Email: December 26, 2017
Hello! Hello! I am back. So I’m currently composing this email in the free parking section of Griffith Park next to the bird sanctuary (which had no birds, we looked) This past week went by so fast I don't really remember what happened but I'll try my best to remember
So, to start off, last week for p-day we went to the science center on the USC campus. It had a lot of different areas so we didn't get to see it all, but we went through the ecosystem areas and it was just an interesting portion of our day. After dinner at a member’s home, we were on our way to a lesson with an investigator when we got a text from them cancelling. So, sitting in our car on the side of the road, we sat their trying to figure out what to do next. After a bit of listening to the spirit we decided to visit a younger less active.
We knocked on her door and right as we knocked music started blasting and we heard Brittany (the less active) panicking to turn it off. She hurried and opened the door and was surprised to see us. She invited us in and kept trying to find her phone to turn it off. We sat down on her couch and were checking out her toddler sitting on the floor just chilling. Aria (the baby) reminded me a lot of Tessa and Presley. Brittany, still in a bit of panic, offered us some water and her boyfriend and Maria's dad, Logan, walked in with Brittany's phone and turned off the music and just stood there observing us. After talking to them for a bit, it turns out Logan is from Mesa and has a few Mormon friends that have served missions so he knows who we are and respects what we do. (Quick note: Elder Styer doesn't like sarcasm and that’s my biggest struggle with him because I’m a pretty sarcastic person. But Logan's sense of humor is pure sarcasm and I found it hilarious, but Elder Styer sat there awkward and uncomfortable. Brittany kept saying Logan was joking, just to make sure, and it was kind of an awkward contact in general because of it. But it was cool getting to know them they were a very nice little family and they even offered us dinner right then and there. Unfortunately, due to curfew and us already having dinner we had to get going. On our way out, Logan offered to take our picture with Brittany and Aria and send it to our parents which is apparently a popular thing to do out here, a lot of people do it.
So, on Tuesday was new missionary orientation for all the new missionaries in LA which means, you guessed it I saw Elder Terry! It was so cool to see him again. We also ended up in the same group for our breakouts and it felt so normal to teach and practice with him again.
Every Tuesday Elder Styer and I give service at a Methodist church down the road from our apartment. They have this thing called project needs which is for the local homeless where they can come in, get a good meal and grab some spare clothes that were donated. We help butter some rolls and set up all the tables and placemats as well as grab all the donated clothes from boxes in the basement. Also, some sisters in the area next to us come in after Elder Styer and I and help serve the food. As we were helping set things up, we got a call from our investigator Suresh saying he had free time that night and so we invited him up to the Visitor Center. On our way up, we ran into our neighbor Brian. We were able to talk to him briefly about where we were going and he was very interested in going up with us at some point.
We met him that night at the VC and we attended the musical event that night which was a bell choir. It was the most entertaining musical performance I have ever been to. They were making noises with these bells that I didn't even know you could make. It was so cool
Afterwards we showed Suresh the "God's Plan for His Family" video and he really enjoyed it. At the end of the night, as we were getting ready to leave, he mentioned how peaceful he felt and we setup a lesson for later that week (Thursday)
Wednesday was one of our four temple days and it was so cool seeing the details and paintings within the LA Temple. Like, for example, the 33 steps up to the second floor each represent a year in the life of Jesus Christ or the different rooms for the different parts of the endowment. So, for temple day we were supposed to go through with all the Elders in our district. Elder Whitmore and Elder Williams are a bike area so they got picked up by Elder Cox and Elder Halverson. On their way up to the temple they got in accident. Nothing serious and nobody was injured but they were late, the car needs the body repaired and Elder Halverson's driving privileges are now on the line. So, in our Endowment session there were 4 sisters, 2 brothers and then me and Elder Styer.
Thursday was a rough day. We were having trouble contacting everyone. So, a bit discouraged, we decided to go to dinner early. Standing in line at Cafe Rio with our gift cards ready, we noticed some sister missionaries walk in with a member. Boom. Free meal. Afterward we had our lesson with Suresh where we taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ and invited him to be baptized. He said Yes, but wanted to pray about it first.
