Fly Free

 

Merry Christmas! 

We had our big Christmas Zone Conference and one of the coolest parts was when President Larson disappeared and then a few minutes later Santa Claus came in and said he had presents for us and started giving every missionary their very own physical copy of the brand new Preach My Gospel! Too bad President Larson missed that. 

It was pretty cool. 

Later, some other missionaries, including the ASLders, and I sang and signed “Silent Night" with a piano and a cello! I'm glad President Larson saw that. We did amazing!

Later that week there was this one evening we were out and we had just finished contacting all of our friends in the area. It was almost 9:00 and Elder Holladay needed to go destroy the toilet anyways so we headed to the car. We got to the car and I asked “is there anything else we're supposed to do while we are here?”

We decided we'd go find a indian house and give it a knock. The very first one we checked had everything we were looking for so we gave it a knock. A man (आदमी) came to the door and we introduced ourselves and told him we were there to share a message with him and his family (परिवार)

He said now's not the best time, he left for a second and came back with his whole family curiously staring at us. So we ask “when would be a better time?”

He says “no, here's my family, now is good. Come in” so we step in. And begin testifying of Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon. We leave one with them and get his phone number and we'll come back after the holidays. The spirit was there and I know they felt it. We also used up all our hindi and they were shocked. Incredible. I'm so glad we didn't go home early!

We also had another fire lesson with Sana and Sandeep and their family. After being offered some tea (चाय) we taught a quick word of wisdom. Sandeep looked at his mug of tea almost with disgust and promised us he would never drink tea or coffee for the rest of his life. 

Then we ate a स्वादिष्ट indian breakfast and taught them about the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, one thing you need to know about Sana is she talks…a lot. But this time it was like she almost couldn't open her mouth until we had finished our message- that's pretty cool. We testified to the point of tears and made each of them promise they'd read the Book of Mormon and pray to know if it's true. It was amazing. I love this family so much! And guess what- they came to Christmas eve church! 

Also, I hit a little piece of metal on the road and then the tire was flat. I didn't see anything on the road, yet I still suffered the consequence. 

Sometimes there's traps Satan lays for you and you will not see them unless you're looking for them and always ready to righteously avoid them. You must watch and pray continually or else you'll get a flat tire.

In Leviticus chapter 14 we read about the ritualistic cleansing of Lepers (Ex-Lepers). It is deeply symbolic:

 “4 Then shall the priest command to take for him that is to be cleansed two birds alive and clean, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop:

 5 And the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel over running water: 

6 As for the living bird, he shall take it, and the cedar wood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water:

 7 And he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird loose into the open field.”

What this means to me is the atoning blood of Jesus Christ (the 1st bird) sets us (the second bird) free and allows us to fly. When we are cleansed by His blood (repentance) it really feels like flying. And I know that cuz I've done it. I continue to experience it every day. I know that Jesus really did suffer the price of all sin. He bought us with His own blood. And His blood is the most precious substance ever to exist. That means we are of infinite worth as well! 

So, remember that Jesus Christ paid the price for you so you can fly free. So my invitation to you is to fly free.

Love you!

-Elder Owens

The sword of the Lord! ...and of Gideon

 

I Started Judges this week and it turns out it's not about judges. It's about military heroes. There has been one passage in particular that I just can't stop thinking about and its judges 6:11-16

Basically its Gideon's call to become a Judge. 

An angel comes over to him and is like “hey Gideon, the Lord is with thee”

And Gideon is a little confused and asks the angel

“If the Lord is with me, then why do I have trials? Where are all the miracles? The lord has forsaken us!”

And the angel is like “Go and save Israel! The lord is with thee”

Gideon still has more concerns and says “but I'm a nobody! And my family is poor!”

And the angel says “I am with thee. And becuase I'm with you freeing Israel will be super easy”

I love how the answer to “why do we have trials?” Taught here is “Go.”

Like go, act, be faithful and do something. I have definitely received that answer during some of my trials before. 

The other important thing is how often the message “the Lord is with you” is stressed. He really is with us always, especially during our trials because he went through all of our trials. 

