Email: February 26, 2018 - Adams, Four Elders, One Apartment
Well this week has been very interesting and really hectic
Monday: It was a sad day because I had to say goodbye to everyone in the zone. Only two other missionaries that I know came with me to the LA zone, while for the most part, the rest stayed in the Torrance North zone. But most of all, I will miss Manhattan Beach. It was an awesome place and I definitely plan on coming back, be on the mission or not. The members were so nice. We were eating lunch at a restaurant with a bunch of other missionaries and, lo and behold, a member walks in. His name is Brother Lundstrom and he is super awesome. He signed up to feed us later that week, but since I was getting transferred, he paid for my meal.
Tuesday: The sad day. I woke up and instantly had to pack. I got everything I needed and was off to my new area by 9:00. A cool thing that I found out is that my former zone leader, Elder Taylor, got moved down to district leader and would be going to the Adams 1 area. Since I'm in Adams 2, not only am I in his district, but we also live in the same apartment. So by 11:00, all 4 of us were settled into the apartment and set out on the task to clean up the apartment.
This apartment is actually pretty nice. It's big enough, but it still gets kind of cramped with 4 of us here. But, having 4 of us, makes all of this so much fun.
So Adams is let's say "poverty stricken". We have the south side of our area which means we have part of South Central. If you don't know anything about South Central LA, I'm pretty much the only white person and this area is rougher than Compton. What's cool though is, nobody really messes with us because we are missionaries. Also, my new companion Elder Patrick, is half black, half white. We also hardly get fed by members down here, so it's the exact opposite of Manhattan Beach.
For those of you who don't know, I love buildings. Skyscrapers, in particular. I just find them fun to look at, so having downtown LA in the Adams 1 area gives us a nice view of the city. Although we can't go there, we still get to admire.
So, we talked with President Haynie tonight and we found out that the four of us in the Adams area has somewhat of a "special" assignment. It's not that it's special, but it is of the utmost importance to President Haynie. The Adams area is on the verge of becoming a branch and President doesn’t want that to happen. President has assigned us and two senior couple missionaries (so 8 of us in total) to re-spark the area and keep this ward alive. He has put missionaries he trusts here. So, I guess this means I'm getting tested by President, so I need to make sure I'm putting all of my effort in.
We began to work in our area, and the area book is pretty bad. Since Adams was split into 2 areas, we have no investigators, potentials or formers in our area book. We spent a lot of time having the Adams 1 Elders reassign them to us. Once we got the important things that we needed, we went out to work. Even after getting these contacts, we still had a lot of things to do. We had 12 investigators in our area book and about 7 of them haven't been contacted in over 200 days. We made it our goal to update the area book, and drop or clear out old and moved investigators.
We actually had a lesson with one of our investigators JP. We had no idea what this guy has been taught so as we were sitting down getting to know him, we were scrolling through his history. We noticed he hasn’t been taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ, so we taught that, and we extended a baptism invitation and he accepted! So, day 1 ended on a good note and we started the area out strong.
Wednesday: Since this is kind of a rougher area, bikes get stolen very easily, so Elder Patrick and I have decided that we are going to stick with public transportation and walking. Because of this, we end the day exhausted. Today was the same as yesterday. Just working to clean out the area book and give us a solid pool of people to work with before we try to find more.
We had a lesson with a former named Nicole. She is pretty cool and asked a lot of good questions that we were more than happy to answer for her. At the end of the lesson, she mentioned how she was studying with the Jehovah's Witnesses, and asked us if it was bad to do that. The answer we gave her was that this is her journey and she needed to find out for herself.
We also had a lesson with Cynthia who is another former. We also had a great lesson with her and she wants us to come by again.
