Week 75

So this morning I was reading in the conference talk by Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve apostles about "Opposition in all things". It is a really good talk. I definitely learned something new about God's plan for us. He talks about the pre earth life and the grand council in heaven where Satan proposed a plan in which all men would be forced to obey and that not one soul would be lost. The purpose of this mortal life is to truly show Heavenly Father that we WANT to CHOOSE HIM! If we would be forced to do that, His plan would not be His plan. I thought "no wonder when Satan then said 'all the glory be mine' it was like - bro, that's not even what the plan is! Where in the cosmos did you get that idea from?" Anywho, it makes more sense to me know and it just makes me realize how unified and "one" Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ really are. I also liked the part that it talked about members of the church being in open opposition to prophetic direction. Here in LA there is so many people who need the restored gospel in their lives because it is just battered with sin. It makes me sad to think that members of the church would be so prideful to feel that what the prophet says is not true. In the scriptures we see PLENTY of times that the prophets not only perform miracles, but prove God's power. I think back to Elijah and the Widow of Zarephath. I think if anyone in the scriptures could have doubted a prophet, it was here. BUT prophets always leave God's blessings with us, so where can we really doubt? If you want to read the story of Elijah and the Widow, it is in 1 Kings chapter 17. It's super awesome and I just think of all the modern day prophets and how cool they really are. (End of shpeal)

Korea Town Episode III (Blasted Heat) Scene 2

Monday we started out emailing and we were trying to set up a time for Elder D to meet up with the sister missionary who taught him 3 years ago in Virginia and her mom (FYI the missionary is already married so we weren't worried about flirting or anything). They have met up before because the mom of the missionary lives in the mission boundaries, but what I didn't know is that she actually lives in our area! I was so down to meet up with them because I mean, how cool is that right?? Anywho President Haynie said that it was ok if our DL said it was ok. So we called up Elder W and I feel like he didn't understand what was going on because he was almost saying no (I would've been so mad) but finally I explained it to him in my manipulative way and he said yes, so we planned to meet up with them at the church. We went and bought a little bit of food because we have so much food in our fridge... So much leftovers and junk food, it is not good I tell you, but it is good at the same time:) we went to go and play sports with some elders, but the mood for me turned sour very quickly because we have a mission rule of only having 3 companionships together in one place to do an activity on Pday. So we had planned to be with Elder P, Elder S (the guy from Kaysville FYI) and Elder S and Elder B. Well, two other elders tagged along with Elder S and Elder B AFTER we had already planned the 3 companionship thing. I was very mad. Some of the elders that were there didn't care that the rule was broken, but I felt very uncomfortable. Elder P and his companion then left and it was all settled, but I was still pretty mad. We got to meet up with the missionary that taught Elder D and her mom and they are super cool. I think I sent some pictures, but we were in our sport clothes so that's why we look like that, we aren't always dressed like that ok!! ;) When proselyting began for Pday we had a couple plans that fell through so that was pretty sad, so we ended up walking around for a little bit.

Tuesday we started out the day pretty good. Elder D is really helping me with my Spanish because he has really good Spanish, so during studies we actually do them well. We talked for a bit because on Monday he was a little depressed and it was a good bonding moment with him. We then started out the day visiting C F C. She is the lady with the prosthetic leg. She is doing good, but the doctors still haven't given her her new leg yet. She is using a loaner leg that isn't suppose to be walked on a lot and she has to pay to rent it, but then the doctors have the leg but don't want her to leave her house to go to the hospital to pick it up... That's messed up right there... Messed up. But she has a positive attitude and she is always smiling, even though she has a lot of health problems. We then got a call from our DL that he had some bike stuff for Elder D because up to this point Elder D hasn't had brakes. Well we went to go and get his bike fixed and he got a new brake, which I guess for the type of bike he has is like 50$... Just for one brake, ridiculous. We went to go and visit the C's after that and it was nice, L wasn't there, but it was still good. We read with them in the Book of Mormon and we went over the introduction to the Book of Mormon. I forget how, but they went off on a tangent and told us some crazy stories. One of them was that L's son one time had a bad infection in his throat and nobody could help him, so they called this doctor "Doctor C" and her son told her that he came with the injections in hand and after he had given him the medicine that he was perfectly fine. He also took a picture with the doctor and the doctor gave her son the copy of the receipt for the medicine so that way he wouldn't get in trouble (the doctor just gave her son the medicine for free). Well fast forward 2 months and the same thing happened to her grandson, but this time she was there. They went to the house for Doctor C and it was abandoned, so they asked the neighbors behind them and the neighbors started to freak out. L and her kids wanted to see this Doctor C but the neighbors said that the doctor had passed away 2 years ago. (Freaking out time). So then the son showed them the picture and the receipt and he said that it was only 2 months ago that it happened, date and everything. Then the neighbors pulled out a picture of his burial and his death certificate..... What? Anywho, that was craziness and it has nothing to do with what we talked about, but crazy story huh? They told us that they are moving to another area and that hopefully they can be sealed later on this year, I just hope they start coming to church!! We biked to where D lives and we found her!! We talked to her and she was as smiley as ever. We found out why everything weird has been happening to her. She has epilepsy and so on Sunday mornings, when she has attacks, she takes a pill and then bam, out cold. That is going to be a big struggle for her to attend church. Right then and there though we asked her if she wanted to attend the activity that the Relief Society was having that night. She said yes and so we immediately called a member to pick her up. We then told her that we would see her later because we also were going to be at the church later on. After that we went to go and contact some people and found one of the referrals that we have. He just barely came to the states about 4 months ago. Hopefully on Sunday or sooner we will be able to meet with him. We biked to the church and had dinner and it was a surprise, I don't really remember what was in it, no importa. We then spent the rest of the night trying to get a ride for the VC trip we had planned to have with E and oh my goodness NOBODY can go in the mornings??? So frustrating!! 

