Christmas Eve

Christmas eve was a day of much food. I think I ended up eating a total of fifteen tamales, two plates of beans, one of rice and one of carnitas, as well as some chicken salad dessert tamales, sweet bread, and a couple glasses of milk.  That was all just the dinners...  I had a bunch of tres leches for lunch and a sandwich for breakfast. 

Christmas was brisket, beans, donuts, rice, green beans, and fruit salad.  That was also a lot...  It's funny, there's never a consstent balance in quantity of food... We're either hungry or being given so much food we want to die haha.  It's okay though.  Kinda fun.

Nothing else really exciting happened this week.  Lot's of people were out of town or working.  We did have one of our dinners with a friend of a recent convert who is very excited t learn more, but he's going to be very busy until next week, so we won't be abe to see him until then, most likely...  His name is Juan, though.

 
Anyways, today we're on a member's computer because the libraries are closed, so this'll have to be short again... sorry.  I hope everything is going great with you, and I love you guys.

Elder Katzakian

Austin is cold but great!

So this week was interesting.  I talked to people from lots of countries besides mexico this week; cuba, honduras, puerto rico, colombia... and I think that's actually it, but it felt like a lot.  Also it's been raining a lot, and it's pretty cold today.  It's about 40 degrees

 

Last night something kinda cool happened.  Actually, two somethings... the first one is less pertinent because it was in English, so you probably won't hear about it again, but it's cool anyways.  We knocked on this apartment door kinda late at night, well... it was like seven, but it's been getting dark around six and there were a bunch of stormclouds in front of the stars, so it was way dark.  Anyways, there we were, knocking on an apartment door in the dark rain, in suits and intimidating black coats (Elder Sefcik has a longer black raincoat, and mine is a P-coat), and this scared Lady answers it thinking we're the police, not knowing what she did or what happened.  It made some good laughs when she figured out who we were, and then she got pretty serious again and started asking us questions about the Second Coming, infant baptism, eternal marriage, and other cool gospely things.  She's been getting kinda scared by all the things going on and she and her boyfriend have been thinking they need to get married seeing how they already live together and have a daughter, and had some questions about all that.  We explained to her the readers digest version of the history of christianity and that we were messengers sent by God through a living prophet to answer her questions.  She is excited to learn about being sealed to her family and how that was brought back (more in depth) and how she can more closely follow God in her life to ensure happiness and security for her family.  It was awesome to feel the spirit testify through us to help her feel that God had sent us there at that very time to help her specifically to acheive the joy he wanted for her.  Additionally, we were only there because of some other random occurrences earlier in the week and that day.

 

Second cool thing:  We were running out of time and had planned to be somewhere else, but we felt we should finish talking to the people in the aforementioned apartment building, and because we stayed for those extra couple minutes we ran into a couple walking up the stairs with their laundry, and asked if we could teach them a message about the gospel, and they said yes, so we followed them up into their apartment, where we met the three other people staying there who all turned out to be interested as well, so they turned off the soccer game and learned about the restoration of the gospel.  They are all also excited to learn more about the Book of Mormon and what that means.

 

It had been a really tough week before last night, but those people made it all worth it. 

 

Anyways, love you, talk to you next week.

 

Elder Katzakian

Transfer

Hi Everyone

Elder Katzakian was tranferred a few weeks ago and is now in Austin.  If you would like his apartment address please leave a comment with your email address and I will send it to you, otherwise you can mail letters to the mission home.

Thanks!

Baptism

So Cheeto was baptized on Saturday.  He was so excited!  I'll have to send some pictures.  I confirmed him on Sunday, and that was pretty intense because there were a bunch of people there who needed translation for the meeting, so I did that too.  It was all a little nerve-racking, but turned out well.

 

I also saw a kinda funny bumber sticker yesterday... It said, "God's original plan was to hang out in a garden with some naked vegetarians."  First, it made me laugh, but then it made me reflect on the purpose of life, and the plan that God has for us.  It seems to me that the world's declining morals are due mainly to a deficiency in understanding of the purpose of life.  If I thought we were here with all these challenges just because my great great great great great great great great great great great great grandpearents ate some magic fruit, and now we just had to kinda be good and learn about/accept Jesus so we could go back to some garden or heaven or whatever and hang out forever with some naked winged children in the clouds, I'd probably do bad stuff too.  I love God with all my heart, but if the purpose was for us all to leave him so only the good ones would come back, and then just sit there and sing about him for the rest of unending eternity, I probably wouldn't care a whole lot...  What would compell us to be good besides the fear of punishment?  It makes a lot more sense to me for the fall to have been part of the plan, because what do we do all of our life? We learn.  We constantly, involuntarily, take in, analyze, and store information, then base our actions off of that information.  progression and growth cannot happen until there is some sort of damage or retrogression first.  The way that every living thing in nature works, is that it does not become any stronger or better until it faces opposition.  Your skin doesn't get thicker until it's torn.  Your muscles don't get bigger until you tear them with work. Etc.  There was none of that in the garden.  That would've been a boring plan.  We would've stayed the same forever.  Life is only fun when you are accomplishing things...  And our capacity to learn and grow makes it obvious that God want's us to be more than we are now. What more would we be if we did less?  We have our families to help us learn about our relationship with him and his with us.  We don't raise children just so they can come back to our home and tell us how great we are so we'll take care of them for the rest of their lives.  We raise them to be self sufficient.  To be able to go out on their own and accomplish things.  God is the same.  He will always be or father, we will always be under his rule, but he wants us to grow up and become more. 

 

Elder Katzakain

! Me Voy!

I'm getting transferred this week.  Somewhere in san antonio or austin (or somewhere in between) but I don't know where yet.   

 

So the conference with Elder Zivic was cool.  He's from Argentina, so he spoke some spanish and that was kind of cool.  Unfortunately, not every missionary in the mission is Spanish speaking, so he had to speak English for most of it.

 

Yesterday something pretty funny happened.  Well, I guess it was a little sad... but it was funny.  There were a couple people who randomly showed up in the foyer of the church way early because they took the bus, and apparently the friend who invited them told them it was at ten, but it really started at ten thirty. Upon further investigation we figured out that they had been invited to another nearby church that fit a similar description... that's why they couldn't find their friend.  Anyways, we invited them to come in and sit with us until their friend got there, so there they were in their first fast and testimony meeting ever.  They seemed a little nervous, until someone mentioned the Book of Mormon, then they looked scared.  They got up and left immediately after the service, declining the offer to learn more.  It was mildly humorous, but sad st the same time because of how they changed as soon as they found out it was "the mormons."  Even though everything was centered on christ and on gaining a closer relation with our father in heaven so we could be happy, and how the family can be eternal (which was interesting; a lot of people talked about that, and the gentleman there had been invited to church by his friend because his dad had died recently and he was having a hard time), they stopped listening at the mention of the word "mormon."  I'm coming to really dislike the nickname and how so many people seem to think so negatively of the church.  I suppose I can understand disagreeing, but I have done my best to see it from an outsider's perspective, and to think about all of the things that could go agaainst it, but with the knowledge I have of the church, it just makes sense to be true, or at least good.  Not something to run from.  If God is important to a person at all, it's worth learning about.  I just wish I'd been more willing to share it before being a missionary.  I'd be better off now, and so would others.

