Happy 4th of July!

LA Temple

Hey!! What’s up family!! How was everybody’s week!?  A lot of funny stories happened this week and I wish I could tell them all and tell them in detail!  It’s super hard to explain over email, and I guess it’s also better when you see it in person. Haha

Well at the start of this week we had a really awesome FHE with the familia ….’E’!  We had a great lesson of El Espiritu Santo and how we can better prepare ourselves to listen and follow the promptings of the spirit. We then had dinner and played a game called, "Amas a tus vecinas", which is, "How much do you love your neighbor." It was really fun and got pretty intense.  Haha  We have a goal to make better relationships with the families in our area, and I feel like we succeeded on Monday night, so it was great!  Later we went to a lesson with the bishop but sadly ‘C’ cancelled on us so we didn’t get to teach him which was sad because we had the bishop with us.  It didn’t stop there... we had four (member present) lessons fall through this week all of which the investigator cancelled or just didn’t answer their door.  It’s really frustrating and hard trying to get help from the members, and then when they come with us and the our lesson cancels.... No Bueno. 

Foot massage with a lesson.  Anyone??

We did have one last night that got beyond weird. Haha  So we invited a Hermana from our ward to a lesson with ‘R’ and his grandma.  So when we arrived the ward member immediately clicked and started talking to the grandma which was great!  So we started the lesson and everything was fine until the next thing I know the grandma puts her legs on Hermana ‘O’ and hands her a bottle of lotion while speaking Spanish. I clearly didn’t understand because right then our member starts giving her a full on leg/foot massage in the middle of our lesson!!! AHH!!   We were freaking out!  Our member completely forgot what she was there for, and the lesson ended up being a nightmare! We didn’t even finish because we couldn’t believe what was going on. ‘R’ just started laughing which made us start laughing so we just stopped the lesson. To make a long story short, last night just turned out so different than what we had hoped for, but that’s mission life!   

What did everyone do for the 4th?? Any cool firework shows or BBQs?  We just rode our bikes around all day knocking doors because we didn’t have any set lessons.  We interrupted a ton of drunk BBQs which instantly, when they saw us, we became the main topic of conversation and they were laughing about us.   It was super hard to watch the firework shows from our bikes riding up Leffingwell Street.  It made me super homesick thinking about all the firework shows, BBQs and rodeos I would be going to if I were home, and here I am riding a bike at 9 pm at night.

Elder H and I at LA Temple

So today we went to the LA temple for the 5:30 am session!  It was great! We had to get up at 3:15 am and I am exhausted.  I can’t believe how many cars are on the road at 5 am here in LA!  We almost didn’t make the session in time, but I’m glad we did because it was awesome. The LA temple is probably one of the coolest I have been in, besides the SLC, of course!  It’s huge and has a great view of LA off in the distance and the Hollywood sign over on the hill so I got some cool pics!

We are going to watch the Brazil vs Germany game today with a member so I am excited for that! The world cup is now one of my favorite things to watch.. it’s great! And everybody here is obsessed with it.  People skip church for the games, etc. haha.

But on a more serious side, this week was honestly pretty hard considering all the dropped lessons and investigators who said they would come to church early Sunday morning and didn’t show. The Spanish is pretty tough especially now with me interacting more with the members.  I feel like I understand them enough to get what they are saying, but wanting to share what I’m thinking or contribute to a conversation, this is still impossible for me. But with that being said, I’m still working hard and am trying my best every day!  Don’t worry about me out here in CA.   I’m doing fine :)  Thanks for the package btw! It was great! Haha so much stuff crammed in there, I was shocked.  But thanks for everything and all your love and support! I hope you all have a great week and until next week... nos vemos!

Elder Woffinden

Elder H and I