We also had ward coordination and we met the WML and as well the Elder and Sister Kunz, who are senior missionaries. They are awesome because they are on top of everything
Thursday: Again just cleaning out the area book, but we decided to start hitting the other end of our area. I forgot to mention that we also have USC in our area, so there are a lot of college students walking around everywhere. So, Mom and Dad, I don't know If you ever went to this church building, but the building we cover is on the corner of Jefferson and Vermont, which is across the street from the USC campus. We were walking down a side street to visit a 200+ days investigator. As we were walking down the street, there was a group of people just standing outside building laughing and enjoying themselves, I guess. Then they saw us and they began to shout "HEY IT'S THE MORMONS". We decided it would be best to keep walking, and they kept laughing, doing whatever it was they were doing. We tried to contact this investigator, but he isn't home, so we step back on to the sidewalk, and head to the next area that we have planned. As we are doing this, Elder Patrick and I notice that a hooded guy from that group left, and began to walk over to us. We both instantly were like " Yeah, forget that" and began to just walk in the other direction. But this guy kept following us, but eventually, I guess, he decided to stop wasting his time, and just went back to his friends.
Friday: Today the four of us Adams Elders decided to go workout at the USC track stadium which was a really nice place. We also did weekly planning and not much more than that.
Saturday: We had the opportunity to help some members clean the church and it was nice to get know some of the members. I found out that one of the young women is actually an actress on the show " Kevin (Probably) Saves the World" which was cool. It's weird to see someone younger than me, that is more famous and probably making more money than me, and all of my friends combined. But yeah, her name is Chloe East and she plays Reese
We had a lesson with our investigator Hazel and she is one of those investigators that say "if you can prove it in the Bible, then I will believe it" so we had a fun lesson. Turns out, her grandson actually returned from his mission in Ohio last year, and she called him after our lesson to tell him that she was meeting with us. It was kind of sad though because it sounded like he didn't really care.
After that, we hit the streets in the very south side of our area which means the roughest part of our area. LA is strange. We were walking down the street and a man stopped us, asking for spare change that we didn't have. So, after turning him down, he asked us to pray for him. We promised him we would, and then he began to tell us why. In his exact words he said, "I NEED 10 THOUSAND DOLLARS AND A WOMAN, AND I NEEDED IT YESTERDAY!" I was trying so hard to keep a straight face, which is kind of rude to say, but it was kind of a crazy experience. Then he said either, "I WANT TO HAVE A BABY IN SIX MONTHS!" or "I'M HAVING A BABY IN SIX MONTHS!" I'm pretty sure it was the first one, but it’s LA, so you never know.
We also had a ward party and we got to meet the bishop. I've heard that the Bishop of this ward is not very supportive of the missionary effort. I think he just has a bad reputation, because he is a nice guy, but did look like he would rather be at home.
I had the chance to talk to a man named Dan Smith. Meeting this guy humbled me, and honestly, I have never felt more compassion for anyone. He told us his conversion story, and I won't go into specifics, but the past year and a half of his life has been super hard, and I could just see the sadness he has felt in his eyes. But he makes every effort to come to
Sunday: Today we had ward council and church. I love this ward because everyone that is active is super awesome. It is a diverse group, and everyone is so unique, but it’s a great group and I love them.
We met our investigator Alexander/David (he goes by either). He is basically a dry Mormon and has a great understanding of the gospel, but he hasn’t been baptized yet because he believes he sinned against the Holy Ghost (which is basically impossible to do). He even had an interview with President Haynie, who told him he was all good to get baptized and even tried to set a date, but it didn’t happen. But in gospel principles class, something broke through to David and I bet we will set a date with him on Wednesday. He is kind of a scary looking guy because he is super tattooed and did devil worship at one point. He has a bunch of devil tattoos, pentagrams and upside down crosses. But, he will be an awesome Mormon so we will focus on his spirit, rather than his appearance. We will baptize him and then address the tattoos.
That’s all for this week. I hope all of you at home enjoyed Black Panther. I’m super jealous of all of you, but yeah, I love you guys!
