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. 

Elder Gary Sabin the legend

 Well we got 4 new tires and an oil change. Then we went and filmed ASL videos all day long. Its so hard to come up with good ideas that would actually spark interest in somebody. Let me know if you have any lol.

Thursday was incredible. Elder Gary Sabin and his wife came and visited our mission! He is such a legend. He gave the talk "Hallmarks of Happiness" in the recent general conference. He had all these cute little phrases he kept saying. Some of them are: " Be the Message," "Wake up Excited," "Simplify, Testify, Intensity," 'Don't Postpone Your Happiness to a Later Date," "Catch Them Doing Well," "Celestial 'Steps," "What Are you Afraid of?," "If you Want to be Beautiful, be Good," "The Light is Always Green- and if it's Red You'll Feel it," "Don't Stress, Stretch"

He talked about how every single person wants to know the answer to 2 questions: "What happens when I die?" And "How can I be clean?" If they think they don't want the answers then they're lying to themselves. So I've been trying to focus my social media contacting, street contacting, and teaching more on those points and it has gotten better. 

He also told this really cool story about a man during the great depression who wanted a job as a Morse code decoder telegram thing person and he went in for the interview and saw that the whole building was full of people who were also waiting for an interview. Then he just got up and walked into the office where the man giving the interviews was! And he got the job! The boss and him walked out and he was like "ok everybody you can go home, this guy got the job"

And everybody was upset and saying "that's not fair! He didn't wait for his turn!"

And then the guy was like "Didn't you hear it? He was tapping with his pen on his desk in Morse code! He said 'If you want the job, come to my office right now!"

I think there's a lot of lessons to pull from the "Parable of the Morse code job". What Elder Sabin was trying to teach is that we need to learn to recognize revelation when it comes. I learned that I don't need to panic or fear when I know how to listen to the Holy Ghost as well as when the prompting comes- ACT.

One more thing he taught our mission was the 8 Ps of Peace:

Pray (child to father communication and relationship)

Page (scriptures)

Ponder (think about it!)

Patience (good things take time and accepting His will)

Play (have fun)

Purity (repentance) 

Pride (get rid of it)

Praise (complementing, lifting others)

Pretty cool.

Also I've been sick all week. So I'm sleep deprived and either coughing or holding back coughs or being grateful for relief. So that's been a blast. 

We went and visited Bertram and he gave us each a paper plate full of doritos and then we gave him a blessing. He promised he was gonna go to church but then texted us saying he was in the ER. Satan certainly is a stinker.

We started up ASL class again! This might be my fault for being pessimistic in my head, but, not a single person showed up. So I'll try to be optimistic next time. 

Church was good but I got a bloody nose during the linger longer so we left. 

We had a Stake priesthood meeting that was announced THAT morning! And we got to go interpret for it. Very fun. I am still confused on how my hands just get going and it all works out. 

We tutored at the Deaf School Monday night and I tried explaining Math In ASL. Oh boy! What a challenge! Poor boy was as patient as the kids that waited for the 2nd marshmallow in the marshmallow test thing. I'm very thankful for his kindness. He actually taught me way more than I taught him. (If I even taught him anything) 

It was all good though afterwards i was signing with the man in charge of tutoring and he helped me understand how to sign about math and what actually makes sense. So it was an obstacle but I just used it to grow so imma legend. 

Then we got 5 guys and I went all the way- got everything you can and it was Heavenly. 

Sorry if this email is reminiscent of Galatians 6:11.

Anyways- one really cool gem from the Old Testament I found is in Numbers 24:5:

"How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel!"

Numbers 24:5

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/ot/num/24?id=p5&lang=eng#p5

This is during the story of the talking Donkey, yes Balaam and Balak and cursing the children of Israel but then blessing them instead (like 3 times). During this chapter Balaam is seeing a vision and kinda just prophesying and there's this cute little verse. 

I've often heard "Only the home can compare with the temple in sacredness" From the Bible dictionary and this verse is actual scriptural evidence of that. It's talking about their homes and their temples- both described the same way in the same verse. I know that it's true! Homes really are the only other place that can compare to a temple. Not church buildings. Homes. I think it's because temples are all about families. Sealing them together, saving our ancestors, learning about Adam and Eve. It all points to Jesus Christ, but a lot of it also points to families. And home is where a family is made and spends the most time together. I already know that I will do all I can to make my home like a temple. 

