Hi family and loved ones!! Sorry it has taken me a while to get on email today. In light of all the World cup excitement, we got a game going today with some of the companionships and played all morning. It was awesome! Definitely bummed we can't watch the games but I know I'll be able to catch up when I get home! Anyways, this week has been great. A bit slower. Not a lot of people at Church but we have some new potential which is always good and the work continues to move forward and so does our stride as Elder Twelves gets ready to leave here in the next few weeks. But this email is going to be rather short just because of our long morning activities.
Monday: elder twelves wrote his stewardship report (a summary of some of the highlights of your mission and what you accomplished and how you helped the areas/people you served in during your mission that you turn into your mission and stake president when you get home). his is six pages long.... glad I have a few months before I even have to think about that. but it was a rather boring day. we had to wrap up early and shop at cvs for the necessities and then headed up to burbank to try by this potential that I had knocked into with Elder Bertoch and said to come back. we stopped by and his wife, Alice, came out to greet us and told us that her husband, Robert, was expecting us but was not home at the moment due to something that came up but she said to come back in two hours from then. so we ran back to glendale, drove the other elders to mike and bridget's and stopped by Edward and Roubina's to teach them. Roubina was asleep up Robert let us in and we taught him about the Book of Mormon. Unfortunately the farsi translation of the BofM isn't complete and we aren't sure what is in it so we have a different approach to teaching it but he was asking good questions and he said he would read it! He also committed to come to church...Yeah he didn't come...After we went allllll the way back up to burbank again to meet up with Robert. And again we got there and were met by his son Chris and his cousin Vag who said that both his parents weren't there but that they were excited to meet with us and they heard about us... I hadn't even talked to Robert that long! But we get in and sit down with them, they are impressed with our Armenian but what really got us was after a few minutes of talking the son Chris (26) asked if it'd be possible to meet a few times a week for 30 minutes... Seriously freaked us out a bit because that is the expectation we ate with people when we visit! But anyways we had a great lesson with them. Chris was so open and willing to learn. Vag was interested to hear what we had to say but once he found out we were 'Mormon' he was a bit hesitant and just wanted to talk about "the bible". But we set a return appt and they committed to pray about the things we taught them. Funny thing though, Chris said "even if I don't join your church and am baptized, can we still talk about the gospel?" He was golden! After that lesson we went back and picked up the other elders and stopped and had a chat with Mike and Bridget who I guess were expecting us to come... Oops. But Bridget is still committed to meet with the Bishop about a temple recommend. Which is good!
Tuesday: was moving day! We started early and spent the majority of the day moving. We had to drive to the office, pick out all the stuff we needed for our apartment, then drive to the new pad, unload then go back and forth from the elk pad to the new place and finish unloading it all. THEN went up to GCC to catch a quick lunch, weird being there in non pros with all the institute people. Got a few comments on my neck tan line... Then dropped off the truck again at the office. It was a long day! We set up our bunk beds and got ready and then had to rush to out dinner appt with the Riggs family who is in the G1. It was delicious. They gave us some eggs from their chickens that I have been enjoying all week. Then we had some visits to go do and finally get some work done. Elder twelves and I went out with Ashot after we watched the relief society learn middle eastern dancing, which was quite hilarious to watch. They did a pretty good job. But we went up and visited Edik. Ashot hit it off with him. Seriously like best friends. They went to the same elementary school in Tehran in Iran. But it was a good lesson. Reviewed the restoration and introduced him more to the a Book of Mormon and he said that after his daughters wedding that he would come to church. Ashot did awesome.
Wednesday: we had breakfast with Nvart with Paul and Kevin her nephews. Brought over to one with us because undercook was at a district leader meeting. After which we biked up to Linden and Roberta try talking there. We did not have much success. We saw margarita though and she said that we could come by later that evening. We grab some lunch at Starbucks and this pizza place and then had to meet up with Elder Cook again. The rest of the day went by pretty slowly. Later that evening brother Bradley came with us to visit margarita and we had a really good lesson with her. We went over what we do as missionaries since we didn't have enough time our first visit with her. A lot of her responses had to do with loving her home and family so we really focused on that and she enjoyed what we had to say. We taught her the restoration and the need for her to be baptized again. She was a little hesitant but prayed at the end and it was really good visit overall. She said that her kids will have to come to our picnic at the end of the month. She trusts us a lot. The last stop of the evening was again with brother Bradley we stop by Aylin and Zhorants. It was already late but we knew that we need to get in and teach them the word of wisdom as soon as possible. We discussed how they felt about being baptized on the 22nd of this month and they said they still want to. But we told them that they would need to be living the word of wisdom and we discuss that. Zhorants told us that two weeks prior he had already decided to stop smoking although he had not quite giving up the habit. He didn't quite understand that he needed to stop smoking before he was baptized but that he could keep smoking until the day of his baptism. But they both have really good desires but not sure if they completely understands repentance.
Thursday: we had a really good district meeting which I attribute to Pres. Becerra being in attendance. After the meeting I was joking with Pres. and said hey pres where we going to go to lunch and he told us and the other Armenians that if we can wait a little while he would take us out to lunch! So that was really awesome. We ended up taking him to this Armenian place off of Glenoaks that we had taken to him before during interviews. The G7 Sister Baum and Esplin came with us. We had to drive separately and when present finally arrived he ran and told us that he forgot his wallet at home and that he would have to run home to get it. But we had already told him that we had taken care of lunch and he's kind of upset with us because he told us that he would pay but it all worked out because he invited us over to his house this week to have some of sister Becerra's lentil soup to pay us back. He told us about reorganizing steaks and it was really cool. After we went out knocking with the Burbank 2nd elders. I went out with elder chapman who was pretty quiet and amazed that I loved to talk to people. But we had a good afternoon. Got into a guys place who didn't let us talk much but told us his testimony. I liked helping him out. Miss being in leadership and serving other missionaries! Then had dinner with the Bradley's. Mike and Bridget bailed. We had a lesson with Chris and Vag that night but when we pulled up Chris came out and said he couldn't meet with us anymore. He seemed super sad about it and wanted to keep in touch. So we were sad about that. We stopped by Edwin and he was home! He told us he just felt tired and so we taught him the word of wisdom which they said they smoked and drank occasionally but he and Verzhik were actually accepting and they really need those blessings. So we were exciting about that.
Friday: cleaned mission office, did some weekly planning, took a break and had lunch with Tyler Bangerter and his brother. It was good to see him. Miss the bugger. But the rest of the day was... Lame. We had some awesome lessons planned but they ALL CANCELLED! Lame.
Saturday: we brought Ashot out with us to so some visits in the morning. They boy told us they didn't want us to come back and didn't let us in... So we went out to lunch with him at in n out. Then we went out with the NoHo ZL's and blitzed some sisters area which was dead and now we all have sympathy for those sisters. We found a nice Jewish man though! Gave us so,e World Cup updates and water. Funny though, some people would open the door and just say yeah I'm not missing the game. Sorry. Later we were knocking back in Glendale. Found this nice younger Armenian and she was in the middle of giving us her phone number when her family starts yelling at her not to and then came and closed the door on us. Found some other nicer individuals though! Taught them about the Book of Mormon at their door.
Sunday: taught Sunday school with elder twelves about the Atonement. It was a pretty good lesson. There was no one at church though. Seriously, no one. Even in sacrament. Very bare minimal. The only lesson we had was with Helga and her family and she fed us a heaping. Mound of chicken and rice while we discussed the tribes of Israel.
Well family. I love you all. I hope you have a great week this week! Stay safe. Keep smiling! Sorry this is so short!
Elder Tanner DeBry
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