The pizza incident among other things...

 We tried to order a pizza in Saturday and that was somehow one of the most difficult things that happened this week, and it was a hard week!

The delivery man called me like a hour after we ordered and screamed with a thick accent "are you at church?" 

We explained we were sitting in the parking lot of the church. After waiting for so long we were getting anxious so we were all spread out on different corners of the church, still within sight and sound. A few minutes later he rolled in with his Tesla and handed us 2 pizzas that were the pure opposite of what we had ordered so were like "Brother, um, where's the third"

I watched his heart drop down to his feet, and we assured him it's ok. And he ran to his car and frantically yanked the tickets out of his car and just looked back and forth between the 2 and said, once again in his wonderful Chinese accent "I delivered wrong pizza! Maybe they not yet eat"

He hopped in his car and was gone.

That means somebody received 3 large pizzas when the lyrics ordered 2 small ones and upon delivery. . .noticed nothing wrong. I can see him with a crooked smile telling our delivery brother "ah, yes, these are the 3 large pizzas I have ordered, yes…"

Well, eventually he came back with some more pizzas for us and we destroyed all of them in just a few minutes. 

That evening we tested negative so that's good. Still have minor symptoms but I guess we're good to go shake hands with 100 people every day now.

Church was good, I mean of course it was. Some random Indian walked into our English ward and our friend Pugal came and took him in. They're completely different Indians but they both like curry so they're still united. After church we taught David, our new Indian friend, the restoration and he loved it! I'm excited to see him grow. 

Then on Monday we went to district council and we discussed 'Zion' . I had a list of topics to study and assigned them out and next week we're just gonna share what we each learned and then we're gonna build Zion here in Fremont.

Then interviews with President! Ok, so some of you know about Sons of Helaman…? This was the life-changing incredible group I went to every Thursday night before my mission. It was all about Jesus Christ and his atonement and how to be free from bad habits, you know, like pornography and masturbation. Lately I just have not been able to stop thinking about getting something like that out here for my fellow Elders. I am very open about my story and recovering from addiction. And because of that I have had SO MANY elders reach out to me asking me for help. And there's only so much I can really do as a missionary. I don't have time to send out texts and prepare lessons and stuff like that, however, if I had permission from president to DO stuff then I would. So I requested it. And he said he loves the idea and wants to meet up again soon and Make a real plan and get stuff going. Pornography is the plague of our day. It's affecting just about everything. It's in movies, music, books, advertisements, clothing, memes, it's everywhere. And it all is prompting bad thoughts and bad actions. The world's ideas related to Sex and the body are wrong and these ideas are influencing many people.

Anyways. I really want to get some kind of weekly zoom call or at least a group chat where the elders can be accountable and honest and have others to connect with and support them. I've seen how much it has helped me so I know for sure it will help.

Reading the scriptures every day, memorizing hymns, working out, cold showers- these are all truly great ideas…but it's just not enough. You need to learn how to rely on Jesus Christ, recognize when Satan starts lying to you, and you really need a team. It's possible but incredibly more difficult without a team. 

Anyways 

Only one more cool thing happened and that was Christie. Christie has been attending church with her older brother who is already a member for months now. She has always said no to missionaries because her husband doesn't like her going to church already. Until 2 days ago. She referred herself and started texting us right away asking if we could meet the very next day. So set everything up and sat down in a classroom and she just started going off! She already knows everything and has been watching general conferences, studying the Book of Mormon every day, reading church history, she's been doing everything. She has a few things that make it really hard to focus. She said "I constantly have 17 thoughts and 9 of them are crashing into each other" but she shared with us she went to the Oakland temple and got to sit up on the rooftop garden and it was the most peaceful experience she's had in her entire life. She told us she just started crying and didn't understand what was going on and just felt nothing but peace. Wow. What a powerful and special experience! 

And that was the first time meeting missionaries. Everything up to yesterday was all done by her brother, a legend and epitome of member missionary work. Everybody can do stuff like that. 

God is really preparing people all over the place, regardless of everything, He's helping everybody come closer to Him. This includes that guy with a beard who yelled at us when we knocked on his door. 

Love you all, have a most incredible week! 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/DYM8hzqfMfgxUFWZ7

We have covid, smell it in

 On Wednesday night we had dinner with our newest member, Emma. She made some amazing Filipino food and we were able to start teaching her husband! 

The next morning we had morning Devo and at the end PresidentLarson told us there's a 2nd wave of COVID going around so if you feel sick please stay home.

I had a sore throat. . .

Soooo we stayed home. And I just got more and more sick. Saturday morning was our dear friend Pugal's baptism. So we went to go fill up the font. The sisters in our district brought me a covid test. So AT the baptism I did the test and….it had 2 lines. Thus I officially had covid-19. So we left the baptism before it even started and watched our best friend Pugal get baptized over zoom. 

Mega oof. The rest of the week was quarantining. I have napped for probably around 20 hours this week, drank my cup hundreds of times, and studied around 20 hours too. I also beat everybody in Risk (I just put everything in India).

Please email me, I have never been this bored in my whole life and were gonna be stuck for at least another week.

And I started the Book of Mormon again. This time just studying "Faith" 

I started the Old Testament and have made it halfway through Exodus. It's very . . . Entertaining.

Elder Johnson found an 'Open' sign, like a neon one you see up in the window of an ice cream shop and so he put it up in our window. Then some indian woman came and knocked on our door asking to come in. So we tried to give her a Book of Mormon and I said some Hindi things. Then she left. I miss doing Hindi work. It's been too long. 

The only other cool things worth reporting are that members in the ward keep buying food for us, i have played everybody(all 4 elders) in othello (a minute to learn, a lifetime to master) multiple times and only lost twice, Elder Porter has been wearing his mask since we first got sick….he sleeps with it on, and the other day we were disinfecting everything with wipes and we put one on the fan and so it smelled like disinfectant and I said "smell it in" (on accident) and so now they make fun of me for it. (I was going for 'breath it in'). And I made brownies from a box (). 

I think the coolest thing I've learned so far from the Old Testament is, and bear with me because it may seem a little strange, is to marry somebody who will help you keep your covenants. I can explain! 

But first, I promise I'm learning a whole lot more than that! This is just one of my favorites as well as something I think a lot of people don't learn from the stories I'm reading, which makes me feel unique.

Basically in Exodus chapter 4 Moses forgot to do something for his son. This thing had covenantal importance and it was such a big deal he forgot to do it that the lord was gonna kill Moses. But the lord didn't kill Moses because his wife grabbed a rock and did the thing for their son. 

She then calls Moses something that seems rude but is actually significant because of the covenant and many other things that "blood" represents. 

Maybe I'm wrong. Idk. But to me, I think it's clear that I need to marry somebody who will help me keep my covenants. And if you're already married then you need to be the 'Zipporah' and help your spouse keep their covenants. So there's that…. 

Please email me, I have never been this bored in my whole life and we still have a week lol. 

Love you all!