Week 32

That awesome time my bike got stolen....

Woo wee! Was this week a doozy! But first to answer questions:

First to start off with the area, we live in LA, its ok if you don't know where, I will be able to tell later on. All craziness is in the air for this transfer because 1) my companion is leaving because this is his last transfer, 2) We are whitewashing, which means that neither of us has been in this area before and so neither of us know the area. 3) Its a bike area so my legs are killing me. 4) We are double covering, which means that because of the lack of missionaries in this mission (meaning more are going home than are coming out) they combine areas, and they combined two areas and made it this one! The reason why it is called The Jungle, is for a really bad reason, but you can just think because all the streets are combined together and confusing, that's part of the reason. I don't have a pant clip so I just tuck my slacks into my socks when I ride, ya I look British haha. Our locks, well, lets just say my bike got stolen... I don't know really anybody in this zone or district, so I feel completely exposed, its weird. yes, of course we get to watch Conference!! I am super stoked for all those reasons!!

My companion: His name is Elder Aguilar, he is from Georgia, but his family is from Mexico. This is my second latino companion and we get along much better than the last:) He is a convert to the church and he is 23 years old. He got into BYUI with the help of the mission counselor for schooling (didn't know we had one, but cool anyways). He is a super good missionary and he is fluent in both English and Spanish. He talks a lot in the lessons and corrects me a lot, but I know that its just to help me in the long run with my Spanish:) He is really funny and we laugh a lot.

Let's just go slow about what happened this week.

Monday: After the transfer and everything like emailing, we went to the store to buy food. Now we basically just have to buy our needs because we have to carry the bags on our bikes back to the apartment, which is about 2 miles away from the store. It was interesting and I will learn ahah. We ate with this family named the M family. They were all expecting to see the missionary that was here before, but when they saw me, they looked at Elder Aguilar as if he knew why everything got switched. The food was very good. It was rice and chicken as always, but it was very good. We visited a couple potential investigators from the area book that we have from past missionaries, so that was good. Our apartment is super gross, ants everywhere. Its because they get through the back door (because there is grass there) and the back door is right by the kitchen, so what did we do? 409 to the rescue! We didn't have any bug spray, but 409 annihilated all those pests. You could call us exterminators if you would like haha.

Tuesday: It was a pretty eventful day. We contacted and visited potentials ALL DAY, because that's what you do when you whitewash. While talking to this lady in an apartment complex, a random bucket of water was pushed by this kid on top of me, yupp I got drenched. Good thing it was just water hahaha, that could've been a little gross. Elder Aguilar and I just laughed the whole time. This random lay stopped us and told us that we were devils and worshipped satan through the book of muslim.. haha. I don't know if she was high or something, but she just drove by and said it so we laughed pretty hard. We found this less active member and he is partially blind. His name is Hermano G and he is just... stubborn, like me. He has some problems with the Word of Wisdom and we decided to help him go back to the basics, you know: read, pray, go to church. During the lesson we tried to ask him "What are the 3 things missionaries asked you to do when you started to investigate the church?" That was a really bad question first off, he replied "Love God, have patience, and follow the Word of Wisdom"... ugh. We tried to help him understand what the basic things were and that we are there to help him along the way. AND he came to church! so that was awesome. So after a long day I was laying in my bed when I felt something crawling on me. I figure that it was probably an itch or I thought it was an ant because we killed so many the day before. Well I felt it again and I started to pull out my inner Charlie (BAHAHA) so we turned on the light, and nothing was there, until it moved. It was a huge red spider that did not look very nice, so we both flipped and went terminator on that sucker! After that, neither of us could really go back to sleep....

so that brings us to

Wednesday: The only really exciting story that happened on Wednesday is we got stopped by this black muslim. He asked us if we had ever read the Qur'an, we said no. He told us that we needed to read it because it was scripture. Well we told him about the Book of Mormon and asked if he had ever read it, he said no. Well I guess we were at a stand still, we talked/ chatted for quite a bit and there were a lot of craziness that he said. He said, for example, that the Holy Spirit, is the angel Gabriel... what? and that there is Lucifer and then there is Satan, two different people... weird. I asked him at one point if he believed that Christ atoned for us or if Christ is the Son of God, he said no. Boom, Elder Aguilar and I both then bore testimony of Jesus Christ and it was a pretty cool feeling. After that he said "Well then lets pray to have the sin fall upon whoever is wrong!" I simply replied, "I don't want to pray to have sin fall upon anyone" and then we both left. After that exhausting fiasco, we went back to visiting the potentials that we had in our planners.

