Week 7

Well I could complain about a lot of things this past week but "Just another week in paradise" as they say. Charity. That's what I learned this past week. There are people who will yell at you and tell you to go away and argue with you and just hate you for no reason at all. But you gotta love them. That's something I have really been trying to do cause it is hard. I gave a discussion in a meeting this week about charity and it is "the pure love of Christ" as it says in the scriptures. its crazy to think what he went through and still loved everyone. Anyways im working on that and I encourage all of you to try and be more Christlike and love others even if they don't love you back.

 

It was a slow week but we were in another sketch apartment complex and 5 little Mexican kids came up to us and started showing us  around telling us who lives where and just what doors to go to. We told them we spoke all languages cause they were surprised we spoke Spanish and so they asked us to speak all these languages and we just made stuff up and they thought we were the smartest coolest people ever haha. It was great I love kids.

 

Anyways that's all I got from this week, Hope everyone is doing well. Shoutout to Franklin football and best of luck this season

 

Im missing football bad and was thinking how gunner was doing on Friday and wishing I could be playing but I know im doing the right thing here. No baptisms yet but we are close with 3. this mission baptizes like crazy. about 400 last year im not sure how much a month but our goal as a district is 5 but its been slow. Thanks for that email dad, I am working so hard here and im so thankful that you did push me and made me do everything and taught me how to work hard cause it is making this work easier. I love you and miss you guys tons.

Elder Romney and his companion Elder Smith

weekly letter

A pretty slow week but had some good stuff. Went on exchanges with the ZLs and Elder Arrellano who speaks no Spanish so that was a fun day where I talked to everyone and he said "buenas noches" to everyone haha. He is so cool though and just loves the people and will talk to anyone anywhere it was awesome. Me and Elder Smith were biking in a neighborhood and 3 little kids joined us on their bikes and started talking to people with us. We had our own little gang and we raced on the bikes and it was sweet. We ate at a members house this week and he fed us Catfish heads with the skin and eyes and whiskers and teeth and everything, it was so hard getting down but I didn't throw up so that was good. I met uncle Dustins MTC comp Daniel Perez at church, its such a small world!!! I also started the missionary moment in our ward here. In priesthood one person hands out a Book of Mormon that week and tell about his experience the next week at church. Im excited to see how that goes. Not much going on, just still trying to find people to teach so we meet a lot of interesting people. Its fun though. Ill talk to you all next week hope everything is going great and goodluck to everyone starting school!!!

We went surfing this week (jk I wish) but its our "Jesus board"
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MORE FROM OTHER LETTERS THIS WEEK--
don't think weight will be a problem when I get back but im trying hard to work most of the fat off here. Yes I would like to know football stuff, I miss it so bad and I don't really get distracted. .. So I am gaining weight im at 182 again but its not all muscle haha. My legs are getting bigger though. We took away one of our investiagors coffee so that was pretty cool and now we have coffe in our apartment. The elders here are so much fun and they all say this is the most disciplined mission and I agree, everyone holds eachother accountable and I love it, nobody is lazy. I really love it, it is going by way too fast though haha.

 

One Month!?!?!?

Man time flies. this week was great though. On Tuesday we got put in a trio with elder Cordery. It was his last day on the mission so he just spent the day with us. He was so awesome and confident, I learned to have tons of confidence from him, he talked to every person no matter where they were it was funny. But he woke me up at 5:45 to run 5 miles! not my thing it was terrible. but I couldn't complain cause it was his last day and we ran on the 101 which is right on the beach so it was so pretty and nice. So me and Elder Smith killed him (that's what its called when a missionary leaves) and continued on our way. We ran out of ideas one day cause we are just finding so we went to a Catholic Fellowship Home lol. Surprisingly the leader guy there was cool and let us in so we talked to tons and tons of guys. We met a Russian guy who barely moved from Russia two weeks ago and had the thickest accent ever it was so scary. He told us "Let me go smoke one real quick then we Bible study with the Mormon Book" (make sure to read that in the thickest Russian accent ever) it was hilarious. We went on exchanges this week and Elder Smith that it would be cool for me to run the area for two days even though ive been out like 3 weeks. So I ran the area and everything seemed to go well, I didn't completely ruin evething so we are good. I was with Elder Rodriguez from Spanish Fork Utah. We went to a dinner/lesson with one of our investigators, Steven, who is 9 and hasn't been baptized cause his dad wont let him. His parents are divorced but his mom is an active member and awesome. So we got there and Steven and his little brother Anchor who is 5 were both in there underwear and I felt right at home it was great. I wanted to join them but that's innaproiate for missionaries I guess lol. Anyways we are trying to convince the dad but its not really working. We did sing Happy Birthday to Anchor though and it was so cute. Anyways that's the week. Miss you all!

