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
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
Week 94 (10/6-10/13)
13 October 2014
Overview: HIT MY TWO YEAR MARK, found some new investigators, awesome
potentials, did a lot of service and I went to the temple this morning
and woke up at 3:13! Woohoo for tiredness!
Monday:
Lesson with Hermine: Kristina Avagyan came, talked about conference.
Hermine is so solid and she said she felt a special spirit when she
heard the prophet speak.
Pday: Went shopping w/zls; Went golfing - elder cale won; Went to the
church - emailed
Tried by George - rescheduled for Wednesday
Tried by Hayrapet, wasn't home
Tried by Edwin - Verzhik was home, talked to her about work
Tried by Anahid - Pedro wasn't home, studying for tests, gave us water
Contacted Ryan on the street - new world order, referral for zls
Lesson with Maria - hadn't read, new meds, said prayer
Visited Dalar, Devin & Souren: Souren just barely left, Dalar saying
"thanks for understanding" and set a time for us to come back
Lesson with Mike: said no one stops by to see how he is. Shared D&C
6:36. Invited him to read BofM title page. He wanted to say prayer -
super sincere and appreciative.
Visited Eligio - told us of awesome experience during conference, gave
him our ties that he can wear to church, said he is positive he is
going to be baptized.
Tuesday:
Gave Kristina A. a blessing for her upcoming stresses in school.
Called us wizards because we discerned it was for school and I wanted
to reply "thumpin' good ones too".
Awesome day at GCC - went up with other Armenian Elders. Smith
actually talked to people, Tavoian and Cook didn't. Talked to a bunch
of people who gave us their information (facebook, email, phone or
address) and said they'd want to learn more or agreed to watch a video
or something like that. Funny story: I approached this one Armenian
girl in passing and asked if I could give her a card and she said sure
and then said she had seen me before. I was confused and thought it
might have been from facebook or that YouTube video I have floating
around some were but she said that I was the one who spoke Armenian to
some of her friends last week and they SNAPCHATTED ME. So we had a
good conversation and she agreed to meet again to learn more. Also
found a former investigator who lives in LA who said she wanted
missionaries to come again. So one of the more productive days at GCC
for sure! I think it is because we had an awesomely productive Monday.
Had lunch at the institute.
Dropped off the other elders to have lesson with Armen. Then did
language study at the church.
Met up with Nate to talk and he took us to this place at the Americana
mall called Sprinkles which is supposed to be awesome and it totally
lived up to its awesome cupcake expectations. Talked about living in a
way to be humble and feeling the spirit more. Nate is just awesome.
Knocked: Spazier - a lot of good contacts. One man, Harut, tried to
say we were liars and was a bit pesky. He had a book he tried to show
us of our beliefs that his church produced and he was reading it and
it was just a bunch of garbage and he believed it all! It was
pointless trying to tell him he wasn't being very reasonable in
telling us what WE believed according to his Armenian Church. I say he
was pesky because when we went to the next building over to knock he
was yelling up at us and all the people we were talking to that they
shouldn't listen to us, we weren't Christian and to ask us how much
money we and our leaders in the church get paid... Ridiculous.
Dinner with the other Armos at Panda.
Splits with leadership - went with Bradley to go visit Christina
Avoian - taught about General Conference
Wednesday:
GCC Booth - pretty slow day, Elder Judd was on splits with Elder Cale;
one guy Joseph came up smiling and looked like he was asking for
trouble but he was pretty sincere with his questions and listened to
me as I taught him the restoration.
Lunch at GCC
Was an answer to some guys prayer! Pushed some his car out from under
the overpass which had just died on him.
Attempted to go knocking but Elder Tavoian started to get a pretty bad
migraine and so we had to go get some Tylenol for him and by that
point we just stuck around the church and finished language study.
Lesson with Hermine: cancelled unfortunately. She said some emergency
came up and she wasn't able to meet with us.
Knocked western: total dud. No one was really home or interested in
talking to us.
Biked ALLLLLLLLL the way up to the top of cypress by the sunset canyon
bldg in burbank to meet with George who told us to come back... His
son answered and said he wouldn't be home for another hour. So we
tried by some other potentials: Hayrapet wasn't home again, Joseph we
called and he said he wasn't home but to try back some other time.
Tried by Margarita but only her daughter Evelin was home.
Met up with zls for dinner at McDonalds. Noms. They have monopoly
again if anyone didn't know.