 

Anyways, I've gotta jet now so I can get ready to ship out.  Thanks for everything,

 

Love Elder Katzakian

Another week..

This week I got to do some more service stuff.  We painted a bit, and got to clear and cut up some brush for a member of the church.  The best part was that we got to use machetes to do so, so it was very fun.  Doing basically anything with a sword is a riot :)

There's also a guy in the spanish ward who's getting ready to go on his mission, so we've been with him a bit helping him to get ready because he won't be able to go to the MTC, so he's going straight to the field.  It's been really cool to see his fire and have his help in a couple of lessons.

We did a lot of tracting this week and a lot of work with the people I mentioned last week, and hopefully they'll be able to make it to church next week.  I guess there's not anything too exciting to tell about, though.

So on November fourth we're going to have a conference with Elder Zivic of the Seventy, so that should be really cool.  It's pretty funny, on my mission, the things I look forward to the most have been church conferences and talking to strangers.  That's not how it was before haha.

Anyways, I'm not sure what else to say now... there's nothing too crazy to tell about.  I'll try to have some ridiculous experiences this next week so I can tell you about them.  Haha it's kinda funny because there's probably stuff that you'd think was crazy or cool but I'm so used to everything we do every day that nothing really sticks out... I'll tryto be better at that.  I love you millon millones.

 

Elder Katzakian

Working hard....

Everything is going well.  Sorry I wasn't able to email last week, the library was closed for the holiday. 

 

The work has been going okay.  Last night we went to go by a less active member of the spanish ward and it turns out they moved quite a while ago, but now there is a man living there who is very religeous and loves the bible and God, but has had trouble with churches.  He sees a lot of hipocrisy and doesn't agree with what they all teach.  He lives there with a little family and has a friend who is over often who wants to improve his choices in life and come closer to God ("agarrar el buen camino," he said), so we'll be teaching them tonight, and he said he'd like to come to our church to see if it feels right.  He likes the idea of a living prophet and another book of scripture to help clear up the confusion that has seemed to stem from the first one.  They should be cool to teach.

 

Also, we've finally been able to teach that man who was married to a less active member and had started reading the bookof mormon.  He's pretty awesome and his wife and daughter in law (who are both members) want to come back to church.  There is some very real, good potential there. We are also teaching them again tonight.

 

There is a sister in the ward who has always wanted the missionaries to stay at her hous, so she's been building a little apartment in the back, but her husband doesn't really like to work on it so the going has been slow.  We decided we should help out with that, and so we've been going over there to do some building and stuff.  I'm glad I've had some experience with it and I even got to do a little electrical work, which was cool.

 

There's another less active family that we are also doing some service for, who has some non-member friends that seem pretty interested and always want to be over there when we are.  We're going to be clearing a bunch of stuff out of his back yard and a little remodeling.  The father is also way into wolverine and has a bunch of old, original comics, which were tempting to spend some time with, but mostly kuct kinda cool to see.

 

That's pretty much what we're doing now, nothing too crazy or weird.  Oh, I was thinking about halloween and I remembered last year when I got a buch of candy, and, if it's not to late, just wanted to say I don't really need any candy.   I can't really think of anything I need or anything...  Really my favorite thing to get is stories about spiritual experiences and stuff.

 

 Love Elder Katzakian

General Conference

General Conference was awesome!  At the risk of being like every other missionary, my favorite talk was probably Elder Holland's in the priesthood session.  I also really, really enjoyed President Eyring's opening to the last session, though.  It's amazing to watch those leaders talk and feel the spirit testify that they are called of God. 

So Elder Robinson is now down in eagle pass.  My new companion is Elder Reid.  He's from a little suburb of Salt Lake City in Utah, and he's been out just a few months.  

 

So I don't really have much more time, and there isn't anything else too new or exciting to share about this week.  I did get to spend a little time working in stone oak after I dropped off elder robinson and waited for elder reid.  That was especially cool because the stone oak elders were having dinner with Louis Flores, so I got to see him again :)  I don't know if I mentioned that he got baptized in August.

 

So that's pretty much it.  Love you a tonelada too :)

 

Elder Katzakian

New pictures from Elder Katzakian

Looks like he is finding time to have a little fun!!!

Transfers...I stay...he goes :)

So Elder Robinson is getting transferred this week.  On wednesday he'll be heading down to the border.  Then I'll be spearheading the operation here haha.  That should be pretty cool.  

 

Anyways, cool miracle this week:  We had a day where a bunch of random stuff happened and we ended up at all of our plans at different times, and we ended up knocking on the door of a guy whose wife is a very less active member (she's not on our records) and he just started reading the Book of Mormon a little bit ago and hasn't been able to put it down because he's felt the spirit so much from reading it.  His wife had just gotten back from the hospital, and wasn't feeling very good, so we set up a time to come back this week.  That should be pretty awesome.

  

So pretty soon in San Antonio the church is going to do this big media blitz to help raise awareness and stuff.  They are going to air commercials on the television and radio, put up bilboards, taxi cab toppers, and some other stuff I can't remember to advertise mormon.org.  The purpose is to raise awareness, dispell myths, and help people to learn about the church, so that's cool.  Aparrently it's been pretty successful in other places that they've done it, so that's exciting.  I'm glad to get to be a part of that.

 

Something I was reading inthe bible that's pretty nifty is right in the beginning; Genesis 19.

This is when Lot ends up leaving Sodom and Gomorrah.  So while he's living in Sodom, three "holy men" or angels or whoever they are (the only really important thing is that they are men of god) come by and end up staying in his house.  Then, all the bed people of Sodom come and demand the three men in order to do bad things to them.  Lot tries to resist, so they press hard and are about to break the door down when the three holy men grabbed him and his family by their hands and zipped them out of the city by the spirit.  This is the really good part.  When the set them outside the city they said, "Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.  So often, as humans, we find ourselves surrounded by the evil of the world, or living in Sodom, and trying to stay out of the badness, but its trying to "push our door down" and invade not only our lives but our very homes and families.  It is at these times that God extends His hand (often through one of his servants in the earth) and if we will take it, the spirit will carry us safely out of the sinister grasp of sin.  We aren't done yet, though.  Then we have to escape for our spiritual lives.  If we even falter for a moment to look back at what we're leaving we may falter and stop and fall back into destruction.  We can't even stay close to the Sodom we're leaving, we must get away into the mountain of the Lord, to his house, where we can be safe.  As missionaries we have a kind of special opportunity to do nothing but focus on sharing the gospel and helping people, but all members of the church have the chance to be the three holy men for those around us, and help to carry them out of the things that are holding them down spiritually, and show them the way to the Mountain of the Lord, where they will be safe.  We give the same admonition; "look not behind thee."  Move forward and progress, be done with the things that will bind you down.  It's a cool message.

 

So I'm running out of time now...  I love you and will talk to you soon.