Thursday: It was just a terrible day, we had a lot of set- lessons from the potentials earlier in the week, but practically every single one of them fell through. We have this investigator who had a baptismal date and she wanted to meet with us so she planned for a time later in the day with her member mentor, perfect! well that fell through, she didn't show up and nobody could get a hole of her. To this day neither of us have met her, we just know that she really does want to meet with the missionaries, but always cancels. We had also scheduled to meet with a recent convert named J. he lives clear out in Timbuktu flippin Idaho and on the way there I almost got hit by this chamaca not looking and making a right turn, good thing my glasses and brakes on my bike work:) The worst part about that whole experience is that J and his family weren't home! So we just got a good exercise. We had a lesson with this guy named K. K is a little slower than other investigators, but his intentions are pure. He is really funny though.

Friday: We had a special Zone Conference with the LA2 (us) and LA1 zones, basically because this month only 1 investigator in BOTH zones is going to be baptized. It was a come to Jesus moment from Pres. Weidman, IDK maybe that's why they whitewashed the area.

Saturday: So this is the story you have all wanted to hear. MY BIKE WAS STOLEN! We were biking to dinner at our apartment when Elder Aguilar thought he saw someone who he had met before, we turned around and it turns out that he is not a member of a family in one of his last areas! They live right in our area! We went up to talk with the family, ate with them, and everything. The son, J, said that every now and then he is going to take a peak to watch my bike, because kids steal bikes a lot in this area 'apparently'. Well all of a sudden, he peaks and just bolts downstairs, the mom and J shouts "The bike's stolen!!" and then her husband just runs down, neither of us knew which bike it was, so we are both awe- struck. It was my bike. We hear 2 cars screeching down the street from Julio and his dad. The mom then tells us to get Elder Aguilar's bike and to take it up to the apartment. I am freakin gout 'of course' and so I say to Elder Aguilar, "let's go man! I'm pumped" or something stupid like that. When we get outside we see Julio parking the car and he told us that he found the kid who took the bike. He basically almost ran the kid over and started to chew him out and asked where he got the bike, then the dad showed up. J told us not to worry and that he would go back to get the bike. So ya, my bike was stolen and then found and retrieved within 30 minutes, woo!! it was very exciting. So now we lock it upa different way.

sunday was pretty fun. It was the primary program and Elder Aguilar didn't know any of the songs (lo que imagino como Emily) and he kept telling me that I am 'super Mormon' because I was mouthing all of the primary songs. It was pretty funny.

This morning I think I over stretch my neck or something, so it hurts real bad and I kinda lean it to my right side, I just think its too tight, it'll go away, but E Aguilar is making fun of me... not nice

Well that was all the craziness for this week! most of it anyways...

Love ya all tons and bunches!

Elder Roberts

"I'm like oil bro, consecrated!"

"Don't make me go all Uchtdorf on you.. Stop. It."

just random quotes we said during the week.

They went for Joshua's birthday (Elder Roberts' brother who passed away)

Week 31 - Transfer's Take 2

Dear Family...

hhmmmmm. Where do I even begin?? The first week in my area was really good. I will write about 2 different things today because this is what happened: I was transferred to the Palos Verdes zone and I lived right by the beach (I will send pictures just give me time cause its on my camera). But I received and mid- cycle transfer last night from the APs and now I am in a different are with a completely different companion in the center of LA (basically) and we are on bike. Please pray that I don't get my bike stolen, its gonna be a long transfer.

