Week 78

Korea Town Episode III (Blasted Heat) Scene 5

Monday was a crazy pday. We had a lot of stuff to do and not a lot of time to do it. Elder D got a hair cut at a different place, but it was down the street and for the same 10$ price so it was alright, I need to get my haircut as well. It was a really interesting pday because it is really hard to do stuff in this area on pday. It comes down to the fact that we don't have a car, biking is super sketchy on pdays, and so we have to find a companionship of elders to go drive us to wherever we want to go and at the same time convince them that they want to go to the place as well. We actually were with the Wilshere elders and planned to do something really fun, but it was taking too long and so we didn't finish during the pday time. We visited W C and his family and talked about reading in the Book of Mormon. It has been getting really rough for me in this area visiting the same people over and over again because they finally started to progress, but then they stop. For example W. He was reading every day and eventually came to church. BUT because his mom has to provide for his family and now he is 16 and old enough to work, he got a job. Well that job makes him work on Sunday's and because his mom also works on Sunday's (the reason why she is less active) he doesn't see any problem working on Sunday's either. It is then even tougher because the mom hasn't been reading in the Book of Mormon and she has a lot of questions about everything related to the gospel basically. We also visited with the D L family, the ones that aren't members, and their son just returned home from his mission. He lives in Guatemala with his sister because his parents came to the US when he was on the mission. The showed us some shirts that they made and then wore for when he returned home. (Idea maybe?) anywho, it was a little interesting because whenever something good happens in their lives the seem really committed to do stuff like go to church and to go to the VC, but this week none of that happened unfortunately. 

Tuesday I went on an exchange with Elder A. He is such a cool missionary. It was his first exchange (he is a greenie) and he is awesome. He is from Taylorsville, Utah and he is Mexican. We had a lot of fun on the exchange. One of the guys that we stopped to talk to we asked him "what makes you happy?" And the guy became super serious and told us how everything is going wrong in his life. The man was recently separated from his wife, lost his job, doesn't have a car... Just terrible things. We told him about the Book of Mormon and how it will help him, so we got his information down and sent it out as a referral. The exchange was really short because they had NMO 2 (which is just a specific meeting for the newbies) and that ended around 2. Plus we had to be at the church around 6:30 so the exchange was really only for 4 hours of the day. It was still pretty good though. We were able to read with the A family and they are doing good. I just hope that slowly C likes going to mutual and seminary so that way he will be completely involved in church stuff! We had correlation so we biked to the church and that was nice. Hermana C made us hamburgers and fries and brought a drink for us to eat before correlation, I don't think this whole 6 months to sexy thing is going to work AT ALL, so I'm just gonna toss it out the window ahaha. Correlation was good, except for the fact that there is drama in the ward and it just stinks when there is drama in stuff... Ugh!

Wednesday was pretty fun. During companionship study Elder A and I decided to eat popcorn and watch the best soap opera ever... The District 2. That was fun and then we switched back to be with our normal companions. We visited with M and P with J D and that was a good lesson, they actually talked less than they usually do. It was a weird lesson though. P is having a lot of problems with her health and she was telling us how much she has faith in God and how he can heal her from her sickness. We both thought about giving her a blessing, but for some reason it didn't happen. It was really weird and we tried to talk about it after the lesson, but we couldn't figure out why it didn't actually happen. We ended the night visiting with M B and talking to him about the Atonement. We also talked to him about Joseph Smith and he had a lot of questions about his life and everything, so we thought that it would be a good idea for us next week to bring the movie of The Prophet of the Restoration to watch with him, we will see how things go I guess :) 

Thursday we had district meeting and that was alright. Our district was given 2 more companionships and so now it's not just our ward that is the district. I went on exchanges with Elder W in his area and it was alright. We taught this really old man who really wants to read in the Book of Mormon, but doesn't understand the importance of being baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority of God. We also visited with their baptismal date named E and it was awesome. E is super prepared and really exited to be baptized. We then had dinner with O M and her daughter Iris, and Iris's friend. It was really nice cause the dinner was good and also the friend of Iris wanted to talk with us about missionary work and it was really good. We then asked the friend to see if she wanted to keep visiting with us and she said yes! Hopefully everything goes good for them. We then ended of the night visiting with this guy who took us in his truck home to our apartment. We also had a lot of street convos that ended alright. There were a lot of people that wanted to bible bash with us, but we told them that all we want to do is to help them fortify their faith in Christ. It was an interesting day to be honest and it was really nice to leave the area, sometimes you just need it.

