Cesar Chavez Day

Look, Ma! No cavities!

Yesterday was Cesar Chavez day. Never heard of it? Neither had I. Apparently he was some human rights activist here in San Diego county, so there's a holiday set for him where all of the libraries in the history of existence are closed. And it just so happened to be on our p-day. So President said to go find somewhere to email if we could, but that if we couldn't, to just email on Wednesday, or today. So that's the reason for the which I am writing today. I'm sorry if it gave you any anxiety or worry, but we only found out about it on Sunday, and we had no way to tell our parents what was going on, so the mission office got A LOT of phone calls yesterday asking why their child had not written them.

 

Last Wednesday was quite the day. I was on exchanges with Elder S. We had several lessons that day, a few with some investigators, a few with some less-actives, and then some wonderful dinner at the end of the night. The whole day was spent on bike, and for some reason, 'twas hot indeed. We ended up giving Hna. C. a blessing that day because her daughter was about to be released from prison into her care "because the judge said so". So she was a bit frazzled and worried, and we gave her a blessing. She said that she wanted us to come back on Saturday to feed us arroz con pollo, (I know it's your absolute favorite, Dad. ;)  ) and we agreed that we would be back Saturday.

 

Thursday turned out to be a bit less fruitful than Wednesday, and we started off with weekly planning. I don't know what it is about weekly planning, but it always makes me sooper tired. So we finished up and went to find some former investigators. We went around searching for people at home, yet were unable to find anyone. We spent most of the day talking to people in the streets, and trying to talk to Arabics and English speakers. We didn't really find any one of our set appointments at home, so we spent most of the day looking for people to visit and teach. Finally, at the end of the day, we stopped by and visited K. For some reason, he stayed back in his bedroom, and we talked to U. for a bit. We then went home early as Elder V. wasn't feeling good from some Chinese food we ate.

On Friday, we had interviews with President, and the other Elders had just put their car in the shop to get fixed, so we had to scramble to find some way to get to the stake center. We had opted to just bike there, and wake up super early to get there on time, but we were able to use the El Cajon zone leaders' car to get there instead. My interview was probably 5 minutes, I think. Shortest interview I've ever had, and I think that it was my last one before departure interviews. Oh well. We came home, returned the zone leaders' car, and went to district meeting. It was LOOOOOOONNNNG. We did some role plays for using the "Because He Lives" initiative, and I got to be a professor reading Machiavelli in the library, and the other Elders had to contact me. It went pretty well, but then it just kept going. We finally went to lunch, ate some good California burritos, and went to do service. Hna. C. then called us and asked if we could come meet her daughter, so we did. She was interesting. You could tell that she'd been cooped up in a small room for quite some time. But she looked like she was getting a lot of support from her parents. Elder V. and I gave her a blessing. We then went to the R's, and shared a message with them, and after, we went to the branch movie night. We watched 17 Miracles with Spanish subtitles. Ah man. All the women were crying, as expected. We then went home.

Saturday, we went to a baptism for the sisters, and helped out with conducting the music and being witnesses. After all was said and done, we went to help a member move into his new apartment, and we Elders provided the heavy lifting. I was nominated for getting everything in the moving van pulled apart in a weird game of reverse Tetris, and everyone else carried it to the apartment. We then had some pizza, and went to visit some people. After biking around for a bit, we went to have dinner with Hna. C. and S., her daughter. For some reason, S. wasn't there, but we still had dinner with Hno. and Hna. C. It was some good arroz con pollo, and it was Costa Rican style, so it wasn't what I expected. We then went and saw R, had a good visit with him, and went to see if we could find K. He wasn't home, so we went and tried to find several other less-actives at home. We finished the night, and went to bed.

