It's all so real

 What an insane ride this past week has been. 

Visited some cool members. An old couple and their middle age single adult son who literally recited 40 scriptures while we were there. The old guy asked if we wanted a drink and I didnt want a soda (6 weeks too sexy) and so I asked if he had chocolate milk. 

He hopped up and pulled out some powder and a milk and stuff and while he was stirring it he told a story about some Indian (Native American, not curry) whom he took care of. this little boy always wet the bed until he started letting him have ice cream if he didnt wet the bed. Then he never wet the bed again. He must have got a little carried away with the story because he added an insane amount of the powder to the milk- like I had legit chunks in there- more powder than milk.

We visited one of our YSA friends and crazy miracle- he had just lost his phone the other day and was leaving on a trip to Utah the next day, he wanted to keep reading the scriptures but didn't have his phone so we showed up and literally the only time he was available before his trip and had plenty of copies of the Book of Mormon with us. Now he has one he can study! God truly is mindful of everybody- we did not know why we were visiting beforehand.

We left a book of Mormon with a recent convert in the ysa on accident and he was like. “Do you guys want it back?” And were like “nah its ok. We have a ton. Why don't you give it to somebody!” 

So 2 hours later he called us and told us he gave it to somebody he met at a store. Crazy.  

On Sunday during ysa second hour (second hour for them but 4th hour for me!) I totally fell asleep. Strangest thing happened- I've never had anything like this happen before- I woke up and legit heard in my mind “you need to offer Kate a priesthood blessing.” I'm not even fully aware yet so I kinda excuse it and we head for the doors to leave. Then Kate comes up to us and starts talking and instantly I can tell she's not doing well. 

So I'm like “Kate, I don't really know the answers. But I know God does. Would you like a priesthood blessing?” She totally starts tearing up. So we grabbed Bishop and headed into his office and I was able to give her a blessing. The Priesthood power and authority are so real. It's so cool that I get to carry a portion of God's power with me. 

The most crazy thing I've ever experienced on my mission happened this week too.

Here's the background: at the beginning of this transfer I went to a trainer training meeting. It was actually so good. Lots of revelation in there. Near the end they asked us “what are you gonna do? What will you do because of what has happened here in this meeting?” I, ⅓ joking and ⅔ seriously, answered that I was gonna take my trainee to a parking lot and make him go contact strangers. Everybody cheered or laughed which is what I wanted lol. Then that night on the way home, I'm thinking I actually do need to go to a parking lot and show him some stuff. 

As we were contacting there, we met a group of 5 teenagers from a catholic school. They were pretty funny and we had a good chat.

Now, at the end of the transfer, we got a referral from some guy named Pasqual. He answered his phone once and hasn't again so we just went over to his home. And a boy answered the door. He looked at us and was like “do you guys remember me?!”

My mind raced until I found him- it was one of the kids from that night! He was actually so happy to see us! Normally I don't think he'd have recognized us. It was dark outside when we met him first, and now it's been over a month since he saw us. We could not have talked for more than 4 minutes. 

But he remembered us. (John 14:26) He recognized us as soon as the door opened. Turns out Pasqual is his grandfather! 

Went to the temple last pday and learned something : always give invitations in a positive, not a negative. Meaning tell them to do something rather than to not do something.

For example:

Don't say : don't forget who you are

Do say : remember who you are

Don't say: don't let the Fire go out 

Do say : keep the Fire burning

Don't say : don't leave the church, don't go inactive 

Do say: become a life lifelong disciple of Jesus Christ 

If you are endowed, go to the temple and pay attention to how instructions are given.

Love you all, thank you for everything!

Pain.

 Thursday was one of the most incredible days ever as well as the hardest day of my mission. We had a beautiful Zone Conference full of spirit, testimonies, and council. After Zone Conference we went to one of our friend's homes. I have been dreading this lesson for over a week- this friend was put on date for baptism before we knew she was on house arrest. We found out she was on house arrest at the end of a lesson and now we had to go over and explain that she actually cannot be baptized until after she finishes her house arrest. I love this friend so much! I knew it was gonna crush her. We pull up and meet with the sisters who have been teaching her with us, go in and sit down and start with love. Then all the missionaries look at me- it's time to drop the news. So with all the love I have and with all the softness I can, I tell her that we all will need to wait for her to be baptized until she concludes her house arrest. she starts crying and starts kinda closing off. I felt awful. I felt like I was denying her the one thing she truly wanted. I felt my heart drop and dark anxious pain feelings in my chest. I took all I had to not join her tears. The sisters hopped in and talked about how “waiting” can become a sacred place. Then I was filled with spirit and I knew what to do. I instructed her to listen carefully to what I was going to say. The most powerful testimony of Gods love and restoration of Priesthood power I’ve ever given then proceeded to fall from my mouth followed by an invitation to receive a priesthood blessing. She said yes, had us guess what number was behind her back cuz she didnt wanna “pick favorites” 

this was actually a miracle because without any hesitation at all I guessed 7.

Her number was 7.