If you don't know what feeling that is then you need to go to the temple…A LOT. Make the temple feel like home to you so you can make your home feel like the temple.

Keep the Fire Burning (Levi 6:12-13) 

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

Preparing for Blessings

 This week I learned alot about preparation. I have been trying to workout every night before I go to sleep. While I am working out I play general conference. I have only barely finished the first session but "Abide the Day in Christ" by Sister Amy A. Wright hit me the hardest. I think part of why bit was so profound was the story about when she found out she had cancer and the talk she had within herself about how she had already taught her children everything they needed to know and because of all that 'oil' in her lamp everything was truly going to be ok. What a powerful and instructive story!

I want my family to be ready for me to "go" at any second and I will live so that our lamps will be as full as I can get them. I want my lamps to be like the cup in the 23rd psalm. 

This week was basically 3 things. 

The first was a giant clothing swap. Basically every single person in Fremont and all the cities around us donate all their 'stuff' they don't need. Sadly, lots of it is garbage so we go through it and throw a lot of it away. Then everybody comes to the church and takes whatever they need. It gets hundreds of people in the church so that's good! But it's messy and smelly- but it helps alot of people get the things they need. 

The next was a Deaf Event In San Jose called "Deaf-Opia" basically like 200 Deaf people hung out in a mall for 8 hours. There were booths for all these Deaf Companies and stuff. We just walked around and around and around trying to talk to people. It was actually pretty fun and we met some cool people and got our faces out there.

And the last was the new facebook Messenger AI thing. We've had a lot of fun making images of thanos with a jack-o-lantern head, iron man as a moose, dooby teaching a dance class. I also asked it to help me learn Hindi and it's pretty useful. 

On the topic of preparing I want to share a story from Numbers 14. For those of you familiar with Numbers you'll know that this is where Moses sends a bunch of spies to go look at the promised land. Among them were Joshua and Caleb. The land was beautiful and full of good food but it was also inhabited by 'giants' so big that the spies felt "like grasshoppers." 

The spies came back and told Israel how awful it was and how they will never be able to get the land because of the giants. Caleb and Joshua were like."guys! Are you serious! God promised us this land- it doesn't matter how big the giants are or how many there are! We can go get the land because God is with us!"

The people ignored them and started crying and mourning. Moses and Aaron started hitting their heads on the ground in frustration while Joshua and Caleb started ripping their shirts to pieces in anger.

And you know the story- God says that they are cursed to wander in the wilderness for 40 years because they didn't trust him enough to get the land. They weren't PREPARED. 

Then a really sad and touching story follows. Shortly after, the people come to Moses and they're like "Hey! We're ready to repent! We're gonna go get the land God Promised us!"

No doubt, Moses was confused and angry he tells them "guys…don't do that. God isn't with you anymore. If you try that then they'll destroy you!"

They didn't listen and went and tried to take the land and they were destroyed. 

God was ready to give them blessings and when it was time they weren't ready- they missed it.

And when they finally had a desire to go get the blessings it was too late! 

We don't have time to waste. We need to always be living our lives so that we can receive anything God wants to give us. If there's anything holding you back from fully following God- get rid of it. It's never worth it to miss out on God's blessing.

Love you all very much! 

Keep the fire burning  (levi 6:13)

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

Stressed and blessed

The ASL missionaries in the San Jose California Mission (9/6/2023)

Elders Howes, Johnson, Searle, Owens, & Porter

 

Thursday morning was a rush. We woke up early after going to bed mega late the night before. I was full of stress cuz we had to be at zone conference at 7:30, we were having vehicle inspections and sti had bird poop all over the car, I was going to be Interpreting for Elder Porter, and we were running outta time. After we left I also realized u had forgotten to shave.

So we pulled up at the closest open car wash, a self-service of course and just blasted everything with the ridiculous hoses. And then I drove 7 over the entire way. Which, Elder Johnson told me later, was terrifying. 

And of course, despite all my stress and anxieties, we were the first ones there and everything was fine. Interpreting was a piece of cake, we got a "good job" on our inspection, everything was great! 

President Larson is amazing. He was training us on the updated standards and turned it into a revelatory, faith building experience. 

