Sunday, November 24, 2013

Endless lake of fire and brimstone! Nov. 18, 2013

Well nothin' really cool this week, sorry everyone :/ that's just how it is sometimes you know? But here's a quick overview of some stuff!

We had a super cool Thanksgiving party at the church a few days ago! We had a little talent show too! And I got to play guitar that night (not for the show though. darn.)

Went on more exchanges. Fun stuff yo

Met some crazy intense man who told me I was going to an endless lake of fire and brimstone and that I needed to repent and that I have no faith. He told me that God doesn't love everyone and that I don't need to be baptized or go to church. He said he was sorry because I am "going to Hell." But then we went and talked to his Jamaican neighbor, and he was cool. :)

I found out our Gospel Principles teacher is a psychopath (long story)

Got my hair cut this morning >:}

Baked a cake and ate it.

And that's like all I remember! Pretty good week but not much interesting stuff happened, just the usual.

Love you all! Hope you're doing well!
-Elder James :)

Sunday, November 10, 2013

There is still good to be found! Nov. 4, 2013

Hey everyone,

Nothing really new this week, but it's been good. The work was a
little slow, but hey, it happens! Let me think of some stuff that
happened over the last few days..

umm. :|

eh..

Honestly, nothing very interesting happened this week. At least not
that I can remember. A lot of rejections this week, but I still had a
blast.
My favorite ones are when people barely poke their heads out of their
doors and just say "no" and slam the door shut before you can say
anything! I think it's hilarious! Sometimes I knock again just for
kicks.

Or when little kids answer the door.. then they go run to their
parents, saying, "mom! someone is here!" and then you can hear the
parents saying to tell them that they're busy.. so when the kids come
back to relay the message, I just say "tell your parents 'it's the
police, it's very important'," and they usually go back and get them!
Ha! >:} That gets their attention.

So even when we have weeks like this, there is still good to be found.

But other than that, nothin new here in California. I hope the best
for all of you! I'll write again next week!

Love, Elder James

joan james
o)

 

What a Privilege! Oct. 21, 2013

Hey everyone, it's been a good week. Here's a quick version of the week, out of order!

We took a bunch of the members out to meet with the less actives! Each of the missionaries (all 8 of us) divided up and went with some members for about 2 hours on Sunday. It was really good, and we got to know them a little more. I went with Hermano C and two of his kids. They are a good family :)

We had a zone activity last Monday, just a little bbq together. We played some sports after, which was fun. 

And we've been teaching this one personage, and this person makes me really want to stay in this area for another transfer. We've started to become good friends, and my companion and I go over to teach a few times a week. They are coming to a lot of the church activities and is really enjoying it! I am too. But we said that some other missionaries might replace us, and they got pretty sad. There is a possibility that we stay here though, and I hope that's what happens! I love this area.

During this next week, we will have a member of the 70 and of the 12 come speak to us!! How awesome is that? What a privilege. Elder Golden and Elder D Todd Christofferson. I am excited :)

Well. I honestly though more stuff happened this last week but I guess not. I don't know, I thought it was good! Ha! 

Hope you all are doing well,
Love, Elder James

General Conference week! Oct. 7, 2013

Hey everyone! This week was good.

We went on exchanges, those went well!

Last p-day we went to a driving range! I add a picture to this email, it was pretty sweet! 

But the best part of the week was General Conference. I hope all of you took some time to listen to it, it was seriously amazing! 

Other than that, this week was a little slow. Good, but slow. But all is well! Just checking in with all of you!

Love, Elder James

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Sunday, October 27, 2013

Good stuff! Sept 30, 2013

Hey everyone! This week was good, and a lot happened, but I'm short on time!

