There is so much to talk about but it has been so long so I don't know where to start. I arrived in the field Tuesday morning and had to go over a bunch of paperwork and stuff. Then I got to meet the mission president and later my companion. His name is Elder Stucki and he is awesome. He was actually born in Santa Clara and we have the same birthday but he is a year older. Also, he didn't get the full MTC experience because he had a surgery and when he got better they shipped him straight to the field.
Apparently everyone also thought
somebody else was going to train me. He is the newest Armenian missionary besides me so
this is going to be interesting because we know about the same amount of
Armenian and neither of us are very experienced. Well the first day was really
long because I was up since 3:30 and once we ate lunch we just started
proselyting. It was awesome all though most people we talk to speak English but
we did meet a few Armenians though.
For the rest of the week we have been
trying to find people mostly because we don't really have many investigators
set in stone. It is kinda hard though because there are so many different
languages here so when we bump into Spanish or Chinese people we can't talk to
them at all. Yes I forgot all of the little Spanish I knew while I learned
Armenian. However, we do have one investigator named Ysubella. She is nine
years old and comes from a part member family and they all speak English. She
loves learning the gospel and we were going to push for her to set a baptismal
date but this week she chose to set a date and it is really soon too. We are so
excited for her.
We also have a new investigator named Artur who is Armenian.
However, he also speaks Russian so we can't understand his Armenian with the
Russian accent. We can barely understand it as it is so that makes it hard but
he does speak a little English. And he also came to church this week! It was
awesome! I also translated in sacrament meeting yesterday. Elder Stucki has
only done it once before and he just decided to have me do it right then and
there which was a huge mistake. Luckily only one or two people really use the
translator which is good because for each paragraph a speaker said, I
translated about a sentence in incorrect grammar. It was an experience though
that's for sure.
The group here is great but it is really struggling. In fact,
it may be dissolved soon from what I have been hearing. Hopefully Elder Stucki
and I can save it with help from the members and the Lord. We are just both so
new here and it is hard to learn the language when we don't hear it everywhere
we go but we will keep practicing together and trying to talk to others. I am
excited to see what is in store for me and I hope you all have a great week!
Երեց Ջենսեն
