به پلاس وردس ميروم (I'm going to Palos Verdes)

It wouldn't be the Los Angeles mission without huge changes every 6 weeks haha. After only 6 weeks down here in Downey, Ill be spending the next transfer down in Palos Verdes, as far south as you can go before going swimming! Haha As far as E Kuyoth, he is staying and finishing the mission here in Downey. My new companion is E Griffin, E Kuyoth's last companion, so I'm super excited! Loved my time here in Downey, E Kuyoth, the ward, the people here are awesome! Sad to leave, but still excited for the next one!

4th of July was awesome! We live on the 3rd floor and our apartment faces the street and a park so we had a 180° view of all the illegal fireworks here in So-Cal haha. We found gingerbread mix in our cupboard and decided to make them. Bad idea, they were not very good, but we stayed up and watched fireworks for almost 2 hours since we had to be in early. 

This week was a little slow. It seemed like we walked and walked and talked and talked but no one was interested. Some weeks are just like that but it was a little discouraging, this whole transfer has been on FIRE! However Sunday, while we were walking and walking haha we met this girl out in her front yard. We said hello and asked what the most important ting in her life was. She responded that family, her niece and nephew were the most important thing to her. We talked to April for probably 15 minutes and the more and more we talked she kept saying how impressed she was that two 19 year olds would come out for 2 years to do this. She has been looking for a way to strengthen her faith and she told us she has been up and down, on and off the right path in her life and wants her niece and nephew to grow up to be like us! Haha it was awesome to be able to meet April. After we left, E Kuyoth and thought about it and decided that if we had been there 10 seconds earlier or later, we would have missed her. The Lord really does put us exactly in the path and spot we need to be to be able to bring to pass His work. He loves us and blesses us when we are diligent and obedient. 

As far as Santiago goes.. He went MIA again this week. 

Quick update on our part-member family, the Sailors! Autumnrain and Mikey, their two younger kids are set to be baptized next week! Woooo! It has been super cool to be able to work with them and feel their enthusiasm to learn and follow Jesus. We taught them the commandments with a cool hand game to remember all 10 and they quickly went inside and taught their parents right after! We had a lesson with their older brother and he was a little rusty on prayer and Autumnrain who is 10 was helping him along! We asked them why we read the scriptures and Mikey who is 8 said, "So we can learn more about Jesus!" Ahhh they are the best! :) 

California has these really interesting plants everywhere. 

We were gonna visit an investigator, he told us to come back in 30 minutes, we did and were greeted with two cold water bottles and a note.  Nicest Rejection ever haha. 

Someone decided to cook steaks on their porch and forgot about them.  #FreeFood?

When it gets hot, pull out some Christmas tunes.  #KuyothJams

#TanLines-SkinCancer-BearlyMakingIt

Happy 4th of July! Hope you all have a blast! #funpuns

Am I a real missionary with a real missionary tan line yet?

This is Santiago! We went up to the Visitor Center this week with him to help him prepare for his baptism! Its been really cool to see how much he has grown in the past 3 weeks. There are still days when he is kind of flaky, but he is trying his best and we can feel it! We went to go pick him up with a member for church Sunday morning and we found him talking to a lady on the street. I guess this lady was trying to get him to come to the Christian church down the street but he was being a missionary and was inviting her to come to our church!  Super cool! 

While at the VC, we ran into Zane and his mom, who went on the school Europe trip a year ago! Zane was actually my roommate and we did everything from swimming in a Swiss lake to frolicking through Austrian fields together. It was cool to see them for a little bit! Also, a member from the Downey 3rd ward drove us up and we ran into the missionary who taught and baptized him 30 years ago in France! What a small world. 

We went on exchanges this week, I got to go to the bike area in our zone. :) #itshot It was super fun, change of scenery, but after exchanges we noticed this weird looking burn on my arm. Not sure how it got there, dont remember touching anything, but none the less here is a nasty picture of my skin cancer. Enjoy.

President Weidman bounced and President Haynie arrived and the mission got to meet him on Thursday and Friday. I was asked to play the piano for our "Meet the President" meeting on Friday and little did I know Id be playing background music for 2 hours while everyone else went up to have little chit-chat with President. 2 hours later of hymnals, twas tired. :) Im super excited to have the Haynies here and I feel super blessed to have had a year with President Weidman and now a year with President Haynie. 

We had car troubles again this week. Rather than our oil cap, our coolant and radiator went all whack. Thursday night as we are driving home for the night our car overheats and freaks out. 0 coolant. Great. So we had a very early start Friday, tried to fix it, car kept overheating throughout the day and we ended up getting a loaner car for the next couple days. And its blue! :) You know you are a missionary when the color of your car makes you excited. I feel like Gus and Shawn in the Blueberry. 

