Week 90 (9/8-9/16)

16 September 2014

Overview: Hermine is doing awesome. She wants her daughter to be
baptized with her but they are still waiting to talk to the husband
for permission so their baptism will be next Sunday most likely. We
picked up a new family Maria and Silva who want to be baptized. Umm...
That's all that comes to find other than it being SUPER HOT. The other
might it was 94 in our apartment at 9:30 at night. But yep it was a
good week. Zone conference. Church was good. Finally had investigators
there. And yeah still a missionary!

Monday:

Pday: went to red robin for lunch with Elders Cale and Judd and the
Sisters Esplin and Wright came. Went shopping. Went to the church
afterwards. Emailed, balled and chillaxed.

We were invited to go to the Carlins to share a spiritual thought with
them and they made us home made cookies.

Biked over (had to fill up Tavoian's tires forever) and visited
Andranik and Margarit: they didn't seem well when we showed up but
they were still willing to let us in and talk. Andranik was asleep in
his wheelchair while Margarit was having some dinner which she offered
us. She told us of her health problems going on at the time which
included her arthritis in her arm making it hard to extend and she had
made a makeshift sling of her own. They both just seemed worn out and
said their children didn't have enough patience when we asked about
them. We had intended to talk about church attendance since they
haven't come but we felt like we should read Mosiah 24 about Alma and
his brethren having affliction placed upon them but through the
covenant they made with The Lord he remembered them and visited them
in their affliction. We told them that as they know that it is through
baptism that they can be comforted we invited them to pray about it
and said a closing prayer. I said the closing prayer. After the prayer
Margarit was in tears and was very thankful for us coming over. It was
a very short but good lesson. Just enough for them to feel the spirit
and wanting more.

Visited Ashot - told us how his old duplex manager was stealing his
electricity and making him pay for the whole complex's electricity.

Taught Peter & Maria: saw Peter on the street and he said he was
looking for his phone but we gave him and helped him find it. He
called Maria down and we talked with her, she said she didn't come
last time because Peter said he wasn't going. For whatever reason. We
rescheduled for Tuesday afternoon. She had the question of how we can
come to really believe in Christ and told us how when she was younger
her parents weren't believers but through a MTV music video that she
was watching when she was 12 she prayed and asked God if he was there
and at the same time there came a son that said "Jesus loves you" so
she took that to be her answer. She was kind of all over the place and
wouldn't really let us stay on track to answer one question. Said she
doesn't believe in what anyone has to say other than Gods because she
thought we were saying she needed to listen to us. She also had the
questions as to why there were bad people in the world and seemed to
go on tangents about how we are all born into the world with the
light. We had to go but stopped her after a while and told her we help
people feel his love more, light and knowledge heights revelation and
experience received. They said they'd meet with us again for the tour.
But we are not really sure how active she is with it,

Tuesday:

Lesson with Hermine: We had a super awesome lesson with her this
morning. We had Brither Bradley and Caroline Davtian with us. We went
in and told her we'd be explaining about the temple since she is going
on Thursday and she didn't really know too much about it. Elder
Tavoian taught about why we had the temple. Explaining that it is for
the purpose of participating in the ordinances for those who are
deceased and may not have had the opportunity to accept the Gospel in
this life. We read from Preach My Gospel on Temple and family history
work which explained more clear as to why we have these sacred places.
Hermine had the question of how we know who to do the work for. We
explained family history work and doing the work for our ancestors. We
also taught about eternal marriage and how our families can be sealed
together. Caroline explained her experience with being sealed in the
temple as did Bradley. Hermine asked if people who had been married
outside the temple would have to be married again in the temple. She
asked if that is why we were asking about her family last time and if
they would be accepting of her learning. We explained that we didn't
want her husband to be against her coming to church and especially
being baptized. Hermine said that she hadn't talked to him yet about
baptism but he seems to be accepting of her attending and learning.
She said that he is fine with her daughter learning as well. We asked
if she would like her daughter to learn from us and be baptized as
well and she said yes. She was worried that her family would have to
be baptized the 21 saying that they have different questions and may
not accept it like she had so faithfully. She wanted to know about
more standards we live such as fasting. Asking if it was required to
only fast the one Sunday a month. She asked why we used water instead
of wine. Taught the word of wisdom since she was asking about it. She
said it made sense with alcohol, smoking but asked why coffe but
understood and committed saying if it was God's will then it wouldn't
be a problem to give it up. She is so awesome and looking forward to
going to the temple. She is eager to learn, has lots of questions and
feels and recognizes the spirit. Caroline stayed after and talked with
her for a while which is awesome too!

