Week 39 (9/9-9/16)

 Well family and loved ones!! It has finally happened. We have had to park our cars. Turn in our privledge of having keys and in exchange get bus passes, maps, and two working feet to carry us from A to B while talking with everyone we meet and see along the way!! I'm super excited to finally start this adventure!! Sure I'll miss the A/C and having the luxury of a car, but it'll be more of an experience if anything. So today is the first day. And it has already been quite the start to another great week! But lemme tell you about this past weeks adventures because there were many.

     Well last P-day was cleaning day to prepare us for the transfers. and for some reason (probably because we had to do it so much this week) I feel like we had to do something and run to the office or something because we have been so busy. But I can't remember and I didn't write anything down in my planner... bummer. But I remember I made some pudding! that was delicious. But we had quite the run in with a referral we had received and contacted that night. I guess the people/house we went two had been having pranks pulled on them and had actually gotten the police involved because it had gotten pretty serious/harassing. But ironically the guy and his wife had actually met with Missionaries before and he said "they were begging me to accept their message". We had quite the conversation and some would even label it as bashing but he was so FRUSTRATING. Ugh. And his wife totally would have been willing to listen because she wasn't so closed but her husband kept speaking for her. But it was pointless trying to further anything with him so that made Elder Winfield frustrated that we had to wasted precious time that we didn't have a lot of on a P-day. But we did make up for it by having just a pleasant conversation with a guy on the street. Nothing came about but it went from him saying "I don't want the shpeal" to us just being able to talk.

     The next morning, Tuesday, we had a tour/lesson with Nicole and her friend who she brought along, Stephanie! We hadn't heard rom Nicole for about a month or so and she finally found time in her busy summer to meet up and have a tour of the church. It was a great lesson and we got to extend a soft baptismal invitation which they both accepted if they knew it was true. Nicole even asked for a copy of the Book of Mormon after! Solid. But then we went up with Kelvin to GCC for the first time this semester to start the booth! And lemme say the booth is so awesome. It is the greatest finding activity to just pass our surveys and talk to people all the time and actually have people be interested! But just in that first day we got about 13+ numbers and people willing to meet with us and it continued throughout the week. After going back home to finish up our studies we did our office run and then went to the Priestley household for another dinner to meet another one of Alexis' friends, Leticia, and because her parents wanted us over for dinner one last time before she left for school at BYU-I. They fed us a massive, most delicious steak I've ever had that apparently Brother Priestley was known for his cooked meat and I found out why! But what made dinner so great was being able to have the whole family including Leticia, Alexis' Mom and the grandma come and listen to our message which was BOMB. We shared John 10 and showed how even when Christ was having a hard time, he went back to the place he was baptized and "there he abode". Then we went around and talked about how we can do the same more in our lives. It was quite the experience because we finally got to hear from the Mom who has been less active and she felt the spirit from what we shared and got very emotional. It was probably one of my favorite moments to share with a family while I've been out here. So much love for this family! Too bad Melissa wasn't able to come. She has been so busy with work and has had some boyfriend problems. We were hoping to finish the lessons before Alexis had left for school. Oh well! Things happen. So after we left while the spirit was still there we raced off to the Central building to catch the social part of the institute class and met a recent convert and her friend Liz who she had brought for the first time. Hope to start teaching her!

     Wednesday we passed our cleaning check then headed up to GCC again to run the Booth! We brought Elder Cook along (the new Armenian Elder) and had him get some experience actually contacting people. I wonder how nervous I was my first day on campus. But it was great. Hot. Got a little sun burned and another 15+ numbers/people to contact this next week! CHaching!! Later that afternoon we stopped by another referral we received from the Spanish Zone Leaders, Elder Mostert and Blanchard. They sent us to a guy named Gary who most graciously let us in and have a first lesson with him to give him the overview of what we teach! He has had a rough life and even spent some time in prison but he wants to follow the right path and the truth and he likes how he has run into three missionaries and feels like it is a good thing! We actually are meeting with him today so we'll let you know how it goes! Then the night got crazy and we had to do some splits. Elder Winfield went with Khoa to teach Stuart and to go on a home teaching visit with Brother McCubbins  to Christina's ex husband, Tim, who doesn't want their girls to take the lessons. While I went with Daniel and Elder Cook (Elder Cook because we were supposed to have a lesson with those Armenian guys that I met who were drunk and put me on YouTube). So we taught Stephanie and Nicole the Restoration which was kind of slow because Elder Cook is still pretty new. But it turned out well and we even got to extend a baptismal date but they both said they'd have to think/pray about it more to really know. Which is fine by us! After that those Armenian guys weren't home so we stopped by Albert and his family! I hadn't seen them since the last weekend I was with Elder Dicus. It was rough. I haven't taught a full Armenian lesson since the beginning of May about 5 months ago... sheesh. But Elder Cook basically couldn't understand them (bless his heart for trying though) and so I basically took charge and struggled to have a lesson. The girls and Romina weren't really listening but I guess the other Elders have just been focusing on Albert because the girls are more stubborn. But after that lesson I was pretty frustrated with my Armenian or the lack thereof. But I know I can work harder but I feel like I'm starting to lose it only after a few months.

     Thursday we had a great district meeting by Elder DeSpain!! His very first and he rocked it. So proud of our little boy missionary! Growing up so fast! That afternoon (after a delicious taco bell run with the district), we stopped by a members home and shared a message on the Work of Salvation broadcast (trying so hard not to fall asleep in their hot house) and then had to go back up to Tujunga to teach Raquel and follow up on our last lesson. We decided what she needed was a lesson to boost her confidence so we taught her about faith and used Ether 2 and taught what we had learned from President in Zone Leader Cousel which made reference back to Genesis 6 and how Noah also used stones after he was told to not use 'windows'. Look it up. It'll blow your mind. But we also did the tea bag lesson and she really liked that and found how it applied to her. Unfortunately it is Yomm Kippur this weekend and since her family is Jewish they are doing the traditional fast from everything and won't be able to come to church but she said she'd use the time to fast for an answer! That night we met with the Stake Priesthood again and had to give the low down on all the changes in the mission and talk directly to the ward mission leaders and how they need to do their job and tell them what we need them and the wards to start doing. We then ran into the Salazar family who we tried to see earlier but they weren't home.

     Friday was a little all over the place. We had gotten a call Thursday night telling us that we are going to train a new missionary next transfer and that we'd have a meeting the next day. So we did that during the day and had to reschedule our lesson with Gary to go in to the office. Then because the meeting went way over we were late to dinner and were all thrown off. But thankfully we got to meet up with Robbie who was having a pretty rough week and had a lot of questions that were making things harder. So we taught him about facing/coping with adversity and how it's just a small moment in this life if we have the eternal perspective of things. I guess his mom's health is getting bad and the social scene at church has been kind of rough on him and he's been starting to lose hope. On top of that we told him he shouldn't go to Disneyland on Sunday for his birthday. Which he wasn't very willing to do. But we cheered him up and told him he doesn't have it as bad as Job did. He got a kick out of that. And then he taught me how to play a few chords on the ukeleilei (spelling???).

