The Goo/ad Week

It has been a good yet bad week. You will soon see! Hope all is well! Lots of fun and stuff. School. Hah. Heh been there! So let us begin this week. Monday night. Nothing happened. Boringgggg day. No tears for me though. I am pretty sure I got through the entire les mis soundtrack in my head!

'Merica

Now we visited Alice every day this week. She was awesome till the end... What is the end? Ohohohoh you'll have to wait. Then the rest of the week.  I don't really remember anything specific. Lots of lessons. Teaching good stuff. Pretty much how the entire week went! Lessons, good things happening, nobody feels the earthquake! Yay! 

Oh yeah we bought Panda Express for Elder Coontz 17 month mark. Yum real Americanized Chinese food. Not this chicken feet with 1000 year old eggs and sushi stuff. The crab in the pasta wasn't too bad just a little surprising. Like what the heck is that. But I survived. We ran out of groceries So handfuls of Fruit loops and crackers are my current sustenance. Sometimes we get fed soggy cabbage. With Mac and cheese. Yum. Hehe mission life. 

Alright well I am obviously searching for things to write. So I will get to the thing that is on my mind. Alice... Baptismal date is for Sunday, right!? Well Saturday she was just fine and then we call and she is sick. Again.  (We planned on dragging her out of bed and dunking her) So Sunday right before she needs to leave to come.she calls and informs us she will not be able to come and we didn't have to drop by to see her today... 
Cold feet much? So I put back the white clothes and now we are sad/mad. To make it better the bus drives by us while we are thirty feet from the bus stop. So we walk all the way to church. Then everyone is asking about her. Worst day ever. 

Well I survived. Yay! That is still good! And I don't have to dump ice on my head! Mom... What in the world are you wearing a garbage bag for? Dad why haven't you done it? Or the boys? Anyways to prove I had a partially good week despite the bad finish I will send a video of a fun contacting moment. Yay! And pictures! 

Love you all! Have a fantastic week!

Elder Rollins

Answers to Questions?

We are still praying for your investigators.  How are they all doing? I don't want to talk about investigators. They don't realize I'm trying to help save their gosh darn souls. Oh well they are good! Thanks for the prayers

Did you hear about the earthquake in San Fran? Didn't hear about it. Weird.

It was fun to see a picture of your district.  Do all of them speak English? Yes they all speak English. 

So you mentioned District meeting.  Is that always on Thursday? What do you do at District Meetings? Elder Coontz teaches some assigned subject and I get to sit and listen. 

The guys you play basketball with were not in the picture so are they in a different district? Are they in your zone? They just be up in my zone. ?

So how are you feeling about your effectiveness as a teacher?  What can I do as a mom to help your little brothers to be prepared? I can always be more effective. More gospel related convo would help.

Do you ever get to go to the temple? We get to go around conference time.

M.T.Cousins

Excellent job future elders and sisters!!! I am very proud of you! You are all going to be and already are amazing missionaries! If I didn't reply to your message, please let me know! 

Now this week the challenge is 2 different things on how YOU can be a better missionary! 
1. What can you do differently. I want you to read 1 Nephi 1-5  and I want to see your favorite scripture. 

2. I want you to have a missionary moment this week with a friend. Bear your testimony, invite them to church, invite them to mutual or a primary activity!

Good luck on this new assignment! If you get scared go to Joshua 1:9, and know that it is about you! Love you lots!

P.S. School is starting soon!! Muahahahaha

Elder Rollins

PS Since I didn't post this until so late this week I am going to tell Josh to give you and extra week to fulfill this assignment.  

Another Day Another Destineeeeeeee

Wazzup?!?!?!
Hello my homies in the 801! So we had a good week this week and Alice is on track to be baptized!! Woo who! Yep yep! Good stuff! 

Well the week began as any other week with a p-day.... Good stuff! Played some basketball and loathed the approach of six. Good stuff. Anyway, we taught Alice and she is doing pretty well! More on that later!

Tuesday was a lot of walking from door to door with nobody home because it was the last day of summer.

Then Wednesday the first day of school we went to Boyle Heights to meet with Jackie and she is taking a bazillion ap classes (only a slight exaggeration) and they messed up her schedule.  We talked to her about missionary work and that was fun! Then we went to the Rivas house and were going to talk about family home evening.  We sat down and their son Micheal (5) didn't want to play games anymore, but David and Maria decided it would be fun to play each other! Lolololololol Maria won the first game but David wouldn't let that be the end so they played 2 more times so we could see his masculine dominance. Lee still teased him for losing. (Which may be dumb because he is a retired MMA fighter) but we figured they had FHE down pretty well!! 

