The Vance Family

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This week I got to see my friends Ashley, Elias, and Iury be baptized. It was one of the most spiritual experiences I've ever had. During the 45-minute drive to Fremont I was reflecting on my experiences teaching them. I remember the night Elder Lewis and I found them was a non-stop absolute miracle. We had just finished teaching and indian in the area named Kewal (who had opened the door all the way wearing nothing but boxers but was happy to have us come teach him)

We finished up with Kewal and had like 10 minutes left till it was time to go home. So we knocked 1 door. To be fully honest with you- I wanted to go home. I didn't see any point in knocking doors unless we knew indians lived there. But, thankfully, Elder Lewis wanted to knock some doors. 

Ashley answered her door very kindly and as soon as we mentioned Jesus she invited us in. It took about 10 minutes for her to gather her family and the dog was barking at us the whole time. Finally when we had opportunity to speak we delivered the only flawless restoration lesson I've ever been a part of. I could see in their eyes that they were astonished- I was too. The spirit was so strong even the dog wanted to learn more. 

So we invited them to church…and they came! Not the dog though.

While they were at church Iyori ( 9 year old girl) was feeling a little nervous to go to 2nd hour class but Ashley said to her “We were invited, and we belong.” 

Elder Lewis and I got to go over once and read from the Book of Mormon with them. They had just finished all the introductory stuff so we picked up in 1 Nephi 1. As we went around and took turns reading the spirit filled the room and the spirit again testified to me the Book of Mormon is true. All the sudden Ellias is reading verse 13 and says “ and he read saying: WOO! WOO!” (Like wuu wuu). He just shouted a interjection and then went right back to normal reading. I found myself struggling for breath as I desperately fought to not laugh. Elder Lewis at my side was slowly turning purple and fighting the same battle. I do not know how we made it through that. Now every time I read that verse I hear the shouts of a little black boy.

Later I was on exchange with one of the Deaf Elders, Elder Serban. We visited the Vance family and had a crazy lesson. I was constantly interpreting both directions and it was mentally exhausting. Then the spirit cleared my mind and instructed me to extend a baptismal invitation. I told them about all the commandments that disciples follow and the blessings and pure joy that come from covenanting with God. They knew it was what they wanted and right then Ashley got up and marked it on her calendar. 

Then I got transferred. Elder Lewis and Elder Nicolaysen took over the hindi area as well as the English area so they taught Ashley's family the rest of the way.

And last Friday they were baptized. I feel incredibly lucky to have been able to baptize Iyori. She's like a little sister to me and I know she will be my sister for the rest of my life. 

While we were waiting for people to change I was prompted to stand up and share my testimony. All 3 of the Vances were there and I declared to everybody in that room the importance of what had just happened. 

I know that when we are baptized by somebody who holds power from God, a connection is made between us and God. I know the Book of Mormon is true. I know the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints is the only church on earth that can impact your life after death in a way that will result in your living with God. I know that Jesus is our Savior. 

After the baptism we got to go eat cookies. I asked Iyori how she felt. “ I was scared at first but then I came out of the water and I feel so good!” I told her to never forget the feeling.

I talked to Ashley and she told me “you know. You are Elias’ role model.” My throat tightened and I kinda started crying. But I looked into her eyes and I said “Ashley, Elias needs to serve a mission. Do all you can to help him prepare now” she said they were already planning on it. 

Elias came up to me and told me he had figured out why I was in Fremont for so long. He said it was because I had to find his family. That will stick with me forever. I think he's right. 

The church is so true. I know that 100%. Missionary work is amazing and there is no joy that can compare to this. You already know I will not stop inviting others to come unto Christ. Not now. Not when I get home. Not when trials shake my world. I made the same promises Ashley, Elias, and Iyori did when I was 8 and I will not be passive or idle in how I keep those promises. 

i have no idea

 Elder Lewis was sick for a bit. So I got 3 days of naps, Old Testament and Hindi studies, and pondering. 

