"Hello, this is the 'musharabeen'." - Elder Neiderhauser, an elder in our zone

'Musharabeen' means 'drinkers'. 'Mubashareen' means 'missionaries'. A for effort, though. 

In this weekly email, we... 

- Help a four-year-old put rocks around his house and move dirt

- Find out you can download Conference music!

- Teach Morad about the sacrament and get him to commit to pray about baptism

- Get a flood warning for our area

- Go on exchanges

- Help a member throw a bunch of junk into a dumpster

- Go on splits with Granite Hills so Elder Poffenbarger can help teach a family he taught in his first six weeks

- Have another throwdown in Gospel Principles by Mohammed

- Listen to Elder Poffenbarger's wonderful farewell talk

- Get TONS of food from members

So first off, on Wednesday we went and did service at a member's house. The four-year-old who has been helping us pull weeds was there, and with his help we placed a bunch of stones around his house between the grass and the woodchips surrounding the house so the chips don't blow into the grass. We also spent some time filling in space between rocks with dirt. We've been wanting to do service at this member's house for a while now, so to do it before Elder Poffenbarger leaves was great! Also on Wednesday, I found out that you can download the music from General Conference fromlds.org. I now have a CD with Conference talks from Ezra Taft Benson and Conference music. :D

On Thursday we taught Morad about the sacrament. We decided to try a different approach with him than hammering in baptism seven thousand times. By the end of the lesson he was committed to pray about baptism and seemed more willing to do it and progress than before. It also rained a lot on Thursday. We found out we get service alerts on our phone because we got an alert saying there was a flash flood warning issued for El Cajon. There was a distinct lack of flooding where we travelled, but that was probably due to the fact that we didn't really travel on any roads aside from the main roads. 

On Friday we went on exchanges. I went with Elder Greer to the Arabic North area. We did service at a member's house right after district meeting. The member was a little unsure at first because it was raining, but we put on our jackets and went to work. He had a ton of junk on the side of his yard that we helped throw into a dumpster. Elder Poffenbarger proved once again that he's really strong by grabbing these big poles that had copious amounts of cement on the bottom of them and carrying them, one at a time, over to the dumpster! 

I rolled a big tire to the dumpster. Does that count?

We spent Friday mostly just street contacting and working to find people. It turns out that both areas are in need of some more people to teach. We ran into a lot of Muslims who weren't interested, but not many people who were wanting to learn. 

On Saturday we went on splits with the Granite Hills Elders (Granite Hills is a ward in the El Cajon zone). Elder Poffenbarger had taught a family in his first six weeks in La Mesa before he got transferred to El Cajon to spearhead Arabic work. His replacement, Elder Neiderhauser, also taught them with Elder Poffenbarger's trainer. The family wound up moving to El Cajon and was recently contacted by the sisters, but they said they wouldn't come to church until Elder Poffenbarger and Elder Neiderhauser showed up. 

Christian received great reviews when he made
coffee cake for a member after doing service.

So we made it happen. :) 

They committed to meet with the sisters and come to church (they weren't able to attend on Sunday, unfortunately), so we'll see what happens. 

Yesterday in church was Elder Poffenbarger's farewell talk. It was a very emotional day for the ward because a member of the ward did a special musical number that left everyone in tears, Elder Poffenbarger spoke, and a returned missionary from the ward spoke. There were very few dry eyes in the audience. After his AWESOME talk, he taught the Gospel Principles lesson for Suhaila, Mohammed, and Bro. Seba, about "Exaltation". Suhaila started reverting to the traditions her priests had told her. Elder Poffenbarger had her read a Bible verse that supported the lesson, and then Mohammed, out of the blue, asked her, "Which is more important: the word or what a priest told you about it?" By the end of it she was a lot less freaked out about it, although we'll be talking with her to make sure she's okay. 

Lastly, since Elder Poffenbarger is leaving, everyone in the ward is vying for dinners with him. And if they can't get dinners they're looking to get lunch. We had a big lunch with some members yesterday, and then a just-as-big dinner with some other members a few hours later. We're getting VERY well-fed because of it!

That's it for this week. Thank you all for your letters and emails! Anything from friends and family in terms of email and physical letters is greatly appreciated! My address, as always, is in the signature of this email!

-- Elder Hawkes

"You're saying it's 'Murica. I'm saying it's the Nephites." - Elder Poffenbarger

Alternate email title is "I need an email title. Quick, say something funny!" from yours truly. 

Before I begin, P-day next week is on Monday the 18th due to our mission conference on the 19th. Don't be confused when you receive emails from me on the 18th and not on the 19th. 

This week, we...

- Have a throwdown by the Zone Leaders at Zone Meeting about teaching and planning

- Have exchanges, delaying our weekly planning

- Stumble through a lesson with Ikhalas while on exchanges

- Exchange back and spend the afternoon helping the third-biggest area in the zone, Jamul (delaying our weekly planning further)

- Have MTE's, where President Schmitt throws down about the exact same stuff (and have our weekly planning delayed even more)

- Have a breakthrough with Morad!

