Week 16 (4/1-4/8)

BAREE LOUYS!! Unfortunately the computer i'm at right now doesn't have the armenian keyboard. Or else that would look a lot cooler and mean good morning or good light :) This week has been awesome and lots to tell and tale about. Feels like I'm back in elementary school on a friday when we'd actually do show and tell. Anyways!

     Monday was kind of a bitter sweet day. We had to say good bye to those in our district who were actually being transferred. Namely Elder Fochs (pronounced Fox) who has been here since I got here. He's awesome and will be dearly missed living above me. The new ZL above us is Elder Bangerter from Bountiful Utah. Pretty cool guy. Not a whole time to really get to know him yet but he's not too weird. We had to end P-day early and go to a dinner with a less active where we played a traditional game that Armenians play around Easter where after you color the eggs and decorate them, you play a game where you hit someone else's egg with yours and whosever egg doesn't break, wins. Pretty fun. Stopped by Mike and Bridget. Tried to find out what his expectations were at this point since he missed his date. He's not quite sure. And we got a media referral from the ZL's from a girl that is 11 and referred herself on Mormon.org to meet with us... yeah pretty excited about that. 

     Tuesday we did the exchange for a day with a brand new elder. Our brochacho was Elder Coontz from Memphis Tennessee. pretty cool guy. I felt bad though because we had a full day of Armenian speaking lessons so he wasn't able to contribute that much. But we did give some lady we found last week a tour of the church and it went really well. Passed her off to the spanish sisters this week as well. 

     Wednesday after we dropped Elder Coontz off in the morning in Arcadia, we stopped by our Armenian mechanic friend, Joey and found out he is getting married August 10 of this year. Went up to GCC to hopefully meet with a guy that never showed up. I love GCC because there are so many Armenians to talk to. Not that Glendale isn't already majority population but Glendale is just a bunch of younger generation. But instead of making fun of us like they would in Armenian they praise us for knowing the language. We taught a guy Nersees Iran who is super nice but had some interesting views on why we have so many different religions. He said it is because we have different languages... I guess that would make sense if all languages went to their own specific church but that is not the case. But the most exciting thing this week. Met up with the 11 yr old who wanted to meet with us. Her name is Talia and seriously looks like she might be 8 or 9. But she is wicked smart and went to some church and wanted to know more and ended up meeting with us! Not sure how the parents feel about it because they haven't really been there. ONly the grandparents who don't understand English. But she was super excited to meet with us and find out more. Said she would read and ask to know if what we were teaching was true and be baptized. What 11 yr old does that?! I wasn't that mature at that age. went on visits that night as well with Bro Bradley to Chris Aristokisian and Elizabet and Sona. Found out that an old referral that Elizabet gave us but nothing ever came out of it, was a guy and his family that we had just met last week and we saw him over there that night! small world even in California. 

     Thursday Elder Dicus taught District meeting. Then had a lesson with Abraham. Still not sure what he needs. But we told him about General conference this weekend. Melinda canceled on account of midterms so we visited our other Hambarsoon 2 whose wife is very pregnant and should be due in the next few months or so. visited Hambarsoom 1 and invited him to General conference as well. 

     Friday was long and hot and hard work. It was a bike day as usual but we had planned lessons early in the week all over the city so we figured we biked about 13 miles ish at least. Not to factor in the hills and pace at which we had to ride. Lets just say we were very sweaty that day in our lessons. Started off biking to GCC and the girl didnt' even show up. So we planned at the Central building and after planning rode to the mission boundaries to meet with Talia again. She said she had been reading but didn't completely understand so we reviewed and committed her to a date of May 12. So now we just have to run it by the parents. But right after that we had to go to the central part of town to meet with Albert and his family (the ones that know Elizabet and are malnourished). The first thing the wife said when we came was "I have questions about this book." It was awesome. Especially because she actually doesn't speak Armenian. Only Farsi. So throughout the whole lesson she kept whacking her husband to translate and speaking up in Farsi to us in response. too bad I don't speak Farsi! Before that lesson though we ran into some Armenian teens who yelled out to us not knowing we knew what they were saying and we found out from them that there is some stuff going on in Armenia having to deal with the voting and such and it being corrupt or something or other. But then before we went home we decided to treat ourselves to some authentic mexican at el suaz again. But I didn't get tongue this time. just al pastor. 

