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

Season 10 Episode 7: The Scripture Sherlock

Hello Friends & Family,

Well Transfer news came in! My assignment has been changed from District Leader to Trainer! I have the wonderful opportunity to welcome Elder Erickson (Eriksen?) into the CRM. He should be here tomorrow (tuesday the 11th).


I've realized that my acting skills have improved drastically (but not really). I have adopted several personas in our ASL lessons/home-visits. 

One of my favorites is Sherlock Holmes! During a visit with Sister Caramel, we found that she really enjoyed mystery books. Because I could not dress up like Nancy drew, I decided to throw on two opposite facing baseball hats and a suit! And thus I became Elder Holmes. Now it is a tradition that we read the scriptures, gather clues, and interpret the meaning of the stories we read to "See the big picture". Once every piece of evidence has been gathered, we Solve the mystery! It is quite enjoyable for all of us.

One amazing insight from this week (and more is to follow!) 

When I was reading Jesus the Christ I came across a rather neat find. When the Young ruler/rich man approaches the Christ and earnestly asks how he might Inherit eternal life, Christ responds with The 10 commandments

The ruler explains that he had already been following those standards but further inquires with "What lack I yet?"

 

Luke 18:22

"Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me."

The rich man is saddened and leaves. Hopefully to later realize the mistake he made and to return to the true path. Regardless the next line is where my excitement lies...

 

Luke 18:25

"For it is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God."

I always assumed the needle is a sewing needle, and it being an impossible task for a rich man to enter The kingdom of Heaven. I was slightly worried because of this, as I do plan to take up a position that is known to gain wealth rapidly.However my understanding was skewed.

Most larger cities in Jesus's time had walls. Along these walls, there were large gates that could open to let caravans in (imagine the Jurrasic park doors). Because they were somewhat a hassle to open and close for any new visitor. To make visitations easier (and probably for guards to get out for patrol) these cities had small doors called "needle's eye" or something similar. 

Obviously for a camel to fit though any door would be hard, but the metaphor thickens! 

Most of the time a Camel is carrying a load as it travels, these worldly "possessions" the camel has make it more difficult to fit though the eye of the needle. In order for it to have any chance of making it through this smaller gate it has to relinquish its load, just like the Rich man. 

This makes me happy, for several reasons. Firstly, WHAT A COOL CONNECTION!!

Secondly, God wants as many of his children to return, he would never block out anyone if he could. Realistically, he knows it is difficult to give up one's possessions and trust God, but is is never truly Impossible.

I've started learning some of the Children's hymns of the Ukulele. I'm very glad for the music standard changing, playing/singing music has helped my isolation mood significantly. Stay tuned for a video...?

That is just about it for this week. I'm sure this first week of training will bring many stories!


-Elder Vance

Season 10 Episode 6: Roach Rampage

Hello Friends & Family,

Here are a few of the weekly highlights!!

1. This past saturday we were up until 11:30 vacuuming up Roaches. We think we got them all? We put out a few traps for them so hopefully they don't come back. California has given me many bug experiences.

2. We had another sacrament "Meeting" with some missionaries in our zone. It is awesome being able to meet together and have the Sacrament.

3. We posted our latest ASL music video! "Glorious" is one of my favorite songs. We filmed it around Fairmount Park, usually in the water they will have giant orbs that are handpainted, I haven't yet seen those, but I hope they are out soon! I will definately be visiting that park when I come back to visit.


(Side-Story)
After we posted that video, some ASL Sisters commented that our video was "Similar" to theirs...
Because I don't enjoy others copying us, I wanted to make sure we weren't encroaching on thier ideas! I asked them what video was similar, and after I found the video they were referring to, I was even more confused. They had been talking about a video they made using a DIFFERENT song. None of our signs matched up, and the only 2 similarities I found were that we were both using ASL, and that trees could be seen in the background of our video...

They then changed their mind and admitted they were "salty" because of our video quality. They also apoligized and deleted thier comments.
It was just an entirely unique and strange situation. 

