Season 9 Episode 1: Teenage 4-man Karate Speakers

Hello Friends & Family,

I apologize for no info from last week, but I am prioritizing this weeks email!


To fill everyone in:

Last P-day was transfers,

I am now in Riverside 

with all the ASLders. 

After we had moved all my stuff from Hemet, the APs called and asked us to deliver a car back to Hemet. 

We drove there and then got news that we were also delivering (then) Elder Rich (now Michal Rich) to Ontario. 

It took all of our P-day, but we had a blast. 

Unfortunately, 

I had no internet connection the entire time, so I had no method of sending an Email

HWe picked up the new ASLder Cluff on Tuesday. He is a CODA (Child of a Deaf Adult) so he is far ahead in ASL than where I started. 

We have made a few videos with him, and are planning a really cool 4 man ASL song so stay tuned...


In other news, we have been talking back and forth with the Area Presidency (by we I mean President Hammon) and recently got approval to leave our mission boundaries for teaching appointments and Deaf Events. 

This is huge! Our ASL branch boundary is roughly 4 times the size of our mission boundary, so most of our members were previously outside of our reach. 

Also a few surrounding missions do not have ASL missionaries (but do have Deaf events) and were missing out. 

We can access those areas now. In addition, our ASL area typically had 2 wards we covered. Now all 4 of us are full time ASL.


Unfortunately, because of the recent movement, our Areabook is down. We have 0 contacts. Also because of our apartment move, our VP has no connection so even if we had the contacts, we have no way of calling them. This should all be fixed tomorrow.


There aren't many pictures either because we are inside all day. Just look on our facebooks for the videos.


-Elder Vance

Season 8 Episode 6: Quarantined !

Hello Friends & Family,













SAME...













-Elder Vance

Season 8 Episode 5: Social Media Council strikes back

Hello Friends & Family,

This week was well... pretty much the same, with a few exceptions noted below.

We had "Multi-zones" this week. Rather than 2 zones gathered together to recieve Trainings, we grouped half the mission together and did North-Half andSouth-half, meetings.
Elder Campbell and I gave a training for the south half. We layed out the "4 commandments of posting". I hope this was well recieved. We have had a few issues with posting lately, so a reminder of our boundaries was well needed for the mission (including myself).




Without going into detail, I had an encounter with some fellow missionaries this week that humbled me. I was rather upset with these missionaries who weren't doing what they were supposed to, but after consulting with Elder Rich, (look out ladies he's coming home soon) I was invited to see things from their perspective. Elder Rich opened my understanding of how they might feel, and rather than angrily calling them, I genuinely wanted to help them. I wish Elder Rich would narrate a book, that would be fun to listen to.

A LITTLE FUN!  WATCH & WAIT FOR IT.........

I am continuing to interpret for an upcoming book. I don't have all the details, but this week we interviewed (meaning me interpreting the questions asked) a College Professor (hearing) and his Deaf daughter who is in college. We also had the opportunity to talk with a Deaf man who had been a college graduate (of course I won't name names). We heard about their stories and how they learned to sign, also we got new insights into Deaf culture. Super cool stuff!! If you have specific questions, send them my way, we talked about alot so I won't put it all down here.

Anywho, I'm not perfect, but I learned something important.
That's the quick edition of that story, sorry for the ambiguity.


Hang in there!
-Elder Vance

Season 8 Episode 4: The man who speaks with Karate

Hello Friends & Family,

Social Isolation life is pretty much the same.

Not much to report there.

However!!

Because we are having a

unique schedule now, 

social media has provided 

us with the means of 

connecting to literally 

hundreds of thousands 

of people!

I will share a few of our experiences thus far.

Because of my
ASL videos continuously

popping up, more people
have begun to recognize
me as a Signer.

Which is very surprising to 

me and kind of people!

There was a post on the "Worldwide United"
group (previously the worldwide fast group)
asking if someone could interpret ASL.
 I never actually saw this post, but
15 people who recommended me did!

They tagged me so many times, that the
person asking for help texted me and told
me her story.

She has a brother who is Deaf, and who 

went to an oral school for the Deaf as 

he was growing up. This caused quite a 

few interesting events to happen, which 

eventually led to him learning sign language 

and having a future family. 

The woman who contacted me knows 

enough sign language to communicate, 

but not enough to have an in depth 

conversation. 

This is where I came into the

picture. Because of her 

Brother's experiences, she wanted to 

write a book to increase the knowledge 

about Deaf culture, but she needed 

someone who could help break the 

communication barrier. 

I happily agreed to help!! 

He has an amazing story that

we are diving into, and we 

will have more time to talk later this week.

Our social media efforts have landed us teaching appointments from 4 other countries. 

We teach them initially (due to their insistence) and then refer them. 

I am keeping a list of all the places we have shared the Gospel virtually, and it is very fun!! 

There was another lesson in particular that stood out to me. 

A man reached out to me and asked me to interpret for him. After video chatting for a bit, I found out more about him. He has Cerebral Palsy, and is also hard of hearing. Because of this, he understands ASL but cannot sign it himself. 

He asked me to "Be his hands".                                             He bore his testimony, then watched me         repeat it in ASL, so that he could see                    it all come together, and so that he                 could be connected to the Deaf culture.                

This nearly made me cry in front of him. He relied so heavily on Jesus, saying,

 "As long as I have this chair (his electric wheelchair) and can breath, God can use me".

The imagery of being "The Savior's hands" now has a new meaning for me...

-Elder Vance