On Friday night one of the Deaf Elders taught all the missionaries some basics in ASL and I pretended like I wasn't fluent. Then Elder Ardinger and Elder Tien wrestled and we ate cookies.

Saturday afternoon was the youth “missionary madness” activity. We pretended to be missionaries all day and helped the youth get a slightly more realistic idea of missionary life.

Sunday evening we stopped by one of our Indian families in the middle of a birthday party. They not only invited us in but also requested that I say the blessing on the cake. I asked, “Bless the cake?” and I guess in their culture that was really funny because everybody kept repeating it and laughing harder and harder. Then I got them again by asking how to say “cake” in hindi- its just cake. 

We had an exchange where we just took Elder Howes with us down to San Jose and all around. We got to visit some friends Elder Lewis met while serving down south and that was fun. Also walked around the grounds of the future San Jose Temple! Indians are such strange people. One day I will figure out how to contact and teach Indians effectively…

I also went on exchange with Elder Searle. He is my brother in every way except blood. I look up to him more than any other missionary I’ve met. I know that bold- but this man trained a Deaf missionary when he had only been serving for about 6 weeks. He has been the father of the ASL program since he stepped off the plane. He has only had Deaf companions other than the 6 weeks with me. He is also a chef. Needles to say, our exchange was absolutely incredible. We found an old Indian man-only spoke hindi- and I got to teach him about the restoration and it felt SO cool. His name was “bebebe.” 

Also- that evening we had the craziest, most ridiculous lesson ever. We taught a Deaf Indian man and his Deaf Indian wife as well as their Hearing Indian mother. I was teaching in ASL and Hindi and figuring out what's going on and translating using english. I almost passed away, it didn't help that his mother was actually crazy. She kissed us on the forehead and would start singing, fall asleep,or start shaking her hands with all her steel bracelets on randomly. It was so hard to not burst out laughing. 

In the beginning of Ezra, which is actually near the end of the Old Testament chronologically but only about ½ way through the book, we read about another different kind of restoration that happened. The apostasy was only for about 80 years prior to this restoration but what happened was the Syrian king Nebudcanazzer destroyed Jerusalem and carried away all of israel. He also destroyed Solomon's Temple. There was now no “church” on the Earth. There was no prophet for a sec, no priesthood, no ordinances were happening on the earth and God's people were mixed with Syria and started adopting Syrian religious tradition.

Then we have 4 superheros that fixed everything- Zerubbabal and Jeshua- 2 legendary very faithful levites who rebuilt the temple. Despite the Samaritans trying to stop them and other silly garbage, they never stopped.

And also Haggai and Zechariah- 2 prophets who hung out with Jeshua and Zerubbabal and helped build the temple and encourage the people to come back.

I think these 4 were probably best friends. I can see them having district councils before they head out to go build the temple and preach the gospel. 

Basically apostasies have happened before- so have restorations. When God wants to restore the church- he calls prophets. It all makes SO much sense. The church is incredibly true. Anybody who has a desire, logic, and faith can easily find out for themselves that it's true. 

Keep the fire burning

Dedicated to Edwards and Edwins

 Ok. Well transfers came in. Hindi transfer 2! As of today I have been in Fremont in the same apartment for 1 year and 6 days. Nothing surprises me anymore cuz I've been here for so long. 

Last pday eve we found a guy who wanted to buy our neon open sign for 50 bucks. So now we have an extra 50 dollars to spend on indian stuff

We had interviews with President. I barely mentioned possibly extending my mission and President Larson looked at me like he was confused and was like "are you going to college? You have to go to college, you're to smart"

I almost started laughing because- of course i'm going to college. . .i just might wanna be a missionary for another 6 weeks before I start that.

So then we talked about college and careers and he said I should maybe consider 'Technology'. . .

