Chino, California: Week 57

Merry Christmas!!!

I hope everyone has had a great Christmas day!

It's been a fun one for us! We all opened up presents together, and some members from our ward brought breakfast and dinner for us. Also, my companion gave me his old hair cutting set, then a member came over with presents for us and I got... another hair cutting kit! I think it's a sign, I guess I'm just meant to cut hair.

On Monday we went over to have a lesson with Don, who is from Sri Lanka, a country I had never heard of. When we left he gave us some amazing Sri Lankan food, which was really good but about as spicy as I can handle. I always love trying new foods and things from other countries. 

On Wednesday, we went and did a service project with Salvation Army handing out Christmas packages. Then last night, we went around to all the investigators we're teaching and dropped off some Sprite and popcorn with a little Christmas message "Thought we'd pop in and Spriten up your day" That was fun.

Finally, I just want to say how thankful I am for Jesus Christ and all that he has done, and continues to do for me. Christ's birth, life of miracles and teaching, and suffering and death for each of us is the biggest gift of all time. He truly is the reason for the season. Because of him, I can find peace and joy in my life. I have the opportunity to be saved from my sins and live forever with my family. I have a perfect example to follow, an example of service and love. God's plan for us is happiness, and I feel that happiness when I look to Christ and apply his teachings and atonement in my life. 

One of my favorite scriptures is 1 John 4:9

"In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him"

God loves us, he sent his son for us, and I am forever grateful for that.

Merry Christmas!

Elder Clayton

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Pictures:

Our Christmas tree 

Sri Lanka Food

Service project Christmas packages

Christmas Eve dinner

Sprite and Popcorn gifts

 Chino, California: Week 56

We got transfer news this week, and it is insane!! Not really in a good way though. 

My companion and I are staying the same, which is fine, I'm really happy about that actually. But things didn't go so well for the Armenian elders, and I'm worried for the future of Armenian work. When they were announcing transfers for my zone, they said Elder Bell is coming here to Chino. That shocked me because that means he's being taken out of Armenian work, and there was only one companionship over there... It turns out President Hall is planning to completely dissolve Armenian work, at least for now. He was going to send Elder Christensen to Arcadia, Elder Bell to Chino, then all 4 of us would become English-speaking only. That's pretty crazy! None of us were expecting that in the slightest! Anyway, Elder Christensen called president and explained that we have several progressing investigators that only speak Armenian, and without the missionaries the Armenian group's church meetings would fall apart entirely. President said he (Elder Christensen) could stay in that zone to continue the Armenian work, but he will be with an English companion, and Elder Bell will still be sent out. 

So basically we're down to 1 missionary in Armenian work. And in the future, Armenian work in California may be discontinued altogether. I understand President's thinking, because we haven't baptized anyone in Armenian group for like 10 months. I believe that it's possible though, and there's actually someone on date to be baptized soon, as well as other potentials. I hope that it stays alive and that I get to go back to Glendale, but I'm not sure what will happen at this point.

In the meantime, this English ward I'm in is doing well, as well as it's done in a long time actually. We have 2 people preparing to be baptized, and I'm really excited for them. We've also had 4 people at Sacrament meeting the past few weeks in a row, which is truly insane. The AP's called us and asked us what we're doing to get so many people to come to church. We told them that it's not us, it's all the Lord's doing. We just happen to be teaching several really cool people right now. God is preparing the hearts of the people to hear the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ! And I'm excited.

Have a good week.

Elder Clayton

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 Chino, California: Week 55

This week I had one of the most amazing lessons I've ever been a part of. We've started teaching a 9 year old kid, the son of a part member family who never got baptized when he was 8. So it was the mom and 4 little kids, and lessons with kids are so fun! We went through the whole restoration lesson, and it was so full of the spirit. When we gave the kid a Book of Mormon, the mom started crying. Then the kids insisted that we sing a closing song, so we turned on "I will be what I believe" and they all sang and it was really cute.

Also, near a bike shop that my companion and I went to, there is a little Argentine empanada shop. Elder Bastian was reassigned from Argentina, so we had to go in and check it out. The empanadas were pretty expensive, but really good.

Then on Friday we had a devotional that was supposed to be with Elder Renlund.  But he wasn't able to do it because he wasn't feeling well, and as you may have seen in church news, he got covid. So instead, we got to hear from Elder Ballard. It was very last-minute, and he was only supposed to speak for 15 minutes but he ended up going for about 45 minutes talking about Joseph Smith's life story, the gospel of Jesus Christ, and how we as missionaries can better help people to have spiritual experiences. 

