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.