Here's the good stuff ;)

1) 6 new investigators yay :)
2) 3 gunshots went off right outside our apartments! scary. But I'm curious George and sooo I walked outside to check it out. Bad idea, my companion got shot!
Ha jk :) we did walk outside though, but nothing happened. Some police came to check it out like 2 hours later.
3) The next day after the shootings, some gang members were in our apartment complex. After I parked the car (they just happen to be there as we were returning home), 4 of them stared us down and walked up to the car, but after a moment they walked away. Whew! Close call eh? I made sure the car doors were locked haha, but they were looking for someone.. I just hope one of these days we aren't in the wrong place at the wrong time. There's been a lot of stuff going on. We're just missionaries people, leave us alooone haha 
4) heard our neighbor beating his wife. pretty messed up and sad. i dont feel like talking about it though.
5) did some service at the local library and for a member, yep
6) met a family from Syria, they all speak Arabic but the two sons speak English. one of them taught me how to say hello in their language but i already forgot lol sorry :|

ah! out of time! but those are some of our daily adventures here in Bakersfield! I love it, so much fun!
I love you all, hope you have a good day!
-Elder James



Peanut Butter Diet! Sept 23, 2013

Hey everyone! So this week was pretty good, we got a lot done. My new companion is from Argentina :)

Soo like I said, the week was good, but we didn't really have any cool stories. Just a lot of work. 

But we did have another dust storm! We were supposed to be inside during that time, but my companion and I didn't see the text until it was too late. So we just walked to the closest appointment we had set for the day and visited him way earlier than expected, then just stayed there until the other Elders came and picked us up. It was fun though, nobody caught Valley Fever yet :)

But. That's really about all that happened.. Sorry this week was boring. Oh, wait. We actually heard a gun shot close by our apartments this morning when we were doing laundry. Pow pow, I was thinking it was something else, maybe a tire popping, but my companion thought it was a gun shot. 
Which is possible, because a member of a family we are teaching was with her kids two weeks ago, just close to our place, and she said she saw a man whip out a pistol and fire off 8 rounds at a group of guys playing basketball :| Remind me to never play basketball out their again. [Did I share that story last week? I can't remember, sorry if I did!]

Ya... I decided to try a new diet! Peanut butter. And Jelly. Erry day. Erry meal. So good.
Sometimes I decide to mix things up and feel super cool, so I use Nutela and some honey instead of jelly. Like, professional chef status in the BV1 apartments!! >;o

HA! Just kidding :) but I hope everything it going well for all of you! Haha have a good week!
Love, Elder James


Service at the library! Sept 16, 2013

Hey everyone :) interesting week, here's a list of what we did! Out of order though..

I woke up at 3 in the morning to kill a roach that thought it would be cool to crawl inside my ear. :| ya hows that for a good morning? die.


We went to the Temple, went to a famous Jewish Deli, and then got these nice cupcakes afterwards!
We had service at the library,
We had a huge stake party we got to go to, and some members in a band played for us! This guy has a nice Fender and this huge Marshal amp header.. I wanted to play so bad :/ 
Then we got transfer calls, I will be training a new missionary, staying in the same area and only one person from our district is leaving.
We got some hours on Saturday for our loss of p-day hours today, so we went and made a bunch of CD's in the Mac store. It was good.
Oh I bought a new knife too. The guy told me it was made in Japan so of course i bought it.. then i get back home and look at it, stupid thing says CHINA right on it. >:{ OH! still a good knife though. haha

We also locked the keys in the apartment again. But this time we were able to just go to the front office and get a spare :) ha

because of how busy this week was, we weren't able to make much progress with our investigators though. :/ So in reality this week wasn't that great.. ah. 

but i hope everything is going well with all of you. i miss you all <3 :) let me know what's going on wherever you may be!
love, Elder James


God performs miracles! Sept. 9, 2013

Hey everyone, things have been going well here in Bakersfield.

 
 Here's a short on everything that happened this week:
1) Bought some new music at a store. I got a free DVD with it too but I can't watch it haha
2) Went on exchanges with Elder C, it went well (Daniel, I swear this Elder is just like you! You both act the same hahah)
3) We did some service at the library just organizing books. Fun fun
4) I gave a talk at ZTM (they ask me to give a talk for everything for some reason)
5) We had our apartment inspected by Elder/Sister J. We did  last minute cleaning sweep, so it didn't turn out so bad lol
6) We were supposed to go tracking with the youth in the ward but half of the parents canceled in the last second. Everyone was busy on a Saturday morning eh? I doubt that. >:( 
7) Sunday night we (the missionaries) got to sing "Mas cerca Dios de Te" at a fireside. We did well! It's funny because I'm the smallest missionary but I was the one singing bass ;P heck yaaa

Did I mention we made doughnuts with a member? :o so good, so good.

