Email 3/11/13

So this week was pretty good. It was really slow, again, but all in all it went pretty well. But I'm pressing forward. I'm trying my hardest and that's all you can really do. It's all about your attitude, I've found that out recently. The only person who can control your own happiness is you. As long as you do your best and you're trying your hardest you should be happy. I've figured that out, now I just have to apply it to myself.

We have a new rule in our Area/Zone, that once it is dark and you don't have any set appointments you have to be inside. I guess our area is just to dangerous to be outside at night. It really sucks because we get a lot less done. I thought we were able to go visit less actives and stuff, because we have been going around to people we don't know that is on the ward list and have been trying to visit with them at night, but I guess if we don't know who they are, and we don't have a set appointment then we just go back to our apartment.

There is this member named Myrl that we'll go see about once a week. He was less active, but now we have him coming back to church. He is awesome. He is this older guy that's about 70 years old. Even though we have got him coming back to church the past few weeks, we still go over there because he needs a lot of strengthening. He is a really lonely guy and we make his week when we go over and visit with him. He'll usually have us play him in a game of pool and then we'll share our message with him. It's a lot of fun, and it really helps him out. His home teacher tells us that he is always talking about the missionaries. He took us out to lunch this week at his favorite burger place and then he even danced for us haha. He claimed he could boogie, so we had to get some proof!

Myrl Boogie dancing

This week we did a lot of preparation for the baptism and made sure that it went well. We usually do testimonies during the baptismal program while the people are getting changed, but it was always the same people going up and essentially saying the same things, so we started playing Mormon Messages. We found this really cool one that is called "The Patterns of Light". They don't have it out on DVD yet and it's a three part video. So one night after it was dark and our appointments fell through we went over to a members house and downloaded the videos and put it on DVD. It ended up being really good, and perfect for the baptism.

When we were preparing for the baptism, we were going through some of the Hymns to see which ones they wanted. Kayla wanted "I Am a Child of God" And Don said "How about for me, you play 'Eye of the Tiger'!" hahaha Don is way funny, he's such a great guy.

I've been learning how to play guitar and so this past week I decided I would buy one. It's a Black Fender guitar it's pretty sweet, and it sounds really good. I've got a Red Utes sticker on there too, so that makes it even sweeter! The guitar store out here is crazy, they have guitars for like 10 grand. I've been practicing a lot during my free time in the mornings before studies, during lunch break, the times we have to go in after dark, and any other free time I have. I'm still not very good at it though. I can play "Good Riddance" by Green Day, "The Cave" by Mumford and Sons, and "Fall for You" by Second Hand Serenade. Hopefully I'll be able to get good here soon! I've been giving up my lunch time naps for guitar practice but it's worth it.

Elder Bell's guitar

Kayla and Don Schreiner's baptism was last weekend and everything went great! We were in a rut all week running all around trying to find different baptismal suits to fit Don but we finally found one. Tim, (Don's son and Kayla's dad) baptized both of them, but Don is too big for him to do it by himself and so I was in the font and I helped with the baptism for Don, helping him back up and stuff like that. All of the Schreiner kids came and so it was like a three-ring circus. Those kids are so wild! Everything ended up being a great baptism.

Schreiner Baptism - 3/8/2013

This week we had lunch at 5 Guys, and it was really weird. I love 5 guys, the food was good, but it was just weird being there. For 3 and a half months I've been living in the ghetto, where there are no normal fast-food places like that. Everybody there was clean and happy, which is a total opposite of what most people are like in San B. We found out that our area is like 3 miles bigger then we thought it was, but most of it is industrial stuff, and so when we went looking around the area that we didn't know was ours, we found a 5 Guys. It's weird how San B works. It's nice from like 60th street down to 30th and then the south (My area) down to 2nd is all ghetto, and then it starts to get nice again at the bottom of our area. So it's like a Ghetto Sandwich or something. So that 5 Guys was down there. They have bulletin boards where you can color flash cards and put them up, and so Elder Clark and I both made some signs and put them up, along with our pass along cards. Elder Clark and I are good friends, we get along really well!

5 Guys signs

The work out here lately has been super super slow. We'll have appointments with investigators, and potential investigators but it seems like every single one has fallen through this past week. We end up Tracting for about 3 hours a day. We get a lot of contacts and potential investigators but we just are having a hard time finding somebody who is solid, interested, and will keep commitments. Sunday I confirmed Kayla a member of the church and that was pretty cool. My first confirmation, Melvina felt like it wasn't much of the spirit talking and it was all me coming up with what to say during the blessing, but Kayla's confirmation was awesome, I don't feel like any of it was me, it was all the spirit.