The one not so cool part from this week is that LA county has again issued a stay at home order, and our mission president said we can't approach people outside or go into members' and friends' homes anymore. So I guess it's back to a lot of Facebook finding and zoom lessons and phone calls. I think most things will be able to keep moving forward though, it'll work out. 

Have a great week, be safe, and know that God loves you!

Elder Clayton

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 Chino, California: Week 54

Well, I finally found an Armenian here in Chino! She was working at a thrift shop we went to. I could tell she was Armenian because of a very Armenian-looking bracelet she was wearing. I told her I was learning the language, and nothing really came of our conversation but it was cool anyway. 

We also went over to help a family set up their Christmas tree (pic attached). I really like this Holiday time of year. We've gotten to go over to a couple people's homes and help them unpack Christmas decorations and whatnot, which is fun.

In terms of people we're teaching, things are going well. We had 4 investigators tune in to sacrament meeting on Sunday, which is the most I've ever had at a time! They said they enjoyed it. There's hardly anybody walking around outside, so we aren't really finding new people to teach, but overall we are staying busy, which is nice. 

This week we will have our zone conference, and on Friday we'll hear a devotional from Elder Renlund. Exciting stuff!

Have a good one.

Elder Clayton

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Pictures from a little hike we did this morning: 

 Chino, California: Week 53

Happy Thanksgiving!! President Hall changed P Day to today, that's why I didn't email on Monday.

I love the message of peace President Nelson gave on Friday, and the invitation he gave to flood the world with gratitude. It's been really cool to see all the things people are thankful for on Facebook. If you haven't watched the video, you definitely should! 

On Friday I also hit my 1 year mark, which is pretty crazy! We went out and got chili burgers and it was a good day!

Then today we got together as a zone and helped some people put down sod in their yard. They found us through a Facebook ad that the zone leaders put out, and said they were expecting like 4 people to show up, so when the 20 or so of us pulled up, they were really shocked and thankful! It was cool. And the bishop invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner, which was great.

I am thankful for each of you. Have a great week!

Elder Clayton

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 Chino, California: Week 52

This week has been really eventful! And I love this new area! 

My new companion is Elder Bastian, who was reassigned here from Argentina about 6 months ago. Everyone is jealous that I get to be his companion because he is literally a professional cook. He worked as a chef and has even won cooking tournaments and stuff! So yeah, he's super cool. A great missionary too, he's a hard worker and I can tell this will be a great transfer. 

Also, this ward is amazing! They're so nice, and so willing to meet. Yesterday, we had 5 lessons back to back, 2 with investigators and 3 with member families. It is exhausting but so nice to have stuff to do! They also feed us. In Armenian work we would get fed like once a week, and here it's like 1-2 times per day haha! I'm probably going to get fat over here. 

It definitely feels weird not speaking any Armenian. I've almost let a couple Armenian words slip when talking to people or praying or things like that. It's also weird teaching families with kids. That's insanely rare in Armenian work for some reason. Kids are awesome though, we were teaching a lesson about spiritual light, and asked what would it be like to drive a car without headlights. And the 8 year old kid said "Well, if you're driving in the desert you might run into a cactus." Love that answer :)

The one thing that's not my favorite is that this is one of the few bike areas in the mission, so we have no car. I guess it's good for me though, I could use the exercise. 

Finally, I can't believe I have been out for almost a year now. That is crazy. 

As always, I love you all, and have a great week!

Elder Clayton

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A pic of my previous zone

An Argentine dish my companion made for breakfast

 Glendale, California: Week 51

Wow, we got transfer calls this week, and it was completely unexpected! I thought I would be back with my trainer Elder Bell and that the 4 of us Armenians would stick together, but instead they are splitting us up again. It's back to 2 elders doing Armenian work, and I'm going to the Chino zone on the whole other side if the mission, where a lot of the Chinese work is done. So I'll be in the 2nd area of my mission, and I'll be doing solely English for a while. Who knows, maybe I'll pick up some Chinese phrases while I'm out there. 

It will be nice to see a new place, but I am also sad to leave this area. We have been meeting with some awesome people. This week our friend Emin picked a date for baptism, which is very exciting! We've been meeting with him for about a month now and he always loves meeting with us and learning more. I believe that he will keep progressing well and become a great new member of the Armenian group. It's unfortunate I will not be around to see him be baptized, but I am excited for him nonetheless, and so happy I could meet and teach him this past transfer. 