     Saturday was more mellow. Josh blew us off again and it was too big of a hassel to reschedule so we got taco bell with Kelvin instead. Gotta love my Taco Bell. Then we had a way too long of a lesson with Ceasar from G2 who basically asked us questions then answered them himself... all while in a very hot house trying to stay awake. Then was weeking planning and it was super busy trying to get prepared for this whole no car thing. Still feel unprepared but oh well! We had a great dinner with the Berganza family and then went off to teach a referral Vincent who we got from the office. He let us in kind of reluctantly what it felt like and we taught him the overview of what we do and invited him to meet with us and his answer was "do I have to?" I just wanted to say. Yes. Yes you do have to and you have to get baptized as well. But he just said he was too busy and that we could just email him what he needed to know. Then I brought up the example and asked him if he'd rather talk with Christ or get an email from him.. he said an email because he was too busy. Welp. SEe ya Vincent! It was quite funny/sad. And then we got a call from Brother Duke from the High Council saying we had the Stake Presidency meeting the next day so we had to spend the rest of the night collecting info from the missionaries... lame. Then we got transfer calls!! Elder Winfield and I stay the same and will be training again! Hooray for training a new missionary!!

     Sunday was so long. We were fasting with/for Raquel to get her answer and had to leave early from G7 to check in our Zone's cars. But we did find out that Christina had been using some pretty serious drugs (crack and meth) and that is why Tim was trying to get custody. The truth comes out! anyways, we had to wait forever for everyone to bring their car in and have us inspect it. Finally two elders from our zone came in and one of them had sprained their ankle and was on crutches. So while talking to him about it we found out that he did it while playing basketball with a bunch of other missionaries Saturdaynight when they should have been home... so we had to call President and basically the rest of the night was dealing with disobedience and such with these elders and the others in their district. On top of that, we found out some bad news about Robbie. I guess he never came to church and he had been texting one of the ward missionaries and said that he had gotten drunk and just felt like giving up hope on the church... we even got him a pin from Disneyland to celebrate his birthday and tell him how proud of him we were that he didn't go on his birthday.. So after all this finally at around 8:30 we stopped by the Boyack family who had made food for us earlier and we got to eat and enjoy before heading home.

 

It was a long, long week. I loved every minute of it though. I miss and Love you all. I hope you have a great week!

 

Elder DeBry

Week 38 (9/2-9/9)

My Dearest loved ones at home and abroad! Well this past week wasn't anything exciting but rather still hot and dreading the day this next weekend where we will be losing our cars and fully convert to public transportation... SHOULD BE EXCITING!! as soon as the weather cools down that is..

     Last Monday was pretty exciting. It was Chaiwat's birthday! He didn't get back from SLC until Wednesday but he said he loved it. Along with not wanting to move back to LA but instead Utah! What a stud. We had to end P-day early again for a dinner we were invited to with the Kender(less active) family and some of their friends/neighbors that they had invited over(nonmembers)! It was awesome to have it just be so easy. The whole dinner we talked about missionary life and about the church which the friends were interestingly enough able to find a connection to the church through family or previous introduction. We taught a condensed overview of our purpose and invited both couples to listen to the lessons but they said they'd need some time to think about it. But what can ya do. After we had a lesson with Julia Chernushin to start a fast with/for her to have a missionary experience. And she was just going through a rough time and it seemed like the perfect thing to do with her. So we went over with David Lake and taught about fasting and tied it in to missionary work. She was still pretty emotional and we weren't sure really why but somethings we just don't understand. Then we ended the night with kind of a bang with a lesson with the Acosta family. We hadn't seen Anthony in a while so we had him tag along and found out that he had run into some stuff on YouTube that portrayed some other religion based purely on the Bible but weren't Christians. So he was thrown off by that and so I was pretty hesitant to bring him to the lesson knowing that the Acostas would just throw him off more. But we went along anyways and it was just as it was the first few times with them. Still don't have a testimony of the Restoration and believe we worship Joseph Smith, there is no proof of the Book of Mormon and that we have all of the word of God and need nothing further.. So it wasn't the greatest lesson and it was very trying of both of our patience. Especially when one of the daughters was trying to give Anthony to take a Bible and to study from it when I stepped in and was like "whoa. he's read the whole thing. in two months. so take it easy my friend." maybe not exactly but close enough right? Just so frustrating!!

     Tuesday was Mission Leadership Counsel in Arcadia. It is always the best meeting of the month. This time however it really was definitely more of a counsel on how we as a mission can transition and problem solve how we are going to make this whole car thing work. There is SO much to figure out. Companionships, Area divisions, apartments, bus routes, bus passes, and so on and so forth! It was actually really awesome. So after that we got out early and didn't want to go back to Glendale because we had a dinner with the Priestly family in Temple city. Which was actually really a great experience. Alexis' family is pretty much less active except for her  which was a surprise to us because she is so solid! But she has a great family so it is hard to understand why they stopped coming. After dinner and some desert we had a lesson with Melissa (who actually ended up only being able to make it for desert because of work/traffic/and such) but we had a solid lesson on Faith with Alexis' brother and Dad joining in. She is just nervous because it is new to her but we recommitted her on her date and pressing forward with reading, praying and church.

     Wednesday morning we had some apartment moving to do with Brother Wheeler. We had found a bomb apartment for some new missionaries and we just had to furnish it and so that is what we did! It took a few trips but not too bad. That afternoon we had a nice lunch with Conor and Sister Turley up at their house before Conor headed back down to Mexico to pick up his professional basketball career. I miss that family. Really made me just miss the Armenian group and all the above/pertaining to the group. the rest of the day was pretty slow with some studies and then we went on a split to a few lessons. Elder Winfield went to a dinner appointment with the AP's and I went with David Lake to do his home teaching (ironically enough to Sister Priestly) and then to stop by Stuart who got back in town from his vaca in Arizona. It was a bomb lesson and Stuart is actually consistently reading and coming to church as well so that is awesome! I love reactivation work!! Also during the time that I was with David he shared some great insight from when he was an AP in Boston during his mission and how he was constantly finding people to teach and it got me super stoked for the next day when we would address the zone.

