Cody is still Protecting Jared from the Mission field.....

Good morning,
It was a brisk 68 degrees this morning, and it is a chilling 75 currently. I wish I was sorry, but I'm just not. Haha. I'm not even sorry that I'm not sorry that I'm not sorry. I'm just plain not sorry. Haha. The wedding sounds fun. Jared will do anything for a buck, which concerns me about his mission...haha. He's going to love it. He needs to be aware that there is tons of anti around church historical sites, and to avoid it like the plague. Anti is straight up designed by Satan to destroy testimonies. He's going to be great. Does he have to get a bike? He's going to need winter clothes. That's so weird to me. I can't imagine going out into the cold and working. He's a stronger missionary than I am for sure. Are you guys just going to celebrate Christmas a week or so early? He'll be in the MTC and might only get to call home, not Skpe. That's a bummer, but is still good. I'll see if my mission president will allow him to call me when he gets to the field, and I'll make sure his trainer get the picture. 

Moreno Valley is fun. It's still interesting. The whole town is similar to a doughnut. The further you go out, the better. The center is ghetto. We call it the ratchet zone, and we live in the dead center of the ratchet zone. The work is going. Elder Rampton is kind of getting on my nerves a bit, but what else is new. Hopefully he gets sent to another area this transfer. It would be good for him. He's kind of burnt on the area anyways. Hopefully I'll train next transfer. We find out this Saturday what's going to happen to everyone and where they're going. I can't believe it's already been six weeks. This transfer has flown by. We're just kind of skating by because Rampton doesn't really want to do anything.
Anyways, address for the mission is:
5900 Grand Ave
Riverside, California
92508. If you send letters there, they forward them to me where ever I am in the mission.

Current address, however:
25335 Alessandro
Moreno Valley, Californis
92553

Love you, guys. 

Cody

And the Work continues

If I could sum up my week in a six word story it would be: "General Authority. Chastisement. Trailer Park Drama"

Elder Evans from the Seventy came and spoke to us. I used the word "chastisement", but it wasn't really. It was weird, he'd "correct" us, but we never felt so loved. He's truly a man called on God. He talked about fasting. A lot of people think that if they fast and show Heavenly Father that we're willing to give up and sacrifice food, that he'll bless us with what we want. This is false doctrine. We fast to show God that we're willing to sacrifice food so that we can come into accordance with his will and do what he asks us, regardless of whether that's what we want or not. It's good that Tyler and Allison came to church. I'm excited to see where Jared goes. He's going to kill it. Tyler still believes, I know he does. He just needs to opportunity to come back without judgement. It's good that Ethan is putting a ring on it. Manti, I assume. Meet the Mormons was dope, right? I told you about my buddy McConkie's family and friends and what not are in that, right?
Things in the hood are...rolling. Haha. Jesus is still being dumb and really, really, really arrogant. And his girlfriend is still Coo-Coo for Coa-coa puffs. Serena had another interview with President Mullen. She has to wait 2 months to get baptized. But the silver lining is that I have someone to consistently teach for two months. Haha. She's super solid. She's going to go to the temple within a year, for sure. We picked up a new investigator named Reyanna. We just call her Rey. She's really cool. She grew up Seventh Day Adventist, but we're going to make her Mormon. Haha.
Tell Jared happy birthday for me and that's he's old now that he's twenty.

If Rampton bounces in two weeks when transfers are up, then I'll drop him. Rampton is still really green in a lot of ways and doesn't want to drop him because he's invested a lot of time into him, but if they're not going to progress, don't waste your time when you could be talking to the ones that will progress. The general consensus is that we'll be getting iPads in December. How's the fundraising going? Haha.

I probably won't get transferred. I just got here. I might train next transfer, though. Then after that I'll probably get transferred.

