Week 72

Korea Town Episode II Scene 5

Monday was pretty hot again. We went to go and email early because the library is always packed with people and we have to email there for the majority of our emails because it's a mission rule. We then went to go shopping at Food 4 Less and I bought some stuff to make smoothies so that way I am not just getting sick and tired of cereal. I also bought some stuff to make tortilla wraps for lunch, we will see how all of this goes I guess. We had plans to go to little Tokyo, but I guess I'm not suppose to go and visit there or something because the plans always fall through. We ended up taking a pday nap again because we were done with our normal pday chores than everyone else. We headed to the church because that's what everyone else was doing and this guy on a bike started to yell at us. He was upset because he felt that we were mad at him for some reason and that for him to join our religion he would have to change who he is (he thought we were another religion lets just say that). We talked to him for a while and explained gospel truths, he wanted to just tell us off because he just kept getting louder and louder and then rode off on his bike, hopefully he at least rode off with a smile right? Elder P and Elder V were at the church because Elder V was applying for BYUI. I think they underestimated how long the application process is because they barely got to the church at 3:30 and of course didn't finish. We ended the night with a nice lesson with M B and his wife. We asked him questions about what he read and he asked us good questions in return. It was a good visit and a good way to end the night.

Tuesday was a bit of a bummer day. We tried talking to a lot of people, but not too many really wanted to talk with us. It was also a super hot day and so nobody was outside for us to talk to. We tried to visit a couple families, but there wasn't a man present or the families weren't home, so we couldn't visit them. We had to cook dinner because nobody signed up on the meal list for us. We then went to go and see S. He is a slower learner and bit older. His roommate and the son of the roommate were there during the lesson as we were explaining the Book of Mormon to him. They roommate wasn't the most supportive. He would bash on how S is not the best learner and how S professes to want to get closer to God, but that he doesn't. We invited everyone in there to read the Book of Mormon. It was an awkward situation because we were trying to take things slow for S, but the friend kept telling him that he wasn't understanding. Hopefully next time we will be able to bring some members or something for S so that even though he may not understand intellectually the gospel, he can feel the spirit, and members really do bring the spirit. We ended the night with correlation and that was good. It was really weird because our WML had to work and so he wasn't there. I almost lost my cool at this one member, but I caught myself. Sorry that this day doesn't have more, I forgot a lot of the stuff that happened this day.

Wednesday I had the opportunity to go on exchanges with my DL E L. He is in his last transfer and about to go home. He came to my area and we decided to hit the ground running. It was a pretty intense day. Talking to everyone is just so fulfilling as a missionary!! We talked to this one guy and he wasn't the most welcoming to our message, but when we bore our testimonies and asked if we could come back another day to talk to him more, he said yes. We also saw a bunch of men working on repairing / remodeling a building. A conversation was started with one of the workers and they looked at us and said "sorry we are working" so we asked if we could help them. They asked us if we could move some pieces of wood that were pretty long into a certain area. Let's just say that was a little bit of a workout. One of these grown men only took 1 at a time, so Elder L and I were smart and decided to take 3 together, not too shabby. We ended up inviting one of the workers named S to be baptized. He accepted the invitation and we have an appointment with him later! He actually lives really close to us, so hopefully everything works out! We talked to a lot more of the workers and they are all from different states, they were just all hired by the construction company to come to LA and work on certain buildings. It was pretty fun though. We started talking to one worker, then another, then another. I'm pretty sure most of the workers that were outside now know about missionaries and what we share. I think I'm going to have to make this day a little shorter than normal, but just remember that we talked with like 95% of the people that we walked by or saw. 

We had the opportunity to visit with C C. She is the less active member with the prosthetic leg. She had a problem with being in the old habit of praying and ending "in the name of the father, and of the son, and of the Holy Ghost" so a little weird. We explained simply the doctrine and how to pray. We then invited her to pray and when she prayed, she accidentally said the same thing, BUT afterwards she realized what she did and explained to us that she thinks it's just a traditional way that she had always been taught how to pray. She also explained that she understands the scriptural blessings if we pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Elder L then tried to go and talk to this one lady on the street, but she completely ignored him and just kept walking on. If you don't know us missionaries,, we walk alongside someone that we are talking to in the street. It was so awkward because the lady obviously ignored us, not too nice she was. We then biked to another part of our area and started talking to people there. We went to contact a referral that we found out doesn't live in the apartment that she wrote down, so that was sad. Elder L stopped to talk to this Latino man selling ice cream on the street. It was so crazy. He told the man what we do as missionaries and the guy just didn't seem to like us one bit. He then asked him what brings hm joy in this world and the man responded "nothing". He then asked him if he believes in God to which the man replied "I believe in nobody". The man's attitude and demeanor were pretty strange and then Elder L explained that the feelings that the man felt were not feelings that God gives to us, that the feelings come from somewhere else. We left to go back to out bikes to go to dinner when a random guy in a car honked at us and waved for us to walk over and talk to him. I didn't know what to think when we were walking towards the guy. He got out of the car and started to walk towards us. He introduced himself as D and said that he recently moved here to LA. He explained to us that he is a member, but now less active because he didn't know where the church is. He expressed to us his desires to come back to church and it was super cool. We set an appointment to go and visit him the following day. 