Stopped by Helga's and they were home and let us in! We interrupted
one of Christine's online class/meeting/discussion ban but Helga let
us in and fed us more food... They said they had been mad at us
because Christine had called Elder Tavoian a while back and he never
called back about a question she had. Also she kept bringing up stuff
about what she had been studying in one of her classes about gender
roles and how prophets have said in the past that women should just
stay home. She was kind of peeved at that but oh well. There is always
something, but had a lesson with them. Christine gave us a tennis
racket of theirs,
Thursday:
Lunch with other Armenians at Islands
Weekly planning - Rita going through a rough time, Hambarsoom not
wanting to meet
Knocking Allen - taught lesson Edmond: had met missionaries before,
goes to church for the free food, never married. Liked the lesson of
the restoration. Said closing prayer.
Picked up other Armos from Armen's - they are recording a record.
Dinner at Bradley's
Visited some potentials up the Glenoaks corridor - not home/wrong
address; Dalar & Devin said their dad was working again and to come
tomorrow.
Got Tavoian's stuff to exchange with Brough & Ward
Friday: MY TWO YEAR MARK
On exchanges with Elder Brough
Lesson with Edmond: accepted Book of Mormon, unsure of baptism because
he is shy, said he had read the restoration pamphlet and believed it
was true.
Zone meeting: talked about our vision as a zone - converted
missionaries and converted members, goal is to feel the spirit, love
the people and be exactly obedient and our plan is to work with less
active members. Really strong testimonied and spirited meeting.
Watched MEET THE MORMONS! It was so awesome and I highly recommend
seeing it and invite everyone to bring a friend who isn't a member of
the church.
Lesson with Hermine & Elin: followed up on praying and reading,
reviewed the Ten Commandments (she did AWESOME on remembering them all
and re teaching them to us!), the taught being obedient, following the
prophet and the word of wisdom. "Everyone drinks coffee!" Asked if we
could come over every day. Hermine and Elin tag teamed the closing
prayer.
Dinner with: Armenians and Judd/Lim.
Went back to the pad decided to walk up to knock and visit less active
members (which I've decided to do because I don't know any of them
other than the notes passed down from previous elders. While walking
up we were stopped by a man who turned out to be a referral that we
had received that day from the Spanish sisters and we were walking to
see him but he stopped us first.
Lesson with Henrik: stopped us, drove us to a park, walked around the
block, didn't want to sit down, taught a walking lesson of the gospel
of Jesus Christ, went back to the car and talked about baptism,
dropped us off at Office Depot and set return appointment.
Called Spanish hermanas to ask them about Henrik and ran into Anna who
is an Armenian from London but visiting her grandmother for a few
weeks. Loved that I spoke Armenian. Wanted her daughter to come and
get married in our Church. Wants us to go visit her in London. Gave us
address. Super nice.
Lesson with Hellen Petrosyan: said was a member 20 years or so ago,
was baptized and went for two or three years then realized that she
only needed Christ. Told us how well she knows the Bible, told us we
needed to believe in the trinity, was very bold with her in saying she
needed to be humble and willing to follow Christ and she was a bit
taken aback. Said she loved us and respected our work but didn't agree
with Prophets/Joseph Smith. Said closing prayer in Armenain and she
was surprised. Sent us off with a hug and some cake.
Asked Ashot for a ride home. Talked to us why he hadn't been coming.
Has to do with leadership and Hambarsoom.
Biked to go see Aghakhanyan family - Dalar said Monday night.
Dropped off Brough and picked up Tavoian.
Saturday:
Morning workout on the field again! Woohoo!
Service for Bridget @ Mike's parents home - cleaned out the chicken
coops and built new shelves for them, had to kill lots of spider; Lida
made breakfast for us, Melissa was happy to have us over.
Rushed home and got ready and walked up to Henrik's, zls saw us
walking and gave us a ride.
Lesson with Henrik: We stopped by at the time we told him we would and
he was waiting for us on the porch. He said his dad was home and so we
couldn't meet in the house but he wanted to go on a walk so we decided
to walk to the church. We talk to him about his family on the way and
told him a little more about our purpose as missionaries and what our
church can do for him. We got to the church and started to get him a
church tour. When we were explaining the sacrament he got a call from
his brother who was borrowing his car and informed him that he just
got in an accident. So we quickly finished up by showing him the
Sunday school room and he committed to come tomorrow. He said he felt
the spirit in the chapel and he seemed sincere about coming tomorrow.
We are still not quite sure about what situation he is with his wife
but we learned that his two children are 17 and 10, one boy and girl.
