We haven't seen any riots since the election, but we've heard that they are going on. One of our investigators is pretty interested in politics so he keeps us updated on what is going on most of the time. I don't really foresee there being any riots in the Riverside area, they would be in the bigger cities like Los Angeles or San Diego or in northern California.
There were a couple of interesting teaching experiences from this week. The first one was with an investigator named Mark. He is an evangelical Christian, who also does a lot of research into philosophy and science. So keeping the conversation focused on Gospel topics was sort of difficult. Also he didn't have questions about the basics of the Gospel, and anytime you discuss other things you can find yourself off on some tangent very quickly. He spoke with a very high vocabulary, Elder Brown and Elder Anderson both came out of there feeling like they weren't even smart enough to take part in the conversation. It was fun, and it reminded me of those college discussion groups that people were always having. But we decided that talking about things that are borderline doctrine/speculation probably isn't going to get us anywhere fast as far as him gaining a testimony of the restored Gospel, so we set the expectation that when we go back, we're going to continue to give him the discussions and talk about the Book of Mormon, rather than exaltation and where God came from and things like that.
Another interesting teaching opportunity was with a girl named Chelsea. She (along with a couple of her friends that weren't there) makes up the last of the investigators that were in the teaching pool when I arrived in this area. She is friends with a couple members in the ward, so they were the ones that encouraged her to take the lessons. She has supposedly read the whole Book of Mormon, which would be cool, but for someone who seems to be too busy to meet with us most of the time, it's hard to believe that she read 500 pages of scripture in her spare time. But she seems to know the basic gist of things. Unfortunately she has read some things online and been influenced negatively by some friends and family recently, and that is part of why it's been hard to meet with us. So during the visit we mostly just talked about our purpose as missionaries and we all talked about why we were on missions and bore our testimonies which was kind of cool. That's one thing that I've done in this area more than any other - bearing a full testimony. Normally you bear testimony of a specific topic or principle, so to have had 3 chances so far when people have basically said "Share your testimony", has been interesting. Kind of takes you by surprise at first and it takes some quick mental organization to get everything cohesively arranged, because sometimes things get compartmentalized in your mind based on what commitment or lesson they pertain to.
Another cool experience from this week was to go on AP exchanges on Friday. I went with Elder Jones, the new AP from this transfer, and he is an awesome guy. I'd never served around him, just heard rumors and stories and such, and of course seen his numbers, so I was kind of worried about how our exchange would go. But at least 1 on 1, he is a very down-to-earth and loving missionary. As well I feel like we had a lot of things in common. He is from a super small town in Wyoming (I don't think I ever got the name of it) but he is very musically and academically inclined so we talked a lot about those things. He is a Spanish speaking missionary, and because he's the only one in the pair, he goes to all the Spanish appointments, and goes contacting in the more heavily Spanish populated areas, but that was alright. I understood a lot of what was said, though about 2/3 of the way through the day I think my brain had had enough because I was having a hard time focusing and staying awake during a lesson. But I pushed through it. One cool thing that we did to keep me involved though, was that I re-memorized the First Vision in Spanish, and it was the plan that I would share that in all our Restoration lessons (He had like 6 potential appointments set up). Unfortunately none of them came through, but we were able to teach the Restoration to a lady we met while street contacting. I kind of botched it, since I forgot the middle third of it, but I recovered decently to get the point across I think. Then at dinner I shared it and everybody thought it was pretty cool that I had it memorized. Most of it has probably left my mind already, but that's okay, I don't know if I'll ever really use it except on Spanish exchanges. We also had some other Elders in the complex over for breakfast and we made pancakes. Then we had lunch with Elder Anderson and Elder Young, so it was a pretty fun day to be with missionaries I don't normally see.
Crossfit is in two weeks, so I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of my old zone again, not just Elder Hagler. I still kind of think of it as 'my zone', even though I have been gone for 3 full weeks now. Things here are going decently well and we're getting along alright. We'll also be getting the Christmas video this Wednesday which we were able to watch at MLC. So that will be cool to use as a proselyting tool again. It's kind of focused on service during the holiday season, so be thinking about who you can share the video with. The holidays are just around the corner, and this transfer is half over, so time is flying.
From the West Side . . . .
Elder Cornaby
Another interesting teaching opportunity was with a girl named Chelsea. She (along with a couple of her friends that weren't there) makes up the last of the investigators that were in the teaching pool when I arrived in this area. She is friends with a couple members in the ward, so they were the ones that encouraged her to take the lessons. She has supposedly read the whole Book of Mormon, which would be cool, but for someone who seems to be too busy to meet with us most of the time, it's hard to believe that she read 500 pages of scripture in her spare time. But she seems to know the basic gist of things. Unfortunately she has read some things online and been influenced negatively by some friends and family recently, and that is part of why it's been hard to meet with us. So during the visit we mostly just talked about our purpose as missionaries and we all talked about why we were on missions and bore our testimonies which was kind of cool. That's one thing that I've done in this area more than any other - bearing a full testimony. Normally you bear testimony of a specific topic or principle, so to have had 3 chances so far when people have basically said "Share your testimony", has been interesting. Kind of takes you by surprise at first and it takes some quick mental organization to get everything cohesively arranged, because sometimes things get compartmentalized in your mind based on what commitment or lesson they pertain to.
Another cool experience from this week was to go on AP exchanges on Friday. I went with Elder Jones, the new AP from this transfer, and he is an awesome guy. I'd never served around him, just heard rumors and stories and such, and of course seen his numbers, so I was kind of worried about how our exchange would go. But at least 1 on 1, he is a very down-to-earth and loving missionary. As well I feel like we had a lot of things in common. He is from a super small town in Wyoming (I don't think I ever got the name of it) but he is very musically and academically inclined so we talked a lot about those things. He is a Spanish speaking missionary, and because he's the only one in the pair, he goes to all the Spanish appointments, and goes contacting in the more heavily Spanish populated areas, but that was alright. I understood a lot of what was said, though about 2/3 of the way through the day I think my brain had had enough because I was having a hard time focusing and staying awake during a lesson. But I pushed through it. One cool thing that we did to keep me involved though, was that I re-memorized the First Vision in Spanish, and it was the plan that I would share that in all our Restoration lessons (He had like 6 potential appointments set up). Unfortunately none of them came through, but we were able to teach the Restoration to a lady we met while street contacting. I kind of botched it, since I forgot the middle third of it, but I recovered decently to get the point across I think. Then at dinner I shared it and everybody thought it was pretty cool that I had it memorized. Most of it has probably left my mind already, but that's okay, I don't know if I'll ever really use it except on Spanish exchanges. We also had some other Elders in the complex over for breakfast and we made pancakes. Then we had lunch with Elder Anderson and Elder Young, so it was a pretty fun day to be with missionaries I don't normally see.
Crossfit is in two weeks, so I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of my old zone again, not just Elder Hagler. I still kind of think of it as 'my zone', even though I have been gone for 3 full weeks now. Things here are going decently well and we're getting along alright. We'll also be getting the Christmas video this Wednesday which we were able to watch at MLC. So that will be cool to use as a proselyting tool again. It's kind of focused on service during the holiday season, so be thinking about who you can share the video with. The holidays are just around the corner, and this transfer is half over, so time is flying.
From the West Side . . . .
Elder Cornaby