My 1st transfer

Hi all.

Yep. I just got transferred last wednesday. My new area is ASL North, with Elder Franco. It's a really big shock for me but I'm slowly adapting into it. New area, new people, new places, the whole works. At least a few days ago, We just found a really cool investigator named Vitaliy Dreyer, and he is deaf. He was born and grew up in Russia near Novosibirsk (I think) before moving here in West Hollywood! He knows a lot about Russian culture as it's really cool learning about his life experiences. Since I'm 1/8th Russian, I've pretty much related easily with him. We think that he may be a golden investigator. We'll see what happens.

FYI, tracting in the Santa Monica/Beverly Hills area is a bad idea. There's a lot of Jews and Homosexuals and all of them want nothing to do with us. In my personal opinion, we're better off in Watts than with the upper-class. I feel like I'm in the story of the Zoramites and the Ramuemptom. If you don't know that story, ask a LDS friend, or read the Book of Mormon for yourself. Coolio, yes?

Besidea that, Elder Franco is an awesome missionary. He's very patient, has a very postive attitude, and he know that "(beep) happens" all the time, even in missionary work. I know we'll have a good companionship and thus be more effective in the Lord Work, unlike, alas, my now-former companion, but I'm not going to talk about him right now. Besides, all in the past now, right?

Sacrament meeting was good, but obviously, I wish it was better. We've invited and commited 18 investigators and less-actives to church, but only 3 came. (all less-active). This week, we just gotta bring the hammer down on them and let them know that we love them just that much. In my new area, we're teaching 3 deaf-oriented families so that is a lot of people to cover and a lot of baptisms to look forward to.


Anyway, I gotta go. Time is short.


-ET

Few new Pics from Elder Tritsch

Colorful stairway



Blowing bubbles with Brother Bannon Fu



Elder Tritsch and David Spencer

5/24/10 Baptism

Hi all.

Well, We finally ended a dry spell with a baptism last sunday. Lulu finally went the big dunk. She is a really awesome woman and will be a wonderful asset to the growth of our branch, and she is AMAZING at ASL stories. I baptized her, of course. We have beeing asking around for a memer to baptize her, but Lulu would rather that it be me, so it is kind of a honor. Well, one down, thousands to go.

Other than this starry highlight, not much went on in my week. It seemed that a lot of people wasn't home so we drove around a lot for nothing. At least we got free lemons.

This morning, we had a fun p-day where we all got to dress up in cowboy clothes. I decided to stand out of the rest and dress up as an indian. All the outfits and props were courtesy of members from the Redondo Beach ward.

E. T.

5/19/10

Hi All,

Short letter this week but some nice pictures.

Lulu's baptism is now confirmed for THIS sunday (finally), barring any unforeseen circumstances, and I'm praying really hard that none of it comes around. We've being visiting her so much lately making sure that the devil didn't manage to lead her astray, although I must imagine it feels annoying on both of our parts. at least I'll be able to breathe when Lulu goes the big dunk. Speaking of which, Lulu just asked me to baptize her personally. That will be fantastic.

E.T.


- Mormon Helping Hands Day! We helped clean up a park and wildlife refuge.
- Elder Hadlock
- Me!
- May the force be with you.

05/03/10

Hi all.

Lulu Diaz is GETTING BAPTIZED next week! She accepted all the lessons well, is abiding by all the commandments, and is growing a testimony about the restored Gospel. She will have a baptism interwiew this thursday and then everything is all set for a dunking.

A really sweet thing happened yesterday at sacrament Meeting. Our investigator, Lorena Reynoso brought his daughter to church. At one point during the sacrament, I overheard (actually, "over-saw" in my case) Lorena explain to his young daughter about the importance of the sacrament in remembering the Christ. It sorta made my heart melt. Also, over the course of church meetings, Lorena's daughter enjoyed primary so much that she begged her mother to let her stay a little longer. We want SO much for them to learn and accept the gospel and ordinances. Unfortunately, there's just this teeny weeny problem: Lorena's husband is a devout catholic and is against the church. Well, actually, that was a tad thick. Not like "MORMONS PRACTICE POLYGAMY!", more like "No thanks. I'm really not interested" and then slam the door in our faces. =( We really hope that over the course of time, Lorena will be able to have her husband listen to and benefit from the message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

When I said this transfer would bring big changes, boy, was I right and wrong at the same time. First of all, We STILL do not have permission to go to Long Beach, which really sucks. Whatever. I'll just wait for the new mission presidency to come in two months and take it from there. Secondly, Our now former District Leader, Elder Cordy, was transferred out of the ASL program and is now back to spanish-speaking. Our new DL is Elder Jackson. Also, this might come as a shock to my brother Jared, but his arch-nemesis whise name I dare not type on here for fear of my brother's wrath, is now in our zone.