We had another lesson with Christie, just ran through all the commandments and how the church works. She already knew all of it. And she's ready to be baptized this Saturday fs fs.

We went to In & Out and all the sudden a bunch of middle schoolers walked in. And then they all started moving their hands….it was the entire Deaf Middle school…with a bunch of the teachers too!

So we left the members that brought us there and just started introducing ourselves to everybody. 

Miracles.

Later we knocked on a random member's door whose name I didn't recognize- found out its cuz brother works on Sundays but he really wants to come to church. We offered him a blessing and he hesitantly said yes. Elder Johnson gave him such a specific and exact blessing I know the words he said were the exact things our friend needed. He also told us so- so then I knew it twice as well.

Miracles!

Saturday evening we had a meeting with a member of the ASL branch presidency- super exciting and also frustrating. Cuz we are starting a whole lot of new approaches to the work and we have so many ideas for how we want to do things and we're getting real support.

But also there's just this feeling of condescension that I cannot stand. We found out they have all been counseling about what the missionaries should do- without talking to us. . . ?

It was all great ideas and for sure things we will apply but it really bothered me that we were not involved in any of the choices or anything and they only talked to us after they had already made the plan. 

I recognize im 19 and barely understand ASL (but still I would like to be involved in choices regarding me)

Anyways!

I'm excited for the next chapter of ASL work. We have a branch missionary now, we're gonna go help newer members write their own talks for sacrament meeting, we're gonna visit every member and help them set goals and do a whole lot more sm work! Should be good.

We ate at the sikh temple. It was as close as food can be to 'bad' without actually being 'bad.' Still a super cool experience and I'm really happy I got to go.

Tuesday I was on a (somewhat needed) exchange with Zone Leader Elder Smalley, a pure legend. It was actually amazing to not be in charge for one day. He also knows everything about martial arts and self defense and he told me the 2nd best thing for self defense is a flash light, one of the obnoxious 2000 lumen ones (That's an exaggeration but it's pretty high up there) 

He also taught me alot about helping people learn for themselves from the source and not giving them our opinions or interpretations. 

Then this morning we were able to go to the temple. It was wonderful to be in the house of the Lord. I love the power that comes from taking part in ordinances. Recently our mission has had this cool thing where we take 5 words from meetings or lessons and make it something we can remember and use to apply the lessons we learned. I tried to do this with the temple:

"Consecration brings connection with God"

So this will be my theme for the week.

It's actually very effective and really helps me get a lot more out of my meetings.

So go ahead and do it. Try it with sacrament meeting talks or come follow me studies and then send it to me. I wanna see what you come up with.

Also pray for 1 of my companions to develop a testimony of obedience. Please. And if you have any tips on how we can lovingly encourage him to leave his nets behind and be a fisher of man instead lemme know. 

#blessed #blessedevenmoreforobidience

Love you all fr fr

Temple miracles

 A week ago we had the special opportunity to attend the temple. In preparation I had been studying repentance and forgiveness because I really wanted to feel clean when I went through the temple. We had also been praying to know which session to attend. Elder Searle and I both felt like we should go for the earliest one available. 

This ended up teaching me about the power of prayer because…we got there and there was a Deaf couple that attends a hearing ward going to the exact same session. I knew them from a long time ago so it was amazing to see them again. PLUS, we sat with the Brother and watched the endowment in ASL. How absolutely incredible is that? I understood all of it, in fact I think I got more out of it! So amazing. It was a wonderful and beautiful experience and I'm glad we prayed about when to go so that we knew that was the session we needed to be in.

Then we started a Hindi Exchange. It was great to be with my brother, Elder Holladay. We were looking around his apartment and….it's pretty bad. So we committed to cleaning it the next day. We stayed up incredibly late just talking about everything. Elder Holladay is amazing and truly consecrated. 

We woke up and just started going at everything. Luckily, the Zone Leaders showed up to do their laundry and decided to help us. We literally changed the color of the floor. We took out so much garbage, reorganized his apartment, killed the bathroom. It's now probably one of the cleanest in the mission! We also did personal and comp study with the zone leaders which was wonderfully enlightening. Then the Hindi work began. It was going pretty tough most of the day. Our Hindi members who were gonna help us let us know their hindinis actually rusty and that we can read better than them. And one indian member whom we've been trying to contact, we finally found! And somehow he's simply just not interested in the gospel at all. So we'll keep working on him I suppose. 

