will see where it goes from there.

Wednesday was just a weird day, I've been having a lot of those hahaha. Well first off a LA asked us if he could borrow one of our suits cause he had a friends graduation to go to, so Elder B let him use his suit (still hasn't gotten it back yet). After lunch we planned to go explore a part of our area that had never been visited before, because it is a richer part of the area. While there we talked to this lady who is from the Philippines. She liked us so she said that she might call us to invite us over for lunch someday and then we can talk to her whole family about Jesus Christ. We then went to go and see S. We had an awesome lesson planned for her, but when we got there, the whole family was in Chaos. We will just say that the Gospel really does bless families and that they need a little bit more gospel in their lives... Ya. We talked for a little bit then had to leave. We then went to go and see the B family and that was even more of a mess! It's so frustrating when people are not being so kind towards each other and using mean words, just makes you sad ya know? We then had dinner scheduled with the F's, the one that borrowed Elder B's suit, but they were still at the graduation thing so it was really awkward. They have a son named Randy who was somewhat forced into being baptized and they always force him to sit and listen to us... No wonder he doesn't come to church. We got to know him a little hit more and made the situation more relaxed. Go figure that the one chismosa lady lives with this poor family. We then went to go and see the A family. They are less active as well, but because the mom works on Sundays. We talked with them for a hit and got to know the, as well. The son, C, is really into gaming and crazy stuff and has bad grades, but hopefully he ends up going on a mission. I feel like if he goes on a mission, then it will be a major blessing in his life.

Thursday we had weekly planning and we set some goals that were going to stretch us. We also planned out for the rest of the week who we were going to visit and just planned super good. Well, it seems like whenever I plan super good, everything falls through, so that's just what happened. However, we did receive some tender mercies. For example, a companionship of sister missionaries called us and told us that they received a referral from a less active member in our area who is the only member in her family. She asked if the missionaries could come by. Well we immediately wrote down all the information and planned to go and see her later that day. We met her and it turns out that the missionaries had just lost contact with them in the past. The husband is not a member but likes the missionaries. She also has a daughter that is 9 years old, but is not baptized yet and she loves church. We were so blessed! We are setting up a day in which we can meet the whole family. The only problem is that the parents work a lot so that's difficult. We then went to go and see L, but she wasn't home. We tried to go and visit some potentials when we were locked out of the apartment complex. Well outside with us was a teenager who asked something along the lines of "are you Mormons?" We responded yes, and I he had ever spoken with missionaries before to which he replied "I'm Mormon" 😳😳😳🙄🙄🙄🤔🤔🤔😇😇😇 turns out him and his mom are the only members in his family and the dad and sister are not members... Another part member family! Woohoo! We then planned to go and see them again.

Friday we had DM and that was good, our district is very unique I will put it that way. We then planned to go and see E, who is a RC, cause he is struggling with his testimony. Any advice on what we should do? We have tried to ask him questions but he is just shut off completely from us basically. He is the one that was told bad things about me from another missionary. After that we tried to go by and talk to the B family, but there were a lot of distractions so the lesson wasn't focused at all, it was awful. We then went to go and see S and we basically told her what she needs to do in order to be baptized. She seemed really cool about everything, she even read a little bit in the introduction! It was a good lesson and so we were happy, she is slowly progressing, but still progressing. We then went and picked up dinner from a member because there wasn't a man in her home, so Elder B (he's awesome) always is willing to carry the food back to the apartment. Haha, two white guys who speak Spanish carrying Chinese food in the middle of Korea Town... Sounds like a funny joke. We then went by to go and see L and we finally caught them! We had a good lesson in which we reset their baptismal dates for next month. Hopefully they start coming to church, that's really the only thing that is holding them back.

Saturday we received a call to go and help with a fundraiser and service project that the stake relief society was putting on. It was a fundraiser for school supplies so we helped find tables and carry in bags of school supplies. We then went to the and visit some people but again, the plans fell through and none of the people were there. We visited a lot of homes and talked to a lot of people, but it was a rather boring day. We ate dinner with the R family and they always give us so much food. We set up a day this next week for them to come with us for about an hour and we even did a mini practice with them about how they might introduce themselves to some of our investigators. We then tried to go and visit some more people, but nobody was home.