Wednesday was Elder D's birthday so I said happy birthday to him. In the morning we were doing everything that we could to go to the VC with E. We had a ride and everything, but then the RC didn't want to go that early in the morning and so we had to cancel that ride. We then asked if E and J D could take the bus to the VC and we could take the car, but then E said that it wouldn't be a good idea to go separately... So here we are just frustrated out of our minds when a miracle happens! The mother of the missionary that taught Elder D as an investigator about 3 years ago lives in our area and she C shim up to wish him a happy birthday, well she asked us what our plans were and we told her about the whole VC trip thing. She said that if we wanted to that she could give all of us a ride to the VC... Yes!! So here we are trying to get everything in order for us to go to the VC and J D was down, but then E was like "no, maybe another time"... Ugh! So we had to cancel the VC trip. E still wanted to meet in the early afternoon and so owe went to Denny's to celebrate Elder D's birthday. It was really funny because here we are, me and 3 Latinos in a very American style restaurant and I order some hash browns and sandwiches and they get nachos and quesadillas... Good grief. We talked to E about the Word of Wisdom because J D was joking that she couldn't order coffee... So it was kinda just brought up so it was easy to get into that conversation. She has a problem with drinking coffee, but she seemed to get it pretty good, too bad later during the week she was drinking Starbucks. Now we know what to work with!! J D brought a cheesecake to celebrate Elder D's birthday and it was pretty good. On our way back to the apartment (we had to take the cheesecake back and get our bikes) this random homeless man called "the Mormons" over. It was so funny because we went over and he addressed us as the Mormons and individually as Mormon... It was cool. Basically he just wanted some food, so we gave him the leftover cheesecake, it was a good cheesecake too. It was really funny the whole thing. We picked up our dinner from Hermana G and that was fun. We then decided to stop by to see if we could find E or E and BAM! J (one of their siblings who has Down Syndrome and she is just awesome) appears in the elevator with J (another sibling that is like 6 or so) and it was J's birthday! She was so excited that she tried to give me a hug and I'm like trying to act excited but not giving a hug because J is a little bit older. It was so funny because it just reminds me of how one happy person really can just make everyone around happy too. We talked to the mom of E and she told us that they weren't home, but that we could stop by on Saturday. Our next appointment canceled, but hey, I guess it's just not their time yet to hear the gospel. Because we had some extra time we went to go and try to find some referrals and former investigators. We knocked on this one door (with my pen) and at first we didn't hear anything. But then a reply came! A little kid on the other side of the door was mimicking the tapping noise that I was doing with the pen. I played some Pirates of the Caribbean and some other taps on the door and they were mimicked perfectly. We thought for sure that these kids remembered the missionaries, but the door never opened. We figured that the parents must've not been home and so all the kid was doing was having a little fun. So we left, even though it was really fun. We ended the night with a FHE at the R home and it is going to be a little more difficult than we thought. The lessons have to be given in English because that is what the wife understands, because she has never understood what is going on at church in Spanish!! It's not that she doesn't understand Spanish, she just doesn't understand gospel Spanish... Ugh. Well they gave us a cake too so that was nice. We are definitely going to have to find out how the Hermana learns best because right now it's just a struggle. 

Thursday we had interviews with the Haynies and it was super cool. I started talking to President Haynie and he asked me how long I have been out. I told him about 17 months and he said "wow! You finish next month!" I then looked at him like (oh no I do not) and he was like... Oh yeah, right, ok but ya you are close. That's what is so weird but interesting about President Haynie. He understands that missionaries that are older in the mission have different view points of things and he is committed to helping missionaries, especially RM stay active in the church. He told me something that was super cool, we were talking about some of the cool things that I was able experience while on the mission and we got to talk about RC and members and stuff. He said "you can tell how good a missionary is based on how good a RM he is. A RM is not defined by what he did on the mission, but what he did AFTER the mission." And I really liked that, because I totally want to stay in touch with all the people that I have come in contact with! Especially because half of those that I have taught and have been baptized are kids... I have to stay in touch to see if their families stay active!! We talked about some other stuff and that was good. I talked to Sister Haynie and we talked about a lot of stuff too. Something that we talked about is how hard Pioneer Treks can be, and how hard missions ARE. She gave me a little advice because my companion goes home in 3 months so me and him are like the oldest missionaries in the zone, especially as a companionship (he is number 1 and I am number 3) so it's really rough sometimes for me to encourage him when he is worried about home and feeling trunky. We got back to the apartment and we decided to have lunch because we didn't get it before interviews. We went out to contact referrals and we talked to a couple people, but not too many were interested. I think it's the heat that is getting to people, they might be more cranky or something ;) we had a member bring us dinner because they live outside of our area and the food was pretty good. We actually bought orange chicken sauce last week and so I have been addicted this week and I have put it on everything... Almost. I really like it with rice and with tacos, meats... Ya it's getting pretty bad. We stopped by D to see how she was doing and to try to help her to pray. She has never prayed in a lesson with us before, so that was our goal. We taught her about the doctrine of prayer and how simple the steps of praying are. We invited her to pray and she didn't want to. We don't know if she feels uncomfortable or she just doesn't understand, it is really frustrating. She is such a sweet old lady and we don't know how to help her. We have visited with her a couple times, and if she doesn't feel comfortable praying around us... I don't know how we can help her progress in the gospel. We swung by to go and see S and visited with him for a quick minute outside of his apartment. We taught him about coming to church and found out that he takes the bus... He doesn't drive. We invited him to come to church this Sunday, but he didn't come so that was sad. We are trying to work with him to have him meet at the church with members so that way the environment for the lessons are better, because at this relate we aren't really helping progress as much as could. We visited with the D L family that are non members and that have a son on the mission. He is coming home in about 2 weeks and so they are all excited. It is really sad because I don't know how well they are going to progress in the gospel, hopefully with the son home things will change. They also made fun of my Spanish a lot, which is funny because before they never did. I think it's because my companion is a Latino so he makes fun of me, so the members and investigators then think that it is fun to make fun of good OL elder Roberts here. We then had a lesson planned with M B. The plan was that he was going to teach us the message of the restoration. Well, when we got there, he told us that he wasn't ready for the lesson, so we totally had to improvise. We started to just ask him questions and the lesson was pretty good. We talked to him about baptism cause he brought it up and we talked about how to receive answers to prayers. At the end of the lesson we invited him again to prepare the lesson for the next time we visit him, BUT it turns out that there was some miscommunication. He thought that he was suppose to prepare a lesson on the expiacion not the restauracion. So he told us that next time he will be ready to teach us about the restauracion (restoration). And that's how the night ended.

