EMAIL: April 23, 1028 - Keep growing, miracles, gun?, free clothes, USC volunteers

Hey, everyone, I'm back again! During the mission this week I've learned it is not just a spiritual training ground but a training ground in everything, physical, emotional, mental you name it. The mission does it all. This week was the hardest week of my mission so far but I'm supposed to have the hard times and the down time because that's what builds you up. Just as you work a muscle, it tears it down but it grows back stronger. I've learned a lot about myself this week and I'm definitely changing because of it. Obviously, it's not going to come instantly and it is going to take some time, but I'm definitely working on it.

Monday: Monday was a fun p-day. I had the opportunity to spend the day with Elder Vola and Elder Montgomery. It was really a good time. We met up with some Spanish Elders from the Inglewood Zone and we went on a "hike" It was a hike, but not a hike on an actual trail. It was more of us hiking around in brush and trees, but I still found it fun. It was a good adventure. We then finished off the p-day with a solid 3 hours of basketball. With all the basketball that has been going on and regular missionary work, my legs have been killing me all week.

Our group hike

We also had dinner with the East family. If you don't remember who they are, they are the cool family who are super rich and their daughter is an actress on ABC. They are super awesome and they gave us dessert afterward. They even invited all 4 of us Adams elders to go workout with them in the private gym in their building.

Tuesday: We had a really good day and we saw a lot of miracles. We were able to contact a lot of referrals, as well as, receive a lot of referrals. We were able finally get back in contact with 2 investigators that we haven't been able to contact before. Calvin, the golden investigator who disappeared off the earth, we found out was meeting with some missionaries in the Downey Zone and on track for baptism which is awesome. Were able to set a return appointment with JP as well.

Wednesday: Wednesday was also a good day because we found a new investigator who is super prepared and she is super cool. She is from Ghana and can speak 4 different languages.

Thursday: We had a really good district meeting today and one of the APs joined us. Now this AP leaves in a week so he gave us some final words of advice that were really good that I think would be good to share.

1. Make your bed. That way if everything goes wrong in your day at least you know something went right because you made your bed.

2. Choose to be happy. It's easy to become discouraged on the mission and, for some, happiness may seem out of reach. But, if we choose to be happy and brush things off, life gets easier. There is joy in every moment if we look for it.

3. Take photos. Life flies by and it's easy to get caught in the quick movement. But if we slow down and take a small amount of time to take a photo we will be able to cherish the moment and those feeling for the rest of our lives.

4. Relax. Everyone deserves time to de-stress. Especially as a missionary and going through a transition. If we take a few minutes at the end of our day, or even during our day, to just sit down, relax our nerves, and take a load off our feet, we will be able to carry on a lot easier.

Friday:  Friday was good as well. We had lunch with a less active who works for a clothing brand called "The Hundreds" and he gave a hoodie before. Anyway, after lunch, he was going to give us a ride home but he wanted to give us some more clothes as well. So we were more than happy to grab some. But he came out with a MASSIVE amount of clothes. I’m talking about 2 huge cardboard boxes just packed with clothes and he just said to take it. As we're about to leave, a guy that he owed some money to showed up, and things got heated pretty quickly. Elder Patrick thought he saw a gun so we ducked behind a van and just hoped for the best. It honestly was kind of terrifying because we were stuck in a backyard and the only way out is towards all the yelling. Fortunately, no gun was used but there was definitely a heated exchange with a lot of profanity and it almost got physical.

The car ride back to our apartment was awkward to say the least. So, to lighten the mood when we got back we decided to add up how much all the clothes cost. We found out we had about 2 to 3 thousand dollars worth of clothes just given to us. So that's pretty good.

Saturday: Saturday was an awesome day. We gave a lot of service, but of course, the morning first started with some basketball. We then had the opportunity to help clean the church. After that we had another opportunity to serve and this time it was much bigger. Each year the LA Times holds a book festival on USC campus where we got the chance to volunteer.  We were to manage lines outside of one of the campus buildings. It was fun and most of the things we did were point people towards the bathroom.

Elder Spaulding (one of the new Elders) was on exchanges with our district leader Elder Carlson (who was also there with us.) So I got the chance to talk to him and get to know him better and we ended up on the topic of creepy abandoned places around Utah. It turns out that Kaysville is where all the creepy and weird stuff goes on, so keep your eyes out for that. We decided to make a plan after our missions to pack up and go check these places out.  It was nice to sit/stand next to him and be able to share stories back and forth. He is a really cool guy.

Where we were set up as volunteers was right around the corner from an atheist stand full of books and t-shirts and so a couple people decided to try and throw some shade at us and frankly just everyone who believes in God.

But regardless, it was a good fun day and we got another free t-shirt out of it.

Sunday: Another great sabbath in the mission field. We had the awesome opportunity to have Stake Conference today. Due to some weird riding arrangements, we had to take Uber and of course, the Uber driver was blasting some profane rap music. Nothing better to start off your day. There were a lot of great talks given at Stake Conference and a lot of them focused on ministering and being a righteous example when we can. I'll admit I started to get sleepy part way through but I managed to keep up

If I had to give a small amount of advice to those back home it would be "Never stop changing" I wish I knew this before my mission. Nothing is as constant as change and just as animals adapt to their environment, we need to adapt as well. I've been having to adapt a lot, but the hardest part is the mental adaption and change. If we don't change our hearts and minds, we will always be stuck with where we were and we won't progress.

Elder Kyle Barton

The clothes given to us

My new CTR ring, as well as what my study desk looks like

The crew want to take some hipster pictures so we decided to throw on some of our new clothes.
The picture in the photo is of Audrey Hepburn.
The other Elders saw it on the side of the road and decided to take it