Later today we are having a zone activity. Someone thought it would be a fun idea to go walk up the side of a mountain for no reason.. I mean, they decided to go hiking :| same thing. Not looking forward to it but hey it's whatever haha :)

So, Milagros! Those of you who don't believe God performs miracles today, I advise you to search the scriptures.
The sister missionaries needed us to give a blessing to a man who fell on his head and was loosing his sight. The mans vision had reduced to about 10% of what it use to be :(  But they called us and asked if we could help.
We gave him a blessing and within a few days, he could see perfectly fine once again. He went from being blind, to seeing once again. 
I've heard of and been part of many miracles here. It's amazing to see things like that. 
Some other things have happened. I'll share them with a few of you :) But I hope you enjoy the picture!  Have a great week everyone!
Love, Elder James ;)Inline image 1

Important stuff! Sept 2, 2013

Hey everyone, this was a good week.

To the important stuff!

To the important stuff! 
So S G moved and we won't be able to be teach him any time soon :/ sad but there's not much we could have done about that. But we are now able to teach his mom, L! So we went over there on Sunday and had a really good lesson with her. It was awesome :) During the lesson she had brought up baptism, and we talked about that for a little bit, and I shared Mosiah 18:8-10 and Elder B explained it for me (he can speak Spanish much better than me haha), and she agreed to be baptized! She just feels like she needs to know a little more and then she said she'll be ready. Ha, she said she wasn't even sure why she is apart of her current religion. :P

So that's like the most exciting story of this week :) We had Zone conference too, and that went well. 

I don't really know what else to put though :| sorry! But I love you all :) 

Hope everything is going well wherever you may be!
-Elder James

Look how phat that cake is! Aug 26, 2013

Hey. I can't remember a single thing I wanted to share with everyone, but. Here's some dope daddy  pics,

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picture 1: Look how phat that cake is. I made that cake for my birthday :) That's my companion, Elder B
picture 2: best district ever. from left to right, Elder B, Hermana C, Elder C, Hermana K, Me ;) and Elder B!

There's been a lot of stuff with the people we've been teaching!
We dropped S for a while :/
G family is doing well, still haven't come to church. Ah! >:(
N is always busy with his new work schedule so it's hard with him.
P (new!) is doing well! He is taking everything in well and is going to start coming to soccer at the church!
J family (LA) is doing well, their daughter is going to be baptized soon! Super cool or what.
We stopped by a couple referrals we got from a member.. no bueno. 

Pretty much it for now. Roaches keep getting in my bed somehow, it's kind of gross sometimes. Like wat :}

Anyway I love you all, hope everything is going well wherever you may be. If any of you need anything, let me know :) <3 lololol

Love, Elder Jame

Thank you everyone for da birthday wishes.. :) Aug 19, 2013

First of all, thank you everyone for da birthday wishes.. :) it means a lot to me! I made myself a cake for my birthday lol so fun so fun

But anyway, the work really has been picking up here!

In fact, we met a guy yesterday. He was super drunk though, but he invited us in to his house! It was Elder B and I, and Elder C and B! The guy was talking to us for a long time and was going off about a lot of random stuff. Like he was talking about music in his church, and asked what the music was like in our church.. 
It was super funny because we didn't have any of our materials with us (long story) and so we didn't have a hymn book. But the guy wanted an example of our music soooo we sang to him. We sang "Son un hijo de Dios" and all of us forgot the lyrics like half way through! haha! it was so funny but the guy didnt mind. In fact, when we were done, he started full-on singing this solo when we were done! 
Then he went on to play the drums on his kitchen table. 
He was so cool though haha

Ya, there was a lot of stuff that happened this week. 
We went to Tokyo Garden again! So good.

We also found this guy, N. He is awesome, and loves everything we share with him. But he tells us he really feels alone and feels like he doesn't have any friends. He said he wants to move out of Bakersfield because he says people here are so mean. It makes me sad. He has a really cool accent too btw. But it's hard to catch him sometimes because he just got a new job. I wish we could just spend more time with him.

