Contacting at stop lights

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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.

Cups

 

Had exchanges with my zone leaders. Got some good juggling tips. We visited ine of their friends who has been being taught since before I got to Fremont 17 months ago, Eddie Loza. I told him straight up it's time to get baptized buddy. We set a goal for it to happen before I come back to visit.

Every day this week I have said bye to a special family or friend. During the last 17 months I have come to love many many of the members. It's gonna be really hard to leave them. But I already know I'll be back. 

On Monday we found ourselves in Gilroy and I remembered the aslders had a friend down there. Gilroy is super far south and there are just a few friends there. So we asked them if they could send us her info and we'd go try and teach her! It all worked out and I met Natalie! She was so sweet! We invited her to be baptized and she said ya! So that was actually epic. Turns out I'm still a legend with ASL.

On Sunday I got to share my testimony in the central Park Ward one last time. Prior to the bearing of testimonies, Brother Jarman from the bishopric had said “please keep it to 2 minutes”

And miraculously, somebody's phone alarm went off while i was testifying and so i was like.”oh, is my 2 minutes up?” It was amazing. 

This week a member, sister carr, helped me realize what “my cup runneth over” in the 23rd psalm may actually mean by the way she talked about her trials.

“5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.”

We anoint peoples heads with oil to give them blessings- we give people blessings when they are struggling. That's the first part.

Note that in the Old Testament Samuel and Elijah announced men to become kings.

Levies were anointed to work in the tabernacle. So it didn't always mean what it meant today. However, the “cup” is also important. So far there are 3 significant cups I can think of.

Joseph of Egypts cup that he tested his brothers with in Genesis 44

The cup that Nehemia used as the king's cup-bearer before becoming a prophet in Nehemiah 1

And most importantly…the bitter cup.

“Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.” Luke 22:42

This was the cup of all pain, misery, sadness, despair- everything bad about life.

When you read other psalms and recognize this is David writing it makes sense this could be David's bitter cup. During the first half of his life, the king who was also his best friend's father was trying to kill kill him nonstop, he faced the stresses and trials of becoming a king, was always involved in a war of some kind for the promised land, after being one of the most righteous men ever- he fell and nearly destroyed his soul by murdering and breaking the sacred law of chastity, his son, Absalom passionately hated him died trying to kill him. 

That's a pretty bitter cup.

It is also notable that the pslam immediately before is all about the final moments of the savior's life, including THE bitter cup.

The whole message behind the 23rd psalm is “The lord is my Shepherd” He leads me! He helps me repent! He comforts me! He takes care of me! Because of Him I can have peace and joy! My connection with Him makes everything ok!

so I makes sense 

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies

Jesus, you have a plan, you have a feast ready for me even though I am surrounded by trials and difficulties and temptation

Thou anointest my head with oil [because/despite] my cup runneth over

You are blessing me/ calling me to do some great work even though my life is full of (overflowing with) trials and mistakes.

Idk

Those are my thoughts. Maybe David is looking down like “cool thought but no, that's wrong” or maybe he's thinking I finally got it right. Idk

Lemme know

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A sword and a hammer

 I went on exchanges with Elder Keller this week! We stayed up till about 1 sharing our life stories. Elder Keller is a pretty incredible person! He's one of the Chinese elders I came in with so we got to talk about Chinese program things. We're both coming to close of out mission (wink) so it was cool to have a whole talk about everything we've learned and what we hope to accomplish with the time we have left.

On Monday we had interviews with President Larson and I officially extended my mission 1 transfer. July is just too soon lol and I need more time to study my languageS and the gospel as a missionary. Plus I believe God told me to.

President Larson also shared with me that a stake president from the south of our mission was talking with him and said “I heard you have hindi elders…I would love to have one here.” so I will be going to Saratoga. 

We started exchanges with the ASLders that night and I got to be with Elder Ardineger- he is such a treasure! He is Deaf and has been serving since December. We had soooo much fun!