 

 

General Conference...is coming!!

So yeah, not a lot to report this week.  We had some kinda cool stories this week, and lots of work, but it all ended with people choosing to disappear.  So we're back at square one pretty much.  Nobody to really tell you about...  Like I've kinda mentioned before, we've been doing a lot of work with the members lately, or at least trying.  The ward roster is kind of out of date and we've found a lot of less active people who have moved out or died or whatever else that causes them to be uncontactable.  That's good though, because we've been able to report to the bishop and clean up the records a lot.  We also got a list of children of record in the ward who have not been baptized, so that's really good, and there's some good potential there.

 

General conference coming up is way exciting! :)  Also the october ensign looks way cool.  Both good things to be shared.  The october ensign is a special Book of Mormon edition that explains all about the book, and conference is the opportunity to hear from God's prophets and apostles. :)  The first presidency message in this months Ensign has a really good thought about that.  A lot of us kind of take the prophet for granted (sorta like a lot of the ancient isrealites did with moses) and don't listen too intently to the messages or take them as very important, but we put so much emphasis on the ancient scriptures.  While it is true that the prophets of old saw our day, and the scriptures were put together to help us and be universally applicable to life, the mesasages shared at conference and in the Ensign are quite literally God's word to us, specifically, today.  They are one of the most valuable resources we have to build our testimony of the savior and his gospel and church, and to learn what his will for us is through study and personal prayer and revelation.  Not only that, but general conference is a fantastic time to invite the world to "come, listen to a prophet's voice."  What better way is there to help people gain a testimony of a living prophet than to listen to him?  That is one of the most awesome invitations we've been able to extend lately, and that we've been able to invite members to extend as well.

 

That's pretty much all I've got time for this time, so i'll talk to you later.  Thanks for everything.  Love you a ton :)

 

Elder Katzakian

Busy P-day

We're doing our best to plan out next p-day right now so we'll have more time.  So you should get a better email and we're going to try to go to "el mercado" after everything else is done.  There's this big, apparently pretty cool, mexican marketplace that isn't too far.

 

These last couple of weeks have been good.  We've taught a lot of people, but a lot of them have been defaulting on appointments and things , too.  There were going to be several families at church, who were going to get baptized in a few weeks, but everyone disappeared.  It's going well, though, and we're learning lots.  Anyways, I've got to go again.  Love you again!

 

Elder Katzakian

Another week...

This last week was pretty cool.  We've been working a lot with member families lately.  We've been helping some cool less-active folks come back.  It's really interesting to see how people will really only remember the parts they still apply after long enough, and the rest of the gospel becomes lost to them.  What our mission president is having us do is treat them like someone who isn't a member and start at the beginning of the lessons and teach them everything, inviting them to do those things which bring the spirit into their lives so that they can feel conversion again and rebuild their testimony of the church, the prophets, and most importantly the saviour.  It has also been cool because it has helped us to find more part-member families and other people who haven't experienced it yet and help them to live the gospel as well.

 

Also, Louis finally was able to get work and everything off and will be getting baptized on August third. :) So that's really exciting.  I don't get to be there, but I should be able to go when his family gets sealed :)

 

So with active members we've been teaching them about the value of and how to do role plays to help share the gospel.  As misionaries we practice teaching or talking with people every day.  One of the ways we do that is with role plays.  One of us will pretend to be one of our investigators, or just a random person that fits the profile of someone we may talk to that day, and the other one is the missionary, and we practice.  It's great because we come up with new ways to answer questions, and can pause and re-do things so that when the real situation comes it is fluid.  Something very special about this practice is that when done in a spirit of prayer, the one who is actin often has impressions come to mind of things to say or do that show the real, hidden concerns and needs of that person, so in this way we are able to discern what the people need.  A miracle I see every day is that when we do that well, we will find a similar situation, or will have found the real concerns of an investigator and already know how to answer them.  This is one of the ways of "treasuring up the words of life," so that God can "in the very hour, yea in the very moment" give us the words we need.  The greatest thing about it is that it applies to members who are not full time missionaries too!  As people who have taken upon them the name of Christ, and covenanted to support those around them, we are all entitled to revelation as to how to share the gospel with the people we know.  This is probably the easiest way to do it.  We help families to think of someone they've wanted to talk to about the gospel and figure out an appropriate invitation for them, such as FHE, church, reading the Book of Mormon, talking with the missionaries, etc.  Then we help them to practice extending that invitation.  It is a powerful tool to add to the repertoire of even the best member missionaries, and I would suggest trying it for family home evening, and maybe even inviting the missionaries to talk about how the do it a little.  One good thing that comes from it is seeing how simple and easy it can be.  Many feel it has to be a big, dramatic, earth shaking moment when they invite their friend to church.  It is not thus.  You can be talking about the ingredients in the sandwiches you're eating, and then just mention that you'd been thinking it would be cool if they'd come to church with you one time, since you enjoy it so much, then, regardless of their answer, you can just get back to the salami.  The coolest thing about the role-plays, though is that you will often know beforehand how they'll respond and already be ready to help them overcome any of the problems they might have with it.

 

Anyways, that's been going well.  Also I made some great quiche this week.  And something else too, but I don't remember what...  It turns out I have retained much of the knowledge I gained at the bakery, so I'm pretty dangerous with a bag of flour haha.

 

 

Gotta go now...  Love you a ton :)

 

until next week.

Elder Katzakian

New bike is coming....

For those of you who have been following this blog, Elder Katzakian is doing great!! We have not been posting the last few emails because they have been directed to our family and have been very sweet and personal.  We can assure you that he is enjoying his misison and growing up!!!  Reality is opening his eyes and he is loving it! Here is a small portion of the most recent email for a general update...


I'll have a new bike in a couple days when it gets here. So if I haven't told you about teaching members about role playing, let me know and I'll tell you next week.  It's pretty cool.  Also, transfer calls were yesterday and Elder Robinson and I are both staying here.  I just realized I haven't said much about him before...  He's basically like me, except more easily distracted, a heavier sleeper, and his sports of choice were football and wrestling.  Also he's more into cars.  Other than that we are pretty similar.

 

 

Much love

 

Elder Katzakian

!Se me robo la bicicleta!

We were low on miles in the car because of a time that we got lost, so we decided to ride our bikes so we wouldn't go over.  We'd been riding for three days I think... anyways we locked them to a stop sign to knock some apartment doors for twenty minutes (on the side of a busy road) and the lock was cut when we came back and my bike was gone.  They left Elder Robinson's though, so I jogged home while he rode so we could get the car and get to our next appointment.  The good news, though is that I did have insurance on it, so I should be able to have it replaced. I'll be talking to them today to find out.

So, things I need for my birthday...  I don't know.  I can never really think of anything,  Mostly just money would be good though, that way I could get stuff without a shipping charge.

Anyways, I've been picking up texas stuff like "howdy y'all," "fixin' to," and a touch of an accent, but more california is coming out than even did in california... I keep finding myself saying things like "right on" and "gnarly" without meaning to... I never did that before though haha.  It's kinda weird.

