April 28, 2014

We picked up three new investigators this week. Riley and Lexi Bishopp. They're 9 and 12 and they're super dope kids. Lexi listens to a lot of the same music McClain and I listen to. Which makes me think: "Do I listen to music designed for 12 year olds, or is she just mature?" It's the latter. She acts like she's 16.
Then after leaving Jeremiah's one night we passed by this less active family's home that we've been trying to get in contact with for the last 9 weeks and he's like, "Yeah! Come on in! I want you to teach and baptize my 12 year old daughter!" and he has like 7 other daughters that aren't baptized, so...jackpot. Hahahaha. Her name is Vasti and she's on date for May 18th, and McClain goes home 2 days later. Looks like he's going out in White. That chick is getting dunked.
Then we picked up an former investigator named Shellee. And she's so freaking dope. She accepts everything about the church and even drags her friend's along. Her one hang up is that she is adamant about being baptized in the ocean. ...what? We're going to resolve that concern somehow. Not sure how yet, but we will. Then there is Mark and Diane. Their daughter was baptized 3 years ago and just got married in the Manti temple Saturday, and they're super interested in the church and they're progressing nicely. It's been a hard 9 weeks because this area was kind of neglected and now it's starting to pick up again.

Tyler is going to be fine. It's good that everyone is doing well. It's good that Andy, Ashley, and Mikey are doing well. Tell them happy birthday for me.
Skype. We were thinking that we would Skype at like 7 PM our time. So that's 8 for you guys. We'll probably be at a member's home. The Stubbs. I love those guy's. They're so sick. We had dinner with them last night. Their kids are so funny. We're going to hammer out all the details this week and let you know for sure next Monday.

But's going good. We still work hard and everything. It's flying by. I've been out almost 3 months. Whaaaatttt?

Love and miss you guys.
Cody
P.S Do I have a missionary plaque on the wall at the church? Just wondering. Haha.  

Also, the night that we picked up Vasti as an investigator, McClain straight up hit a dog. And we went back and this black guy comes rolling up out of nowhere on his bike. This guy had gold teeth and was smoking a cigarette and was like, "Nah, guys. Just roll on out. I hated that effing dog. Yapped all the time. Eff that thing."

The boonies of Perris is fun. 

April 21, 2014

I just had some cold, I got over it. Now I'm fighting athlete's foot . It's all good, though. I have a cream that I'm using and it'll get better hopefully.
Yeah, I don't miss gnats. Screw those guys. Haha.

The work is going. It's been better than last week. We double the amount of lessons we taught, so that's good. It's good to work, but we're still knocking on the same doors with no one answering. We're just praying a lot. F'real. I have never prayed this much in my life. Like over 30 times a day vocally.
The ward is good. There are a few awesome families that have our backs. One is the Stubbs. They're so awesome and their kids are great. His brother lives next to Jon Schmidt  in Bountiful. Another is the Marquettes. They're moving to Morgan soon, though. Another is the Kalifi's. They just had a kid. Brother Kalifi is just this jacked Tongan. He's super cool. They're a cool young couple.
We're working hard, and we will keep working hard until the Lord tells us to stop and we get everyone in Riverside dunked. That's the game plan. Go until you're told to stop.
*Yeah, I got the package and Jared sucks at choosing ties. Hahaha. Some were good. The CTR one had a huge stain on it. Hahahaha. Thanks. If you want to send more, do it. Ties are always appreciated. Also, my patriarchal blessing. Those books were great as well. Tell Jared to finish that CD ASAP. We're going crazy listening to the same old stuff.
Thanks! also

, J-Dubs believe that 144,000 will become Priests and Priestesses. It says it somewhere in the Bible. I dunno. J-dubs are weird. But born-agains are just insane. I have never heard someone so adamantly tell me that by grace is the only way that we can be saved, which is true. It's just messed up that they think that no matter what they do, they'll be saved because they believe in Christ. Whatev, breh. Just get in the font.

 also, that's a photo of the Cali sunset from my area. That's looking towards LA, and the ocean. The ocean is just on the other side of those far mountains.
Love and miss you guys.

*Adder (by mom) for the record, I picked the ties to send to him, not Jared, so Jared is off the hook, and apparently I suck at picking out ties (we have about a million, and leave it to me to pick the wrong ones)

Hey,
It's already been week 1 of the transfer, and it's been kind of hard, but good. It felt really long for some reason. We realigned our area and gained a bunch of new names to work with, so we're visiting a lot of people, but a lot of people aren't home during the day, or busy at night. It's been kind of a hard week. In the 7 weeks of being here, not a single potential investigator has kept a return appointment, and we've had cancellation after cancellation. But I've been put in this area with Elder McClain for a specific reason, and if it's just to sow seeds, then so be it. But I'm not giving up or leaving until President tells me to.

