This week hasn’t been too
exciting, but don’t worry I might just have a good story to tell. So
first off, I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this in recent emails, but
this area has a very high population of Asian people. I’ve been exposed
to a lot of the Latin culture around Southern California, but the whole
Asian thing is kind of weird to me. We have hacienda heights which is
more Chinese people than white, and then we have La Puente which is
mainly Hispanic people, it’s really weird.
We
have the biggest Buddhist temple in the Western Hemisphere in this
area. Buddhist people believe that if you are within a certain mileage
of a temple you get more blessings, or something like that. So there are
a lot of Asian people here. I’ve picked up on a little Spanish on my
mission, but Chinese is something so foreign to me. It’s been so weird
trying to contact people when most of them only speak Chinese. For that
reason alone we do a lot of work in la Puente so we can at least get the
Spanish people. That’s been exciting.
Update
on the bike situation, remember last week how I was saying that my
companion is a crazy fast biker? Well it turns out he’s not. On
Halloween we were biking up to the church to set up for the Halloween
ward party, and my companion was just zooming up those hills. I was mad,
I was furious. Why the heck is he biking so fast? I was peddling as
hard as I have in my life. Why was he doing this to me? Was this some
sort of punishment, or what? What did I do to deserve this? All these
thoughts were going through my mind as I caught up to him at a red
light, “Why are you peddling so fast!” My companion looked puzzled, “I
was wondering why you were biking so slow” this mad me even more mad.
When get got to the church I was soaked in sweat while E. Stone on the
other hand didn’t even look like he broke a sweat. As we were setting up
for the party I began to wonder if my companions comment was more
sincere than sarcastic. Thinking over this in my mind I realized that
there must be something wrong with my bike. After spinning the front
tire It was pretty obvious that there was something seriously wrong with
my back tire. Having broken my bike more than too many times on my
mission I already knew the problem, my wheel axel was shattered.
I
don’t know if many of you are familiar with bikes, but when your axel
breaks, it makes your bike pretty much unridable. The wheel can’t turn
properly, hence an added measure of resistance... and then the epiphany
hit me. My axel has been broken for the last month, and I’ve been riding
it up these mongo hill from hell... FOR THE LAST MONTH. long story
short I had to get a new wheel... and you know what? I have been doing
intensive strength training for the last month, riding a fixed bike has
never been easier in my life. Now it’s my companion that’s suffering as
We’re riding up these widow making hills. It really felt good to get
that bike fixed and for me to realize that I’m not as big of a baby as I
thought.
BUT ANYWAYS, I will always have a
story to tell about how my bike is broken, as most of you know. This
week has been good, there have been a lot of things that have kept us
from regular proselytizing. We had our Halloween party, that took up
ridiculous amount of time. That too Interviews with President, to more
bike problems... it seems like there isn’t enough time in the day. I’m
excited to see what this upcoming week has in store for us. It seemed
like pday was just yesterday and here it is again, what a blessing.
This
up coming week we have a baptism for Steve. He’s a investigator the
missionaries have been working with for a couple months now, he has made
so many changes in his life it’s amazing. I thing that makes missionary
work worth it to me is definitely the people you get to work with. I
feel that when we try and teach other people they end up teaching me as
well. My mission has given me so much perspective on life, something I
couldn’t have gotten any other way. We’re holding down the fort in sunny
Southern California. It’s been getting in the 60s this week. You’re
going to laugh at me, but I’m starting to get cold. I am literally going
to die my first winter back, can’t wait. Just another update in the
LeBaron weekly.
Much love,
Elder LeBaron
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