We then biked to the P family for our dinner hour. While there Hermana P gave us rice, salad, and barbecue ribs... !!! Score!! It was really good. We had a mini Restoration lesson with A and A and it was super good. They are doing awesome and they explained to Elder L "that they are returning to activity in the church". Ha! They said it, so that means that it's going to last! It was cool. We then left and talked to a group of people outside. In this group you could tell that the commandments of keeping the Law of Chastity and the Word of Wisdom are definitely commandments that would need to be taught to them to bless their lives. We got their information, and sent the referral to the English elders. My stomach wasn't feeling too good so we stopped by the other elders apartment (they live in our area) to take a break. We then biked to the most northern part of our area and decided to go and find the elect. We were on the corner of 2 streets and hadn't even locked up our bikes yet. People started to pass by and we started to talk with them. It was really cool because we talked to like 8 people before even locking our bikes up! Some people weren't too interested in us talking to them, and others flat out ignored us. The majority of the people that we stopped actually had a conversation with us and it was pretty cool. We talked to a lot of Latinos and a couple brazilians. We talked to a lot of people and some people stopped to bash with us and tell us that we are really secret agents for the Congress of the United States. We even found this former family named the C family. It was a weird experience, but basically we are going to try and visit them again because it's a family of a lot of kids, hopefully they are ready and prepared right now for the gospel. 

Thursday we switched back from the exchanges and then we had a special meeting in which we met President and Sister Haynie. We were all so nervous. I wore my nice blue suit with a nice tie, the fancy watch, wore my contacts, shined my shoes and lint rolled my suit just in case. Yes, did a lot, but hey, I wanted to look nice. We got there and everyone had to show up 30 minutes early for the meeting, which everyone did. Basically there was just a STEPP talk and then some singing, and then they said that the Haynies would like to meet us. We lined up to go and meet them and Sister Haynie is so awesome. She talks to the elders much more than Sister Weidman. Sister Haynie was asking about the area, how long we have been serving for, where we are from, things like that, super nice. President Haynie is cool. He talked to me and Elder B at the same time and Elder B asked him if he had ever tried gator before (at this moment I wanted to face palm myself). After that comment President Haynie was just like "nice to meet you both" and then we went to go and sit down. The Haynies are super nice too. They are both taller than the Weidmans, and they have 4 daughters. They have lived in the Midwest for most of their lives and also in Washington State. We all thought that they were going to go over all the mission rules, but mainly they just bore their testimonies of our calling as missionaries and how important and blessed we missionaries are, especially in this mission. It was pretty cool. We then went back to the apartment and had to grab a quick bite to eat before we biked to go and see D. D is the less active that wants to come back to church. We visited with him and a member of his family named F. We shared with them the message of the Restoration and it was a good experience. D is super pumped about the gospel, he just needs to have some friends along the way. We invited F to learn more and I'm not sure if we invited him to be baptized, I think just to read in the Book of Mormon, but definitely this week we will invite him!! We then had a dinner schedule with the C family. We had planned that we would also share with them the message of the Restoration because L, the brother, isn't officially investigating, so we decided to see how the lesson went. We started off and the C's that are members thought that it was just a review, but then when we directed all the questions and the lesson towards L, they were at first hesitant. We boldly invited L to be baptized and he accepted the invitation, on the condition that he could read the Book of Mormon to know if it is true... Tough bargain I tell ya. The C's had like a light switch. We promised blessings from the Book of Mormon on baptism to Luis and there was a cool moment for me when L and I made eye contact and I was promising him that he could be cleansed from all sin... That moment... It was awesome. He accepted a baptismal date for the 31st of July!! It was cool. We then went to the apartment and started contacting people for the rest of the night. We ended up swinging by C A because he is coming back to full activity and he has a friend named William that we are trying to get a hold of so we can all meet together and have a lesson!

