Week 17- Merry Christmas!

Hey everyone! I first want to apologize for not sending letters out last week. It was super hectic and I lost all my stamps.... Sorry again. That being said it's been a fun week here and I can't wait to tell you all about it!

To start off on last P-day we had a district secret santa. It was the day before transfers so we figured we'd do some final district bonding. I sent home a picture of it last week and you can see it was pretty darn ridiculous. We all ran to a 99 cent store just around the corner and said we all had $3 before tax to spend on one another. So they all basically were gag-gifts but it was super fun. I got some rocking stockings and ear muffs from Elder Foster.

The next day was amazing. We had to loan some other Elders our car for a training so we drove on over there and they had an extra guitar laying around. I asked them if I could have it and they said they just recently got the other two from members so I could have this one! I even got a chance to play it in church which I'll tell you about later. It's got a hole in it that we taped over and the strings are ancient but I love it none the less and enjoy being able to play some music again. It's a black full-body acoustic and it sounds as good as ever. 

Later that day we went to check by some people we had lost contact with since last transfer (before me and Elder Froisland got there) and wouldn't you know it they were actually home! It's a family by the last name of Corbin and they are so great! The family is made up of 3 grown kids that live there and the father and mother around age 50, and the eldest daughter had just had a baby on Thanksgiving. They let us in and we had a great hour and a half sit down with them. They asked us all about ours

elves and taught a brief lesson about the Book of Mormon. We're really excited for them because we were told they all had baptismal dates at one point. 

The next night was FHE, and a special one at that. The senior missionaries in our ward had a copy of a church movie called The Testaments. If you haven't seen it I would really recommend getting around to it. It is a very corny church production about a father and son living in the Americas in the time of Christ's coming. At first it seems very l dumb and corny but it has a power spirit to it. I'm not sure what exactly does it but half the people in the room had tears in their eyes as it ended and the spirit was nigh on tangible. It was really a great night.

Not only did we see the movie that night but I also got to know Elder Jaques (pronounced: Jakes) and Waite (pronounced: wait). They are a couple of good elders that have been out about as long as I have. Elder Waite was actually on the same plane as me and Elder Jaques has been out about 5 months. As we were all getting to know one another Sister Kuzmich (the bishop's wife) came up and asked us to go rehearse a song for the ward Christmas program, Little Drummer Boy. She asked to to play on guitar and we jumped right into it. It was okay for sight reading and we had fun practicing. 

Thursday we had weekly planning again but we did a something special to help with the ward Christmas party. We made what we call "The Tree of Life". It's a rice crispy treat Christmas tree that contains about 12,000 calories. Yes I did the math, don't hate. Anyway it was awesome and it added about an hour to our studies. Along with that we played Santa for some other missionaries and dropped of mail a day early because there was so much of it. That was fun, it was nice to spread a little holiday cheer.

That night we met with some recent converts, the Whites. The family consists of a single mother and her two daughters, one of which is still unbaptized. We got there to have dinner with them as was on our dinner calendar but she had totally forgot! We told her it was no big deal and that we would share a message anyway but she insisted and sent her daughters to go pick up some Church's chicken. We all ate and had a great time and after we taught the unbaptized daughter The Restoration. It went well enough but she was very distracted. We feel she's being a bit pressured by her family but I think that's a good thing. She wouldn't commit to a baptismal date but hopefully we'll get her soon enough. 

We had our mission Christmas devotional the next day. It was so great and many missionaries had singing or reading assignments that really made the whole deal special. It was super spiritual and we had lunch after with about 160 missionaries where I learned that Nina was getting baptized Sunday! I was so pumped to learn that and if you are reading this right now Nina I wanna say congratulations for you and your boys!

Anyway we got back around 4 to our apartment and did language study and then we took off to meet with some people. As we were meeting with one man by the bus stop we saw we were right next to Sister Barios' home, one of my mission mommas. We went by to use the bathroom and she called us in and had us make her dinner. It was super funny and we made some real Mexican tacos and I made some Guac. We chowed down and it was really good actually. While we were there a woman dropped of some charity goods for Sis Barios and she said to come over for Christmas eve to have a big dinner. She wanted us to share in her good fortune. She was very happy for all of this especially because she's been having a hard time financially and was feeling a bit forsaken. God works miracles though and we saw one that night.

The next night was the ward Christmas party. We got there around 6 and we were combined with the Spanish ward which was interesting. I have picked up a little here and there and with a background of Portuguese we could somewhat communicate. It was super fun and we served all the people at their tables as they filtered it. It was so packed it was standing room only! And that was before the talent show and Santa. Some people really did it up and it was hilarious. I'll explain more in the pics. Overall it was a great night.

The next day was the ward Christmas program and we sang Little Drummer Boy as a district and I was on the guitar as previously mentioned. We did a kind of Josh Grobin sounding beat and it was really good. Tons of compliments after and it was so fun! I really hope to do it again sometime. 

Finally we got a call from AP Pollard and told there was another emergency transfer! I wasn't moving this time but we are now in a trio covering two areas! How crazy is that?! My second comp is Elder Alls. A black short man from Florida who came out with Elder Froisland actually. He's really fun and has a super powerful testimony. We are so pumped to be working together now and this transfer is gonna be all the more epic for it. 

That's all for this week, I hope you are all doing well and hope you all have a merry Christmas! Ficam Doce

-Um no exercito de Deus

Elder Teela

Week 16

Hey everyone! I hope you are all doing well and stuff. Thanks for everying I got this week! Everyone sent we great stuff but espceailly thank you for the giagantic signed paper from my family and friends, and for the tie from my favorite irish peoples.

So Tuesday was temple day for our zone! We drove up there and did a session at 11:30 will almost all missionaries which was pretty great. I also ran into Brother Hales from Redando there so it was great to see him again. It was a super spiritual day and I loved it. We got home from that and had a couple lessons but nothing super remarkable really happend that day.

