On Wednesday last, we went about
meeting people. We started off biking around, going to some less-active's
house, finding they weren't there, etc., etc., until we went back to the
apartment for a break. We spent a good amount of time organizing our area
books, finding all of the members that live in our area, ordering all of the
former investigator records, and finding that there were some from back in
2002, and discarding several that had moved out a long time ago. We then
visited R., and talked to him a bit about Joseph Smith again, and this
time, he asked us the question of what the chariot of fire may have been that
took Elijah to heaven. I said that it probably was something that looked like a
chariot of fire. "No," he says. "It sounds like aliens, right? I
mean, they could have swooped down and picked 'im up just like that." I
wasn't really quite sure how to respond, and then he said that Noah's ark was
alien technology, and that it probably had a nuclear reactor. After that we
just tried to get him off of the topic of aliens. We then went to dinner with
the other Elders and a member at a Chinese buffet that is a little bit like
Beijing Buffet back in Brigham City. I ate something from pretty much every
item there was. I had fresh crab, (I had to break the shell with my teeth),
crawfish, salmon, shrimp, tilapia, beef, pork, chicken, you name it. And it
was, most of it, pretty tasty. We then went and visited a less-active family
that has been influenced a bit by another less-active, and we got to know them
and shared a message.
Thursday, both Elder Y. and I woke
up with some pretty bad indigestion/food poisoning. Elder Y. got hit pretty
hard, and we were inside for pretty much the whole day, except for a little bit
later in the evening when we had an appointment with L. Elder N. got
hit pretty hard, too, so he and Elder Y. stayed in our apartment while
Elder C. and I went to our appointments. We split with some members, and I
took a Priest and a Teacher with me. I pretty much had to influence the lesson
as well as I could, and tried to include the two guys who were with me. The
lesson went pretty swimmingly, and we went back home.
Friday, Elder Y. was still under
the weather, but he was feeling a bit better. We went to district meeting, and
beforehand, the other elders decided to go to this sandwich store. So we all
got sandwiches, which wasn't a good idea. We ate, had district meeting, took
district pictures, and headed home. Then Elder Y. went back down on his
sick bed, and we were in for most of that day as well. We managed to visit a less
active member and have some carne asada with them, and afterwards, went to a
birthday party for one of the members. For some reason, the tradition here is
to punch each other until the number of the age. The member was turning 22, so
all of his siblings got to punch him up to a total of 22 times. (Not 22 times
per person.) Then, they do what's called the mordida, where they put the cake
in front of the person, and as they go to take a bite of the cake, the family
members smash their face into the cake. This one got pretty brutal, and they
were smearing the cake all over his head, hair, and shoulders. Not sure why
they would waste a perfectly good cake like that. Oh well.
On Saturday, Elder Y. was feeling
much better, so we were able to get out and work. We started out with trying to
find some members in the farther edge of our area, and biked our way over. We
got there, didn't really find anyone, so I contacted a lady walking by and
asked if she'd ever talked with missionaries. She responded that she was a
member, and walked away. I was pretty surprised, as was Elder Y. So we
asked if there was anything we could do to help her as she was walking away.
She responded that she was setting up for a birthday party for her daughter,
and said that she would love some help. We started carrying big containers of
food and desserts from her apartment down to the party area. At one point, I
had some things in both hands, and was waiting for Elder Y. to grab some
things, when out of nowhere, this girl comes around the corner in nothing but a
towel. AAAAH!!! *eyes instantly averted towards the ceiling* We then made a
quick escape with our items, and as we walked towards the party area, we both
started snickering about what had just happened. It's the funniest thing after
it happens, but in the moment, it's horrifying. We then stayed and ate a bit of
the party food, which was quite well-made and tasty. After a bit, we decided to
go see some other members. We met the Hno. C., who is less-active because of
his night-shift security job. We used the bathroom at the El Cajon library,
(where I am now), and some things happened in there that were quite a bit more
horrifying than the earlier incident. So I walked out and stood by the door and
left Elder Y. to his own powers. We then returned to the party and ate some
cake and helped clean up. We then went to coordination, and afterward, shared a
scripture with R. after helping him get his TV and VCR set up. (He has a
VCR!)
For Sunday, we went to consejo, and we
talked about a lot of good things, and we got some good information from the
members of the council about what we could do with certain members of the
branch. We then went to sacrament meeting, which was fast and testimony
meeting, went to the classes, and went home. Elder Y. decided not to fast,
and instead ate some food and drank water to try and settle his stomach from
the incident earlier in the week. We then went and tried to find a less-active
member that hasn't been seen in awhile, and weren't able to find her. We then
went and ate with the G. family. The husband is blind from diabetes, and
they had the Superbowl on pretty much the whole time. We had to avert our eyes
pretty well, but we could still hear it in the background. We shared a message
with them about the law of the fast, and they had some misconceptions about
some things, such as how long we are supposed to fast, so we cleared them up.
We then went and taught R. about the law of the fast as well, and he liked
it pretty well. He even started asking us questions about the word of wisdom.
Yesterday, we had a mandatory 3 hours
of cleaning the apartment, and got it all done relatively well. We then went
looking for some potential investigators, and showed up at the complex where
one said she lived. She didn't give us her apartment number, so we went door
knocking to find her. We ended up running into this older gentleman who needed
some help moving his furniture, so we gladly helped him out. We then spotted
which apartment was hers, and resolved to come back another day. We went to the
complex called "mormontown" and asked one of the active members about
all of the less-active members, to get a feel for who we could visit and teach.
We then went back to our apartment to get our suits for a baptism later that
night. We went to dinner, and talked about the Superbowl and the Quorum of the
Twelve. It was a weird conversation transition, but it worked. We then went to
the baptism, because it was someone that Elder Y. had taught before I got
here. His companion went home 3 weeks early for school, and so Elder Y. got
put with an English Elder for 3 weeks. The guy that got baptized was one of
their investigators, so we got to attend. The reason that the baptism was
yesterday was because the man's granddaughter was turning 8 yesterday, so they
got permission to be baptized and confirmed yesterday, together.
Today, it sounds like we're headed back
to my old area in Mira Mesa for some bowling! I'm pretty stoked for that. Not
much else to report!
Have a great week!
-Love, Elder Crook
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