So there was an Elder Rodriguez in my ward at home from San Antonio who went (or came, rather, because of my point of reference) home a couple months ago.  It was pretty funny because he found me and took us out to lunch, which was fun.  Another one of those changey things where someone who was a missionary when I left is now a pool technician who took us out to lunch haha. 

As missionaries we do role plays every day to practice teaching and talking to people and stuff, and we've started teaching it to the members now too, so they can use it as a tool to help them be more comfortable with and know what to say when talking to friends and neighbors and other people about the gospel and extending invitations.  Basically the goal is to help people see how easy and casual it can be.  An invitation to come to church doesn't have to be super dramatic or a big deal.  It can just be casually interjected in a conversation about anything, really... It's cool though because I think it'll help a lot.

I don't think there was anything else really exciting this week...  Definitely keep up the prayers, the help is always appreciated.  Thanks for everything you do.

Love Elder Katzakian

First week in new area

So my first full week iin Spanish has been great, but we also cover an english ward so its not all just spanish.  I do speak a lot of spanish though.  My companion, however prefers to speak English if we're talking to somebody who knows both, so that's kinda been cutting down on it... The thing is, though that the spanish ward has been having the most trouble getting baptisms, and I imagine that missionaries having that attitude is why.  It's not really a bad thing, because sometimes it does allow us to communicate more effectively, and they can feel the spirit better when they understand better, but I mostly try to just speak spanish to them if they speak it, and I have seen that as we've been doing that, we've been finding more people who only speak spanish, and we've been better able to communicate with them.

 

Also, we found this place that sells the most delicious aguas frescas ever and they are cheap in large quantities.  So that's cool.  It does get pretty hot, but I have honestly found myself enjoying it.  It's kinda wierd... but good because I think it hits 100 degrees almost every day.

 

I've also found that Sundays are my favorite days to do missionary work because it's the Lord's day so it feels like there's extra spirit.  Maybe it's also because we just took the sacrament to renew our covenants and just haven't really had time to mess up yet... haha

 

So yesterday we found this guy named Rey (who only speaks spanish), who lost his wife and kids and pretty much everything he lived for, and now he's alone in this old, beat up house.  He actually takes very good care of it though, and of himself.  He is a very respectable, but kinda sad man... anyways, he had just been thinking to himself, and sort of to God, "What is my purpose here now?  Why am I here alone?," when we knocked on the door.  Then he didn't have to be alone!  Also we started to share our message with him and how it could help him.  We'll be going back tonight, so keep him in your prayers.

 

I've had a lot of cool experiences, but I can't rally remember everything because my brain is kinda fried... That's been pretty common lately, actually.  Time just keeps getting shorter and shorter... which doesn't make sense because the world actually takes slightly (by an infinitesimal fraction) longer to spin on it's axis and around the sun every day (and year).  So really I should feel like I have more time every day.  Oh well...

 

So on the fourth of July ( I forgot to tell this story) the bishops son was riding a unicycle around the ward fourth of july party and doing little jumps, so of course I had to prove that I was as cool as him.  Not trusting myself to stay upright on a unicycle, I grabbed the nearest scooter and proceeded to try and jump on that.  It turns out scooters are a lot smaller than I remember, and I miscalculated how hard I needed to pull on the handle bars.  I basically just pulled the scooter out from under myself and fell on my back in front of the whole stone oak ward.  It was super funny, but my tailbone and wrist still hurt haha. The moral of the story is that anybody who can jump a unicycle is always cooler that everyone else around them.

 

So I've go to go now, but it's been a blast.  Love y'all and talk to you next week!

 

Elder Katzakian

 

new area!

It was pretty sad leaving the stone oak area.  To be totally honest I kinda hoped to leave every transfer before that last one because I wanted to get somewhere crazier and more exciting, but by the end of that last one I loved the people so much and had gotten to know everything so well and saw all the incredible potential in every individual that I really was sad to leave... it was kind of weird.  We didn't really go around to say goodbye to anyone because that would've been an irresponsible use of missionary time, so I just made sure to remember and tell people the last time I would be seeing them over the last couple of weeks.  Lizbeth Flores (Louis' wife) did make me tres leches for our last lesson, though, so that was cool.  Hopefully he'll be baptized soon and I'll be able to come to the temple here for their wedding.

 

So I'm in San Antonio 10th ward now.  It's big enough that there are six missionaries that cover different parts of it.  The cool thing, though, is that each of those companionships also covers a spanish ward that is the same area as the part of 10th that they cover. :)  So we also cover 5th ward.  It's funny because the english ward speaks just as much spanish as the spanish ward...  We are down on the south side of San Antonio.  President Jones told me that I'd worked hard enough on my spanish that he thought I deserved to be in a spanish area (since that is kind of a coveted thing in this mission), so that's what he did.  It's been super cool and I've been excited to see that my spanish really isn't too bad.  Elder Robinson (my new companion) and I can pretty much communicate whatever we want with anyone we want.  It's also way easier to talk to more people here, though it is harder to have as serious of a conversation with them.  There are a lot of people that would like to just talk, but it's hard to get them to understand that we're asking them to do things.

 

Elder Robinson is really cool.  He's kind of a gearhead from Utah (park city, I think), and we like a lot of the same stuff, though he knows a lot more about cars and guns than I do.  That's okay tough because we mostly just focus on the gospel haha.  It's kind of weird because we both teach very differently.  He's very good at simplifying everything so anyone can understand, whereas I'm used to presenting it in such a way that someone who has read all of the bible and knows a lot of history can find it logically feasible enough to let their heart open and feel the spirit when we testify.  It's interesting how different that is and how hard to transition it is.

 

Anyways, yesterday we had planned to knock a specific street, but took a wrong turn and ended up somewhere way different somehow.  There we saw this apartment complex sorta looking thingy that was so incredibly scary looking that we couldn't help pulling over to knock it.  Turns out nobody lived there, but we felt like we should just keep walking down the street. This street was kind of a bigger one that mostly gets used for transportation and you don't realize that there are a few houses spread out kinda hidden on the side until you're walking on it, so I don't think it had been worked by missionaries for a very long time... anyways, most of the people weren't very nice, but we found this family that was having kind of a hard time, and was willing to listen.  The spirit was so strong, and we commited thm to be baptized on the thirty first of this month and they accepted!  It was amazing.

 

I'll tell you more about them next week, and other things too, I'm just out of time now...  I've seen so many miracles here already, I'm very excited for this time.

 

 Love you

 

Elder Katzakian

 

Que pasa!!

Anyways, It's kinda weird to think that I'll be somewhere else in Texas on Thursday.  I've been here long enough that I don't really want to go now... I love the area and the people so much and would just love to keep working with and serving them.  I am kinda excited to see something else though.  I am sorta hoping to go somewhere more "Texasy."  Haha It doesn't really matter though.