Friday was the end of the exchange with Elder W and we switched back. When we got back to the apartment we started weekly planning to set goals and stuff, talk about things as a companionship.. Etc. We then went out to go and contact a couple referrals that we received earlier that day and none of them were home. We got a call from the D L's asking if we wanted to be picked up by them for dinner, that way we didn't have to bike there and leave early cause they would just take us home at night, so of course we said yes. I really like the D L family, they are so hilarious. We had a fun dinner and drive with them and it was really cool cause we showed a 4 minute video about the Plan of Salvation and their baby son B was watching it the entire time! We noticed that he was watching it, and so did his parents. I didn't realize how much of an impact it would have on them that he actually payed attention to the video, but P (the mom) just loved the fact that he loved the video.

Saturday was an alright day. We didn't have too many lessons planned, but we had some people in mind that we went to go and visit. We did have a set appointment with M and P set up though, so we asked Hermana C if she could come with us. We went to go and visit this guy named A and he is super hard to understand. He is very old, super buff, from Mexico, and slurs his words... So really rough. Even Elder D says that it is hard for him to understand the guy. We stopped by to share a quick scripture with him and to plan to stop by next week because he is really busy. We then tried to go and see M and P, but for some reason they weren't home, so that was weird. We visited with Samuel and his roommates (ugh) and it was just really weird. S has been reading in the Book of Mormon and he read the part where it is the Testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith, and so he remembered a lot of details about it and it was nice to see the start of such a small testimony, really nice. His (insert whatever word here) roommate was just a (insert another word here) during the lesson saying that S needs to tell him when people come over, and that S doesn't understand the things of God. Good thing we focused on Samuel during the lesson, but we did jab at the guy with a comment like this to S "there might be some people that have read the scriptures many times in their lives, but have never felt the Spirit. That is what we want you to feel in your life, the Spirit." We then taught about the Spirit and how it testifies of truth and bore testimony that we are the only church that has the Spirit. S agreed, but then the next day didn't come to church... UGH! We also stopped by this guy named B. It was really crazy cause basically what it came down to is that B believes that God would have a living day prophet on the earth today who has the authority of God... !!!! Anywho there was a (insert word here) member of another religion who was basically stopping us from having a lesson... Ridiculous. I will have to tell you more about that later. We also had a dinner that the Bishop gave to all of us in the ward, so that was pretty good.

Sunday was interesting because a lot of stuff was just an awful train wreck. Our High Priest Group Leader invited 2 friends to church and someone was trying to talk to them during sacrament meeting to tell them everything that was going on, and they decided to be sarcastic back to the person. Then you have the other Elders who are just having crazy success with investigators coming to church and E, who is getting baptized next week, handing out invitations for his baptism... Why? It has been REALLY hard in this area because it seems that nothing good has happened since I have been here. It was then even more rough when all of our appointments canceled again and even our dinner appointment. (Sassy voice) the member who was going to feed us was so nice and left a gift card to a fast food place so that we could go out and eat... But we couldn't cause it was Sunday. Thankfully when we stopped by the A the Hermana made her version of a breakfast burrito for us and it was really good. We watched some Mormon messages with them and she shared part of her life's story, I might tell y'all about that later (just remind me of M and being a husband and I'll remember it).

Next week is transfers so place a guess as to what is going to happen! 

Love,

Elder Roberts

(Elder Roberts got this shirt last week)

