Deaf people and Psalms

 I am back in the ASL branch! This will be month 19 of serving in Fremont. It's nice to be back. 

My companion is Elder Ardinger. He's one of the most deaf people I've ever met. Brother has been through a lot and it's a miracle he's out on a mission. He's been helping me with my ASL. I keep thinking I know everything and then he teaches me more signs and stuff and it feels like I am still a beginner. 

Elder Reed Johnson is finally back to the California San Jose Mission! He went home because he destroyed his knee like 6 months ago. I trained him last August and now he's back! It's poetically beautiful that I get to be with him again. 

Our 4 man apartment is actually crazy. 2 Deaf 2 Hearing. We have a lot of fun, but we also have a lot of frustrations and really difficult days. A few times every day something is misunderstood and it leads to somebody being in a bad mood. We are trying so hard to understand each other and it's exhausting in every way. Sometimes it feels like it's hearing versus Deaf and it sucks because we forget that truly, we are all on the same team. We all have the same goal. If we can't work together in unity then nothing is ever gonna happen. 

When I was in ASL before, we also covered an English ward. Now there are 2 companionships that ONLY cover the ASL branch. What are we supposed to do all day long? I have no clue! We end up on Facebook a lot. We have been trying to make videos that will actually mean something to a non-member Deaf person. We do lots of video calls where nobody answers. And we drive a lot. Elder Ardinger and I have been visiting a Deaf Woman who wants to be baptized but has a lot of doubts and concerns that we’re trying to help with. She lives an hour south. Add California traffic to that and we're taking about 4 hours of our day to have a 45 minutes lesson with her. That's actually insane. 

Here's some things that you probably don't know about having a Deaf companion.

You have to wake them up every morning 

Car rides are awkward because you can't really talk

For some reason they love playing around on guitars and pianos

Interpreting is mentally exhausting.

They're insanely expressive so you always know exactly how they feel

During study time they always ask me what words mean and I have to try and explain (some good ones from this week were ‘confide’ ‘proceeding’ ‘supposed’ ‘deliver’ and ‘sariah’)

With that, I am also constantly asking what signs mean 

Idk if this is all Deaf people, but elder Ardinger loves games, cooking, and handmade crafts.

Sometimes they throw stuff or slam doors and you think they're mad but they're actually just Deaf.

A Lot of Deaf people have tender feelings. This makes them so lovable. You just gotta be careful with what you say or how you joke or what you do. 

“Listening” is actually just Watching and showing you care with your facial expressions

If you wanna talk to them while they're in the bathroom you take a video of yourself signing and throw it under the door. (We've already done it a few times)

You can listen to music whenever you want and they'll never know.

We visited some Deaf people in Pleasanton (30 minute drive) and while we were in a care home I heard some Indian on the phone talking in Hindi so I peek around the corner and I'm like “ कैसे हो?” And he was like “क्या….”

Then we had a super good talk about my adventure learning hindi and he just couldn't get over the fact that a white kid was talking in hindi. We're friends on fb now and he challenged me to learn Punjabi as well. 

We played volleyball with some Deaf friends and some hearing people from the ward.

One of the Deaf girls had a super tall big hearing boyfriend (that doesn't know ASL(?)) And he was way way in the game. Like diving for balls and shooting out when the ball was his. Then there was one serve and it was going right for elder Ardinger and this giant guy shouted “I go! I go!” And ran right into elder Ardinger and sent him flying and crashing to the floor.

Then he went over to apologize and literally actually said “sorry, I did call it though” and everybody else on the team was like “bruh….he's Deaf” 

I could see the mental work happening inside as he realized Deaf means they can't hear- even if you yell really loud. 

We filled a balloon up with dry rice and air and then threw it at the ceiling fan. 

Elder Ardinger gave himself a haircut.

Elder Johnson fell out of his chair during a video call

I started using a gallon jug as a water bottle and drank all of it a few days this week.

I got pushed in the shower with my clothes on then they turned the lights off and the shower on. So then Everybody hopped in.

Interpreting church on Sunday for the Hearing people that come to ASL branch actually destroys my mind. 

Then interpreting zone council on Monday into ASL also kills my brain.

We went fishing and got a sting ray.

Today my heart is full of gratitude for the Psalms. Jesus himself said “all things must be fulfilled, which were written. . . in the psalms, concerning me” (Luke 24:44)

The psalms are not just cool poems written by King David about Jesus. They are legit scripture full of pure doctrine and prophecy, all conveyed in a beautiful and symbolically stunning way. 