Nehemiah is a very special book of the Old Testament. Despite being near the middle, chronologically it's the very last book to take place. Nehemiah was the king's cupbearer, meaning the king trusted him with his life (kings were sometimes poisoned) when Nehemiah learns about the efforts to rebuild Jerusalem he really wants to go. So he asks the king if he can. King says yes, gives him some guards and Nehemiah heads out. 

When they arrive Nehemiah runs around the whole place taking a mental inventory of everything that needs to be repaired- which is everything. King Nebuchadnezzar really did a number on this place.  

Nehemiah finds the guys in charge and then becomes the man in charge.

ALSO- the whole time- the Samaritans are tryna kill them! Samaritans WERE Israelite, they're just the ones that intermarriage with Babylon and Persia and stuff after Israel was carried captive. They still “believe in God” they just had adopted other nations' ways of believing in God and so they were no longer allowed to help with any of the rebuilding of Jerusalem or the temple. So instead of repenting or something they just try to kill the Jews. 

So- here is the point of everything I've shared- Nehemiah 4:17

“17 They which builded on the wall, and they that bare burdens, with those that laded, every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon”

With one hand they are building the lords kingdom. With the other they are ready to fight. This is exactly how I feel as an Elder. I feel like I have one hand building the kingdom and teaching (sometimes I do teach with both my hands) and just as important as the first hand, I have a hand defending myself from Satan's attacks. He doesn't want me to succeed. He has very sneaky ways of fighting. BUT

“14 And I[nehemiah] looked, and rose up, and said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, Be not ye afraid of them: remember the Lord, which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses.

20 …our God shall fight for us.”

So do the lords work

Defend yourself from Satan and don't be afraid.

Remember God will fight for you

New tie who dis?

 

🌄We started the week off at 3:30 on p-day morning so we could go hike up a mountain with the other missionaries. However, it was raining a lot. So we got McDonald's and hiked a much smaller hill instead. 

Every 6 months the Central Park Ward (one of the wards I've been serving in for nearly 18 months) has a giant community activity they call the 'clothing swap' where everybody in Fremont and all the surrounding cities rounds up all the junk in their home and brings it to the church where we sort it out on tables. Then everybody comes and just takes whatever they want. 

Within the first hour there's unbelievably giant stacks on every table, more than 100 people in the gym, and an overpowering interesting smell that just sticks in your nose.

We got to help out with that thursday-saturday! I got a new tie- so all the weird smells were worth it.

Saturday morning I was studying Preach My Gospel about to finish a paragraph and to blow my nose when somebody knocked on our door- I answered the door and it was my ASL Trainers- Shepherd Rigby and Hyatt White! We caught up and hugged. It was so weird to see them again...at the apartment we used to all live in and then again at the clothing swap- a year ago I was with them serving at the clothing swap…

Then we went and got pizza- at a place I went to with them about a year ago. So many feelings lol. I love them very much and I'm excited to hang out more in like 5 months!

I got to go on Exchange with the ASLders again on Monday. We went and tutored at the Deaf School, some of the teachers recognized me and we caught up. 

That night we met with a family I had found a few months ago and they'd come to church and had been reading the Book of Mormon on their own...so Elder Serban and I asked them to be baptized and gave them a preview of our hope for their future. We talked about the word of wisdom, sabbath day, tithing, and temple and they just said yes yes yes! They are ready to change their life! It was actually amazing and had me wishing everybody was as good as they are with "Agency" . I have never met anybody who is so good at keeping every commitment we give them. They were at church the Sunday after we met them and They've been studying the Book of Mormon as a family every week since. So if you want, you can pray for the Vance family. They set a goal to be baptized on the 13th of April! 

This week in my study of the Old Testament I was reminded of something President Griffith taught me back when he was my Bishop. One thing I heard more than anything else was "the first leadership is self-leadership. You cannot lead others where you are not"

In 2 chronicles there's a few chapters about king Amaziah (we'll be focused on chapter 25:1-13). He was pretty cool (most of the time...had an unfortunate but sadly common ending to his story 25:14- 28)

Like always, he's getting ready for war and councils with the prophet about what to do. Before he talked to the prophet he had bought help from Israel (he's the Judah king) the prophet says "tell them you don't need their help- Gods gonna win this one for you"

Amaziah is like "dude I paid them like 100 talents- you really want me to tell them to go home?"

