Another Transfer Down... Nothing Happened

Knee how

So, this email is going to be pretty short, let me explain why. Yesterday between sessions, (which by the way, were faaaaaantastic) we were biking to a members house, when all of the sudden I had a flat tire, but not just any flat tire. The tube was sticking out from the tire. Yeah, I didn't think it was possible, but it was. We had fifteen minutes to go, with a good 45 minute walk. Unless we caught a bus. We turned and there was one coming fast, so I picked up my bike, put it over my head and ran. Scary thing is I totally fit in here in el Serreno! Anyway my companion bikes ahead and catches the bus so it will wait. I thought we were good, until I realized that we had to walk another mile after the bus dropped us off. And we had like ten minutes till it started. So after getting out of the wonderful air-conditioned bus, I picked up my bike, put it over my shoulder, and started singing Mulan as we walked at hyperspace speed to get there on time.  Finally we made it!  We did miss most of elder hales talk, darn. But we made it, and I was so exhausted, that bike was probably made out of lead. It was terrible. So that is why I'm spending my p day fixing my bike.

But like I said, Conference was great! Loved every second of it, Priesthood was great! Unfortunately, some of the missionaries who I came out with helpfully reminded me that the marriage talks now meant a lot more as that is our "next step" I laughed. I'm still 19. I decided I was going to be a hermit.  I am going to let my family loose me into the wild where I can run free. At least that's what I'm going to tell all those helpful members who asking when we go home, and after us telling say "wow, you don't have very long left, what are you going to do?" Seriously, how do they expect us to serve them when all they tell us is how easy it is to get trunky. Now I know why. But I'm not bitter. Nor am I trunky, actually right now I'm really hungry, I forgot breakfast. Cause laundry. Ugh. Oh well.

Well off to life as I know it!

I love all of you! This Church is for sure the kingdom of God! Don't let tomorrow get you on the way out! Today's a big enough problem as it is!

️ you!
Bye 

Elder Rollins 

P Hour

So! New rules, not much time to email, or play basketball. Sad sad day. But as you probably know by now! Yesterday was not!

First and foremost it was Easter! The day to remember out lords resurrection! What a great message! Death has no sting, the grave has no victory! Imagine your joy, it's like you're sitting there talking about your week and then some people you haven't seen in about 21 months walk past your window!? Crazy thought. Don't know where it came from.

Conner, Elder Rollins and Kass

I was stunned needless to say when my dear friends walked past, twill be a short few months till I see them again! But don't worry, I'm not trunky!

Well got to see another soul washed clean, talk about miracles!

But I have to keep this email short and sweet, like kass, but I'll try to put some meat on it, unlike Conner.

Oh how I love my Savior! The only thing I think to say is to make Jeffery Hollands words my own when I say that I want it absolutely clear when I stand before the judgment bar of God that I declared to the world that the Book of Mormon is true, and that the church which espouses it is divine, that Joseph is what he said he is and did what he said he did, that Thomas s. Monson is a prophet of God and leads this work by the Lords instruction. That families are forever and that we must keep the commandments to keep that so.

He lives!

Love you all more than raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens (you're welcome for getting that stuck in your head!)

Elder Rollins

Edgar and the Elders

Well Here We Are.

Hello!

So so so this week was pretty good! First news, we found out that Edgar's name is actually Edgard. Weird. But we are ok because he is so excited to get baptized! It is refreshing to see! He is a good young man! His current biggest desire is to go into the celestial room. Too perfect.

Also we had a great experience with this young woman named Ruth, she was standing outside on Saint Patrick's day wearing all of this green. When she saw us she went inside her house but her kid stayed outside. So being the tease that I am, we asked the kid if he would bring his mom outside. Reluctantly Ruth came out and admitted she sort of knew who we were and that she always avoided us. We started talking and she knew some members in Utah and then we had a good conversation with her that had her telling us we could come back. So obviously teasing isn't always bad. That's what I learned.

But for the funny story of the week, my companion got chased by a dog. For some reason the dogs in this are just don't like us. But this was A Big Dog. I only saw it from the back as I was buckling my helmet still riding all casual as my companion peddled for his life from what looked like a pit bull boxer mix. Or something of the sort. It was a muscley  dog. So while I was just laughing the dog turned and saw me coming. So I did the first thing that came to my mind. I barked at it. It worked. I am the dog whisperer. Well it's more of a barker. Or barking mad. Not sure. But we had a good time, we met a random member on the street who said we must be old missionaries because our shirts didn't sparkle white. Ouch. Oh well.

But I learned something important this week and that is "the best time to dig a well, is before you are thirsty" because there will come a time in your life where you will be thirsty, a time that will require you to take big gulps from our wells of our testimony. And if we do not have enough, we end up sucking in dirt. So dig deep people.