Friday was looking like it was headed to be a long day, and there were some ups and downs. We had our weekly planning session and then we left the apartment. We went to the most northern part of our area and started to contact the people and try to visit potential investigators up there. We talked to some people and a couple of the people we talked to were really nice, but the majority didn't want to hear us. We then had about an hour before we had a set appointment with an investigator when we decided to call up D. She picked up the phone and we asked if we could come by in about 10 minutes, to which she said yes. We told ourselves that we would need to review the restoration with her so that way she understands what we are talking about. She understands at a slower pace, we will put it that way. We went to go and visit her and she was all smiles, as always. We talked to her and asked if she remembered anything about the restoration, or the message that we shared last time, to which she said no. We reviewed the restoration super simply and told her that everyone needs to be baptized to become a member of God's church to which she looked at me and asked "when?" So we simply replied "the 31st of July". We promised her blessings and she accepted the date! She also told us that she would need a ride to get to church and so we told her that we could help her find a ride. We then went to go and visit with S, another older person who understands at a slower pace. We came in and Y, a young boy at age 14 was there. He was there the last time we visited S, I just didn't know his name exactly or how to spell it. We explained to them the need for the proper priesthood authority to be baptized and we showed in the Bible and the Book of Mormon where Christ gives authority and then the apostles/disciples go and baptize. Y understood what we we're talking about, but Samuel the whole time was nodding his head, saying how awesome it is that the priesthood has been restored, but that he has already been baptized. He even showed us his baptismal certificate of another church. (First off on the certificate, it doesn't even prove that the person who baptized him has the authority, which obviously he doesn't, and it also didn't show that he was confirmed or received the gift of the Holy Ghost.... Sooooo ya). We set a return appointment with them and they committed to come to church, fingers crossed. After that we went back to the apartment for dinner because nobody signed up to feed us, and when we were leaving our apartment to go and visit some people, my tire was completely flat!! NOOOOO!!! THE INDESTRUCTIBLE TANK OF PEGGY!!!!!!!!!!!!! What happened, or what looks like happened, is that in the inside of the tire, there is a tube, so that is a rough spot and so I think that is what popped the tube. We tried to fix it real quick to go and visit somebody that lives a ways away from our apartment, but it was too much. So we left the apartment to go and talk to a couple people before the night officially ended.  

Saturday we got permission to go and fix my tire at the shop that is just right down the street. Because the tire and the tube had a problem in it I had to carry the frame of the bike and the front tire all the way to the bike shop, and let me tell you, Peggy is no featherweight here... Ugh. We saw a former investigator from the W days and because Elder B was trained by Elder P after I left, they recognized both of us. The uncle that was with the former, Wendy is her name, was always a jerk to us. Here we are with a bike in pieces walking out in the hot sun and all he says to us is "false prophets ride bikes"... Y yo no quise que le di caso. Anywho the bike shop that we normally go to that is run by a Korean was closed till Tuesday and I was really sad because my bike is really heavy. BUT we found a bike shop around the corner that is run by a Latino and I think I like them better now. They found that in my tire was a little itty bitty tinni tiny piece of wire that was lodged on the inside, so that is what popped the tube. They gave me a new tube and it cost me about 9$ for the whole thing, not bad especially because I'm pretty sure no other place would've looked for a tiny piece of wire for me. We then went and saw the P family and they are doing good. We read in the Book of Mormon with them in Alma 36 and 2 Nephi 2 so that was good. A, the older brother is super funny. We asked him how he would respond to someone asking about faith and he responded "well let me tell you a story about a guy named Alma the Younger"... I about died laughing. They then promised that they would stay for all of church!! We then went back to the apartment to finish our studies because time allowed for it. We then had a couple lessons fall through but that's ok, we are seeing plenty of blessings, no need to get discouraged. We actually ended up talking to the brazilians again and we invited them to church. I also recommended that they try "this really good food place called California Donuts" but the reply came "I'm vegan".... Oh. I'm sorry for your loss then, naw I'm kidding. Ya you could say I invited a vegan to try donuts... Felt pretty bad about it afterwards though, maybe that's why they didn't come to church. We finished off the night trying to meet with the elusive William, friend of Carlos. The mother of C works at Yoshinoya, which is basically the cheap version of Panda Express and not even close to being as good, but hey it was free and I like Chinese food. It was a nice way to end the day.

Sunday was extremely stressful. It was fast Sunday and we had a meeting with the bishop at 8 in the morning. We woke up and headed there with our progress record and everything. We were expecting a lot of people to show up to church. We had the meeting and the bishop is out of town so a member of the bishopric was in charge. Hermano G, the member of the bishopric, is super cool. He served his mission in Miami and he is just a fireball when it comes to helping the missionaries! The meeting was really good. Afterwards we were waiting for people outside so that way we would know who showed up to church. Basically nobody showed up... That's not true, no INVESTIGATORS showed up to church. It was really sad. We couldn't find a ride for D, so that is our fault, I don't know why M B didn't show up, Samuel didn't show up, and L and the C's didn't either!! We did have the P brothers come again (3) times in a row now!! And C came with his mom along with D!! We didn't think D showed up, but after sacrament meeting he said that when we called him before the meeting to see if he was there, he was already seated in the chapel and didn't want to answer his phone... Amazing!! E didn't show up either and that was disappointing as well. Church was good, lots of good testimonies. Hermana P bore her testimony and you can just tell how happy the parents are that their kids come to church now!! Both were crying during the testimony and the kids were all like "ten bucks she cries.." Yup. Anywho. Basically we had random plans that we made because of some calls earlier in the week and some random less active members calling us to come by, then all the people called us back to cancel... So thoughtful of them to call at least. We ate dinner with the R family again, just like every Sunday, and they made us "vaca negras" or root beer floats. It's a thing to call them dirty cows or black cows in English right?? When Hermano R was holding up his root beer float he said "viva la azucar" it was funny hahaha. Anywho, missionaries don't often get root beer floats while serving in Spanish so it was a real treat. We then walked and talked to a couple people. We have been getting a lot better at talking to people on the street and explaining things in an easier manner to them. We ended the night with an FHE with the A family and now C is going to have a goal to finish the Book of Mormon by the end of summer which means he has to read 12 pages a day!! His mom also wants us to help him start seminary, so we talked about that with him too. 