Ok so the wonderful Palos Verdes area in the city of San Pedro. Transfer day was pretty crazy, it was pouring rain. Elder Parker and I woke up and there was water everywhere in the apartment, so we cleaned it up and went to the new Senior Companion training at 7 AM, ugh we were so tired. I was told that I was going to be co- senior companions with Elder Hunsaker, but we all just think that it is the way the mission is getting rid of the titles 'junior' and 'senior' companions, by making everyone a senior companion. So Elder Hunsaker was the driver because he knows the area and I don't want to drive, good decision, false. He is one of the most weirdest drivers I have ever met, I love that Elder to death, but he is a terrible driver. He signals I think about 2 blocks before he is making his turn, he drives SUPER slow and he drives with 2 feet (IDK maybe he drove stick back at home). That's kinda how crazy the driving part of the week went. My grandpa Elder McBride (he trained Elder Wheelwright so he is my grandpa, ask Charlie for questions) and he was in the area before me. I got 2 ties from him and they are pretty cool. He actually wants to do ballroom at BYU so IDK if you could keep me updated on him, his last name was McBride.

Anywho, the week was full of miracles and craziness. The very first lesson that we planned to have was with a potential, meaning someone who said to come back and they might be interested. Well we found her, G, outside talking to a boy, great. We just started to do a little How To Begin Teaching and then we taught The Restoration. It was one of the most unorganized lessons ever. IDK what it was, for some reason I was just messing up left and right. I couldn't remember Elder Hunsaker's name, and I couldn't even tell the First Vision!! After the lesson of course I said it, but during no. When I couldn't say the First Vision word for word I asked Elder Hunsaker to do it. He said it and I told G why I wanted her to hear it perfectly, word for word. The spirit was so strong, we set a baptismal date and she was super excited. She had already had a Book of Mormon and everything was just amazing. The rest of the day was just crazy. We went contacting and these two guys stopped us and asked "If a guy cheats on his wife, is that bad?" - Duh. They were a little sketchy and a little rude but we talked to them and it was an interesting conversation. We also talked to this rather feminine- fit- eastern European guy. He asked us "what gives you the authority to do this?" So we replied "We have been called by a living day prophet of God and our representatives of Jesus Christ"... WABAM! we talked for a bit and he confused himself because he was trying to say that the Jews killed Jesus because they wanted him to remain 'pure' and celibate so that's why they killed him. They knew he was their Messiah.. all this nonsense, we didn't have time to talk to him anymore so we just walked away. The picture of the turtle is at this RC house and her name is Hermana Fleatas and she is from Argentina. Wow was her accent super thick and nasily. She is really funny, we joked and she said that she liked me, that's good:) White people are really rude, they never want to talk to missionaries, that's why I love being called Spanish speaking:) We talked to this guy who was smoking and drinking coffee (do I wish I had a pamphlet then) and he was a Greek Orthodox. He was super racist though. 

So the guy was super racist. He said that muslims (he called them 'arabs' ugh) were really bad and mistaken and fooled by the devil, blah blah blah. He then went off on random topics like how it use to be that Mormons were hired before other people because managers knew that Mormons don't do stupid things. When we first talked to him he said that he belongs to the One and Only True Apostolic Church (or the Greek Orthodox). He also tried to say that Peter wasn't the true leader of the apostles and that it was someone else, but he never said who that was. I told him that we represent the Church of Jesus Christ so which church would be true.... he thought and thought, and then never responded back to that question. Made me think. The ward was really cool. The Bishop is a white guy and his Spanish is really weird. He has no accent whatsoever, but his grammar is flawless. It is really funny actually. Everybody in the ward loves missionaries, but hates them from Utah, so I told them that I was from Colorado hahahha.

The "vacation" spot of the mission didn't last long. Last night I received a call from the Aps saying that I am being transferred to 6th ward in LA2 zone, basically LA area. I am in a bike area and my new companion is Elder Aguilar. This is his last transfer in the mission so he his super trunky. He barely just came to this area so basically we are whitewashing. I am not looking forward to biking, but hey, that's the mission life. We have a washer and dryer in our apartment so that is a super huge blessing!