Elder Kyle Barton
Monday: It was a sad day because I had to say goodbye to everyone in the zone. Only two other missionaries that I know came with me to the LA zone, while for the most part, the rest stayed in the Torrance North zone. But most of all, I will miss Manhattan Beach. It was an awesome place and I definitely plan on coming back, be on the mission or not. The members were so nice. We were eating lunch at a restaurant with a bunch of other missionaries and, lo and behold, a member walks in. His name is Brother Lundstrom and he is super awesome. He signed up to feed us later that week, but since I was getting transferred, he paid for my meal.
Tuesday: The sad day. I woke up and instantly had to pack. I got everything I needed and was off to my new area by 9:00. A cool thing that I found out is that my former zone leader, Elder Taylor, got moved down to district leader and would be going to the Adams 1 area. Since I'm in Adams 2, not only am I in his district, but we also live in the same apartment. So by 11:00, all 4 of us were settled into the apartment and set out on the task to clean up the apartment.
This apartment is actually pretty nice. It's big enough, but it still gets kind of cramped with 4 of us here. But, having 4 of us, makes all of this so much fun.
So Adams is let's say "poverty stricken". We have the south side of our area which means we have part of South Central. If you don't know anything about South Central LA, I'm pretty much the only white person and this area is rougher than Compton. What's cool though is, nobody really messes with us because we are missionaries. Also, my new companion Elder Patrick, is half black, half white. We also hardly get fed by members down here, so it's the exact opposite of Manhattan Beach.
For those of you who don't know, I love buildings. Skyscrapers, in particular. I just find them fun to look at, so having downtown LA in the Adams 1 area gives us a nice view of the city. Although we can't go there, we still get to admire.
So, we talked with President Haynie tonight and we found out that the four of us in the Adams area has somewhat of a "special" assignment. It's not that it's special, but it is of the utmost importance to President Haynie. The Adams area is on the verge of becoming a branch and President doesn’t want that to happen. President has assigned us and two senior couple missionaries (so 8 of us in total) to re-spark the area and keep this ward alive. He has put missionaries he trusts here. So, I guess this means I'm getting tested by President, so I need to make sure I'm putting all of my effort in.
We began to work in our area, and the area book is pretty bad. Since Adams was split into 2 areas, we have no investigators, potentials or formers in our area book. We spent a lot of time having the Adams 1 Elders reassign them to us. Once we got the important things that we needed, we went out to work. Even after getting these contacts, we still had a lot of things to do. We had 12 investigators in our area book and about 7 of them haven't been contacted in over 200 days. We made it our goal to update the area book, and drop or clear out old and moved investigators.
We actually had a lesson with one of our investigators JP. We had no idea what this guy has been taught so as we were sitting down getting to know him, we were scrolling through his history. We noticed he hasn’t been taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ, so we taught that, and we extended a baptism invitation and he accepted! So, day 1 ended on a good note and we started the area out strong.
Wednesday: Since this is kind of a rougher area, bikes get stolen very easily, so Elder Patrick and I have decided that we are going to stick with public transportation and walking. Because of this, we end the day exhausted. Today was the same as yesterday. Just working to clean out the area book and give us a solid pool of people to work with before we try to find more.
We had a lesson with a former named Nicole. She is pretty cool and asked a lot of good questions that we were more than happy to answer for her. At the end of the lesson, she mentioned how she was studying with the Jehovah's Witnesses, and asked us if it was bad to do that. The answer we gave her was that this is her journey and she needed to find out for herself.
We also had a lesson with Cynthia who is another former. We also had a great lesson with her and she wants us to come by again.