     Saturday was General Conference! We watched the morning and afternoon sessions at the central building and the priesthood in la crasenta. It was an awesome first day. we had dinner with Bella and Antonia after priesthood. Found out that in the village they lived in Iran, when it was cold, they would make their own cow pie sort of things to heat up the place they were living in. Their little boy asked what about the smell and the dad said that when it was cold enough you didn't notice the smell. Kinda gross but you gotta do what you gotta do. 

     Sunday wasn't quite as exciting. We missed the first quarter of the session waiting for people to show up to the session and at that point it was a bit harder to fully get what the speaker what trying to say in armenian. I understood the topics but it just wasn't the same having a monotone translater when you see the speaker getting into his/her talk. So that is how it went for Sunday. we taught another lesson to Nersees and made some progress. meaning found out we need to go back to the beginning. But then we stopped by Edmond and he is so frustrating to teach. he won't let us teach. he is asking questions about how he can help his family be happy but he won't let us answer because he just keeps talking and talking. So yeah! 

Well that is about my week. I love you all and can't wait to hear from you soon. Have a great week! 

Elder DeBry

Week 15 (3/25-4/1)

 Happy Easter yesterday! In Armenian they say "Christ rose from the dead. Blessed be his resurrection". So unfortunately they don't say too much just Happy Easter. But this week was awesome. Busy. Spiritual. Missionary work. Ya know. 

     Last Monday we had a family home evening activity with our group and did an easter egg hunt and decorated eggs. Armenians paint them and they are so cool. much cooler than just dying them. but the families we invited didn't show up so we didn't know if we'd end up having them look for eggs. but they all loved it! we had our older members running to look for them! It was awesome. 

     Tuesday we had a little tuft with the other elders at our early morning meeting with the mission leader so we had to work that out later in the afternoon. turns out i'm a pretty good mediator and counselor of some sort! We gave a blessing to a less active and her autistic little girl who wouldn't keep her head still and her mother busted out laughing during the blessing. Kinda funny. We went out to lunch with the AP's since I bought one of them lunch the other week. Got a lengua burrito from some little mexican place. I like the Armenian preparation a little better. But tongue is tongue! We taught an awesome ESL class. We have a good 5 ish people coming every week. And we hope to start teaching one or two of them! but we visited Hambarsoom and gave him a DVD player while he is sick and we gave him a couple church videos. 

     Wednesday was awesome. Up at GCC at the booth we set up for the Institute, I had two people come up and initiate the contact with me and asked me questions. It might have been my brown shoes though that go so well with the navy pants and pink tie. Oh in other news, our car got keyed on wednesday also and we had to call the po-po and report it. Took forever and not even sure the officer got the story straight but we had to report it for church policy. We visited a family whose daughters names are Poulet and Bennet from Iran. We knocked into them the other week. They are super nice but are really having a hard time finding jobs. they say every place wants experience that they don't have. they said they'd love to talk with us but its hard to focus because they don't have money for a lot of food. So we ended up going and grabbing extra food from our apartment and leaving it there for them on their doorstep and ditched it. Definitely never thought I'd really see someone with malnutrition that extreme in Cali. Then we also visited the Uzbeki family that Elder Twelves and I moved in. We ended up meeting the whole family. The dad is Muslim but the family seemed pretty open to learn more about us and our message. Didn't get to quite teaching them but we hope to soon. And before we went home we stopped by some guys apartment who we met on the street. He is from Guam and is super cool. He and his girlfriend invited us back for Pakistani food next week (she is from Pakistan). 

     Thursday. Was the last district meeting of the transfer. So it had a somber feel and we took pictures. Anticipating that people would be gone the next week. Had a nice lunch at Red Robin and had to rush up to GCC for a lesson with Melinda. Finished the P.o.s. and said she is reading the BOM. then I probably had the best street contact thus far. Her name was Luse and she has been attending the seventh day adventist church. I asked some really good inspired questions and she ended up asking if we could meet because she was confused. Love it! Taught another awesome ESL class. Had our regulars come back and we are developing a good system of teaching together on multiple levels of english knowledge. 

     Friday was super busy. We didn't get to end up weekly planning we were so busy. We had a pot luck with our district again before our scheduled planning time. Had a little too much fun with our st. patty's day green beards. We had to move Susanna move out of her old house and pack everything in storage... sounds too much like home! Had to run back and have a lesson with Christine which was interesting to say the least. But the rest of the night was supposed to be crazy but the family we wanted to teach weren't home so we visited Poulet and her family. they have lived here in America for a little less than two years and they were asking questions like they got there the week before. Kinda funny to explain how american's dance and such. 

