Week 85 - Transfers!!

I am leaving! I will be going back to the SouthGate Branch but I am re-opening up the area that the other elders were in. I am going to be on bike.

And WHO KNOWS who my companion will be cause I am going to be 

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A FATHER!!!! 

Yes it is a greenie, yes I am freaking out, and yes I am excited about how crazy wild this is going to be.

Questions

El Segundo // Westchester 3rd (week 6)

Monday was just a really rough day. We cleaned our apartment in the morning super good because we really wanted to get the fleas out and stuff. We then made plans with some elders to go to a cool place called The Rodium which is basically a swap meet. It was fun because we met up with Elder S and Elder D and their companions. It was super fun to walk around and listen to all the Latinos in Spanish talking and I'm understanding it hahaha. One guy was even surprised that I spoke Spanish... I'm like a ninja here I tell ya;) anywho I ended up buying a bag from Guatemala that says Guatemala on it, bunch of missionaries get this bag, it's just cool to finally get one. I missed both of those companions so much that it was super fun to hang with them again. I am now on the hunt for more swap meets and cool Latino stuff! It was a super hot day though, like over 100 degrees. I think that's what put everyone in a bad mood. We tried to make some plans to go do other stuff, but for some reason they just didn't happen. It was really rough cause my companion didn't want to do anything that day, so he took a 4 hour pday nap.... I was so bored. We set off the flea fogger and put everything in order to finally kill all of the fleas, so hopefully everything works out. We ate dinner with the Hs, who are super cool people, and we were talking about conference. You know how you like the dresses for Motab? It's you that like the dresses right? Anywho sister H went off about how awful the dresses are... It was a little awkward. We then stopped by the Js because Elder O was dropping off his journal with them. 

Tuesday was pretty interesting. We went to the car shop guy to switch out our car for the loaner car so the repairs could be made for the scratches that Elder O put on the car. Well the moment we are driving back in the car, I come down with a cold. I started sneezing pretty bad and then I just started to feel sick. We had a lesson scheduled with one of the nicest older ladies you will ever meet named C W. She was a referral and we set up a time to meet with her. Sister O, the Stake President's wife, told us that she could come with us to the lesson so that was super awesome!! So we met with her and found out that she has had some amazing exposure to members of the church. Her husband and her stepchildren are Mormon (the husband passed away recently) and the stepdaughter is just awesome. Long story short, C says that her stepdaughter wants her to become a member, and she told us that she likes the church, she just doesn't understand the Book of Mormon, like the names and stuff. We are really excited to teach her, she is awesome. She committed to come to the Saturday session of conference so fingers crossed! We then had dinner with the Ss. The Ss were mission presidents in New York, where the Hill Cumorah place thing is. They were also the mission presidents of Lindsey Stirling. So we ate at their home and they are just so cool, and so normal.

They made some awesome food and gave us pie afterward. We talked about missionary work and we asked them if they could come with us to a lesson to which they said yes. We then went to go and teach B and the lesson was good. We taught the Restoration and basically President S invited her to be baptized which was good. We asked B to pray about baptism and we taught her the need of repentance before baptism and the lesson was awesome. It was a good way to end the night.

Wednesday I went on exchanges with Elder M! He is a super cool missionary that I have only ever been in the same zone as him, so we were really excited to go on exchanges, plus he is a Spanish elder so it was super fun. I was super sick in the morning though. I woke up and I couldn't speak and I hadn't gotten any sleep the night before so I was just resting before we had out weird DM. We had DM and I still couldn't talk, but I felt that I was getting a little bit better. I was the designated driver on the exchanges cause we went to my area. Well, I hate driving but it was good, nothing bad happened or anything like that. I had a headache so I ate a pear which helped, I think I just hadn't eaten all day which was really bad. We had dinner with the Cs, and oh mah goodness can we just say how much they are so similar to the Ms? Like scary similar, the house part at least. Their house has SO much Native American stuff that it is just crazy. They DO NOT have AC (I don't know why cause hello, it's el Segundo) and so I'm here sick dying of heat and it was just rough. They are a very awkward couple in conversation. Just imagine everything being super formal and when someone tells a joke they don't smile or laugh they just say "oh that's funny" or "that's so splendid" or something like that, super weird. They are awesome though don't get me wrong. They are temple workers and they are missionaries wherever they go. They invite neighbors and non members to come to their house to watch conference, so they are awesome. We then headed to W and K. We read in the Book of Mormon with them and had a good lesson. We talked about conference and stuff like that, so hopefully everything goes well. Towards the end of the night we got a call from our apartment inspectors!! I guess they haven't called in FOREVER and they asked if they could come on Thursday!... So Elder M had to help clean the apartment. It wasn't bad, just some organization and tidy up stuff ya know.

