Glendale California:  Week 14

Approaching a whole month in the field! That's crazy! 

This week was good, although we still don't have many interested people to teach. So, we did a lot of door knocking and street contacting. 

Last Sunday evening was interesting. The 1st door we knocked on was a really nice Armenian lady and her parents. She invited us in, and we kind of hesitated for a moment, because people rarely invite us in immediately like that. But she said "Of course, come in! This is an Armenian household!" Which I thought was funny, because we've visited many of those and people almost never invite us in.  Anyway, we got in and started talking with her, and she let us share about The Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. It was my first time getting to recite the first vision in Armenian! In the end she said she'd come to one of our church meetings when she got the chance, and sent us on our way with some fruit. 

And right when we left, there was a little Armenian party going on outside. Some of the guys invited us over and offered us some meat and alcohol. They tried really hard to get us to do a toast and drink with them, but of course we were only able to accept the meat. And they weren't really interested in our message, but they did ask us where we're from and where we learned Armenian. Really fun night overall. 

Then on Monday we had a family home evening night with our Armenian group. Elder Bell and I were in charge of sharing the spiritual thought, then we played a game where 2 people ask questions trying to figure out a certain word about the gospel. It was fun! Hard though, because some people there couldn't speak Armenian and had trouble understanding what people were saying.

On Saturday we had a mini missionary with us for the day, a youth from one of the wards in our area. We showed him a bit about life as a missionary, took him tracting, had a lesson with a member, grabbed some Armenian food for lunch. He had a good time from what I can tell. 

This week I've been thinking about weaknesses and missionary work. I often wonder why I, as an 18 year old inexperienced kid, have been called to teach people about the gospel. And I don't know what I'm doing, there is so much I don't know about the scriptures and the doctrines of the gospel. Sometimes I wonder if I'll ever actually make a difference out here. 

But I can tell you without a doubt that God can, and will, turn your weakness into strengths if you put your faith in him. It's not me teaching people, it's the holy ghost. And I know that God can work miracles through us, despite our flaws and weaknesses. 

Unfortunately there aren't many interesting pictures from this week. Just some raccoons in a palm tree

Anyways, thanks so much for all the support and messages from home! I really appreciate it

Elder Clayton

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