ELDER MATT LEBARON - 3/26 - Boyle heights is the place to be

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

ELDER MATT LEBARON - 2/19 - Blessings on Blessings on Blessings, I’m Blessed

Hello everyone!

Well it’s been another couple weeks since I’ve written, so I bet you are all on pins and needles, eagerly awaiting this letter.  I hope it finds you well, and you are enjoying your President days day! I unfortunately can’t poke fun and mention how you guys are back to the grind of your regular work week while I’m on my pday, looks like today we’re even, just keep that in mind for next week. ;) 

Things have been so crazy this week, I don’t know what’s going on but everyone is dying out here. Everyone is falling apart, breaking their hip or foot, or having some kind of other bodily injury that require us to give them a blessing. We’re running out of consecrated oil here people ! No lie me and my companion have probably given at least 15 blessings this week. That’s a record for my mission. I’ve visited the hospital so many times, and even sisters in my district have been asking for blessings. 

Something that’s funny to me about missionary work, is either there is nothing going on and you’re trying to be productive, or there is literally not enough time in the day to get everything done. It seems like people only ask for help on the days you are super busy, and yet you still find time somehow to schedule them in too. The other day we were waiting for this guy to show up for a lesson (it ended taking up a looong time) I just opened up area book and started calling people and we had some lessons over the phone while we waited, and set up return appoints, we didn’t have anything planned for that day, but believe me the work found us. Sometimes it’s hard when you’re looking at your schedule and not knowing how in the world you’re going to get everything to fit. So stressful, but It’s a good problem to have, I wish it happened more often honestly. 

We’ve been down to East L.A a lot this week, and maaaan if my mission has taught me anything it’s what I want and what I don’t. I’ve been in rich areas for a long time in my mission and being in the ghettoes really makes me grateful for everything that I have, I’ve had a good life. Everyone out here seems to have such hard life situations, not to mentions some of these people are spending so much money just to live in the ghetto, I don’t get it. Glad I’m not going to be living in L.A when I go home, haha. What a dirty dirty overpopulated place, haha. 

Anyways things have been going really well! I’ve actually really enjoyed being district leader because of the interaction it gives me with other missionaries, my whole mission I always said I never wanted to be a district leader, but hey, I’m actually enjoying it, it’s pretty fun. Not to mention the district leader can go into any of the areas that are in the district, my district covers the whole zone, so it’s almost like I have the ability of a zone leader to go where I want without question, let’s just say Pasadena is pretty cool for meal appointments. ;)  have a good week! Love you guys! Dot be afraid to send me nice things, like skinny floral ties, I love nice things!

Have an excellent week! 

Elder LeBaron 

614 West Foothill Blvd Arcadia CA

 

Happy Valentine's Day!

 

 

Waiting for the train 

ELDER MATT LEBARON - 2/5 - JPL

Hey guys! So I wanted to at least send something your way his week! First off I met the guy who invented the craft singles you out in your sandwiches, he owns a ton of the company, also he’s a member too! Less active but still a member!

 This pday we got the opportunity to go to JPL (jet propulsion laboratory’s) it’s run by cal tech, but they all work for NASA, we got a private tour, and had the opportunity of walking into the control center where all the space missions are operated. We saw models of all the mars rovers, and got to see the computers that controlled all of the different missions that are currently in operations, so cool! They control Hubble, Kepler, and pretty much any space operation you can think of. There is a member in one of the Pasadena wards that works there and hooked us up. I wish you guys could see it for your self.

The last picture is of me and brother craft. 

 

Anyways have a good week guys! I’ll update you about the

ELDER MATT LEBARON - 1/22 - Find Joy in the Journey

Hello friends and family!

I don’t mean to pat myself on the back, but this is the third email in a row that I’ve sent, so that’s pretty good. It’s better than ignoring you guys for a month at a time, sorry about that haha. 

This week has been kind of slow, but it was a pretty good week! We started it out with a zone activity last P-day. We had a BBQ and some fun games. It was the most fun zone activity I’ve had my entire mission I think. I’m probably in one of the coolest zones. Everybody is really relaxed and easy to get along with. The sisters are really low maintenance which makes my job as District leader a lot easier. We played a game called Wilson ball which is the missions rendition of dodgeball, it never ends, it’s pretty 

fun. 

 

 

Did you know we were going to have a baptism this week? No, well me either! Apparently the zone leaders were teaching someone in our area and didn’t tell us, typical, haha. The stake president found out and made them more wards so we had their baptism in our ward. We were scrambling for a few days trying to get everything set up. Their names a David and Shonna, they both recently came to America from China looking for better opportunities and freedom. David was recently baptized and had the privilege of baptizing his wife, it was a pretty spiritual experience that I was delighted to be apart of. I may have not been there for their lessons but I am grateful to know David and Shonna, and experience their great enthusiastic spirits. 

