Hello!
For starters, Elder Bigler and I are happy to be staying here for at least one more transfer. This means that one of us (probably me) will be here at least for four transfers (6 months) and maybe 5- long enough to pass the area off to someone else so that they don't have to flush it (both missionaries new to the area) I flushed downtown with Elder Cooley and we flushed Malibu- which was the first time it has been flushed in 3 years I believe... One of us will maybe even train someone in Malibu, which would be interesting...
One more transfer note- as many of you already know, all of the so Cal missions stopped the pilot program of being bilingual, so the LA mission is officially English/Spanish split. Because I was technically called to a bilingual mission, I will still be both Spanish and English areas on my mission, we just wont be speaking both Spanish and English at the same time. I am VERY happy about this! Needless to say, I am in an all English area. There are Spanish speaking sisters that cover my area, Beverly Hills, Brentwood and Bel Aire (so I am no longer in the largest non Korean/Sign language program area, although I doubt they will ever make it out to Malibu or even the Palisades because it would be pointless....) There were also a lot of changes that went on in terms of area and zone boundaries. Our area didn't change at all though, it seems that Malibu is impervious to change in many different ways....
We are going to the temple this Wed! I am so excited to go with the WHOLE mission! (there will be 222 people in our group!) It might even be a record high for the LA temple...!
The ward did a "deep cleaning" of the building this past week because their janitorial service just got cut, even though it has been the members responsibility to clean their own buildings since 2000 but that is a long story why they just got cut, anyway we got to clean this... rafter?... up above in the chapel. It was very fun! I'm sending my pictures home soon so this will make more sense when you see them... Also, as part of this event, Alan cleaned the baptismal font! Afterward he even said that he was cleaning it for himself! That obviously made us very excited, it is only a matter of time, but we are hopeful that it will be soon!
More on Alan Beck:
We are helping him gain/realize he already has a testimony of the Book of Mormon and the restoration through Joseph Smith. We gave him an illustrated Book of Mormon so that they could teach their daughter (Angelica, 2 yrs) from it/to help make it easier to understand because of his dyslexia. We watched the Testaments and Angelica was watching it. I told Alan that you are never too young to feel the spirit and learn about the gospel. He really was into that and agreed with it. We are still working towards committing them to a date to be sealed as a family in the temple. Alan does not like committing to dates AT ALL, which makes it a little difficult because that is a HUGE part of being a missionary but it is all good. His anniversary with his wife Mercedes is on July 23. In our last lesson with them we committed them to talk and pray about that day (July 23, 2011 which means he would need to baptized 1 year and 1 week prior to that date, which is coming around the corner!) So we will see!
I don't know if I have talked about Mike Clark before but I will now. He is a less active 40ish year old guy , his dad is very active but Mike hasn't been to church really in 15 years. He suffers from Bi-polar and has had a rough time with alcohol and some drugs in the past. He came to church the week before last week though! We think that he will be fully active again soon! We are very happy about that! It is sad to say but it has taken me until now to FULLY realize the Lord's hand in the work. I have been struggling with for whatever reason being blind to His hand in my life... Anyway he was just ready/"elect" as it says in the scriptures. It seems like people sometimes just fall into your lap ready to accept our help to activate/progress in the gospel/baptize etc When President Blackburn spoke in our ward a few weeks ago he talked a lot about how the people who end up getting baptized aren't the friends of members who they think will be really good Mormons. I know that even with missionary training and the sacred calling of being a missionary etc it's not much different for us. We might be able to tell better than others if people are ready or not but I have noticed, especially in English, it still is very hard to not have your own, biased thoughts an opinions of people... I don't know if all of that makes sense or not but it does to me in my head...
SCRIPTURE OF THE DAY:
Hebrews 5:3-5 I dint know if I have talked about it before but I love that scripture....
Also, I think I am going to start reading the Old Testament in Spanish now that I have finished Jesus the Christ! (I loved it!)
Peter- Again, congrats on the mission call! I have been noticing all of the "bought from the_____ Ventura dealership" license plate holder things. I even saw a truck from a company in Ventura. It is cool that you will be so close. You have to write me and tell me how you feel about being domestic and English speaking (which I am for the time being...) When do you go into the MTC? Will you be there with Michael?
Michael- Are you going to write me about your mission call or should I write you first? haha
Mallory- I'm sending off a letter to you tomorrow, it is not a novel which it should be because I never write you.... but it is still a letter!
Cassi, Sarah, Kenzie... you guys are still next on the list...!
Rod- again congrats on graduating! I'll be writing you ASAP!
Ben- What's up buddy? How are you?
Mulcocks- I'll be returning your letter shortly as well...
NS1 ward- I LOVE YOU!
the Y- I LOVE YOU GUYS! swim on!
hmmmmmm who else?
