"You guys are way better than the Jehovah's Witnesses!" - Mahji, an 80+-year-old

Begin tangent

In Iraq there are three prevailing churches (and by three prevailing churches I mean one dominates and the other two are trying): the Catholics, the إنجيليّن (Evangelicals), and the شهد يهوة (Jehovah's Witnesses). 90% of the people we meet are Catholics. I'd say about 9% of the others are Evangelicals (Baptists, Protestants, etc.) and I think I can count on one hand the number of Iraqi Jehovah's Witnesses I've met. Out of those three, the Jehovah's Witnesses are looked down upon the most largely because of their unorthodox views on Christ and their lack of praying to Mary. Since the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints isn't in Iraq, pretty much no one knows who we are and assume that we're either the Evangelicals or the Jehovah's Witnesses. Once we find out we're not the latter they tend to be all ears. 

End tangent

Transfers are tomorrow and spoiler alert: I have to pack. Before I get around to that dreaded exercise, I should probably talk about what happened this week and what's going down tomorrow at transfers! 

This week, we...

- Have a very patchwork Wednesday!

- Split Weekly Planning up over three days because we're too busy

- Add Maryam and Frial then have a fancy dinner with a ward missionary

- Do splits and add Amer!

- Do service on Mt. Helix with President Schmitt and his family

- Show up late to stake conference after having to pick up some other missionaries

- Re-add a former named Dalia!

- Teach a former named Ibtisom

- Find out how Morad's doing with the Word of Wisdom

- Have a very circular lesson with some old people

- Go on splits to teach Suhaila and a less-active

- Get transfer calls!

Wednesday is the day that we normally use a lot of time and miles to go down to National City to teach عادل (Adil) English. But he cancelled on us and said to try on Thursday. So we spent a lot of companionship study working on how to fill the two-hour block that just opened up. Once we did that, we went out for the day. We tried potential after potential and former after former and didn't get in the door with anyone, which wasn't the ideal but hey, it happens. After that we had a member dinner wherein we taught her nonmember son a lesson. He really wasn't interested and was just kind of there because his mom told him to be there, so the lesson wasn't that good. Then right afterward we got a call from the Zone Leaders asking if we could do a mini DLC (District Leadership Council) at the end of the night. So we tried more people with no success and finally just went to the DLC tired and a little frustrated that things didn't work out. 

On Thursday we commenced Part I of Weekly Planning and then had a lesson with Maryam, a lady I mentioned in my last email. Her sister? Sister-in-law? Daughter-in-law? Some sort of relative... was there, and they were pretty receptive. We said we were going to use the Bible and the relative, Frial, asked, "Which part?" and then proceeded to pull out a very used Bible with highlights, notes, and everything. 

I almost wept tears of happiness in that moment. 

Tangent #2

Most people we teach don't read the Bible. The idea is that the priest or the deacon interprets the Bible for them and so they don't need to read it or study it. All they need to do is go to church, stand up, sit down, stand up again, listen as the priest reads some scriptures they don't understand, and then go home. Despite that, most people would proudly say they've read the Bible dozens of times when in actuality their priest has read portions of the Bible dozens of times for them. 

End tangent #2

They were pretty receptive of the message and the only concern that they had was that Frial works on Sundays. We've got a return appointment with them for Thursday, which will be great.

After the lesson, we printed off some flyers for an upcoming family history event with one of our ward missionaries and had a very fancy $10 dinner with him that consisted of two Little Caesar's pizzas and some red pepper flakes. After our luxurious dinner we had a lesson with Fawzi, our less-active recent convert, about fasting. We had planned to go over at 6:45 but forgot to tell both Fawzi and the member we were bringing of the time change, so we wound up going at 7 and that really threw everything off. At about 8, just as we were wrapping up, we got a call from a member who was going to come with us to visit Morad asking where we were. We closed up the lesson as fast as we could, rushed over to Morad's, and looked for our member who came running across the street to tell us that Morad forgot that we were going to come and so wanted us to come the next day. We apologized for being late to the member who was more than understanding and then went back to the apartment to commence Part II of Weekly Planning. 

On Friday we had a great Zone Meeting wherein we talked about focusing on achieving our goals and then had a shawarma lunch from one of several international markets in El Cajon that actually sells good Arabic food. 

Tangent #3 (my, there are a lot of those today!)

Most Middle Eastern restaurants don't do Middle Eastern food justice. Coincidentally, there are many much restaurants in El Cajon that try to cater to the Iraqi population but fail horribly. The best places to get as close to authentic Middle Eastern food as you can get in El Cajon without spending thousands of dollars and risking your life in an attempt to get authentic food from Baghdad is to go the international markets, then to the hole-in-the-wall restaurants that don't do a whole ton of advertising but are swarming with Iraqis preparing and cooking the food for a bunch of Iraqis who are eating the food.