- Find out some key information about iPads

- Teach the Restoration to a very very Muslim family

- Attend a baptism with some former investigators (and have our weekly planning delayed even more!)

- Have a non-member who isn't an investigator show up to sacrament meeting 

- Don't give the Sunday School lesson in Arabic (did I mention our weekly planning got delayed even more?)

- Skype our families! :D

- Drive out to downtown San Diego to visit a potential that isn't home

- Pull some dandelions and make a four-year-old's day

- FINISH WEEKLY PLANNING! :D

- Find out the poor condition of an investigator's husband's health

- Teach Morad about baptism

- And finally, forget to bring our camera to emailing thus preventing us from sending pictures that should have been sent a few weeks ago

And all of this can be summed up in one phrase:

WOW. What a crazy week. 

So first off, last Wednesday we had Zone Meeting. The Zone Leaders taught us how we were planning and teaching incorrectly and how we need to do better. Basically, we weren't planning right, setting goals right, or teaching right. They showed us how we are expected to plan, teach, etc., and they're very right. We were doing things very incorrectly. It's like they're the Zone Leaders or something (and like President Schmitt knows what he's talking about!). We also had exchanges that day, which resulted in me taking over the area and Elder Jackson coming with me. 

We stumbled through a lesson with Ikhalas about obedience and baptism. My Arabic is good, but it's not that good. A lot of what she said went over my head and over Elder Jackson's, too! She's still not sure about baptism and concerned about her husband (more on that later). We told her to pray about it. We also spent most of the day working on finding new people, which led to some decent potential investigators being written down. 

We exchanged back on Thursday, which would normally lead right into Weekly Planning. NOPE. Jamul, the third-largest area in the zone (aside from the Arabic areas) needed some help contacting former investigators and less-actives. So we as a zone went to Jamul for the afternoon to help out. I learned how crazy a GPS can get when in a rural area (Jamul is VERY rural) as we would pass by where we were supposed to turn because the GPS thought there was another way to our destination and then have to drive another half-mile down the road to make a U-turn. When all was said and done, we got some good contacts for Jamul and went back to our areas to finish what was left of the day. 

Christian via Skype on Mother's Day. 

On Friday we had MTE's. I described them a little back in February but basically President Schmitt calls everyone in a few zones together to give us instruction on how to improve our proselyting, scrambles companions for the day, and sends us out. I wound up taking over the area again, only this time without an Arabic speaker! We went and visited Ikhalas, who told us that her husband was sick enough to prevent her from leaving the house. We taught her about prayer and invited her to keep praying about baptism and for her family's health.

We also had a breakthrough with Morad! We re-taught him the Restoration with an emphasis on the restoration of authority to baptize, then asked him if he would be baptized. He said, "Yes!" We then asked if he would be baptized on June 6 and his brain must have caught up to his mouth because he said, "Hold on. You can get baptized again?" "Yes, because the authority to baptize was lost, but it's been restored." "Let me ask my cousin about this." We asked him to pray about it, and he said he would. We also got the address for his brothers in Michigan.

At the MTE follow-up meeting on Saturday, President re-emphasized the points he talked about on Friday: We need to improve finding and praying in particular; we must teach quickly and simply; and we need to ask everyone "Who do you know?" He also told us that iPads are not, in fact, coming on the 19th because the 19th is Part 1 of 3 different meetings about iPads. Meeting 1 is a general overview. Meeting 2 is about the Area Book application (all our paper records will be shredded after being entered into the iPads, so everything needs to be up-to-date!). Meeting 3 is about online/Skype teaching and another "Don't be stupid" reminder. Then we get iPads... sometime. 

After the meeting we went back to our apartment, had a little lunch, and went out for the day. We went to a potential's apartment who had said that we would come back that day. They were very Muslim. Which isn't a bad thing, don't get me wrong. I love Islam and the Muslim people. I've been to mosque a few times and I've always had a good experience. The people are very friendly, very hospitable, and very willing to at least wish us luck. When it comes to teaching Muslims, we generally don't do it because 99% of them aren't interested and with the 1% that are we have to jump through a lot of hoops. This family was asking us questions and at the end of it agreed to read the Book of Mormon (on the grounds that "You can't refute something if you haven't read it!") and wished us well. 

The Zone Leaders had a baptism on Saturday. We called some former investigators, Nather and Siham, to come with us. There were a total of 8 people there, not counting the bishopric members or the person getting baptized. Despite that, it was a good baptism and Nather and Siham said we could come back if they're around. 

On Sunday we had an Arabic-speaking non-member at church who wasn't an investigator. That usually doesn't happen. In fact, that's the first time it has! We taught him a quick 5-minute Restoration before the meeting began. He left after sacrament meeting but promised he'd be back the next Sunday for church. Since no Arabic speakers were around for second hour, I didn't give my Gospel Principles lesson. Maybe next week.

