December 3, 2012
It's been a really good 1st week in California! It's super different than I
thought it would be though, and I don't really know why. I can't put a finger on
it. It just is. Most the finding comes from members refferals down here so we
don't do a whole lot of tracting. Maybe that's part of it. From what I hear the
church in this area is growing pretty rapidly. My companion baptized someone this saturday.
So I have already seen a baptism in my first week! It was a boy of a part member
family. I think he was nine, and named Migul. He got baptized with 4 other kids!
It was cool to see them all get baptized.
My second day here we did a service project for a non-member lady that some
of the other Elders have been teaching. She was a horder. And she still is. She
owns everything she has ever purchased. When you walk into her house there is a
small pathway in between walls of stuff stacked, at some part, up to your
shoulders. She had stacks of newspapers, and letters, and yarn, and
flooring, and "turn of the century" ice cream parlor chairs, and I could go on
for a while but I won't. Our service to her was assembling two big shelves that
she had bought to stack more of her stuff on. It was fun! She was really sweet
as well.
We taught this really cool guy named Carlos, and the lesson was in spanish
so I don't know too much of what went on, but he asked how the Dinosaurs fit
into the gospel. It was kind of funny to me because my last week in the MTC our
district had a "Debate" about this same topic. We never really settled the
debate. We just ended it, after it got kind of ridiculous, by saying it doesn't
matter none of our investagators are going to ask a question like that. Wrong!
Carlos was cool though, I'm excited to go see him again.
The spanish ward was crazy this sunday. I don't really understand much yet!
But they are all super friendly. The Bishop called me up to bear my testimony.
So maybe they all understood what I was saying. I hope. We have dinner every
night with a member, and their cooking is pretty awesome so far!
I live in a 3 room 2 bathroom apartment with another set of Elders. They
are Chinese speaking, and have a super small area. They walk everywhere they go. I
guess their main goal is to start a branch down here, and I guess a lot of
chinese people go to a college around here. It sounds super crazy! It is a pretty
good lil' apartment. I say lil' cause it's kind of ghetto, but it could be
ghetto-er, so its good. The bigger room as you walk in has all four of our beds,
and is next to the kitchen, and the other two are our study rooms, and have
closets for our clothes and stuff.
We had kind of a cool experience last night. We had just got done watching
the Christmas Devotional, and it was around 8:30, which is kind of an awkard
time. We didn't want to go knock on doors, but it wasn't time to go in yet. We
are not supposed to go back until 9, unless we are in a lesson then we can stay
out until 9 thirty. We were faced with a choice to make. We could go in early,
which would mean disobedience to some degree, or find something to do. So we
ended up pulling into a parking lot and just talked to people there. I ended up
setting up an appoinment with a girl named Vikki, who said she was looking for a
church and was interested in hearing more, which was cool, but that wasn't the cool
experience i'm talking about. My companion, Elder Littlewood, was called over by
soomeone in a van while I was handing out cards and talking to people. He talked
for quite some time before I joined the conversation, but apparently this
man was a former member of our church. He had joined back when he lived in Ghana
after being taught by some missionaries there. He has been inactive for a while
now, at least since he moved to California 9 years ago. He said he has been super
deppressed lately, and feels like something is missing. He called my companion
over because he recognized us, the white shirts and ties, from the missionaries
that had taught him in Africa. We talked with him, and asked if he needed
anything. He wanted us to pray with him, and he wanted to see the missionaries.
(We reffered him to the English speaking Elders) After we prayed he said he felt
hope, and he felt calm. I'm just glad we didn't go back early.
Tell everyone hello and happy holidays.
December 10, 2012
I've been doing good! We tracted a lot more this week. I guess I just spoke
too soon. We try to pick out neighborhoods that looks like spanish people live
there, but some days most of our tracting is done in English. We run into a lot
people that speak Spanish and love talking with us. That's one thing I've found
out. One of their favorite things is talking! They tell us all about their lives
and problems. That's another thing I've found out. One problem they don't have
problem is telling you about their problems. And most of the time I just sit
there listening, and for the most part I have no idea what they are saying... So
I just listen. They all speak so fast, and I get lost so easy! It's really
frustrating at times. I feel pretty useless during some (most) of our lessons,
because I have no idea what is going on, although I feel like I'm starting to
catch more. A little bit more atleast. I can get the general idea of everything.
I need to start talking more during lessons, but it's hard for two reasons. 1.
Most of the people we teach do most of the talking. By the end of a lesson
they've usually taught us more than we've taught them. 2. I can't understand a
lot of it so I have no idea what to say. I'll just keep at it though :)
Everyone has pitbulls here. It's pretty cool.
But we did meet some pretty promising people last week, and we are planning
to go see them this week. So I will let you know how everything goes with them.
And I let you know when there is a breakthrough with our other investigators.
One of our investigators Carlos likes the church and the Book of Mormon, but refuses to
pray about it until he has finished it, and I guess he has set up a baptismal
date before, but missed it because he is having some trouble quitting smoking.
He is super cool though......
Love, Elder Higgins
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