End Tangent #3

That evening we went on splits to visit Morad and a potential named Amer. Elder Jensen and I went to visit Amer and had a great lesson with him. He's a painter from Iraq who has learned through sad experience that his degree in hotel management that he got from a university in Iraq means absolutely nothing here in the US. Right now he's working on selling the paintings he's got and trying to find a job teaching fine arts in order to pay his monthly rent. The lesson went really well and he was asking really good questions and follow-up questions to understand more... and then it got a little political and he talked about how he doesn't like the way things are working out here in the U.S. We couldn't get him back on track before we ran out of time, so we told him, "We've got to go, but will you read the pamphlet and pray about it before we come back on Wednesday?" He said yes, and he said he'd come to church with us. We concluded with a prayer and that was the end of the night. Elder Greer told me the lesson with Morad went really well. 

On Saturday we did service on Mt. Helix preparing for the El Niño rainstorms that are supposed to hit this winter. We thought it was just going to be us and maybe one other companionship, but it turns out that we were there along with President Schmitt and his family, the Assistants, and two or three other companionships from the San Diego East Zone. It was a lot of fun. 

After that we finished Weekly Planning Part III and then went out for the night before the evening session of stake conference. As we were walking along talking with people that evening, we saw a big blue light in the sky. We were confused as to what it was and started throwing out guesses. A supernova? A missile attack? Aliens? A bunch of kids in the area were freaking out and saying they saw "a bullet" in the sky. Turns out the Navy was testing a missile and that people as far away as Salt Lake City could see it. It was more than a little weird, though. 

We had stake conference that evening at 7. About 6:45, we got a text from the Zone Leaders asking if we could drive out to Alpine to pick up the elders out there. We reluctantly accepted, seeing as how Alpine is about 20 miles east of us and a trip there and back would make us late. We wound up picking up the Alpine Elders and got back to the stake center about 20 minutes late, awkwardly shuffling in while President and Sister Schmitt and Elder Schwitzer of the Seventy were seated on the stand. Either they didn't notice or didn't care, but it was still rather embarrassing. Elder Schwitzer was hilarious! He talked about keeping the commandments and was making it a fun time for everyone in attendance. 

On Sunday we had the final session of stake conference. We weren't late to it this time, thankfully. Elder Schwitzer talked about and testified of the Book of Mormon. After stake conference we called a member to come with us to an appointment at the church building. The investigator never showed up, so we asked the member if he would mind coming out with us to visit some potentials. We parked on a street named Redwood and started walking around, trying potentials. No one was answering. As we were walking back to the car, the thought came to me, "Elder Greer wanted to visit a former named Dalia who lives right here. Why not go now?" So we stopped by and she let us in! We shared the Restoration with her and invited her to be baptized. She told us that she didn't have any problems with what we taught but that the leader of her church said that if she joined "the Mormons" she'd get kicked out and they wouldn't help her with rent and food. Needless to say, she was a little hesitant. We asked her if she would be baptized if God commanded her to. "How would he command me?" she asked. We responded by talking about the Spirit and what its role is, and promised her that she'd know our message was true if she read the Book of Mormon and prayed about it. She said she'd read and pray and that we could come back! It was an awesome lesson!

After dinner that night we had an appointment with a former investigator named Ibtisom. We were sharing the message with her and she laid out her concerns. Basically, she's not sure if she can say it's true or not because she's never heard of Joseph Smith before. Getting down to the root, it's really fear and the thought that she needs to know everything in order to be baptized. The member we brought with us bore testimony of how we wasn't sure about Joseph Smith either, but as he prayed and read he felt it was true and that while he's still learning he can say that it's true. She didn't set up a return appointment with us, but she said we could call and find out what her schedule is like and then come over. At the end of the night when we were looking at what had happened this week, we found that we had added seven new investigators! At the beginning of the week, we had fasted and prayed that we'd be able to find 10 new investigators, and we were really grateful that we came so close to hitting that goal. 

On Monday we went and taught Morad. He's doing better with the Word of Wisdom in that he's drinking herbal tea now, but he's still struggling to quit smoking. We prayed about it and he felt that he would be able to quit on Wednesday. In the lesson we talked about following the prophet and Joseph Smith's experience. He said he wasn't sure about Joseph Smith, so we invited him to pray and ask God about it. We don't think he'll make his baptismal date for Nov. 21, but he's progressed so far and he's so close! Please keep him in your prayers!

Later on yesterday we had a lesson with the aforementioned 80+-year-old and her 60+-year-old daughter. The entire time they all had good questions but had a hard time listening to us. At the beginning we asked if we could pray and they said yes. They then proceeded to go on a ten-minute tangent about prayer and where we were all from and something about where our ancestors came from. The member we brought with us was born in New Zealand, but they kept asking if he was from Iraq. We started the lesson by talking about how we're all the family of God and the Mahji (pronounced like Maggie but with a 'j' sound instead of a 'g'; I'm guessing on the spelling) told us, "I already know this. Why aren't you teaching anything new?" We kindly explained to her that it was the beginning of the lesson and that we'd get to that. And that really set the tone for the entire lesson. We'd say something, then they'd go off on a tangent about something, then we'd bring it back, then they'd ask what we were talking about, then we'd repeat the whole process. In our discussion about apostasy Ikram, the 60-year-old, told us, "You're like the old apostles, yes?" We said, "Sure." She responded with, "Yeah. They preached about Jesus and then they got killed. You won't get killed here. But if you went to Iraq to preach to Muslims, maybe they'd kill you!" 

