Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Week 95 (10/13-10/20)

20 October 2014

Overview: This week went really well..The work was a bit slower and
didn't teach as much but we got a less active to church that hadn't
been in 6 or so years and she stayed for almost all three hours and
got to see her daughter teach relief society which was awesome. We had
our group picnic this weekend which was awesome especially because we
got there early to save tables and there was a group of guys playing
soccer and they were a man down sooo I GOT TO PLAY WITH THEM! So that
was rather nice until there was a fight that broke out because we were
kicking their butts so bad. Tavos birthday. And yeah! Just working
hard and making the most out of every day!

Tuesday:

Temple session @ 5:30, had to wake up at 3:50. Nate Phillips drove us
and Elders Danciak and Carter down. Had a great session, stopped by
for some donuts on the way home.

P-day: Went to the Wilson building and started emailing, redoing the
gym floors so we left and picked up the zls from the pad. Went
shopping and then went to GCC for lunch. Played some pool. Ate. Went
to the central building. Stopped by Helga's to pick up some food she
made us. Went to Abril bookstore to get some books. Played Wilson
ball/basket ball at central building.

Nightly visits- didn't happened because the leadership was busy and
nothing was set. Walked to Jerry's. Had a nice visit with Jerry who
was feeling pretty good. Told us about what was happening with ISIS
and the Ebola pandemic. Second coming is getting pretty near
everybody!

Picked up the car from the other Elders. Stopped by Ragned and family.
Ragned wasn't home but Rima and Raymond were. They invited us in but
we couldn't stay long so we said we'd set up another time to stop by.
Rima seemed pretty happy to see us though and was asking about when I
was leaving and such. Lola their dog on the other hand was not happy
to see us and I thought she was going to eat us (she is a small dog
people so don't worry.)

Stopped by to get Elder Tavoian some donuts for his late night snack.

Wednesday:

Lunch with the other Armenians.

Went to the Wilson building to make the Xorovac/picnic flyers for
Saturday's group picnic. Hen went to Office Depot to get them printed.
Stopped by central bldg to cut them up and start passing them out.

Lesson with Elin & Hermine: we had another wonderful discussion with
them. After all the Smalltalk of how everyone's day was we followed up
to see how Elin's Reading of the book of Mormon had been going. She
brought out her book and showed us some of the progress that she had
made and said that she hadn't read too much but some. She didn't have
any questions about what she was reading. We asked if she and her mom
had been praying together. She said that most of the time they do.
Hermine told us that most of the time she said the prayers and we all
kind of laughed about it. We reviewed the lessons that we had taught
such as the 10 Commandments and the word of wisdom. We followed up to
see how the word of wisdom had been going and she said that she had
completely given up tea. We then talked about how our lesson today
would be about the plan of salvation. We reviewed briefly what happens
in the spirit world and then we talked about temples. She asked the
question "well then what is a temple?" We explained to her that it was
the house of God where other sacred ordinances happen for the
deceased, where we has families and couples can get married and sealed
and where we can receive answers to prayers. Re-taught that it was our
blessing as members of the church to contribute to building the Lords
Kingdom through tithing. She followed along quite nicely even though
she said that she was never going to get married which we all laughed
at again. At the very end we brought up how we have been praying for
her and when we felt like she could be baptized. She said she wanted
to and we told her that we felt that November 2 was a day she could be
ready to be baptized. She wants to but her mom thinks it is too soon
and that she needs more preparation and study. So we committed them to
pray as a family and discuss when they think and feel the Lord wants
her to be baptized. Overall it was a really good lesson.

Hratch invited us over to have a pastry and give Armen a flyer for the picnic.

Knocking with Burbank 1st Elders - went with Elder McCaughly. Got some
return appointments for their area. Mike cancelled his lesson with the
zls.

Stopped by Wendy's for dinner and picked some up for the other elders
and then fought 6 o'clock traffic getting to their pad. Dropped them
off at Jerry's afterwards.

