September 28, 2015

So I have decided to switch occupations again! We were walking on the street the other day, and there were a bunch of people outside.  Seconds after seeing us, doors slammed, garage doors closed, and suddenly everybody was gone!  So I'm thinking of enlisting in NYPD working in their riot division.  All I have to do is walk outside in my missionary clothes and boom, riot over! 

Elder Fischer and I acquired a bench press and weights on exchanges in Hemet, really far from where we live.  We expertly disassembled it, fit everything in our Corolla (the trunk is a black hole! It's huge!), and it is now sitting in our living room.

We had an awesome baptism of one of our investigators.  She's going to make a GREAT member.  

One of the family's we're working with right now is great! The kids love what they're learning and are incredibly bright!  The only downfall is that the father is totally against the church. He has never been inside one or met with missionaries and is still not letting his family attend or be baptized.  It's unfortunate that some people will just write us off so fast!

We were meeting with one of our recent converts here, and I asked about some of his friends, if they wanted to learn more.  He said, well they haven't really talked to me since they heard I joined the Mormon church, but I love my family at church more!  He wants to come out with us to teach people!  Our other investigators will love the tattoos :), it brings diversity to the lessons.

We have transfers coming up so it's going to be a struggle helping to decide who's going where in the mission.  I feel kind of like a manager on a sports team, arranging who's going where and who I want where.

Mission Leadership Council - before Elder Fischer and my training

The entire mission leadership council

Baptism! Elder Fischer is straight-faced

Driving selfie - I was bored, and tired

way back to the goodbye dinner at the mission home (the three missionaries on the left all finished their missions and went home at the end of the transfer)

Elder Dyer in deep conversation in the background

Sock tie for the temple

 Matching ties x 2

Matching ties x 4

Spring onion garden in our apartment

September 21, 2015

Huge news!  For my birthday I got TIWI's and a new phone! A TIWI is a cute little box that slides on the windshield that "mentors" our driving.  So if we go over the speed limit, we get a "check your speed."  Obviously a great birthday present.  THEN we got new phones.  We switched from Sprint to AT&T so now we can actually hear people when we call them, I just can't get used to the new keyboard.  It's a struggle.

We had two mission conferences, one for the north half and one for the south half for the TIWI installation, which lasted from 7am to 3pm on both days.  Elder Fischer and I had to train.  In our leadership training to the zone leaders, district leaders, and sister training leaders, we obviously had to announce we were getting iPads to everyone, wait for 15 seconds, and tell them we were kidding.  We have too much fun together.

I got three different cakes! Not good for my health but I'll have to eat them slowly.  I was in Corona, my old area on exchanges for Saturday, my birthday, so it was awesome to see some old families and recent converts there.  One of the families had an Apple pie, and so we sang and ate pie.  Then I get a call from missionaries in the office that there's a cake waiting there for me from my UNCLE! I just picked it up last night.  Thank you Uncle Glen! Then when I got home from exchanges, I find out some missionaries took our house key and snuck in and put a cake in the fridge! So I have lots of cake if anyone wants to eat some.

Elder Fischer decided to tell the whole mission it was my birthday, so I was getting tons of texts all day long telling me happy birthday.  He's a funny guy.

Birthday pie!

Nice autumn arrangement

Elder Foy's selfie

With the Corona crew

At my old ward mission leaders house for breakfast

Birthday balloons

Southern California does not do rain well

Rain in Riverside round 2

 Really tired after the second day of conferences

Three birthday "cakes"

September 14, 2015

Lots of driving this week.  We racked up 190 miles on the car in one day because we had to go on an exchange across the mission!  It's fun seeing all the different parts of the mission though.  You hear about these places and it's cool to piece together a map of the mission by going there.  

On one of the exchanges, I was in a Spanish area again, and I got to attend a Spanish baptism which was fun.  I'm slowly improving my Spanish so nobody in Riverside County can pretend they can't understand me.  And so I go to a Spanish area after I'm done here.... just kidding!  It was fun going out contacting though.  Having a Spanish elder with you is great because if they try to pull the "no hablo ingles" on you, they just step up and blow their mind with Español.

