A Break In

Explanation: When I was on the phone with Jaxon on Valentine's Day, there was suddenly a lot of yelling going on at the church where he was and he quit talking to me. I could hear him talking to others but eventually he just hung up. I did receive a message from him about an hour later letting me know that everyone was safe but nothing more. Here was his explanation a week later:

So, there was an officer already at the church when some guy started freaking out. Elder Huffman talked to him outside, and so did the police officer and he seemed to calm down. A few minutes later he started screaming again about someone coming after him and trying to kill him, so he started banging on the church doors. They were all locked, and the officer started going to talk to him again, so the man dove head first through one of the church windows into a classroom. Also, the windows are crazy thick, so that was insane. He really cut up his arm on the window, and was bleeding everywhere he went. I was in the hallway and he pushed his way past Elder Moore into the gym where there were 20 missionaries. I ran and grabbed the cop while a couple of the spanish Elders were trying to calm him down. When the police came in, he started screaming and freaking out about somebody coming after him and trying to kill him. Eventually they got him sedated and they took him away in an ambulence, so hopefully he's feeling better now. It was funny though because an officer was talking to four of us (the rest of the missionaries had locked themselves into the family history center) and said she'd like the IDs of the people who were in the gym. I asked, "all of them?" and she goes, "that'd probably be best, in case anything comes up." Me: "okay, well there were 20 of us in there" Her: "20!?!" Me: "Yeah" Her "okay, how about just you guys" Then she was confused because none of us had California driver's licenses (Utah, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming). It was fun. Bertha canceled the time we had set up, but we stopped by another time and had a lesson. Afterwards she was telling us that she was going to read that chapter with her kids and make them join us for the next lesson. She also said that everytime she sets something up, it falls through, so just stop by whenever and she'll have us teach her even if she's only got like 5 minutes. She had felt bad that she cancels so much because she's really interested and loves what we do, but something always comes up. That was good and bad to hear. Good because she wants to learn, but not having set appointments is hard because we can't plan on a lesson, but we can't have anything important for the backup plan because maybe we do get a lesson. We haven't had a pass of lesson with Charnel and the sisters, they may still be teaching her though, I'm not sure. We haven't been able to meet with Brianna though. Sarah and Keith didn't make it to their 7 days. Found out they actually only made it two days the first week. But they recommitted with us and made a lot of changes. They are still slow to follow the commitments, but they are doing better than last time. A friend had stopped by and given them a pack of cigarettes last week and Keith's cousin who lives with them was always smoking on the patio and leaving his ash trays and cigarettes out. Now, Sarah and Keith only use their back door and have found ways to help them remember and follow the program better. Yesterday they came to church and were 5 days sober, so hopefully we will celebrate 7 days on Wednesday. We stopped by Joseph and had a lesson with him, but it was short and simple because he was crazy drunk. He probably doesn't even remember it. We would ask or say something and his response would come a solid 5 seconds later, it was so delayed. That also probably explains him missing a lot of our morning lessons and just a lot of things honestly. Now we know next time we'll go over the Word of Wisdom. We had our lesson scheduled with Mary for Thursday, but we were in the area Tuesday, so we stopped by. She committed to reading Moroni 10 and praying to know before we came over on Thursday. We reminded her Thursday morning and she thanked us and confirmed our lesson, but an hour before she said she'd been helping her husband with some painting and the fumes had given her a terrible headache and she feels sick, so she was gonna go to bed early and asked if we could meet next week. So, we'll see. Carol did not make it to church this week, but she did read a little from Mosiah 3 and she really liked it. We were going to set up a time to meet at church, so now we don't have a scheduled appointment :( Carol would always tell us that she believed what we said was true because it was familiar to her and didn't conflict with her beliefs, so she doesn't feel like she needs to pray to know. So, this last lesson we talked mostly about Joseph Smith and how if the Book of Mormon is true then he must be a prophet and this is God's only true church. Apparently the idea that the Book of Mormon being true means Joseph Smith is a prophet had not occurred to her, but I feel like we've discussed it so many times. But, now she's realized that, so we'll see how her reading and praying goes this week. I did get my TIWI, but Elder Astel is still driving. Also, he got his cards back and literally has more than twice as much money than me. Hopefully he'll buy me lunch or something sometime. Sister Brewer texted us and said she was having some family issues and couldn't make it to church, but that she was going to come next week. She also asked us if we'd come over and do a bible study with her if we had time, so we'll do that soon. We're getting to know a lot of the inactives, but not too many coming to church yet. There is one lady about 55 who joined the church 15 years ago but hasn't been in about 3 years. At first because she moved, and then because of Covid she says. Now she doesn't want to come back because she thinks the church is too accepting of the LGBT community and thinks it gives them special privileges. Crazy how the world is, some people leave thinking the church is too far one way and others leave thinking its too far in the exact opposite way. Obviously it's us humans who have the real problem. 😆 Good News: The prophet, Russel M. Nelson, is speaking to the members in California in a devotional next Sunday, so that will be cool. Also, March 4th we have a mission conference with Brent H. Nielson, so that will also be cool. Challenge: nothing out of the ordinary 😂 Miracle: We went to a neighborhood to visit some members that our Elder's Quorum president wanted us to stop by, but they weren't home. Actually they don't live there anymore. But, in that same area we got 3 return appointments and someone is going to invite their friend over for when we come back. It was sweet. God definitely inspired President Wetenkamp with this list of members to visit. Chinese - I got a Chinese women from Korea to call me for an hour and she was trying to teach me Chinese. She doesn't speak English though, and my Chinese is bad, but it was fun and she's willing to do it again, we just gotta find a good time. Love you, Elder Jaxon Wardle