Silly Hama

 First off, please check out my good friend's Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/28i9MTT2FW1FnGmjkUdBLL?si=_XS7cnQzTEWpI82M6Ae3hQ

This is Elder Francom. He is one of my best friends I've made out here. He's super tall and so funny and just a blast to be with. Plus he's an incredibly talented musician. Please listen to some of his songs!

This week we had a giant ASL missionary Devo where they told us a little bit about how ASL missionaries can now be transferred between certain missions. Brother President Smith (my previous mission President) kinda gave the whole presentation so that was neat.

Then we made an Easter Video- start to finish in 1 day. Very stressful but luckily I have Indians and sister missionaries to help me. 

On Easter Sunday we had lunch with a somewhat new-to-the-ward family, the Johnstons. In December she gave a talk about our Christmas gift to Jesus that had significantly struck me and helped me to take some steps I needed to. This lunch was kind of my first time ever talking with her so I let her know that her talk kinda changed my life. 

She was a little shocked- she thought she did awful and was amazed I remembered anything or could have even learned anything.

I know that giving our sins and pains and frustrations to Jesus Christ is good! It's what we're supposed to do. It's at the top of his Christmas list. When we give our garbage and darkness to Jesus it shows that we trust him and that we love him. If we love Jesus enough to repent then naturally we will love him enough to be a true disciple. True repentance is how we come to know who the savior really is…and he wants us to know Him.

So. That was a really special moment. I'm glad I got to thank her.

I went on Exchange to the Chinese area. On our way out of my apartment some lady yelled at us to help her find her dog. So we did. We ran into an Indian couple who had the dog, told them we had just met the owner a few minutes ago and then led them to each other. Pretty cool miracle. Plus I spoke hindi to the couple and they almost gave up the ghost. We actually had a decent conversation! The exchange was actually so good. Elder Tien is a legend and he inspires me to be better.

We dropped some letters off to some sisters in the zone and we got there at just the right time. They had a service earlier where they got like over 3000 dollars worth of beauty products. So we each got a little goodie bag with all sorts of stuff. So now Elder Lewis and I both smell like women.

This week I read Esther, which means ‘star’ in Persian. It's a pretty neat story. One lesson I would share with you all is the foolishness of Haman. Haman was incredibly successful and had every reason to be happy and pleased with his life. However he decided to focus on everything that was wrong with his life-which was literally like…1 thing…Mordechai.

He let 1 person destroy his joy and peace….and ultimately….kill him.

You'll have to read the story, it's in….Esther. 

Mordechai is kind of an example of the opposite. He was surrounded by non-jewish people who persecuted and hated him yet he never let go of his faith. Even when other Jews would bow to Haman-he never did. When the awful news was posted all around saying all jews would be destroyed- everybody just cries and mourns. Of course Mordechai does too- but he was the only to ACT. He strategically mourns outside the palace so he can start a series of messages to Esther. He gives Esther the charge to talk to King Thesaurus. (That part is a joke. You'll have to read it to see his real name)

Haman is killed.

Mordecai becomes the king's right hand man.

Basically, don't let small things that don't actually matter and that you can't control anyways bother you!

And when everything goes wrong and life is awful, do something, act with faith! Be wise and never give up. 

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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

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.

Robin Hood

 I finished 1st Samuel and oh my- Saul's life was such a tragedy. Brother made so many bad choices, it hurts to read it. However, we also read about so many incredible accounts of David's absolutely solid character. He really was a pure legend before the . . . Incident. David was a peacemaker. After first running away (because Saul chucked a spear at him out of jealousy) David pulls a Robin Hood and his Merry Men and takes all the outcasts and men with debt and they start a club. He ends up with 600 guys! On 2 separate occasions David could have effortlessly killed Saul. His guys really wanted him to- but he refused to kill the very man making his life awful. Istead, he ripped off some of Saul's skirt and messed with his water bottle and javelin to prove to Saul that he had been there and could have killed him. 