     Thursday like I said was Zone Training (where Elder Winfield and I taught the zone sturff we learned from our Tuesday Counsel). It actually went really well. Elder Winfield and I really applied everything we learned to our individual zone and what we needed to do better, which is find people to teach!! So that is what we did the whole time, taught how to find and how we are going to make this transportation work and productive/efficient! Maybe it was just me but I got pretty excited about everything we talked about. So we'll see how it turns out this next weekend when we say 'SEE YA!' to our cars.. after the meeting we had a lesson with Anthony to make sure he would start reading ffrom the Bom everyday after we read 2 Nephi 29 with him that made him understand more of what Sister Acosta frankly had wrong. Later we took a rather long drive with Khoa to have a lesson with Carol down in LA but the church down there wasn't open so we ended up having to drive with her back up to the Central building and had a lesson followed by another lesson with Robbie who is so solid but needed a lesson on patience which was bomb. The rest of the day was pretty busy. WE stopped by a referral and ended up talking to him about his 1941 Dodge truck that he restored but wasn't too interested. Then we got introduced to this guy Henry and Armenian who is a neighbor of Brother McCubbins in the G2 ward who was actually interested in learning! So that was awesome. We had a feeling to go try by Jamie and found him at his brothers house smoking and he broke down in tears when he saw us. He told us he had relapsed and that he would be checking into rehab the next day and he wanted a blessing. So we did just that and went on our way. Broke my heart to have a grown man do that but he is on the right path hopefully. Then we had coorelation like we do but Bishop Lee was there and took charge. About time someone did!! He got things done that is for sure.

     Friday was hot. Ridicuously hot. We had an early morning lesson with the Chavez family and found out she has three people she'd love for us to teach but just need some time to be introduced. the rest of the afternoon was finishing studies, planning, lunch (pb and honey's) and some backgammon with Elder Winfield. But other than that the evening was biking around, sweating and visiting people. It was great!.. We did however exchange that night and had Elder Newton come with me in our area as well as having a priest from our ward come with us for a day miny mission.

     Saturday was unfortunately for Charles' sake rather uneventful. We got the full experience of not having people be home or interested. But that won't help him decide to go on a mission! We did have a lesson with Robbie about Patriarchal blessings though but that was about it. However we also got some solid potentials for some Filipino sisters and Korean elders to try by! For dinner we had the Duvalls make Elder Garcia and I a special sushi dinner which was awesome. If I have time I'll send some pictures. But that was basically Saturday!

     Sunday Robby was ordained a priest by Elder Winfield and had a few nonmembers at Church in G7 where this member Kelsey Horreth(?) gave an awesome singing solo that was awesome to watch because I felt like I was in some soul church because she had a super strong voice and was getting into it. Just side note :) We had an vegetarian dinner last minute with a member who works on video games and then I got to talk to three drunk Armenian guys who were thrilled about my Armenian and actually took a video of me talking with them on their phone. not sure if that is allowed but... it was solid and one asked some good questions so I made a return appointment. WE had a lesson with a member and his girlfriend who has been investigating but is afraid to tell her jewish father but we found out she knows it is true but just doesn't know how to tell her dad and her family in isreal since they'll probably disown her. Pray for her! But then the last stop was another family up in the Tujunga/Sunland area where Elder Winfield served. We stopped by this less active family that made me realize how some nice families are so easy to just get sucked into the trap of going by but not much progress being made.

 

Overall, it was a good week. Busy and hot but good week to be a missionary! I love you all. HOpe you have a wonderful week where ever you may be!

 

Elder DeBry

Week 37 (8/26-9/2)

 I don't even want to comment on how mind blowing it is to realize it is already September. So I'll focus and complain more about how UNBEARABLY HOT IT WAS THIS WEEK!! I'm pretty sure it was at least 100 every day. But to make it worse it was super humid which everyone said was really strange. And I hear this week it will reach 105 on Wednesday... not fun!! So lemme tell you about all of our fun adventures trying to stay cool :) 

     So last P-day was pretty eventful. After the usual emailing and errands we had set up an lesson with Melissa in the middle of the day, thinking that it would be the only time to get to meet with her. So we had to end P-day around 2 and then by the time we drove out to her area we found out that she thought it was Tuesday we were meeting...So we just went and washed the car at the office instead since we were already there. And it was ridiculously hot and we were still in prose... not a good idea. But we did end up making our car look BOMB. We even waxed it. Total time: 2 Hours 30 min. Next we raced off still all stinky to dinner with the Solomon/Alvorod Family. And for whatever reason it was HILARIOUS. At one point we were all crying laughing because of Sister Solomon and her cackle laugh from making fun of us. So that was really funny. After that we went over and tried by this family who is less active, the Acosta's. They were super friendlly. It took some talking to the mom to get her to let us talk to her for just 10 minutes until she pulled out some chairs for us to sit outside with her and her two daughters. It was an interesting conversation. Well. It really was just between me and them. For whatever reason I just wasn't being patient enough to let Elders Winfield or DeSpain get a chance to talk. But they obviously have gotten a hold of some anti-material and they just have some challenges to overcome. And although they said they didn't see the point in us coming back, we made a return apointment. After that we went over and stopped by Family home evening. I got to learn some turkish from this girl who is in our ward I guess. It was funny talking about the hatred that Armenians have towards the Turks but we got a good kick out of it. Also Robbie was kicking it up being able to meet so many people and get incorporated right into the ward. Super Awesome.

     Tuesday we had Zone Conference! Which was awesome. We had to go up to the La Canada building and set everything up because it was in our Zone. But it was a great meeting. Elder Haney of the Seventy came and addressed us for a good amount of the time on a lot of things. Too much to really recall without my notes. But what I do remember is that he is going to work more with our Bishop and ward mission leaders to get them into gear and doing their job as well as his concept that the two most sacred places are the Temple and the Home. And all members need to do is invite friends into their home. Not even have us over. Just get them into the threshold and that is where the work starts. But it was good. After the long all day meeting we had to do more apartment searching :( which was really lame and long and tiring but thankfully we have good air conditioning in the car! But lets just say the mission office loves us now because we have found them some BOMB apartments all around our budget! Which is tough in California. Lemma tell ya. But that night we scheduled a lesson with Melissa and it was awesome. We got to just talk about the qualifications for baptism to help her feel more prepared and it made it more comfortable for her. Her next question was just how to recognize the changes more and the spirit which is always a difficulty! But it was awesome because I guess Alexis was having some hard time and she bore some great testimony and it really brought the spirit. Love it! 

     Wednesday morning we did exchanges because out lesson went to long the night previous. Elder Winfiel went with Elder Stocks (from Dallas Texas) and Elder Brown came with me and Elder DeSpain! It was a learning experience. We got called to do some service for a member in G2 which included moving a bed. super easy and then we went and had MexiCali for lunch! DA BOMB. Funny thing though was we ran into our ward mission leader there and got to tell him we were visiting members who were active (take that!) since he doesn't think we do. But After some more paperwork for looking for apartments we had a pass off lesson with our investiagor Albert who has still been struggling with the Word of Wisdom but still is willing to learn and have us over to study with him. We met up with Robbie and had a short lesson with him and Kelli about what was next for him which is getting the Priesthood (which he will next Sunday) and going to the temple. Which he already understood so that makes our job easier. After a dinner with the Thatcher dinners we split up. DeSpain with Khoa to teach Stuart (went well) and we taught Julia with Kelvin about fasting to find people. Which we are doing today with her. But the end of the night ended kind of sour. Very much so. We got word that one of the members in G7 who was baptized in the last year had their name removed from the records.. not sure what happened. Still don't but I'm worried about said member. 