We were walking to visit a referral we got for this guy and we saw two adults and a kid in one of those big above ground pools.  We asked if they knew this one guy (the name from the referral) and the little girl blurted out "YEAH YEAH HE'S RIGHT..." and got silenced by the guy who said he wasn't there and hasn't been to that house in months.  It's just so ridiculous to have people lie right through their teeth.  It's also nice to see how truthful the little children can be - if only we could become like them.

One of our investigators got baptized on Sunday.  It was so awesome to see him enter the water because it was the result of changes in his life that are going to bless him for a long time.  He was just so excited to be baptized it was adorable seeing him smiling ear to ear.  Interesting sight to see the contrast of the white baptism jumpsuit with all his tattoos.

Love his smile!

With his mother

Matching while visiting a zone meeting. totally not planned. we have too much fun

September 7, 2015

Another long tiring week! 

We had to prepare for our mission leadership council with all the zone leaders and sister training leaders, which involved a lot of Microsoft Excel and numbers.  It's crazy how my eyes just get tired so quickly now!  I guess that happens when you've been away from screens for that long!  But we were in the office a lot more, and a lot later than usual.  It's weird how the tiredness hits me too.  We were on exchanges the next day, and I was fighting to not fall asleep in the passenger seat of the car!

One of our investigators right now looks like the exact opposite of what you would think of if you thought of a "church-going Mormon."  He has tattoos all over his arms, is missing teeth, and has a ponytail, but he has such an uplifting spirit about him.  He used to be in a biker gang and is pretty clean now.  His house is full of people who use drugs and smoke, but he has asthma.  Every time you bring that up, smoking, he gets really annoyed about how his family members just never listen when he says they can't smoke!   He had his interview for baptism and is worthy!  When he finished the interview with one of the other missionaries in the area, I heard a big "THANK YOU JESUS!!!" and he came running out saying how proud his grandma (who passed away a couple days ago) would be of him.

We were teaching him the Word of Wisdom, and for some reason he was under the impression that we couldn't drink any caffeine.  When we told him we could, he just shouted “YES!”.  He's big into Dr. Pepper!  Then we were talking about healthy things we can eat, and for some reason we got on the topic of milk.  He said, if I can't have my milk I won't be able to live, I need my milk and cereal every morning!  Good thing milk's okay.

I have to go on ten exchanges every transfer, one with every companionship of Zone Leaders.  I had my first one in a Spanish area.  It was cool to be able to understand a lot of what they were talking about.  I also understood more of how it felt being on exchanges with me when I was in a Chinese area.  It gets kind of boring when you can't understand where the lesson is going.  

Elder Fischer and I were driving to an area and we saw this Mexican guy pushing a cart, so we obviously had to stop and get out of the car.  He was an "elote" (sp?) guy - selling the corn with mayonnaise, cheese, and chili (you know, from Nacho Libre).  So we parked and started following him.  Boy was he hauling... We couldn't catch up to him after maybe a quarter of a mile.  Finally he heard me whistling at him and he stopped.  The elote didn't really live up to the hype, though.  

We were knocking on a door of a referral and we hear, "Mommy, the Mormon's are here."  Then the reply, "I'll handle it."  The lady that answered the door suddenly couldn't speak English!  It's funny how if you just keep speaking English, though, they understand, but reply in Spanish!  California mission life.

Surprise of the week.  We're in our apartment after church, and we get a visit from none other than my favorite Elder Murray!  He was visiting for the Labor Day weekend and they stopped by to say hi! (He was with his family).  Knowing my weakness, he obviously dropped off Ferrero Rocher chocolates - he knows me too well.  THEN, around 9 pm, I hear a big loud knock on the mission office door.  None other than Elder Murray with MORE Ferrero Rocher (he's trying to get me fat), and food from the potluck he just left in Eastvale with all the members.  So thank you Elder Murray, or should I say Dexter.  Love you <3

What do I do with my hands? Sunday night numbers woooo!