Let me know if I left anything out! Sorry about the pictures of the beach, maybe i'll go back there someday, but for now I am in the area called

THE JUNGLE!!!

Love, Elder Roberts

Week 30 - Transfers

Hello Wonderful family!!

This week was full of excitement! Sorry that my last letter was not up to par with all the rest, but this week should definitely make up for it!! So last PDay was a little frustrating. We went to our ward building where we normally email, but the WiFi wasn't working. We fixed the modem and did all the tech- savvy stuff but nothing would work. We then went to the English branch building 5 miles away to email on our Ipads in our hot and humid car in the parking lot because we don't have keys to the building and the WiFi was only in one little spot. We couldn't go to any library because it was Labor Day, ugh! We then went back to the church to play some basketball because we wanted to do something productive for Pday and let me just tell you, we were amazing. Normally we play pretty bad but we were all like Jimmer, everything was going in. If a church ball team was made up of us... wow. JK it was way fun though, I am always the shortest one out of everyone who are all 6 feet or taller. I also decided that I wanted to start eating more healthy personally because the dinners we eat are not healthy. I bought super healthy bread (that's disgusting) and instead of little snacks or something, I bought carrots. (without ranch mind you). Let me tell you how good that plan worked out for me. The carrot thing worked out for about the first day, after that I was sick of them. The bread I thought was going to be good and that I could stomach it because it has all this protein and fiber in it, good right? Wrong. It tasted like bread soaked in vinegar to make it taste like pickles or something. It is the New York style rye bread at Wally, never get it, it is terrible. I am also starting to get tired of my tuna sandwiches, time to branch out!! 

We also had a temple service day. We were told to be there by 7:30 in the morning so we left around 6am to get to downtown LA right? only 24 miles ok ok... wrong. Traffic was so bad. It took us till 8:30 to arrive at the temple.2 1/2 hours to go 24 miles! We could bike faster than that!! The service was really fun. There are apartment buildings by the Visitor Center and the temple that the VC sisters use and also the Senior missionary couples. They are remodeling it so they had us move furniture in and out all day. after 4 hours we were done. It was a lot of fun, I love the missionaries in my zone, they are so chill. 

We ate dinner with this family that is just so humble. They gave us this tuna fish salad with corn and lemonade. The salad was really good and the lemonade, let's just say the lemonade tasted like watered down medicine. We had a lesson with this investigator who is just a handful. We always try to share something spiritual with him, but he always gets off topic. He basically told us that he knows what he needs to do in order to be baptized, he's just 'waiting' for the right moment. This investigator (V) also has received many answers to prayers. He's told us that a lot of the time he will pray about having the missionaries come by and that day we stop by. Now how much more evidence does someone need in order to be flippin baptized?? Ugh. He basically told us that when we come over that he doesn't want to talk about church stuff, just about 'normal' stuff. ya, right, peace out bro!

 We ate dinner with this lady named M L. She is a less active because she doesn't come to church. She doesn't come to church because she is pregnant. She has a really strong testimony about the Church and the Book of Mormon, everything. She just needs a little support from the ward. Elder Parker and I were thinking that maybe the Relief Society could visit her or stop by and bring food over for her, we'll see how that turns out.

 I will send pictures of what we ate with M, it was sooo good! 

We were told during our weekly planning (Thursday) that Elder Parker and I were going to give the training at DM this week. We planned the lesson, found scriptures, told some jokes, and are pretty sure that nobody fell asleep and it was a really good training. A training is basically a talk to a bunch of missionaries, which is pretty easy. We stopped by this investigator named R A. She is super catholic and has a lot of virgin marias in her house. We decided since she hasn't come to church in a while to talk about the 10 commandments (to talk about the sabbath day and to go to church right?) well after we read the 10 commandments, we asked her. "Which of the 10 commandments do you think you could work on?" She told us the 2nd. She said that she has too many idols in her house of the Virgin. We were thinking, well ya, uh, ok. She told us that she was going to get rid of a couple well WAM! she started to tell her life story. Basically she's done a lot of bad stuff in her life and she is very thankful for her husband who loves her and ya. We invited to her to come to church, but she didn't come this week. 