Thursday was a little bit better. We did have the senior couple come and inspect the apartment and they gave us a 100! Boom, 100 again, no biggy. We switched back from the exchange and I was feeling better than the day before and so we went to In N Out to get some lunch and then start weekly planning. We ate lunch and I wasn't feeling too good so I told my companion that he could finish my food if he wanted too. Well we had a good talk to each other about what bugs us and everything and it was good. We ate dinner with our WML and his family here in El Segundo and they made... Tacos. WHY is it that when I am serving in an English ward that we have eaten tacos more than when I am serving in a Spanish ward?? Kinda funny though ;) the food was super good and that family is just awesome. We had a couple appointments cancel on us, but we were able to go and see A, who is the sister of M. So as we are talking to A, M and R walk through. We told them that transfers are coming up and that we don't know what will happen. A  then says something like "oh you won't be moved, cause you have to stay to baptize R. You also need to stay for the wedding". We were so excited that we didn't know what to say. We just look over at M and R (M has like THE best poker face and never laughs unless it's hilarious) and R just has this huge smile / grin on his face, so awesome. Anywho they left before we could say anything and so we kept talking to A. She is doing good, she just has a lot going on with her life right now and family drama. She is super awesome though. She is really pumped about missionary work and she has a calling in the ward that she just loves, it is going good. My companion had started to feel a little sick throughout the day and right before we went to bed he said "Elder, I shouldn't have eaten your food" and then I thought... Wait.. Why?... Oh. I'm sick and he ate some of my food, stupid me. So I definitely am the one that got him sick. 

Friday morning hit and my companion was dying. His throat was terrible and he sounded like a bear just getting hit with pepper spray. It was super bad. So I told out DL that he was sick and that Elder O was gonna get some extra rest that day. I made him a drink with the Emergen-C in it and he was thankful for that. So that made things a little bit slower than usual. We then get a call from Elder R who is the senior missionary in charge of car usage. He asks us whether or not we have the loaner car and we told him that yes, we did. He then begins to tell us that for some reason we did not receive a text message on Friday that our car had been fixed and that we needed to go right then and there to get it because other elders were waiting for the loaner car because their car needed repairs. So we quickly went there and the elders were all mad at us for no reason and so me, still feeling a little sick, just told them basically to calm down cause they really weren't doing anything in the first place. Then they told us that we owed them lunch to which you just give "one of those looks". Anywho, we then went back to our apartment to have our lunch. We then went to go and teach Junior, and we had a sick lesson. His girlfriend was there. She is a member, but she is a little less active cause of work. We talked with them a little bit then headed into teaching the Plan of Salvation. It was awesome. We taught simply and Junior understood. We were about halfway (a typical stopping point for time sake) and then L, the girlfriend, asked us a question about after this life so off we went with the rest. We taught the whole plan and it was understood. We then got to the moment when we followed up on him praying about his baptismal date. We asked him how he felt when he prayed about his date and he responded with a small grin "I'm excited, but I'm nervous" that's when you just want to shout out as a missionary. Those moments are amazing. He told us of how he feels and it was pretty cool. We then talked a little more and told him about transfer calls. He seemed to be pretty scared about what was going to happen. We took pictures and all in all it was super awesome. We then went to try and sneak a visit in with W and K, but they weren't home. We didn't have a dinner from the English ward, so we shyly asked our WML and his wife if we would be able to eat dinner with them. They took us to Denny's and we talked a lot with them about what was going on with the work. They are awesome, they are just so cool. We then had to hurry to a lesson with the Vs family to read with them and we also listened to a conference talk from the conference before with them. Because my companion was sick, they helped him out with a bunch of medicine and stuff so that was really nice.

Saturday was conference and it was a day of mixed emotions. So conference is always super awesome as a missionary, but it is a little bitter sweet knowing that it was going to be my last. We decided to send a mass text to a bunch of people in our phone for a motivational conference text so that way they would at least watch one of the sessions. It was basically just to those that we are teaching in the Tongan ward. R texted us back and said that he was working but that he would be able to watch the priesthood session one, so that was cool. The first session started and it was awesome, lots of notes. I thought the first session was a lot about prayer, so I guess that means that that is something that I should work on more. We went home to go and get some lunch and went to go and eat some pizza rev. It was good and then we had to go back. We were really excited for the 1:00 session because some of our investigators were telling us that they were going to be showing up to that one. Well, a miracle happened. C showed up at the conference. Now, not very many members actually come to the church building to watch conference, it was just a bunch of missionary cars at the church, so when we had told her that general conference was something really big and that a lot of people watch it, well she was a little taken back when she shows up and not that very many people were there. She sat down with us right before it starts and the sound didn't work for the session! We were sitting there and thankfully a member called someone and he was able to fix it so that we were able to have sound. Well she LOVED it. She told us that at first she was skeptical but that she is REALLY glad that she went. Can I just say how awesome of a lady she is? She said that she really enjoyed the talk about the Book of Mormon and that she feels that she needs to find out for herself and read it (do the happy dance). It was also really cool because the second session was basically a missionary session, with the songs and the talks just centered on missionary discussions basically.... It was pretty cool. So then we went to go and do a roundup for people for priesthood session, but it didn't work. We showed up with nobody at priesthood cause R figured that he could just watch it at home with his family and fiancé on their television.... So I mean hey, we were fine with it. We also asked him when they were moving their marriage date to. Long story short just so you remember:

