This was another wild week here in Long Beach. This email will be all over the place as I try my best to cover all the things I can remember that are happening!!! Let’s get it!
THE WORK
To start off, our friends are progressing super well! We have been able to meet with Jessica pretty much every day, and her baptism date on January 4th is looking super promising! We have met with Juan a lot, as well, and guess what…. He is on date for January 4th as well! They have both agreed to do a combined baptism service as long as they are both prepared for it! We are so happy for them! We are still meeting with Hasii, and things are looking better. She is starting to turn into an ” Enternigator” (Eternal Investigator), but we still see a lot of potential in her being baptized in the near future.
A cool thing is that we are able to serve with a senior couple in our ward. This ward has had a lady investigating for over a year, and she has finally set a baptism date for January 18th! We aren’t teaching her because she is the senior couples’ friend. However, it’s still so exciting!
This week, Elder Capps and I set a high goal for members participating in our lessons. We set the goal to 10, and we knew we could get it! By the time Sunday rolled around, we had our 10th member participating in our lessons! It Is super dope. Our recent convert, Chantra is seriously so cool. He has come to a TON of lessons with us this week that we had scheduled. He genuinely is one of the most active members I’ve ever seen, and he has been a member for only 3 weeks. He is legendary.
A CRAZY MIRACLE IS COMING! We were doing a visit when we saw this dude walking across the street. The spirit told me to yell out to this dude in the pitch black of downtown LB… I was like, uhhh, okay?? He took out his airpods and yelled, “Are y’all Mormons?” He ran across the street and introduced himself as Yandel. As we talked I started to remember this guy! Way back in the summer, I went on an exchange with the Ap’s, and we taught this dude Yandel!!! Apparently, he lost contact with the missionaries for a couple of months due to crazy home life circumstances. He knew it wasn’t a coincidence that we ran into him because he said his music paused and then he heard my voice! I was so shocked; it was an awesome miracle!
OUR CRAZY EXPERIENCE
Alright, so some of the crazy Long Beach things are starting to happen here! So, Mom, maybe it’s best to skip this part of the email lol. We were able to go to Compton this week while on an exchange in the Samoan ward! It was a lot of fun! We visited a bunch of people, and honestly, during the day, Compton isn’t that dangerous! But I can definitely see how nighttime can be a little sketchy. However, overall, it is safe! However, this experience was wild. Sunday night, we were teaching Jessica, who lives in a not-so-great part of Long Beach. She has some chairs outdoors, so we always teach her outside her front door. As we were wrapping up our lesson, this dude walked up to us and said, “Don’t go down that street anytime soon; someone is about to get shot.” Instantly, all of our hearts just sank.
Elder Capps and I had parked the car down the street that this dude was warning us to avoid. We finished up the lesson and walked out to the street with a member. We looked down the right side where the dude said not to go. There was a large group of gang members in the middle of the road. We instantly turned left and minded our business, and all was good! We had to walk all the way around the block the other way to avoid these guys. We make it back to our car safe and sound. “Blessings! The gross thing about Long Beach is there is poop everywhere. I’m not kidding. It’s so nasty lol.
THE FUN
This week, we got to hit up Angels Tijuana Tacos again. I fall in love every time we go there. I mixed it up a bit this time and got loaded potatoes, and it was great. (Video in my G Photos.)
This week, we had our Christmas zone devotional, and so we picked up the Catalina Island Elders and had a good conference. We got to hang out with Busta Crew all day; it was fantastic. The Elders also got to have an approved sleepover too cause the boat doesn’t leave til the morning!
This week, we had our Christmas zone devotional, and so we picked up the Catalina Island Elders and had a good conference. We got to hang out with Busta Crew all day; it was fantastic. The Elders also got to have an approved sleepover too cause the boat doesn’t leave til the morning!
While on the Samoan exchange, we went to this youth activity, and it was LITTTT! Samoans are by far my favorite people. They had a bunch of games and good food! The boys at the end pulled out a PS5 and started playing the new NCAA college football game, and of course, I was dying because it looked so fun. However, we were asked to help serve at a Christmas store donation place. It felt so good being able to serve during the holidays. Earlier this week, a member of the ward asked us to sing in the Christmas sacrament meeting service. As missionaries, you can’t say no, and I was not excited. Luckily, we have another companionship and a senior couple who clutched up. I recorded an audio for y’all, and if you listen, the mountain goat from Hoodwinked made an appearance! Go listen. haha!
Well, that’s all I can think of this week. Sorry for the crazy email! My spiritual thoughts came from the Christmas study plan on the gospel library app. It gave the scripture Luke 2:10 when the angels appeared to the shepherds and said” Fear not for behold I bring you great tidings of great joy which is Christ the Lord.” And when I read this, I was reminded of my favorite line from the Savior, which is in Mark 6:50. Throughout the scriptures it says, “Be of good cheer: It is I; be not afraid.” I love how in both instances, the opening line is, to “Fear not” and “Be of good cheer”. This Christmas season is about Joy! Even if there are a million things going on and life gets stressful and overwhelming. Fear not! Be of good cheer!! It’s a happy time of year to celebrate Christ’s birth!
“Merry Christmas Everyone!! Hope you all enjoy the holidays! Love you!
Elder Lando
Google photo album
️
️