So DM (sorry my thoughts are just all over the place today). since it was 9/11 we decided to sing the national anthem to start DM. It was pretty funny because we have an Elder from Canada and from Ecuador in our District. However, it was probably the best way to start DM, not gonna lie. We took pictures afterwards of the district so thats all 8 of us. 

One of our investigators, W A, she started to read the BOM!! its really cool because she is the one that is pregnant that we went to the VC with. She tells us that she is wanting to go to church after she has her baby in like 2 weeks. We read with her, its hard for her to understand sometimes, but her intentions are super sincere. Elder Parker received a package from his family and all that was in it was a big thing of Nesquik ahahah. He can't drink milk plain because he hates the taste. I came to find out that he is a germaphobe. He does not like it when someone touches his stuff and he is always washing his hands, like after the washing the dishes he has to wash his hands again ahah. Sunday was pretty intense. 

I am going to have a portion of the letter about E below so bare with me. At Stake conference they reorganized the stake presidency. It was really funny at some parts during the meeting because of the translation. When they said the vote of thanks thing for the presidency and the sustaining of the new, the translation was behind so one latina lady raised her hand to oppose rather than sustain the presidency, WOOPS! her daughter forced her hand down so that she didn't 'oppose' the vote, it was pretty funny. She also would laugh at a joke after it was said in english ahahah ooooooh translation stories... soo good.

Tuesday was when we needed to have the baptismal interview for E (the really old investigator). He had to have a special interview from President Vincent of the LA mission because there were some things in his life that needed to be talked about. We were really concerned. After the interview President Vincent walks out and says that everything is in order and that E is going to be a good member. We were so excited. E also brought his large copy of the triple combination, because he is blind and he can't see a regular print. When he would sit down Elder Parker would carry the book and E would always ask him 'for his book'. it was soooo adorable. We visited E on Thursday to teach him the last lesson and to ask him who he would want to have baptize him. He told us that so that he doesn't offend either one of us, that he was going to flip a coin. We went back to our car to get a penny. He flipped it and the luck fell on me! I was chosen by fate to baptize E. We all decided that Elder Parker was going to help because E is a little bit top heavy (has a huge beer belly) and really bad balance, so we did a baptism with two people in the font with the investigator (see the jump suit that Elder Parker had to wear, it looks like it is from the 80's). Anywho, we made the baptismal program on Saturday and brought it by to E. He said he wanted to sing the two hymns that we had put on the program. He said he wanted to practice them so that he sounded good for his baptism. The tender mercy of this visit was that he was suppose to go to the hospital earlier that week to check on a possible 'bola' or tumor that is in his stomach. He never went to the hospital which is a blessing so that he could make it to his baptize. On Sunday we had a ride for him to go to Stake Conference but when we called him he told us that he had been vomiting all night and that he didn't feel good enough to go to conference. We told him to rest for his baptism and that all would be ok. The baptism started late. It was really hard to get baptismal clothing for E because we don't have any in our building because we don't have a font and the guy who had keys to the jumpsuits in the other building wouldn't give it to us. The font also had termites in it. But when all was said and done, E was baptized!! it was really cool.

I AM BEING TRANSFERRED!! I am going to the Palos Verdes zone with Elder Hunsaker (the Elder that I went on an exchange in my first area) and I will be a senor companion with him because he has a lot of anxiety problems so i'm excited. Also Elder chidester is my DL and Elder Wheelwright is now a ZL in that zone too. All my comps are following me! Elder Parker is the new DL and his is going to train a new Elder. Elder Parker was also in the area that I am going to last transfer so this is going to be fun!! 

Also, my watch broke. The every day one, not the fancy one the Charlie and Emily got me, Dad's watch broke. The band ripped. So if you could maybe get a ghetto looking watch that is super durable that would be wonderful. I have also not been able to find the hair gel that I use (the surf paste) so... ya that too ahaha. I think I can last a couple weeks. And maybe some letters from y'all.  