Love you guys,


Cody

Life is always an adventure in the Moreno Valley

Hey,
This week has been...interesting. We finally met with Jesus this week. Turns out that he wasn't in jail like we thought. But nothing has changed. He's still with his girlfriend that has the emotional maturity of a 6 year old. We were in a lesson last night with him and she refuses to leave his side, but she only berates him, curses at him, and has a constant scowl on her face. We're talking about Mosiah 2:20-25 and how Heavenly Father has given us everything and even if we served him absolutely perfectly, there is no way that we'd be able to pay him back, and she just out of no where calls him a liar and sucker punches him right in the jaw. Jesus gets pissed and dumps a whole glass of Kool-Aid on her and all Hell breaks loose. They're rumbling and pushing each other and Jesus' parents are yelling in Spanish, and a few words that I do know weren't good. Rampton and I are just chilling on the couch trying not to get stabbed (she went to jail for stabbing Jesus) or get a lamp thrown at us. Every time I go over to Jesus', I just think, "What...the...crap is my life right now?" After a phone call to the cops and 45 minutes later we're late for dinner and I've aged a year. Rampton won't let us drop him so we go over and endure and hope he gets the guts to break up with her and throw her out. He almost did last night, but the cop said that since she paid rent for the week, he can't throw her out because then it's an unlawful conviction. They both told the cops that it was just arguing and that no violence actually took place, even though she straight up punched him in the jaw, but whatever. We're going to have a "get your butt in line, or you're dropped" lesson. Every time we go over there I witness straight domestic violence.
Serene is super solid, though. She isn't getting baptized for a little bit, though.  But...she admitted that she has a huge crush on me. Yaaayyyy...if it escalates I have to inform President, which could result in an emergency transfer. I told him about it on Friday when we had interviews and he said to just watch my step. Which I agree with. It's not going to be a problem, though. She's Tyler's age and has 3 kids. #Pass. I saw Meet the Mormons on Friday as well. It was pretty good. There is a section about a football coach from Maryland and McConkie is from Maryland. He knows them and pretty much everyone in that section. They're in his homeward.
Honestly, I'm kind of struggling with depression again. The area is fine, the ward is fine, we have investigators, but the stress of all that comes with the work is just starting to get to me. I hate using the phrase "burnt out" because it means that you're giving up on yourself and the Lord, but most days are pretty hard for me to get up. I don't think I was actually up at 6:30 this entire week. Biking isn't bad, my knee is giving me a little trouble, but it's probably nothing, and nothing about the area, its people, or the work in and of itself is bad, but for some reason it's just eating at me. Anyway, this just happens from time to time. Today might be hard, tomorrow might be hard, the rest of this transfer might be hard, but one day it won't be. So I'll just hold out until that day and pray for the strength to endure.
I'm excited for Jared to get his call. Hopefully it's this Wednesday. I'm glad that Kylee is doing better.
Anyway,
Love you guys,
Cody

Transfer, Week 2 Moval

Where to begin? Like...wow. A lot going on. That's good that it was just a cyst and not cancerous. Hopefully it stays gone. It's good that you went to General Conference. I'm glad you enjoyed it. What was your favorite talk? What did you think of the speakers speaking in their own language? It was really cool to watch it here. Saw a lot of familiar faces when the choir from Stansbury, Tooele, and Grantsville sang. We got our investigator to come. She loved Elder Holland, and we were like, "Everyone loves him." Haha. Her name is Serena. She's possibly getting baptized this Sunday, pending an interview with a member of the mission presidency. I'm fairly confident that she'll be able to make it by this Sunday. If not, then that's the Lord's will. No one is barred from baptism. It's not a matter of "if", but a matter of "when". I'm sorry to hear about Mark's passing. Grandma emailed me and told me about it as well. We can take solace in knowledge that we have a loving Heavenly Father that loves us so much that he provided a way for everyone to return to be with him, and that we're able to do that as families. The Plan of Salvation is the ultimate plan that Our Father uses for his purpose (Moses 1:39).
We have our investigator named Jesus that was doing soooooo well. And then his girlfriend was released from jail. She went to jail for stabbing him. He has completely regressed. He's relapses and started using meth again, and he was pending a baptismal date. The mission presidency wanted to see what would happen when she got out of jail. He told us that he was done with her, but they're back together again. I've seen so many examples about how choosing your spouse or who you date is absolutely essential to happiness. And I've seen how people who make poor choices live lives that aren't happy. What's the saddest of all is that Jesus wants that change, but not enough to actually make it happen. He's on the verge of being dropped. This week has been crazy with Conference and everything. And this next is going to be interesting as well. I'm excited to see where Jared goes. Hopefully he'll get his call this Wednesday.

I love you, mom. 

Cody