Friday was just a really rough day. It started out with going all the way to the dentist again just to pick up the retainer (which I wear every night to bed and it tastes weird in the morning) and so that was SUPER HOT. Goodness gracious. We went to go and see W C because he hasn't been coming to church and it has been really hard to visit with him. Well, their family are having a lot of financial problems and W, because he works on Sundays and so does his mom, nobody comes to church. It is really difficult because he looks up to his mom, and so if she doesn't help or encourage him to not work on Sundays and to go to church, he won't. His brother, R, is just full of sarcasm goodness. Elder D almost ripped his head off with how sarcastic they both are. I was just like... Uh... Uh... It was pretty bad. Hopefully something can change. I feel like we need to teach the mom more because she always works on Sundays, and she needs to gain a testimony of going to church and the sacrament. We then got back to the apartment and had our weekly planning session which was good. It was time to head out and so we walked to dinner with the D L family. This D Leon family is the LA family that is just super cool. They gave us pasta and cake (because of Elder D's birthday) and so that was really nice for them. The lesson got really heated because the brother of the Hermana, his name is M, he is about 17 and is completely inactive. I say inactive because he is now Catholic. Long story short, he has gone through a lot of rough times (so he thinks) and he went to a private catholic school for high school that helped him get a soccer scholarship and because he loves soccer, he feels indebted to their kindness. We tried to explain to him the difference between good people and really nice stuff, versus the true church of God. We explained to him that there are good and bad people everywhere you go. We said that this is why the apostasy happened. GOOD people wanting to get closer to God without the Priesthood formed their own churches. We explained that the intentions are pure, but that the doctrine is not. He was getting a little heated by that especially cause his sister started to bash with him. I told him that if he has a question about anything in the religion of Mormonism, that he would ask me and that I would find scriptures... Aka God's word to show the truth. Hopefully he will, but it looks like right now he might not be willing to change too much. Well Sergio D L gave us a ride home and that was nice of him, they also gave us the cake to take home, so that's cool. We have like 3 cakes in the fridge right now because of all the birthday stuff. 

Saturday we got a call from the C family that they had invited some friends to go to the VC and to the Pioneer Day celebration. Well they called us up to see if we could go with them... Ugh yes! We actually didn't know if we needed to ask President for permission to go to the VC so when we asked him we phrased it like this "President, a RC in our are invited some friends to go to the VC and they asked us to go with them, we didn't know if we needed to ask permission, but can we go?" Swift came the reply "absolutely, please go!" Sweet! We went to the VC and it was awesome. The sister missionaries that were there were taken by surprise too because we didn't schedule an appointment or anything, we just showed up. But it was really good. One of the ladies that was in the group just loved everything, but didn't want to say that she loved everything because she wants her daughter to change religions so she was focusing on her. After we went to the VC we walked to the Pioneer Day celebration and (I know I should've taken pictures but I didn't) they liked it. It wasn't as good as in Utah per se, I think our stake could definitely put on something better than what they did with like 2 stakes and a lot of missionaries, but generally it was aight. It was really funny because there was a mechanical bull and Elder D wanted to ride it. I told him that it was probably not allowed for missionaries to ride it, but then we saw some other missionaries jump on and ride it. He wanted to go and I just decided that I wouldn't get on it. I mean, I didn't get on the mechanical bull at grad night, so why would I do it now? Elder D was waiting in line to ride the mechanical bull when our ZLs told us that it wasn't allowed for missionaries to ride it. It was pretty sad and Elder D was a little bummed about it too. It was really cool though because one of the 5 investigators that we were with there (in the group that the C's brought to the VC) she jumped on the mechanical bull! Crazy cool thing about that is she just barely came to the states like a week ago from Guatemala and she feels comfortable to just jump on a mechanical bull?? That was cool. They all liked the experience and we invited them to church (even though they don't live in our boundaries unfortunately and they slept in so they didn't make it to church but oh well) it was still a good experience overall. The ride home was really hot and all of us fell asleep except for the Hermano because he was driving of course:) 

WE FOUND E!!!!

We decided to stop by and I am so happy that we were able to find her again. We waited outside her door for like 10 minutes because her little brother went to go and wake her up. Well basically she has been having A LOT of problems going on in her life, I will try to sum it up: 

So she has a daughter named H that is almost 5 years old (do the math cause E is 20) and her daughter doesn't live with her because one of E's former friends took H by adoption and foster care from E. E can only see her daughter if she has permission. H has a lot of health problems and she is in the hospital which makes E (and her maternal instincts) really sad. She then has been having problems with her mom (she has to pay rent to her own mother) because E often loans money out to her stepdad and then the stepdad doesn't pay her back. Basically then the mom kicks E out of the house. Well then E has work and she went on vacation a lot because of how awesome her job is and she went to TJ where she went to the temple and took pictures (she still doesn't have a temple recommend to enter into the temple). AND her phone is disconnected and only works with Wifi so that is why it has been impossible to meet with her. Ya, so I feel pretty accomplished that we were able to find her and figure everything out. She didn't come to church on Sunday, but we will see why when we go by on Thursday. It was really cool though, she is still solid in her testimony of the gospel though.

Sunday was pretty cool cause we had about 8 of the people that we are teaching right now come to church!! It was so cool! We had a random referral come to church too! We called him to see if he wanted to come to church and he asked us to find him a ride and that he would, so we did, and he came... No big deal :) A lot of the members were really nice to him and got to know him pretty good, so that was nice. We had a FHE with the R family and the B family at the same time and we talked about temples and it was a really cool experience. M B participated and commented during the FHE which was cool and he was laughing and joking with all of us, so I'm glad that he was feeling comfortable. He was also making fun of me and joking back and forth with me so that was nice and refreshing. We then celebrated Elder D's birthday with a cake and while everyone was cutting their piece M and I were talking because he knows about Josh and how he had autism (cause he no longer has it cause of his perfected body right ;) ) anywho his son also has autism and is 20 so it's basically Josh but Latino, not exactly like josh though of course. His son is named J and he likes Tomas and Friends (hmmm) AFV (hmmm) stickers (hmmm) and loves sports... Boom!!! It's pretty awesome. I just hope that M gets baptized soon so that way him and his wife can get sealed in the temple... That would be so cool. We then finished the night off with another FHE with the A family talking about temples with them, but in a different way, and it was good too.

