May 20th, 2024 - 39th Email - American Idol

Hey

This email is probably gonna be sent on tuesday for you guys cuz my parents are currently on vacation 9 hours ahead

So this week was absolutely insane so I guess we'll get right into it

So basically last Monday elder jones and elder pittman thought it was a good idea (well apparently it actually was because they had a blast) to get pedicures right before pday was over. So me, elder arvidson, and elder cutler were at the church building calling family cuz it was still pday and elder jones and pitty were tanning outside our apartment (lol) so we didn't know where they were (also lol) and it ended up taking forever because reasons so we just exchanged for after pday. Elder arvidson and elder cutler and i were chillin in a trio doing some service and teaching a litte bit for an hour and a half before we had a noche de hogar (family home evening in spanish) at the church building at 7:30 so it was hardly an exchange

But the funny thing is like nobody pulled up to the noche de hogar except one recent convert family and a couple other people but we prepared an epic spiritual thought while the other elders prepared a game

But it turned out the Hermanas also prepared a game

And it was the exact same game (basically) that the other elders prepared (lol)

So we just played the Hermanas game and came up with a different game that didn't need preparation

It was the kind of game where one person was like "I need 4 thingies" so you had to bring up 4 thingies before the other team did

It got super competitive though and elder jones stubbed his toe so hard he broke it (lol) so his toe is super swollen now and then he was smart and played soccer on friday but that's for later

Oh yeah we got this epic referral dude he's so cool he's recovering from drugs (been sober for 3 months now so that's cool) and we set up a lesson with him at the church because we couldnt go to his house (this was our first solid referral like ever fr)

He saw missionary ads on youtube and stuff and just wanted to learn more about God

So bro lives in northeast indio (which is actually a pretty nice area (like post malone has a house there) but he lives in a regular neighborhood because he's in a halfway house so we can't actually go visit him for some reason so we set up to meet at the church

And we're waiting for him and his car but then we hear a "hello?" and run to the kitchen to see a dude with a bike.

The church building is near the border of coachella, bro easily biked a half hour just to get here. Then we just had an absolutely fire lesson like it was nuts

Also we tracted into a crazy lady (crazy as in good)

She's so cool. We tracted into her last week but this was our second contact when we were chillin and chattin and then out of nowhere she was like "yeah maybe I'll go to you guyses church [without us mentioning anything] and maybe on sunday you guys can give me one of those books?" We practically threw the book of mormon out there like "take it please" fr and then she told us we had the Spirit around us like  i don't use emojis very often but that was like "holy cow I have never been in a situation where someone actually recognizes the Holy Ghost without us pointing it out" like that's unbelievably awesome

We had bishop's storehouse on thursday and one of our friends was there to pick up an order so we talked and counted it as a member present so lets go

Then friday was funny

So a sister missionary who I served with and that finished her mission last transfer came back for a day to play soccer with us so we moved soccer night from tuesday to friday so her family could be there and it was easily the best soccer night of all time

We finished on time (at 9 pm) but then some members were like "aight dawg now we boutta eat some grub" so we ate some grub and it was super good and then we kept being like "okay we gotta go" because we realized we needed to exchange with the borrego elders that night

We didnt end up leaving until 9:40ish because the members kept wanting to take pictures and give us food (we really shoulda just left lol) and then the drive is like a half hour to the meetup gas station spot and then we had to wait 20 minutes for everyone to get there (there were two exchanges going on) and I went down to borrego (which is a 40 minute drive) so you better believe I went to sleep at midnight on friday let's goooo and I also had a coke at soccer night so that didnt help

But it's okay that exchange was fun I was with elder huffman and they have the funniest keyboard of all time that is like an organ but also a keyboard so it's literally sick and you better believe we jammed out on that thing it doesn't have too many settings but the ones it does have are the most important and best ones so it's so fun

There's a bunch of weirdos in salton sea too

We met this really nice member (who I actually met the last time I exchanged down there) and we sanded down a table and painted it with the most disgusting smelling paint of all time

Bro that paint smelled like sewer water it was so bad and apparently that's what the salton sea smells like (cuz it's hecka polluted) and the paint was chunky too so we had to pour a ton of water in it (which made it smell worse) and then paint the table and inevitable get paint on our hands so our hands smelled bad

But

The table looked so good afterwards and the paint dried and didnt smell bad anymore literally the member said "thanks so much it looks like a $500 table" so we felt really good after

Also elder huffman is the oldest (longest serving) spanish missionary in the mission right now, and has been the oldest spanish speaking elder for like three transfers now and he finishes next transfer, so no spanish elders have finished their mission since I was in victorville

Yeah we vibed like crazy it was so fun

Although we had a lesson with this lady who talked a lot about drugs it was slightly uncomfortable but whatever