The other Armenian Elders came and picked us up from the church and we
had lunch at home really quick and then headed up to Crescenta Valley
High school where there was a Armenian-Korean Community festival that
was free so we thought we'd check it out. It was pretty lame and not
much of an opportunity for us to proselyte. The ideal thing would have
been to have a booth set up but we didn't quite think of that in time.
So we went back to the Church and studied. We were interrupted mid way
by the other a elders bringing in Armen Avakian to do something with
him computer. So we left and finished studies and putting in
potentials into the iPad and then got asked by the other Elders and
Armen to have dinner with them and wanted us to stop by Little Ceasars
for some pizza. Then brought it back to Armen's where Cook was still
working on the recording that he and Armen are doing of some of the
hymns. It was funny, Armen said he'd pay us back for the pizza he
requested then pulls out of his wallet a five and a one and he said
which bill will cover it? Oh Armen...
We left and dropped the other Armenians to a referral that Elder
Brough gave to us for some service and then we went and saw/taught
Mike.
Lesson with Mike: he was hesitant to let us in at first because he
said his girlfriend was just about to come over. But he called and
asked if we could talk for a bit and she said that we could. We
followed up on how his reading had been and he said he didn't have the
chance to read. We taught again why we were having him read and he
seemed to understand. He brought up the fact again that he kept
hearing paranormal things in his kitchen and so we were able to teach
him how the light that he keeps on we can have in our own lives to
drive the darkness out. He committed to pray and read. We told him
that a greater power would come from those things. We also brought up
that as we continue to meet with him we'll help him be more physically
in line with God's will and morally to help him feel the spirit. He
told us he'd come to church tomorrow as well so hopefully he does! He
said the closing prayer and it made a different feel in his room. He
wants us to meet with his girlfriend this next week so hopefully that
happens!
Got called again by the other Armo Elders to come help them transport
all the rest of the yard sale they helped clean up. So we piled it all
up in the car and then went to the church to unload it. We pillaged
some good stuff too!
Final visits for the night were to some inactive members that we are
trying to visit. The first was a Masis Zograbyan who lives right
across the street from Natalie and Trea. He wasn't home but his family
was. Funny thing is I have talked to that family before but didn't
know they were members. Next we were going to go to Margarita's but
felt like we shouldn't so we went to Milford to visit a name of Vrezh
Fakhoorian. We pulled up and I recognized that we had knocked that
street and building so we turned the corner and low and behold are the
zone leaders Cale and Adamsom going to visit the same person on
account of their Ward council requesting them to visit. Seriously was
inspired! We split up and Cale and I knocked one level and found out
that the man hadn't lived there in 7 years... So we left the building
and walked up the street to another potential that I remembered,
Armineh, who was impressed with our Armenian. We walked passed and
some youth are doing some work on the driveway and we offer to help
and they were weirded out and asked why so we got to explaining what
we as missionaries do and the one oldest son was interested in coming
to church tomorrow so the zls gave him a car for the singles ward.
Then the Mom, Armineh, and another daughter come out and she said she
remembered me and told her kids I spoke Armenian and she was happy to
see us and gave me a hug** never quite sure what to do in those
situations... But anyways we explained again how we learned and
whatnot but then Armineh wanted to know what our church was. So we
told her !ormons and she said she hadn't heard much good about
Mormons. She asked what we believed so I explained the restoration and
how we have a prophet today and we showed her a picture and she
thought he looked like a old man. But the spirit was there while we
were teaching and testifying and there was a sincerity of her wanting
to listen which was awesome. She said she worked as a hair dresser but
that we needed to come back again and talk more so we got her number
again and left.
It was an awesome, inspired evening. It is just awesome to see how we
are carefully lead by the spirit to those who are prepared. I mean
Tavoian and I had knocked that street but wanted to go back again
tonight instead of following the scheduled plans, ran into the zls who
were doing the same, go by a potential who is outside with her kids
and she turns out to be really, really awesome and sweet. This is the
Lord's work! I mean Armineh tonight, Henrik yesterday finding us as we
were going to visit him in his home and so many other things. It has
just been awesome.
Sunday:
Church: Elin & Hermine came, no show on Henrik and Mike... Had a good
group council, talked about my visit with Ashot the other night while
he was driving us home, Smaller attendance today, I taught the lesson
in Priesthood - the lesson was supposed to be out of the manual about
preaching the gospel but I made it more honed in on what was
missionary work and how we can measure out success. I'd say it went
pretty well and we had some good participation and I think Armen
Gevorgyan is going to reach out to the man, Edgar, who came to church
after the flyer activity. Sacrament was good. Still so awesome to see
Hermine & Elin sitting and singing together. Debra and Bro Bradley
gave the talks and there was a good spirit there. Didn't get a lesson
in with Hermine afterwards but set up a lesson for tomorrow morning.