Happy 4th of July everybody!!! AHHHH!! Oh funny thing: we went running this morning because we had to go to the laundry at to get coins for laundry and while we were running we saw and heard a Korean lady belting out awfully the Star Spangled Banner, this was like at 6:45 in the morning... Oh the joys of the mission I tell ya. Well today we have to be in the apartment at 6:00 cause it's a mission rule, but no buggy, we have some fun plans today with cool elders that I like. We are going to be making lip syncs and raps... And of course yogurt land or something haha. 

Love y'all tons and bunches!

Elder Roberts

Week 71

Korea Town // Episode II // Scene 4

Monday was a really interesting day. It was the second half of a heat wave that hit LA and in the morning around 10 AM we had to bike to the dentist office to repair my bottom retainer. We looked and the dentist office was about 3 miles away from the apartment... Yay. We biked in the sun and when we got there we were sweating like a bunch of Neanderthals. Got in there and the Indian dentist dude was very nice and didn't charge the taking out of the metal... Even though it was broken, gee thanks bro. Anyways, sorry about that call, I can only imagine what y'all must've thought when you got it. We then biked back and that was still really fun... Again, in the sun. We went shopping at Food 4 Less and I bought some stuff to make some Alfredo sauce and pasta... So hopefully I don't make it too poorly. We then got back to the apartment and dropped off the groceries. We headed to the library that we email at, but because it was around 12 or 1, everyone was there and the wifi was horrid. Elder B wasn't even able to open anything or even send anything. We then crossed the street to the McDonald's and sent our emails there... Yay! The elders that we were planning on going to Little Tokyo with canceled because they got a text from the mission office to go and give a blessing to someone in the hospital. They told us that the hospital was huge, and that they got lost in there really easy. It was a hospital that is run, or paid for, by the Jewish members in LA. During that time Elder B and I were exhausted from all the heat and the lack of fun plans that we took a small pday nap to recharge. We then went to the church to go and play some frisbee with our ZLs and the Wilshere elders. It was really fun, except that I taught one of the ZLs how to defend so good that he blocked me... Oh I was so mad. He kept smiling the rest of the day and he said that it was the highlight for him hahaha. Elder B collided with one of the other elders and so his knee hurt a lot. When we got back to the apartment all of the appointments that we had planned fell through and because Elder B's knee was hurting him, we walked around and talked with people the rest of the night.

Tuesday we had a meeting to go to in the morning. It was the second quarter training for Elder B, meaning that he is almost at his year mark. We went there and when I went to another room with all the other missionaries whose companions were getting the training, I hung out with Elder P basically one of those cool elders that you both always hear about each other but you have never been able to serve around them... Ya. He gave me this talk about a missionary story and it is a real cool story, it's called the Ricciardi Letter if you want to look it up. Anywho that talk is really motivational for a missionary and I read that on the way back from the training and during part of the lunch hour we took after the training. We walked outside and around the corner when Elder B started to talk to this older Latino couple that I hadn't seen. We burst end right up their porch and asked if we could share our message with them. To my surprise they said yes! We taught them about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and they accepted the invitation to be baptized! The only set back is that they will be in El Salvador for a couple weeks, but they told us to get a hold of them when they come back! We then biked to the most northern part of our area and kept talking with people. A guy that we stopped to talk to was a British man named Ian. He had a bunch of tattoos, bad teeth, a cigar in his hand a beer by his side. He said he has been traveling the world forever and recently he just came back from India. He is an atheist and it was difficult to try and explain the concept of God to him. The perspective he had was that having a God makes everything so confined. We explained to him that having a belief in God and knowing that He is there is a peaceful feeling because we understand the plan that He has for us. We invited him to check out the temples of the church on his world tour if he has the chance and he said that it sounded interesting. Walking a little further there was a Latina lady who needed some help with a fallen branch. We told her that we could help and basically the branch got twisted in some rope. Thank goodness for these small hands and fingers Heavenly Father has given me and scouting cause nobody else was able to get the rope undone! She thanked us for helping her and we invited her to church to which she said she might come! We kept talking to people and finally ended up talking to this lady named A. She is a less active member, more of inactive, and she was a little different. First off, weird thing, she was walking her dog, a British terrier, named Ian... Wait... No way. Anywho she is from SLC and explains that there are "reasons why she doesn't come to church" but that "she is still doing missionary work by helping people understand that the church isn't a cult"... Hmm. We were able to have a small bit of service when a Latina lady came around the corner and the wheel to her shopping cart came undone. Elder B and I fixed a wheel with a safety pin (hey dad, wink wink) and a hair tie from A. It was really cool because the Latina lady was really nice and she is just going to remember the two guys in white shirts that helped her out one day. We then tried to visit some other potentials, but nobody was home. A member of the bishopric called us and said that they had some pizza for us, so we biked home and took our dinner hour at the end of the day to eat.