     Saturday we had a pass of with the Sisters. they introduced us to this Armenian Lady, Tina, who is awesome and crazy and all over the place and because Elder Dicus and I were playing dress up with all her antique stuff in her house, she loves us. Had a sushi buffet as a last meal with the ZL's Elder Fochs and Tovey and then had a second dinner right after that with Antonia and Bella where we talked about Easter and they explained how they make such cool eggs! and the kicker of saturday was.... I'M NOT BEING TRANSFERRED AND I GET TO STAY WITH ELDER DICUS! Super stoked. This will be an awesome transfer with him. 

     Sunday was probably one of the best days of my mission so far. We had a combined church meeting with the first ward and one of our leaders gave a great talk about easter. Minas the recent convert showed up and explained that he had to come to see us. Even though his wife thought he was at the Armenian church. Love that man. he gave us some colored eggs. he'll be back. Hamarsoom didn't show up until 10 minutes before the church meetings ended. I guess he never got the message about the earlier start time. But then we had to get ready for the baptismal service... oh yeah I forgot to mention I baptized a guy named Anthony Tanilian yesterday. I'm not sure if i've talked about him but Elder Dicus and I found him and taught him the first lesson and invited him to be baptized about a month ago. But he speaks good enough english so we passed him off to the ZL's in the singles ward and I got to baptize him yesterday! best experience ever. not even going to try and describe it. The rest of the day we had a nice easter dinner with a less active. then went to the farewell Despidida for those missionaries departing today or tomorrow. It was such an awesome day. 

And i'll leave it at that. Love you all and I hope you all have a great week. Thanks for all the love and packages parents! Love you. Happy EAster! 

Երեց Դեբրայ

Week 14 (3/18-3/25)

Բարեվ իմ սիրելի ընտանիկը: Այս անձած շաբաթը զբաղված եր: So translation 'Hello my beloved family! This past week was busy.' If I were better at typing in Armenian I'd probably write more but I'm not quite to that point. And I don't want to waste time. 

     Tuesday was a roller coaster to say the least. During morning studies we got a call from a less active member telling us that her son Gholia had passed away from a heart attack that night. I honestly had no idea how to respond to that over the phone but that was pretty tramatic for her and we had our hearts out to her this week. The afternoon wasn't super busy until our dinner appointment before ESL class started. But it turned out that only a few arabic people showed up to ESL. Thankfully we had an arabic investigator who knew good enough english to translate for the others. If only I knew arabic too. But after class we went on visits with the group leadership. Elder Dicus and I went to visit our recent convert Minas because we hadn't been able to get in contact with him for a while. Thankfully he was there and he let us in because we told him Bro. Bradley wanted to talk. We found out that he hadn't been coming to church, and wouldn't be coming back, because his entire family is against him going. He either has to get a divorce and move out or not come to church. He also was just being a stinker and showing us that he obviously didn't know some crucial basic teachings about the church which he was still arguing against. Probably the most devastating thing was to say good bye to him that night. Knowing he wouldn't be coming back to church anytime soon. He was my favorite member who I looked forward to seeing every week. 

     Tuesday night through Wednesday I was on an exchange with Elder Crumrine. I was still pretty somber about the day before. We didn't have a ton planned to do. Mostly checking up on old formers for the english ward that the other Elders cover along with the group. We did get to teach Armenian class which I especially enjoy because it is a lot easier to teach armenian than english!

     Thursday was an early start. Elder Crumrine had to go into Arcadia before Mission Conference for a special District leader meeting. But when the Conference actually started it was awesome. Kind of a bummer I don't really know anyone else except for those in our Zone. I know it will come with time and more transfers but I still just get to stay in the same area. HOORAY FOR GLENDALE! There were some awesome talks by the AP's and our Mission President and His wife. Love them. Also some big news is. We will no longer have cars in a few months but instead we have been selected for a test run of getting rid of cars and exchanging them for public transportation passes... Not sure how I feel about that but we will see. At least I'll be getting good exercise on bike! After the meeting we had a great lesson with our investigator Melinda about the plan of salvation. She is progressing well but still needs to meet with us more. That night's ESL class was really good and we actually had some members show up. I ended up working with one of our members who knows pretty good english but she just wanted practice. I helped her practice and she said her and her husband will make lamb head for us this next week! Pretty excited. It sounds like they literally just cook the entire head. I'll be sure to send pictures! 