We Skyped our families. Elder Poffenbarger's family is pretty cool. Mine is too, but that goes without saying. :) It was nice to see everyone again and to hear from each of them. 

We also drove out to downtown San Diego to contact a referral from the APs (Assistants to the Mission President). They weren't around, but we got to know the area a little more. And by that we mean, there are a total of maybe 5 Arabic speakers in the area, all of whom are Muslim. Probably won't be going back that way for a while. 

Yesterday we pulled some dandelions at the part-member family's house. We're almost done with all the dandelion pulling; just one or two more visits and it'll be done! We had the member's four-year-old grandson with us (he loves helping us) and it made it a lot more fun than it already was. We also finally finished our Weekly Planning yesterday! :D

We taught Morad about baptism. He's a lot more open to it now, but he's still not sure about a date. We also got a call from Ikhalas. Suffice it to say her husband is in the hospital and isn't doing too well. 

Lastly, I forgot my camera! I promise I'll have pictures next week! 

Thanks everyone for your letters, emails, carrier pigeons, etc. I love getting all sorts of mail! Talk to you all on Monday!

-- Elder Hawkes

--

Elder Christian Hawkes

California San Diego Mission

7404 Armstrong Place

San Diego, CA 92111

"Sorry. Just playing 'footsies.'" - Elder Greer

You know when you say something and at first it sounds okay but then you re-evaluate?

This week, we...

- Meet with a former and find out he's super dropped

- Help move a family out and get lost on the way there

- Add an investigator who's concerned that we'll decrease his faith in Mary

- Have dinner with a recent convert

- Visit Ikhalas and get four referrals from her

- Go to the San Diego temple with Suhaila!

- Spend three hours teaching two less-actives and two families... at the same appointment

- Help tie back a fence while a police helicopter circles the neighborhood

- Have dinner with a four-year-old and her family

- Teach people English in their home

So first off, we called up a former investigator we've been wanting to keep track of. De'a, if you'll recall from more than three letters ago (I don't keep track of when I send what I send, really), had surgery and insisted on moving around despite it. A few weeks ago we went back to find him on the couch writhing in pain. He had had a stroke after a recent surgery and wasn't feeling great to say the least. We gave him a blessing, told him we'd keep in touch and pray for him, and left. We called him, and he had fully recovered! He wasn't in any pain from the stroke or the surgery and said he was doing wonderful! 

Elder Hawkes name badge...read right to left

He then proceeded to rip into us and tell us we were totally wrong. 

In short, he was very rooted in tradition and not willing to read further or do anything. He had a big problem with authority (even though we walked it through with him three or four times and he agreed with every point) and said "Come back any time to talk about anything except this." So now he's reallydropped. At least he's feeling better.

On Thursday we went and helped a family move out of their apartment. Elder Poffenbarger and I forgot to write down the address before we left, so we knew the approximate area but not the exact area. After driving in circles for a good five minutes, we finally spotted a U-haul truck and figured that was the place. It was. 

We added an investigator named Sa'id. He's got two very young children (one of whom loved our pamphlet so much she tore off the front cover) and is very Catholic. When we invited him to be baptized if he knew our message was true, he responded that he was concerned we'd build his faith in Christ but tear down his faith in Mary (in case you haven't gathered or I haven't mentioned, praying to the Virgin Mary is a BIG deal in the Chaldean community). Still, he accepted an invitation to learn more and actually set up an appointment, so at least he's interested. 

On Friday we had dinner with a recent convert, Mohammed. He fried up turkey and beef kebabs and chicken for us. I came away from that dinner very full. With Chaldean recent converts and the normal ward members, I don't think I have to worry about whether I'll be eating dinner on my mission or not!

On Saturday we visited Ikhalas and found out some more cemetery information. It's all super expensive, unless she gets cremated, which she isn't going to do. We taught her about the Gospel and invited her to be baptized. She's a little hesitant because she doesn't want to create a rift in her family, but she's willing to do it if she can without getting her family all freaked out. We then asked her, "Who do you know that we could teach?" She took us out to her back porch, pointed to four different doors in her complex, and said, "Go teach them. They need to hear this!" Moral of this story: Ask EVERYONE for referrals!

That evening the youth in the ward went to do temple baptisms. Suhaila and her boys came too. All the Arabic-speaking missionaries got to go with her, which was awesome! (I'll explain the rules of temple visits for us at the end of this email) Suhaila just did confirmations (31 of them, apparently!) because she didn't want to get baptized, but Mario and Marceleno did baptisms and confirmations. We talked with them last night about their experience and they all said they loved it and would love to go again. We told them they can go anytime they want since they have recommends and also told Suhaila she could get her endowments in a year, which she was excited about. 

