Happy Birthday, Mom!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!
 It's good to hear that all is well on your end of the world. It doesn't surprise me that Gavin and Riley are still wreaking havoc. Andrew looks like he's getting big. It's good that Allison is having her C-section and we will have another baby. Still no name, I guess. They either don't have one, and are making you all think they do, or it's a good one that they don't want anyone stealing. Knowing Tyler, it's a little of both. It's good that Cameron and Shelby are having a girl, It's good that Cameron got a better job with troubled youth. It's great that Ethan is getting married. Like you said, now it's down to Breanna. What's Caleb up to? Find out the deets on that new family in the ward, fellowship them. Our ward sucks at that, and now you have a common element. Make them your best friends. Everyone out here has dinners with other families in the ward and fellowships each other. It's something that I noticed never happens in Utah. Make them feel welcomed and at home. Yeah, get us our plaques! Haha. I want something to hang on my wall when I'm 45 and unmarried rolling in doe. Haha. Just kidding...(about the rolling doe part. Maybe. #BussinessAdministrationProbs).

This week was...lame. Haha. We only taught like 10 lessons, which suckkkssss. We met with Alex and found out that he doesn't even know if he has a desire to know if the Book of Mormon is true, or even wants a desire. No matter what way Hughes and I put a spin on it, he was just like, "Maybe...". I was like, "Look, we're making some pretty bold claims here. Either this book is 100% true, or 100% false. There is no 60/40 going on here. And if it's true, that means that Christ's original church that he himself set up when he is on the Earth has been restored, that means that the priesthood authority of God has been restored to the Earth through a modern day prophet, and we have a living prophet today. That sounds like something that's worth knowing right? I mean, if the Book of Mormon is true, it will literally change your life. Don't you want to know if it's true?" He said, "That sounds good. I don't know." So we asked him, "If it were true, would you act on it?" He said, "Maybe. Even if it were true, I don't know if this church would be the church for me." I lost it a little bit and looked at him right in the eyes and frustratingly said, "Alex, that doesn't make sense. If it's true, your search for the true church and Gospel of Christ is over. If this is true, but not right for you, something is off, and it's not the book." So he's on the list to be dropped this week. Ugh.
But Vasti got confirmed yesterday. That was good. She's great. We're working on her inactive dad, and his non-member wife and her three unbaptized daughters. It's fun out here, hard, but fun. I'm glad you like the shirt. 16 year old kids walk around with the hoodie form of that shirt on...at the end of July. #CaliKidsAreDumbSometimes. It was like 107 degrees on Thursday out here and it was overcast. It was soooooo humid. It doesn't even rain here during the summer, it just pretends and makes it muggy. We're super blessed with a car. Haha. Sorry, Helmet Biking Elders. Transfers are in two weeks on August 10th. Hopefully I'll get bounced elsewhere. I really feel like my time in Woodcrest is done. I'm just going to prepare for the worst. Doubled in, First Time District Leader, Training, on bike, in August, in the hilly part of Corona. That way, if anything else happens, it'll be pleasant. And if the above happens, my boy and I are going to kill it. #BornForAdversity. We kind of dropped Judy this last week as well. She flat out said that she wasn't committing to baptism, and won't for awhile. So...we kind of don't have anyone to teach. Hahaha. I came in with no one, I go out with no one. At least I left it the way I found it. Hahaha. That's terrible. No, we worked hard and found people ready for the Gospel, and I learned a lot.
Glad to hear that Kylee is doing better. Tell her to just keep following what the doctor says. He know's what he's doing.
Yeah, time is rolling by. No biggie.
Love you, happy birthday
Cody



This is Cooper, our homeshare's dog. That homie loves me. He tried to make out with me, and I almost let him. #TheStruggleIsReal. Also, I need to work out. My face is getting fat.

Hughes and I

Redland's Temple

Picture overload, and some words of wisdom thrown in!

We did baptize Vasti yesterday, finally. She took so long because she had a cast, then a boot, and she was feeling self conscious about it, but we finally got her. And there is the step-mom and her three daughters still in the home that aren't baptized. It's the honey hole of Woodcrest. Haha. Photos to come. Hughes is going to email them to me. But the work is going still. We're trying to get Alex to get baptized this weekend, but he might have to wait until August. I will probably be transferred on August 11, since I've been in Woodcrest for almost 6 months. It'll be a good change of pace. There is a high possibility that I might train. There is a big incoming and people need to train. In our mission, if you've been trained, you can train. It isn't exactly about how much time you've been out. It'll be fun. Scary, but fun.

Also, on the 1st of January the church is sending out 36,000 iPads to different missions and ours is on the list. But it's like buying a bike for your mission, you have to pay. It's $400, so if y'all could start saving up to help me pay for it by January, that'd be a great help for missionary work, if not, don't worry about it. But tell Jared to start saving up for it, because it's a possibility now.