     Friday was planning. Usual. I got to go on an exchange with the Assistants to another dinner apointment while Elder Dicus went with the ZL's to another dinner. We met with a family and they graciously fed us pizza. I also got to watch how the AP's taught which was really cool. But then I found out the Zl's and Elder Dicus went to a Japanese restaurant... at least I was spiritually fed. And again that night I went on yet another exchange with Elder Twelves but we stayed in my area. 

     Saturday was Gholia's viewing and funeral. It was odd and interesting to see an Armenian funeral. Armenians usually don't show much emotion as it is. But they still didn't after a death. They would be some gooooood poker players. It was sad to see though that everyone was in so much pain and distress when we know he is in a better place. We were invited to the luncheon after the burial which we couldn't go to because it was in Burbank. So we did tours while we waited and saw Minas. Still didn't really want to talk to us. Afraid of his wife seeing him and even coming to English class. But he did give us some pizza. still love that man. but then we headed to the luncheon and it was funny at first because some people yelled out "are you invited" and then we finally saw Susanna and she told us to sit and enjoy the food. It was eerie. The place was in a banquet hall that was being remodeled. Just the feeling of death and remorse in the air isn't a pleasant conversation starter. But Susanna was very glad we came to support her. We got a service referral and helped some people move in. One of the friends who was helping was Armenian and was super impressed. the actually familiy was from Uzbekistan and had another friend from Ukraine helping. It was awesome and they were impressed as well. I realized I want to learn more languages so I don't have to stand in a conversation and wonder if people are talking about me. Next language, Russian! The rest of the day was kind of frustrating. The other Elders weren't answering and we needed to plan a time to practice singing (Elder Dicus and I sang in sacrament yesterday). all the while, Elder Twelves was begging to see Mike and Bridget when Mike had earlier told us he was having a busy week and wanted to relax. But we went and saw them for a short visit. Twelves still is jealous that Elder Dicus and I are teaching them and he isn't. He kinda just needs to focus on his area and stop telling us he isn't going to get baptized. But anyways the night ended up with no practice and on a frustrating note. 

      Sunday after a quick morning runthrough of the song with Elder Dicus and Sister Harker, we sang in sacrament! We sang 'I need thee every hour' and Elder Dicus and I miraculously learned the Alto part to the song in such a short time. It should be on facebook but not sure. People ended up clapping and yelling out BRAVO after we ended. I guess it wasn't that bad! We had a awesome lesson with our investigator Souren and his family that night. It was awesome. We watched finding faith in Christ and the family loved it and asked when we could come back and teach more. the kids love us and it is so incredible to see the family coming closer together and we get to participate. 

Well this week was super busy and It will be a good week this next week so I hope all is well at home. I love you all. Thank you for all you guys do :) 

Elder DeBry

Week 13 (3/11-3/18)

My Dearest loved ones, 

     This week has been very rewarding with all the hard work we have been putting in to finding new people to teach. And along the way, some exciting stories have been made and will be told. 

     Tuesday the ZL's who live up above us went on exchanges with another companionship. Elder Fochs stayed in the area with Elder Winfield who has only been out for a month or two. It ended up that Elder Dicus and I went up to GCC campus to meet someone for a lesson but to no avail. I learned to appreciate the simple joy of blowing someone's mind when a little white boy comes up to some old lady or armenian man and starts inviting them to learn english. Pretty funny. Which we had our first successful class that night with 5 nonmembers showing up to class! It was awesome. And i'm learning that teaching English is really quite hard. Teaching Armenian would be so much easier. But it is rewarding to help them learn and have them in the church building. 

     Wednesday I finally finished my 12 week training program. Which means I'm no longer in training officially! Woo! It was a bonding moment with Elder Dicus though. We were watching some training videos and one was where this family gets baptized and Elder Dicus ended up... umm... getting something in his eye. Just a sensitive lil guy! That afternoon we had a bomb diggity lunch with our member Christine and some home made Armenian food. Nothing gets better than that. After lunch Elder Dicus and I visited Samvel our investigator and he was outside washing his car. And we found out that he did actually come to church last sunday but didn't know where to go. So I had the idea to invite him on a church tour so he would know where to go. And it turned out well but was interesting. When we started he was kind of hesitant and he actually said that our chapel didn't feel like it was a church at all because there was no cross or stainglass windows or anything. But he said he just felt that way because he grew up in the Armenian church. But we got into the baptismal font and was explaining baptism and I invited him to be baptized and he said yes to the date of April 21! So super stoked about that. later that night we tried to go visit Minas to help him prepare for his talk this past sunday but we showed up and he basically didn't want to talk to us. Something happened but we aren't sure what. He said he made a mistake coming to our church. So not too cool. That night we met with Bridget and talked with her to help her build her testimony. She is much easier to teach when Mike isn't there because the focus is on her. She gave us some good insight on how we can help Mike. 

