Season 10 Episode 3: ONE Year down!!!

Hello

Hello Friends & Family,

One year down, and 1 to go!! Last friday, I hit 1 year since I left for the MTC. I remember as I entered the MTC, I was very confused but excited! I met my future companion, little did I know then that we would be serving together for 70% of our mission so far. By the end of next year, we will have likely spent at least 1 full year as companions.


WE HAD A BAPTISM!!! Gerald (Jereld, Gereld, or however he wants to spell it for the day) has a very interesting story! About 6 months ago (when I was in Riverside for my first time) we met with a family. This family was a part member family who lived with the Mom's boyfriend (his name was Bryan). Bryan really didn't like the missionaries, especially not when they came into his house.

 We usually avoided him, but there were several times where he would paint the room with a rainbow of a mouth. Finally, after quite some time, the Member (Bryan's girlfriend) broke up with him, then moved to Idaho to visit her daughters who went to BYU-I. While there, she met Gerald. Upon their marriage, now Sister Kessler, immediately went to work to connect him with the missionaries. She knew us from our service in her ward (Arlington Heights), and remembered that we did some sort of speaking with our hands. She called us, and moved back to Riverside County, and then we started teaching Gerald. The rest is History!!


As per usual, when we were preparing for the baptism, we needed to fill up the font roughly 4 hours early so it is completely full. We found a record of 7-8 cockroaches last saturday! Sweet!
It has been in the 100 (degrees) here for about a week, I find that I am used to constantly having a small amount of sweat on my body at all times. A/C Is amazing, thank you whoever was inspired to make that!

 My Dad challenged me to email him some of the things I learned from this year,

but I wrote them in my journal instead (sorry).

 So as a fulfillment to his challenge, I will send pictures of my journal home!

I got 3 packages from home, which included:
Some new ties (skinny ties!!)
Throw balls (the ones with elastic so they come back to your hand)
Lots of melted Reese's
But my personal favorite, Pina colada mix!
I drank way too many of those really fast. Super yummy.

**Thank you to the Hallsted Family for including me in the ONE year package gifts, I love the Camel socks!

That just about sums it all up! Thanks for being with me on this crazy journey so far, Thank you for the gifts, letters, packages & support!  It really lifts me and makes me feel loved!

Hopefully I'll still be entertaining for the year to come!

LOVE, Elder Vance

Season 10 Episode 2: Off to Taiwan

Hello 

Hello Friends & Family,

Well, missions are re-opening...

Sister Low has come to our mission for a short time, and she is leaving tonight to go back to Taiwan, that's about it. I just thought it would be a funny title.

Anyway, this past week had 2 memorable events.

1. Our facebook "livestream"

It was actually pre-recorded. Facebook does not have any native software that allows us to share our screen, and webcam at the same time, so we recorded the entire thing through "WebEX". 

We then realized after the first recording, that I had never taken our Mic off of mute. We re-recorded then found our sections that we played the music was very loud, and we actually couldn't hear our dialogue.  

Regardless, we broadcasted the video onto our page aswell as the "Worldwide Unified" group. We had I think a top of 300 ish people watching live at one time. That was pretty cool!

See the full video on Youtube and follow me for the latest:
                               SignWithTy

2. We had a zone BBQ

July 4th, our zone leaders hosted us at the Jackson building for some genuine American food. We ate soo much, and felt sick afterwords, but hey! That's the American experience.

This morning we Hiked Mt. Rubidoux again, it is probably one of my favorite places on planet earth. I found this small hidden cliff that has a nice carved out seat in the rocks. I hope to go study there one day!!

Anyway, that is just about all the news this week.

-Elder Vance