Then we went to visit some of our friends- Balwinder, Balwinder, Baljinder, and Sonia.

We showed them our video of the first vision (it will be posted sometime soon I promise) and they were blown away. Absolutely amazed. We taught the restoration again with a big focus on if this is all true, that means this is the church which you must join! I hope it went in their minds. They committed to reading and praying!

The Hindi work is progressing and I am so excited for it to grow more.

We went to Bombay Garden on Thursday. It's an Indian buffet where every food looks pretty sus. Nevertheless, we did partake. I was amazed at how spicy it was. We also learned how to eat like a indian- with your hands and the flatbread. A few of the curries looked so nice and then they're actually the spiciest thing I've ever tasted. What an experience. 

We have a new Deaf friend named Matthew. And I don't know what to think of him. He signs in ways I'm not sure what he's saying. But he keeps texting us and calling us. So that's good. (His texts make little sense) we were trying to teach him the restoration when we found out he doesn't know who God is. So I tried to explain. Man, that's a hard concept to explain. We tried "he made all the animals" he doesn't know what animals are. "He made the Earth" he doesn't know what that is either. We also said he was Heavenly Father and he was confused and was like "my dad is over there."

Also we've been reaching out to Deaf people all over Facebook and recently we've received many wonderful responses telling us that the "Deaf Community is all Gay and it's not worth your time to try and help them" and "they are all so rude you won't have any luck with them" 

I love social media work. 

Elder Searle and I made a work-out plan. Now everyday we know exactly what To do. We went for a few runs and it was great! I'm certainly feeling it. 

Then the rest of the week, somehow, all we did was give priesthood blessings. Most of them were in ASL. It was my first time ever sealing a blessing in ASL, then my second time, then my third time. We also found Sione Fonua From the other side of heaven. The real man. He is in a care home in our area and we were able to give him a blessing as well and brother just cried the whole time and said he loves us a few times. I'd never met this man or even seen the movie but after I gave him a blessing I was full of love for him. 

Then our friend Emma had a baptismal interview with our mission president. We waited for almost an hour but they both came out glowing and smiling so bright I wished I had brought my sunglasses with me. Emma will be baptized this Sunday at 1:30. 

She told us, in her thick Tagolic accent "I have finally found the right restaurant" I know she is right. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the right restaurant.

Then we got official transfer news. I'm training 2 new ASL missionaries. Elder Searle is training 1 new ASL missionary. We will all be I'm the same apartment and same areas. We will interpret everything for our Deaf Missionary. Their 4 combined ages in the mission won't be older than mine for 3 months lol. 

So that's exciting. 

Also you'll be happy to know I finally brought my suit to the dry cleaners. First time ever. 

And I did because….ElderBednarIsVisitingOurMissionThisSarurday!!!

I'll tell you about it next week!

Always talk about Jesus

 The first vision in Hindi was filmed on Tuesday and we killed it. We did sooo good! It was incredible. It should be posted soon. 

We also mega cleaned the apartment and used a real-life mop, the kind people dance with. We had to open all the windows to get fresh air in and when we came back there was literal wind blowing through the apartment. It was amazing.

We had dinner with Bishop Winmill and I asked him "how can i know of I've been forgiven of my sins?" He talked alot about how parents punish their children even though they already forgave them. He talked about how God cares more about where we're headed then where we've been. It was powerful. 

On another day we met with our Deaf friend, Raymond, and the spirit said "baptism" so I signed "will u be baptized" and he signed "yes" so that was actually seriously epic. I love Raymond. He's so sweet.

We also helped at a few moves and each time I almost threw up fr fr. Just thinking about the sight and the smell and the state of such things causes my belly to spin and my hair to wrinkle. Oh man you guys, it was so bad. The whole time my mind was telling me "how can they permit themselves to suffer such conditions?" Everything had about 8 layers of filth, the walls were once white and now black as charcoal. The ground was a whole inch taller with build up from years past. Not a single thing was placed in any order. Everything down to the crumbs was in perfect chaos. 

Needless to say I showered and used all my exfoliators to scrape the "service layers" of skin off. Man it was so gross. I committed to myself and God my house will always be clean. I will never allow anything like that to happen to me. 

