Season 14 Episode 1: Big Boi Riverside Zone

Hello Friends & Family,


This week we have successfully combined the Mission Inn Riverside zones. We have the largest Zone in the entire Mission, with a grand total of 16 companionships and four districts (32 missionaries in total). I made a slight wager of sorts with some sister missionaries at the start of the transfer that I would name the Riverside that " The Big Boi Riverside chat", if I did so they would make me brownies, I thoroughly enjoyed those brownies! (Unfortunately President changed the name after a day, which I agreed with)
Because there are so many missionaries in our Zone, Elder Hallsted and I will be going on quite a few exchanges. The original idea was going on exchanges with each companionship twice (so we could be with both missionaries), after some math was done we found out that if we did so we would be on exchanges 21 days or 3 weeks out of the six weeks of this transfer literally half the transfer would just be exchanges. We decided against that idea, and settled with 1 exchange for each companionship (and 2 if necessary).


We were incredibly excited to see Giselle be 

baptized this last Saturday, 

she has been taught for quite some time,

she grew up in the church but didn't get 

baptized at age eight. 

She had postponed her baptism 

for a little bit but we were 

surprised in early December 

when she called us and told 

us that she wanted to be 

baptized on the 12th of 

December. 

(We postponed one weekso her family could come)

 (She was baptised on the 19th)

 She was incredibly excited for her baptism and so are we!  

At the start of this week because it is the beginning of a new transfer we helped a few missionaries move to their new areas, and we also updated all the Facebook pages so that the editors of each page might be the correct missionaries in each zone.


The new apartment which we moved to is simply put, new! We moved just down the street of our old apartment, and now we live with the tech missionaries. It is a slightly smaller apartment, but everything is new including the floors (which is a strange thing for me to enjoy but they are sooo clean!) I also live near Elder Ottman now and he lets me know that, every single day as he visits us.

"Battle of wits"
- Elder Ottman (sitting next to me as I dictate this letter)

Merry Christmas to all!


-Elder Vance

Elder Vance saying Closing Prayer

Season 13 Episode 6: The short email

Hello Friends & Family,

This is a really short email. We didn't get transferred but we did move apartments. We are now living with the 

Tech Elders down the street. 

Riverside and mission zone are now combined and Elder Hallsted and I have a 16 companionship zone, 

the largest in the mission! 

Settlers of Catan is awesome. That's about all you need to know...

~Elder Vance

Season 13 Episode 5: The Freeze (part 2)

Hello Friends & Family,

There isn't anything to share from this week besides some local news.
California is getting put into another social isolation lockdown. However the Riverside county sheriff has released a video arguing against it and saying that he refuses to enforce it. This causes some strange situations for missionaries, however we will always remain cautious and as of now all of our in person meetings are cancelled.

We will see how this situation progresses...
Catch you all next week!
-Elder Vance

Season 13 Episode 4: Miracle Mayhem

Hello Friends & Family,


There were so many amazing Miracles this week, I will attempt to read a few of them that I remember!


To set the stage we had what was called "Zone accountability". this is a meeting where we set goals for the next calendar month, we got together as his own to discuss what we would do and what plans we are set to try to achieve goals reset and at the end of the meeting we typically have the goal of how many people we think will be baptized in the upcoming month. This is a meeting where we set goals for the next calendar month, we got together as his own to discuss what we would do and what plans we would set to accomplish said goals.

We generally went around the room and asked how many people have a baptismal date for that month, we asked everyone and we only could find one person who had a baptisimal date for the month of December.
During the meeting I had the strong impression to set the goal for 2 people, and one specific name came to mind, Jacky. Jacky is a Deaf girl I started teaching literally one year ago (that is strange to say on your mission) and we had previously invited her to baptism, but her mom didn't give permission for her to be baptised. I shared what I felt about the goal being set at 2, and when asked why I felt that way, I simply said "Jacky will be baptised in December".

Now here is where the miracles begin! We got a call late Sunday night from a person we were formerly teaching named Giselle. Giselle the member of a part number family, we thought it would be awesome if Giselle could help teach Jackie because they both go to the same class at CSDR. we figured we can have them befriend each other along this journey as they are both 9-ish years old, and we could teach them both at the same time. Giselle called us and told us that she wanted to be baptized, because she watched Beatriz's baptism (Which was amazing by the way!!). She told us that she wanted to be baptized on December 12th. Not only were we excited for Giselle, but if she came to Jacky's lesson andand told her that she was being baptized that might motivate Jacky to do the same. Miracle #1

Later that same night we got a call from the hermanas who have been teaching Jacky's sisters. Last week we took a day aside to fast and pray for her sisters to receive an answer when they prayed that they should be baptized. they had told the Hermanas that they had prayed and they received their answer, and not only that but they had received permission from their mom to be baptized, when they told us the day they wanted to be baptized we were shocked it was the same day... December 12th. Jacky's mom had given her sisters permission to be baptized, I believe she will do the same for Jacky. Not only will the excitement of her sisters being baptized help motivate her, but her good friend Giselle will likely be baptized on the same day! Miracle #2

Everything is aligning for Jacky to be baptised in December, and we have a lesson with her tomorrow with Giselle in attendance. Please continue to pray for Jacky to be baptised though! We could always use more prayers!!!