On Sunday we had a dinner with a member. The rules for member dinners are that they can only be one hour and they have to be done by 6 P.M., unless there is a less-active or non-member there. They called us and asked if we could reschedule for 5:30, which would give us only a half-hour to eat. We told them we could, but that they'd have to invite someone over or make sure everything was wrapped up by 6. So they called their less-active mother, a less-active down the street, and another member family (referred to as "Family B" in this email) over! We were there from about 5:15 to 8:15 eating and teaching them. We went over why we follow certain things like the Word of Wisdom and how we follow them because God told us to. Family B had a four-year-old daughter who was being a normal four-year-old and not really paying attention, but everyone else was on board entirely! We had some long discussions about the Book of Mormon, apostasy, and the Second Coming. By the end of it, we had enough time to park the car and walk down a street or two to find some people!

Sunday night and early Monday morning it rained, which made pulling dandelions at the part-member's house easy. After we did that, an older lady in the ward asked us to help her tie parts of her wood fence to the chain-link fence behind it. It was a pretty quick and easy job. While we were working, a police helicopter was circling overhead, telling the neighborhood about a fugitive they were looking for. We're pretty sure they found him, because I thought I heard them say, "Get on your knees and put your hands up!" but I wasn't sure, and then saw it fly away after a while. So that was something. 

Last night we had a dinner at Family B's house. They informed us that their four-year-old had in fact been listening to the lesson on Sunday because she said, "I listen to you [the girl's mother] because God told me to!" We had a very fancy dinner of Mickey Mouse chicken nuggets (as requested by the daughter) and salad. One of the most interesting member dinners I've had so far, that's for sure! We also taught Muwfaq (a former investigator) and his wife basic introductions in English at their home last night. They want us to come by more frequently to help teach them English. 

That's it for this week as far as memory (and my planner!) serves me. I love getting email and hand-written letters, so don't be afraid to write! 

-- Elder Hawkes

--

Elder Christian Hawkes

California San Diego Mission

7404 Armstrong Place

San Diego, CA 92111

"... Joseph Smith was behind the Moon landings!" - Elder Hawkes

Originally sent on April 14, 2015

I don't even know.

This week, we...

- Have a slight panic attack as Basim drops us

- Drop people

- Drop more people

- Go on exchanges and drop people

- Play "Hot Potato" with other missionaries regarding a referral in Long Beach

- Get called on to do a baptismal interview last-minute

- Add some people! :D :D :D 

- Have investigators come to church!

- Celebrate Elder Jackson's birthday

- Find out what in the world is up with Basim

- Get really really good at pulling dandelions

There are some weeks in Arabic work that I wish "Dropped investigators" was a key indicator. This week was one of those weeks where a lot of people got dropped. 

First off: Basim.

On Tuesday, Basim called us to tell us that he was stuck between a rock and a hard place. He's got more family coming from Jordan in the next month or two and none of his family is on board with him wanting to get baptized. We offered what advice we could. On Wednesday he called us to tell us that he was working at Wal-Mart full-time for a month and so he couldn't meet with us during that time. D: We said we would respect his wishes (not like we weren't going to anyway) and told him we would be keeping in touch with him. At that time we were at a member's house and he said, "In my experience [as a Border Patrol agent], if something doesn't add up it doesn't add up." We figured he probably was taking a month off to let his family cool off a bit and resolved to keep in touch. 

We started going around to other investigators to teach them but one by one they got dropped until we had dropped 9 investigators for the week. Not fun! It does give us time to go contact people and find more people, though, so it's kind of a bittersweet thing. Everyone we dropped said that they don't want to hear our message but that they would be inviting if we needed some water or something, so at least no one hates us. 

On Thursday evening we did exchanges. Elder Jackson came down south with me and we spent most of the day walking on the streets to find people. We were able to get in the door with some investigators, one of whom dropped us by saying, "I'm a Mandaean [John the Baptist follower. Look it up.] and I'm going to stay Mandaean." He also got rather upset with us when we mentioned that we were made in the image of God and that God has a body. Mandaeans, I found out, are an ancient group of Gnostics, so they believe God is a spirit, that we need to do things only in spirit, etc. The other investigator we visited, Marooki, said that he was too tired that day but that we were welcome another day. 

And now... the "Hot Potato" referral. 

On Wednesday the mission office called to give us a referral for an Egyptian man up in Bellflower, CA. We were busy so we weren't able to call him. On Thursday the mission office called back and said that the missionaries up there were going to teach him because his son knew English and could translate. So we crossed it off our list and went on our way. On Friday the mission office called again about the referral and said the missionaries in that area would be giving us a call about him. Which they did. They explained that the entire complex is full of Egyptian refugees and that the man seemed interested. They then asked us if we could come visit him. 

Bellflower is two hours north. And it's two missions away.

That wasn't going to happen. 