Sunday was just a mess. We woke up and wanted to go by our investigators houses before church to wake them up. We went by L and her family to wake them up and the twins answered the door. We told them that church was in an hour and they were really wanting to go... But it turns out the L may have stopped that from happening. So basically all the people that we woke up to go and knock on their doors didn't come to church and all we did was get super sweaty in the morning before church... Lovely. Church was alright, I just feel like I need to get to know the members more because I don't really know any members right now. We walked around and tried to talk to people, we saw some very interesting things... People wise. We did go and visit the B family to see why they didn't come to church and figure out how we as missionaries can improve and help them more. We also stopped by E and E because they didn't come either. It was just a depressing ending to an alright week I guess. As a missionary the week really is dependent on whether or not people come to church, it is 100% true.

I'm pretty sure that all for the week, let me know if I left anything out!

Love,

Elder Roberts

Eating hot soup on a hot day.

(P.S. some of his letter we had to edit due to his grammar getting a little more tricky)

Week 64

Week 3 Korea Town

Monday we went shopping and so I bought very little because I don't like to bike with all of my stuff home. Well this area has a lot more hills than my last biking area, so I became immediately amazing, not really, at biking with one hand up hills. Yes it probably was dangerous, but I took it slow so it was fine. I even had my milk in the bag... Not too shabby. We then fixed Elder B up with some bike lights because we had interviews this week and along with that our bike inspections, to make sure that your bike is safe, brakes work, lights, everything. We ended up hanging with our DL Elder L and his companion Elder W. Then the English elders came and we played with them too, we ended up playing soccer and frisbee at the church. In frisbee it was really fun, until everyone realized that I knew how to play so they would always avoid me. Afterwards I sent of a card to you Mom, so hopefully you got it. We went to go and visit the P family. They recently came here from Mexico and so the kids are still learning English. We talked to them about how we could work with them to help excite the B family and to help them reactivate. We then rushed over to the D L family for dinner, but nobody was home, only the daughter. The daughter is a member and she was telling us about all the problems that are going on in her life right now. It seems as though her family, even though they have a son in the mission field right now, still have a lot of doubts. Silly doubts that sometimes people just say to get under the skin of us members. She is judged a lot by her family because she doesn't go to church and they always judge her by saying that if it is the true church, then she would go to it. Let's just say that I am learning a lot of patience because you got to love these people if you want to help them come to know these things for themselves. We then went back to the apartment to get some dinner and clean a little bit more. It was a long day and it just ended weird.

Tuesday I went on exchanges with my DL Elder L. He is just one of those missionaries that you always hear about throughout the mission and then you finally get to serve with him. It is really funny because we know a lot of the same missionaries and have had a couple of the same areas, so it's pretty cool. He first took me to this bike shop so that I could fix my bike. It cost about 30$ I think, but my bike is a beauty now! The brakes work amazingly and the bike is a super smooth ride, so no worries about me. We then set goals for the exchange and then headed out. We talked to everyone, almost;) we tried to talk to more people about family history work, you know, the whole spirit of Elijah thing, and it actually worked! There were a lot of people who were interested in it. Not everyone was interested of course, but it was super cool to see that some people were!! It was nice to talk to so many people, and so many miracles came out of it! We took a nice little slurpee brake at good ol 7/11 so that was nice. We even ran into a guy who always likes to bash with us, so that was interesting. We visited a less active teen who is going through some rough times right now and it seems as though he is coming out of it, so that's real good. We then switched bikes just to go to the church for dinner and coordination. Elder L has a really light bike, like featherweight almost, and he calls it Zeus, so obviously I have to try it right? Well he took Peggy for a ride and I rode Zeus. By the end we determined that Peggy is more of a smoother ride and that she is A LOT heavier than Zeus. We then had some teens ask us if they could see our bikes and ride them for a bit, so hey, we gave them the keys and told them to lock it up when they were done (man did I feel like a parent just there). Coordination was fun, I said some pretty funny things because I think I finally was able to relax today, even though we worked our butts off. I said a funny comment about a recent convert that kinda went like this: background- so he did not come to church this week because he stayed over with a friend and because it was the end of the month his phone was dead, so he didn't wake up in enough time to go to church. Well Elder B was explaining it that he might've been doing "something wrong" like drugs or something, which is totally not the way he wanted it to sound, so in English I said "he basically had a sleep over and slept in so he missed church" and everyone just laughed because hey, that's more likely to happen. The sisters that are in our Ward were dying in the back row. They even keep joking to themselves about how small I wrote because their handwriting is not the best. It was a blast because earlier in coordination there was a little bit of tension with something that happened in the Ward, but it's good that it ended up on a lighter note.

