"And if you think that nothing is good on the menu at Sonic, I invite you now to repent!" - President Schmitt, at a YSA Devotional

From February 2, 2016

This week went by way too fast. January in general went by way too fast. Seriously. 

This week, we...

- Walk all over El Cajon and meet a lot of Spanish-speaking people

- Help uproot some weeds in a yard

- Teach a few people other than Morad

- Have two random people show up to church!

- Sing to a bunch of YSA's

- Close the chapter of Morad for now

So first off, on Wednesday we had exchanges! Elder Jensen came to Arabic North with me and we spent most of the day walking from potential to potential in an effort to find people and teach them and baptize them (which is what we do every day, but you know...). We started out on Third St, which is north of I-8. We tried a few potentials on there with no success. We then walked over to a complex on E Main St and tried a few other people in there, with no success. We then walked down E Main and talked with everyone. 

It's kind of funny, actually. For Arabic-speaking missionaries serving amongst the second-largest Arabic-speaking population in the U.S., we sure run into a lot of Spanish-speaking people. It doesn't help much that my Spanish vocabulary is essentially limited to "We're missionaries and we don't speak Spanish, but could we get your address?" The most notable Spanish-speaking street contact of the day: We were walking on Main St and noticed a lady who was carrying her groceries. We went over and did our best (by that I mean mostly talked with her in English and used hand gestures) to explain that we wanted to help her carry her groceries. She was really confused by it all but allowed us to help her out. At the end of it all, we managed to somehow get an address from her and explain to her that other missionaries would stop by sometime. 

After that we continued down E Main, taking a brief detour into a street called Shady Lane where probably about half of our area book lives. We tried a few potentials on that street but nothing worked out so we continued to soldier on and talk with everyone all the way down to Mollison Ave. From there we walked over to Madison Ave. (probably about half a mile) and proceeded to walk up Madison and head towards our next appointment. We ran into a few English speakers who wanted some materials (we placed a Book of Mormon!) and we managed to place a few pamphlets to some high schoolers as they were walking away from school (I presume they were going home but I didn't bother to ask them because even though there's a three-year age gap it's still creepy). Once we got to Second St (I'm not sure how far away that is and I'm going to either be way under or way over if I guess) we walked up to a set appointment on Oakdale only to discover that he wasn't home. By this point our legs were sore, we were almost out of pamphlets and copies of the Book of Mormon to give out, and dinner time was close, so we walked from Oakdale back to our car on Third, stopping to talk to a lady who kept giving us referrals as we asked her "Who do you know that could use a message about Christ?" Which isn't a bad problem to have, really. And that, ladies and gentleman, is the riveting tale of how we walked all over El Cajon! Dad, if you want to map this out in Map My Run and give me an actual count of how far we walked, that'd be great. I'm really curious now. 

Thursday we didn't do our weekly planning but instead helped uproot weeds in a ward member's yard. Sis. Sorensen (remember the lady who said the secret to living long was chocolate?) had a lot of weeds growing in her front yard and it needed to get taken care of. We uprooted a lot of it through shovels but three hours later and we still weren't close to being done. So we called it a day and said we'd be back another day with some extra hands to help her out. That evening was another evening of talking with everyone. Morad had a quick lesson wherein we essentially encouraged him to continue preparing for baptism and don't relapse because honestly Morad you've got less than a week before your scheduled baptism and you can't afford to relapse now so don't do it. 

Friday was a district meeting wherein we talked about Revelation through the Book of Mormon, which is honestly one of my favorite topics to discuss. I love talking about the Book of Mormon probably more than any other topic we teach about as missionaries. It's just so great! I'd encourage each of you to read it and keep reading it (speaking of which, how is the Book of Mormon challenge going for you all?) After that we did Weekly Planning and got a lesson with a man named يعقوب (Yaqob/Jacob). Right before we got through the first three points of the Restoration he and his wife stopped us and said, "We're Catholic. We already know about Jesus. Go preach to Muslims." So we thanked them for their time and left. We left behind a copy of the Book of Mormon and encouraged them to read it. 

On Saturday we went to go contact a bunch of referrals we had received from other missionaries, all of which were in the same area. And every single one of them wasn't home! We knocked on one door and asked for the person and they said, "They're not here. Try in the evenings." So we went to contact the other potential and the same thing happened, except this time a man answered and so we asked "Well could we share a message with you?" And so we went in and taught the family of the referral! The father was kind of half there mentally, so we'll need to follow-up, but other than that it went well. We did our best to get a return appointment, but they wouldn't set one. So we're going to go back today and follow-up with them and contact the referral! 