Gideon's words here at the beginning of his story look very faithless. But through small steps of faith he became an absolute legend, a Judge. 

The first thing Gideon needed to do was destroy a altar used for worshipping a false God and build a correct altar in its place. He was a little hesitant but still set on obeying God. So he got 10 of his friends and one night they destroyed all if it! The people that liked the fake God wanted to Kill Gideon but his dad was like “if Baal is real then he'll kill my son himself and he didn't so turns out baal is fake” so Gideon got a cool nickname and taught us all about repentance. Gaddda remove the sins and fill in the holes left behind with God. This is mega true with addictions- remove your fake God and replace the habit with things that bring you closer to God. Like old Testament sacrifices. . .kinda (reading about them)

Later when God asks him to send 22,000 of his soldiers home he doesn't even hesitate and boom he's left with 10,000. 

Again, when God asks him to send home 9,700 there's no hesitation. He didn't say “God- that's a lot. That'll only leave me with 300! Don't you know how many Midianites there are?!”

Actually, he did have one little moment of weakness in chapter 7:10-15. But this shows he was human. Actually, maybe it shows even more faith in Gideon. Because he was a little scared but still obeyed all of God's commandments because knew it would turn out well in the end. What happend was God was like “BTW, I'd you're scared just go talk to your friend, Phura. Turns out Phura was dreaming about a loaf of bread and a tent falling over. After Gideon heard this he knew he was gonna win and wasn't scared anymore. 

I know that when we have trials one of the most important things we can do, like Gideon, is to ‘Go’ to act in faith, trust God, and keep going. 

We will always come off conqueror when we choose to ‘Go’

Just for the sake of the story I'll tell you what Gideon and his 300 do. Through instruction from God, Gideon splits the 300 into 3 groups of 100 and they all get their own trumpet, clay pitcher, and a lamp. Gideon says “do as I'm doing follow follow me”(J 7:17) he tells them were gonna chuck pur pitchers so they break and then blow the trumpets and yell “the sword of the Lord and of Gideon. 

Simple easy plan.

So they surround the enemy camps at about 10:00 pm and they do it. And just like that everybody kills everybody else. Not a single one of the 300 were injured in any way, except maybe a piece of a pitcher hit one of them lol. But they were all 100% ok. 

In chapter 8 some people refuse to help him continue his conquest (they were scared he was going to lose the war and the midianites were gonna come punish them for helping) so Gideon promises he will win and promises to throw some thorns at them and then he wins and he does throw thorns at them…

And that's it.

I know that God's way is always better. Even if it means getting a band of 300 to all play the trumpet to fight a legit war instead of an army. God's way is always the best. I know when it gets tough we just need to “Go” and everything will be ok. 

Dedicated to Edwards and Edwins

 Ok. Well transfers came in. Hindi transfer 2! As of today I have been in Fremont in the same apartment for 1 year and 6 days. Nothing surprises me anymore cuz I've been here for so long. 

Last pday eve we found a guy who wanted to buy our neon open sign for 50 bucks. So now we have an extra 50 dollars to spend on indian stuff

We had interviews with President. I barely mentioned possibly extending my mission and President Larson looked at me like he was confused and was like "are you going to college? You have to go to college, you're to smart"

I almost started laughing because- of course i'm going to college. . .i just might wanna be a missionary for another 6 weeks before I start that.

So then we talked about college and careers and he said I should maybe consider 'Technology'. . .

Then we met a cool friend named Sana- she is literally ready to be baptized. She is very indian and also Christian! So we taught her family for a bit then they started feeding us and so i started crying because there were just sooo many spices. My entire mouth was just overwhelmed. Then they gave us 'rose-milk' and it took the pain away…

So I bet somewhere in South India where the church is more prevalent that somebody went up on a fast Sunday and talked about how rose-milk is like the atonement of Jesus Christ because it stopped the stinging and helped them to stop crying.

Friday was a BREAKTHROUGH day. I started reading the Bhagvad Gita a while ago and working on someway to use that knowledge to contact and teach indians. Oh wait- some context- bhagvad gita is the Hinduism scripture kinda thing. 

