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,

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

Check it out! Aug. 12, 2013

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