First Baptism

This week went by fast!

But thats because we were busy setting up the first baptism of my mission!

Don Fidel was baptised last saturday and comfirmed yester sunday

Last transfer Elder Robledo and I taught him so Elder Robledo had the awesome oppurtinity to come back and baptize don fidel!

Yesterday we were fed by a member they threw on the spain v germany world cup game! Good Game too!

Dang I miss soccer!

Last transfer, Elder Robledo, 2 missionaries, and I, Took two hours to paint one single side of Sister Morales' shed,

This time Elder Garret and I cranked out the whole thing in an hour and a half,

Sister Morales: "Ohhh ellos son flojos hahah" she called Elder Robledo and those two other missionaries Lazyyy!!

She has the funniest laugh

And shes so sweet, and a Solid Member!

Not much to say this week!

More awesome stories to come in the coming future!

Feel free to reach out!

Love Elder Sandberg

Tough week

 This week has kicked my butt.

Pero las cosas duros, te hacen fuerte!

But hard things make you strong!!!

This week wasnt really too diferent from any other week, simply put, (I am past the 3 month break in) 

This past sunday I was already pretty stressed with something idk even know what.

, then at church in the hall I was  solving an important problem with our friend and a member for him to be baptized, then a member from another another ward, came up to me and shoved his Ipad in front of me and said "Elder ayudame el wifi no esta funcionando!" I quickly logged him in, then he said: Elder! Necesito los videos para los niños!!" I was losing patience, because I needed to solve this important problem with our friend,

Then AnOtHeR member from another ward jumped into the ring, he said: Elder! Necesito su Ayuda con cosas en mi carro!.

I was freaking out, getting very overwhelmed, 5 poeple shouting spanish at me, putting their faith in an 8 week old missionary to solve their problems, worst part was my companion was elsewhere helping put away the sacrement,

But!

We got it settled i worked the magic, the savior blessed me with understanding and patience; and all is well.

Life is hard, missionary work is hard, being away from the people you love is even harder but nobody said it was going to be easy, so Im here to grind and

GET ER DUN SUN!

Just a little fyi the "ranking" for mission assignments goes

-mission president x1

-assistant pres x2(missionaries)

-trainers

-zone Leaders 

-district Leaders  

-then the rest of us

I enjoy exchanges, (when you swap companions for the day with your district or zone leader) 

You always grow extra close with those you exchange with because its exciting to get to know someone new to work with!

And the end of the week I went on an exchange with our new district leader, his name is Elder Parrales he is from Ecuador and is a huge inspiration to me, He has 2 months or so left in the mission so he had a lot of wisdom and experience to share with me, i hope one day to be half the missionary he is! he was a zone leader for 11 transfers!

Anyways, he said he was impressed with the way I work in the mission and he also told me,  "you're gonna be a zone leader or district leader in the next transfers and if not that, training"

I was shocked thinking no way!

I'm learning new things everyday!

I'm imensly greatful for each and every experience Ive had thusfar and Im superbly stoked for the future!

I firmly know! this is the true restored church of jesus christ and he lives, god does too! And they have a plan for us!

And following their timeline is crucual to our success in any aspect of life

Thanks to all who read these suckers, it truly means a lot!

I hope you all have a good week

Feel free to reach out I love yalls emails!

     Love

Elder Sandberg

-Elder Parrales and Me

-We found an alley full of motorcycles!

-And an old foto of my boys and me back home Wasted Day!

Another Great Week!

out here on my BMX bike, in the ghetto

I gotta tell ya it is fun!!!

Elder garret is probably the nicest, kindest most genuine person ive met! He is from salt lake city and has been out for 21 months!!! He's larger in stature and loves to eat, a lovely member se llama ana ruth feeds us dinner every tuesday and this past week she fed us soup, lt was pretty taste.

In this soup there was a quarter of a whole cabbage in the soup, Elder Garrett picks it up and shoves the whole thing in his mouth! And swallows it in one bite, it was grotesque yet impressive!.

I like to bike fast! Elder Garrett does not, but thats ok! One time i was going my own pace hoppin up and off curbs, I had a prompting to look back. 

Elder Garett was no where to be found.

I waited a bit and here he came chugging up the hill, I felt kind of bad, 

We ride a good pace now and take breaks,

Great oppurtunities to talk to people!