Went to GCC booth / lunch

Lesson with Maria & Peter: They didn't end up having a tour with us of
the central building but Maria texted us and asked us if we could come
show her a video. So we went over there and met her and Peter in front
of her apartment. We showed her the video of the restoration from the
Mormon messages. Before hand we taught them about profits,
dispensations, the saviors earthly ministry and taught that the
authority which is important for our families being blessed was lost
and then we showed the video. Maria said she really liked the video
and we taught them that Joseph Smith received the authority and that
we have the book requirement as evidence of his divine calling. We
taught them that if he sings were true that we would have the need to
be baptized by that restored authority and we invited them to be
baptized. Maria said that she would and she made sure that we were
inviting her to pray about Joseph Smith was a true prophet and if they
needed to be baptized again and we told her yes. They agreed to meet
with us again on Thursday at the church and hopefully this time it
will happen.

Splits with leadership: brought Heno - sarcastic

Lesson with Margarit & Andranik:  We had a pretty good lesson with
them. It was great that we brought Heno with us. He talked to them for
a while about where they were from and got it know them a bit more and
such. We started off by asking Andranik if he still wanted to be
baptized. We talked to Heno afterwards and he said he probably doesn't
really fully understand and a lot of it has to do with his health
situation. Then we asked Margarit the same question and she said she
doesn't want to be baptized. We asked why and she said that she feels
that she is already following Christ and his path and second that she
was raised in her church since she was born and she will die in that
church. We taught her that it will be through the spirit that she will
come to know these things are true through reading, praying and
especially church. We read from the New Testament of examples when
things were revealed to the apostles by the spirit and are true. They
said we could come back with Heno and teach them again.

Wednesday:

Sick - cold/allergies

Lunch with Nate @ Toro's

Picked up food from Helga - stepped in dog poop

Knocked - met some good potentials on Justin

Split w/ Burbank 1 Elders Schroppel & Jones: really slow

Tried by Margarita - talked to Evalina at the door, sleeping

Dinner at new place on Glenoaks - German sausage sandwich

In n out for shakes

Lesson with Hambarsoom: We had a really good visit with him. He told
us about the adult day care that he goes to with Hratch and Armen. We
talked about his family and how often he goes to see his brothers
family which is about once a week. We read and discussed Alma 8 about
Alma helping Amulek coming back into activity and becoming powerful
missionaries together. We related it to Hambarsoom helping us with
missionary work and home teaching within the group. He thought of
Ashot and asked about him and how long and why he hadn't been to
church. He knows Ashot just keeps lying to him which is so to see. He
is doing well though and said the closing prayer.

Lesson with Rostome: We were parking out bikes just as he was walking
up to his house after a nightly walk. He was happy to see us and he
said he had seen some missionaries three days prior and was thinking
of us. He invited us in and began to apologize that he hadn't kept in
touch for the past month or so. He recounted how he went through a few
weeks that he was drinking a lot and had to be hospitalized because of
a bad combination of medication and the consumption of a whole bottle
of scotch. He said he was basically in a coma for a while from that
and then he had to return after another recovery because of the
acidity in his blood. But since that last time he has been sober for
three weeks! Which is amazing and there is a huge difference in him.
He is still just as sincere but more in control (imagine that with
being sober for once..) but he was still very receptive of us. Telling
us he wants to be at the church and to keep praying with us. We
brought up baptism again and he told us that he still wants to become
a member of our church because we follow Christ. He wants to have a
continuance change in his life and he recognized it needs to happen
daily. We showed a video of Elder Christofferson on 'Daily Bread:
Pattern' which talks about the constant need for nourishment
spiritually. We told him we would be stopping by often to help him but
he was asking. Lot of questions about church and what he needed to
wear and the time and whatnot. He is still super solid and now that he
is sober he is teachable. We invited him to say the closing prayer but
he resisted a bit and said he needed to recooperate before he can find
the words he needs to say a pray in front of us.