Anyway!
Don't forget to consider the lilies!
Love, love, love!

Happy happy Easter!

Elder Rollins

How was your week?  Week was Bueno
How is Edgar this week?   He is doing really well!  All he talks about is his baptism this week!  And getting married in the temple!  Good young man.
Any word from Margaret and her husband?  Nope.  They fell off the planet.  Someone else lives in their house.
Are you healthy?   Healthy as an on.  Whatever that means. 
How is your attitude?  Attitude of gratitude. 
Do you still love the people in California?   yes. 
I saw you had zone conference this week.  How was it?  We did.  It was pretty darn good.  Learned quite a bit. 
What did you learn this week?  I learned that the best time to dig a well is before you are thirsty. 
When did you fell the spirit?  At Zone Conference. 
How is your ward?  What time does your ward meet?  They are good.  We meet at 11:00
Do you know how much we love you? Yes, mother. 

Pasadena Zone Conference

Lunch after zone conference

Me and my Muffin.

YUP

Edgar says two phrases to almost everything, well maybe three. And they go as follows. "Yuuuup" "that's what's up!" "That's clean man that's clean" just some things that happen you know. It's ok though.

Also as an FYI the pday rules might change, so we might maybe possibly be limited to an hour for sports and an hour and a half for email. So that's that, now I will come home fat. Yes I said that just to rhyme, it happens all the time. (See) Anywaysies we had a pretty good week, highlight was taking Edgar and his fam to the temple visitors center. It was pretty great, we had a good little visit with them on the way and they were sooooo excited to go into the temple some day, all they talked about is how beautiful the celestial room sounded and how they couldn't wait to be sealed. That was pretty good to hear. (His mom and brother are already members) but other than that not much else has been going on, just pruning and grafting. All day every day. Seriously though. All day. Every single day. But it's never the same day. Weird huh? 

Anyway, a good story for this week was we were biking down this hill, and I was flying, like a falcon wouldn't have had anything on me. And what'd ya know but a stupid freaking Chihuahua jumps in front and acts like it's going to bite the bike. The owner screams bloody murder for me to stop but it was too late... A couple bumps later I was pretty depressed. I totally missed the darn thing. It's lucky I have a conscience. 

Well the church is too true! Obviously! 

I know it with all my heart!

Church

Pray

Read

Love you! 

Elder Rollins 

Hey so have you heard about a release date yet?   Yes.

Were you going to share it?  Yes.

Seriously? June 28th. 

It's Wasteful!

This week we had quite the week, biking that is. We biked about 5 marathons. Basically marathons on the daily. No biggie, except the hills. They're biggies. Explains the loss of some poundage.

I'm super distracted today. It's just one of those days. You know?

We taught Edgar and he is doing great! He's on track so we are excited for that, also we had some good lessons with a couple less active members who weren't doing anything we asked them to week after week but we finally were able to break through some barriers.  I'm sure it is thanks to our dashing good looks.  OK Mostly the Holy Ghost, but I'm sure the looks helped. Except that everywhere we go we are sweating more than you can imagine. 

Anyways one of the great blessings of the week was that the Lord has blessed us for our patience in white washing and given us a small break.  He didn't stop it from raining when we had to do laundry, but that's ok.  There ain't no rest for the weary, baptisms don't grow on trees.

Other big news is that Gladys Knight is coming to our area and giving a fireside, which is a huge missionary effort covering three stakes.  It is supposedly a big deal. For some reason everybody keeps talking about taking a train to Georgia at midnight .No idea what that is about. We are super excited for that event.  Apparently it yields lots of fruit. We are getting ready for it in April.  Conference and this Gladys Knight lady. Apparently her music is pretty good. Anyways we are looking forward to that.

The reason for the title this week is for some reason lately I've been speaking like batman now and then.  There was a funny video I watched back home where batman says "Its wasteful." Well one day we were biking and I
was mumbling  to myself. (I'm pretty sure the hobos thought I was casting spells on them. oh well. it happens a lot.)  Sometimes you just have to talk to yourself. Anyway as we were biking there was a guy going through the garbage and tossing things out onto the ground. My companion got ahead of me aways and I was thinking of what
a terrible waste this energy was going to be to catch up to him, so I yelled in batman voice "ITS WASTEFUL!!! I scared the hobo so much he almost climbed into the garbage can, but when we came back all the stuff he was throwing around was off of the ground.  I helped keep the area clean.  You are welcome South Pasadena. 


Well got to go! But I love you lots and the things we do for this gospel are NEVER wasteful!

Byeeeeeeee

Elder Rollins

In my lettter to Josh I told him that I had been super sick the week before.  I may or may not have told him that I was on my death bed.  Death bed eh? Does that mean I don't have to call on Mother's Day??