The next day we were told to get our oil changed. We figured it would only take about 30 mins so we zipped on by right after studies to get it done. Little did we know it would take 2 hours.... It took em' forever to actually get the car in there so we waited around for a while before it even started and then we found out one of the tires was run down pretty bad. So we ened up wondering around the store for a while and then going across the street to browse around. We didn't buy anything so don't trip (look how street I'm getting.... LA changes you man). That was fun and we just hung around for a while and talked to a nice lady at Pep Boys.

We had dinner with  Sister Rogers and she made us 7-seafood soup. I'll send a picture of it so you all can see just how crazy this stuff is. I can't believe I actually ate it.... I usually hate sea food but I was starving and who am I to turn down some food someone has made for me? Ain't nobody got time fo' dat! Anyway we eat lots of crazy stuff around here (Like the aforementioned chicken heart). We call it "soul food". I figure it's called that cause it is as good for your soul as much as it tries your taste buds. It really wasn't even that bad honestly. 

The next day we spent running around all over the place trying to get people to FHE (really a lesson and an activity with sugary goodies afterward for adults at the church) that night. We got a ton of people there actually, but before that we got a call from one of our investigators named Maria. She had a loaf of pumpkin bread with our names on it! She got it overnight from Florida and had them send an extra loaf for us. Aren't people just the best? We feasted upon it heartily and loved it.

At FHE we watched "Joy to the World" a church movie about Christ's birth that is really good desipte it's ages starting to show. The spirit was super strong and we opened up a disscussion for the peopel there so we could bear testimonies. That quickly took a dive south though when a little girl asked "Where does get his power?". We tried to head off the question because mostly investigators are there and we try to avoid deep douctrine for them but the damage was done. One of the senior missionaries took it and ran. We ended that disscution fast and just got on with the activity. We all were cracking up about it later and no real damage was done, people were just a bit blown away. 

The next day we finnaly had another discussion with Louie. He's was super great as always and made us some quesadillas (no idea how to spell that). We talked about tons of stuff with him and reset his baptismal date for Feb. 23rd. He's a really great man and we hope he gets baptized soon!

Friday was pretty great. I got all those awesome gifts that you guys sent and I love them all. After district meeting we took off for zone lunch (only once a transfer now) at Shakey's. We were hanging out and having a great time when I got a call about my visa.... Turns out I needed to sign some stuff to get my FBI report realsed (cause we all know I'm such a bad kid) and Sister Bidolph said it means it'll be here soon, so I'm pretty pumped. They called my mom and asked her for my SSID while I was just sitting there super awkward-like. I bet she got a bit of a shock there. They got my sister (Kenz I think) and she was probably pretty suprised there. So that's the visa update, we also picked up my (borrowed) bike while we were there. 

That Saturday was the craziest day we've ever had on the mission. We took the bikes cause we're short on miles and flew around on them all day. It started when we went to go contact this less-active brother. There was this little parakeet that was hanging out and when we put our bikes up he flew over to our cross bars and just hung out with us. We named him "Estaban" . As we started talking to the the man there Estaban took of and landed on the groudn about 2 feet behind me, and then was promply snatched by a cat. We were all like, "What the heck?" It was pretty unexpected and the man said that was actually his girlfriend's pet. That was crazy.

After that we were biking around after dinner and Elder Froisland yelled from behind me to stop and turn around. I freaked out a bit and checked on him but he was fine. He was pointing to a fence with a ton of dogs barking at us. I swear, this lady had about 6 dogs. I was like, "So what? The stupid things bark at us all the time". But as I looked through the night I saw what he was excited about. There was a dog preched, yes perched, on top of the fence posts. It wasn't a smal dog either, this was a fully grown german shepard. We were just like "What the devil!!?" We couldn't believe it! We tried to take a picture he he hopped on down and took off. Silly poochy.

We met a great family that night as well, we call em' the E's because all of their names start with a long "ee" sound. They are so prepared and we hope to start teaching them this week!

Church was fun becuase Bishop got up and really preached this week. He got up and basically gave a sermon on "trial are blessings people". He used Job as an example and did a great job. He sure needed to too. The people around here are usually really dependant on the church. It's not their fault it's just that it's more poor area. 

He said something I really liked in the talk though. He siad "Without vision, men perish". I really like that idea. I try to keep my vision squared but we could all do a little better at that couldn't we? In Matthew 6:22 it says "If they eye be single, you shall be filled with light". It's easier to do it on a mission I know but I hope that afterward I will be able to keep that focus on God and everything that is really important. I hope that you can all do the same as well because I know that it brings blessings like you could not believe. I love you all and hope to find you all well. Ficam doce

-Um no exerctio de Deus

Elder Teela

Week 15

Oi meus amigos! 

This week was pretty good overall I think and I have a couple tender mercies to tell you all about! But let's start from last Tuesday.

We did splits (again) to start the day. This time with Elder Spencer, Elder Foster's companion. We immediately headed off to lunch at a member's home which was awesome. We had some eggs, hot dogs and spicy cascades (probably butchered that). It was a bit of a strange combination but who am I to turn down free food? We chatted awhile and had a good time but then the sister got serious really fast. She told us she was having some forgiveness issues and wanted us to help, and so began miracle #1. I said a quick prayer for guidance and flipped open my scriptures and opened it to a highlighted section in my scriptures, but as I read through it I thought it was the wrong one and quickly started leafing through the pages. Frustrated after a few minuets I finally went to my study journal to find the scripture, only to find it was the one I had flipped open to! I felt a bit stupid for denying that little bit of revelation and read the scripture to the sister. She still had some issues but we gave her some more scriptures to read and she was happy to have some stuff to do. 

The rest of the day went pretty remarkably but me and Elder Foster had a good time. He's a really good missionary and a cool guy. We get along great and did some good work that day.  