:|

Other than that, the lesson was pretty good and they said we could come back this week. We finished up the night by going on splits with the zone leaders; Elder Greer and Elder Godby went to visit a less-active and Elder Jensen and I went and taught Suhaila and her sons about scripture study. I'd just like to set the record straight that Mario is super solid. Suhaila knows it's true but is in the stage of "I don't want to admit it's true" and Marceleno could afford to pay attention a little more, but Mario is solid. He's going to be a great missionary! 

Last up... transfers.

*drumroll*

I'm going to be training in Arabic North, and Elder Greer and Elder Jensen are going to be training in Arabic South! We're getting two new missionaries! This is going to be a ton of fun!

That's it for this week! We've got some crazy stuff happening this coming week, and it starts at 6:00 tonight! Thank you all for your letters and emails and most importantly your prayers on my behalf; I really appreciate it!

-- Elder Hawkes

--

Elder Christian Hawkes

California San Diego Mission

7404 Armstrong Place

San Diego, CA 92111-4912

Sent from my iPad

"Heavenly Father... Jesus Christ... Book of Mormon... Internet Father..." - Morad, learning church words

"Eternal"... "Internet"... same thing, essentially, right?

So sorry for the late email. We just got back from the temple today.
But this week, we...
- Listen to a former tell us she loves our church and wants to join,
but is too afraid
- Teach a very energetic 80-year-old (twice)
- Drop that family we added a few weeks ago
- Almost break curfew
- Help a man find a place to sleep
- Have a great lesson about the Word of Wisdom with Morad!
- Forget to tell our Zone Leaders we made it home safely on Halloween
- Teach a Mandaean (sp?)

A long time ago (as in, back in February) we taught a lady named Teeba. She was somewhat paranoid and was letting fear get in the way of faith, so we dropped her. I felt that we needed to go visit her last week, so we set up an appointment for Tuesday. And it went okay. We mostly just listened to her talk about her views on religion, life, etc. Through it all, we were able to determine that she still wasn't ready to make the step of faith and join the church. So we told her we'd keep in touch and we plan on visiting once a month or so to make sure she isn't lonely.

On Wednesday we went to visit some potentials in the Arabic North area and ran into a former who had fallen on tough times. Elder Greer, after thinking about the situation and pondering what to do, asked the man if we could give him a blessing. He consented, and so we gave him a blessing. He was very touched by it and was grateful that we were willing to help in whatever way we could. He said that he isn't physically capable of even going to his own church, so he wouldn't be able to act on the message. But he appreciated our willingness to stop by and see how he was doing.

That afternoon we visited an eighty-year-old lady named Mariam. She was one of the most upbeat people I've ever met! Everything she talked about she talked about with a smile. She was happy to listen to our message and was willing to give it a shot. The member we brought with us was also really surprised and touched by her positive attitude despite her difficult circumstances, expressing that sentiment on Sunday during Testimony Meeting. She said she'd read the Book of Mormon once she got glasses and was willing to pray about it. We taught her again yesterday and she wasn't too thrilled about the baptism part, but was happy to hear our message and was very upbeat.

Also on Wednesday, we visited that family we added a few weeks ago after the Zone Leaders tracted their door. The son, Martin, was not interested from the get-go and refused to listen. The dad was a little more open and was trying to get his son to at least give it a shot. We invited both of them to baptism and that's when the traditions started. "We've already been baptized!" "We were baptized as babies so we wouldn't be Muslim!" "I read the Bible every day and go to church and I don't need baptism again!" Needless to say, they weren't really thrilled. So we dropped them and we'll follow-up with them in a little bit.

On Thursday we breezed through Weekly Planning and went out for the night. We had plans to visit Fawzi, but he wasn't home. So then we brought a member out with us to visit Morad, and it turns out Morad was sleeping. Since we had brought the member along and we were going to make the most out of it, we went to a nearby street and tried a
family we'd been wanting to see for a while. The father was home and let us in graciously. They started the lesson off by offering us coffee. We told them "Sorry, we don't drink coffee" just in time, because our member was about to reach for it and drink it! The member asked why we didn't drink it and we explained the Word of Wisdom very briefly. He replied, "Well, I smoke, I drink alcohol, and I drink tea and coffee."

Great way to start a lesson, right?

They were willing to listen to the message but when it came to the baptismal invitation it became the other extreme we see often: "There's no difference between our church and your church. Look, it says 'Jesus' on this pamphlet and we believe in Jesus, so we're the same. There's no difference!" We did our best to use scriptures and testify that there was in fact a difference and that that difference was very much important, but he still wasn't open. Around 9:05 we finally closed it off (the lesson started around 8:15) by saying, "We  have to be home by 9:30. Sorry!" and drove from one end of the city to the other as fast as we could to drop off our member and then rush home. Thankfully, we made it home with about 5 minutes to spare. And we only had to speed twice.

On Friday we had a district meeting wherein we, at the request of President, set a goal for baptisms we wanted by the end of the year. As a district (the Arabic Elders and the Hillsdale/Jamul Sisters) we are working to get 18 baptisms by Christmas. And we feel really good about that goal! After that, we helped a man we had met on the street look on Craigslist to find a room for rent. His family had stolen pretty much everything from him and he was living with friend after
friend after friend trying to find a place to stay. Not a whole lot panned out in our search, but he's still looking and we're doing what we can to help him.

