April 29th, 2024 - 36th Email - Lemon leaves smell like fruit loops

Hey what's up you guys

So not a whole lot happened last week

Especially after the week before we were kinda chillin ngl

We found a good amount of new people and we worked really hard at getting members to our lessons and we saw a lot of miracles from it

Something I noticed was we had a ton of fried chicken last week from members

It was really funny actually I mean I'm not complaining fried chicken is fire, we also had to drive a ton to get to this one member's house, it was so out of the way honestly the drive to their house reminded me of the drive from Victorville to Barstow, it's kinda crazy how different certain parts of the area are, Bermuda Dunes (which is basically Palm Desert) vs Indio vs La Quinta vs Coachella then all the way down to like North Shore (which is basically the Salton Sea) it might be the most interesting combination of communities in the mission

Anyway crazy story for the week we almost got in a car accident yesterday

There were two right turn lanes and we were in the left one and some other lady was in the right one and she ended up turning into our lane as we go and we had to swerve left into the other side to avoid the accident luckily no cars were there

Then it merged into one lane and she was going super slow so we tried to pass her but she sped up with us in oncoming traffic so we gave up and went back behind, Elder Jones was driving and she ended up turning left at the next stop light and Elder Jones had a fat stare down with her as we went straight (her passenger window was down too)

Ok little more wholesome story

Yesterday evening was funny because we were in the middle of nowhere and we didn't want to go back yet just to waste gas so we visited some grey dot (someone who had been stopped teaching a while ago) and he was asleep but the rest of his family was up

So a teenage girl opens the door and is like "wassup" and it's like 8:15 or something so it's super awkward and we're like "where's this melquisedet (not spelled wrong) dude" and she's like "asleep" and so we're like "dang want a message about Jesus" and she's like "yeah"

And then Jones does a funny and asks if they would be more comfortable outside or if we could go inside and he even told me after he felt super awkward asking that question

Then that proceeded in a goofy discussion/argument within the house and then finally the girl's like "just come in" and we go in and there's a mom and two other kids so there's four people all staring at us super awkwardly

They're taking up like the whole couch too like weirdly spread out with their own corner so we were just standing there with them staring at us like we had covid or something

Finally the mom was like "make room for them (but in spanish)" and so we sat on the corner of this L shaped couch and then the mom was on the other end next to two other kids and the girl that opened the door was actually standing up behind us

We started with a prayer and afterwards I was immediately just like "sorry for being hecka awkward" and they laughed and then we had a good enough lesson but it still felt super weird

We finished up feeling like it went okay but as we were leaving the mom asked "so uh when are you coming back (but in spanish)?" And so now we have a return appointment and we'll see how that goes

Uhhh I went on an exchange to palm desert so that was fun we met a dude that spoke kekchi (a dialect from Guatemala) it sounded super weird, also there was an insane dust storm that day (every time I go up there I swear)

Probably going to go on an exchange this week to salton sea too

Also another funny experience

So elder pittman and I went on an exchange the other day and went to a gas station

We went inside and found a huuuge stash of posters so we bought a minecraft one and one with a bunch of shoes on it

Then elder jones hears about the posters and is like "i want one" so we go and we're going to grab one when a random dude walks up to us and is like "hey what are you guys doing here when are you gonna come to my house again"

But the problem is we have no idea who this dude is

And then I realized

This dude was a friend of the other elders (the same guy whose guitar I broke) and he went MIA for 2 weeks because he was supposed to get baptized but didn't show up to his own baptism after confirming it the morning of and so we got the other elders in contact with him because he was asking us why we weren't visiting (unrelated side note: the other elders had knocked on his door about 10 times in the last two weeks and called him about 30 times) but then he came to church on Sunday! We love miracles! So moral of the story go buy posters at sketch gas stations or something

Also stagecoach happened which is coachella fest but country music

I've never seen so many RV's in one place in my life

Also apparently post malone is making country music now cuz he went to that (tryna convert him I mean he does live in utah)

Ok that was my week lol

Pictures!

-dust storm in palm desert

-what the heck happened here to this gate

-wholesome picture of us at an activity for kids (big mexican holiday, día de los niños, we made hot dogs and they were bomb)

-broken streetlight lol

-the poster elder jones bought