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

Well, now my 2nd favorite is psalm 19. 

We helped some random chick take her blinds down and so she gave us a free plate with a turtle on it.

Met a sweet family, they gave us Popsicles, and their daughter only has 1 ½ arms

At a member meal they asked what brought my family to Utah and I said “a car” 

They also asked what language my tag was in and I said ASL even though it was hindi.

Man, I am so funny!

Talked to a chick who's 96 years old and more alert than I am. She had an autobiography about how she was the first woman to climb up tall things to paint them- like flagpoles and stuff. So because of her, women have jobs.

We invited all of our friends to a baptism, they all came! But nobody was there except for us and our friends. Turns out we were a day late to the baptism. 

Finally got my Hindi testimony video up! It's pretty good. Go watch it and share it with every single person you can. Everybody needs to know that I can speak hindi. 

Met a cool kid named Vince who knows the Bible better than most adults. He took a book of Mormon and has been texting us about it. If he gets baptized while I'm here then I'll try and set him up with one of my sisters.

Helped out at a multiple sclerosis run event thing. It rained harder than I've ever seen it rain in saratoga. This was the first time I've seen it rain in saratoga. We were outside for 4 hours and the rains came down the whole time. Every piece of my clothing was wet and there was just a stream down my face. But it was all worth it because we got cool t-shirts that say “volunteer.” My volunteer shirt is actually still sopping wet. 

Here's an amazing miracle:

Elder Millard and I decided we were gonna text the YSA members on their birthday, we got a list for this month and the day we started there was a name: Violet Fong. I recognized it instantly. I had seen it before in the ASL members list. No way there's a Deaf member in the YSA right? So I text her and ask her and….yup. She's Deaf. I found her Facebook and it turns out she's married too. So we're gonna visit her tonight. I had to be in this exact area so I could find her and teach her. There's so many things adding up here it's insane. God keeps track of all his children and has plans for all of them. Absolutely crazy. 

I love this sequence in psalm 19:

7 The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. 

8 The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. 

9 The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.

Everything from God is just so good. We can trust him. He will help us. The most valuable and precious things in life are all related to a knowledge of God and ou4 relationship with Him. 

Send me a email!

Contacting at stop lights

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

Psalms has been so good. So far my favorites are 1 and 15. I have memorized both lol. Call me and I'll prove it.

This week was one of the most valuable of my whole mission. Starting pday eve, I had the treasure of an experience to be on exchange with my MTC companion, Elder Taufer. He is my brother. I love him so much. We had some cereal then began a full fast. We decided to fast to know what things we will 100% abstain from the next 40 days. Then on Thursday we constantly added to our list and didn't eat any food at all. 

We destroyed the work that day. Elder Taufer is everything a missionary is supposed to be. He also still feels real. I feel like I'm just with one of my buddies. But when he testifies-the ground shakes. When he recites a scripture- the air is full of the spirit. When he prays-everybody knows he knows exactly who he's speaking with. When he contacts people they feel loved. And by the end of the day I felt like I was starting to develop some of those powers. Every time we stopped at a stoplight he'd roll the window down and I would then contact the person in the car next to us. The first few sucked but in the end it was ok. Then elder Taufer did one and it went so well he put the truck in park, ran out and gave them a Book of Mormon. While I was just like…wow…

One contact will stick with me forever. His name was Chris. He had been taught by missionaries about 2 months ago however during planning Elder Taufer felt we should visit him. He was in his garage working on a car when we pulled up. Shortly after we said hey he shared he had actually just had a dream where 2 elders came and visited him and every day since he's been hoping we'd come back. He also started reading the book of Mormon. He would flip to random pages and every scripture he read all had to do with 1 topic he had been pondering recently. Elder Taufer then on the spot shared a scripture about that topic. Chris's eyes widened. He was like “that's one of the ones I marked” he ran inside and grabbed his book. Out of all 531 pages, about 15-20 were turned down. And one of them was the exact same verse Elder Taufer had shared. We then committed him to church on Sunday. Wow, the Book of Mormon is amazing.

I have grown so much as a missionary. Last time I got to be Elder Taufer's companion I was an entirely different kid with a different testimony. I had a lot more pride and alot more craziness. I'm grateful for all the changes I've made and who I've become. I'm so grateful this gets to continue for 4 more months.

