Transfer 3, week 3

That's crazy about Kylee. I hope all goes well. I know that it will, but for sure do a blessing before hand. Always include the Lord's help. Satan is very good at making us think that we don't need to use our Heavenly Father's and Christ's help.
This week was good. We hit Standard of Excellence again, and Mark and Diane got baptized! They're super awesome. I love Mark. He has such a dry humor and is really sarcastic. Their daughter Lauren (in the green dress) got baptized about 3 years ago, then she married her husband Ryan (in the grey suit) last month in the Manti Temple. So they've been investigating the church off and on for a couple of years and we finally got them. We were just the guys who tipped them over the edge after years of other missionaries hard work. It was a weird week as well.
We dropped William because...well, he's racist, sexist, and a conspiracy theorist.  Haha. He's a 24 year old black guy that refused to make and keep commitments. He believes that the white man is keeping black people down by controlling the food industry and feeding everyone crap food that is making us dumb. Now, I love conspiracy theories as much as the next guy, but that's just waaaayyyy out there. He told us that Mormon's are cool because we practice what we preach, but that it "hurts his spirit when there aren't a lot of black people at church." He said that he just needs to draw a line and say, "What's Africa is Africa and what's Europe is Europe". So I told him that the Bible was translated by European's and that if we're following his line of logic, he didn't believe in the Bible anymore. He told us that the Bible really came from Africa. It was...interesting. Haha.

We have Vasti on date for the 22nd this month and she's really solid. She's just waiting for her cast to come off, and just has to keep coming to church. It's been a good, but weird transfer so far. Elder Hughes is a good guy. He taught me have to play a card game called "Golf". We play that a lot on lunch hours or at night before bed.
I might get transferred, I might not. If I don't, it'll be a hard 7 weeks because we'll be going back into finding mode. That's the price of baptizing all of your investigators.

We witnessed some lady back into another car on a street outside Azuree's house on Wednesday. The police didn't get involved because Cali police just don't care. Haha. Everyone speeds because they know that the cops have better things to do than to give speeding tickets. I've gotten used to driving in Cali. I'd probably be considered a jerk driver in Utah. Soooo many last minute lane changes. Cutting people off doesn't even scare me anymore. "Oop, there's that guy's finger. Byeeeeeee." Haha.

Yeah, I ran into my friend Jeff Hofeins old companion selling Vivint outside Mark and Diane's house. He was comp's with Jeff for 6 months, and Jeff was his best man at his wedding. They also taught Al Fox. So...they're dope. Haha. I haven't got that package yet, but I'm sure it'll get here.


Pictures of Baptisms 2 and 3.. The kid is hot!

 Mark and Dianne's Baptisms

 New Hair cut
Sexy beast, or little DelMar?

 Getting Pedi's with other
Missionaries.. #Dontjudge

Transfer 3, week 2

Hey,
This week was good, but hard at the same time. Mark and Diane are still on date for this Sunday. We confirmed Azuree yesterday. We picked up a guy named William as an investigator. He's cool, but a little odd, just like everyone else in Riverside. We have a possibility of 5 baptisms in a 5 week transfer, which is freaking dope. I'm excited for it because a lot of them are really solid. Vasti is just waiting until her cast comes off, Mark and Diane just need to be interviewed, Azuree is taken care of and done, then we just have to finish teaching William, get him interviewed and he's good to get dunked on the 15th. Busy, busy, busy, which is good, but tiring. We have fun with other missionaries, which is good. I'm around a lot of older missionaries that are finishing up. It's weird to see them go when it feels like I'm never going to end, but at the same time, I'm almost at six months, and looking a head to where my year mark is. It's insane how fast time moves when you're out. Elder Hughes is doing well. He's a good guy and we get a long well. He's a good teacher and I learn a lot from him.
Hope all is well at home. It's exciting out here, but I do miss home from time to time.
Elder Hughes and I were talking the other about agency the other day and he brought up and interesting thing. Justice cannot be robbed. It cannot be done, but what brings judgement and therefore bring justice? Agency. It's understandable that agency can dictate justice. Just like it says in verse 24, if we do what our Heavenly Father asks us, he immediately blesses us. Heavenly Father has armfuls of blessings he wants to give us, but we have to follow all the commandments he gives us. The commandments are to make us happier. Our Heavenly Father will never give us a commandment that will make us miserable. He only asks that we follow.