-Elder Landon Bell

Email 2/25/13

Hey Folks, man it seems like I haven't written in forever, Two weeks without emailing goes by slow, but it goes by fast at the same time. Mission time is so wierd! So this letter either could be long.. or it could be short We'll have to see haha. We had exchanges with the zone leaders this week, and I was scared to go with Elder Marriott because he's super strict, and I don't know me and him just don't get along the best.. So we went on exchanges last week and it went a lot better then I thought it was going to go! I got a lot of good stuff from him some good ideas on how to contact people, tract, teach a lesson in unity, and set up lessons for members to come along.

We've still been teaching Chris, and he is doing great! He really understands what we teach him and always tells us that we're really good at breaking it down for him. It's always the best when people tell you that, because sometimes we can just ramble on and not even realize that they aren't even understanding the words we're saying so it feels good when people are able to understand and you're able to teach it simply. Everytime we teach Chris the spirit is way strong, I've had lessons like that, but it seems like every lesson we have with him the spirit is way strong. He has a baptismal date of March 16th, but he's not going to be able to make that date because he has been missing church, a lot of things have come up that stopped him from coming, and he also has a leadership position in his church, so we're hoping that we can get him to come next week.

So one of our zone leaders Elder Crozer got the call to be the AP and so he had to leave a few days earlier then when transfers were, leaving Elder Marriott all by himself. So Elder Marriott came into a trio With Elder Monk and I. And I thought it was going to be horrible haha. It actually wasn't that bad. We didn't get much work done, but it was fun. Well we did get work done, just not a bunch of work in our area. We had to do the appointments in our area as well as the appointments in his area so we were constantly running back and forth between areas and stuff like that. We also went to his wards church, and so we went to six hours of church. I love church.. But six hours is way to much for me haha.

Melvina was baptized last Friday the 15th, and it was good! Elder Monk ended up baptizing her and then I confirmed her on Sunday. It was a great baptism like usual the spirit was there really strong, and everything just went really good. After the baptism Billy came up to Me, Elder Monk, Elder Austin, and Elder Escamilla and asked us if we could be his "best men" at his wedding! It was so sweet! It's really an honor to be asked that by anybody, but by somebody we baptized makes it so much sweeter! His wedding isn't until June, so hopefully I'm not too far away if I get transferred.. I'll still be able to get permission to leave my area and go to it though! I'm way pumped for that!

Melvina's Baptism - 2/15/2013

On Saturday we got a text to go help with a car wash that was a fundraiser for these investigators that the sister missionaries are teaching. I guess one of the people they are teaching had a baby, and it passed away at three months old. They don't have enough money to do a funeral or even bury the baby, so we did a car wash. I was already dressed up and I decided I'd just do the car wash in my white shirt and tie haha. When we got there they had a bunch of signs and so I was a sign dancer. Not just any sign dancer though.. I was the best sign dancer ever! haha I've never danced so crazy in my life. I was going absolutely crazy, luckily Some of the elders saw how crazy I was going and they were so kind to take pictures and video, so I have that as a great memory! The sign dancing was getting everybody's attention, but the car wash was still pretty slow, and not a lot of people wanted to pay for one. I had gotten about 10 dollars in tips for my dancing that went to the fundraiser. More people were pulling over to give me money then they were to get a car wash. haha. I decided since all of the signs said something about Baby Isaiah and it being a fundraiser I made a sign that said "What would Jesus do?" And I would hold it at the end of the line of everybody's signs. I only was holding it for about ten minutes, and by that time we had gotten 4 customers in the ten minutes. It was awesome! haha. Unfortunately we had to leave to an appointment so I couldn't hold that sign anymore, but I had a lot of fun, looking like a fool dancing out on the streets of San B, sweating like crazy. I'll send some pictures, but the videos are too big, I'll send my SD card home soon so you can see those videos haha.

Elder Monk & Elder Bell - Sign Dancers

Elder Bell's carwash sign

After our appointment that day we decided we wanted to order a pizza, but didn't know how many to order for 5 elders. We had heard about a place called La Pizza Loca, and they have these giant pizzas for really cheap. We ended up going there and ordering the "La Gigante" pizza combo. It was a thirty two slice pizza, with wings, breadsticks  and a 2-liter soda for under 20 bucks! The pizza was actually a lot better then I thought it was going to be, it being that cheap I thought it was going to taste like cardboard. It was pretty good though, and it filled all five of us!