Here a few that have become guiding phrases of my life:

“Blessed is the man whose delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law doth he meditate day and night”

“Stand In awe and sin not”

“I have set the Lord always before me”

“Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me”

“The lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall i fear? The lord is the strength of my life”

“They repent and in a moment [his anger] is turned away. . .therefore, weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning”

“In my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved.”

“Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it”

“I am thy salvation”

“But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave”

As I come to the close of my mission I hope to echo the words of the 40th psalm and say 

“ I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou knowest. I have not hid thy righteousness in my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy loving-kindness and thy truth”

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Buses amongst planes

 A few weeks ago Elder Lewis and I drove past a little airport thing. There was a big plane lot with at least 20 pretty cool, large planes. Next to all these planes was a single bus.

We both noticed this bus and talked about how it would be really tough to be a bus amongst so many airplanes.

I imagined this bus watching the planes around him go flying and landing and all he gets to do every day is drive on the ground.

It would be kinda tough.

My eyes were opened and I realized I was the bus. 

When I started my mission it felt like I was driving on the ground while my trainer and all these other incredible missionaries flew in the sky.

When I joined the ASL program I was trying so hard to sign but no matter what I just couldn't fly like Elder White or Elder Rigby. 

It's hard to be a bus when you're surrounded by airplanes. Sometimes you feel like you're failing because you can't fly. 

We are too hard on ourselves.

Good news tho- I would now consider myself an airplane when it comes to missionary work or ASL. I think it's natural for us to grow if we're trying. If you feel like a bus- keep trying. Keep going. Ask the airplanes around you for help. 

And ask the most incredible airplane, Jesus, for help.

I know he can give you wings and change you and help you fly.

One sister told me “enjoy the process of becoming.” I know as we include Jesus Christ in our “process of becoming” we will find joy and we can become planes! 

In 1 Chronicles 22, King David is talking to his son, Solomon, before he dies. David's whole mission was to prepare Israel to receive a temple. He was not allowed to build the temple himself because of sins but he was promised that Solomon would build it. David saved gold, silver, and brass- all so that when the time came they would have stuff to make the Lord's house. 

The very last verse has been on my mind since I read it : 

“Now set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God; arise therefore and build ye the sanctuary of the Lord God. . .”

I love the feeling in the phrase “SET your heart and soul” like SET. “Set” concrete will not move, its solid. We “set" nails Into wood. 

My heart and soul are SET on seeking God. I will not be moved. My discipleship is set for life. 

I also have pondered in how I can “arise. . .and build the sanctuary of the lord” 

I remembered my body is a temple- so I could work out a ton. Maybe it has more to do with my spirit inside my body? Building that up. Or it has to do with getting the actual house of the lord inside of me? Making and keeping covenants? Lemme know what you think.

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Indians and leprosy

 This week we had 4 lessons with people who legit only know Hindi and it was basically a success! 

1 woman, Pardeep, has had dreams about angels giving her the Book of Mormon. Most recently, she dreamt about baptism and Matthew chapter 10. We didn't know about this dream until after we read 3 Nephi 11 with her- she freaked out because a lot of it correlates with Matthew 10. 

We asked her if she knew the Book of Mormon was true and she said हाँ. So we invited her to be baptized and she told us she would pray about it and do whatever God told her to do.

Wow.

Our brother, Dipak, has like 100 English words, luckily we have 600 hindi words. So we had a nice lesson with him and read and testified about the Book of Mormon. He really wants to come to church this week!

Then we have Harbinger, he lives with like 20 indian dudes and they were all teasing him for talking with us but he didn't care. He sat with us and read with us and asked for a hindi bom, even after a few of his friends told us not to give him one! He also complimented my Hindi and I almost cried because I really really needed to hear that. #tendermercies

Then some औरत named Binder- no English. She opened the door and told us “no English” . I winked and said “hindi?” She said “हाँ” so I WENT OFF. She was shocked and I testified of Jesus and the Book of Mormon. I placed one in her hands but she was too shook to notice. We will be back this Saturday.

These are just a few of the incredible miracles I've seen this week! 