There's another spot where the David and His Merry Men leave a city they're staying in for a bit and the Amalekites come and burn it and steal all the wives. Everybody is crying when they come back and see the destruction- they cry so hard they run out of strength! David's 2 wives had also been stolen but instead of crying- he prays! God says “go get them!” So he and all the men who can go fight the amalekites and restore everything along with getting a whole bunch of treasures! His Merry Men didn't think the other Merry Men who didn't come deserved any treasure (400 went, 200 stayed) David tells them they're silly and divides the treasure equally in true President-Nelson-Peacemaker fashion.

If only he would've kept being a legend. . .

We were home quite a bit this week. Elder Holladay and I have decided to go “plant based whole foods,” the healthiest lifestyle ever. We had a deep study of the word of wisdom with another Elder who has had unbelievable experiences with Plant Based Whole Foods and the Word of Widsdom. It seems like it will only make things better. So if you have any recipes or questions let me know!

We have been playing alot with “pitch'' Elder Holladay has perfect pitch and he's trying to prove that I do as well. So far it looks like “maybe” 

We play all sorts of games like just trying to start singing a song and start on the right note (I keep getting it right and idk how) and last night we stayed up till 2:30 trying to spell/sing words like “cabbage” or “feed” (just words with the music letters) it was really difficult and used parts of my brian I didn't know were there

We were driving on the freeway and some guy was racing through everybody, weaving in and out around 100 mph. And so I said “what in the criss cross applesauce” 

As I have been home a bunch I have been reflecting on a lot. 1 experience in particular has been on my mind a lot.

Before my mission I attended a self-mastery group for teenage guys called “Sons of Helaman” this group equipped me with all the tools and lessons I needed to free myself from the plague of pornography. I loved recovery so much! Being free felt so good and made every moment of life so much better! I eventually made it past 100 days and was still going so strong. Suddenly, everything in life came crashing down. I had problems with friends, school was more stressful than ever, many other bad things going on and I started feeling depressed. Everything got so bad. Eventually, I had another lost battle. After being clean and free for so long I couldn't believe what I had allowed to happen. I stopped going to group meetings. I didn't want them to know I had messed up. 

The depression continued and I struggled to get sobriety for a while. 

Then one day mom asked me to drive some of my siblings to the school for a play of something. So we got in the car and drove up. We happened to be at the school 30 minutes before Sons of Helaman would be starting. The building where they met wasn't far at all. 

Somehow I drove over there and parked at the end of the street. I fell apart. I was crying and shaking and so scared. I wanted to go in! But I also really didn't! I would build up strength and unbuckle and even open my door- then close it and cry. 

I must have gotten out of my car and back in at least 10 times. This went on for a over a hour and a half. 

Eventually, I did it! I made it all the way to the building and walked in for the second half of the group. With every single footstep I could feel satan and his legions trying so hard to get me back in my car. But, I was being supported by power beyond my own. I walked in and everybody greeted me warmly and expressed how happy they were that I came back. That night was the most powerful meeting I had ever attended and helped me so much to get back on my feet and start recovery again. 

This experience is significant to me because it clearly shows the power of the adversary against the power of God. I know there were demons in there yanking me back to the car and screaming at me to drive away and telling me the group would never accept me. 

There were also angels among whom were certainly some ancestors pushing me and encouraging me and telling me the group still loved me, and that I was a strong, good person. 

The good guys won, but only after an extreme war. 

I know that through the atonement of Jesus Christ we can receive strength! Strength to overcome depression, addictions, discouragement. Even strength to get out of your car when it seems impossible. 

Pretty cool.

Have a fire week!

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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. 

I am a Indian.

 I picked up Elder Holladay on Thursday and we headed to our new apartment except that we actually didn't have one. So we we're like- guess we'll stay with the ASL Elders. So we have been living in the 6-man for almost a week. 

The

apartment smells awful. But! It was super fun. 

