I Love Deaf People

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Ok, so this week was literally just the Deaf School's play, Tina's baptism, and church.

It also rained a mega ton bunch for the first few days.

(I mean we did other stuff but not worth putting In a email lol)

I love all the kids in the play soooo much. I just want to hang out with them. We would sign so much and they had fun with me because I'm just barely "good" at ASL. But these kids are honestly better actors than most of the actors I've met (which isn't actually much) (although I did take acting Freshman year, so there's that)

There were things that would go wrong like props breaking or lines being forgotten and they just improv'd it literally perfectly. It was better with their improv than without.

Voice acting for them was so fun, the other voice actors were all super cool. On the last show night there was a group of like 5 deaf Girls that came up to Elder Rigby and I and asked for our social media's and were talking and all the sudden one of them signed "ok, I'll be straight up with you. We're here because we think you're cute" 

I can see why they would do that because Elder Rigby is a very cute man. Ever since the beginning of his mission people always talk about him as “the good-looking one” and every sister always asks him what his skin care routine is. So that hurt my pride but hey- they still asked for my facebook too so. 

Also, Tina was baptized! Elder Rigby performed the ordinance and I got to give a talk (in ASL ofc) on the Holy Ghost. It was actually really good apparently. Tina received the Holy Ghost on Sunday! Now she's officially a member! So cool. 

Also, This week during comp inventory, Elder Rigby told me that I have bad breath. He did it in a perfectly kind way. It actually surprised me because fr fr i brush and floss. I took dental assisting in highschool so like-i know my stuff. But wuteva. So I've been brushing my teeth like 5 times a day, flossing and drinking sooo much water. I got a bunch of new toothpaste and mouthwash and a new toothbrush. So. . .i hope I can resolve that issue. 

Ok, so our mission has this challenge to read the entire New Testament in 1 transfer (6 weeks) and because of all the rehearsals and performances with the Deaf School i got super behind. So i started spending my entire study just in the New testament and Elder Rigby told me “Elder Owens, i know you're behind but you should really be still reading the book of Mormon every day” 

I kinda got defensive and was like “ya, ya i know that” but on the inside i was like “dang it. I tell everybody to read the Book of Mormon every day and I. . .haven't been doing that '' so I started reading it every day again deciding that it really was more important than completing the new testament challenge and boom my life was just so much better again. It just testified to me the power of the Book of Mormon. It has such an astonishing and extreme power that we take for granted! So many people choose to miss out on these blessings because they;re “too busy” or “they don’t have time” or maybe they’re “reading the new testament.” If you are not reading the Book of Mormon every day then you need to.

Elder Rigby threw a Orange on a roof

 Hello everybody! 

This week was actually pretty epic. We had a wind of destruction sweep our area and there were people's fences all over and tree branches all over the place. People would stop their cars and get out to move branches. It was a little scary but mostly just fun. We were scared that trees would fall on us- but no trees fell- on us. We did see trees on smashed cars though. . Lol.

Also, we are now voice Interpreting for the school for the Deafs' play. We've been going for a little bit of rehearsal every now and then and it's sooo cool to just be immersed in Deaf. We were in the Deaf School! Everybody we saw is fluent in ASL! All around us people were signing! Soo cool. 

The play is 'Tinkerbell' and one funny thing is the kid that plays Captain Hook signs with one hand always in a hook shape. It's funny but also hard to understand.

I'm voicing for a pirate that has one line and it's "I miss my mommy too!" I can relate.

Also Elder Rigby threw a orange on the roof.

Remember Zahara from a buy ago? Our Afghani friend who was interested but then her husband said no more. Sad

Well we ran into her and her son and picked up where we left off and it was going great! 

Then her husband walked out and she just started laughing! He was pretty upset. We told him we were just saying hi and then we left. I hope we didn't get her in trouble!

Also we did a temple tour with Tina, our Deaf older black grandma friend. I wanted to interpret some of it but not enough to tell Elder Rigby to stop and let me have a turn. At the end Elder Rigby was flirting. I mean talking with the temple Square sisters and I interpreted their conversation so that was good to get some practice. Tina was kinda feeling abandoned so it was good I hopped in and let her know what was happening. She will be baptized this Saturday! She is my first friend who will be baptized! 

After that we got Raising Canes cuz apparently it's a big deal. It was pretty good. 

On Saturday we helped with a stake youth missionary activity that was missionary themed. This activity has been being planned for over 6 months and was perfectly correlated and it all fell into place perfectly. The youth were assigned to a mission and got a call letter and had companions too. We taught them how to do street contacting and answered all of their questions. We got to bear testimony and that was epic. All the missionaries from the stake (that lived in the stake before their mission) sent in a video about their daily lives and their testimonies. It was sooo cool. I've heard from a few of the youth and they said it was one of the most spiritual experiences they had. I'm really happy that I was able to be a part of that.

So that's what's up. 

Take charge of your own testimony. Pray for spiritual confirmation and opportunities to grow and share your testimony. Read the Book of Mormon every day. Please please read the Book of Mormon. 

Love u all bye bye

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Mosiah 7

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Well this week was nonstop wonderful, except for all the parts where it wasn't. 