Well, I love y'all!! Tons and bunches:)

Love,

Elder Roberts

Week 74

Korea Town Episode III - Part 1

Monday was the last pday with Elder B. We went to go and email real quick, and then we bought ice cream to have a party later at night. We then saw Elder P and a couple other missionaries and went out to lunch with them and took pictures. Elder Parker is going home!! Omg so when you see him playing baseball for BYU this season, just know that he was my favorite companion by far. We then had some other Elders come and pick us up to go to Little Tokyo. Elder P and V were the elders. Now Elder P is like me, into sports, slightly into superheroes, but definitely not all the Japanese manga or stuff like that, but his companion totally is. We saw a couple things that interested us, but they were like 12$ a piece... Uh.. No. There wasn't any little thing like a souvenir even, but it's ok. We then went back to play sports at the church with Elder H and T to join us, it was so much fun. We played ultimate and when Elder P and I were on the same team, the score was 7-0 hahaha. We then had a tall team and a short team. Elder B, Elder V, and I vs. Elder H (6 2) Elder T (6 4) and Elder P (6) and they all played sport before. BUT we won! It was 7-6 but man was my companion on fire! I would just toss it out to him and he would catch almost everything! It was awesome and Elder B liked it too haha. Elder V is so weird. He is the oldest missionary in the mission at 27 years old and he has had a hard life. He is just the guy that enjoys every little thing, and sometimes it's something just random. For example we went through a car wash, and he was so excited that he took a video of us going through the wash... Uh bruh, come on. We visited with M and it was a tender moment because in Elder B's mission, he only has 1 RC and that is M. It was just sad because she almost cried and Elder B was almost crying and here I am... Sitting... But it was touching. We then went to go and see the A family and that was cool. We went over the prophet of the restoration movie with them and that was good. We got back to the apartment and I tidied it all up for Elder D while Elder B packed.

Tuesday we had to wake up early because the member that was going to take Elder B took him around 7 am, so we had our ZLs come and chill with me while I waited for my companion to come. Elder H, one of the ZLs was going home and man will I miss him. I didn't serve around him too much but he was such a nice guy and an awesome example. We then waited until my companion came. My companion is Elder D and I have served around him 2 times before. He has a fixie bike which is different than normal. His bike had a flat and has no brakes so we had to walk to the store to buy our groceries. We bought a lot of food, but we split in buying so I know this transfer is gonna be a good one. Elder D is a hard core Mexican so he knows how to cook and loves so it stuff.... Yikes! Anywho he is really cool. We made orange chicken for lunch and it didn't turn out too bad! We then started working in our area and we were talking to people right before we had a lesson with the C's. L C had a baptismal date, and so we wanted to follow up on that. Well, we found out during the lesson that L may not have as much desire as we thought to read in the Book of Mormon and find out if the message of the restoration is true, which is really sad. We then went to go and pick up dinner from an Hermana that I had never seen before, but she is totally active in the church. She gave us lasagna and it is so good! We had a little bit of time to contact after dinner and before correlation because a lesson fell through, but it was good cause Elder D needs to learn the area a little bit. We had coordination meeting and it was interesting because the sisters didn't show up!!! Elder W is also training and he got a Latino companion, so that is good for him. His companion is Elder A and he is from Taylorsville, but went to Cottonwood Heights, so maybe when we are on exchanges we can connect about SOMETHING from Utah. We also found out that the missionary that is from Kaysville and knows the Jordan's is in the same zone as me. His name is Elder S and he is being trained by Elder P.

Wednesday was the first real day of the transfer. Woke up and did exercises (finally getting into a habit) and I make shakes in the morning so that is really good, better than cereal before hahaha. As a companionship we read Jesus el Cristo in our language study and hopefully we can read most of it this transfer. I am already in chapter 6 out of the 42 chapters so I know it will be pretty far by the end of the transfer, IF everything goes according to plan. We contacted around our area and tried to go and visit a couple people but they weren't home, so many people on vacation or what?? We then headed to the G's home and oh my goodness, did we walk in at the right time. The daughter had just gotten a new car (a Kia) and her Boyfriend  was driving right as we arrived to the apartment building. Well what we didn't know is that they (all 3 including the Hermana) had just came back from the dealership because the key got stuck in the ignition. Well, the key got stuck again and I guess tempers were really high. The Hermana was going crazy and just yelling at her daughter, and she was fighting back. The boyfriend was just there just kinda chilling and trying to calm her down and here we are just kinda trying to smoothen things out. Well it was crazy because the Hermana was wanting us to talk to the insurance people but her daughter ended up working everything out. BUT then she totally went off on her mom and then we stepped in. We just tried to be a little more positive and the boyfriend was just like "man, y'all are just the happy people huh?" And I was thinking, Ya bro, want to join the church? But then we ended up eating with the G and having a mini lesson with him. He is beginning is faith in God. It's not that he doubts that he is there, but just the fact that he doesn't have a solid foundation and with a bunch of churches and religions going around, it's hard to know (missionary time baby!) anywho so he is super chill and we are going to give him a copy of the Book of Mormon next week and help him out. A has some questions of her own because she is a little less active in testimony, but her mom is super solid and active in the church and A's brother is on a mission right now, so it's pretty much a good hand we have been dealt here. We then went to go and so S and I tried to tell my companion before that we were just going to focus on S and not his roommates. Well, it was really hard because the roommates are just full of DOUBTS. (Shpeal of a missionary here) when talking about RELIGION, DOUBTS are not good. QUESTIONS and DOUBTS are different and here is why: questions are a form of growing and learning. They make us ponder and think of the answer, that is why when the answer comes, we feel satisfied and uplifted (by the spirit). Doubts are the opposite. They make us question the reality of the truth. Doubts are the building blocks of fear, and fear is the opposite of faith. We cannot have doubts and faith at the same time. That's why the quote is "Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith". Ok so his roommates have a lot of doubts. They ask questions just two test our knowledge basically and have very little desire to actually learn and apply the things that we tell them about the gospel. My companion is very bold though, so it's kinda like good cop and bad cop in our companionship. We ended the night street contacting some people and then returned back to the apartment.