The next day we un-split and took off to a new missionary orientation. President Weidman and Sister Weidman were there of course and we did a lot of break out sessions about teaching and contacting. It was a great day full of inspired teaching and I learned so much more than I could ever write in this email. I also saw Elder Olgilve, Elder Kinney and Sister Jamieson there which was fun. Elder Kinney said he just got an email saying his visa cleared but they were still working on the background check but at least he knows he's taking off soon!

Later that night we went to FHE (family home evening) at the ward building. We call it FHE but it's really just a youth night for older people and investigators I guess. We played some pictionary and had a great time with that. My favorite thing that happened was that one of our ward missionaries and one of our senior missionaries went against each other. They were both well advanced in years and both said they could hardly see what they were drawing so it was a pretty hysterical match up. It took forever for us to guess what in the world they were drawing but we all eventually got it. After all the fun and games we had way more cake than we healthy for us and took off for home. 

The next day we got a call from Elders Martin and Murray. Their car needed a bit of work and so we had to drive them up to the mission office to drop it off. That took most of our morning and them we had to get them to a training so we drove them all the way there only to find we had about an hour and a half to kill. We went to a nearby Red Robin's for lunch and all ate way too much fries and hamburger-y goodness. Elder Froisland was a bit disappointed by the fries at first so he said "This is it?". Sadly for him when the waitress came out next she pilled up the fries and his pride wouldn't let him stop till he had eaten them all. The poor guy almost died I swear.

Later that day we came back to their apartment to help Elder Martin fix up his bike and while we were there we deiced to look around the apartment and see what goodies we could find. It's been a missionary apartment forever so Elders had been stashing stuff in there forever. Elder Froisland was digging through the closet and found a long coat. Like the deep black Terminator type ones. It's super huge on him but it's getting cold out and I was wearing mine a lot so he held on to it. So Pretty much wherever we go now we look like we're from the mob :).

The next day was Zone Training Meeting (ZTM) so we pick those two up again and took off to get to the church early. About 3/4 of the way there we were told by the ZL's to go get another missionary pair about 10 miles away. We dropped Elder Murray and Martin off and went to go get Elders Luna and Martinez, the Elders 10 miles away. We had to do this because usually there are 5 cars in the zone but for one reason or another we had somehow gotten all the way down to 2! We got them and were only about 10 mins late which wasn't too bad. The AP's showed up about 20 mins later and everyone started flipping out because it was rumored our mission had just been approved for iPads and the whole deal. But they weren't there for that, they were just stopping by to check in on the ZTM just like they do every once in a while.

After that we dropped off Elder Luna and Martiez and turned right back around to pick up Elder Martin and Murray. Little did we know we were spending the rest of the day with them. Elder Murray had a doctor's appointment to get his feet looked at later that day. That took till about 4 and after that when we went home they had locked their keys into their house! We looked for an unlocked window or something but there was no way in short of breaking something. We called management but there was no spare so we called the AP's and they said to go get the spare.... from the mission office. We drove all the way up there again and ended up with about half an hour to kill so we walked into the Visitor Center and found our old friend Sister Thompson. We said hi and started talking. She told us about this super cool idea that she was doing in her planner. She said everyday she would write a little miracle or something that she was thankful for. I remembered a quote I really liked from General Conference "A person who is grateful is rich in contentment" (Elder Bednar). That to me was a little miracle in it of itself and I'm taking her little challenge on. We drove back made sure that they could get back into their apartment and ended the night there. 

The next day we went to a baptism for one of Elder Froisland's old investigators, Ivan. It was a great service and even President Wiedman was there. We confirmed him there as well and the spirit was just awesome. 

We headed out with that spirit to an appointment with two teenage boys Yovani and Gerado. We started a bit rough on the lesson but in the end the spirit was super powerful and we set a baptismal date for Jan. 5th! They seem like super solid boys and I hope they can follow through on their commitment. They both do some martial arts so we had plenty to talk about.

Sunday morning we got a special treat. We were able to attend a training meeting with our area 70! He was a great man and once again I wish I could write all that I learned in this email but it is just too much! Just make sure you always have a referral for your local missionaries, okay? 

We had our regular Sunday and then took off for dinner with Sister Barrios and some Spanish Elders. She's a Mexican sister and we were having fish tacos, so there was no shortage of food. We chowed down like a wolf pack and it was all amazing! I swear, I had a bit more bump on my stomach than usual when we walked out and we had a great night. I even made a new friend in their iguana, Scales (he was named by a 5-year-old). It was especially fun cause he freaked out Sister Barrios. Her husband really had some fun with that.

That's it for my week, I hope you can all take a little something from it and that you enjoy these emails. May God bless you all! Ficam doce!

-Um no exercito de Deus

Elder Teela

Week 14

Let's start off by saying sorry to all of those who usually get letters. I really had a hectic time last week getting transferred and all so I didn't really have time to write.

The ET went fine enough and I'm a ward with 4 other compaiononships. It's called the Bell ward and it's in a fairly ghetto area. It's not unsafe or anything it's just super run down and stuff. We don't have any "red" areas so we feel good enough going just about anywhere.

We started off with a call from one Louie, one of our investigators. He was really mad about the Elders before us both leaving because he was very close to them both. We talked him down from that through a few phone calls and some vists though so he's doing better now. He's had a hard life but really wants to become a member and bring his family in with him as well.

After him we met Chevy. We were going to contact an investigator near his house and he was just out working in his garden and said "How are the missionaries doing today?" So we just jumped on the oppertunity and talked to him. We ended up going into his home and teaching the restoration and he had some great questions so we have high hopes for him. He's a very religiously educated man and has a sincere desire to learn so we love him!

We had dinner with Sis. Rogers that night and man oh man is she a hoot. She is most stereo typical southern black woman I have ever met. I know that sounds bad but it really is the best way to discribe her. She's got a thick but not hard to understand accent, she's very loud and exetremely friendly. And on top of all of this she cooks amazingly! We love her and she feeds us every Tuesday and Thursday.

