Glendale, California:  Week 30

Finally we got some good in person contact! :)

This was a good week. On Friday we went on a hike to get some fresh air, so we got together with 4 other missionaries and started climbing a nearby mountain. And when we got to the top, there was already a guy up there. We got to talking with him, and found out he had moved here from Armenia 20 years ago. So we started speaking to him in Armenian and introduced ourselves as missionaries. He was really interested and started asking us questions about missionary work and the church, and we ended up having a ~30 minute lesson about the restoration of the gospel, right there on the top of the mountain. It was an awesome discussion! It's the first face to face conversation I've had with an Armenian in months! I understood practically everything he said too, understanding in person is definitely easier than over the phone. So that was my highlight of the week.

We also talked on the phone with a new person this week, who then agreed to meet with us at the church building. I guess we sound a lot older over the phone because when she saw us in person she was like "You're the ones I was talking to?? That's so cute. I thought you were like 30."

And finally, we got to hear a devotional speaker Elder Klebingat, which I enjoyed a lot. He talked for over 3 hours, and said too many cool things for me to list here, but my biggest takeaway was that I want to memorize more scriptures. I've always kind of avoided it, because it seems really hard, but having scriptures memorized is really useful and powerful. And Elder Klebingat has memorized over a thousand scripture verses apparently, not just the references, but the scriptures themselves. That's pretty insane. 

Have a great week!

Elder Clayton

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