Then we met a cool friend named Sana- she is literally ready to be baptized. She is very indian and also Christian! So we taught her family for a bit then they started feeding us and so i started crying because there were just sooo many spices. My entire mouth was just overwhelmed. Then they gave us 'rose-milk' and it took the pain away…

So I bet somewhere in South India where the church is more prevalent that somebody went up on a fast Sunday and talked about how rose-milk is like the atonement of Jesus Christ because it stopped the stinging and helped them to stop crying.

Friday was a BREAKTHROUGH day. I started reading the Bhagvad Gita a while ago and working on someway to use that knowledge to contact and teach indians. Oh wait- some context- bhagvad gita is the Hinduism scripture kinda thing. 

So we saw a big truck full of tools and stuff and we had a moment of like "well…should we go talk to them even though they're probably not indans…."

Then we headed over and- surprise- there's a huge word in hindi on the back of the truck!

They all walk out and have like- zero English. So we use all of our hindi. They're not interested at all.

A sudden burst of inspiration and passages of the gita come to my mind and I open my mouth with faith.

I start comparing the gita to the Book of Mormon and Lord Krsna to Jesus Christ. I compare ईश्वर to God as the creator of the world and talk about how Jesus Christ suffered for our bad karmas so we don't have to suffer in our next life.

Suddenly he's pulling out mail and pointing at his address, we give him the Book of Mormon in Hindi and set a time to come back. 

Epicccc. The gita gave us a door and reading it is helping me to open it. 

So now we've been trying something similar in our other Indian interactions.

We performed "Silent Night" at church elder vest and I sang, Elder Holladay pianoed and Elder Smalley cellod. Everybody cried. 

We did so good we were asked to sing at a relief society party later that week. But this time we also did "the first noel" and "what child is this"

So now I am a legend at singing In my chest and doing duets. 

We're performing again tonight! 

This next part is dedicated to all Edwins, Edward's, Eddys, and anything else with a 'Ed' in it!

This week I finished Joshua! Chapter 22, Which has a very Alma 60 type story, was especially good. The tribes of Gad, Simeon, and Manasseh(half of it) built a big Altar and all the other tribes of Israel were confused. They sent the 3 tribes a big letter saying they were so disappointed that they were worshiping false Gods now and were gonna come and beat them up. So the 3 tribes sent a letter back saying that's not what's going on! We didn't build this altar for sacrifices! (The children of Levi are in charge of that) we just built it so that when we look at it we remember to worship God and so when our kids and their kids and their kids look at it they will remember God. 

So the other tribes were like ohhh ok ok I see. We won't beat you up then. That's a cool idea.

So they were all friends again and they got together and guess what

They decided to give the altar a name…

And they named it…Ed

Satan is the author of Confusion, misery, and violence. This little misunderstanding nearly led to the destruction of 3 of the tribes of Israel! I think more than half of all contention stems from a misunderstanding of some kind. If I took time to understand why somebody did what they did before I reacted, I would save myself and others soooo much trouble! When we react in anger without thinking- we are actually just acting in Satan's Will. So- when somebody upsets you- take a second. Always Remember Ed. Remember Ed and you'll be on the safe, peacemaker side. 

If you wanna read this, it's in Joshua 22! 

Love you!

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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Hobab and service

 

Have you ever helped move a 4000 pound safe? Well, it's a little bit concerning and stressful and looks like and feels like it's not supposed to work. I really thought somebody was going to get hurt- but we were all OK. 

We helped a Deaf family move 2 uhaul loads to a storage unit and that was great fun. It took the entire day too lol.

The next day we just destroyed a yard in San Jose. There's a guy in the ASL branch who had like 3 strokes and so his yard is now all weeds as tall as me. So we just attacked it pretty hard. Then the lawnmower broke. So we'll head back over there later.

Then we went and tactiled general conference for our Deaf Blind friend, Indiana. For me- when tactiling I do not retain anything from the talk. I also retain a very small amount when I am asleep. . .so. 

I'm planning on watching those sessions again. (My body is mega exhausted from all the service ok!)