Riding bikes in a latino community is so much fun!!!

If im riding and I see a latino I wave and shout buenas noches!, o buenos días, o buenas! They are always so friendly and shout the same thing back, porque.

 ¿hablamos con todos verdad?

There are some new Elders, im still super new and greener than a tree in the mission, but its awesome to see how much ive grown my testimony, my spanish, and my outlook on life.

One Elder se llama Elder Fulmer he is so funny!!! 

Its always a good day when you can help someone relax and laugh, because life is hard and even harder when your stressed and tense!!. Ive obtained throughout life a precious skill and gift to laugh and make people laugh, i use this skill quite often in the mission, with missionaries and friends

Im doing great p days are much needed

President Egbert said he has high hopes for me, and said I should have at least 1 baptism every month!!!

I got very pretty stoked! But scared haha.

But we have 4 friends who might be baptized within the next 4 weeks,

So

2 in november, 2 in december, doubling presidents expectations!

That will be hard though! Although we might be able to pull it off! I cant do it alone, the lord is helping me everyday, hour, minute, and second!

I also need your help, so if yall could keep

Rodolfo

Isabla

Juan rodrigueZ

Don fidel

In your prayers that would be very much apreciated :) all these awsome people are preogressing amazingly and its such a blessing to see the joy and the spirit they feel! 

I am truly humbled by this whole mission thing, its HARD! But yet its so much fun!

Im especially grateful for my boys, Elder cloward, Elder Gray and Jerry

(my rad dudes in my band wasted day)

For pushing me to go for a mission!

Thank you so much for every ones support it seriously means a lot!

I miss you all very much

Con mucho amor

Elder Sandberg

Voy a tener momentos espirituales en mis emails, en español.

Éter 12:12

12 Porque si no hay fe entre los hijos de los hombres, Dios no puede hacer ningún milagro entre ellos; por tanto, no se mostró sino hasta después de su fe.

Me encanta este escritura porque, la fe es BIEN importante en nuestras vidas, y sin fe, no podemos tener milagros, porque no hay hasta despues de su fe!

1st transfer gone

 I've been out here as a missionary for 3 months, and I've been here in Compton for 6 weeks, 6 great weeks!!!

Transfers are tomorrow!!!

I'm staying here in this area and Elder Robledo is leaving for the San Fernando Valley!!! He has been here in ghetto for 6 months so he is pretty stoked to leave

It's been great I've learned so much from him, he was district leader here so I went on every exchange!! Those were fantastic learning experiences!

My new companion is Elder Garret I haven't met him yet, BUT!! all the other Elders love him

Although we are getting our car taken away, not because we don't deserve it simply because some sisters are moving into the zone!!! And they are taking our car

Please pray for them, although I know they are gonna be just fine and do great!

Every zone needs sister missionaries, spiritualy, sisters bring sense and brightness to a zone, they are very important.

We are all different kinds of tools, tools for the lord to bring forth this work, and Heavenly Father needs all kinds of different tools to accomplish this work

Sisters stole our car

So we will be on bikes! Which I am super stoked about!!!!

 

For the past few exchanges elder robledo left the area and I stayed so I've become very familiar with this leading this area.

One exchange we built a shed for our bishop and I used power tools! Including a Milwaukee impact, and a Milwaukee nail gun! It was definitely much needed for me bishop would say in a thick Mexican accent, bRrothar sAndBarhh we now put up These plywoods .

I had a blast doing it!

2 exchanges we got into an intense bash!!!, we just stayed calm stated some facts, let them get their anger out at us, simply bore our testimony and dipped!

One of there names was brother Davis he was very authoritative, he told us he was he was taken down to hell forty years ago, I asked him why, he told told us he was muslim living in the middle east, getting high on 5 different drugs everyday, and spending every night at the whorehouse. Wide eyed, I simply said that does sound like hell. He said Mormons were sinners and I bore my testimony of the Book of mormon and our latter day prophets and we parted ways.

Our friend rodolfo is getting baptized this Friday!!! Elder robledo says he hasn't progressed much until I got here

I'm very proud of rodolfo, 6 weeks ago the idea of him getting baptized seemed like a pipe dream!