So we saw a big truck full of tools and stuff and we had a moment of like "well…should we go talk to them even though they're probably not indans…."

Then we headed over and- surprise- there's a huge word in hindi on the back of the truck!

They all walk out and have like- zero English. So we use all of our hindi. They're not interested at all.

A sudden burst of inspiration and passages of the gita come to my mind and I open my mouth with faith.

I start comparing the gita to the Book of Mormon and Lord Krsna to Jesus Christ. I compare ईश्वर to God as the creator of the world and talk about how Jesus Christ suffered for our bad karmas so we don't have to suffer in our next life.

Suddenly he's pulling out mail and pointing at his address, we give him the Book of Mormon in Hindi and set a time to come back. 

Epicccc. The gita gave us a door and reading it is helping me to open it. 

So now we've been trying something similar in our other Indian interactions.

We performed "Silent Night" at church elder vest and I sang, Elder Holladay pianoed and Elder Smalley cellod. Everybody cried. 

We did so good we were asked to sing at a relief society party later that week. But this time we also did "the first noel" and "what child is this"

So now I am a legend at singing In my chest and doing duets. 

We're performing again tonight! 

This next part is dedicated to all Edwins, Edward's, Eddys, and anything else with a 'Ed' in it!

This week I finished Joshua! Chapter 22, Which has a very Alma 60 type story, was especially good. The tribes of Gad, Simeon, and Manasseh(half of it) built a big Altar and all the other tribes of Israel were confused. They sent the 3 tribes a big letter saying they were so disappointed that they were worshiping false Gods now and were gonna come and beat them up. So the 3 tribes sent a letter back saying that's not what's going on! We didn't build this altar for sacrifices! (The children of Levi are in charge of that) we just built it so that when we look at it we remember to worship God and so when our kids and their kids and their kids look at it they will remember God. 

So the other tribes were like ohhh ok ok I see. We won't beat you up then. That's a cool idea.

So they were all friends again and they got together and guess what

They decided to give the altar a name…

And they named it…Ed

Satan is the author of Confusion, misery, and violence. This little misunderstanding nearly led to the destruction of 3 of the tribes of Israel! I think more than half of all contention stems from a misunderstanding of some kind. If I took time to understand why somebody did what they did before I reacted, I would save myself and others soooo much trouble! When we react in anger without thinking- we are actually just acting in Satan's Will. So- when somebody upsets you- take a second. Always Remember Ed. Remember Ed and you'll be on the safe, peacemaker side. 

If you wanna read this, it's in Joshua 22! 

Love you!

You don't have to read this one, it's not very good

 Ok so I know how to sing now. Elder Holladay is a prodigy with music. He's got perfect pitch and plays piano and organ like a pro so he helped me get my voice in my throat rather than up in my mouth. (It's a music thing) so now I've been practicing a bunch and singing as loud as I can. 

It's been fun and humbling to mess up and be corrected and then do better.

I went on exchange with Elder Tien and we woke up at 3:30 and worked out till 6:30 then went back to sleep and had some crazy dreams. 

Talked to a bunch of indians and they freak out every single time I say anything in hindi and I love it so much.

Went to the temple and some old guy sat next to me and cried the whole time. We talked afterwards and he told me every part of the endowment is perfectly beautiful. While we waited for our turn, he told me his whole life story and how he found the church, all his trials, but he said he never ever lost his faith and he never will. I only was with him for a few hours but I love him so much. He was gone by the time I made it to the Celestial Room. I hope somehow we're able to meet again. 

I watched all the 12-step addiction recovery videos on gospel library and dannnnngggg they go hard. 

I called Elder Holladay a "joke" in hindi and Tracy, our friends teaching us hindi laughed so hard she couldn't stop and then was super embarrassed because she couldn't stop laughing. 

Met a guy who served his mission in INDIA and then married an Indian woman! They have been in the Tongan stake so that is how we don't already know them. But they are exactly who we need.

That's all I can think of

Keep the fire burning and have a good week!