The Last Miracle I will share is that of Beatriz's baptism. All I can say is that it was a very tender and sweet experience, everyone in attendance especially over the resume could see that Beatrice had her happiness increased tenfold. She couldn't help but smile the entirety of the meeting afterward. We are very excited to welcome Beatrice into the Riverside ASL Branch as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!

One More Story for my weekly email it's kind of a funny one. Elder Brady, the other Zone leader, I was visiting our apartment to be able to teach a lesson over Zoom using our Wi-Fi. I was in the same room as him and heard a familiar voice, it was Elder Tingey who had recently returned home from his mission. I suppose I shall call him Dallin (Brother Tingey) for that is his name now. I poked my head into the camera to say hello to my old friend, when the person they were teaching pointed at me excitedly and said "ELDER VANCE!". she then asked if Elder Cluff or Elder Ericksen were also there. She had instantly recognised me from our ASL page. She then showed us her phone where she had downloaded all of our videos and watched them repeatedly. I felt bad for disrupting the lesson in such a way, and then promised her that Elder Brady was a far better teacher and that she should listen to what he has to say! The crazy part about this, is that Avery (the girl) lives in Myanmar. I honestly have no idea where Myanmar is, but we think it is far away. The fact that she, without hesitation, recognised me and knew the names of every one of the other ASLders was a little frightening, but also exciting to know that our messages had reached so far! Avery will be receiving a shoutout in our next video, hopefully that helps get her excited to attend church


I will hopefully have more miracles to share next week!!
(P.S don't forget to sign up for "Light the World")


-Elder Vance

Season 13 Episode 3: Free at last!!

Hello Friends & Family,

There weren't too many events that happened this week. There is an increasing amount of excitement about the closest holidays! Mainly Christmas, to my dismay. whether or not you agree with me, I will share my opinion. I do enjoy listening to Christmas music before Thanksgiving has occurred. This bothers quite a bit of the missionaries I live around for they all enjoy listening to Christmas music essentially year-round...

I gave our social media training this past Saturday. I was training on how the mission might be able to have better accountability for each of their Facebook posts they put out. Upon counseling with my father, we came up with the idea of using an acronym to help missionaries remember the training and also to make it stand out more. 

We ended up with the acronym, "WITNESS" as missionaries are called to witness of Christ in all things, at all times, and in all places. During the training I happened to mention that I don't particularly enjoy Christmas music early in the season. it seemed the entire mission was out to prove me wrong after that. Including President Watson! Throughout the week present Watson messaged me videos of him putting up a Christmas tree at his house, and also gave me homework to listen to an entire Christmas album everyday for the next 365 days, or until I went home!

We are officially out of social isolation this week, which is Fantastic for our friends we are teaching, for now we can visit them in person which is typically much better than visiting them over the internet. This also means that we can baptize B this Saturday!

If you have not listened to President Nelson's latest address to the world, I would highly recommend you do so now. What he said is universally important, and helps us enjoy this Thanksgiving season in a greater and deeper way. As you might have seen on many social media platforms, there are lots of people who are using #GiveThanks please join with them in this effort, I think it would really cheer up the planet right now!

I'm sure there will be many memorable stories from this upcoming week, we have scheduled another Turkey Bowl and if it is anything like last year's Turkey Bowl it will be an incredible experience!


-Elder Vance

Season 13 Episode 2: Stay Positive

Hello Friends & Family,

A few things happened this week that I will try to talk about, I am using Google Voice Assistant right now to type out my email and if there are any typos that I blame Google.


This week we got a call from the Mission Medical coordinators and they said that I had taken the wrong test for Coronavirus at see if I was positive but I ended up having to take a second test it was a swab test was honestly did not feel like right having a swab down my throat, but after a few days I got a call saying that I had actually tested positive for Coronavirus. This was not a surprise to me because I had experienced pretty much every symptom that is possible to experience while having a coronavirus. I ended up losing around 5 lb because all I ate was carrots and Broccoli.


Medical staff on the other side of the phone recommended that I say quarantine for at least another ten days because I've been experiencing symptoms for about a week now. medical staff on the other side of the phone recommended that I say quarantine for at least another ten days because I've been experiencing symptoms for about a week now.there's actually pretty funny because I got the call when I was teaching ASL class, and so am I entire class heard that I tested positive and everyone started making jokes about it. It seemed the entire Mission knows about now because I'm one of six missionaries that tested positive for the Coronavirus.