Thursday:

Sick

Stopped by Hermine to drop off pamphlets before she went to the temple

Zone meeting - taught about acting and not being acted upon; hastening
the work with our mobile devices

Lunch w/ other Armenians at Toro

Service for Gagik in Van Nuys - no fridge, a/c or mattresses

Church tour w/ Maria, Peter and Sylvie: We had a really good tour with
him. Maria brought her mother silly who is also very interested in
learning. We taught them about the gospel of Jesus Christ while giving
the tour. Sylvie really enjoyed the chapel and said that she could
feel a lot of peace there. So he made the observation when we were
talking about the sacrament that we needed to be worthy and clean to
partake of the sacrament. We invited them to attend church and they
said they would. It will be hard for Peter to attend the Armenian
group because it is far away. But Maria and Sylvie said that they
would enjoy going to the Armenian group but also that they would like
to attend an American congregation. We took them into the baptismal
font room and showed them the video of the Mormon message of the
restoration. After the video closed Maria told us that she felt that
it was true. We invited them all to be baptized and make those changes
in their life so they can come closer to God. They each show digs the
desire to be baptized into this church. Maria told us that she has
gone to a lot of other churches but hasn't felt the peace that she had
while in our church. She said that she felt like she had been there
before and that it just seemed failure to her. Her mother so if he
said something along the lines of she knew that Maria and Peter would
need to make some changes in their life before they were baptized but
that she on the other hand was very faithful and wanted to know and
ask the question of when she could be baptized. We aren't sure how
accountable Peter will be and so we didn't set them with a date for
baptism then but told them that we would meet with him Saturday and
talk about baptism more then. They had a really good experience!

Dinner @ Bradley's

Margarit & Andranik cancelled, told Heno not to come

Went home early to sleep

Friday:

Felt better

Lunch @ home

Elder cook sick

Weekly planning

Anoush's dinner

Finished comp inventory

Lesson with Sako & Violet: We had a really good discussion with them.
We had some small talk for a while and got to know them a little bit
better. We found out the Socko's brother died. They are still going
through a lot of hardships especially with Socko's health and him not
being able to work because of it. They seem really stressed and Socko
wonders if it would be better if they just went back to Iran. We
taught them how from all the challenges and concerns that we have in
this life we can learn how to grow closer to God. We taught them about
the first half of the plan of salvation and view let told us that they
were already exercising their faith in Christ but life was still
difficult. We told them in essence that if life wasn't difficult than
the plan wouldn't be working. We told them that we could help them
find a greater meaning and learn the lessons that they need to be from
their difficulties and hardships if we would be able to meet with him
again. The outlet told us that they would be busy with weddings that
are coming up but that we would be able to stop by. Socko seems very
much more interested in having us come over again. Overall it was a
great lesson and it was really addressed to their needs!

Drove ZL's to their exchange

Saturday:

Studies - intense lang study

Service for Gagik - lunch, beds, humbling experience of them having
nothing and yet being happy that they have each other.

Lesson with Edi: cancelled

Knocking w/ NoHo ZL's - Elders Ford and two others;

Maria and clan cancel their lesson; stopped by potentials in Bubank:
stopped by Levon (the guy who had us drop off a copy of the Book of
Mormon a month ago) - Stopped by to see how his reading had been. He
had read some but hadn't quite gotten to the point of where they build
the boat to the Americas. We briefly explained, using the pictures,
about the overview of the Book of Mormon. He said that a family member
of his is a priest of some other church and had heard something of
Mormons so wanted to learn more. Said we could stop by once he
finishes the book.

Krispy Kreme

Car wash

Dinner with other armos at in n out

Lesson with Andranik & Margarit: Asked them how their prayers had been
going. Margarit told us of a dream that she had of being surrounded by
extended family and friends and feeling that their time was coming
close on this earth. We taught that the spirit testifies of truth
using examples of James 1:5, Moroni 10:3-5 and 3 Nephi 11:32 to
emphasize the point that the spirit testifies of truth when spoken and
testifies of the Fathet and the son. We showed them the picture of the
first vision and they said they knew that that was true and had been
taught to them by the spirit but they don't quite understand what that
means. They agreed to come to church so hopefully they will be able
to.