 

 

We haven’t done a very good job at finding this week, and it seems like everyone in our teaching pool has either dropped us, or is ignoring us. Eh oh well. I’m at a point in my mission where I’ve done a lot of reflection and you just gotta roll with the punches. Up to this point, 95 percent of my mission has been trying to find people, through long summer days, never ending contacting, and being willing to let someone slam the door in your face one more time. The other 5 percent I would say has been the pure joy of working with people that are prepared to receive the gospel. I have met and worked with people that have changed my life, and it’s been what has made my mission a pure bliss. That 5 percent is the most meaningful thing that I have ever experience thus far in my life, and for that I am grateful. The mission is about laughing when it’s hard, working through the tears, making friends with your companion and just cracking jokes through the rejection. I’ve been feeling really grateful for my mission lately, and even though I’m not home quite yet I’m excited to make the most of the next some odd 4 and a half months I have left. My sister Alyssa shared with me and reminded me of one of my favorite quotes by Thomas S. Monson and I wanted to share it with you as well. “Find joy in the journey now” this life we’re living is pretty short, so make the most of what you have now. Love the people that matter most to you a littler more, smile, laugh. Find happiness through the trial, find peace through our savior Jesus Christ, who bore all things for us. “Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy.” 

tell the people you care most for that you are grateful for them and what they do for you, most of all, tell them they are loved by you.  

"Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved."

-Thomas S. Monson 

I hope you all can find happiness and peace in your lives today, I hope you can feel gratitude for all the many blessings our Father in Heaven has bestowed upon you and your family. He loves us and will forever stretch his arms out to us. Thanks for the inspiration Alyssa.

Elder LeBaron 

The last picture is us having lunch with our ward mission leader, he’s Samoan and he is so much fun haha. 

ELDER MATT LEBARON - 1/15 - Winter Rain

Hello everyone!

It’s been another eventful week this week, all made possible again  by
East L.A. we started out the week with a ton of rain, luckily for us
the first day it rained was on Monday, so we got to be inside for the
most part, but on Tuesday it was still raining all day. We went to
East Los to try and teach some lessons, but no one was home. A lot of
the rain gear I had last year I wore a ton, and so I guess it’s not as
waterproof as it use to be. I thought I didn’t get wet, but I was
super cold the whole day. When I got home I realized that all my
clothes were soaked. I changed really quick and some members picked us
up for dinner and they had a fire place I sat in from of, that was
super nice.

I think we finally found someone to work with. There is a girl that we
picked up a week ago that is starting to progress, it’s refreshing to
be able to start teaching things other than the first lesson. Some
days we teach the first lesson on contact 5 to 15 times. Hopefully we
will get more people to teach, but things are pretty slow around here
even though there’s hundreds of people to talk to on the street.

This area is crazy man. We were riding the train back to Alhambra, and
guess who sat right next to us? A drunk Jehovas witness. That was
great. The guy technically wasn’t even a baptized member, but he was
looking for a fight. One thing that sucks about people a missionary is
people target you sometimes. I just want to ride the train back in
peace is that too much to ask? People always start out by saying “you
know I really respect you guys, don’t get me wrong... but!...” Most of
the time on my mission when stuff like that happens I can just walk
away, but we were literally cornered. He wanted me to say that Gods
name was Jehovah, haha. Like come on man, I’m not going to agree with
this silliness, But I kept telling him, “you know we just have to
agree to disagree” things escalated and he started screaming that we
were  the anti Christ. We didn’t even bash with him I was just trying
to ignore him. People on the train were super annoyed by this too, and
a guy finally called out after him “ Hey shut up! No one wants to hear
what you have to say!” That really pushed the drunk guy over the edge.
Before I knew it there were metro police dragging the guy off the
train. Thanks random citizen for taking the heat for that one, I
thought they were going to fight for sure. A lot of the times on my
mission I find myself asking, how did I get myself in this situation?
Weird stuff just always happens.

Boyle heights and East L.A definitely have the most action out of all
the places I’ve been before. It makes missionary work kind of
exciting, I wake up and think, “I wonder what crazy person I’m going
to run into today ?” It’s a cool area I like it.

This week I’ve been studying a lot about improving and always growing.
The Lord really does have a lot of expectations for us. I think as a
whole, most people run away from correction or chastisement. I know I
do. A scripture that I really like is found in Proverbs 3: 11-13,
which says:

11 My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord; neither be weary of
his correction:

12 For whom the Lord loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in
whom he delighteth.
13 Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding.

I hope to better apply this scripture in my life, and I invite all of
you to do the same. I hope that you all enjoy your week, Happy Monday!

Elder LeBaron

ELDER MATT LEBARON - 1/8 - East L.A

Happy P-day!

Not that that means much to many of you, haha, but it’s P-day again!
The week seemed to fly by.

We spent almost our whole week in East L.A and Boyle heights. Since
Alhambra is pretty wealthy and no one speaks English we figure it’s
probably better to go to East Los where people are poor and don’t
speak English. Here’s the thing though, it’s actually super expensive
to live in those areas! A lot of the houses up there start at 800
thousand, like why would anyone do that?

