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

PICTURES

Week 32 (7/22-7/29)

Holy tolito has it already been a month since my birthday.... no way.... I guess this week has only added to the way time flows here with how much has been going on. Not quite as much as last week with our five baptisms in the zone but it was still a very successful week! So here is the little re-cap.

     Last monday I injured one of my toes playing volleyball. Not quite sure how but it really hurt and it has been bruised all week. So that hasn't been fun but they only had to amputate a little bit of it.... just kidding! We have started to get the swing of things in the singles ward with all the activities that they have. It has been awesome to have our investigators and solid potentials build relationships with us during activities. Makes the work so much easier! 

     Tuesday felt like it was the longest day ever! Well not really but sort of. Our zone had interviews by the Mission President and so as Zone Leaders we had to get there early, talk with all the companionships and teach them while they waited, and then have our interviews when everyone else's were over. Which took basically all day from 830-3. But it was good getting to know some of the companionships in the zone that we don't get to interact with very much like the spanish district or some of the districts further north of Glendale. Overall our zone is doing pretty good besides some complaints from sisters about some immaturity of the younger elders... Finally we had our own interviews with President. And mine was magnificently short. President just talked to me about the importance of me teaching Elder Mendoza english and being more patient with him in all aspects of the work... not that I'm not patient with him but like I've said in these past few weeks, it has just taken time to get him willing to be involved in the work because of his lack of confidence in the language. Which I can understand but I wasn't even my frist transfer in the field I feel like I participated more but everyone is different and I love him all the same. But after our interviews we had President Becerra come to a lesson we had set up with our Iranian investigator, Ervin and his wife Aylin. The run down with them is basically they want to have the church be able to refer people who are in financial trouble to them and their business... and if they learn some things that will strengthen their faith that is cool too. So the lesson was quite funny. It was 2 hours. Ervin and Aylin talked for almost an hour and a half before President cut them off and astounded them with a lesson on the Restoration in about 15 minutes. After which they still were reluctant to say that they would not join the church even if they knew it was God's church.... at that point they tried to use the fact that President was a very successful financial adviser to their gain but their purpose is now known and there won't be any more lessons we set up with them. Only if they come to us. But the next lesson was with K. Man it was so cool to see him that night. He seriously seemed like another person. We taught him about the upcomingsunday in which he was confirmed. So cool! Especially because he asked me to do the confirming! 

     Wednesday we had another lesson with Christina in the morning. Which we thought would be better so she wouldn't be all hyped up on monster... but nope. She was drinking one at 9am. She hasn't been reading on account of her not having her glasses. Dumb. The rest of the day was quite busy though. We stopped by Kenny and read with him. Ran to the office to get supplies. Did some service for Gina. Had a lesson with the Sinor family about the priesthood. Met up with some members from G7 (the ysa ward). One works for ESPN and the other works with producing P-Diddy's music. Pretty cool jobs if I say so! However the rest of the night slowed down. We stopped by this potential Natasha who we ran into a few weeks back. She is super awesome and has grown up around the church. She even went to seminary with her friends. But she is still Atheist with an even more Atheist husband who was yelling at us by the end of our conversation with his wife... just not very nice! 

     Thursday we had our last District meeting with Elder Crumrine. Well depending on if we have zone training this next week or not... but it was good. Especially the lunch afterwards in which we went to Los Gringos Tacos in La Canada. Home of the 'Big Bertha" burrito.  Which is five pounds. And yes. I did order it. And yes. The burrito was gone. But I shared it... so not as cool. I just need preparation to eat such a burrito! Next we headed off to do some service for a potential, Tina. Who is this Armenian lady but very much so americanized. She is the one that refurbishes and makes cool things she finds at garage sales and such. She had some things come up so we weren't able to help her much but at least we got to help. Later that afternoon we stopped by our flat tire friend Sharen at her clothing boutique which is funny. We walk in and Sharen, her sister Mary, and their friend Susan are all sitting back smoking and drinking their Armenian black coffee (pure grinds and water). I can't imagine that tastes very good. But they were exstatic to see us return. One of them had even started reading the Book of Mormon that we gave them. We also found out the friend, Susan, had a grandchild recently pass away in an accident and she asked me if he was alright and it was a sweet experience being able to tell her yes. They are some of the more soft hearted armenians that I have met thus far. 

     Friday Christina told us she had guests still sleeping on her floor and wouldn't be able to meet... so we went and picked up Elder Grifitts dry cleaning and I was able to talk to the Armenian owner who was 'testing' my Armenian. He said I passed until he started quizzing me on the 'bad' vocabulary. And when I said I didn't know the words he was saying, his response was "how can you not know the bad words?!" Sorry man. No need for such a pretty language! We had a lesson with Anthony that afternoon which was solid. He is just a stud and wants to help teach people so we went over more missionary work which was awesome to be able to have him understand. after weekly planning we had a spur of the moment lesson with another potential (kind of) named John. Who is technically already an investigator for some other sisters in Pasadena but since he comes to the singles ward too... he felt comfotable with us to ask for a lesson. So not sure if i've already talked about John but he is a student studying at Harvard here in California to write his senior thesis on Mormonism... so he said he had some question on how to recognize the holy ghost because as he has been interviewing people he hasn't quite understood that. So we talked to him a little about that but then it led into another concern that he had which included that he was gay and he wanted to know how gaining a testimony of this church could benefit him. Curve ball? So we meet with him again this week and it will be an awesome lesson. 

     Saturday I was on exchanges with Elder Stocks and Elder Crumrine for the day while Elder Mendoza went with the spanish elders who are in our zone. So that morning we had Armenian coordination and I found out this past week that Henry was recently released and they have a new ward mission leader. Who is good. kinda old. not as enthusiastic. But we'll see how it goes! after that we had a meeting with another potential Josh who was a former in the family ward and just graduated high school. we just had a meeting with him over some Boba... which is really weird drink and I don't even know how to describe it! just little black slimy balls in a smoothie... interesting. But then we had another meeting with Christina which was really good and she is going to pray about a date in September 1. After some following lunch at MexiCali, which is so delicious, we had a lesson with a recent convert in G1 named Mike who talked a lot. Then another lesson with a girl in G9 who is struggling with some addictions. To top the day off we did some yard work service and ate some of the best Chile Relleno I've ever had made by some lady that is from Guatemala. NOM! 

     Sunday was a blast. Christina showed up to church. I was able to confirm K. And Pat's friend Paul, who was already my friend Paul from BYU, brought his girlfriend Becky with him to Church who I also knew from BYU. It was fun to see people from home. A little strange and it took me aback. But cool. Later we were invited to have dinner with the Townsend's from the Armenian group. Following dinner there was an amazing musical fireside that the group put on. People sang and played piano and violin and the armenian members read poems and sang songs that you could feel the passion about Armenia and then at the end all the armenian group members sang a song. Which I participated in :) It was awesome. Love the group. Miss them. 

So Yeah! That is my week. Pretty awesome. I love you all and hope you have a great rest of your week! 

Elder DeBry