"La Gigante" pizza

So I had talked a little about transfers in my last letter, or at least I think I did.. Transfers were last week and we got our calls on sunday Morning. Elder Monk is Gonzo, and I am staying in San B! I was really glad to hear that I was staying because there is a lot of good work going on in this area and I didn't want to leave it! My new Companion Is Elder Werner. He's been out on his mission for 18 months, and he is a great guy! He is unfortunately from Provo Utah, so of course he is a BYU fan, but that's okay we still get along haha. He's actually a really nice guy, and we work together really well. He's a hard worker and so it's fun to be with someone that wants to do the work as much as I do. I think this is going to be a really good transfer, I'm really stoked for it. I think I'm going to learn, and grow a lot by having Elder Werner as my companion.

Saying Goodbye to Elder Monk
(pictures with Elder Werner forthcoming)

We've still been teaching Don and Kayla, and they are still on track for their baptism on March 8th. Dons Girlfriend is getting a hip replacement surgery sometime soon and so he might have to postpone his baptism until after that happens. We're hoping that it won't happen until after his baptism, because he wants to be there for her, and help her learn to walk again, and so it could be a while before he got baptized. Don is an awesome guy, I've really grown to love him. He's about 70 years old and had gotten in a car crash and broke his glasses so he couldn't read from the book of Mormon. They recently got him a new pair of glasses and he has been reading from it a lot. He said to his family. "Have you read this whole book before? Well you should because it's true!" He says he knows it's true and he feels the spirit when he reads it. It's awesome in his prayers he talks to god just like he was on the phone with him (Which isn't a bad thing, I think it's awesome) But he usually says something like "I'm glad the Elders were able to come over today and talk about the Book of Mormon. I know that book is true and I'm.. I'm gonna read all of it. It might take me a while, But I'm gonna do it!" Don is just an awesome guy. He doesn't like to wear a shirt and he's got a pretty big beer belly, it's so funny he'll like set food on the top of his stomach and use it as a table, or he'll just sit there the whole lesson without a shirt on rubbing his belly hahaha.

Don the Investigator

Some big news came in Friday night, The San Bernardino mission will be shut down on July first.... For the creation of two new missions! Currently there is the San Bernardino mission, and the Riverside Mission. What they're going to do is put Redlands, and San B into one mission. They'll call that the California Redlands Mission, and our mission right now (With a couple areas cut out going to the Redlands Mission) Will be called the California Rancho Cucamonga mission. The Riverside Mission will still be there with some of it's areas a part of the Redlands mission. The cool thing about this all is there will be twice as many missionaries covering the areas out here. The field is white and ready to harvest for sure! I'm excited to see how this new mission will go, and where I'll end up going. If I'm in San Bernardino at that time of transfers I think it's June 25th. If I stay in San B or if I'm in Rialto, or Fontana I'll be apart of the Redlands Mission. If I'm somewhere in Rancho, Hesperia, Apple Valley, Etc. Then I'll be serving in the Rancho Cucamonga mission. It's kinda crazy thinking about it all and If I leave the mission, I won't ever have the chance to be transferred back around the same area so I couldn't visit people I had taught before. I hope that paragraph made sense because I rambled on forever there haha.

Elder Werner and I have been tracting a lot trying to find some new investigators, I usually hate tracting, but it isn't too bad, I'm starting to like it! We've had a lot of fun tracting and talking to a bunch of the crazy people out here in San B. We haven't had a lot of new investigators, but we have quite a bit of potentials that we're hoping to teach. We actually have a potential family. We got a referral for them and went over and talked to them it's a family of six, and we're going to teach them tomorrow. Hopefully that goes well and we can pick them up as new gators and get them baptized! I've always wanted to convert a family, I hope this will be them!

Don has been reading the Book of Mormon a lot and we went over this week and read along with him making sure he was understanding and everything. It was way funny, we would read two verses each except for Don. He would always read like four or five verses. Elder Werner would be right after him and he would always start reading after Don had read two verses but Don would keep going and just cut Elder Werner off. One of the times that it was Dons turn to read, he read like 7 verses and then on the 8th one he cut off Elder Werner again and then stopped half way inbetween the verse and said okay, you can read now. hahah it was so hard to not laugh! He just decided he'd be done at the end of a sentance, instead of at the end of a verse. I don't even think he realized it either. Don is just awesome, He sat by me at church and he was singing along in sacrament meeting. He isn't much of a singer, he would just read the words. I'm fine with that becasue none of our investigators will ever sing, they'll just open the book and read along while everybody else sings. He even tried singing along in elders quorum. We didn't have any hymn books and he didn't know the words so he went along with it and mumbled the whole song, pretending like he knew the words. It was awesome. I had the hardest time keeping myself from laughing.

