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)