On a side note our friend Beatriz was interviewed for baptism this past Saturday by one of our ASL Elders in training other Aamodt. He did excellent job (I assume because I wasn't actually in the interview) and we found out that Beatrice actually passed her interview and was going to be baptized on the 21st however we decided to postpone that because we will still be in quarantine at that point in time so we postponed it to the 28th and all the branch is very excited to see her enter the Waters of baptism and so are we!


There is also a very very exciting thing that happened this week our friend N attend sacrament meeting over Zoom. that morning we had called the branch president to ask if he had anyone in mind who might be able to fellowship with N to be able to be her friend and she makes a new change and attends Church. He didn't have anyone in mind and neither did we so we mutually agreed to come back after a day or two and ponder the subject to see who might be the best help for our new friend. After our worship service on Zoom we got a call from Sister Smith and she explained that she actually knew N from previously at CSDR (the school for the deaf here), she was very excited that N was learning from the missionaries and attended church and actually asked us if she could join in the lessons with.


We called N and told her about the experience which we had with Sister Smith, she also remembered Sister Smith from CSDR. Nitro also explained that she knew a few more members and that she recently had a call with brother Cochran, the elders Quorum president, about meeting with her with him and the missionaries on Friday to study with us. The surprising thing was that we actually didn't even know that she had set up an appointment by herself with a member! N actually ended up scheduling a few appointments with members and we never had to do it, she just wanted to learn herself and so she decided to set everything up herself!


Our A/C unit is broken again, but luckily It isn't too hot outside at night. However our apartment is 80 degrees right now. Oof


We found out that in order to order another video phone we could actually sign up as a business rather than having to prove that we're deaf or hard-of-hearing. This is excellent news because the other Elders as I type out this email or actually signing up and trying to qualify our business or rather the church to get another video phone in California Riverside.


There are a few other positive coronavirus cases in the Riverside Zone and so we are mostly in Social isolation. The few of us had RX showing symptoms however that should end early next week. It's kind of a bummer because nobody is able to get out and do service over it's kind of cramped up in their apartment, but we'll pull through this. There's a quote that President Watson shares very often and it really has given me strength during these times it is "We have Him, and He has us".

We found out that the new youth 2021 album is releasing a few songs early, we really enjoyed one of them the theme song and we've worked and began translating it for our next SL song post which should be coming out hopefully late this week if not early next week we have the translation finished we're now just practicing coordinating our movements which takes up the brunt of our efforts. It's a bit like coordinating a dance but only with your arms and hands and also a lot of your face which I definitely did not enjoy at the start of my vision but it's become so regular to make very large and grandiose facial expressions. We really do try to do our best for these videos, so we hope you all enjoy them!


That is about it for all the news from California Riverside, but I'm very thankful for all of your prayers and all of your emails!!


-Elder Vance

Season 13 Episode 1: Nerf-Gun Crash and Dash

Hello Friends & Family,

This week has been semi-eventful, however not very entertaining. 

We had 5 stake devotionals this week, 3 on Sunday alone (that was a long night). I was surprised when my Mom joined in the last devotional during my training. Apparently some conversation was being had with her and President Watson, and he sent her the invite and told her to join. Unfortunately she forgot to mute her mic...

There was about 5 seconds of  HOW DO WE RECORD THIS" followed by 3 minutes of me (still giving the training) trying to understand how my Mom got the code for the zoom meeting.

(Also the entire time she was on the meeting, she thought I didn't notice, but the entire stake noticed, and she even got a shoutout by Stake President Wilson)

After these devotionals Elder Hallsted and I finally got home around 10:30 P.M. We were backing into our parking spot, and walking to our apartment, when we spotted a nerf gun over by the trash. 

We looked at each other, then back at the nerf gun. We both had the same idea. We excitedly picked it up, only to see another a few feet from our position. We picked up the next nerf gun and then we found another! This process repeated until we had roughly 20 nerf guns (and not the wimpy small kind, but the HUGE kind).

We have set-up a baptisimal date for Beatriz for the 21st, and we have been working with her so she will be ready for the Interview. Elder Aamodt (ASLder in training) is working on his language skills so he can conduct the interview. Stay tuned for that!

 

My latest post

-Elder Vance

Season 12 Episode 6: Jug fishing

Hello Friends & Family,

There are currently 4 missionaries going home in my apartment, and it is very hard to focus with 8 years of mission experiences/stories floating around the room. I will do my best to write this email, and then try to soak in some of the seniority in the room.

Elder Larsen says hi

Update there are now 8 missionaries finishing their missions, 16 years of experience.

This week we had a zone chat after the district council, we focused on finding methods. We had a short segment from the finding master, Elder Zierenburg. The meeting was successful, as we had every companionship in our zone find at least 1 new person to teach! (Except 2 companionships, but we still love them!)

There are now 10 missionaries soon to go home, 20 years of experience!