Then we had Sunday and ASL and English were combined. . .so I interpreted the meeting into ASL. Oof to my hands. Then I also taught 5th Sunday in ASL. All about missionary work ofc. 

That evening we went to some Indians, Navroop and Sandeep. Sandeep destroyed Navroop and was just like "he's depressed. . .failed marriage and no job. He's got depression and can't even find a job cuz failed marriage"

Navroop just sat there with a blank face. 

So sympathy oofs for him. But I promised him if he reads the Book of Mormon every day his depression will go away.

Then Sandeep said "he can read all day because he doesn't have a job because he's depressed"

Wow. Brutal Sandeep.

Then on Monday I gave a powerful training on 'Motivation' it was sooo goooood. We discussed how we receive motivation, how we lose it, and why we need it. I closed it all by talking about how Jesus Christ did the hardest thing ever done and so he needed a powerful motivator. What was it? Love. Love was the reason why He was able to go through with it and do the hardest thing that's ever been done. 

Whenever we do anything in the church, a lesson, a talk, a training, ANYTHING- we must end with Jesus Christ. I can testify it doesnt matter what you’ve been assigned to focus on in whatever it is- you can always bring it back to Jesus Christ. My favortie example right now is President nelson’s talk “Reverance for Life” a simple line of testimony, “Gratefully, we know the Lord will help all who are truly repentant.” his entire talk is focused on the evils of Abortion and in the end he wraps up be bearing testimony of Jesus Christ. Abortion and Jesus Christ seem quite unrelated, yet he still tied them together beautifully. ANYWAYS. Always end whatever you're doing by testifying of Jesus. Whether it's about cleaning the church, Child protection, a bbq, or basketball- always end with Jesus (you can't end with anything more important because there is nothing more important)

Then we started exchanges and I went to the Tongan area with my brother, Elder Polu. We had a non-stop blast. Up till 12:30 talking about our conversion stories, 100% vulnerable and open, woke up at 6 to go play cricket, did a disgusting service- but hey- they got us 6 little caesars pizzas, we taught a bunch of Tongas, invited a man (first lesson with him) to be baptized and he said yes. Also gave him a priesthood blessing and his family was just crying the whole time. One of the most powerful lessons either of us had ever had. Some tongan kept saying “It's so funny” and “I am a master chef” to me over and over again so he could practice English, ate 6 chicken legs, and got a bunch of Otai. man it was great. I love Elder Polu. 

Sorry, I’m out of time. If it wasn’t profound enough for you this week, Go Listen to “adventures of the Spirit” Robert Wells. Or read last weeks email lol. Love you all bye bye

Lost a car, found a sheep.

 7-19-23

This week God taught me that He is always teaching me. It doesn't matter what I'm doing or what happens, He's always teaching me exactly what I need. I feel like my eyes have been opened and I can see all these amazing lessons- but it is so hard to keep these eyes open!

One lesson came Thursday evening. We have a member in our ward named Nathan. Nathan has Cerebral Palsy and cannot do anything for himself. He loves power rangers and has posters of Jason David Frank all over his room, along with pictures of prophets and apostles. He has a caretaker named Nick who is Persian and speaks a medium amount of English. We visit Nathan every week to help him out and study scriptures with him (he's the only member in his entire family) 

Honestly, going to visit Nathan has not always been my most favorite (it's actually never been my favorite.) I would rather spend time with people who are not members and Indians and Deaf people. He's none of those so naturally I feel like I'm wasting time. 

Anyways- usually we go at 12 pm but we couldn't make it till 8ish- no big deal(?)

This is when its time for Nathan to go to bed so without really knowing it we witnessed Nick get Nathan ready for bed. He brushed his teeth, took him out of the chair and put him in bed, changed his clothes, adjusted pillows and tucked him in and . . .everything. 

I was feeling uncomfortable, thinking maybe I shouldn't be here. Then I was feeling amazed, amazed at the love in every action of Nick. Everything he did for Nathan was just so powerful to me. It taught me about the atonement. Jesus did something for us we can't do for ourselves. Just like Nick lifts Nathan up and carries him to his bed, Jesus always picks us up- something we are not capable of doing on our own.

I wouldn't be surprised if the only reason God allowed CP to exist was for me to have that experience so I can have a better relationship with my Savior. 