     Thursday after District meeting, we had a lesson with a girl we met up at GCC last week and taught her about the plan of salvation. She was quite and not giving many questions but she understood it. Especially when we were explaining the fall. Elder Dicus and I hope to invite her next time we meet this upcoming Thursday. Then we had ESL that night and it was even better than Tuesday! We had 7 nonmembers show up! It was awesome. Kind of stressful because I ended up teaching the  more advanced students while Elder Dicus taught the newbies. But it is awesome. Also found out that Bridget's bird named 'DeBry' was sick and she asked up to pray for her. I didn't want me to die! 

     Friday not much happened. We got invited to have curry with a member from the singles ward named Khou and he gave us a referral in the building he lived in. Then after that we went and picked oranges from Christine's tree again. Got another 5 bags. And then probably the most exciting thing was on our way back to the church to get our bikes, we walked past some couches that were put out on the street. So we carried the medium sized one back to the chuch so we could get it the next day to put it in our apartment! We needed a homely touch in our pad. We just hope it doesn't have bed bugs or that it has been a homeless man's bed for a while. 

     Saturday morning we moved the couch to the pad. It looks awesome. We gave a tour to one of our potential investigators and his wife. Then we went with Ashot and Hambarsoom to the LA temple visitors' center! It was strange because the last time I was there was for Kiel's wedding. But it was good. On the way there we drove on Hollywood Blvd. Saw some awesome stuff. Then we explained what we do in the temple to Hambarsoom and he understood it. And then we drove back through beverly hills and saw the mansions, 2 Ferrari's, Rolls Royce, Maserati's, and an Aston Martin. Total change from the Armenian love of Mercedes in glendale! Then we had dinner with a member from the English ward who is visiting from Utah. She and her son are famous. He is in movies and commercials and she was an opera singer on broadway. She played Carlotta in the Phantom of the Opera on Broadway. Not to mention the little boy who is 11 is like a musical prodigy on the violin. Which he played for us. Pretty awesome. The rest of the night we had a lesson with Edmond and his family and extended family who were all there. Total of 9 people listening to our lesson. Pretty awesome.

     Sunday was St. Patrick's Day and yes I did get your green package Mom and I wore a green tie. It was awesome. But Church was really good. We never got to meet with Minas so we didn't have anyone to speak so I gave a talk along with a few other members who agreed to bear their testimonies. After Church we went and visited one of our less active members, Varter, in the Hospital. She has really bad diabetes and she had to go to the hospital for it and so we just went to check up on her and offer a blessing. She is the nicest little lady who just makes you smile from her just saying Hello. She is hopefully getting released today. After that we rushed to Mike and Bridget's to meet with them. After some dinner, Elder Dicus and I re-inacted the first vision on Bridget's request. All because she said she was a visual learner. But it was good and we really broke down how Mike needed to go about reading and praying to get an answer. He still says he will try and make the date of Mar. 31 but he needs to put in the work. So we'll see. We stayed too long and forgot we had a lesson with Souren and his family. So we go there and the little 8 yr old remembered that she had asked a question and she wanted it answered. But we didn't have time so we rescheduled to answer her question on Wednesday but then we re-taught the lesson on faith because the mother was there, Hilda. And we had little Dallar and Devin teach it to her and it was awesome. I love this family. Then we had to rush to Helga's to have a lesson and another dinner with Her and her daughter Christine. And they liked our message so much that they gave us some steak to cook sometime this week. AWESOME! 

     So that is my week. Long. Busy. A lot accomplished and a lot still left undone. But I hope you all are having a great week and I hope to hear from you all soon. Love you all! 

Elder DeBry

Week 12 (3/4-3/11)

What a week it has been family and loved ones! I must say, I'm getting word from everyone (well a very few people actually) that it is around the time for spring break already! Next week will be my 5th month. Crazy how time has flown. This week was a long one. Very busy. 