So Louis and I totally did the five pound burrito challenge thing.  Also he came to church for the first time, and it looks like he'll be able to start coming pretty often if not every week.  So he should be able to be baptized pretty soon.  It's awesome :) Also, he was telling us about a mormon friend he had in high school who was one of his best friends ever, but they basically lost contact after his mission. The friends name was junior... So yeah, we looked junior up and had junior come to church the day louis made it and surprise him :) so that made it really cool.  Missionaries would make the best stalkers ever.  Also, we took pictures of the burrito thing, so I'll send those some time. I dunno if I'll have time to print them out today, but I did print some other ones earlier of other things that I'll send tomorrow when the mail starts going again.

Evan Tan is still doing super good, too.  His testimony is super strong and he's got some very good friends in the ward and he's planning on going on a mission.  That's really exciting because he could go before I go home.  That would probably be one of the coolest things ever.  We're going to try and coordinate schedules so we can take him out knocking door and stuff with us before I leave.

We have a lot of good things happening right now, and we're looking at about ten relatively solid people who should come to church next week.  So that's awesome.  We only had two yesterday... but everyone else is coming back in town and stuff.

So that's the scoop and I'm out of time.  Have fun and I'll talk to you next week.  Love you!

Love Elder Katzakian

Another week...

Apparently the people of san antonio are not as slow paced and laid back as I always imagined the people of the south to be.  They are very fast-paced and business minded.  Though I have spent a few days in the sticks and you can knock on the door and then not say anything for like ten seconds and it's still okay haha.

 

So the people we are teaching are pretty much the same as before, except for one person. We talked to this girl named Gio (short for Giovanna) at her door and she told us she had talked to missionnaries before, and she wasn't really interested and neither were her parents.  Normally we'd just leave a pass along card, but this time specifically I felt to put our phone number on it before we left.  Not five minutes later we got a text from her saying that her dad told her she needs to find christ, and she agreed to meet with us, for that is our speciality.  The meeting hasn't happened yet because she was getting ready to go to the other side of town for a couple days, but it looks really good.  So keep her in your prayers.

If anyone has any pointers for talking to people or door approaches or anything, that would be appreciated.  Often you can just say that you're sharing a mesage about Christ and they'll be way open, but to really grab their interest and motivate them to act is different...

 

Thank you so much for all the love and support and help.  I hope fathers' day was great.  I'll talk to you next week. I love you.

 

Love

 

Elder Katzakian

It's getting hotter...

We're teaching a man named Edward who has nearly read the entire Book of Mormon now.  He came to church and loved it.  We're going to help him to come to know the truth of it all and be baptized by the end of this month, so he could use some prayers.

 

The Flores family still needs help.  It's really frustrating to see him really wanting to be baptized, but unable because he can't get work off really... so yeah.

 

Midy  is also doing well, but still not totally sure of her relationship with God.  Her husband, who is currently regaining full fellowship, is on fire though.  His testimony is so strong and he's doing all he can to help her...

 

Also, pray for a good kick-off to Mitch Wilson's marriage (the son of the Sister wilson who was in Bishop Pollman's ward and the family who apparently probably totally saw me a bunch when I was a little kid).  He's a really good RM friend we've made.  He just got home from philly a few moths ago and married his girlfriend of two and a half years on saturday.  He's helped us out a lot and gave me a really cool tie, so we wish him the best.

 

It's been getting pretty hot, but it turns out I really enjoy the heat more than I ever did.  Also I'm getting sweet tan lines.  It's kinda ridiculous.  I can't wait to swim when I get home haha.

 

So yeah, we're going to be cooking more because we're both tired of eating the same thing every day... also, I'm running out of time, so I need to go now.  Love you all a ton.  Ttynw. (talk to you next week)

 

Elder Katzakian

 

p.s. I totally learned the vos form in spanish, but can't really use it because it's way casual.  Like surfer dude on the beach casual.

 

 

Memorial Day weekend

nothing too exciting happened this week, and I don't have really any time since the libraries are closed today, so I'm just using a member's computer with the last few minutes of p day.

 

Louis is doing really well; he is thinking about quitting his job in order to get sundays off, but it looks like he might be able to stay and get one or two a month off.

 

Additionally, I ate a june bug for forty bucks.  That was pretty cool.  It didn't taste that good.

 

We're getting pretty well settled in to the apartment.  It is becoming ours now.

Anyways, thanks for y'alls letters.  I've gotta go now.  Love you.

 

Elder Katzakian

Texas is good

Texas is good.  This transfer I'll be staying here again, so I know I'll be here for sure for the next six weeks.  That's cool because it'll make it a lot easier to care about making the new apartment nice when we move in.  

 

It is moving week, and we will be moving tomorrow.  We got to look at the apartment and it's pretty nice.  We'll get some privacy at last...  There have been guests in and out of the glory's home and it's made it really hard to study and focus and work because they share our bathroom and sleep in the room next to us, so they are constantly in and out of our study area... so yeah... it'll be good.  I don't think we'll be with any other elders this transfer, but I'm sure some will be coming in in the next few.

 

 

Anyways, this week we've been talking about family mission plans and things of that sort.  I have some instructions for those reading this.

 

1.  Look up a talk by Elder Ballard in the April 2006 general conference titled "Creating a Gospel-Sharing Home." Also read it.

 

2.  Hold a family council (slash FHE) and, as a family, make a family mission plan using the doctrine and principles taught by Elder Ballard in that discourse.

 

So who is tired of just having a bigger list of things to do from church? Almost everyone?  Good!  This isn't about that.  He says that making a gospel sharing home isn't a program. It's not a list of steps, another thing to do during the day.  It is your plan as to how you will make all the things you already do into ways to share the gospel. It is a way of life.  He says everything way better than I could, so just read the talk...  We do, however, have a template (which I can send if you would like), which I have found to be effective.  It essentially consists of three sets of actions, which will be actions you already do, but with the gospel included in them.  The first set is things that are easy to use to introduce yourself as a member of the church to people (e.g. when you walk out to take out the trash and meet your neighbor, you'll now ask how the weekend went, obligating yourself to answer the same question so you can mention how church was great, or reading your Book if Mormon in public rather than just reading it on your phone).  The next set is the things that will get people to know more of the circle of member friends and be comfortable with them.  This will mostly be things that are already planned (mutual, enrichment night, ward barbecue), but may also be something you set up yourself like a block party, dinner with some member and nonmember friends, etc.  The difference now is that you will invite someone who isn't a member (who now knows that you are, and has received the opening actions of inviting friendship), which will help them to see the blessings of the gospel in the lives of others and create a preexisting support system when they begin to investigate the gospel.  Now you have a group of friends who are not members of the church who you openly and easily can talk about church with because it's come up so many times since the beginning, and they have other friends who are members and they have a basic knowledge of your values.  The last set of actions will essentially be how you will invite others to learn about the restored gospel.  You now just include in those conversations that you have invitations to read the Book of Mormon, meet with the missionaries, attend church, pray to find out if the church is true.  I hope all that makes sense... and reading the talk will make it make more sense.  As you go through these steps, you will know that the people you are inviting have been prepared, because you will have helped prepare them.  Do not set a very long timeframe.  As you exercise faith in God by setting a goal that you don't feel you can reach without help, he will help you.  I feel it is absolutely reasonable to have a goal to have invited a friend to meet with the missionaries within a month.  Pray about it and do it.  The work cannot go forth if it is left only to the full time missionaries.  There are 132,000 people in the world to every one of us.  that's 264,000 to every companionship.  I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is truly the church of Jesus Christ.  I know that through the restored Gospel of Christ and His priesthood authority, families can receive more happiness in this life and in the next than by ant other way, in fact, it is the only way whereby they can be together forever as families.  We are obligated to share it or be condemned for those we might have helped if we had been willing. Remember, though, that it doesn't matter what's happened up to this point as long as you are willing now to make the change.  

