LA Day 6

Wednesday, March 23rd

So we started off the morning doing a Joshua walk around the neighborhood. In the Bible, Joshua and Caleb went to spy in the land and check out what to do with it. So, we mapped out a couple blocks and headed out. We learned some interesting things. When we were walking around, we noticed just how isolated everyone is. Everyone has up all these fences, physically and mentally, that just keep them so closed off. But, when we smiled at people and said “good morning,” we could usually get them to smile back. Also, the shop owners were extremely not talkative.

Another thing we noticed was how sketchy the Scientology building is. There were all sorts of cameras hidden outside, a separate parking garage across with tons of security, and people walking very quickly around it. But the weirdest part was the people walking around carrying briefcases with symbols on them and people walking around with legal pads writing weird numbers and symbols, and then getting in cars with license plates from East Coast states.

There was also a church on that street that had a lot of people outside of it. Our mission was to see if we could help form a community so we decided to talk to some of these people. We first started talking to a man named Mo. He was just standing outside moving him arm like he was practicing a tennis serve. We chatted with him for a while and asked him why everyone was outside. He told us that every morning, they provided bread for those who were homeless or very low-income. The bread truck was late that day and that’s why they were all waiting outside. We asked him what he knew about the others. He said that he saw these people every day but they had no idea what each other’s names were or what their background stories were. It was crazy to me that these people see each other every day but they don’t care to get to know each other. But, we finished our walk by meeting up with Annie and Kim at the LA Rose Café.

This is one of those restaurants you go to just because the owners are so awesome. He was so pleased that we came to his restaurant and kept making us special food. (Amazing empanadas!) We shared a bunch of random food, including Filipino food which is super delicious. He kept talking about the Philippines which were fun to hear about. Lem is known for his desserts and he didn’t disappoint. I got an amazing white chocolate cheesecake with whipped cream and fresh strawberries. At the end, he even made us free cupcakes to take home. It was nice to find that amount of friendliness in LA.
After eating, we headed over to Home Depot. Annie and Kim had the idea of starting a community garden. There was a great space in their apartment complex and they had gotten the landlord’s okay. So we headed out to pick some flowers and vegetables to plant. We headed out with 2 full carts and stuffed it all in the trunk. I was amazed at how Kim knew all the things to pick out and how much sun they needed. I hope I can have my own vegetable garden someday. It’d be fun to grow stuff that I like to eat. But right now, I think I’ll just stick with my daisy and hope that it makes it.

After Home Depot, we headed out to go visit Jonathan’s apartment again. This time, he knew we were coming again, but it was really pouring outside, again. Haha. Jonathan is a friend of Kimberly and Annie’s who goes to their church. He is currently unemployed, but is using that time to develop a tv show that he wants to direct. So, when we visited him, we took that time to view it. He showed us a couple takes and then showed us a couple finished products. It was really cool to see the process behind what goes into a series. So if the show “Bok Nup” ever becomes a reality, I’ll have totally known about it before. His roommate Mark also showed us some of the photography he had just taken. He was taking pictures for a modeling agency so we put in our input of which ones we liked best.

The most interesting part of our visit to Jonathan’s was the elevator down. Annie told him that he had to take us down the sketchy elevator. Doesn’t that already sound like some foreshadowing? She explained that it had a really funny sign in it. So sure enough, we took the elevator down and checked out the sign. “For Seeking Assistance: 1. Ring alarm bell or use phone. 2. Stay Calm- There is little danger of car dropping uncontrollably or of running out of air. Car is ventilated.” Doesn’t that just create unnecessary pictures in your head! It just makes you super worried. So we took the elevator down to the lobby, but the door wouldn’t open. It was one of those ones with two doors. And the outside would not open. It was a little scary, so we rode up to the second floor, but that one wouldn’t open either. We rode to the basement and finally back up to the first floor. Jonathan figured out how to trick the switch and finally got us out of there. Once we were out of the elevator, we turned around saw an Out of Order sign on the elevator button. You know, they should really have put one on the 6th floor…..

After that, we headed to Annie’s community Bible study. She told us that a lot of the people in her Bible study worked in the Industry. She said that one of the couples actually worked as editors for a reality show. (She didn’t tell us which one) The one who was hosting it was a cinematographer. It was cool to talk to these people and see them put away their careers for a bit and concentrate on God. These people were so incredibly nice. It made me wonder if we were still in LA. At the end, we got a bunch of hugs. Honestly, that was the first time I had seen a hug take place, and it was from ones that had just met us a couple hours ago.