The Priesthood is SOOO REAL

 नमस्ते! 

This week was just saturated with spiritual power and miracles. I look through my journal and I just can't believe how incredible everything is. Starting off I gave my first ever baptismal interview to a sweet sister named Deanna. It was a beautiful experience to see and hear her testimony and how much she cares about joining this church. Powerful. Later that evening we went and practiced ASL with our ASL branch president, President Peterson and we were there for over a hour. . .we got through the first 3 points of the restoration. But we received way more than 3 points of feedback and suggestions. I was actually praying to not get upset, accept the feedback and be happy. And my prayers were answered! I didn't feel defensive once. I was laughing and smiling and everything was great. So God answers prayers indeed.

As I'm sure you already know, because the Gospel Library keeps reminding us, we got a new Preach My Gospel! So that's cool lol.

Then the next day we were in San Jose all day long. I had training on how to be a District Leader in the mornings till afternoon then we had "Transfer 1" training (training for new trainees and trainers) . It was actually pretty fun. This was the last one by President Smith. Basically I just need to follow the spirit and be a good leader and teacher. Easy. And trainering- I just need to trust my trainee and God. 

Then we had dinner at the Mission home and interacted with all the other trainers and trainees- there's one new sister missionary who is literally Deaf but she has 2 cochlears. And she doesn't know any ASL. I kinda feel sad for her. If her batteries run out- that's it. Luckily she's in our zone- so we'll teach her ASL. 

Then we drove home and as we got to Fremont the APs called "Hey Elders. . .we have Elder Owens' Scripture bag. . .don't worry were almost to Fremont"

Oops. So they stopped by and gave it to us (it's 10:00) and then they head back to their car. We turn around and a minute later we get another call from the APs. "Hey Elders. . .we both just had the prompting to ask if either of you would like a Priesthood blessing?"

Yes! That'd be wonderful! So they came back and…wow..

I'll just tell you all this- I have a list of things I stress about some of them are things people can learn just by spending time with me- others are very secret and I keep to myself. The blessing that Elder Wood gave me addressed perfectly every single one. He also blessed me with every single spiritual gift I was currently seeking. These are things that I don't tell people about! Maybe they're in my study journal somewhere. But he mentioned everything. 

Elder Searle's blessing was the same thing.

So now they head out and we hug. And a Few minutes later they knock on the door again- they forgot their phones in our apartment. So I said "it's ok, happens to the best of us"

I told Elder Searle we needed to go write down everything we remembered. So we didn't go to bed till quite late lol.

Then on Sunday we got Quran Bashed. . But he was very very nice. Actually really nice compared to what transpired the next day. But ya. That's all I'll say about our Muslim friend.

But the next day- oh man. We got a referral- this is a good thing! We start talking he says he wants to meet us at the church. So we're excitedly like yes! He pulls up. We introduce ourselves, find a room and sit down and instantly I'm like "this is not right. There's a reason why he looks like a cartoon villain character…." And I was right. He started bashing us so hard there was nothing we could do. Fr fr. Every time we said anything he pulled out a verse, misinterpreted it and told us we were calling God a liar. It was sooo bad. I wanted to cry. So after that we listened to some hymns and met with Emma. Oh she's so sweet. She wants to go to the temple! So we set a tour up. 

Then we thought we had dinner with Pugal and the Hornbergers but turns out Pugal was cooking and it was actually going to take 6 hours to be done

So. 

We taught a quick lesson about the plan of salvation, epic, then we had to go home.

But it ok because on yesterday we got the leftovers and wow. It was स्वादिष्ट(which means delicious and is pronounced: sw(v) adisht the w is supposed to be a v but it really sounds like a w instead.

Well yesterday we were able to go back to the Indian family with the sick grandma. We took a recent convert from another ward named Srihari who is good at indian languages so he was translating and helping them understand.

And the first thing they told us was about the grandmother, for months now the doctors have been trying medicines and none are working but the day we went over and gave a blessing all the medicines started working. How incredible is that? They asked us to give her another blessing. It was so amazing. I used just about every Hindi word I have and it made them so happy. I love that family so much. 

Then we went out finding and the only people we ran into were Indians so I exhausted my already exhausted Hindi skills and learned as much as I could from each person. And the way they light up! All I have to say is 2 words in their mother tongue and they just look so happy! What an amazing experience! We also met a Couple that only spoke Tamil, luckily I had a few tamil words and they were so shocked. Not interested in Jesus Christ (not yet) but we still had a good talk. And we wouldn't have if I hadn't used my tamil words.

And finally- President Smith is going home. Like tomorrow. He concluded his mission by bearing his testimony of Joseph Smith and the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Powerful.  

I will miss him. But i'm still excited for President and sister Larsen.

That's all for now, have a fire week!