We have already discussed plans for the ASL 3 area, we think it would be wise to start them off focusing on YSA work, and give them a few home visits with members we select so they can practice ASL and get a feel for the Deaf culture. Slowly but surely!!

We had a meeting with the stake presidents of California (I think) and Elder Miskin (Area President and member of the Seventy). Because our mission is doing very well with finding over social media, Elder Miskin asked our social media crew to train the stake presidents and share strategies. It was an excellent training, and Elder Miskin shared some things that I really enjoyed, one was an example of fishing VS. Jug fishing.

For those of you who are like me, and don't fish that often you may be asking, "What on earth is jug fishing?"
Regular fishing involves a line and a hook. When the hook/line is not in the water, there is no possibility you can catch fish! However, Jug fishing (Which I've now been told might be illegal) is tying a line (with multiple hooks) onto a milk jug, which has been filled with air. You leave the jug in the water and come back and find multiple fish attached to your line! Facebook work is essentially Jug fishing.
"Missionaries have been wasting time tracting" -Elder Miskin
Everyone who has ever served a mission knows that tracting has NEVER been the most efficient thing to do. It is a constant thing we can do, but not effective. When we post on Facebook, the messages we share stay on the internet, and whether we are on facebook, doing other activities, or sleeping, our posts about Christ and his Gospel are getting attention, and can help us find people who are longing for the Truths of the restored Gospel.

Now all the 15 missionaries brought food into our apartment without any regard to WHOSE apartment they are in! I will therefore end my email, and ask for your prayers that my apartment remain clean. I need them

-Elder Vance

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Season 12 Episode 5: Windy Week in Riverside

 

Hello Friends & Family,

Hoorah! California is finally cooling down! This morning was a chilly 55 degrees! I have missed cool weather so much!
For P-day we decided to hike Mt. Rubidoux again, our friend Cody invited us also! Previously he has invited us 3 times, but has slept in all 3 times. We were pleasantly surprised to find him waiting for us at the base of the trail! We hiked up to the top with a few others from our zone, and then fully embraced the wind at the summit! (Videos for proof)

After 10ish minutes we decided that we had had enough rocks flung into our mouths and eyes we ran back down the mountain (honestly it's a glorified hill compared to utah)


Also notably, Elder Hallsted and I FINALLY got a Rav4 to drive! We were incredibly excited to switch from our corolla and finally join with the rest of MLC with the Rav4 squadron!


The Miracle of the week was this past sunday. We recently were informed that our in-person church was canceled AGAIN... Back to zoom! Typically we had a Sunday School zoom meeting at 2pm for anyone who wasn't able to attend the earlier sacrament meeting. But with the in-person sacrament meeting being closed, everyone SHOULD be able to attend the meeting over zoom. All of us ASLders didn't know that the later meeting was canceled, and continued to invite friends to both 10am and 2pm church meetings (majority to the 2pm meeting). Sunday morning, we found that there in fact was no meeting for our friends to attend (Surprise!). We quickly snapped into action and attempted to gain approval to host our own worship service so our friends would not be left out. We called the Branch President, and got approval! We then called the second counselor and he agreed to conduct the impromptu meeting. We had 9 friends attend! It was amazing! We all took turns and introduced ourselves. I think this was excellent because now everyone has someone to look forward to seeing at church! "If there is a will there's a way"


Revelation is most commonly found for me while I act. We should not wait for Revelation to come, then and only then agree to act. Rather we should do the opposite and be anxiously engaged in whatever we are doing and continue to work until we are guided by Heavenly Father to continue, or to change our course!
"We cannot steer a parked car"

-Elder Vance

Season 12 Episode 4: Skirmishers of Catan

Hello Friends & Family,

There were few notable events here in the California Riverside Mission, but of such I will freely share!

We had Multi-zones this week. Elder Hallsted and I gave training on how to utilize Family History work alongside social media work. It is incredibly easy to find people to teach, because most everyone has an interest in their family history, and our church just happens to have the largest database of genealogical names in the world! 

So... yeah!

We gave a live-demo on how to login on behalf of someone else, and find their ancestors. 

I think this helped everyone in attendance.

We have been mostly teaching  friends who find us on facebook through one of our  videos.  We have had a lot of success sharing messages and answering questions. Any sometimes finding new friends to teach.  

To explain a little bit of what our teaching experience is like, I'll expound on 1 of our friends

Lz lives in Brazil, she doesn't know ASL, but knows Portuguese Sign Language. Unfortunately neither of us share the same written language, and so we have been using a strange system of translation as follows:

When we don't know a sign in Portuguese, we ask the sisters who speak Portuguese what a word is in Portuguese. 

(These sister missionaries are serving in Boston, the same mission as my cousin Elder Ryder Vance, they had remembered seen one of our videos and contacted us through facebook)

They spell it out to us, we spell it to Lz, then she shows us what the sign is. 