We were checking out potentials in an area we had never been before this week and we ran into the Noriega family. Turns out they LOVE the elders, but they stopped coming by a couple months ago and know one really knows why. But their son Lorenzo had moved to Utah for 6 months and went to church and knows EVERYTHING about the church. When we would explain things to the rest of the family about our purpose or why we do this that, Lorenzo would jump in and explain it all. Haha It was super cool to meet them and they are super nice! :)

Cool experience! We were in another area, visiting potentials, near the creepy paper lady in the chair and skull on the stick, and we felt like we should knock on a couple doors. We knock on one, guy comes to the door and asks why we knocked on his door in Spanish. We explained that we were missionaries and we felt like we should, we didnt know exactly why but here we were. He said ok, hold on. He leaves and we think "Ohh man he is going to get the shotgun." Haha he comes back and tells us to come on in. What? So we go in and sit and he asks again why we knocked on his door. Earlier that morning, Edgar felt like he needed to get back to church. He has been going through a rough time in his life and needs peace but didnt know where to turn. His whole family is Christian but his wife and her family are Catholics, so he was kinda split. Then we pop up and knock on his door. Edgar had lived in Utah for 10 years and was so impressed about how nice the people were, how they helped him find work and even help him move out here to CA. He then told us that his oldest son had actually been going to the Mormon church and got baptized! What?! We shared a video and a scripture out of the Book of Mormon and promised him peace and he was all smiles. Great referral for the Sisters! :) Ive always heard of stories about cool knocking-the-door miracles, but its so cool to look back and realize that they actually happen. :) God is good. 

Please enjoy all these pictures of E Kuyoth and I having too much fun while we visit potentials. Have a great week! 

ارشد اِكبرگ

One Year #FlameThrower

What another great week! Earlier this week it got so hot a transformer blew up here in Downey and so the power was out in a lot of places for the whole day.. Poor people with no A/C... But it was good for us cause everyone was outside of their houses.. Hehe

Plan of Salvation-game versions

We are working with this awesome recent convert family! This is Phoenix, Isaac, Mateo and Leamsi! Phoenix was baptized almost two years ago in Long Beach and the boys have all been baptized within the last three months and they are our favorite! This week we went over and decided to make our own Plan of Salvations while reviewing the original. Lets just say they love their video games and we had a lot of "leveling up" in our plans. :) #Beanie?itsHotOutside

We have been working with this guy, Santiago for a little bit and he wants to be baptized, but we have trouble meeting with him. We hadnt seen him in almost a week and a half and then one day we were knocking a potentials door and we see him across the street. So we half doorbell ditched this house and ran over and talked with Santiago. We made a plan to see him almost everyday and he has been doing good! Then Sunday rolled around, we go over to make sure everythings all good and he is nowhere to be found. Sick. :) ahhh.. We will see. #wheredoeshego?

MIRACLE TIME. Elder Kuyoth and I drive by these apartment buildings everyday, they are kinda tucked away, no potentials over there, etc. So about 2 weeks ago, E Kuyoth says, "Hey, we should just go knock those apartments one of these days, I feel like we should." So Friday this week we decided to go do it! We started out, Spanish. Spanish. Spanish. Great referral time, but no potentials for our area. Kinda disappointed initially, but we decided to keep going! 20 or so doors/people later we knock this door and someone inside goes, "Its the missionaries." Ohh man.. Turns out we ran into a part-member family! Mom, Dad and their 3 kids, two of which havent been but can be baptized! We start talking, they ask, "Where is your church?" Turns out they have been looking for a church for the last little bit because they want to start coming back to church! We told them, found them a ride and BOOM they cam on Sunday! Wooo! They clicked with the ward instantly and loved it! Even their kids, who never really liked church before said they loved it and want to go back next week! We are super excited to start working with the Sailor family! Heavenly Father is looking out for His children! :)

We have been working with the Fortun family for a little (Kimberly, Gisella and Fernando) and Fernando is leaving to visit Peru for a month.. :( we are sad. But we are super excited to continue working Kimberly and her mom Gisella! Who knows, maybe Fernando will come home to come recent converts? ;) 

Well, its been a year. Please enjoy us doing the cliché "Burn-a-shirt" year mark event. #Flamethrower

Im thankful for the Book of Mormon and for continuous revelation. I know God loves us and has given us tools and things to aid us in our success and happiness. The simple things like prayer and the scriptures enable us to know God's will and prepare us to be taught by the Holy Ghost. We are blessed to be born in a time where continuous revelation is present and we have the fulness of the Gospel. Such simple truths such as the nature of God and Jesus Christ and the Doctrine of Christ are clarified and supported with the Restoration of the Gospel and the Book of Mormon. Im grateful to be a missionary. I love the mission! :)

FroYo.  #missionchangesyou

Have a good week!

