"'Enjoy the moon'? Great, now she's going to think we're pagan moon worshippers." - Elder Belnap

From Feb 23, 2016

You've got to watch out when street contacting. When people see white
shirts, nametags, and ties, they immediately think "Pagans".

This week, we...
- Visit Bro. Dunlop again
- Teach a Saudi Arabian and have dinner at 7
- Get solicited to on exchanges
- Have ward conference

Not as much happened this week. On Wednesday we visited Bro. Dunlop
again. The fellowshipper we brought hit it off right away with him.
Bro. Dunlop was talking about his piano and the fellowshipper, Bro.
Bezdechi, casually mentioned, "Oh yeah! My dad used to make pianos
like that." Immediately Bro. Dunlop dropped what he was doing in shock
and started swapping notes. All in all it was a good lesson, despite
Bro. Dunlop chafing at the church commitment.

A Trailer Park Gingerbread House we sent Elder Hawkes

On Thursday we were going to have dinner with a recent convert family
at 7, so our day seemed a little rushed. We had an appointment at the
SDSU Institute at 6, so we rushed over there after getting some
preparations done for our translation of ward conference. At the
Institute we met up with a Saudi Arabian named Sam who had approached
the Mandarin Sisters at UCSD and asked to learn more. It turns out he
was a Muslim-turned agnostic and wanted to find out what our beliefs
were. We taught him the Restoration and invited him to be baptized. It
was an awesome lesson. Unfortunately, our dinner appointment
cancelled, so we just ran across the street to McDonald's and got some
food before driving back to El Cajon to finish off the night.

Friday and Saturday we had exchanges. I went to Arabic South with
Elder Jensen. We started the exchange off right by being solicited to!
Some guy knocked on the door of the member's house where we lived and
was advertising for a veteran's shelter. We almost gave him a
pass-along card but he ran off pretty quickly after he finished his
talk about how the shelter was certified as a 501(c)(3) organization.
We spent a little bit of companion study analyzing his door approach
and determining how we could do better. The other great thing that
happened on exchanges was that we helped set up a giant tent for a
wedding. We neglected to take pictures (sorry Dad!) but it was a
really fun project that took four hours.

On Sunday we had ward conference. Everything was on the Sabbath Day.
They talked about how we shouldn't feel guilty about what we do on the
Sabbath and how our Sabbath Day observance is a sign between us and
God. It was awesome!

That's it for everyone! I'm going to take pictures of our district
putting together a gingerbread house now. Thank you all for your
prayers. I love you all!

-- Elder Hawkes