Week 77

Korea Town Episode III (Blasted Heat) Scene 4

Monday was crazy. We had apartment inspections around 9:30 am and the inspectors just talked forever... Well, we got another 100 on the apartment so that made me feel good. We then went and did our laundry and shopping and I only spent about 10$ on groceries because we already have a lot of stuff in the house, plus this next coming week is a milestone week:) anywho, we did that and we had plans to go hang out with the W elders and the ZLs to make a custom shirt. We still haven't done it yet, but I am totally going to buy the shirt, it's gonna be sick. Well we got to the chapel and Brother B was there. He is the building scheduler and he is a nazi about the rules. Even if we just want to go and play basketball on Mondays, we need to let him know how many missionaries, their names, what time we will get there, what time we will leave, and a bunch of other stuff. He asks me more questions than y'all did when I went out on dates or to hang with friends!!! So we started to play sports because the ZLs didn't bring their outfits for the picture. Frisbee was good, but then a terrible incident happened. In the gym in this building, on the east and west side of the gym there are wooden walls with beautiful glass windows, of different sizes. On the west side the walls are the doors to the primary classes and on the east side the wooden panels are either doors to other parts of the church, or they lead to the outside courtyard found in the middle of the church building. We were playing basketball and Elder D lost his balance after jumping and fell. His arm went through one of the glass windows and his face was super scared. He pulled out his arm and it had glass in it and it was all bloody and scraped. My companion took off his shirt to cover the blood and to stop the bleeding and I went to go and get paper towels and a trash can for all the blood. All 3 companionships were calling people like crazy, the mission nurse, the physician, the Haynies... Everyone. Elder D was in a lot of pain. The W elders went with the ZLs to the urgent care in the ZL car and Elder D and I were left to clean up everything. During the whole mess of things, we ended up with the ZLs phone and they ended up with ours. So here we are trying to clean up and the phone is just going off, so we told everyone that the phones were switched. I called Brother B (the building scheduler) to tell him what had happened and he was getting mad!! I know I'm suppose to respect my elders, but sometimes people just need to be a bit more Christlike and understand circumstances. He was basically trying to blame Elder D for being reckless and braking a window in the church, but the fact remains that you shouldn't have glass windows in a church gym!! That cannot be the first time that glass has broken there... No way. We decided that we needed to say a prayer for Elder D and so we knelt down in prayer. Afterwards simultaneously after the prayer we both figured that because we had the ZLs phone, that we could send out a text to the whole zone asking for them to pray for Elder D, leaving out all the details and just asking for prayers. We did that and then the W elders had come back to the church. They were going to grab the ZLs clothes (because elder N was in normal gym clothes without a name tag and so was elder D but that's PERFECTLY UNDERSTANDABLE). Also they came back because their wallets and stuff were still at the church. So we helped them grab all the stuff to put in the car. Well so that Elder P and S had a ride back to their area, we followed them in the ZLs car to the hospital. President and sister Haynie arrived just as we were leaving the hospital and Elder D had to go into surgery. It was a really bad accident, but good thing that Elder D thought fast and covered it with his shirt. So that all happened before 7. We then had dinner and ended off the night visiting the A family and watching a Mormon message with them and reading in the scriptures.

Tuesday we started a new workout thing to help us both get into shape, and let me tell you that my arms were SO dead afterwards... It's called Pyramid and we did it to the number 15, and then 16 with only 20 lbs (which means we lifted the bar with 20 lbs about 256 times) and my arms have never felt so dead. We traveled to the boonies of our area and tried to visit a couple referrals, but nobody was home. We then tried to contact all of our referrals and still, nothing. We were stopped by this lady named Netty and she was like "who are y'all?" And we told her that we are the Mormon missionaries. She then said "alright walk with me, let me tell you my story". She talks to us about her and her husband, E. She works on Skid Road helping out the homeless get food, that is where she met her husband. Her husband was involved in some sort of crime in which he was then sent to prison for 21 years. He got out after the 21 years and N, E, and N's dad all lived together. Well one day E and the dad were driving and they were being followed until they were driven off the road and hit a wall. The dad died instantly and E had serious health problems. While he was in the hospital he had to get a leg amputated and a hip replacement on the other side of his body. He also had to get metal pins in the ankle that he still has. Well the cops arrested E for killing his father in law and so they wheeled him into jail (this is how she told us the story) then the roller coaster came of whether or not Netty trusted the "system" and she had to sell their house to get her husband a good lawyer. Eventually the lawyer was able to help prove E's innocence and N got E some crutches, a chair, and a walker. He was released from prison the night before (Monday night). She then was so happy to have seen us! She said that she knows it is a sign from God. She then asked us if we wanted to go and visit her husband, which we did. We met him but we felt a little uncomfortable, so we left them with a Plan of Salvation pamphlet. E is such a humble man. He was almost crying when he shook our hands and told us "I am going to devote the rest of my life to God, I will do whatever it takes". We said a prayer with them. It is too bad that they are English because we had to send them out as a referral... They were super cool though. We then went to go and see D, and had a short lesson with her. In this area there seems to be a lot of old people who are going to take a lot of time accepting the gospel into their lives.. But it's a good way to learn patience I guess. We set up a return appointment with S L right before we had to go and visit with the A family. We read with them and the mom is now going to read in English so she can learn and C is going to read in Spanish... It's all adorable and cute I guess. Hermano P was then super nice and was able to come out with us to visit the R family. They were crazy and full of energy that night. One of the reasons for that was because they have a half sister who has special needs. She can't speak very well, and cries a lot. She also has the inner giant (if you get the reference) sometimes. The kids obviously don't know how to handle it and it doesn't help that the mom always is yelling at the kids for doing ridiculous things. She even got mad at them for drinking WATER... ?? What?? Anywho, it was an alright lesson and it was nice to have Hermano P come with us. 