Remember the drug car?  This is it--Dan drove ;)

Father's Day

Its been another hot week. Pretty sure we hit 100° yesterday. Then again Arizona is cookin in the 120° range haha. Still, its hot when you are dressed as a missionary and stay outside NOT swimming haha. But tis well, people feel sorry for us and give us water, which makes us have to go to the bathroom a lot, haha. #missionarylife

Well, we had our last zone conference with President. We talked a lot about consecration. During our studies this week I found this guy:  “Real, personal sacrifice never was placing an animal on the altar. Instead, it is a willingness to put the animal in us upon the altar and letting it be consumed!” 

After zone conference we drove back to our area, 20 minutes later, our car was lurching, making weird sounds and the engine light came on. We pulled over popped the hood and there was oil EVERYWHERE. At conference, the staff inspects our cars and makes sure they are good, but when they forget to put the oil cap back on, usually they aren't good. Luckily, God provided for us in this time of need. Miracle 1, we were only a mile from an auto store. We start walking, its hot. Miracle 2, some members drive up and offer us a ride. They didn't even live in our mission! And they just happened to drive by?! We make it in the store. We buy a cap and some extra oil. Trek back to the car, fill up and drive back to the auto store, guys tell us our car is good but we need to clean all the oil off. Trip to the dollar store! Miracle 3, member finds us in the store, buys our things for us! We clean our car off, everything is good. Miracle 4, car is perfectly fine now :) what an adventure. 

Cool people we met this week. We were tracting an area, without much luck. We saw these two guys under a tree, they were busy, kinda brushed us off. Well, the next day, we are in a completely new area. 15 min in, we talk to this guy in his driveway playing with his son. "Hey, have you ever seen missionaries before?" "Yeah! I saw you guys yesterday!" "...? We weren't here yesterday...?" "Yeah but you guys said hello over at my dads house. We were sitting under a tree!" "What?!" God led us to this guy, Arley two days in a row! Pretty cool! He was awesome, we set up a time to come back and teach his small family. :) 

We met this girl Kimberly out on the street about a week ago, she told us we could come back. So we did. We end up teaching her mom, her and her younger brother. The mom kept saying "Ohh its so hard being a single mom, I just need some peace. We need to start going to church, praying, etc." Boy did they light up during the lesson. Its soo cool to see how someone's whole atmosphere can change within a couple minutes. We went back later in the week and taught the kids, and Kimberly accepted the invitation to be baptized. Fernando, her little brother is taking a long trip to Peru at the end of this month, but he was on board as well. He LOVES his video games, but he was so interactive in the lesson that it even surprised Kimberly. We are going back early this week to catch the mom, Gisella with them. Awesome family! 

Here in Downey, I'm getting really good practice with my Spanish. Its been good. We had a 20min convo in Spanish all about how alone she feels and what Jesus can do to help her. She agreed to meet with the Spanish sisters and we hope all is going well. I guess God wants me to keep my Spanish.

Fun fact. There is a member in our ward that speaks Arabic. And she is white. :) #closeenough

Areceli, her kids and the neighbor kids

Also this is Areceli and her family. We met her last week, we stopped by and there was literally 10 kids running around. We were like... :O Turns out that 5 of the kids were a family friend, and they are MEMBERS! What?! So we taught Areceli (Mom) and her 4 kids and the neighbor with these 5 member kids :) pretty cool little tender mercy. :) 

Happy Fathers Day! Also, this week is HUMP WEEK. What. Even. Is. Life.? 

ارشد اِكبرگ

Breaking the Rules

So this morning we get a call at 4:50 from our vehicle coordinator. E Kuyoth looks at the phone and says, "Yeah, its too early, not a chance. If its important, he will call again." He calls us a second time. "Good morning Elders! This past week a mission car was stolen and the cops just found it and I need someone to go get it from them, can you help me out?" So we get dressed in our jeans and tags and drive down to the middle of the ghetto and find this stolen car. We sign some papers, cop gives us the keys and we pull it off to the side of the road. Then the cop tells us we should probably get out of the neighborhood and park it in a safer location. We call our vehicle coordinator and he tells us just to drive to the nearest McDonalds and wait for him to get there. So E Kuyoth and I drove solo for about 10min this morning. Mission Rule: Be with your companion 24/7 practically no exceptions. Also, this car was TRASHED and reeked of marijuana and TIWI, the automated driving aid was ripped out of the car. So, windows rolled down, companion in a different car, we drove to a McDonalds where we met up with our vehicle coordinator and passed the car on. What an eventful morning :)

#whereisyourcomp?  #whytwocars?