Something that I’m pretty excited for is not having to take public
transportation ever again after my mission. Trust me, Southern
California has probably one of the worst public transportation
systems, ugh it’s so terrible. The buses are never on time, and a lot
of the time bus schedules don’t line up so you’ll have to wait a long
time between lines.

We were heading up our usual route, about 10 minutes in a kid threw up
on the bus. You’re crammed between all these people with the
overwhelming scent of vomit. It’s what nightmares are made of. Just
stuck. I tried to convince my companion to get off and wait for
another bus but he wasn’t having it, so we stayed on the bus for
another 30 minutes. I was pretty relieved when we got to our
destination. Public transportation lost a couple more points in my
book that day.

A lot of the times it seems like we’re in a movie here are so many
people walking around and so many strange things to see in Boyle
heights and East Los, definitely going to have some stories from this
place. We were talking to literally everyone, if you time it right,
there are a lot of people to talk to on the neighborhoods, we picked
up a lot of investigators this week. Nothing makes the time go by
faster than preaching the Restored Gospel all day.

Elder Oaks came to our mission on Saturday. I was able to shake his
hand and listen to his wise words. It’s a pretty unique experience
being able to be in the same room as an apostle of Jesus Christ.
Something that stood out to me was how everything thought it was so
amazing and incredible, and seemed to pay extra attention to the words
he spoke, but when general conference comes around it seems people,
including myself don’t take it as seriously. What a blessing it is
that we have modern technology that we can hear from the prophets and
apostles frequently throughout the year,  of only that, but also be
able to review their words any time we want. We truly are blessed in
this Gospel dispensation. I invite all of you to fully take advantage
of these blessings the Lord has so generously given us. I am so
grateful for the ability to always have a large library of knowledge
at our fingertips.

Thanks for all the love and support!  Enjoy the start of the new year!

Elder LeBaron
Sent from my iPad

1) Me with this chromed our lambo
 

 2) my favorite church in East Los

 

 

 

3)Boyle heights

ELDER MATT LEBARON - 1/1/2018 - Happy New Years!

I hope everyone had fun welcoming the new year, and is ready for all the upcoming adventures, and challenges that will surely follow.

Things have been pretty old around here. The area that I’m serving in is really cool. We have a lot of diversity in the area, including people and places. Alhambra has a lot of cool things, it has a pretty cool downtown, it always seems like people are are up to so,etching around here. Most of the people don’t even speak English, because there is such a high population of Asian people here. It’s pretty fun. We also cover East L.A and Boyle heights which is all Spanish... so pretty much no one speaks English here. Me and Elder Hansen have been doing a lot of finding this week. We don’t have anyone really in our teaching pool so we have to build it all up. Ugh, mission life. It seems like my entire mission has been finding. I’m excited to see some results though. Something I’ve learned is that any time you work hard, you will always see results, always. Maybe it might take a little longer to see, but the results always come. 

All the sisters that came out with me are home! What the heck. They went home last transfer... and I’m still here! It’s just crazy. At the same time I’m happy to be able to have the opportunity to refine my missionary skills. 

Being district leader has been pretty fun too, I have a pretty cool district, and so we can have a lot of fun. Today we are going to get pedicures, next week we are going to go to the driving range. It’s fun to try different ways to motivate people. I’m also super grateful for the zone leaders in this zone, they are super cool, and it makes my job a lot easier. 

There was a guy we ran into the other day, we helped him move. When we were I. His house he told us that his dog was famous and had been in a lot of korean dramas. So that was super cool. Couldn’t deny that photo op.

 

 

 

 I also met the drummer from the band Red Bone, he’s a former in our teaching pool so that’s cool. If you guys have seen Guardians of the galaxy they are the first song “come and get your love” so I definitely got a picture with him. 

 

 

 

Another picture in here is me with all the Chinese missionaries I served with in a couple zones ago.

 

 

The mission life is good. It’s hard work, but I’m really enjoying myself. Hope all is well, and that you all enjoy this holiday season!

Elder LeBaron

ELDER MATT LEBARON - 12/18 - Transfers

Hello friends and family!

I know I have been pretty bad about sending out a weekly email, but I’m going to try and be a lot better in the upcoming weeks to keep you guys updated. Sometimes it’s hard to write emails and explain what’s going on, it seems like everything has just meshed into one event. 

There have been some changes going on, it feels like time is just going so fast I can’t keep track of the days. It’s already been a transfer since I picked up Elder McDaniel. Unfortunately, I got transferred to another area today, and I am now serving in Alhambra. I just want to stay in an area for a little bit, it feels like my last two just flew. I definitely wasn’t expecting to get transferred this time around... I was only in this area for 2 transfers, 3 months just isn’t enough time I feel. I really started to love the ward and the people I was working with. All I have to say is, I’m really loving the mission. It’s hard, there are the ups and the downs, but it’s been the best thing I’ve ever done. I think when you start getting comfortable that’s when president transfers you, what a bummer haha.