     Thursday didn't make it much better after hearing about the member who removed himself for an unknown reason. After lunch nd as we were about to go to a lesson we got word from Elder Bangerter that Elder Stocks would be going home the next day and we needed to go pick him up and be with him for the rest of the day and Elder DeSpain would be Elder Brown's new companion. Long story short is for medical reasons. So he'll come back in a few months when he gets better. But it was still sad to help him pack up to leave. We had dinner with the Ige's and met up with a priest who is going to do a miny mission with us next weekend. But the night ended well with being able to go get some ice cream with Pat and K who were going to SLC to do baptisms Saturday for K's first time! I also found out that he will mostly likely be going back to Thailand soon. I guess all he really came for was to be baptized. Pretty amazing when you look at it that way. I'm very proud of him. he's changed a lot since june! What a stud though. But anyways i really miss Elder DeSpain still. He's the district leader now thought! 4 weeks our and already DL! 

    Friday was long and hot. We did studies. Since we got money on our card we went to taco bell and then did weekly planning. but we got a call from a less active for some help moving so we went down and helped and called in Elders DeSpain and Brown and we moved in the dead heat of the day! Talk about being sweaty... Elder Despain still sweats the most though. SOPPING!! AFter that we got a lesson with Christina. Pretty sure she was on something because she was really glazed over. Still not reading.. so frustrating!! But then we had dinner with John Sariah at Raffi's which is one of the nicer restaurants in Glendale. John is loaded. Seriously. Don't have too much to explain other than he drives a six figure car and he is 25 and has a very, successful company. But it was delicious. Great precursor to another lesson with the Acosta family which wasn't much more successful that the last which just more anti material and frustration but we did learn a little more and guage where they are. 

     Saturday was amazing. We had a solid lesson with Robbie who is progressing so well. and then we had a great idea to have him come with us to teach Melissa which was a great idea because they connected and he was able to explain his conversion experience and she understood and felt comfortable opening up about her being nervous. Super awesome lesson. Then more service for the less active Jenny finishing up by moving her fridge and 400 pound, 1940 stove down her stairs and into a lifted truck. Again, in prose. Not a great idea. It took about 3 hours to move those two items. Then we went and had some pizza with Shawn and Jenna and their four kids under 4! They have them totally under control though which impresses me! then we stopped by the Kender house for a visit and got to teach a bit before heading home and getting a great view of LA! 

     Sunday was crazy. We had to help with filling up the font for two families baptisms and help teach sunday school. Christina ended up coming to church but left after sacrament and Melissa couldn't make it because of work. We had a great dinner with the Corrigan family and they hooked us up with a bunch of free stuff like laundry detergent and shaving cream!  Not much of a successful night though. 

Well as you probably noticed Im out of time but i love you all and hope you have a great week! 

Elder DeBry

Week 36 (8/19-8/26)

  So this past week has been a whirlwind of adventures. Don't even know where to start. So I'll begin with Monday :) 

     After a kind of bitter P-day from having to run errands for our zone to prepare for the new Armenian missionary, we saw a miracle. We first had a lesson with our good friend Josh in the stairwell of his apartment. We brought Anthony along with us (who is such a stud. but i'll talk about him more later) We were having a great lesson with him about the introduction to the Book of Mormon and then he got a call from his dad who is a deacon in his church and he started yelling at Josh for whatever reason. We could hear him from a few feet away if that puts it into perspective. Which we felt terrible for and it made Josh break down. He said we had to go and we had to leave without ending the lesson. On a brighter note, as we were walking back to the car Anthony decided to just go up to some guy on a bus stop and give him a Book of Mormon. Missionary? Yes? So then we headed off to Family home evening at the singles ward which was actually pretty awesome. Everyone brought some kind of 'Instrument' meaning pots, pans, toys, anything that could make a noice and they split up into groups and then performed their piece. I was thoroughly impressed as all the musical and not so musical talent performed with their not so great instruments. We even got to hear a B.I.G. song. Yeahhh buddy. But that wasn't the cool part of the night. As they finished and we were getting to know people better we were talking to this guy who was investigating and had come for the past few weeks. He came up to us and told us he wanted to be baptized into G7 that Sunday....huhhhhhh??!?!?!? We found out he had been meeting with some missionaries in Burbank but he wanted to come to our ward. So that was AWESOME. We were super excited and met with him almost every day this week. 

     Tuesday I got a out of the norm request to come translate some Armenian for one of the singles ward members. Turned out to be a letter from someone and that's all I'll say about that! We had some lunch with the senior couple in the family ward and then we went out on the town to search for more apartments for new missionaries... lets just say looking for apartments with only a road map, a very general area and being confined in a car for the majority of the day is not a very fun activity especially with two other guys... but we ended up finding one bomb apartment that we were ready to move into if it was for us... but no it wasn't. We got so caught up with searching we almost forgot our appointment with the Sinor family who haven't been coming lately because the boys haven't been wanting to come... lame!! So we read some scriptures with them and made it super exciting. Relating it to Spiderman and what 8 and 10 year old doesn't like spiderman? Later we had a lesson with Robbie, the guy we met at FHE who wanted to be baptized, at some park near his apartment in Burbank along with the missionaries who were teaching him at the time. Turned out to be the missionaries we ran into at the border of our mission not to long ago. Small world right? But anyways we got to hear more about Robbie. Turns out that he was Aetheist before the missionaries, a series of events including having a crush on a mormon singer and other bizzare answers to his prayers all lead up to him wanting to be baptized! The way he tells the story is much better. We are trying to have him type it us because that is what he does for work. he does closed caption for TV. Which is boss. Then after that lesson we had a game night activity with the G7 members/missionaries to get to know everyone better which was really fun! Got to play spoons. Love spoons! 

     Wednesday was crazy. I don't know why Wednesdays are always crazy. But we had a lesson with Anthony first thing about missionary work and committed him to turn in his papers by December 31 of this year :) he is so stoked to go. We gave him a Preach my Gospel and he loves sharing the gospel and is ready to change his life through a mission. Did I mention he passed the sacrament to me last Sunday? Very proud of that man. That afternoon Brother Prieto had us go to his office to pick up some maps that he had his secretary make for us to know where some of the new people who had just moved in were. Still very talking down to us but I'm over it. So we did that for the afternoon. No one was home but we did get to talk to one of the people's neighbor who was a model from NYC who was just housesitting for her friends. She said she loved studying about religion but she would be gone visiting her mother in San Francisco. But we'll get her when she comes back! After all that we headed to the office to make the office run of supplies and then to a lesson with Melissa. When we showed up we were a little taken back that it was already evening because we didn't feel too prepared for the lesson. And it showed because it wasn't that great of a lesson. But we made up for it later in the week. On our way back we got a text from a new potential less active to work with asking if we were still going to come over which we spaced. So we got to meet with Stuart, a guy from Arizona who stopped coming to church after his parents got divorced. But he feels like he is missing something and he recognized maybe it is the church and so he got in touch with us! He's a stud and even came to church yesterday with his friend. And then that night we went on a little split. I went with Elder Twelves and Elder Cook ( the new Armenian Elder who came in on Tuesday. From Provo, Utah. Pretty funny kid. Kicks butt at Armenian) and we went over to their investigator family and taught them a lesson. man it was so good to talk Armenian lessons again! I have really appreciated being able to learn how to teach in English though. I feel like I can better address the needs of the people now and how to go about teaching and such. But I just miss the Armenian people. The treats they bring out in lessons and their humor and their hospitality in general. I love the Armenian people. 

