I ate an apple every day this week. In fact, I am eating one right now. This week was a joke, but a really fun one. All of our appointments fell through and every recurring teaching fell through too. Tuesday was Zone council, Wednesday was Zone conference, Thursday was the only real day and even then everything was thrown off because we went to Oakland (like 20 minutes north of our Mission) to teach a member the famous “stop smoking” lessons. Turns out all you have to do is use cinnamon mouthwash, brush your teeth and drink grapefruit juice. And if you do all 3 after every meal and when you wake up then you just stop smoking.
On Friday we had to wake up around 5:30 because a bunch of missionaries in the North areas went down to Watsonville to help clean up a flood. That was fun. Everybody got hazmats and so there was no worry and we could work as hard as we could without any real concern for the poopoo and mud. So- we were all very much covered afterwards. It's just crazy the amount of mud and gunk everywhere. Water was up to 6 feet in some places!
Also, on Thursday we had taco bell and I used a lot of sauce and then realized that I wasn’t really being affected by it. Then later I had a chocolate muffin and it legit tasted like nothing. Then I remembered COVID-19 and the whole thing about not being able to taste. And I tried a few more foods- nothing. I had lost my ability to taste foods. So we got a COVID test and it was not positive. So we continued doing stuff normally.
And at the service in Watsonville I ate a can of Herring in front of everybody and they were shocked because I just ate it plain. Little did they know, I actually couldn’t taste.
Then the rest of the week was General Conference! It was wonderful! AND I want to make it clear that I have been crushing my water bottles since the beginning of my mission. When Elder Haynie told that story me and Elder Rigby stared at each other in shock just like “Bro! That’s us!” our trashcan is always full of collapsed water bottles.
Also, we're getting a temple in SAN JOSE! Our mission chat blew up for the rest of the day! President Smith said: “Dear Elders & Sisters,
Oh, the joy we are all experiencing as President Nelson made the beautiful announcement of a temple in San Jose. We are taught: "Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders [and sisters] and all the inhabitants of [San Jose] into the house of the Lord your God, and cry unto the Lord. Alas for the day!" (Joel 1:14-15).
I invite each of you to join Sister Smith and I for a fast of gratitude on Tuesday, April 4, as we express thanks to our loving Heavenly Father for blessing the saints of this great mission.
Remember, now is the time to bring souls unto Christ.
With love,
President & Sister Smith”
So I will eat an apple every day this week except for tomorrow because I’ll be fasting. (maybe I’ll eat one after I break my fast?)
On saturday night after i signed our comp-prayer Elder Rigby had a serious face and started signing to me basically that my ASL is not improving any more. He wants me to be better prepared for when he goes home. Then he hit me with the “Now, we’re only communicating in ASL. No more speaking.” I got really upset but just accepted it. He left the room and I turned the light off and just sat in the dark getting more and more frustrated. I knew my ASL was improving, He just wasn’t seeing that. Later while we were going to sleep after like 30 minutes of silence I heard “Elder Owens, I’m sorry I got upset at you. I want you to have a fun mission, not a poopy one. I’m trying to be better, let me know how I can help you more” I felt pretty shocked because I was thinking all those rude things and then he just apologized and completely humbled himself. Since then we’ve been signing a lot more and I think our relationship has improved a lot too. So that’s great.
So when people say or do mean things to you. Don't be so quick to get upset and think mean things. Hold on to your cool and try to understand it from their side. Avoid contention. Peacefully approach them when the time is right and let them know how you feel. Contention only makes things worse as we learned from our prophet on Sunday. If we can focus on applying that to ourselves and remember how the prophet of God feels about contention then we really will change the world. One missionary companionship at a time, one sibling at a time, one parent at time. Let go of contention.
P.S. Photos Stuff
https://photos.app.goo.gl/
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