Elder Holladay and I have been absolutely destroying our flashcards. I feel so amazing when I can go through an entire stack without even hesitating. We're actually gonna do it! We're gonna learn enough hindi to go out and talk with all the indians. 

We started by contacting as many Indian members as we could and tryna figure out how we can help them and be friends with them. So my man, Brother Ramjl Kohli pulled up to church for the first time in a long time and met our Indian recent converts and they are all tight with eachother now. He kept telling us "Elder Holladay, Sunday IS a holladay."

We were invited to dinner by a legend in a ward from a different city, different stake and he's like "so have you guys met Shiva?" I knew the name because he's a indian recent convert up north and so we were like "nah" then he's like "well, you will tonight, I invited him over!"

Legend.

So we gotta eat dinner and talk Indian with my new best friend, Shiva. 

He converted from Hinduism- which is shocking because every other Indian member of the church I have met has come from Christian beliefs of some sort before joining. His faith is so strong. His family and friends have all abandoned him because of his faith- but he has only grown stronger and stronger.

We also attended the funeral of Richard George Dean King! some of you might know him?? He was the president of the Rotary Club at one point. Rotary is this worldwide organization that is all about helping people and organizing service projects and helping the world. His family also donated all of his ties to all the Elders who helped with his funeral! So now I have a few ties that have been all over the world and worn by the president of the Rotary club! 

We went to the Sihk temple in Fremont and got some free Indian food. "Gurdwaras" serve free food basically 24/7. Anybody can come and eat whatever they're serving. All you need to do is cover your head, take your shoes off, and wash your hands. It's not bad either- it's some really good Indian food and they always have an indian dessert! So- we talked to them and will be volunteering there! Diwali is this weekend (the celebration of light overcoming darkness.) 

It's a big deal celebration in hindu religion as well as sihk religion. They celebrate for a little different reasons but it's on the same day! Regardless, many many people will be at the Gurdwara during Diwali so they are happy to have our help. 

There's been alot of really cool miracles and beautiful things happening since we started. I know that this Hindi program is the right thing and I am so excited to be serving God in a different way and serving a different group of his children. 

Also the ASL elders got a new apartment yesterday, so now it is just the 2 of us (it already smells better) 

Love you all!

Keep the fire burning  levi 6:13

-Elder Owens

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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

Repentance is great

 

Sorry, this gonna be short. Today been busy busy. Well, this whole week was busy busy. It feels so wonderful to be busy busy, we've been double booked at least once every day and out till 9:30 every night. I love being busy.

Anyways. This week I learned alot about humility and repentance. All I'll say is that we were helping at a move and we were the only people there to help. Nobody else showed up except a very grumpy old man which added negative help. It was pretty miserable. Hottest brightest part of the day, and were carrying dolly-fulls of stuff from one side of the complex to the other over and over and over. But I decided to he happy, and actually was the basically the whole time. Nobody else was. But I told my companion that the spirit was teaching me about repentance. Every time we unloaded our load it felt so great. Suddenly you have 200 pounds less to pull around. It's great. That's repentance. We related it to sacrament and daily repentance. Well this thought prompted some actions and changes to the way I'm being a missionary and it was a lot easier than I thought it would be. With my year mark coming up in less than a year I really don't want to waste any more time. I want to be a pure legendary missionary now. I want to give everything to God and let him prevail every second of my life. I wanna be like Nephi and just have so much Trust in God that I keep the commandments no matter what is going on around me. I wanna be like Abinadi and just keep doing what God tells me to no matter what and just deliver the message from God. 

Also, me and Elder Holladay received permission from President Larsen to start the Hindi work fr fr. We can rake study time, do exchanges where we just do Hindi work, basically we have full permission to start pursuing this dream of ours. 

Watch our Facebooks because we're working on a special post in Hindi. 

Love you all. Have a fantastic week!