Have a good one!

Elder Clayton

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 Glendale, California: Week 50

Happy (late) Halloween! Hope everyone had a good one. We didn't do much special, we just dressed up as missionaries. Plus I think hardly anyone did trick-or-treating this time around. But we did go over to an English speaking member's house for dinner, there were 8 missionaries there. He made a lasagna, garlic bread, and cheesecake so that was awesome. He's a great guy, sometimes says some crazy stuff though. He went on a rant about how Obama won't win the election. Yes, Obama, he got some names mixed up. So that was funny. 

We went on another hike today. It started out fun but it was rough at the end. We started hiking at 5am, and 4 of us broke off and kept going to the top, and ended up getting back at noon. So that was really long, plus we didn't bring much water at all. We were extremely dehydrated by the end. Lesson learned, I will always bring lots of water in the future.

In other hiking news, the young Armenians hike got cancelled due to fire this week, but we went on the other one with lots of people. We didn't find anyone new, but we met up with Emin again, the guy we've been meeting with recently. He is doing great, and he loves meeting with us which is a huge blessing.

We also had a good turnout for Armenian church group this week. The speaker talked about forgiveness, and gave the example of how we should forgive those in Turkey and Azerbaijan who are fighting against Armenians right now. Some people didn't take that too well, but for the most part it was well accepted and there was a lot of participation, and the spirit was felt. I have a lot of respect for the Armenian members. I know I've already talked about this, but it's true. They are such a small group, and these wars and conflicts in their home country is hard for them, but they are so strong considering all the sacrifices they make. 

Have a great week!

Elder Clayton

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 Glendale, California:  Week 49

This week has been a great week for hiking! This week we went on 3 hikes. One was the same one we did last Friday with the Armenian hiking group, one with a different Armenian group for ages 18-30, and one this morning with just us missionaries. And they've all been great! 

The 18-30 one was cool because it was just a little group of friends that we fit into well. It's a great opportunity to get out and speak some Armenian with people. I'm so glad the quarantine thing isn't around anymore and we're actually allowed to do that. 

Then the hike we did this morning was amazing! It was 7 of us missionaries and we woke up at 4 to head up to a place called strawberry peak. There were no strawberries, and it was super dark and freezing. Then the trail ended so we just started going straight up the mountain, and there were tons of thorns everywhere so our legs got pretty beat up. I know that probably sounds awful, but it was a blast! The wind was insane, easily the strongest wind I've ever been in. My comp and I made it to the top just after the sun started coming up so we got some sweet pictures. 

So that was definitely the highlight of the week. Nothing too interesting other than that. We are continuing to meet with the guy we met from the hike last week as well as some others. 

Hope everyone's doing well! Bye,

Elder Clayton

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 Glendale, California:  Week 48

Well our new efforts in trying to find people through Facebook is already paying off! We joined a local Armenian hiking group that goes hiking every Friday, so we went to check it out. It was really chill, a nice little group of about 20 people, and we were the only non-Armenians (and the only people under 30), so lots of people wanted to talk to us and see how we found out about the hike, why we speak Armenian, etc. At the top of the hike, everyone laid out their picnic setup on the tables and started pulling out food, and we had a giant meal together. It was really fun! We talked to one guy for quite a while, and he said he'd like to meet again and talk about the gospel. So we met up on Saturday, got some lemonade and talked, then on Sunday he attended church and liked it! Crazy. It was all completely the Lord's doing, all we did was show up to the hike. 

That's really the only interesting thing I can think of that happened this week, but here's some pictures: Elder Christensen and I with the khachapuri an investigator made, the city view from the top of the hike, and a giant awesome truck in support of Armenia in the war.

Elder Clayton

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 Glendale, California: Week 47

A couple days ago everyone in the mission got trained and approved to use Facebook as a way of finding and talking with new people. We haven't done much with it yet, but hopefully it'll help us spread our FB page content better, and see what's going on in the local Armenian groups. Should be interesting!

We also had the opportunity to go over to someone's house and help them paint a bench and a swingset so that was fun.

Unfortunately, the investigator who was going to be baptized last week decided she isn't going to. It's really sad, she was so excited and happy for it, but she told her friend about it, who then told the church she used to attend.  And I guess some leader of that church came over to her house and told her she wouldn't be welcome back if she got baptized. From all the pressure from her family, friends, and church she's grown up in, it was too much stress, at least for now. But we are keeping in touch with her still, and she continues to add to our weekly church meetings. 