I took some notes- but I only wrote down action items that I knew were specifically for me. One that really hit was "focus on covenants more" I am not sure how to it yet, but that's my focus right now.

Monday we went and tutored at the Deaf School again. It was great. When nobody wants help with homework we get to kinda just sit there and watch all the Deaf things happen. It's good exposure to ASL for my trainees so I hope they'll pick it up real quick.

Last night Elder Johnson and I went down to Pleasanton to teach a couple some ASL- the husband is going Deaf and so they're learning as much as they can. 

Pleasanton is where I started my mission and I have 1 really solid friend who kinda stopped meeting with missionaries when I left the area. I was telling Elder Johnson about him and then we drove past his house and we both were like…why don't we just go visit him?

So we did. Turns out it was the perfect time. Sam had just found out his best friend is going to die In a few days from a blood clot and was crying. He had dog food all over the place because he literally threw it. But we were there and he was really happy to see me. 

Since I left, he and his girlfriend got married and also had a son! Sam is a dad now! I really love Sam. I hope it all works out for him.

This week in Numbers I read about Hobab and and Moses. It's Numbers 10:29-32 so you'll have to read it after this. Basically, Hobab is getting ready to leave and Moses is like "Hobab, my friend, please don't go! Stay with us, travel with us! We need you. If you come with us you'll receive all the blessings that God has promised me! Please don't go!"

And Hobab says "nah, I'm just gonna go home"

And Moses won't take no, so he asks Hobab to go with him again!

I love this story because I feel like we invite people to 'come with us' a lot in discipleship. With our own friends and family it's like "hey! God has promised me these blessings, I want you to have them too! Come with me! Please don't leave, come with me! Read the book of Mormon with me! Come to church with me! Come to the temple with me!"

And maybe they say no.

But we should ask again. Because realistically-there are zero good reasons to say no to anything in the gospel because it all leads to Jesus Christ and there is nothing better than that. People get confused, like Hobab, thinking that going to their home or 'what they already have' is better than the promised land or 'what God can give them' 

So, don't be a Hobab, be a Moses.

And

Keep the fire burning (levi 6:13)  

And

Think celestial  

And

I love you!  

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🔥Keep The Fire Burning 🔥

 We started the week with a silly little exchange between the 5 of us. It was silly because we were still all 5 together for most of the day anyways. But it was still good to work with the elders I don't normally work with.

We are basically just a companionship of 5 and it's comical.

Our Bishop's lemon tree fell over because the lemons were too big. So we took 5 of the lemons and washed them off and they are truly hilarious. We throw them around and keep them in the car hoping they'll spread a lemon smell. 

I started going on runs fr fr. I want the habit so bad. I've noticed I feel alot better all day when I go for runs that really push me. 

We got in contact with a member nobody knows, our good friend Sister Bavesi. She used to go to a Fijian branch somewhere far away then got sick and just never got back to church.

We shared Jacob 5:21-22 with her about trees in bad spots of ground and how God puts them there and nourishes them. She kinda freaked out and kept saying we "confirmed everything" for her. She took a picture of us so she can always remember and gave us a loaf of Banana bread! 

Also got back in touch with my brothers Aaron and James. Turns out they've just been too busy. James talked to me for an hour about how to propose when the time comes. He said not to do it at McDonalds and to make sure I ask her father out of respect first. Don't know if anybody needed to hear that, but…

Anyways.

Then our dear friend Christe was baptized and I was dead because I was interpreting it for our Deaf friend, Raymond, who also wants to be baptized. So when it was time for me to witness I was super confused when everybody was raising their hands and whispering and screaming at me (which I was trying to interpret for Raymond) finally I figured out our brother Ty didn't have his hand to the square. So I reached in and tapped him, "Ty, you gadda hold your arm up" 

We had a good laugh and he explained he was just practicing which I fully believe. 