So I gave her a blessing and my mind was crystal clear. I have never ever had words come to me this easily before. it felt like I was reading the words. no eye in the room was dry. 

I was trying to make burgers and instead I cut a chunk out of my thumb. Fortunately, I am a man of great poise. So, as blood is being pumped out and making a concerningly large puddle of blood in the sink, annoyed at this inconvenience, I rinse my thumb off and as soon as I take it out of the stream of water- you instantly cannot tell I just rinsed it off. Blood everywhere. So with a roll of my eyes I suffocate it with paper towels. Despite the pain I apply as much pressure as I can and hold my hand as high up as I can. Somehow, for the first time ever- I left my phone in the car?!?! so I knock on the bathroom door, “Elder LaBar, I need you to run out to the car with me, I just cut my finger open and I need to call the nurse” 

With more panic than I had, he opened the door and we went to the car.

The nurse wanted a picture- we couldn't get one because the blood just kept gurgling out lol. So she decided to have me just apply pressure lol.

Bleeding stopped about 20 hours later.

So the next 3 days actually sucked. I felt like I was missing a piece of me (lol) no, but actually- I felt like garbage and was always light headed and my thumb felt like it was on fire. What a dumb injury lol. All for some dang patties.

Went on exchange with Elder Palmer and we went full-beast mode. Talked to a ton of indians! Every time we saw an Indian I would call which city they were from and then we'd ask and I was right each time. I blew Elder Palmer away with that trick, I guess I'm just good at being racist with indians- but in a good way. The surprise on their faces when I speak hindi will never ever get old. 

One Indian man (from Delhi) answered the door and was like “is this urgent?” and I was like “Ya, it actually is” he let us teach him a bit. I felt pretty cool saying that lol. It's so fun to just go out and have a blast being a bold missionary who is just not scared of anyone or anything. 

I know that this IS urgent. The gospel of Jesus Christ is something to be urgent about. Now is the time to act. Now is the time. Don't wait. 

Cool verse:

Psalm 29: 2 “...worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness” 

There's only gonna be a few more of these. . .

Love you all very much, especially you.

Despite the crap, this is the best

 I love my mission President. I've been having many concerns and questions recently and during interviews I was finally able to dump them all on President Larson. I came out with more answers than questions I went in with. I cried a lot. President gave me a blessing and told me several times how amazing I am. God trusts me. He has given me a greenie! I still can't believe He trusted me to train this Elder.

One completely unrelated pet peeve that's been popping up a lot recently is when people comment on me having the gift of tongues. I don't think I've been blessed with that gift. ASL and Hindi were both insanely difficult for me. I don't have words or phrases that come to mind. I don't find it miraculously easy to use my languages when teaching. I was blessed with companions who supported me (sometimes more than I wanted) in learning these languages. I was blessed with diligence and the ability to study. But most of all I was blessed with Love for all those who were relying on me to learn their language so they can receive ordinances. 

Learning hindi did not just happen. It was not easy at all. It's been an active struggle for over a year and I still don't know what to say lol.

I feel like people completely miss the value and true story of what hindi means to me when they think “oh, he must have the gift of languages” I have fought, and completely exhausted myself, and cried to learn how to speak this language all in hopes that 1 indian family will be able to accept the Truth and be sealed in the Oakland temple. That image helps me to keep going. 

I know God is helping me of course, but he still makes it just about as difficult as it could be lol.

We helped with a miserable move this week. All I would like to mention is that there was an actual turd on a bed we moved and it unfortunately smeared all over the place.

I promise every person reading this that my future home will not have poop laying around. In fact, my home will be clean. I don't care what it takes- my house will be clean. My wife and I will always have a nice, clean organized home.

Fotos:

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

Now this week wasn't all crappy (lol) we also were able to visit Fremont for the baptism of Haripriya, a Deaf Indian whom I was able to teach a ton. Before the baptism, we went to the Gurdwara with the hindi elders and got some incredible free indian food. My head scarf fell off and some precious amazing Indian woman came up and offered to help and retied it perfectly- I looked like an actual sikh. 

Then the baptism. Wow. I love every single person in the ASL branch so much and my heart was full as I was able to sign with all of them again and catch up. The baptism was beautiful and full of the spirit. My friend Pugal (the almost 1-yr convert with the amazing video on fb) came to the ASL baptism just so he could see me. Before the meeting he whispered to me “Elder Owens…..I am receiving the melchizedek priesthood tomorrow” I hugged him and told him how awesome that really is. Then I remembered my first time meeting him at church, then I remembered his baptism. He's come so insanely far. I could not hold back tears lol. I just looked at this incredible Indian man and saw him as a son of God full of sincere desire to serve the Lord and cried. 

There is nothing like this. There is nothing as precious as seeing people's lives change. God changed these people and trusted me to be a part of it! 

I cannot believe it's been 23 months.

Love you all!

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

Lost a car, found a sheep.

 7-19-23

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

My brother Bertrum hesitates then says 

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

So I'm like …….what? 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We still want to get it going anyways. 

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

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

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

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!

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