Wednesday we headed out and started to just go tracking and contacting. We met this guy named J C and goodness, he is about as close to a "no I don't want to listen to you" as it gets. Through the gnashing of teeth and a little wailing here and there, we were able to state our purpose as missionaries, say a prayer, and set up a return appointment. We then contacted some more and then we decided to stop by P and M. They are a really old couple from El Salvador. He is 78 years old and she is 75... This is crazy. He doesn't know how to read an she had a really bad fall so know she is going through a lumbar strain, so it's pretty intense. We talked with them for a little bit and showed them a Mormon message about temples. It was really good and they seemed to be super interested, so we told them that we would leave them with the restoration pamphlet and then come back on another day to teach them more, which they said yes to:). We then finished off the night having dinner at E's house and talking with her. She is doing good. It's really crazy because of all the things that can possibly happen in someone's life and yet they don't know about the gospel. It makes me think sometimes how grateful I am just for being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ.. Wow. 

Thursday we had ZTM, and it was crazy. There are so many new mission rules!! A lot of them have to do with safety and protocol stuff. One big announcement was that of music. Music is something that some missionaries take advantage of because they justify by saying things like "I feel the spirit" when listening to a certain type of music. President and Sister Haynie have now said that the standard for music is LDS music. So basically my iPod is still good:) . There have been a lot of elders who listen to other stuff that isn't the best, so I am glad that they finally came out with something to be the standard. There were SO many announcements that it took about 45 minutes just to say them all, and talk a little about them. It was still a good ZTM. We had a pretty good day planned, but like usual, whenever we have a good day planned, the appointments cancel and nothing goes according to plan. We did have the opportunity to go and visit with W and R. They are doing good and we are going to start to help their whole family read in the Book of Mormon. They now have a goal to read the entire Book of Mormon before Christmas, which is about 2 chapters a day (there is this little card thing that we have as missionaries that shows how many chapters a day). So we are going to start them on that. 

Friday we had to wake up early in order to go do temple service at 7:00 am. I woke up at 6 and just put work clothes on and the W elders came to pick us up at 6:30. We worked outside from 7:00 - 12:00 so it was pretty nice. There was some cloud coverage for most of the day so that was a total blessing. We removed some bushes and some stumps that are by the mission office because I guess they are replacing it. It totally reminded me of my Eagle Scout project, just a lot easier. While we were working on that front part the Haynies arrived at the office. They are so cool! Sister Haynie was saying how awesome we were for working on that part and then she made the joke "every missionary a gardener, right?" It was funny. Then President said that if he wasn't wearing a suit that he would join us, and he said hi to all of us individually instead of just saying 'elders' in general, it was nice. They had to get a tractor thingy to come and remove one of the stumps because it was super tough to get out. Elder D and I worked with the W elders and we all were just having a "manly" moment hacking away and trying to get this thing out. It was nice to get down in the dirt after every day doing the same thing. We then worked around the temple making the garden spot flat, pouring sand down, raking, a bunch of stuff. I scraped one of my callouses off on my thumb and so now I have this raw skin part right where my thumb bends into my hand... It hurts. Normally for service the lunch is always subway, but this time we got to go eat in the temple cafeteria. It was super good. They had a baked potato (with cheese, sour cream, and butter) and a piece of roast with gravy, a piece of pie, broccoli, juice... I was in heaven, that was awesome. We got back to the apartment and took a shower because we were covered in dirt, it felt so nice. We then had our weekly planning, during which half of the appointments that were scheduled for the day canceled on us. We went to go and see M and P, the old Salvadoran couple, with Hermana C. It was an awesome lesson about the Restoration! Hermana C bore her testimony and M and P accepted an invitation to be baptized on the 11th of September! It was an awesome experience. We then had the fire to just go and visit everyone. We went to go and see Samuel, but he wasn't home. We then tried to go and see a couple other people, but they weren't home either. We finished off the night eating dinner at Hermana G's home. It was rough time for me during the dinner because the Opening Ceremonies of THE OLYMPICS was happening! So hard... So hard...  I made A G (the daughter) promise to keep me updated on the medal count of the olympics, I cannot believe I am missing an olympic game...goodness.  