Friday, we had district meeting and I gave my first STEPP talk (scripture, testimony, example, promised blessings, preach my gospel) on the role of the Book of Mormon and it went really well. As we were having our training we got a text from Suresh. After the meeting we looked at it. To sum up, he said how there are a lot of responsibilities that come with joining the church (such as not working on Sunday) that would be really difficult for him. He said he would reach out and contact us in a year or 2 when he is retired to start our lessons back up. By far the most disappointing thing that has happened yet.
On Saturday however, we had the opportunity to give service. In fact, the whole zone did. The service was to paint the interior of a home and double coat it for a new member that was moving in. The whole zone was ready to go. The painters that were there had to go get more paint and rollers. They weren't ready for the turn out. It was nice to get to know everyone better, especially some of the sisters that we never see.
We also were able to go up to the VC with Geno and Sister Padayo. Geno had a really good experience there and was definitely a lot more open towards us as he felt a great peace and was really happy to be there. After we said goodbye to Geno, Elder Styer and I walked back over to the VC and started to report the trip when Victoria walked over and said Hi. It was so cool to see someone from home while in the mission. On our way in we stopped by Brian's home and invited him to the VC over the weekend. He was excited and actually introduced us to our neighbor right below us named Leia. They work for the same company and they are door to door sales people offering free financial advice and they get paid based on time so we were able to relate to each other really well. He described his feelings about his job and the people he meets the EXACT same as how we as missionaries feel. He is a super cool guy
It was so cool to call home on Christmas and see how everyone was doing. We called from the Bishop's home which is literally beach front property so we had a great view on top of calling home. Bishop wasn't feeling well and his family went to give service so we had an awesome breakfast alone in their home. To show how grateful we were for them we cleaned their kitchen while they were out and took some leftover waffles on our way out. We later had dinner with the Crane family. They have 7 kids and it was a bit hectic at dinner, but their ham was the best ham I have ever had in my life. It was so good. We then went up that night to the VC with our neighbor Brian and his family. It was so cool to finally meet his family and be able to share experiences with them
Well that is all that happened this week. I hope everyone at home is doing great. Take care everyone!
Elder Kyle Barton
So, to start off, last week for p-day we went to the science center on the USC campus. It had a lot of different areas so we didn't get to see it all, but we went through the ecosystem areas and it was just an interesting portion of our day. After dinner at a member’s home, we were on our way to a lesson with an investigator when we got a text from them cancelling. So, sitting in our car on the side of the road, we sat their trying to figure out what to do next. After a bit of listening to the spirit we decided to visit a younger less active.
We knocked on her door and right as we knocked music started blasting and we heard Brittany (the less active) panicking to turn it off. She hurried and opened the door and was surprised to see us. She invited us in and kept trying to find her phone to turn it off. We sat down on her couch and were checking out her toddler sitting on the floor just chilling. Aria (the baby) reminded me a lot of Tessa and Presley. Brittany, still in a bit of panic, offered us some water and her boyfriend and Maria's dad, Logan, walked in with Brittany's phone and turned off the music and just stood there observing us. After talking to them for a bit, it turns out Logan is from Mesa and has a few Mormon friends that have served missions so he knows who we are and respects what we do. (Quick note: Elder Styer doesn't like sarcasm and that’s my biggest struggle with him because I’m a pretty sarcastic person. But Logan's sense of humor is pure sarcasm and I found it hilarious, but Elder Styer sat there awkward and uncomfortable. Brittany kept saying Logan was joking, just to make sure, and it was kind of an awkward contact in general because of it. But it was cool getting to know them they were a very nice little family and they even offered us dinner right then and there. Unfortunately, due to curfew and us already having dinner we had to get going. On our way out, Logan offered to take our picture with Brittany and Aria and send it to our parents which is apparently a popular thing to do out here, a lot of people do it.
So, on Tuesday was new missionary orientation for all the new missionaries in LA which means, you guessed it I saw Elder Terry! It was so cool to see him again. We also ended up in the same group for our breakouts and it felt so normal to teach and practice with him again.
