It's gonna be short

So we had to take care of some things so this email is going to be short. I’m sorry.

Read Elder Slik's especially about "boxer guy". He's the best.

Thank you Kate for all the great pictures! I liked them a lot. It was cool to see you livin up the freshman life and having a good time.

Thanks mom for the cool shirts! DREAM TEAM!

It's been a great week. I love life. I had something I wanted to monologue on but I don’t remember and I don’t have time. 

Gladys Knight is coming in like 2 weeks. It’s going to be a big deal. I hope everyone in the world goes.

I've really been feeling a lot of help this week. I know that prayers are answered. Mine and all of yours. Alma 7 - the Atonement is a real true power that we can draw upon. See also “His Grace is Sufficient” by Brad Wilcox.

MONDAY! Severina made us some muffins. They were light and fluffy and sweet with a hint of lemon and cheese on top and chunks of spam on the bottom. ... She's the best. I don't really remember too much else that is super worth reporting. But I did take an interesting note in my planner "Keep the commandments -> your heart will change -> your behavior will change -> you will begin to prosper." Like the notion of purification. Okay nvm. I don’t have time to explain the thought.

TUESDAY! Transfer day. Whacko. We drove people around and did a lot of administering. That is a large part of my assignment, but I really do miss the ministering aspect a lot. We still get to, but we have to rely heavily on our district leaders. Not to say we aren’t trying, but that is one of my goals to figure out the best way to make individual impact on those serving here in the central zone. I love the missionaries here a lot. Dad, you asked for a little more info about all of them, I don't really have time, I feel bad because there is so much about each of these missionaries but... We went out with Rigdon for the day to teach our lessons and help him get prepped for his mission. It was a pretty good day. We started out teaching Tyrone. We talked about baptism and he is set to be baptized on Nov 16. He'll most likely make that date. During the lesson he prayed about it right then which was a big deal. Tyrone is such an interesting guy. He has had a lot of hardships. He shared a few with us and I just felt how much he needed Christ It was a powerful time to bear simple testimony of the powers of the Atonement. He watches a lot of the history channel, which is cool don’t get me wrong, but the history channel just confuses him and doesn’t give him the healing he desperately needs. We don’t preach "Christ crucified" because that is what we are paid to do, we do so because there is no other name given whereby salvation can come. Mosiah 3:17. Everyone needs him. We've seen a change in him even in the little while we have been teaching him. Christ can heal us. We visited Stephanie as well. Her husband is even bigger than her son! But he's not actually her husband and we found out on Thursday that they are splitting up. It's been a hard week for her.  So we went to teach that woman who drove the Z’s to church again and it was crazy. She was super emotional because of family drama and other crazy stuff. But we gave her a blessing and that calmed her down a lot. Elder Slik and I have given sooo many blessings in the past little while, its crazy and a blessing. I really feel like the Lord teaches me during blessings, thoughts and ideas and comfort that I need. That night we went to Ricardo's baptism.

Ricardo's baptism

I wish I had the pictures of his and Fernanda's. His dad baptized both of them :) that was really cool to see. Elder Bishop (from the beginning of my mission) is serving there now! I hope he enjoys it. Afterwards we had an incredibly powerful lesson with Shenika, one of the best in a long time. We read the account of the First Vision with her, including the part about the adversary. When we recite it we usually don’t quote that part but it was to teach her a principle that she desperately needed. She's having a hard time with things. We really love her a lot. And pray for her a ton. I pray that she prays.

WEDNESDAY! Good day. DM was good. It was about the Doctrine of Christ. We're the only church that believes and practices all 5 points. Increasing our testimony of each was the purpose of the meeting. We went to Aranda's for lunch with Elder Alvarez. Now he's Lucas. I love him the most. He and Elder Slik were companions back in Los Feliz and we all got pretty close. We both miss him a lot. After that we watched The Restoration with Tyrone. The missionary DVDs are good. The church is good at making those kinda things. Jamal told us he wants to serve a mission xD! We taught a lesson to Toni. Her niece was sitting in and tried to get super contentious with us, asking us prodding questions trying to catch us in mistakes and stuff. It was pretty sad. I don’t like it when people try to bash with us. We had dinner in the temple with an older couple. The sister was Gladys Knight's escort her first time through the temple. Cool huh? We visited a member who is retiring to be a pro Santa. He's got a great beard. We had a good lesson with Stephanie. She's so sweet. We talk to all these people and it’s so easy to see their trials and struggles, often times people just come out and tell us. I just wish everyone would listen to what the prophet has to say and then do the things. For example, Noah. Those who listened to the prophet were happy, those who didn't ... well they weren’t so happy.

THURSDAY! Elder Puga gave his first DM. It was good. I really respect him. He's so humble, always trying to improve. We visited lots of families most of them inactive. We visited Sister T. We showed up at just at the right time and gave her a blessing. She's such a sweetheart.

FRIDAY! Great day. We planned and ate mousubi. We started exchanges.

SATURDAY! I was on exchanges in Beverly Glen with Elder Montgomery. He's really smart and we had a good day. We visited members and met some cool people.

SUNDAY! We taught a great lesson in Relief Society in FH. Real good. It was about missionary work. 

I’m so sorry that this email is like trash. Great, great week. I love life. I love the Lord. I love my area, companion, and just about everything.

I love you all so much!

Sam