March 24, 2014

***Not part of Cameron's letter***
We received short video from Cameron's landlord showing the elders leaving for the day.  We also received this sweet note from them:

 

Dearest parents,

Elder Wilson is a superb guy. Hard worker, smart and quick, I love him. His companion Elder Egbert was called yesterday as a Zone Leader and the mission moves him to another apartment tomorrow. We’ll see who’s coming. Not many are so clean, neat and organized as these two together. Elder Wilson is the king of Rubicon, he showed me how to do it. My goodness so fast, took him less than a minute to assemble it again. Great missionary. I love him. Be proud of him.

May God bless you both,

Brother Nomakchteinsky


***Cameron's letter***
All,

Happy day, I pray that y'all're well, and that you are enjoying success in all fields of your labor.

For my part, we are doing well here in Inglewood. just trying to find those who will receive us, and keep getting new people in LAE, as we have yet to reach saturation for the cap on people.

But it'll work regardless. I have faith..

I have a new companion, Elder Howtell from Oregon. He worked on grass farms and he is alot of fun to work with.  He loves to work - yo me gusto!!! He has been out six months and this is his third area. He's a bit serious compared to some of my other comps but he can take a joke.

I have been assigned to be the senior companion but I dont want to lead. I told him, "we are equal companions. If I'm being an idiot, which I will be at some point, tell me." I hope he will because I will probably need it at some point.I am also driving, which is way hectic in LA. I am picking up som really bad habits but i passed the mission driving test earlier. It's administered by the car czar (mission vehicle coordinator), and he said, and I quote "you did very well. You drove defensively and avoided a lot of things that otherwise would have been problems. Good job." You trained me well, Mom.
 

LAE Classes are fun, I have once again switch roles. I am now a escort, meaning I take the recently enrolled people and take them to their classes. The upside of that is that I get to chat w/ the Hnas, as they're the doorwomen, who register the noobs, new LAE attendees.

During the week, we'll be putting up a lot of LAE adds2+ hours a day, as we need more people and it's so much easier to find people via LAE than tracting. Actually I dont plan to tract. We'll advertise and street contact instead. Basically, we put up signs and street contact anywhere we can. The nice thing is that in the actual city of LA we can put up on street poles, so we have free reign. It makes life easy. And we just street contact wherever we are, mostly on century and the main north south streets in the area, as there are buses there, which means people.

 
 

We really don't have anyone new who we're teaching at the moment, as they're all in the same place, and we can't find them at home, and they duck our calls.

 
 

The bigger problem is that a RC now has no testimony and has no desire to come to church, The thing is that he was confirmed 1/26/14, and he hasn't been to church since. problem.

 

The ward misson has decided to host a ward talent show to give members something to bring their friends to. I am going to juggle (hopefully I remember how). We are waiting for bishop's approval but he likes the missionaries and wants to help us so we are pretty sure we will have it soon.

As you asked, with the transfers, I don't see the zl's as regularly, but that's okay. I like having my space more, although it is nice to have them around should I need them.

 
 

Anyway, the high point of this past week was confirming Jennifer Amador, the guera, who was baptized last week. The overriding feeling during the blessing was that God loved her, and wanted her to love others, my gut call is that she'll end up in the guardaria watching, and loving small children.

 

The low point of this week was finding out that another of our investigators, Jovanna Rxxxx, (hna Dxxx in other emails) has a family situation that is rapidly deteriorating, and the environment has become toxic to her. She needs to get out, and yet she can't as she loves her children to much. It's a catch-22. It has really slammed home the need to have the gospel in our lives, as I see the stark contrast in my life, and my family situation, and compare it with those outside the church, and it really, the contrasts is night and day. It's really sickening to be in that home, knowing what happens when we aren't there.

 

But that is the beauty of the gospel, it can fix anything, although it does require the participation of both parties.

 

Actually, Elder Nelson (might be wrong on that name, one of the 12 apostles) said: the atonement overcomes entropy. So there we go, the atonement overcomes everything. Yay!

 

To whomever sent me the map of Mexico, thanks you rock! It is wonderful to finally learn where Oaxaca and Guadalajara (go Chivas) are.

 

That's the week,

 

Be Well All,

C