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

rip Elder Rigby

 

So we went to the Korean BBQ place where they just give you raw meat for 2 hours, unless you get the Orange chicken- then it's already cooked? But turns out there was a big fire pit in the middle of the table so lucky for us cause then we could cook the food. One of our members brought us and he ate like 100 baby octopuses. Every time I looked over he had a tentacle sticking out of his mouth. 

Then we practiced Interpreting with some members in the ASL branch that can hear and oh boy, Interesting is just so. Much. fun. 

If you’re one of the people that actually read the emails then you’ll remember a few months ago we helped a Deaf man move into an old peoples’ home. Well- He’s in the spirit world now, receiving the gospel, so we went over and took everything out of his unit. So many Deaf people came and helped so it was cool to see so many people using ASL and understand what they were saying.  Later we had dinner with our bishop and the whole time he was groaning in pain, turns out he's been in pretty incredible pain the past few days. We were getting ready to give our spiritual message then he was like “I actually need to go to the E.R.” so we gave him a blessing and then everybody sped outta there. Turns out he has Galblladder stones, so they're gonna take them out sometime this week. 

On Friday we went to the TEMPLE! On the ride up me and Elder Holladay, the other Secret Hindi Missionary read verses from the Hindi Book of Mormon together. On the ride home I made a bunch of Quizlets for every word in a few of those verses. But the temple was incredible! So beautiful in every aspect. It was just so wonderful!

The next day, our friend Steve, the one who was playing the spirit of God and told us the story about “our prayer to thee” playing when his cancer treatment started, he brought us to the most fanciest restaurant I’ve ever been to and we just had a blast. Turns out we’re both Scorpios! Which means we’re mysterious and Inscrutable. I had “wood grilled salmon” and it was pretty impressive. Afterwards we went back to his place and sang The Spirit of God with him around his piano. 

Then Sunday. The difficult day. Elder Rigby’s last day with us. We were at church and his family came in. Then we had dinner with some members and his family was there too. The whole time i'm trying to convince myself that I'm ok. But then of course brother Topham asked me to say the closing prayer and that was a oof cuz then i was crying and then i couldn’t stop. And so Elder Rigby was all like “I’m, not worth your tears! Save your tears” and that just made it worse. But ya. Then we headed to the MO and dropped him off. Said bye. Final hug. Then I drove home and didn’t look back. 

Luckily it was fathers Day so I could call my dad and he helped me out alot. 

So now it's Elder Searle and I. We have so much to learn! And we're gonna grow a lot together.

On Monday we asked our Mentally Impaired friend, Terri, if she wanted to be baptized and she said yes! We have to figure it out with president, because, you know, 38.2.4. 

Then we bumped into a few nice Indians and I used my Hindi powers to communicate with them and help them become more interested in us and our message. I think I need to learn ‘Hello’ in at least a few of the 3,000 Indian languages. It seems like every single Indian I meet has a different combination of languages. Some speak one but read another. And it's like I hear them say a Language that I’ve never heard before every day. There are so many it's hilarious. like . . .why do you need so many languages? 

We had exchanges on tuesday and woah- elder Rousseau is a legend. Brother knows everything about everything. We ended the exchange, and the TRANSFER with a cute little mexican ice cream place while we waited for the transfer roster to come out. I had one that was like ‘Chongos’ or something and it was like cinnamon cheese ice cream. And another that was like ‘ Fruta Seca’ and it was sooooo good. Definitely going back there. 

Also here is a Hindi Phrase for you all: aapka shuB DiN ho 

The B is capital because its really stressed and the DiN is like that because the i is barely even said its like ‘Dean’ but without the ‘ea’ if that makes any sense. 

It looks like this :आपका दिन शुभ हो 

It means “Have a good day”  but it’s arranged like “your day good be” 

Fun fact about the word “shuB” (शुभ) many many indians here will have this word on their door along with “laaB” (लाभ) which means benefit and profit. 

Anyways, 

आपका दिन शुभ हो !