Wednesday we switched back pretty early and so Elder B and I had to plan. It was really difficult to try and put the day together because it was completely empty. This transfer has been difficult because of that, planning. I know very little about the area and Elder B doesn't know that much more, so it's really difficult to plan and to set goals, because he never did it with the missionary before me, and I'm new in the area. We decided to start out and go and see S. She is just so chill. We were talking and laughing just about the stuff that's going on in her life. We started to talk about church a little bit when she said "ya, I was talking to my mom, and I want to get baptized"...     😳🙄🙄😐😑🤔😯🤔😬😄💦💦💦 that's about how my reaction was. She dropped the B word! Oh my goodness I was so happy for her. We told her that the next time we come by we would bring a Book of Mormon for her to read in. She also told us that that day she didn't even smoke! She is progressing very quickly and we aren't even doing anything! We then went to go and pick up our dinner from this sister. We had to pick it up because there isn't a man in the home. We took the dinner back to the apartment. We had this pomegranate juice that she gave us, so we decided to be bartenders and mix it with Almond milk so that way it was a little creamier.... It wasn't too shabby. It was pretty good actually. After that we went to go and see E and E. E ditched us (for reasons that I'm upset about) and E was having a bad day, so she wanted to take us out to boba. Do you know what boba is? It's basically tapioca balls that Koreans put in drinks because they just love it. It's not the boba balls from Yogurtland though. These ones are black and huge. Anywho we talked with E and she is just going through a rough time right now. We stopped by the De Leon family to read with them. When we knocked on the door the husband seemed very passionate that we were not going to come in, just the way his posture and attitude were, but then the mom invited us in. She then brought us a plate of beans, eggs, and potatoes. We showed them a Mormon message and invited them to the mothers day dinner activity that we were going to have on Saturday. When we got back to the apartment, Elder B and I had a good little heart to heart, bro time type thing, laughing, joking, type stuff, so that was good.

Thursday we had interviews with President W. I figured that this was going to be my last interview with him, so I thought of some questions that I could ask him during the interview. It was such an intense interview. I am so glad he is my mission president. I just can't really explain how amazing he is, just because he's that awesome. I then talked with Sister W and she asked me about school, so when I told her that everything was taken care of she was like "phew!" So that was good. The Zone leaders inspected our bikes during interviews and I'm missing a couple reflectors, but those arent super important, I have good lights and that what is important. Apparently our bag is also suppose to have a "safety belt" on it, like a belt that attaches around our waste so that the bag doesn't move around, but that was really weird so I didn't pay much attention to it. After interviews we had weekly planning. After that we went to the Bs house and talked with them. The Hermana gave us some chocolate milk and some cookies, and loaded us up with snacks and soaps, I guess we smell bad 😷 haha just kidding. We then had dinner with the V family. They are super cool. They are a really nice family and they made us pastel aztecas, which is basically a enchilada type dish. Afterwards we went over to visit someone called L. She's been taught a lot and has gone through a lot, thankfully (HUGE blessing) was that her fellowshipper was already there and so when we shared a scripture with her, it was a spiritual experience. 

Friday we decided to go to a part of our area that has never been contacted around before, and we found out why. In our area that we work in there is a very high population of Latinos, and Koreans, well in the other part of our area, there isn't. The houses are HUGE and everyone is white and Asian. I seriously felt like I was biking through Draper almost, it was so crazy. We talked to a couple people and then we went to go and see S. We had planned a lesson that would fit her and we decided to invite her to be baptized on the 5th of June. When we were talking with her she immediately accepted baptism and was a little shocked that the date was a little farther out. We were so excited because she is just so chill! We then went to go and have dinner with the C's. They bought us pizza so that was nice. We talked with them about their work and some crazy stuff that is going on. Their dog Benji was just having a good ole time. We also asked them to share their testimonies with us because Hermano C's brother was there. It was a good time. After that we went over to see E and E. E again ditched us so we ended up talking to E. We are trying so hard to help both of them stay active. E is doing really good, it's E that we are worried about. Afterwards we stopped by L to try and set a baptismal date with their whole family. Unfortunately only L was home so we couldn't enter the house. We talked to her for a bit and then Hermana C came. We shared a video and talked a little more and then left for the apartment. 