District meeting went pretty well! We said goodbye to Sister Allen and took photos! Missionaries are weird... But that just means I fit in better. 

Friday was attempted visits of referrals. Super boring day

Saturday, We head to Alice's house. We approach her door. And hear OH NO THE MORMONS! IVE BEEN WANTING TO TALK TO YOU GUYS! And we being the natural smart alecs we are say "well hello" and this unseen person says "Are you guys Mormon or Latter Day Saints or Christian? My confusion level at this point is mind boggling. So our answer to that question is "yes". Hehehe it felt good to sass someone. Then our heroic Alice comes to the door and says "Come in to MY house." and then introduces us to her daughter and takes us to her table to sit down and teach her.

Her daughter in the background is making as much noise as possible. We change our lesson to talking about Jesus Christ. The daughter asks us." What religion are you?" The response is "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints". She then proceeds to tell us about our religion and says we aren't Christian.  We ask what her definition of Christian is... And the crickets are chirping.  She has no response.  So we continue teaching
Alice. The daughter says something about us and Alice tells her to shut up. My laughter was barely contained. 

A little later in the lesson the daughter, being thoroughly stomped on, calls her husband and says that
she needs him and then, as if we are as old as her mother, whispers "The Mormons are here". Dang skippy we are!! So we finish the lesson and the daughter proceeds to tell us we "added to the bible" now Elder Coontz destroyed her arguments in a very nice fashion and then in frustration she tells us her husband is coming. 

We wait around. Talk to Alice a little bit. The daughters husband comes and asks us what we are teaching his mother in law. We say we are talking about Jesus Christ, and he says "He is our Savior" and we say "Yep."  You woulda thought we threw a brick at his head. He had nothing else to say about that so then they talked about their anniversary and other things. Then we leave. Fun Saturday

Then Alice can't come to church and neither can Jackie. Sundays are so stressful. But all around it was a good and very fast week.

But there was one heart wrenching spirit crushing morale killing moment. When my Mission President said we could be fb friends with our family and my very own mother.... Didn't accept my friend request......... The tears are flowing and then to add some salt to the crevice of a wound she accepted Elder Coontz friend request. Sad sad day.

See look.  It says friend request sent. So sad.

Elder Rollins

Here is my district.  Elder Chui, Sisters Mia and Washburn, Elders Dodge, Coontz, Rollins, Huang, Chan

Elder Chan, Rollins, Huang, Chui, a Member Lisa Cheng, Elder Dodge, Coontz. 

Answers to my questions for the week!

What did you learn this week about Charity? I learned that I have to love the people here who make fun of me. Darn.
What are the rules about Facebook?  We can be friends, no chatting and so far we haven't heard anything about unfollowing so we will let you know!
Has it been a hot summer? Yes it is hot.
Do you hang out with your district very often?  We interact with them, but usually it is just us. 
Do you ever go sight seeing on your P-day? There isn't much to see here.
Do you love doing your own shopping for everything? I hate shopping. 
How do you buy the stuff you need every week? We have a mission card with 160 dollars for the entire month.... What do you think of your new Mission President? He is pretty cool guy and he is learning just as much as I am! Did you meet his children yet? Yes we met his kids but I don't remember their names, or ages, 
When are transfers? They happen every six weeks, so today, but we aren't changing at all In he Alhambra ward.

TO MY COUSINS: Pre MTC MTC!

Hello fellow grandchildren!!! 

Welcome to the MTC!

You are all missionaries you just don't have the badge yet! So to help you realize your awesome potential, we are going to study together and then when you are done you can email me and tell me what you have learned!! 

This weeks topic is Charity! 

For the older kids. Meaning deacon/beehive to priest/laurel you will find the definition, 1 scripture and 1 conference talk read them and then report back and tell me what you learned! And I will be doing this as well! 

Little kids! Find 1 scripture and read one story out of the friend and tell me what you learned! 

Oh and Alex and Sam Rencher and Isaac I want 15 push-ups and then 20 sit ups and then you can find the scripture and read the friend article or look up charity and make the bigger kids look bad! 

Good luck! And may the spirit be with we!