Oh yeah I forgot about the american idol thing

I think it was on Thursday evening

Basically the lady that won american idol (abi carter) is from Indio and also is an inactive member (cuz of course she is) and she did a parade in indio as like a hype rally for the city before she went onto the finals (which she ended up winning so that's pretty cool) and the other elders and the english elders actually went to the parade and did some public contacting and abi carter noticed them and waved to them (but we weren't there lol) so the missionaries are famous now

Also the english elders bashed with this guy at that parade and then ran into him again at an in n out in palm desert and then again at a random park (this dude is inevitable)

Ok a couple more things and I'll be done I swear

On Sunday we pull up to our friend's house expecting to have a pass off lesson (because they attended the english ward twice) but then they said they were busy so we called off the pass off lesson and we went and a few things happened and we ended up helping them clean their kitchen and they told us "hey so at church some other missionaries tried to start teaching us" and they were like "yeah we got the spanish elders teachin us" which is like "heck" because we really need to pass them off if they're attending the english ward so we gotta figure that junk out

We also read 1 Nephi 13 with a friend and that chapter is so long lol but it's super cool and she learned a lot so I guess it was worth it

And today after the zone activity the other elders lost their car keys at the park (we were looking for a hot minute, literally with this sun) and so they ended up having to go up to cabazon (an hour away) to meet up with elder peterson (the car guy) to get new keys (which they had to pay for, and they aint cheap) so that sucks for them

New update: transfers are going to be on wednesdays starting next transfer instead of saturday

Ok now pictures that was a long email

-baby bird

-gopher

-weird popsicle

-weirdly tall soda

Love you guys have a good week bye

(Also send me emails pls I want to know how yall are)

May 13th, 2024 - 38th Email - Not a whole lot actually happened this week

 Hi

So

For like the first time in forever

I had a pretty uneventful and normal week

Sometimes it's nice to have a week where we don't have run-ins with dogs or nearly get in an accident or have a flat tire

So this is pretty chillin I must say

Just a lot of good lessons and stuff

I guess we did have zone conference up in Palm Springs on Wednesday so that was super cool to see missionaries I've served with that are in the yucaipa or yucca valley zones (the "low desert" zones)

Oh yeah also elder taylor in my zone and I have the same birthday, same day same year so that's pretty crazy '04 on top fr

Anyway

Yesterday went crazy cuz it was mother's day so happy mother's day to all the epic moms out there because yall are awesome at what you do if there's any moms reading my emails besides mine I forget or I guess you all have mothers so happy mother's day to your mom if anything

I was able to call so that was fun

It's weird how like

Before

You could only call home on mother's day and Christmas so like 8 years ago or smth the missionaries would be counting the days to mother's day (not to say I wasn't) but like to us it was just like "oh dang it's mother's day cool" rather than the huge thing it was before which is kinda funny

Oh dang there's a loud ambulance outside

They actually finished some construction on the roads around here they were doing smth for like a month with giant open trenches and now we can drive kinda but then they started construction near the church building so I guess they'll never finish

Anyway idk what it was about yesterday, we had church, went home to call family, we had dinner at bishop's house, then helped them move their piano, and for some reason after that I was feeling so energetic and junk and ready to work, elder jones and I were just talking about random junk all evening and laughing and our spanish was popping off and we were connecting really well with the people we ran into (bro talked for like 40 minutes with a 13 year old about random stuff, mostly soccer)

What else

Went on a couple cool exchanges, one was because elder fuller needed a haircut from elder pittman so we just exchanged for the evening after zone conference so he could get it after 9 pm (that's like a saying cuz we do everything "after 9" since that's when we go home)

The second one was also fun we just exchanged as a house on saturday

But it was like

Not a real exchange

Since we did service for this one lady in the morning moving some giant cabinets to her garage and then we went home for studies and then at 1:30 we went to a different member's house to take apart a shed (that thing had so many nails and screws in it) and then we ate dinner with them so we didn't leave that member's house till like 5 and then we went home and showered so the exchange didn't really start till like 5:30ish but it was still fun

We're also decking out our apartment with hype posters that cost 5 bucks at a gas station in coachella so that's cool

We also got a super hype referral

Idk I feel like the work's boutta go crazy so we just gotta keep praying it does cuz things last week were a tad slow but that's okay it happens sometimes

We got free pizza from a member on friday that was fun

The hermanas locked themselves out of the church building on thursday and we had to save them

Oh yeah saturday while on the exchange with elder arvidson we ran into this probably inactive dude that knows a ton about the church bro was totally high but telling us how much he loves what we do and then we invited him to come back to church but he lives in st george so hopefully that happens he was here on business selling solar lol

Then there was a lady sitting in front of the house listening to him so she was like "hey, so you guys talk about God?" And we were like "yeah" and then we taught her stuff but she speaks english so hopefully the english elders get back to her but that was an epic miracle

Ok that's pretty much how my week went I was kinda dead tired most of it except for sunday where we went crazy for no reason I mean with the Holy Ghost we chillin right