Prophet is like " yup- God can give you way more than 100 talents if you do it his way" (amen amen)

So Amaziah tells the Israel army to go home and here it is:

 "11 And Amaziah STRENGTHEND HIMSELF and LED forth his people" (capitalization added)

And if you're curious- they absolutely won.

I love that it says Amaziah strengthened himself BEFORE he led the people to war. That is leadership- you have to know how to build yourself up and get motivated and fired up- THEN you can "lead forth [the] people''

The first leadership is always self leadership. You cannot invite people to do things and go places when you're not doing those things or in those places. So- do amazing things and gain a testimony of them and then invite everybody to do the same! 

And like always, keep the fire burning (Levi 6:13)

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2 kings 4:16 moment and Alma 26:27 moments

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On Thursday night we had finished all of our contacts in the area and we had 15 minutes left and nothing to do. We could have gone back to the apartment and cleaned or done some language study but Elder Lewis pulled out his phone and found we had one person whom we had talked to once nearby. Jesse. I remember him being not that interested but we went over anyway.

We got there and his wife just told us to come inside! They are both from Punjab and speak Hindi! We had a powerful lesson with them. Even though it was the first time we had met them, Harpreet, Jesse's wife, opened up and told us they had been having a hard time getting kids and really really wanted a baby. So we prayed for them and we were able to give Harpreet a Priesthood blessing! As I sealed the anointing several accounts of prophets promising a child to faithful women came to mind and so I did just that. (Most recently I read about Elisha in 2 kings 4 to a woman who let him stay in her home a few times)

I love Jesse and Harpreet so much!

The next evening we headed over to the Gills. Before we went in we said a prayer in our car and as we looked up, Sana and Sandeep were standing by our car waving at us! We went in and gave them the “preview” lesson. Kind of reminding them of our purpose as missionaries, telling them about commitments we will invite them to make, all the blessings and then talking about baptism. They are 100% on board. They gave us a huge list of sobering news and trials they have, so we gave them all priesthood blessings. We finished off the evening by inviting Sana to pray. 

She was a little awkward about it but eventually tried and it was beautiful.

“Father, I don't know how to pray. . .but I know you listen. . .and, I am not the right kind of person to pray, but I will try” 

It was amazing! Nothing I can say or do could have been more powerful. That was exactly what her family needed.

During the weekend one of our dear not-active indian families had us come over for a “prayer-meeting” a loved one had passed away so they wanted some prayers. They invited all of their non-member family as well! Elder Lewis and I stumbled through some plan of salvation doctrine in Hindi and they loved that. Some amazing sister missionaries accompanied us over there and they shared powerful personal experiences and testimonies of the plan of salvation. Even though it was English, the people there that prefer hindi and don't know as much English were still deeply moved by their words. 

Then we all ate a bunch of curry.

The Zone Leaders wanted to exchange with the ASLders, since elder Ardinger is Deaf that wouldn't work- so they just said “Elder Owens, you're coming with us.” So we did TRIO exchanges. It was actually great. I got to be back in the ASL world for a day. We got to go to a lesson about 30 minutes north of mission boundaries! I love asl work lol.

And last night we went back to the Gills! Sana’s parents were with us so we got to show off our hindi and they were impressed! Then we opened up the scriptures and read from 2 Nephi 31! It was amazing! The spirit said “go for it” so we set a goal with them for a family baptismal service on the 23rd of March! They could not be more excited. 

Even amidst all these incredible hindi miracles, I have had my questions and doubts about whether or not the hindi program is supposed to exist in the way that it does. We have plenty of friends who can only be taught by somebody who speaks Hindi but a majority of our work, although not as effectively, could be accomplished by English missionaries.

