New

 

Had Cincinnati Chili with our Branch President. Then I had leftover Cincinnati chili for both breakfast and lunch the next day.

Elder Johnson made 40 waffles.

Had a Deaf event at a mall. Somehow there were like 10 hearing people there and 3 Deaf people. 2 of the Deaf people were pretty clear about how they didn't want to talk with us because they were Christian. I was like hey we worship and love Jesus too. They actually told me we worship a different Jesus. In ASL. I've never had that happen in ASL before. Plenty of times in english. 

The other Deaf person was Aaron, a great fun member of our branch who knows every single thing about every single bus ever.

Went to a legendary Zone Conference. President taught us a lot about prayer. One thing I've been trying to do is start prayers and then not close them. Now I always remember I'm still “in a prayer” so I can just talk with God throughout the day and be more mindful of what i'm doing and thinking.

We started helping out at the Deaf School. They're getting new furniture so all the old stuff is being thrown away. How do they get all of it out of the student housing? Us. We spent nearly 20 hours(so far) moving desks, couches, dressers, chairs, and everything else in there. Pretty crazy. 

Elder Ardinger is Gone. My 4 weeks with him were beyond precious. He was transferred to Washington. (ASL transfers happen between missions now) We are receiving an Elder Reeve and Elder Rowley. I will be in a trio with both of them for these last 2 weeks of my mission. Then come home(!) Kinda tough to have a big change this close to the end. But it will still be very fun.

If you are struggling with anything this next part is for you lol. And if you're not struggling with anything then you probably will be soon.

Jeremiah 3:23

“They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.”

Every morning is a restart. Every day is a fresh opportunity. Every time we wake up we can be better. We can move on from yesterday's mistakes and actually improve. Why? How?

“Great is thy Faithfulness” God is 100% faithful to all his promises. He promises to forgive us when we repent. Because he is faithful to his promises- we can be “New” every morning.

So quit feeling down about today's mistakes and shortcomings. Feel down long enough to help you feel guilt and motivation to change then get up and act. When you wake up the next morning you will have the opportunity to be NEW. 

Fly Free

 

Merry Christmas! 

We had our big Christmas Zone Conference and one of the coolest parts was when President Larson disappeared and then a few minutes later Santa Claus came in and said he had presents for us and started giving every missionary their very own physical copy of the brand new Preach My Gospel! Too bad President Larson missed that. 

It was pretty cool. 

Later, some other missionaries, including the ASLders, and I sang and signed “Silent Night" with a piano and a cello! I'm glad President Larson saw that. We did amazing!

Later that week there was this one evening we were out and we had just finished contacting all of our friends in the area. It was almost 9:00 and Elder Holladay needed to go destroy the toilet anyways so we headed to the car. We got to the car and I asked “is there anything else we're supposed to do while we are here?”

We decided we'd go find a indian house and give it a knock. The very first one we checked had everything we were looking for so we gave it a knock. A man (आदमी) came to the door and we introduced ourselves and told him we were there to share a message with him and his family (परिवार)

He said now's not the best time, he left for a second and came back with his whole family curiously staring at us. So we ask “when would be a better time?”

He says “no, here's my family, now is good. Come in” so we step in. And begin testifying of Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon. We leave one with them and get his phone number and we'll come back after the holidays. The spirit was there and I know they felt it. We also used up all our hindi and they were shocked. Incredible. I'm so glad we didn't go home early!

We also had another fire lesson with Sana and Sandeep and their family. After being offered some tea (चाय) we taught a quick word of wisdom. Sandeep looked at his mug of tea almost with disgust and promised us he would never drink tea or coffee for the rest of his life. 

Then we ate a स्वादिष्ट indian breakfast and taught them about the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, one thing you need to know about Sana is she talks…a lot. But this time it was like she almost couldn't open her mouth until we had finished our message- that's pretty cool. We testified to the point of tears and made each of them promise they'd read the Book of Mormon and pray to know if it's true. It was amazing. I love this family so much! And guess what- they came to Christmas eve church! 

Also, I hit a little piece of metal on the road and then the tire was flat. I didn't see anything on the road, yet I still suffered the consequence. 

Sometimes there's traps Satan lays for you and you will not see them unless you're looking for them and always ready to righteously avoid them. You must watch and pray continually or else you'll get a flat tire.

In Leviticus chapter 14 we read about the ritualistic cleansing of Lepers (Ex-Lepers). It is deeply symbolic:

 “4 Then shall the priest command to take for him that is to be cleansed two birds alive and clean, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop:

 5 And the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel over running water: 

6 As for the living bird, he shall take it, and the cedar wood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water:

 7 And he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird loose into the open field.”

What this means to me is the atoning blood of Jesus Christ (the 1st bird) sets us (the second bird) free and allows us to fly. When we are cleansed by His blood (repentance) it really feels like flying. And I know that cuz I've done it. I continue to experience it every day. I know that Jesus really did suffer the price of all sin. He bought us with His own blood. And His blood is the most precious substance ever to exist. That means we are of infinite worth as well! 