4. President Watson changed the music policy. Previously it has been "Only music from Gospel Library" but now it is up to us to determine what music we can feel the spirit to. I personally love this rule because there are so many amazingly beatiful songs that I can use to listen to and to Sign to! I know some missionaries will likely take advantage of this new rule, but I will remain cautious.
I can use songs that I have permission to post with (from the creator), so if anyone knows of songwriters who makes some good Christian music, send me some info!


We had a long road trip this week to visit some ASL friends. Along the road we saw a giant plume of smoke (pictures will be sent). California fires aren't uncommon, but looking at this monstrosity of a cloud, 


I couldn't help but think of one of my favorite shows. (If you know, you know)
"GIANT MUSHROOM"
"MAYBE ITS FRIENDLY"

We started teaching our new friend Stephen. We met him after he messaged our page. Upon inquiry, we discovered he had messaged the page after seeing the video of Elder Cluff rolling out of bed and thought, "I should message them!" and here we are!

Stephen has some great questions, and has been to many churches. He isn't sure which he would like to join, also in Tennesee (where he lives) there isn't many churches (only 1) that has ASL accomodations and no, it isn't our church.

Stephen was amazed to find that we also believe God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit are 3 distinct and seperate people. He also came to church!! (Zoom church that is)
I shared the basic overview of Joseph Smith's story, about his confusion when deciding which church to join, and thought he might relate to Joseph's journey!
We have an appointment with him tonight.

Another awesome update is from Kelly! She is doing very well, after moving back to California (unfortunately not in our area)(Also we don't cover and english area anymore) we have stayed in contact with her. She is doing great and recently informed us she has landed a job at walmart!
"God is Good!" -Kelly


That's about it from this week!
Stay tuned...


-Elder Vance

Season 10 Episodes 4-5: Oops

Hello Friends & Family,

Yeah, I forgot to write an email so I will combine the past 2 into today's email (sorry mom)

We had exchanges with Elder Searcy and Wardwell last week. I went with Elder Wardwell to the Arlington Heights ward, this was pretty fun because that was my first area (in addition to ASL), so I got to teach some familiar faces. On this exchange, I introduced Elder Wardwell to the "McGangbang". Basically the McCHicken and the McDouble (2 for 3$) and put them together. It tastes amazing but, without fail, makes me rethink my life choices.

Elder Wardwell and I have also agreed to teach each other our languages during nightly calls. He teaches me a phrase and some vocabulary in spanish, then I show him the same words/phrases in ASL. It has been pretty successful so far!

We have started making short ASL skit videos. These are meant to fill in between our larger videos. There should be a new music video this week!! Stay tuned...

Today for P-day we organised a MASSIVE water balloon fight. I am a little crispy due to the sun, but it was amazingly fun! (Yes that rhymed) President Watson gave each of his kids a mission to soak me. I found this out after Chris (his youngest) shot me in the face with mud, Josie (Daughter) ambushed me from behind, and Henry (oldest in California) betrayed our alliance. I guess it was because I had mentioned something about "Not holding back" during the water balloon fight, or somewhere along those lines.

Our A/C froze again, and so we let it thaw for 3 days. It is now working and our apartment is no longer 85 degrees.


We deep cleaned our apartment, so it is now once again in order (for approximately 2 days).

I finished another read-through of the Book of Mormon... Still highly recommend it!

We set up a tomato rail (for them to grow on?) at Fox farms this week. Scott told me he was buying some new fake snakes (he loves to hide them and scare anyone who volunteers at the farm) that are more realistic, larger, and look like Rattle-snakes. I'm not sure why he entrusted this information to me, but I now have been given the responsibility of hiding them around (thankfully I hide them).  

 

THE COOLEST EVEN: I was able to have the sacrament with other missionaries for the first time in 4 months. It was a very special experience that I won't go into much detail with. But having not been able to gather and worship in that way for so long had taken a toll on me that I didn't even know existed. It is quite an amazing experience to be able to share something so sacred as to remember the Savior's sacrifice, with others around you doing the same. Do NOT take that time for granted.


-Elder Vance