So we passed it back to them and said essentially "You teach him. He's in your area." They passed it back and told us that they wanted us to teach him because he spoke Arabic and his English wasn't that good. So we called him and he said he would be open to a visit. Now we've got an interested potential investigator and two different companionships who cannot teach him. Then the thought came to us, "What about that Egyptian you met at the San Diego temple?" 

When we taught Sandra at the temple a few months ago we ran into an Egyptian convert named Ahmed. We talked to him and he said he'd love to keep in touch and gave us his phone number. We wrote it down and kind of brushed it off since he said he was in Los Angeles. But now this referral came up. So we called him and told him the situation, he agreed to visit the man with the missionaries, we got the missionaries in touch with him and he with they. We got someone to teach him and avoided opening a can of worms for President. 

On Saturday, Elder Poffenbarger got a call. "Could you come do a baptismal interview in Arabic? Like, now?" We were helping a family move out at the time, so we had to finish up there, get changed back into proselyting clothes, head to a stake center about 20 minutes away, and do an interview. It turns out that a family I had taught on MTE's (see earlier emails) was getting baptized and the wife last-minute decided she wanted to get baptized too. They called President and asked what to do and he said, "Get her an interview!" Since she spoke primarily Arabic we got called on to do it. She was surprised that there were Arabic missionaries and asked why we didn't teach her. The reason: her husband had said that he wanted English missionaries. Despite that, she was able to get baptized with her husband! 

Also on Saturday we went to the house of some former investigators and they agreed to a teaching visit. We taught them about prayer and had them break from tradition a bit. They were initially hesitant, but by the end they prayed without using the Lord's Prayer (as is tradition)! :D

Nather and Siham came to church on Sunday. When they sat down they made the Sign of the Cross and looked around confused as to why no one else was doing so. Despite the fact that they were expecting it to be similar to Catholic services, they loved it and want to come back next week!

Elder Jackson's birthday was also on Sunday. We went around the church building telling people. He's 20 now. I gave him a two-week-old croissant for his birthday, which he didn't take. 

We pulled some more dandelions yesterday for the same part-member family. I'm getting really good at that. 

Also, we were able to talk to Basim last night. Everything does in fact add up. He's working at a Wal-Mart in Santee (about 10 minutes north of here) but he has to take transit up. So he has to leave early in the morning, go, and come back late at night. We talked to his mom about our visits and cleared the air a little bit. She was concerned that he would be called to be a full-time missionary if baptized into our church. We told her that we're missionaries only because we had the time and the ability. Since he's got obligations (he's the only person in his household working right now) he wouldn't be able to. She was a little less freaked out after we explained that. She said that he can choose his own paths but at the same time that "second baptism is not allowed in our church [Catholicism]." At least she's warming up to it a little more! He's definitely not cold, but his schedule is so crazy that he can't come to church or meet with us often. He said that hopefully in the next month he'll be able to find part-time work or get his schedule solidified. 

That's it for this week! It's been absolutely crazy! I hope you all are doing well! :D

-- Elder Hawkes
--

Elder Christian Hawkes

California San Diego Mission

7404 Armstrong Place

San Diego, CA 92111

"I just read that and I'm even more confused now." - Elder Hawkes

Alternate email title is "Ghost Sasquatch for the WWE!" by Elder Poffenbarger. I'm not going to include context for that one because it won't make a difference. 

This week, we...

- Help the husband of a former get home and then add his wife a few days later

- Add a man in National City who mixes four different dialects

- Get in the door with a recent convert who is simultaneously less-active

- Try (and fail) to figure out what Unarius is

- Drop the people who came to church

- Murder a bunch of ants

- Have a throwdown by a recent convert in the Gospel Principles class (and figure out when I'm teaching my first Sunday School lesson in Arabic!)

- Get to witness a Mission President's Fireside

- Get in the door with a few people we've been meaning to see

- Pull the biggest dandelions ever

So first off pardon me if there's some overlap in weekly emails. As a missionary, I know only a few days:

- Weekly Planning day (Thursday)

- District Meeting day (Friday)

- Church and Ward Council (Sunday)

- P-day (Tuesday)

Any and all proselyting activities blend together into what we call a "week", which is normally comprised of seven days but could actually be anywhere from 6 to 10 days depending on what happens and how good I am at remembering things. Dates don't matter (for example, I realized today as I got to the library that today is the 21st of April) because we divide things up according to days of the week (e.g.: "On Wednesday we will..." "On Saturday we've got..."). I don't know if this is typical in missionary work because 1) I'm in the CA San Diego Mission which is very different from other missions and 2) Preaching in a language that according to the MTC is not actually available for proselyting. Arabic work is WILDLY different at times and unlike the other missionaries (who worked in English work for anywhere from 6 weeks to 6 months before going Arabic) I've never done anything aside from Arabic work. 

ANYWAY....

