O A MAI OE???

Talofa friends and fam! 

It was another great week in CLAM! 

We had zone conference this week and Elder Dehlin got Samoan name tags which inspired him to go all out with learning Samoan. We've spent a good amount of time during meals and at night getting some practice in. Its been fun! We got to use a little Samoan at church yesterday with one of the members and the look on his face was priceless! He was shocked to hear some Samoan come out of our mouths.

Anyway, for the p-day and b-day last week we did some really fun stuff! We went hiking in Palos Verdes and got to see some more sweet views! It is really pretty being up on the Palos Verdes hill and looking out over the ocean. It never gets old! After that we went to Korean BBQ which was new to me. They bring out plates of raw meat and then you cook it yourself on a grill that's in the middle of the table. It was all you can eat so we stayed for two and a half hours just grilling some grub and chowin down.    

Fun news from the week: 

Our mission got approved to use uber. UBER! If that doesn't tell ya the work is progressing idk what will. For areas without cars or areas where parking is hard to find we can now just order an Uber. Plus it is a great opportunity to share the Gospel with the driver :) 

Yesterday we stopped by an investigator of ours who is awesome! His name is D__ and he is 16. Something hilarious always goes down when we go over there. Yesterday's excitement was when he whipped out an albino mouse mid lesson. I'm sure you can imagine... "I saw a pilar of light exactly over my hea(squeak)OHMYGOODNESSWHATISTHAT??"... "uhhh nothing. It's just my mouse. You wanna touch him?" He then ran back to his room and came out with a snake too...  I think the mouse is going to be a meal sometime soon.  

Anyway this week we also found another super cool investigator. His name is J__. He was actually found during a district blitz that we had last week and then we were able to have a lesson with him on friday. He grew up catholic but hasn't been actively practicing for a while. He is probably 25 and is excited to read the Book of Mormon and find out if it's true!

Have a great week! 

-Elder Burgon

BEST WEEK EVER!!!

Holy Cow what an incredible week!! Once again, Elder Dehlin wrote a funny summary of the week so that will be on the blog (see below). But man this week was so great I don't even know where to start! So much happened! Sorry this email is a longer one! There was just too much good stuff I have to share!

We started off by helping the Lui's finish up fixing their house from the flood. We got to paint the walls which was a lot of fun! Then on Tuesday we had new missionary orientation #2! I can't believe it's already been a month since Elder Dehlin got here. That's crazy! We went to where we thought new missionary orientation was but we got there about five minutes early and the gate to the church was locked and there were no cars there. We figured we probably had the wrong building. We eventually found out that it was clear up at the Westwood building!  That's all the way up at the top of the mission by the temple. So we hopped on the 405 and crawled through morning traffic and were extremely late to the meeting. We got to the meeting and it was the exact same new missionary orientation that I had after I had been to at the beginning of my mission! The same topics were spoken about the same trainings were given it was all the same! I loved it! It was fun to remember back to when I was going through it the first time! My favorite part was doing the trainings that I thought were really hard at the beginning of my mission and then doing them now and seeing how much easier they have become! It was a lot of fun! It eventually ended and we were driving back to our area and got about half way there and realized Elder Dehlin left his bag back at the Westwood building! So we stopped at a Ramen House for lunch (and had a sweet Ferrari park next to us) and then we turned around and went back up to Santa Monica to get his bag. It was an eventful day! 

I also had one of the best exchanges I've had yet on my mission on wednesday. My district leader came into my area and spent a day with me. I'm not sure how much I've said about my district leader Elder Hwang. Probably nothing. But he is INCREDIBLE!!! Super smart and an out of this world missionary! To give you an idea of the kind of genius he is, he is a professional cello player, spent 2 months messing around trying to figure out how to play piano and is now the best piano player I've ever seen, and he is going to study nuclear physics in college and wants to work for the Navy. He ultimately wants to contribute to ending world hunger by providing electricity to the parts of the world that don't have it by figuring out fusion energy. Yeah he's a genius. And he is just as smart in the gospel too. He basically has the scriptures memorized and can quote them on demand. I asked him a lot of questions about the gospel on our exchange and he would quote me some scriptures off the top of his head and share insights from books he's read and give me some amazing answers. I learned so much from going on exchanges with him! It was so great and I hope I can do it again before he heads home.  