 

Alright, I'm just kinda rambling now... I need to go.  I love you all. Talk to you next week.

 

Elder Katzakian

Another week in Texas...

We're teaching this lady who isn't totally sure about God (she isn't atheist though), but is married to a super solid returned missionary dude who teaches better than we do.  It's pretty cool.  She was at church this Sunday.  They actually come most weeks... We're just trying to help her have a good spiritual experience that she can recognize.

 

Luis (the UFC fighter) is still way solid.  He wants to get baptized, just can't get off work...  We're trying to help him there.  I guess there's not a ton to report there haha.

 

Elder Walker got stung by a scorpion!  I was so jealous.  He told me it was nothing to be jealous of haha.  I would've taken a picture, but I forgot until after I destroyed it.  Now we check our shoes before we put them on haha.

 

So if anyone knows where to find some good polyester ties (especially with a sorta mexican looking pattern) let me know.  Those have come to be some of my favorites.  Polyester because water doesn't mess it up (so I can sweat on it and wash it) and mexican because it's awesome.  I don't know if they even still make polyester ties, though...  I know the favorite missionary brand (Wembley) is no longer in production.  Haha at least that's the favorite of a bunch of missionaries in the Mighty TSAM.

 

So something that has really been standing out to me lately is fasting. Isaiah 59 has a really good little section on the law of the fast.  There are two verses that explain what it means to really fast, and five that explain the blessings that come from it. 

 

Also, Judges 3.  Ehud is my new hero.  One of them haha.  I like finding out when people are left handed now. 

 

Something we're really pushing right now is family mission plans, especially short-term, action-based ones.  We're working on a template for one that will be super awesome.  I'll send it next week, and anyone who would like to implement it, should (with the help of the full time missionaries in the area).  I promise it will guarantee a powerful, spiritual missionary experience within a month.

 

So I'm running out of time now.  Talk to y'all next week.

 

Weekly email

Anyways, Elder Walker and I are geting along really well.  We has probably taught me a lot more than I have taught him.  It's kinda crazy how every day I'm able to see God get me ready to be able to help him along the next step of learning and training, though I think he is learning and getting better a lot faster than me. He's waymore comfortable and everything than I was when I had been in the field the same amount of time, and he had six less weeks in the MTC.  I don't remember whether I told you he was from Idaho Falls, but I just did, so that should be good haha. 

 

We've been doing a lot of knocking and some teaching, and it's been really good.  We are kinda going to be focusing more on members and stuff for a little bit because we need to get them more involved.  Pretty much the usual deal, I think.

 

So we're kinda teaching this catholic family who I think is really just more interested in learning about our church from a member of it.  They do not see any need for a restoration of the gospel or anything... but they are reading the Book of Mormon.

 

Also, we will hopefully be teaching a family (the father's name is Jason) who we found knocking.  They are both religeous but nothing has really fit them.  We've invited them to try Christ's church, but it was kind of a jumbled lesson and the wife came out of it seeming a little uncomfortable... and she has a stronger personality.  We'll be seeing them on Saturday morning again, so prayers would be appreciated.

 

What was Joseph Smith's favorite snack? 

 

Macamoroni and cheese!

 

I think that's it for the week... I can't think of anything else...   I guess I'll have some more for you next week.  There are some potentially really good things that should happen this week, so next week should be an exciting email.

 

Love you!

 

Elder Katzakian

Letter from President Jones

We are so proud of Brock. He has only been out 6 months and already a trainer. He was sad that Elder Lish transferred but he learned a lot from Elder Lish. They will be life long friends!  Below is a letter we received from Brock's Mission President.

Training...

So I guess the first thing is that my companion's name is Elder Walker and he's from Idaho Falls, Idaho.  He is a member of the Walker Farms family.  He was a drummer before and likes cars/trucks. So we've had a really good week together. We did some good door knocking and people teaching.  He's gotten comfortable talking to people and participating in lessons and stuff way faster than I did, so that's pretty cool.  We're teaching a Baha'i family, which is pretty interesting.  Their beliefs and history mirror ours in an almost eerie way... but they are just missing the special divinity of Jesus Christ and His priesthood and such.  It just kinda proves to me the reality of what we teach and how every belief has stemmed off of the truth, but is just missing a couple important pieces...  Also, Abel will be at church this sunday and hopefully after... He still has the desire to be baptized and follow Christ, so that is good. We are just helping him to continue to understand the Book of Mormon and the gospel contained therein.

 

I've been even more incredibly busy, and I didn't really think that was possible... I end up using just about every spare second during the day for something, and pretty much fall dead into my bed at night.  Haha I think that I'll probably just sleep for like a year when I get home to make up for it all.

 

Anyways... for some reason, my mind is drawing a blank on other things that happened this week... also I have to share my brief computer time with Elder Walker because the library system was all weird and he'd have to wait a few hours otherwise. 

 

Love you

 

Elder Katzakian

Pictures

"Zak"

"Evan"

"we drink smoothies from pitchers"

"I was having a 007 kind of day" 

"How we fill the font in Canyon Springs Ward!" 

"That was at the apartment.  Me attempting to write in my journal"

Singing and preaching

So I have to say that it was way cool to sing at the game. It's been a while since I've had a real singing performance and I forgot how much I liked it :) Also the game was pretty fun to watch. Honestly, though, I didn't enjoy staying for the game that much because the spirit couldn't really be there... It was basically babylon. People walking around selling beer and other things that do no good for your body, the only benefit being the immediate satisfaction of the taste; girls wearing almost nothing doing dances that are designed only to show off the body in a provocative manner, not for the fluidity and grace that is a part of the real art of dance; music with tempo and beat that drives almost all thoughts out of your head but those of compulsion and aggression; and then nearly a whole stadium of people booing and mocking five men who were playing their hearts out to do well at the sport they loved.  Just being there with the perspective and mindset I have now killed most of the fun that could've been had.  Not that that is bad, though.  George Hill did have a sweet dunk that we're going to have to talk about when we knock on his door...

 

Anyways, that's probably the most interesting thing that happened this last week.  I actually just drank a smoothie that had protein mix, weight gain mix, and butter pecan ice cream in it (and I got it in the largest available size). That was pretty interesting.  It's called The Hulk and you can buy it at Smoothie King. It just sounded too delicious to pass up...