     Tuesday we met with a new potential who was at one point a millionaire in Lebenon. He showed Elder Dicus and I pictures of his crazy life adventures. the more people I meet, the more I realize that I need to get out of Utah more! We checked out a few referrals we got up in Tujunga. Lets just say its pretty ghetto and every other store there had a green cross lit up in the window signifying they prescribed marijuana there. Pretty funny. Tuesday seriously was crazy. I left a lot out but just trust me on this one. 

     Wednesday on the other hand was just a bunch of attempts at trying by people but they weren't home or didn't have time. 

     Thursday was Zone Training up in La Canada. I was feeling a little under the weather but I toughed it out. We had a lesson with a member and it ended really well but before we were about to leave, they started fighting with each other and it was really awkward for us... what do we do when two grown men are yelling at each other?! Then that night we had a new member dinner with Christine and Minas there at the Bradley's. It was really fun and we got to know them better in a more comfortable environment. But I wasn't feeling super well so we stopped by and gave another member a blessing (he mixed two kinds of bleach together and it hurt his eyes at work) and then we went home early. 

     Friday we had to go give Henry a blessing early because he was sick too and was stressed from Midterms and his performance coming up this Thursday at USC. That afternoon we had lunch with the really wealthy guy, Sarkis, and his wife from Lebenon. They aren't super interested in learning from us but they would still like us to come and visit. Later we had a lesson with Hambarsoom and we brought Ashot with us and it was awesome. We had to re-teach the w.o.w. and he understood it after listening to Ashot's experiences with everything. It was awesome. Then right after that we had been invited to attend Bridget's birthday party at Mike's parents house. Which was really good because we met Mike's aunt and she wanted to talk to us more so she took us out for sushi today actually. 

     Saturday we had a lesson with Elizabet and Sona and brought Minas with us. The other Elders have been working with her and her english so we actually got to teach her a lesson that day which was nice. not much else happened. we stopped by Mike and Bridget's to see if they were home and we ended up going to get chinese with them by their house. We also found out that Bridget named her new birds after Elder Dicus and I because we gave her things for her birds as birthday gifts. 

     Sunday we forgot it was daylight savings and slept in half an hour late...oops. Church was normal. Hambarsoom came for Sacrament. Mike and Bridget had to go to a 40 day thing for Mike's uncles funeral. Armenians go back to the gravesite after 40 days and a year. After we went and had lunch with Helga and she actually says she wants to come back to church! she has to make some changes but she wants to come back because she misses the community. That night we taught a lesson to Souren and his two youngest kids, Devin, 10, and Dallar, 8. We taught them about faith and the kids really enjoyed the object lesson we used to illustrate faith. Crazy how little kids catch on so fast. 

     So looking back I guess my week wasn't too crazy. Just regular but at the time it seems crazy! Well I hope everyone is well. I love you all. Thanks for the support.

Elder DeBry

Week 11 (2/25-3/4)

Բարեվ բարեվ! I would write more in Armenian but it takes too long to figure out where all the symbols are on this keyboard! But anyways! hello after another beautiful week here in California! It was a long one for some reason but good nevertheless. 

     Last monday we had FHE with the group. And somehow with very little to no planning, Elder Dicus and I pulled a lesson out of no where. The mood went from fighting/hungry members to a happy group wanting to do more family history work. Which is what we taught about. So that was good. Even though I was exhausted after our super early morning hike last Monday. 

    Tuesday started out busy. Elder Fochs and Elder Tovey had a couple lessons planned at the same time so Elder Dicus and I went on splits with them. I got to stay work the booth up at the glendale community college while Elder Dicus went with Elder Fochs to do the lessons. It was a hot day and we just so happened to set up the booth at the time that everyone was in class but we still got a good 15 ish contact information with only an hour and a half. Pretty solid if I do say so myself! Later that night for Elder Crumrine's Birthday, we went out to celebrate at BJ's for some pizza. A guy from the singles ward came with us, Cody Owens, who is going to the Leeds England mission speaking Polish. He left for the MTC this past Wednesday. It was super fun. good food. Even better because the La Liga Championship game between Barcelona and Real Madrid was on the TV while we were there. Unfortunately Real Madrid was up when we left 1-0. We got another 4400 calorie pizzookie. super delicious. But then Later that night we all said good bye to Cody because he got set apart that night. he was a pretty cool guy even though I only met him a few times. 

