WEEK 38 - Wolf Of Wall Streeted

Good heavens, something that has become abundantly clear to me since being a missionary is how much the gospel can change peoples lives. This week we had the opportunity to have our friends Keyjun and Shanti come with us to dinner at our Bishop's super nice house. It was so fun to be with everyone and the food was glorious. Elder Yee took home a family sized beef wellington portion of the cake at the end so that was cool (will elaborate later in the email). The highlight though was definitely the spiritual thought at the end. We watched this video that I like, and it is this guy who talks about how the gospel brought light into his life. I guess the video slapped because Keyjun was in tears for a good portion of it. I started talking about how we need to let our light shine to those around us and Keyjun looked at me and was like "can I add something?" and I was like "absolutely" He looks at this very young family and goes "I was hanging out with the wrong crowd before this" and looks right at the kids and is like "cocaine, heroine, you know?" I was so fearful for where this was going, but then Keyjun paused and started crying and talked about what the gospel has done for him and then he looked at me and told me how thankful he was that we helped him by bringing this into his life, and I was almost near tears, and the Spirit just FLOODED the room, my goodness. You would not recognize Keyjun 3 weeks ago. I don't even know that man anymore. The gospel has changed his life unlike I have ever seen it change someones before. People like me who grow up with the gospel don't realize the impact it can have on a soul. Keyjun had nothing even close to the gospel for so long, and now he has the fullness of it, and I am confident he will never let it go. Let's all be more like Keyjun and realize how precious this is. If you have any desire to be happy go listen to Guiding Light by Mumford And Sons, because judasssss, that song, gosh darn it is so good. Just go listen. Anyways here is this week: - Elder Yee's misfortune this week can all be traced back to one event. When we were at our Bishop's house for dinner they made a enormous cake and they were like "Elder's how bout' you take this home" and I was like "oh I'm ok, I am currently knee deep in my battle with obesity" and they laughed and then Elder Yee with a shy voice from the back was like "I could eat" he proceeded to take the entire beef wellington sized cake with a smile on his face. In my mind I was like "Judas that's a big cake, I am sure that will take him forever to eat" false. Elder Yee pounded that jawn the next morning in one sitting. And there were consequences of this action. He developed major lower back pain and we had to stay in for almost an entire day, he was full at every member meal for like the next three days, and he developed very poor emotional health from pure regret. One of my hobbies is encouraging people to make poor nutritional choices, but I was not in support of Elder Yee's decision because gosh darn that was a big cake. Anyways later in the week a group of us went to Little Caesars to take advantage of the $5.99 weekday lunch combo. Elder Yee was still full from the cake that he ate 4 days ago so he decided he wasn't gonna eat with us. This lady named Basonya took our order and she did it with complete precision and accuracy. But she noticed one thing. She noticed that there was one of us who did not order anything. She goes "hey you back there! Get up here and get a pizza" poor Elder Yee was like "oh I'm not getting anything I am full" and she was like "wrong. Get over here" and he was like "I'm good haha no thanks" and she was like "ya you're good. Get over here and order" Elder Yee accepted his defeat and put his head down and walked up to the counter and just got absolutely Detroit style hustled into purchasing this pizza. I hope you haven't seen the Wolf Of Wall Street (because it is a horrible movie to see) but if by chance you have sinned like me and seen it, this lady was the Wolf Of Wall Street but Tyler based. Her sales technique was flawless. She was so good at selling that she literally took away Elder Yee's agency and made him purchase pizza from her. If we can get Basonya to go on a mission it's over. There will be no one left to baptize, she is so dope. - Best event of the week for sure was Keyjun's baptism. Keyjun straight up changed his life completely in 3 and a half weeks, it was so cool to see. He pulled up to the baptism and he didn't have his durag on which threw me off because I haven't seen him without it before. The baptism started and the first song was "I Believe In Christ" and it slapped and Keyjun (who doesn't really cry ever) just had tears pouring down his face. Then we did the baptism and I put him under the water and he came up and gave me a hug. Then he leaned over to the side and started WEEPING. Ladies and Gentlemen there is crying and there is weeping. He could barely hold himself up and for a split second I thought I did something wrong and like made him handicap during his baptism. I finally helped him out and for another minute he was just weeping in the bathroom with me, he literally couldn't even talk. I finally got him to talk and he was just in tears and was like "that is the best thing I have ever done. All of the evil, it's just gone now and it's so freeing" I was like "ya how do you feel" and he looks at me and is like "just 10x better" anyways it was cool and then the rest of the baptism went super well and Keyjun is just so dope and his baptism was super fun. At the end of the baptism 3 of my least favorite ward members ganged up on me and just entrapped me in a circle of passive aggressiveness and the baptism on top of that just really took it out of me. But overall wonderful experience. Alrighty I love you all and miss you immensely, more than anyone else who is out on a mission! I would love to hear from you! Have such a great week! Pictures: 1. Elder Waters 2. Baptized the GOAT 3. Leadership call 4. Bonding with the sisters over lauren daigle