R is the investigator. M is his fiancé, and she is pregnant. She was baptized a little while ago. They had originally a wedding date for January 20th of next year. Well, after teaching R and helping him understand the importance of the family and living the commandments, they went to go and get their marriage license, but it still hasn't been signed yet by a bishop or judge you know? Anywho so they had told us that they moved the marriage date to before his baptism! We had forgotten the date (now back to normal time). We asked him what day was the marriage day and he told us the 23rd of October cause his baptism was on the 25th.... We told him that we thought that his baptism was on the 23rd of October and so there was an awkward silence and then basically we said "look, it's your baptism, so whatever day you are planning on, alright!" So we are really excited for him because that just showed me how much he really does want to have a family in the gospel and be baptized! It was a good feeling.

Priesthood was good, it was like a chastisement that was full of love. Basically calling out home teachers (cough cough) and so that just made me think of how bad I was as a home teacher... Oh goodness. It also makes me think of the good home teachers that we had in GJ. I forget their names, but one of the guys was a little heavier and had turrets or something in one eye, and I remember one time we were talking about a new washing machine and somehow the conversation went to him failing a trig test in high school because he wasn't able to draw a perfect triangle.... Do you remember his name? I don't, but never mind. The day just went downhill from there. We went to go and see R and he had fallen asleep right after we left because he had just gotten back from work... It was a little sad that he didn't watch it, but we shared with him our notes and he really likes the idea and purpose of home teaching. We had dinner there because the El Segundo ward didn't have anyone to sign up to feed us, so K came to save us again. You can truly tell who the missionaries like to visit because they will ask them for food hahaha. 

Sunday was good. Conference was amazing, it was just awesome. It was sad when it came to a close and I know that I might never feel the same way about conference than how I have felt as a missionary, but hopefully I still will. We were invited during the lunch break to go over to a Tongan home for some lunch which was good. They made a typical Tongan dish called Lu. It is basically meat and taro leaf, it's not too bad. We then finished conference which was bitter sweet. We then were invited by K to come over to their house after conference. What we didn't know is that they had a feast waiting for us. Pictures are in. Yes that is real. We ate there and then we both felt sick so then we went back to the apartment and then changed out of our clothes. We then went to go visit the Js because they are just awesome and we wanted to say our goodbyes. We talked with them and then we went back to the apartment for transfer calls!!!!

I just liked conference in general. I think it was awesome just how President Monson talked about 2/5 missionary lessons from Preach My Gospel so that was super cool. I LOVE Bednar and so his is always my favorite. I just like conference. You can't tell me what football play was the best when the team always wins, I'm just gonna tell you all the plays were good ;)

Love,

Elder Roberts

 D&C 15:6 

And now, behold, I say unto you, that the thing which will be of the most worth unto you will be to declare repentance unto this people, that you may bring souls unto me, that you may rest with them in the kingdom of my Father. Amen.

Week 84

El Segundo / W3 (week 5)

Monday was kinda a weird day. We were cleaning and I noticed that we didn't have any paper towels so we really couldn't do a deep clean like I wanted to do. We did our laundry and only had to buy a handful of items from the grocery store because we have a bounty of food in our fridge. We picked up some elders that are in a bike area and we had lunch with them at our apartment so that they could share in the joy of the bounty. We played some games with them and then headed to the church gym to play some sports. We played soccer and my companion kept falling and hurting himself, it was really bad. Another companionship showed up and we played with them. It was pretty fun but it got old fast. We left there to drop the elders back off at their place and to rush to a members house for my haircut. Basically the member just shaved all my hair off... It is super short, but I like it. We then went to go and visit this less active member named T S. He is super cool and a total classic Tongan. We are starting to visit him and he is starting to change his life to come back to activity in the church. He told us about his wife and her family. They are Methodist's and they (her parents) are the people in Inglewood that have the most anti Mormon stuff, so this might get interesting in a bit here. Well, he decided that he is forever going to attend the Mormon church and he told her that he is going to go to that church, and if she doesn't want to go, then they need to get a divorce. Well, in the Tongan culture, if your husband isn't there with you at church, people start talking. So she ended up coming to our church... (Woo woo!) He told us just how crazy that actually was and how everyone in the RS was taking pictures with her. We were actually told from the RS that she (D is her name) really liked RS because they talked about the For Strength of Youth pamphlet and how to raise kids in the gospel. So we set up that we are going to stop by every Monday at 8 to visit with T and his family.