Holy Crap the gift of tongues is real!! I've only been learning Spanish para tres meses y la idioma esta muy Buena! Y entonces yo puedo eseñar, y ayudar nuestros amigos para sentir mas Paz y mas gozo en sus vidas, y tambien para venir a Cristo, este Cosa es bien importante, Pues que bueno nos vemos a todos en la proxima semana!

Everyday I have a new crazy experience

I'm doing great!!!

Food is great!!!

Todo bien hermanos y hermanas. :)))

I miss yall

Much love

         Elder Sandberg

Find the spirit in violent places

Howdy folks

This week was quite exciting!

We talked to several black friends, more drunk friends, more high off their minds friends, and as you can imagine, that was very fun. LA is loud, gave a blessing to the sick, Elder Hwang crashed his car, did an exchange with Elder hosea 230 ib Tongan boy. 

I have a slight correction so I am based in Compton but I'm in the Figueroa ward, I was mistaken from the first email, 

Anyways the infamous Figueroa street is a great place to find and do bad things, (which we never do) although we have several friends who live on or near that street so at least twice a week we are walking on that street, just to give some insight on Figueroa street: a nice man offered me some fine coke I graciously declined, several prostitutes surrounded our car, we handed them some law of chastity pamflits and told them God delights in the chastity of his daughters, and swiftly drove away!!! And another drunk guy hit me on the shoulder but it was in a loving way.

So! That's Figueroa street, very exciting, once again I'm the only white person out here, the only ones here are Latino, Chinese, or black folks.

We have a friend named Julian who lives on the this street he is about 23 or so and he is so sweet and is a bit shy. Our area is right in line with the LAX airport so literally every 4-6 minutes an aeroplane 800 yards above us comes cruising in for a landing, julian and several other of our friends prefer to have lessons outside so ITS LOUDDDD.

Hence the subject title, a constant miracle I've seen this week is how the spirit stays with us even when that loud plane is over us, when a drug dealer pops an F bomb around the corner, or when the cholos are blasting their sweet Latino music making their little trucks bounce. 

The spirit dwells in peaceful calm scenarios although here in LA that is rare and I can testify that the holy ghost dwells in people if they are willing to listen, no matter the circumstance.

I had an awesome opportunity to assist in giving a blessing of health I am very grateful for that experience, the gift of tongues is real, I didn't give the blessing but I anointed the oil so it wasn't much Spanish but when Elder Robledo gave  that blessing I understood everything, and I could tell that wasn't his words, it was the words and blessings of our heavanly father, main reason I say that was because afterwards I asked him if he remembered what he said, 

 and he couldn't remember.

This week we got to go on an exchange, my companion is district leader so I've gone on 3 so far, this time Elder Robledo went with Elder Hwang and Elder Hosea came with me, now some back story, I've been here in LA for 3 weeks ish same for Elder Hwang. Robledo has about a year, and Hosea 23 months (he's about to die) that's just what they say, and about a year ago Elder Hosea lost his driving privileges for the whole mission, so Hwang has been driving them around.

Until last week Elder Hwang ran into a light pole on church property so he lost his privileges just for 2 weeks or so, and there wasn't a need for me to drive so I haven't got my driver card thingy set up yet

So I was in charge of leading one of the largest areas with 3 week experience, no car, and a 230 ib Tongan Elder. I have a bike. Hosea does not, we borrowed a bike from some elders, he sat on it and popped the tire. Borrowed another bike, it stayed true.

A block down the road he shouts "uhhh is it bad to ride on a flat tire??"

I'm thinking oh great!

So we walked the bikes home and began to walk, hopped on the bus, walked some more and finally made it to Rodolfos house. In which, we got to our 2:30 appointment around 5:00, it was great though! Elder Hosea is hilarious and we get along super well! We met a lot of great people that day! 

Sidenote black and Latino cultures are so fun and sooo different although somehow they work well together in this crazy city

Anyways thanks fo readin foos 

      Elder Sandberg 

-Obtenimos los ponchos

-Elder Hwang y sus tijeras grandes 

-Elder Hosea y yo

-Elder Hosea y su bicicleta roto

-Elder Robledo y yo

-Ay muchos perros aqui

-La ciudad de Los Angeles a las atardece

Where to start?

 LA is pretty crazy 

That's where to start

We find people who are suprisingly nice, we find people who think they are flying, swimming and singing an opera at the same time and we find people who are very not nice, but sometimes being bold is the way to go.