Saturday was a bitter sweet day. We had some good plans and a couple confirmed appointments with some investigators, but for one reason or another, the lessons fell through. As we were walking to one of our appointments, we saw a lady who had a flat tire. We asked her if we could help her and she said yes! She was trying to put some can spray thing that fixes flat tires apparently into her tire, but what she didn't know is that her tire was just flat, but someone slashed a hole in the tire! We looked and her back tire also had the same problem! So she had wasted about 20 or more $$ on these can things and they were just leaking out of the tire. Well Elder D is really handy with car stuff so we changed her tires. We couldn't put a spare tire on for her because she had 2 flat tires. So when the tires were off, we put it into her car and she drove away to go and get them fixed, or to buy new tires. While waiting we called some referrals. She came back and we put the good tires back on. She was so happy that we helped her and she was even wanting to gives us money! But we said no. We did ask her if we could come by to visit her, and she said no as well... Oh well. We got a little dirty and sweaty because this was earlier in the day, so Elder D had to change and take a shower. It was fun though, this was like the 5th tire I have changed on the mission... Definitely something youth need to know how to do. We went to go and visit some people but nobody was home. It was a rather sad and depressing way to end the day, just cause we couldn't find anyone home or nobody wanted to talk to us.

Sunday was an ok day. We woke up early to go a meeting with Bishop at 8:00 in the morning. Going to a meeting at 8 in the morning on a fast Sunday is not fun... Just saying. We talked to bishop about recent converts being able to go to the temple to do baptisms for the dead I don't know why it has taken so long for the bishop to finally allow the converts to go do baptisms for the dead. It took a lot of gnashing of teeth, but for some reason or another his heart was softened today. We then went berserk telling all of the recent converts to go and talk to the bishop and ask him for a temple recommend. Church was interesting. Hermano B showed up and I sat by him. I was teaching him how to read music and how to sing, a let me tell you, it was A LOT OF PRESSURE!!!!! I was trying to explain what the notes where and everything. He then told me that he would sing after he heard me sing.... !!!!!!! So he stuck his face close to mine (like mom always did when she made she we could sing or were in tune) and I had to sing out pretty loud. At first I felt confident, but the more and more I kept singing, the worse and worse I think I got... It was bad. BUUUUUUTTTTT by the end of the song Hermano was singing SSSOOOOOO it was a success! The rest of church was a little awkward for some reasons, but hey, it was all good. We got back to the apartment to break our fast and the instant meal that you sent me with the roast and potatoes and gravy... Mmmhmhmm! It was amazing! We then went to go and see the P family and read with the two sons. I really hope that A, the older brother, decides to serve a mission, just because he needs it. It was Andrew's birthday and so finally he is 16! He was so happy. We talked about some commandments with them and we also talked about the book of Ether, so that was good. We then had dinner with the Romero family and that was super good too. The Rs are just so cool, let me tell ya. We finished off the night at the A home. We read with them in the Book of Mormon and the son is trying to get better at Spanish and the mom is trying to get better in English, so it's pretty cool. We did try to stop by to see E because now her phone isn't working and she didn't come to church... So we don't know what happened with her.

I am so grateful to be serving here in LA. This is definitely an amazing experience. It is so true what everyone says about a mission, how it is one of the most hardest things that you will ever do. The mental, spiritual, emotional, and physical stress that it puts on you... Wow. I do know that it is worth it. This week during a personal study I found a scripture that I really like, short, sweet, and to the point. It talks about why people love missionary work:

1 Thessalonians 2:20

20 For ye are our glory and joy.

The joy that comes through missionary work is the fact that lives are being changed! If not in front of you through others, at least it is through yourself. Missions don't change lives, living the gospel does, and THATS why missions change people, because THE GOSPEL is being preached and lived:) Thank you for all your prayers and support😀😀😀😀😀😀

Love ya!

