Monday: we had a packed day. kelli took us grocerey shopping. then we got a ride up to soccer with baum and esplin. AND WE FINALLY PLAYED SOCCER. it was awesome. we played for a good three hours. then they took us to mcdonalds for a quick lunchn. then we emailed ligidy split. then we went to the hospital to get elder twelves' wrist checked out by Dr. Lew(from rollerskating... turns out he is fine! I should be a doctor! ) but he said he should get it xrayed the next day just to be sure....then we came back to the church and picked up the other elders and then up to the Townsends for dinner. it was awesome. it went a little long but that night we headed up to sun valley and met with Edi in his auto body/mechanic shop. well the loft above it which was super bug infested and dirty. but he is such a humble guy. parents died when he was two in Iran. raised himself basically. came to US about 5 years ago and lives in that place where he works. He says he just wants to feel closer to God. We taught him the restoration and invited him to be baptized and he said he wants to and that he'll pray and ask if that is something God wants him to do. It was a powerful lesson. He recognized the spirit and the peace he felt at the time and that this path is a good one for him.
Tuesday: went back to the hospital to get an xray. well before that as we were getting ready, elder twelves thought he chipped a tooth while flossing. so we took the xray which was super quick then went to sister bradley's work place and she got us in to see that dentist who is a member. turns out it was just plaque that had built up that chipped. so we did that all morning which took a while and elder twelves felt bad that after all that it really turned out to be nothing. we had a long afternoon of knocking. nothing too exciting until the evening. on our way up to the church we went by Elizabet and Sona's and the door was open and we saw Elizabet and called her over to talk to us. she said she wasn't good and seemed pretty harsh against us. she was complaining about her life how the church doesn't help and things haven't gotten better but she knows she isn't doing anything but pray if that. she said she isn't going to come to church anymore which made us both upset but elder twelves just wanted to see if we could see them at church one last time before he goes and to visit but she said straight up NO. I couldn't believe it. I was so upset I looked at her straight in the eye just being full of the spirit of love towards them and felt so bad for elder twelves that I said "after two years of selfless service, this young man just wants to visit you FOR 10 MINUTES and you won't let him..." I was this close to just saying amot qez (shame on you). but she looked down at the ground totally knowing she was feeling the spirit at that time and said she'd think about it and see if she could fit it into her busy schedule when she had just told us she does nothing all day... but anyways we had other visits that night with bradley. we stopped by Margarita who wasn't doing well. she was going to have a colonoscopy the next day and we didnt stay long but wanted to share some about the book of mormon but because she talked so much we didn't get the chance to... but she intoduced us to her daughter and her daughter's friend who are all coming to the picnic on saturday which is good! super funny because margarita kept telling the friend of her daughter how wonderful we were and that her family should come the picnic and bring something to contribute. super awesome missionary work. after we stopped by edwin, wasn't home but I stopped by his neighbor, Arakel who is a younger kid about our age at GCC, and invited him to the picnic. said he was agnostic but would listen to us sometime. then we stopped by Zhorants and Aylin. brough by some perro for them to drink instead of coffee (a barley drink). Zhorants is moving mechanic shops to van nuys and is under a lot of stress. he hasn't stopped smoking but that it has gone up. we read moroni 6 with him about bringing forth fruit meet for repentance and discussed how he wasn't ready for baptism and aylin agreed that we should put it off... so sad. but they still want to and aylin said a bomb closing prayer asking god when they should be baptized and when it was in his will for them to be.
Wednesday: there was not a lot of people home in the afternoon... we stopped by Rubik's apartment since we haven't seen him for a while and one of his daughters was there, Annette, who attended some assembly of god (non denominational christian Pentecostal church according to her...) she came outside and started talking to us and asked a lot of questions regarding our basic beliefs, which we covered the entire restoration and talked a lot about authority which she said made sense. we talked about our sacrament services, the sacrament and she said she didn't like how we didn't use wine but we taught the word of wisdom and she said that if Joseph smith was a prophet then it would make sense (which was ironic because she later admitted that her church just uses grape juice...). and then she asked how she could know if Joseph smith was a prophet and we talked about prayer and she said she spoke in tongues... kind of fizzled out after that and she was done asking questions. it was a solid discussion. the rest of the evening we didn't get into anyone else but we did stop by Rima, Ragned and Raymond and invited them to the picnic. they are the same ol same ol... still curious why that died out because they were so solid.
