It's been a while 5-13-2024

 It's been a while since I wrote an email. A lot has happened!

So our friend Asia did get baptized! It was an incredible service. Her leg was still hurting from the bus accident so she stood for the duration of the entire service and when she walked into the font and I baptized her she said there was no pain in her legs which was a miracle. She has been coming to church to an earlier ward because she had a Sunday work schedule but just this week she was able to shift that around so we're looking forward to having her come to her ward and grow in the gospel. 

In other news I have been quite busy with some of the craziest things I've seen in my life. I thought this area couldn't get any sketchier but alas it has ....

We are teaching a friend named Clarice and we showed up to her house for a lesson and there were six cop cars in the front yard. We waited around for a bit and when they all left we started talking with Clarice and she told us that her husband beat her up because he was trying to steal her BMW. It's funny because she lives in a ghetto trailer but drives a really nice car. Apparently he's been cheating on her and selling drugs out of the car. He's been in jail as of that instance, which is tough because we were teaching him as well lol. Something else to know about Clarice, she has like 12 homeless people that roll through her place on the daily. While we teach her they are either slumping on the couch or munching up in the kitchen. 

Our friend Mariah who we've been teaching for a while is focused on the temple as a goal to work towards because she wants to take her deceased husband's name to get his work done. This has been a huge motivating force in her progress towards baptism but recently there's been a lot of stuff that has come up in her personal life. Her mother is Catholic and wants nothing to do with the church and is a huge naysayer which causes a lot of problems between the two of them. Yesterday after Mariah got back from visiting her boyfriend who has been visiting with the Jehovah's Witnesses to her dismay, she found her mother smoking meth in her house. She kicked her out and threw all of her stuff over the porch and unfortunately missed church because of this whole ordeal. I ain't never seen no one kick their mom out of their house on Mother's Day, it's a good way to celebrate I guess.

We rolled up to our friend Robert's house and he was smoking crack in the living room and this guy named Ben who was an inactive member tried to kick us out of the house because he was about to hang out with a lady of ill repute. As he was shutting the door I told him to repent now or he would have to pay for it later and as he slowly slowly closed the door I said "choose the right" like 12 times. 

We found a guy named Todd whose trailer burned down, now he lives in his truck and he was pretty sad because his girlfriend overdosed on a fentanyl a few weeks ago so we were able to testify about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and he got emotional which was the spirit working on him.

In the words of my companion this place is GTA because everyone has a sketchy motorcycle that is about to blow up and all the men beat their wives (its happened 3 times with people we're teaching) and everyone smokes fentanyl. We have talked with a few different people and we have heard of at least 7 to 12 people who have overdosed in the last month in the trailer park or in the field near our apartment.

We have a recent convert of a few months named Greg who wss actually baptized in 1985 but had a stroke and forgot about it somewhere along the line. He was found through Facebook last year and was meeting with the missionaries and was super hesitant to come to church and read from the Book of Mormon because he was a die-hard Baptist but through persistence and ward members who were able to teach to his needs he got baptized and is now strong in the faith. The sister missionaries in an adjoining area were able to tract into his grandkids per a member referral. The kids ages 8 to 14 are some of the most wild people I've met in my entire life. They are unruly and rowdy and rambunctious! The sisters were teaching them for a while but they kind of weren't going anywhere because the parents aren't too sure about baptism and the kids weren't really liking the ward they were in. It was about this time that our recent convert Greg the grandpa found out about this and decided that he wants the kids to come to church with him so we picked them up as friends to teach and they were supposed to come to church yesterday but while on vacation in Oregon last week one of the kids ran away and there was a family dispute and so they all got grounded and got the law laid on him by their dad. Kind of funny but those kids definitely need discipline but they are so fun to be around. One or two of them has a desire to be baptized but it's going to take some work to help them all come closer to Jesus Christ.

Let me paint the picture of a typical day for you. We roll up to our trailer park and you walk past the sketchy dongs who in turn are chasing the kids who listen to explicit music with their little speakers. There are a bunch of homeless people just whipping around on bicycles smoking. You then visit Clint of course. He is our recent convert who doesn't even know he's a member of our church but thinks we are the Jehovah's Witnesses who we visit everyday for fun. We then do a lap around the perimeter and talk to the man with the scarecrow tattoos who drives the black car that he recently painted over because we think he got busted by the cops for dealing fentanyl because we totally found three of his trap houses. We then talk to all of our friends and head to the Nom Nom to use the bathroom and then go to the apartment complexes where it's time to grill up with all the random blue collar and military people. We wrap up the day and repeat the next morning. 

Through all the fun and crazy stories and in all seriousness I have come to love these people and have grown in the light of seeing people as God would see them. Although they are all rough around the edges it's easy to come to love them when you see them where they're at and realize that life circumstances led to this point and you have to feel bad for them. I've come to know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ knows no bounds and is truly for all of those who are willing to come humbly to follow Him. I have been enjoying reading from the general conference that we had recently and studying in the Book of Mormon and Preach my gospel. Life is good!