Elder Werner plays the guitar, and I decided that I'm going to start playing too! haha. He has taught me a few cords, and so I practice a lot at night, and during lunch hour and any other personal time we have. It's really hard, a lot harder then I thought it was going to be! I can now slowly play amazing grace, it sounds pretty bad though. Hopefully I'll be able to stick with it and practice a lot so I can be some guitar master! I just want to write a bunch of songs. The thing that kind of sucks about starting to play is holding down the strings on the guitar can start to hurt your fingers, so if you play too much, your fingers start hurting. I can already start feeling that my fingers are going to be callased! Oh well.

Well sorry my letter should have been like twice as long as this one is since I missed emailing last week. But nothing too new is happening out here. Thanks for the prayers and support, it really means a lot. I've been having a rough time lately, and it really does mean a lot to me. Have a great week everyone.

Elder Bell

Email 1/22/13

This week was a lot better, I had some struggles and I was having a really hard time with homesickness and stuff like that, but looking back it was an amazing week! Sorry I wasn't able to write yesterday, The libraries were closed for Martin Luther King day, Which is a holiday out here? Like the whole city shuts down for that. I remember in elementary learning about MLK and stuff like that, but never missing school for it, or I don't ever remember the post office, and city buildings being closed for that. So last Monday when I had emailed I was really upset about a few things, but I'm doing a lot better now. Thanks for those that were concerned about me and how I was doing.

I've talked about him a lot before, but me and Billy have such a strong friendship, that dude is awesome! After what he did with Jaramiah and holding people back from attacking him, and all of the times we have gone over to visit him we just keep growing closer and closer, i'm going to be sad when I get transferred out of here, me and him are great friends. Last P-day we hadn't called him because we don't ever really teach him in the night and have things to do during the day, and he gave us a call and said what's up guys? I'm just checking up on you! Like we would do with him all the time, but he decided to check up on us, so we decided to go over and share a message with him. That went really well, we had a lot of fun talking, and laughing, but also teaching and feeling the spirit. Every time we have gone to teach him at night when we leave, he always says "Give me a call when you've made it home safely." Haha I can't explain how cool he is, and he shows love towards everybody he comes in contact with. I'll talk more about him later in the letter.

Jessie was our investigator that lives with Adam. The reason she's no longer an investigator is.. We baptized her on Sunday! She really wanted the bishop to be there for her baptism, her original date was the 26th, but he is going to be out of town, so we prayed about it, and prayed about it with her, and we decided we would move her date to the 20th. We went over the baptismal interview questions with her to see where she was at and to see if we needed to reteach anything she had forgotten. Her son Rickie was there and he's 15, he has seen us before but never really sat in on a lesson. We had a lot of fun that night going over the questions, and joking around. It was cool because we were laughing really hard at one time and then could be serious at another time. Her son really likes us and we are going to be teaching him hopefully tonight.

Melvina is Billy's fiancée. She just moved here from the mountains but they had been doing a long distance relationship type thing. (I don't remember if I talked about this in my last email..) She moved to San B about a week before Billy's Baptism and he taught her the law of chastity right away and she agreed to live it and help him live it. She came to church the week before he was baptized and she said she really liked it, but we hadn't gotten the time to teach her yet. That week we had been teaching Billy everyday and going over some of the fist lessons and some videos to increase his faith, We showed "Finding Faith in Jesus Christ" and she was crying during that movie, we didn't get the chance to teach her until Tuesday. When we went over she had told us she had been praying about a church she should join, She knew James 1:5 very well. When she had seen Billy's baptism and had gone to church with him that Sunday she felt like she had gotten an answer to her prayers and she loved our church, and is going to come every Sunday.

We taught Melvina the first lesson and gave her a Book of Mormon and a baptismal date for February 15th. When we went back to teach her again, we asked if she had prayed about the Book of Mormon, like we challenged her to do. She said no, but she knows it's true. She said just by reading it she can feel the spirit and can tell that it's a book from God. She said she did pray about her Baptismal date, (which we didn't ask her to do.) She got out a calendar and prayed about multiple dates, and felt like the 15th was perfect. It was a way neat experience hearing her say that she has a testimony of the Book of Mormon, and she had prayed about something we didn't even challenge her to do. We asked Billy to give his testimony on the Book of Mormon and what his feelings are about it. Now Billy isn't the brightest kid, He knows what to say, but he has a hard time speaking it, if that makes sense. He knows all the things, but has a hard time finding words. He started talking and like stuttering, We could tell he couldn't register his words so I started talking to try and help him, but he cut me off, stood up, grabbed the Book of Mormon holds it high in the Air and yells "This book is true!!!!!!" It was amazing! It gives me the chills every time I talk about it, I just wanted to cry when he said that haha.