We had zone conference this week which was awesome. We got there a bit late but all we really missed was the mission nurse's rant against the flu and how important it is to get the shot. We had a great time in the meetings and we learned the importance of deep faith and high expectations. We also learned a lot on prayer but I will save that for my thought at the end.

While we were at zone confrence I ran into my travel compaionon again, Elder Kinney, and he had some interesting news. Apperently the church is only calling native Brazilians to Brazil now. Meaning we are the last visa-waiters and the last non-Brazilians to go there. We thought that was pretty cool and we can't wait to get down there.

We've been doing a lot of splits here as well. Elder Froisland is the DL so we do them a lot anyway but this is a short transfer. 5 weeks, becuase if it was 6 we would land on Christmas. But so far we've been on 2 splits this week and plan for three next. It's insane, but this is the life of a missionary.

We got a call from the AP's again so I had another mini-heart attack but they were just calling to inform us we were getting a mini-missionary! It's so ironic cause I was just in his shoes five months ago. We went to go pick him up and have dinner only to find that he wasn't there! Luckly they told us after dinner so we got some good food in us, but were dissapointed for wasting the time and miles to get there. We finally met him the next day and he was great. His name was Spencer and he is 18, working on his papers so he can leave at the end of the school year. He was pretty good but very nervous about spreading the word but we helped him out and had a great time.

I'm running out of time so I'll finish this message in my letter home and hopefully we can get it posted. Love you all!

-Um no exercito de Deus
Elder Teela

Week 13 ( 7 weeks in Los Angeles )

Hellos to alls of yous! This week has been crazy and we are at a new library and we only have an hour to e-mail so I'm gonna have to make this fast as I can. I'll do my best to deliver with detail still though.

We'll start with last P-day. We got there and the sisters wanted to play some knock-out so we obliged. For those of you familiar with my basketball skills you will find this shocking. We played the game so that if the person who got you out gets out you were back in. It's a bit confusing but in the end you need to get everyone out you're playing with to win. After about 45 mins I actually won the whole deal. I was so shocked and just started laughing and yelling "The church is true!!!"  All the Elders were like "Why didn't you play like that before?". It was pretty funny.

After that I played some touch rugby with the Tongan Elders but none of them very good suprisingly. We were playing and I tried to make a hard cut and ripped my shoe in half almost. I took em' off and kept playing and it was fun but I was worried for the next week because we had a ton of service lined up. Luckly my new comps and some spares that fit.

We spent Tuesday visiting everyone in the ward who wanted to say goodbye to Elder Fry Which took forever. It was a nice enough day but we didn't get much done.

Transfers happened Wensday and I got my new compainions, Elders McCarthy and Harris. They are quite the characters and we've had an awesome week. We basically work hard and play hard, just like it's supposed to be done. Elder Harris is from England and he's almost 21 and been out for 8 months. He's one of those guys who is not afriad to say any joke, be it good or not. Elder McCarthy is from the mothership, Utah. He's pretty much what you could expect of an Elder born and raised there except he has a southern twist in him. It's a bit odd but he's a great Elder. Elder Fry took the car with him so we've been on bike for the past week.

We visted around the area and did service and we all agreed we didn't want to work out in the appartment like me and Elder Fry had done before so we found a park just down the street with a basketball court and a running ring around it. I was pretty excited about being able to get back to running again. My pace has slacked a bit but I love running in the cool moring air and it wakes you up better than any coffee or 4 hour energy drink.

Later that day we had a lesson with Dom. He met us there with a friend actually named Devin. She's 13 and skates with Dom and seems open to the church. We really hope that she ends up taking the lessons as well. We started teaching him The Restoration but about half way through we extended a bapismal invite for the 1st of December and he accepted! We were super pumped but him and his mom (Nina) want to be baptized on the same day so that day is not set in stone yet, but we are super pumped.

We then went to one of our investigators that has an issue with smoking. They've been trying so hard to quit but really can't seem to kick these last 2 or 3 a day. Elder Harris had the soulution though, he said he would "doctor" them. We asked for her cigaretts and he soked them in milk for the night and let them dry and then gave them back. We didn't know what this would do but we got a call 20 mins later with them asking what in world we did with them. She's drastically cut back now so we think that it really did the trick :).

That night we went and helped Nina wash her windows around her house. This may sound like an easy enough task but we quickly discovered otherwise. She had these high bushes around her house which forced us to get creative and we ended up siper-monkeying all over the house trying to clean windows for 2 hours. It was a real strange thing and I wish I had pictures but you'll have to take my word for the fact that is was crazy fun.

We had dinner that night at a Thai resturant called Thai-Rama and it was pretty good. We had it with a middle-aged couple named the McDonalds. Brother McDonald served in the Philipeans and actually speaks his wife's dialect of Tagolac (There are about 300 so that's a very rare thing). They met after the mission on LDS link-up or something like that but they gave us a funny little discourse on Tagolac and were over-all awesome.

So Sunday this week was a little weird. Bishop and his 2nd counselor were out of town so we were told that meetings were canceld that moring. But it turned out the 1st called an unoffical meeting and no one got us the memo, but that was okay. We spent the time introducing the new Elders around.

Diana came and we sat in the overflow so she would be more comfortable listening to the meeting and she stayed for all but the last 10 mins before she had to go home so it was a good day. Dom and Nina also showed up to chruch so we had a good week in that sense. We tried to meet up with a man we met on the street named Vince but he didn't show up so we kinda just sat there awkwardly for a bit.

We were supposed to go to a fireside featuring Chad Lewis that night but Dom was exhausted from surfing all day the day before so we didn't get the chance to go. I was pretty disappointed but the Sizemores invited us over for ice cream and that we pretty great. Overall not a bad Sunday at all.

To finish it all off we got a call from the AP's that night. My heartrate probably skyrockted as I am still anticipating my visa. I started getting very excited when Elder Pollard asked to talk to me. As I got on the phone my hopes were a bit dashed as he told me I was getting emergency transferred again. My new comp was to be Elder Froisland (hope I'm spelling that right) and I am leaving to help him out at 4 today. So much for the 3 Nephites I guess.