Thursday we had weekly planning and Elder D I guess has always made popcorn for weekly planning. He has all the different types of flavorings and then he puts spicy stuff on it. It was really cool because that was also my birthday and J D and E took us out to eat at a Oaxacan (WA-Hak-inn) restaurant and I got some tacos that were good. They also gave us cheesecake that was good, except oft eh piece that E got because there was a little green on it (omg if you could've seen the face that she gave the waitress that helped us... My goodness) it was really nice and it was a good opportunity to talk to E a little bit more about missionary work and the church in general so it was worth it. We then biked back to the apartment to drop off the food from there and headed to the C's. Their dog is just causing problems I tell you. First off, they have to move because in the apartment complex they are not allowed to have pets in it. AND then the dog is really weird now because he thought that the C's abandoned him and so he is acting really weird anyways, he is the reason why they are so stressed and trying to find a new apartment building to live in. We picked up dinner from Hermana Z but I was so tried that I just crashed and fell asleep. We then went around and talked to a lot of people... It's crazy how similar some Koreans look to Latinos I tell ya... Wow. We finished off the night with a FHE with the eyes family and we found a crazy thing: the Hermana was just baptized because her husband got baptized... Uh oh! So now we are trying to help her gain a testimony for herself so that they can be sealed in the temple one day. It is just really sad in cases like this because last week she was asking when the temple classes were, can you imagine her going to the temple just because she wants to satisfy her husband?? There are some pretty serious stuff in there and so we have taken the responsibility to help her gain a testimony!!

Friday we had an awesome set up for the day. We had a lot of lessons scheduled with investigators, and with some less actives. We first started out heading towards the B family. Elder B and I had stopped visiting them for a while because they weren't keeping any of their commitments, so we decided to see if they were ready to progress. Well, because of that stupid new game called Pokemon Go the older brother is never home now, so we can never enter... Stupid. Well we decided to walk around for a bit and try to talk to some people. We came across an interesting building in our area that is a Masonic temple, so that's really weird. It is in that part of the area that there is no work basically. Well we were biking and S of all people saw us! She was all like "hi!!" And so we crossed the street to talk to her. She is 5 months pregnant now and still smoking.. Super bad, ya. Well it seems that things are going better for her, mainly. We set up a time to go back and talk with her so that's really good. She is crazy, but it's just one of those investigators that you get attached to because you found them, and they were progressing, so it's kinda intense for me. We then had a lesson with M and she is just awesome. I'm gonna do a quick rewind: so she invited one of her friends to her baptism, and that friend was originally taking the missionary lessons. Well NOW she has her parents permission to start attending the Mormon church. The friend really likes it and M of course is just being awesome at supporting her! It's so awesome to see youth do missionary work!! Makes me feel like such a loser that I never did it. The lesson was really cool, especially because some people on her Facebook have like the Mormon message that she shared so WOOO!! Go missionary work! Well from there we went to go and visit the P family, but we were only able to visit for a quick minute because they had to get going pretty soon. We tried to swing by and visit D with Hermana C, but D wasn't there! We called her earlier in the day and she said she would be there, but nope! So hopefully we can find her again because this is just craziness what is happening with her right now. We had Hermano P come with us to visit with S and his roommates and Hermano P is a really good member to take out to lessons! He reads his scriptures and he testifies super good, it was awesome. The lesson itself was really weird because the roommates were incredibly distracting during the lesson, so we decided that it would be better to teach S at the church. We then finished off the night visiting with the D L family, the less active family that is just so cool. Well I could go off about how awesome they are, but really there was only time to introduce my new companion and talk a little with them. We committed them to say nightly prayers and as a couple hold hands and kneel down in prayer every night, the idea came from a Mormon message about marriage so it will totally work!! 

Saturday we had DM and oh my goodness was that just crazy. Elder W is our DL and he is training and let's just say that the DM was not the most orthodox that it could've been. It was a little weird because the training was on how to contact better and it's really funny because Elder W is a little awkward when he talks to people, it was a good laugh though:) I FINALLY got everything for my birthday I think. I got 2 packages from you all, one from Charlie, and one from Grammy and Grampy. Grandpa and Grandma also sent me an email so that was really nice. We had a quick lesson with E in a park with J D (OMG they are totally going to get married I swear) and it was really good. We testified of the eternal importance of families and how the priesthood is a blessing in this life so that way we can return to live with our families after this life. We also set up a VC trip with E for this upcoming week so hopefully everything goes according to plan. We had a late lunch because we didn't have any time before and then we went out to go and find the elect. Well, we tried talking to a lot of people, but it was just a really hard day contacting I guess. We ended the night with a dinner and a lesson with the B family and we invited M to prepare to teach us the message of the restoration, maybe he will learn something new and gain a testimony of it ya know? It was a good way to end the day though.

Sunday was good, except not that many people showed up to church. The R family actually gave me a cake to celebrate my birthday and that was nice. We also did a FHE with the A like normal. Anywho, I forgot to write last night about this and I don't remember too much about what happened... Sorry.

Love y'all!

Love,

Elder Roberts

Transfers Week 73....Grab some Popcorn

I just wanted to write a little shpeal about how blessed this country really is. 