Then on Sunday we went to teach our friend Bertrum. We met him a while back and were just trying to visit to find out if he's actually interested and if we can teach him. So we park in the visitors parking at his apartments and go to his place. He's home, invites us in and we all sit on his couch. In my mind I think ok, lets share a scripture and get outta here- he's not interested.  

I pull out Alma 13:28-29 and I finish and i hear "teach him the restoration" 

This scripture doesn't really go with that so somehow I take it and mold it and force it through. Ok- now I'm teaching the restoration. Easy. I finish and hear "invite him to be baptized" so I'm like no it's ok. Then I heard it again. Ok. So I invited him to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by one who holds the proper priesthood authority to do so.

My brother Bertrum hesitates then says 

"Believe it or not, I was already baptized in the Mormon Church many years ago" I have no clue how old he is or how long ago 'many years' could have been because you know 'Black don't Crack' brother could be 32 or 75 idk. 

So I'm like …….what? 

He talks about bishops and wards and all this vernacular you basically only know if you're a member. So that was epic. We're gonna help him come back.

Then we went back to our car except that- all that left was a Pringle I swept out of the car before we got out. The. Car. Is. Not. There. 

Some locals yell out to us and explain it was towed literally 1 minute ago.

Why? This is clearly visitor parking! Why did we get towed? Why did I feel to stretch Bertrum's lesson? If we woulda got out earlier we could have prevented it! But no, I was instructed clearly to keep going.

 So we lost the car, but we found a sheep. 

We called our vehicle coordinator and he was super nice. Then he dropped the oof: it's gonna be a lot of money and we gadda pay.

However- no worries at all because I pay my tithing and I have faith that no matter what happens I'm gonna be ok. 

So we walk a bunch and eventually the day is over. 

Monday we got the car and Elder Killpack, the vehicle coordinator, helped everything happen. 

God used this to teach me alot about "Restitution" in the context of repentance. I have been pondering alot about Restitution. If you steal- you give it back. It makes sense that way but what about other sins? What about addictions like pornography and drugs? How would you practice Restitution with those? That has been the question I want to understand. When we had to pay for the car I felt fine. I actually felt great. On the entire drive back to our area I was learning about Restitution, why God wants us to "restore" what we messed up and what it does for us. Repentance is so much more than praying and asking God to forgive you. The more I learn the more I think really "Repentance" is the "discipleship lifestyle" 

I'm still learning from that experience now as I write it. There's only so much that I can express to you through Email but I'm trying my best lol. 

Tuesday night we met with a neat indian man named Sunny and the whole time he was saying things like "come on Owens, keep going i wanna hear the rest" and "ok what's next Owens" and at the end "if you say it I'll believe it" it was hilarious and humbling all at once. I realized it was up to me to make sure he learns everything right lol. It's up to me to make sure the spirit is there. I must do all I can to make every lesson the best lesson ever. He also let me practice the first vision in Hindi and said I was doing perfectly! That was not humbling at all- it was the opposite. I'll send a video later of me reading it in the album or something 

The next day Elder Holladay and I went on another Hindi Exchange, sadly not as incredible. I think God was teaching us "Ok, you can do this but just to let you know- it will be really hard. You will need to practice every day, you will have to completely reinvent how you find people, it's gonna be hard."

Because essentially nobody was interested in talking to us this time. Usually I can find a few Indians normally- but this was the most equipped missionaries for Indian finding in the mission, maybe in California, maybe in all of America. And we weren't able to do much lol. 

We still want to get it going anyways. 

Biggest take-away: God is always teaching me. I just need to open my eyes and try hard to learn. 

Love you all so very much. I hope you will do all you can to learn from God. I know He's trying to teach you.

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अच्छा सप्ताह

 7-12-23

Wow. . .

Ok this week was one of the most legendary ever. 

We were walking to the car Thursday morning and I see the most Indian looking Indian ever so I'm like, Well I have to go over there.

So I go over and introduce ourselves and then pump out every Hindi word I know and she's just stunned. So stunned she responds in English and tells us she didn't live there but my Hindi is very good. Then comes over to give us handshakes. I turn to see her trying to give one to Elder Searle who's literally holding a monster sausage link from the Tongan Elders and so the most awkward handshake followed. 

But hey, she complimented my Hindi.