One of the days last week (I think) we were street contacting and found an Arabic-speaking man in a wheelchair. He waved us over (we were on the other side of the street) and we wheeled him back to his apartment which was nearby. Elder Poffenbarger recognized the apartment as that of a former named Ikhalas (whom Elders McCombie and Jackson taught) and we went back a few days later. We had a brief discussion with her and invited her to church and to take the lessons again. She agreed, so yesterday we taught her about prayer. She's solid.

On Friday we went down to contact a referral in National City (a 20-minute drive south of El Cajon, much closer to downtown San Diego and the airport than El Cajon is). We got in contact with him and taught him a little bit of our message. His name is William and it turns out that he is an immigrant from Iran (so he speaks Farsi as his first language) who lived in Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Iraq, Turkey, and Syria before coming to the U.S. His Arabic is a weird conglomerate of Jordanian, Iraqi, Egyptian, and Gulf (UAE-Saudi) Arabic, so Elder Poffenbarger and I had trouble understanding everything that he said right away. Then again, Elder Poffenbarger knows Iraqi and maybe one or two words in other dialects while I've bounced around between Jordanian, Egyptian, and now Iraqi, so some parts of it sounded more familiar to me than others!

We also got to visit a recent convert named Fawzie. He's awesome! He's less-active because his job requires him to be in Chula Vista (south of downtown San Diego and about a 30-or-40-minute drive from El Cajon) almost every day, but he prays every day that he can come back to church and progress. We're preparing him for the Melchizedek Priesthood and his endowments while helping him find a job in El Cajon that doesn't force him to work on Sundays. 

On Saturday we had a big street-contacting day in an effort to get more people added. In downtown El Cajon, just a little south of Main Street, is a building called "Unarius Academy of Science". We've all expressed interest at finding out what in the world it is. We never see anyone go in or go out (except for this weekend when we drove past and saw some people having a conversation in the doorway), no one ever acknowledges it exists, it's just... there. If you walk by it there's some stuff about how you can get palm readings and "past-life therapy" as well as something about a confederation of star systems and another thing about "Atlantis returning in our hearts." Elder Poffenbarger and I took a few minutes to look the displays they have outside over and we both came to the conclusion that we know even less about Unarius now. Hence the email title.

Nather and Siham, the old couple who met missionaries in Sweden and Jordan, dropped us. Essentially they said, "Thanks but no thanks." They're not interested in learning our message or changing anything. They're complacent. That makes 10 investigators dropped in two weeks. If there was a key indicator for that we'd be on fire. 

It's ant season now, which means we've got to make sure not to leave food lying around. Elder Poffenbarger and I woke up to find a trail of ants boldly marching in the middle of our floor over to a bag of candy sitting on a dresser. We sealed the bag, threw it away, grabbed some bug spray, and murdered every single one of them. We also sprayed every crack or hole in the baseboards, the wall, and the doorframes just for good measure. "I am become death, the destroyer of [ants]."

"I think we're going to need more RAID" 

On Sunday we had a discussion about the Word of Wisdom in the Arabic Gospel Principles class. We had one of Arabic North's investigators, her mother-in-law, a recent-convert (Mohammed), and one or two active members in the room (we've got three active families in the ward that each have at least one Arabic speaker). The investigator, Dalia, asked about tea. She said, "I get the whole 'No coffee' and 'No alcohol' thing, but why not tea? I love tea!" Mohammed turned to her and said, "What would you do without your tea?" "I would die!" "EXACTLY! It's addicting! God doesn't want us to drink addicting things!" He then went on to say that tattoos, transgender surgeries, etc., are implying that God isn't perfect or that He made a mistake in making them. Regardless of anyone's views on those things, it was still an interesting throwdown. As an aside, I'm going to be teaching my first Gospel Principles lesson in Arabic on May 10th. 

On Sunday we went to a Mission President's Fireside in the Del Cerro area. We went because we thought we would have a recent convert there, but we didn't see them there. As we were sitting there, one of the sister missionaries' investigators came and sat by us. Our thought process was, "Well, we don't have anyone here but the sisters are up in the choir singing, so we can't just leave him." So we didn't. President Morgan, one of the counselors in the mission presidency, gave a final testimony. He and his wife are going to be presiding over the Chile Santiago East Mission beginning in July (if you know anyone serving there, tell them they're SUPER lucky for getting President Morgan as a mission president!). He started off by saying, "Many people say they were 'born in the Church'. I wasn't born in the Church. I was born in a hospital. And others say they were 'raised in the Church'. I wasn't. I was raised in a house and at school. But I went to church!" 

And that is the third alternate email title for the week. 

He bore powerful testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and his experience reading it and praying to know if it was true. We're going to miss him. 

Yesterday we got to see Morad and Miller again. Miller is going to Michigan in a few days with his cousins while Morad is staying here in California and saving his money. We taught them about the 10 Commandments and the Sabbath Day. We also got to see Muwafaq again! He's been very busy working and he's got a foot injury, but he still loves seeing us and hearing our messages. We didn't count him as added because his schedule is really shaky still, but we hope to add him soon!