Tuesday we tried to stop by and see J M to see if he really has desires to change and actually know if the things we share are true, but he didn't answer his door when we came by. We had a nice scripture reading with the S family and it was a fun time. They are doing really well, and I hope that the husband keeps going spiritually, because he is awesome. We were able to meet with A and J S and they are super fun. A was telling me her story about how everything kinda happened. Basically they went to go visit family down in Mexico City and her dads side of the family are all active members. They somehow got their bishop to sign that A could go to EFY down there (she was only 12 at this time) because they really wanted her to go. She says that she got away with it because she looks older, but I don't believe that. Anywho she really liked it and her and J also went to an open house for a temple somewhere, I don't know where, maybe it was the re- dedication of a temple down there or something, but they went to it and loved it! Long story short they were baptized and now both are very happy about everything and want to eventually serve missions! We had some Tongans take us to Five Guys (my first time!!!!!!) and so that was fun, quite the experience let me tell ya. We then went out on splits with the El Segundo ward and that was fun. I went to go and see Brother B the cool guy who took us to go and get the Greek food last week and his family has gone through a lot this last week. He had a nephew pass away and the grandmother of his wife also passed away. We talked and got to know him a little bit more, I was with Brother M who is single, and over 30 years old. It was so funny because I was showing them how all the missionary info is on an app and I forgot that they served their missions over 10 years ago... Wow. Anywho, we got back to the church to switch and Brother P went out with us to go and visit this lady named B. She is super crazy. She does extreme sports, lives alone with her husky wolf dog, and is part Latina,  Micronesian, Native American, Hawaiian, crazy huh? Long story short her parents are Mormon and she herself chooses the Mormon faith, she just isn't baptized yet. SO hopefully we will be able to make progress with her and help her realize just a part of her potential:) 

Wednesday was a pretty intense day. So it was J's birthday and so obviously we went to McDonalds for lunch and got a kids meal. I don't know about your local McDonalds but ours is doing some fun Justice League stuff and my companion and I both got Batman masks which is super cool. We took some funny pictures with them on too:) we did that and we also cleaned a little bit because I keep getting a lot of bug bites and so we have tried to find flea traps because the senior missionary who takes care of housing told us to get flea traps and to check a couple stores, but the stores don't have flea traps, and we aren't even sure if they are fleas because we set off a flea bomb and we still have gotten bit since then. We also set up a visitor center trip for R hoping that this time it wouldn't fall through. We went to go and visit with K and W, but K wasn't home from work yet and W was knocked out. Our WML for the Tongan ward lives at that house so we talked to him for a bit and W eventually woke up. We shared a quick message with the both of them before we had to go and meet with R and M to head to the VC. As we drove to the VC we talked and laughed and had as much of a good time as someone can have while driving in the heat in LA traffic. We got to the VC and started off with a prayer. It was really cool because M is a RC and she was taken to the VC as an investigator and had a really spiritual experience in the room with the Cristus. She told us that the missionaries invited her to pray about her baptismal date to know if that is when she should be baptized and she told us how she heard her answer. M is a tough cookie, but she was emotional during the visit. I think R also liked the visit too. There were some cool videos that the Sisters put on so that helped out a lot. At the end of the visit, the sisters invited R to say a closing prayer, and that if we could say a kneeling prayer too. Well, he cramped up! It was kinda funny and so he sat on the ground and was starting to prayer and his leg cramped up again... But he prayed and his prayer was really nice. Afterwards M was showing R a couple pictures that she likes in the VC and that was really cool to see. We drove back and talked about the trip and it was good. We had to leave immediately because we were late for a dinner with the J family (yes they are Tongan). We got there and talked to the family for a little bit and they had KFC for us (we have been eating KFC a lot lately) and so we talked with them, got to know them a little bit more, even answered an institute question that one of the sons had, it was good. Junior had just come back from football practice and so he was there in time for the spiritual thought that we shared with them. It was pretty cool. They have a son who plays football at UCLA and so they are UCLA fans, and BYU fans, but when UCLA played, they were really happy of the result. Later on, K (the ward missionary/aunt of M/the lady who helps us with everything in w3 basically) told us how much R loved the temple and how he wants to go back there soon. She then told us basically to invite him to be baptized as soon as possible ahahhaha, oh we will:) it was a good night.