That evening we had a dinner with our ward mission leader wherein he told me I need to take up boxing when I get home and know what it's like to get solidly punched in the face. After that, we had a great lesson with Morad about the Word of Wisdom. We were pretty bold with him and told him that if he wanted to improve his lifestyle, he needs to be baptized and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost to help guide him to find better work. And in order to be baptized, he needs to follow the Word of Wisdom. He said he'd follow it and listen to what we had to say from then on out. It was really cool to see it all click for him. Also that evening, we met an older couple outside of their apartment. We asked if we could share a message and they said, "Have you got time right now?" So we shared a quick Restoration with them. They weren't interested in reading the Book of Mormon or acting on our message, although they said they respect our path and wish us luck.

Saturday was some sort of holiday wherein people dress up. I dressed up like Elder Hawkes this year. Most of the day was spent going to one area; not getting anywhere in terms of teaching but then finding someone who said "Sure you could come"; then feeling like we needed to go to the next plans and repeating the process. It was a really
successful day in that most of the people we talked to told us they'd like missionaries to come visit them. I think we sent off more people that day than we had all week. After that, we had dinner with a member family and then came home at 6. Being very forgetful, I neglected to let the Zone Leaders know we made it home on time and safe and so the next morning when we woke up we had a few texts from the Zone Leaders asking if we were okay.

Oops.

On Sunday Basim told us he's working until 11 P.M. almost every day now and so he won't be able to meet with us for a little while, but that he'll let us know when we can come back. I'm sure he will. We followed-up on the Word of Wisdom with Morad to make sure he understood it. He did. We almost got him to throw out his pack of cigarettes. Finally we had to settle for him saying, "I've only got three in this pack and then no more." We're going to hold him to it. Pray for him.

Yesterday we taught Mariam again and the results of that lesson have already been discussed above. We met a Mandaean family (Mandaeans are a group of Gnostics that follow John the Baptist. Muslims don't like them, Christians don't like them... needless to say they're kind of dwindling in number) and shared our message with them. From the outset the husband said, "I'm Mandaean. We respect Jesus and we're not looking to change." It was a rough lesson. Towards the end he got kind of argumentative with us when he was asking the question, "If someone dies and they don't repent, what happens to them? Does Jesus save them?" but didn't like the responses we were giving him. We'll see
with him and his family.

Today we went to the temple. And it rained. And we're going to have transfers next week. So that'll be fun!

That's it for this week's novel. Thanks for all your letters and emails and your prayers on my behalf. I really appreciate it!

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

Sent from my iPad

"How do you say 'Quantum physics' in Arabic?" - Elder Jensen

*checks Google Translate*: فيزياء الكم

This week, we...

- Go out of chronological order in this email to talk about Basim

- Have lunch with عادل (Adil)

- Add a family!

- Sort-of-not-really bash with some people

- Teach Fawzi and commit him to do more to come back to church

- Add someone else!

- Pass Shaima off to the Sisters

- Listen as our investigator says he's going to join the Mafia (without actually knowing what the Mafia is)

- Do service at a school (with permission, mind you!)

- Show up to the Halloween party and meet some nonmembers there

- Listen to the Primary program than teach the Law of Chastity in Gospel Principles

- Get some hints from President about some transfer possibilities....

- Have an all-around awesome Monday!

First off, if I had to sum this week up in one phrase, it'd be this: The right place at the right time, every time. The more I read that the more it sounds weird but I'm going to keep typing and go with it before I second-guess myself. 

Going out of chronological order... let's talk about Basim. 

This is what I imagine the Elders were doing afterreconnecting with Basim.

Once upon a time, Elder Hawkes was new to the whole "being a missionary" thing and was being trained by one of the most حديد missionaries on the earth, Elder Poffenbarger. The two of them found and taught a young man named Basim. Basim was the miracle child. He understood everything we taught and accepted it. He prayed about baptism, he prayed about the Book of Mormon, he prayed about Joseph Smith, and he knew all of it was true. He asked us, "When can I be baptized?" And we told him April 18th. 

Flash forward to April. Basim is still solid, but he's got some external pressure on him. First off, his family isn't too thrilled at the idea of him getting baptized. Second off, since he's the only person in his household capable of working he gets a job that provides him with long hours and no time to meet with us. So unfortunately he drops us, but he says we could try in May. 

Flash forward to May. Elder Poffenbarger calls Basim and Basim tells him we're liars and that he doesn't want to hear from us ever again. With much sadness to be had we put him in the mental "Forever Former" category but pray that he'll be willing to meet in the future. 

Now to last Monday/Tuesday. Elder Poffenbarger and Elder Jackson are home now. We're in a trio. We knock on Basim's door (with Elder Hawkes almost ready to call it off and run back to the car) and his mom answers the door. She says he isn't home but that we could try another time. We leave her with our number and ask her to call us if she needs any help with anything. About a half hour later, Basim calls us and says he need
s "urgent help" with something and asks if we can come Tuesday at 8 with Bro. Seba. 

So last Tuesday we went to Basim's at 8 with Bro. Seba. 