The area that I’m serving in is very Asian. We also cover parts of East L.A and Boyle Heights, I’ve driven through before, so I’m pretty excited. It’s ghetto around these parts. I’m ready, bring it on. 

It was pretty hard saying goodbye to all the members, but it was especially hard to say goodbye to one of my recent converts, Steve. I got pretty close to that guy. He was so good to me and my companions. I also will miss Elder McDaniel, I couldn’t have gotten a better son! (Trainee) I’m sad I won’t be able to finish his training, it’s okay, because one of my previous comps in the field and also in MTC, Elder collings, will finish his training. So that’s okay with me, technically I think that means he’s getting trained by his uncle? I’m not sure how that works, but anyways...  it’s all good. Just starving and thriving out here.

The Lord has really been blessing me a lot. I have been so humbled with how things have been going for me lately. I’m especially grateful for serving a mission. It’s kind of funny, because I already feel like I’m being blessed for my service even though I’m still doing it. I’m excited to see what the Lord has in store for me in the latter part of my mission. I’m trying to become the man he needs me to become. I hope that when I come back it seems like I changed at least a little bit haha. I’m just getting adjusted to this area, but I’m expecting some good things from Alhambra! 

Elder LeBaron 

Sent from my iPad

ELDER MATT LEBARON - 11/23 - Training, thanksgiving, and meetings

Happy thanksgiving everyone!

Our P-Day got moved to Thursday for whatever reason. I guess it’s because president knows that it’s not a very productive day for missionary work. The problem with that is that a lot of places are closed, and it’s harder to get things done on a holiday. Other than not having a P-day in almost two weeks I’m doing great, the bonus here is that P-day is on Monday again so it’s coming up quick! What a blessing. I’m not sure if I will have a lot to report, but I’ll try and send out an email. 

First off I just want to say, training is pretty fun. We went to the training meeting last week and everyone was a little anxious to find out who their companion was going to be. I think it’s funny because when I first came into the mission I remember looking at the trainers and being nervous about who was going to train me, but it still happens when you are training. I kept looking around wondering, “am I going to train him, or maybe him? I don’t know” a lot of the older missionaries always look so confident and in control, I’m starting to find out that I still don’t know exactly what I’m doing. I think everyone always assumes the older missionaries know everything, but we don’t. 

Once you’ve been out for a little while, you get use to missionary life, with all its challenges and difficulties. Something that has been interesting is watching E. McDaniel go through the adjustment process, I think I’m his first companion for a reason because I struggled so hard when I first came in. It was a pretty hard transition, and I didn’t think I was going to make it. All I can say is that I’m glad the mission gets better the longer you’re out, training is always the hardest. E. McDaniel is a stud, we are the same age and he graduated the same year as me, but decided to do a year of college instead of going right out on the mission. We get along really well, and it’s really nice he has confidence when teaching or talking to people. I knew I was going to get him because he was the most handsome of all the trainees, and I knew my son was going to be handsome. 

We have had so many meetings this week, holy cow. Elder Allard is district leader, since he was training as well I was with him while we were waiting for the greenies to come in. I had to go with him the a district leader meeting, then the next day we went to the training meeting, the next day we had district meeting, then Friday we had weekly planning, Sunday church, and then yesterday we had a huge meeting at the office regarding technology. We have had no time to do missionary work, it’s terrible. 

I’m glad E. McDaniel is in shape because the first couple days we were together we probably biked a solid 40 miles, all our appointments just seemed to be on opposite sides of the area. He’s a good sport, and doesn’t complain about anything which is super awesome. If I was doing this at the beginning of my mission I would have been a big complainer. He’s still learning the right time to shift the gears, and sore as ever. He keeps asking me when the soreness stops, I keep telling him that I’m still sore from riding bikes for a year and a half. I don’t think he likes that answer. Learning how to bike around town and in the gutters is such a weird thing to do, I give him props for only crashing twice. I always know he’s behind me because I can hear him grinding his gears trying to peddle up those hills. Sometimes while we’re biking He’ll just jump off his bike so he doesn’t crash. People always have a bewildered look on their face as they see see this boy some acrobatics trying to stop in time. Anyways he’s doing great, a lot better than I did when I first came in. I love him.

Anyways thanks for all the love and support. The mission really is so amazing. I am starting to love this ward and the people I’m serving, there is always that transition stage when you get transferred, but I’m happy I’m in the hacienda heights first ward. They are so good to us. I love this church, and I love the Lord. Do everything you can to establish the church wherever you are, until Monday.

Elder LeBaron 

614 West Foothill Blvd, Arcadia, CA, 91006

1) me and my beautiful baby boy

 

 

 

2) some modeling pics (you can pick which one you want to hang up on your wall)

 

 

 

 

ELDER MATT LEBARON - 11/13 - Transfers

Hey everyone,

I can’t believe that another transfer has flown by. It seems like I just blinked and it’s over. Being with Elder Stone has been pretty good, we got a lot of good work done. Transfers always make me a little sad. I think Change is just hard, no matter how long you’ve been on the mission, when you leave or get a new companion it’s always hard to make that adjustment. I’m glad that don’t have to hold my breath ever 6 weeks for the rest of my life, haha. 