Then we taught a indian family. We thought it was one man but he repeated his name and it was something entirely different--which means a total stranger just let us in his home and teach him and his family the restoration. I used my Hindi powers and that helped a lot. 

On Sunday Christe was confirmed and received the Holy Ghost! We also got a ward missionary called! His name is Jared Platero and we actually have his high school graduation announcement up on our fridge- from a long time ago! 

He's getting ready to serve his mission. So we took him out with us that evening and taught a few people. Some of my favorite Indians asked me to just do the whole lesson in Hindi and I totally can't but they were convinced I could. So I tried but…ended up asking if she thought the book of Mormon was delicious. She smiled and said yes! And then patted me on the back and said your Hindi is very good.

I almost cried.

A random Indian family gave us some mango nectar.

Some indian guy told us he lost his phone and we helped him find it- in his hand. Brother was…not low

In my study of the Old Testament I've been trying really hard to get everything out of each verse. I don't want to miss any of the things you can learn so that I dont ever have to read it again. I know that's not realistic but it's helping me to learn. 

This week I've been burning through Leviticus (no pun intended) (it's all about burnt offerings) (ok, maybe a little intended)

One verse that stood out more than any others was Leviticus 6:13

"13 The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out."

Consider everything "fire" represents- the Holy Ghost, motivation, passion, power, sometimes it even represents God's guidance in our lives.

Here- in the Altar- the fire is what's Burning the sacrifices and ultimately accomplishing repentance and ordinances for the children of Israel. So we can add ordinances, covenants, and repentance to that list.

And God commanded us to never let the fire go out! Don't ever let any of these things stop!

I love this because it prompts action! How do you keep a fire going? You have to feed it! The more you feed it- the bigger and hotter and brighter it becomes! 

One sister missionary in my district, Sister Niu, goes home real soon. After I shared this with her she applied it to herself and going home and how she can't ever let the fire of her mission stop burning. I love that idea. 

So- my 5 words for this week WERE "don't let the fire out" but that's less of something to do and more of something not to do so I changed it to "keep the fire burning" that's WAY better. 

So, everybody, keep the fire burning!

Love you all! Send me your 5 words from something you've learned!

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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

New Brothers

 Wednesday night we took our good friend Emma to a baptism in Spanish. Even though my English/Hindi brain didn't catch very much, the spirit still taught me the importance and truly cleansing effect of baptism. 

Emma was so happy and also we got pupusas after the baptism so that's good. So now she is as ready as you can get for her baptism. 

Thursday was a meme. We tried to get the apartment ready to occupy 5 elders. And then we drove to San Fran to give a Priesthood blessing to a Deaf Member from Utah who had to come to the hospital cuz she's pregnant and her gallbladder is breaking. So they can't do anything till the baby is born. 

I expirnced the gift of charity perhaps the strongest I ever have. We had to drive a hour to come to the hospital then search for 20 minutes to find their room, it's in the pregnant section so a nurse needs to check and make sure we can go in. We couldn't so we waited another 30 minutes to go meet them. 

It is pretty easy to be upset by this point. But, we weren't. 

They let us in and we saw Veronica and Fabian for the first time and- I was filled with love for them. A sweet sweet couple, overwhelmed with all of the problems coming up, trying to prepare to become good parents for their unborn son whom they already love so much. They hadn't even been baptized for a year yet but their faith is so strong. 

I was able to seal the blessing and with my minimal ASL skills I just kinda sat back and just let God operate through me. This wasn't a blessing from me at all. I had no plans for what to say. I just tried to listen to the spirit and letvit happen. 

After the blessing they asked us to teach them about temple marriages. They really want to be sealed in the temple but they can't yet. I got to testify about how I know my family will be together forever because of the choices my parents made so they could be sealed in the House of the Lord. She asked me if I was going to get sealed in the temple I told her proudly that I will. Then she asked if she could go, I said yes. So far they're the only ones officially invited to my wedding lol.