Brother Bradley brought us some lunch
Elder Smith and I went to Forest Lawn with Armen.
Studied at the Church
Attempted to go out and knock but we ran into Eligio on our way biking
up to the border of the mission and he talked to us for quite a while
about his experience with general conference and how everyone no
matter what religious background should have a chance to go there
because as he described it there is a "power there" that can't be
described. It is awesome to hear of the workings of the spirit with
him and to see the change in him.
Biked up to see some potentials on Spazier, namely Joseph but he wasn't home.
Lesson with Margarita: we stopped by and she was excited to see us.
She told us that her daughter Evalina had just told her that we
stopped by earlier in the week and that she forgot to tell her. She
told us of some personal problems that she is going through at the
time with her work, tests for a board exam, her clients/students and
some of her family going through some stuff. We prayer with her and
she asked what she could do about the situation she is in. We read
with her from 1 Nephi 16 about Nephi and his bow breaking. We taught
her that just as Nephi is strickened with hunger for the lack of food
and turns to the prophet and Lord for guidance that she can do the
same. Not only that but God had provided them and her tools before we
even face our trials that we can use for direction according to our
faithfulness and diligence. She seemed to think her prayers were
enough but felt the spirit from what we had to say. She got pretty off
topic and started talking about how much she enjoyed having us over
and how she could see that we were going to be successful in life. But
we invited her and her family to the picnic next Saturday but she said
she wouldn't be able to come.
Monday:
Had a lesson set up with her meanie in the morning. She called during
studies and canceled it because one of her friends got into an
accident and she couldn't make it.
Went to GCC and did the booth with the zone leaders. It was even
slower than a typical Wednesday which was a bummer.
Had lunch at GCC Institute.
Lesson with Mike: He had texted us earlier in the day and told us that
his girlfriend broke up with him and that he was in an "extreme
depression". We went over and let him vent some of his feelings and we
went really sure what to tell him. We told him that he had a purpose
in this life and these things were part of gods plan. We told him that
if you wanted to make a change in his life we would help him and it
would start through baptism. He committed to be baptized on November
2. He asked what he needed to do and we set the expectations that we
would visit him throughout the week, he would come to church read and
pray. We also brought up the word of wisdom and taught him that. He
told us that he was a heroin addict's but that he hadn't used in over
three months. He still has a problem with smoking including marijuana
but he said that he would be able to overcome them. We gave him the
option of what congregation he would like to go to and he said he
would like to try out the student congregation. He got kind of mad at
us because he said that he needed to go to the doctors to get some of
his anxiety medication and we couldn't give him a ride. It turned out
well though because we gave him a ride with Nate later on that day.
Even though he still wanted more and was trying to get us to drive him
other places as well. Hopefully he can start to make those changes and
turned out to be pretty solid. He has a sincere desire which is good.
Went knocking on Raymond.
We drove back to Mike's and met Nate there and that is when we drove
him to his doctors appointment. They dropped us off at the church
because he had to go after we went quickly shopping with him and then
we had to walk home unfortunately.
Lesson with Edmond: he wasn't expecting us to stop by but he let us in
anyways. He talked about his weekends including the churches that he
went to and all the free lunch that he gets there. We followed up with
how his book of Mormon reading had been and he said because he had
been so busy he didn't have time. We followed up with his praying to
know if our message was true and he said that he didn't need to pray
but knew that what we were saying was true. But for some reason he
just couldn't connect the fact that if these things were true that
meant that we had the restored authority of God and he would need to
be baptized again. We had a long discussion about baptism including
why Jesus Christ was baptized, his belief that we don't necessarily
need to be baptized and overall how no matter what way you believe we
will all end up with God if we do more good than bad in this life. We
tried to teach him from the Scriptures mostly from the Bible but he
didn't know his scriptures very well and didn't seem to have much
effect on him. We basically dropped him and said when he wants to
learn more and when he finally read from the book of Mormon he can
give us a call. He just doesn't seem to understand the need to be
baptized and so we will push him to the side for now.
Tried by dollar and her family but doll I was not feeling great and
already in bed and Devon said that his dad was busy doing schoolwork.
Drove down to try by roast him but he wasn't home either. Ended the
night by picking up the other elders at Armand's house and praying
with him.
Had probably the fastest planning session ever and was in bed and
probably asleep before 930 because we got up at 3:45 this morning to
head to the temple and catch the 530 session.