Thursday we went to go and find flea traps. Elder B or the senior missionary who helps keep the housing approved and awesome for missionaries told us to specifically go and get some flea traps to find out if we really do have fleas. Well we went to target, Walmart, pets mart, all these places that he told us to go to, but nobody had them. I think we are going to keep looking because I keep getting bit. Long story short we also wasted a lot of miles in the car. We then came back to the apartment to do some weekly planning and to clean up the apartment a little bit. We threw out a lot of bad food, it was gross, and all we were left with was some good ole KFC. We were trying to set up exchanges with our WMLs in the two wards, but it just didn't work out unfortunately. We did go and have dinner with K. She had M go and buy some food because the food that K was making wouldn't be ready by the time that we had to leave to our next appointment. R was there and we started to talk with him. He really liked the temple. We asked him about his experience and we also asked him about the question that he took to the temple. He told us that the question he had was about converting to Mormonism (that's how he phrases it). He told us that when he was in front of the Cristus statue that he really prayed and then he felt a powerful warm feeling in his heart (this is when missionaries are wanting to leap out of their chairs you know!) and that when we were listening to a video from Thomas S. Monson that he felt hands on his head just comforting him while looking at the pictures of all the apostles (still wanting to freak out, but you can't just DO that as a missionary). We had prayed during weekly planning for a day to invite him to be baptized and we extended the invitation for the 23rd of October, and he said yes. R is awesome. We then went to go and visit A and J S who are the 2 recent converts in the El Segundo ward. Their home teacher is the former Stake President, President A, who now works in the deacons quorum. We set up to be able to go with him to visit with them and go over the NMLs with them. It was such a cool experience because he is a former stake president, a recent one at that, and he is just awesome. The lesson was super cool and A and J remember a lot and are doing good. J still hasn't gone to go and do temple baptisms yet, but President A let him know that if there was any issues with finding names or anything, to let him know. We then asked President A if he would be a let to go with us to go and visit one more family, the V family. He said yes and we headed over to them. It was a really good experience. Back in the day Brother V was the home teacher for President A and so he told them it was about time that he paid them back. It was a really cool lesson. We read in the scriptures and shared what we thought about the chapter. The entire time the spirit was felt. I was praying that we could leave the lesson at a high spiritual point and I kept looking at my companion to see if he got it too. President A was talking and then he said "could we end with a prayer, I have some stuff to do" and that answered my prayer. It was so awesome because he said it abruptly, but it was at the spiritual high which was the perfect time to end the lesson. It was super awesome. I think I figured out where the fleas were coming from, my blanket and pajama pants! I put them on and immediately I wanted to start scratching, even more with the blanket. So I threw the blanket off, changed into shorts, grabbed a different blanket... And no scratching, no new bites in the morning either!!!

Friday was a really short day for some reason. We had district meeting and it was kinda fun. I got the package that y'all sent me from Dear Elder, THANK YOU!!! I think I might just finish it before you get this letter :p. Anywho after that we went to go grab some pizza rev because we have a bunch of gift cards to go there. We then tried to go and visit a member family to get to know members in the ward a little more, but the mom wasn't there and the dad and daughter were a little hesitant to let us in. So we ended up having a nice conversation at their door for about 30 minutes and we were all laughing and having a good time, so I think that still counts. We then went to go and visit M. He has a drinking problem and he also feels ashamed because he use to be "the golden boy" at church. He feels supported by the ward because everyone always emails him and asking him when he is coming back to church. We made plans with him to come to the priesthood session of conference next week, so we will see what happens. We taught him about the Atonement and about Grace and it was a good lesson. His girlfriend is not a member and I guess they talk pretty openly about religion, except that she criticizes his. We told him that he could start inviting her to church functions and to conferences and that would be good for her, so we will see what happens. It was kinda weird cause the family that we were going to eat with canceled on us! That is 2 times this week that the Tongan ward hasn't been up to par... Which is like SUPER bad for Tongans but normal for anyone else hahahaha. Anywho we had some leftovers which were good. We also stopped by a circle K so I took a picture of that. 

Saturday was a crazy day. We started out with reading in the Book of Mormon with C and she is doing awesome. We then went to go and read and talk with K and W. It was really funny because I had told K about putting jam on grilled cheese (you know, how WE do) and she said "what?" So I had to explain to her and she told me that it sounded super good (mind you she is also pregnant so it just makes this all more intense right?) and so because I have this handy dandy jam, we told them that if they make grilled cheese, that we would bring the jam :) . So they tried it, and so did my companion and they liked it! I think it's just because of how good Mom's homemade jam really is AND K wants your Facebook mom, so that she could maybe get some jam, she was asking if you sold it. Not gonna lie, you could totally start a business here, just with the Tongans here in this ward... It could be some nice monies comin in. But enough of that. There was this white old guy neighbor who came to just grab some food and he was being really racist and prejudice towards all the Tongans. They were talking crap about him in Tongan and I wanted to say something, but I held back and so did my companion. We read in the scriptures and had a spiritual thought and then we went to go and give some service for a former investigator in the El Segundo area who needed help taking down her swing set. Thankfully some members helped us out by loaning us a bag of tools (kind of like dad tools) and so taking the swing set down was super easy and quick but boy, were those screws rusty! It was actually fun to work with our hands and to use tools, it just helped me realize just how important tools are for everything (spiritual ears here). We then went to go to.........