We also got to do lots of service again this week! We helped a non member in Palos Verdes move from one incredible house to another. His view was crazy cool. We also helped plant trees around Palos Verdes at land conservation sites.

My favorite day of the week, even after all these great days, was sunday! Yesterday was so great! In Samoan sacrament meeting I was just pondering because the talks were given in Samoan so I couldn't understand. I was just thinking about the Gospel and I thought to myself "I wish it was fast Sunday so I could get up and share my testimony." Well at the end of sacrament meeting a member of the Lomita ward bishopric came up to us and said, "Elders I have a problem! I need a speaker!" I was like yes!! I can do it! So my wish came true and I was able to give a talk in the English sacrament meeting! It was great! I spoke on the Plan of Salvation and faith in Jesus Christ. Then after Church an investigator of ours text us and told us he had the flu and couldn't do our lesson that night. But, we were able to do a texting lesson with him and it was so cool! His name is N__ and even though he had the flu he kept his commitment and read 3 Nephi 11. He read it and loved it! He also prayed and had a strong confirmation of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon!! It was so great to hear! He said he had a comforting presence come around him and his days since then have just seemed brighter!! We are so happy for him! Later we went to give a blessing to a member who was injured at work. We talked with him and his family and found out that he served a 9 year service mission!! They love missionaries and at one point had almost every missionary in the Zone over to their house for a dinner! They are incredible and have had some amazing experiences. They know so many people in the area and gave us about 30 referrals!!! Like I said, yesterday was the best day ever! 

Thank you all so much for all the birthday wishes and for all you do! You're the best! 

Have a great week!

-Elder Burgon       

Elder Dehlin's email:

Again, sorry these are so long, I just write them cause I may or may not be keeping a journal so this is all my prosperity is gonna get.

Monday:

I painted a house all day, then, at the end of the day, our district leader called and was like "Hey so since you guys have done service for the past two P days I think you should know, if you do service, the Zone leaders will let you extend your P day so it doesnt end at 6," and were like... nice to know, or would have been two weeks ago. 

Tuesday:

So once upon a time, I was a new missionary. The End... That is currently.

So today we had New Missionary Orientation #2. As in the first one was the day I got here. We drove all the way east to the building they told us to be in and BAM, gate is locked, but some genius knows the code so I unlocked it. But it still posed the question, why was it locked. The answer came in a text from our AP, elder Jensen. He said and I quote, "ETA?" wtf. What do you mean ETA? Boy I am the freaking lone survivor and his compadre over here, I have literally, LITERALLY not seen another human being within 60 miles of this church building where in the goodness of all things are you? Of course our actual response was a little more like, "oh, haha, what building I think were at the wrong one." Turns out they changed the building to the one twenty minutes north. It also turns out that it was twenty minutes north through the FREAKING MIDDLE OF DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES WHY DID THIS HAPPEN TO ME!! Anyway, about an hour later we arrived at the actual building and listened to the last 15 minutes of the orientation. Pretty sweet. Nothing else happened.

Wednesday:

My companion went on exchanges with the district leader today. So his companion and I were all by ourselves. They are the Korean Elders so I was a wee bit nervous to not speak to anyone at all. Turns out we just built a fence on the actual greatest view in the world. Palos Verdes. If any of you ever get to go to Palos Verdes, youll know why I say this. This member had a view on a cliffside that looks out over all of Los Angeles, literally the whole city, and its not a small city. So that was pretty neat.