That's it for this week! Thanks everyone for your emails and letters! I love hearing from you! 

-- Elder Hawkes

--

Elder Christian Hawkes

California San Diego Mission

7404 Armstrong Place

San Diego, CA 92111

"Your teeth... is not beautiful." - Morad, to his father

More on that title in a bit. 

Welcome once again to my weekly email, wherein:

- Elder Hawkes gets really good at trimming bushes and pulling dandelions

- Suhaila, Mario, and Marceleno dye eggs at a member's house

- We get the car door fixed!

- Morad and Miller discuss their plans for leaving El Cajon and have a back-and-forth insult fest with their dad

- Elder Hawkes goes on splits with Bro. Seba and the person they try to visit cancels on them

- CONFERENCE

- Elder Poffenbarger understands Conference while Elder Hawkes is left guessing

- A lady condescendingly reminds us of "No Soliciting" signs

- More dandelion pulling!

So, after I closed out for the week last Wednesday, we went and did some service for a part-member family. The non-member husband recently had surgery so he can't go out and take care of his bushes. We went by and, using pickaxes and shovels, uprooted a bunch of dead bushes while trimming back living ones with dead branches. We also pulled dandelions here and there, but he said we could come back another day to do that. I'm starting to wonder if my mission is a sign that I'm supposed to go into gardening as a profession. Maybe it's just my chosen hobby, aside from ranting about politics and pretending to know things. 

Wednesday night we went to a member's house with Suhaila, Mario, and Marceleno. They did an egg-dying activity that looked like a lot of fun. Mario and Marceleno were acting like they were too cool for it (as 14-year-old boys are prone to do), but Suhaila loved helping the little kids out. She turned to us and said, "Why don't you join us?" Mario immediately responded, "I don't think that's how they roll, Mom." And that was almost the email title for the week. 

On Thursday we went to the Ford dealership in the morning and got the car door fixed. Now it can actually open again from the inside! :D We wound up sitting in the lounge and studying our scriptures for a few hours while it got fixed. It's the little things in life that you appreciate, like having a car door that opens properly. 

We taught Morad and Miller about prayer and how to pray. For the first few minutes they were discussing their plans for moving to Detroit. Miller is going sometime this week and Morad (who just got a job at a car wash) is going to be saving up money and going in two months. *cue internal panic as investigators discuss their plans to leave the area* About halfway through the lesson, their dad started talking about prayer. As a bit of context, the dad is a longtime smoker and so he's got a few missing teeth and the rest of them are yellow. Morad turned to his dad and said, "Your teeth... is not beautiful. Is ugly!" Miller was egging him on like a "good" little brother and their dad just laughed it off. Later they insulted his moustache and he turned to them and said, "God bless your mother for having you two!" "But you participated in the process because you're the dad!" "Yeah, well... you're still stupid!"

There is beauty all around, when there's love at home....

On Thursday night we had an appointment with Basim at 7:30 and then with Akheqar at 8. Elder Poffenbarger went with Bro. Evanko (a ward member) to Basim while Bro. Seba and I went to teach Akheqar. Right as we pulled up, we saw Akheqar standing out on the sidewalk. We went up and talked to him and he said he was waiting to go somewhere and so he couldn't meet with us that night. We asked for his phone number and he said, "I thought I gave it to you." He hadn't, so I asked if we could get it again. He said he didn't remember it. So now Akheqar is in the "Stop by occasionally and if he's home you can teach a lesson" pile. 

CONFERENCE WAS AWESOME.

The Conference Attendees —
just the Elders

Christian's Easter Basket from Ward Members

We had a live Arabic translation (the only one in the nation) for Conference! We didn't have anyone show up, but we watched it anyway. Elder Poffenbarger was actively taking notes in Arabic and understanding it all, while I was just sitting there going, "I think that one was about faith." That's what the May Ensign is for! We did get to watch the Priesthood Session in English, and I enjoyed that one. Apparently someone yelled out that they were opposed in sustaining the General Authorities, Boyd K. Packer was hard to understand, and there were some other interesting moments. We didn't hear the "opposed" and Boyd K. Packer spoke clearly to us... in Arabic. 

Yesterday we went back to the part-member's house and did some more service. We wound up pulling dandelions and other weeds for a few hours. It was fun, but some of the weeds were rather annoying. About half of them had little hairs growing on their stems that hurt when our hands touched them, so we had to dig around and underneath them to get to the roots to pull them out. 

Maybe gardening isn't my thing....

That's about it for this weekly email. Thank you to all those who have been writing to me. I love getting mail! 