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... A FOOTBALL GAAAAAAAAAMMMEEE! 

Yes, we did go to a football game.

Yes, President Haynie told us we could go.

Yes, we were told only for an hour and that's how long we were there for.

There reason why: our investigator Junior J plays for the junior college El Camino and has been asking us forever to come and watch a home game, so we got permission to go!

Yes, nobody else has done this in this mission for a SUPER long time.

Yes, El Camino lost

Yes it was super productive cause 3 of our investigators and a bunch of less actives were at the game so we hung out with them and took some pictures, but not too much ;) 

SOOOO basically that was legit and I loved it.

We then went to go and have dinner with Kiola and it was super fun cause Robert and Michelle were there.

Sunday we woke up a little late because our phone was charging in another room, silly us. We went to ward council and then sacrament. We were able to have the normal people show up to church, and the S gave talks which were really good, I love the S family, they are so cool. We then went to the Tongan ward and R CAME!!! It was awesome. Junior also came to church so that was really fun, we were able to teach Junior about the Restoration during one of the hours because he asked us to teach him during one of the hours. We invited him to be baptized on a date and he said that he would pray about it and let us know, so fingers crossed!! It was a little rough at the end of day, but we got through it. We ate dinner with the S and Sister S made really good food. Basically they are an awesome family with the cutest kids. We then went to go and visit some people, but they weren't home. We then went to go and visit with Will and Kirsty, but they weren't home, so we ended up talking to our WML and his family for a little bit. 

Well, next week is transfers! Try and guess what is going to happen!!

Love,

Elder Roberts

Week 83 - Bread and Jam

El Segundo / W3 (week 4)

Monday was pday and we did the basic stuff. It is a rule now that to go and visit cool places on pday you have to be close to them, which sucks because I am in the middle of the mission and all the cool stuff is up north or down south. We hung out with a couple missionaries and played sports and I am getting sick of it super quick. I feel so old because all these youngsters (remember 60% of the mission is younger than 6 months old) don't know what to do so all of us oldsters have to basically babysit and it just gets so tiresome. We had a member take us out dinner which was really nice they took us to Number One which is a Chinese buffet. That was K L who is just the nicest old Tongan lady who has a fire for missionary work. We then went to go and give the wife of our WML in El Segundo a blessing because she is pregnant and has problems with her teeth right now, and she hates going to the dentist. We went over and Bro J gave her a blessing and she seemed so sad, it was rough. We then decided to go and visit the V family and talk with them for a little bit. 

Tuesday we went to go and see J M and it is so true that you have to keep visiting with people weekly or else the spirit will cease to strive with them. A lot has been going on in his life and don't get me wrong, he's still friendly and nice, it's just that his interest level is down. He kept saying stuff about "his church" or "the church he goes to" and acted like he actually believes in it, which he has told us that he doesn't. The church is a Lutheran church and his wife and son attend it, but he can't. It is really sad when he is one of the people that are reading the Book of Mormon the most out of everyone that we visit and his desire to accept the truth is not there. It is really sad because he knows and understands the importance of temples and eternal families, but he misses the mark! We then went by Sister N who is just one of the most adorable old ladies. She will call us up and ask us to do something that takes like 5 minutes, but for her it would take a really long time. We moved bags of salt for her and she gave us cookies, so it was a nice trade off. She lives 2 doors down from the P and so I dropped off the eggo box with them. I am so glad you got the box!!!! Did you like the fact that it was an eggo box? We then went to go and see D Y just to stop by and see how his family is doing. We talked with him for a little bit, trying to set up an appointment, but he told us just to call him another day or to text him. We then went to go and read in the Book of Mormon with L S. Her husband and her are returning back to activity right now and they are really cool. She is such a chill person that it is so nice. We read with her because her husband was right about to go to work. It is so apparent to me now the differences in the homes where the gospel is taught and lived to where it is not. The V family are members, but the gospel is not taught there. There is a big difference in that home and the, call it what you want, aura... Mood... Feeling... The Spirit. In the S home, they are living the gospel and coming to church and you can just feel a difference. We then went to go and see W and K. K has been super sick because she is pregnant and her blood count is super low, so we gave her a blessing that she would feel better. We taught W about the word of wisdom because he has some serious problems with it. We talked about it and he told us that "it makes sense" and so we committed him to live the word of wisdom and that if he ever felt the urge to smoke or whatever, that he could call us and that we would be right there for him. He told us that he would and it was pretty cool, but we will see what happens. We stopped by to visit with R and M and to see how they are doing. M has a lot of health problems so there are a lot of times that they have a lot of doctor appointment that they have to go to. We talked with R and it was good. We talked about the normal missionary stuff like baptism and R seemed pretty good and solid on some stuff there.