Billy asked if a girl would be baptizing her, (he had forgotten that only men could have the priesthood.) So we told him that it would be a male baptizing her, and she automatically pointed to me. I was honored! I didn't decline the offer, but I countered it with something. Billy being a member, is now able to get the Priesthood, and I told them that he could baptize her. He's really scared too, but we've gone over and taught him about the priesthood, and he has a interview with bishop tonight so they can see where he's at and what he needs to do to receive the priesthood. It was funny, he asked me at Jessie's Baptism if it's hard to baptize, and then asked if I could say the prayer, and then he could dunk her haha. I really hope he'll be able to baptize her, although it's an honor for me to baptize somebody, it's ten times better if a member does it, so they have that fellowship and connection for when I get transferred out of the area.

So Jessie has this incredible faith, she has such a strong testimony of this church, she has been ready for baptism for a while, but couldn't because she was living with Adam. But because of his health situation, and them no longer being a couple, Bishop talked to them and they are allowed to live in the same house if they are in different rooms, so she can still take care of him. She was able to get a job too this past week! She drives for a nursing home, either taking patients to appointments, or to the hospital. So she has a lot of down time. During that time she carries around in her bag, a Book of Mormon, a Gospel Principles book, and The Lorenzo Snow book! She has been studying those books like crazy, and she loves them!

The Schreiners are this family that moved into the ward the day I came out into the field, and they are awesome! I love going over and visiting with them. Their dad is a non member and a civil war vet.. that has a hard time remembering things, so we were a little worried to go teach him. Their daughter who is 11 just moved in with them, and isn't a member either so we are now teaching Kayla, and Don. Don, remembered a lot more then I thought he was going too. And Kayla is way smart for an 11 year old, so she understood everything we taught her too. They both have a baptismal date for Feb 15th as well!

We had a ward movie night on Friday night at the church, we projected the movie Joseph Smith Prophet of the Restoration. I think it's the same one they play in temple square. I've seen that movie a couple times, but it has never had that impact on me before like it did on Friday. The spirit there was so strong. Being a missionary and watching that video, helped me understand so much more about the restoration of the church then I had known, and it will help me teach better too! Don and Kayla Schreiner were there and they thought it was really good. Melvina was there with Billy and she said that everything makes so much more sense now, and that it was an amazing movie. When the movie had ended, I asked her what she thought and she was just speechless, she said it was such a beautiful movie.

Sunday night we had Jessie's baptism. She asked me to baptize her too! It was awesome! It was our third baptism, and my second physical baptism. She's a little bit bigger then me, and a lot of people teased me before about dropping her and not being strong enough to pull her back up, but I was able to do it just fine! I did get a little worried though, because the font at our church has a leak in the drain so while you fill it up, it drains at the same time just not very fast. When we went into the font I thought I was going to have to baptize her more then once because the water was so shallow, it was like only three feet high! The Baptism was awesome though, and we got permission to do a font side confirmation instead of doing it during sacrament meeting. There was a very strong spirit there and you could tell everybody whether they were members or not, could feel it. Her son Rickie who we are going to teach tonight really felt it and wants to learn about the church now, and Her daughter Emery, who is 8 even said after Jessie was baptized that she wanted to be baptized! We might start teaching her too, it was cool because we were planning on teaching her before she said that. Saturday night we went over and taught Jessie and Adam and she had come at the end and said she wanted to say the prayer and so we taught her how to pray, and she got really excited after she said the closing prayer and said she wanted to do it again haha. Hopefully she'll be there tonight and will listen in on the lesson we teach Rickie. I'm a little nervous about teaching an 8 year old, because I'm worried I'll go on thinking she's an older person and teaching her way advanced stuff haha.

Jessie's Baptism - 1/20/2013

I've gotta run, but thanks for the letters, and the prayers. I love you guys and I hope you have an awesome week!

Love,
Elder Landon Bell

Email 1/14/13

It's been a pretty rough week this past week, but hopefully things will get better! I don't really have much to talk about in this email, but i'll try to say as much as I can haha. It feels like so much happened, but so little happened. We had a pretty unsucessful week, and quite a bit of stuff go on that I won't even be able to talk about on here. I have just been in a downer mood lately with everything going on out here. Everybody brings their problems directly to us instead of the bishop, so that's super frustrating. I don't think I could handle being a bishop!