Oh, we saw some guy on top of this car the other day, he was screaming and holding on for dear life! The car slammed on his breaks and then drove off really fast again and I didn't see everything, but we ran outside the go find the guy to see if he was ok. Some lady who saw the whole thing pointed us in the direction of where the guy exactly fell off the car, so we went to go check it out. We never saw the guy again :/
As we were walking back though, the same car came around again. The driver rolled down his window and said some not-so-good things and threw cup of ice at us. I thought it was funny because his throw wasn't even close lol, it barely made it across the street haha

So many stories, but I have no time! Thank you everyone for everything!
Next week I will include some sweet pics, I promise. I just need to remember my camera.

Ya :D
Love, Elder James

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Check it out! Aug. 12, 2013

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Good Food! Aug. 5, 2013

Hey hey, this week I got to spend with another missionary, Elder B. It was an awesome week, but we had to cover two areas so we had a lot of traveling to do. But it was good.

OH!  one of our investigators recommended a restaurant for us to eat at.. it was this super awesome Japanese place called Tokyo Garden. I don't know if any of you have heard of it, but you all should go! It was honestly one of the greatest/most entertaining places I've ever been! :D So good. We are going this next week again to celebrate Elder B birthday (so many August birthdays here). 

More good stuff, I lost the keys the other day. We were at the Mac store, and then we left and I accidentally left the keys there. :| but then i ran back and they were. gone. waaa so we went the day without the car keys, mail keys, apartment keys, and most importantly the church keys! :( my bad.
but we eventually got them back. the mall people called us and said they got the keys. yep, long story short, the end

but on to more important stuff. our investigators are progressing, and since we had to cover two areas this last week, i got to meet some really nice people! :) 
everything is going well over here in Bakersfield's. it hasn't gotten too hot in a while too. 

well i hope all of you are doing well. keep me posted with whats going on back home/in your areas. :)

love, Elder James

GOOD News! July 29, 2013

hey everyone, how've you been? everything has been good over here in Bakersfield :)

Good news! S said he really wants to stop drugs! He says he is done with meth and some other drugs, we are trying our best to help him. I guess he was talking to some guy that was working at his new house and they got on that topic, and the guy told him that he use to use drugs a lot too. he told him what made him stop was one of his best friends died when they were using it, and I guess that kind of woke up S a little bit. Last week he said some of his buddies were taking acid, and he said he didn't.. I'm still worried though, it's not good to put yourself in those situations. I had a nice one-on-one with him for about an hour while my companion and another member talked with his mother. it was a pretty cool split-lesson I guess you could say.

His family came to church too! He wasn't able to though. but it was still really awesome to see them there.

my companion is leaving tomorrow. this transfer is 7 weeks instead of 6, so im being put with another missionary for a week. its going to be awesome!

Oh! cool news. I was selected to train/go-tracking-with the new incoming missionaries in two weeks. they said it was a privilege to be selected, but eh, I don't even speak Spanish very well so its going to be very interesting. ha!

other than that, nothing exciting has really happened.

wait just kidding. I was getting out of the car one day, and as I opened it, I accidentally hit a guy on his bike! he came riding down and I just didn't see him and he just slammed right into the car door! :| my bad. he was very upset. I asked if he was ok and he just shook his head, held his arm and biked off.
not going to lie, the way the whole thing went down... Elder B and I were laughing afterwards. I felt really bad though, but hey, he had time to get out of the way. I think he ran into it on purpose or something.

dats the end of my adventures thus far. I cant tell all of you everything though, porque porque ;) Inicuo!! Todos inicuo! ha, just kidding :)

Hope you all are doing well! :D ha! >:)
love, Elder James

Demon Slayer! July 22, 2013

Hey hey everybody, how are you? how's everything been?

everything has been ok over here in Bakersfield. Nothing really new has happened :(
We didn't get any new people to teach and nobody has really made solid progress. But all is well, no reasons to be sad!

Some interesting stuff has happened since last week though, not entirely relating to missionary work though! checky checky

Sam bought some super cool swords! He showed them to me and I got to mess with them for a little bit. He had 3 katanas and a cutlass! He walked around with a katana on his back for a day, which I guess is legal here in California! im hoping to get some pictures with those swords.