Besides that, we had a TON of meetings. The APs called us Monday and asked us to give a quick demonstration Tuesday morning at the Mission Leadership Council. 10 min before the demo they switch it and ask us to do a full blown training. It went well but man.. #wherewasthepreparation

Wednesday was temple day! Only took us an hour and a half to drive to Santa Monica this time! Quite the change from the 5 minute walk in Farsi. But none the less, temple was awesome. :)

Elders of the HP2 Zone

Thursday, went on splits with the Assistants, I went with Elder Dayley, who was an ASL missionary! Twas cool to talk about our respective programs and how it differs in missionary work. Things may be very different, but the gospel is still the same! 

Friday, Zone Training Meeting. Saturday, ward had a baptism and we were asked to share a thought.

Sunday, we had stake reports with President and the Stake Presidency. #stressful We are supposed to report on our zone's investigators and recent converts and their progress each month and of course you want it to be accurate, organized and make President happy. Luckily, we did :) and to reward us, we got asked to give a training this next Saturday at Zone Conference.. :) #theblessings? #dutycalls?

When your favorite Indian family isn't home...

Crazy week. Language study is a thing of the past. I am getting my Spanish back though! We met a guy from Armenia yesterday, bordering Iran so thats as close as Ill get :) 

This week has also been a rollercoaster for our area. We started the week off with a lesson with a girl Ashley, who asked if she could bring her friend, Ashley to the lesson. So we taught Ashley and Ashley and invited the, to be baptized. Fast forward, the one dropped us on Saturday. We got yelled at, cursed at, some guy told us that we cant solicit to minors? Also, if you commit to come to church, and the missionaries love you enough to knock on your door Sunday morning because you dont answer your phone :) #weloveyou then you shouldnt get mad at us :)

#sandwichgoals

Awesome week! Hope all is going well! #schoolsout Love you!

June

Well its been a week! This week flew by, lots of change but we are having a grand ol time. New area is in Downey, hottest part of the mission. Just in time for summer... Yes. :) Everyone asks me if I'm used to the heat since I'm from Arizona.. Nope haha. It's not the Arizona 115s but I got so used to the breeze up in Santa Monica and now I'm 20 miles from the beach and its HOT. #Ohwell

Comp is E Kuyoth. He's from Bountiful Utah and he is almost done here on the mish, starts school in August. So he will leave me to spend the rest of summer in Downey haha. We get along really well. He kinda reminds me of my cousin Todd, and looks like him too #halfasians 

Downey 3rd ward. I swear, the average age in the ward is 70 but you gotta love them. Everyone is super awesome, there is a great Ward Mission Leader and Bishop and make everything run so smooth. Also, we get fed almost everyday, good food too. #WeightGain 

The area reminds me a lot of some parts of Mesa Arizona. Very suburb-y. Some people say its Hispanic Beverly Hills over here, there are some BIG houses. Fun facts: They are building a Raising Canes in the area! (Hopefully its done by the time I bounce). Dasani Water is pumped from here so our tap water is basically Dasani water. Oldest running McDonalds is in our area. I really like the area haha.

Whats been cool is there have been a couple baptisms in the past couple months here so we get to work with recent converts! We also have a couple dates lined up and we are working hard with em. Its been cool to teach in English, although its a bit strange. Adjusting but its good. Havent seen any Persians but Im on the look out. I hope I get to go back, I wanna keep my Farsi up. But its all good.

This week is gonna be jammed pack full of stuff and Im excited. Its been a really good, really fast week. I hope everyone is doing well! Let me know if I can do anything :) Love you!

ارشد اِكبرگ

Elder Ekberg

Zone Leader

31 May 2016

Carri Ekberg

3919 E. Morrison Ranch Parkway

Gilbert, AZ 85296

Dear Sister Ekberg,

Elder Daniel Brett Ekberg has been called as a Zone Leader in the California Los Angeles Mission.  This assignment has come in recognition of his dedication and commitment to the Lord and to missionary service.  This appointment is in partial recognition of his leadership qualities and skills already demonstrated.

Elder Ekberg will supervise and direct the activities of between 18-24 Missionaries in his Zone.  He will also serve as a representative of the Mission President to the stakes in which his zone is located.  I am confident that he will continue to be a worthy example to all missionaries in the zone as well as a dedicated leader.

Sister Weidman joins me in expressing appreciation for your fine son.  We know that your training, love, and encouragement have contributed to his success as a missionary for the Lord, Jesus Christ.  Please accept our appreciation for the privilege of having Elder Ekberg in the California Los Angeles Mission.

Sincerely yours,

President David N. Weidman

California Los Angeles Mission