Elder Rollins


P.S parents if you would like to join that would be awesome! The best study memories I have are when mom sat with me to do it. Even though I hated it.


Love you all!!

Crazy, crazy week.

What's up y'all!!! Everything is good in the hood! Hope you had fun! Hope you got to do some missionary work! S/O(Shout Out)  to big G (Grandma) for her attempts! Woooo! Aight so let me begin from the beginning of the end of p day.

We stop emailing, go home and get groceries meet with joe and Alice. Cool cool joe says he is moving. (For the nine billionth time). 

Alice and Joseph

 Anyways we go home and that's the end of Monday.


Tuesday we are out looking for a deaf family to teach (no we didn't teach them, they weren't home, I know i know sad) anyway, we are out and there are three salesman (college kids, nerdy clipboards, know it all) selling some thing for kids in need. Cool bro. Well we are standing there trying to find an address and one of them comes up and this is how the conversation went.


College kid: hey we are licensed by the state of California to be out selling stuff and we are working this street.
Elder Coontz: so
College kid: so we are going to have to ask you to leave.
Elder Coontz: we aren't selling anything
College kid: I know but blahblahblahblah licensed call this number blahblahblahblah
Elder Coontz: we are visiting someone we know.
College kid: (back pedaling) oh well I didn't mean any offense blahblahblahblahblahblah
Needless to say I laughed pretty hard.

"Hard Mission.. cuz can't drive these."

Anyway Wednesday we taught Jackie (she went to church again) fun stuff she is still super shy but that's ok! Still had a good lesson! 

Then Thursday.  Here is the conversation between a basher and grumpy post-meeting elder coontz

Basher: hey you guys, how many books are in the bible?
Elder coontz: (with a look that would turn the sun into ice and then a don't talk to me look-away) ...........a lot
Basher: *scoff


So obviously a crazy week but that's not even the best part! Oh no! Saturday, the bishop is out of town. The grand kids (and non-member dad) decide it's a pool party time. We are on our way home a kid is following us. We are planning ways to either convert him or beat the snot out of him if he tries anything then we hear loud music. And we are like whaaaaaaaat?  We ask the kid if he is going to a party and he is. In our backyard. So amongst rap music and scantily clad people we get to our pad and attempt not to sing a long. Then we tell the zone leaders and they came and took us away. But amongst this I was looking for safety in the scriptures... So I prayed and asked if I could have some peace while thinking woe is me..... And I came across this verse... Please read it D&C 127:2.... This is my curse. But also my blessing!!!! I am excited to see what else comes my way!


Sunday,thanks to the late night party, I was tired at church... But I didn't sleep! So good! 

Love you all! Be good! Preach the gospel always and if necessary use words.
That's a good quote!
Love you all!  Peace!
Elder Rollins

"My tough look."

"My hood."

Questions Josh answered.

I told him about some of the kids were already starting school and we would be starting on the 25th. Yea school starts here this Wednesday Weird because I won't be going. 

I asked what he studied this week. I studied charity it was awesome to read some talks! I learned that it is much like inspiration will not come all at once. It will form like dew. Slowly but surely. I just wish it was faster! Maybe I should read on patience! 

I asked if he has started studying the chapter in Preach My Gospel on Christlike Attributes. No I haven't started. I've finished! It's super highlighted!
How are Joseph and Alice?  Did he move out?  It makes me laugh to hear about their fights.  You know Gpa Carter had a birthday this week and is now 92.  I can imagine he and gma fighting but he would rather cut off his big toe than leave her. Joe and Alice are good. Joe moved out and Alice's mind is slipping.. Maybe that is why grandpa Rollins mind started to slip is because I had to see it. Good for grandpa! He is not aloud to move on. Or move out. Until I am home!! 

How about Jackie? Jackie came to church again! And her mom agreed to talk to a member on the phone! Keep praying!  And another person to add to the list is Maria. Her husband is being reactivated and we are working on
her but she doesn't like being pushed, so it's hard! 

Your comp must be pretty mellow to put up with your shenanigans.  What sort of trainer is he? He is mellowish..I guess.. He mostly trains by example. And enjoys beating me up. But he is a good guy. 

Have you gone on splits? Yes we have to with the zone leaders. 

Have you kept track of any of your MTC friends? Yes I am still in touch with the guy from Alabama.he is in Bakersfield.