Also met a legend woman from India named Pushpa and we powered through the restoration and right after I recite the first vision she looks up at us and said "Joseph Smith had 2 men come answer his prayers just like how God sent you 2 to come answer my prayers" 

Boom. Spirit hit me so hard I may have gotten a bruise. She told us she'd been praying to find a church to go to. She loves Jesus Christ so much and moving to America just a few months ago was really hard for her.

That's why God sent us to her.

Then we drove to San Jose and filmed Elder Searles Testimony in ASL. Wow. He did so incredibly well! 

The whole drive there and back I was In a deep state of pondering. Considering my experience with repentance last week I really really just want to be better. I want to always have no desire to sin. So I just thought about new habits I can set up and who I am compared with who I want to be. It was enlightening fr fr.

On Sunday President and Sister Larsen surprised us by coming to ASL branch. . 

Also,  you know Tactile? Like Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan and signing in her hand? We have 2 Deaf Blind members and somebody has to tactile everything for them. 

I know ASL, I'm also super strong. So of course the obvious choice for tactiling is me. Usually we switch off but nobody else was there. So I tactiled all of church. Oof. My mind and body and everything was just- dead. But President and Sister Larson gave really good "talks" (signs?) 

Then we went to the Oakland Temple with our friend Emma for a temple tour. In the middle of the visitor center sisters lesson she turned to me and yelled "Elder Owens! I am ready!" 

She talked about how the spirit is just always telling her to go to church and she wants to go to the temple every day! So cool. 

Then I stole half the Hindi Book of Mormons (Books of Mormon?) the visitor center had. A musical director started signing really badly at us and tried to get us to Interpret for a musical we've already said no to 5 times. So we said no again. Then he asked again. We gave him our branch president's number and then he told both of us no. 

Deaf people are just incredibly picky when it comes to Interpreters and there's over 100 people 14X more qualified than me. And if I did the Deaf Community would just get upset. So.

As much as I wanted to do it, it's better if we don't and I trust President Peterson. So.  Then we were headed to the car and some guy yelled "Are you missionaries??" 

We are, so we said yes. He starts tearing up and explains he’s been inactive his whole life and he needs to become active so we helped him get in contact with the bishop of the ward he's in and some missionaries in his area and said a prayer. Hope everything goes well.

Next is the coolest thing ever. Embark is a language learning app for missionaries, like Duolingo but geared towards missionary work. I recently sent them an email asking for a Hindi course and on Monday I received many emails and texts and friend requests all from Emark Team People asking me about my experiences learning Hindi and all sorts of stuff. So I got Elder Holladay involved and we were just answering questions all day long. Basically they are amazed at how far we’ve come and are working on a Hindi Course to release “asap.” So we’re working with the Embark team to write curriculum and stuff for Hindi! Also, we’ve been working so hard on the first vision and feel pretty comfortable reading it, we just need to practice practice practice. I can't wait to have it memorized lol.

All of these Hindi things led to Elder Holladay and I doing the first ever Hindi Exchange. We learned as many prayer words as we could and prayed in the best Hindi we could, and then just went out and did Indian work all day. I know we're doing the right thing because we only saw 1 white person the whole day. Every single contact we made was with indians. All the Indians who usually aren’t home were home. We read from the Book of Mormon in Hindi with such power and spirit–it was amazing and truly exhilarating. The Indians' surprise and joy to hear 2 white teenage boys speaking in Hindi is so wonderful! We found so many Indians just by using our like 3 phrases and a handful of words. 

I know this is long and if you’re still reading I love you. But I wanna share a really powerful scripture  before I close lol. I was reading section 1 of Doctrine and Covenants, verse 23 says : “That the fulness of my gospel might be proclaimed by the weak and the simple unto the ends of the world, and before kings and rulers.” 

The footnote on the word “weak” leads you to “strength” in the topical guide. I thought it was beautifully poetic and powerful that this kind of “weakness” being described is actually “strength” wow. This is also the verse Elder Rasband quotes in his talk “This Day” and as he read the phrase “weak and simple” he places his hand over his chest, as to imply that's him. So powerful. You can do the rest of the pondering yourself to learn all the things I did. Dont wanna give you all the answers. But there's at least 2 hours of personal study (so far) to do on this verse and the relationship between “weak and simple” and “strength” and Jesus Christ. 

Love you all so much! Have an incredible week!

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