Gotta Jet, Love and miss you guys,

Cody

Pictures!

Freakin Taco Bell!

Also,  L Tom Perry and Elder Higham visited the Riverside mission.  Elder Higham is the Seventy over the mission.  Cody didn't get a chance to talk to him, but hopes he comes again so that he can have a chat with him and find the link that we are related.  Should be interesting.

Transfer 3, week 1

Hey, sorry no email yesterday. All the libraries were closed because of Memorial Day. It was a good day though. We played a lot of games for P-day, some basketball, and soda pong, then had a really good dinner at our Young Men's President's house. Azuree's baptism  was great. There were some complications about making the program at first, then there was a mix up about the building it was suppose to take place in, then Azuree's ride (her family) got into an argument over something and they wouldn't take her, so Sister Marquette and her family took her, and everything rolled fine after that. We had the 85 year old librarian in our ward speak at her baptism as well and she pulled out McConkie's "Mormon Doctrine" Hahahahaha. That book is some super in-depth look at the Gospel. It was so funny. So, I got into the font first, and when Azuree was about to get into the font she looked at me and said, "You know black people can't swim, right?!" and everyone started laughing. She then said, "Oh, crap. Did everyone hear that?" Haha. All I could think was, "Azuree, you're standing in a room made out of tile. They can hear you blinking." Hahaha. It was a good first baptism. I love that girl. She's really, really solid. We taught her everything in a week and a half, then just helped her along. She's read a bunch from the Gospel Principals manual and has bookmarks and highlighted passages. I'm super excited for her. We hit standard this last week, as well. It's been a good week, but a stressful one as well. I keep going through weird phases of depression again, then I'll be fine, then I'll dip down again. I'm going to ride out this transfer and see what happens next. I'll probably be transferred, which is good. I feel like my time in Woodcrest is coming to an end, but not my will, but the Lord's.

Elder Hughes is a good missionary. He's really good at being clear on Gospel Doctrine and isn't afraid to tell people what needs to be done. He's a pretty funny guy as well. We have Mark and Diane's baptism scheduled for the 8th, then Vasti and Corinna's  scheduled for the 22nd. We're going to slam those. It's been a good, hard week. It'll get better.

Also, also...I may or may not have played too much soda pong, got white girl Mormon wasted, ended up at a mall, and got a pedicure with 3 other Elders and Sister Pierce, the mission secretary that goes home this week. #DontJudgeMeBecauseImBeautiful.

Cody

                                        "No Fats Allowed"

                                       The Knechts

Transfer 2, week 6

I got a new comp. His name is Elder Hughes. He's from Gilbert, Arizona. He's a cool kid. I'm really going to like him. He's been out about a year. I've heard great things about him.
I'm about to kill off McClain in the next hour or so, and I'm super bummed. Like, this is going to be a hard week. He's one of my best friend's.
I have my first baptism next week. Her name is Azuree. She's really cool and just eats up the Gospel.
I'm staying in Woodcrest for at least one more transfer. It's a short transfer this transfer. Only 5 weeks to get President Mullens in on the 1st of July. But the next one is 7 weeks to make up for it. It's going to be fun, we're going to work hard and close out a lot of the potential baptisms in this area. The work is going. Hughes and I are going to slam it this next week and get back into the groove of things. It's been a weird few days with somethings that have gone down with other Elder's in my zone. One went home, the other's grandfather passed away, and McClain is bouncing, people are moving. It's just been hectic and I haven't felt like a missionary too much over the last couple of days. Sorry this is so short, I'm just really stressed and bummed out about this p-day because of transfers and McClain leaving.

 We have a few baptisms lined up. Mark and Diane are probably going to get baptized at the end of June. She had to go into emergency surgery last night for something minor. She's doing alright now. We'll see if we can drop by tonight after dinner. It's going to be fun.
 I hope you have fun in Gunnison. The Santoni's moved to Salina about two weeks ago. They're the one's who know Burke and Jolene. They're really cool.

