Email: Chasing the Ice Cream Truck - December 11, 2017

So, this week was kind of a wild week.

First, I want everyone to know that I'm ok. There are a lot wild fires around the hills of the LA area and they even shut the roads down on Wednesday, but we are ok. Most of the fires are in the Ventura mission and we are unaffected for the most part. The church released a statement about it on lds.org if you haven't seen it. They go into more detail. But the smoke has been blowing down into our area.

Something that has surprised me about LA that I didn't even think about is the religious aspect. I knew LA was a melting pot of culture, but I just figured everyone would be atheist. Well that is definitely not the case. There are two mega churches in our area. Journey of Faith and Hope Chapel. They are both on the main road in Redondo and they openly preach against the Mormons. There are also a lot of small churches and different religious backgrounds and everyone is solid in their faith

So, I'm not sure if I told everyone about the apartment I'm staying in. Manhattan Beach is a pretty wealthy area so the apartments are fairly expensive so the church found the smallest one they could find. Our apartment is really close quarters and cramped. The shower is the smallest thing in the apartment. It's about 4 feet by four feet. The shower door goes up to my shoulders and the shower head is almost exactly my height.  If I try to adjust it, I'll end up bumping into something.

On Monday night I went on my first exchange. It was with Elder Whitmore who serves in the Gardena area. So, I packed up my Star Wars sheets (yup, I got Star Wars themed sheets from the mission) and drove down and spent the night in Gardena. The apartment down there is so much bigger than ours and it has a normal sized shower. Elder Whitmore is MASSIVE, it's half muscle, half fat and he is pretty soft spoken, but I got him to open up and we were cracking jokes all night.

Tuesday morning, I wake up and the apartment is absolutely freezing. It felt like I was back in Utah it was so cold. But oh man the shower was definitely a blessing. After I got ready I was going to ask Elder Whitmore what we should make for breakfast, but before I could ask, I see him pull a plate of chicken nuggets out of the microwave, so I had chicken nuggets for breakfast. After breakfast we had to hit the dentist so Elder Whitmore could get his tooth checked. (Elder Whitmores's nervous system thought one of his molars was a foreign object, so his body started attacking itself, so they had to pull the tooth since it degraded so much). After the dentist we hit the streets. Gardena is a biking area so I officially became a missionary, clipping on the helmet and tucking the right pant leg into the sock.

So, we take off heading east down Gardena Boulevard which is all uphill. Now, when I opened my mission call, I noticed Compton was just barely outside of the mission. Well, as I'm riding Elder William’s bike to go visit a member, I was adjusting my tie as we are stopped. A car pulls onto the road and a woman begins to talk to us saying how she used to live in Salt Lake and people were so nice there. Then as she was pulling away she said, "Welcome to Compton!" I was confused, and I looked over at Elder Whitmore and asked him "Are we actually in Compton?" and he just casually responded with "Yup". Fast forward an hour later, and here I am biking down Compton Boulevard with a blue tie and a red helmet and getting stared at by almost everyone, duck getting kicked up into my face by passing cars, and jerking my bike every time a dog slams into a fence trying to get me.

I found a rose in Compton.
 (It's not all bad)

I would have taken a picture of the street sign, but I didn't want to take any unnecessary risks so I'll just have you all take my word for it. We went and visited an investigator named Shaun who is 14 or 15. We knock on the door and Shaun answers and the very first thing he says to us is "I've had a revelation...." Now when someone says this it's going to either be really good or not so good. Unfortunately, it was not so good, and the only book he can believe is the Bible. The thing about Shaun as well is he has dreams about another world and he recreates what he sees and hears through Minecraft, as well as music, which really interests me. I want to see and hear all these things from this "other" world. As we were talking to Shaun his mom came to the door. Shaun's mom isn't a member, but she absolutely loves us since we are trying to spread the word of God. After a solid four hours of biking by this point Elder Whitmore asked if she happened to have any water. Unfortunately, she didn't and as she was rushing to work she handed us five dollars and told us to get a drink and a bag of chips. She was super sweet. We asked her where we could go to get these things and she pointed down the road and said "the liquor store down there is a good option. Just have one go in and get everything while the other watches the bikes!" And then she, out of nowhere, prayed for us and then went inside.

