Friday, September 20, 2013

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

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