Love you all,

Elder Clayton

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 Glendale, California: Week 46

Well, Armenia and Azerbaijan are at war. I guess Turkey is helping Azerbaijan too? I don't actually know the details, but there are tons of Armenians outside with signs for Artsakh (The area being fought over), and collecting money and supplies for support. And everywhere we go, there are tons of cars waving Armenian flags. It's actually kind of cool, I like how patriotic Armenians are, they're all super serious about protecting their country and culture and stuff. It's sad there are people dying though. Many people we talk with are sad and angry and scared. Which is just more motivation for us to get out and share our message of peace and hope in the restored gospel of Jesus Christ!

On a happier note, general conference was great! So many good talks about all the craziness going on right now. I love what President Nelson said about letting God prevail in our lives. If we give preference to God's will in all the things we do, that's how we can achieve the greatest happiness and biggest blessings. 

Finally, we met several times with someone who's been meeting with the missionaries for about a year now. So it's been a long process, but we asked her if she'd like to be baptized, and she said yes! So that's exciting. She's been attending our church meetings for months, and she fits in great with our little group. 

Well, hope you have a good week, bye!

Elder Clayton

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 Glendale, California: Week 45

Tomorrow AP Smethurst goes home. He's one of the coolest elders I know, and a long time friend of us Armenian elders. We'll miss him! We got to play a big game of soccer with him for the last time this morning. We also get 35 new missionaries coming into the mission this week, it's crazy to see how much the mission is growing. There are already so many young and reassigned missionaries, pretty soon I'll be in the older half of missionaries here, if I'm not already.

It's hard to believe it's already time for general conference again. It seems like just yesterday we had the last one. I still remember last time, quarantine had just started, and all us missionaries were wondering if any major changes were coming to missionary work. Anyway, I'm so excited! I would invite all of you to prepare spiritually and be ready to hear the voice of the Lord through his prophets and apostles this weekend. It'll be great.

We also had some nice lessons with people this week. One lady we're teaching is so close to being baptized, and we talked about how that would all work, and discovered she had some concerns about what she would wear and that type of thing. It was a good lesson, the spirit was strong. Also, it's funny, she always just calls us The Elders, so she didn't remember our actual names. So when I told her my name she thought I said "Elder Playphone" haha. 

We also visited a nice family who moved here less than a year ago, so they're in great need of some help understanding English. So we helped them fill out some English paperwork and stuff that they didn't understand. The dad is looking for a better job, and wants to become a firefighter, so we're also helping him look into that. That would be really cool if it works out. 

Have a good one!

Elder Clayton

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 Glendale, California: Week 44

This week we had zone conference, which was great. This was the first time we did it 2 days in a row instead of just really long on one day. I love the spirit that can be felt, and I always learn so much at these mission wide meetings, it's like drinking from a spiritual fire hose! 

I was also reading the book of James this week in my personal study, and even though it's not that long, it's got to be one of my favorite sections of scripture. Chapter 1 speaks of patience, blessings that come from enduring temptation, helping those around you, being a doer of the word and not just a hearer, and of course the famous verse 5 about prayer that led Joseph Smith to ask his question of which church he should join. It's not even that long of a chapter, but it's full of great principles.

Then in chapter 2, starting in verse 14, it talks a lot about having faith and works, not just faith alone. I love it so much, because "faith" often seems somewhat vague and hard to measure, and I find myself wondering how to know how much faith I actually have. But I know that faith always leads to action. What we do shows so much about what we believe. Anyway, I would highly recommend reading these chapters. I've learned a lot about how to show my love towards God, and it feels awesome.

As always, have a good week!

Elder Clayton

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I don't have any good pictures from this week so here's some of me with Brad Wilcox that I just recieved, from when he came and spoke during my first week here.

 Glendale, California: Week 43

Well California is on fire. Everywhere you go it smells like campfire and there's a bunch of smoke. Sometimes the sun is red, and the other day everything was tinted orange (picture attached). We went to the stake center this morning and the ground was coated with a thin layer of ash. Our president told us to be prepared to evacuate, which I don't think we'll need to, but it's still pretty crazy. 

In terms of meeting with people, this week was a bit slow, but not too bad. People are just busy recently. One of the people that the other elders are teaching bought us food at the place she works. It was my first time trying Khachapuri, which is made with bread and cheese and eggs, and tastes really good. 