I think we all know history pretty good, but I'm not sure if you have all heard the talk "Why 1820". Basically it talks a lot about all the factors that had to go into the Restoration taking place when and where it did. It talks about the Great Apostasy. The Great Apostasy is when the church that Jesus Christ established during his mortal ministry in Jerusalem became corrupted. The Priesthood power that Christ gave to his apostles was lost. Without the Priesthood power the church could not be lead by divine revelation as it had always been in the past. God knew this was going to happen. The prophets from the Old Testament, New Testament, and Book of Mormon all teach and testify to us about a worldwide apostasy. With confusion rampant in the world, reformers or men that realized that the church that was dominant during that time did not have all the truth. They themselves did not affirm that they had received God's authority to RESTORE his church upon the earth. Because of the Reformation the United States of America was born. Pilgrims looking for religious freedom sought a new place in which they could worship how they wanted (although it was not yet the fullness of the gospel). The Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776 signifying that the 13 original colonies wanted to be independent from Great Britain. This led to the Revolutionary war in which the United States of America was formed. The founding fathers wrote the Constitution in which contains the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights affirms to everyone of a freedom of religion. 

Shortly after in the early 1800s was born the man who would become the prophet God called to RESTORE his church upon the earth. In the year 1820 this miraculous event began. God called Joseph Smith to be a prophet through whom the power and authority of God, the Priesthood, and ALL the truths and doctrines of Christ's church would be restored as well. 

The Book of Mormon teaches us about the ancient Americas and the blessing that God has given the land (the blessing still applies to all of the American continents, but we are just going to apply it here to the Unites Stated of America). 

New Jerusalem is to be built on the American continent, the Book of Mormon and modern revelation bear testimony of this truth. New Jerusalem signifies the city of Zion when Christ will reign as King of Kings and Lord of Lords when he comes again.

We have God's chosen servants on the earth. HIS prophet is Thomas S. Monson who leads and guides the church here on the earth. Our leaders are men and women called by God to serve God's children to help us prepare to meet God after this life, for this is our purpose here (see scripture : Alma 34:32) We as citizens of this wonderful country that God has blessed us with need to be active in proclaiming the Restoration to the whole world for the field is white (D&C 4:4). We also have the right and responsibility as members of God's church to defend our beliefs and our rights.

I testify that the United States of America is a chosen land by the Lord and that if we follow the commandments of God and follow the guidance of his chosen servants, the latter-day prophets and apostles, then we will be able to stay on "the Old ship Zion" and reach the final destination that our Heavenly Father has for us with him in the Celestial Kingdom.

Transfer news: 

I am going to be... Staying! Elder B is going up to Hollywood with a really cool elder and my new companion is Elder D. I know Elder D pretty good and have gone on exchanges with him before, he was in South Gate branch with me and Elder S so this will be good. He is a Latino so hopefully I take advantage of a native Spanish speaker!!

Korea Town Episode II Scene 6

Monday was the 4th of July y'all!!! Woo!!! U'merica! It was pretty cool cause we had some awesome plans and a fun day. People waved at as more and so that was really nice. We went to McDonalds to email and while emailing we found out that Elder B's family was in Utah! The only problem is is that they weren't by West Jordan or anything as we previously thought. I forgot to tell you that they would;don't be able to come... So that's my bad. They really did think it was a good idea though. We then went shopping and bought a bunch of junk food cause we are teens todavia and it's a holiday sooooo ya. We made plans with awesome elders to hang out and just have fun. We had Elder H and T come pick us up and take us to their church building because another companionship was going to come and we were all going to do fun stuff. On the way to the church building Elder B and I were talking about Arby's. Elder H said that we should go but Elder T was like... Well we already eat too much fast food... But we all out voted him and he was actually grateful. So I went and got a classic Arby's burger with some curly fries, oh yeah. I don't think there is anything more American than Arby's.. Burger with fries and cheese, plus I don't know if Arby's is out of the country, so ya! We went back to the church and waited for Elder J, Elder L, and Elder K to arrive. They came and we had a good time. Elder K is a greenie and he has no expression, he almost seems mad 24/7 so it's really awkward. Elder H and T took us to yogurt land and that was good, they have Mario spoons now! Totally collecting those! And because I am a platinum member (because of how often I have gone) I have 16oz. Free this month because of my birthday... Omg I am "so proud" of myself. Well, we had to be back in the apartment by 6 because of mission rules and so we got back in time and everything. We called people and just talked during those 3 hours. We ate chips and dip, and then ice cream afterwards (triple brownie) and the fireworks were nice. There were a lot of gun shots because LA be crazy, but everything was fine.

Tuesday was just a day that seemed like it was going to be really good, but then it just blew up. We had a really early dinner with the P family at 3 and they gave us Subway so that was nice. We taught about family home evenings and how a FHE has 5 important parts that are extremely crucial and must never be forgotten: hymn or song, prayer, spiritual thought / scripture / talk, activity, and refreshments! I told them that they could learn how to make cake balls and they seemed to really like that idea. We then had the wonderful opportunity to have the member of our bishopric who works with us come out to visit investigators with baptismal dates. We started out visiting L C, the brother of the C's. Hermano D came directly from work and so he was in normal clothes. When the lesson started it was a little weird because the C's had a friend over who had to get up and leave during the middle of the lesson and the L wanted to basically "escort" him out. So ya, our investigator literally got up and left during the middle of a lesson! Hermano D ripped into us on that later on, but hopefully everything works out good. We then went to go and visit D F. She was having some serious back problems and was in a lot of pain. She is an older later and doesn't know how to read, so we are either going to have to read to her, or she is going to have to be super diligent in listening to the scriptures on gospel library. It was a shorter visit because D wasn't feeling too good. Hermano D also ripped into us, basically on the quality of our investigators which made me feel a little sad. We had a visit with S, L, and Y after that. We decided to go over the Restoration again beau use we felt like they didn't quite understand the message. We taught incredibly simple and clearly, but they just kept saying that either they were already baptized, or that they wouldn't be able to meet with us because they have a prayer session at their church... Ugh!!! We had coordination and it was really weird because nobody was there and coordination has started to not be productive anymore, it was just a bummer day.