Wednesday we were so excited to go to the VC with R, but for some reason he just isn't meant to go there yet. We called to set up an appointment, but that fell through because he forgot that they had a doctor appointment... Ugh. It was a long day that not a lot of cool stories happened. We tried to go and visit some people, but it just didn't work out. The people in El Segundo are really nice and polite, but the moment you start talking to them about religion, it is this taboo that just never goes right. In the El Segundo ward there are a lot of cool people. One, because this ward is the epitome of a Mormon ward with lots of families, young couples, teens, stake people in the ward, people who have been mission presidents, and we even have old people that were the people that did the fund raising to buy the bricks for the church building, pretty cool. One of those cool members is Brother B. He is a younger guy who served his mission in Washingotn. He is super tall and loves hockey. He took us to this Greek restaurant to try out some gyros which were bomb! Basically it was a tortilla with tomatoes and onion and lamb (lamb tastes like steak and jerky together) so that was super good. We then stopped by to visit with the V family and to teach them about the importance of attending church and partaking of the sacrament. It was a good lesson, but brother V just has some problem that we don't know what it is yet about going to church. We basically told him, but in a loving way of course, that if he wants to improve his relationship with his savior, then he needs to go and partake of the sacrament. Again, we said that in a much better way and with a lot more love.

Thursday was a pretty interesting day. We had a lot of stuff planned and it looked like it was going to be a good day. We started out by visiting with J M. He is the Lutheran dude who reads the Book of Mormon. Well, when we knocked on his door he had just woken up, so maybe he was just a little cranky to see us. We also wanted to go inside his home (which hadn't been done before) and so I think that threw him off a bit. We talked inside but he was running late to get to work so basically he just kindly kicked us out, but we will be back for him later:) . We then went to go and read in the Book of Mormon with this one member named C. She is crazy awesome. She has schizophrenia, goes to the temple, and just loves the gospel. She was listening to the last conference session when we walked up to her door. She always is the one in charge of the lessons by saying "can we start with a prayer?" It's pretty funny. We just read with her and it's nice. She also gave us Pizza Rev cards (it's a pizza place here in town) and she has been giving the missionaries these gift cards every week for a while now, so we have a good amount haha. We went back to have our weekly planning and oh did the poop hit the fan this week. My companion and I had a disagreement and it was intense. In the end it all worked out... Mostly. We talked about some things and it's really rough right now in the companionship. The B family invited us over to eat and they are a very fun young couple! They have two kids, and the kids just have the most picture perfect faces and poses. We ate some apricot chicken with rice and green beans, then had brownies for dessert (so white it was awesome). They are one of those families that you hope you stay in contact with them, especially cause they are young. They might be a couple years older than Charlie and Emily, but they are solid. We then ended the night with ward correlation at the WML house. During that time we texted R to see if he could go to the VC with us on Friday, and he said yes. We called the VC and they told us that we better not cancel on them, well about 3 minutes after the call R texted and told us that his fiancé/ the RC has a lot of doctor appointments tomorrow because she has diabetes and is pregnant, so we might not be able to go... Great. It was really frustrating. It is so funny because right now it seems like EVERYONE is pregnant, WML wife, K who is the wife of an investigator, M who is the fiancé of R, a mom in the Tongan ward who is neighbors with M, just everyone! 

