Last monday I injured one of my toes playing volleyball. Not quite sure how but it really hurt and it has been bruised all week. So that hasn't been fun but they only had to amputate a little bit of it.... just kidding! We have started to get the swing of things in the singles ward with all the activities that they have. It has been awesome to have our investigators and solid potentials build relationships with us during activities. Makes the work so much easier!
Tuesday felt like it was the longest day ever! Well not really but sort of. Our zone had interviews by the Mission President and so as Zone Leaders we had to get there early, talk with all the companionships and teach them while they waited, and then have our interviews when everyone else's were over. Which took basically all day from 830-3. But it was good getting to know some of the companionships in the zone that we don't get to interact with very much like the spanish district or some of the districts further north of Glendale. Overall our zone is doing pretty good besides some complaints from sisters about some immaturity of the younger elders... Finally we had our own interviews with President. And mine was magnificently short. President just talked to me about the importance of me teaching Elder Mendoza english and being more patient with him in all aspects of the work... not that I'm not patient with him but like I've said in these past few weeks, it has just taken time to get him willing to be involved in the work because of his lack of confidence in the language. Which I can understand but I wasn't even my frist transfer in the field I feel like I participated more but everyone is different and I love him all the same. But after our interviews we had President Becerra come to a lesson we had set up with our Iranian investigator, Ervin and his wife Aylin. The run down with them is basically they want to have the church be able to refer people who are in financial trouble to them and their business... and if they learn some things that will strengthen their faith that is cool too. So the lesson was quite funny. It was 2 hours. Ervin and Aylin talked for almost an hour and a half before President cut them off and astounded them with a lesson on the Restoration in about 15 minutes. After which they still were reluctant to say that they would not join the church even if they knew it was God's church.... at that point they tried to use the fact that President was a very successful financial adviser to their gain but their purpose is now known and there won't be any more lessons we set up with them. Only if they come to us. But the next lesson was with K. Man it was so cool to see him that night. He seriously seemed like another person. We taught him about the upcomingsunday in which he was confirmed. So cool! Especially because he asked me to do the confirming!
Wednesday we had another lesson with Christina in the morning. Which we thought would be better so she wouldn't be all hyped up on monster... but nope. She was drinking one at 9am. She hasn't been reading on account of her not having her glasses. Dumb. The rest of the day was quite busy though. We stopped by Kenny and read with him. Ran to the office to get supplies. Did some service for Gina. Had a lesson with the Sinor family about the priesthood. Met up with some members from G7 (the ysa ward). One works for ESPN and the other works with producing P-Diddy's music. Pretty cool jobs if I say so! However the rest of the night slowed down. We stopped by this potential Natasha who we ran into a few weeks back. She is super awesome and has grown up around the church. She even went to seminary with her friends. But she is still Atheist with an even more Atheist husband who was yelling at us by the end of our conversation with his wife... just not very nice!
Thursday we had our last District meeting with Elder Crumrine. Well depending on if we have zone training this next week or not... but it was good. Especially the lunch afterwards in which we went to Los Gringos Tacos in La Canada. Home of the 'Big Bertha" burrito. Which is five pounds. And yes. I did order it. And yes. The burrito was gone. But I shared it... so not as cool. I just need preparation to eat such a burrito! Next we headed off to do some service for a potential, Tina. Who is this Armenian lady but very much so americanized. She is the one that refurbishes and makes cool things she finds at garage sales and such. She had some things come up so we weren't able to help her much but at least we got to help. Later that afternoon we stopped by our flat tire friend Sharen at her clothing boutique which is funny. We walk in and Sharen, her sister Mary, and their friend Susan are all sitting back smoking and drinking their Armenian black coffee (pure grinds and water). I can't imagine that tastes very good. But they were exstatic to see us return. One of them had even started reading the Book of Mormon that we gave them. We also found out the friend, Susan, had a grandchild recently pass away in an accident and she asked me if he was alright and it was a sweet experience being able to tell her yes. They are some of the more soft hearted armenians that I have met thus far.
Friday Christina told us she had guests still sleeping on her floor and wouldn't be able to meet... so we went and picked up Elder Grifitts dry cleaning and I was able to talk to the Armenian owner who was 'testing' my Armenian. He said I passed until he started quizzing me on the 'bad' vocabulary. And when I said I didn't know the words he was saying, his response was "how can you not know the bad words?!" Sorry man. No need for such a pretty language! We had a lesson with Anthony that afternoon which was solid. He is just a stud and wants to help teach people so we went over more missionary work which was awesome to be able to have him understand. after weekly planning we had a spur of the moment lesson with another potential (kind of) named John. Who is technically already an investigator for some other sisters in Pasadena but since he comes to the singles ward too... he felt comfotable with us to ask for a lesson. So not sure if i've already talked about John but he is a student studying at Harvard here in California to write his senior thesis on Mormonism... so he said he had some question on how to recognize the holy ghost because as he has been interviewing people he hasn't quite understood that. So we talked to him a little about that but then it led into another concern that he had which included that he was gay and he wanted to know how gaining a testimony of this church could benefit him. Curve ball? So we meet with him again this week and it will be an awesome lesson.
Saturday I was on exchanges with Elder Stocks and Elder Crumrine for the day while Elder Mendoza went with the spanish elders who are in our zone. So that morning we had Armenian coordination and I found out this past week that Henry was recently released and they have a new ward mission leader. Who is good. kinda old. not as enthusiastic. But we'll see how it goes! after that we had a meeting with another potential Josh who was a former in the family ward and just graduated high school. we just had a meeting with him over some Boba... which is really weird drink and I don't even know how to describe it! just little black slimy balls in a smoothie... interesting. But then we had another meeting with Christina which was really good and she is going to pray about a date in September 1. After some following lunch at MexiCali, which is so delicious, we had a lesson with a recent convert in G1 named Mike who talked a lot. Then another lesson with a girl in G9 who is struggling with some addictions. To top the day off we did some yard work service and ate some of the best Chile Relleno I've ever had made by some lady that is from Guatemala. NOM!
Sunday was a blast. Christina showed up to church. I was able to confirm K. And Pat's friend Paul, who was already my friend Paul from BYU, brought his girlfriend Becky with him to Church who I also knew from BYU. It was fun to see people from home. A little strange and it took me aback. But cool. Later we were invited to have dinner with the Townsend's from the Armenian group. Following dinner there was an amazing musical fireside that the group put on. People sang and played piano and violin and the armenian members read poems and sang songs that you could feel the passion about Armenia and then at the end all the armenian group members sang a song. Which I participated in :) It was awesome. Love the group. Miss them.
So Yeah! That is my week. Pretty awesome. I love you all and hope you have a great rest of your week!
Elder DeBry
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