     Thursday we went up to a BOMB district meeting with Elder Montgomerey in La Crescenta. Man if only he weren't so stubborn and was more obedient of an Elder then he would be so successful. He gave a great lesson on what we really want people to understand when we teach them the plan of salvation. I wish I could have received that inspiration! We had a bit of a slow afternoon after having more companion study for Elder DeSpain and then towards the same time as usual, things picked up and got a little hectic. We ended up going on splits again to go to two lessons that somehow got pushed to the same time. Elder Winfield went with Conor Turley and I went with Elder DeSpain to teach Josh. Our lesson was awesome and we really got to answer some of his questions. Well I shouldn't say me because it was Elder DeSpain who kicked butt in the lesson. I have really appreciated having him as a trainee. He's very humble, hard working and a great Elder. I hope I was that way!  then we had dinner with the Velasquez family who made us some delicious steak. NOM. It was kind of funny, after dinner we were going to go to G7 soccer but then Brother Prieto showed up at the church dressed to go to a meeting with us. Forgetting that it was Thursday, he expected us to be there to have coorelation and to actually go on splits with him and Juan Carlos. Elder Winfield and I went with Juan Carlos to visit some people that we had been to visit before. And the last person we visited was actually the Velasquez family who we had just eaten with. It was just funny because Broter Prieto wanted us to make sure to get to know the people thinking that we honestly didn't know anyone in the ward... silly him. We then met back up and he told us some things that made us just more frustrated with him that were along the lines of we don't love the members and we can do this all on our own and we don't need to pray to baptized every month... 

     Friday was very long. and very interesting. We had a kind of a bed bug scare. Still not sure we had them but we might have but we took every precaution to take care of it. including washing our clothes, putting them in black garbage bags and letting them sit in the sun to kill all the bugs. Oh and we also heated up our apartment.... to 140 degrees to kill everything else in the apartment. Don't worry none of us got cooked :) and no more bugs!! so hooray for that! Then we took a break and got some Island burgers to treat ourselves with Elders Twelves, Jewell and Cook. We then put our apartment back together and got to do weekly planning and then we actually had a bike day... which was hot and miserable but that is what builds character. So we show up to dinner sweating, then we have to bike another six miles to our next lesson, sweating. It was just a fun day! Robbie got his interview that day though and it was awesome to have him tell us he was already in 3 Nephi... for the second time since Easter. Crazy. Then we went on another exchange. Me with the Armenians to teach Ragned and invite her to be baptized next Saturday. her mother also gave me a purple tie because I said I liked my pink tie that I was wearing the other day when I saw them. So nice! And also because we had a bedbug scare we couldn't do exchanges that day. 

     Saturday we had an early Bomb lesson with Melissa. Teaching her the things that we were taught by Elder Montgomery and she said she was a little hesitant still about being baptized but at least she is progressing. We ended up helping a guy move the rest of the day and it was brutal and hot. But it was good to be able to do some service for once! That night we went to G2 picnic and had some delicious turkey sandwhiches and got to play some catch which I haven't done in FOREVER!! But later we got another call from the office that we needed to look for more apartments that night... so elder DeSpain with with the ap's and we went to look. Not super fun but we did find a shop that just grew Marijuana. Must be California! 

     Sunday was AWESOME! K got the ordained to the priesthood and it was so cool to have him pass the sacrament yesterday. We had Robbie's baptism and it went very, very smoothly. He got up and bore his testimony after telling us more of the stories that lead up to him being baptized which were all hilarious in the way he told them. Just a solid day. K is also going to Salt Lake on Thursday to go to the temple and do baptisms. Wish I could go with! 

Well I have to wrap up. I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful week! 

Elder DeBry

Week 35 (8/12-8/19)

Well this past week was definitely inspiring. Started off with some frustrations and ended last night with some miracles I definitely wasn't expecting. Not to mention this past week I realized I've been out 10 months.. That can't be right, can it? Anyways, I don't have much time this week but here are my adventures.

     Monday was filled with Wilson ball (one man dodgeball) and little ceasars. We unfortunately had two lessons cancel on us. Eddie, who is the guy that could bench 670 or something like that and had the super beefy mustang, and Carly who was the girl that was coming to church occasionally but is SUPER flaky. So we just ended up having dinner with the Castillo family and feeding their snapping turtles. 

     Tuesday was Zone Leader Counsel so Elder Winfield headed off with Elder De Spain behind with Elders Twelves and Jewell. It was different this month however because they only had the english zone leaders because spanish and english work are so different. I think that will be from now on. So there were only us 10 Elders there and two sets of sister trainers being addressed by Elder Bangerter, Sister and President Becerra. It was an awesome meeting. After being taught for a while and doing some 'real'-plays, Elder and Sister Plewe (the car office missionaries) who presented us with a massive map of the mission with every bus route and train line that exists in our mission. We then were told to, one at a time of course, tell President about our zone and who can lose their cars and who needs one. So basically everyone in our zone is losing cars but us and the Armenian Elders. Which is quite hilarious because they don't even know it yet and won't until next transfer. But it made me appreciate the hard work of those in the office a little more. We finished in the late afternoon and had dinner to go to with Sister Sowby at IHOP. Yes we did have breakfast for dinner. First time I have on my mission actually. And then we had another cancellation with Christina again and a quick lesson with Forest and Gina. However the big event at the end of the day was getting a call from President Becerra to tell us about the disobedience that had been going on in our Zone. Well, just one district in particular. Apparently President got an email from one of the new Elders that day saying his district was obedient. Going on to say that his companion had fallen asleep for the rest of the night on Monday. So that raised a big red flag to us and he told us we needed to get to the bottom of it the next morning. NOt only that but the assistants also told us that his Dad had called and questioned the AP's about the computer/emailing policy. So something was up.
     Wednesday we went up to one of the companionships up north to see what was going on. We stopped by the Elders in La Crescenta first and didn't exactly tell them why we were there other than to have some person interviews. We first talked to the trainer (he's been out 6 weeks and is now training. Last transfer I told the assistants and president that he was a good Elder.) He obviously didn't know what was going on and we finally had to ask him straight up about the email that his companion sent and confront him about the nap. He felt terribly guilty and started crying saying he just laid down after getting ready from not feeling well and that it hadn't happened before. Believable. So we cheered him up and just told him we want him to be the best Elder that his Dad wanted him to be. Next we talked with his comp and he was a lot more honest with us we found out. Apparently all the Elders in the district were: misusing computer privledges and doing email, facebook, taking naps during the day, playing basketball on days other than P-day. We were shocked. This was the first time we had heard about any of this but we have had our suspicion for a while. After we calmed him down and thanked him for his honestly we had to go visit the other elders in the  district. Which we did and went through the same scenario except no one was honest with us until we told them we knew about everything. So they all accepted their punishment and knew they needed to be obedient. I don't like having to discipline like that. But they are never going to be successful missionaries if they are disobedient. Just plain and simple. The rest of the day was relatively mellow compared to those few hours. We had Josh cancel on us who is a potential from the G1 Elders and agreed to meet with us even though he said "I'm not looking to convert to any church.." Oh Josh... that is what they all say. So we just ended up having a lesson with Anthony instead who was going to help us. He is still solid. Got his Patriarchal blessing and only has two more books in the new testament to read before he is finished with it! I'm impressed. After that we had an office run which is always fun. Tomorrow we get the new Armenian which should be exciting. Elder Shad Cook from Provo, Utah. Weird to think I'm not the young one anymore. Then we ended up having a delicious home made chinese food. 