Saturday was a disappointing day. It started out alright though. We had ZTM and we have A LOT of sisters in the Zone, it's so weird. I also noticed how many times people my age use the word "like". I remember everyone joking about it before, but I just heard it way too often and so I kinda chuckled to myself and promised to get better at not having to use the word "like". We biked back to the apartment to only have time to change out of our suits to go to an investigator named A. Now man did we walk into a trap. We walked in and we see A's wife and child cleaning and their grandchildren running around as well. A pulls out seats for us and then starts to talk vaguely about some problems that 'a guy he knows' has. His daughter and grandkids leave to go and do the laundry when his wife makes a huge scene. She tells us that she wants to tell us what family troubles are going on. Basically he over exaggerates at everything and she is the self righteous one. He uses drugs and talks abusively to her and she is rude back. They wanted us to take sides. The entire time I just sat there listening and thinking of what to say, Elder B did the same. It was really intense because they kept cutting each other off and the mom would play videos of A yelling and what not. We sat there for a little bit, thought, kept sitting there, and then finally we spoke. We spoke about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and what he did for us, how amazing and beautiful the Atonement is. We also talked about forgiveness, but then they just went off on each other on how the other needs to forgive and blah blah blah. They were both threatening a divorcement and it was just really awkward for us. We then listened a little more and then the wife asked us if there is anything in the church that counsels married couples and helps them... Of course! We talked about it, gave them a card, told them to visit the website and invited them to church, said a prayer, and then left. It was so intense. 

Sunday was just sad.. Except for the call;) nobody showed up to church and there was a lot of drama at church. I need to feel more of a Christlike love for some people lets just put it that way. You would assume that the talks were about mothers right? Nope. One of the members who is very into family history went up and chastised everyone about not doing family history. He was very passionate, to the point that he said that the Bible and the Book of Mormon are only used for us to have our genealogy. 😔 Then in priesthood the guy went super crazy like off of Dragon Ball Z and was screaming at everyone about... Tithing. He was not letting anyone talk and he went over 15 minutes... Ugh. Well the call was super nice, sorry I didn't sing for you all, next time;) the family we were with then gave us tacos and we taught them about Enos and 'mighty prayer'. We then went straight to dinner (I know, it was awful) and there they were also face timing their daughter. It was pretty sad because their daughter cried at the end of their call.

I am also going to the Hollywood sign today so I will probably not be on later, but hey, I'm actually doing something cool for PDay!

Well, this week will be packed full of awesomeness, I just know it. I hope you all have an amazing week!

Love,

Elder Roberts

Week 63

April 25- May 1 "Getting Kissed by Benjamin"

Peggy is doing good, she has some problems in her get a long every now and then, but hey I treat her good. We don't cook, well, I don't cook. I normally just make two Pb and J sandwiches drink some milk and go, my comp makes eggs from a carton of egg whites and he eats that. The food is kinda the normal mix of your Latino stuff. Nothing too weird. 

Monday we were just running everywhere. My laundry bag has a huge rip in it so I called up some other elders to help us out with laundry. Elder H said that he has 2 laundry bags so he will let me have one of his. We shopped and then emailed, and then played some sports. It was really sad because we didn't have a basketball, or an inflated soccer ball, so what do 3 white missionaries (my companion slept during this time) do? Well they find a good ole football and toss around the pigskin. We then had a competition to see who could punt it the highest (we were outside don't worry) and so we timed it. Elder T, a very tall elder was able to get 3.03 seconds in the air. FYI we timed from when you kicked the ball to when it made first contact. Elder H got up to 3.42 seconds and Elder Roberts was able to get to 3.56 seconds. We were all trying to break 4 seconds, ridiculous right? It's funny cause professional football players can get like 8 seconds no big deal hahaha. After that we went to work. We tried to contact a couple people at their doors and one lady was home and answered the door. We talked to her and she said that she would like it if we could come by again sometime. We shared a quick message with her, said a prayer, and then left. We ate dinner at the D L family's house. They have a son who is on a mission, and a daughter who is a member, but the parents are not members. The daughter is also living with her boyfriend who is not a member (problem). We had a good lesson with them. They said that they want to start up again and everything, but I think if the daughter just started to come back to church, all of them will follow. We then had this really high lady stop us on our way back home and she was saying some crazy stuff, apparently she has seen Jesus! It was a pretty interesting time.