So, remember that Jesus Christ paid the price for you so you can fly free. So my invitation to you is to fly free.

Love you!

-Elder Owens

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!

Giants and Miracles

 

There's this super cool “regional park” called “Vargas Viewpoint '' it's up in the mountains and so of course it has a very striking view. We went up there this week to film a bunch of videos in ASL for our facebook page. Very epic. Elder Howes has a beautiful video he's working on and Elder Johnson is the director and filmer and editor of everything. I just know a little bit of ASL so I can help here and there lol.

We also stopped at the Post office and had a tender mercy followed by an unfortunate experience. Everytime I go to the post office the people at the desk are not very nice or helpful and they’re also really difficult to understand. Howeva, this time we got one of the kindest women I’ve ever met. The post office wasn't busy, and she was effortless to understand. She asked us all about our families and mission and it was so wonderful! 

Well, then a Deaf man walked in and I knew he was Deaf because of his voice and watching his hands. So ofc I offered to interpret for him (he was struggling to communicate with a lady and I knew I could help) he said thank you but insisted on continuing to yell at her and have her yell at him. We took care of our stuff and were getting ready to leave when he came back into the post office to ask if we were “Mormons” so of course we responded “Yes, we’re missionaries from the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!” and then he went off for a few minutes about how awful our church is and that we need to leave the church because it's a cult. We were able to leave on a kind note. I was really upset about it for a long time because I was just trying to help my brother out! and he responded by attacking my beliefs! I’ve decided to be ok and Love him regardless. It was still cool that a Deaf person happened to walk in at the same time we were there!

Saturday was the most wild day of my entire mission. We got up and we went to the Oakland temple and did baptisms with the Deaf Branch! In ASL! I was able to baptize Elder Searle and be baptized by him. It's still the same ordinance, of course, but it was all just so much more exciting! Then we embarked on the long adventure of a “San Francisco Trip” truly an adventure- I’ve only done it once before and it was back with Sheperd Rigby and Hyatt White. Now it was 3 guys that are still learning ASL, 1 who was fluent and then me…with somewhat decent ASL all in the same car. We killed it though. 

Ok, this part is crazy though-

We stop at an apartment where apparently the guy were looking for lives and at the exact moment we are out of the car and stepping on the side walk, 2 women step out of a building directly across the sidewalk from our parked car. We’re practically all in the same sidewalk square. We exchanged “hellos" and “how are yous" and one of them says “not good” which I have never really heard anybody say in response to “how are you” when a stranger asks. 

So we started talking. We find out they’re inactive members of the ward in that area and a family member had just passed away. So they give us their apartment number and ask us to go give everybody a priesthood blessing. We follow them up and go in and just listen to this family as they dump their hearts out to us and how much they loved their father/grandfather/god-father. Then we took turns giving beautiful blessings. It was amazing. 

God is very aware of every single one of His children and sometimes he sends missionaries a hour and a half north just so they can step out of their car at the exact same time as you step onto the sidewalk so they can bless your family. What a cool thing!

We were out till about 9 visiting Deaf people all over the Bay and luckily Brother and Sister Gad are literal angels- they bought us 3 amazing pizzas and had them delivered to the church at the exact moment we needed them (we ate breakfast then hit the road so we were reasonably hungry)

One scripture I would share with you is Deuteronomy 3:22. I finished Numbers (YES!) this week and started Deuteronomy- so far it's just Moses repeating everything that happened but with a little more context and commentary. For example in chapter 2 we learn that there's actually a handful of stories where God led people to a land that had “giants” and each time God prepared a way for them to beat the giants. These stories were known by the Isrealites- this makes their fear and denial of the Promised Land a lot more of a “big deal” and way more unacceptable. (Deuteronomy 2:20ish-23ish) because they already knew that God had taken care of Giant problems before but they for some reason chose fear rather than very logical faith, all except Caleb and Joshua. 

ANYWAYS- Deuteronomy 3:22 says “Ye shall not fear them: for the lord your God shall fight for you” 

We don't need to fear. Nothing needs to scare us. We know the truth. We know the plan. We know that Jesus Christ will not only fight for us, but he has, in fact, already won every single battle you or anybody could ever face! That certainly gives me hope! He's already helped others get the giants to leave or destroyed them! Choose to believe He can help you get the giants out of your life as well. He already promised he can! Let's choose to be like Joshua and Caleb. 

I don't want to wander in the wilderness till I die. lol. But hey- it's my choice.

The last thing I have to report is truly a miracle and something I know is going to change the history of the church, something that you all should know has been coming for a long time now. We had interviews with President Larson on Monday and he told me “It's time to get the Hindi Program started” we counseled about where a good place to start it would be and a lot of other stuff. It's finally happening! it's going to be truly difficult and really hard to get traction, but I know this is the right step to take. I know there's going to be an immeasurable amount of good that comes from this. So- Please pray for the Indians. 

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

Stressed and blessed

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

Elders Howes, Johnson, Searle, Owens, & Porter

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Miracles.