Love you all

Les amo,

Elder Roberts

Week 29

Dear lovely family,

I am sorry if this email gets to you late, the wifi is not working anywhere!! Bear with me about how I am writing this letter, it might be all over the place.  On Pday we played basketball with Elders A and H and they are freaking tall! It was so unfair! Elder H didn't even need to jump when he would do a lay up because nobody can stuff him, ridiculous. Elder P also blocked me way good, like almost a volleyball spike to the face, but I just grabbed it and kept going. 

We talked with this one guy on the street who said he was a convict of murder for 13 years in prison and so Elder P and I just looked at each other, gave him a card, and invited him to church, he was a little scary not gonna lie. We tried to go and smooth things over with M V, the one who was offended. We stopped by her house and only found her daughter there. We talked to the daughter and the daughter (M) told us that the only reason why her mom didn't want to continue to talk to us is because the "other" missionary was really intense and blunt to her mom. We told her that that was never our intention and that we wanted to talk with her mom to see if she still wanted to talk and meet with the missionaries. By the end of that lesson the daughter wanted to read the Book of Mormon and we decided to go back and visit the mom the next day. When we visited the mom, she told us that she wanted to give us back the Book of Mormon and to never see us again. We shared a scripture with her and talked her down a bit. She told us how she felt and by the end of the lesson the outcome was this: only the missionaries assigned to the area will visit M because she really wants to keep learning more about the gospel and she even offered us chocolate bananas as we were leaving!! It was a good feeling that she still wanted to meet with us. 

We talked with this lady on the street who told us that was once a member and that the reason that she is no longer active is because members talk more about the Book of Mormon rather than the Bible. She told us that she still thinks Joseph Smith is a good person and that Angel Moroni was a good person too. ??? Angel Moroni? If you think angel Moroni was an actual person than you believe that the Book of Mormon is true! 

There was this one day as we were contacting that everyone that I would try and talk to would just be really rude and walk off and everybody who Elder P tried to talk with were really nice. I guess something was just off or something, idk. We had some weird lessons this week with our investigators. One of our investigators has a lot of family problems. We invited her to attend the Book of Mormon class that our Ward does every Tuesday at the same time mutual is so the parents have something to do. She told us that she went and that her sons enjoyed mutual. Hopefully this is the way that will slowly change her heart! We were really surprised that nobody from the ward told us that our investigator went! We told the Book of Mormon teacher that our investigator liked the class and that they should come with us to a lesson. Too bad that the lesson fell through. We were so grateful that she went though! We also found this family of 3 this week. The lesson was probably one of the weirdest ones. The wife is a referral and and the husband was a potential so of course we visited them. At the beginning of the lesson the son (C Jr.) was really shy so Elder P and I tried to get him to be happy or laugh because he was showing us his toy cars and we laughing with his mom. I'm glad that the son felt comfortable, but the lesson was a little awkward at one point because he just decided to pull down his pants and start to pee a little bit. He was laughing like a little 4 year old and his mom just turned bright red. So that was awkward. The lesson was really good other than that, they listened really well. Hahah at the beginning I messed up in Spanish. I accidentally said "prophets in the bible like Adam and Eve" but I cut myself off and my companion covered my back. 

Our baptismal date E hit a little snag. He has a problem with the law of chastity. He lives with a woman with whom he has had a sexual relationship with in the past. It is so sad, he is 76 years old and doesn't want to get married. He can't move out because he doesn't work and the wife/ girlfriend is the owner of the house, we'll see what happens. 

This week we were eating with a member named J. She is from Honduras but speaks both English and Spanish so she just speaks in English with us. She usually makes really good healthy food which is a nice change here in the Spanish community. But anyway she was telling us this story how she couldn't find her tent and so she was looking everywhere. But she couldn't pronounce the word shed just right. Instead of the word shed she was saying sh**. So she was telling us how she was looking and was digging through all three of her sh**s to try and find her tent. Hahahaha I could barely hold in my laugh. The worst part was she used that word at least 7 times. She was like I have three sh**s and I started with my sh** in the back because that is where I usually keep all my camping stuff. But after like an hour I decided to go check my sh** in my side yard. Oh boy I got a laugh out of that.

