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.