 

So  transfers are this Thursday.  I'll still be here, so go ahead and keep sending whatever to this address.  Anyone who just wants to be safe, though, (like if they don't look at the blog much) might just want to always use the mission office address.  I get my mail from there every couple weeks. Elder Lish is leaving. He's going to be doubled in to a new area, and still be a district leader, just for a different district. We don't know where he's going until thursday though. I also don't get to know who my new companion is until I drive him home on Thursday, but I do know one thing about him...

 

...He's going to be as green as a seasick Irishman! Fresh out of the MTC.  I'm a trainer! :)

 

So that's pretty cool. I'm way super stoked, but also kinda nervous. That also means I'll probably be here next transfer as well. That means I'll most likely be spending over a quarter of my mission here in the stone oak area.  That's pretty intense.  This transfer that's about to start will make it a quarter here...

 

Anyways .. that's all the exciting news for this week. It seems like some other stuff happened, but I can't really remember... so yeah.

 

Talk to y'all next week. Love you mucho.

 

Elder Katzakian

Singing the National Anthem

Brock was one of several missionaries that got to sing the National Anthem at the San Antonio Spurs Basketball game Saturday night.  Below is the link from youtube.com if you want to check it out.  Go figure, Brock is blocked by the microphone! He is the 5th one from the left in the back row.  He was really excited about this...as were we. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJm6gDylPFc&feature=youtube_gdata_player

The text says it was the Jazz vs Warriors but it wasn't. It was the Jazz vs Spurs (in San Antonio..thus the reason Brock was involved)

Also we have new pictures from the baptism of Zak and Evan. I will be posting the pictures soon! Thank you everyone for loving and supporting Brock! He is an awesome missionary and we are soooo proud of him!!

Love Eric and Ashlie

A great week...

(this first part is a portion of the "personal" stuff he wrote to us this week. It is so profound and wonderful I wanted to share it with everyone! enjoy!-Ashlie)  

...I have come to love my Savior so much more and really understand more of how much he loves us... He has given us everything, and continues to give us whatever we desire of Him.  Furthermore, our Father in heaven gave Him to us... so we need to make sure to love and honor and respect Him.  The only way to overcome the laziness and fear that I talked about last week is through love.  You will only desire to serve the Savior if you love him, and perfect love casteth out all fear. As you come to love Him more than anything else, you will desire to serve Him more than anything else and not fear to lay aside anything to serve him, and as finite mortal humans, we can do nothing for Him but obey the few, simple commandments He has given us. So how do you learn to love Him? You can't have a relationship with someone without any contact. Pray to your Father in Heaven, and after you have thanked Him for His great mercy in the multitude of blessings He has freely given you, ask to be forgiven of your mistakes and for the help and support to improve. This will come through Jesus Christ, and as you look, you will see and feel his love for you.  You will love him because He first loved you. The next is to try to follow what he has asked, for that is the only way that you can serve Him, and it is impossible to fully and truly love somebody who you do not sacrifice for and serve.  At first, before the love has developed very far, obeying is hard... but as you push through that and the love grows, it becomes easy, and it is hard to be away from Him.

This weekend we were privileged to hear the words of the Lord through His servants at general conference, most especially the living prophet and apostles of God. I just want to echo a few invitations, challenges, and testimonies that were issued over that pulpit...  If you have not watched or listened to conference (whether you, the reader of this letter, are a member of the church or not), do it.  If you don't want to because you don't care about coming closer to God, or feel satisfied with the knowledge you have and don't want more, rethink the consequences of that choice.  Knowledge is the only personal power that any of us can attain in this life.  If you are a member of the church, but are not active, remember the covenants you have made, and how sweet it is to keep them.  God has asked very little of us, and the promised blessings are infinite.  Also, remember that you voluntarily entered into that agreement to follow and obey Him.  If you are not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, take the time to learn more about it and the eternally reaching impact of those covenants I mentioned, the first being baptism by someone who holds the priesthood authority to act in Gods name and seal commitments made here on Earth.  As you learn, with a sincere desire to understand God, you will come to know that this is truly His kingdom in preparation for the second coming of His Son Jesus Christ, and ultimately that great and last day of judgment that is the gateway into the unending life to come.  When you feel His spirit confirm that to you, do not delay following the example of Jesus Christ by going into the waters of baptism with one who holds that restored authority.  If you are an active member of this church, it is your responsibility to share this joy with those around you. You must have the charity to desire the blessing and salvation of those around you, and if you have that charity, you will invite them to come unto Christ.  If you are afraid to invite, pray for that charity, then show your commitment to God by helping His children and inviting them unto Him. I know that the things I have said, and, more importantly, that all of the prophets have said, and even more importantly, that Jesus Christ has said are true. I know that this is the way unto Him, and I seal that testimony in His name, even Jesus Christ. Amen.

The other night Elder Lish and I got invited to a little coffee house gospel singing thing with an ex pastor... so we went (no coffee for us). There was an open mic time, so we signed up.  I sang them two songs. "Come thou Fount," and Joseph Smith's First Prayer" (with a brief introduction by Elder Lish.  We then invited them to conference.  They didn't actually end up making it, but we are welcome back whenever... I've got pretty good feelings about this Pastor Kevin character.  They felt the spirit for sure. Also, we're back to square one with Jimbo... We found out he wasn't ever really praying or reading scriptures... So that's what we're working on.

There are lots of lizards, even in the city.  I've seen a bunch (and geckos). I think I'll have to go somewhere more rural for the tarantulas and stuff though...

Thanks for everything.  I look forward to emailing again next week.  If they don't broadcast the national anthem at the spurs game next week, I can pretty much guarantee it'll be on youtube before midnight.  So yeah, look for me :)

Love y'all

Elder Katzakian

Pressing forward...

Elder Lish and I have been getting better at following the spirit and being able to bring the spirit into the conversations and lessons we have with people.  This last week we had a lot of success as far as lessons and stuff, and there were lots of people who definitely felt the spirit. We were able to invite like four or five people to be baptized who gave a soft yes, because they definitely felt something. They pretty much all bailed on saturday night when we called to confirm church the next day though. Jim also needs some extra prayers right now because it's getting hard for him. He walked into church, had an anxiety attack, and left.

 

I've pretty much come to the realization that everybody who doesn't get to the truth (who has it offered to them) misses it because of laziness. It's not wanting to search and pray to learn if something is true from God, because the internet is easier; or not wanting to go through five or ten minutes of nervous pain while your system acclamates to the people so you can feel better all week because it's easier to just sit at home and feel bad about not doing what you know is right, or not wanting to learn because that means you might have to change, and you are satisfied with the low level of responsibility you feel now, etc....  It has helped me to understand why this life requires a nearly constant output of energy.  No good thing can be gained without at least some work, and we want to get every good thing, so we need as much practice as we can get.