The Valensuala family isn't doing so great, though, unfortunately. They're trying to flip a house in MoVal (Moreno Valley) and they've been out there everyday after work to try and get it ready to close so they can get back the money that they put into it. We haven't met with them in over a week, and they haven't been to church since the middle of March. If we can't meet with them this week, they're probably going to get dropped. Which really, really, really sucks because they're a great family and they have a lot of potential, and we don't want to drop them, but we can't waste time on people who aren't ready for the Gospel. Hopefully something turns around, so pray for them.

We haven't been able to meet with Sam a lot this week either, and he runs the risk of getting dropped as well. We met with him on Thursday, I think. I can't really remember...days really run together out here. Anyway, we met with him and asked if there were any concerns that he had, because he wasn't returning our calls or texts, and was always gone when we stopped by, and he said that he read some stuff on the internet about Joseph Smith, but wouldn't say what, and there was a J-Dubs pamphlet on his counter, so he's basically getting slammed by anti and is ducking us now. We cleared up some concerns and he said himself that he should go to the source instead of third or fourth parties, but we haven't been able to meet with him.

When we realigned the area we inherited some investigators from the other Elders. Mark and Diane are pretty cool people. Diane's daughter Lauren was baptized about 2 years ago and is getting married in the Temple soon, and that's kind of piqued Mark and Diane's interest in the church and they've started investigating. They have good concerns that we work through and they seem to receive it all well, but have concerns about the nature of Heavenly Father, and the Word of Wisdom. But that's all okay because as long as they get a testimony of The Book of Mormon and of Joseph Smith, everything else falls into place. If Joseph Smith is a true Prophet, then he really did translate The Book of Mormon, he really did see Heavenly Father and Christ, he really received the Revelations that make up the Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price, and this is really the true Church of Jesus Christ that has been restored to the Earth again by the power of the Priesthood Keys and the Holy Ghost. Ergo, the Word of Wisdom, Tithing, and the Law of Chastity are true revelations from God.  

We were over at a recent convert's home the other night. This particular recent convert is kind of demanding over tedious things, and we were over helping him put up new curtains for his daughter's room because he has a condition where his arms are shorter than the average persons, along with a few other things going on. We were over there and I was sick (Oh, by the way, I've been sick this last week. Yaaaaayyyyy...) and it was the end of the night and I was just done for the day, and his mother at some point in the conversation said, "Well, you signed up for this" as a joke. It then it hit me and the Lord straight up chastised me: I did sign up for this. I worked for this and I keep forgetting that this isn't about me. Nothing I do out here is even about me, and I've just been a punk being all dumpy, fat, and bad at sports. It's hard, there is no denying that, but it doesn't have to be as hard as I am making it.

Anyway, how are things at home? How's Andy? How are Mikey and Ashley? Tyler and Allison? Dad? Jared and Kylee? How are you?
Everyone still not dead? Good. Rest is for the dead. We will never sleep, because sleep is for the weak. Except I totes went to bed at like 9:30 last night. That's over 6 hours from my usual bed time of 4 in the morning. What's become of me? I've become a square. A straight up L7 weenie. Doger-dog. Oscar Meier, foot long even! You're killin' me, Smalls!

Okay. Bye. #LuvU5Evar (Psst. Dats moar den 4.) #YOLOBROSWAG

Transfer 1, week 6

It's good to hear that Grandma is well.We'll visit you, don't worry.
The Lord doesn't demand immediate perfection, He demands immediate progression. As long as we are trying to be better than what we were yesterday, we're doing fine. I know that you trust the Lord and that you've been Christ centered. The Lord knows that.   It's good that you, Jared, and Kylee are starting to do family prayer every night. When you make the Lord and his commandments a priority, he blesses you in ways you can't even see. That's in Alma 36:1. That whole chapter is awesome.
It's good that Andy is doing better and that Ashley is getting the hang of it.Hopefully Kylee gets well soon.
My therapist's name was Rosie. She's great.

The mission is going great. We just had transfers and me and McClain are staying in the Woodcrest Area of Riverside. We're still working on that family, but so help me I will baptize them, Lord willing obviously. Haha. We're going to redefine our area, though. We were really scrapping the bottom of the barrel this last week for people to see, because we only have a 1/4 of the ward. This next transfer is going to be good, though. It's been a good transfer. I've been out almost 2 months. McClain said that this is the hardest he's had to work to find people, so I know that every person we find and teach, and ever drop of sweat that we've bled as been worth it, because we earned it. The Lord has really taught me patience and diligence this last six weeks. We've had a few nights of banging our head against the wall with frustration, but then awesome moments where we teach someone who is just so elect and perfect and it all makes it worth it.
Also, ask Burke and Jolene if they know Carroll Christensen of Salina. I met her out here. Haha. Her daughter Emily Santoni knows Burke and Jolene. They're like best friends with McClain and a super tight family. Haha. They're like "Oh, we're from a part of Utah that no one knows." Fools, I know Redmond and Salina.
All is well.
I love and miss you guys