Hello Friends & Family,
Happy Halloween!! (I suppose I could have sent that a week earlier so It would come on time)
Halloween is probably a missionaries worst holiday. We were all pulled in from our days to have a pumpkin carving competition for our Zone. Apparently missionaries are hot topics around Halloween, and as such we were told to stay inside after the hour of 5 pm.
It was a rather fun activity!! We carved pumpkins, made caramel apples, and practiced 3 pointers.
This week we had the amazing opportunity to baptize Daniel!! Daniel is very intelligent and always has the best questions. He was practically teaching us by the 3rd lesson.
He also has a very cool "Star Wars" edition of the Bible (which I am jealous of). He studies almost everyday and is a great example to his family!
He already began missionary work immediately following his baptism. As we were changing out of our wet clothes, I overheard a conversation that Daniel had with his Dad, It went like this;
"Do you need any help?"
"No, I'm fine"
"Alright, I'll just be waiting if you need anything"
"Dad?"
"Yeah?"
"Have you been baptized?"
"Umm, I don't know. Maybe when I was little, but I don't remember it, so I'd say no I haven't been baptized"
"Why not?"
I was so proud of him at that moment! He might not know it, but he is a great example for his family and will continue to do so!!
Another experience came from our ASL friend Josh Ofiu.
We had a short cooking class with him (videos pending) and taught his Girlfriend alot about the Book of Mormon. She is incredibly interested and already has a fantastic background knowledge. Because Josh is extremely Extroverted, he would randomly Facebook Live us cooking, or talking about the Book of Mormon.
Roughly 20 Deaf people had joined the live stream and watched us talk about the Book. They were all interested in what we had to say, and we are contacting 4 of them this week!!
Technology truly is an amazing thing to share the Gospel!!
We also had (in my opinion) a funny experience regarding timing. As we were trying to contact a new friend, we met a Member who helped us find where we were going. As he walked us to the house, we got to know him a bit better and are coming back to visit him soon. After our successful attempt to talk with our friend, we walked back to his house. Another man came out to talk to us. He expressed his worry for us, and advised us to get out of the area at this time of night.
The experience went as follows,
"Y'all shouldn't be here, especially at this time"
*Gunshot from afar off*
"Yup... See, you shouldn't be here"
For anyone who is worrying about that gunshot, don't worry. It is commonplace here. Missionaries are doing their best to stay safe, and have God on their side. But yes, we weren't going to be stupid, so we left to another area.
This week has been fantastic! It is incredible to see the work progressing.
I'm not sure if I included this in my last email, but something we do as a mission is all the missionaries pray at 4:55 pm (california time). I would invite anyone who is willing to sync their clocks and pray with us for missionary opportunities, and that those who have been prepared to hear our message can find us and vice versa. It has been an amazing experience to have so many people trying to invite others to come unto Christ.
Other than that, it was a pretty standard week.
Thanks again for the emails!
-Elder Vance
He already began missionary work immediately following his baptism. As we were changing out of our wet clothes, I overheard a conversation that Daniel had with his Dad, It went like this;"Do you need any help?"
"No, I'm fine"
"Alright, I'll just be waiting if you need anything"
"Dad?"
"Yeah?"
"Have you been baptized?"
"Umm, I don't know. Maybe when I was little, but I don't remember it, so I'd say no I haven't been baptized"
"Why not?"
I was so proud of him at that moment! He might not know it, but he is a great example for his family and will continue to do so!!
Another experience came from our ASL friend Josh Ofiu.
Roughly 20 Deaf people had joined the live stream and watched us talk about the Book. They were all interested in what we had to say, and we are contacting 4 of them this week!!
Technology truly is an amazing thing to share the Gospel!!
We also had (in my opinion) a funny experience regarding timing. As we were trying to contact a new friend, we met a Member who helped us find where we were going. As he walked us to the house, we got to know him a bit better and are coming back to visit him soon. After our successful attempt to talk with our friend, we walked back to his house. Another man came out to talk to us. He expressed his worry for us, and advised us to get out of the area at this time of night.
The experience went as follows,
"Y'all shouldn't be here, especially at this time"
*Gunshot from afar off*
"Yup... See, you shouldn't be here"
This week has been fantastic! It is incredible to see the work progressing.
I'm not sure if I included this in my last email, but something we do as a mission is all the missionaries pray at 4:55 pm (california time). I would invite anyone who is willing to sync their clocks and pray with us for missionary opportunities, and that those who have been prepared to hear our message can find us and vice versa. It has been an amazing experience to have so many people trying to invite others to come unto Christ.
Other than that, it was a pretty standard week.
Thanks again for the emails!
-Elder Vance