Elder stone got a transfer call, he’s heading out the the Filipino ward. I think he’ll enjoy it a lot. I know I did for the 6 weeks that I was there haha. I got a call from the assistants and it looks like I’m going to be training. They switched up how they did training calls this time. Normally if you’re training you’ll get a call on Thursdays, then they have a training meeting on Friday, and you pick up your greenie on Tuesday when they arrive. Thursday came and went so I already assumed I wasn’t training. When transfer calls came that’s when they told me. They switched around so now I won’t pick up my son until Wednesday. I’m excited, but also a little scared. I just already had it in my head that I wasn’t training so it really threw me. I’m going to try and be nice to him, but I remember all the crap I got when I got when I first came in from older missionaries and my trainer. I’ll be nice, but I’ll still mess with him for sure, haha. Good luck buddy. 

Steve got baptized on Saturday! It was super awesome. This has been a long anticipated event for Steve and us. We had a few ward members come, it turned out pretty well. The only problem was that the water heater went out. Luckily for me it was Elder stone who did the baptizing and not me. Stone kept trying to be positive as he felt the water in the font. “ it’s at least room temperature so it won’t be that cold” but I could see the fear in his eyes. I could f help but laugh a little as Stone and Stephen winced as they got in the water... the water was pretty cold, definitely did not feel like “room temperature” to me. Steve gasped as he came out of the water, it was a memorable baptism for sure. I’m just grateful that I didn’t do the baptizing this time, haha. 

This week has been good, there’s a lot of changes going on in the zone. There are so many new missionary’s it’s crazy. The mission has changed so much in the last year and a half. It’s almost unrecognizable to what it use to be. I’m still loving the mission and the Lord. It will be interesting to be a trainer, it’s a little intimidating, but I’m sure I might figure it out.

Thanks for all the support, 

Elder LeBaron 

 

 

 

ELDER MATT LEBARON - 11/6 - Biking in Hong Kong

Family and friends,

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

ELDER MATT LEBARON - 10/30 - I'm not dead

Hey friends and family!

I’m sorry for the absence in my letters, but I would like to inform you that I am still alive and still doing the Lords work. I didn’t even realize how many weeks had passed since I last wrote. Times seems to just be flying right now. It seems like I just got into this area, but I’ve been here for a whole month now! I’m starting to realize that this mission isn’t going to last forever, I have 7 months left. It’s weird because now the members are starting to ask me what my plans are when I get home, like what? I’m not going to go home, I still have a lot of time left... oh wait. Even though 7 months seems like a long time, I know it will be gone before I know it, that’s what it seems like what happened with the last 17 months, holy cow... where has all the time gone, I honestly can’t tell you. 

My companions just finished his training, so I’m considered his “mom” or his “greenie breaker” it’s pretty fun being with a new missionary. It makes me feel old. I think this is the first time in my mission where I’m starting to feel old. There has been a huge influx of new missionaries to replace all the ones that just went home. All the new missionaries have Samsung tablets, while older missionaries like myself have iPads, it’s really interesting to see all the people with Samsungs. I often see other missionaries look at me when I say, “ yeah last Christmas this happened” or “ last year it rained a lot” most of the people in my zone are all in their training. It feels good to feel old for once haha, even though sometimes it feels like I just got here. 

My companion, E. Stone, has been killing me. This boy is some sort of Olympic athlete. He always rides his bike like it’s a race. He use to be into cross country and so he has a build for endurance. I feel like I’m a pretty fast biker, and most of my companions I’ve had always tell me to slow down, but this guy is nuts. Out of pride I never tried to show that I was struggling keeping up. I’ve kept up with him pretty well most days, even though I can taste blood in the back of my throat. This is the biggest biking area I’ve had on my mission. The church is 4 miles away, all up hill. Everything’s up hill here. I’ve been surprised the last couple days because it feels like Elder stone is slowing down and it’s easier for me to keep up. But in reality he is still going just as fast, but I’m starting to get use to it. I’m pretty sure we bike at least 20 miles a day, it’s honestly crazy.

I’m sure most of you are reading this letter, snuggled up in a nice comfy blanket, with a cup full of Swiss miss enjoying the fall weather... well let me tell you, In the last month we have stayed mostly in the 100s, I’ve been sweating so much! Luckily for me we are finally getting down to the 80s this week. It’s funny I sometimes look at Elder stone and say “ it’s going to be another hot 2 summers for you!” I’m excited that I’ll be able to dip out for this next summer and dodge most of the sunny southern Cali heat. What a blessing.

