Email: July 29, 2019 - "Hello, Officer"

Well everybody a lot has happened this week in Manhattan Beach and I am ready to tell you all about it.

We are going to start with Tuesday cause nothing happened on Monday

Tuesday was probably our busiest day this week. We had appointments all throughout the day and a lot of things to do in between to fill the gap. We spent most the day rushing from appointment to appointment. As we're on our way to pick up a member and go to an appointment I made a mistake. So, for context, there are two busy streets in our area, Sepulveda and Rosecrans. Now apparently it is not legal to take a right on to Sepulveda between the hours of 3-7 because of traffic. Well I didn't see the signs and neither did my companion so in our rush to get to our appointment we took a right turn. Now unfortunately for us there was a police officer chilling in the gas station there on the corner and he saw everything and pulled us over immediately. This was the first time I have ever been pulled over in my life, but I like to think I took it well. Now doubly unfortunate for us, they were having "zero tolerance" there because so many people do it I guess, so we got a ticket. But rather than saying how much the ticket costs it says I have to go to the court website and find out (it's still not on there yet) or go to court (my court date right now is a week before I go home). The mission office has everything, and they will take care of it, but as of right now I'm going to court. And the triple unfortunate for us, our appointment canceled on us. 

Wednesday morning, we spent giving service at the temple while it is closed. They had us as the Elders do the temple grounds work as usual, so I spent 5 hours weeding the garden and flower beds of the temple. It was also super-hot that day and all of us were sweating buckets, but it was fun and they gave us Subway after. 

Thursday, we went to the Hermanas and the Redondo 2nd elders to give service to a recent convert. He is a super nice guy, but he is a hoarder, so we spent a couple hours helping clean just his kitchen. It was pretty crusty, but I had a lot of fun getting to know the other missionaries and nearly having a water fight in this guy's kitchen. 

Friday, we had zone conference and it was 🔥 President Cordón is switching things up and he has very lovingly roasted the mission a bit and is making sure that we become better missionaries. He is raising the standard and I love it. There were a lot of great trainings that were given and a lot of things to think and ponder about. My missionary fire grew a lot during that zone conference, and I am excited to see what comes next. 

Saturday, we had exchanges with our district leader Elder Costello. I love Elder Costello. He is a pretty chill guy for the most part, but once you become friends with him and get to know him, he is a lot of fun and a great missionary. We were very busy Saturday as well. Our friend Jesenia dropped her date which was sad but she opened up to us about some concerns and is wanting our help so that is nice. 

We also had district council on Saturday, and we set some lofty goals but, like I said, zone conference was awesome and everybody is feeling it right now.

We also went to two restaurants and I didn't have to pay at all. 

Sunday was an interesting day. Sadly only one of our friends came to church this week, which was super disheartening, but it means we have an opportunity to improve. 

We wanted to make sure we were really applying President Cordón's counsel so we set out a block of time to talk to as many people on the street as we could. We found ourselves in an apartment complex knocking a couple doors after trying to visit a less active. As we were knocking a lady rounded the corner and we made eye contact. I knew as soon as that happened she was going to say something. The conversation went like this

"How did you get in here"

"We were let in by a resident"

"We'll I'm gonna let you out

I could have sat there and argued and plus we had legal rights to proselyte there, but she wasn't having it, so I just gave her the victory she was desperate for and tried to share the gospel with her on the way out. Oh well.

Then later Sunday evening we got a little courageous and went to downtown Manhattan Beach to street contact. We talked to a fellow named Erick who was playing the guitar, he wants to make a career playing music, but it's been difficult for him. As we're talking, this random drunk white guy comes up to us and looks at our name tags and ask if we are from Salt Lake, he then asked Erick if he could play the guitar. As he sits down to play, he says "I play some negro stuff" I didn't even know what that was supposed to mean, but he starts playing and slapping the guitar. As he plays he starts to yell "I'M WITH ELDER BARTON! GIVE THESE ELDERS A DOLLAR!" stuff like that. Remember we are literally in the middle of downtown Manhattan Beach, so a bit of crowd forms and people are staring and I have no idea what to do cause I'm against a wall. Eventually Erick gets back on the guitar and is playing and the guy continues to yell before he eventually leaves.

After he leaves an African American comes up and compliments us and leaves and I was just super confused. We gave Erick a restoration pamphlet and continued on our way. 

That was it for the week, it was an interesting one for sure. 

Take it easy and enjoy the moments

Elder Barton