This week we bought a whole group of homeless friends McDonald's, I was happy to do it! And I could tell they really needed it, in that same McDonald's we met a black man named Steven he was very kind and honest, he was wearing a white shirt and a tie; and had a Bible full of notes on the table. He waved us over and we began to talk about our church and I was surprised he hadn't heard of this church. We began a discussion, we told him about Joseph Smith and I could tell tensions began to arise and a Bible bash was at our midst, before things got too crazy I bore my testimony of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith; said we had an appointment, and got out of there.

I was surprised, I've only been here for 2 weeks and I've had several conversations with people trying so hard to find flaws in the book of mormon and our church, this I expected. The thing that surprises me is how little these people know about the book of mormon and even the Bible, 

My favorite thing to do is help our confused friends through the Bible and they say "oh I've never read that verse before"

I try to avoid Bible bashing though because it gets no where, a true waste of time for both of us.

Elder Robledo's English is great but when it comes to gospel topics, he shuts up so it's been exciting when we meet English speakers because I do most of the talking which is a great way to learn, baptism by fire

Anyways I'm doing well my district is tight, my companions awesome

I hope you all are well.

Piece the frootnattlecrackle out 

       -Elder Sandberg

Ps. Niños y abuelas love Elder Gringo, they say Elder Gringo esta aqui!!!!

And one of our friends had puppies!

I gOo CaLfOrYa!

 Que Pasa ladies and gents!

I missed the past month of emails so this will be long overdue

This week has been awesome  we flew in on Monday to LAX airport in Los Angeles California, where we were greeted by 4 very kind Elders and a Senior missionary couple! Their spirits were so strong!

Slept at the mission home for a night, next day, met my companion: Elder Robledo. He is awesome! He was born in mexico city so he speaks fluent spanish (obviously) and his English is fantastic.

First day out in the field we had 2 lessons, a meal with a member, and met 3 new friends and talked with them about this wonderful church and the book of mormon. Elder Robledo and I created a saying: Hablamos con todos, sin importa. Which basically means, we talk with everyone, no matter what.

This past week I have spoken and listened to SOOOOO much Spanish, it is HARD but I absolutely love it. I got put into the town of Compton, smack in the ghetto, it is so great! Sisters are not sent here. I can testify that Jesus christ watches out for his missionaries.

I have had many exciting interactions, with drunk and high people they are always so fun! For example we were walking the street and a drunk black dude comes up and say yo what's up ma n**** (you know), punches me in the shoulder and he fell over, we helped him up and sat him on a bench.

We gave him a card with our number and the address of the church, not expecting much but hey you never know.

We are in Figurosa ward no. 1 this ward is split into two: English and Spanish,

We share the spanish ward with 2 other elders so it's Elder Flores, Elder Chirinos, Elder Robledo and I, I have already come very close with these Elders they are very nice and so funny! 

One thing I learned is Latinos,  especially older Latinos love to Joke! So I have gotten quite good at joking around in Spanish which helps build their trust even more. this is a very important thing to do. So every time I meet someone new and they ask where I'm from, I say, soy de Oaxaca Mexico! And they say: what?? Un gringo de Oaxaca?? Then I say, noo soy de Utah, and they laugh its silly but I love it!

Side note, I haven't seen a single white person that's not affiliated with the church so I often stick out like a sore thumb. 

I also haven't met a single Latino who can pronounce my last name besides Robledo. So when they struggle I say, that's OK you can call me Elder Gringo they absolutely love it haha!

One sister we met, said I belong in a soap opera starring el gringo muy guapo con manos fuerte, 

Almost every Latino father that I shake hands with asks if I worked construction, they say they can tell just by my handshake, one brother always asks if I will come work with him after my mission. I say ya veremos hermano which means, we shall see brother.

80% of us talking with members, friends, and street contacts haven't even been about the gospel its mainly just been friendly, kind conversations getting to know people! We are simply  representatives of Jesus Christ which I love! 

This place is basically a foreign mission! I love the people here! they are suprisingly friendly and very humble!

The same type of people Jesus taught who were ready to be taught. I have felt the spirit in every lesson and message that we've had! And I can tell our friends felt it too, its only been a week and  there is already such a strong trust with our friends, they open up to us which is very brave of them to do, but that's also how we can help them the most!

     Nos vemos

           Elder Sandberg