Thursday:

Today we helped a dude move out of his house at Palos Verdes. Yesterday I said that the one lady had the best view of all time, I was wrong. This man had a view of all of the town of Palos Verdes, with the ocean in the background. Tears were shed when we first looked out his massive sliding screen doors leading out to an overlook of some of the nicest homes I have ever seen, plus the ocean... And he was moving out of this house. Why? Ill never know. Some people just wouldnt know quality if it karate chopped them in the face and round house kicked their ancestors back to life. We spent all morning helping him move out, and then into his new (not as nice of a view) house. The member who invited us to help this guy out then bought us all Poke Me. Apparently LA does this thing where they take the worst food (sushi) and turn it into an even worse food (salad). That is what Poke Me is. They take all the stuff you put in sushi and throw it into a bowl, stir it up, and give it to you like you didnt just see that tunas heart still beating. Why California, why do you ruin everything. The End.

Friday: 

Yet another wise words from Hwang district meeting. Grandmaster Hwang (our DL) taught us about Judgement today. Basically he said that it is impossible to not judge. We have to judge people like who we marry, who were friends with and who we elect for government office and stuff, but we cant judge them permanently, only God can judge if people are a "lost cause," and the only times he really did that were like, Sodom and Gamora, and Noah and stuff. We can only judge people that are going to directly affect our lives, and everyone else, we treat with love and respect, and never treat them worse than yourself. But enough of that stuff, its boring.

Saturday:

We got lit.

Sunday:

Today was fantastic. We had church, which is wonderful as always. Elder Burgon got to give a surprise talk in sacrament meeting which was cool. After that, we came back and got a text from both our appointments for the day. Both cancelled, but one, N__, said he read the chapter we asked him to read. He basically said he read it, prayed to know if it was true, and felt so happy the rest of the day, and wanted us to give him another scripture to read. Pretty cool. After that we ate dinner with an awesome family that gave us enough food to take home that we could feed roughly 13 African kingdoms. We then went to a members house to give a blessing to this guy who got his foot ran over by a forklift. We stayed there talking for like two hours, which I mean, isnt supposed to be the "best use of our time," but I dont really care, we learned about how this guy was a church service missionary for 9 years with 3 mission presidents, and we got some way nice oranges, and got like 30 referrals. Even if we hadnt gotten the referrals, it would have been worth it. Also this guy at church was like, "hey kids come see me after church" all sketchy and stuff so of course we went and saw him. He opened his car, looked around, and then handed us four white shirts...Idk guys, LA is weird. He also has a smiley face pin on his suit every sunday. I mean this guy is in his 50s probably, (hopefully or else I just roasted the crap out of him) and he is walking around with a giant yellow smiley face attached to his suit like he is some circus clown. "Hey squeeze my nose and this pin will spit water into your eyes." That kinda stuff. Good guy tho. His name is Larry Bird, not even a lie.

There you have it, my week, pretty legendary if you ask me, which you are, cause youre reading this email.

-Elder Dehlin

H2Ohhhhhh NO!!!!!!!!

Hello again friends and fam! 

It's been another good week in the clam! 

This week started off exciting! Last p day we were doing our shopping when we got a call from our ward mission leader saying their house was flooding! We ran over and it was totally flooded! A pipe in their bathroom broke while they were out running errands and they came back to a wet mess! We spent the rest of the day moving their furniture out of the house, mopping up water, and tearing out the capet. It was a surprise service project that was pretty fun! Elder Dehlin was the designated carpet carrier so he got soaked! It's also been another rainy week and Elder Dehlin refuses to use an umbrella so he's just been drenched all week.

This week we also got to go to the temple which is always super great! I love comparing how I feel before doing temple work and after. Before going in the temple there are normally things I'm thinking about and thoughts running through my head and life seems crazy. After the temple I always come out feeling so peaceful and its always such an amazing feeling. I LOVE THE TEMPLE!!

This month our zone has a goal of getting 100 new investigators and our zone leaders said if we got 30 in the first week they'd take a pie to the face. We crushed that goal so after district meeting on Friday they got pied. It was a party. 

On Saturday we did a service project as a zone and we were told that it was at a plant nursery. When we got there tho two soldiers in full military gear stopped us and made us show our IDs. I was thoroughly confused. It turned out that the nursery was actually on a navy base. Pretty cool stuff. So we spent a few hours weeding and planting flowers on a navy base. 

