Season 16: Episode 2 and a half

Hello Friends & Family,

There weren't too many defining events this week however I will share the following:

Elder Rallison and I have started our next filming project. We've spent much time storyboarding and finding potential ways to edit the video which is very exciting, I'm learning how to use the Adobe Creative Cloud. 

I've also been able to apply a few of my previously learned skills and modified the computers we have in the mission office to better suit our needs for editing videos. We convinced president Watson to purchase a graphics card that I can install to help the load times decrease. on that same note we also happen to have a filming drone coming soon in the mail, essentially the dialogue went as follows;

Us: "Can we get a drone sent to use from home?"
President: "What if we just buy one?"
Us: "They are kinda expensive"
President: "Maybe not then"
Us: "But we WOULD be one of the only missions with a drone"
President: "Send me the info for the Drone"

We are working to strike a balance between office work and normal proselytizing missionary work. 

Has been on our minds the past two weeks but I feel that we are making progress! :-)


Stay tuned for some awesome videos!

-Elder Vance

Season 15 Episode 5-6: Deborah is a Member

 Season 15 Episode 5-6: Deborah is a Member

Hello Friends & Family,

A bit of recap is due.....

Deborah was baptised last saturday!!! She was someone I taught just over a year ago in Lake Elsinore,

I didn't know about her baptism but then the missionaries teaching her called me and told me that she 

had requested that I speak at her baptism. I was absolutely amazed that she remembered me out of all 

the missionaries she had been with. Most of the missionaries who had taught her were still in the mission 

(a few had gone home) and they also attended. There was a missionary fleet in the congregation and it 

was a very special service!

I got transfer news, I will be going back to Riverside, however I will not be doing ASL work. Instead 

I will be assisting Elder Rallision in his videographer role for the mission. I also will be one of the few 

missionaries piloting instagram in our mission. We will be in the Canyon Crest area.

Funny story, Bryan Smith is one of my favorite people in this mission. He is one of the Deaf Young men 

at the branch. Recently he has been attending our ASL socials, last thursday he happened to be cleaning 

his shoe in the middle of the meeting. I got his attention and asked if he wanted to see an even better 

shoe and proceeded to show him my broken missionary shoe. He then replied with "that shoe will soon 

be mine". Not thinking too heavily about it, I laughed it off and he said that he needed to go to the bathroom

and signed out of the meeting. I continued to talk with other people when Elder Robinson called my name

 from behind me and said "Someone is here to see you".

I turned around (we were in the stake center's FHC) and found Bryan with a bike helmet on asking for my 

shoe. Quite surprised, I obliged and gave it to him! He proceeded to run out of the church with my shoe. 

I ran after and eventually got it back. He had left the meeting, and biked to the church so that he could 

steal my shoe.

Elder Campbell and I met Anthony and Chris this week. They are a couple who has met with the 

missionaries for a long time, but haven't recenlty due to the pandemic. When we went around to 

check in on Formers, we knocked on their door. They opened and were quite surprised that we were in 

fact able to go outdoors. We asked if they would like to meet another time, but they only wanted to meet 

if we could meet indoors, luckily we also had approval to do that! In our meeting (about a week later) 

Anthony shared a long story about his previous experience with the missionaries and also his service

 in the army. It was a fantastic story of repentance, and just as I was asking "Where is this story going?" 

in my head, he finished with this line.

"Anyway, that's how I know the Book of Mormon is true"

What a fantastic phrase for missionaries to hear!

I am very excited to be back in Riverside, but it has come with the somewhat sad realization that 

life moves on without me. I'm sure that my Dad will laugh when he reads that profound statement t

hat I have relearned, however it is more-so an additional witness of that truth. I'm not sure how it will 

feel to visit the mission after I finish my own. I hope and pray that that time doesn't come soon.

-Elder Vance

Season 15 Episode 3: Little Piggy little Piggy...

Hello Family & Friends,



Long story short (of the title) we found a Pig head at walmart, a full pig head, bought it and then placed it next to Elder Morales' bed in the morning and filmed his reaction.