Love you all! R.I.P Elder Rigby!

Read the Book of Mormon Every Day!

-Elder Owens

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

 

everything tastes bland

 I ate an apple every day this week. In fact, I am eating one right now. This week was a joke, but a really fun one. All of our appointments fell through and every recurring teaching fell through too. Tuesday was Zone council, Wednesday was Zone conference, Thursday was the only real day and even then everything was thrown off because we went to Oakland (like 20 minutes north of our Mission) to teach a member the famous “stop smoking” lessons. Turns out all you have to do is use cinnamon mouthwash, brush your teeth and drink grapefruit juice. And if you do all 3 after every meal and when you wake up then you just stop smoking. 

On Friday we had to wake up around 5:30 because a bunch of missionaries in the North areas went down to Watsonville to help clean up a flood. That was fun. Everybody got hazmats and so there was no worry and we could work as hard as we could without any real concern for the poopoo and mud. So- we were all very much covered afterwards. It's just crazy the amount of mud and gunk everywhere. Water was up to 6 feet in some places! 

Also, on Thursday we had taco bell and I used a lot of sauce and then realized that I wasn’t really being affected by it. Then later I had a chocolate muffin and it legit tasted like nothing. Then I remembered COVID-19 and the whole thing about not being able to taste. And I tried a few more foods- nothing. I had lost my ability to taste foods. So we got a COVID test and it was not positive. So we continued doing stuff normally.

And at the service in Watsonville I ate a can of Herring in front of everybody and they were shocked because I just ate it plain. Little did they know, I actually couldn’t taste. 

Then the rest of the week was General Conference! It was wonderful! AND I want to make it clear that I have been crushing my water bottles since the beginning of my mission. When Elder Haynie told that story me and Elder Rigby stared at each other in shock just like “Bro! That’s us!” our trashcan is always full of collapsed water bottles. 

Also, we're getting a temple in SAN JOSE! Our mission chat blew up for the rest of the day! President Smith said: “Dear Elders & Sisters, 

Oh, the joy we are all experiencing as President Nelson made the beautiful announcement of a temple in San Jose. We are taught: "Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders [and sisters] and all the inhabitants of [San Jose] into the house of the Lord your God, and cry unto the Lord. Alas for the day!" (Joel 1:14-15).

I invite each of you to join Sister Smith and I for a fast of gratitude on Tuesday, April 4, as we express thanks to our loving Heavenly Father for blessing the saints of this great mission. 

Remember, now is the time to bring souls unto Christ.

With love,

President & Sister Smith”

So I will eat an apple every day this week except for tomorrow because I’ll be fasting. (maybe I’ll eat one after I break my fast?)

On saturday night after i signed our comp-prayer Elder Rigby had a serious face and started signing to me basically that my ASL is not improving any more. He wants me to be better prepared for when he goes home. Then he hit me with the “Now, we’re only communicating in ASL. No more speaking.” I got really upset but just accepted it. He left the room and I turned the light off and just sat in the dark getting more and more frustrated. I knew my ASL was improving, He just wasn’t seeing that. Later while we were going to sleep after like 30 minutes of silence I heard “Elder Owens, I’m sorry I got upset at you. I want you to have a fun mission, not a poopy one. I’m trying to be better, let me know how I can help you more” I felt pretty shocked because I was thinking all those rude things and then he just apologized and completely humbled himself. Since then we’ve been signing a lot more and I think our relationship has improved a lot too. So that’s great. 

So when people say or do mean things to you. Don't be so quick to get upset and think mean things. Hold on to your cool and try to understand it from their side. Avoid contention. Peacefully approach them when the time is right and let them know how you feel. Contention only makes things worse as we learned from our prophet on Sunday. If we can focus on applying that to ourselves and remember how the prophet of God feels about contention then we really will change the world. One missionary companionship at a time, one sibling at a time, one parent at time. Let go of contention.

P.S. Photos Stuff

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