We write it down in the best way we can describe it so we don't forget it. We have taught all but the last lesson this way, using the 60 ish signs we know, we share the Gospel! 

ASL is the only Sign Language mission that the church sends missionaries for. 

In fact the ASL program is less than 50 years old! (I'll fact check later) 

When it comes to Lz, we are literally the only missionaries in the world she can talk with.  

President Watson gave a very inspired training on "deep doctrine theories" and also (my favorite) "Answering the question they should have asked".

To explain the latter, many people ask us questions about very particular principles in the restored church.

 For example:
"Why did the church practice polygamy?"

To the honest seekers of truth, a reply such as this can help them find answers,
"That is an excellent question! That was a revelation given to us to use at a specific time, and under specific circumstances. Revelation comes through a Prophet. Why do you think it would be important to have a Prophet today?"
(Response may vary)

The reasoning behind such an answer is to help our friends understand the core doctrine, rather than worrying about all the extremities. If you find yourself asking such questions, do not worry! It is normal to do so, however I would encourage you to answer the question based on the "branch" leading back to Christ. The most common "Branches" of questions are:
1. Is there a Prophet today?
2. Was Joseph Smith a Prophet?
3. Is the Book of Mormon True?
etc.

Answering the core questions is ESSENTIAL to resolving concerns. If you simply focus on the superficial questions, you will always find more questions that have no value, other than to satisfy a quick concern, and more will arise.
John 15:1,4
"I am the true vine"
"Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me"
Christ should be our foundation, not random sticks and twigs of theories that claim to be shoot offs from Christ. Be careful where you climb on this metaphorical tree.

Hopefully nobody got lost in the metaphor. I hope that was more entertaining than Jacob

-Elder Vance

*

Season 12 Episode 3: The Han Dynasty

Hello Friends & Family

Elder Hallsted and I had an interesting experience last saturday as we were finishing up service. 

We found that our keys were no longer in the pocket they should have been, but rather locked in the 

backseat in plain view of our grieving eyes. We had to deliver all the cleaning supplies back to 

downtown Riverside on a deadline. Luckily the Office Elders were in our service group, and they 

quickly rescued us with a spare key taken from the Mission office. 

We also were able to bring 2 friends to an in person Sacrament meeting!! Yes, I said sacrament meeting in person, 

with masks. First one in about 6 months.  a missionary who has not been to church in 6 months is 

generally not recommended.

3 more were able to attend virtually, and all (myself included) were spiritually enlightened! 

It was very nice to be back at the ASL Branch again. It was a little awkward in our sacrament meeting 

to wash hands, put on gloves, and have taped off rows in the Chapel, but I'm sure that God was happy with our 

little gathering! 

President Watson is wanting a 5th ASLder in our apartment for what he says is 

"preparation for future leadership assignments", whatever that means. We are now "Drafting" 

the next missionary to serve in the ASL Branch. There are quite a few who are "fluent", but I beg to differ. 

It is strange how people have a sudden interest in the Language! We will be making our decisions soon.

We started our new series missionaries with out arms with arms.  I am not sure who had the most fun 

filming this...I hope you all enjoy!

*


All is well in Riverside. There is always room for improvement!!

-Elder Vance

Season 12 Episode 2: A Generally good week

Hello Friends & Family,

I love General Conference! I look so forward to hearing the talks and feeling the spirit.
Elder Hallsted and I interpreted all 4 sessions of conference for our friend C who is about 21-22 years old.
C understands simple ASL, so the regular church interpreter confused him. He simply has had no education
what so ever. He was born deaf so his family did not see any reason for an education. He is now going to school
and learning ASL but is about a 4th-5th grade level of education. He is amazing and is learning so much,
he is also teaching us so much! We simplified the talks for him to watch!
I think that helped me understand what the Speaker's focus was, as most of the time the simplified ASL
would leave us repeating many phrases. From what I interpreted, alot of the General Conference
was focused on Jesus... maybe that was just my interpretation :)

I would reccomend re-reading all of the talks. I will also be doing so!


We played frisbee golf this morning, not quite real golf, but I'll take it. Apparently Bees don't really like me,
and as I was about to tee off, one latched onto my ankle and stung me through my sock.
Luckily I was a big boy and only cried for 2 minutes.


We went on exchanges with Canyon Crest and also the Tech elders. Thats about it!
Besides amazing conference!

*

-Elder Vance

Season 12 Episode 1: Lost in Translation

Hello friends & family,

Elder Hallsted and I have had a incredibly busy week!! 

Every single minute was well used, and that knowledge alone is very comforting and rewarding!!

The highlight of the week was last sunday. We had 4 friends attending worship services at the same time, the only issue was that each of them required a different form of sign language.

1 of them is in Brazil, and needed Portuguese Sign language. Elder Hallsted has been teaching her for longer than I have, and knows roughly 40 ish signs, so he took on that task. 