Well. Then we had to leave. We made sure they had a copy of the Book of Mormon and started the trek back home. So fun. 

Then we picked up our new Elders. And oh my. 3 new babies who still have everything to learn. Good thing Elder Searle and I are here. 

That was fun.

Then we went to Menlo Park and met Elder Bednar. He was just a few feet away from me. One thing I love about him is he just says what comes to his mind and is not afraid. He also loves to laugh- so he's so funny he makes himself laugh then has to ask somebody else to speak so he can laugh about whatever he said and then recover. 

The 2 big things I learned are that I can always trust the spirit to help me. And disciples of Jesus Christ and people that want to become disciples focus on sincere true repentance, which means turning to the lord and turning away from the world. 

Well, then we had Emma's baptism. And surprisingly, to me, it wasn't anything to incredibly spectacular. I felt the spirit for sure and I know it was beautiful and powerful. But part of me was expecting like…more….

I still don't know what to learn from that… maybe I needed to prepare more. Idk.

I also gave a talk on Sunday about scriptures and I had like 4 notes and just relied on the spirit. I guess it was good cuz everybody is saying it's what they needed. I also "spoke" in the ASL branch and that was a similar experience. 

It was still amazing and I'm amazed at the goodness of Emma and her example to the ward of selflessness and joy. 

Then we met with Pugal and he's like "bro. I want to be baptized this weekend"

So we're like "sure!"

Brother had his interview and passed with a 100% and will be baptized this weekend. 

Training has been kind of hard. I would be a little scared if it wasn't hard..i mean..there's 4 young Elders whom I am responsible for. I have to teach them everything I can. I know it's still up to them and I can only do so much. But so much is so much. I love them all individually and they all need different things and they all annoy me in different ways lol. So. I guess we'll figure it out. 

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

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!

Compression and Tensile

 7-26

Wooowww. Ok, a week ago we helped some guy clean out an awful storage unit. A few years ago he had to go to the hospital and some friends and realtors threw everything in his house into this storage unit.  Now it as time for him to get the stuff out. He had nobody else to help him so he called the church and asked for missionaries.

Everybody, if you're gonna do anything, especially pack a storage unit- do it right please. It is not worth the frustration and pain to have to deal with poorly packed boxes and disarray in every inch of stuff. Please do it the right way.

Anyways, eventually we finished up and we got to the car. I'm ready to deliver a hilarious line about how awful that service was when my companion looks up and says "Elder. . . There's a nail in my leg" sure enough there literally is a nail sticking out of his flesh. 

All-day-long-story short: we sat in 3 different urgent care/ emergency rooms for a while and finally actually got in at the "realest" ER we could find and after 3 hours some doctor “321”ed it and yanked it out. Man it was a lot bigger than we thought. Elder Searle got a tetanus shot and we headed out to go use our final hour of PDay.

Then Zone Conference the following day- wow. That was the most powerful zone Conference I've ever been to. Why? The absolutely pure testimonies given. President Larsen bore pure testimony of Jesus Christ and the Atonement for an hour. The spirit was undeniably strong, most of us felt it in our eyes lol. It is in my top 10 deepest desires to have a testimony so sure and so powerfully rooted that, if provided, I could stun a crowd like how President Larsen did. All I'd need to say is " I know Jesus Christ lives" and the spirit would zap their hearts and then they'd know the church is true too. 

I also found a package for me at Zone Conference. 

Wow mom, I'm afraid you have overdone it with the whole "hump day" thing. TBH with you all I actually had no clue what “Hump-Day” meant. I had to go to the family history center and look it up. Anyways now I get it. Thank you all so much for helping my mom make that wonderfully cute book. You're all so wonderful. And I promise to keep delivering quality letters but you have to promise that instead of telling my parents how good the Emails are you need to tell me instead lol. 

Ok. Then we had interviews. Wow. I have permission to do Hindi. The Hindi program will be started. I just have to train the new ASL elders first. We also had a powerful talk about repentance and guess who was taking notes. . . .President Larsen. 

