Car Wrecks and the Middle East

Happy Memorial Day! This past week has flown by. It’s crazy how fast time has started to go now. It seems like they days feel like hours and the weeks feel like days. The months just fly by. I love where I am at. Things are really starting to pick up here and we are excited for the future. Lots of tender mercies this week and we have really noticed the Hand of the Lord in our work a lot more. 

Spiritual: This week we had a wonderful visit with a less active family. This family is from the Middle East. They came to America and about 50 or so years ago they went to Utah for a tour. Later on when they came back to New York, the missionaries stopped by their home and shared the gospel with them. They ended up joining the church and were very happy about it. Eventually they moved to California and settled down. While here they got acquainted with a lot of their friends from the Middle East who do not speak English very well. This family felt really bad for their friends and so they started to drive them to the Iranian Christian Church so they could have a better sense of community and interact with their own language. This couple knows that the church is true but out of obligation to their people they go to another church. Our lesson with this couple was really funny as well as very profound. They are TALKERS. It was so cute! They sat and just told us story after story of them doing funny Middle Eastern things and how the American culture interacts with it. For example Majid was driving along going 120 mph and gets pulled over. "Oh officer, I so sorry. I thought it was in Kilometers!" He knew perfectly well it was in mph. Oh so funny. I love them. They sat and told us about some of the struggles that they are having. From the wife’s bouts with some nasty cancer to the struggles of their people. It was so sweet to hear them talk of the gospel and how they love it so much. They offered as well to have all their friends from the Iranian Christian church come and hear the lessons. We said that we could make that work and we are really excited to teach those people. They said they would arrange a meeting and we are really looking forward to meeting them all and teaching them. We are so excited! This gospel is true. It has the capacity to bless the lives of anyone in any circumstance. There is no place on this earth, no culture so diverse where the gospel of Jesus Christ cannot bless lives. We saw it in the lives of these humble people and I see it in my life every day. 

Funny: We were going to a baptism in Fremont on Saturday when we got a call from president. He was going down to a baptism in Prunedale and when he went to change lanes, a motor cycle smashed into his car! President had a flat tire and was in need of some help. His Jack bent and he was on the side of the road. It was really fun to be able to run to the rescue to help him out. We grabbed a spare jack and took off. Poor president. He wasn't happy. Can’t blame him. That car was brand new. Not even a month old. Everyone was okay, the vehicles were only going about 10 mph. Thankfully no one was hurt and everyone was okay. We had to take away his driving privileges though and make Sister Mella the designated driver from now on. :)

Where I am at: We are planning to start up the Farsi group here in the Almaden Ward. We just need Farsi baptisms to start it up. We are planning on just changing venues for Majid and his people. We are way excited. We also found two new investigators last night at dinner and we are going to the visitor’s center at the temple on Saturday with them. Things are going so well here. We just got a new Ward Mission Leader who is young and fresh and full of great Ideas on how to get the work really going. I am so happy to be here. Ipads are coming this week so it will be a huge change in how missionary work happens. Be ready. It’s going to be amazing. I love you all. I am so happy to be here. I feel the spirit every day and am so grateful to be serving my Savior to the best of my ability. I love you all!