Ethan Wasden - California, Anaheim Mission 2017-19

Hey everyone, So this week has been another slow week. We did pretty close to 20 hours of finding this week, and I must say that when it comes to the major differences between California and Utah, there is no bigger difference then the fact that Californians don't talk to each other at all.  While Utah people seem to be more open and tend to communicate with each other more. We asked a lot of people this week if we could help them and do any kind of service for them, and they all seemed shocked to hear someone offer such a thing. They all told us they were good, and we ended up with pretty much no discussions this week and no service.  I was feeling pretty down on myself. Then I remembered something that my dad and I had gone through before my mission. We were in Salt Lake and we were driving down a road and I was pretty much passed out in the passenger seat. All of sudden my dad pulled over and got out of the car. I was not sure what was going on, but I got out...

Hey Everyone, These last few weeks have been pretty crazy due to the holidays, and I have had a lot of surprises come this month. To start, we had a lot of people seemingly come out of nowhere and want to learn more about our faith, which is super awesome for us. A couple we are teaching is still going strong, and we are hoping that we will be able to help them grow closer to Jesus Christ in any way we can. We did have a pretty solid potential pop up, but sadly he has been avoiding us and there is not a whole lot we can do for him since we can't even meet with him.  Luckily we are still able to pray for him. We had an awesome encounter with the Persian Culture. We had set up a return appointment with a couple and they welcomed us back with open arms and when they invited us inside we instantly knew that we were in for an out-of-the-country experience. We gave them a Book of Mormon in Farsi, took off our shoes and tried to teach them (Notice the word tried). We had an awesome...

"What Jesus Did for Me" by Yongsung Kim Hello everybody, This week has been pretty crazy as far as experiences go. However, I have to say that I have loved all the emails you have sent! It has helped me through my hardest times and I am super happy to know that I have such great examples inspiring me. So my experience takes place on Thursday night. We were about to head in for the night when I thought to go see if a potential investigator was home.  We walked up to his house, but decided not to knock because of how late it was. We went next door and talked to a man standing outside and he was not interested, but still super nice. So as we were walking back to our bikes and stopped in front of his house and decided to give it a knock... the potential opened the door and he stood there looking at us as though he had seen an angel. He invited us in before we could get a word out and as we sat down he told us why he was so excited to see us. Literally, right before we k...

Hey everybody,      This week has been pretty crazy, and I will definitely try to cover all of the exciting parts. This week started with me going on exchange with Elder Feldman and he is barely out on his mission, like only one transfer out, but hey... I am only three transfers out. We talked to a lot of people and were able to meet with some people at a park who turned out to be less-actives. We showed them the Light the World video and they absolutely loved it and they wanted to do everything they can to make life better for others.  We also got to feed the ducks and a one-eyed goose, and those people gave us two full bags of food. #blessingsoffood      There are two big highlights this week.  First, I have a new companion named Elder Clark.  Elder Clark is pretty cool and a very spiritual guy. He definitely wants to do what is right.  It's kind of a hard transfer for me since I am finishing Elder Clark's training and he has been...

Hey Everybody,       This week has been a roller coaster and there have been a lot of experiences for me to learn from. I feel that there is always something to learn every day no matter how small it may seem, and I definitely wish I would have realized this sooner.       Well anyway, this week started out with a lot of Christmas decorating, which was really fun. We were able to answer the call to do service and help two members setup for Christmas, and I will be sending some pictures on that. While we were at one of these decorating parties I got to climb to the top of a mushroom tree and poke my head out at the top. I have a picture of that too.      Thanksgiving was super fun and I can definitely say that I was thankful and not just full, although I did eat my weight in yams. We were able to eat at our bishop's and while there we also got to try these cool camera goggles that connect to a copter and it definitely will make you dizz...

Hola Amigos, So this week has been a little easier in comfort as well as actually knowing who wants the missionaries over or not. So, one major change that my companion and I are currently trying to do is learn Spanish. I have run into a lot of Spanish speakers and I have picked a few things up, but I really want to be able to talk to them and have a decent conversation.  High school Spanish is definitely haunting me this week. We were able to visit a lot of people, but one difference that I have noticed between Birch Hills and North Hills is that North Hills had a few more youth and while being out here I have found that I really like being able to talk and connect with them. It has been a slow week and I honestly had a lot of study time and I can't believe how my testimony has grown from my studies.  All I need now is to be able to share my testimony with people, because what invites the spirit more to a conversation than a testimony of how the gospel of Jesus Chri...