He also gave us these ice cream cone art thingies! they are hard to explain but its like a paper ice cream cone with this funny face on it, its pretty sweet!
He also gave me a rock. lol but I liked it, its called his gratitude rock. its cool :)

I am also learning some Japanese! aint dat somethin? haven't really met a Japanese person here yet but hey. heyyy. itll be useful when I return ;)

Oh! fun story! We were on exchanges and I was with Elder R and we locked the keys inside the apartment at night :| oops. Some other elders went into ape rage mode, but everything was fine really. we just slept over at the other elder's house, ha, there were 6 of us there that night! it was pretty fun. but, I had to wear the same exact outfit two days in a row. which is gross because we sweat a lot here when its over 100 degrees, its not too hot but it was just nasty wearing the same things twice. same tie too. plus, the next day was Sunday!
I didn't even have breakfast, had nothing to brush my teeth with either! I barrowed another elders suit for the day and it was too big so I looked like a deacon, poppin my collar, poppin poppin my deacons collar like a noob >:(
but its all good, we didn't have to teach the class that day so elder K and I went into the kitchen at the church and I ate a bag of pistachio nuts :}
Nobody we've been teaching came to church though! Bah! Y U NO COME TO CHURCH PEOPLE? tis a blessing to come.

well I gotta get rollin on my bici bici! kirito. today we will fight lvl 10 J-dubs.

ha! such a good time >:) I love you all, es verdad!
-Elder James
they call me demon slayer lol, HAAA!

Losing track of time! July 15, 2013

So i dont even know what week it is anymore, but thats alright.

This past week has been good! very gewd. ;) lots of good stuff has happened and lots of progress has been made, but i wont share certain things that happened because they were very special to me. but anyway,

How is everyone doing?? im going great. i had some funnies happen this week too. we were helping out with a wedding this week in the church, and when we were getting ready to leave i went inside the church's kitchen area and started eating some of this ice cream in there :) it was a month expired and nobody has touched it for weeks. but i dun caaare, twas delicious. one of the members said i could take it so we took it home and i baked some cookies (and burned my fingers in the over) and had mini ice cream cookies sandwiches! sooo good. then i felt sick, totally worth it.

We also have killed all the roaches in the building.
We also saw a car accident outside our window. it wasnt too bad and nobody got hurt, but it was still pretty scary to see. not every day we see something like that.
haha, i think everyones tires have popped this transfer! except for mine >:) 
got some cool pictures of the sunset too! but i cant send pics because i forgot my little connector thing. :| sorry
I got a free $3 off my groceries today! missionary bonus
i also cleaned some of my pants for the first time since the start of my mission :| gross huh? but now they are clean :) i get ripped off every time i go do laundry. ah.

We also had the chance to help do some service! we got to help do some gardening :)
i just pulled weeds the whole time. but thats alright haha

And we've had more crazy people scream at us than usual this week. pretty funny every time they do

well thats about it :) i hope all of you are doing well :)
love, Elder James


 

Monday, August 26, 2013

We are like little children July 8, 2013

So i cant remember anything that happened this week, only a few things. Directly to the good stuff! (sorry about grammar, i am in a hurry!)

I went on a few exchanges, and i went with Elder A one day. He's an awesome missionary. but long story short, we got to go teach this older man, M. It was really intense. When we first walked in he was upset because i guess last time he wanted someone older to talk to. he said we "are like little children" to him and he thought we couldn't relate to him.
he also said we didn't speak good enough Spanish. which is true for me lol.
but i guess he was dying soon. like, within the week. He had a really bad stomach problem, where he had like 4 holes in his stomach. he also got bit by a spider, and his ands and legs were VERY swollen. he looked sick, and he was often crying when he was talking to us. he really needed comfort, but thought we couldn't give it to him because we were young and couldn't speak well. he was so scared of dying, he thought it wasn't fair and didn't know what to do. he was worried about what would happen to his family. he said if he could wait out the week he might be ok because he was going to Mexico, because he couldn't afford surgery here.
It was really sad. I wasn't sure what was being said for about half of it but i could tell he was being sincere. at one part he grabbed my companion by the hands, shaking and crying and was saying "talk to me! tell me something, just talk to me!" I wanted to help him. but he was right, i had no idea how he was feeling. I've never been in that situation before, what could i tell him? :/ but even though i might not understand the Spanish language, i can understand the spirit. so I shared with him my favorite scripture, D&C 121:7-9. If you don't know what that is, I really hope you'll open it up and mark it and remember it.. We also gave him a blessing and tried our best. I hope he turns out alright.