     Thursday was zone training and in my opinion it was BOMB. We didn't have a ton of time to coordinate what Elder Winfield and I would talk about specifically but it turned out alright. We went over everything that President talked to us about which went all fine and dandy and I got to share some of my thoughts on a talk that we recently got called 'The Desires of Our Hearts" By Elder Evans of the missionary department. I'd say it inspired the zone to have the vision to baptized monthly. And Elder Winfield ended with talking about obedience and we listened to the talk by Elder Holland "the first great commandment" and it really sunk into everyone about being obedient and how it connects to being able to be a good missionary. It was awesome. Next I got to Interview one of the AP's investigators for baptism. His name is James Harrold from London and he is solid. He was so prepared and knew that this was the right thing to do. it was incredible to hear how deep his conviction was. I guess you'd just have to meet him but it was just an incredible spirit to talk to him and know he was ready and needed it. While I did that Elder Winfield and Bangerter talked to the district leader of the one district and tried to sort things out. I guess it didn't go too well because Elder bangerter was the only one to know this particular Elder well enough to get something through to him. We then raced off to meet Josh and had a first lesson with him that just went smoothly and he accepted baptism once he receives his answer. Love it. Later that night we went on some splits. Elder Garcia went with Elder Winfield and De Spain to play soccer with G7 while I went with Elder Bangerter to teach the Villalobos family with our recent convert Kelvin and then visit Gina afterwards. We had a great visit with Nicole and Jessy Villalobos and even had the middle Sister, Sarah show up. Nicole is the nonmember while her sisters have been baptized and they all agreed to listen another time when they could to the lessons. Unfortunately Gina also had to cancel but Elder Bangerter and I got to have a good talk about how the mission has changed us. I miss that guy. 

     Friday was the funniest day. All because every single appointment cancelled. Even dinner and then they rescheduled. It was quite funny. But it ended really well because James decided he wanted to get baptized that day and not Saturday so we ended up having to help the AP's take care of setting everything up. It was probably one of the best baptismal services I've been too. Seriously the spirit was so strong. James asked me to give a talk on baptism and it was totally inspired because the I can't talk in front of people at all. After the talks he played a song that he wrote for his mom who died a few years ago and it had everyone in tears how much this meant to him. His family is against him being baptized and so this was all in secret. Be he knows that his mom is was telling him the right thing to do. Words just can't describe it. To see someone just baptized is just a sight in its own. Definitely made up for the canceled day. 

     Saturday was also awesome. After some bomb studies in which got all of us excited for our lesson that morning with Melissa, we had our lesson with her at her friends house, Alexis Priestly and her dad joined us. It was awesome. We honestly didn't even really teach. It was mostly Alexis and her Dad who knew Melissa so well and just knew what she was looking for. We invited her to be baptized on September 29 and after Alexis bore some powerful testimony she accepted the leap of faith. The day kind of dragged on though after finishing our 12 week training with Elder De Spain. Then we got a call from Sister Beck from the office telling us we needed to start looking for more housing in our stake for more missionaries. So for the afternoon we made calls to members and drove around the area they needed an apartment in. Finding housing is boring! Longest few hours in a car. Not my cup of coco. Not to mention Christina tried to cancel on us again saying that her ex husband didn't want her to meet with us anymore and especially to have their daughters take the lessons. But we told her otherwise and ended up only being able to talk to her on the street because of the crazy concert that was going on across the street from her apartment downtown LA. Not sure how much longer we will teach her. 

     Sunday was awesome and long. We had the stake presidency meeting with President Becerra at 7 and got to see some of the humerus sides of all the people there. Especially to see our President talking about his son playing football and going to games. Kinda cool to see his Mission President side and then his Dad side.  No one ended up coming to 2nd ward church but we got to talk to Sister Boyack about Brennan just leaving to New Zealand. Made me miss Mom. But then we got to linger longer with the ward and be able to have lunch for once on a Sunday. But 7th ward was poppin as ever. Melissa showed up with Alexis, Brian got the priesthood, K got interviewed to get it as well and it was just awesome. The Boyacks fed us some awesome bbq and then we met up with Brother Prieto to talk about some lists he had for us to visit. Probably trying to get on our good side now that we talked to President about him not necessarily doing his job. So we were on our way home and decided to stop by a referral we got a few weeks earlier and hadn't been able to contact. Ended up being home. We got to teach them a lesson. Picked the entire family up as investigators. Miracle. Didn't think we'd ever pick up even 4 investigators in a week let a long a night. It was awesome. 

Overall, great week. Started off with some disobedience and ended up with 6 new investigators total. Love it! I love you all. hope you all have had a great week! 

Elder DeBry

Week 34 (8/5-8/12)

According to most people around here, school has started today for most if not it will this next week. How crazy is that? A whole school year and summer has come and gone and it only seems like not too long ago I left and arrived here in Glendale. Weird. 

