Friday, September 20, 2013

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

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