We have been working with so many cool people, I honestly love this ward, and the people. I think that my attitude has changed in the last part of my mission, I’m just enjoying every second. It’s hard, a mission is the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but I’ve never been so happy. I love my mission. I seriously love it. I just wished I learned to love it earlier on, but maybe that’s just how it works, that’s probably why missions are 2 years, for boys like me. 

This weekend was Lauryn’s baptism, I didn’t get permission to go, and I was pretty bummed out. I put 5 months of work into that girl. Elder Stucky came back for the baptism, he said he wanted to take me out to breakfast with my companion. I was super excited, Elder Stucky is one of my favorite companions, we had so much fun together. He showed up on Saturday morning and said that he parked the car down the street. To my surprise it was Lauryn’s car! It was so awesome! I got to have breakfast with Stucky and Lauryn even though i didn’t get to go to the baptism. I can’t express quite how I felt at that moment. Me and Elder Stucky are Lauryn’s original Elders, so it was something super special. It almost brought tears to my eyes with the amount of joy I felt. I realized that this is why people serve missions. I am so grateful for what I have learned, the people I’ve met, and the person I’ve become. Serving a mission is the best choice I’ve ever made for my life, and I’m excited to be able to give it my all the next 7 months. I love the Lord, and I love this church. I hope you all can find the joy that the Lord is offering you in your lives, there truly isn’t anything sweeter, I feel like I can stand with Lehi of old and testify of the sweetness of the tree of life. There is no greater joy. 

Until next week,

Elder LeBaron

614 West Foothill Blvd Arcadia, California, 91006

The last photo is a picture of the Flores family, we’ve been working with them for a while, we were speaking in church and they finally came, we wore floral ties to celebrate. 

ELDER MATT LEBARON - 9/25 - Brad Wilcox and New investigators

Well hello everyone!

I’m not sure how many people still read these, I try and keep them interesting, but sometimes the mission letters seem to be a little dry. But trust me, I’m doing my best to make things interesting, you never know what Elder LeBaron is getting himself into next, trying to keep ,self unpredictable you know? 

This week flew by! Holy cow, it seems like time is just flying right now, even though things have been pretty slow around here. Me and Elder Collings have been continuing the crazy amounts of teaching that we’ve been doing. It’s actually pretty cool, we picked up a guy this week named Marlon, he was looking pretty scary to be honest when we first saw him. There weren’t any street lights where we were. Marlon is this black guy from Alabama, he was sagging his pants super low with his hood up, it was just super sketchy, but me and Elder Collings have made a goal to talk to every person that we see. We pulled up to him on our bikes and and offered him a pamphlet, after a few minutes he opened up and he literally talked our ear off. We picked him up on Friday, taught him again on Saturday, we invited him to church, and so we saw him on Sunday again. He stayed all three hours, and then one of the high councilors asked him if he wanted to go to a fireside with Brad Wilcox. Marlon looked at us and just said, “well I might as well dedicate the rest of the day to the right?” And so he did. The fireside was out of our mission, but we called our president and got permission to go. It was so cool! Brad Wilcox is such a good speaker, I think that we were the only missionaries there. There were some topics that came up such as blacks and the Priesthood... me and Elder Collings winced a little when Brad started talking about that. He was pretty bold when talking about how this was the only true church , he made other churches seem so dumb for some of their beliefs. I was pretty scared that Marlon was going to stand up and walk out, we don’t know too much about his background. He ended really liking the talk and said “the spirit really confirmed some things to me” me and Collings just looked at each other like who is this guy? We have another lesson with him on Tuesday it seems like we might set another baptismal date soon for the month of October, good things to come! 

We picked up a few other people that seem promising. I’ve just been amazed at how our efforts have taken us so far. I’m not expecting to double our baptism, or for angels to come down, but I’m starting to see the little miracles God preforms for you when you are trying your best. We’ve been trying to meet goals, and set plans. I’m pretty excited to see what we can accomplish, we just gotta keep it up. Anyways I hope all of you have a good week! 

As always, keep on keeping on,

Elder LeBaron 

614 West Foothill Blvd, Arcadia, CA

ELDER MATT LEBARON - 9/18 - Cool weather is here

Hey everyone!

This week was a little crazy! We had to go to Glendale on Tuesday to
go to Elder Collings follow up appointment, we couldn't get a ride so
we had to take a couple busses and the metro. Glendale is pretty close
to L.A we are on the farthest section of the mission east and Glendale
is the farthest section west of the mission so it took awhile to get
there, our bus didn't come we were in the middle of Pasadena and we
were going to be late to our appointment, after a quick prayer Elder
Collings called a recent convert he had, and they were able to give us
a ride there! It was pretty cool to see, it's little things like that
that make me realize that God is very aware of us in our lives. It was
pretty fun riding the train and buses that far away, I always like
people watching. While we were at a stop on the train some guy was
running as fast as he could and threw two pack packs in the doors
right before the train doors closed, it was super scary it seemed like
it was some sort of terrorist attack or something, but apparently the
guy was trying to jam the door so he could run on and get his wallet.
It definitely terrified me a little bit, the back pack landed right in
front of me and my comp I thought we were going to die. But luckily we
were all good, it's a little scary sometimes you never know what
people are going to do around these parts of L.A there are some real
crazys we talk to every day.