That's the though that I want to end on though. It's a lot like Elder Christapherson talkin in confrence (http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2011/04/as-many-as-i-love-i-rebuke-and-chasten). We think we know what's best for ourselves sometimes but really the Lord is the master here and we need to be ready to serve him at all times and in any way imaginable. I didn't think in LA right now, I didn't think I'd have 6 comps in 7 weeks. But it's what the Lord needs and what I will do. Just like in Nephi 3:7, I will go and do.

I hope you are all doing well and I pray for you all daliy. If ye love me, fill my mail box, haha. I'll send more next week, until then, ficam doce!

-Um no exercito de Deus

Elder Teela

P.s. Shout out to my cousin Sara who is gettin' hitched!

Week 12 ( Just realized I've been a week ahead this whole time )

Hello all my peoples! How's everyone doing on this fine veteran's day? I bet all the kids are happy to be out of school and what not. My week's been pretty good thus far and I figure I should dive right into it. 

So last P-day was pretty crazy cause our ZL's broke their car! It wasn't too bad really, it was just the back window. They had just gotten a bike rack to put on the back of the trunk (or boot for those of you who speak Irish) and they didn't look too closely to see that a strap was cause between the trunk and slammed it down and shattered the glass. One of them managed to cut themselves too so we had to follow them to the mission office and give them a ride back. That doesn't sound bad but in LA traffic that means a 20 min drive turned into and hour each way. It was okay though, we talked and sang and pretty much were just 18-year-old guys. President Weidman saw us there and had a 30-second interview with Elder Fry and he came out with eyes bigger than dinner plates. He said he couldn't tell us why but he was flipping out. But more on that later.

Well after that we went and visited our friends the Sizemore's and they had their cowboy gear out. They are part of SASS, some organization where people dress up as cowboys and shoot stuff, And with Ken's aforementioned stash of weaponry we decided to do some pictures :). They took over 300 pictures in the space of a few hours and it was a hoot. I'll send em' all in and hopefully my beloved mother will do some fun stuff with em' on my blog. It was great. 

The next day was a bit rough. It was one of those days where all our appointments fell through and we couldn't find anyone to talk to. After a while we decided to do our weekly planing a day early and went to the beach to do so. We watched the sunset and snapped some more pictures of it and had dinner and called it a night to do some paper work. It was just a hard day really. 

The next day was a lot better and we taught 4 lessons and then headed off for dinner with the Dalhs again. We had some sort or chicken and rice in cheesy-broth stuff and it was way good. Sister Dalh asked me if I liked mushrooms and, in my attempt to be nice, I lied and said I did. Big mistake. Nobody else in the house like mushrooms either so guess what happened to the liar? He eat and 1/4 pound of mushrooms that night! YYAAAYYY!! See where lying gets you kids?For dessert we had some candy that the kids gave us.... 7 lbs of it. We took so much back to the apartment that I doubt we will need anymore till after New Years. 

As we closed with a message we were going to give a prayer and we asked their youngest, a 2 year-old girl, who should give the prayer. After much deliberation she deiced to go with the Einie-meanie-minie-mo method. As she got about half way through she shouted in frustration "I don't know! They black one!" We were really confused at first but then realized I was wearing my black sweater and we all almost fell out of our chairs laughing. Such a funny family. they aren't half as crazy as we were when I was a kid though.

That night we had a lesson with Kriket again it was as entertaining as usual. Her mom has issues with tithing so we read her Elder Bednar's talk from this last conference about tithing. It went really good and she promised to at least try to get the funds together to pay this month so we are very hopeful. 

The next day we got a bomb dropped on us. More particularly Elder Fry did. That 30 second interview I mentioned earlier? Yeah, in that time President Weidman had told Elder Fry he was going to start a Farsi speaking mission here in LA! I kid you not, he really is. He was originally called here Spanish speaking, got transferred to English and now Farsi 6 months in..... It's a crazy deal. He'll be 1/8 missionaries speaking Farsi in the world! There are 4 here and 4 in Toronto, Canada. 

So that night as we were cycling home for the night a girl on the street stopped us. She asked us if we wanted to hear the word of Christ. We explained to her that we were missionaries but she said we needed to hear her word. She said "God is awesome, and so is Jesus and.... Yeah, God is great, the beer is good and people are crazy". Basically all you could expect of a 15 year old girls stopping you on the street and wanting to talk religion lol. It was funny and we laughed about it all the way home.

So Transfers are this week. Elder Fry will be leaving to start his business but his area is the entire mission, so we might see him every now and again. He's taking the car with him too, so I'll be biking it up. I don't really mind that either. I'm staying here but.... drum roll please.... I'll be in another Trio! You might recall a certain Elder Harris if I have been writing you. For those of you who don't know he is an Elder from Britain who is a bit of a loose cannon. He's always doing something crazy. Him and an Elder Macarty are my new comps. Me and President Weidman seem to both feel my visa coming this next transfer so I kind have my hopes up! 

Well, that's all really. I really am looking forward to this next transfer and I hope you are all well. Ficam doce! 

-Um no exercito de Deus

Elder Teela

Week 11-- Halloween

Hello everyone! Another week has come and gone and so many more stories to tell!

Let's start with Tuesday night. We hadn't heard form Nina in a long time so we were starting to worry about her and then we got a text from Bro. Featherstone (One of her best friends in the church) saying that she wanted a blessing for the hard times she was going through. We were pretty stoked and ran over there around 8:30 that night. We got there and we had a little lesson and Elder Fry offered to voice the blessing. It was a great one and the power in the words resonated throughout the house. She got up and said she felt better already and later told us she slept better that night than she had in years and that a darkness seemed to be gone from her life. 