Life rolls on,
Cody

 

Happy Mothers Day!

Hey,
This last week was really great. We had 5 investigators at church. We finally hit the Standard of Excellence. It only took us 11 weeks, but we're finally starting to see what happens when you work hard for the Lord. We picked up Azoree (As-or-eh) this last week, and she is so dope and elect. When we taught her the first discussion and invited her to get baptized, she was like, "Can we go and do it now?!" It was really cool to see her interested in the Gospel like that. Then Mark and Diane came to church this last week, and they want to get baptized as well. They just don't have a date set, so we're going to go bike over there tonight (we're on bike until Thursday and it's going to be hot as balls...yay.) and see if we can put them on date for like this weekend. No baptisms yet, but we have a couple on date. If we get all of them this next transfer, that will 9 in 6 weeks. That's a ridiculous amount of people for one companionship to baptize. Hopefully we get them in May. Vasti and Corrina are doing alright. They're just hard to get a hold of because they're 12 and 9 years old. So when the parents are gone, the kids are probably with them. We'll get them though. Same with Rylee and Lexi Bishopp. They're 9 and 12 and it's just scheduling. We're pretty sure that Lexi believe's in God now, so that's fine. We just have to get her in the font now, Lord willing.
I don't know what's up, but today I just don't feel like working. It's just one of those days. It's not that I'm homesick, or wishing I was home with friend's or anything like that, I just don't want to do anything. But it doesn't matter. The Lord doesn't call us to work when we want to, he called us to work because he needs us to, and that's what we'll do. Not only has he asked us to endure, but to endure well.
P-day went okay. We played kick ball in a gym. Some Elder's just take sport's way too seriously. That's annoying.
Anyway, we're going to slay it this last week of the transfer, see if we can dunk some people this coming Sunday. It was good to see everyone yesterday.

Love you guys


Cody



Went 2-steppin' in the wrong hood. #ThugLife

May 5, 2014

Hey, thanks for the pictures. We heard about that train coming through SLC and I thought that Tyler and the boys would like it.  I can see why Ashley wouldn't be happy about going back to work. She didn't really like her job environment to begin with. It's good that Jared gave his car to them, but what is he driving now? Ashley has helped us out a ton.

Andrew is getting really big. I'm excited to see him this Sunday. That reminds me: This Sunday, 7 o'clock our time. That's 8 o'clock your time. We'll Skype. So get it set up so that it works well so we don't have complications. It's good to see that the boys are doing well, and Allison is starting to show. It's crazy how much everything is changing, but I'm not worried about it.
What's Grandma's address? I can write her a letter. My penmanship can be good when I want it to be.
This week has been pretty good. We met with Lexi and Rylee Bishopp. They're 11 and 9 years old and we've been working with them for 10 weeks. Since I've been out. That's crazy. Anyway, we've seen a huge change in them and it's starting to go well. Rylee is totally down for baptism and is on date for May 11, so I might get my first baptism on Mother's Day. That would be cool. We had to use a lot of the Spirit when teaching them this last week and we figured out that Lexi doesn't really know if there is a God, so now we're working with her to gain a witness.

We also picked up Jeremiah's (the one with the shorter arms) mother as an investigator this week as well, but he's in jail, so...Life is weird. Haha.

We almost hit standard this last week with all our indicators. We're getting closer and closer and the work is improving. It's fun out here with McClain. I'm bummed he's going home in two weeks. I've been nervous but anxious to see who my next comp is going to be. I really hope I don't train. Haha. That's two transfer's and I just don't feel prepared for it. But I'll do it if the Lord asks.

This coming week is looking to be great. We're going to slam it and get McClain to go home in white.

This is the face our home share's dog makes when we catch him licking himself. He knows what he's done.
There is Elder Figueroa and I. He's McClain's comp before me, so he's actually my mom in the mission. Haha. He's Assistant to the President. He's dope.

Then there is Figs and Jensen. I love Jensen. He's Spanish Speaking and out of my zone now, so I don't see him often.

Then me and a kid named Kio. He's on his mish in Dominican Republic.

So super tight street art in the Woodcrest area.

Hope I didn't forget anything.
Love you guys,
Cody

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