The details of what they need don't matter and are confidential, but suffice it to say that it has Bro. Seba wringing his hands and not feeling good about it but he reluctantly agrees anyway. On Wednesday at Language Study Bro. Seba hesitantly tells us to deliver something that will help to Basim and his mom. On the way Elder Greer and Elder Jensen felt that we shouldn't do it. I'm ashamed to admit that I felt the same but didn't want to say or do anything for fear of Basim rejecting us again. We agree (along with Bro. Seba) that we aren't going to follow through with it and instead tell Basim and his mother that we didn't feel good about doing it and so decided against it. At this point Elder Hawkes is again nervous. But there's nothing to worry about, Basim and his mother understand and thank us for being honest and say it's no problem. His mom tells us we can teach Basim and Basim says we can come back Saturday at 8. 

So we went back Saturday at 8 and re-added him! :D

We reviewed the Restoration with him and while the details were a little sketchy he remembered most of the concept and most importantly remembers believing it to be true. We invited him to baptism and he said he'd be baptized on November 28th. On Sunday we reviewed the Restoration again and went over the Plan of Salvation and he's still solid. Truly the Lord prepares the hearts of people!

Back to chronological order...

On Wednesday we had lunch with our Muslim friend in National City, عادل. He fed us a really good Iraqi meal consisting of حموس (Hummus), كبّة (Kubba), and a few other things. It was really good! We also got to add a family that the Zone Leaders had found while tracting. To make a long story short President felt that we should go tract the areas near the stake center before the Mission President's Fireside last Sunday and the Zone Leaders found this family. We taught them (and by them I mean the dad, since the daughters couldn't really understand a lot of words and wanted to be taught in English) the Restoration and the dad, Sabri, said he'd read the Book of Mormon cover-to-cover and that after that we could teach him. To wrap up the night, we got a call from the Zone Leaders that there was a really awesome Arabic conversation going on where they were and that we needed to come ASAP. So we went, and the people they were talking to proceeded to sort-of bash with us. I say sort-of because they were wanting to bash but we were really really working hard not to bash. Eventually we just gave them each a Book of Mormon, a Restoration pamphlet, and an invitation to pray about it. One of them was saying, "If I believe the Book of Mormon is the word of God then I also have to believe the Qur'an is the word of God also!" 

That sentence had so many logical fallacies in it that it made me cringe a little even when writing it. 

Anyway... on Thursday we did Weekly Planning and then taught Fawzi, our less-active recent convert. He's still having Word of Wisdom problems, but he's getting better. We talked about faith and reminded him that if he wanted the Lord to bless him with a job that would allow him to come to church on Sundays, he needs to put forth his effort and look for work. It was a really great lesson that did a lot for him, I think! 

On Friday we didn't have district meeting because Bro. Hemmingway, the Director of Proselyting at the Church Missionary Department, came down to do a special MLC with us that all the zone leaders and district leaders had to attend. Since this email is long enough I won't talk about everything he said, but he essentially told us to be better at setting goals and achieving them; finding referrals; and having the faith to baptize. After that we went to a restaurant called Wings 'n Things. It was... okay. And really not noteworthy. We passed Shaima off to the Sisters, since Habib decided to move to Las Vegas. We also added a man named Ashur who was originally having the attitude of "All the churches are the same" but by the end was willing to give the Book of Mormon a chance. 

We went to go visit Morad on Friday and he started it off by answering the door with rap music blaring in the background and swearing at us in an attempt to be tough. He quickly changed his mind about that when we started to turn around and leave. He told us that he was going to join the Mafia... and then he talked about how much he loved the police in El Cajon. 

Woah woah woah. "Morad, you know that the Mafia is against the police and hates them, right?" 

I guess it had never dawned on him. 

We had a good lesson after that. We shared a little bit of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with him and reminded him of the importance of baptism. He agreed (sort of) to a baptismal date of Nov. 14th! :D He's got some Word of Wisdom problems to sort out and he needs follow-up on everything else, but he's slowly but surely inching forward. 

On Saturday we got permission to help out at Jamul Primary School by moving some mulch around in their garden. They fed us Subway in exchange for our labors. Very much worth it. We had the ward Halloween party that night, and we weren't sure that anyone was going to come. We went anyway and it turns out that Jenny (Muhammad's wife) and her kids came. We were grateful they were able to come, and they had a great time. We invited them to the Primary program on Sunday and they accepted the invitation. 

On Sunday Jenny and Muhammad came to church and listened to the Primary children blurt out "GOD GAVE US FAMILIES!" and some other songs. Afterward, I taught the English Gospel Principles class about the Law of Chastity. Nothing too noteworthy about that; I just explained what it was and how following it was a principle of faith, as with all the commandments. I said that the way to know if it's from God is to live it and ask. It was pretty good. 

Yesterday we had an okay lesson with Morad. We went in expecting to teach the Gospel and the Word of Wisdom, but we didn't really practice or prepare as much for the Gospel part as we did the Word of Wisdom part. So most of the lesson was really kind of directionless and didn't feel like a good lesson. Live and learn. 

Also, President gave us some interesting hints about transfers in interviews yesterday. We know for sure that someone is coming, and President told Elders Greer and Jensen, "I wouldn't be surprised if two came in this transfer..." So now that's an option on the table. I guess we'll see in two weeks!

