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
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