I have been stuck at a verse in 2 kings chapter 5. In the first verse it introduces my bro, Naaman. It says he was a great honorable man, and a mighty man of Valor. It explains that he had delivered Syria! An entire nation! Naaman is what the cool kids call “a legend.” All this great stuff about him is followed with the hard truth “but he was a leper” 

I drew some connections to myself. I think a lot of people know all the cool stuff about me like “oh, he learned ASL and now Hindi, he has 7 younger siblings, he can crochet…or wuteva” and I always add on my own “but I am a leper” in my mind. “ but I can't be social with people, my handwritings not great, I still have acne, I don't floss as much as i should or whatever it is” (jokes aside, I have a lot of weaknesses/leprosies and it is really frustrating and discouraging when they get in the way.)

The cool thing about Naaman being a leper is that through God's Power he was cleansed!

“And his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, AND HE WAS CLEAN” (v 14) 

Just like Naaman, if we do what we're supposed to and repent with faith we will be clean. Our own unique “but-he-was-a-leper- attributes” and flaws can be cleansed away and our flesh can be pure as a child's. We can ACTUALLY BE CLEAN. 

There is a ton ton more to be learned and I'm not the best at explaining. So. If you want you can go read it and ponder it yourself. It's pretty good.

You don't have to read this one, it's not very good

 Ok so I know how to sing now. Elder Holladay is a prodigy with music. He's got perfect pitch and plays piano and organ like a pro so he helped me get my voice in my throat rather than up in my mouth. (It's a music thing) so now I've been practicing a bunch and singing as loud as I can. 

It's been fun and humbling to mess up and be corrected and then do better.

I went on exchange with Elder Tien and we woke up at 3:30 and worked out till 6:30 then went back to sleep and had some crazy dreams. 

Talked to a bunch of indians and they freak out every single time I say anything in hindi and I love it so much.

Went to the temple and some old guy sat next to me and cried the whole time. We talked afterwards and he told me every part of the endowment is perfectly beautiful. While we waited for our turn, he told me his whole life story and how he found the church, all his trials, but he said he never ever lost his faith and he never will. I only was with him for a few hours but I love him so much. He was gone by the time I made it to the Celestial Room. I hope somehow we're able to meet again. 

I watched all the 12-step addiction recovery videos on gospel library and dannnnngggg they go hard. 

I called Elder Holladay a "joke" in hindi and Tracy, our friends teaching us hindi laughed so hard she couldn't stop and then was super embarrassed because she couldn't stop laughing. 

Met a guy who served his mission in INDIA and then married an Indian woman! They have been in the Tongan stake so that is how we don't already know them. But they are exactly who we need.

That's all I can think of

Keep the fire burning and have a good week!

Fire

 

This week we spent a lot of time fixing the apartment and converting it from the 6-man mess it was to a nice, clean, open 2-man. I've tried so hard to get rid of the smells yet they still prevail.

There's a sweet lake near our apartments with a 2 mile sidewalk that goes all the way around and we started running around it in the mornings. 

We found a few more Indian member legends! First was Aparna. She gave us a culture dump and some background on what the Hinduism beliefs really are. Then we met Tracey and Twinkle. They are super Indian and converted from Sikhism! Their first language is Hindi and that's what they speak at home, so they're mega helpful and important for us. Tracey called us her sons and then hugged us. . .so that was cool.

We took our car to Wheel Works and then sat outside for 4 hours. I destroyed our flashcards and Elder Holladay managed to fall asleep. 

We were invited to a Diwali party up in Dublin (far away from where we live) and that was fun. All the Indians there knew Hindi but had a very “white” culture- so it was really weird. All the food was Indian so that was an epic. We counted dinner as our language study. Elder Holladay and I saw an ancient Indian woman sitting on a couch and thought surely she's Indian Indian and knows Hindi and we went to talk to her and she replied in full-on english! We had more of an Indian accent than she did! 

So- anything can happen and every person is unique I guess. 

Sunday was incredible. We had a friend who had been telling us he was going to come to church and then teach us some Hindi after church and then right before church started we got a text saying that he had a sudden change of plans but still wanted to meet with us. So we left that church and headed to Dublin becuase we had some indian friends potentially showing up there too. Right when we're about 1 ⁄ 2 way through the canyon we got a text from the elders in the first ward saying our Indian friend showed up to church. We thought we had really messed up- turns out it was actually a completely different Indian friend and he's also not an indian! Just a guy we had talked with on the streets! Crazy.

In Dublin a recent Indian convert had brought his cousin to church with him and so we sat with them at the Linger Longer and pulled as much Indian culture and Hindi as we could. Then we had a lesson with Brother Neff and his neighbor and just chatted about Hindi, Temples, The Word of Wisdom, and Indian culture. 