Elder Roberts

Week 76

Korea Town Episode III (Blasted Heat) Scene 3

Monday was an ok day. It was really hot so that wasn't fun to bike in, but hey, you do what you got to do. We got everything done (the chores for pday like cleaning and laundry) pretty early and so that was nice. We went to the church because Elder D is going to apply to LDSBC.  Elder P and Elder S came because Elder S is new and still doesn't have his iPad yet. We talked with them for a while before we played sports. Now I know you are going to say that I need to do better stuff on pday, but when nobody wants to do anything and you are in a bike area with a companion that only wants to email on plays, you settle for playing sports. The ZLs came and they are cool, kinda. Elder N is super chill and cool. He is only 1 transfer ahead of me and we have served around each other here and there, so it's pretty fun to be around him. We played frisbee and basketball and the dream team was the picture that I sent to you with me, Elder P, and Elder N. It was fun to play sports that day. We dropped our clothes off to start the actual day day for pday, and we didn't have any plans because of stuff falling through. We got a text from C A asking if we could come help him and his mom move some furniture around because they were going to have their carpets cleaned. So we went over and helped them move stuff and organize as well. The furniture piece that has the TV on it was SO heavy (yes we moved the TV from the furniture) but that wood was super thick! I had to push from the ground while kneeling and Elder D pulled, it was intense, but it only took like maybe a minute to move it to where the Hermana wanted. We then organized everything and one of the pictures that the Hermana has was really old. She then told us the story behind the picture. Her sister was only 6 months pregnant when her baby was born. Now at this time they lived in Guatemala and where they lived there weren't any hopsitals, so all the babies were born at hom. She said that when the baby was born that he was SO tiny, and his skin was a burnt black and purple color. Everyone was freaking out saying that her sister and the baby we're going to die, so they quickly asked a favor. They went to get their dad who was a priesthood holder to give the sister (his daughter) a blessing. He gave her a blessing and the baby was born. The baby then didn't breath and it looked like the baby had passed away. The dad then gave the baby a blessing that he needed to fulfill the purposes that God sent him to do her on earth. The baby was fine and (down the road in life) became a missionary and now has a family of his own. Cool story!!

Tuesday we started out the day talking with lots of people. We talked to so many random people, but they all were pretty busy with their lives, so they didn't want us to come back. That's something that has been really hard this transfer and especially in this area, there are A TON of people, but nobody wants to listen. We decided to go to a part of the area that neither of us had been to before and we walked through this college campus... It was nice, but it was super small. There was a lot of business looking people there. We actually were stopped by this random guy who told us that he was an RM from the Philippines who served his mission in Hawaii about a year ago. It was pretty cool. He wanted to buy us a Gatorade or something, but my comp said no (which is fine) it was just cool to meet the guy. We stopped by the house of this less active and the man that answered the door was apparently his father in law. He had a huge gut and no shirt on, pure belly, it was awesome. He explained to us that the member went off the deep end basically. That he only got baptized because he liked a girl and then he got himself into drugs. We talked with the guy for a bit and he said that he would like to listen to us one day! Hopefully we can go back and talk to him sometime soon. We went back to the apartment for dinner and we made some chicken Alfredo. We went to go and see the A family and read with them in the Book of Mormon. The daughter is reading along with us and. Everything is going good! She likes when we explain the Book of Mormon to her and she is understanding it more. She even told us that she wanted to read one more chapter! But we had to go and we committed her to read the next chapter, which she did! It was so cool. I think in that exact moment is what we always look for as missionaries, leaving lessons at the spiritually high point. It was awesome and I just love the A family. We had correlation meeting and it was pretty intense. My companion likes to take control of things especially when talking in Spanish and so sometimes I just feel like a secretary to him. It was really difficult because he was a little overbearing with the members during the meeting, but I just decided to stay silent. We got back to the apartment and we had a little argument that was just awful. It shouldn't have happened and it was just a poor display of pride getting the better of the both of us. I thought I was doing really good with patience with companions and keeping my criticisms pretty low. I guess that that was a little mini test and I absolutely failed... It was bad. But the good thing is is that we are both dudes and we just got over it pretty quick, it was just sad that it had to happen in the first place. We also got a call from L R saying that she wanted us to come by on Wednesday because there have been some crazy things going on in her life and she wants us to come back by... Hopefully she has been prepared a little more and she is ready!!