We have another friend who needed a regular ASL interpretation, I decided to interpret for him. 

We had another friend who is still learning ASL and needed a simplified version, Elder Cluff was on that. 

Also at the same time, we had a friend who's mother only spoke spanish and wanted to go to the Spanish church, so Hermana Jacobs interpreted the Spanish service into english, and Elder Ericksen into ASL for her. 

We were all at the Family History Center  (FHC) with about 10 other missionaries at the same time, using different computers. 

Hands were flying everywhere!! 

I feel bad for all the other missionaries in the same room as us, they were not paying any attention to the Mission Devotional.

About Halfway through the talks, we found that our friend Cody was actually watching the Portuguese Sign Language instead of the Gesturing. He was a little confused, but then started understanding once he found the correct person interpreting.

Zone leader responsibilities are super fun! We had our first Zone accountability last saturday. Some excellent goals were set. I never understood how much effort needs to take place for every zone activity/meeting to take place.

*

Elder Hallsted and I visited 2 zones, Ontario and Jurupa to share the Series training. They seemed very excited to post their series, and we have already received positive feedback from each zone.

I want to leave y'all with some homework:
Scroll back to the April 2019 general conference and listen to

Elder Ucthdorf's talk, "Missionary work: Sharing what is in your heart"

Get ready for another unforgettable Conference!!

-Elder Vance

Letter from Mission President Watson

Dear Tiffini Vance & Sterling Vance

It is with pleasure that I inform you of Elder Tyson Vance's new assignment as a Zone Leader in the California Riverside Mission. 

It is an honor to have your son serving in this position. As a Zone Leader he will continue to be an example in all things to those missionaries in the zone where he is serving.

His great efforts and example in his previous assignments have qualified him for this opportunity and I am certain that the experience he will gain as a Zone Leader will prepare him for future callings in the Church and in life.

It is a pleasure to work in the gospel with such a fine young man. Thank you for sharing him with us and for the continued support you provide him. May God's choicest blessings be with you!

Sincerely,

President Edward S. Watson California Riverside Mission 

Season 11 Episode 6: ZL-ASL-SMS

Try pronouncing that title

I dare you... ZLASLSMS

Hello everyone!!

This week gave us transfer news!

We ate dinner with President Watson and his family last friday, and that is when he broke the news of Elder Hallsted and I re-uniting and becoming the Zone Leaders for Riverside. I am exceedingly excited for this responsibility! It is important that I keep my standard of work/use of time up so that I may be of use when the Lord sends me to help another!


When President brought out the transfer boards (on paper) and said,
"Alright... Let's talk"
His youngest son Chris responded with a groan,
"Oh boy, here it comes"

As far as transfers go, we have decided that we won't really move our apartment around, we all thought it would not be necessary nor entertaining.

                     

This week for Social Media, I spoke at the

Hemet Stake conference     

President Watson was asked to go, 

but was unable to attend due to 

a meeting with the Area authorities. 

Sister Gugelman and I were asked

to go in his stead. 

I thought it was superb! 

I only talked for a few minutes, but 

was very happy to visit again and see some of the members I had

befriended during my time there. 

Here are some of my talking points:

We HAVE been prepared for this like no other church, group, or organization!

Elder L. Tom Perry announced: “Missionaries are now authorized to use the Internet in their proselyting efforts.” (“Missionary Work in the Digital Age” [June 2013]

“This represents a permanent change to the way we will do missionary work in the future”
-Leif Ericksen (Aug 28, 2020 NAW Social Media training)

D&C 4
3 Therefore, if ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the [post, like, comment and share];
4 For behold [Social Media] is white already to harvest; and lo, he that thrusteth in his
sickle with his might, the same layeth up in store that he perisheth not, but bringeth salvation to his soul;

This is our proof so far Fact about the California Riverside Mission since COVID began:
Facebook ONLY

• 2.2 Million Views  (SIDE NOTE 1.5 M from ASL alone)
• 1.2 Million minutes viewed
• 20,000 Hours
• 833 Days
• 2.28 Years
• 20K Followers
• 234K Engagements

What can Members do??

Share Missionary made videos to your Facebook profiles and/or groups

Create your own content! Or join missionaries videos!!

Message your friends directly when sharing content.

Add your own testimony to posts you share!

General tips

Avoid Church specific terms
Share experiences rather than testimonies (IE I know this church is true VS sharing HOW you know this church is true)

Zones are planning video series, each companionship should have a episodic plan to teach with.

Contact the missionaries!!

I will be busy, busy, busy...
But busy = Good!
I will not allow myself to look back on my mission and think,
"I could have used my time better"
So work I shall!

I'm sure I will have more to talk about next week!
-Elder Vance

Season 11 Episode 5: Peace out!!

