Glendale, California:  Week 23

This week was a pretty good one for teaching. Obviously it's been very difficult to find people to have lessons with right now, but this week we got a couple more people to teach. Armenians, too!  Some missionaries in the LA mission referred them to us, and we did a big zoom lesson with 2 sets of missionaries, 2 members, and 2 Armenian investigators. It was sweet. I have to say though, I can't wait until we can talk to them in person because trying to understand Armenian over zoom feels almost impossible.

On Thursday we're going to start an online Book of Mormon class for our ward, where we'll just read together and discuss. We used to do that before the quarantine and I'm excited to start that up again.

Besides that nothing much changed this week, it's a lot of the same stuff. It reminds me of Mosiah 23: 21 - 

"Nevertheless the Lord seeth fit to chasten his people; yea, he trieth their patience and their faith"

I definitely feel that my patience is being tested during these times. We've been stuck inside for so long. But I know that this time doesn't have to be time wasted. We can use it to become better, work on improving our talents, and preparing ourselves to come out of this quarantine as better disciples of Jesus Christ. What a great time it is to study the scriptures and strengthen our testimonies, reflect on personal experiences and come closer to God. I know we're in this situation for a reason, and it's up to us what we're going to do with it. 

So stay strong and positive, continue to rely on the Lord, and know that I am praying for all of you.

Until next week,

Elder Clayton

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Glendale, California:  Week 22

Well, we moved into the new place, and I'm all situated with my new companion. It's been a good first week of the transfer! We're in a member's small side house in their backyard, and I like it. It was super dirty when we first got here, but we spent like 2 days cleaning everything. We dusted, swept, mopped, rearranged furniture, put up some pictures, basically redid everything. 

One miracle that happened to us this week is that we went to call somebody, and it was the wrong number.  So we decided to just introduce ourselves and asked if we could share a scripture with her about Jesus Christ. It wasn't some big great discussion or anything, but we were able to bring the spirit and bear our testimony about Christ and the Book of Mormon, and she said we could call back again. I wasn't expecting to just run into a new person to teach while we were in quarantine, but there were go! 

Fun little video of the week: https://drive.google.com/a/missionary.org/file/d/1xg0-tNAL5uyRZkloQOCoFRIcTdQqsKaF/view?usp=drivesdk

I'm just the cameraman in this one, but it's about the story of Ammon with the sheep, from the Lamanites point of view. I think it turned out pretty great haha. 

Love,

Elder Clayton

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Glendale, California:  Week 21

Hello again, and Happy Easter! I hope everyone had a good one. Ours was good over here, we were able to share a lot about the atonement and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and it was really special.

What an amazing gift to us, that we ourselves can be resurrected and also that we can live with our families forever, because of what Jesus Christ did for each of us.

In our little personal sacrament meeting many of us shared our testimony since we will be moving away from each other this transfer. We weren't sure whether we'd get transferred during the quarantine, but it turns out we are, and I'll be staying in a member's house now.  My old companion is going into English work and becoming an office elder in Arcadia. So for now there will be only one companionship in Armenian work, consisting of me and Elder Hubner. It should be fun, and I'm excited to get a bigger pool of people to teach.  However, I hope there can be 2 Armenian companionships again soon. 

Love,

Elder Clayton

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Here's a fun little video we made this week: https://drive.google.com/a/missionary.org/file/d/1swVcDDQpXZXoj5iQI6ANjJnetqdPe854/view?usp=drivesdk

And an impressive picture my new companion drew, based on the new symbol:

Glendale, California:  Week 20

I hope everyone had a great general conference weekend! For anyone who didn't get to watch, I'd highly recommend watching, it was an amazing experience, and very spiritually uplifting. The talks were fantastic, and I especially liked those by Neil L Anderson, Bonnie H Cordon, and Dieter F Uchdorf. And what a powerful new proclamation about Jesus Christ and the Restoration.  

"God the Father has given us the divine birth, the incomparable life, and the infinite atoning sacrifice of His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ. By the power of the Father, Jesus rose again and gained the victory over death. He is our Savior, our Exemplar, and our Redeemer."

How true that is. I know that Jesus is the Christ, our Father in Heaven loves us infinitely, and that the restoration of Christ's gospel is very alive and growing on the earth.

Next, highlight lesson of the week: We did a phone lesson with one of our Armenian investigators, and this time we had an Armenian member join the call to help us teach (And understand what he's even saying). This investigating friend of ours is so awesome, and he kept our commitment to watch general conference on Sunday! We'll call him again tonight, and I'm excited to talk with him about his thoughts and impressions from it. 

Even though my birthday was spent in quarentine, it turned out pretty great! I got to talk with family, and in the evening when my companion and I walked into the church building to play sports...I walked into a little surprise party the other elders threw for me! It was hilarious, they had balloons and hymn books spelling happy b-day, and a cake that said Becky on it. These elders are the best! 

We did some more zone challenges this week, so I'll attach those pictures. One of our elders made some beautiful food, and we put together a California-shaped collage of Jesus Christ (backwards on accident, whoops).

Until next week, lots of love

Elder Clayton

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