Elder Matthew LeBaron - 2/13 - Steak, walking, and shenanigans

Hello once again, I hope that everyone has enjoyed their week, I hope that February is warming up for everyone, because it's definitely warming up here in La Puente, California. I have been a little made, some of our days have been pushing the high 70s, which is awful, because it literally just cooled down. It took until about Christmas for things to be comfortable, and here we are again, before I know it, it will be back in the 80s. Personally I think a perfect 70 is the best weather there is.  We have been walking a lot this week, and so that makes things like 10 times hotter. The cool thing about biking is that you can always make your own breeze, but when you walk you don't have a lot going for you. Me and Mitchell's bikes have been in the shop for a couple days this week, and yet again, I got a call from the bike shop informing me that 5 plus things are wrong with my bike, typical. I got all of those things fixed and my bike is rideable at least. Mitchell had one of his spokes fixed, the next day he broke another one, sucka. Not to mention, the only bike shop that is not even in our area, but out, is super sketchy. Its owned by this Vietnamese guy that speaks broken english, and bike parts are thrown everywhere in the bike shop, most of everything looks like its been stolen, the parts are super cheap, which is nice, but questionable, very questionable. It's a big hassle because we have to get permission from the zone leaders to go, and then we have to get a member to take us, and through out the next couple of days we are crippled, and if we need to go somewhere far we will take the bus, which never shows up on time, it says it comes every 15 minutes, more like every 2 hours. Also the busses are super sketchy in Southern California, a couple of days ago we saw this meth pipe on a seat, and the worst part is that there was this lady that sat by it, started at it for 10 minutes and then put it in her purse... man crazy people they're the worst. On Tuesday we went to pick up our bikes at the church, because we left them on Monday night. We were riding home, and we saw a couple people surrounded by this towel, with blood everywhere, I instantly knew that it wasn't something that I wanted anything to do with, but Mitchell was persistent that we needed to help out. It looked like there was a little girl that had been hit by a car, but luckily it was only a dog, I won't get into all the details, because it was a pretty graphic experience. I hate when animals get hit by cars, ugh it's awful. When you are on the streets all day you see a lot of stuff like that, especially because the traffic is so dense. seeing that it pretty much ruined me for a couple days.  This week we had steak for dinner 2 times, which was amazing. Mexico may baptize like crazy, but they got nothing on us when it come to food. Since Crane is leaving this Friday, Sister castro, an older woman who feeds us every week decided to give him a special farewell dinner, which means that me and Mitchell got to get on that too. Blessings. She gave us these huge 14 oz t-bone steaks with potatoes, baked mac and cheese, with garlic bread, maaan, state side can be the best sometimes. Thanks Elder crane for going home, I appreciate it. On Sunday we went to a members house for dinner, and she wanted us to prepare dinner, which was a lot of fun, not to mention it probably required a lot of trust. She gave these huge steaks to Mitchell and asked him to grill them, and she had me making potato salad, which I mean isn't as hard, but still. I guess Mitchell has had a lot of experience when it comes to grilling, because the steaks were super good. Life is good here in La puente.  Me and my little trio have been working hard, but man is it hard, but man, is it hard to stay focused. It probably doesn't help that me and Mitchell have a lot of fun together. being a missionary can be a lot of fun, and you don't need to break any rules, its all about how you go about doing the work, and me and Mitchell both have a lot of fun. At the same time, that is a little scary because all of my comps... well most of  them have been like polar opposite of me. So it may be a little harder to stay focused knowing myself, but I know the Lord will help me haha.  I love being a missionary, It's one of the hardest things I've ever done, but it is so rewarding. This is the first time in my mission where I have started to feel the effect of my work, and it feels so good to finally see some results. I'm excited to see what the Lord has in store for me in the next 16 months.  Elder LeBaron  614 West Foothill Blvd, Arcadia, California, 91006