Lesson with Henrik: we were driving by and we're going to give him a
flyer for the picnic when we saw him outside. We stopped and walked
around the block with him and discussed some of the expectations we
had for our meetings with him because he had expressed to us his
confusion as to why we wanted to continue to meet with him. We
discussed more of how the message that we share and the lessons and
invitations we share with people and families bless their lives. We
explained that we would like to meet with him a few times and we can
discuss some of the principles that we have to teach. He agreed. We
left him a restoration pamphlet and told him we would be back the next
morning to explain more.

Lesson with Armineh, Harut & Misha: stopped by for picnic flyer, Simon
left, Armineh said had some time, explained some of her beliefs:
strong belief in God, answers to prayers, helping Simon believe in
God, her family situation and how she wants the best for her kids, her
job is in need of clientele, talked about husband - suicide 2 years
ago, can't seem to move on, explained of the experience people have
with us. Harut & Misha walked up. Harut had see, my facebook video and
I actually messaged him back when. Sat down with them and talked about
us learning Armenian. Tavoian spilled water on Armineh's phone. Talked
about our willingness to do service. Asked about Harut's and Misha's
church - armenian brotherhood church.m only difference is not
worshipping Mary. Told them of what we believe in - Christs church,
apostasy, joseph smiths vision. Asked if we believed in trinity -
explained they are one in purpose but separate in being with Physical
bodies. Wanted scriptures about that. Asked about the Book of Mormon.
Had a hard time understanding how people in the Americas believed in
Christ. Had to go but said they would meet again and discuss more all
of them. Said prayer. As leaving Simon came back. Wants us to go
clubbing with him. Amazed at our missionary schedule... She is so
solid, humble and open to learn if she is able to feel the spirit.
Texted her later because we thought we had lost something there and
she walked up the block to look for it and wished us the best with
finding it, glad to have met and looked forward to talk to us again
because we speak hayeren.

Ashot caLied me back about helping with the picnic. Said he'd help set
up and wait for the tables but he didn't want to stay for the picnic.
Said he didn't want to talk to the leadership.

Picked up cook and Smith for exchanges, dropped them off to Brough and Ward.

Thursday:

Lesson with Henrik: that's morning as we were studying and practicing
for the lessons we had that day I felt that Elder Tavoian and Elder
Smith should teach this lesson. With much struggle and debate I
ultimately made the push for them to teach and Henrik that morning and
they did! They said it went really well and he said that he would be
coming to church on Sunday. Elder Smith expressed his excitement for
how well Elder Tavoian taught.

District Meeting - Elder Brough taught about the Book of Mormon and
for the Roleplay we went out and tried to place two copies of the Book
of Mormon in 30 minutes. I gave mine out first and then we went to
Adams park where Elder Tavoian was trying to give his Armenian copy
away to the old men at the church.. Levon eventually took it (an old
man that already has been given a copy or two and will sometimes
wander into the church.)

Had a lesson cancel on us that we had set up with a guy up at GCC but
he rescheduled. Went to lunch with the other Armenians and Elders
Brough and Ward.

Came back to the pad and did language study with Elder Smith who was
on an exchange with a Elder Ward. It is interesting to see Elder
Tavoian's motivation increase once he sees Elder Smith progressing and
trying more than he is.

Knocking on Allen - set up a return appointment for the G2 sisters;
talked to a couple from Egypt that were telling us about the Islamic
state and their feelings against curtain races that seem to be joining
it;

Dinner with the Bradley's

Rush to get out the picnic invites to everyone and I mean everyone. We
even stopped by Christine Hagopian (just left one on the door) and
Albert & Romina and family. We were pulling out all the stops for this
one! We dropped of an invitation to Margarita which she was very
thankful for. Talked to her for a bit and she is just awesome. I
really hope one day she will be more interested in learning more about
the restored gospel.

Had to pick up the other Elders to drive them to exchange back.

Friday: Elder Tavoian's birthday

Lunch with other Armenians and zls at in n out

Went to the Wilson building to start weekly planning...