Sunday, our branch mission leader wanted to have coordination super early, right before branch council, and we had to get up early. Elder V. wanted to get up at 5:30 for some reason. I slept until 6:30 and got ready quick. We then got to the church for coordination, and we ended up not having it anyway. I didn't have to go to branch council, so I got put in charge of copying the program for sacrament meeting, and that was what we did. We then had a great fast and testimony meeting, and went to gospel principles. Hna. G. was giving the class, and asked if I could tell the story of the Mediator, as given by Elder Packer. The story in the Gospel Principles book is quite long, so I read over it, and summed it up when called upon. The lesson was very well taught by Hna. G. We then went to the 5th Sunday meeting, and Presidente H. showed a presentation for "Because He Lives". He explained it, and then showed the video, and right after that, he asked who they would share the message with. Everyone sort of mumbled the answer of "Our friends", but that wasn't enough for him. He said, "How much better would it be if you had the missionaries there helping you share it with your friends?" Then everybody got it. So we had a couple of appointments set with members to share the message with their friends by the end of 3rd hour. We then went to our apartment to do our studies, and then went to dinner with a member. After dinner, we FINALLY found K., and got to share the video with him. He really liked it, and we were able to get on a good conversation topic. We then went to see A., and he was actually just barely getting back from a hike at Yosemite. He drove for 8+ hours that day just to get back when he did. We talked about how it went, and because of time, gave him the card for "Because He Lives" and told him to see it and maybe even share it with his girlfriend.

Monday, we had quite the bit of service. We went with the El Cajon zone leaders, Elder D. and Elder F., (since they live right below us), and we went to help their ward mission leader to trim some trees. Now, mind you, this man is in his late 60's or so, and has this nice plot of land covered in orange, lemon, lime, and fig trees, and had some kumquat bushes growing around. He told us to help ourselves to the fruit, so I had my fair share of fresh oranges and kumquats. I just love fresh oranges. They're so sweet and juicy. We then got to the tree cutting, and the ward mission leader, Brother T., got up on this 15' ladder to cut these trees with a chainsaw. The ladder he was on was leaning against his neighbor's fence, and we were cutting the trees that hung over the fence. He cut a few branches off, and then, all of a sudden, the ladder twisted, and Brother T. went right over the fence and into the trees. We all dropped our tools and ran to jump the fence. He had somehow fallen with his back to the tree, and just so to have both arms pinned over some cut branch stubs, and his whole weight was on his arms. He wasn't even touching the ground. We lifted him out of his predicament, and his hand and face were a bit cut. But somehow, that was all that happened to him. The first thing out of his mouth was hilarious for some reason. "Oh. I'm bleeding. Where's my glove?" We all started laughing after a moment of tension and fear, and then we looked up, and his glove was still in the tree. He went into the house and got a few bandaids on, and came right back out to help. His wife came out and started chastising him for coming back out to help even after what had just happened. She told us,"He does this all the time!" in a bit of a frustrated vent. We then went to lunch with some of the senior members of the church, and then went to work. We started out trying to contact some referrals, and found a few, but were told to come back another day. We then went to see J. A., and right when we got there, he came out and said that he'd be going back to Tecate, but that he had read the vision of the tree of life. And then he explained the whole thing to us! It was crazy! We're pretty bummed out that he's going back to Tecate. We'll hopefully be able to get the missionaries there to find him. We then had dinner with the G., and had a good time talking to them about what we would to when we taught their friends that they were inviting over on Saturday after the Priesthood session. After getting the game-plan set, we went and saw Hna. C. again, as she's been having a hard time lately. Her family has been pretty less-active, and she really wants to help them. We talked about what she could do, and finally came to the conclusion to have her go to the temple to see what revelation she could receive pertaining to the situation.

Then, yesterday was just one big day of weird. It didn't feel right that we weren't writing home. We spent so much time just "puttering around" as Dad would put it. Every time I sat down to write a letter, I got mobbed by all the other missionaries telling me to quit writing and come play sports. I hardly got anything written. I'm going to get some letters sent next Tuesday to everyone, so be ready.

I hope you all enjoy Conference! I know that I will!

-Love, Elder Crook