"I've never considered that before" and " I've never thought about it like that" and "I love that so much" were phrases I heard…a few times.

What an incredible topic repentance is.

Then we went to a member's home for dinner and he walked us out to a playground he had built for his kids and taught us about "compression" and "tensile." Wow.

Specifically in regard to gate supports. This will be a challenge to explain over email. But I will try.

When you make a gate, it has support on one side, the other side is hanging. The side opposite the support wants to fall down. Imagine a “X” across the gate. If the side opposite the side that is connected to the fence were to hang down, one diagonal gets longer, while the other diagonal gets shorter. Think about the shape the rectangle gate wants to become. It's like a more diamond shape with 2 obtuse angles and 2 acute angles. Do you see it? 1 diagonal gets longer while the other gets shorter- if the gate were allowed to submit to the gravity. 

To combat this Gate-builders must either choose to use Tensile strength or Compressive strength. They can focus on either preventing one diagonal from gaining length; or they can focus on preventing the other diagonal from getting shorter. The solutions are different but both are actually used fairly commonly. Say you think compression is cooler, you would screw a wooden board to the gate that lines up with the diagonal that would get shorter- now it cant get shorter because the compression strength in the board is holding all the force. Ok, now tensile. You take a metal cord and attach it to the diagonal that is trying to get longer- now it can't because the cord is holding up all the force.

 Every time I think about this I am amazed. There is so much to learn from this principle. For example, sometimes you'll see a cord or a board attached to the gate incorrectly- on the wrong diagonal. When this happens is actually doing next to nothing to support the gate. It has to be on the right diagonal in order to do us any good. Kinda like THE GOSPEL. If you attach principles to your life incorrectly they will not help you. If you keep commandments but your heart’s not in the right place or it's done grudgingly you simply don't receive the blessings and support that you could if you would just put it all on the right diagonal(D&C 58:29). If you're going to church but it's not for the right reasons you're missing out on so much. 

The really beautiful and instructive piece of this idea is that proper alignment of the support actually lifts the fence up. It literally gives it support. . .a lot like the atonement of Jesus Christ. If you were to put the board or cord on the gate wrong then it takes a lot of work to take it all out and then put it on the right way- however, it is possible. We can do the same thing- that process is Repentance through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. 

Amazing right? God wrote the laws of physics in a way that teaches us about his Son’s sacrifice. 

Well, the next day we went park and contacting we met a wonderful Indian woman named Ann. She said her husband actually went to BYU! She was amazed at the respect and diligence we have for serving God. I shared the first vision with her in Hindi and watched as every word struck her soul. She was completely amazed to hear Hindi from a white person and also amazed at the spirit that was there as we stood by the park. I told her to come to church and learn more and to bring her husband with her. She said she would! 

I also had the opportunity to go on exchange with Elder Evenson, a wonderful Zone Leader. We stayed up till around 1:00 talking about repentance and it was powerful. We were in an area where a recent ASL convert lives and I was like- we should just visit her (understand, this is Tina Jones- she told us to never come back a week after her baptism and we have not been over since January) we went over and Tina looked kinda sad. Real quickly I started asking her questions like “Do you remember the spirit you felt? Do you not remember the feelings you had as we read from the Book of Mormon? Do you remember the love you felt at church? Do you remember the light from when you were baptized?” she said she did remember. She just stopped everything because her family told her “Mormons religion is not true” Tina gave us the names and facebooks of all these family members and asked us to teach them. Oh boy. We will try. Also a spanish doordash guy came over and elder Evenson translated to english which i translated to ASL and then back through. There was some mess up with the order and this guy was pretty upset. But it was a pretty funny experience lol. 

Well, that's enough for now, I love you all so much. Remember to make sure your alignment is right so that you can be lifted and supported by the gospel. (and if you thought this was good dont tell my mom, tell me lol)

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