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

Miracles!

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

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

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

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

Anyways!

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

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

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

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

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

"Consecration brings connection with God"

So this will be my theme for the week.

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

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

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

#blessed #blessedevenmoreforobidience

Love you all fr fr

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

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

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!

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The Priesthood is SOOO REAL

 नमस्ते! 

This week was just saturated with spiritual power and miracles. I look through my journal and I just can't believe how incredible everything is. Starting off I gave my first ever baptismal interview to a sweet sister named Deanna. It was a beautiful experience to see and hear her testimony and how much she cares about joining this church. Powerful. Later that evening we went and practiced ASL with our ASL branch president, President Peterson and we were there for over a hour. . .we got through the first 3 points of the restoration. But we received way more than 3 points of feedback and suggestions. I was actually praying to not get upset, accept the feedback and be happy. And my prayers were answered! I didn't feel defensive once. I was laughing and smiling and everything was great. So God answers prayers indeed.

As I'm sure you already know, because the Gospel Library keeps reminding us, we got a new Preach My Gospel! So that's cool lol.

Then the next day we were in San Jose all day long. I had training on how to be a District Leader in the mornings till afternoon then we had "Transfer 1" training (training for new trainees and trainers) . It was actually pretty fun. This was the last one by President Smith. Basically I just need to follow the spirit and be a good leader and teacher. Easy. And trainering- I just need to trust my trainee and God. 

Then we had dinner at the Mission home and interacted with all the other trainers and trainees- there's one new sister missionary who is literally Deaf but she has 2 cochlears. And she doesn't know any ASL. I kinda feel sad for her. If her batteries run out- that's it. Luckily she's in our zone- so we'll teach her ASL. 

Then we drove home and as we got to Fremont the APs called "Hey Elders. . .we have Elder Owens' Scripture bag. . .don't worry were almost to Fremont"

Oops. So they stopped by and gave it to us (it's 10:00) and then they head back to their car. We turn around and a minute later we get another call from the APs. "Hey Elders. . .we both just had the prompting to ask if either of you would like a Priesthood blessing?"

Yes! That'd be wonderful! So they came back and…wow..

I'll just tell you all this- I have a list of things I stress about some of them are things people can learn just by spending time with me- others are very secret and I keep to myself. The blessing that Elder Wood gave me addressed perfectly every single one. He also blessed me with every single spiritual gift I was currently seeking. These are things that I don't tell people about! Maybe they're in my study journal somewhere. But he mentioned everything. 

Elder Searle's blessing was the same thing.

So now they head out and we hug. And a Few minutes later they knock on the door again- they forgot their phones in our apartment. So I said "it's ok, happens to the best of us"

I told Elder Searle we needed to go write down everything we remembered. So we didn't go to bed till quite late lol.

Then on Sunday we got Quran Bashed. . But he was very very nice. Actually really nice compared to what transpired the next day. But ya. That's all I'll say about our Muslim friend.

But the next day- oh man. We got a referral- this is a good thing! We start talking he says he wants to meet us at the church. So we're excitedly like yes! He pulls up. We introduce ourselves, find a room and sit down and instantly I'm like "this is not right. There's a reason why he looks like a cartoon villain character…." And I was right. He started bashing us so hard there was nothing we could do. Fr fr. Every time we said anything he pulled out a verse, misinterpreted it and told us we were calling God a liar. It was sooo bad. I wanted to cry. So after that we listened to some hymns and met with Emma. Oh she's so sweet. She wants to go to the temple! So we set a tour up. 

Then we thought we had dinner with Pugal and the Hornbergers but turns out Pugal was cooking and it was actually going to take 6 hours to be done

So. 

We taught a quick lesson about the plan of salvation, epic, then we had to go home.

But it ok because on yesterday we got the leftovers and wow. It was स्वादिष्ट(which means delicious and is pronounced: sw(v) adisht the w is supposed to be a v but it really sounds like a w instead.

Well yesterday we were able to go back to the Indian family with the sick grandma. We took a recent convert from another ward named Srihari who is good at indian languages so he was translating and helping them understand.

And the first thing they told us was about the grandmother, for months now the doctors have been trying medicines and none are working but the day we went over and gave a blessing all the medicines started working. How incredible is that? They asked us to give her another blessing. It was so amazing. I used just about every Hindi word I have and it made them so happy. I love that family so much. 

Then we went out finding and the only people we ran into were Indians so I exhausted my already exhausted Hindi skills and learned as much as I could from each person. And the way they light up! All I have to say is 2 words in their mother tongue and they just look so happy! What an amazing experience! We also met a Couple that only spoke Tamil, luckily I had a few tamil words and they were so shocked. Not interested in Jesus Christ (not yet) but we still had a good talk. And we wouldn't have if I hadn't used my tamil words.

And finally- President Smith is going home. Like tomorrow. He concluded his mission by bearing his testimony of Joseph Smith and the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Powerful.  

I will miss him. But i'm still excited for President and sister Larsen.

That's all for now, have a fire week!

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