This week was verry good
Ji Mom
This week was pretty normal. A lot of members wanted us to eat with them, so we spent more time on our bikes running between meals then between citas. Ok, that's not true. We actually only had one meal that came right after the other, and that was unplanned on Friday after the Temple.
Monday was really normal.
Tuesday we had an exchange with the zone leaders. I was with elder Stern (elder Jager's trainer) here and Elder Jager went to their area with Elder Sanchez. we had a lesson early with a lunch after and we also needed to do weekly planning and the rest of our day was full of lessons and finding, so we said exactly at 2:30. They didn't get there until 2:45-50 so we had to fly. We took off down the street and then I ate it hard trying to make a turn on to a VERY busy road. Miraculously, the light was red, so i just got road rash and not run over. We called our lesson and she said she wasn't going to be there, so we took care of my scrapes (nothing bad happened at all.) We then did Knock out, looked for the Zone Leader's phone, and found a new investigator before going to bed for the day.
The next day, I made pancakes from scratch for elder Stern (with Chocolate chips), we exchanged with Elders Page and Flores (Elder Page stayed with elder Jager and Elder Flores came here with me) and had a pretty normal Wednesday. We found a lot of potentials and set a tentative date with our investigator (explain more when I get to Satruday). We then ate with the Morenos (Elder Jager's first Wednesday without their food) and set up skype with them.
Thursday, I made more pancakes with chocolate chips and then we did district meeting after a lunch provided by a member. We then knocked out, found a super cool potential we invited to come to the ward dinner the next night before we went to dinner and then ordination.
Friday, we were disobedient and got up early (5:00) just so we could leave the mission. that's right, we had our semi-annual temple trip for Christmas! We got a ride from Hermano Maldonado from Van Nuys. THAT'S RIGHT. MY FIRST WARD. He's super fun and really funny, but he's even better when you can understand what he's saying to you. We learned one thing from the ride down, "sorry, i had to. No Choice." We then went through the temple and I learned that God will always make it possible for you to return to his presence if you try all you can to make it back. We then had two lunches. One planned with a menos activo in our area and the other un-planned with hemano maldonado in my 1st area, right next door to Sylvia's house. The temptation was real to go and say "hola" but i didn't. We then had the dinner and it was perfect. Our potential showed up and we found out that she was already a friend to one of our members who lives in our area and we've been trying to help out. So we invited that family to help us with the lesson we had on Sunday.
Saturday, we set the fecha with our investigator. So the story is that, our investigator is the daughter of members (the daughter of the patriarch and her husband) but they're menos activo, so we've been teaching the daughter and working with the family for the past four months. Wednesday we stopped by to do daily contact and wile the dad was talking to the member we had with us I talked with A*, the investigator, about possible dates for baptism. Together we decided on the 10th of January and then we just needed the go-ahead from the parents to set set the date. On Saturday, we set the date with the parents and made a calendar with them so they know what they need and we need to do. It went perfectly and we now have the date of the 10th as a goal (please pray for it). We then had a dinner with Obispo and then we taught some lessons. We also had a surprise almuerso with a Recent Convert who was helping us with a 1st lesson that fell through.
Sunday we were full up once again. We had church (We walked half way there before we got picked up by some other elders in our ward with a car. We then had a lesson with our potential that came to the activity. It was really good and at the end we set up our return appointment in the member friends house with a dinner! YES! We then did a bit of caroling with the ward and we didn't have anything planned right after, so for the first time we could go to the hot Chocolate social after caroling. We've done this the past two weeks and each time we've had to run to an appointment right after/didn't have a ride to get back, so we missed the hot chocolate. This time, we actually had our appointment right after call and cancel earlier that day :( so we had time for the hot chocolate :) but they had to cancel the hot chocolate because we were the only ones coming :( (and the hermanas that were going to make it were sick) so we went to the church for the annual ward choir sing off ("it's not a competition") and then ran to a potential (we left before the end), but she wasn't there. so we went home and had dinner.
That's it, Can't wait for Christmas.
Love
Elder Michael Blanding
Called to serve my King