See ya.

"WOEOWOEOOOEOWOEOEOWOOEOWOE"

-Ben Rivera

Sorry about that. This keyboard must be getting old or something. Not entirely sure why it wrote some random bellow-like thing and then signed my name under it. The things that they can do with artificial intelligence these days, am I right?

Anyhoo, after that bizarre introduction, I'll get on to the letter before you start throwing things at me.

Wouldn't you know it, it's already been a week. A full 7 days, all of 168 hours. (For any of you who were wondering, that's 10,080 minutes and 604,800 seconds (which, to me, at least, doesn't seem like  a whole lot)). Many, many things have happened during that time (only some of them newsworthy), and I will do my best to remember everything, filter out the irrelevant, and pack all of the interesting things in to a short, reader-friendly document for your reading enjoyment.

First and foremost, we had zone conference this week, where we received training on how we will be helping at the temple open house. For the most part, we will be operating the video rooms (for the video that they watch before entering the actual temple), but there will be times when we will have ushering assignments. The first day for our zone will be the sixteenth (but the zone leaders are lucky and get to do one day before the rest of us, on the tenth for the VIPs). It's gonna be pretty fun. After the conclusion of zone conference, they took us through for our own tour, and that temple is breathtaking. Some of the older missionaries who were here before the renovation started said that it looks completely different on the inside (and now you actually enter through the front door, whereas before I guess it was randomly on the side). 

It was quite the experience. 

Some other news, we found another neighborhood with possibly a slightly higher chinese population for finding purposes. We had two long conversations with chinese people just on the doorsteps, which was very good. Unfortunately, neither of them were particularly interested, but we had a nice chin-wag anyway. 

There was another event that happened this week. To tell you about it, I am simply going to write in my journal entry for the night (slightly edited, so that you can follow it better) that this event occurred.

May 3, 2018

What happened on this day is one of those things that I never thought- that I never even dreamed- would happen to me. It was an experience that waking up in the morning I had no plans whatsoever to take part in, and yet by the end of the evening I walk away from it so much better off than if I hadn’t participated at all.

This happening- the event alluded to above- began in the afternoon. Elder Evans and I, along with the Zone Leaders and the Brookvale Elders, were at the Decoto chapel for weekly planning. My companion and I left a little early because we had a teaching appointment to make it to. When we had driven to the park that we had determined to be the location of our lesson, we called the person we were to be teaching, only to have her tell us that she would not be able to make it for our appointment. So, Elder Evans and I decided to head back to the chapel so that we could wrap up weekly planning before dinner. 

When we got there (about five minutes later), we saw the Zone Leaders standing outside of the building, talking to a man we had never seen before. We went into the church, not wanting to disturb them in case they were having an impromptu lesson or something like that. We decided to go into a room with a clear view of the door that they were standing outside of, just in case they at some point need assistance with anything. Eventually, we finish weekly planning, and the Elders are still outside talking to this guy (now with the zone leaders and the Brookvale elders out there). We watched them talk for a few additional minutes, unsure of what to do, until Elder Brady came inside. He told us that he and Elder Smith had some business to attend to (which didn’t make me any less confused) and that we could go outside and continue the conversation with the stranger and the Brookvale Elders. 

So, we went outside. As we were talking to the man, we were able to learn a lot about him. His name was Edwin, and he was a student from Kenya, who had traveled to America to study computer programming. The issue was, he wouldn’t have a place to stay until Monday (in three days time), when his host family would get back into town. He was, in affect, homeless until that time. He said that he had felt like he needed to go to a church to see if the people there could help him, and he just happened to choose our church at the one time of the entire week when there just happened to be six missionaries there. (do you believe in coincidences?) From this we were able to deduce that the “business” the zone leaders had to take care of was trying to find this guy a place to stay the night. 

But our conversation is going great. Edwin is such a nice, genuine man. We talked to him for a long time, before bringing some chairs outside and sitting to continue our chat with him. All this while, he had been very curious as to what we missionaries actually do. We’d been explaining to him, but at some point we decided that it would be best to just show him first hand what we do. When my companion and I were still inside the building, the other elders had given Edwin a Book of Mormon, so what we all decided to do is just sit down and read with him. We read the introduction, the testimonies of the three and eight witnesses, and the first three chapters of 1 Nephi (and oh my goodness did his Kenyan accent compliment the Book of Mormon!), having a great conversation about the reading all the while. 

In the meantime, the zone leaders had gone and bought some food for all of us, because at this point we had already been talking for over an hour and were therefore very hungry. We all ate some and then the zone leaders pulled us aside and said that they had been in contact with the bishop of one of the wards, who was trying to find a place for Edwin to stay for the night (and possibly until Monday), but the bishop had not yet gotten back to them. So, they said that we should stay and just talk with him until we hear something more. They said that they could stay with him for the next forty-five minutes or so, but after that they had an appointment that they needed to go to. My companion and I decided to take the Brookvale elders for a little more dinner (the zone leaders hadn’t brought a ton of food, so we were all still fairly hungry) and then we’d come back in time for the zone leaders to get to their appointment. So, we quickly went, shoved down some food at the nearest fast-food place, and went back to the church. 