To start the week off I went on exchange with Elder Tu, who was trained by my MTC comp. That was ridiculous fun and also I got to drive. #GotMyFirst”AggresiveDriving” 

Then we had interviews with President Smith. I had a bunch of things I wanted to talk about but we went a completely different route though. But that's ok. At the end he asked me to pray over my area in ASL and I was like . So we knelt down and I just started praying in ASL and when it felt good I closed it. I looked at President and he was crying a bit and said something like “I am so amazed, oh Elder Owens, I love you” and that's how my interview ended.

We drove home after Interviews and I felt like Lehi in 1 Nephi 1:7 but there's no time for naps so we eat and head out and start working. 

One thing that I continue to learn over and over again is the importance of the spirit. When I have the spirit with me I can talk to everybody I see and do a really good job teaching simply and directly. When I don’t have the spirit with me- I’m shy, I forget important things, I can't do ASL, and I'm just not happy. 

On Friday we got hit with a rain storm and that continued till Sunday afternoon. Some of the most crazy rain I’ve seen. Just walls of water falling down everywhere. 

We had a lesson with our friend Annaheita and it just happened to be at the exact time the sky was clear. She was in between jobs so we just met at a Safeway and talked (well, signed) in the back of a parking lot. She is Hard-of-Hearing, which is super epic for me because she signs and talks. We ran through the Plan of Salvation and it was split about 70/30 with me and Elder Rigby (I’m the 30). At the end we asked if she had questions and she said “no, it's pretty straightforward” (in ASL). So either the spirit taught her everything or she didn’t get any of it. We’ll see. 

One thing You’ll learn about the Deaf community pretty quick is that. . . .it's pretty. . .LGBTQ+ like a lot. I don't understand why but a huge majority of the Deaf people we talk to and meet and text all identify as LGBTQ+. So when they think of “Mormons'' they think of white people that hate LGBTQ people. Which really really sucks. Making any progress at all is difficult. We pray every day that their hearts will soften. As true disciples of Christ we strive to love everybody regardless of everything and we invite people to come to know Jesus Christ simply by the way we act but also by actually inviting them to. If people knew the truth about our church they would get baptized today. People that have things against the church only have things against the church because they don't understand something. It reminds me of Ammon and king Limhi early in Mosiah. Basically Ammon is looking for a group of people that left Zarahemla a long time ago and King Limhi’s people capture him and his team. King Limhi thinks they might be enemies so he has them tied up and brought before him. Ammon is asked to explain why they came over there and he basically says “I’m grateful for this opportunity to be alive and address you guys. Also, I know that if you knew our true purpose for being here you wouldn’t have tied us up” and he was right, he explains that they’re trying to find those people and Limhi gets super happy and accepts them all and they become good friends. 

Same with us members of the church. People “tie us up” because they don't understand all of our purposes but if they did understand the role of families, the blessings of the priesthood, the power of covenants, or eternal families- even just a little tiny bit- they’d beg for baptism. 

Also- what about us? Are there bands that we make our parents wear because we don't understand their purpose in “invading our land”? Are there bands we make our leaders wear? Do we understand the blessings that come from membership in the church? 

Just something to think about.

Anyways, I love being a missionary. I hit ⅓ on Saturday and it was a rude awakening I guess. Elder Rigby goes home in 98 days. It seems like a while but it’s really not. And then I’ll be senior ASL man for the rest of my mission. Scary. 

Love you all, have a fantastic week.

Member audit, spiritual exercise, ASL stuff

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Crazy week.

Me and Elder Rigby have been grinding all day and working super hard, we talk to everybody and we teach everybody as if we knew they were gonna accept what we said and join the church. But- we have nobody to teach and people drop us basically daily. 

So on Tuesday we were like- we have to change things. We need to try something new.

And I was like. . .member audit??

And he was like ….ya…

So we divided our whole area into 7 smaller areas and we will spend about 2-3 days on each area, Contacting every single member in those areas.

This is a great thing to do because the members can give you referrals and you meet more inactive members then active because there's just so many inactive. So now we have a list of members who we can work with to get back to church- but also we received plenty of referrals! 

So that's how we used all out free time this week.

One of our deaf branch members asked us to be voice interpreters for a play the school for the deaf is doing, it's Tinker Bell. And President Smith was happy to allow us to do so. So now I get to go see a play in ASL and say a few of the lines! Way cool!

Also, I have decided I need to be more healthy. So on pday I bought many "healthy" things. Basically stuff for sandwiches and frozen vegetables(that have been in the freezer all week lol) but I've been drinking 2X the amount of water and having cold cut sandwiches every day and having salads. I also started working out fr fr in tye morning. And it really has made a difference in every part of my life. 

It definitely takes effort and willpower but the rewards are so worth the cost. 

Kinda like choosing to read the book of Mormon every day or going to early morning meetings for church or listening to general conference talks instead of music sometimes or fasting or paying tithing. 

These aren't the easy, natural things we would normally choose to do, but when we choose to do them and make them important to us our entire life is better in every single aspect. Just like how eating healthy and exercising helps our physical body become better, all these things make our spirit better.

Also, on fast Sunday….I went up and shared my testimony in ASL! Super scary and difficult- but I did it! I usually have a general idea or plan on what I want to talk about…but this time I had zero plan. So I stood there for a bit then just signed what I knew. Smiled and sat back down. I didn't receive any compliments or literally any notice at all. Idk- maybe that's Deaf culture lol. 

But I'm kinda proud of myself(in a good way) that I chose to do that. I know experiences like that will help me to do harder scarier things later.

Love you!