I’m now in Yucaipa. I live in Banning and cover all of
Banning and Cherry Valley, which is really big for an area for me, at least
compared to Coachella. But it’s fun. We are on bikes - ok that’s not entirely
true. We are supposed to be on bikes but my companion, Elder R, who by the way
is hilarious, had an accident 3 months ago and broke his elbow. It hasn't fully healed :/ So after 2 days of
struggling through riding his bike we got told by the mission nurse that he
can’t ride until after his doctor’s appointment this Wednesday.
So the last 2 days we have been walking and man is that difficult. We were all
white-washed in so we have no idea what is going on and who we can call. So on Friday since we didn't have dinner we walked to Little
Caesars and then walked up to a family’s home who lived pretty far and it took
us an hour to do the walk and then we got driven home and it took 3 minutes
>.< Meeeeeh.
Saturday was fun, too. We had one lesson with
a family and spent 5.5 hours of the day walking and covered about 14 miles.
That was awful. Though we had an adventure, the picture of the ditch with the
Book of Mormon at the bottom was behind a shopping center and in between the
center and the train tracks. We had a plan to try and cross the tracks and the
freeway but there is a fence along the freeway so we just kept walking by the
tracks. But we found this hole and we went around and we found the Book of
Mormon and we thought about taking it but maybe whoever lived there was reading
it so we didn't want to steal it from them. My feet hurt and I have some blisters now. But
it’s worth it. Doing the Lords work is always worth it!!
Church was interesting on Sunday
because well, there are more than enough members to have a ward. It’s just not
enough of them are active. And we want to help this branch be a ward. So that’s
a big focus in this area. It was strange because we are in a stake center and
only like 8 of the rows were filled. Maybe 50 or 60 people were actually there
on time and then the other 30 showed up like 5 minutes before the sacrament.
They had us introduce ourselves and everything. It was kind of nerve wracking.
But everyone in the ward that goes to church loves the missionaries and is
super excited to have elders in the branch.
We are super excited to work out here and help this branch
grow.
I don’t have time to say anymore. And
well nothing huge has happened. But I hope you will all pray for missionary
experiences this week and I know if you do Heavenly Father will give them to
you.
I hope you have a great week.
-Elder Gore