On Sunday Morad came to church. We also had a random man named Eisam show up to church that Elder Belnap and I street contacted. He just walked it and sat down and stayed for first and second hours. Morad left after sacrament meeting (after some vain attempts on my part to convince him to stay) but Eisam stayed for Gospel Principles and so we decided to just do the Restoration in Gospel Principles that day. Bro. Garvin, the new Arabic-speaking member in the ward, was there and Eisam made a point to tease him for sounding like an Egyptian. The lesson went well, and Eisam accepted the invitation to read the Book of Mormon. Right as we were talking about the Book of Mormon, another random Arabic-speaker showed up, accompanied by Elders Jensen and Campbell. This was a guy that they had street contacted who wanted to come for sacrament meeting but came late. He said he'd be back "Next week" and really really wanted to come to sacrament meeting. His name is Sabah, and that's really all that I know about him. It was a miracle Sunday! As a random aside, there was a big storm on Sunday that knocked out power at our church building in the afternoon right as Elder Belnap and I were doing our studies. I'll include pictures in a separate email. 

Sunday evening we went to the Mission President's Devotional for YSA's because Sister Stewart and Elder Belnap were singing in it. One of the new missionaries, an ASL Elder, stood up and shared his testimony and conversion story. Basically he went to Sonic one day and while frustratingly trying to communicate with some of the workers two missionaries walked up and offered to translate for him. He felt really good about talking with them and so he stopped them, learned more, and eventually got baptized. Now he's serving a mission in San Diego doing American Sign Language. President Schmitt started his remarks with the email title for the week, and bore powerful testimony about the Lord changing us and how we can come closer to Him through living his Gospel - Developing and exercising faith in Him and desiring to come closer to Him through changing ourselves through repentance and baptism for the remission of sins, then receiving the Holy Ghost so that we may endure to the end and live with God. I love President Schmitt. 

Yesterday we visited Morad. He bought another pack of cigarettes and told us he doesn't believe God listens to him. He hasn't been reading out of the Book of Mormon or taking steps to increase his faith and repent, and we told him very frankly that as much as we loved him and wanted to help him, we wouldn't be stopping by anymore because he wasn't exercising his faith and demonstrating sincere repentance. Honestly, one of the hardest things I've ever done on my mission was drop him. For the past three months I've fasted and prayed for him, I've rejoiced when he's progressed and been saddened when he turns away from God. Dropping him was what we needed to do, and I walked away feeling that I had gotten one step closer to God by doing so. I now know more fully what it must be like for God when He sees people turn away from Him and reject Him over and over again. Morad's story doesn't end here. We won't be visiting him, but we'll still be praying for him and fasting for him and I know that in the Lord's time he will progress and be baptized. 

That's it for this week everyone! Thank you all for your letters, your emails, your prayers, and your fasts. I love you all and hope you have a great week! Happy February!

-- Elder Hawkes

"What's your secret to longevity?" "Chocolate." - Elder Jensen and a 90-year-old woman in the ward

Can't argue with that.

This week, we...
- Get preached to... sort of
- Thin an apple tree
- Have an awesome lesson with Morad!
- Help our member family with plumbing problems
- Call a Detroit branch president about Arabic work
- Get a baptismal date for Habeeb and Shaima! :D
- Have a not-so-great lesson with Morad
- Add a former named Lewis
- Have a family home evening with Suhaila
- Wind up giving blessings to some potentials

So first off, Tuesday ended on a weird note. We moved a marble table for some members (which was really uneventful) and then we went proselyting. We wound up in a complex that had one of the weirdest organizational patterns possible when it came to apartment numbers. So we got lost in it, and after a half hour of wandering we finally found the apartment. The residents let us inside. I'm pretty sure they were in their 80's at least. Anyway... we told them we wanted to share a message about Jesus with them and I kind of lost track of the conversation (or lack thereof) after that but suddenly the older man was showing us his Chaldean Bible and playing Syriac tape recordings (yes, tape recordings) of the Old Testament. So that was kind of weird. Needless to say, we thanked them for their time and left.

On Wednesday we helped Sis. Sorenson (the 90-year-old mentioned in the email title) thin her apple tree. It was a lot of fun helping to pick apples and she let us take one or two. Afterward, she fed us ice cream. Lots of ice cream. That's when Elder Jensen asked her about how she's lived so long and so well. She said that whenever she got money
she'd take some of it and go down to the store and buy a chocolate bar. So now I know the secret to longevity.

Also on Wednesday we had a lesson with Morad that started out a little blunt. But we talked to him about his reading and his lack of progression, and he said that he's been reading from the Book of Mormon every day and is cutting back on smoking. We talked about how to get more out of the scriptures and then asked if he'd prayed about baptism. He said he wants to get baptized, but he wants to do it when his brothers return from Michigan. He's almost there!