 

Excerpts from other letters to us this week

"So before I left I found your Book of Mormon from your mission and stole it and took it with me. Its all marked up and has scriptures everywhere and has helped me tons in studying and learning. On Wednesday I was kinda having a rough morning so I prayed and immediately after had a prompting to grab your old scriptures. Opened it up to the first page where you wrote the scripture D&C 121:7-8. I pictured you saying that to me and my day completely turned around and I know it was a tender mercy from god that I opened up to that. "

 

 

Cali

So another week in California. We have no real investigators right now because its a kinda new area. So we contact and knock doors all day long. Let me tell you, you have absolutely no idea who is behind that door you knock. One door an ex-gang, drug dealer/addict answered who was definitely not sober and he was really cool but he kept giving us advice on how to be better missionaries and be more effective in our work. It was awesome. Another door the guy was also not sober. He said "Mormons are my dudes" like 20 times it was awesome. Turns out he is the 15th highest decorated Vietnam Veteran though, he even showed us a picture so that was really cool. Another door two little Indian kids answered who barely spoke English and had really thick accents. I tried showing them a picture of Jesus and they started yelling "no! no! no!" and slammed the door. It was hilarious. Another door an African tribal lady anwered and didjnt speak English and her language was so cool and weird but we couldn't communicate so that was awkward. Anyways you run into a lot of different people, its fun but nobody really wants to listen. I went on exchanges with Elder Stewart my district leader this week. He is 25 and already graduated from BYU and loves eating kale. Weird dude but he was so sarcastic so we got along great. Not much else happened besides in church when the first counselor was conducting he sounded like he was announcing a soccer game so that was hilarious. Im doing great and loving California (minus the hills). I read a talk from David L. Beck where he says "When you lose yourself in serving others, you find yourself. You change and grow in ways that otherwise would not be possible." Everyone needs help and there are people out there waiting!

other comments this week:
"I rode my bike on the 101 next to the beach last night it was so cool! I got your box my comp was surprised at all the protein but I knew it was coming:)"

" Tate,Tell Gunner Joseph smith knew of the theory of relativity before Einstein...look it up its true stuff"


President and sister Kendrick with elder Romney 

First week in Carlsbad

Man what a week. The weather over here is amazing!!! My comp/trainer is Elder Smith. Hardest working, most obedient and awesome missionary ever (according to everyone in the mission). I agree cause he is working me so hard I am exhausted when we get home every night. We are in Carlsbad and part of Oceanside. Our apartment is like a quarter mile from the beach so thats awesome. We run every morning to where we can get a great view of the ocean and its so cool. Why did we never live here? So i got thrown right into the fire. The day i got here i taught to investigators and we contacted/tracted the entire night. Believe it or not i actually talk to people and Elder Smith is impressed with how well I am at contacting. We are on bikes and it is so rough. The hills here are not bike friendly and so steep so i get a great leg work out all day every day. Hopefull Ill have some muscle on them when i get back. Spanish speaking here is basically going in to the sketchy scary places nobody else wants to go in. Im still mainly speaking and teaching in English though. We had dinner at a members house and he is huge in sports so we watched my highlights haha it was so cool. I really do love the work. Being a missionary is actually fun if you have a positive attitude. 90% of the people we contact say no to us (20% not so nice about it) but there are people who listen. When you find that one person that listens it is the happiest feeling in the world. Anyways i hope everyone is doing great. I love California. I love the weather. I love being a missionary. -

 

Elder Romney

 

  (More from other letters this week)

.*** Yes tracting is actually super fun. Believe it or not i actually go up to people and start converstations all day everyday. Yes you have stalkers everywhere. Cali is awesome and im doing great. Its not really a Spanish speaking missions its like half and half so thats cool.

*** Elder Smith my comp is awesome he is such a great missionary. No slacking with him! Biking these hills are so hard!!!

Pictures from people

Pictures I was sent this week from cousins and random people! I think I'm gonna love this mission!! I got word from mission ladies his first area is Oceanside and his comp is Elder Smith. So exciting. Can't wait to hear from him tomorrow!