Friday we had district meeting and it is really hard for me to go to meetings here. Sometimes I feel like the conversations are a little bit immature between some missionaries, but I guess I just feel that way because I still feel young and new and that I have a lot to learn, so then when I hear other missionaries talking like that I'm just super annoyed. Well we got a call from K asking if we could go and give a blessing to a newborn baby after district meeting. After DM we grabbed a bite to eat at this real cool pizza place that you make a custom pizza, changed out of our suits, and went up to the hospital. Now if you remember right, the last time that I went to the hospital on the mission was to give a blessing to a guy that was pronounced brain dead before we got there. Needless to say I don't really like hospitals and I always have mixed emotions when I go there. So this hospital is really confusing and the entrance was in the middle of the property... Dumb! We went up and we met up with K (she is the grandma) and M (the mom). At this point we thought that we were giving a blessing to the mom, but we weren't too sure because K said something about the baby, but for some reason we thought we were giving a blessing to M. Anywho, here I am, freaking out because we are right about to go and give a blessing to a newborn that is in an incubator and I feel a little uneasy about it. We called President Haynie to see if we can give the baby a blessing and if there is anything special that we have to do. Well President Haynie just told us to be careful and to makes sure that the oil goes directly from the container to the baby's head. So we gave the blessing to M, D H S. When we were giving the blessing I could just feel his tiny little hands trying to grab my arm and it was so adorable! We finished the blessing and M was like "I am all good now, all my nerves are gone". The baby was sick, so that is why she wanted us to give it a blessing. It was having low sugar counts and so that's why we went. We got out of there and there was some stupid traffic on the way back, so we listened to some approved missionary music and sung our little hearts out in the middle of LA traffic. We ate dinner with the A family in El Segundo. He is the Elders Quorum president and she is a nonmember. She is one of those "eternigators" so it's really hard when you are new in an area and you have never met an eternigators, but you can't do anything sly or sneaky because this is the elders quorum president and a family with 3 kids here, so it was a very delicate situation that I was stressing out about what we should teach. Because usually at dinner appointments we don't teach a full on lesson to a family, and this was a dinner appointment. Well, the spirit took it away I guess. We started chatting with the family during dinner. Sis A is Vietnamese and so guess what she made for us to eat? That's right, Mexican food. It was basically a make it yourself Taco Bell. I was laughing on the inside. We talked with the family and the conversation was really good. I brought the family album book that I have (you know, the one that only has a max of like 10 pictures... But I'm not bitter...) and K loved it! She was like "wow! You are the FIRST missionary to bring this and show it to us!" So hopefully I got an in because of that. We talked about families and how the gospel has blessed all of our families and how parents are really important in raising their kids in the gospel. R had been texting with us and so we stopped over to see him for a bit to answer some of the questions that he had about the Book of Mormon. He asked about the different plates that it talks about in the beginning of the Book of Mormon because it is all confusing, so we explained it to him. He also talked about converting to Mormonism... So that was kinda funny and cool. In his prayer he actually prayed for help on converting to Mormonism.

Saturday we were invited to attend a birthday party for a kid in the Tongan ward that turned 1 year old. Let me tell you, they went crazy for this party. It was held at the stake center pavilion so we were able to attend and we were invited to it for a lunch.  It was sponge bob themed and so everything was something to do with bikini bottom or something. There was A LOT of food, and a lot of our investigators and less actives that we are teaching showed up! They show up more to the activities than they do to church! We decided that it was time for us to leave and so a member gave us this huge tray and told us to go and fill it with food to take home. We also saw W on our way out from the party and he was getting out of a truck with a cigarette in his mouth. Red handed. He about fell over when he saw us and it was kinda sad to see that he didn't tell us when he was going to smoke or anything, it was just a little frustrating I guess. This is a picture of all the food they gave us, sorry about all the pictures being small, I just take the pictures with the iPad so that's probably why they aren't the best. We got back to the apartment and decided to go and visit some people, but for some reason people just weren't home!! 

Sunday was pretty crazy. We had ward council in the El Segundo ward at 7:30 in the morning and we talked about the progress of the missionary work in the ward. K and F, the two eternigators, showed up to church and I got to know a couple more members. The 2 recent converts in the ward also showed up to church so that was really nice. We had to leave right after sacrament meeting because we had ward council in the W3 ward at 10:00 so we drove over there and then sat in that meeting. It is really hard for me to be in meetings that are only in tongan because I want to say something or try to understand, but I just can't so I have to sit there and be quiet. There were a lot of people that showed up to church at the W3 ward though! It was pretty cool to see a lot of people show up. We met with one of the investigators named J during church because he asked us to and we talked about him being baptized one day and our purpose as missionaries. We invited him to pray specifically about a date to be baptized and he liked that idea. He also asked if we could pray for a date for him as well, so that was awesome that he asked us. We had a lunch with a member because the member that was going to feed us dinner forgot (which is gonna be drama in the Tongan ward just wait and see). We told the member not to worry because we have a lot of food back in our apartment, but by the time we got to out car to leave, there was a member inviting us over to eat... Crazy. So.... Funny story. We were back at the apartment having our dinner hour when we get a call from Brother P. Elder O was on the phone and he just turns to me and says "your parents sent some bread and jam (I literally FREAK OUT and I am just rating my hands up and saying 'yeeeeessss!' At this point) with Brother P and they have it, when could we go buy to pick it up" so we picked it up in like 30 minutes from that when our dinner hour was over. Sister P gave me the bag and I opened it right then and there and you can only imagine the face that Sister P had when I am just happy for bread and jam ahahhaha. We ended the night off with visiting with M who is a recent convert. She is going through a lot of trials right now and she kinda told us what is going on with her family, R's family and everything. She opened up a lot to us and it was a good time to get to know her a little more and to just share a message about trials with her. 

Thank you so much for the bread and jam... That definitely was so awesome.

Hope y'all have a good week! Get ready for conference!!!!!

Love,

Elder Roberts