That evening we had a choir practice for “My Shepherd Will Supply My Need" which is actually my favorite song. There's a mega interfaith choir thing happening and we got pulled into the choir!

Then, since Sunday was the height of Diwali, we went to the sikh temple and there was hardly room to hold your hands out. Every single place people could be was full. There was no parking anywhere- even the entire neighborhood surrounding the Gurdwara was absolutely full- every conceivable place a car could fit, had 2 cars. So- we didn’t get any food. But we chatted with a few people, read some posters. got a map of Punjab. 1 girl came up to us and started getting kind of heated. She thought we were there to proselytize which makes sense cuz we are missionaries lol. She went off about how many of her people are killed and all the oppression from other religions that Sikhs get every day. Honestly, we were there to learn about sikhism and Diwali and hopefully get a bite of curry. Eventually Elder Holladay got us out of there and we headed straight for our car which was a considerable distance away. 

Monday was San Jose day. We got training from the Social Media Sisters for some new ideas for FaceBook finding indians. We tried to visit a few Indians in the area but just met Spanish people instead. 

Tuesday just didn't exist. Elder Hollday had one of his mega migraine days so he stayed in bed and I tried to be productive and ran out of motivation fire real quick and ended up doing basically nothing.

We had a district council this week and I led a discussion about the Provo City Center temple and how we're all city centers right now, which is a very good thing. Many blessings come from the city center. But God plans on us becoming temples so He's gonna burn us down with life and trials and pains so through the atonement of Jesus Christ we can be rebuilt into a beautiful temple. 

I know for me the process of being burnt down and rebuilt was my experience with addiction. Addiction is so harmful and destructive to a person's mind. It degrades the way you see yourself and others as well. It changes how you see God and convinces you He doesn't love you. 

Feeling all of that and so much more for a few years really burnt me down to almost nothing. 

But when I made the choice to talk to bishop and read the Book of Mormon every day and start praying for real- everything changed. 

Turns out, I'm not worthless. I'm worth everything to God.

I also learned I can make my own choices regardless of how I'm feeling and whatever happens around me. 

Most importantly, I learned that the atonement of Jesus Christ is real. He has power to free you from anything. 

I am for sure not a temple yet but I do know I am on my way. 

I am thankful God loves me enough to burn me down.

Mmmm seeds.

 

My 2 trainees finally were able to film their ASL testimonies and oh boy, what a powerful and important experience in the life of a ASL Missionary. For the rest of their life they'll look back and watch how their signing was and recognize all the insane improvement that has happened in just 2 years.

It was strange going through this process as an Elder Elder instead of a baby Elder this time. It's actually strange every time we do anything because I recognize "hey, you need to be the leader here" when in the past I had no clue at all what was going on and just watched my trainers, Elder Rigby and Elder White. But now….I'm in their place? I just have 4 elders instead.

Let me tell you. 5 Elders is something crazy. The apartment is always so clean because there's 5 of us to do all the work! Just kidding, that's not true at all. . It's a mess and I have to laugh about it or I'll cry. There's just this smell. It's on everything. 

Dinners are crazy…a lot of people stopped signing up to feed us because they feel like they have to feed all 5 lol. It's great. Whenever we do anything together, I can see the aura of intimidation around us. And it's like "Brother, you have no need to be scared, they're all still in their first few transfers lol"

But they're amazing. I was worried I'd have a "favorite" but that hasn't happened. Even if I try- they're all my best friends. They're all completely different people and are good at different things and need help with different things. Which I should have expected lol. Makes sense right? I kinda thought after 1 week following me around they'd all be good and ready to train a new missionary themselves! 

It actually took 3 weeks. That sentence was a joke.

Anyways, I've been on a run and working out every day.

Then we had ASL Crazy Travel Day! We drove out of the mission to a city called "Mountain House" there's a service missionary there who has become Deaf! So we're teaching him ASL. That was great and reminiscent of my first bit as an ASL missionary. Every time he made mistakes I remember making I felt so validated lol. Then we drove to Pleasanton and somehow met a random Deaf Person walking into the place where we were supposed to meet the Deaf chick we were there for! Amazing. She said we can video call and teach her on Sunday! 

So much ASL in 1 day, also a lot of driving…. Driving stresses me out quite a bit. I was praying that whole time. But hey! It was great. I did almost weigh the car on the scales though but was able to speed out of there in time. Also even if the speed limit on the canyon roads is 50, don't take the corners at that speed.

