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 :)

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

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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

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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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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