 

Something else to think about is that many people live under the misconception that we are stronger than Satan because we have a body and he does not. That is not true. Independently we are weaker than Satan. The body just gives us greater potential.  In Moses (I forget exactly where butI think it's chapter four), it says that the devil has power to lead men captive at his will, unless they hearken to God's voice.  So unless we hearken to God's voice, we are in the power of our adversary.  We need to link ourselves to God so that his power will support us, and then we will be more powerful than the devil. That link happens through covenants administered by the holy priesthood.  As we make, and keep covenants, we receive the power of God to resist the devil. As we succumb to the will of the flesh (2 Nephi 2:29), by failing to make or breaking covenants with God, we give the enemy of our souls power over us to do whatever he wants with us.  The will of the flesh is to not work, or to put off work. What the savior asks us to do isn't really that hard, but sometimes that makes us think we can just put it off... do not be slothful because of the easiness of the way (Alma 37:46).  Slothfulness really is the downfall of humanity. We just want everything easier... and that comes from pride, or thinking that you're better than just working a little bit. 

 

So yeah, I did some learning and growing this week, and overall it was really good. Zak is getting baptized on Sunday between sessions. Oh yeah! Everyone needs to watch conference and invite all their friends to come listen to a prophets voice.

 

Thanks for all of the help and love and support! Love y'all.

 

Elder Katzakian

Another busy week....

So this week has been kinda crazy.  We did exchanges on three separate days... once for me to go practice singing for the Spurs/Jazz game (I told Paeden to tell you about that), once for Elder Lish to do some training, and once to be trained a little by the zone leaders.  It made for a prety crazy week, and we're pretty tired now.  We are super excited though, because Jaime accepted the invitation to be baptized and came to church. His wife got baptized a year ago, but he backed out and hasn't been to anything since.  He's missed it and known that it's true, but has just been scared.  He had a rough upbringing in southern california, and lost his leg to bone cancer not long before his wife's baptism. Because of his background he has a hard time trusting people, and doesn't feel like he fits in with all of the "perfect" people at church.  He;s known that he needs to do it, but it was always just going to be later.  Another big challenge is that he gets some pretty serious anxiety attacks, so building up to a big decision is hard.  We went by just to visit him on friday, and, long story short, spent four hours with him breaking down the wall he'd put up and making the choice very clear to him.  We gave him the ninth of as his ultimatum.  On that date he either says "yes Heavenly Father, I will do what you've asked so that you can bless my family with the things I want for them," or "no, I'm too scared to do what I know is right."  Normally that's way too long to spend talking to one person, but the spirit was there so srong the whole time... It was really what he needed.  His wife and kids were there in the room, too, when he agreed to do as our Father has asked so that he could receive the blessings in store and ultimately always be with his family to take care of them.  We went back on saturday to remind him to come to church, and he faltered a little bit, saying ",I'm too lazy."  It was anoother long visit... but exactly what was needed.  We we're there for about two hours, again making the options very black and white, and reminding him of the commitments he'd made, the spirit he had felt, and the help from God that we had promised him. It just came down to "Where and when do you want us to meet you?" His only condition ended up being this: Nobody makes a big fuss over him being there, and we call him Jimbo, because you have to smile when you say that, and jaime carries the sting of the past. The next day we were sitting in the foyer, five minutes after the meeting started, really disappointed... Then we saw his wife coming around the corner.  We held our breath... and he followed just behind her!  He came and loved it and his whole beautiful family was so much happier as they were united at church.  It's not going to be an easy few weeks for him, but he will be baptized on April ninth, and by so doing will bring his family closer together, and qualify himself for the gift of the holy ghost which will make him strong enough to completely overcome his anxiety. (That was one of the things we felt impressed to promise him, and the legitimacy of the promise was pretty much proven when he ended up telling us that when we came and brought the spirit, his anxiety went completely away) 

 

That was definitely the most exciting thing that happened this week (except Evan also got the priesthood yesterday), and I'm pretty much out of time now...

 

Thanks for everything! I love you all.

 

Elder Katzakian

Baptism

So we were definitely able to get out more this week.  It was actually pretty normal, except that we still have to go back to the house periodically for cleaning of  the wound and such.  Elder Lish is doing really really well considering that he just had surgery. Mostly you can't even tell anything is wrong at all.  His energy has also been better since he's been more careful about what he eats. I'm trying to be a little better too. It's just pretty hard because our food is somewhat controlled by budget and members... though the members are really good about complying with our dinner requests, so that's good. So yeah, pretty much the members are good, and Elder Lish is a super stud.  He just keeps trucking along and teaches me a ton every day.

The most exciting thing this week was definitely Evan's baptism. We should be printing out pictures today, and sending them, so you can probably expect to get them soon. Unless, of course, something goes horribly wrong at the wal mart photo center...

The Spirit was so strong at the baptism, and there were a bunch of people there. Evan has really been touched by all of the love that everyone shows. His seminary class got up to sing a special musical number for it and so he and I got up and sang in it too.  Probably the best part was that his mother was able to come, as well, and she was moved by the spirit that was there too.  When we got out of the water, Evan said he felt different... really good. He didn't really have words for it, but he cried into his towel a little in the dressing room, and it made me so happy to see him so happy.  Then we went into the chapel and the young men's president had all the young men get up and welcomed him in and gave him a really nice set of scriptures and everything, and he teared up a bit there too, and so did his mom and so did the young men's president and probably a bunch of other people too.  It's amazing to see how great he feels and how powerfully he  feels the spirit.  He will be ordained into the priesthood next week.  We're also going to be teaching his mom (and hopefully his siblings) starting Tuesday.  She's just been hard to get with because she's a single mother and manages at Golden Corral to provide for her family.  She is a wonderful woman, and so ready for the Gospel as well.  I have this beautiful picture in my mind of Evan getting to baptize his family, and I can't wait to be a part of helping make that a reality.

Other than that we started talking to a girl who is "talking to" a Mormon boy who works making movie trailers in L.A.  She's really open and nice and is reading Our Search For Happiness, as well as the Book of Mormon.  She's 22 but her mom was there too, and is less enthusiastic. I feel, however, that we can help her to focus on the right things to feel the spirit and come to know that the things we share are good and true.  The daughter, onthe other hand, will need less help. It's also helpful that the guy she's kind of seeing is a returned missionary, so he's really good at helping her along as well.

Those were pretty much the highlights of the week. It's also getting warm enough that the lizards are starting to come out... also the cicadas, which are a little annoying.  Something cool though, is the story of when Nephi and his brothers go back to get Ishmael to come with them and he says "...we did gain favor in the sight of Ishmael, insomuch that we did speak unto him the words of the Lord."  Then the Lord softens Ishmael's heart and the spirit moves him to follow Nephi and co.  This is a really good type of what we should do.  Most of us have done the first half, the gaining favor (a.k.a. making friends), but many haven't done the second. That would be speaking the words of the Lord unto those friends.  There are a lot of easy ways to do that; e.g. "Hey, check out this cool video [on mormon.org] about this amputee guy who rock climbs," "There's going to be this really cool chili cook off at my church. You should come get some free food," "You know Moses? Well a guy kinda like him is going to be speaking coming up in a few weeks and it's broadcast on byu tv..." etc.  When you do that, you will find that often peoples hearts will be softened to ,at the very least, learn a little more. Try it, it's pretty sweet.

Anyways, gotta go now. Talk to you next week :)

Much Love

Elder Katzakian