Elder Tanner DeBry
Overview: HIT MY TWO YEAR MARK, found some new investigators, awesome
potentials, did a lot of service and I went to the temple this morning
and woke up at 3:13! Woohoo for tiredness!
Monday:
Lesson with Hermine: Kristina Avagyan came, talked about conference.
Hermine is so solid and she said she felt a special spirit when she
heard the prophet speak.
Pday: Went shopping w/zls; Went golfing - elder cale won; Went to the
church - emailed
Tried by George - rescheduled for Wednesday
Tried by Hayrapet, wasn't home
Tried by Edwin - Verzhik was home, talked to her about work
Tried by Anahid - Pedro wasn't home, studying for tests, gave us water
Contacted Ryan on the street - new world order, referral for zls
Lesson with Maria - hadn't read, new meds, said prayer
Visited Dalar, Devin & Souren: Souren just barely left, Dalar saying
"thanks for understanding" and set a time for us to come back
Lesson with Mike: said no one stops by to see how he is. Shared D&C
6:36. Invited him to read BofM title page. He wanted to say prayer -
super sincere and appreciative.
Visited Eligio - told us of awesome experience during conference, gave
him our ties that he can wear to church, said he is positive he is
going to be baptized.
Tuesday:
Gave Kristina A. a blessing for her upcoming stresses in school.
Called us wizards because we discerned it was for school and I wanted
to reply "thumpin' good ones too".
Awesome day at GCC - went up with other Armenian Elders. Smith
actually talked to people, Tavoian and Cook didn't. Talked to a bunch
of people who gave us their information (facebook, email, phone or
address) and said they'd want to learn more or agreed to watch a video
or something like that. Funny story: I approached this one Armenian
girl in passing and asked if I could give her a card and she said sure
and then said she had seen me before. I was confused and thought it
might have been from facebook or that YouTube video I have floating
around some were but she said that I was the one who spoke Armenian to
some of her friends last week and they SNAPCHATTED ME. So we had a
good conversation and she agreed to meet again to learn more. Also
found a former investigator who lives in LA who said she wanted
missionaries to come again. So one of the more productive days at GCC
for sure! I think it is because we had an awesomely productive Monday.
Had lunch at the institute.
Dropped off the other elders to have lesson with Armen. Then did
language study at the church.
Met up with Nate to talk and he took us to this place at the Americana
mall called Sprinkles which is supposed to be awesome and it totally
lived up to its awesome cupcake expectations. Talked about living in a
way to be humble and feeling the spirit more. Nate is just awesome.
Knocked: Spazier - a lot of good contacts. One man, Harut, tried to
say we were liars and was a bit pesky. He had a book he tried to show
us of our beliefs that his church produced and he was reading it and
it was just a bunch of garbage and he believed it all! It was
pointless trying to tell him he wasn't being very reasonable in
telling us what WE believed according to his Armenian Church. I say he
was pesky because when we went to the next building over to knock he
was yelling up at us and all the people we were talking to that they
shouldn't listen to us, we weren't Christian and to ask us how much
money we and our leaders in the church get paid... Ridiculous.
Dinner with the other Armos at Panda.
Splits with leadership - went with Bradley to go visit Christina
Avoian - taught about General Conference
Wednesday:
GCC Booth - pretty slow day, Elder Judd was on splits with Elder Cale;
one guy Joseph came up smiling and looked like he was asking for
trouble but he was pretty sincere with his questions and listened to
me as I taught him the restoration.
Lunch at GCC
Was an answer to some guys prayer! Pushed some his car out from under
the overpass which had just died on him.
Attempted to go knocking but Elder Tavoian started to get a pretty bad
migraine and so we had to go get some Tylenol for him and by that
point we just stuck around the church and finished language study.
Lesson with Hermine: cancelled unfortunately. She said some emergency
came up and she wasn't able to meet with us.
Knocked western: total dud. No one was really home or interested in
talking to us.
Biked ALLLLLLLLL the way up to the top of cypress by the sunset canyon
bldg in burbank to meet with George who told us to come back... His
son answered and said he wouldn't be home for another hour. So we
tried by some other potentials: Hayrapet wasn't home again, Joseph we
called and he said he wasn't home but to try back some other time.
Tried by Margarita but only her daughter Evelin was home.
Met up with zls for dinner at McDonalds. Noms. They have monopoly
again if anyone didn't know.