Yesterday was soooo awesome! We were able to have two lessons with some brand new investigators that we just found. One of them is N__ and he is super solid. He is really awesome and open to the gospel. And the other is L__ who is a former investigator that we are meeting with again. It was just super fun to teach some lessons with Elder Dehlin. We haven't had too many sit down lessons lately so it was cool to have a couple yesterday! Sharing the gospel is just so great! 

Have a great week! 

-Elder Burgon

ps...Oh and btw Elder Dehlin let me read his weekly email and he is hilarious. If you want to laugh a little I highly recommend you read his description of our week in his weekly email.  (see below)

PICS....

My last apartment, affectionately known as the crusty crab, is being demo'd!!!! Good bye Crusty Crab...RIP!!!

Elder Dehlin's Email...

Monday, P day:

Today was basically a trainwreck. It has been one of my favorite days so far, but definitely not what I had in mind for a P day. It started out with us getting picked up by some other elders to go do laundry cause our car broke down last night. We did laundry real quick like and then headed for our car to try to get it to putter on down to a pep boy. We get to the car, bam, good as new, nothing wrong with it, I swear to you right now, tears were shed, hugs were made, a night of rejoicing had begun, eat drink and be merry as they say. We then went to the store to buy food, halfway through, we receive a call from our ward mission leaders. Usually I can hear whats going on when elder Burgon talks on the phone, but alas, I couldnt this time. When he hangs up, he turns to me and says, "welp, our day is booked now, the Lui's (our ward mission leaders) house flooded." So we finish buying food, drop our laundry and groceries off, and head over in some regular clothes. We get there, we walk in, we are immediately standing in about 2-2 1/2 inches of water. Some massive Samoan comes running in and yells, "hey get that couch out of here," and when a 6'4 250 lbs polynesian yells at you to do something, it usually gets done right quick. Our work began, 7 hours, three brooms, two carpeted rooms torn up, and a homemade track of towels later, (yeah it actually worked) we emerged victorious. The house was almost completely dry. The only spots left were under the hardwood floor, and the front porch. It was a time and a half lemme tell ya.

Tuesday:

I honestly dont remember what happened today, so not much..

Wednesday:

I went on exchanges with one of the Zone Leaders, Elder Hanson, who I have always been slightly scared of cause I didnt know him very well and he seemed to not like me. When he picked me up late last night (exchanges are a 24 hour thing) He confessed that he wished he could have appeared nicer to me, but he had been struck with the plague and only got over it a coupe days ago. We hit it off together instantly, he is very devoted and we kinda both really wanna just be out here helping people. We dscovered that we were both massive nerds, so, for the first time since I got to LA I stayed up past 9:15, we talked for like 2 and a half hours about books, movies, video games, and all kinds of crap like that. Not gonna lie, it was probably the greatest thing of my life. He has read all my favorite books, played al my favorite games and the last thing he did before leaving was marathon all six extended Lord Of The Rings movies. Hes my guy. I taught two lessons with him. I am now up to 3 lessons so far, going strong. It was legit weird to actually talk to people who didnt pretend like they didnt hear me and walk past. Lessons are trippy. 

Thursday:

So apparently we get to go to the temple every other transfer. Today was temple day, so we drove from the southernmost area of the mission to the northernmomst area, where the temple and mission home are. We did a session, had interviews with the Mission President, then left, pretty lit. On the way home we ate the weirdest food of all time. Mexican-Korean hybrid. I had korean short rib tacos and kimchi french fries. I must have died and gone straight to mexico, cause these tacos were... like pretty good. It was a weird experience, 6 out of ten, would probably eat there again. At least it wasnt a raw fish buffet... eating in front of Samoans paying for your food... And the one paying isnt a member... And I dont like fish... That was my first meal in LA. The rest of the day was weekly planning so nothing happened.