     Wednesday was Zone Conference from 10-4 and it was awesome. Our Mission President is the man and really knows how to talk to make things seem so easy and do-able. So I got a lot out of that including a sort of 'Missionary Elevator speech' that Elder Dicus and I have been doing this week since then and it has worked magic! Later that night we had a lesson with Elizabet/Sona and we brought Minas along with us. I love Minas but sometimes he really isn't much help in lessons but it turns out that we have to teach him instead of the person we are there to teach. But his heart is in the right place. He is just really unsure of some major doctrine and it caused some problems! good thing that Elizabet and Sona knew there basics. You gotta love him though. Especially because he is the only one who continues to come to our Bible study class...

     Thursday we had quite a few no shows on appointments that we had set up previously. Which is really frustrating because it makes it seem like we run around in circles trying to catch these people when they are home. If only they would just give us their numbers so we could call them to confirm! We had a great dinner with the Bradley's and Ashot and Adrineh that night. It was so awesome that the lesson was going well and in the direction of us being able to pick up Adrineh as an investigator but then because our dinner appointments take so long, we had to leave for our ESL class and the other Elder picked her up instead... not too happy about that. Especially when we show up to class and no one was there! GRR! But we got to go meet up with Mike and Bridget instead and had a great lesson with them about Alma 7. If only they would actually read so we could teach them! But we decided that until they read, we are just going to read with them. 

     Friday was a typical biking/weekly planning Friday. we had an awesome session of contacting at a park where we were planning on just dropping off a French BOM to a Armenian guy from Lebanon  But it turned out to be a BBQ with a bunch of friendly/random Armenian guys who were drinking some hard stuff and cooking some delicious meat on a barbecue! It was awesome and I love the Armenian culture. They look kind of intimidating and not so friendly at first but once they find out you learned their language they open up and offer you whatever they have! Literally! It was funny and we even got an appointment to meet with the Lebanese guy Tuesday. However, the night was finished on a lower note when we went and taught Hambarsoom. He has been doing so well and understanding (or so we thought). We were talking to him about the baptismal service he went to and he said it was good and we tried to set him with a date. But that doesn't really interest him. He just wants to wait until he is ready.... not only that but when we were about to leave we followed up with how he had been doing with the W.o.w. and he said "What is that?" if that explains how well he understood our last lesson. Just don't know what to do with him! 

     Saturday was pretty awesome. We had a mini missionary (a priest age young man from the la canada stake) for the morning and afternoon. Our guy was named Aaron and he was a quite humble guy who was really cool. He got to experience quite a bit for only being with us for a few hours! We had some good street contacts and some faulty lessons. He even tried to give a armenian bom to some armenian lady while Elder Dicus and I were talking to her neighbor. Quite funny to watch and listen to what she was saying. All the time he had no idea what she was saying.

     Sunday, yesterday, was packed full of food. Right after church, which was really good and we had both of our progressing investigators there, we had a lunch with Minas, His wife Sonik, the other Elders, and the Filipino Sisters who have built a relationship with Minas' wife. they made some Parshkahi dishes including some lamb, some khash like soup but not as dense, and a lot of pickled veggies. Not a fan of pickled veggies even though I tried them all. Not even half an hour after that we went and had dinner with Mike and Bridget at the Townsend's house which is amazing and nice up in the la canada area. my first and probably one of the few times i'll have some steak on my mission! After dinner we read more out of Alma 7 with Mike and we actually had a great lesson on Faith. Hopefully that will help him build up enough to keep reading and keep his date of Mar. 31! And then the night ended with the best street contact I've had yet. His name was Pablo and long story short, he is going to come to church, he asked for our information to meet up with us, and he was SUPER grateful for the BOM we gave him. Super awesome. even though we will have to pass him off. still stoked. 

WEll I love you all and hope you have a great week! talk to you all soon!

Week 10 (2/18-2/25)

Բարեվ բարեվ!!! I found out we do have an Armenian keyboard function so I can type in it! Hopefully it shows up! But anyways! This week was pretty awesome! Well as far as I can remember it was awesome. So let me recount. 

