SOZO Real: Month #8: Happy To Be Here

Month number eight consisted of the following: drawings, the Superbowl, a blackout, a co-worker resigns, and a random BMX show at work, and church.

Drawings: During the after-school program at my job, I usually take on the activity of doodling on the SmartBoard. I love drawing whatever- flowers, inspirational pieces, and recommendations from students such as “Ms, draw Tupac!” Basically, I draw anything and (almost) everything. One of the senior students told me after finishing my doodle, “Ms, what are you doing here working at some school? You could be making bank right now working as a tattoo artist.” Lol it’s funny that he always tells me that. Maybe I’ll have to look into that profession in the future, but for now working with these students is something I’ve been enjoying.

Superbowl: The Superbowl took place here in Los Angeles at the SoFi Stadium- just 30 minutes from where I live. Walking through downtown just hours before the Superbowl it was neat to see visitors taking pictures of the city and wearing their jerseys. It made me thankful to be here. Since the 2020 Superbowl, when the Chiefs won, I’ll never forget when one of my college professors said that the Chiefs’ win was prophetic that God was raising up Chiefs in the spirit. Then Covid happened and the world shut down and God’s people grew mightily in the Lord like never before. We learned how to stand strong and battle as God’s chiefs! So, since then, I’ve tried to pay attention to the Superbowl. This year I was more attentive, since I was in the same city as the event. So, I passively watched the game here and there. I just new within me that the Rams were going to win. I had a feeling that this time it was going to be prophetic too! Especially since 2022, according to the Chinese New Year calendar, is the year of the tiger and the opposing NFL team was the Cincinnati Bengals (tigers). As I was walking downtown earlier that day before the start of the game, God reminded me how rams are significant. In the Bible, God provided a ram basically out of nowhere, for Abraham to sacrifice instead of his son Isaac. In the Bible it describes how the ram was an even better sacrifice than a lamb or a usual offering. Anddd! This passage is found in Genesis TWENTY TWO and it’s the year twenty TWENTY TWO! Surely God was in the midst of this major football game! Then a few weeks later, the sad news came that Ukraine was attacked by Russia. The country of Ukraine’s flag is blue and yellow, the same colors as the winning Rams. This major world event of war and tension between the two countries is something that has been catching the attention of the world. Already amazing testimonies of God’s faithfulness has been coming through in response to the issues and I believe He will continue to come through. I’m not exactly sure what He’s up to, but I know He’s up to something mighty! (sidenote: after the Rams won, celebratory fireworks went off in my neighborhood and caught a palm tree on fire! Crazy!)

Blackout: I came home from work and attempted to turn on the kitchen lights. However, the flick of the switch didn’t bring on the light as it usually does. I then went around the house testing out the other light switches and they too were out along with the wifi. After running an errand with one of my roommates and returning home, the sun was beginning to set. My other roommate and I then sat outside of our doorway on the stairs and began to just watch as the whole street was trying to navigate life without power. Our neighbors across the street had to hop over their fence, since it was electric and wouldn’t open without power, and others hung out outside as well as the sun went down. Two hours passed after calling the light company to fix the power, then 3 hours, then the wait turned into five hours. I was reminded of the scene from the movie “In the Heights” when the power goes out and everyone comes together to help one another out. My situation wasn’t as dramatic as the movie, but as I usually see my life in movie scenes lol, I was quickly reminded of that movie. My community here often reminds me so much of the community in the movie. Here’s a bit of the clip: https://youtu.be/Uiv7k9S1Tsw

Co-worker Resigns: In my few months of living in this city, I have quickly learned that Los Angeles in no stranger to change. Change is a constant thing here in LA. People are constantly coming and going in and out of the city, the workplace, in life, etc. Within this past month of work, one of my favorite co-workers had to quit, due to family reasons out of her control. Definitely have been missing her. The team I work with has this running joke of “who’s next to leave?” Since everybody that has had to leave said they weren’t going to quit at all. However, change is part of life, which is out of our control. That teammate was one of our strongest and committed members, so it definitely feels different without her.

BMX show: So often I wake up and say, “yeah, I’m gonna take the day off today.” Because getting out of bed is such a struggle. Lol, I still end up going to work though. But I’m always glad when I do get to work and the day gets rolling. Going to my first class of the day that I work with, I was told that there was a school assembly for that class period. Obviously when I heard “school assembly” I thought of a presentation on how to apply for college, work, and I was even reminded of those elementary school assemblies on “sell X pounds of expensive cookie dough (usually an outrageous amount) and you’ll win a plastic rocket water gun (usually worth like $5 at the Dollar Store lol) to motivate the students. But nope! Upon entering the school’s gymnasium, I quickly learned it was NOTHING close to that as I saw ramps and grown 30 year old men wearing helmets on their heads and riding on small bikes. The presentation was one I think I may have enjoyed even more than the students lol. I’ve always secretly been a fan of BMX lol. But through the assembly, as they did flips, stunts, and 360’s on their bikes in the air, I had such a fun time and even learned that Southern CA is the home of BMX as it originated in the 1960s. So cool! So glad I went to work that day haha!

Church: For a few weeks I had been craving more to my Sunday church experience. I loved Angeles Temple and the community I was slowly starting to build there, but I also was desiring more of a free-flowing service… something a bit more charismatic. So, I decided to try out a new church that Sunday. I remembered on my weekly route to Angeles Temple I always saw these BIG letters just along the freeway that read “FEARLESS”, and it always stirred me up seeing that word as such a statement! So, somehow, I stumbled across Fearless Church on Google and decided to visit that Sunday. Going that Sunday as my first time was perfect, as they were beginning their sermon series on vision for their church and their values. Perfect to find out what the church was all about. After visiting the church, it was definitely a place that I felt hit the mark for what I was looking for in a church. Everyone was very welcoming and was eager to connect me with others. Although I will miss my old church, I have been loving Fearless. I love how the pastor said, “while everyone is leaving California, God has called us (him and his family) here and we’re not going anywhere till He says so.” So, after trying out this church, I think I found a home… hopefully for long term. 😊

That’s all I got for now.

Peace!🕊

-Brittany Prada