Only if you want to have a shortened lifespan also!  Punk! Well that would also stop the call eh? 

The call maybe but boy would you get sick of me on the other side of the veil!  Lectures galore! But you'd be in a lot of trouble for murder....

Elephants

Hello everybody!

This week was a good week, we set a baptismal date with this young man named Edgar who is excited to get baptized, his family mom and brother were baptized a year ago and now he wants to join. So we are excited
for him!

So something about this area. Is hills. Sooo many hills. Big ones. Like Val Verda. And it seems the only people who want to talk with us, have to live at the very tippy top. Naturally after about the 5th hill of the day, I'm pretty fed up with this whole go up to go down, to go up, thing. Yesterday topped it all. And all because silly us had to take a "shortcut" ohhohoho was it a shortcut, yes because it left me short breathed, and with my patience cut. It was a a solid 4 hill shortcut. The thing was, it was up then level, then up mor,e then level then down all the way, then straight back up, then down halfway then back up to three quarters. I was a little bitter. But I lived.

Now a funny story from the week. We were taking this mini missionary, (a youth from another stake) out with us. We were talking to everyone. He got a good taste of rejection. It was pretty great. The Lord had to show him how great the mission awkwardness can go. It started when we were doing service in the morning. Which involved an ax, so naturally, I took the ax. We had to cut all of these big ole branches down to fit into a regular garbage bin. Well, I decided I would show my macho masculinity and chop one of those suckers in one swing. So that's what I did. I had no idea, that when you do that, pieces fly everywhere. One half of the branch went straight into my kneecap, the other flew up above the height of the house and came down probably an inch from my head. My two companions got a good laugh, but I decided I really need to master physics because I have no idea how
that worked. 

The day get even better. Then we are talking to this nice couple, and to break the ice, my companion asks them if they would rather ride an elephant or a giraffe. They said elephant. We talked about elephants vs giraffe for a little then my companion asked if they had ever talked to the elephants before. They looked super confused. Apparently he meant missionaries. Oh well. 
We then see this large group of people standing in front of a house. So I asked if they were having a party. Nope. Somebody had just died. I am so smooth. We offered our condolences and said we would pray for them and
that turned out alright. We are going to go by later and tell them how they can be together forever! So it should be ok.

Well that's all I really have for you from this week! The rest involves  a lot of sweaty well-dressed bikers!

Love you lots!
Families can be together forever!
Sorry your stuck with me! :)

Byeeeeeee

Elder Rollins

How old is Edgar?  26

Did you see Lena or Tony and Margaret this week?  Lena is super busy at school and got sick. Margaret and
Tony are still hanging out in the hospital

Clubs!

Helloooo!

Well I survived another week here in the land of eternal summer! That's okay though, the brighter it gets the more people brighten up a little!

This one is going to be short probably as we have some mighty shopping to do to pull through the week.  I'd like to bear my testimony on silly circles cereal and top ramen. They do in a pinch.

This week we had a great lesson with Lena, our most promising investigator, she is wonderful! She has lots of questions but quite the testimony in Christ! I'm so thankful I know what I know because she asks some good questions! But for once I finally feel like I can handle them, and if I can't, God can! It's comforting to know that my boss here is perfect. The real world is going to be rough.

A lesson I learned this week. No matter how many times you pray for it, if God doesn't want it to snow.. It won't snow. But I'm over it. This weather is probably the most trying thing about a mission. That's a lie.. But it doesn't change the fact I want it to snow. Except I think it might make biking up and down these hills a bit more difficult. 

Also I learned a rather funny lesson about parents. This will be illustrated by a story. We were at dinner and one of the elders we were eating with asked the parents how they met, the parents blushed and looked at each other and then the dad said,"Well........we met at a club actually." Then their daughter yelled from her end of the table, "Wait, I thought you met at the church?" Awkward pause. So us tactful elders quickly started talking about anything else. Heh. So it's good to have kids, they keep you honest. And dont forget that all children think their parents are perfect until said children turn about 12 years old.

Well just know that I love all of you! I pray for you always and try not to think about you! Take it however you want!

Love you lots!
Elder Rollins

Lena?  Have I heard of Lena before?  Where did you find her? Her mom is a less active we are visiting! No you haven't but she just started progressing!  

How are Tony and Margaret?  Did you meet with them this week? They are alright, Margaret is in the hospital so we are waiting for word. 

Why is Margaret in the hospital?  Hip replacement problems

Did you stay on your bike without falling? Yes I stayed on the bike.

Did you injure yourself in any other way? No.  

Is it already warming up there? It's like 90 degrees. I can't stand summer anymore.

It is already 90 there?  Holy cow.  I am sorry you are tired of summer but I hate to tell you but you are scheduled to come home sometime near the beginning of,  you guessed it,  a long hot summer!    Just saying.   Ugh.....