Wednesday we had exchanges with the DL and his companion. This time Elder W came with me to my area and I was not excited. I was feeling pretty sick and Elder W is always criticizing me about what I do as a missionary. This exchange went better than I thought though. We headed out and started to talk to people. Some people were friendly and others were not so friendly. We tried to find a former investigator and the manager of the apartment came to the front door and he told us that she had moved away, and that she was just an awful person. The manager (J) just randomly changed the subject and started talking about Mormons! He was saying how he needs to find himself a Mormon woman because they are just (this is when you insert a guy doing the hourglass move with his hands) and so we are like.. Uhhhh.. Anywho, we started to explain our purpose as missionaries and because it was really hot outside, he invited us into the apartment complex and he sat down on the stairs and wanted us to explain to him the reason why we have the Book of Mormon. We started to explain it to him and he seemed to get a really good hold on the idea and he even said "I want to read the book" so we asked him if we could come by another time to bring him a copy of the book and so we set up a time for Saturday. We then asked if we could say a prayer with him and he was like "of course! Come into my apartment so that we can say a prayer!" Bam, it was cool. We then talked to a guy named N who was white (really rare in these parts I tell ya) and he told us how he is a recovering addict and we testified to him the power of the Word of Wisdom and told him that missionaries could visit him. He wanted that so he gave us his information and we sent it out to the other missionaries, hopefully all goes good there. We then talked to a couple other people and hopefully everything goes good with them too. We biked to the area for dinner and decided to walk around for a bit because we don't have very many investigators in that area and as we were walking we talked to this one guy that was smoking and he really needs Jesus in his life I tell you. He started to cuss and swear and then he started talking to the air and so we "left with haste". We ate dinner with the G family. They got a new puppy!! Oh my goodness is it the most adorable little thing! 10 weeks old and its name is Louis... Reminded me of the pups when they were little and it was so adorable. Hermana G has a daughter named A who is less active in the fact that the only reason why she goes to church is because her mom makes her go. Her boyfriend was over and his name is P, or P. Everyone just calls him P though. They are super cool and we asked them "if they could do us a favor by helping us practice giving the missionary lessons and asking us questions that people might have" it's basically the missionary way of making others feel important while they learn about the restored gospel rather than make them feel that they are in trouble and learning about God. Well it was really good and we even set a return appointment with the two of them for Sunday! Crazy miracle right there I tell ya. We walk out from having dinner and who would've known, I got another flat tire! The tire was so flat is wasn't even funny. Well we had another lesson right after that now we were going to be late to, and we had to walk a little ways. So we texted the guy to tell him that we would be late because of a flat tire, but that we were still coming over. We saw D E, the less active that is awesome from Washington. We had J D come with us to the lesson because we thought that the brother in law of D who is not a member would be there, he wasn't. We talked about the Book of Mormon and how it is a tool for us to receive personal revelation and how it helps us to progress in the gospel. D might be moving back to Washington because he isn't finding the work that he wants here in LA so he might go back... Dang it. We told him that if he is going to be staying in LA for a while that he can ask for his member records and get them switched over to here. It was a cool lesson though. So then we walked clear fro that appointment back to the apartment because my bike was flat, that was about a mile and a half. So J D was talking to Elder W the entire time and I just walked in front. We dropped off the bikes at the apartment and then went to go and meet the elusive W! W is the member referral from the A family and we finally were able to sit down and meet with him. He is a really cool kid, knows a lot of stuff. I just think that because his father passed away recently that he is being extremely loyal to his mother who is a strong member of her faith. When we were explaining the lesson to him though, you could tell that he was interested and understood everything that we were saying. We set a return appointment for Sunday so hopefully that happens too! We then walked to a FHE with the R family. Hermano R is the WML but his family are not sealed yet. We took the initiative and decided to have weekly FHE with them so that somehow a miracle happens and they have the desire to go to the temple. Well, we had the FHE and then Hermana R asked us "do you know when the temple classes are going to start up again?"...... WHAT?!? Just like 2 weeks ago she was arguing with Elder B that we shouldn't ever talk to her about the temple because blah blah blah, and now SHE is asking for it? That was really cool. We are definitely going to continue to have FHE with them now. 

Thursday we switched back from the exchange and the day that we had planned out looked to be like a really good day. Well first off, we had to go and fix the flat tire, turns out that the lining of the rim was old so the spokes were then able to go through and puncture the tube, the tube had a HUGE hole in it. Well after that people began to cancel the appointments left and right. We even had a lesson planned with L, one of our baptismal dates, and that lesson fell through... Starting to worry about him now. We decided to go walk around and talk to people in an area that we don't normally go around to. While walking around we saw a lot of people and talked to them simply about the gospel. We then had the opportunity to give service! (Cool story because I am going to be a storyteller and amplify the situation here) there were two grown Latino men trying to fix a flat tire. We asked if we could help and they said that we could. They were struggling to get the bolts off of the tire that was punctured. One of the men was even jumping on the thing to twist if off, but it wasn't working. We then asked if we could help and then Elder B and I both grabbed one side of the wrench (the wrench had 4 sides for different sizes of bolts so it looks like a big plus sign but is a wrench) and we just pulled, bam, first one off. We then started to work on the next one and the man whose car tire was flat started to talk to us about missionary work. Bam second one off. He then began to explain that the man that was helping him was his bishop at the church that he goes to. We got the tire fixed and everything was good. We then invited him to go and visit the VC and the pastor didn't even say a word to us. The guy even asked us if we accepted "donations" to which we said no. I think the satisfaction that two 19 year old boys can fix a flat tire better than 2 grown men is satisfactory enough. We then walked away and then saw the guy again! He was really grateful for the help, so hopefully something good come out of that! It just goes to show that there is another reason for the early morning workouts as missionaries. We walked to our next appointment with a man named E. I was not looking forward to the meeting because I don't appreciate it when as missionaries, we share a unique message that people are looking for, and then people who we teach will ask us questions like "do you believe in demons??" It's a little frustrating. That was about how this lesson went. He said that we aren't telling him anything new and that all we were telling him he was fine with. Being bold, we then told him that if he agreed with what we said then that means that he will be baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority of God, to which he was like 'oh never mind I guess we aren't on the same page'. We then went to go and see M. She is awesome and is just always smiling. She listens super good and can explain things about the gospel so easily that it is wonderful. We invited her to share a Mormon message on social media, to which she said yes. We then retired back to the apartment for dinner at the end of the night and made pasta because nobody fed us that day.