That's the main story. We also got some really useful information about the G family while I was on exchanges with Elder E. Good stuff!

Also, we got out new mission president, President W. He's awesome, he changed the mission a lot but its so good. Everything is going well here :)

I hope everything is going well with you. I miss you all :)

-Elder James!

Bakin' in Bakersfield July 1, 2013

Hey everyone, good news :) So I'm feeling much better. No more sickness.

We also have still been working with S. He's wanting to change, but is still using meth. :|

Other than that, this week wasn't that eventful. I bought three new ties today and some cool sunglasses too :)

I hope you are all doing well. Don't go too crazy during the 4th of July :) in this mission we go back home at 7 because I guess a lot of drunk and crazy people that go out at night and mess with the missionaries. Haha fun stuff

Oh, maybe it was this week or the last one, but our AC went out. It is fixed now but it was super hot trying to sleep that night. But it was fun, until we ran out of Otter Pops and died.

Bow wow

-Elder James, bakin' in Bakersfield :) I'm going to be super tan when I get back

The Demon Slayer June 22, 2013

Hey hey everybody, how are you? how's everything been?

everything has been ok over here in Bakersfield. Nothing really new has happened :(
We didn't get any new people to teach and nobody has really made solid progress. But all is well, no reasons to be sad!

Some interesting stuff has happened since last week though, not entirely relating to missionary work though! checky checky

S bought some super cool swords! He showed them to me and I got to mess with them for a little bit. He had 3 katanas and a cutlass! He walked around with a katana on his back for a day, which I guess is legal here in California! I'm hoping to get some pictures with those swords.

He also gave us these ice cream cone art thingies! they are hard to explain but its like a paper ice cream cone with this funny face on it, its pretty sweet!
He also gave me a rock. lol but I liked it, its called his gratitude rock. its cool :)

I am also learning some Japanese! ain't dat somethin? haven't really met a Japanese person here yet but hey. heyyy. it'll be useful when I return ;)

Oh! fun story! We were on exchanges and I was with Elder R, aaaand we locked the keys inside the apartment at night :| oops. Some other elders went into ape rage mode, but everything was fine really. we just slept over at the other elder's house, ha, there were 6 of us there that night! it was pretty fun. but, I had to wear the same exact outfit two days in a row. which is gross because we sweat a lot here when its over 100 degrees, its not too hot but it was just nasty wearing the same things twice. same tie too. plus, the next day was Sunday!
I didn't even have breakfast, had nothing to brush my teeth with either! I borrowed another elders suit for the day and it was too big so I looked like a deacon, poppin my collar, poppin poppin my deacons collar like a noob >:(
but its all good, we didn't have to teach the class that day so elder k and I went into the kitchen at the church and I ate a bag of pistachio nuts :}
Nobody we've been teaching came to church though! Bah! Y U NO COME TO CHURCH PEOPLE? tis a blessing to come.

well I gotta get rollin on my bici bici! kirito. today we will fight lvl 10 J-dubs.

ha! such a good time >:) I love you all, es verdad!
-Elder James
they call me demon slayer lol, HAAA!

Bakersfield, California! Here I come! June 17, 2013

I have no time but I have something to say! It's not that important but. Ya.

I will be transferred to the BAKERSFIELD, CALIFORIA mission this Tuesday. I will no longer be serving in the Ventura mission. The mission is being split, and I just happen to be on the Bakersfield side, so that's where I'll be spending the rest of my two years. That's all :)

Other good news,
J and I are getting married on the 21st of this month! yay
L O came to church! and he LIKED IT! yay
My tires haven't popped in a while! yay

