Week 17 - Biking, Biking, and More Biking

*Clears throat*....Bueno,

So first off I will keep this e-mail pretty short because literally nothing happened this week.

First! Elder Lewis (My new companion) and I were double transferred into la área de paraíso 1. So basically Tuesday we met up at transfers and everyone had a good time and we moved stuff around from car to car and got our necessary materials and went on our way. We arrived at our new apartment and looked around at everything and unpacked. Once all that was done we sat down at the table and had a moment where we realized that yeah...we knew nothing...

GREAT THING THOUGH OUR AREA BOOKS DIDN'T UPDATE UNTIL THURSDAY! TWO DAYS LATER! ESTABAMOS TAN FELIZ!

That's sarcasm by the way

Luckily the previous Elders left us a nice letter about our investigators and a few other important things. So we used some of this to get a tiny idea of how to work. The good thing is that our area here is about twice the size of my area in Montebello. The bad thing is that we have a lot less miles for the month here than in Montebello.

Guess who started biking...

In 120+ degree weather...

I hate biking.

We pretty much tracted the entire week and tried to get to know whatever investigators we could. We have some really good solid investigators though. We have Hector who is this big, loveable, Cuban guy. It is fun teaching him because we can't understand a thing he says. So we always pray for the gift of interpretation before we start. He has a baptismal date and loves to learn about the gospel. Hector is a cool guy.

We have a really lit apartment though which is awesome. It has a really cool bike rack in it that goes from the floor to the ceiling. Also it doesn't have bed bugs crawling around everywhere which is a nice change from my apartment in Montebello.

That ladies and gentlemen was week one of this transfer (which is actually a seven transfer). It was an alright week. Let's see what happens this week!

Elder Lawson

P.s. here are some pictures that I got with one of my favorite families and the bishops family from Montebello last week before Elder Martinez and I got transfered

 

Week 16 - Hiking, Transfers, and EDC

SO MUCH HAPPENED THIS WEEK!

First of all last Lunes, our entire district went hiking with a couple in our ward up a giant mountain behind the temple. The name is Frenchman's Mountain and it is pretty dang huge. There were eight of us total who started the climb/hike and eventually groups broke off because they were tired, so in the end only four of us made it up to the top.  It was so super cool up there. You could see all of the Las Vegas Valley and out to Henderson and even Boulder City. We took tons of pictures too. Definitely worth all the cuts and sunburns that I got on myself.

Tuesday we had the most lit district council ever. The Elders from Charleston Blvd. gave a training about missionary work that was based off of a motivational video about Steph Curry. It was so good.

Thursday our favorite family that Elder Diaz and I are teaching, the Murrillo's, took us out to dinner. We talked to them more about missionary work and what it is like and about the Book of Mormon. They are such a cool family and are so interested in learning all they can about the church!

Friday we had a Father's Day fiesta at the church. Before that we went to the Murrillo's house to invite them, but sadly the father had work that night. Like usual they had some more questions from the night before and they asked about what it was like for our parents while we are gone. We both said we didn't know, but I said they should message my parents on Facebook and find out if they wanted too. We left to the fiesta and had a super good time. We were taking the other missionaries back to their car and we received a text from the Murrillos. It read something like this, "So my mom just recieved news that Abby is in the hospital about to have her baby!". I CAN'T BEGIN TO TELL YOU HOW PUMPED I WAS TO HEAR THIS. NOT ONLY WERE INVESTIGATORS TALKING TO MY FAMILY, BUT THEY TOLD ME I AM AN UNCLE AGAIN!!!! For anyone who doesn't know up until this past weekend I have been an expectant uncle for nine months! No más! So that was freaking amazing to hear! Like what a way to end a night.

Then Saturday we had Transfer Doctrine. *Drum Rollllllll* I am leaving Montebello! I'm going to a ward over by The Luxor (Giant pyramid thing in Vegas) called Paraíso! I'll be with Elder Lewis for this next transfer or possibly two. We are being double transferred, which means that the two Elders there right now are both leaving and two new Elders (Us) are being put in. We won't know anything or anyone!! I'm so pumped!

Sunday we had church and I said goodbye to all my favorite people in the ward here and got pictures with them. It's been a sick 11 weeks here in Montebello, I don't want to leave our investigators, but it's the life of a missionaries.

Also fun fact, EDC (Electric Daisy Carnival) was this weekend and EDC is the biggest Electric Music Festival at the beginning of the summer each year and it happens in Vegas. It's been on my bucket list of things to go do for a while now. The great part is that it happened three miles from our house. The sad part is that I'm a missionary so sadly I can't go to it...

