Hi Mom.,
This was a fun week. I worked really hard and we got to see a lot of success.
Monday's are normally rather boring, just sports and shopping, so I'll skip this one. Just know, you are an evil genius with your workouts.
Tuesday, we started with a District meeting about how to work better with the members. Part of district meeting is Role Playing, and for this Elder Joyner and I taught "S*" a lesson on the importance of the Book of Mormon in conversion. It went really well. We hadn't finished teaching her the lesson from the Liahona quite yet, so we finished that that night and planned on teaching the Book of Mormon lesson to her on Thursday. We also found the most prepared family in the history of prepared families. They're a couple that just got together, freshly starting out on their own. They aren't married (Why are all the families here unmarried!? I don't get it), but they have the cutest little girl ever. They also have all the right questions. When we started the lesson we asked, basically, "Why do you want to meet with us?" and their response was "How can we know which church is true?" I'm not even joking. They have the very same question that 14-year-old Joseph Smith had. We taught them the restoration and they set up three days for us to come by steadily at a set time. We normally have to fight for one or two regular days, but they gave us three in a row. Oh, and icing on the cake, the girlfriends name is N*. Part of the reason she's listening to us is that she grew up Jehovah's Witness, didn't like it, and felt the spirit when she talked with the English Elders and then with us last Wednesday! BAPTISM COMMING UP!!!
Wednesday, we did service (I sent you a picture with most of the missionaries that where there and a member who just happened to be there). After service we had a few things lined up, but nothing really happened until six. We were supposed to go by N* and her boyfriend (K*) again, but they had a doctors appointment for their baby, so we went finding for a bit and then ran to a lesson with L* and F*. They're new investigators who aren't really interested, but their son is, so we're going to keep going by for him and hope that the parents get interested. We then had coordination and a appointment with L* and B*, but the appointment fell through, so we ran home and ended the day after coordination.
Thursday was fun. We planed to do Weekly Planning, but Elder Joyner forgot that when he lost his wallet, he lost his temple recommend, so we called the Zone Leaders and I went finding with Elder Houmand while Elder Kimball and Elder Joyner went to Santa Clarita to get a new recommend. While we were finding we talked to this one sister who was really distraught that she didn't know what to do. We actually almost didn't talk to her. She was sitting at a bus stop and we stopped to talk, but very quickly got blown off. I gave her a card, directions to a homeless shelter (or as best as I could without actually knowing where one is) and then started to leave. Before we'd actually left I remembered that I didn't share anything on the card with her. I'd forgotten what card I'd given to her, so I just invited her to visit the website that all cards have on them and learn how to find the truth. She opened up after that. We walked with her a little and talked with her, during which time she started crying and almost having a panic attack. Elder Houmand talked to her very calmly and taught her how we pray and then gave a quick prayer to calm her down. We then started teaching her the restoration right there and we gave her an English Book of Mormon and the address to the English building. Hopefully she went there on Sunday and asked for "Elder". Other then that it was pretty normal. We didn't do Planning, but we talked and taught some more. N* canceled again, but we set one up for Friday, We taught S* the lesson we did in District Meeting, and I think she's finally starting to get it. L* and B* also canceled that night, they also canceled on the temple Saturday, but we moved it for next one, so hopefully we'll be taking them there soon.
Friday we did Planning for the week it went well. We had a lesson planned in the middle of planning, so we paused, found out he'd lied to us and knocked his apartment complex. We picked up a couple of potentials, but other then that, we didn't see much success, so we went home and finished planning. After planning, we had a dinner with Hermana Lorinza Herrara. She's a widowed member who lives in a little rundown apartment. (She was the dinner on thanksgiving where I threw up). A* was there too (he's the member who got us lost when we went to the temple for Elder Garcia's birthday so I couldn't write you a real letter) and he told us his plans. FYI - I don't think he understands, "Stand ye in holy places." He likes to go to night clubs. N* canceled on us again so we ended up only teaching S*. Her daughters are in town, G* flew in on Saturday night and E* arrived the day before, and I'm curious to know if G*got baptized.
Saturday we had a lot of lessons. An hermana wanted to give us food, early in the morning, so we went and got it, set up a second dinner with her and then returned to do studies. After studies we had a few appointments set up, but they all fell through, we did however teach a bunch of little kids about the gospel and I found 32 cents, so it wasn't a complete waste of time. We then ran by some less active families and a old investigator, but nothing came of it.
Sunday we had a normal day, church followed by studies for the rest of the day. After studies we had a dinner with a member in the new area, Hermano Lopez. They are a cool family. He's a convert of five years and she's a life time member. The dinner was super good, and we got to talk about how we can help them. Hermano Lopez is the new elders quorum president, so we'll hopefully be getting more meals with him and working in unity to help the ward grow stronger. After him we had a lesson with S*. She needs to learn what diet means. She had a thing of Chips-a-Hoy and insisted not only on us eating them (with 2%milk) but on giving them to us. She thinks she's helping, but she's really not. All that she's doing is making my wallet a little heavier and my tummy a lot. Luckily after her we ran by V* and she has the monstritos that will eat anything, so we gave them the cookies and then we did the hardest thing I've ever had to do. We, in essence, dropped her. We can't actually stop going by, A* is a member, but we're only going by once a week now and if she doesn't start coming back to church and reading the Book of Mormon, we'll keep only coming by once a week. Worst part is E* lied to me. He said he slept through church, but really he just left with friends instead of going to church. This was the worst day ever. bright side, I now love and understand d&c 18:10-16. I can also say I know the pain of a parent who saw their child fall away.
RETURN AND REPORT
weight loss 177 libs, I blame S*'s cookies and member dinners without really working out for the weekend, I stretch on Saturdays and we don't work out on Sundays.
Spanish, 7/7!!!
Amor
Elder Michael Blanding