 It was quite hilarious! 

The Pig head was very gross and still had eyes, teeth, and we think a skull.

We had the opportunity to go on exchanges with Elder Moritz and Call, also Elder Bryce and Robinson. We were supposed to go on exchanges with Elder Toelupe and Latimer but due to some scheduling conflicts, we were only able to go on a PPT exchange (5-9).

We started teaching our friend Ryan! Ryan is attending the YSA branch with a member of the Branch. He has been contemplating joining the church for some time, when he felt he should ask God if that was right. He knelt and prayed but felt prompted to open up the book of Mormon and read. He turned to Mormon 7:8
Therefore repent, and be baptized in the name of Jesus, and lay hold upon the gospel of Christ, which shall be set before you, not only in this record but also in the record which shall come unto the Gentiles from the Jews, which record shall come from the Gentiles unto you.
Long story short, he got his answer! He hasn't set a specific date for baptism yet, as he wants to learn more about the church before joining, but he is sure that Baptism is the path for him!

I also had the opportunity to design our new mission logo. With some help from Elder Farr, I got an awesome silhouette of the Redlands Temple (our mission Temple) and put a little something together. If all goes well this should be used in many of our mission's social media efforts (pages, videos, Instagram, etc.). President Watson even screenshotted one of the examples I made and set it as his background on Facebook, so I think it is a hit!
*

Hopefully the pictures add more depth to this letter!


-Elder Vance

Season 15 Episode 2: P-kay Starfall

Hello All,
For anyone who is somewhat cultured you will understand the reference from the title.

This week we started our friend Lucas! (He also attended Church)

Second week in the transfer down! It was a wonderful week for our zone. To put things in perspective,
we set the goal (as a zone) to have 5 friends with a Baptisimal date. We achieved that goal at the start
of the week, and this week we double it and have 10 friends with a baptismal date! Every single one of


our goals has been achieved and Elder Campbell and I are trying to keep the momentum going.
There are many local restaurants found only in Moreno Valley.

 This week I have tried several new foods,

including but not limited to; "Pho" (Pronounced Fuh)
a vietnamese broth, a cake shake (literally a cake
stuffed inside and blended
up with a shake), and soon
to be some place called
"Hoggs".
My stomach doesn't necessarily
enjoy these mixtures,
but my mouth does

We also were able to go to the March Field Air Museum and help clean. There are many retired military
planes, helicopters, replicas of the atomic bomb, and even a SR-71 Blackbird there!













I'll share the story of how we came in contact with Lucas because it was rather cool!
Lucas is someone who randomly friended me on Facebook,
after a little bit of conversation I brought up religion.
He told methat he hadn't been able to talk to anyone about God for
some time and would love to chat! Someone saying that they would love to chat
about God would excite any missionary, and it definitely got me
excited! We called and started talking about receiving answers to our prayers.
After our opening prayer I asked if he had a Bible so he could read along with
some scriptures. He had left his only Bible in texas.
We offered to drop one off later that night, and then he brought up a better idea,
"If y'all are coming over to drop off a Bible, do you just want to come now and
we can talk in person?"
We practically ran to the car. After talking with Lucas for a while,
and trying to keep some VERY friendly dogs busy, we offered a
closing prayer. It was a fantastic experience!


There is going to be one very funny story for next week's email...
-Elder Vance

Season 15 Episode 1: Cars 2 is surprisingly Woke

Hello Friends & Family,

Let me explain a few things about Moreno Valley...

Thanos Tie Thursday: 

Every Thursday everyone wears purple ties, and we change the group chats to purple and everything becomes 

Thanos themed. That's pretty much all that is involved in Thanos Tie Thursday.

Donkeys everywhere:

There are actually herds of wild Donkeys here. At first I thought it was a joke, but then I found alot of donkey poop 

in diverse places (much of which is in the Church Parking lots), and then I saw a herd. They just roam everywhere here. 

We have yet to tame one, but that should change soon...

Ponchos:

There is a Spanish mall here. One store in particular has all the missionaries business. I'm not sure how it started, 

but all the missionaries decided to buy matching ponchos (not exactly the same, but same style). 