Thanks for enduring this novel, everyone! Thanks also for your letters and emails! Don't be afraid to keep in touch!

-- Elder Hawkes

"Is this moderation? I just ate 7 tacos... and I'm going to eat 4 more." - Mario, a recent convert

*sigh*

First, off welcome to my weekly email No-longer-Elder Jackson (Just because you're home doesn't mean I need to call you by your first name). And welcome everyone to this week's edition of What Went Down in El Cajon, CA (as it relates to missionary work). 

This is a popular yogurt drink that is more savory than
sweet. Elder Hawkes likes it, Elder Jensen doesn't.

This week, we...

- Have a pizza party

- Teach عادل (Adil) English, wherein he struggles with the word "Kindergarten" and the ABC song

- Move some wood from a wood shed

- Get حبيب (Habib) in touch with LDS Employment Services in an attempt to dissuade him from moving

- Remind everyone that Elder Hawkes is an expert on lighthouses by virtue of him hearing a song about them

- Invite Morad to dinner

- Get to know Shaima's concerns rather than her beating around the bush

- Teach the Plan of Salvation in Gospel Principles

- Sing to a bunch of people

- Meet with an investigator we've been trying for a month now

- Teach Morad, then teach Suhaila

- Get a call from Basim (the golden investigator who dropped us in May)!!!!!!!!

First off, on Wednesday we - along with the sisters - helped our ward mission leader's family clean up their house and rearrange some stuff. Afterward we were running a little behind, so we told عادل we would be at his house around 1:30 to teach him English and then rushed to the nearest Little Caesar's to get lunch. As we got there and were contemplating what to order, Sis. Seba (the wife of the ward mission leader) and the sister missionaries pulled up right beside us. So we went back to the Seba's and had a big pizza party. We ate pretty quickly and rushed out the door so we could get to عادل on time. Once we got to عادل, we realized that we had forgotten to grab the papers that contained his next lesson. In the spirit of quick thinking, Elder Greer decided to review some things with him and work on teaching him the ABC's via that wonderful song that everyone who was 5 years old at some point knows. 

And it was hilarious. 

Elder Hawkes, Elder Jensen, Elder Godby 

In Arabic, 90% of the time you pronounce every letter exactly as if it was written. In English (at least American English) we have a tendency to blend consonants together. For instance, read this sentence out loud. Then, think back at how you blended those consonants and words together. If you're anything like me you'll probably get a little self-conscious of the fact and try to correctly pronounce every single letter in the sentence as you read it out loud again. My point is, if something makes a "t" sound in Arabic, they pronounce it with a "t" sound, not a "d" or some other sound. So about halfway through the song (the part where it goes L-M-N-O-P) the letters kind of blend together and it was really funny to listen to عادل copy Elder Greer while still trying to pronounce every letter. We also learned that the word "Kindergarten" is tough for some people. He kept saying "Kindergarun" or "Kinnurgarren" or something to that effect. We had to take it syllable by syllable. He eventually got it, thankfully. 

On Thursday we started the day off by helping a family in the ward, the Knight's, move some wood from their wood shed to the other side of their house so they could use it during the winter. Let me tell you, there was a lot of wood. It was almost stacked up to the ceiling in the little shed they had. The first few layers were pretty easy because most of it was okay. But as we got closer and closer to the bottom, there was more decayed wood than there was good wood. Elder Greer, being in pest control before his mission, knew that the entire bottom layer was filled with termites, so we didn't even bother with that. By the time it was all done, we had discovered many spiders (some large, some small), two dead rats, a few lizards, and more termites than we would have cared to have seen. It was all worth it though, because afterward they fed us a great lunch. Also, we learned that pretty much every house in San Diego County that is at least 20-30 years old has termites. Fun fact!

That evening we taught one of our investigators with a baptismal date, حبيب (Habib). He told us that he was probably going to move to Las Vegas because he couldn't find work out here. In an attempt to dissuade him from moving we got him in touch with LDS Employment Services so he could have a resource for finding jobs in the area. (Spoiler alert: He's decided to move anyway.) We had a great lesson about the Plan of Salvation which was pretty straightforward. 

On Friday we went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders. Elder Godby came here to Arabic work while Elder Greer went to English work for the day. In district meeting we talked about the Book of Mormon. I used the analogy of a lighthouse to explain how the Book of Mormon guides people to Christ. Since I've never been east past Kentucky and have lived in a land-locked state my entire life, I am an expert on lighthouses by virtue of me listening to the song "Brightly Beams our Father's Mercy" and a Conference talk about it. :) It was a really good district meeting and helped me gain some greater insights about the Book of Mormon and how to use it better in my teaching. 

A member gave Elder Hawkes a stack of Arabic Flashcards
that he used while learning Arabic. 

We invited Morad to a pizza dinner with the Seba's because he's been in need of fellowship. We showed up and waited. And waited. And waited. 

Eventually we got in contact with him. He said he had forgotten and had already gone to get food, so he wouldn't be able to make it. So we ate the pizzas all by ourselves (and the Seba's were there too). On an slightly related note, the best pizza I've had is actually from The Pizza Place at the Barnoa casino, owned by Bro. Seba. 