Surprise visitor Sunday afternoon at our apartment! (It's Elder Murray!)

The Surprise visitor came back again for round two, this time with more chocolate and Chinese food!

Couldn't go to the Norco fair so we obviously took selfies from afar

my homemade kale chips - so healthy

perk about this apartment is I can cook again. but then I just get tired...

still tired...

Numbers yay!

That's my disappointed numbers face

August 31, 2015

Long tiring week! Lots of meetings to attend throughout the week. Some things to get used to.  I have my own phone now - usually it's shared between the companionship, but Elder Fischer and I both have our own.  We attended the meetings Monday night for outgoing missionaries.  It's funny to see how nervous they are about returning home.  They say they just "feel weird" about it.  In the van to the airport, they were singing and just so excited to see their family.

I had to get used to driving alone too.  With all the vehicles that need to bring missionaries to and from the airport.  Elder Fischer and I drive separate cars.  I had the minivan on Tuesday to pick people up.  I felt like a soccer mom.  It was fun talking to all the fresh crop about the mission and how great it's going to be.  

Something tiring about being an AP is, even after a whole morning and afternoon of training (a lot of it by us) we just get home, change out of our suits, and head back out to proselyte.  There's just never a dull moment!

We had to change out all four tires of one of our investigator's cars.  So in total it was eight tires because she wanted to switch them with a different car.  I felt like I was in an F1 pit... Just kidding, I was really slow.

Allan got baptized on Sunday, so I got to return to Corona for the baptism.  He's awesome.  There were so many people that attended! I'm so grateful to have been able to participate in his teaching.  Hopefully by this time next year, he's getting ready to serve a mission (he said he really wants to).  

Sunday nights starting at 9 pm, we're in the office getting numbers from Zone Leaders.  We get home a little before midnight.  Gotta love it.

With Allan and Elder Foy!

Elder Fischer is my new companion (on the far right)

All the guys at the baptism!

At the baptism, with the football (blurry though) 

With Allan at the open house after

With my ward mission leader from my previous ward - we didn't have a dinner scheduled and since my new ward is adjacent to my previous ward, we just had dinner with them!

August 24, 2015

Pretty crazy week. Saturday morning at 6:34 am I got a call from President Mullen asking me to be his new Assistant to the President (AP), so I'm going to be pretty sleep deprived these next six months.  My Chinese will also probably be terrible at the end of it. But I'm willing to serve.

So my new address is:

Elder Jacob Dyer

3925 Pierce St. #536

Riverside, 92505

Walking around the streets of Corona, you run into a TON of Spanish speaking people.  For the most part, though, they speak English as well.  A lot of them will say, "no hablo ingles" but if you just keep speaking to them in English it's funny to see how they just answer you and eventually give in and start speaking English back.

One of our investigators right now is dealing with his family being totally against this church.  They said they'll kick him out if he's baptized.  But he's shown the faith and still wants it! It's just so amazing to be around people this great.  He said his parents say we're brainwashing him.  I must be pretty good - 19 years old and I can brainwash people.  He said he's being "brainwashed by God."  He's had so many obstacles in front of him, but at this point he said he just wants to "do it."  I'm going to miss this area so much!

It kind of gets hard to say bye to areas, even this one that I've only served in for only six weeks.  The mission’s just a long list of goodbyes.  I'm going to miss the “oven”, I mean the barn [that we live in].

With one of our investigators, saying bye

With Sister Ratliff, who owns the barn we live in

Family from the ward (one on the far left got baptized 2 weeks ago) I have my Jerry Garcia tie on that Sister Ratliff gave me (Elder Foy got a matching one)

Roasting marshmallows in the fireplace

Fireplace roasted s'mores!

Elder Dyer and Elder Foy