They are incredibly comfortable and quite good for disarming unsuspecting missionaries. 

Our fridge has broken and all of our food inside has gone rogue. We are making calls and trying to get it fixed ASAP! 

Also our sink handle completely broke off, so no water it fridge.

There are 2 trainees in our zone this transfer, and we decided to introduce them to our Deaf zone leader... me! 

Elder Jones for about a week thought I was Deaf. We only saw him about 3 times, so it wasn't hard to give that 

illusion. However when he was in the same room as me, I would only use ASL. There was a few times he showed 

up that I didn't expect, but I happened to be joining an ASL social, or actually talking to someone Deaf and it worked 

perfectly! Elder Jones was very worried for our exchange this upcoming week, 

and wasn't sure how he would 

do with a "Deaf" companion. We gave up the act at zone Accountability when

 President Watson came into the room,

 I just started talking much to the amusement of everyone who knew about the

 joke, and to the baffling of Elder Jones.

 I apologized afterword, but he seemed to enjoy the joke!

 

Elder Campbell and I are teaching a few people (I still haven't met all of them yet) 

and had an appointment with our 

friend Erica. It was a very spirit filled lesson and we read through Ether 12:27. 

We then felt that we should invite her 

to be baptised and started to set up a goal for her baptism. In the middle of 

doing so, Elder Bryce and Robinson 

pulled up to the church, and Elder Campbells phone (the one we were using to call Erica) connected to their car's 

bluetooth. The other Elders (now hearing our call) were confused and decided to hang up the phone as we 

extended the invitation. 🤦‍♂️

We immediately called back, and Erica still wanted to be baptised thankfully! Febuary 26th!!!

*

-Elder Vance

Season 14 Episode 6: The Breakup

Hello Friends & Family,

We got transfer news this past saturday, and Elder Hallsted and I will be separated yet again! We have been companions for a grand total of 13 months now, and have lived in the same apartment for 15 months. We have a theory that we will both finish together, but for the time being, I will be in Moreno Valley!

I am also reuniting with my previous companion Elder Campbell. I am very excited for this! The last time we were together, Covid-19 had just hit, and it halted out work. Regardless, Elder Campbell and I were very busy designing our Facebook pages and continued in our missionary work. Now that we are in the swing of things, I'm excited to see what we can do! We cover 1 ward and a  YSA branch here. No more ASL work for me (for now), but I will continue to join the ASL socials as much as possible!

Because of the news of transfers, much shenanigans were had at our apartment during lunch and dinner hours (videos will follow). 

No other major events happened this week! 

Season 14 Episode 5: The week before...

Hello Friends & Family,

1. BLANCA WAS BAPTISED! OH MY GERSH!! All of us ASLders were soo excited for this!

 Personally I taught Blanca more than a year ago, but she finally got Baptised!!! (I'll hunt down the pictures for the Baptism)

2. I have been added as a moderator for 7 ASL groups now.

(If I have already said this last week, disregard this part)

Because our ASL social is weekly,

 I usually like to remind people about it via posting in an 

absurd amount of ASL groups on Facebook. As I traveled 

around said groups, I noticed a nifty little badge some 

people had by their names saying something like "Moderator" 

or "Admin". I also noticed that many of these posts that had 

the fancy badge by them had much more interactions than

any other post. I thought, "If I am a moderator, maybe our 

ASL social will get more traffic?!" And so my endeavor began!

I started messaging all of the Admins for these groups, using my best persuasive skills to request that I, a person who

joined the group a week earlier and has no other significance, should be put in charge of the group. I have now been 

added as a moderator for 7 groups each with over 2k members (Roughly) with some groups reaching up to 7k. As I now po

st our weekly ASL social reminder, they get significantly more interactions. 

3. Elder Hallsted and I went on 5 exchanges this week. 

To put that in perspective, we were only companions on P-day and Sunday.

 Anyone who has served a mission will understand the strangeness of our week.

Yup, that wraps it up. 

-Elder Vance