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rip Elder Rigby

 

So we went to the Korean BBQ place where they just give you raw meat for 2 hours, unless you get the Orange chicken- then it's already cooked? But turns out there was a big fire pit in the middle of the table so lucky for us cause then we could cook the food. One of our members brought us and he ate like 100 baby octopuses. Every time I looked over he had a tentacle sticking out of his mouth. 

Then we practiced Interpreting with some members in the ASL branch that can hear and oh boy, Interesting is just so. Much. fun. 

If you’re one of the people that actually read the emails then you’ll remember a few months ago we helped a Deaf man move into an old peoples’ home. Well- He’s in the spirit world now, receiving the gospel, so we went over and took everything out of his unit. So many Deaf people came and helped so it was cool to see so many people using ASL and understand what they were saying.  Later we had dinner with our bishop and the whole time he was groaning in pain, turns out he's been in pretty incredible pain the past few days. We were getting ready to give our spiritual message then he was like “I actually need to go to the E.R.” so we gave him a blessing and then everybody sped outta there. Turns out he has Galblladder stones, so they're gonna take them out sometime this week. 

On Friday we went to the TEMPLE! On the ride up me and Elder Holladay, the other Secret Hindi Missionary read verses from the Hindi Book of Mormon together. On the ride home I made a bunch of Quizlets for every word in a few of those verses. But the temple was incredible! So beautiful in every aspect. It was just so wonderful!

The next day, our friend Steve, the one who was playing the spirit of God and told us the story about “our prayer to thee” playing when his cancer treatment started, he brought us to the most fanciest restaurant I’ve ever been to and we just had a blast. Turns out we’re both Scorpios! Which means we’re mysterious and Inscrutable. I had “wood grilled salmon” and it was pretty impressive. Afterwards we went back to his place and sang The Spirit of God with him around his piano. 

Then Sunday. The difficult day. Elder Rigby’s last day with us. We were at church and his family came in. Then we had dinner with some members and his family was there too. The whole time i'm trying to convince myself that I'm ok. But then of course brother Topham asked me to say the closing prayer and that was a oof cuz then i was crying and then i couldn’t stop. And so Elder Rigby was all like “I’m, not worth your tears! Save your tears” and that just made it worse. But ya. Then we headed to the MO and dropped him off. Said bye. Final hug. Then I drove home and didn’t look back. 

Luckily it was fathers Day so I could call my dad and he helped me out alot. 

So now it's Elder Searle and I. We have so much to learn! And we're gonna grow a lot together.

On Monday we asked our Mentally Impaired friend, Terri, if she wanted to be baptized and she said yes! We have to figure it out with president, because, you know, 38.2.4. 

Then we bumped into a few nice Indians and I used my Hindi powers to communicate with them and help them become more interested in us and our message. I think I need to learn ‘Hello’ in at least a few of the 3,000 Indian languages. It seems like every single Indian I meet has a different combination of languages. Some speak one but read another. And it's like I hear them say a Language that I’ve never heard before every day. There are so many it's hilarious. like . . .why do you need so many languages? 

We had exchanges on tuesday and woah- elder Rousseau is a legend. Brother knows everything about everything. We ended the exchange, and the TRANSFER with a cute little mexican ice cream place while we waited for the transfer roster to come out. I had one that was like ‘Chongos’ or something and it was like cinnamon cheese ice cream. And another that was like ‘ Fruta Seca’ and it was sooooo good. Definitely going back there. 

Also here is a Hindi Phrase for you all: aapka shuB DiN ho 

The B is capital because its really stressed and the DiN is like that because the i is barely even said its like ‘Dean’ but without the ‘ea’ if that makes any sense. 

It looks like this :आपका दिन शुभ हो 

It means “Have a good day”  but it’s arranged like “your day good be” 

Fun fact about the word “shuB” (शुभ) many many indians here will have this word on their door along with “laaB” (लाभ) which means benefit and profit. 

Anyways, 

आपका दिन शुभ हो !

Love you all! R.I.P Elder Rigby!

Read the Book of Mormon Every Day!

-Elder Owens

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My Hindi powers are growing

This week was pretty important. On Tuesday I got to go hang out with my brother Elder Holladay and learn Hindi for an hour and it was wonderful. I have learned alot about myself on the mission and recently one thing that I've learned is I get frustrated when I don't understand why I don't understand something. If there's a way to figure it out and I have a rough idea how to get there then I'm ok. But if not then it makes me pretty upset. And when I see a character In Hindi that I have never ever seen before- there's no way to even begin guessing what sound it makes. That made me kind of mad. 

Turns out they 'borrow characters from Sanskrit' sometimes…? 

But it's ok because now I know.

But the same thing is happening with driving and training and ASL and all sorts of stuff. So this week has been that kind of frustrating → but it's ok because that means I learned alot. 