Sorry this letter is super short, I didn't have a lot of time to write but I'll make sure that next weeks is longer:)

Love, Elder Roberts

Week 28

Hey beautiful family!

To answer questions before I tell you about one of the most craziest weeks in the mission yet:  Spanish is coming along alright, I confirmed Y this last week in church which was a completely different experience than the confirmation I did in Peru. 

So, this week. It started off with exchanges with Elder D (he is from Ecuador), and that was one of the longest days of my entire life. I drove, because he doesn't have an American license so I had the wonderful opportunity to drive again in LA... woo. We first stopped by this investigator named M V. She is super catholic but she always loves listening to us. Elder D was a little too bold with his approach for her. He was born into the catholic church but the missionaries found and taught him so now he is LDS. However, he just began to attack all of the little things that M V would say, like for instance, she accidentally said "Jesus is the father of Jesus" so Elder D jumped on that. By the end of the lesson, I was worried if she ever wanted to talk to us missionaries again. She told me that the reason that I brought Elder D was because he is incredibly blunt... oh great. We received a text on Friday from M V saying that she no longer wanted to meet with us and that she wants to give us back 'our' copy of the Book of Mormon, NOOOO!!! We are planning to go back this Tuesday and talk with her to see if she really does want to continue, or if she just was offended. 

Basically that is how the rest of the exchange went. It was really difficult. I felt that I was doing a good job, but every now and then Elder D would just say a little comment that would just drive me nuts! We also saw this guy named J D who thinks he is a prophet. I think I have mentioned him before, he had green hair and just talked and talked forever. Anyways this time Elder D met him but his hair was pink and gold now, Elder D didn't really understand what he was talking about but he kept trying to tell us that we need to believe in the prophet Joseph Davis, not Joseph Smith. Now who am I going to believe? A boy who is 18 years old who was raised in the slums of LA smoking pot and has gun and stab wounds all over him who dyes his hair different colors every time we see him, and says that he can withstand the powers of the devil because he was already tortured by him, OR a boy who was 14 years and wanted to know simply what church was true and was visited by GOD and JESUS CHRIST?? I will choose the latter. 

Thursday we had interviews with President Weidman and that was pretty exciting. We had to update our Area Books because we are going to get the Area Book Planner App for our Ipads in a little bit. So I organized what I could, it wasn't perfect, but it will be:) Interviews were good, President said that he heard from other missionaries that my Spanish is really good (that made me feel pretty cool) and he asked me what is my secret, the Book of Mormon. If anyone wants to learn a language, there is a promise from Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley that if anyone reads the Book of Mormon out loud in the language that they are wanting to learn, then they will become fluent. That's what I told him and he bore a powerful testimony of the power of the book of Mormon. He also asked me if I were to go home right now, in that very second, how would I fell. I told him that I would have failed, we talked about the reasons why I would think I would have failed, I didn't do enough, didn't truly change how I would want, stuff like that. He gave me a couple ideas on how I can re commit to becoming a consecrated missionary and after interviews I was so pumped. After the interview with President Weidman, we had to teach as a companionship the Restoration in 10 minutes to Sister Weidman. It was alright, a little difficult because it was in English, but I think overall we did pretty good. She gave us a couple pointers on what we could do better, and she also told us about some things that she liked; about how we teach or what we said, how we explained things.. etc. That was Thursday.