Heard about disobedience up in the northern part of zone

Sunday:

G2 Sacrament service: Anthony - bat to the face, titanium cheekbone,
gave him a blessing; Gary tarver gets priesthood; nice to see everyone
and be around familiar families

Maria and Sylva come to church, Gagik and Nayra gave talks

Forest lawn with Armen and smith

Lesson with Margarit & Andranik: We felt like we had a really good
discussion with them. They had called us earlier that morning and told
us that they weren't feeling that well due to the heat and didn't
sleep well and wouldn't be able to come to church. So we told them
that we would stop by after church and we did. We told them that they
missed out on some really good talks that were given during sacrament
meeting about the blessings that we receive from our heavenly father.
We read from Mosiah 2 about the blessed and happy states of those cut
keep the Commandments. We made the observation to them that when we
first started teaching them and they were praying consistently to know
if Joseph Smith was a prophet and reading from the book of Mormon that
they seemed happier and there's trial seem to be getting lighter. We
committed them to read from the book of Mormon each day and to pray
specifically to know if these things are true. They seemed very happy
about the commitment and confident that they could do it and that it
would help. Margarit said the closing prayer.

Dinner with Boyack's, ZL's and Sisters

Dinner with Hegla & Christine: We had a pretty good discussion with
them and taught them about how they would be able to share the gospel
more easily through social media. We brought up the recent BYU
devotional given by Elder Bednar on how we can #sharegoodness on the
Internet through social media to flood the world with things that will
enlighten and help people to come closer to Christ. They agreed to
post a picture on Facebook and keep track of those who may like or
share their photos and look for opportunities to share the gospel with
them. Helgawas in a lot of pain from her back and asked us to give her
a blessing. Christine also asked us to give her a blessing in
preparation for the upcoming semester of school.

Monday:

Lesson with Hermine: We had such a wonderful lesson with her. We
started off by asking if she had any questions for us and she said
that she didn't. We told her that Debra had mentioned that she had
fasted and she said that she had and that it was hard especially
because of how hot it has been. But she felt that it was good. We told
her that we were going to be talking about fasting and tithing. She
pulled out the tithing pamphlet and she said that she had read it but
was anxious to hear what else we had to teach about it. We taught it
was one of the greatest blessings we have because of the restoration
and were able to bear testimony of it and how great it is to be able
to use to build temples. Elder Tavoian taught about fasting including
fast offerings and that was about it. She didn't really have any
questions relating to that but did have some about more family history
work, saying that it is hard to find out when her ancestors were born
and died and such. But so great that she is already getting involved
with that! At this point she is ready after we finish the next few
lessons on commandments. The next big thing will be waiting for her to
talk to her husband about getting baptized. She said the closing
prayer and it was such a sweet spirited prayer. She gave thanks for us
and for the family she has at the church and she specifically prayed
for her husband to be open to the light that she has accepted in her
life and that he would be supportive. It had brother Bradley in tears
which is awesome because he didn't even understand it but the spirit.
She is so awesome.

Zone Conference: probably one of the best zone conferences I have been
too. There was nothing spectacularly new that was taught, no mysteries
of the kingdom revealed. It was just the spirit of humility that
President Villanueva and his wife taught us with was so powerful. They
touched on topics such as obedience and letting things of the world go
in order to be more consecrated. Then the mission presidency
counselors spoke along with President Morgan of the La Crescenta stake
and they were all just spot on. The assistants taught us how we can
reach our full potential on Facebook proselyting (giving us examples
of other missions where a single companionship is teaching 115+
lessons a week online) by having short, member involved lessons. But I
think the part that stuck out to me the most was being taught by
elders Cale and Judd. They showed a bible video of "for god so loved
the world" and then asked us how we feel about our savior. Everyone in
the zone was participating and it created a really powerful spirit
that drove the conversation. We came to the conclusion that we need to
focus our teaching more on Christ. Not the word of wisdom, not Joseph
smith and the Book of Mormon. But Christ and how he has made it all
possible and has shown us the way. The roleplays that followed were
awesome and spirit driven. It was just am edifying meeting. Love the
Villanuevas. They are such a wonderful couple and what this mission
needs at this time.

Stopped by and saw Rita and Debra was over there. She looked super
tired from her work. And she said that is why she hasn't been to
church in a few weeks. Super funny though. When we were there and
talking a knock on the door came and it was Brother Bradley dropping
in for a visit. Hopefully we'll see her again soon.

Lesson with Avagyan's: we had a pretty productive discussion with them
about how they can have more missionary opportunities. We showed the
video clip from lds.org of Elder  Bednar instructing us to flood the
internet by #sharinggoodness. We talked about how a simple picture
with the missionaries on Facebook would open a lot of doors for them
and us to share the gospel. They agreed and committed to do so.
Starting with posting a picture of us!

Pizookie with ZL's and Sisters


Elder Tanner DeBry