Tuesday we got a call from the sister missionaries saying that we have a Gladys Knight referral. Now Gladys Knight held a devotional in our mission last Saturday and it basically was a huge push for the English elders, and nothing for the Spanish program. We were really excited because there are specific steps that we have to take when we receive a Gladys Knight referral. The main thing is deliver a gift that we put together and the person requested. The gift consists of a Book of Mormon, a red pencil, a Gladys knight cd, a restoration movie, and some scripture study topics. The sisters showed us the referral and I was so sad. Apparently what had happened with the referral is this: we originally got it on Monday, looked and saw that it was in Elder L's area, so we sent it to them. They then thought that it was in the sister's area and sent it to them, and then it made its way back to us. It was a little sad, but I'm glad everyone now knows that it is is Elder L's area. We went to go visit the Bravo family and talked to the son for a big. He is a total gamer and nerd, so it is right up my ally. We talked to him about helping his family go to church because they are inactive and some of their family members are not members. Hermana B then gave us some soup to eat (in the middle of the summer when it's blazing hot outside... Latinos I tell you). We then stopped by the D L's to read with them for a little bit. We read the introduction and answered some questions that they had. After that we had coordination at the church and that was good. On our way home my companion just totally fell off his bike and ate it. I heard a big crashed and I looked behind me to see my companion on the floor. He told me that he didn't know what happened, he just fell. There was no bump, no nothing, his bike just came out from under him, and that's what ended the night.

Wednesday we had temple service early in the morning. We woke up at 5 so that we could get ready in our normal clothes and bike to the church so that way we could get a ride to the temple. Normal clothes are so weird! They are a little uncomfortable I think. We worked on the apartment complexes behind the visitor center and the temple, the ones that are SUPER nice. People who live in those apartments are the senior missionaries, temple workers, sometimes visitors, and some sister missionaries. Those apartments are crazy. They have a TV (I don't think the sisters have it though) new fridge, new stove, new microwave, nice floors, new sink, beds, the whole thing. And that's what we were putting into the rooms. It was nice because there were other missionaries who were helping that I knew so it was fun. One of the elders named Elder M is super cool and awesome and he was imagining if we were companions... That would be crazy. After that we came home and idk what happened. My companion physically shut down that he was just off. He was tired and worn out from the service and I was a little anxious because I still don't know the area and he has everything on his iPad and I don't, because he is the one with the plans. It is just really frustrating sometimes. We then went to go and visit A C and he daughter. A is a recent convert of my trainer and I was really looking forward to the lesson. We had a doorstep lesson with the daughter because there wasn't a man home and Ana was doing laundry down the street. The daughter has gone through a lot of stuff in her life. She has had lots of problems with the Word of Wisdom and that has affected her immediate family and her kids. She is getting over it now. She still smokes about 2 cigarettes a day, but from where she was, she has progressed a lot. We set up another time to come by. We then went by to see L R. Her family had a baptismal date right when I came here, but they never were able to meet with us so we decided to give them one last chance for us to keep visiting them, because we don't want to waste our time to stop by every now and then if they don't want us to stop by right? Anywho the dad was there and he told us that we could come back by on Thursday. We then ate dinner with the F family. They have a son, or a neighbor named W who is a less active. I don't know the whole story because my companion doesn't really explain things to me. William is having a hard time coming to church, so we talked with him a bit and he is a really cool guy. We then ate dinner and called it a night.

Thursday was a packed day. We started out with E. We went back over the Plan of Salvation and focused on baptisms for the dead. We answered some of the questions that he had and talked for a bit, it was good. We then went and taught C, the less active. She had some crazy things to talk about, like ghosts and crazy freaky cats... Yikes. She also told us that she doesn't know if her records are in the church so she might need to be baptized again. We then went to go and visit the C's. They are super cool. So cool that they even have a dog named Benjamin aka Benji that totally reminds me of a combo of Jack and Duke. They gave us some food and that was really nice of them because we didn't have any dinner plans for that day. They are a really cool family, just awesome. After that we visited L R who is an investigator along with her family. They haven't been progressing a lot, but it's super frustrating because they know basically everything! Ugh! Anywho, we will try to keep working with them and see where that takes us. After that we tried to go and visit some other people but they weren't home either.