We went to teach Habib and Shaima the Gospel of Jesus Christ that night, which we did. It was a pretty simple and straightforward lesson. Shaima then brought forward her concerns: She said she had received a vision of God telling her that the Bible was the only true book and that there was nothing more. She also showed us that she had looked up Joseph Smith on Wikipedia and found out about polygamy and wanted answers. We answered as best we could and said we'd work on getting her more information about the subject. Habib was a little overbearing in the lesson, though. He was telling Shaima that he felt the Book of Mormon was true and that if Joseph Smith was a prophet then he must have done it as a commandment from God, except by the end he was almost at the point of yelling. Eventually she walked out of the lesson. Habib again said that he felt the Book of Mormon was true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet. He's so prepared and the Elders in Las Vegas are going to great with him there! 

On Sunday I woke up then realized, "Oh no. I haven't the slightest clue what I'm teaching in Gospel Principles." So I looked at the English manual to give myself a brief overview of the lesson "The Gathering of Scattered Israel." "I got this," I thought to myself, knowing full well that I didn't because I had forgotten about it until the day of. So I flipped open the Arabic manual to review it in Arabic. 

It turns out they skipped that lesson in the Arabic version. 

And I didn't know that until five hours before the lesson. 

Running low on time, I grabbed the Arabic manual and rushed out the door with my companions to ward council and then to sacrament meeting. "I'll just read from the manual," I thought to myself. When I got to the church, I decided, "Actually, I'll just teach the Plan of Salvation because I know the material and it wouldn't hurt to review it with محمد (Muhammad)." So I gave it on the Plan of Salvation. It went okay. 

That evening we had a dinner-lesson with some friends of a family in the ward that we had inadvertently street contacted a while ago. They weren't super interested, but they were inviting of the message and were willing to give it a shot. They said they'd hold off on more lessons until they had read the Book of Mormon and prayed about it. All in all the members liked it and their friends were appreciative of their friends' willingness to share what they believed. After that we rushed over to the stake center so we could sing in the Mission President's Fireside. Morad actually came to the Fireside and stayed for the whole thing, even though he said he would only stay for 10 or 15 minutes. They had music, then a video, then some testimonies from some recent converts. After repeating that cycle once or twice President and Sister Schmitt both bore their testimonies and shared some thoughts with the audience. It was really great!

Yesterday was a really good day. We started the day off by meeting with one of our investigators in Arabic North's area, رعد (Raed). He seemed to mostly just nod his head in agreement even though he didn't understand what we were telling him, so we'll see how it works out. After the lesson, he gave us each a business card for his uncle, who's a pastor over at a local Nazarene church. We taught Morad a really good lesson about obedience and being kind and charitable to everyone. The entire time he was very happy and was actually helping to explain some of the points we brought up. Once he makes that step to be baptized he'll be solid! We also taught Suhaila a pretty straightforward lesson about prayer. Not much to note from that, other than the email title for the week. 

This morning Habib texted us to say he was moving to Las Vegas but that his wife was going to stay in San Diego, so we could still work with her. We sent his info off to the missionaries over there and wished him the best of luck. Not necessarily a sour note, but not one I'd like to end on, so let's jump back!

Back when Elder Poffenbarger (my trainer) and I were together, we worked with a young man named Basim. He was solid and sure to be baptized. Then, due to work and probably some family pressure, he got dropped. In May he called us to say he didn't want to talk to us anymore and that he hated us. Really sad, but the story doesn't end there. We've felt like we've needed to visit with him for a while and at least see how he's doing, so last night we went by his apartment. He wasn't home, but his mom was, so we gave her our phone number and asked her to have him give us a call. Probably about 30 minutes later he gave us a call and said that he needed some "immediate help" and asked if we could bring Bro. Seba tonight at 8 to meet with him. That was a big miracle for us! We don't know what exactly he means by "immediate help" (probably help with translating something or help finding work), but we feel really good about it, so we'll see how things go tonight! :D

That's it for this week! Thanks everyone for your emails and letters of support! I love you all and love hearing from you! My scripture this week is Romans 8:6-9. 

-- 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

"Are you seriously using the Lego Star Wars video game as a point of reference?" - Elder Hawkes

Elder Hawkes received some colorings from the Sunbeam
class from his home ward.

Turns out Elder Jensen hasn't seen Star Wars. How sad.

So this week started off crazy weird and has gradually smoothed itself
out, so let's get into it!
This week, we...
- Find out about "The transfer that never was"
- Unpack
- Drive up to the Arabic North apartment only to realize we don't have the keys
- Have a Catholic tell us he's not interested because he's Muslim
- Help Suhaila move
- Listen to Conference! And then teach a person!
- Get a call from a member after one of our investigators shows up to
church when no one's there
- Help redecorate a retirement center.
- Forget to bring a member to Suhaila's and wind up teaching her outside
- Teach a family who says they'll get back to us on whether they
believe it or not

So, first off, let me tell you all about "The transfer that never was..."

When we last left off, I was going up North, Elder Greer was going to be training, we needed to be at the transfer meeting at 9:30, and I learned how much of a pain it is to pack everything you have in preparation for going somewhere new. And then at 10:05 P.M., we got a call from President Schmitt.

