Hello friends and family
This week was nuts
So, let us start off with a story. My companion and I were biking home up Tropicana Avenue, when we heard sirens go off. This is normal. But then we heard more. And then more. And then more. Soon we saw a ton of cop cars driving down the road and the ghetto-bird circling very low overhead. When we biked up the street we counted roughly 18 cop cars all circling around the entry of an apartment complex. Their lights were all on and they started to block off streets. It was loud. Something was going down at this complex. It was one that is right down the street from our place too. Not to mention... We were working in there two days before. We got in safe and then after we got the news that someone had murdered 3 people in there and the cops got him. Whether that means incarcerated or dead, unclear. Either way, it was pretty crazy to see so much stuff going on. Typical Vegas.
It rained a lot this week. The power went out a few times, but once we got home it stayed on. No big deal.
We went on exchanges this week. I was first with Elder Neve, a total bro from St. George (we both got transferred here from the same district) and then I went with my district leader to his area. I saw a homeless camp. It looked like a bunch of tarps and sticks and Walmart shopping carts, because that is what it was. There were roughly 8 camp sites. Old lots or run-down houses are good places for the homeless to sleep I guess.
Speaking of homeless, there is a member who parades around Vegas meeting the missionaries and trying to settle down. Somehow he got our number, and right now he is homeless. He asked us for a Bible. We actually happened to meet him on the street afterwards and then he requested a Bible later on, so we met him off of Boulder Highway in an abandoned lot to give him one. It was...fun. Like actually fun. He has a little tarp he uses for a tent and he just sleeps out there. His twin brother was there too, but he has an actual house I think. Not sure why he doesn't' crash there for a while. Anyways, not all homeless people are utterly miserably, I have found. He was pretty upbeat and seemed to be enjoying life even though he has basically nothing right now. True happiness is not in things, that's for sure.
Transfers are in a week already. I feel like I just got here. Who knows what will happen.
On Sunday night I crashed my bike. That was fun. We were going through a light that was not going to be green for very much longer, so we had enough time to go through. I shouted "send it!" to my companion, who probably didn't hear me, because as I sped up, he stayed the same speed and while trying to go around, the gap between the curb and his bike suddenly closed...and my front tire bounced off the curb and I flipped over my bike and got a few bumps and bruises. And a skinned palm. It hurt for a moment but then we got back on track. My elbow still has a goose egg on it.
We've mostly been teaching pre-teens and teenagers in part-member families. The parents either fell away from the church or had weird life changes that for a while, made them inactive. Well, now they are coming back. So we are teaching their children. It has been fun.
Here is something I read recently out of the Book of Mormon...
Mosiah 27
30 I rejected my Redeemer, and denied that which had been spoken of by our fathers; but now that they may foresee that he will come, and that he remembereth every creature of his creating, he will make himself manifest unto all.
Heavenly Father remembers all of His creatures. We are some of those creatures (in fact, we're His favorite because we are His children). And He will reveal Himself and His works to His children. I know that this is true. He does it to people on the street every day through His servants....
Here are a few pictures. This is my bike on the back of my district leader's car. It looks funny. The other one is a picture of an alleyway with a sign that says "no parking" with a car parked underneath it. And then there is my palm that got skinned a bit. I was worse a few days ago, plus I picked all of the debris out of it.
-Elder Moore
P.S. In regard to the title of Elder Moore's last email: HAM is an acronym for "Hard as a missionary" meaning we are going to work really hard.
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