Hey everyone! This email will have to be a bit short because we don't have too much time and I didn't get a chance to write everything I wanted to talk about down. And it's been a crazy week, so I'm not gonna really be able to keep it all in order, so I'll go by importance.
To start with I am no longer in a trio or in the same area. Yep, another ET and a new companion. His name is Elder Phelps and he's also a district leader. He's been out a year this week apparently and he seems pretty cool, for a guy from Utah. Anyway this ET happened because a missionary named Elder Rogers (from my zone back in Redando) broke his foot walking. It's a stress fracture so he's in a boot and he's an office Elder now. When we got to the Artesia building we saw that it was no simple ET though. There were well over 12 companionships there and the entire thing was a mess. It's a bike area too.
Elder Pollard (an AP) called us last night right before dinner And I flipped out like always. He said "Elder Teela will be leaving the area.... to LA 3" I swear he gets a kick out of this stuff cause he really did pause like that. But I'm not mad becuase I would totally do something like that to mess with Visa-waiters like yours truly. So we basically spent all last night and this morning packing.
Anyway the next important thing I guess would be this woman named Luz. She's an investigator we ran across in the area book and we deiced to go visit her New Year's eve. When we knocked her door her mother answered and she only spoke Spanish. I jumped into action with me trusty gringo and got it out of her that she wasn't home and that if we came back in the afternoon we would catch her then. As we walked away though a car pulled up to the curb and a husband, wife and three kids got out and we deiced to say hi. Turns out this was Luz! She was really excited to see us all and asked that we come back on Thursday.
Fast forward a few days and we came back and taught her a lesson. When I say we taught her a lesson I mean we answered a ton of her questions and somewhat struggled the Plan of Salvation into it. She had a ton of questions about life after death and where we came from and the spirit and everything else you could possibly imagine. It was great, she was so prepared and God found a way to get us to her. She especially liked the doctrine of the pre-mortal life and how we can have a body again after we die. She kept saying "Oh my gosh! I can't believe this! It's too good to be true!" She was so excited and really wants to keep meeting but she's super busy all week with school and work. I hope Elder Froisland and Alls can help her out though.
We had a fun night new year's eve. We came in around 6 because the mission President doesn't want us out while all they crazies are out partying. We got home and did dinner and stuff and broke out a monopoly game that we found a couple weeks ago in the apartment. It was a pretty fun way to spend the night since we couldn't go out teaching. We broke out some sparkling grape juice that a member gave us and Elder Alls drank pretty much all of it but it was fun.
We had an interesting meal 1/2/14. Sister Rogers was feeding us and she prepared for us a real southern black dinner. It was greens, pig's feet, black eyed peas and chitlins. The greens are basically some boiled spinach with some butter and salt and chitlins are pretty nasty tasting honestly. They are boiled pig intestine, and it tastes pretty much exactly like you would imagine. It was okay when you mixed it all together though, tasted like soul food salad. But food is food and I got a whole plate down and then some.
We actually also had a lesson with her daughter, who we thought had dropped us. She was usually at Sister Roger's home but we never really taught her. But that night after dinner she said she wanted to have another lesson with us, and we never turn those down. So we went over and had a discussion with her about The Gospel of Jesus Christ and basically told her the history of the church as well because she didn't remember much of it. She found it all a bit hard to swallow but is willing to come to church and start coming to church and reading the scriptures again, so we have very high hopes for her.
OH! I almost forgot! We had an awesome miracle happen this week! We were out trying to meet up some appointments which all end up falling through. So, feeling a bit discouraged we deiced to walk to the market and get some fruit to brighten our spirits, but we would contact all the way there. As we took off walked to 3 or 4 Spanish speaking people and gave them LA English cards. Not only that we also found 4 new investigators in one hour! Turns out they all lived outside our area but that just means some other missionaries got some really cool new investigators. When we got to the store I was looking around the fruit section and saw a pineapple. I made a joke about carving it up on the way back and eating it to Elder Froisland and for some odd reason he thought he should give it a shot. So we bought it and I loaned him a knife and he skinned that sucker and started eating it like a giant chicken leg. I'll attach the picture so you all can see. Basically he ended up in a nice, tropical, sticky mess.
I wanna finish off with this cool dream I had last week. I know it's not something I usually do but this one is cool:
It started off with me and a huge crowd of people on the shore at Lake Powell, Utah. We visited there right before I left so I felt I know the place. Everyone was getting onto this huge cruise boat so I followed the crowd and got on. When I had gotten to a rail on the side I looked back to the beach and found that there were actually a tone of missionaries on the beach, many of whom were my friends. I looked down and saw that I was actually in my missionary get up as well, taking special notice of my tag, and felt like I should get back to the shore to join them all.
I turned to start leaving but immediately was block off by some girl who I had never seen before. She started saying that it's okay if I stayed and that there would be time for me to go back later. She told me all I had to do was take off my tag throw it into the lake. She smiled at me and I noticed she was extremely pretty, so I felt a bit awkward and looked away. A lot of missionaries were on the boat at this point and I saw some of them taking their tags off and throwing them away. I looked around for a while and turned back to the girl. I thought for what felt like forever, but deiced to go back.
As I moved past her thought I noticed the huge crowd working against me and knew it would be hard to get through. I pressed on though and the further I got the harder it became. People started grabbing at me at tearing my clothes so I started running. I felt like I was playing rugby again as I ran through the crown and they tried to hold me back. I felt their nails cutting me and my shirt and slacks getting torn.
With one final push I collapsed on the beach as the boat was departing. I was tired and drained of my strength. I was so spent I and looked down at my clothes torn to shreds and the blood staining them. I started crying (dream me that is, I'm tougher than that in real life lol) and sat there on my hands and knees for a while just doing that. After a while I became aware of the rest of the missionaries around me on the shore. All talking and just standing around like nothing had happened. I felt like someone more important than them was near though. As I stood up, on man caught my eye. His hair was long and he was dressed in a robe, He seemed to emanate warmth and light. I knew it was Christ in an instant.
I stumbled toward him for what seemed like ages again. As I approached Him he seemed to sense my coming. He turned around and I started crying (dream me is such a wimp! haha) and I fell on his shoulders and felt his arm wrap around me. I seemed to stand there, once again forever, but finally, I drew back. He looked me up and down and said "I was hoping you could make it"
With a weak smile and even weaker knees I paused for a while and said "I knew I had to come"
With that he smiled at me. I felt like a million bucks, I felt the spirit fill me and tears come to my eyes, this time for joy. It was so amazing, I wish I could tell you all how it felt. He then said "Come on then, we have work to do". I noticed then I was in a new suit with a nice blue tie on (my favorite color). Jesus turned and started walking away. As I went to follow him I looked and saw a group of all my friends. They were all in street clothes and a few of them looked back to me. Our eyes met and they beckoned for me to come join them. They seemed to be chatting and having a good time, just standing there on the beach. But I just said "See you in two years, I've got work to do".
Now I know this is just a dream and none of it was real but I really believe it was sent from heaven. This was just after my grandma had died and I felt my conviction to serve renewed and more powerfully than ever. I know that God was helping me through this simple dream.
I hope you are all doing well and to see you all sooner or later. God bless you all and please tell me how you're doing. Even just a line or two is nice. Have a good week!
-Um no exercito de Deus
Elder Teela
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