Hey guys!
So this week has been pretty good it’s flown by! I am staying in the
area but got a new companion, Elder boulette. Me and him get a long
pretty well together and I think he will be my last companion since I
only have once transfer after this one is done. We have a visa
missionary in our apartment so now we have 5 people, I guess you can’t
beat 6 though haha.
I’ve been slacking on the emails, Time is flying by so fast. It feels
like I was just with Elder Hansen, we were together 3 months and now
he’s in my first area, the Glendora 3rd Ward. I had a lot of fun with
him, so I wanted to sum up our last week together, I hope you’re ready
to take a nice little seat for this story. Nothing but exciting things
happen in East L.A reader discretion advised, haha just kidding it’s
not that bad. ;)
on Tuesday we went to East L.A, which we go to a lot lately. We were
riding the bus and this kid sitting next to us had a book titled “how
to better understand the Bible” so of course we struck a conversation
with him. He was really knowledgeable about the scriptures and even
started quoting scriptures at us about the structure of the church and
priesthood authority and all sorts of stuff. He said he was only 16,
and I was honestly pretty impressed like... when I was that age, I did
not care about the Bible, honestly still not too fond of the Bible
especially the Old Testament. 😂 so pretty much what happened was he
kept switching busses and so we followed him and talking to him, I was
pretty determined to pick him up as an investigator, and so we did. I
was worried that I was going to run out of tap money because I was
pretty low, and we ended up in the middle of L.A probably outside of
the mission riding the bus with this guy. The follow up appointment
sucked, I was on exchanges and Hansen doesn’t know how to talk to
people. The kid just looked up scriptures on google about how we can’t
be Gods and how there is errors in the Book of Mormon, pretty much
just a bunch of scriptures that don’t make any sense, taken out of
context. So whatever Eric. I’m just sick of trying to convince people,
it just seems like no one will just take the challenge of just reading
and praying. That’s how the last 2 transfers have felt, just trying to
convince people, it’s been pretty slow. Haha
I’m sorry this email might come across as negative, but I don’t know
how else to present these stories. 😂 this week we had another
incident of a crazy person on public transportation. East L.A is a
place where you don’t really feel all that comfortable, especially in
Boyle heights. I think the most terrifying thing to me is all the
homeless people that are on drugs and crazy. There was this guy on the
train when we walked in and he was facing the aisle sitting sideways
in the seats with his hood over his head. He was talking to himself,
so instantly I start heading to the back of the bus. I turn around and
Elder Hansen is about to sit right next to him, like STOP! I am not
sitting next to that guy. This is all non verbal body language
because I don’t want to engage this crazy guy and I get Elder Hansen
to at least sit across from him on the other side of the aisle, but it
still puts us in a spot where the guy is just staring us down. Elder
Hansen seemed annoyed that I made him change spots, not fully aware of
what’s going on. We sit down and I whisper to him “hey let’s go sit in
the back of the train” With a confused face he responds “what?” A
little louder “Elder let’s go sit in the back?” He face scrunches a
little more in confusion “what??” Feeling a little frustrated I
respond “ let’s sit back there!” Pointing to the back of the train
cart “ what are you talking about?” Ugh okay whatever, haha I just
accept it. Who cares, we are going to sit next to this crazy guy
talking to himself saying the craziest things. Elder Hansen is still
oblivious to the situation totally zoned out, he probably thought the
guy was on his phone, but I don’t think he was listening to what he
was saying. “You can’t kill my brother, he’s a motherf*******
vampire!” This is really a losing situation for me because I’m on the
outside seat. Why don’t I just get up and move to the back, right?
Seems like a simple solution, but I’ve tried that with crazy people
here, and they follow us! It’s like I can’t get a break. This guys is
starting to get louder and louder, saying terribly vulgar things that
literally don’t make any sense.
At this point Elder Hansen looks at me a little concerned, finally
realizing the situation. I don’t even look at him I just keep looking
out the window, I’m not going to engage this guy. Obviously all the
things he’s saying is directed towards us, some how I thought that
this situation was just going to defuse itself, just be calm . Now the
guy is screaming at us, “hey you faggot murderers! You want to f******
fight?! Hey shut up! Shut your F****** mouth, I’ll kill you” so this
is a little disconcerting to me at this point. I’m a little worried to
what’s going to happen, since crazy people are so unpredictable. He
threw a pen trying to hit Elder Hansen, it flew past his face and
smacked into the window. Elder Hansen picked up the pen and with
frustration looks at our crazy guy with the expression of “what are
you doing” on his face, with his hands up. I shoot Hansen a glare,
like don’t you dare intensify this situation. The guy yells some other
threatening and sits down. He’s quite for a moment and then says “
look I’m sorry, I’m sorry I threw the pen” and then the train stops
and people flood in. Finally! More people! This might be a bad
situation but at least we won’t be the only people on the train. He
seems to quiet down and I think that it’s over, he just keeps mumbles
crazy, vulgar things to himself. Out of no where he screams at the top
of his lungs “IM NOT SORRY” and everyone on the train gasps out of
shock, everything gets eerily silent. There are a few more details,
but for the sake of time and your attention span I’ll cut to the most
exciting part.
One thing leads to another and now this guy is grabbing a support pole
along the side of a seat and shaking it as hard as he can screaming.
He then runs to the pole closest to us and starts doing the same
thing, he runs to the back of the train and sprints up to the front
just yelling nonsense. An older lady stands up pointing her finger at
this guy and yells “STOP IT STOP IT!” Obviously this situation is
growing increasingly out of control. He starts to point at random
people including myself “ you feel unsafe?! You feel unsafe right
now?!” Like freaking yes ! I feel unsafe as hell right now! The man
starts to scream, “They can’t contain me! Get me off this train! He
runs to the train door and pulls the emergency door latch as the train
is going full speed down the tracks. An alarm sounds and the trains
begins to stop. He starts kicking the door holding onto the side poles
putting his full body weight into it. The door slightly buckles under
the force and a crack appears at the top of the door. He reached his
fingers between and frantically tried to pull apart the doors. After
about 10 seconds the doors began to slide open. While the train still
moving, probably 5 miles an hour at this point. Our boy leaps from the
train and starts sprinting down the track. I felt relief at this
point, finally he’s gone! It was probably the longest 20 minutes of my
life. The whole metro got held up for 30 minutes because the train
door was broken. Our train was stuck on the tracks along with all the
other trains going our direction. They had to get a train technician
to come and fix it... man that was a long day. To sum up the story I’m
find everyone on the train is fine, it was just a Wild experience with
a roller coaster of emotions. To say the least I never want to ride
public transportation again. This is probably the 5th or 6th bad
experience I’ve had. So excited to have a car. 😂
I love all you guys, thanks for all the love and support you give me,
I love my mission it has shaped me into something amazing and I am so
grateful to the Lord for being able to have this time to grow, as
Imperfect as I am he still blesses me and has helped me through this
mission and will continue to do so the next 2 and a half months.
Elder LeBaron
Sent from my iPad