Stopped by Helga's and they were home and let us in! We interrupted
one of Christine's online class/meeting/discussion ban but Helga let
us in and fed us more food... They said they had been mad at us
because Christine had called Elder Tavoian a while back and he never
called back about a question she had. Also she kept bringing up stuff
about what she had been studying in one of her classes about gender
roles and how prophets have said in the past that women should just
stay home. She was kind of peeved at that but oh well. There is always
something, but had a lesson with them. Christine gave us a tennis
racket of theirs,
Thursday:
Lunch with other Armenians at Islands
Weekly planning - Rita going through a rough time, Hambarsoom not
wanting to meet
Knocking Allen - taught lesson Edmond: had met missionaries before,
goes to church for the free food, never married. Liked the lesson of
the restoration. Said closing prayer.
Picked up other Armos from Armen's - they are recording a record.
Dinner at Bradley's
Visited some potentials up the Glenoaks corridor - not home/wrong
address; Dalar & Devin said their dad was working again and to come
tomorrow.
Got Tavoian's stuff to exchange with Brough & Ward
Friday: MY TWO YEAR MARK
On exchanges with Elder Brough
Lesson with Edmond: accepted Book of Mormon, unsure of baptism because
he is shy, said he had read the restoration pamphlet and believed it
was true.
Zone meeting: talked about our vision as a zone - converted
missionaries and converted members, goal is to feel the spirit, love
the people and be exactly obedient and our plan is to work with less
active members. Really strong testimonied and spirited meeting.
Watched MEET THE MORMONS! It was so awesome and I highly recommend
seeing it and invite everyone to bring a friend who isn't a member of
the church.
Lesson with Hermine & Elin: followed up on praying and reading,
reviewed the Ten Commandments (she did AWESOME on remembering them all
and re teaching them to us!), the taught being obedient, following the
prophet and the word of wisdom. "Everyone drinks coffee!" Asked if we
could come over every day. Hermine and Elin tag teamed the closing
prayer.
Dinner with: Armenians and Judd/Lim.
Went back to the pad decided to walk up to knock and visit less active
members (which I've decided to do because I don't know any of them
other than the notes passed down from previous elders. While walking
up we were stopped by a man who turned out to be a referral that we
had received that day from the Spanish sisters and we were walking to
see him but he stopped us first.
Lesson with Henrik: stopped us, drove us to a park, walked around the
block, didn't want to sit down, taught a walking lesson of the gospel
of Jesus Christ, went back to the car and talked about baptism,
dropped us off at Office Depot and set return appointment.
Called Spanish hermanas to ask them about Henrik and ran into Anna who
is an Armenian from London but visiting her grandmother for a few
weeks. Loved that I spoke Armenian. Wanted her daughter to come and
get married in our Church. Wants us to go visit her in London. Gave us
address. Super nice.
Lesson with Hellen Petrosyan: said was a member 20 years or so ago,
was baptized and went for two or three years then realized that she
only needed Christ. Told us how well she knows the Bible, told us we
needed to believe in the trinity, was very bold with her in saying she
needed to be humble and willing to follow Christ and she was a bit
taken aback. Said she loved us and respected our work but didn't agree
with Prophets/Joseph Smith. Said closing prayer in Armenain and she
was surprised. Sent us off with a hug and some cake.
Asked Ashot for a ride home. Talked to us why he hadn't been coming.
Has to do with leadership and Hambarsoom.
Biked to go see Aghakhanyan family - Dalar said Monday night.
Dropped off Brough and picked up Tavoian.
Saturday:
Morning workout on the field again! Woohoo!
Service for Bridget @ Mike's parents home - cleaned out the chicken
coops and built new shelves for them, had to kill lots of spider; Lida
made breakfast for us, Melissa was happy to have us over.
Rushed home and got ready and walked up to Henrik's, zls saw us
walking and gave us a ride.
Lesson with Henrik: We stopped by at the time we told him we would and
he was waiting for us on the porch. He said his dad was home and so we
couldn't meet in the house but he wanted to go on a walk so we decided
to walk to the church. We talk to him about his family on the way and
told him a little more about our purpose as missionaries and what our
church can do for him. We got to the church and started to get him a
church tour. When we were explaining the sacrament he got a call from
his brother who was borrowing his car and informed him that he just
got in an accident. So we quickly finished up by showing him the
Sunday school room and he committed to come tomorrow. He said he felt
the spirit in the chapel and he seemed sincere about coming tomorrow.
We are still not quite sure about what situation he is with his wife
but we learned that his two children are 17 and 10, one boy and girl.
