Another week in California #2

CALIFORNIA MUSINGS #2
The surroundings in which we find ourselves are truly beautiful, colorful and interesting. It’s no wonder so many people find themselves living here, including a lot of Armenians. I can do without all the cars (in Ararat there were hardly any), but if you time your comings and goings and don’t take the freeways, it isn’t too bad.

I like the streets that are lined with huge palms, sort of like 50-80 ft tall or more with a pineapple on top. Other streets have different trees lining them and they’ve grown so big that the trees from the opposite side of the street form a canopy that shades the entire block. We’ve walked in all directions from where we are living and managed to find a French bakery (darn, but really not) along the way. Sort of defeats the purpose of healthy walking, but a nice way to reward oneself for having done it.

We enjoyed Family Home Evening on Monday with some of the Armenians. There were a few investigators along with some member families…about 30 in all. Pizza and other foods were served after a lesson was given about what should happen in a family home evening as a spiritual start to the evening. The children were entertained by Lacey Ammar (who I’ve heard is an excellent violinist) and Wendy Santiano (mother of three of the children in attendance) before starting the evening, and Artur Yeritsyan led everyone in a game to finish up. Everyone seemed to have a great time. Henry Ammar is the group leader for the Armenians, but neither he nor Rod Santiano are Armenians, but have a desire to help and want to learn Armenian and be part of the group. Henry is Lebanese and Rod is Filipino/Hispanic (I think) and speaks Portuguese as he was a missionary to Brazil. He also knows a lot of Armenian.
We were able to get better acquainted with Hratch Baghdoyan, 80, and his son Armen. Hratch is an Armenians from Syria. Helga Gharibians is from Iran and her daughter Christine Andreasian, was born and raised in California and says she’s an anomaly because she is LDS and never been to Utah. Armen Gevorgyan, whose wife was part of the translation team for the Book of Mormon translation into Armenian was also there. His family is in Armenia currently while he is here working.
We also had our first missionary meetings this week with the full-time elders and Henry to do some planning and reporting. In the evening, we were able to go with the full-time elders to visit Susannah, one of their investigators. This woman is the one that Elder Craft met while street contacting in Gyumri (she was visiting in Armenia a while ago) and then as she was walking down the street in Glendale, she noticed the church and someone who happened to be outside at the time, invited and insisted that she come into the Armenian FHE which was in progress. She and Elder Craft didn’t at first put it all together, just thought that there was something familiar about each other. It’s exciting that she is taking the lessons and preparing for baptism on May 9th. It’s sort of funny, too, that when Elder Craft asked her if she knew what May 9th was, she said, “the day the Russians took over?”, and he said how about “Mother’s Day”. That’s a better day to remember your baptism, I’d think.

We also started to make contact with some of the less actives or those in other wards with Armenian names. We met with a couple, Gloria and Henry Vartanian, in their lovely home. He is an architect by trade. Gloria is the member, but not Armenian and Henry is the Armenian (through Iran), not interested in joining the church, but I think supportive of his wife going. They have a couple of older daughters, and an older son (he appears to be handicapped in some way) living with them as well a granddaughter. When Gloria attends church she goes to the LaCanada Ward and because she’s not Armenian she prefers to keep attending her current ward. She and her husband did say that they might want to attend an FHE.

It’s interesting that the one other family we’ve contacted is also named Vartanian. No one answered the phone, so we just decided to drive over and see if they were still there. A daughter, Annie, answered the door, but her mother was working. We later talked with the mother, Iskhanik (Susan) who came to the States when she was 16, but has moved all around. I asked her about family history and genealogy but she is really uncertain about it at all. We are looking at having families do genealogy as a way to get them back active and wanting to go to the temple to do work for their ancestors. There is a dad, Karnik, a non-member and a son Ara who moved to Pomona, and is going to school. There is also a daughter Mary who is 21 and then Anahid (Annie), 17. The children are all members and Annie sometimes goes with her mother who attends the Sunland Ward. She prefers to go to her own ward as it is only a few minutes away and not the 25 minute drive to be with the Armenian group. She might be interested in FHE.