The next day we met with Pat X., an elderly woman who was investigating the church a while ago but then her life got really hectic and she asked we resume the lessons later. When we met with her I didn't really know what to expect but it was a great visit. She is really loving the gospel and always asks us for "homework" to do. She has an interesting concern though. She believes that God is this metaphysical force in the world and doesn't have a body, that he only appeared that way because Joseph wouldn't be able to comprehend him any other way. It's a bit bazaar but she's a great lady.

That night we had dinner with the Sizemores and man oh man was it good. Diece made this awesome roast and we had a great time. The only problem was they wouldn't quit talking, haha. They talked about this and that for nigh on two hours! We kept trying to cut in to tell them we really needed to go but we just got steamrolled by them. It was pretty funny because at one point we went an entire 45 mins without saying anything and they just kept on going. It was a bit frustrating but it was pretty funny as well.

Halloween was interesting because we had to be in at 6. We got bored pretty quickly and ended up going to bed at 9:30 (with leadership permission of course) and that felt amazing. 

The next day I went on splits with Elder Kpainy again so that his companion (whose name I can't even attempt to spell) could try and help with Diana a bit. We split after district meeting and me and Elder Kpainy took off for some dinner at El Pollo Inka with some sisters and a part-member family that they are teaching. The man was paying and insisted we eat absolutely everything on the menu that we could shove in our faces. We had a great meal and I ate a heart of a chicken (not very good really) which was really cool. It was a really good night and then we switched back and we had another lesson with Nina where we read about Alma the younger and his repentance. It was a good lesson and we invited her to baptism the next day.

Speaking of that baptism it wasn't just for one but for 4 kids! That was pretty awesome but unfortunately Nina and her kids couldn't make it that time but we went and visited again. I wrote up a basic thing on music theory for her and we met her daughter Ariana. She's 21 and is pretty anti-religion for unknown reasons but she's a good person and fun to talk with. Her and Nina have this big deal about "Konga water". Apparently it's this super water (and by that I mean the filter alone is $135 not to mention the machine) that is apparently the only thing that can truly hydrate you and people say it's cured their [insert any disease imaginable, including cancer]. I'm very skeptical but it's WAY better than the sludge they drink here. I use the water bottle they gave us in the MTC to filter water in Brazil to drink here. It really is that bad.

We also met Tommy, her son that is an MMA fighter, yesterday. We had a big dinner/get together at the Featherstone's home and he came as well as the Elder's quorum president and his wife. He seems like a really cool guy and he's super intense. We pretty much sat around getting to know him before he had to go to yet another training session that night. I shared a thought on Alma 37:36-37 and he payed very close attention. He seems interested in us but not necessarily the gospel, but I think the door is open there.

Well I guess I'll share that thought because it's a pretty good one I think. In the reference above you'll find one of my favorite scriptures. It's one of the letters Alma wrote to his sons and says this:  

 36 Yea, and cry unto God for all thy support; yea, let all thy doings be unto the Lord, and whithersoever thou goest let it be in the Lord; yea, let all thy thoughts be directed unto the Lord; yea, let the affections of thy heart be placed upon the Lord forever.

 37 Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day.

That's a really powerful promise and I feel that we often don't use it enough. It says "Council with the Lord in ALL thy doings". Not some of, them all of them. I really hope that we can all apply this a bit more in our lives, especially my own since I am on his errand.

Well I hope everyone is doing well in the big bad world out there. I'll write you all again next week!

-Um no exercito de Deus

Elder Teela

Week 10

Oi meus amigos/inamigos/qual quer tu estas, esta samana foi otimo!

So this week started off pretty funny actually. We went over to the Sizemore's on Teusday to do some training on the computer and we got a call from some missionaries that we left our groceries with on P-day. We were talking about when we would pick them up and after the call Ken said he overheard and wondered if we needed anything. We told him we didn't at which point he chewed us out for not asking enough of him. It was pretty surreal and he said that our needing things "surely is not satisfactory". We left and just cracked up because of the oddness of it. We ask em' for little stuff now just to keep em' happy.

After that we went to the Stake center and had a new missionary training with the Pres. and AP's. I met back up with Elder Kinney, Sister Jamieson, Elder Light and a whole bunch of Elders from PEN zone (Elder Petrie & Ogilvie's zone). Training was pretty great and we watched some funny car safety videos. It was really awesome and spiritual and everything you would expect from a great man like Pres. Weidman.

That night it got even better though. We had dinner with the Su'as and they took us out to eat! It's sounds funny but living as a missionary makes you greatful for the dummest things like that. They even took us to a place for dessert called Pinkberry's, a frozen yogurt shop. We had a great night and they told us, like everyone else, if we need dinner any night just to stop on by. He even told us "Don't you skimp on price. The more I pay the more blessings I get". It was great.

Then next night though I got a bomb dropped on me. Irmao Whitaker & Lemperle, I'm calling you out. Sister Gracia is from Brazil and we had dinner with her and her family that night. We were told all throughout the MTC that the Brazilians us the from of "Voce" for "you". It's kinda semi-formal and everyone said we didn't need to memorize the "Tu" or "informal you", but sister Gracia said no one says "Voce" down there. I'm kinda confused but it's not really a big deal. It doesn't change a whole lot of the conjegations or anything but it's a pain.

Thursday we went to the Visitor's Center with Nina. The Sizemores came with us and we had a great tour. We sat and chatted infront of the Christis statue in the VC, watched some testimonies of the apostols and saw a video about family (corny, as per usual). It was great but even better, Nina is already doing missionary work! She took a Book of Mormon to give to her friend. Her friend is fro the Philipeans so she took on in Tagolic. She is so golden! We pushed her baptism back though. She really wants to be baptized with her son, Domonic (13). We still have to teach him all the lessons and stuff but we are tenitively planning on mid-November.

On Friday we celebrated Elder Manning's birthday. He's a bit of a weird cookie but it was his birthday so some Elders got him a cake. They told him it was "A Spanish tradition" to bit into the corner of the cake. Predictably they smashed his face into it and we all cracked up. It was pretty great. We had zone lunch after that too.

