8-22-16

Another quick update:
This past week was pretty rough with the work but what are you gonna do? Sometimes you have good weeks and sometimes not so much. Tuesday night we went to do a look up in an area we had never been to before and we decided to start knocking it. We spent a pretty good amount of time there including last night. And it was raining
last night too. Then we knock a door and it's a member...from a different branch. So then we kind of realized that we weren't in our area anymore. So that kind of sucked. And then we didn't have much luck with lessons either but like I said, what are you gonna do haha.

Quick update

This past week was actually really good though! We got a good amount of members out with us and that's what we are really shooting for right now. That definitely helps a ton. I think in total we got about 16 lessons and a couple new investigators too. Although those usually don't stay for very long but we'll see what happens! We're just waiting to see how this transfer pans out. But of course we're hoping for the best! Nothing too big happened though. Someone did tell us actually that they had a vision where two guys dressed like missionaries were walking towards her a couple months before we came so that's pretty cool! I'm trying to stay strong with those audio journals but we'll see if I can keep it going. Last week we just kind of hung around the church. 

Transfers

Already transfers and I'm still in Westbury with Elder Parkinson for round 3!!! And he's district leader!!  As for my week it contained a lot of knocking and hopefully things will come of it. Right now we have about 4 or 5 focus people that are decently solid but no one progressing sadly. Oh! We also met a Peruvian lady last Sunday, told us to come back and we had a good lesson with her and then she invited us back the very next day for some Peruvian food! And man did she make a ton....pictures included. We also have used Facebook to communicate with the people we teach and that's helped a lot. Turns out that Peruvian lady even brought her Book of Mormon on her trip that she left Saturday for. Then yesterday was among my favorite Sunday's in the mission. We went to church, I was asking around when members could come out with us so this week we should have a few and then we went knocked for a little while. Afterwards, in order to feed the whole district, the ward mission leader and his wife had us do "service" and then we had hamburgers and hot dogs and just visited for pretty close to 3 hours. It was kind of long but it felt so nice because with all the new rules and everything it's really hard to get to know the members. Also, the ward mission leader is originally from San Jose! So yeah that's pretty much it.
Nothing too much but I did get a lot of pictures! You're welcome! Elder Parkinson and I took a bunch yesterday because we thought he was gone. 

The little girl is the ward mission leader's daughter
All that food was meant just for me...I ate it all
The before and after pictures

8-1-16

As for my week, like I said it had a lot to do with knocking but we also had some good lessons
here and there. Tuesday was a pretty slow day but Wednesday we went on exchanges and I went with the district leader's companion who, I can't remember if I told you, was in the MTC with John Wise. (One of Tyler's College Roommates) So that was pretty fun to talk about him and I got to share some of our fun stories. Elder Brown and I had a couple lessons set up which all sadly fell through. So what did we do? Knocking! We ended up talking to 65
people that day and had 3 return appointments which all happened! So far no one is looking super solid but they let us come and talk. This one family could turn out to be pretty solid though. It's this lady who only speaks Spanish but understands English perfectly and her two younger brothers. They're all pretty funny and actually really seem to
be interested. We're going back this week. Oh yeah we also went to this really good Chinese buffet that day as well. I had sushi for the first time which I wasn't too big of a fan of and wasabi which I really didn't like. First off, it doesn't taste very good and second, the way the spicy hits you is so weird! It's super chill for a little while then out of nowhere boom! You feel it in your nose which is weird and it just feels terrible. Then it comes back and hits you a
second time. Video will be included. Then Thursday we had some pretty solid lessons. The first one was with this 17 year old we are teaching named Jose. He doesn't take our lessons very seriously because we tell him all the things he needs to stop doing (word of wisdom, law of chastity, lying) and he just keeps doing it like we're unaware of it all. So that was basically a drop lesson haha then we went over to that lady who is already progressing and someone just gave her to us and she really is solid. Her husband too. She's off Sundays too but sadly her husband isn't and he seemed super interested. You see, there's two types of people who ask questions: the first wants to bash and the second actually wants to know. Lucky for us, he was the second type. We were hoping to find a ride for the wife to get to church though but unfortunately no one came through. But she said she would
be available next Sunday as well so we will be trying for that! Then Friday came around with some big news...our mission has Facebook back! So I will be using a separate profile from my normal one but I'm pretty sure I can add people from back home but we will see what happens. I haven't quite had the time to get on and get everything
ready though. That's the only thing but I think by today I'll have everything good to go. We had a zone conference kind of thing for that and president Reynolds came and I got to talk to him and my relationship with him is actually getting better. So that's good too!! Oh yeah the other thing too was that Elder Parkinson and I have been playing a good amount of the actual monopoly game and man are we competitive. I took a video without him knowing of one of our trades just so he could still be himself and I could get it on camera. I'll have to show you that after the mission though because it's pretty long. Oh! Also! Thursday night we played basketball and I've decided to play inter mural when I go to Idaho. I've actually gotten a lot better since being out here. Mainly on defense. I can make a shots every now and again too but I mainly love playing defense. Then Saturday it was back to knocking with little luck so that kind of sucked but we were still planting seeds and that was good enough! Yesterday was pretty much the same story but that was when we got a good amount of return appointments. And a couple of the families
actually seemed interested too!! We also knocked into one of the biggest nicest houses I've seen in this area and I was just like the house screams white people but the cars scream Hispanics...lets see. And they were Hispanics!! We also went to this investigators house for dinner (unfortunately the lesson didn't really happen because they were having a party) but we got closer and Elder Parkinson and I were messing with their son a little. He speaks more English than Spanish and he really wanted us to speak English. But we wouldn't. Video will also be included. Then finally we got back to the apartment, planned, changed, and then I saw our bench set and was like
hey I haven't maxed out for a while. I wonder what I can do. So I started out with 115 and did about 5 or 6 reps so I was like okay let's go bigger. So then I did 135 and still did it decently easily. Then 145 and I was like okay if I do this then I can bench my weight. Let's do it! So I did it and did 2 reps! So obviously I was stoked but
then I went to weigh myself...I don't know if it's because I ate a lot yesterday or what but I was actually 150. So what did I do? I added some weight and benched 150 one and a half times. So now my goal is to bench 165. I was pretty happy about myself. Oh and last night I started doing a voice recording journal which I'll do every day until
I leave. I figured that'd be easier than writing and then I can just put it on my flash drive! Then at 3 am the fire alarm in the apartment building went off...that was a rough awakening. So yeah! I really hope you won't be too torn up about my new choice but hey! At least you get some pretty lengthy emails out of it! So again if you have more
questions I'll be more than happy to respond again but I won't be talking back and forth too too much so I can keep focusing on what's happening here and now for the next couple months!

Water Mishap

Poor kid just wants you to speak English

Wasabi is NOT too hot! 

Beware of the Fire Alarm