Friday we went to go and see the B family after District Meeting and they are doing good, is time we tried to read with them in the Book of Mormon and it went well, kinda hahaa. We are going to skype with that family. After that we went to go and see S she is super cool and chill. Maybe that's because she use to be a druggy and now she's just wanting to be a good mom to her kids, but either way she is awesome and I love it when we go and visit with her. She is doing good. After that we saw the R family again and they seemed so solid that they were coming to church, it was so amazing! (I'm sorry this paragraph is so short, it's just that I can't remember too much of the details of what happened that day)

Saturday it was so amazing to wake up to get dressed to attend M's baptism! We had called the C's, they are a recent convert family, to give us a ride, which was super nice of them! You know when you stress out too much when you planned that traffic would take a ridiculous amount of time, so you stressed out when the C's showed up 30 minutes late, but then you showed up to the baptism 30 minutes early... Yes I am a bad planner it seems. The baptism was so awesome! I was able to see some of the Samoan members and they remembered me! Man I felt so good. M was all smiles during the whole thing. Her mom kept apologizing to everyone that she is less active and she kept apologizing to me that it took forever to get M baptized, we just laughed it off. Elder S baptized M and Elder B and I gave the missionary moment. I'm not gonna lie, that was probably the best child baptism for an investigator ever. Bishop M was so awesome when he was explaining baptism and talking to M, oh it was wonderful. I snagged a picture on my camera so I will hopefully send that off. Everyone then went to Hometown Buffet, but we didn't go because we had to get back to out area with the C's. They had brought their dog, Benjamin, in the car so on the road we would pet him. I think he is a cocker spaniel- shi tzu mix, which made me miss my puppies even more. The C's treated us out to subway which was really nice, and then I fell asleep on the car ride back to the apartment. I was woken up by Benjamin giving me a kiss. We went back to the apartment, changed out of our suits, and headed out for the day. We tried to visit some people that said we could come by, but they weren't home so that was sad. We went to go and visit C, but as we were visiting with her, we determined that it would be better for her and her family if they were to attend the English Ward. Because C doesn't speak Spanish fluently and her kids only understand English. So we referred her to the English elders. We ended up talking to this man named A. It is really hard to understand him because it seems like he mumbles and slurs all his words together, like to the max. We knocked on his door because he was a former investigator, he let us in and we talked with him for a little bit. He expressed concerns about how in the past the missionaries told him that he needed to be baptized again, but that he didn't understand why. He also expressed concerns about coffee, and how he doesn't see it as such a bad thing when he only drinks it maybe 1-2 times a day. He also expressed concerns about attending church in Sundays. During the lesson we simply told him that all of his questions can be answered if he prays and reads the Book of Mormon to know if it is true. Because if it is true, then the questions that he has will be resolved. He seemed somewhat apprehensive about reading, so we will see what happens from there. We then ate dinner with the R family. They are super cool. They are from Honduras or Nicaragua and they have the Spanish lisp. They also have a daughter who is serving a mission in Costa Rica right now. They are a cool family. We stopped by a less active family called the Castro family. The son was only there so we talked with him for a bit. Afterwards we just went home to end the night.

Sunday was a little depressing. We had so many investigators say that they would come to church, around 10 investigators, and so of course we are just waiting the whole time for them to show up. We brought the paper area books to church so that the Zone leaders could go and destroy the paper copy, idk burn it or something. Church started and it is the classic Latino Ward hahaha, we will just put it that way. Some missionaries who returned home a while ago came back and visited and it was super weird to see them. After church we broke our fast and then tried to hit the ground running. We stopped by some people who told us to come back by, but they weren't home... Ugh. We then went to read a little bit with I D L. She is doing good, she is really just a dry Mormon because her son is even on a mission right now! We read with her and then went to go and see E. We read with him too and that was good. We finished off the night with a dinner at the Bindel home. We then taught M B about the Word of Wisdom because he drinks coffee. He seemed pretty adamant about not giving it up, but then we talked with him for a bit and he was like alright. 

Well, keep me posted on everything!

Love,

Elder Roberts