Friday we FINALLY were able to meet with E, the friend of J D. We contacted around the area and had some interesting convos with people on the street. There is this street in the area called Wilshere and man is it full of tourists around this time, goodness. Can I just say how rude white people are?? There is this awkward taboo about talking about religion with white people I guess whereas with Latinos its part of the culture to just talk about God. Anywho we were finally able to have a lesson with her about the Restoration. We gave her her own copy of the Book of Mormon. We taught pretty simple and at the end when we asked her to be baptized she said "but I was already baptized". She did though understand the importance of the priesthood and the big reason why we read in the Book of Mormon, to find out if it is true. So basically the moment she gets an answer to the Book of Mormon I have no doubt that she will be baptized and converted to the gospel. She is really cool though. Her fellow shipper J D is so funny, the moment we gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon he was like "this is a historical moment! Wow! I can't believe I was here for this!!" And then after the lesson he even took a picture of all of us. We then went up to the northern part of our area because we wanted to see if this family would be home, they weren't, but we were able to have a tender mercy from having a street lesson with a guy named F, we just showed him a video really and talked to him about the restored gospel. We then had a lesson with S and his roommates and boy, was I so frustrated during that lesson. The roommate that needs a rich of humility is named L. He likes to make fun of the lack of comprehension that S has and his little brother Y always is opening the Bible to random spots and saying that he doesn't understand this part so he wants us to explain it to him (this is about the time that I would like to say something to the fact of) "well if you are in your other church right now and you don't understand the Bible, maybe you might think it through! If you really want to listen to all we have to say, then act on it!" But I didn't say that... Anywho we were incredibly direct with them, explaining the importance of priesthood power and baptism. L was like "well some things in the Book of Mormon are a little different than what I read in the Bible" then I asked him what parts they were and that we could read them with him if he had any questions, but then all of a sudden he doesn't remember what part or what it said... Hmmm. Anywho we basically gave them an ultimatum: to come to church and keep their commitments so that way we can continue to help them progress, and to be honest, I didn't think that any of them wanted to progress or would keep their commitments. 

Saturday we had ZTM which was really weird because normally meetings are on Fridays but in this district the meetings are on Thursdays, but then the meeting was on a Saturday?? Oh man did it throw off the groove I tell ya. It made the week seem like it was going on FOREVER!! ZTM was good, lots of announcements and new mission rules and reinforcements, nothing too big, just President Haynie making sure we all understand his expectations, which is awesome. I am so bad, I have to tell you all something. Sister missionaries in other missions may be the coolest people on the face of the earth, might be chill, but here in the CLAM, some of them are just... Ya. Like for example, to plan a lesson we do something called "FCT" which means to follow up, commit, and teach. So we have to put specific plans in for all of those categories for each person we visit. Now a lot of the time with the follow up part, or the commit we just write down CPR if we are lazy. CPR stands for Church, Prayer, Reading. Now everyone that writes it understands the funny part that it is of being "CPR" but then you have sister missionaries here in the mission that feel the need to explain it to all of us missionaries that already understand it, it was definitely an eye roll moment for me... Which is bad and I shouldn't have done it. We had to hurry home and change from our suits so that we could go over to the P family and visit with the sons. Well the oldest son wasn't there so we had to wait for Hermano P to come so that way we could enter into the house. We invited the brothers to prepare a lesson about faith for us the next time that we come to visit. I was really excited to go and see J, the guy we met on exchanges. Well he wasn't there and it was really sad, because he was really excited about reading in the Book of Mormon, hopefully we can find him again. The day ended with an awesome dinner with the D L family. Now the D L family have been less active for bout 6 months and they are the ones that came to us and asked us to come and visit them. Well they are just super cool. S (Hermano) D L is a RM and he is super dark skinned Latino that isn't exactly 100% fluent in Spanish so we talk to him in English. His wife (Hermana) is half Mexican and half honduran, so it's a pretty good combo. She is also a convert. They were sealed together and they have the most adorable little baby that is 2 and they also have a puppy that is 1, so it's just a really cute family. They gave us KFC which was just glorious and then they gave us cake.... Man do I love this family  already. They always are just joking back and forth to each other, just telling us about how they met and the whole thing, pretty funny. We shared with them a Mormon message and then asked specifically in what way we could help them progress in the gospel. Basically the reason why they want us to visit them is because they want to have that sturdy foundation of the gospel because the wife is taking college classes right now and her biology teacher is a hardcore atheist that is completely against everything about God. They took us back to the apartment and we told them that as members of the church with the gift of the Holy Ghost, we are like an impenetrable fortress, even more so when we are endowed (and worthy), and that the only way that Satan can have an influence over us, is if WE let him in, they really liked that and so I am just excited to keep visiting them!! 

Sunday we didn't have the meeting so that was really nice. We showed up to church not knowing what to expect from our investigators. We actually were expecting a lot of people to show up too. We were blessed to have E and S show up to church!! S needed a lot of "hand holding" because he didn't know anyone and so we sat by him while we left E with her fellowshipper J D. S is the most adorable person during church. He does a bunch of little "Gloria a Dios" or "amen" or "si senor" when he agrees with something, so it was really funny during prayers and testimonies. Singing the hymns was also something pretty hilarious. Latino wards that I have been in help me understand the blessing that I have had my whole life to be in a ward that generally knows how to sing. Well let's just say that Sdoesn't understand how to sing in a normal voice, so he just sings like a high pitch hum falsetto type thing, it was pretty funny. The hour for priesthood was a little crazy. I'll have to tell the story after the mission but I'm just going to write down here

Hermano C // 3rd Ward // Temple worthy and endowed // hellfire and damnation lesson // 

Understand what I'm getting at? Ya it was bad, but apparently all the members really liked it, so hopefully I didn't understand his tone of voice, it was pretty loud though. We ate dinner with the R family and they made lasagna so that was good. I have a funny picture of a gelatin that they gave us, but on the instructions it says that it is not appropriate to be eaten by elders (puny stuff haha). All of our lessons basically fell through so that wasn't too good, but we did end of the night with another FHE with the A watching the prophet of the restoration. Transfer calls came and man, is this transfer going to be interesting...

Hope you all have a good week! 

Love,

Elder Roberts