Friday was a mess. We had a lesson with a member and Y who was scheduled to be baptized this last Saturday. During the lesson the member the member was asking all of these intense questions about legal custody to Y's aunt who is her legal guardian. The member then went completely off topic and talk about Nicodemus in the New Testament and his encounter with Christ (by the way he missed some points and confused some others, but I didn't say anything) and by the end of the lesson we were all confused as to whether the member was trying to teach or interrogate... super bad. We told him that everything is in order for the baptism. the programs were printed out, building scheduled, family was coming for y (just gonna write Y ok? for Y) and everything. The member said that Saturday was the stake temple day at 4:30 and that nobody would be at the baptism which was scheduled at 1. ??? It only takes 1 hour MAX to get to the temple from here and you only need to be 30 minutes early for the session... by simple math dear fellow that is only 3:00. Most baptisms here don't even last an hour, so we told him that that wasn't a worry. He said that he didn't think that members would be there to support Y and her aunt simply told him that she didn't care as long as her family and the missionaries were there, then she would be happy. BAM!! After the lesson K (the aunt) and Y asked me if I would confirm Y on Sunday... YES!! oh wait, I have to use a different tense when giving a blessing, dang it! It is so hard to be a missionary spanish speaking because we use the 'usted' from all the time, we never use 'tu' unless its in a prayer or maybe, maybe, with other missionaries. So it was really hard for me to use a different tense when I confirmed Y. I made a handshake with the deacons of the ward and Y's brother J is a teacher and we did the handshake in front of all his friends and after Elder P and I walked away we heard them say "Daaaaammm!!!" it was pretty funny. 

Saturday was the baptism. We got there early to fill up the font and get everything set up. The font (the whole in the ground) because it gets covered after a baptism, mold grows. There was mold and we had to disinfect and clean it, not too bad but it smelled worse than it really was. We started to fill up the font and put up chairs and set out the programs when Elder P told me that when I grow up he could see me as being a activity planner or a wedding planner just because everything was organized and perfect. So you know how we said that the baptism was scheduled to be at 1? Well, nobody showed up from the ward until 1:05 and the bishop didn't show up till 1:15 and Y and her family didn't even show up till 1:20 (you know me and punctuality) so we just decided to start the baptism at 1:30 hahaha. Elder P baptized and I gave a talk about baptism (I have a program from the baptism, did you get my last one? Should I send this one?) Y had pig tails and I was a little worried that not all of her hair would go under the water, thankfully Elder P practically buried her 3 feet under and it was flawless the first time. After the baptism Y family brought 2 GIANT pizzas. Guess what flavor?? Canadian Bacon and pineapple.... ugh. Yupp, that's what latinos like apparently, gosh dang it. 

Yesterday, (Sunday), was intense. We called E, a 76 year old investigator who does dialysis 2 or 3 times a week, and he didn't pick up his phone. We have a family, the C family, and they give him a ride to church. It is a family of super active YW and they are always willing to help. They went to pick up E and he was asleep. They waited for him for 30 minutes until they brought him to church. When Elder P and I saw E walking into the church with his walker, we were so excited. He liked church! so many members introduced themselves to him and started to chat with him. I think that is something that latinos know how to do well, treat older people with respect, up to a certain point I guess. Because it was the 5th Sunday, the missionaries were in charge of sacrament meeting. We had our recent convert K C give a testimony, we sang a musical number, and Elder W gave a talk. E liked all of it. While I confirmed Y, the mike wasn't on. I think I did alright in the prayer and it was a super spiritual experience, but the little deacon who was holding the mike kept smacking my mouth with the mike trying to make it work or make me heard more... IDK I was kinda laughing the whole time. During church we got a text that asked if Elder W and I could go on exchanges and attend the baptism of one of our former investigators named E. Ewanted Elder W to baptize him and me to give the talk on baptism (again) so we of course were more than excited to go! 

We did exchanges and taught 1 lesson before the baptism. The lesson was with this random lady that we met at her door and we taught her the Restoration, I think I taught it better to Sis Weidman than this lady named L. She tried to tell us that there is no such thing as a true church of on the earth and that the only truth is in Christ. We kindly told her that that is not true and we taught alright. She asked us what do we think about homosexuals and aliens, that was the really weird part about the lesson. Then we went to the baptism. The baptism wasn't as well thought out as others. They didn't plug up the font with a stopper, just with a plastic bag, so the water barely came up to E hip. However, because Elder W is pretty strong, he basically laid down E in the font and lifted him out, it was perfect. The service was a little weird though, I don't have time to explain but just because of the guy who conducted the meeting it was really weird. Well that's all for this week! Let me know if I am getting too boring or if I need to write more!

Love,

Elder Roberts