F'real. I almost pull my friggin hair out when someone quotes Revelation 20:22 that says no one should add to that book. Everyone out here thinks it means that bible as a whole, but it really means that specific book. WHEN JOHN WROTE THAT FREAKING BOOK, HE DIDN'T KNOW YOU TARDS WERE GOING TO PUT IT AT THE END OF THE BIBLE. THE 1ST BOOK OF JOHN WAS WRITTEN AFTER THE BOOK OF REVELATION, THUS MAKING JOHN'S ORIGINAL EPISTLE ADDING TO THE BIBLE. READ YOUR HISTORY OR I'M GOING TO GO UPSIDE YOUR HEAD! And Moses said essentially the same thing in Deuteronomy 4:2. So does that negate the whole rest of the Bible? NO, YOU RETARDS. FASFSDFKSDLSDHL! Kill me. If I can convince 1 born-again Christian to reconsider their life and the bible, I'll consider my mission a success.

Love you guys, Cali is fun, missions are hard, but worth it.

Cody.

We ended up at a ward member’s party and played minute to win it games for dinner.

And the Bagely's fed us freaking steak and salmon one night. #RichPeople

Elder Franson bought a Batman piñata for his birthday. I introduce Elder Batman. I miss him. 

 Batman and I going to Sleep!

 Batman In the Shower!

Batman Going Potty.

Batman Studding the Scriptures!

Batman Is better than Super man!!

Batman and I Arresting Elder Higashi!

 Batman Giving us a Training in District meeting!

Let the Games Begin!!!!

P.S. I also found a broken bong checking the mail this morning. #CaliLyfe 

Hey, this week has been okay. Taught lessons, some of our people were out of town. But overall it was good. Alex is progressing more and more. William dropped us, again. Haha. He said that he was just going to try fighting Satan on his own, and he knew what he was doing. Whatevs. He knows where to find us. He's a good guy. How's life been at home? It's good here in Cali. It might actually rain today or tomorrow, It hasn't rained since like February when I got here. I wish it would just do it and get it over with. It's making it humid, and that sucks. I got a hair cut today. I think I want to be a barber when I get home, becaUSE NO ONE IN FREAKING UTAH KNOW HOW TO DO A FREAKING FADE AND IT PISSES ME OFF. Okay. I'm back. But my hair looks freaking tight. I'll send some pictures. We had a church open house yesterday that we've been promoting for about 3 weeks, and only two people showed up, and those were the neighboring ward's investigators. Bummer. We didn't get that much support from our ward, but we're working with them to get them more missionary minded and get that ball rolling. 
Anyways, how's everyone doing? Judy isn't on date. We're going to start from scratch with her, because she took the lessons over 6 months ago, and doesn't remember some of the basics. Hopefully it'll click this time. She doesn't really understand why this church is different than other churches. Shellee is...Shellee. She's going to get baptized...eventually. We're helping her get there. She just has to do it. She's been investigating the church since like 2011. We had a couple of potentials that we're going to try to contact. We placed 9 Books of Mormon this week though, and we had a goal of 8. So that's good. We picked up an 11 year old investigator named Iyss. She's in foster care with a family in the ward, and they're working on gaining guardianship and then she can get baptized. Then Vasti is getting baptized on Sunday finally. We're going to try and get her younger sister Corrina this month as well. They're super, super busy. 
It's good that Kylee is eating more. Maybe she's just growing. It's good that the boys are doing well, too. Any news on Gunnison? Have Tyler and Allison chose a name yet?Someone cut Gavin's hair so that he doesn't look like a goober. #Geesh. I'm going to learn to cut hair just so that my kids and nephews look fly as eff. #LineUpLadies

Hughes and I.

Me holding a photo with my favorite F. Scott Fitzgerald quote. "I hope you live a life you're proud of. If you find that you're not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again." You should make that my profile picture on Facebook. 

Me and Hughes getting the car washed before Zone Conference. 

Me and William

Me and Alex

That's Chris Vega. He's a super cool team up we have. He just got done with his mission about 6 months ago in Canada. That's Kade and Lowen Stubbs in the background. They're thugs.

Then there's Elise and Sister Stubbs.

Then Elise trying to "sneak up" on me.

That's Frost, Henderson, Me, and Hughes. We're the Woodcrest Elders. Frost is from American Samoa, Henderson is from Centerville, Utah, and Hughes is from Gilbert, Arizona.

That's blood from another kid in the ward. We were playing soccer with the youth one night and he bled on me... #AIDS

That's Elder Allen. He works out every morning by pumping iron. He's a stud. #SwollPatrol #InsulinDependent

Just thought you'd be interested in how effing fly my hair is. Thanks, I know. 

Me, Hughes, Corrina, and Vasti

Cali view from an Albertsons Parking Lot

Shellee and I.

Shellee, Hughes and I. She's an eterna-gator

That little girl's name is Elise Stubbs. I love that family so much. They're always looking out for us and feed us when a dinner falls through. She's the cutest baby ever. She broke her collar bone on Father's day after we had dinner with their family. She calls us "mish-aries". I'm her fav. Haha. 

As you can Tell, Cody is in picture overload.. he is such a good looking Kid, I love and miss him to pieces.