I really want to be able to accept constructive criticism better and I want to be more meek. It would be so much easier to learn of I just already accepted that I don't know everything AND I WILL make mistakes. It makes sense here as I'm writing it but when it is actually time to apply it in real life its like- nope.

ANYWAYS

We picked up Elder Noah Searle. My man, what a legend. He knows a pretty good amount of ASL (prior to mtc he knew 0) → that shows how powerful the spirit is in helping us learn. He's pretty cool. He's from West Jordan and is the oldest of 4 brothers. He went to college for culinary arts- so he's a chef. He loves Indian food! Which is epic because there's Indians all over here. He also did not have a mtc comp! He had one Elder who he was sometimes assigned to be with from a different district but most of the time his companion was a trio of sisters! I'm really excited to become best friends with him.

The day after that we drove all over the place to visit Deaf friends so Elder Rigby could say bye. I learned that I actually know a whole lot more ASL than I thought I did. I was able to carry the conversation pretty well! I also learned the sign for dialysis. One of the members brought us to a pizza place and we ordered a margarita pizza- they told us they had no basil and asked if that would be ok my mind was like "duh- that's not ok. Then it wouldn't be a margarita pizza dude" but our member said yes so we had a cheese pizza with tomato slices on it. Luckily, we also got a MEAT-E-OR.

Sunday was good, all 3 of us Elders went up and shared our testimonies in ASL church. In English church. . . .oh guys it was so bad. 

Everybody bore their testimony on how America is true. It was like fine for a minute- but when you go 10 minutes without hearing about Jesus Christ and all you hear is people crying in red white and blue and the founding fathers and the secret combinations and eagles. . . .it's not ok.

The last one to go up started out surprisingly well (one of the only ones to actually mention the Book of Mormon being true) then he invited everybody to pray for him and come to a protest against drag queens with him. And he was loud and proud. Our poor wonderful bishop didn't know what to do. 

So

Ya

That was something. And THAT was Elder Searle's 1st Sunday here! 

Well. After church we had another Hindi lesson and man I love it so much. I am 100 percent going to India later on in my life. Maybe I'll go live there!

Monday was NOT PDAY.  because it's Wednesday now.

We had our zone and district council, held a funeral for Elder Rigby. It was tough. I've been with him since December. I love him so much and look up to him more than he'll ever know. He has taught me everything I know about ASL and has helped me become such a powerful missionary. He is literally the coolest ever and I really hope we continue to be friends. I am going to have a really tough time after he goes home. 

There's this thing he says often, "why you gonna let something stop you from having a good day?" Or something like that. And he is a living example of that. Every time something dumb or frustrating happens or every time we have a 'disagreement' I am in a bad mood for a bit, meanwhile he's smiling and making jokes and singing random songs. He just doesn't let anything stop him from having a good day. I'm really gonna miss his influence and power.

Well, then that night we brought our friend Pugal to the Oakland temple for a temple tour. The temple sisters never saw our appointment and luckily there were 2 that were still at the visitors center and they were willing to give a tour real quick. That was a miracle. It was incredibly powerful. There was one part where we were sitting in front of the Cristus statue and the sisters asked Pugal who Jesus Christ was to him.

He sat there for a few minutes and was nervous at first cause we were all watching him and then just started going off trying to express his love for the savior- but he couldn't. Words can't demonstrate what a relationship with Jesus is like plus, his English is still kind of a lower level. But that didn't matter. The spirit was there and made it very clear to all of us that Jesus Christ is our savior, He loves us, and Pugal loves and knows Him. 

We got to walk around the temple and the roof garden, could see all of the bay area from up there, and got some pictures. It was a beautiful, wonderful experience. 

Then yesterday we were knocking and contacting and we ended up meeting an epic Indian woman. She had शुभ and लाभ on her door and I explained I was learning Hindi and the read her door "shubh and laabh" she was freaking put and then I said "it means goodness and prosperity right?" Then she was freaking out even more.

Then I pulled out my favorite book, the Book of Mormon in Hindi and opened to Alma 7:11 and was like could you help me read this? 

Then! I read it! First time ever doing it in a contact! And she was freaking out so much there were only a few words that she had to help me with! 

My companions were watching like 'wow. I knew he was good but not THAT good' Elder Sealre actually had like no idea I was learning Hindi so he probably was pretty confused.

Anyways, I asked her to read verse 12 and then we kinda talked about it, she wants us to come back on Saturday! Oh, and get this- her husband plays cricket! 

So that was perhaps the most wonderful coolest thing ever.

So that's what's up with me. 

I invite you all to try and take Elder Rigbys advice and choose to not let things ruin your day. Sometimes that's pretty difficult and I understand that- but for the little things and maybe even medium things- just don't let it make you have a bad day. You all deserve to be happy. But it's up to you to be happy. I will be working on this with you all so lemme know how it goes.