Friday was an interesting day. It started off with our shower and toilet not working, so we had to go to our Zone Leader's apartment to shower. We told the Dreesen's and they said they'd look into it. We wound up going to Zone Meeting, coming back and helping them out, going to teach عدل (Adil) English, coming back and helping them, and then finally finishing up studies for the day at 8:00 P.M. It took a lot longer to fix it than anyone was expecting or wanting, and it was
slightly frustrating for all parties involved. On an unrelated note, there's this yogurt drink (in Arabic it's شراب لبن, which literally means "yogurt drink") that we had at Adil's house. It isn't like a drink made from American yogurt, which is sweet. This is just plain yogurt, salt, and water mixed together. It's interesting because when you think "yogurt" you probably think that American Dannon or Yoplait sugary "yogurt", but it's actually kind of savory almost. It's pretty good.

Oh, I added a bit about calling a Detroit branch president. Frankly, it's rather anticlimactic; the mission office called us and told us that this branch president wanted to know more about how to teach in Arabic. We called him and he basically just asked 1) How to teach Muslims and 2) What dialect we spoke. I was expecting it to be a little more like "How can the missionaries learn Arabic?", but it wasn't. Oh well, someday they'll have Arabic missionaries in Detroit! (For reference, we are the only Arabic missionaries in the U.S. There are some in Toronto, and some in Uganda, and that's it.)

Saturday was a jam-packed day full of greatness. To start off, we taught Habeeb and Shaima. They told us a little more of their story. To make it short, Habeeb was driving and noticed a guy in a wheelchair that needed some help. As he was helping him, he was handed an Arabic Book of Mormon by the guy and it had Arabic North's phone number in
it. He called them and asked if they could come teach him about the book. Shaima converted to Christianity from Islam when she was young. She met with missionaries in Ramona a few years ago and has kept the Book of Mormon they gave her ever since. We taught them about the Plan of Salvation and the importance of being baptized. We asked them,
"When you know that this is true, will you be baptized?" and they said "Yes, of course!" We offered them a date of November 14th and they accepted! :D They're solid!

Later that evening we wanted to invite Morad to a baptismal service, so we stopped by his house. He was having a really bad day and proceeded to curse God, his parents, his neighbors, the police, the Muslims, the Chaldeans, Detroit, and just about everything. We left after letting him rant for a little bit and I went ahead and dropped him in Area Book Planner. Elder Greer had other opinions and so we agreed to just leave it alone for a little bit and come back to it when cooler heads prevailed. As we knelt in prayer as a companionship at the end of the night, I got one of the most clear impressions I had ever received that we needed to keep Morad as an investigator. I shared that impression with my companions and they both said they felt the exact same way while we were praying. So he's still an investigator, and we'll see what the Lord has in store for him and for us.

On Sunday Morad came to church and apologized for the day before. He said we could keep coming and sharing our messages with him, which made me really grateful I had followed that prompting. Habeeb and Shaima also came to church, although they only came for the first hour. That afternoon we went out proselyting and Elder Greer felt that
we should stop by a member's house to see if she knew anyone we could visit. When we got there, it turns out she was having some health problems and needed a blessing. She said that that morning she had been praying for someone to come give her a blessing. We were able to give her a blessing. Because we had been willing to change our plans
we wound up being an answer to someone's prayer. That really strengthened my testimony.

Later that evening we wound up going to visit a former investigator named Lewis. We invited him to church and he asked, "What time?" He proceeded to put it on his calendar so he wouldn't forget. We had a lesson on the Book of Mormon and he loved it! He said we could come back anytime, and since we taught him a few weeks ago Area Book Planner counted it as an added investigator. He's cool!

Yesterday was hot and humid. I only say that because we were walking around in it all afternoon. Not the most fun thing in the world but you do what you need to. We had a family home evening lesson with Suhaila last night. We shared the talk "God is at the Helm" by M. Russell Ballard from Conference and bore testimony of living prophets. She's got a lot of faith, she's just a little unsure about things. We also went to go visit some potentials and it turns out they had moved.
But in a sudden turn of events the current residents said they had some health problems and Elder Greer, after sharing James 5:15 with them, asked if they would like a blessing. So we wound up giving a blessing to some potential investigators. I had دليل المبشر (the Missionary Handbook) in front of me as I anointed. It was kind of weird doing it in Arabic. I'll get used to it, probably.

That's it for this week! Shoutout to my sister Megan who turns 18 on Saturday! Thanks everyone for your support and prayers on my behalf. And don't hesitate to write!

-- إلدر هاكْس
--
Elder Christian Hawkes
California San Diego Mission
7404 Armstrong Place
San Diego, CA 92111-4912