Our Ward Halloween party was Friday night! It was great cause we had tons of non-member friends show up and we never ran out of people to talk to. One new girl we met was Diana. she's been in Thailand for the past few months so we didn't know her. Apperetnly she's been around for a while. She really wants to be baptized but is having some worthiness issues. She's a great girl though and she comes to church as long as she can. She's really nervous around big crowds so she can't usually stay too long. She has a really complicated situation I really can't get into.

At the party we also met Sister Chambers. You ask me "Elder Teela, why do you tell us about some random member?" Mostly because you all know her I'm guessing. Unless you live under a rock you probably saw a internet video of a man asking his wife how long it would take to travel 80 miles at 80 miles per hour and her being totally lost for an answer. Yep, that's her! It was funny and she was a good sport about it all.

One final event before I get to my thought of the week. Chad Lewis is coming here for the next why I believe fireside! If you don't know who he is, slap you slef and then go look him up. Never mind, I'll just tell you. He's an LDS All-star, hall of fame football player. I've read his book and it's SO awesome he's coming here!

The spiritual stuff now: In a talk famous in the MTC called "The Charicter of Christ" David A. Bednar says "The Character of Christ is such that when you and I would turn in, he would always turn out".  As I am going throughout my mission I sometimes feel really selfish. Thinking "I'm too tired to ride a bike" or "I don't want to get up at 6:30" or "Can't we just take a break?" These are all thoughts that don't really seem to bad and most of them are creibable, but as Vince Lambardi said "This is a battle of inches".

Satan knows that if you are on a mission he probably isn't going to shake you very easily unless you are out here for the wrong reason. He knows he won't stop you from being a good missionary when you are on a roll, but if he can hold you back even 10 minutes to make you miss an appointment, or stop you from contacting, he has won. He knows that for us to be able to find those prepared we need to be in-tune with the spirit and we can't do that while we are being disobidiant or lazy, aka, turning in. I know that the times I feel the most selfish is when I need to work the hardest, because that is when the Lord will bless us (Alma 26:27).

Espero que estejam bem. Eu vou orar para voces. ficam doce

-Um no execerito de Deus

Elder Teela

Week 2, CA ( 9 Weeks In )

Hello hello hello one and all! It's been an other week of fun and blessings in the CLAM (California Las Angeles Mission) and I can't wait to tell you all about it!

So starting with last P-day we went to a place called The Alley. It's basically an open air market where you go if you want the spirit to turn tail and book it. It wasn't all that great and we were stuck there forever. I realize things there are cheap to buy and all but it's really not worth it to me. The one highlight was meeting "Tony the tie guy".  He is a small Mexican man who loves missionaries because, well...... they buy his ties a lot lol. He even cuts the price down for us for everything in the shop. Ties and belts are just $3 a piece  He brought all 12 of us out some sodas even! He's pretty great overall but he isn't too interested in our message sadly.

After that we taught Fran, a small older sister who is investigating the church. She's really funny, she takes notes at all our lessons and truely hungers after the word of the God and loves scriptures. She's been coming to church for a while but has missed the last two weeks sadly. We taught her The Plan of Salvation and she just ate it up. We extended a baptismal invation but she's not too sure yet. One of her sons is LDS and the other isn't and she feels like she would be showing favoritism for joining the church. Not you typical problem, eh? She's praying about it though and we think she'll come around.

Tuesday we met a real character though, Brother Spencer. He and his family are..... interesting. He is a lot like my Uncle Brian and say a lot of "not exactly doctrine  stuff.  You know, things that haven't been said by a prophet or revealed but make sense in the perspective of things. His wife, son and his girlfriend live with him. They are more or less active but could use some strengthening. We also had dinner with them the next night and had a lot of funny stories told to us. Apparently he almost died trying to fill up a glass 5 gallon water container early in their marriage  It cut the major artery in his arm and he almost bled out. Guess what his wife had to say about all this? "Honey, you're getting blood all over the ambulance". She denies it though :).

The next day we visited Allen again and brought Brother Mackley (the ward mission leader) with us. He was kind enough and let us in again and we all sat down and talked a little. I shared a spiritual thought about something or another and the spirit came down pretty hard. We thought the lesson went well enough and we hope he comes to church again soon.

After that we visited Doug, a high school chemistry teacher. He's a very intelligent man and we brought out the big guns for this one. We brought in Bishop Parker, a lawyer and great man. They had a really good discussion and we eventually made our way around to the subject of religion of course. He said that all his ancestors from the time of the reformation down to his grandfather were Lutheran Ministers and he felt kinda bad about breaking that line. That being said he didn't feel compelled to stay with that church. He sounds a lot like Joseph Smith almost. He says that he respects a lot of religions for what they do and believe but that he hasn't found one that he knows is true. I got pretty excited and we gave him a powerful lesson. He didn't come to church this week but we know he felt the spirit that night.

Friday I went on splits with the ZL's, specifically Elder Kpainey. He was born in Africa but moved here when he was 7 so he has a bit of an accent but has a ton of power in teaching because of how simply he testifies. We had some really awesome experiences  We where biking around and looking for dinner when we stopped at a traffic light. Another man on a bike asked us if we were Mormons and we told him yes. He said he wanted to join the church! He just had some friends who had told him it was a great church and that he should join so he asked us where the building was and we gave him a Restoration and a Gospel of Jesus Christ pamphlet. And then another man cam out of the Del Taco behind us and basically said the same thing! I was blown away by the whole experience  After all that the next morning we had a PPI and he said he was excited to see the missionary I will become. I was humbled to hear such praise from someone who himself is so great.

Saturday we un-split and went and did service by the seashore for the PD and school for a violence awareness or whatever thing. We helped set up and decorate for about an hour and then broke it down afterward. It was cool cause we met one of our investigators there and they gave us some dinner when we thought we would be left to our own cooking (always a scary prospect lol). We also stopped by said beach and got some awesome sunset pictures! I forgot my card this week so those will have to wait a while.

