Email: May 7, 2018 - Mission changes, service, zone conference, white lights

MAY 7, 2018

Good morning everyone! Or afternoon or whatever time of day it is. So to start this email off, we got some awesome news from President Haynie this weekend. He got off the phone with someone from the missionary department in Salt Lake City. Turns out they have decided to keep Palos Verdes, Torrance and Torrance North zones in our mission. So that means we are keeping all of our mission and adding to it. So, nobody is going to Long Beach

The stakes that we are receiving from San Fernando are Canoga Park (yeah yeah!) Granada Hills, North Hollywood and San Fernando (Spanish) stake

Also, I hit 6 months tomorrow.

Monday: P-day was a lot of fun. I spent it with my old zone leader Elder Retamales who goes home in a week. We just went around and visited old areas he served in and we ended up getting fed twice which was pretty good. 

Tuesday: Not much happened. We met with a less active member who really wants to come back to church his name is Frank and he is a super nice guy.

Wednesday: We gave service to a less active member this morning and she lives in the nicest apartment complex I have ever seen. It is 3 buildings and they are all connected by bridges. It has a movie theater, library, gym, basketball court that had the Clippers and the Lakers logo on it, a sauna, parking and a bunch of other stuff. As for actual service there wasn’t much for us to do, but Frank, the less active, came and helped us out. 

Thursday: Thursday was a really good day. We didn't play basketball this morning but we did have zone conference which was really good as always. The topics were kind of all over the place but there was a lot of talk about revelation and how we can help ourselves and our investigators receive it.

Towards the end of the zone conference the missionaries noticed how President Haynie was slowly drifting and before we knew it, he was out. Just absolutely knocked out. I guess sleep gets the best of us sometimes.

As for the rest of the day we helped a member move out of their apartment in downtown. They live in a really nice building as well and they even have chocolate milk on tap there. It would have been amazing if it wasn't broken. It was sad because we had a last supper kind of thing but with pizza and a few other members. We also had a less active join us too.

On our way out with the extra pizza that was given to us, we decided to street contact as we waited for our Uber and we ended up talking to some backpackers who were from Quebec Canada. It was a cool conversation and we ended up giving them the extra pizza and got a picture with them.

Friday: Not much happened Friday just weekly planning really.

Saturday: Saturday was also a fun day. I went on exchanges with Elder Harrison and we worked a lot in downtown. We visited some members and we went to a restaurant that served authentic food from Spain. It tasted kind of weird, but I thought it was pretty good.

So, this is my first time I really had a good long look at downtown and actually have an opportunity to walk around. The buildings are really cool but there are a bunch of random parks that are kind of hidden among the big buildings. The parks are super nice as well.

I also got to walk through little Tokyo and let me tell you that place was packed. There were so many people there and probably the most Asians in one place than I have ever seen in my life. There were a bunch of stores with Pikachu, revolving sushi bars, boba and karaoke going on.

We ended the night in the arts district of LA. It is a pretty high-end place and it's really modern and hipster. The buildings were super nice and it was a calm area. There weren't a lot of people on the streets and it was quiet and it honestly was kind of offsetting and it reminded me of home. 

As Elder Harrison and I were walking he was talking about how in the arts district they turn old warehouses into things and as he was talking about this we noticed a little shortcut to where we needed to go. This shortcut happened to go through this entry way and through a building. It had white lights dangling from the roof. It was weird looking but Elder Harrison was all for it and he went on and crossed the street. So, I had to follow. As we passed through the entrance and as we got closer to the white lights we realized that it was actually white underwear with white lights inside them hanging from the ceiling. It definitely was a weird site to see that’s for sure.

As we continued to move on for whatever reason we began to see the exit but we also started hear music. It kept getting louder and louder and as we entered the courtyard there was a bar on one side that was blasting music that you can't even hear from the outside. There were even security guards inside. It looked like a place for a rave that’s for sure. It was a weird experience because I felt like I stumbled onto something sinister that I shouldn’t have seen (obviously it wasn’t evil it was just people having a good time).

And we ended the day at this super fancy apartment complex that took up the entire street. It’s called One Santa Fe. Look it up if you get a chance. You don't even have to leave your complex really. It had a grocery store, clothing store, restaurant, coffee shop, tons of parking, a pool, security and a rooftop lounging area that could also be a club. It was amazing

Sunday: Sunday was good as well. Our investigator comfort came to church, as well we had a couple less actives come so it was a good turnout for sacrament. We set a couple return appointments with people on the street for next week. And we had another amazing dinner at Sister Pumfry's home

Elder Kyle Barton