I also stopped at my church house in Pleasanton on Paseo Santa Cruz, all my days as a trainee came back to me. It was a year ago this week that I had started my second transfer!

The following day the other 2 elders had exchanges so we had a zone leader with us, Elder Vest. And lemme tell you- brother is huge. His bench Max is 260- just for some perspective- my max is 150- and I'm insanely ripped. But this man is sitting at 260.

He told me to just drink ½ a gallon of milk every day. . .

That evening we stopped by one of our many recent converts' homes, Christie. Right when we were about to turn around and return to the car, a very sad and pale Christe opened the door and basically just started crying. She's been going through…ALOT. She also expressed we had knocked at her door the exact moment she needed us. As I reflected on why we were there I actually didn't really know. We had finished weekly planning and were headed home to eat dinner and it just kinda…happened. We didn't even talk about it as a companionship before-I just drove over there.  

So that's a crazy miracle and loads of evidence that missionary work is truly led by God. I'm glad that God trusts me and my companions enough to send us to help his children. 

Later we taught an Indian man named Rishi. Brother is hilarious. He has never heard the gospel before but every time we said anything he would mutter "correct." And he would say things like "wow, I've never heard that before. That makes sense" 

We taught the gospel of Jesus Christ ( Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Gift of the Holy Ghost, Endure to the End) and brother is like holding his hand out and saying each one and he's like "what's the fourth one again?" "The Gift of the Holy Ghost" then he's like "correct" 

We also ready Alma 7:11-12 and he looked at verse 12 for a while and was like "wow, that's all one sentence" and I was like "correct"

It was actually a really good lesson, but this man is so funny. Then his wife came out and was like "Do you want an Indian treat?" Excitedly, we said yes! My companions like treats and I like Indians! So we were all excited. Well- she came back from the kitchen with sus bags of seeds stuck together….it wasn't… very good.

Then we had a pure ASL day. I just worked on a bunch of different videos and brainstormed as hard as I could but all I could get was like 1 cloud. So we're gonna start posting more frequently. Hopefully it helps. 

I learned something pretty hard this week and the best way to summarize it is: I can't control how other people react to what I say, but I can control what I say- and what I say has an impact on how people react and feel. 

Basic, right? Well then, why do people hurt other people's feelings? 

I really want to be kinder. Sometimes I'm upset or angry about something and when that happens I get stuck in a bad thought cycle and everything just looks darker and worse than it really is. When I'm stuck like this, I tend to say things without thinking about it too much and I end up making jokes I shouldn't or say things that hurt people's feelings. I always regret it afterwards. Lately when I am upset I've started trying to consciously recognize it "Hey, elder, you're upset right now. Let's not throw anything, ok?" In theory, it should work but I haven't figured out how to fully apply it yet. Maybe next week I'll have it all figured out.

The words we say really matter and we can all step up and become better examples of peacemakers. 

Love you!

Keep the fire burning! (Leviticus 6:13)

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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)

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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

Altering the management of affairs

 This new transfer has just been so slow. It feels like time has just stopped and I have to push every hour forward in order to get to the next one. 

I am now the designated driver, which is stressful- I haven't driven this much since before my mission almost a year ago. It's kinda scary but so far I'm doing pretty great. 

Elder Rigby was sick for the first half of the week then it was my turn and I was sick. 

On Wednesday we went to visit with a family that's returning to activity and they told us when they get sick they would just eat some Garlic and it would get rid of the sickness. I was hesitant to believe that's true, but at this point Elder Rigby was just done being sick. So we drove to Safeway right after the lesson and bought a chunk of Garlic. And as soon as we got to the car he broke it open and popped one in his mouth and gave me a piece too. He was fine for a few seconds then started dying. I started chewing on my piece and. . .WOW. it was like 500 degree heat just going through my body, it came out my ears. It was like the spiciest feeling ever and I wanted to vomit so bad. It seemed as though it kind of reduced the symptoms. 

So that was fun. 

Thursday was powerful. We met with Pugal and he set up a goal to be baptized June 17th! He's pretty funny and really loves Jesus. He also wants to help clean the church house. 

We also met with Emma, she is the one who was led to the church house by the spirit. She loves to talk. Like alot. So that was fun. 

