Letter 12

Hey everyone!

Man it seems like during the week I feel like I have so much stuff to write but by the time P-day rolls around I forget it all. I should start reading over my journals again before I write these. Anyway, this week has been a pretty great one and we saw a ton of miracles at church yesterday. First, this random Armenian guy just walked in with a pass along card to church yesterday. That like never happens.

We also had a bunch of less actives show up for church that we have been teaching and even more less actives stop us on the street because they recognize us and want to visit with us. It has been awesome! I also translated in sacrament meeting again. Elder Stucki and I switch off every week. I did way better and by that I mean it was testimony meeting and so I only had to translate testimonies. Instead of me only translating 10% of what they said into grammatically incorrect Armenian, I was able to translate 50% of what they said into still grammatically incorrect Armenian! That's mostly because a lot of them say the same thing but it's ok I felt pretty good about it and I do think I am getting a little better at it.

As for our investigators, Ysa is still progressing perfectly and is going to be baptized this Saturday! We are so excited for her! We haven't been able to get a hold of Artur but he called us and told us we might be able to meet next week. We occasionally pick up new investigators but they have a hard time progressing and choose not to meet with us or we just can't get a hold of them. As for the rest of the general Armenian public, they are all very loyal to their church. We met one lady the other day who wasn't part of the church but she didn't want to hear our message. It was good to meet someone though who didn't instantly reject us because they already go to a church.

Well, that's about it for now. We have been doing a lot of less active work lately for English and Armenian so that has been good. We need more attendance because when we invite Armenians to church they can't understand anything because it is mostly in English. The only thing in Armenian is Sunday school and that is still a little bit of both English and Armenian. Hopefully we can get more attendance so that investigators who don't speak English will feel welcome. Anyway, that is all for this week! I wish you all the best and hope you have a great week as well!

 

 

Letter 11

I don't have much to write about this week because we haven't really moved forward with our investigators. We did however find a less active member who is really prepared to listen to the gospel again and we are excited to see what is in store for her. Also that guy in the other picture is brother Twelves. He is a return missionary who came and visited us. It was pretty great because he gave us many helpful tips and he speaks Armenian perfectly pretty much. We went and visited many people when he saw how bad the situation of the group was so hopefully that gives a little boost to all of those less actives. It was fun to go visit all of these people with him and we learned a lot about how we can improve ourselves and the mission.

As for our investigators, we have no idea what happened but they didn't come to sacrament meeting. For all we know, Artur might have gone to visit Russia from what we heard because we couldn't get a hold of him. Hopefully we will be able to be in touch and help him keep progressing when (if) he comes back. We are having a great time here and the members are awesome! They feed us all the time and it is always super good. 

Unfortunately, none of the Armenian members come out with us for lessons and help with the work but we think we can get them to come if we keep working. For now, the English speaking ones are doing excellent. To be honest though, the hardest thing about this mission is that everyone is super dedicated to the Armenian church. Also, the people in Glendale are super old and we can't find a single Armenian family but we are hoping that if we look around a bit, we will be able to find an Armenian family. It has been good so far and I hope all of you have a good week as well!

(Pictures below!!)










 

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Letter 10 Arcadia California

Hello everyone! 

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

 

MTC: Letter 9

Hello Everyone!

The last week in the MTC I just can't believe we fly out Tuesday. Others would say that it flew by so fast but no that is not true I think I have definitely been here for at least 8 years. They probably just extended my mission so that I could stay in the MTC. 

Well this week has been great although nothing was different except that Elder Neil L. Andersen came and spoke to us on Tuesday which was awesome. We also did our last TRC skype with someone from Armenia named Mher. We bombed that lesson but the guy was awesome and just made fun of how bad we spoke the whole time. He was super funny and we tried to share a scripture with him but we failed at that too. We tried to share Mosiah 2:17 but accidently did Mosiah 17:2 and I didn't realize it until we were about half way done reading it. That is how it goes when you don't understand what you are reading I guess but whatever. He was excited to get Elder Gray. 