Thursday: district meeting. finished studies. stopped by Sarkis, Minas Sarkissian and Tina to invite them all to the picnic. only minas wasn't home but we stopped by Tina and Sarkis and talked with them a while. not too interested still but they both said that they would come. Then we drove up to Van nuys to meet up with Elders Kim and Hui to knock with them! I went with Elder Kim (who is a stud from Korea but moved to vegas and grew up in a rougher part of town so he has street lingo in him) but we had an awesome time. we didn't get into anyone but we found so many potentials that hopefully will pan out this next week. He is a super funny kid. then we drove up to the bradleys for dinner. ashot called after and cancelled our meeting with him so we went up to Edi's with Brother Bradley and had another BOMB lesson with him. He was again super friendly and so sincere. he asked what we had to share with him today and we got right into the lesson and told him that we would be inviting him to be baptized on 27 july and then introduced the book of mormon to him. he really loved it and just wanted to read it to have a better understanding of it. he accepted the date of baptism and committed to come to church. it was a powerful lesson.
Friday: Mission conference. I don't even have words to describe. President and Sister Becerra are going home and they gave their farewell talks to us and final words. It was so powerful. I love them so much and pray for the best in their new calling as an area seventy. I hope one day to be like him! They gave some great final thoughts. It was very sad to see them go but I know the new mission president who gets here 1 July, President and Sister Villanueva Lopez will be wonderful as well. AFter that we went and had lunch at kozy korner with the other elders and then did some weekly planning talking a lot about what we could improve on (aka comp inventory) mostly what elder twelves can continue to do when he goes home in the coming weeks. It was a pretty slow night after that which was a bummer. super powerful day though.
Saturday: for lunch right after planning we made a pazookie with mabey, morell, baum and esplin and then stopped by Arousiak to see why she hadn't been coming to church. she invited us in and told us she has just been sick but that she'd be there this sunday. and sure enough she was! We drove up to Burbank to stop by this potential that we had set up a lesson with, Armineh, but she wasn't home. then we get a call from Elder Winfield who was up in Sunland needing a ride back to Alhambra... but since we had a lesson in noho soon we just brought him with us. The noho sisters, Brown and Schwiezer, had met and taught this guy Max (Khachik) who they passed off to us. He has some friends up in utah who are members and wants him and his wife to join our church and wants help to quit smoking. so we had a good lesson with him and partially reviewed the restoration but he was a talker so we taught really briefly and set the expectation of coming by often and set a return appointment for us to come back. it was awesome. then we drove to glendale to meet henry and lacey ammar who got chipotle for us and the other Armenian elders drove winfield home to alhambra to his comps while we ate and chatted with them since elder twelves is leaving soon they wanted to see him. they got stuck in traffic so we missed an appointment in noho with some potentials that i had from knocking with elder kim but we went out and knocked with the noho zl's in the B2 area. I went with elder bertoch again who is pretty sure he is getting transferred (i think ap) in the coming week so we'll see! everything else fell through thtat night and we stopped by Vasgen who was saying that he didn't trust Aram who he thought was a cop... his wife came out and was asking us more questions this time and was asking why we were doing missionary work when we were in our youthful prime. they were just dumbfounded! they just don't really seem to get it that we have found the joy of the true gospel of Christ and want to share it with everyone!
Sunday: WE HAD 42 PEOPLE AT CHURCH. No investigators though which was a bummer. but it was awesome. some Armenian visitors from slc came. gagik was back. it was awesome. next week will be even better!! and Ashot got called to be the melchizedek priesthood leader (kind of elder quorum president). which was awesome with brother turley as councilor. president morgan came and set them apart. it was a great priesthood meeting! AFter church we finished weekly planning. went and gave Jerry the sacrament. then a miracle happened. Got a call from Elder Mostert with a referral he had just received from a family who was visiting from SLC. said they had an Armenian friend who wanted to join our church. they called us and gave us his number. we called him, Rostome, and he said to come over in 30 min. biked down there and had a very, very powerful lesson with him. We asked why he wanted to meet with us and he told us he just wanted to change. he broke down and started to weep telling us how he needs to change. We started to teach him the restoration and told him that he could, through the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, which is only accessed through ordinances performed by the priesthood authority of God that he could. We invited him to be baptized on 27 July and he asked what he needed to do to be ready and change. He wants us to come visit him every day. he said a powerful closing prayer and wants to come to FHE tonight so we are stoked for him! we both just gave him a hug after the lesson because the spirit was so strong. he just has such a sincere desire to accept Christ in his life. AFter that we went up to Helga and had dinner who made us some Armenian meatball soup which was pretty good and we shared the experience of the sacrament that we had today and the lesson we had with Rostome. It was powerful.
so overall it was a good week! I love you all and I am very thankful for all you and your support! Oh AND I CAN'T BELIEVE IT IS MY BIRTHDAY NEXT SUNDAY. WEIRD.
Love!
Elder DeBry
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