-- Elder Hawkes

--

Elder Christian Hawkes

California San Diego Mission

7404 Armstrong Place

San Diego, CA 92111

"The sun didn't exist before Jesus was born!" "That's why everything was black and white back then!" - Elders Poffenbarger and Jackson, respectively

Sent to us on April 2, 2015

Hahahahahaha! The ultimate April Fool's joke! You all expected an email from me yesterday, but I'm sending it today! Totally an April Fool's joke, and not a symptom of the libraries being closed yesterday due to Cesar Chavez Day! Hahahahahahahaha!

Anyway... 

Welcome to my weekly email, wherein: 

- One of our investigators leaves for Michigan without telling us

- A Chaldean couple actually recognizes "the Mormons"!

- We re-meet and re-add a guy we lost contact with months ago

- Elder Hawkes once again throws large pieces of wood around

- We add the uncle of a former investigator who tells us he's a Communist

- Bro. Seba, the Ward Mission Leader, hosts a barbeque and a TON of people show up

- President Schmitt hosts us for dinner and we get to see his cockroach-killing skills

- Our driver-side door betrays us

So, last email I told you all about Marvin, Morad, and Miller, three young men whom Elder Poffenbarger taught way back in the days of Elder McCombie (whom, I should mention, is now added to the email list). They've been prepping to go to Michigan for a little while because they've got family in Detroit. Well, last week we went to teach them and there were only two around. We asked what happened to Marvin and they said, "Oh, he went to Michigan yesterday." Wow. The other two are already packing their stuff and prepping to go, so we may not be able to see them soon. 

We had some cool experiences adding people. One couple, Nather and Siham, actually recognized us and said, "Are you the Mormons?" After E. Poffenbarger and I had picked up our jaws from off the floor (most people think we're the Jehovah's Witnesses or Evangelicals), we said, "Yes we are!" They asked us, "What's different from your church?" and we were able to teach them the Restoration! 

The other experience was when we were contacting a referral. Back in January (about 5 days after I got here) we met a man named Akheqar and walked with him back to his apartment and taught him the Restoration. We both forgot to write down the correct address so we couldn't find him again. Last week we went to contact a referral in the complex Akheqar was in and we both remembered the approximate location of Akheqar's apartment. The next night we went back and found him! He was sitting on his couch with the door open and he invited us in. He's been reading in the Book of Mormon and praying to know if it's true. We re-taught the Restoration and asked if he would get baptized if he knew this was true. He and his son, Yusef, both said, "Of course we will!" When we meet him this Friday we'll nail down a specific date. 

On Saturday we went and did service at a member's house. He had some old fenceposts that he needed us to throw into a trailer. After he cut them all in half we grabbed them one-by-one and threw them into the trailer. I found it rather amusing that the latest service we've been doing involves me throwing around large pieces of wood. 

We also added another investigator named Malik. He's the uncle of a former investigator named Teeba and belongs to the same religion as her (Mandaean? John the Baptist followers). We were talking about the Restoration and after the lesson was over he was telling us his story. He's a journalist from Iraq and knows Arabic, English, and Russian. He also said he was a Communist. A Communist John the Baptist follower from Iraq who worked as a journalist. That's a first. 

Bro. Seba on Sunday had a barbeque and invited the Elder's Quorum and some of our investigators and recent converts. We had Suhaila and her family, Sandra and her family, Mohammed (a recent convert) and his family, and Basim, along with a bunch of ward members. Lots of food. Lots of good company. Good times. Afterward, Basim told us how he's been facing some family backlash because of his decision to get baptized. Bro. Seba and Bro. Faradjian both told him their stories and gave him some advice: follow what he feels is right. Afterward he felt a lot better and told us he wants to get baptized still. He's on track for April 18th. 

On Monday night President Schmitt had us and Sandra over for dinner. We had a wonderful time. Andrew was well-behaved and Alex was Alex. After dinner we had a quick family home evening where Sister Schmitt talked about sealing. Halfway through the lesson all the kids start screaming. There was a huge cockroach (a few inches) on the back porch that they were looking at. President got everyone to calm down and we finished the lesson. Afterward, E. Poffenbarger took a shoe and tossed the cockroach into a nearby bush. President grabbed the shoe and one other shoe, calmly walked over to the bush, found the cockroach, and nonchalantly proceeded to smash it. "Better out here than inside," he said. He's way cool. 

Lastly, the door. We were out contacting some people on Monday when suddenly my door (the driver's-side door) stopped opening from the inside. Elder Parkin (the mission fleet coordinator) took a look at it yesterday and said, "Yep. You've got a busted door." So we've got to take it over to a Ford dealership in La Mesa (about a 10-minute drive) tomorrow to get it repaired. Fun fun fun!

This weekend is Conference weekend. We're not going to understand anything because we'll be watching it in Arabic! Let me know if they get into any crazy deep doctrine or anything. :)

That's it for this week. Thanks for writing me, everyone. I love getting emails and hand-written letters! :D

-- Elder Hawkes

--

Elder Christian Hawkes

California San Diego Mission

7404 Armstrong Place

San Diego, CA 92111