Thirdly, we just (shudder) moved in a new apartment, up in Hawthorne. I'm not really pleased with our new apartment. For one, it needs new paint, new oven and laundry machines, and there's bars on our windows. Also, It's in a weird location because our new apartment is more north than the other ASL missionaries' apartment, and they work the north and we work south, which really doesn't make sense. I'll have to discuss it with my mission president during interviews in two weeks.


- E.T.

4/26/10

Hi all.

Last sunday, we had a LOT of new investigators come to sacrament meeting and enjoy the spirit too. Our investigator Lulu expressed a strong want to come back next sunday. She is getting baptized for sure! I learned a really interesting thing yesterday. Lulu and Tony Venegas, an active member in our branch, USED TO HAVE A ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIP together but decided they were better off just good friends. Also, another of our investigators who came, Lorena R. grew up with Lulu back in school and they knew each other a long time since. Walt Disney was wrong. It's a TINY world after all. Well, at least when it comes to Los Angeles, one of the biggest cites in the world.

I just had a frightening relevation. In 2 weeks, I'll have hit my 6-month mark, which means soon, 1/4 of my mission will be over already. Yikes. It didn't even feel like that long, not even close. It's as if yesterday I was just drying off from leaving behind a teary mom at reporting-in day at the MTC. (I still DON'T miss the awful MTC food though. Some of you might think it's awesome to have burgers and fries everyday but trust me when I say you'll get sick of it pretty fast!) I'm really afraid to blink, beacuse I just know the second I open my eyes, I'll be married, have a dreary job in corporate world somewhere, and a little bundle of joy is coming along the way. ={

Over the week, I have had a few companion splits with the missionaries working the north part of LA. It was a cool experience meeting many new people. Elder Cordy is a pretty cool teacher, and I learned a lot of tips and methods from him. That, and he is the District Leader here in the ASL program.

Also, the Maravillas Family accepted a baptism date for May 19. The only and big problem is that the husband, Luis has to work on sunday, and his boss refuses to allow him to take a few sundays off. =( We're really praying that a opportunity will open up for Luis, that will allow them to be able to come to church.


E.T.

4/19/10

Hi all.

One exciting thing happened yesterday is that our sacvrament meeting attendance experienced a unexcepted spike. A lot of our less-actives finally got their act together and showed up at church, also many of our investigators. The cool thing is that one of many of our investigators came to sacrament meeting and he is a (woman in shower screaming before being stabbed to death by man behind curtain in that old movie whose name escapes me right now.) Jehovah Witness. You gotta love the power of priesthood. In fact, the other day, we had a look-down (exchanging glares like two guys in the old west before high-noon) with some signing JWs outside a house of one of our recent converts. We won. =P

Also... WE HAVE A BAPTISMAL DATE. Lulu Diaz, one of our investigators, is getting baptized on May 9. We committed 3 others to baptism but all of them said they weren't ready and so they asked us to wait. Whatever. At least one said yes.

This week, we're going to really crack it down on the Maravillas family and see to it that they say yes to baptism. They're a cool family that have a strong knowledge of the gospel (many missionaries has been teaching them including my brother). They even have a testimony too but they just won't take sundays off to come to church. Also, the really (missionary censored) thing is that they wanted to put off baptism for TEN MONTHS so their youngest son can be old enough so the all of them can be baptised at once. ??? This calls for Alma 34:32-34 and Moroni chapter 8!

We'll see what happens. We're trying to see to it that the next transfer brings with it so many baptisms that they have to refill the baptismal font with clean water every now and then! Speaking of which, transfers are next week. We're really hoping that there will be big changes that transfer, mainly moving up to three different companionships and re-opening Long Beach to the preaching of the gospel among the deaf.


E.T.

Two Pictures from Facebook

Pictures taken by a David Spencer from the Torrance 4th Branch for the Deaf.

Sunny Days At the Beach

Hi all,

Today, we had a spedial beach p-day where our zone got to frolick around in the sand, smell the brisk salty air, and get some real UV rays. And also play some beach volleyball. Granted, we was allowed only two hours per who knows how long, to go to the beach, but it was fun nonetheless.

Manhattan Beach makes me crazy, you know? They have all those incredibly nice houses that descend towards the beach, so there's a nice view of everything. It makes me want to live in Manhattan Beach for the rest of my life. The real shocker, however, is that I found out that it costs at least $1,000,000 to own the average house (I think) in Manhattan Beach. Yikes. For that much money, I could get an mansion in Utah with all the spiffs and still have money left over to get a really nice car and start a college fund for my kids. One day I'm thinking living in Utah is better, than the next day, I'm thinking Manhattan beach is more awesome. BUT IT'S SO NICE. BUT IT'S CLEANER AND FRIENDLIER IN UTAH. but it's near a beach! but there's a bigger deaf ward in utah! It's near a lot of californian events and tourist attractions! but there's lots of nature in utah! we get nature in the yosemite mountains too! Yes! No! Yes! No! Absolutely! Definitely not! For sure! NEVER! maybe? hrrrf. I'll just have to see how much money I get our of my future successful career as a comedy writer, and also see what my future wife thinks about it all.