Wednesday we had a lesson with E right before she had to go into work. We met up at KFC and when we followed up on her reading and asked her if she had any questions, she said yes and we spent the rest of the lesson trying to answer her questions. She has a lot and it seems like the reason why she is listening is to just hear about the Mormon religion... So we might need to be a bit more loving and bold and tell her that this message is true and that it will bless her life, and that it's not just something interesting to learn about. We found out that her father passed away when she was little and so she is very much interested in vicarious works and the temples. We invited her to go to the VC on Friday and she said that it would be good. We planned everything out and then the lesson ended. We walked around and talked to people, tried to visit some referrals, but nothing really happened. We ate in the apartment again because nobody fed us, but it's all good, we finally got rid of all the leftovers in the fridge! We went to go and see L and her family. We got in and sat down. Before the lesson I told Elder D the history of what I have experienced with the R family and so we were both prepared. We planned to focus on keeping commitments and coming to church. By focusing on that we thought that it would help us know whether or not L really wants to be baptized, or just have us over cause she is lonely and bad things are happening. So we talked to her and it seemed like she was super committed to come to church. She even made plans to go to church, what time she would wake up, what she would need to do at what time to walk to the bus to arrive to church on time, everything. The only problem is once Sunday came, she didn't show up:(

Thursday we had our weekly planning and it was good. Elder D made popcorn again and he has all these seasonings that are just super yummy to put on popcorn, so good. Well we had a pretty good day planned out, but basically everything fell through. It was one of those days that was just long and hard as a missionary, mentally, physically, everything. We ended the night going over to the As home and reading with them in the Book of Mormon, we have that now as a regular plan 2x a week with them. They told us that they we're going to have their carpets redone the following day and asked us if we could help them organize and move stuff around to help them out, which of course we said yes because no one ever actually has anything for us to do to help them out with, so it was fun. We left the big stuff to move in the morning because their house is really small and the furniture would block the way of the fridge, so we decided that Elder D and I would come back in the morning to help them move all the stuff around.

Friday we ended up doing a lot in one day. We started off doing service for the A at like 7:00 in the morning. So I got to dress in "regular" clothes and it felt super weird... Super weird. We moved their furniture and stuffed it all into their kitchen which is super tiny, just so that they could get their carpets cleaned. That only took about 20 minute though. We got back to the apartment and got ready for the day. We had everything set up for the VC trip, so that was good. We had to walk to meet up with everyone and E got there first. She wanted to buy MCDs for everyone which was super nice. She bought food for us, J D, L C, and the sister missionaries at the VC. It was a long drive to the VC because of traffic but the conversation in the car was good so that was nice. We got to the VC and the sister missionaries were on exchanges! Sister W (friend from school in Utah) was the STL that was on the exchange with Sister C (she is from Brazil) so it was a little cool, but weird at the same time. On the way up to the temple E saw the front and the Angel Moroni on top and she said "oh, I love that" and she told us later on that she just felt so good and peaceful when she saw it. If only she can now put all the pieces together!! PLEASE pray for her! We had a good tour in the VC a lot of good stuff happened. We walked around the temple and E was asking a lot of questions and it was good. We explained a lot of stuff to her. It was time for the snack part of the VC with MCDs and so we sat down outside and ate at the VC. Elder G and his companion Elder B were picking up mail from the mission office and so they were all like smiley and saying hi to everyone. It was really awkward because they didn't say hi to E or anything, and we all had to get back into our areas because J D and E had to go to work and we had another appointment. Well we got dropped off a ways a way from the apartment because J D had to take a shower and if he isn't in the car, then we can't be in the car. So we were all sweaty in our suits walking back to the apartment at about 2:30 in the afternoon. We called up J, the guy that we had the appointment with and he said that he could still meet with us. We biked to his house and brought him his own copy of the Book of Mormon. He told us that he is a little skeptical about the Book of Mormon and some other concerns he has, but we invited him to pray and read in the Book of Mormon so if he does that then the rest will just fall into place. Afterwards, we received some messages of canceled appointments. Our dinner canceled (which was with the D L Family so that was sad). We then got called by C to see if we could move all the furniture back to where it was before, so we went over and moved the stuff back. Their whole family was also there and so they were painting and redoing some other stuff so that was fun to help out with as well. We decided that because of the day before and us not being able to meet with E that we would try to stop by again and visit with her. We stopped by and SHE WAS HOME! It's always nice when she is home because she just needs a little help being self sustaining in the gospel and then she will be fine. We talked about what is going on in her life and the problems and struggles that she is going through, it is true that the adversary works real hard on people in their 1st year of being a convert in the church. We then walked back home and that ended the day.