     Last Tuesday was really fun. The local community college opened back up from its long winter break and so the new semester started. the zone leaders who serve in the singles ward down here in glendale are in charge of the institute table where they advertise the church and contact people. well the majority of the student population is armenian so the zone leaders invited us up along with some members to contact and it was awesome. rainy and cold but it was still awesome. talking to people your age is much more interesting and casual than talking to old people. as much as you love them, the young people actually have dental hygiene and aren't quite as bluntly honest/rude. later that afternoon we picked up a new elder to the mission, elder compton. he isn't in the armenian group but for some reason we did like a mini exchange before he got to go with his trainer so we had him for the afternoon/night. he was from Brigham City, Utah and a pretty quite guy. we went to a few lessons with him and he didn't say much. Even though the two lessons we brought him to with Hratch and Armen and Helga/Christine were the best lessons we have ever had with them. Hratch actually spoke of his daughter and wanting her and her family being taught. then with Christine she was actually excited to keep the commitment of writing down things she is thankful for in the day. they were awesome. but when it came to knocking later that night, he straight up refused which was kind of funny. Hopefully his trainer is more forceful than we were about making him knock on a few doors! 

     Wednesday after sending Compton off to meet his trainer, we had a lesson with Minas to teach him how he can better help us teach fellow members and even nonmembers. Even though he is one of the more solid members of our group, he still doesn't understand the doctrine. but i love him. seriously one of my favorites of the group. but then we went and helped our other recent convert Christine pick oranges from her massive orange tree. picked about 50 or so. Orange juice anyone? Then we had bible study and no one showed up... but it was still interesting because this homeless lady showed up and kept saying she had no place to stay and she just wanted help. I guess as we found out later that she had come in the church before and she absolutely refuses to go to a shelter but instead wants to be put up in a motel... she claims she is a member from Idaho but she has no idea what she is saying when she tries to explain her situation in idaho. the things you see in Cali! then we finished off with a visit to Antonia and Bella who we finally caught at home together. they work 6 days a week and usually miss church because of it. but we taught them and they shared hilarious stories about the work they do in the convalescent home. I'd share but not too much time. 

     thursday we ran into a guy at the park playing cards and he complimented me on my Armenian and said I have a better accent that Elder Dicus :) Kinda made my day! I guess I have progressed since i've been out. It is hard to see but it is coming slowly and day by day. later that day we saw the homeless lady again trying to break into the church! it was hilarous but the doors were locked and we saw her walk away. we had dinner with the Bradley's but Ashot and Adrineh finally came! I guess their daughter Arpa is stuck up in Canada and can't come back into the US because she isn't a citizen! So that would explain some of the reason why we haven't seen much of them lately. but i guess she is investigating the church up there at some relatives house and wants to live up there now! so i guess it works out alright! Then we stopped by to give Mike and Bridget some oranges from Christine's tree to find that they are fighting! but we talked with them and they seemed to chill out and we left them with each of us saying a prayer because they always argue with who has to say it... and to think they are adults! 

     Friday was very busy on account of a lesson we had before Planning with Varter and her husband that they wouldn't let us leave until they made us food! so that made us late to our planning and had to re-schedule our later visits. WE met up with Minas to go visit Elizabet and actually had a really good lesson with her about how she can act on her faith because she feels like she can do more. but the gem of the night was our lesson with Hambarsoom (which i found out i've been saying/spelling it wrong forever). we taught him about the gospel of christ and it was bomb. so bomb that i went straight into teaching him about the word of wisdom after I finished explaining eduring to the end and he just simply said that he'd keep the commitment to live it! no questions. he only said that he knew he had the faith to live it. straight up!  and that is that! 

     Saturday after our open house of the church, we went and ate at Tommy's burgers just because Dad told me to. Everyone says thanks dad because I decided that I would just have lunch be on you :) so thanks! it made me full enough to start our zone fast that we were doing from Sat-Sun. Our zone has been struggling to have solid investigators so we fasted and it helped already! after lunch we met up with Hambarsoom and took him to a baptismal service at the church just so he could see one. but it was in spanish but thankfully he got the gist of what was going on. later that night we stopped by Edmond and his wife and it was awesome because they were so inquisitive and they invited us to come back next saturday. 

     Sunday was awesome. Hambo's uncle Sedrak came to church (he is the high functioning autistic). we taught mike and bridget and we COMITTED MIKE TO BE BAPTIZED ON MARCH 31! Even though he has some concerns to get answered first we know he can be ready to be baptized on that day. so after all these years he is finally progressing! 

So that is my week. pretty awesome and way stoked about our fast and Mike's/Hambarsoom's lesson. Hopefully things keep going up like they are! Love you all and hope to hear from you all soon! Have a great week! 

 Երեց Դեբրայ

Elder DeBry