Week 94 in LA--Dinner w/Lindsey Stirling, Sickness and Warner Bros.

Zach called yesterday. He called a lot earlier and I could tell immediately that something was wrong. I asked him what was wrong and he said that he was sick and had been since Saturday. He didn't know if he had a stomach bug or if he ate something that gave him food poisoning. He said he thought it might have been food related because a member took them to Home Town Buffet for dinner. He said at that moment he had body aches, chills, fever and a severe headache. I asked him if they stayed home and he said no. He still pressed on and did missionary work. He told me that the ward mission leader of the Studio City ward took them on a private tour of Warner Brother's Studios yesterday and that he felt like garbage but he didn't want to pass up such an amazing opportunity. I told him to take some Tylenol or Ibuprofen to help with the fever, body aches and headache, get a blessing from his companions and then to lay down and rest for 1-1/2 hours. They were supposed to take some investigators to the visitors center at 5:00 so I told him to rest as much as he could before they had to leave. I asked him about dinner with Lindsey Stirling and he said it was really good. She took them to a place called Collard Greens and I asked if it was southern food and he said no, it was healthy food. He said she is really nice and that they had a good time. We only got to talk for 13 minutes but I needed him to rest.

So, we hung up and about 10 minutes later he sent me a text and said that it was a stomach bug because Elder Hill was now sick. They called the mission nurse and she gave them mandatory bed rest for the night. Zach said that he wanted to text for a while so I sent a few texts and then heard nothing. He called me 5 minutes later and said that he was in the bathroom so that's why it took some time for him to respond and that it was easier to call than to text. 

He was able to take some Tylenol, thank goodness Elder Hill had some because all Zach had was Excedrin. He was starting to sound better as the Tylenol started to kick in and he said that he was actually feeling better, at least his head and body aches. He told me all about the Warner Brother's tour. The guy that took them on the tour works for them in the DC department in the movie/TV part and his wife also works there but in a different department. He said that he learned a lot from him about Looney Tunes, DC super hero's, Harry Potter, etc. He said that they were there a long time but still didn't even get to see everything. He said that it was a very cool experience (there are lots of pictures too). 

He talked about some of the best places they have been taken to eat. He said that they went to Mexican food and he ordered tamales. This place wraps their tamales in grape leaves instead of corn husks and he said they are out of this world (there is a picture of one below)!! He said that they were also taken to Four N 20 and it was expensive but so good. He is looking forward to taking us to some of his favorites when we go in December. 

He talked about some of his areas he's served in. When he was in the Wilshire Ward, I had NO CLUE that part of it was South Central. I guess it's a good thing he told me later or I would have been a train wreck that entire 6 months. He said that when we go back to visit, for a lot of it we will just view if from the car and not get out. 😨 He said that across the street from his apartment was a vacant lot and there was a guy that basically lived there and smoked crack. He also told me that the one guy on the bus that told them he was Jesus or whatever, also had a large knife that fell out of his bag and he told them to be quiet about it. HOLY SHIZ!!!! It's a good thing I'm just hearing about this stuff now.

He really likes his areas and hopes that he finishes his mission there. They are getting a new mission president this week so who knows what will happen. He said that it would be so nice not to move, packing and moving is not fun. But whatever will be, will be. He said that they are working hard and they had 2 baptisms scheduled for July 6th but they didn't come to church on Sunday so they have to push the date back. It's kind of a good thing because Ted Ball, from his last area, is getting baptized that day. Zach sent him a text last week asking him how things are going and if the baptism is still on. He told him things are great and that yes, it was still on. Zach told him he would be there and Ted told him that was good because if he wasn't there, he would have stopped the whole thing and gone out to find him and bring him there. He is having a good friend from Utah baptize and confirm him but he asked Zach to be a witness. This all made Zach so happy and humbled that Ted cares so much about him. 

We talked about a bunch of other things too (because we got to talk for 1-1/2 hours) but I'll end here and post all of the pictures.

Pictures
1 Zach and Lindsey Stirling
2 Selfie of Zach showing me how good his face is looking (acne has been a struggle out there)
3-8 Warner Bros--Wonder Woman
9-15 Warner Bros--Superman (original cape) and Batman (first Batman mask was Christian Bale's and the second one was Micheal Keaton's)
16-28 Warner Bros--Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts
29 Warner Bros--Mars Attacks
30 Warner Bros--Alley were Newsies was filmed as well as the infamous upside down kiss in Spider-man 
31 Warner Bros--bad guy costume in Aquaman
32 Warner Bros--hat and trombone from Music Man
33 Warner Bros--Bugs Bunny and Iron Giant drawings
34-35 Tamale wrapped in grape leaf and menu from Four N 20