Wednesday we had the opportunity to go and do a temple session at 9 in the morning. I had to drive because, well, I didn't want Elder B to drive. The temple was amazing, it was really cool because I was able to help another lady in a wheelchair this time. Elder B and I pushed their chairs because the LA temple switches rooms. It was really cool. I'm at 3/4 videos right now so that's exciting. It was really peaceful in the temple and I just realize how fortunate we are to not only be members of the true church of God on the earth, but to have a more solid understanding of the plan that He has for us and for our families. We got back to our area and went to go and see a RC named M. She is a youth and the only problem she has is attending church. Why is it that it is the most basic thing for people to do, but nobody does it! Goodness, so frustrating this whole agency thing. Anywho it was really nice to see her again because she is just always smiley and upbeat, it's pretty cool. We then tried to contact a couple people, but they weren't home. We had set up a bishopric visit for our investigator J, but J canceled... So that was a bummer. We then decided to go and see M B. On our walk we had a lot of interesting conversations. One guy we talked to was named Louis and he is a homosexual and an atheist. He was ready and prepared to fight against us, just because he was. We tried to explain to him the power of the Atonement and the importance of God's eternal plan for us. I don't think anything really stuck with him, but I'm sure he was amazed to have a more pleasant talk with Mormon missionaries. We saw hermano B and it was kinda awkward. His father recently passed away and so its that awkward, we know what's going on and we don't know if we should talk about it, type thing. We ended up talking about the First vision and how the Book of Mormon can really bless us when we read it to find answers to questions that we have. On our way back to the apartment, it was a little passed 9 at this time, Elder B wanted to talk to this guy but we walked right passed him. We decided to go back and talk to him and it was a pleasant conversation. His name is R and he was very friendly. He said that we could come back and visit him on another day during the week next week. It was really cool because he seemed super open, tender mercy woot!

Thursday was just that day during the week when everything just fell apart. We had DM and it was alright, the DL in this area is going home and so the meetings aren't exactly the best or anything. It was really sad because we had this awesome day planned and even a lesson with J. But the phone was forgotten and so we could call her to see if she was home. We went by her apartment and even knocked on her door, but nobody was there, it was really sad. We went back to the apartment to drop off our bikes because then we were going to just walk around for the rest of the day. We tried to stop by C C, the lady with the prosthetic leg, but she was feeling really sick and so she didn't want us to come and visit her. We then walked all the way down to the Bs house and tried to help J, the son, to go to church. It was pretty funny because we invited him to come to church and just looked at him for his response. It was really funny because we were just looking at him in a smiley way and he took forever to say his response. It was so funny because he kept looking at us as if we were pressuring him or anything, but really we were just looking at him and waiting for a response, I think basically he said that he wouldn't want to go to church because "he can always renew his baptismal covenants" .... Face palm bro. What he doesn't remember is that part of the baptismal covenant is to always renew it by keeping the commandments.. Ugh, it was really rough. We then walked to our dinner appointment with W and R and their mom. She made us spaghetti and that was good, still missin that homemade though. It was nice because W is having a stronger desire to come to church and he is even making plans around his schedule so that way he can read in the Book of Mormon.