We had exchanges twice this week, I exchanged with Elder Neonte, a spanish speaking Elder, and Elder Crozer, the zone leader. That was pretty fun, and it was cool to go around with them and see their different techniques, and teaching/tracting skills! The only bad thing about that was both of those days that I went on exchanges, pretty much all of our appointments fell through so it made our area look bad! It was still a good time though.

Billy did good this whole last week with not smoking and obeying the other commandments that he struggled with, so he was baptized on friday! It was way good! I was able to baptize him, and I did it on the first try! haha. When I was pulling him back up, his foot slipped on the ground and he almost fell back down but I caught him. Only one person noticed that I almost dropped him though so that saved me from a lot of embarrassment! Haha I'm sure Bishop would have teased me a lot about that.

Billy asked Elder Bell to baptize him!

Billy's Baptism - 1/11/2013

We have a few new investigators that we're not sure about yet, we can't really tell if they'll progress or not. We had a bad turn out at church this week we only had two of our investigators show up. We'll still invite them all to be baptized and continue to work with them, they just seem like they aren't super interested.

We taught Jessie and Adam the law of chastity this week, and we thought it was going to be hard because they have been living together for a while. Adam has some pretty bad health problems and we talked to bishop and asked if there is anything we could do about him not moving out. We came to an agreement that they could live in the same house, as long as they are in different rooms. They aren't a couple anymore anyways, and they live with a bunch of family so we know that they aren't sleeping in the same room now. Actually as soon as we told them Adam might have to move out he started sleeping out on the couch instead of in the same room as Jessie. Her baptismal date is on the 26th, but Bishop will be out of town and she really wants him to be there, so it might be pushed up a week! We'll find out about whether she feels good about it tonight when we go see her. She's awesome and has so much faith! We've prayed and been answered that she is ready, and so we'll see what her answer is tonight!

Phillip hasn't really been progressing lately, and it's really sad because he has a lot of potential, but just isn't making any progress I hope we don't have to drop him because we've spent probably over 30 hours working with him! He just doesn't have a love for himself and has some other problems. He is just overcoming a drug addiction he has had for 17 years and it's taking a big toll on him. He knows exactly what he needs to do, but he has a problem doing it. He knows by changing things it will make him happier, he just can't act on things. He knows the church is true and the Book of Mormon is true but still isn't sure about Jesus Christ. I know it doesn't really make sense, he's super confusing.

So Jaramiah sang some song about prayer at his baptism and he asked Billy if he could sing at his. Billy wanted him to sing "I Believe I Can Fly" at the end after all of it was over. It was ridiculous! Jaramiah tried impersonating R. Kelly's voice and trying to sing exactly like it sounded, but he didn't hit any of the notes haha. He would flap his arms like you would do in the chicken dance, while he singed the chorus "I believe I can fly". It was so hard not to laugh, I would send the recording of it, but it's too big of a file. (Elder Bell later sent his SD card, and the video is posted below)

I've grown to love Jaramiah so much, and I care about him a lot too. Saturday night is what made me in such a bad mood. We went over to Billy's to make sure he was going to be at church on time so he wouldn't miss his confirmation. When Theresa his mom answered the door, you could tell she was drunk. She started yelling at us about Jaramiah. They had done a background check online and there was something that happened in his past that they weren't too happy about. She told us that if we couldn't get him to leave her property, then she would call the cops and make him leave. I told her we couldn't really do anything about it, and that I'd call the Bishop. He said he would interview Jaramiah in the morning but couldn't really do anything about it. After we had left, we had probably stopped by 5-6 peoples houses and nobody answered. We were having really bad success. We got a call from Bishop saying that we needed to go to Theresa's and tell him that he was on his way over. He then specifically told us to be out of sight, and far away by the time he got there.

When Bishop got there, he woke Jaramiah up out of the Carport and talked to him about what he did. It was something in his past, but he hadn't talked with the police station about it yet. It wasn't a warrant or anything, he just needed to re-register. So Bishop told him to pack all of his belongings and to come with him, Jaramiah without fighting went with him. About ten seconds after they had walked out of the drive-way a car pulled up. A gang of teenagers hopped out and were looking for Jaramiah. Theresa, being drunk called some family friends to come over and take care of business. Billy, being the only sober one there ran out and held the gang back before they could get to Jaramiah. They were able to get away safely. He has always been talking about wanting to go back home to Cincinnati where all of his family is. He hasn't talked to them in a long time though, and isn't sure if they live there anymore. He wasn't safe being here in San B with a gang trying to kill him. A member in our ward bought him a bus ticket back to Ohio. I'll never be able to see Jaramiah again...

