Yo, Yo, what’s up, everyone! We into another email… kinda crazy how many of these things I have written over the over the past 15 months! (I hit 15 months on my mission last week…dang) Sorry, this is post is usually on Tuesday, but my P-day got moved to today because of the temple! I will talk about that next week!
Monday: Another week, another mid-pday! We had a goofy volleyball activity for the zone, and man, I just hate playing volleyball with people who are trash, haha! Our ZL taught us a new version of it, which was pretty fun ngl. I spent the day talking to family and just chilling!
Tuesday: Good day! We ran into a lady while visiting grey dots ( people who were taught in the past), and we ran into Christina! She didn’t seem interested due to her church in Irvine, so as we were walking away, the spirit told me to ask if she wanted a closer church. I did, and she was like, “Wait, where is it?” She was hyped to hear it was close, and she showed some interest! Follow the spirit!
Wednesday: We had our first district council, and that was okay. Small and boring, but whatever, lol. We picked up Elder Robinson’s suit from a ghetto Vietnamese dry cleaner, and it was just a funny experience. Getting back to work, we grinded the doors and talked to a ton of people, but no one was interested, which was rough, but we kept just saying, ” Next one” until we left, and that kept me motivated.
Thursday: We had a heartbreaking lesson with Tina. She wasn’t picking up the hints that she couldn’t get baptized until she got married to her husband and kept all the commandments. I felt a comforting feeling from the spirit telling me that she would be okay. So I was super blunt and flat out told her and she said, ” Okay! Let’s keep the commandment!” She still isn’t planning on getting married, but we will keep working with her!
We went to a huge mall in our area for the first time and at first found 0 success. Then we found an awesome friend named Juliana! She seems nice but isn’t texting us back… We then had a bold lesson with Joshua, too. He wants to be Catholic when he doesn’t even believe in it! I guess I don’t deal with stupidity very well. I asked him, ” Joshua, I’m struggling to see why you are joining the Catholic church when you don’t believe in it. So why are you joining???” He gave some mid-responce, and we are gonna keep working with him. Dinner with the Staleys was fantastic! It made the day a better one.
Friday: Super long day!! Idk but the day felt like it was never going to end! We had a couple of lessons canceled, which was hard, but other than that, it was good with the other lessons! Andrea is thinking about when she wants to be baptized, so we are looking forward to that!! We had a sweet lesson with Rosa, who is the smiliest. Is that a word? She smiles more than anyone I have ever met. How about that? We taught her the Plan of Salvation, and she loved it!
Saturday: Exchanges with Elder Sanchez! He is a 26-year-old from Mexico who was baptized just 2 years ago! What a G! He is funny, but the language barrier was rough. However, it was a good day! We got some fire lunch at Navarros (RIP Elda Saxton). We had a lot of study time, so the day went super long. Funny times with him, though!
Sunday: Exchange day pt.2 with Elder Nash! We shared a ward, so the exchange was cool, lol. At Church, it was the primary program, and man, I loved that thing. At our ward’s munch and mingle, I was sitting by my fav member Leika. Our table was stacked with some goated youth and members, and when the youth left to go get more food, our Goon bishop and the GOON ward clerk came and snatched the seats. Leika leaned over to me and said word for word,
“Bruh, who invited these two to the cool kid table?” I was dead. Leika is like this 40-year-old Samoan mom. She is just the best. We had a solid day but got bashed super hard!!! It low-key rocked me a bit, and I feel I have finally recovered lol.
Monday: The most normal day ever lol. We had a good lesson with Tina in the morning, and she is just so wholesome. Talked about the 2 great commandments, and she liked it. We had some studies and a lot of finding time. We visited Rosa, and she said they were about to have dinner, so they were busy. She said she’d text us and let us know when to come by. Then, about 3 minutes after we left, she calls us back! She goes,” You boys want to come eat some fish tacos??” I’ve never turned around faster. It was lit; we went and had some fish tacos, and it was her brother’s idea to have us come back! We taught them about prayer, and he seemed cool. So we found him through tacos!
Well that’s the week. I didn’t mention any of this from day to day, BUT I AM FREEZING DOWN HERE! I know it’s SoCal, and it’s legit like 60 degrees, but man, I am adjusted to the warm weather and have lost some insulation. I have been shivering all the time, which is not normal for me lol. I’ve been having to wear sweaters legitimately all the time besides when it’s at like peak heat, haha.
Here is the explanation of the title of the email. Kinda funny and a cool story. So, has a missionary, each and every day is hard. At least for me. Every day has its own set of challenges and struggles. And as there have been things I’ve struggled with, I kinda get down on myself for a bit. As I was in the midst of a struggle, this line from J.Cole came to my head. ” There is beauty in the struggle, ugliness in the success,” and it honestly brought me a lot of comfort lol. As I have seen struggles, I have seen a lot of beauty, and in the ugliness of times is where you see the most success. It has helped me to endure my challenges better and know that God is refining me as he is refining all of you as well!
I love you and miss you all! Thank you for all the prayers and support.
( btw, sneak peek for next week! Elder Wada is coming to the mission, and it’s going to be fire! He spoke at a conference, and it was one of my favorites. Stay tuned for next week.)
Elda Lando
G photos