Friday for weekly planning I had all the stuff to make the "missionary Alfredo" is what I am calling it. Was it perfect... Heck no. But hey, it was a cheap meal that tasted pretty dang good. Elder B didn't complain about it so it must've been ok. Hopefully the pictures show just how novice of a dish it really was. We started out the day with a little bit of a brunch with the C's and L, it was really good.The Hermana made some good shrimp tacos that at first I didn't know we're shrimp tacos so I guess that means that they were good right? Anywho it was an awesome opportunity again for them to share their testimonies with L, the brother of hermano C. We explained how powerful even a small testimony can be. We then invited the C's to come with us to go and visit this lady that we had a lesson planned for. They were all like.. Ya sure we got time! Perfect! We wrapped up real quick and then we left. We tried the door for the lady, but she wasn't there. We then swung by another investigator who lived around the block and luckily he was just coming back from work! His name is S and he is the guy that we invited to be baptized and he said that he already was baptized in another church. The lesson was pretty straightforward and the C's shared their testimonies which was good. Basically we told S when we gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon that all he has to do is read the book, pray about it, then he will know the truth. (Drop da mic) it was good. The C's liked coming with us so that was really good. We then dropped off our bikes and went to go and get some conversations for the night. We set foot outside and this hardcore Roman Catholic Korean stopped us and she pulled us aside. She wanted us to explain to her the reason behind the Book of Mormon, but when we told her she just went off on a tangent. She basically told us her life story about how famous she really is and it was really difficult to have charity for her because she kept bashing on things that we believe in. We would invite her to read in the Book of Mormon and then she would say that she already has God in her life. She then went off to say how Martin Luther is the devil and that anyone who tries to go against the Roman Catholic Church is the devil.. Pretty intense right? We then went to go and follow up with the As. They brought one of their friends to the VC because the friend recently had his father pass away. We called the friend and set something up for Sunday, so fingers were completely crossed. We stopped by that random cute couple that we found a couple days ago and we invited them to come to church and we also set a return appointment with them for Monday, so hopefully everything works out! A random lady that we stopped was full of potential as at first she seemed disinterested but once the conversation started going, it was as smooth as butter. We invited her to church and she seemed excited for that (but when we tried to call her to remind her about church, we found out that she gave us a fake number). We decided to stop by our WML home because his family isn't sealed yet and I mean, come on, they have been members for about 6 years now, so we decided to take initiative. We taught them about the first Vision and how we need to always be growing our faith in Christ. We invited them to start saying family prayers and how that would help them. Hermano R then asked if it would be ok that we eat with them... It was like 8:30 at night, but we said yes so it was a race against the clock. Normally we have to be inside our apartment at 9 or 9:30 if we are in a lesson or a visit. We started eating at about 8:57 so we decided that we were still good and we ate as fast as we could. Hermano bought us these gigantic tostadas that are sold on the side of the street late at night and it's like mini Mexico here in KTown at night. They were really good, taste so different than the tostadas you make mom. They were about as big as a paper plate and filled with crazy messiness. I finished mine in less than 10 minutes and the hermano and Elder B weren't even halfway done yet. Elder B rushed eating and we left with just enough time to run back to the apartment in time to arrive before 9:30. Woo!

Saturdays are always long days because nobody ever wants to meet with us or talk with us. We started out visiting the P family and we read in the Book of Mormon with them, it was a really good lesson and the two brothers are so cool. We then went to try and visit some less actives and investigators, but nobody was home. We talked to a lot of people on the street, and we got a couple people's information so maybe we can meet with them one day. It was really hot. We tried to stop by E and E and my goodness, they have just fallen off the face of the earth I tell ya. We haven't been able to talk to E in about a month and E has been in Mexico for about 2 weeks. We went back to the apartment for dinner because nobody signed up to feed us. We remade the chicken Alfredo and it was better this time, so that's good. We then left for the last part of the night and we were talking with people, having good conversations and everything. One lady we stopped is Pentecostal and she asked us a lot of questions. We explained to her simple truths about the gospel but for some reason she still had questions. The main thing that "threw her off" if you will, is the fact that we have stake dances and ward activities. She says that we are not allowed to dance because it is a worldly thing. Charlie, Emily, I'm sorry... Anywho we explained gospel truths again and she was not willing to listen at that time, but it's ok, she has family that are Mormons so at least there is that hope. We talked with more people and the last lady we talked to at night was just crazy. She is from the south and man did she have some language! She basically told us her life story (I've gotten a lot better at listening) and then she tried to explain what SHE thinks are gospel truths. A lot of her theories had to do with predestination vs. foreordination. We explained to her that God having a perfect knowledge of everything is not a determining factor on how they will end up being. We explained the doctrine of agency and how everyone is given the ability to choose to serve God or to disobey God. She understood that part, but still believed in predestination. Basically if everyone could either read the Book of Mormon, or in this case Jesus The Christ, there wouldn't be any problems!

Sunday was a full of tender mercies at church. We didn't have to go to any meetings in the morning so that was really nice. Next, there was like little to no traffic on the way to church in the morning so it was a really relaxing bike ride. When we got to church we were not expecting any investigators to show up because we had lost all contact with J which was super sad. We sat down behind a member at church and we looked to the doors to see if we recognized any other members that were there and lo and behold M B showed up! Goodness! There he was with his wife and son walking in like they were at home, total tender mercy of the Lord. We then started to head towards the gospel principles class with the Bs when J D, a recent convert for the sister missionaries who comes out with us on Wednesdays introduced us to a friend that he invited to come to church and she came! Her name is E and she stayed for the entire 3 hours of church! What the miracle right!! We are trying to set up an appointment to meet with her and J D because J D is just a fireball and his testimony is just amazing. It was also really nice because we had some less active members come to church, so that was really good. We sat by M B in the classes and he likes to make fun of some of the members, which is a good stress relief for us. Sometimes there are just members in each ward that you are like... Ugh, but then when the investigators bite back at them... Hehehe. The member doesn't have anything to say back to the investigator because they don't want to offend the person and the investigator knows it... Such a lovely moment. We were then given by the RS president chocolate flan which was super yummy. We ate dinner with the Rs and I took a picture with them so that way you know what they look like. We then went to try and talk to people, but something about Sunday's gives people the heebie jeebies about Mormons I tell ya. We met this Haitian lady who was into voodoo and she was trying to tell us that we were in the wrong church... Hard pass hard pass. We ended the night with a FHE at the A family. I also have a picture with C so I will send that too. We watched the rest of Meet the Mormons with them and there was not a dry eye in the room for that family. The less active sister really wanted to change and we committed her to read in the Book of Mormon. We also found out that Hermana A when she served her mission in Guatemala back in the day baptized, or helped baptize a ward member's son here in barrio tercero! Small world right! It was really cool because that got C, the Hermana A's son to want to go on a mission and if he goes on a mission, then the job will be completed I tell ya.