Well this week has been good for us, we have been doing a lot of
finding again, knocking on a lot of doors and talking to literally
everyone we see, handing out restoration pamphlets left and right. We
are just trying to teach anyone who will listen, and it's super fun,
we run into all sorts of different people, we got quite a few
investigators this week which is super cool, but it doesn't seem like
a lot of the people are very solid, but we will keep trying to sift
out those prepared people.  I love sharing the gospel with people
there is nothing that brings me more joy

Yesterday when we were walking down the street there was this
pomegranate tree, and the fruit was really ripe, elder Collings
grabbed one and was trying to open it, but he couldn't get it. So I
grabbed it, not really knowing what to expect, I pulled at it, tried
to get my fingernails in there but to no avail it was still unopened.
Finally being sick of this, I decided it would be easier to just break
it in my hands.. well it worked, but it was also super juicy. I got my
shirt and slacks pretty good, I had to walk around with this pink
stain all over me until dinner, but the members were super nice and
washed my shirt after they let me use one of theirs, what a blessing,
to my surprise the stains came out ! I thought all my clothes were
done for, the Lord works in mysterious ways.

Well I love all of you, just so you know my birthdays coming up, if
any of you want to send me things. ;) I love things so I'll just leave
the mission office address below for you guys to make it easier!

Elder LeBaron

614 West Foothill Arcadia, CA 91006

ELDER MATT LEBARON - 9/11 - Tracting and Bronchitis

Hello everyone!

Sorry, I've been pretty bad at the weekly email thing lately, there
hasn't been too much happening so I didn't think too much about
sending one out.

Well elder Collings has been sick for just about the last two weeks, I
can't even tell you how much time we've spent inside. I was pushing
elder Collings kind of hard at first, he kept telling me he thought he
was running a fever or wasn't feeling very well, but he seemed fine to
me, so I took that boy out in 112 degree heat. 😂 oh man looking back
I feel a little bad after we went to the doctors. The mission nurse
told him that he needed to take a day or two off, but as soon as that
was over I tried to get back out. He kept telling me he felt horrible,
but I thought he was just exaggerating, after awhile I didn't fight
him and let him stay inside. I told him that we needed to see a
doctor, and that's exactly what we did. As soon as we got there the
doctor was like "wow yeah you're running a fever right now"  the thing
about the mission is that any time that you waste you feel absolutely
horrible about doing it, and in my mind I saw that elder Collings
wasn't feeling super well, but I thought he was still good to work, I
felt a little better about letting him take breaks between
appointments. She told us that he had bronchitis and that we needed to
stay in for 3 days! Oh man that was hard, I'm grateful I had a few
things to keep me occupied, but I was starting to go a little crazy. I
honestly felt a little guilty for pushing my companion after knowing
he had bronchitis the whole time, but oh well, I regret nothing haha.

We have been doing a lot of tracting the last little bit, kind of my
idea around this whole thing is to go to the ghettoes of our area and
find apartment complexes to knock. Let me tell you, even in La Verne
there are a lot of crazy people! We've had to have knocked over 100
doors and there are some pretty... hm... interesting people you run
into. I have often found myself frustrated with a lot of people, for
their lack of willingness to listen to our message. After being out
for awhile it just seems so simple to me, people are just denying
themselves blessings when they deny us, and especially the message
that we bring. I never thought that I would be so bold with some
people, I'll explain what we do, teach them a little bit, most often
people will automatically tell us they don't have time or just flat
out tell us to never come back, earlier in my mission I would have
just given up, but now I explain to them again that this isn't just
any church or a different bible lesson, this is the true church of
Jesus Christ, this message is the only thing that will bring them true
happiness and peace in this life, there is no other place they can
turn to find salvation, it simply can not happen. Not very many people
will let me get to that point, but I want them to look me in the eyes
and again tell me they don't want us coming back. I find satisfaction
knowing that I did everything I could to help someone understand the
truth, and when they deny us at that point again at least I know they
knew of what they were missing out on when they close that door, or
walk away.

It's been kind of hard to get back into the swing of things after e.
Collings was sick, but were doing good now and just on that fine grind
all day. We have been picking up quite a few investigators, but no one
has really stuck, we've been dropping a lot of people. I'm so glad
that it has been cooling off, there was a week where it didn't break
110, whew I am never living in a hot place ever, and if I do, I'm
definitely not going to be a door to door sales man. Well, there's not
too much to talk about here other than Lauryn, the investigator we've
been teaching for a long time got a calling! She will be helping out
with the Halloween party, kind of a little thing but she's super
excited! We have kept trying to get her mom at lessons, but her mom
has not come over and over again, it's just typical at this point. Her
mom has softened up a lot, at the start she told Lauryn she was going
to kick her out if she got baptized, but now she won't support it, but
at least her and her mom will still have a relationship. It's been so
amazing to be able to work with Lauryn and see her progress and get
ready to be baptized, we officially set her date for October 28th,
that's what we've been planning on since June just waiting for her to
turn 18, she still hasn't told her mom about it yet p, but I know
everything will turn out. God is good always, but he's especially good
to his children that follow his commandments. Blessings always come,
in ways we don't always expect, but if we do what is right we will
always be blessed, that's something I've learned a lot about on my
mission so far.