When did you feel the Spirit this week? i felt the spirit talking about eternal families to Jackie this week! 

Are you over just the one ward? What do you on Sundays? Yes just 1ward we go to church. Then we go out and  work.... Stressful day Sunday is. 

Love you! Don't forget the ring!! And if you wouldn't mind sending more of my ties that would be wonderful. Love love love you all! 

Elder Rollins

Welcome to the Zoo

Goooood morning to all! Hope it was a good week! Mine was betterish!! Which was all I could ask for! So, I can't wait to tell some stories! Good, bad, weird, you name it! So here is one of my favorites! Aight, we get up on twos day, committed to getting a good workout in. I begin the long and harrowing descent from the top bunk to the song chariots of fire playing in the background, I kinda sorta ish landed on my feet, annnnnd promptly decide that was an awesome workout, and I finish the descent by falling on my face flat on the floor! And caterpillaring over to my desk. Which then I push myself up (which counts as 1) into the chair. And attempt to keep my eyes open. Good workout.

Anyway, Mom asked if I take anything serious, so that day I was super serious, so serious that some guy reading the third book of Christ (don't ask, no idea) told me if I was preaching happy things I should be happy... Huh... I had no comeback for that, so mom I was super serious for 1 day and now I'm just 50% serious.


And now the reason for the subject of the email. People are strange, especially two teenage boys in slacks and a button down shirt and tie. So how's about, we stare at them, and when they smile back, let's look away really fast and pretend like it didn't happen! Well we went to in n out for a treat. And we were sitting kind of by the drinks dispenser majiggy. And there was a shorter old guy who was just staring, and when I'd catch him, he'd flip his head around super fast. So naturally, as a missionary, I chugged my drink at light speed, so bad that my nose hurt, and being the super cool guy that I am sped walked over there thinking this is the one guy who I came out for.... I can't ruin this and I was there and I said hi. And he said...... "Ching something shirt hurt your what." And the only thing I know how to say in Chinese is eng wan Bon. Or English class, so I was useless. So I pressed a button on the machine and took a sip so I didn't have to respond, it turned out to not be root beer so I
almost spat it back out. Still don't know what it was. 

We did find a guy named Fernando who seems solid! Yay! Buuuut Alice and Joseph are fighting again, annnnnd Joseph is moving out. And Alice is very forgetful so I'll let you know how that turns out!

 But Jackie a sixteen year old girl, who's mom wouldn't let her go to church, finally got permission and came to church so hopefully that turns out good! 

We planted some good seeds of faith in people and it wasn't too bad thinking my dern family is boating. Because I am "doing a great work, and cannot come down." 

Oh and another thing. We are talking to a less active named David Rivas. And his son likes to play batman video games. While we are teaching. Annnnnd he likes to watch avengers at the same time. Soooo obviously my trials are like wayyyyyyyyyyy harder than elder Merrill. Oh and to make it worse. We can't decide if we want to go to the driving range today, or go play basketball. Soooo jealous of elder Merrill's easy mission.... Jk love you bruh!!!!


Have a good week y'all!


Boys. School is starting soon. Muahahaha love youuuuuuuuu.


K now I'm done! Love you bye!!

Elder Rollins


Here are some questions that he answered.

Did Alice come to church again? Did Joseph come with her this time? Who else would you like us to pray for? Yes to Alice no to Joseph, Jackie needs prayers, thanks! 

Do the members feed you every night? What do they fix you for dinner? No we don't have dinners every night but they feed us whatever they want....ill eat it.... 

Do you have to cook? What do you cook? Sometimes we cook. We usually cook whatever we can. Chicken, bugs, squirrel, cold cereal

When do you take the metro and when do you ride your bikes? when we go to Boyle heights we ride the metro. Sometimes if we go a long ways north we ride metro. 

Do you ever open the curtains in your dark bedroom cave? Yes we open curtains sometimes,

Do you ever interact with kids? sometimes but we aren't allowed to interact with kids too much. 

What do you love about the people you have met? I love the people I've met because (usually) they are humble and want something different then what they have got out of their lives.

You mentioned the zone leaders are in your district what are their names? The ZLs are Adamson and Despain 

Are you working hard?  Being obedient? Listening to the spirit? Sure thing! Yes yes. 

Tell me about a time you felt the spirit this week. I felt the spirit when we were telling Alice and Joseph that they were wanted home by Heavenly Father and that baptism would get them there!