We also got ahold of a very old list of all the Armenian members from back when there was a branch, because we're trying to figure out who still lives here. We talked to a guy who moved to Utah 8 years ago, and he was very surprised we still have his number. It's kind of unfortunate, it seems like all of the strongest Armenian members end up learning English and moving to Utah. It makes sense, and I'm sure it's a better experience for them over there, but it means the group here in California always stays small. But, it makes me so grateful for the people we do have here. I'm so glad I've gotten to meet them, and when we join online for Sunday school, hearing them bear their testimony is definitely a highlight of the week.

Have a good one!

Elder Clayton

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 Glendale, California:  Week 42 

Oh my gosh, it's so hot! Yesterday hit 115 degrees and our apartment has awful AC so we're basically dying. It feels like I haven't even left Arizona!

But besides that things have been good. We met with the new Armen who I talked about last time, and he's a really cool guy. He's been playing the drums since he was 3, and he played a bit for us on his huge drumset. He told us how 6 years ago when he was meeting with the missionaries, they created a bunch of songs together based on church hymns, and compiled it into cd's called "R-men and the Bros." And when he said that, Elder Christensen remembered that we have those songs downloaded in the computer lab in our church building! We had heard the songs before, but never knew where they were from. Now we know! 

Also, our Armenian online church meetings are going well. We average like 8-10 people each time now, which is definitely an improvement. Now that our ward has English missionaries as well, they started up an English Sunday meeting too, which is cool.

Well, have a great week!

Elder Clayton

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Pictures: we went to a kebab place on Wednesday, and some members brought us kebabs yesterday. It was sweet.

Glendale, California:  Week 41

Hello all, hope you had a good week!

This week we went out to visit Armen, a solid investigator who we rarely get to visit because his schedule is so busy. We wanted to make things more interesting and help him get to know some ward members, so we brought along Armen, the Armenian group leader. But when we got there, both of the Armens said they wouldn't be able to make it. So we decided to call a guy we've never met named Armen, whose number we had just received. We were thinking he's an inactive member, but it turns out he's just an investigating friend from a very long time ago. He answered the phone and when we told him who we are, he told us he hadn't been contacted by our church's missionaries or members for 6 years, which he was understandably upset about. But we got to talking with him and he lightened up, and we're hoping to stop by and meet with him shortly. He said that he had just finished praying when we called him, and that he knew that wasn't a coincidence. When he was meeting with the missionaries in the past he read the Book of Mormon and believes it, and was considering getting baptized. It's amazing to me to see the people that God prepares to hear the the gospel, it's just up to us as followers of Christ to find them and be willing to share what we know. Another takeaway from this story is that there are a lot of people named Armen. We rescheduled our lesson with the first 2 Armens, and it went great. :)

And finally, yesterday, we met with our Georgian friend who speaks Russian, and we brought one of the Russians from our ward, who brought an Armenian friend of hers, who doesn't speak English. So when the two Russian speakers would talk, the Armenian would translate into Armenian for us missionaries to understand, and when the rest of us would say something in English we'd translate to Armenian for her. It was fun, I love languages. 

Until next week,

Elder Clayton

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Glendale, California:  Week 40

It's so cool having a lot of elders cover this ward we're in. We don't live with the English elders but we see them often, and it's been fun introducing them to all the members who we've known since we got here. 

It's also a huge blessing that we have such a good number of Armenians to meet with. Pre-covid, it was so hard to find people who were interested in hearing our message, but somehow we now have enough that we're kept pretty busy. 

I love this verse I read recently in 1 Corinthians 12, when Paul is teaching about spiritual gifts and the importance of different members in Christ's church:

"For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ."

When I read this I thought of Armenians. They are very few in number in this church, and the Armenian group here in California can feel pretty disconnected from the English, Spanish, Tagalog, etc wards that are much bigger and more involved, but I know that Armenians play an important role and have a lot to offer, and I want nothing more than to bring more of them to the knowledge of the restored gospel! I love the Armenian people, and when our little group meets for online church, it makes me so happy to talk together and rejoice in Christ together. 

As always, have a great week!

Elder Clayton

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PS I love my zone! We played kickball and ultimate frisbee today and it was great, although I am pretty sunburned now

Glendale, California:  Week 39

I can't believe the transfer is over already! Time just keeps going faster and faster. Also, we got transfer calls and I'm really excited. Previously, it was the 3 of us Armenian elders covering the English ward and Armenian group, but now, the 4th Armenian elder is coming back, plus they're taking us out of English work entirely, by adding two purely English companionships to the ward. So technically, this ward went from 3 missionaries to 8. Crazy, and awesome. President Hall even shouted us out in the weekly mission email, "We are also taking advantage of the many language capabilities and are concentrating two Armenian and two Philippine Companionships in Glendale." 

