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