As Elder Whitmore and I turned around to jump back on our bikes we heard the tune of an ice cream truck and we looked down the road to see it turn the corner. Then Elder Whitmore suddenly, full of excitement, jumped on his bike and took off down the road after the ice cream truck. I'm standing there in confusion, not realizing my companion is halfway down the road already. After snapping out of the awe of seeing an ice cream truck for the first time in ten years, I quickly caught up to Elder Whitmore and began our chase after this ice cream truck. Luckily, we managed to catch it and bought some Gatorade from it.

Now the thing with Compton is it's a red zone, which means we are not allowed to go out at certain times at night. So, the sun is on the way down and we are now riding downhill when the chain on my bike pops off and I try to flag down Elder Whitmore who is in front of me, but he didn't hear me. I rode all the way down the hill but as soon as it was even ground I wasn't able to ride and Elder Whitmore kept going until he finally noticed, three blocks later, that I wasn't behind him. Well, I finally caught up to him and explained what happened. He fixed the chain in 15 seconds flat and bam, we were riding again. When we got to the apartment, we decided to go to the laundromat down the road so we could do some Facebook proselyting (which I can't do since I'm not trained yet so I just sat there reading scriptures). Eventually, Elder Whitmore tapped me on the shoulder and told me we were going on the move again because we had dinner with a member scheduled at a fast food place called the Golden Eagle that was also down the road. So, as we are walking towards the Golden Eagle (shout out to my high school), Elder Whitmore leans over and asked me if I have ever heard of the Gardena 13. Turns out that's the local gang, and the laundromat we were at was the "headquarters" and there were a bunch of them walking around the laundromat. Don't worry, they are chill with missionaries because they offered Elder Whitmore weed before. But, as I looked around as we were walking, I noticed that Gardena 13 or G 13 was spray painted almost everywhere. After a wonderful dinner, we had an appointment with a member back in Compton. By this point it was seven. As were riding to go meet him, Elder Whitmore got a flat tire and we were an hour walk away from the apartment so we had to cancel. Good thing I had the biggest Elder in the mission with me, because the walk was super sketchy going underneath underpasses. As we got back to the apartment, I notice that G 13 was spray painted on the garage door across from ours. Now I know why Gardena has a nice apartment.

Thursday was our mission Christmas devotional. We had great music, testimonies and good food as well.  We got to watch "Christmas Oranges" which is a movie I have never seen, and it was pretty good.  Also, all the Elders got special C.L.A.M ties and they look really good. On Thursday it was super smoky. There was constant grey line kind of like fog everywhere and it was pretty hard to breathe.

Today for P-day the Elders and I went up to the Getty Vista which is a Roman art museum in Malibu. So the entrance to the museum is along the Pacific Coast Highway. So Elder Styer and I got to drive on PCH for 15 minutes or so and it's absolutely beautiful. We had the ocean on our left and really nice houses on our right and it's a drive like none other. I'll be sure to put some pictures from the gallery in.

Not much on the investigator end. We have a new investigator Tommy who wants to know what makes us different from all the churches. We just dropped Sunny Nelson and Isaac Morales because they don't keep commitments and avoided us. Suresh just got back from India, so we will try visit him tomorrow. We are trying and working hard to find a new investigator, but everyone is pretty happy with where they are in life and it makes it a lot more difficult, sadly. We met a man named Robert and we talked with him about the gospel and he didn't quite understand what we were saying. He has faith in Christ, but isn't committed to a church. We asked him when he was converted to Christ, and he said right before he was going to shoot some people. He is a wonderful person, but he is limiting himself to just the Bible because he doesn't think he needs anything more

Also, there is another Elder Terry and another Elder Barton and they happen to be companions. The other Elder Terry is white, and the other Elder Barton is ginger

Elder Styer and I are getting along well. The only thing that really bothers me is, he sings out loud. Like Elder McIntosh but not nearly as good. (Don't worry Elder McIntosh your singing didn't bother me)

Anyway, sorry for the long email I hope everyone in the field or back home are doing well. I pray for all of you everyday

Also, to my family. Please send me Oh Come, Oh Come Emmanuel. It’s a Christmas song that none of the Elders have downloaded and it's my favorite

I love you all!

Also, shout out to Brother Pond for his awesome Day and Night moves!

Your friend
Elder B