Friday:

We had yet another saintly district meeting lesson from grandmaster Hwang, our district leader. After that we had a zone party and threw pie at our zone leaders faces, cause we got 40 new investigators in a week and a half, which is pretty cool, I met a lot of interesting people. We finished weekly planning cause we suck and didnt finish yesterday. That was basically it. We didnt talk to a whole lot of people.

Saturday:

We did some service from 9 to noon at a Navy Base today. Pretty freaking crazy. We turn down this road that ends at these massive smoke stack factory looking things. We drive up, guy in full military gear come out of the booth and asks for ID. We give them our drivers liscences, and he looks at us like hes gonna beat the crap out of us. Then we drive through. We have to put on special vests so they dont shoot at us for trespassing, then we go over to this little pavilion that looks just about as out of place as a two headed fire breathing ferral chihuahua chillin trying to hide in a pack of seagulls. underneath the pavilion there was the smallest, sweetest, happiest lady I have ever seen in my entire life (again, the above analogy applies) and she is like "hello everyone, thank you for volunteering at this plant nursery to make some flowers for an endangered butterfly native to this area..." I was like, wut. She points out this hill where apparently the butterflys live, and im just like, if you turn around, there is a hill 5 times that size that is literally the color black. Im talking giant cement cylindars belching out smoke like a chainsmoking dragon. And youre tryna tell me this is a land conservancy location?? I feel like im in Call Of Duty right now! No wonder this butterfly is almost extinct, wheres it gonna live?? That tree over there is smoking, you might as well give me a ring to destroy cause Im straight up walking through Mordor! Geez. Anyway that was today. I stacked planting pots for a couple hours.

WINTER HAS ARRIVED!

What's up friends and fam? It's finally been cold here in LA!! Cold as in 50 degrees... Everyone says that's as cold as it gets here but that's probably still pretty warm for a lot of you. It's been a rainy and windy week but I've enjoyed it! It's been fun to mix it up a bit and break out the umbrella. 

This week we did some pretty fun stuff! Earlier in the week we did a zone blitz which I hadn't done before but it was pretty cool! A couple of districts got together and all went into the Malaga cove elders area tried to create as many new potential investigators and return appointments for them as possible. We switched up companions and me and Elder Peterson got put together and we went to a dog park and talked to LOTS of people. We learned if you just do a normal street contact approach at a dog park nobody will talk to you and they'll just walk away. But if you start talking to their dog and then ask them about it, they will sit there and talk to you forever! That's when you can really talk to them about the gospel. That was a lot of fun! Plus the park was right on the coast so we had some killer views! 

On Friday we were driving to a lesson and when we got there we parked the car and then noticed that there was a nail sticking out of the tire! Our lesson ended up falling through so we quickly drove to pep boys and luckily made it there without our tire going flat. We got it all fixed and were like pfew glad we didn't end up on the side of the road with a flat tire! Well, jump forward now to yesterday. We were driving around and visiting former investigators and we just got done knocking on some of their doors so we went back to car and hopped in. Turned the car on, put it in drive, and boom! The whole car shook and we had no idea what happened. We put it in park, then into drive and the same thing happened again! I pressed the gas to try and pull away but the car would bearly move! Well to make a long story short our car is having problems! Fun stuff. We got it all fixed up today though. 

Cool experience for the week! We were out doing our normal missionary work earlier in the week and we were ahead of schedule so we were trying to figure out what to do. We decided to go to a members house who is really active and super awesome! Her name is D__ and she is 31 and submitting her papers to go on a mission soon! I didn't even know that was possible. She also has a younger brother who was super close to being Baptised last year but then canceled last minute. Anyway! We decided to go to her house so we stopped by and they were home and let us in! We talked for a while and eventually she told us about how she has been going through some hard things right now. 15 minutes before we got there she said a prayer and asked for help. When we got there she was so happy because we could give her a blessing and help her with what she was going through! She said it was a testimony builder for her that God answers prayers! 

Have a great week! 

-Elder Burgon

PICS.....

Elder Dehlin is a super good cook so I've been eating well recently!  

My tags in a variety of Languages....