This has been the subject of many prayers and meditations. However, this week in my chronological reading of the book of Mormon I got to Alma 26. Ammon's mission homecoming speech. There are so many parallels between his experience with Laminates and my experience with Indians. It's such a perfect match I think Ammon said this just for me.

Verse 27 struck me right in my heart:

“Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites (the indians), and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success.”

I believe that was my answer.

I testify the scriptures are true and divine. Studying the scriptures will help you find answers to your questions, solutions to your problems, relief from stress, peace in storms, and power in weakness.

Please read the scriptures.

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!

Just Try.

 On Thanksgiving Eve we went to Costco and grabbed everything that was expired, filled up several carts, and brought it all to a church where the whole community came and took whatever they wanted. 

It was a blast. The man in charge of the project had a very cow-boy accent. Also, the whole time every single fork-lift the Costco had was beeping and cruising around. We also grabbed 12 Pumpkin pies.

I accidentally ate corn dogs before Thanksgiving feast because I figured it'd be at dinner time but it actually started at 2:00. 

That evening we started handing out all of our pies to our neighbors and friends. One family was very excited about the pie and their son showed us a picture of the solar system he made. They're from Tamil Nadu which is the most southern part of India. They don't speak Hindi down there but they're still cool.

We went back to Tracey and Twinkle and they gave us the corrected versions of our flashcards along with several new ones! So we have a lot of homework now

We hopped on a call with President Larson. He said he had sunk into our Preach My Gospel App to see what all we've been doing and I felt a lil uneasy- that tells me I know we can do better than what we're doing right now. The call actually went really well though. He said we're doing exactly what he thinks we should do. So we're gonna keep going!

Some other Elders found a cool Indian woman who homeschools her son- so she already knows how to teach hindi and was overjoyed at the idea of teaching us to- so we went over for the first time and she is pretty serious. It felt like I was in an actual class. 

I went on an exchange with Elder Smalley and we had some beautiful talks about the gospel and life and "playing to win instead of playing to 'not lose." 

And then this morning we hiked mission peak. Very long. Very fun.

Ok. Now Leviticus chapter 5:6-7, 11 PART 2

So last week we talked about the lamb, the 2 turtle doves, and the handful of flour and how some people may have a lamb and be fully capable of giving it to God yet, choose not to because a lesser sacrifice is still acceptable and that's easier and more convenient for them.

This week is kinda the opposite.

When I started serving in the Fremont ASL branch I didn't know ASL. I wanted to serve and teach but I couldn't because I legitimately didn't know the language. But I still tried! I did language study, I paid attention during church, I said my prayers in ASL! 

I gave what I had. 

And that was ok! It was good!

Both of my companions were fluent and able to give so much more than me. 

I was only able to give a small handful of flour. My companions had much more than me, so they were able to give God sheep. 

Now, a year later, I am proud of what I was able to give God. Back then, I felt awful. I would watch Elder White and Elder Rigby teach entire lessons without a stutter (because you don't stutter in ASL lol) and then I would mess up my little part and feel like I failed because I wasn't as good as them.

Now I know that's a foolish and silly way to think. 

God expects us to do our best. He is pleased with every bit of effort we give. It doesn't matter if everybody you know is giving God sheep and you're stuck with nothing but turtle doves and flour. As long as you're trying your best and being honest with yourself He is pleased and He loves you!

Don't compare your sacrifices to the sacrifices of others. We are all unique. God has a unique and percent plan for all of his children. 

The most important sacrifice we can make, regardless of what you have or who you are, is our life.

Now, I don't mean to pull an Abinadi in Mosiah 17:10. I mean to really serve God every day, to be obedient to his commandments, to make and keep covenants! All the big things and more importantly-the small things! Waking up a few minutes early so you can read the Book of Mormon and pray, smiling, expressing gratitude, unloading the dishwasher for Mom! (And loading it if the sink is full!)

I hope this makes sense! God is pleased when we try! If all you have is flour it is ok that you're not giving Sheep! Keep going! 

God loves you and you make him happy when you try!

(flour)

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