The Bishop kept thanking us for calling and not ignoring the promptings of the spirit. If we wouldn't have called, or gone over there, Jaramiah probably wouldn't be alive. Never ignore the promptings of the spirit! I'm so thankful that we had recognized that we needed to get bishop over there, and that the spirit was able to talk to me. I'm going to miss Jaramiah he's an awesome guy. I hope he can be safe and continue to go to church wherever he ends up.

That's pretty much all I have to talk about this week, it wasn't very eventful. Sorry I'm been in a bad mood, a lot of stuff has gone on in the past couple of days and it is just over whelming and depressing. I hope everybody is doing good! I love you guys and i'll talk to you next week.

Elder Landon Bell

Email 12/26/12 - Week 3: Christmas in San B

Hey Guys! I hope everybody is doing awesome! Things are great out here in San B, no more attempted break-ins (yet) but we're still on the search for pepper spray and ways to keep us safe! haha. As a mission our goal was 500 baptisms by the end of the year, and we have reached it! We will probably be around 530-540 by the end of the year. So now we get to have a mission party because we reached our goal! Our new goal for next year is to get 350 baptisms by the time president Godwin goes home, which is the end of June. We're really excited about that and I think we can do it!

Me and Elder Monk have been a little scared at night ever since those people broke in so we talked with President Godwin and they are going to look for a new place for us to stay. We also want to ask these members if we can move in with them at the new year, they live up in the nicer area and have an alarm system haha, I would feel a lot safer there for sure.

Having a member present during a lesson is way important so they can have fellowship, and not feel like nobody in the ward is their friend when the missionaries leave or something. Our ward is great at helping out but the best way to get them to help out over this Christmas season is using the quote Cayde had: "The best way to spread Christmas cheer, is bearing your testimony for all to hear." haha it works!

We found out that a member owns a theme park in Ontario, and we really want to go! So we talked with our zone leaders and they are going to see what they can do so we can go there on a p-day sometime in the future. It would be so much fun!

This week we prepared Jaramiah for Baptism. He, being very demanding, told us we had to bring him "Church's Chicken" and he also wanted us to bring watermelon too. Bishop Eastwood said to him we might as well bring purple Kool-Aid and cornbread too to fill out the rest of that stereotype! haha. Jaramiah also asked me to speak on the Holy Ghost at his baptism. Jaramiah shined my shoes for me and then he wanted money after so I gave him a few bucks, then I realized I had another pair at home, so I decided hey I can shine my own shoes. So I went and shined them, after I look in the mirror and realize I got all of this Black shoe polish on my white shirt. It could have been really bad, but Tide-to-go saved my life! You can't even tell that there was a stain on it!

We had a Mission Christmas party this week and it was really awkward at first. You walk in and you see all of these missionaries talking to each other and you don't know anybody but your companion or people in your zone. It felt like one of those parties you go to with a friend, but you don't know anybody there so you awkwardly stand there and drink a lot of water, and pretend like you have something interesting going on on your cell phone or in your planner haha. It ended up being a pretty fun party though, President Godwin dressed up as Santa and I got to sit on his lap! Then we sang Christmas songs and me and Elder Escamilla, and Elder Langi (From the MTC) all went crazy and sang way loud and beautiful.. haha just kidding it was some pretty awful singing.

Elder Bell's Christmas wish

We got to pick up our Christmas Packages at that party, and I got a package from Mom, and Mike. I didn't think I would have gotten one from mom because they said one of my packages got stolen, but after skyping with the family yesterday, I guess none of my packages got stolen, unless someone else sent one to me? I opened up the package from mom and instead of using paper in-between stuff so it wouldn't rattle, she used packs of ramen hahah it made me laugh way hard but it was a genius idea!

Box of stomach aches

I had a really cool experience with Billy this week. We started teaching him, and then he got a phone call and left, so we just talked with Jaramiah and taught him. When we were leaving Billy came back and we asked if he still wanted to be taught, he wasn't very into the lesson before he left so I was kind of like not really in the mood to teach him, kind of thinking like he doesn't want to pay attention, why should we teach him? But the lesson ended up being amazing. I was tired so I was kind of out of it, having a hard time paying attention myself, and then Elder Monk looked at me and I just bore my testimony on the Plan of Salvation and then I kept going. The Holy Ghost talked through me like never before. I was getting all fired up and I felt like I was giving a speech, or I was a coach giving a half time talk. It was amazing, I just kept going and going, and I have never had the Holy Ghost tell me EXACTLY what to say word for word, telling me exactly what they needed to hear. I related my own personal experiences in there and used some awesome analogies I don't even remember. Experiences like that keep growing and growing my faith I love it, just when I think nothing crazier with the Holy Ghost could happen, I keep getting surprised! It was the best lesson I have ever taught! Both me and Billy were crying by the end of it.

