Azusa, California: Week 93

Wow, a lot of stuff happened this week! Easily one of the most eventful weeks of my mission. It's awesome.

So on Monday, we went to a place called Crumbl Cookie that opened a week ago. They have really big amazing cookies, and I guess places like that are really popular in Utah? But anyway, it's owned by members so they gave us some cookies for free.

On Tuesday, we did a big service project where we sorted and delivered boxes of food to various food pantry locations. Then a nice member took us out to a 50's themed burger place called Legends. We also went over to another member family's house for pancakes for dinner. 

On Wednesday, we did a Facebook activity with the whole zone. Elder Watson and I were the Facebook Finding Leaders this transfer, so we spent a lot of time trying to come up with something fun we could do to help the zone learn more about Facebook. Well, we ended up doing an Olympics style thing, where we put everyone into teams then had them compete in challenges of a relay race, cup flipping, and chair carrying (pics attached). And of course, we weaved in elements of commenting/posting on Facebook into the events as well so that it was a good training. It was a lot of fun and we even made medals for everyone. 

Thursday, we had a long meeting in Arcadia that took up most of the day. Then Friday, we did exchanges and I spent the day with an Elder from Florida named Elder Doolhoff. Saturday we did a giant zone-wide exchange for the evening and I got paired with Elder Doolhoff again. Then we all went to Dominos and Canes for dinner and waited until we got transfer news. 

Well, the transfer calls came in, and I'll be going back to Armenian work in Glendale! Woohoo! That'll be super fun, I can't wait to see how things have been since I left from there 10 months ago. 

And finally, here's a pretty crazy story from yesterday. There's a guy we're teaching named Israel, and we invited him to come to our church service, and he also invited us to come to his church. So we said sure! Why not? So he came to sacrament meeting at 9, then we headed over to Sandals church (a local non-denominational Christian church) for their service at 11. We got there, and everyone was really nice and welcoming. We were all dressed up in our suits so obviously everyone knew what church we're from. And there were about 40 people in the audience. 

Well, it started out with the band playing some awesome Christian music, then they turned on a tv to watch today's sermon, which was being broadcast from a different location. It was a good lesson on Romans 16 about greeting people, but then he mentioned a time when he met some Mormon missionaries, and he went on for a minute making jokes about Mormons and said that it's a cult. And we were just sitting there in the middle of everyone like uhhhh this is awkward. Hahaha it was kind of freaky! 

After the service, one of the leader guys came up to us and apologized. And it was fine, we weren't mad about it or anything. I think it's actually pretty funny that that happened on the one time we went to visit a different church. xD Definitely an experience that I will remember.

Anyway, have a fantastic week! 

Elder Clayton

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 Azusa, California: Week 92

On Wednesday we had zone conference, which is always such a spiritual high. This time it was all about conversion to Jesus Christ. Afterwards, a nice Filipino member named Sister Bago from my companion's old ward took us out for dinner. 

Also, a couple weeks ago, we met with a guy named Colin who was visiting from Kansas (and taking the lessons from the elders over there) and we got to teach him and give him a tour of our church building. Well, he's back in Kansas now, and this week he got baptized! He has a super strong testimony and desire to serve God. He's young and thinking of serving a mission, but whether he does or not, I know he's going to be a really solid new member of the church. 

And finally, one major blessing I've noticed recently is the weather. Considering it's August I would've expected it to be much hotter. Last year at this time it was like 110, but this year it's never really going over 100, it's mostly just in the 80s and 90s. It's awesome.

Have a good one,

Elder Clayton

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Pictures:

- We hiked (actually just walked like 30 feet) in Duarte

- Me and my past companion Elder Hubner (probably the last time I'll see him in the mission)

- Me and Elder Watson (current companion)

- Us and Colin

- Us and Sister Bago

 Azusa, California: Week 91

This week was awesome because we got to visit the LA temple visitors center with two of the recent converts in the ward! We also went with the Bishop's wife and another couple of members from the ward, and we all had a great time. I always forget just how beautiful the temple is until I go there. We're hoping to help the recent converts get a temple recommend soon so they can do baptisms for the dead when it opens back up. Also, coming up in mid September, there's a mission-wide temple trip!! I'm super excited for that, because the last time I went through the temple was in the MTC like a year and a half ago.

In other news, we did a lot of service on Saturday, helping one lady assemble a planter box, and another lady picking up a new chair from the thrift store and rearranging some furniture. She also said she didn't need her couch anymore, so we figured we could use it. Her house is like a mile from our apartment, so we decided to just carry the couch all the way home haha.

We also did exchanges this week, so I got to spend the day with Elder Eberhard, who's from Tucson and speaks Tagalog! There are currently 3 Tagalog-speaking missionaries in the mission, so they cover all the Filipinos. It was cool getting to meet some. 

Have a good one,

Elder Clayton

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 Azusa, California: Week 90

It was a pretty good week overall. There's not a whole lot to talk about, but we had some good lessons, met some new people, had dinner with some member families. Pretty typical stuff, but yeah, it's going well!

In sacrament meeting my comp and I gave the talks, and we were asked to speak about single adults in the church. At first I had no idea what I was going to say about that, because single adults is kind of an unusual and narrow subject, especially because there's not very many single adults in the ward. But I ended up talking about the church among the Armenian population and how there's a big lack of young people in Armenian group, and how that's a big part of why the church is kind of shrinking. Then I just talked about how singles can play a big part in building up God's kingdom here on the earth, and how everybody has a place in the church. 

Then today for sports, we got with our whole zone and a bunch of youth from one of the wards and played soccer. It was lots of fun, but man am I sunburned.

Have a good one,

Elder Clayton

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Pictures: 

- Our district went out for tacos

- Elder Watson and I got elote, basically corn with chili powder and cheese and mayo.

 Azusa, California: Week 89

This was a pretty great week! I'm really liking this area because it seems like there's always stuff to do, things are always pretty busy. 

My companion started talking to a guy named Alex on Facebook, and it turns out Alex remembers him from a time they talked in the street like half a year ago. My companion doesn't remember talking with him at all, but on Friday we went on a hike with him. He's super cool, and he said he wants to keep meeting with the Spanish missionaries in his area! 

We also met several nice people as we were out walking around and knocking on doors. One of them is named Alex, and one named Kate, who is a foreign exchange student from Japan! Also met a guy named Manny on Facebook and started talking with him on zoom. Basically, there's a lot of potential in this area! 

Here's a scripture I read recently from the Book of Mormon that I really like. It's in 2 Nephi 26: 

        24 He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation.

25 Behold, doth he cry unto any, saying: Depart from me? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; but he saith: Come unto me all ye ends of the earth, buy milk and honey, without money and without price.

I know that that's true, Christ invites everyone to come unto him and enjoy the amazing blessings that his gospel brings. 

Have a good week!

Elder Clayton

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