He told us that during his interviews with the incoming missionaries, he didn't receive any inspiration as to who should be the new Arabic missionary. But he went and looked at the missionaries coming in next transfer, and he saw that there's an Elder coming in November who studied Arabic for 5 years! "So," he said, "Elder Greer, you're going to train him when he comes. I'm sorry that you don't get to train right now. You three are going to be in a trio this transfer."

So I'm still in Arabic South, technically. It was a really last-minute decision. But it just goes to show how much the Lord is in this work!

After spending a good chunk of the night and the next morning unpacking and determining what I need in the next six weeks and what I don't (I know with 100% certainty that I'm going up North next transfer), we drove up to the Arabic North apartment on Wednesday to pick up Elder Jensen's stuff. And then we realized, we had let some sister missionaries in Santee borrow the car, and we neglected to get the apartment keys from them before we gave them the keys! So we went back, taught عدل (Adil) English in National City, did some rearranging and reorganizing in our apartment, and finally got the keys to the North apartment. I about doubled my tie collection because Elder Jackson left a bunch of ties that he didn't want (still not a necktie person). We finally got everything handled and moved in, then we went proselyting.

That evening we had a lesson with the three Chaldean women I mentioned last email. There were a lot of distractions outside (we had to sit outside) and it essentially boiled down to "We're Catholic. We don't want to change. Thanks." So on our way out we saw an open door and decided to try and talk with the residents. One of them came to the door and said, "No. We're Muslim."

We were staring straight at his Virgin Mary statue. And could see the rosaries on the wall.

Anyway, despite the obvious lie we decided it wasn't worth our time to push any further and left.

On Thursday we helped Suhaila move. She'd been having some trouble with the management in her old place and decided it was better to move than deal with all the ridiculousness she was facing. We expected it to be a short move, maybe an hour or so. But since it was the three of us, her, her two teenage sons, and her home teacher, it took about
three. Her new place is a lot smaller than her old one. She said she likes the old one more, but she'll manage.

On Friday I had my first district meeting as district leader. It went alright. Our district is composed of the three of us (me, Elder Greer, and Elder Jensen) and the Hillsdale/Jamul Sisters (Sister Wardinsky and Sister 'Eukaliti). After that, we brought a member of the ward out with us to try a few potentials. As we were walking, another member waved us over and, after asking him who he knew, introduced us to his neighbor. We had a lesson with her on her porch that essentially
consisted of her venting and us reminding her to have faith in Christ. I'm sure she was a little overwhelmed because there were five people standing on her porch wanting to talk about Jesus!

Later on that night we visited Morad, an investigator who's been taught for several months now. We talked a lot about having faith in Jesus Christ and how having faith will lead to baptism. He's got some envy problems that he's working out, but he's got a lot of faith! When we invited him to be baptized he said he'd do it! :D We invited him to be baptized on October 31st and he wasn't as sure. So we invited him to pray about it and he said he would. I really think it can happen if
he just prays and finds out for himself.

On Saturday we had a small meeting you've probably never heard of called General Conference. You'll probably ask me what my favorite talk was and I'd tell you that I don't know because they were all amazing! It was great to see three new Apostles sustained and I congratulate Elders Rasband, Stevenson, and Renlund on their new callings.

That evening we taught نائل (Na'il), whom we've been trying to get in the door with for over a month. We reviewed the Restoration with him and he's got it. His problem isn't that he doesn't believe, his problem is that he can't find time to meet with us. Since he lives so close to his workplace he's always on-call and it's hard to nail down a time to meet with him (no pun intended). We'll keep trying him.

On Sunday Morad came to the Sunday Morning session of General Conference, which was awesome. We got a call from one of our members, Bro. Faradjian, between sessions. He said that one of our investigators, حبيب (Habeeb) had showed up to church and, when he saw no one was there, called him up and asked where everyone was. (For the record, we tried calling him but the phone number was wrong, and he wasn't home when we stopped by) So Bro. Faradjian told him it was conference and invited him over. We went by and watched the concluding session with him, which was awesome. He had a great time!

Yesterday we helped the Hillsdale/Jamul Sisters and a less-active lady in La Vida Real (a retirement center in Rancho San Diego) rearrange things and redecorate the main rooms for Halloween and autumn. It mostly consisted of us walking around, placing things here and there, rearranging a wreath or two, and hanging some cloths here and there to make it look "spooky". It was a lot of fun, actually! We also taught Suhaila on her porch (because we had forgotten to bring a member with us) about the Spirit World and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She said she hasn't been reading from the Book of Mormon due to the move, but she said she'd read it this week.

Last thing: Last night we had a lesson with a family. The husband, خليل (Khaleel), was very inviting but a little closed-off. As we were teaching, he and his wife, جنان (Jinan), grew more and more attentive as the lesson went on. The Spirit was very strong there as we taught and discussed our message with them. At the end of it, they said they'd think about it and call us. He wanted to make sure our phone number was right so he could call us, which was a great sign!

And that's it for this week! So in case you didn't catch it at the beginning, I'm in a trio and I'm also district leader. This transfer is going to be fun! Thanks everyone for your emails and letters! I love getting mail, so don't be afraid to write! Have a great week!

-- Elder Hawkes