Thanks for all the love and support, hope everyone has a good week!

Elder LeBaron

614 West Foothill Blvd, Arcadia, CA, 91006

ELDER MATT LEBARON - 8/28 - Transfers

Hello everyone!

This week has been a good week! Elder stucky is home now, which makes
me a little sad, but he did his two years, and now he's on to bigger
and better things! I got a new comp this last Monday. His name is
elder Collings and he was actually my MTC comp! That's super cool!
It's nice to finally have someone that is my same age. I have always
been a ton younger than pretty much all my companions as far as
mission age goes.

Things are moving onward and upward around here. We're trying to
recycle our teaching pool. It's so crazy to me how much we have to do
finding around here, pretty much all our days consist of it. I'm
always a little hesitant to lead out areas when my comp leaves, but I
feel really good in this area, although we don't have a lot of lessons
each day, the ward members are so good to us and help out a lot. We
have been working with a lot of cool people! Honestly this is my
favorite ward by far that I've served in!

Elder Collings for sick this week, he had strep and so we had to sit
in the pad a lot this week, which was hard. Sitting in the apartment
is literally the worst, but it really gives you a lot of motivation to
work when you get the chance again. Hard work really is the secret to
finding happiness on a mission. As soon as you put your heart into the
work and his people the mission is a delight! There are hard times,
but the experiences far out weigh anything. I'm started to get a
little weirded out. I'm about to hit my 15th month mark which means I
will only have 9 months left on my mission, I feel as if I just
started most of the time, yes 9 months is a long time, but I know it's
going to fly by super quick. By December I'm going to have 6 months
left... that's just crazy to me. Time flies a lot faster than you
think! Anyways I love all of you, thanks for everything!

Keep on keeping on,

Elder LeBaron
614 West Foothill Blvd, Arcadia, CA, 91006

ELDER MATT LEBARON - 8/14 - The week of trials

Hello everyone!

Sorry for the 2 weeks of not sending anything out, things have been
crazy! We have just been running around and doing all this stuff,
mainly shopping we have the ZLs in our pad and they drag us around
everywhere, which can be fun, but I don't have a lot of time to email
anymore which kind of sucks, but you gotta make do with what you have.

The last two weeks have been crazy, first off, let me just say, I
still hate riding bikes. Riding bikes is fine, there is some great
health benefits from riding all day, but oh man, you guessed it, so
many bike problems. I have been getting a lot of flat tires lately,
mainly because my tires are so thin because I have been riding my bike
all day everyday for the last 14 months basically, so I finally
decided it was time to get new tires. This time I got some that are a
little thicker, and will last a little longer without me having to
worrying about the tread wears off too quickly. I got 4 flat tires in
a span of 24 hours, 2 of them being my fault. I was pumping up one of
my tires, the bike began to fall and all I could grab was the pump, so
that ripped off my valve... and you definitely can't patch that up.
The next one I had when i was trying to install my new tires on, they
are super thick and hard to fit around the frame. I broke 2 of the
plastic bike tools, I had no options left so against my better
judgement I used a screwdriver, you can imagine how that turned out.
Ha.

Enough about the bike stuff, it's just annoying haha. We had a temple
trip planned with one of our recent converts this week, we just got a
new rule that allows us to go with them to do baptism for the dead! Me
and elder stucky had planned it out weeks in advance, got approval,
and worked out rides. It was pretty cool because we got permission to
go to the Newport temple since the L.A temple is currently closed,
that's a pretty amazing experience, I don't think there is anyone from
my mission that has ever gone to the new port temple before. We were
so pumped, but 5 minutes before we left my comp looked at his
recommend and realized it was expired! We called the mission president
but there was nothing we could do, so we missed it! That suck haha,
but it's okay we recovered well and went back to work.

We are working with a lot of cool people! There is a new girl that we
have started to teach! Her name is Jacquelyn, she's the girlfriend of
one of the young men in the wars that just graduated, she is so
prepared and ready to receive the gospel, the only sad thing about it
is that she is going to college this Saturday, she's already set up
for baptism, and we have a great relationship with her, man I hate
when I have to pass off someone that is doing so well! We have picked
up a few different families that we are teaching, it's hard to meet
with them, but the work continues! I seriously love the ward that I'm
in, they are so good to us, and we have really good relationships with
the adults and especially the youth, it really is a delight to serve
in La Verne. Anyways thanks for all you guys do, and especially for
all the nice things you have done for me over the course of my
mission.

Elder LeBaron