Had a big cool Deaf event! My favorite one so far- a big BBQ where everything was 1 dollar! I was planning on getting like 10 hot dogs (for 10 dollars) but there were a lot of people there and I needed to prioritize talking to everybody. So I only got one.
But it's OK! Because this Deaf event actually did wonders for me! I found out I actually know ASL! I understood everybody I spoke with, was able to make jokes, and everybody understood me! I felt very successful lol.
Somehow we helped at 3 moves this week and at all of them Elder Johnson and I played a game where every time you move something you have to make a pun. Needless to say, some of the other people helping out hurt their backs- not from lifting- but from laughing so hard.
Elder Johnson has a Laugh Track on his phone with a few seconds of silence in the end. So while we drive we put in on repeat and one of us has to give a one-liner before the laughing starts again. 
Elder Ardinger was upset and was signing at me aggressively and somehow injured his finger. Within minutes it was like 3× the size of his other finger. So I called the mission nurse and sent her the pictures and tried to explain how it happened and she got really quiet and was like “Elder Owens….stop interpreting….don't tell Elder Aringer this….ok?”
“...ok….(?)”
“I think….I think he needs surgery…please take him to urgent care right now. I'll call President Larson and let him know. Please please don't tell him…”
So im like “actually? For real?”
And she explains something about tendons.
So we go to urgent care and sit for 4 hours. Then got a xray and a doctor came and sat with us and said that ....everything was fine. He said to take some ibuprofen and everything will be fine in 1-2 weeks.
Elder Ardinger and I had a fun lesson up at the Oakland temple with a Deaf Woman from Santa Rosa. She HEARD me pop my back (it was an insane back pop) so then for the whole lesson she kept telling me all about these different stretches you can do for your back while driving. Then when the lesson was over she literally got in our car, in my seat. Like she was gonna drive and showed me all the stretches to do while driving.
Elder Ardinger could not keep it together and was laughing a ton.
Here's a really bad thing that happened:
On pday we played pickleball. We took the paddles from our church building intending to return them that evening,
However,
We forgot.
Fast forward Thursday evening. We are headed to a giant cool Deaf event 45 minutes south! This is one we've been looking foreward to for a while. We get a call from the English ward mission leader about 15 minutes into the drive. He's mad. Really mad. And he wants his pickleball paddles. And he wants them now. They were having a pickleball night at the church. . . So, we're like “oh crap.”
We turn around and head back. And me, being my father's son, I grab the pickleball bags and walk into the church building where everybody is waiting for us and I shout “pizzas here!” Then run out of there.
Here's the phrase from psalms this week that I've been pondering “so will I sing praise to thy name for ever, that I may daily perform my vows” (psalm 61:8)
I think my vows are the covenants I have made with God. What does it mean to “daily perform” our vows/covenants?
I think it means a lot more than remembering them or thinking about them. I think it's more than reading the scriptures and praying. I think those are important and maybe they're part of it. The word “perform” adds a feeling of work- like a hard task to do.
Instantly Moroni 9:6 comes to mind “. . .if we should cease to labor, we should be brought under condemnation; for we have a LABOR TO PERFORM whilst in this tabernacle of clay”
My mind also, of course, thinks of a musical “performance”. Back when I was in middle school I was part of the orchestra. We had a few “performances” every year where we would “perform” some incredible music pieces. Now, if you were watching you'd be like “Wow! That was incredible!”
But for us in the orchestra we had been practicing for at least a few months. We knew these songs like crazy. My dad already knew them just from how often I'd be humming them. So….are you ready for this? Stay with me…in order to “perform our vows/covenants” we must practice…a lot!
If you haven't been endowed yet…practice living like you've already made those covenants. Study them often! Prepare every day.
If you have made temple covenants, practice living them. Practice creates habits. If you practice poorly you will perform poorly.
If you practice perfectly you will perform perfectly.
If you are preparing to receive the melchizedek priesthood, give diligent heed to the words of eternal life and magnify your calling now. Begin practicing being a valiant covenant keeper now so you can “daily perform your vows” later.
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