The other Armenian Elders came and picked us up from the church and we
had lunch at home really quick and then headed up to Crescenta Valley
High school where there was a Armenian-Korean Community festival that
was free so we thought we'd check it out. It was pretty lame and not
much of an opportunity for us to proselyte. The ideal thing would have
been to have a booth set up but we didn't quite think of that in time.
So we went back to the Church and studied. We were interrupted mid way
by the other a elders bringing in Armen Avakian to do something with
him computer. So we left and finished studies and putting in
potentials into the iPad and then got asked by the other Elders and
Armen to have dinner with them and wanted us to stop by Little Ceasars
for some pizza. Then brought it back to Armen's where Cook was still
working on the recording that he and Armen are doing of some of the
hymns. It was funny, Armen said he'd pay us back for the pizza he
requested then pulls out of his wallet a five and a one and he said
which bill will cover it? Oh Armen...
We left and dropped the other Armenians to a referral that Elder
Brough gave to us for some service and then we went and saw/taught
Mike.
Lesson with Mike: he was hesitant to let us in at first because he
said his girlfriend was just about to come over. But he called and
asked if we could talk for a bit and she said that we could. We
followed up on how his reading had been and he said he didn't have the
chance to read. We taught again why we were having him read and he
seemed to understand. He brought up the fact again that he kept
hearing paranormal things in his kitchen and so we were able to teach
him how the light that he keeps on we can have in our own lives to
drive the darkness out. He committed to pray and read. We told him
that a greater power would come from those things. We also brought up
that as we continue to meet with him we'll help him be more physically
in line with God's will and morally to help him feel the spirit. He
told us he'd come to church tomorrow as well so hopefully he does! He
said the closing prayer and it made a different feel in his room. He
wants us to meet with his girlfriend this next week so hopefully that
happens!
Got called again by the other Armo Elders to come help them transport
all the rest of the yard sale they helped clean up. So we piled it all
up in the car and then went to the church to unload it. We pillaged
some good stuff too!
Final visits for the night were to some inactive members that we are
trying to visit. The first was a Masis Zograbyan who lives right
across the street from Natalie and Trea. He wasn't home but his family
was. Funny thing is I have talked to that family before but didn't
know they were members. Next we were going to go to Margarita's but
felt like we shouldn't so we went to Milford to visit a name of Vrezh
Fakhoorian. We pulled up and I recognized that we had knocked that
street and building so we turned the corner and low and behold are the
zone leaders Cale and Adamsom going to visit the same person on
account of their Ward council requesting them to visit. Seriously was
inspired! We split up and Cale and I knocked one level and found out
that the man hadn't lived there in 7 years... So we left the building
and walked up the street to another potential that I remembered,
Armineh, who was impressed with our Armenian. We walked passed and
some youth are doing some work on the driveway and we offer to help
and they were weirded out and asked why so we got to explaining what
we as missionaries do and the one oldest son was interested in coming
to church tomorrow so the zls gave him a car for the singles ward.
Then the Mom, Armineh, and another daughter come out and she said she
remembered me and told her kids I spoke Armenian and she was happy to
see us and gave me a hug** never quite sure what to do in those
situations... But anyways we explained again how we learned and
whatnot but then Armineh wanted to know what our church was. So we
told her !ormons and she said she hadn't heard much good about
Mormons. She asked what we believed so I explained the restoration and
how we have a prophet today and we showed her a picture and she
thought he looked like a old man. But the spirit was there while we
were teaching and testifying and there was a sincerity of her wanting
to listen which was awesome. She said she worked as a hair dresser but
that we needed to come back again and talk more so we got her number
again and left.
It was an awesome, inspired evening. It is just awesome to see how we
are carefully lead by the spirit to those who are prepared. I mean
Tavoian and I had knocked that street but wanted to go back again
tonight instead of following the scheduled plans, ran into the zls who
were doing the same, go by a potential who is outside with her kids
and she turns out to be really, really awesome and sweet. This is the
Lord's work! I mean Armineh tonight, Henrik yesterday finding us as we
were going to visit him in his home and so many other things. It has
just been awesome.
Sunday:
Church: Elin & Hermine came, no show on Henrik and Mike... Had a good
group council, talked about my visit with Ashot the other night while
he was driving us home, Smaller attendance today, I taught the lesson
in Priesthood - the lesson was supposed to be out of the manual about
preaching the gospel but I made it more honed in on what was
missionary work and how we can measure out success. I'd say it went
pretty well and we had some good participation and I think Armen
Gevorgyan is going to reach out to the man, Edgar, who came to church
after the flyer activity. Sacrament was good. Still so awesome to see
Hermine & Elin sitting and singing together. Debra and Bro Bradley
gave the talks and there was a good spirit there. Didn't get a lesson
in with Hermine afterwards but set up a lesson for tomorrow morning.