Got a call from Kriatina Avagyan to reschedule planning the relief
society lesson for that afternoon so we went over and they had bought
us panda... Second lunches! Woohoo! Samvel  and his mother were there
who I had never met before but Kristina said that she has met with
missionaries before in the past  or at least remembers them coming
over in Armenia so not sure if she is a member. But anyways we had
lunch with them and Arman and then we planned the lesson.

Finished weekly planning

Tried to go visit everyone on our list to invite them to the picnic.

Saturday:

Soccer on the field

Elder Cook and I dropped off to hold down the fort at the fields.
Ashot was supposed to come but he said he went home already by the
time we got there. Other elders brought breakfast. Tried to study...
Then went slack lining. Some guys by our table started playing a game
of pickup soccer and they were a man short... So I helped out and
played with them. It was SO MUCH FUN. Until two players on the other
team started getting mad and cussing at each other and then one
tackled the other and started to punch each other until the rest of
the team pulled them off one another. One was seriously trying to get
free of his buddies hold to go back at it with the other guy. But it
was fun. Oh and my team won. Then the rest of the group showed up for
the picnic!

Group picnic: Elin & Hermine, Polet & Benet, Aylin & Emanoel came.
Games. Anoush mad at me. Sam and his son came. Got ice water dumped on
me by Elder Cook.

Happier hour at Taco Bell for slushies.

Knocking: Myrtle - nothing.

Potentials - Got a return appointment with Ani & Arineh; stopped by
Vartan - said to come back, overheard him defending us and the church
to his Mom.

Took a late dinner at home.

Sunday:

Group council - already planning for Xorovac in December...

Church - probably the best day at church in a while. Our Sunday school
was packed. Everyone seemed to be there: Aram and family, Gagik and
family, Baghdoyan, Rita, Christina A, Helga and Christine, Jerry,
Arousiak, Caroline, the English leadership as usual and.... THE ENTIRE
AVAGYAN FAMILY!!! Yes, Syuzanna came in with the kids a ways into the
Sunday school lesson taught by Armen. It was awesome. Everyone was
super excited to see her. Then relief society was really good as well.
Kristina and a I taught the lesson as planned out by Sister Bradley to
get Syuzanna to come and it worked! And I thought it was a really good
lesson. Great participation by all and there was a good spirit felt
from what was said. So it was awesome and Syuzanna seemed to really be
happy while she was there. Sacrament was good, high counselor speakers
were pretty good and not too boring. Only about half the people
listening were asleep by the end. But more importantly Syuzanna stayed
until after the first speaker which was perfect for her because it
talked about Faith. It was just awesome to see her sitting in the
congregation with her son Arman.  It was a pretty good turnout member
wise. Not so much on the investigator front but there is always next
week!

Had a quick lunch brought by Bradley.

Forest lawn with Armen

Coordinated with the other Elders our next big push this week which
will be aimed towards getting into touch with members on our records
that we don't know about so next week when we meet as a group and then
with the stake presidency we can give a better accounting for what is
going on.

Had to drop off the zls in highland park - they informed us that from
what they heard from the stake presidency that they are getting pretty
close to pulling the plug on the Armenian group of we don't pick up
the pace more. So we aren't sure how quick they want it but either way
they are getting pretty serious and we all need to hustle.

Saw man in his tighty whities dancing in from of a camera he set up on
Broadway.

Dinner w/ the Carlins - made some of the best chicken Parmesan and for
dessert they made banana cream pudding which was to die for. It was an
awesome dinner. They had a little musical performance afterwards. Love
that family.

Visited the Aghakhanyan family - they were home but were just about to
go to bed so they told us to come back tomorrow night.

Visited Armineh on Milford - the daughter was home and told us that
Armineh wasn't home but she gave us some water. Texted Armineh late to
see if she could cut my hair soon and we are going by tomorrow
evening. Saweet!

Visited some other less actives that I don't know buuuuut they weren't home...


Elder Tanner DeBry

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