Every Tuesday Elder Styer and I give service at a Methodist church down the road from our apartment. They have this thing called project needs which is for the local homeless where they can come in, get a good meal and grab some spare clothes that were donated. We help butter some rolls and set up all the tables and placemats as well as grab all the donated clothes from boxes in the basement. Also, some sisters in the area next to us come in after Elder Styer and I and help serve the food. As we were helping set things up, we got a call from our investigator Suresh saying he had free time that night and so we invited him up to the Visitor Center. On our way up, we ran into our neighbor Brian. We were able to talk to him briefly about where we were going and he was very interested in going up with us at some point.
We met him that night at the VC and we attended the musical event that night which was a bell choir. It was the most entertaining musical performance I have ever been to. They were making noises with these bells that I didn't even know you could make. It was so cool
Afterwards we showed Suresh the "God's Plan for His Family" video and he really enjoyed it. At the end of the night, as we were getting ready to leave, he mentioned how peaceful he felt and we setup a lesson for later that week (Thursday)
Wednesday was one of our four temple days and it was so cool seeing the details and paintings within the LA Temple. Like, for example, the 33 steps up to the second floor each represent a year in the life of Jesus Christ or the different rooms for the different parts of the endowment. So, for temple day we were supposed to go through with all the Elders in our district. Elder Whitmore and Elder Williams are a bike area so they got picked up by Elder Cox and Elder Halverson. On their way up to the temple they got in accident. Nothing serious and nobody was injured but they were late, the car needs the body repaired and Elder Halverson's driving privileges are now on the line. So, in our Endowment session there were 4 sisters, 2 brothers and then me and Elder Styer.
Thursday was a rough day. We were having trouble contacting everyone. So, a bit discouraged, we decided to go to dinner early. Standing in line at Cafe Rio with our gift cards ready, we noticed some sister missionaries walk in with a member. Boom. Free meal. Afterward we had our lesson with Suresh where we taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ and invited him to be baptized. He said Yes, but wanted to pray about it first.
Friday, we had district meeting and I gave my first STEPP talk (scripture, testimony, example, promised blessings, preach my gospel) on the role of the Book of Mormon and it went really well. As we were having our training we got a text from Suresh. After the meeting we looked at it. To sum up, he said how there are a lot of responsibilities that come with joining the church (such as not working on Sunday) that would be really difficult for him. He said he would reach out and contact us in a year or 2 when he is retired to start our lessons back up. By far the most disappointing thing that has happened yet.
On Saturday however, we had the opportunity to give service. In fact, the whole zone did. The service was to paint the interior of a home and double coat it for a new member that was moving in. The whole zone was ready to go. The painters that were there had to go get more paint and rollers. They weren't ready for the turn out. It was nice to get to know everyone better, especially some of the sisters that we never see.
We also were able to go up to the VC with Geno and Sister Padayo. Geno had a really good experience there and was definitely a lot more open towards us as he felt a great peace and was really happy to be there. After we said goodbye to Geno, Elder Styer and I walked back over to the VC and started to report the trip when Victoria walked over and said Hi. It was so cool to see someone from home while in the mission. On our way in we stopped by Brian's home and invited him to the VC over the weekend. He was excited and actually introduced us to our neighbor right below us named Leia. They work for the same company and they are door to door sales people offering free financial advice and they get paid based on time so we were able to relate to each other really well. He described his feelings about his job and the people he meets the EXACT same as how we as missionaries feel. He is a super cool guy
It was so cool to call home on Christmas and see how everyone was doing. We called from the Bishop's home which is literally beach front property so we had a great view on top of calling home. Bishop wasn't feeling well and his family went to give service so we had an awesome breakfast alone in their home. To show how grateful we were for them we cleaned their kitchen while they were out and took some leftover waffles on our way out. We later had dinner with the Crane family. They have 7 kids and it was a bit hectic at dinner, but their ham was the best ham I have ever had in my life. It was so good. We then went up that night to the VC with our neighbor Brian and his family. It was so cool to finally meet his family and be able to share experiences with them
Well that is all that happened this week. I hope everyone at home is doing great. Take care everyone!
Elder Kyle Barton
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| Baby chick being Godzilla |
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| Chicks at the science center |
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| Foggy mornings we sometimes have |
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| All the stuff Elder Styler won't eat so he gave to me |
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