We also stopped at the Post office and had a tender mercy followed by an unfortunate experience. Everytime I go to the post office the people at the desk are not very nice or helpful and they’re also really difficult to understand. Howeva, this time we got one of the kindest women I’ve ever met. The post office wasn't busy, and she was effortless to understand. She asked us all about our families and mission and it was so wonderful!
Well, then a Deaf man walked in and I knew he was Deaf because of his voice and watching his hands. So ofc I offered to interpret for him (he was struggling to communicate with a lady and I knew I could help) he said thank you but insisted on continuing to yell at her and have her yell at him. We took care of our stuff and were getting ready to leave when he came back into the post office to ask if we were “Mormons” so of course we responded “Yes, we’re missionaries from the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!” and then he went off for a few minutes about how awful our church is and that we need to leave the church because it's a cult. We were able to leave on a kind note. I was really upset about it for a long time because I was just trying to help my brother out! and he responded by attacking my beliefs! I’ve decided to be ok and Love him regardless. It was still cool that a Deaf person happened to walk in at the same time we were there!
Saturday was the most wild day of my entire mission. We got up and we went to the Oakland temple and did baptisms with the Deaf Branch! In ASL! I was able to baptize Elder Searle and be baptized by him. It's still the same ordinance, of course, but it was all just so much more exciting! Then we embarked on the long adventure of a “San Francisco Trip” truly an adventure- I’ve only done it once before and it was back with Sheperd Rigby and Hyatt White. Now it was 3 guys that are still learning ASL, 1 who was fluent and then me…with somewhat decent ASL all in the same car. We killed it though.
Ok, this part is crazy though-
We stop at an apartment where apparently the guy were looking for lives and at the exact moment we are out of the car and stepping on the side walk, 2 women step out of a building directly across the sidewalk from our parked car. We’re practically all in the same sidewalk square. We exchanged “hellos" and “how are yous" and one of them says “not good” which I have never really heard anybody say in response to “how are you” when a stranger asks.
So we started talking. We find out they’re inactive members of the ward in that area and a family member had just passed away. So they give us their apartment number and ask us to go give everybody a priesthood blessing. We follow them up and go in and just listen to this family as they dump their hearts out to us and how much they loved their father/grandfather/god-father. Then we took turns giving beautiful blessings. It was amazing.
God is very aware of every single one of His children and sometimes he sends missionaries a hour and a half north just so they can step out of their car at the exact same time as you step onto the sidewalk so they can bless your family. What a cool thing!
We were out till about 9 visiting Deaf people all over the Bay and luckily Brother and Sister Gad are literal angels- they bought us 3 amazing pizzas and had them delivered to the church at the exact moment we needed them (we ate breakfast then hit the road so we were reasonably hungry)
One scripture I would share with you is Deuteronomy 3:22. I finished Numbers (YES!) this week and started Deuteronomy- so far it's just Moses repeating everything that happened but with a little more context and commentary. For example in chapter 2 we learn that there's actually a handful of stories where God led people to a land that had “giants” and each time God prepared a way for them to beat the giants. These stories were known by the Isrealites- this makes their fear and denial of the Promised Land a lot more of a “big deal” and way more unacceptable. (Deuteronomy 2:20ish-23ish) because they already knew that God had taken care of Giant problems before but they for some reason chose fear rather than very logical faith, all except Caleb and Joshua.
ANYWAYS- Deuteronomy 3:22 says “Ye shall not fear them: for the lord your God shall fight for you”
We don't need to fear. Nothing needs to scare us. We know the truth. We know the plan. We know that Jesus Christ will not only fight for us, but he has, in fact, already won every single battle you or anybody could ever face! That certainly gives me hope! He's already helped others get the giants to leave or destroyed them! Choose to believe He can help you get the giants out of your life as well. He already promised he can! Let's choose to be like Joshua and Caleb.
I don't want to wander in the wilderness till I die. lol. But hey- it's my choice.
The last thing I have to report is truly a miracle and something I know is going to change the history of the church, something that you all should know has been coming for a long time now. We had interviews with President Larson on Monday and he told me “It's time to get the Hindi Program started” we counseled about where a good place to start it would be and a lot of other stuff. It's finally happening! it's going to be truly difficult and really hard to get traction, but I know this is the right step to take. I know there's going to be an immeasurable amount of good that comes from this. So- Please pray for the Indians. .jpeg)
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