     So last monday as I mentioned last week I got  my new companion Elder Winfield who is a stud and has grown immensely since the last time he was here in the zone about three months ago. After a P-day of some dodgeball with some of the other Elders in the zone, we had dinner with the Alvord family. Coincidentally we found out that I, Elder Bangerter and Elder Winfield had all eaten there on our first days in the area. Fun fact. And after dinner we went on a temporary split with the AP's. I went with Elder Garcia and Elder Winfield with Elder Bangerter to do a family home evening with Megan Goddard and 5 nonmembers.  But later that night we had a spur of the moment lesson with K because he couldn't end up meeting with the ward missionaries. So we went over more about the Priesthood to prep him for his interview with the Bish on Sunday (yes, our singles ward bishop does go by THE Bish). After that lesson Elder Garcia and I met up and started talking to this potential investigator, Carly, who has come to church a few times and has been coming to activities for a while this summer. We haven't been able to meet with her during the week so we just got a big group of her member friends and had a short lesson with her that was bomb. She was not sure what to expect and asking if we were going to do any candle lighting or ritual dances... so she was blown away with amazement when we just had a discussion and talked about our purpose as missionaries. So she was excited to meet more often after that. Too bad she got sick the rest of the week... But it was a good night. I got some good insight from Elder Garcia about confidence. He is a wise Elder. Undoubtedly why President has him as an Assistant. Then we returned to our regular companions and I guess the family home evening with Megan and her friends was AWESOME and it was perfect that Elder Winfield went for some reason. Still not sure why but whatevs! 

     Tuesday was a rather busy day and very exciting. After a morning lesson with Anthony we headed to the office to pick our new trainee!! We went through a short meeting by the assistants to provide somewhat instruction how to train (kind of just don't do whatever your trainer did wrong + common sense). Then we were assigned. Our new companion is... drum roll... Elder Andrew De Spain from West Valley, Utah. Freshly graduated from High School. Was a wrestler and football player. Really humble and kind of quiet but a great kid. I am excited for him!  After the afternoon of excitement we had to rush back to Glendale for our fist lesson together with the Sinor family which went splendid. The kids aren't as excited to hear from us as they used to be so it makes it hard to get them to focus. After that we had been invited to set up a booth at this 'Glendale's Nigh Out' neighborhood activity at the local community center right by our apartment. It was pretty successful but really great for Elder De Spain to get to talk to people and hand out some materials to them. It was funny because as it being Glendale and all, most of the people/families were Armenian so the other Elders kept having to call me over to talk to those who didn't speak english. So once the activity was over we had a lesson with Gina! She was able to get her temple recommend last Sunday so she is all ready to go down to Santa Monica now. It is awesome. 

     Wednesday was an eye opener to the miracles of having a new missionary with loads of faith. throughout the day we were not only able to talk to more people willing to listen, but people actually shared their contact information with us. Each time I just kept asking "what has happened to these Glendalians that they are so nice now?!" We had lunch with some of the G7 members who go to CalTech. Seriously my IQ went up a few points just from that very intellectual lunch. The rest of the afternoon wasn't as productive as I would have liked on the first day with Elder De Spain but we ended up meeting this guy, Eddie, who is seriously massive and we found out is a heavy weight lifter(he can bench 670lbs) with a fully loaded old mustang that he has put $30,000 into the hood. But we found out his Mom just past away and he agreed to have us over today so we'll see how that goes! Also we got to stop by Bishop Lee's to introduce Elders Winfield and De Spain to him. I wish I had that chance when I got here. After dinner we had a lesson with Trea. I went into the lesson with the intention of telling him that we wouldn't be able to come over anymore but he has been praying which is big for him and somewhat reading/listening to the Book of Mormon... so we gave him another chance to come to church on Sunday. Which was frustrating because I just don't like having to drop people even if their progress is slow. Ugh. 

     Thursday was our first district meeting with our new DL, Elder Stocks. It'll take some time for him to get used to a leadership/training meeting position. But the rest of the afternoon was supposed to be busy. After a lunch at MexiCali (which Elder DeSpain fell in love with), Christina cancelled after we had already arrived at her apartment and then had to drive ALL the way back up to the other side of our boundary for a lesson with Jeff. But I guess that is missionary life, being stood up by investigators and lessons. Our lesson with Jeff was great though. He still wanted us to address his slavery questions and scriptures that he gave us so we did and explained that he just didn't understand the context. Not to mention not one of the scriptures said the word 'slavery'. Another cool thing, as we were waiting before our lesson we ran into the Burbank Elders who were on bike and we talked to them from across the street because we were on the boundary. Anyways... nothing else too exciting. We got to play soccer with a bunch of people from G7 that we found out they do every thursday. which was AWESOME. I'm realizing Im getting out of shape... not cool man. Then at the end of the night we tried by this referral we got from the spanish elders. turned out to be some armenian family that elder dicus and I had already stopped by when I first got here and they were upset we tried by again. Funny thing is when I went there with Elder Dicus, I wanted to go back and we got in a tussel. Oh the things I didn't realize back then! 

     Friday we had our new missionary orientation meeting where the trainees/trainers where addressed further on the next few weeks of their training. Which was kind of long but being addressed by President is always exciting. He is just always saying the most profound things! funny quote from Friday. Elder De Spain (talking about his subway sandwich at lunch) "I get sad when it's the last bite". The rest of Friday was kind of stressful. I found out how hard it is to try and navigate a city that you don't know in california without a gps. But we did end up having a lesson with Christina once we got permission from President because we found out she is our of our area but becuase her daughters are in the boundary, we can teach them. SAWEEET. It was probably one of the more intense lessons we have had with her. It was just on a roll! We were building it all up and at the end Elder De Spain invited her to be baptized and her response was "that was a terrible invitation! I didn't feel it at all!" And I felt so bad. Seriously it was rude. She is just blunt that way. Kind of like how she told Elder Mendoza he didn't speak well and how he was forced to come on a mission. So Elder De Spain was pretty hurt but we all laughed it off and it was great :) 

     Saturday was planned to be an AWESOME day. But yet again, we were stood up by 2/3 people we had lessons with. But it was okay because we had a lesson with Albert aka our 'German' and set him with a date of August 31 and he said he'd quit smoking. It was awesome. So cool. Can't even describe it. He just understood it and he even said "well I need to be baptized again!" That made up for Elder De Spain's rejection the day previous. So the rest of the afternoon was weekly planning. but we got a call from Elder Twelves and jewel to have a lesson with the former G7 investigator that they just so happened to get in contact with. Elders Winfield and De Spain went with Twelves to do the lesson and I went with Elder Jewel to teach this member who is addicted to cough syrup. And I was legit afraid I'd get bed bugs from his apartment because it was gross. Bleh. But turns out the lesson with the other elders turned out to be a bash! Glad I didn't go! But after that I went with Elders Twelves and Jewel to go contact some potentials (which we picked up two new armenian investigators for them and taught the first lesson) and go to Joey's wedding! Which was extravagent and obviously $60,000. Ridiculous but it was awesome. Love Armenian weddings and their music and food! So delicous. 

     Sunday was a disappointment. No investigators at church. And dropped Trea and Natailie because they didn't come. It was funny because their response was "so you guys are breaking up with us". We are just letting you act on what we have taught you. Sad day. 

Well I love you all! Thank you for all the support! Have a wonderful Week!

