Email: April 9, 2018 - Thrift shop, white people?, uber, best dinner, surprise baptism part 2, 8:30 dinner, 5 months out
Another week where I don't really remember what happened. But hey, it’s the thought that counts right? Kind of reflecting on my mission so far. It's cool to see how many people I have meet, the experiences I've had, and how life changing it's been so far. But the best part, I would say, is how much closer I have grown to my friends back home, but mostly to my friends on their missions. It’s cool to think no matter where we are in the world, we are teaching the lessons. I honestly feel a closer bond with them. I already thought we were a close-knit group, but now it's even closer.
So, to those who are contemplating going on missions, I highly recommend it. It will be the best decision you have ever made, and it will bring you so much closer to a lot of people. But most importantly you will be bringing people closer to our Heavenly Father.
Monday: So, we spent a total of 5 hours at the DMV which was an absolute nightmare. There were so many people, but at least I got see some dogs and really spend some quality time on last week’s email. Then after that, it was pretty much time to head back to our areas. Unfortunately, as we were heading back, it was right at rush hour, so the traffic was pretty much at a standstill and it took us an hour and half to drive back, which usually takes 20 minutes.
Tuesday: So, to start our day, we usually go to the church since it is in the center of our area to do our planning and such. Typically, we walk there and it's about a 2 mile walk. As we were walking to the church we walked by a thrift shop and we decided to pop in for a second just for some fun. We ended up talking to the store owner. His name is Fred and he is a pretty cool dude. Let’s hope he shows up at church someday.
Let me though. THRIFT STORES ARE POPPIN. Macklemore was right. Yeah a lot of the clothes were dirty but we have a washing machine so it’s all good. But man, they had a bunch of suits and dad style Hawaiian shirts. It was pretty legendary.
We met the our new roommate Elder Carlson who is also the new district leader. He is a pretty chill guy.
Wednesday: We had ward coordination today and with the whole surprise baptism events of last week, the ward leaders were pretty frustrated with us, so it was a throw down and we got cooked up. To summarize it, we are to have baptisms with at least a week advance notice to the ward leaders. Which I completely agree with, it was just kind of a crazy situation. As we were waiting for the bus that morning to go the church we saw 3 different white people who each had a child. Let me tell you seeing a white person in general in this part of town that isn’t a missionary is a rarity, especially seeing 3.
Thursday: First district meeting of the new transfer. It went pretty well, and I had to give the STEPP talk for district meeting, but yeah it went pretty well. We got to talking about David and how we can figure out the situation. The Spanish elders suggested the they could combine David's baptism with the their baptism since David's parents only speak Spanish. As we are in district meeting we were texting David and he texted us saying he wasn't sure about this whole baptism thing anymore so we were super stressed.
Later in the day Elder and Sister Kunz took David and his family (including his parents) to the VC. Apparently, the tour went super well and Elder Kunz set a baptism date with David for this Saturday combined with the Spanish elders (which he doesn’t have the authority to do) so we got frustrated and tried to move it to next week especially since a few hours before David texted us saying he wasn’t sure.
So, we had a repeat of last week. We had to call the ward leaders and tell them we are having a baptism in less than 48 hours. Which we just told them yesterday that we wouldn't do that again. So, it just made us look like a bunch of idiots.
Friday: We had weekly planning today and as we were planning we got a call from the Spanish elders saying that their bishop does not approve of combining the baptisms. So, we had to call up Elder Kunz and the ward mission leader and tell them. Man this whole thing turned into a soap opera. There was so much drama and Elder Kunz was going to call the stake president and so much shade was being thrown. Then we got the Spanish bishop in the conference call and Elder Patrick and I had to put it on mute because we couldn't help but just laugh at the situation.
Thankfully we got things sorted out with the Spanish bishop and we were able to get his approval to combine the baptisms.
Cool thing though we got Uber finally setup for our area and we decided to give it a shot and take an Uber back home. It was kind of an awkward car ride, but at least I can say I have taken Uber before.
Saturday: The big day is here. Knowing how this situation has gone in the past we were bracing ourselves for the worst. And guess what? The worst came. The baptism is at 5. At 2 we got a text from David saying he wants to cancel his baptism and that he didn't want to talk to anyone. We informed Elder Kunz and he began to try and reach out to him. So Elder Patrick and I were pretty frustrated. Fortunately, Elder kunz was able to reach David and talk some sense to him. So, the baptism went on and we were finally able to baptize David. After all this craziness it finally happened. There are pictures on my Facebook page but I'll be sure to add some.
Sunday: We were able to confirm David today and the members were awesome and welcomed him fully. Even in their testimonies in testimony meeting they welcomed him.
I also hit 5 months out on my mission today. It's weird to think I'm almost a quarter of the way through. I still feel like I just left home, but all the movie and tv ads out here remind me that it’s been a while. Time flies when you are a missionary. It’s weird to think this time last year I was getting ready to wrap up my senior year, I was working at a Mongolian grill, meeting amazing people and getting ready to change my life. I can't help but think about my senior trip to Bear Lake and the amazing memories I had out there. So, to my friends that are back home, I miss you guys a LOT. Keep holding down the fort for me
We didn't have a dinner appointment that night and with it being fast Sunday we were dying. But we remember the Pumfrys said we were always welcomed over since they cook every night. So we called Sister Pumfry and she said of course we were welcome. So dinner was at 7. We arrive at 7 and Sister Pumfry was running really behind. But it's ok because she is the nicest person ever. So we helped her make dinner. Once everything was ready it was about 8:30 pm. But the 4 of us decided that we were going enjoy our meal anyway so we decide to eat and take our time. The meal that was made was super good of course. We didn't leave their home until 9:30 and as all missionaries know we are supposed to be in our apartments by 9. Well we didn't get home until about 9:50 and although the zone leaders were hounding us, it was all worth it.