HelHello Family & Friends,
Another week has come and gone!!
This week had a few notable events:
1. Our most recent music video came out! I decided some time ago to focus this on mental health, also to hopefully honor my late friend Aaron Zundel. I came across the song, "Where can I turn for peace" in the Hymns at home album the church released. This fit perfectly with what I wanted to represent, both the lyrics and the sound of the song. Little did I know that I posted during National Suicide Prevention month, I think it is alright to assume the Spirit was involved in the process of this video.


FACEBOOK POST:
To @Aaron Zundel
I miss you bud
Through my short time on this earth, I came into aquantance with Aaron. We quickly bonded over our shared love for anyting Star wars and/or Sci-fi. We would spend hours discussing each episode as though it were Shakespeare. He taught me so much about how to care and love for people in the most Christ-like way! But what I didn't know about Aaron was that He was suffering. Aaron took his life just over 2 years ago. It shocked me, and devastated me in a way that I never knew it could.
You do not have to suffer alone
I am here to tell you that there is Peace to be found! It comes through our savior Jesus Christ. He is the true and lasting source of Joy!
I know this because I have experienced His love for myself, and know of the strenght that comes from relying on the Lord.
If you, or anyone you know cannot seem to find peace, please turn to Christ. If you need help, message us! We are all in our own journeys, but that doesn't mean we cannot love and support eachother on our paths!
#NationalSuicidePreventionMonth
#SuicidePrevention

2. I was able to have dinner with my family!! Steve and Tauni Vance hosted us yesterday for dinner. The canyoncrest Elders pulled me aside one day, I thought they would ask me about Social Media, but rather they invited me to dinner. I asked them why they had done so, and this was their answer,
"We have a dinner planned, but they said we could only come if we found and brought Elder Vance with us".
I found out Steve Vance (My Dad's cousin) was the member they were going to eat with and readily accepted the invite.

We had a great time talking about our family, and especially the Gospel.
I'll admit it was a little strange and nice during the dinner, when I was only referred to as "Tyson",

 but I don't think that will happen again any time soon. :)



3. We have a new Stake President! Don't ask me his name because I forgot.

4. I have been called to as Committee Chair for our SOCIAL MEDIA SPECIALISTS in my mission. As the chair I meet with my mission president weekly, the 6 social media committee members in RIVERSIDE CA MISSION weekly. I also meet all with the Mission Presidents in the West and area 70 from SLC twice a month to discuss social media improvements and missionary involvement and success. I have proposed with my mission president budgeting plan for mission accessible equipment. As now we are only using our cell phones and the editing software from our phones to make videos. The great news this week is that, I was approved for some film equipment! Stay tuned for some superb video quality.


The end


-Elder Vance

Season 11 Episode 4: Christmas came early!! Again!

Hello Friends & Family,

This week was full of surprises!

For starters, most of our appointments canceled on us, but we had numerous surprise appointments to fill in! We were also able to eat with the Egberts, they had made some fantastic homemade flour tortillas. Elder Ericksen never ceases to amaze me on how much he can eat. I still think it goes into his legs...

Because of my proneness to ripping suit pants, I purchased a new suit this week, only after the shop-owner confirmed the fabric was stronger than my previous pants. We will see how that goes! (And no mom, I'm not putting on weight, in fact I'm using the next belt hole in, otherwise my shirt comes untucked)


This morning we had a zone pancake party at President Watson's home. After eating a significant amount of pancakes, Elder Whitmore and I joined forces and went 13-0 in a Spikeball frenzy. We humbly accept the title of Undefeated Champions!


President Watson has given Elder Farr and I the task of making a shopping list for video equipment. This is very exciting because; #1 I love shopping for Technology (Mom take note), #2 I know what is useful to the zones in regards to equipment. NO MORE SHAKY VIDEOS!!!


I finished reading "Jesus the Christ" and highly recommend it to any avid student of our Savior! Religious or not, this book provides insight heretofore unknown to the common learner.

Got some new basketball shoes...
Not much else to report!


-Elder Vance
 Ash from the 25 wild fires burning in California, I am doing good and the mission is safe!

Season 11 Episode 3: Goals, Goals, Goals!

Hello Friends & Family,

Elder Ericksen and I have been steadily planning out our goals and also how to achieve them. We set the ideal of 8 Home visits a week, and we hit 7 this past week.

We already have 4 planned and more will follow! 

We also are organizing our areabook into progressing friends, and creating individual plans of "attack" as to best help them overcome any roadblocks on the way to Salvation.

We were able to have a lesson with Stephen again! Stephen shared with us some weaknesses he wants to overcome, and together we made a plan on how to help. Essentially it is as follows: Any time he feels tempted for any reason, he will text us and we can share scriptures or some topic to study to help distract him from temptation.

We are very proud of this week and what we accomplished, and Elder Ericksen's enthusiasm matches that of Peter's! It is very exciting as well as entertaining to watch him plot, plan, scheme (all other synonyms of the word) what we can do to find success in our area.