That night we started more exchanges. This time I was with Elder Jensen. Now, with all my new knowledge and fresh miracle experience, I was able to lead a fantastic exchange. I asked powerful questions and tried to be a good example of boldly talking to everybody and we saw so many miracles! Elder Jensen is a pretty young elder but he has charity figured out. I love him so much. He's a gem.

We painted a house this week. I stole some really nice bar soap from a mansion bathroom full of them that also had no electricity so for the first time In 22 months I brought my phone in the bathroom with me for light. Gave a talk on Sunday and President and Sister Larson spontaneously showed up. President also let us drive him to stake missionary coordination meeting in our car (The Lord's Car) so that was crazy cool. Had dinner with a cute family but during the prayer the oldest son passed gas and everybody died laughing….except the mother and I, as we walked away from their home we heard her lecturing them a bit. Saw a youth choir performance and received the revelation that my children need to know how to sing and how to play an instrument. I ate an entire classic little Caesars pepperoni pizza IN ADDITION TO a bag of crazy bread in about an hour. And I hit leg day and suffered much because of it. Downstairs neighbors partied all night long- fr, music blasting 9 to 9. So now I have random Spanish songs stuck in my head.

People keep saying “oh! New elder! I heard you did ASL!”

I then point at my tag and say “Ya! I was in the ASL branch for a year!”

Then they look at my tag like “Wow is that asl?”

And I'm like “Yup! Pretty cool right?!”

And it says: “अंतिम-दिनों के संतों का यीशु मसीह के गिरजा”

Everybody always believes me and they're always so impressed. It's so funny. 

Psalm 5:7 “I will come into thy house. . .I will worship in thy holy temple”

This needs to be all of us. Straight up declaring to God- I am going to the temple this Saturday morning. Imma go worship in your house God. 

If you watched any of general conference then you'll know what I'm getting at. We should always have our next appointment on the calendar. The temple is too important for us to not be going as often as our circumstances will permit. Nothing will help us more. So make an appointment them pull a psalm 5:7 and declare to God your full intent to go into and worship in the temple.

I got a new Job

 New area, New me. Not actually lol- it's still the same me. However, I did get a new area.

After spending a year and a half in the same apartment, going to the same Walmart, the same Wendy's, same church building– I'm finally in a new city. It's called…. Saratoga

I cover a big english ward that's all white people (hoping to get some भारत in there) as well as a massive ysa ward that covers a third of the mission (why have all my areas been unmanageably massive?)

New apartment is nice, there's a friend growing in the sink so I'll have to take care of that…

We have a sick gym, so your brothers getting buff. We have like…no food. 

Anyways. We went out and worked and….wow. Elder Millard is a legend. He is running after people and yelling across the road and doing whatever it takes to talk to these people. And when he does- they listen. I listen to cuz I'm tryna learn from this guy. 

He only weighs 120 pounds, he eats more than me, he was a soccer referee, he wants to be a mechanical engineer, He's from Bountiful. Pretty cool.

We've been running into Indians every day. I get to use my Hindi often. I haven't been able to use ASL yet though…

Being a zone leader is cool. I have 4 elders and 7 sisters… so this will be fun.

I set a goal to memorize 1 scripture every day. I didn't think it was possible…but so far it's working! It's been super cool to have one scripture every day that's just the theme of the day. 

I'm still reminding myself this is a new area and it's weird. Nothing here is familiar, it's all new and strange. It's super exciting but also really stressful. After 21 months this is like… my first time actually getting transferred.

So I don't know what to write lol.

However, this week I finished Job. I feel sorry for everyone who hasn't had a similar experience to mine with Job. I don't know how anybody could not love reading Job. Anybody who has read it and understood half of it won't ever really need to ask “why do bad things happen to good people?” unless maybe they go through a really tough trial. Then maybe they can ask.

Anyways. Here's one really cool piece of treasure from Job. 

Remember In the beginning he had 7 sons and 3 daughters.

 A house blows over and kills them all..a bunch of other awful things happen to Job. His friend tease him for like 3 rounds of silly debate. God speaks through a whirlwind and tells all of them (including Job) to repent and then all of Job's blessings are doubled. 

He ends up with twice as many camels, sheep, donkeys, oxen, and so on. 

However in 42:13 we see he got 7 sons and 3 daughters…..? What? 

Why not 14 and 6?

Well. It's because families are forever. Even though the other 7 are dead- he DOES now have 14 sons. Even though the 3 daughters are dead he DOES now have 6 daughters.

So it was doubled. 

Pretty cool right?

Email me please.

Keep the fire burning (Levi 6:13)

Elder Owens