I've learned to love tracting though knocking doors used to be so scary now it's so hype cuz we just talk while we're walking between doors and stuff and I love it

Also tomorrow I reach 9 months

Also we have a goal for baptisms in May to get 150 baptisms so now everyone is going crazy for Ford F-150s

Ok love you guys bye talk next week

Photos:

-E TPAAP SEH P (probably happy easter in may)

-cool flowers (probably gonna end up on a facebook story)

-goofy porch

May 6th, 2024 - 37th Email - Craziest exchanges of all time

 Hey

So not a ton happened this week but I got a couple funny stories

We had some really good Spirit-filled lessons so it's super cool especially since my Spanish is getting better and stuff

I even took over driving from Elder Jones after over a month of him driving lol

Ok so the first story was on Thursday

We do this thing called traveling ap's which basically is just a companionship that goes around and does exchanges with everybody (they're actually doing away with them after this transfer) and our exchange was with Elder Shumway on Thursday. But we barely got any time to do actual missionary work with him. We had zone council which we had to be there at 10:30 (and it's a half hour drive to palm desert), which lasted until noon, then we had lunch, and then we did a bishop's storehouse service until like 3 (a food drive the church runs to give less fortunate people food, basically where we collect people's orders and stuff).

Usually people pull up to get their own orders put in their car after we get everything they need, but the borrego springs elders just take it all down themselves cuz it's so far away. But only one of them was in borrego last transfer, and he's new, so they didn't think to bring up two trucks. So elder shumway had to take his truck (brand new 2024 chevy silverado by the way that thing is insane) and because salton city is so far away we didnt see him for another hour and a half lol

Then we hung out for dinner and had a lesson

But then we went to the church building for english class, and then nobody showed up for english class and we ended up blowing up a bunch of balloons as a service to help set up for an activity on Friday

And then obispo asked us to help him give a recent convert the priesthood

And then finally past 8 pm we got out to do some more visits

I felt kinda bad because it wasnt a very conventional day of missionary work but it was still pretty fun

The activity on Friday was cool it was a mother's day dinner and we brought a live mariachi band and we got to know them a bit after and they were asking us questions about the church and like "why do you speak spanish" so that was epick

We also got to be waiters for the activity which was actually super fun

Then we had a crazy exchange Friday night

So in my zone there are 9 elder companionships, and between Friday and Saturday there were 8 planned exchanges and reexchanges. Only 7 actually happened though because everyone got home too late. We exchanged with the borrego spanish.

So to draw a picture of how it all went down

There's an apartment up in palm desert for elders, our apartment in Indio, another apartment pretty close to us, and then the house down in Salton city where the borrego springs elders live (they dont live in borrego springs we just call them that)

Elder Morgan, who lives in palm desert, was there on Friday on am exchange with Elder Owens who lives in the apartment next to ours, and he was planning on going down to borrego english on saturday for an exchange. The other elders in my apartment, elder arvidson, cutler, and pittman, were on an exchange with borrego english on friday already. Elder pittman was down there with elder soto and elder taylor was in our apartment in the trio. Elder Fuller, elder morgan's companion, was with Elder Bodell, elder owens' companion on bike.

Basically our apartment turned into a big meetup spot.

-elder morgan and owens pulled up to our apartment first, elder morgan dropped off elder owens at our apartment and picked up elder cutler and taylor and jones and they drove down to the exchange spot in mecca for borrego. Then elder fuller and bodell pull up and elder bodell and owens went home. So elder arvidson, elder fuller, and I were in our apartment chilling waiting for the others to get back. It's like 11 pm and we have no idea where they are. They didnt have a sim card with them (lol) so we couldnt call them, they didnt have wifi. So we called borrego, and they were working out and not ready to leave their house yet. So we were just like "ok yall are gonna be super late we're going to bed"

Elder Pittman, Soto, Barlow (the spanish borrego elder I was exchanging with), and Cutler got to our apartment at like midnight. It was weird waking up and realizing there were 7 of us in our apartment. We asked them what happened in the morning and they said they just ended up driving all the way down to salton city because they were taking forever and there were 8 missionaries in the house down there and they were super close to just having all of them sleep over. But they didnt do that, they just drove back up. Elder Soto and fuller immediately drove up to palm desert and it was all good again. Then that night was super hype because we went to the gas station in mecca to reexchange and there were 7 of us there lol because of all the exchanges that happened

Yeah I really hope that doesn't happen again

Also the weather has been super good the last couple days it was super got earlier last week and knowing it's just going to get worse is weird lol

We had a baptism planned for yesterday for these three kids but it didn't end up happening. We're going to work really hard to get them baptized, so please pray for them they're really sweet

Ok that's all missions are crazy sometimes behind the scenes but in the end it all works out lol I love the awesome work I'm doing and the change I see in those I teach

Ok picture time

-cool sky

-mariachi band

-drinks from a gas station

-cool pic near the salton sea (I was totally holding that book of mormon backwards)