This next week we are going to meet President Haynie... Exciting stuff!! Hope you all have a good week! Love you tons and bunches

Love,

Elder Roberts

Week 70

Weekly Letter

Reprimanding missionary thought coming in....

So during zone conference this week one of the trainings was about church leaders and what it really means to sustain a church leader. Long story short, there is a talk that was given by Dallin H. Oaks back in 1980 something on criticism and it is crazy how true it is. Every type of criticism goes back to this true fact. If the Lord is going to correct a leader, HE will do it. It is not our place to judge or to criticize what a leader does. We do not understand their intentions, nor do we know if something really will be for our benefit. The prophet Joseph Smith was criticized and it's amazing to even think that that part is written in the Doctrine and Covenants and not just taken out! However, if we try to criticize those whom the Lord has called to be leaders, we will be like Aaron and Miriam who were reprimanded and cursed (Miriam). So let's not do that, let's listen to those whom the Lord has called to be leaders and let us follow the example of our Savior and be perfect followers of our Heavenly Father:):):):):):):)

Korea Town Episode II // Scene 3

Monday we went to Food 4 Less to shop and I bought some bananas to go to my cereal so that way it is more healthy haha. I also got a haircut because this week we had Zone Conference and President Weidman asked that all of us go and get a nice haircut. There was this huge party graduation thing by where we email at, we email at a library, and the wifi was completely wacked. We saw some cops outside the library and it was pretty funny. They were two really big cops, a Samoan and an African American, and they saw a couple guys down the street get into a little a scruffle, what do they do? They decide that it is out of their jurisdiction and head inside the library... Wow. We ended up playing sports... I know I got to find other stuff to do in pday for real. It was fun though. We played with some new elders and frisbee was super fun because one of the elders is really fast so I would just place it and voila! Score. I also had some good blocks on that same elder which was funny. All of our appointments canceled on us after pday which was really sad. It got even worse after that. Because our dinner appointment canceled, I ate cereal with bananas for dinner. While eating that super hard meal (sarcasm inserted) the bonding for my bottom retainer (the one they fixed back in December) came loose... Kidding me?

Tuesday right before we left to go out for the day I was eating yet another "incredibly tough meal" aka ramen noodles with chopped up lunch meat and cheese when one part of the bottom retainer completely broke! The metal part itself! I have a picture, don't worry. We went to go and see the B family. We talked to Junior about lesson 5 and he seemed really interested in temples and family history... I mean, who isn't? Well right as we were about to leave, Hermana B offered to give us something to eat, I said no BUT... The face of my companion said otherwise. You could say I jokingly gave him a hard time about that afterward. Basically Latinos really like to over feed the missionaries, it's a tough life we live I tell ya 😜😜😜. We then contacted a lot and talked to a lot of people. We even talked to this guy named A, how crazy of a name is that! We hiked up to where S and J V live, so we decided to stop by. S is going through a really rough time. She basically dropped us and we wanted to know what was going on. We thought everything was good, we even made some new expectations, but later on during the week we tried to stop by and she sent us a text saying "you already stopped by this week".... 😐😐 so that was sad. We were really excited that she was going to progress, but I guess that's the Lord telling us to leave her alone for a bit. We stopped by J V who is S's neighbor and we set up a time to go and meet with her, she is just this most adorable little Peruvian lady... I really hope she progresses. We went to the church for dinner and for coordination, and those meetings are always interesting because of the different personalities that are there.

Wednesday we were able to meet with J. She is super awesome and one of our new investigators. We brought the coolest member with us, his name is J D. He is a recent convert and he just loves everything about the gospel. He can only come out wi us on Wednesdays because that is his day off. We were explaining the plan of salvation, part 1 and he helped out a lot! It was nice because there are some words that I still don't understand completely, but I know the context some can figure it out, but I mean, white dude who learned Spanish vs actual Latino, Latino wins. He then treated us to California donuts because none of us had had lunch by then, California donuts is so good! I would almost say better than Dunford.... Not the price though😨😨. We tried to contact a couple people and knock on some doors with little luck before dinner. We had dinner with the S family. It is a brother and a sister that are just pure jokesters... So funny. They are super awesome though. They said that they might have someone that we could go and visit so we were super excited!!! We then had to bike like mad men clear to the other end of our area to go and see W. Funny thing is right as we knocked on his door he had sent us a text (that we didn't see) to ask to cancel the appointment.... Haha! We had an awesome experience! We watched a little bit of the Restoration video and answered some of his questions. He is awesome, I hope he just starts to progress so crazy. We then went and saw C, another less active teen, and he is doing good. He is reading in his Book of Mormon and has set plans to become active and get his patriarchal blessing! Super cool. 