We've been teaching Jessie and Adam and Jessie is the investigator and Adam is already a member. They aren't married but they live together. They are awesome people I love those guys, they are one of my favorites to teach because we have given them quite a few priesthood blessings and they have a strong testimony of the church even thought Jessie isn't a member yet. She's got a lot of faith. We went over there on Saturday and after we got done teaching, Adam asked if he could get a picture of us with Jessie. He said in case you guys move away, I want to get her picture with her original missionaries! They are an awesome family.

Elder Bell, Jessie, Elder Monk

Jaramiah got baptized Saturday!!! It was awesome! I'm glad I was there to be able to help him prepare and to stay strong with not smoking! His baptism went really well! I thought my talk on the Holy Ghost wasn't going to go over so well and I was really nervous because quite a bit of people showed up to the baptism. But everybody said I did a really good job! I don't know how, but the Holy Ghost really works through me in times of need! And I'm so grateful to have that as a constant companion! The Holy Ghost is our Third and most important companion in missionary work!

Jaramiah's Baptism - 12/22/2012

Jaramiah wanted to sing us a song at his baptism and he wouldn't tell us what it was or what it was about so we were worried that it wouldn't be church appropriate but we let him sing anyways. It wasn't a hymn or a song by an LDS artist, but it was about prayer and he actually did a good job! It was funny when he ended the song he just stopped and waited a couple seconds and then said "Now where is my chicken?!?" It was way funny!

"Now where is my chicken?!?"

I got Elder Monk some "Socker Boppers" for Christmas hahah, they are like boxing gloves but they are giant and inflatable. I decided I should give Escamilla and Austin something too. So I got some sweet potatoes wrapped it in plastic sacks and then put tissue paper on the outside and just threw on a bunch of the most random things I could think of. It had cookies, candy, q-tips and other random things taped to the outside hahah It's kind of hard to describe. Elder Escamilla got 4 opened sweet tart candy boxes taped together, with UNO cards taped to it, and a sucker with life savers on the stick, and other random stuff taped to it with a toilet paper roll taped to it. I just wanted to make them something awesome and I think I succeeded! I'll send a picture of them all!

When you don't have wrapping paper, use toiletries instead

Me and Elder Monk see quite a bit of homeless people out here, I think there is 2,000 homeless in this city. We got a whole bunch of goodies in packages and from members. We decided to go out and deliver goodies to homeless people we saw, it was pretty cool and we got a couple good reactions out of it! Most of them were drunk though so I don't think they knew what was going on. I also decided to buy Jessie and Adam Hernandez Christmas dinner, so I bought a couple boxes of mashed potatoes, and stuffing, and then I bought them a pretty big ham! They were so grateful. Service is one of my favorite things, and helping others around the holidays when they can't afford food, or presents for there families is an amazing experience. We're also going to buy Jaramiah a heater and take it over to him today because it's starting to get pretty cold at night and he sleeps on the ground in a sleeping bag and he asked for one, so we'll be Santa for him!

Elder Bell & Elder Monk decorated a member's tree

Christmas at Bishop Eastwood's

This Christmas was way good! I thought it was going to be depressing being away from home and everything but it was actually way sweet! The Lord has defnitetely blessed me with not being home sick! I got some awesome gifts from mom, Mike Gramse, and K.C. & X! Thank you so much for all of those! I've never been so excited before to get ties or socks! Brother Gramse sent me some awesome ties, so ugly, but so gorgeous! I love them. We played a lot of basketball on Christmas and then went over to Bishop Eastwoods for dinner and had some great food, and a lot of fun. We played the game "HedBanz" and it was so funny. Elder Monk and Austin were pretty bad at it haha, but they're good sports when we tease them about things. The best part of Christmas was when I got to Skype home to family! It was so good seeing everybody! I feel like so much has happened in the month and a half I've been out haha. For a while I got a little distracted and was missing home a bit, but I realized I have the rest of my life to spend with family and only 2 years to serve the Lord full-time.

Christmas morning

"Spirit House Cat"

A puzzle to match the pants

Today we got to go to the Temple! It was so awesome to go there and do an endowment session! We went to the Redlands Temple which is out of our area but President Godwin allows us to go quarterly. Redlands is about 20 minutes away so it isn't too bad of a drive. We also got to go to Cafe Rio for lunch! I didn't know they had one out here, but in Redlands they do!

Alright well I love you guys, thanks for the letters and support! I have P-day again in like 4 days so hopefully I'll have something to write about then! haha

Love,
Elder Landon Bell