O Wretched Man That I Am

To answer your first question.  Nope, he isn't better yet, but he does have more of an appetite. (He lost ten pounds) so it's good that his appetite is back. So the beginning of the week was staying home. I did manage to do some things productive, for instance, I made the "off the beam alley oop!" It's not exactly the temple, but it will do in a pinch. 

Well we Had zone conference on Wednesday and that was awesome talked about things we were struggling with and how to fix them at one point Elder Bailey (zone leader, body builder, Texan, fellow brother in ADD struggle) asked if anyone had recently been able to really study the Saviors life, I was the only one to raise my hand. So that was an eye opener for me. 

After zone conference and after we got home and Elder Leavitt couldn't even pull himself into his bed without help. I fell into the trap of my pride and started thinking about how I was not doing good enough I wasn't helping enough, wasn't working hard enough blah blah blah, I got sick of my pity party, (because being alone in my whining, I was also alone at my party) so I decided to clean the pad. I cleaned my desk and then vacuumed and then Elder Leavitt said Sister Villanueva was coming this weekend. So I scrubbed the shower down, did the dishes, sang songs I didn't know all the lyrics too so I either sang the same part over and over or sang like "consider the somethin somethin field, it's a touchdown, gross what touched my hand" and so on. It was fun. I ended up cleaning the whole pad. 

And still I felt down. I was like "great, depression, I would cry right now, if I hadn't wasted all my tears knowing I couldn't snowboard this year" I think missionaries in snowy places have better comp unity because they get to throw snowballs at each other instead of talking. So much easier. Anyway I decided I would do some studying "Surprise! All I really can do."

In my studies I came across a quote that hit home. Here it is:

"the vertical pronoun I has no knees to bend, while the first letter in the pronoun we does." 

So I went to my knees and prayed, and while I was praying and noticing how much of a prideful punk I was, the prayer was more like a giant apology and me seeing how stubborn I was in my pride, I was forced to my knees and that wasn't enough I fell flat on the ground.  I just laid there and whined about how hard it was. O wretched man that I am. 

Our new visitor.  Welcome friend.

Well after I had been humbled for the umpteenth time, I went on exchanges with Elder Bailey, on the cleaning of the pad/me day I went on exchanges with Elder Stinson. But that's for later. We left right before Sister Villanueva got here with the humidifier and food and went out into the great unknown, we visited some missionaries We then went to visit someone else. Then we went back to Elder Baileys home and I told him about my humbling experience and we felt the spirit and it was awesome cause...  Spirit. 

We then went to dinner with one of the south Pasadena members, and with the APs, which was fun. We talked for a while and we sat down and the members asked me about my life and stuff. Sadly, I don't think the APs or that family had ever laughed at dinner, because one of the APs started laughing so hard he was crying and the father of the family asked them to transfer me to south Pasadena so I could be in his ward, I said it was a nice offer, but South Pasadena is a zone leader/AP area. We left early from dinner and went and taught a family who is golden and wants to get baptized, it was so good to see. 

I mus serve in Pomona!  I literally has my name on it!

We went back to Elder Baileys apartment and we had a little time, so we decided to say a prayer, and we asked if we could just find somebody to help, we walked outside and stood for a second, then both of us just started walking to the right, we talked to one person who brushed us off, but then we saw two people who looked higher than the clouds, we walked up and they asked for a dollar Elder Bailey gave one of them a 5$ bill. (Which he regretted later) and I gave the girl a dollar for the bus, She then proceeded to tell me her life story, and that I was her favorite "Godfather" ever. She really needed someone just to listen to her.  We walked back to the car to go home knowing we had been led, It was pretty cool! I felt immensely happy to be the Lords servant right then! 

So today is good! I'm glad to be here! Church is true! Well now I have to tell you about the other exchange, we only went for about an hour, but we went with an awesome recent convert, his name is Hector, he was an enforcer in a Chinese gang here. He got sent to jail for hiring someone to kill somebody, the kill was unsuccessful and he went to jail for 11 years, he got stabbed and he stabbed. He decided to stop hurting people and he went in search of religion, nothing rang true, an inmate had gotten a Book of Mormon to use the pages to roll up drugs. Hector bought it off him and read it, he felt the spirit and when he got out, he called the missionaries, and now he is a very strong active member. Crazy. Oh and he said we were bros, so now I'm officially bros with a gangster. No biggie. Well he came with us. 

Wpulled up to a "house for the mentally unstable" in other words, I felt like I was back at the pad. Haha.  We walked in and sat down with this guy, who as soon as we sat down started telling crazy stories, ca-Ray-z. I was  like "well, this is very strange" one guy sat in apt he corner talking too himself and staring at us, I thought he was going to come over and eat me. It was a very interesting experience, he told us that the Methodist church was true and as soon as he said that the spirit was gone and we couldn't get it back, we stopped and asked if he would say the prayer, he said sure I just want to tell God where we are and then I want you to finish it. and I was like "awesome! The spirit is going to come back and we are going to leave him feeling it" 

Then he prayed "Dear God, this is Arnold, I'm here in this Hell-Hole with the missionaries at 555 Orchard Dr. In the cafeteria, the window is open, and we are on earth, in the Milky Way Galaxy," well I was now biting my tongue to not laugh, then he said "now the missionaries will finish the prayer. Well we said a short prayer and told him we would pray for him then we left. He has a long way to go, but at least he tried to pray! 

So just keep trying even if you have a few screws loose and sometimes refer to yourself as "the boy". Well that's what happened! I hope you all are well! I love you all! Feel free to talk to me. I like questions! K bye! 

Elder Rollins

Where are you going for Thanksgiving? Idk

How is Heather doing? She trying to find a jobHave you seen or talked to Victor lately? Nope, he hasn't respondedWere you able to feel the spirit this week? Yes when we just went out and worked,I was trying to think of something that you needed to survive your imprisonment.  I was thinking of some good books.  What do you think?    Yes that would be cool.