We also had ward coordination and we met the WML and as well the Elder and Sister Kunz, who are senior missionaries. They are awesome because they are on top of everything
Thursday: Again just cleaning out the area book, but we decided to start hitting the other end of our area. I forgot to mention that we also have USC in our area, so there are a lot of college students walking around everywhere. So, Mom and Dad, I don't know If you ever went to this church building, but the building we cover is on the corner of Jefferson and Vermont, which is across the street from the USC campus. We were walking down a side street to visit a 200+ days investigator. As we were walking down the street, there was a group of people just standing outside building laughing and enjoying themselves, I guess. Then they saw us and they began to shout "HEY IT'S THE MORMONS". We decided it would be best to keep walking, and they kept laughing, doing whatever it was they were doing. We tried to contact this investigator, but he isn't home, so we step back on to the sidewalk, and head to the next area that we have planned. As we are doing this, Elder Patrick and I notice that a hooded guy from that group left, and began to walk over to us. We both instantly were like " Yeah, forget that" and began to just walk in the other direction. But this guy kept following us, but eventually, I guess, he decided to stop wasting his time, and just went back to his friends.
Friday: Today the four of us Adams Elders decided to go workout at the USC track stadium which was a really nice place. We also did weekly planning and not much more than that.
Saturday: We had the opportunity to help some members clean the church and it was nice to get know some of the members. I found out that one of the young women is actually an actress on the show " Kevin (Probably) Saves the World" which was cool. It's weird to see someone younger than me, that is more famous and probably making more money than me, and all of my friends combined. But yeah, her name is Chloe East and she plays Reese
We had a lesson with our investigator Hazel and she is one of those investigators that say "if you can prove it in the Bible, then I will believe it" so we had a fun lesson. Turns out, her grandson actually returned from his mission in Ohio last year, and she called him after our lesson to tell him that she was meeting with us. It was kind of sad though because it sounded like he didn't really care.
After that, we hit the streets in the very south side of our area which means the roughest part of our area. LA is strange. We were walking down the street and a man stopped us, asking for spare change that we didn't have. So, after turning him down, he asked us to pray for him. We promised him we would, and then he began to tell us why. In his exact words he said, "I NEED 10 THOUSAND DOLLARS AND A WOMAN, AND I NEEDED IT YESTERDAY!" I was trying so hard to keep a straight face, which is kind of rude to say, but it was kind of a crazy experience. Then he said either, "I WANT TO HAVE A BABY IN SIX MONTHS!" or "I'M HAVING A BABY IN SIX MONTHS!" I'm pretty sure it was the first one, but it’s LA, so you never know.
We also had a ward party and we got to meet the bishop. I've heard that the Bishop of this ward is not very supportive of the missionary effort. I think he just has a bad reputation, because he is a nice guy, but did look like he would rather be at home.
I had the chance to talk to a man named Dan Smith. Meeting this guy humbled me, and honestly, I have never felt more compassion for anyone. He told us his conversion story, and I won't go into specifics, but the past year and a half of his life has been super hard, and I could just see the sadness he has felt in his eyes. But he makes every effort to come to
Sunday: Today we had ward council and church. I love this ward because everyone that is active is super awesome. It is a diverse group, and everyone is so unique, but it’s a great group and I love them.
We met our investigator Alexander/David (he goes by either). He is basically a dry Mormon and has a great understanding of the gospel, but he hasn’t been baptized yet because he believes he sinned against the Holy Ghost (which is basically impossible to do). He even had an interview with President Haynie, who told him he was all good to get baptized and even tried to set a date, but it didn’t happen. But in gospel principles class, something broke through to David and I bet we will set a date with him on Wednesday. He is kind of a scary looking guy because he is super tattooed and did devil worship at one point. He has a bunch of devil tattoos, pentagrams and upside down crosses. But, he will be an awesome Mormon so we will focus on his spirit, rather than his appearance. We will baptize him and then address the tattoos.
That’s all for this week. I hope all of you at home enjoyed Black Panther. I’m super jealous of all of you, but yeah, I love you guys!
Elder Kyle Barton
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| My new zone (it's massive) |
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| graffiti in south central. |
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The 10 freeway |
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| We made deep fried grilled cheese (it may not look good but it tasted good) |
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A lego cubone we found in the apartment (cubone is my boy)
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