Saturday was a pretty packed day. We started out around 10 AM visiting with the P family because they had a lot of stuff to do on Saturday, so we stopped by and read with them. A is doing really good, he is progressing and liking the fact that they are becoming active again. Next was district meeting and it is always a little weird with Elder W as the DL because he is a little unorthodox in how everything goes. It is also rough because our district is relatively new in the mission and our companionship has more experience as missionaries than the rest of the district, so it's really difficult for them to suggest something that we haven't tried before to help investigators, little frustrating. We then had lunch and afterwards went to go and see W C and his brother. They are both less active, but William has finished reading in the Book of Mormon!! He was happy that he finished and we helped him set some new goals with reading, and also had his brother join along too. We decided that we wanted to go to Yogurtland because I had a 16oz free on my "platinum" card cause of how much I went to Yogurtland in the past and the fact that it was my birthday month. So we went and they have Mario stuff going on so that was cool. The only bad part about it was that I spilled some Princess Peach Tart on my pink tie and no there is a little bit of a stain, so now my only pink tie is not up to par with the rest of the gang. We then walked to E because she is wanting us to stop by more often, she always asks us to. It was nice to visit with her again and I think she wants us to visit more so that way she feels more comfortable coming back to church rather than feeling left out and overwhelmed. We finished off the night at the B home and shared a quick scripture with M. We also planned to have a FHE the following day, so that was good.

Sunday we woke up thinking that we didn't have to go to the 8:00 meeting with the bishop in the morning, but then we get a text from our DL saying that we have the meeting... So we start rushing and going crazy and then we get a text saying that we didn't have to rush anymore because we actually didn't have the meeting anymore. Well, that gave me plenty of time to write the talk that I had to give in sacrament meeting about the sacrament. I copied and pasted a couple paragraphs from PMG and the talk from Elder Bednar about always retaining a remission of our sins and then I shared the parable of the ten virgins... So I think it went pretty good. I read it to Elder D and he helped me on parts that I needed to emphasize better or it would sound a different way, so that was really nice. We got to church and we are just waiting, and waiting, and waiting for people to show up... And nobody did! None of the investigators or our LA or RC were arriving and it was really depressing. Sacrament meeting started with less than 40 members there, including the missionaries and the leaders. Part of the reason was because the YM were on a scouting trip and they obviously have some of their leaders with them.. (Can they do that? Cause basically they just made people miss the sacrament but I guess because they had leadership there they gave them the sacrament on the camp out?? Weird). Anywho the bishop was cracking off jokes about the youth and nobody was really laughing so it was a bit awkward. Elder D and I were sitting by Elder W on the stand and it was really weird, just because of how the stage is. Well I gave the talk and it was just a train wreck, I felt like I did horrible, but I guess it was pretty good. M B showed up to church so that was good. E CAME to church and that was awesome. She brought her baby nephew with her (don't ask why idk) and because she has been away from church for a while there was a couple members that asked if that was her baby!! (Que chismosos!!) so basically she had to keep explaining that he wasn't her baby or anything like that, but it was nice to see her at church again and to see all the members say hi to her and everything. After church E asked if we were going to stop by later on and so we planned to stop by. I think that she misses having the missionaries come over and so that is why she has wanted us to come by so often recently. So after lunch we stopped by and visited with her and we helped her set some goals with reading in the Book of Mormon and going to the temple to do baptisms for the dead, so that was cool. We then walked to a FHE with the high priest group leader (N Family from Peru) and with the B family. It was a pretty dang good FHE. The message was short, the testimonies were strong, the activity was awesome and the refreshment was delicious, so awesome. We then finished off the night with dinner at the R house which was super good.

Well, sorry if this letter isn't as exciting as others, but things are picking up, I think that I am just getting a little fried from being in the area for too long... Things will get better though! Hope our week goes good!!

Love,

Elder Roberts