I hope everyone at home has been having an awesome spring. It's definitely warming up out here in LA
Elder Kyle Barton
So, to those who are contemplating going on missions, I highly recommend it. It will be the best decision you have ever made, and it will bring you so much closer to a lot of people. But most importantly you will be bringing people closer to our Heavenly Father.
Monday: So, we spent a total of 5 hours at the DMV which was an absolute nightmare. There were so many people, but at least I got see some dogs and really spend some quality time on last week’s email. Then after that, it was pretty much time to head back to our areas. Unfortunately, as we were heading back, it was right at rush hour, so the traffic was pretty much at a standstill and it took us an hour and half to drive back, which usually takes 20 minutes.
Tuesday: So, to start our day, we usually go to the church since it is in the center of our area to do our planning and such. Typically, we walk there and it's about a 2 mile walk. As we were walking to the church we walked by a thrift shop and we decided to pop in for a second just for some fun. We ended up talking to the store owner. His name is Fred and he is a pretty cool dude. Let’s hope he shows up at church someday.
Let me though. THRIFT STORES ARE POPPIN. Macklemore was right. Yeah a lot of the clothes were dirty but we have a washing machine so it’s all good. But man, they had a bunch of suits and dad style Hawaiian shirts. It was pretty legendary.
We met the our new roommate Elder Carlson who is also the new district leader. He is a pretty chill guy.
Wednesday: We had ward coordination today and with the whole surprise baptism events of last week, the ward leaders were pretty frustrated with us, so it was a throw down and we got cooked up. To summarize it, we are to have baptisms with at least a week advance notice to the ward leaders. Which I completely agree with, it was just kind of a crazy situation. As we were waiting for the bus that morning to go the church we saw 3 different white people who each had a child. Let me tell you seeing a white person in general in this part of town that isn’t a missionary is a rarity, especially seeing 3.
Thursday: First district meeting of the new transfer. It went pretty well, and I had to give the STEPP talk for district meeting, but yeah it went pretty well. We got to talking about David and how we can figure out the situation. The Spanish elders suggested the they could combine David's baptism with the their baptism since David's parents only speak Spanish. As we are in district meeting we were texting David and he texted us saying he wasn't sure about this whole baptism thing anymore so we were super stressed.
Later in the day Elder and Sister Kunz took David and his family (including his parents) to the VC. Apparently, the tour went super well and Elder Kunz set a baptism date with David for this Saturday combined with the Spanish elders (which he doesn’t have the authority to do) so we got frustrated and tried to move it to next week especially since a few hours before David texted us saying he wasn’t sure.
So, we had a repeat of last week. We had to call the ward leaders and tell them we are having a baptism in less than 48 hours. Which we just told them yesterday that we wouldn't do that again. So, it just made us look like a bunch of idiots.
Friday: We had weekly planning today and as we were planning we got a call from the Spanish elders saying that their bishop does not approve of combining the baptisms. So, we had to call up Elder Kunz and the ward mission leader and tell them. Man this whole thing turned into a soap opera. There was so much drama and Elder Kunz was going to call the stake president and so much shade was being thrown. Then we got the Spanish bishop in the conference call and Elder Patrick and I had to put it on mute because we couldn't help but just laugh at the situation.
Thankfully we got things sorted out with the Spanish bishop and we were able to get his approval to combine the baptisms.
Cool thing though we got Uber finally setup for our area and we decided to give it a shot and take an Uber back home. It was kind of an awkward car ride, but at least I can say I have taken Uber before.
Saturday: The big day is here. Knowing how this situation has gone in the past we were bracing ourselves for the worst. And guess what? The worst came. The baptism is at 5. At 2 we got a text from David saying he wants to cancel his baptism and that he didn't want to talk to anyone. We informed Elder Kunz and he began to try and reach out to him. So Elder Patrick and I were pretty frustrated. Fortunately, Elder kunz was able to reach David and talk some sense to him. So, the baptism went on and we were finally able to baptize David. After all this craziness it finally happened. There are pictures on my Facebook page but I'll be sure to add some.
Sunday: We were able to confirm David today and the members were awesome and welcomed him fully. Even in their testimonies in testimony meeting they welcomed him.
I also hit 5 months out on my mission today. It's weird to think I'm almost a quarter of the way through. I still feel like I just left home, but all the movie and tv ads out here remind me that it’s been a while. Time flies when you are a missionary. It’s weird to think this time last year I was getting ready to wrap up my senior year, I was working at a Mongolian grill, meeting amazing people and getting ready to change my life. I can't help but think about my senior trip to Bear Lake and the amazing memories I had out there. So, to my friends that are back home, I miss you guys a LOT. Keep holding down the fort for me
We didn't have a dinner appointment that night and with it being fast Sunday we were dying. But we remember the Pumfrys said we were always welcomed over since they cook every night. So we called Sister Pumfry and she said of course we were welcome. So dinner was at 7. We arrive at 7 and Sister Pumfry was running really behind. But it's ok because she is the nicest person ever. So we helped her make dinner. Once everything was ready it was about 8:30 pm. But the 4 of us decided that we were going enjoy our meal anyway so we decide to eat and take our time. The meal that was made was super good of course. We didn't leave their home until 9:30 and as all missionaries know we are supposed to be in our apartments by 9. Well we didn't get home until about 9:50 and although the zone leaders were hounding us, it was all worth it.
I hope everyone at home has been having an awesome spring. It's definitely warming up out here in LA
Elder Kyle Barton
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| David's baptism picture |
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I got a new bed. It’s pretty high off the ground too
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