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The Spirit of God and Miracles

 Let's see, this week started 7 days ago right? 

On Wednesday we were knocking around and the most random thing every happened. This guy was excited to see us. . .then started asking us all kinds of questions about the difference between a church and a temple. Then started singing 'The Spirit of God' he explained he went to 'The Nauvoo Pageant' up by the Oakland temple a few years ago and they closed it with a epic version of that song and it's the best sing he's ever heard and he's been trying to play it and we're like- sacred music app and gospel library have the music. So he's like "can you come in?" CAN WE COME IN. Yes! Please! So we gather around his piano and he plays 'The Spirit of God' and adds in all sorts of beautiful harmonies and sprinkles in the song. It was incredible. Then he's like "also I have cancer, I go in for more radiation next week please pray for me" so were like we cam say a prayer with you right now, actually wait, we have the priesthood authority from God to heal people- we can give a you a blessing with that portion of God's Power that is in us. 

He cried the entire time. He said as soon as we said the word "Melchezidic" he felt it. So cool. Then he talked about how his dad played cello and the first time he got radiation they asked him what kind of music he wanted and he was just like "classical" and as soon as the first 'beads of radiation hit- his father's favorite song to play started playing.

(Just wait, it gets cooler) 

He said he felt his dad with him THEN he started playing the song on the piano and I'm like 

That's "Our Prayer to Thee" 

So I'm like hold up, pull out sacred music and was like "our prophet wrote words to this song" And we listened to it and he was just tearing us through the entirety of the song. (April 2022- check it out) 

Then he gave us each a box of granola bars and said he wants to take us out to eat after his next radiation thing.

Then he pulled up to stake conference! 

My man. Soo epic. ALSO he wanted a book of Mormon- so we gave him one and he wanted us to write our names in it. So epic.

But ya! Stake conference! We had Elder Hal C Hunsaker. He hasn't spoke in general Conference yet. . .but when he does…he's gonna blow us all away. He was soooo bold! He wants there to never be empty seats in any vehicles going to the temple. Bring everybody you can. Do whatever it takes to get everybody to the temple. He also looked out at the stake amd was like "what I see does not match what Fremont actually looks like" meaning he saw a bunch of White people with a small portion of other ethnic groups. When Fremont is a bunch of people from all over the world (especially from the India part if the world) and a small group of White people. He was saying how yes, many people left California, but our future is coming from India, Asia, Europe, Pakistan, everywhere! And we need to be ready to love them and share the gospel with them! 

He also said, in relation to the new children and youth program, we need to be setting goals too! This is exactly what God wants us to be doing! This program is divinely inspired. He said "Do you have goals? If the answer is no you should be ashamed" 

We need goals. We need to have things we want to accomplish so we can actually move towards them. Goals help us become more Christ-like! Which is kind of a huge purpose of life! So why would we not have goals? 

He shared so many incredible stories and I could fill a few pages. But those are probably my favorites. Also! His 2 main focuses that all bishops should have were to get everybody to the temple and to pray for miracles. So I have started praying for Miracles and they are coming. 

My Hindi learning has been epic! I took Alma 7:11-12 and learned every word in it this week! So that was epic. Cricket was fun! We actually had a guy come up to us to tell us we were doing it wrong lol but it ended with him asking if we can come pray for his family! Of course he's in a different area, so I'll ask about how that goes. We met a man from Indian named Vishal and he had no idea about heaven and hell or Jesus Christ. So we threw the plan of salvation at him as a power message which is probably the hardest thing ever because every other word is a word you have to explain and within those definitions there's more that won't make any sense unless you explain it. But I brought up baptism, as one of those things we need to do while we are on Earth and he seemed interested. He said he will ask his family if they're interested. He also asked us to come tell him more on Thursday! He said he knew Hindi and Telegu. But they study in English(?) So even though he didn't speak great he wanted the English Book of Mormon. Over Telugu and Hindi ... .maybe I'm learning Hindi for nothing. Idk, well see. 

Also we got a call from President Smith, Elder Searle actually won't get here till Friday. So not today. So that's a bummer but hey- that's 2 days. I can wait. So ya. 

 That's the cool stuff. . .

I guess my invitation is to do all that.

Share the gospel with everybody, post on social media from the Come Unto Christ accounts (like share a video from them) 

Set goals in every aspect of your life- write it down so they actually last for more than 3 days. 

Listen to "Our Prayer to Thee" april 2022 soooo good. 

You can also find the version of "the Spirit of God" in the sacred Music app.

Don't ever have empty seats when you go to the temple, invite as many people as it takes.

Pray for Miracles

Read the book of Mormon every day.

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