Thursday we visited with J in the early afternoon, so we invited P R to come to the lesson with us. He was the mini missionary that was with me and Elder S, he is in the ward. He came out with us and we finished up teaching the second half of the plan of salvation. I finally used that puzzle that you gave me! It really helped J with the plan of salvation and it was a super cool lesson. P even said after the lesson that he would want to come back with us to visit her another time... Woo! We tried to go and contact some people, with again, little success. Some weeks are just harder than others to be honest. We then went to go eat some dinner with the C's. They bought pupusas! Have you ever tried pupusas??? If not, go try them!! Weekly homework! And take a picture so I know it's real! We talked about helping them make plans to go to the temple and it was really cool because they always bear their testimony to their brother who is there and lives with them. Although he may not have the same beliefs, it's always awesome to see how a simple testimony of gospel truths really impact somebody. One day he will come around. We then went back to the apartment to have our weekly planning.

Friday oh my goodness, craziness. To start things off, it was zone conference. We had to wake up before 5:00 so that way we could get ready and BIKE to the church. Mind you the zone conference was at another building down in Santa Monica do idk why our zone leaders made us bike to the church... Rude. Well we went and yes, this zone conference was the Weidman's last one. It was so flipping amazing! A ton of missionaries are leaving this transfer and all of them I have gotten extremely close to. It was nice to see my father again, Elder W, and we took a picture together, it's on my camera. Seriously, I think this zone conference was just so cool, the testimonies, President and Sister Weidman throwing down (figuratively) it was so cool. This conference was all about how charity helps us become consecrated missionaries. It was really emotional to see President Weidman cry when we sang the mission medley (EFY medley). And then the testimonies of all these missionaries that I look up to, man. We got back to the apartment and then went to go and contact around the area that we were picking up our dinner. The Hermana that gave us dinner always wants to have the last word when saying goodbyes. You could probably go off for about 5 minutes just saying "cuídese hermana" "ok, que le vaya bien" "gracias hermana igualmente" "cuídese que le vaya bien" probably for a good little bit if you wanted to have fun. We were able to meet with M again and she had some very interesting questions. M is a RC who is just a fireball, except she doesn't come to church. If she could drive herself, she would come. Anywho, she asked a couple questions about homosexuality because some of her friends are "starting to think that they like the same gender" 🙄. She understood the doctrine after we explained it to her, and she is just awesome.

Saturday was a busy day. We started out visiting the P family. The two sons, A and A are less active, but the parents and the oldest daughter are active. We went over the plan of salvation and a lot of other stuff, but then we talked about little changes that we can make in our lives. It was a super awesome experience and they committed to come to church. We then went to stop by J to see how she was doing and invite her to church again. She seemed very happy and it was a good follow up, quick, short, to the point, prayer, done. We then visited with this lady named D. She was very nice, but we aren't sure if she understand the message of the restoration exactly. We asked her personal questions such as "what does this mean to you? Or what does this mean for you to know that..?" And all she would say is "you tell me" 😕😕😕😔😔 it was pretty demotivating. We then went back to the apartment for some dinner because only fed us... Haha. We visited with J V after dinner and taught her the restoration, we need to go back over a couple parts I think, but overall the lesson was pretty good. Afterwards she offered us food.... Wait, what? It was nice. She then offered us "an amazing drink! It's called green tea Arizona!"....😔😔 no Hermana, we can't drink that. It's called BAM the word of wisdom! But that will be for another time. We then had to bike super fast home to make sure that we weren't going to be late. There is also a school right by where we live and on Saturday there was this huge festival, convert, idk thing. It was huge. Like hoards of people were coming on going to that all day, cause we saw them heading towards it clear from where we were which was like 6 blocks away. 

Sunday was pretty good. The other elders in our district had 3 investigators get baptized and to my surprise one of their investigators asked me to baptize her! I had never met her, never visited her with them before, I didn't even know what she looked like! But she said she wanted the missionary who always greets people at the door to baptize her 😎😎😎😎 ya buddy! She had some curly hair, but don't worry, I got it perfect the first time. It was so hot outside! They said it was a heat wave, and that it will happen for this week, or at least part of it.. Idk. All I know is that it's that moment when inside is a lot cooler than outside. We ate dinner with the R family and that was nice, they gave us ice cream. We finished off the night with a FHE with the A family watching a part of Meet the Mormons. The older sister is a incredibly less active and at the end we asked her which story she liked and she was like, I liked this one, and this one.... Basically she liked all of it. 

Well, that's my weekly report.

Love y'all!

Elder Roberts