Elder DeBry

Week 33 (7/29- 8/5)

 Welp! Family transfers have happened. No. I did not move. But yes, Elder Mendoza did and I'm terribly sad about it because this past week was awesome with him. He is now gone to serve as a Zone leader in the Glendora zone  with his new companion Elder Brough who is the man. My new update. Elder Winfield (From Tusan, Arizona) who was born here (first area in the mission) and is a transfer younger than I am is now a ZL with me. But that's not all! We will be training a new missionary who comes in tomorrow! So this next transfer will be a very busy and new adventure to say the least. 

     So Let me go over this past week with y'all before this new transfer begins. It was an awesome week I'll tell you that much. 

     Last Monday Elder Griffitts left for Brazil and it was a bit of a bummer day because we really loved Elder Griffitts (or Elder Graffitti as Elder Mendoza says). But it was still a p-day. We had to go run some errands for the sisters in our zone though who had bed bugs and needed new beds... bleh. gross. That night we got a chance to meet up with a relatively recent convert in the G7 ward, Francesca, who is cool and missionary work oriented. We are starting to meet with members to get to know them and receive referrals which was pretty successful since she had three people we told her to work on. But anyways, after that we stopped by Trea and Natalie. When we first got there it was only Natalie so we couldn't go in. But we got to talk to her on the pourch. She is having some marital and family problems and was kind of venting to us. We weren't sure what to do when she was telling us all that she did. But then Trea came home and we got to have a lesson with them. It's frustrating. They still aren't coming to church. 

     Tuesday we had an early morning cleaning check. Yes we passed. Yippee! But the rest of the day we had some serious work to do. We had a bunch of referrals we had received the preveious week that we didn't get a chance to contact. So we were crackin' down! We tried by some older lady- not home according to the granddaughter, tried by another lady and thought we were going to die while in the creepy ancient elevator that barely fit the both of us in there, knocked a whole apartment complex with 6 separate buildings in it to find this one lady. We found her. And then we had a dinner with a member that made some special Spanish dish that Elder Mendoza requested. it was delicious. Kind of like gumbo but definitely not as good. Love gumbo. Southern food. Yummmmmmm. But then we had another lesson with a member from G7 and we brought my recent convert Anthony to help out which was awesome to have him help us teach about missionary work. Then lesson with Forest and Gina. It makes things so much easier when people just understand what we teach. Gina just gets it. It is awesome. 

     Wednesday was crazy. We had a lesson with our semi-investigator who we kinda stole from some other sisters, John. So John is super smart with him being a Harvard student. But he is struggling to recognize the spirit right now and the reason why he is trying to recognize it is to not only find out if it's true but he has come out to us and says that if he knows that it is true he'd be baptized. So that is awsome. Just gotta help him figure that out. Too back he goes back to Massachusetts soon... right after that we tried by another referral we got all the way out in Temple City. But before that we ran into this chinese place for lunch and Elder Mendoza ran into a member he knew and bought us lunch :) So nice!  This referral's name was Melissa and she grew up with a member now in G7. She is super nice but we was busy and couldn't have us in for a lesson that day but we tried later in the week. After that we ran by the office for supplies as well as to wash our very filthy car that didn't take too long.  but was desperately needed. So later that day as we were finishing our studies we get a mass of calls and texts from this member in G1 who had some guy who he wanted us to go visit with him who had accepted a Book of Mormon. But because it was in Burbank we had to have him drive us but it was cool. The guy's name was Jeff and he lives with his grandmother. the member works on their pool. It was a short meeting but we got to set some expectations with him. he is open to learning but not really too into religion seeing how his parents forced him to go to a church he didn't like. So we'll see how that goes. Later we had a dinner with the now new Armenian group ward mission leader at some Armenian place. They are some older couple who recently got back from a mission so we'll see how that goes. next we had a lesson with the newest member of our ward, Brother Chaiwat Seehabat! He is so solid. There is just such a difference in him since Sunday. It is amazing. Only the gospel could bring that. It doesn't get much better than that. 

     Thursday we had our actual last district meeting with Elder Crumrine. It was solid with some very solid questions. I have learned to like questions more out here. AFter that we had a big lunch that we made with Khoa and some of the members Megan Goddard and Phoebe Howe from London who is visiting! We made some delicious shrimp fettuccine Alfredo. Delicious. Next we had a lesson with Carol who wanted to meet down in Hollywood because she doesn't have a car. And luckily enough I just found out that for G7 we can go anywhere as long as a member drives, even outside the mission. So we went down to Hollywood and even drove through the actual 'little Armenia'! I have to say, Glendale is more of  a little Armenia that Hollywood. But it was still cool. We also after our lesson ran into some LA mission Elders who were actually working/have help from some of the old Armenian branch members that new English. Uh. Hello? Why didn't we know about this?! So we will hopefully. Well, Elder Twelves will hopefully be in contact with some of those members. For dinner we had some Popusas? However you spell that. Delicious. thank you Kiel for introducing me to them. And then to top the night we tried by yet another referral and this guy, Albert, seriously was prepared to the point we thought he was too good to be true. Yes, he was a heavy user of serious drugs but now he is just a super friendly guy who wants to do the right thing. Too bad he is 33 and we'll have to pass him off to the other Elders who work with the older single adults. And then finally we had coordination with Brother Prieto. Which was Elder Mendoza's first and last. Lets just say that not every missionary has loved Brother Prieto. And I found out why. But I won't go there. 

     Friday was also a little all over. We had an actual lesson with Melissa that morning which was great and she accepted a Book of Mormon and will come to know that it is true. Next we had a blessing we got called to give to a lady named Cricket. Yes, Cricket. I'd actually heard about her from Elder Tovey and Fochs visiting her but I guess she has just kind of given up and isn't doing too well. After we had a lesson with Christina, Who who came to find out is actually not in our ward boundaries on Sunday so we have to figure out how to transfer her over to the other missionaries.... which is a bummer. there goes our investigator for G2! Later after a delicious lunch at MexiCali we had another lesson with Jeff which was mostly focused on his belief in God because he only believes in a higher power. Then we had another lesson with Albert and he is so solid. We went over the Gospel of Jesus Christ and next time we will have a date with him but will have to pass him off :/ bummer. 

     Saturday morning we did service for an Armenian lady named Tina. She was having a massive yard sale and needed help setting everything up. so we did that in the morning and the rest of the day caught up on our weekly planning which we didn't have time for on Friday. We had dinner with a family and we were told that the family staying with them at that time just had a death in the family so elder garcia and mendoza taught them the plan of salvation while bangerter and I just audited. 

Part Two:

I sent that first part on accident. Whoops. Well Saturday night we got the call that Elder Mendoza and I would be transferred. It was a sad day. We were just getting to know each other.

    Sunday went by so fast. Church happened in a blink of an eye. we had break the fast and then went to the despedida. Everyone I know is leaving. 

Well that is all the time I have. Love you all! Have a good week everyone! 

Elder DeBry