On Thursday we had our In-Field Orientation which was great but it was very long. It was basically workshops all day but I had a lot of fun with it. Also, I don't think I have ever spoken that much English in my life. It is really weird being able to understand everything. Well I don't really know what else to write about. Hope you all have a great week! I will write again next Monday and hopefully by then there will be a lot more to write about!

Երեց Ջենսեն

Here are some pictures of part of our district, the ones we could get in the picture at least. Also it was a really hot day so here I am jumping in to the Temple fountain. And then it is just me and Elder Gray and then me almost able to leave the MTC. The exit sign was just out of reach but soon I can leave.

 

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MTC: Letter 8

Wow what another wonderful week of still being in the MTC. I have seen so many people come and go it is unreal. Also we had a lot of exciting things happen this week! Everything was pretty much the same as of who we taught and how it is going so I will just talk about some of the exciting new things. On Wednesday we got to skype again and Elder Gray and I got to skype someone from California named Armen! (I think I can thank Brother Debry who set it up for me. Also Brother Debry why are you teaching English and not Armenian here?) Anyway, Armen was awesome and he loves to talk. We had a fun time teaching him about repentance and prayer and he has such a wonderful testimony. It was sure fun to meet someone in California and I am excited to see him. I told him I would be looking for him when I got there.

Later that same day, we had a wonderful surprise from our teachers. Our new name tags are here. They look extremely legit and unfortunately we can't wear them yet but it was a very exciting moment for us. Lastly, just yesterday we got our flight plans. Everyone was so excited shouting things like "We get to stop in Moscow!" And "We finally get to go!" Meanwhile I was shouting like "Are you serious I am flying by myself?!" Yes, it seems I am the only person in my flight group which has one person and it is me and I am the flight leader of that group which again is only me. No companion for a whole hour. I don't think I can do it. It will be exciting that is for sure lets just hope I don't mess anything up. Anyway, that is about all I have for this week! Just one more P-day and then it will be on Monday from here on out. Love you all and hope you have a great week!

Երեց Ջենսեն

Old Name Badge

 New Name Badge

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MTC: Letter 7

Wow this week sure flew by. It has been a pretty good week and it is so weird that we will be leaving soon. This Sunday we were released as zone leaders and so we have a lot more study time. It is kind of nice but I miss helping out all the other missionaries. Two of our teachers were out of town for most of this week so we only taught Lena once but we taught Vahey quite a bit. With Lena I went back to the one Elder Gray and I taught and she hasn't been taught faith yet so that is what we taught and it was awesome. The spirit was so strong as she showed her own faith by making and keeping more commitments. As for Vahey, he has to make a very difficult choice in his life right now and so at the end of this week we asked him to pray, study, and make that choice. We will hear what he chose next week. 

We also had our first skype TRC this Wednesday. Oh my goodness I was so nervous but it was amazing. We taught a lady named Seda who lives in Armenia and it was so cool! I can already tell I love these people so much and I really can't wait to teach them. Even if I can barely talk to them, I love to hear all about their lives and I just want to help them. Looks like my study of charity is really paying off. We have also practiced teaching each other this week and so we all got to make up our own investigators based off of people we know. We are teaching Drey and Geyvorg. (Elder Andros really wanted to pretend to be his friend but he named him Geyvorg after our first investigator at the MTC). I am role playing as one of my own friends too and it is so awesome to be taught. I love doing it honestly and I have a lot of fun pretending to be an investigator. 

We also finished all of the grammar this week! Finally. To be completely honest, Armenian grammar is actually really easy in comparison to other languages so we are pretty lucky. Most of the other languages don't even finish going through all of their grammar but we get to review ours multiple times which is good because I forgot most of it. Just 2 and a half weeks left! Lets see if I can make it. I am excited to hit the field and I love hearing about everyone back home. Thanks for all of your letters and have a great week!

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