We go in and find that the zone leaders are still talking with Edwin, now having moved into the actual chapel. They are teaching him how to play the organ (but, to be brutally honest, neither of them have any musical talent whatsoever) but upon seeing us walk in, relieved, they say that they need to leave for their appointment, but that we can stay with him and give him a “quality performance.” So, that's what we did. My companion's piano ability is not great, I found out, but he can plunk out a hymn or two. When my turn came, that's mostly what I did, was play a few hymns for him (I may have thrown in the Interstellar theme at one point, too). Edwin, despite facing the looming prospect of homelessness for the next several nights, was doing just fine countenance-wise. He was happy and eager to listen to this “quality performance,” and also eagerly accepted when we offered to take him on a tour of the church building. We showed him around, to the chapels, the gym, some classrooms, and pretty much everywhere in the building, before sitting down in one room off to the side and just talking to him. 

Over the course of this conversation, my companion and I were able to weave in a lot of the gospel, and he was very engaged, asking lots of questions. Over the course of this part of the evening, we ended up teaching him parts of all five Preach My Gospel lessons. At this point, it was about 8:00 (we'd been talking to Edwin now for about four hours total), and the zone leaders returned from their appointment. They said that while they were out, they had called six bishops, the stake president, President Durham… None of them had any solutions, or at least any solid ones, for where we could have Edwin stay. At this point, Elder Smith said what the rest of us were all thinking. “I think, at this point the best we can do is just find someplace warm for you to sleep.” Unfortunately, we couldn't allow him to sleep inside of the building (as much as we’d like to), so Elder Smith turns to Elder Evans and I and tells us to go out and get some stuff for him to be comfortable outside. So we jumped in our car and ran over to the Walmart that was just down the street. We ran through the store like maniacs looking for camping equipment to last Edwin the night. We end up finding a cheap sleeping bag, a blanket, a pillow, and an air mattress (that you inflate with this air-bag thingie (truly, words cannot describe) that doubles as another pillow), for a total of less than forty dollars. We checked out as hurriedly as we could while still remaining civil, and rushed back to the chapel, our arms full of the “goods.” 

When we return, we find the zone leaders still chilling in the building with Edwin, teaching him now not about the gospel, but about how American Football works (a conversation that I would’ve liked to get in on…). When we walked into the room, they said that now that we were here they could go outside and find a place around the building for him to spend the night. While they were doing this, my companion and I stayed inside, inflated the air mattress, and made additional gear preparations. The zone leaders returned with Edwin a few minutes later, saying that they’d found a nice, sheltered spot right outside. 

The Spanish branch was having activity going on inside the building, which was apparently running a little late, so we all decided to stay inside with Edwin until the activity wrapped up, to give him some more time inside of the nice interior of the church. We sat with him for a few minutes, entertaining him with some stories of crazy things that have happened to us on our missions (some of which seemed to really amuse him). While we were doing this, the Brookvale Elders got back from an appointment to pick up their bikes. They decided to stick around for a while too, so it was like it was in the beginning, six missionaries sitting down talking to one stranded Kenyan. 

It was quite the experience. After a while, we heard the Spanish party wrapping up, so my companion and I decide to go and help them take everything down, to help them get out of the building faster (because it was already past 9:30 at this point). What we didn’t take into consideration, though, is that when we walked in they saw us as missionaries, and immediately gave us half of a giant Costco cake, a few remaining slices of pizza, and two two-liter bottles of soda that they had left over. Gotta love the Spanish branch. So after we finish helping them clean up, we ran the food back down to our friends, and ate with Edwin a second late dinner. It was one of the most strange, but somehow the best, night of my mission, just sitting there talking with him with the five other missionaries. When we had finished our little meal (still with much cake and soda left over), we take Edwin’s sleeping stuff out to his little spot, say a quick prayer with him, and leave. 

To wrap the story up, by the next day, arrangements had been made for him to sleep at a motel until his host family arrived, which he gratefully accepted. He even attended church in the Brookvale ward on Sunday. Today, as I write this, it is Monday morning. He will have an actual place to stay tonight with his hosts. I don’t know what the future holds for our friend Edwin, but I do know that my six hours spent with him will likely be among the most memorable of my two years.

Sorry if that got a bit dramatic at times. I also apologize if this letter is getting a little long because of it. You can feel free to take a break if you need it. Maybe bring your stadium buddy next time.

Well, I suppose I'll end on that note. Don't want to make you late for too many meetings. It was certainly another eventful week, though, as I'm sure you deduced from the reading.

Until next time

-Ben "head of cow" Rivera

P.S. We knocked on this one door while tracting this week, and the first and last thing the man who opened it said, in a thick British accent, was: "you look like a couple of Mormons!", before closing the door. I almost died laughing when we got back to the sidewalk.

P.P.S. I'm not going to give any more details than this, but I now know how Aragorn felt when he had to eat Eowyn's soup.

P.P.P.S. Since I am the branch pianist, I am also the person who chooses which hymns we will be singing in church every Sunday. This week I decided to spice it up, and we sung what I believe is among the least-sung hymns in the book: "Thanks for the Sabbath School." (I guess, though, maybe in some wards they sing it all the time).