I hope you all hada great Fathers day too!
Love, Elder James

The Red Truck June 10, 2013

Hey everyone, so this is what happened week 5 of the great California Ventura Mission
So this is going to be out of order, I'm just going to say what I remembered because I forgot my journal. Waaa sorry.
Saturday I think, we were riding our bikes home and I saw some red truck stop after they pulled into some neighborhood, and a young woman jumped out. She was crying and shouting something, and then I say some other guy get out and then the truck drove off. Then the girl was saying some stuff and right before I got out of view, I saw him hit her right in the face, hard too! I slammed on my breaks and got over their as fast as I could. The guy ran off and the girl took off somewhere else, but Elder P and I rode around for 10 minutes looking for her. We eventually found her alone sitting on the side walk. She told us what happened, I guess they were together for 3 years and had some relationship problems. She was ok after being hit, but I felt really awkward and wasn't too sure of what to do. But it was just a different experience, and I'm just glad we were there so she could have someone to talk to. She was 18 and the other guy was probably around 20.
We also were able to help paint some stair railings at J and I house. It was fun. I tried not to get any paint on me but that didn't work out so well. I still have paint on my legs.
Also, we were just cruising in El Rio and than Elder P tire popped. I FOUND A CORRELATION THAT I THINK YOU ALL SHOULD KNOW FROM THIS EVENT!!! So. Every week that either Elder P and I haven't received mail, one of our tires have popped. Yes, correlation now certainly means causation! So every week that we don't get any mail, that means on of our tires are going to pop! Somebody send us mail please >:}
That's about it. We decided not to drop L O because we had one lesson where we spiritually roundhouse kicked him in the face. We talked a lot about him and his life, about how he needs to change and find new friends, because the way he is going with his life right now, he is going to end up either dead or in jail within the next 5-10 years. The thing is, he knows that! He knows his friends are all going to end up like that. But it's hard to get out of gangs. He really opened up to us and said he felt like there's no hope for him. We are trying our best to help him though. Pray for him, ok? We worry about him.
Well, I hope you all are doing well. I miss you very much. I will be on next week!
-Love, Elder Santiagoooooo go go we ran out of Hot Pockets at the apartments :|

Time is going by so fast! Slow down! June 3, 2013



 
Hey everyone, I'm not even sure what week this is. Sorry, time is going by so fast!

This week was good. I was sick all week! It was awesome. But i was still able to go out and teach, i just had to stay in for one night.
On to the important stuff. We decided to drop an investigator, L O, the one in gangs. He hasn't been keeping any of his commitments and hasn't made any progress, so we will try him again in a few weeks or so.
We got a referral from the Hermanas though, for a young couple I and J. I is a member and J isn't. He is 19 and I'm not sure how old j is but they have a child and need to get married. J seems very willing and understanding of what we teach her, its great! i will keep you updated with them! later today (i think) we are going to help them paint inside their house. i hope i don't mess that up :|
I also got to go on exchanges with Elder B. It was fun, and interesting. Ya, no cool stories of that day though, ha :)
Is anyone getting my pictures????!! I've been trying to send some! I got a picture with Santa, and with these ghetto romper cars and some at these birthday parties for dinner and some at the temple! Why aren't they working? >:(
you wanna know what's pretty funny? I was biking to an appointment with Elder P, and then my bike thought it would be a good idea if the tire just popped while i was half way through the street. Yep. Pop pop. So i had to walk my bike back to the apartment and it was embarrassing. this is the second time my tires have popped. what the heck Kirito, why cant you function like a normal bike..

oh, so we've been having this problem with ants. they are everywhere!!! they were all over our food in the kitchen! but we slew the beasts victoriously. but then they came back a week later into our bathroom! and into my closet! i went to throw on some pants, and there was a spider on them! and ants! I decided to just stand around in my garments for a while because i wasn't feeling so comfortable anymore. But then eventually we got going, and we were teaching this guy in his front door. and we stood there for seriously like two hours, ALL in Spanish so i only said about three things, and I noticed something on Elder P shoulder. a big fat ant. ha, so i slapped it. and then a few minutes later i looked back, and he was just covered. they were crawling on his neck, into his backpack, on his scriptures, everywhere! and i didn't want to be disrespectful to the person we were talking to so i didn't stamp them all off. ha, sorry Sorry Elder P. sacrifices must be made.

well that's about it. It's been great talking to everyone! sorry for the bad grammar and spelling, short on time
but i love and miss you all! :)
-Elder Santiagoooo