Yesterday was great and kinda sad as well. We were happy to report the highest number of lessons taught in a week ever to our ward, 17! That was great and we were all happy that the work was going so great. We then went and sang in the choir with Nina, who is still progressing toward baptism amazingly. We sang that Sunday and it went pretty well. We kinda botched the high climax or the piece in this minor chord but other than that it was great. Then we went over to have pancakes with the Featherstones again but we had to dash to lesson before we could actually eat too much.

We had dinner with the Dahls not too long after though and they are an amazing family! It consists of the two parents (about 40) and their 3 kids: a son in 5th  grade, a daughter in 3rd I thing and a son in 1st. They are all in Ti-kwon-do and we talked a lot about martial arts and I told them a bit about Jiu-Jitsu. Brother Dahl played rugby as well and we talked about that a lot and then I found out sister Dahl is a Music major! So pretty much I LOVED this family. They were so great and we shared a message about how God loves us not matter what we do.

That pretty much wraps up my week. I hope the Lord blesses you all and I can't wait to get back to work. I will send more next week!

Ficam doce!

-Um no excerito de Deus

Elder Teela

Hello friends, family and enemies and everything in between (you know which you are). ARE YOU READY!? 

So, starting with Monday after I emailed we went and had a lesson with William Baldwin, a less-active guy of 19 in our area. We sat down and had a really cool lesson with him about following the spirit. At the end we agree to all be quiet for 5 mins and write down what we think the spirit was trying to tell us. I swear you could almost see the angles whispering to us in the room it was so powerful. We all felt like we had received some personal revelation that day.

After that we had a lesson with Jason. He was es-communicated for reasons I won't discuss but he really wants to come back. So we've been meeting with him and just reading the BoM while he is working on his stuff. He had a cold that day and was pretty miserable so at the end of the lesson he asked for a blessing, and for me to voice it. I was pretty nervous, it's the first blessing I ever have given. My mind was empty but words seemed to come out of my mouth on their own. I don't even remember really what I said but the power behind it was some amazing. When we ended the blessing Jason was crying and we embraced. It was so amazing!

That Wednesday we went on splits with the Sea Side Elders. We went and visited an other less active member, a small Mexican lady who's name escapes me. Her son was home and he is 18 so it was fine. After talking to her she told us she was going through such a hard time and had dealt with a lot of depression. We told her about blessings of comfort and she immediately consented to have one. As we gave the blessing it felt like there was lightning running up my arms. The spirit was so strong and we knew that we were meant to be there for her. We committed her to come to church with us that week afterwards. 

Right after that the phone rang. It was the AP's, they said my name I heard but I didn't know what they were talking about. Elder Olgivie said "He's leaving now?" I flipped out and asked "I GOT MY VISA!?" He smiled and ended the call and said "Nope, you're being ET'd (Emergency Transferred)" So I packed up that hour and we left for Redando.

That is where I met my current companion, Elder Fry. He's a great guy, we get along like brothers and he and I do good work together. He's gluten intolerant which is interesting. Something funny is that he only works out his upper body.... He's really buff up top but has chicken legs. It's pretty funny. We have a car here too but we have super limited miles so we ride bikes about half the time.

Our first appointments were pretty great. We met the Nasimentos, a young recently married convert couple. He's actually from Brazil and we speak a bit in Portuguese and it's super awesome. He also was going to be a pro soccer player for the LA Galaxy but his wife kinda talked him out of it. 

Kricket is who we met next. Man is she a Character. She's super direct and says funny things all the time. There's no real way to describe her. She's about 55 and lives with her mom so she can take care of her. They make quite a duo, those two are so funny. 

Then there are the Sizemores. They are an elderly couple who joined the church last year after 8 years of investigating! They love us penguins (Kricket's nickname for missionaries) and do almost anything for us. They do our laundry for us and are super awesome. Their garage is always a mess and we are constantly doing service there. It's a running joke in the area by this point. One of these times doing service Ken (Brother Sizemore prefers we call him that) decided to show us his guns. The man has a elephant rife for heaven's sake! He has so many classic guns too! Peacemakers, A Luger and so many more! It's probably the coolest thing ever. He has well over 60 guns. 

So that Thursday night we got a text from Pres. Weidman for Elder Fry to set up a meeting with him. So we did and when we got there that funniest thing happened.  Pres. Wiedman forgot why he called us down! He just sat across the desk and stared at Elder Fry and said "So what can I help you with........ Oh, wait. I called you here didn't I? I can't think of what for." So we drove home and went through the rich part of Santa Monica and accidentally ran into a model shoot! That was pretty cool and we saw all the multi-million dollar cars you could ever buy there. 

So finally Sunday came around and we were surprised to find that the Featherstones had brought an entire family of investigators to church with them! We introduced ourselves and we learned Nina (30-ish), Dominic(13) and Oliver(8) were all looking to join the church. There are more kids but they are not of baptism age. They had just moved from Spain,their home of 8 years, about a year ago.

After church we went and had pancakes at the Featherstone's home and had a lesson with Nina. She apparently had a rough past with her ex-husband but is doing much better now. She had a friend that had a husband that was the same way who was a church member. She said that she impressed by her strength and family despite the difficulties.She was so prepared that she accepted to be baptized in the 27th of Oct! How cool is that?! My first transfer and we already have a baptism! I'm so excited to teach the other 4 lessons and meet her older children. 

She has a son that is a pro MMA fighter named Tommy. Her older Daughter is a talented artist. She showed us a couple of her painting and drawings and they were straight up amazing! Dominic can sing like pro and a surfer to boot. I figure he'll be quite the ladies man. Nina herself almost went to the 92' Olympics for freestyle skiing but got an injury in her ankle. Oh, and she sings as good as Dominic..... talented much?

Anyway that's my week. I'd leave you with a spiritual thought but I figure between Nina and those blessings that we have enough here. Can't wait till next week!

Fica doce!

Um no excerito de Deus

Elder Teela