Tracting in Beverly Hills

I just went on splits with the missionaries, tracting in Beverly Hills. There were a ton of Starline tour vans and others taking pictures. I didn't think much of it considering the area. At one of the gates the lady asked if it was a religious message we were sharing. We said yes. She replied, "Do you know where you are?" Then some dude in the driveway yelled, "You're at the Playboy Mansion!" It was the back gate.

Birthdays are like weiners.

I know its late but better late than never. Thanks everyone for your cards, phone calls, text messages, DVD, etc.

Is this not the funniest card? Thanks Sam.

Next time you speak in church...

I gave a talk in sacrament meeting a couple of weeks ago. I was asked to speak on "the worth of souls" (I am a ward missionary) and was not given a time limit. There was only one other speaker so I figured I had a good 20 minutes. I wrote the whole thing out and figured it was probably about 20 minutes worth of material.

I was the first to speak. I don't remember what time I started so even though I was watching the clock it wasn't doing a whole lot of good since I really didn't know exactly when to finish. Well I got wrapped up in the moment and time really flew by. I was almost finished when some old guy in the congregation looked at me and tapped his watch quite forcefully with an annoyed look on his face. I looked at the clock and wondered where all the time went. (That seems to be a theme in my life.) I hurried and finished and sat down. I was embarrassed because I knew I had taken way too much time. The other speaker was an RM giving his homecoming speech and he had lots of family in town. So I felt even worse.

When I heard the counselor in the Bishopric say they were going to skip the intermediate hymn and move on to the last speaker I sunk my head in shame. We ended up getting out 10 minutes late!!! Afterward I apologized to the Bishopric and the Stake President who happened to be there. They were nice and told me not to worry about it. One of the counselors in the Bishopric who was sitting closest to the pulpit asked me if I felt him tapping on my shoe. I didn't feel a thing. He was tapping on my shoe to get me to stop talking! I was pretty dang embarrassed. You can put me in the same category as the 95+ year olds who are senile and who have lost all awareness of time years ago. HELLO!

Next time I give a talk in sacrament I am not asking for a time limit but a deadline.

Tracting with the fearless Elder Ellett

On Tuesday night I went on splits with the missionaries. We went tracting. I was okay with going tracting until they told me we were going to West Hollywood. That's when I got a little worried. For those of you who don't know, West Hollywood is very gay. I am pretty sure 95% of the people who protested at the temple last November are from West Hollywood. So I went knocking doors with Elder Ellett from Loa, Utah. One important piece of information: Elder Ellett has only one arm. Surprisingly the tracting went well. People were courteous and polite. They weren't interested but no one slammed the door in our faces. An Iranian Jewish guy named Jacob with brothers named Abraham, Isaac and Joseph told us it was too late to be out knocking on doors. So we went up to Sunset Blvd and started street contacting. Yes this is the famous Sunset Blvd with all the clubs, music venues, and scandalous billboards.

This is when Elder Ellett really impressed me. He was totally fearless! He talked to anybody and everybody. He stopped people while they were smoking outside of clubs (you can't smoke indoors in California). He stopped joggers, he stopped a girl who was listening to her iPod and had to take out the ear buds to hear him, and he loved bus stops because as he said, "they couldn't go anywhere." The funniest part was when he contacted people in front of Hustler! Sorry no picture. So on the way back to meet up with the other guys I asked Elder Ellett how he lost his arm. He said he fell off a truck when he was four years old. He told me I could read about it online. He didn't have time to give any details. So I went home and googled "Ellett" (I didn't ask him his first name). This is what I found.

He was on the cover of The New Era in February 2008 here is the link to the story.
New Era article






The Porter Ellett Story

The following link is from Good Morning America
http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=4377838

He was also on The Today Show.

The following is from CNN.


One Armed Basketball Player - video powered by Metacafe

Missionaries don't come any better than Elder Ellett.

Craigslist Rideshare

A few days before I was planning to come to AZ for Patricka's wedding the check engine light came on. A coworker found oil in the radiator and told me not to drive the car. I looked into flying, taking the train, Greyhound, and I put an ad on Craigslist rideshare. The best option was looking like Greyhound and I was not looking forward to that. But then some dude named Leaf responded to my add on Craigslist. He was on his way from the Bay area heading to Tucson. He dropped off another rider near my area and picked me up at my apt. Six hours and $20 later I was in Mesa. You can't beat that.
I stayed with Julie and Ted's friends. I got in at around 5am and couldn't go to sleep. I looked at my watch at 5:45am and fell asleep sometime after that. I woke up at 8 am to go take pictures and video for Patricka but they weren't there nor was anyone else. After awhile they showed up. Pat asked me to walk around with Patricia's parents who speak no English and I speak no Portuguese. I was sure happy when Emilee arrived on scene.