Thursday evening we had a very unique member meal, we have a member who's son recently died by suicide. Our ward has been making sure that she's not alone and the family that signed up to feed us Thursday was also being with her. So we met at a restaurant and tried to be happy and not talk about 'it' at all. But she started asking Elder Rigby and I alot of really deep questions straight from her heart about where her son is and what's gonna happen to him. It was kinda difficult but luckily we knew where to find the best answers we could give and left her with resources. One key thing was that we turned every answer towards Jesus Christ, His atonement and the temple. 

That was very powerful for all of us.

On Friday we experienced another miracle with our Indian brothers and sisters. We were tracking around just being rejected and having fun when we knocked on a door and an Indian woman about 30 cokes from behind us up to the door we just knocked on. So we explained why we were knocking on her door and offered to say a prayer with her. She looked confused and then went inside for a minute and came back to the door with her husband. She explained we were gonna say a prayer. He looks like we're interrupting his day and he doesn't care and we're about to just give up and say "have a good day" and I saw into their home, hanging up on a wall, just barely in my field of vision, a picture of Jesus Christ!

So without thinking I cut off the conversation that was happening and started the restoration- "we also share a really special message about Jesus Christ and how the church he set up whilebhe was here on Earth has been restored" and then a moment of silence. . .

"Would you like to come in?" Was his reply 

So epic. We sat down with them and taught the full restoration and left them with a Book of Mormon. We got to learn more about them and it was really fun. Their names are Davis and Tess. We've prayed for them every day since. 

Saturday is when I really started my turn of being sick. I was dripping water out of my nose everywhere and my head hurt a bunch. So I went to the fridge and pulled out a piece of garlic, maybe it will work?

Nope. This time was way worse than the first. Maybe it aged or was a bugger piece? Idk but it was sooo awful. My whole body was just screaming on the inside. It was so bad I actually threw up most of the Garlic chunks.

Then we went to play cricket in the park with some Indians and other missionaries. I love cricket. I'm just not very good at it. . . .yet! (Growth mindset is something I've been working on a lot especially in relation to ASL and Driving)

Well on Sunday I woke up and MY voice was 3 octaves lower. And I felt like garbage. Also I was giving a talk on the ASL branch. That was tuff.

Emma and Pugal came to church so that's crazy epic. After church I just fell asleep then all the sudden it was 9:00 so I went to sleep again

Monday was memorial day so we had a big breakfast, I just wish I weren't so sick so I could have enjoyed that more. We sat with the ASL branch and I actually completely followed the conversation(s) there were like 3 all at the same time just going on all around me. Pretty cool.

I was in bed most of the day Monday too and eventually I was just so angry that being sick was taking all my time away so I asked Elder Rigby to give me a blessing. It was a beautiful and powerful blessing. I'm so thankful Elder Rigby lives his life so worthilly and consecrated so that when the time came he could give a powerful blessing. 

I felt great so we went out and contacted nobody who said no to us that night. Everybody prayed with us and let us share a message. 

Then we had interviews the next day and I told president about all the miracles that Elder Holladay and I have seen with our Hindi friends and part of me was expecting to get shut down and told that I just need to focus on ASL- but he was actually really proud of us. He encouraged us to keep doing it! He said that they've been trying to get traction with the Indians for a really long time and it's just never stuck so he wants us to keep doing what we're doing! So that's epic. 

This weekend is stake conference which is crazy cuz I was here for the last stake conference. I am really worried about Interpreting for that so plz pray for me so I can do good lol. 

And also, if you could, please pray for our Indian brothers and sisters. The work is progressing and we can't let it stop. Pray for more Miracles and for the church in India. These people are like, the pure example of people kept from the truth because they don't know where to find it. 

Also, in 7 days my trainee arrives! Elder Searle will be here! I'm so excited for that!

Ok, one more thing before I close. I am just about wrapping up the "war chapters" of Book of Mormon. And one thing that has really stuck out is all the fortifying Moroni does. There's one phrase in Alma 49:11: "for Moroni had altered the management of affairs among the Nephites" that really stood out. Moroni completely altered the way they fought and protected themselves. He really changed a lot. And that is why they completely won so much. So with our "battles" with Satan we need to alter our management of affairs. Maybe you need to throw mounds of dirt around the city and put works of timber around until it's an exceedingly strong hold. Find ways you can better fortify yourself so when you are attacked by temptation or trials you stay strong. Maybe it's listening to more conference talks, praying more, starting a gratitude journal, reading more scriptures, listening to church music, spending more time with family. Whatever it takes to fortify yourself and alter the management of affairs so you can win every battle.

Love you all

Have an incredible week!