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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.
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