One thing I look forward to in the next couple months is reaching out to more Armenian members who were attending church regularly about a decade ago, but then faded away over time. There are a lot of people in this category. Before recently, I didn't realize just how many Armenian members there actually are, I just haven't met them yet because church attendance is very small. We met with a previous Armenian branch leader, and he knew so many people that we have no clue about. 

As for church zoom meetings (actually we're using google meet now), it's going well, but it's hard because everyone is really old and doesn't know how to connect. So every Sunday morning we drive over to 3 or 4 people's houses to connect them into the church meeting. But it continues to grow basically every week, so that's great!

Love you all, have a great week

Elder Clayton

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Glendale, California:  Week 38

A couple days ago I had a new personal record for the longest lesson. 3 hours and 45 minutes! It was awesome, this investigating friend of ours just has so many questions and loves to hear and discuss about the gospel. She was worried she took up too much of our time but we assured her we'd probably just be back at the apartment trying to call people otherwise.

We also had zone conference this week, and instead of the usual ~5 hours, it was like 7 or 8. Pretty exhausting, but I enjoyed it a lot, especially hearing from the mission president and his family since they are still new and I don't know them super well. My zone is really old, about half of the missionaries going home at the end of this transfer are from my zone. They will be missed, this has been a great transfer and I love my zone! 

Elder Clayton

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Glendale, California:  Week 37

We did a lot of driving around and filming this week for a Facebook video that we're working on. In the past, each zone had their own Facebook page they were responsible for, but now it will likely be broken up by language (One English page for the whole mission, one Spanish, one Chinese, etc), so I will probably focus more on making Armenian content now. It's funny because there are only us 4 Armenian elders, so we are basically responsible to make all the content for our page. Which has been fun so far! 

The video we're making involves all 4 of us, so we drove down to the mission office in Arcadia to visit Elder Bell, my trainer. Then we hiked up a mountain to film Elder Christensen's part, and got permission to go to Hollywood to film Elder Hubner's part! (And visit an Armenian member out there who I've never met before.) It was really cool, but right as we were about to start filming, a big fire pops up a short ways off.  But just as fast as it came, it was gone. 

I also pieced together a short video about God's existence, centering around Alma 30:44, when Korihor is talking with him, and demanding to see a sign before he'll believe that there is a God. And Alma responds:

"The scriptures are laid before thee, yea, and all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator."

And it's so true. The more I slow down and take time to consider all the miraculous creations that exist around us, even in everyday life, the more obvious it becomes that there is a God who loves us. I know we have a Heavenly Father who knows and loves each of us with a greater love than we can comprehend. And this beautiful world is a gift I could never stop being grateful for.

Here's the link to our page, any support would be much appreciated! 

https://www.facebook.com/churchofjesuschristglendalehye/

Have a great week,

Elder Clayton

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Glendale, California:  Week 36

It was a pretty eventful week! One highlight is we got to help a family move. They are moving out of the ward, and we will miss them for sure, but it was nice seeing them and helping them pack up the truck. 

Also, we once again got in contact with a nice man we haven't met with in months. He is awesome, and even came to our weekly Book of Mormon class, and said he'd try to attend church over zoom. I'm also very impressed by his self-made electric train setup that goes all the way around his room. It has tons of tracks and tiny buildings and people that he all made himself, and the trains move realistically along the track. He gave us a tour of it all after our lesson with him, and said he's also trying to get into the hobby of glass, like mosaics and stuff. What a cool guy!

It's funny, between the people we're teaching, we now have English, Armenian, and Persian church zoom classes on Sundays that we invite people to attend. This was our first week trying an Armenian church meeting on zoom. We had 6 people attend, which is more than we usually had back when we could meet in the church building! But I think there's potential for that number to double in the coming weeks. And my hope is that all the people who start regularly attending the zoom meeting will continue coming to church when we have it in person again some day.

Finally, yesterday we taught a new guy and his mom who are interested in learning more about the church. They are the first Georgians (from the country Georgia) I have met with, which was cool because I remember how to say hello in Georgian from some of the Elders in my MTC district. :) The man also speaks Turkish, Russian and English. I'm always so impressed by people who know so many languages like that.

Elder Clayton

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