Elder Hallsted and Ericksen have challenged each other to only eat food that has been blended. This includes any regularly solid foods. I'm not sure why or how this started, but it is entertaining, and slightly nerve-wracking after I saw them drink fish and rice. We will see how long this lasts!

I am roughly 50 pages from finishing "Jesus the Christ". There was a massive buildup to the Atonement being started in Gethsemane, but I will admit I was somewhat disappointed in Talmage's description. It was perfectly correct, but very brief. Essentially it went something like this, "We as mortal humans cannot begin to understand/comprehend what happened in the Garden" and that's it. 

I did learn quite a bit however about the governing powers at the time. Such as how the Sanhedrin initially brought Jesus under illegal pretenses, and also how they accused him of Blasphemy, a crime with a death sentence attached to it, but due to the ruling Roman empire, the punishment of death was reserved strictly for the Roman judges. After the Sanhedrin condemned Christ, they brought him before Pilate, and never once mentioned Blasphemy, but rather tried to convince Pilate that Jesus was guilty of insurrection. They created every excuse to plead the Death of Christ, except for the crime that the Sanhedrin had agreed upon. This is because Pilate would have immediately dismissed any accusation of Blasphemy because to him, a pagan, all of Judaism was Blasphemy. 

Just a cool find!! More will follow!

-Elder Vance

Season 11 Episode 2: Spice Spice Baby

HeHello Friends & Family,

We had every lesson planned fully with scriptures and they all cancelled. But we still had an amazing week!
Elder Ericksen and I have been planning, translating and practicing our latest ASL song that should be out this week! I think Elder Ericksen is a bit more excited about it than I am!

We are still finding accommodations for Stephen, rumor has it there are ASL missionaries about 3 hours from him, but we have absolutely no confirmation. Stay tuned for that...

Training is going well! Elder Ericksen and I had a very in depth Companionship inventory, and we set some teaching goals. He shared with me his desire to be more involved in each lesson, and I am giving him a lot more responsibility to teach, and he is excelling with it!

Also this week we made a Spicy Chicken video with Brother McCrory. Brother McCrory was in the ASL branch for a while as the 1st counselor (I think), and early in my mission he moved back to his ward in Ontario with his family. He held upsignificantly better than I did with the spice, as you can see in the video.

Elder Ericksen had the idea to ride our bikes rather than go on walks. We take the same amount of time, but now we are mapping our local historical sites that we will bike to and check out. This worked once, then as we were prepping for our next outing, we found my bike had a flat tire and a rip in the tread.


Yup, that's it!
-Elder Vance

Season 11 Episode 1: Melon Man

Hello Friends & Family,

Welcome Elder Ericksen, I believe, has come into the mission pre-trained! With the few exceptions of food preparation, and basic mission management, he already knows what to do!
Here are some of the many things I have already learned from him:
1. 1-10 in French
2. How to make peanut butter/mayo sandwiches

3. How to draw Jesus on a "whiteboard" only to find out it wasn't a whiteboard but the closet door
4. If someone (Hypothetically) drops a watermelon on the floor in the middle of our carpeted living room, you can make a pretty slick helmet out of it

At the start of this week, we had no appointments at all in our areabook. Through a lengthy process, we called and set up as many as we could. Some fell through, but I am happy to report that Saturday and Sunday were so busy that we had to be incredibly punctual to make it to all of them! 

We have started A/B testing for the north half of the mission (Facebook Ads). This should give us plenty of information in regards to which route we should take to gain more traffic for our zones. A member in the Riverside stake has recently been called as the "stake social media counselor" or something along those lines. She will be helping us (in the Riverside zone) to post more of our videos in diverse places. The main alternate location is instagram, because we don't have that approved (and probably will/should not have it approved) she would run those pages, while still funneling the referrals our way. Also we should be able to connect with members who have filming experience and/or equipment! Exciting!

The other great news from this week is about our friend Stephen. Stephen lives in Tennessee, but there are no local ASL missionaries in the same state as him, or even in the surrounding states. Because he contacted us, we decided to continue to teach him. As we have explained some of our basic beliefs, the spirit has impacted him strongly! Basically, everything we believe, he also does, but wasn't sure where to find a church that follows those beliefs.

D&C 123:12 " who are only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it"
Our lesson plan this week was to first answer questions, then to go over some points in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As we explained them, we got to Baptism. Stephen stopped us and told us he had a question about that. Excitedly we welcomed his inquiry, and he shared his desire to be baptised again so he could recommit himself to the Lord and also understand the ordinance more now than when he was previously baptised. I explained that we do not believe in Re-baptism (except in certain circumstances), but we do believe in being baptised by the proper Priesthood Authority, to which he expressed a great desire to have that proper baptism! Yes, he invited himself to be baptised!!
We are finding a member who knows ASL, and also which local church he wants to attend. He might be moving soon to Utah, so we have some planning to do!

-Elder Vance