Yesterday was kind of a sweet-to-bitter day. In church, we have a member called Angel Sorto who is quite active and the missionaries and I am good friends with him. He seemed content, was friendly, and liked to chat often. Well, after churcdh, when most everyone went home, my companions and I went ahead and used the Video Phone to arrange appointments with all the investigators and Less-Active members (like we do every sunday). In the midst of that, we received a phone call from Angel Sorto that shocked me to my soul. For one, the person we saw on the computer screen wasn't the one we saw at church today. His face was ashen and despondent. We learned that he found his wife in the bathroom, having already departed from this world during the time that he was in church. Angel was in a panic and at a total loss of what to do. I immediately encouraged him to calm down and then soon we had President Suttion take control of the situation. The funeral date is not yet set, but we have been asked to help Angel in any way necessary should he ask for it.


Misionary work is always so full of surprises.


-E.T. (Many of the missionaries nicknamed me that because of my initials. Nice, huh?)


PHOTOS!


- Me! (Think I look slimmer now?)
_ My Entire Zone: Let me see if I can recall all their names, from top to bottom, starting from left.

Cordy, ZL Amundsen, Isaacson, Lingam, Rogers, Richins, Shimta, Welling, Trinidad, France, Hadlock, ZL Gardner, Hoggan, Sisters Tittle and Nef, Vizcaino, Sung, Vaca-Guzman, Western, Leavell, [can't remember :( ], Me, McDonald, Salazar, Gishie, and Wells.

Blog: Zone Conference, Long Beach, and General conference into one week.

Hi all.

This week was intense. first of all, a little spider bit me on my arm. Nothing serious, just some yucky stuff oozing out and then the wound healed up over a few days.

Last wednesday, we had another Zone Conference. It was fun and spiritual, and once again, we had a giant sandwich buffet for lunch. The two topics in Zone Conference was about committing investigators to baptism, and chapter 5 in the Preach My Gospel about how to give an investingastor a better understanding of the Book of Mormon.

Last Friday, we finally got special permission from our mission president to cross over yonder into Long Beach, at least, for one member-present lesson appointment. we teamed up with a deaf woman called Fatjema Taijbee, who used to be an ASL missionary and now lives in Long Beach. The person we were teaching is Neelika, who herself came from distant Sri Lanka. She is a deaf mother of two children, who lives with her parents. All of them identify themselves as belonging to the Buddhist faith but are interested in learning about God's restored church. What made all this a very interesting experience is that, since them came from the other side of the world, their sign language is a little different from ours. They even spell the british way, what with all the different gestures associated with signifying a letter. We spent the afternoon explainig into depth who Jesus Christ is, and why he is the central point of the church.

Then......

GENERAL CONFERENCE!

We got a special interpreting feed into our stake center ans many of our deaf members got the opportunity to watch General Conference into American Sign Language. I recognized and knew some of the people who interpreted (Some from the MTC, EFY, and the Provo deaf ward that I used to go to occasionally), especially a woman who sang during the Sunday Morning seisson called Rachel Friedman. Gues what? She's right from our branch!

As usual, the prophets and apostles never cease to amaze and enrich our spirit and knowledge with their inspired talks, especially from Elder Holland (My favorite Apostle) who pratically shook the ground with his remark on the dangers of lust and other sins, their damaging consequences and how we should all throw these destructive things out of our lives.

One thing that added to the amazing General Conference weekend is that three of our investigators showed up at church to listen to the prophet. Evry one of them was touched by his words. Amazing, right? We're SO committing all of them to baptism!

A scary thing happened yesterday just after general conference. At about 3:30, I felt a short but strong tremor. At first, I thought it was just one of these LA tremors since the city is built on a huge fault line, and I thought nothing of it. Only two hous later, at dinner at a member's house, did I learn that there happened yet another massive earthquake, this time in northwestern Mexico, an area called Mexicali, which happened to be just about two hundred miles from where I was. The fact that we were lucky enough to be far away enough to feel only the very edge of the earthquake shocked me. I think it was the closest to an intense natural disaster that I have ever been. Yikes.

The unusual frequency of massive earthquakes ofer the last few months have made many people here really nervous. In fact, on bthe way to the library, we happened to drive past a little parade of doomsayers all proclaiming the inevitable. "The end is near!" "Judgment is upon us!" "Repent now!" and so and so forth. I wanted to take a photo, but I remembered that the missionary handbook told us to not "Take photographs of civil unrest or demonstrations" so out of respect and obedience, I didn't.


-Z