Brother Bradley brought us some lunch
Elder Smith and I went to Forest Lawn with Armen.
Studied at the Church
Attempted to go out and knock but we ran into Eligio on our way biking
up to the border of the mission and he talked to us for quite a while
about his experience with general conference and how everyone no
matter what religious background should have a chance to go there
because as he described it there is a "power there" that can't be
described. It is awesome to hear of the workings of the spirit with
him and to see the change in him.
Biked up to see some potentials on Spazier, namely Joseph but he wasn't home.
Lesson with Margarita: we stopped by and she was excited to see us.
She told us that her daughter Evalina had just told her that we
stopped by earlier in the week and that she forgot to tell her. She
told us of some personal problems that she is going through at the
time with her work, tests for a board exam, her clients/students and
some of her family going through some stuff. We prayer with her and
she asked what she could do about the situation she is in. We read
with her from 1 Nephi 16 about Nephi and his bow breaking. We taught
her that just as Nephi is strickened with hunger for the lack of food
and turns to the prophet and Lord for guidance that she can do the
same. Not only that but God had provided them and her tools before we
even face our trials that we can use for direction according to our
faithfulness and diligence. She seemed to think her prayers were
enough but felt the spirit from what we had to say. She got pretty off
topic and started talking about how much she enjoyed having us over
and how she could see that we were going to be successful in life. But
we invited her and her family to the picnic next Saturday but she said
she wouldn't be able to come.
Monday:
Had a lesson set up with her meanie in the morning. She called during
studies and canceled it because one of her friends got into an
accident and she couldn't make it.
Went to GCC and did the booth with the zone leaders. It was even
slower than a typical Wednesday which was a bummer.
Had lunch at GCC Institute.
Lesson with Mike: He had texted us earlier in the day and told us that
his girlfriend broke up with him and that he was in an "extreme
depression". We went over and let him vent some of his feelings and we
went really sure what to tell him. We told him that he had a purpose
in this life and these things were part of gods plan. We told him that
if you wanted to make a change in his life we would help him and it
would start through baptism. He committed to be baptized on November
2. He asked what he needed to do and we set the expectations that we
would visit him throughout the week, he would come to church read and
pray. We also brought up the word of wisdom and taught him that. He
told us that he was a heroin addict's but that he hadn't used in over
three months. He still has a problem with smoking including marijuana
but he said that he would be able to overcome them. We gave him the
option of what congregation he would like to go to and he said he
would like to try out the student congregation. He got kind of mad at
us because he said that he needed to go to the doctors to get some of
his anxiety medication and we couldn't give him a ride. It turned out
well though because we gave him a ride with Nate later on that day.
Even though he still wanted more and was trying to get us to drive him
other places as well. Hopefully he can start to make those changes and
turned out to be pretty solid. He has a sincere desire which is good.
Went knocking on Raymond.
We drove back to Mike's and met Nate there and that is when we drove
him to his doctors appointment. They dropped us off at the church
because he had to go after we went quickly shopping with him and then
we had to walk home unfortunately.
Lesson with Edmond: he wasn't expecting us to stop by but he let us in
anyways. He talked about his weekends including the churches that he
went to and all the free lunch that he gets there. We followed up with
how his book of Mormon reading had been and he said because he had
been so busy he didn't have time. We followed up with his praying to
know if our message was true and he said that he didn't need to pray
but knew that what we were saying was true. But for some reason he
just couldn't connect the fact that if these things were true that
meant that we had the restored authority of God and he would need to
be baptized again. We had a long discussion about baptism including
why Jesus Christ was baptized, his belief that we don't necessarily
need to be baptized and overall how no matter what way you believe we
will all end up with God if we do more good than bad in this life. We
tried to teach him from the Scriptures mostly from the Bible but he
didn't know his scriptures very well and didn't seem to have much
effect on him. We basically dropped him and said when he wants to
learn more and when he finally read from the book of Mormon he can
give us a call. He just doesn't seem to understand the need to be
baptized and so we will push him to the side for now.
Tried by dollar and her family but doll I was not feeling great and
already in bed and Devon said that his dad was busy doing schoolwork.
Drove down to try by roast him but he wasn't home either. Ended the
night by picking up the other elders at Armand's house and praying
with him.
Had probably the fastest planning session ever and was in bed and
probably asleep before 930 because we got up at 3:45 this morning to
head to the temple and catch the 530 session.
Elder Tanner DeBry
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