So all this weekend whenever we returned to our house that night we saw hundreds of tour busses with "Official EDC shuttle bus" written on the front. We have also seen lots of people in their rave outfits, which means a tank top and shorts for guys with random neon bandanas and paint and such, and for the girls a mix of neon paint and almost nothing on.

We have seen some very "interesting" people this weekend...

But next week I will be in a new area with a new companion and most probably a new mission president!

Until then,
Elder Lawson

Pictures:
1. Our entire district about halfway up the mountain
2. The three missionaries who reached the top (Brother Montez took the picture)
3. Something we found while tracting

Week 15 - Upset Converts, Another Temple Tour, and Tracting

Ayee what's good gente,

So this week was sorta decent. We had to drop a ton of baptismal dates because the people weren't ready and we had to figure out how to make our door approach work a ton better, but hey we got that done!

Tuesday we had a nice lesson with Judith. She is our recent convert, who was baptized two weeks ago. She explained to us how she had been really unhappy recently with church because no one had given her a calling and she wanted to help with something. I'm very happy that she was not unhappy about something else.

Wednesday we had this lesson with a kid named Jose. He is fifteen and just likes to play soccer. We brought Alondra with us. She just got her mission call to Mexico, so we figured it would be a good experience for her. Jose really liked our message...or maybe he just liked Alondra? Either way we got another appointment with him!

Thursday we played soccer with Jose and his cousin Jorge. They walked to the church and a ton of people showed up. Jose liked that a ton!

Friday we had a temple tour with the Murrillo family! We have been teaching them for a super long time now and it was amazing! We sat in the garden in the middle of the temple for almost an hour while they asked tons of questions. They really really like how different we are from generic churches and how everything works. Sadly they won't accept a baptismal date because they want to know more before they accept one. We just have to be diligent with them.

Saturday we had service at 6:00AM with an English companionship in our district. That was pretty terrible having to get up so early, but hey we were blessed later that day with six new investigator! Two of them are sooo solid and it's awesome. We had a really good time tracting that day.

Sunday we literally went to church and then tracted all day. That got boring towards the end of the day.

It's been pretty sweet here. We've been dealing with some marital problems between two of our investigators, so that kinda set them back a bit, but we are persevering! Also transfers are this week so I'll find out if I leave or not. Sadly I'm most likely up to leave Montebello. It's all good though. Estas cosas pasan.

I'll let you know next week!
Elder Lawson

P.s. Oh yeah the photos are kinda trash this week, but here is one of all the guys in our Zone from last week!

From dad: This is the mountain Elder Lawson is hiking today (Frenchman Mountain).

Week 14 - Bugs, Carrot Juice, and a hint of Lord of the Rings

Hola Hermanos y Hermanas,

So I don't know if I wrote about this or not, but about my 3rd day in the mission field Elder Hodge and I helped a member wrap up a couch because it was infested with bed bugs. To make a long story short, Elder Diaz and I finally figured out what the red marks on our bodies were!

So yeah Tuesday and Wednesday we spent all day cleaning our house to get rid of the bed bugs that we dragged back almost 2 months ago. Now I won't go into how disgusting it was or how bad, but we might have had 8 Elders at our apartment cleaning with us. We got literally no missionary work done those 2 days, but hey cleanliness is next to godliness!

And Mom don't worry I'm fine and all is well. The bed bugs are all gone......most of them.

We just have to vacuum and spray our apartment down with some poison everyday before we leave! The adventures of a missionary are awesome!

Thursday was our last Zone Conference with President Snow. That was pretty sad.

Friday! We went to the Las Vegas West Mission! So like Frodo we went into the west! Elder Diaz had a doctors appointment there. We met some missionaries from the West Mission. They seemed super cool. Not as cool as regular Vegas missionaries though ;)

We also got free donuts at Krispy Kreme!

Saturday and we had a baptism! One of the English Elders was there and he gave his testimony in English and Elder Diaz translated for him. It was so legit!

Also some guy gave us carrot juice and it was the nastiest thing I have ever had to do on my mission. He sat there and made sure we drank all of it before  I then accidentally spilt some on my favorite tie. That was just a bit of something more to add to the disappointment of having to drink carrot juice.

And that was pretty much our week. Bed bugs, carrot juice, and going into the west!

See you guys next week!
Elder Lawson

Also the picture is of the giant baseball we found last Monday while looking for people in a park.