We did splits with the missionaries, except we added Christine to Elder Peterson and I. We visited 4 places and didn’t find anyone home, or if they were home, not willing to visit with us. I guess rejection is pretty standard with missionary work. It appears one of our contacts may have moved and another had moved or the name on our list was spelled wrong. It’s nice to be able to clear up records as we go.

April 23rd:

We are continuing to make attempts to find people on the ward lists, and last night as we were going out with Elder White and Christine, we finally found someone at home who actually invited us in. It was nice to visit (mostly in Armenian) and be able to invite them to Family Home Evening coming up next Monday. They said they would come, but then, Armenians generally tell you what they think you want to hear and you can be disappointed if you count on it too much. So, we’ll see.

It’s really interesting here how every morning, other than birds, the first sounds we hear are of weed eaters, hedge trimmers and lawn mowers. Someone is always having their yards manicured; it makes for a very nice living area, however. Today, we went for a very long walk that included some trail hiking. If you know Elder Peterson, he loves to go exploring and when he noticed, the trail behind the Brand Library, up the hill we trudged. It was pleasant and, with good scouting skills, he maneuvered us past the French bakery and we just had to go in.

Tomorrow is the commemoration of the Genocide of the Armenians in 1915 by the Ottoman Empire (Turkey). We have noticed lots of signs on businesses that they will be closed and there are lots of protests (gatherings) all around the area…and considering this is referred to as Little Armenia, it isn’t surprising. We continue to do well and appreciate all your love, prayers, and support.

California Arcadia Mission Musings #1

Well, we made it to California. We have been set apart as missionaries in the Arcadia California Mission and we’re excited to get back to business. We’re meeting on Sunday with the Stake President and Mission President and should have a better idea of responsibilities and what they’d like us to focus on.

I want to tell you a little about where we are staying. The Lee’s (Kathy and Kent) have been gracious enough to take us in for the couple of months we have still to be in the US before returning to Armenia. We did learn from the missionary department that our time home for medical did not count towards time served, so the 3 months we were home for medical treatment will be added on to time we will be in Armenia. This means that we will be home around July of 2011 and not April.

At any rate, the Lee’s are a wonderful couple. We learned one interesting thing. They were in attendance at Mike and Doris’ Andelin’s wedding so knew Zach’s parents. Kathy works as a third grade teacher and her husband has his own business doing drive shafts. We also met the office couple (Snow’s) at the mission office and they also knew Andelins as they are also from St. George. Sister Snow said she had been involved in music some with Doris and also Brother Snow had taught some of the Andelins at Dixie as that was his profession before missions. It seems a small world when you get out in it.

The weather here is beautiful and I must say it was quite a study in color as we drove down the freeway. The desert had flowers of myriad colors. First was a beautiful apricot color (in Nevada) and then the yellows, both bright and lemon colored, and then we got to California: bright pink and fuchsia, then purple and then all sorts of different plants. I love the way the freeways are now being artistically designed with various ground covers, rocks, flowers, etc. When we arrived at the Lees, there were the azaleas all in bloom (reminded me of Oregon). Their home was built in 1929 and on about ½ acre (large for a property in the LA area…I guess unless you are of the Hollywood set). They have a pool and large lawn area and even a garden area. We may be able to help with gardening and maybe even take a dip, if time allows. Kathy and Kent both work full-time and he is the bishop of their ward and she is in the Relief Society Presidency, so they are busy people. She loves to cook and we enjoyed a lovely meal this evening.

The Lee’s will take us on a drive tomorrow morning to get better acquainted with the area and help us locate the churches and institute we will be working with. We are so grateful to have our GPS as we would really get lost without it. Traffic here is busy, busy, and depending on the time of day, it can often be more like a parking lot.

Obviously, I didn’t get this posted and now it is Sunday, April 11th. We had a great day here. We were able to attend a Sacrament and Sunday School meeting with the Armenian Saints here in Glendale and some interlopers. They scheduled it as a testimony meeting and it was wonderful to hear prayers and testimonies in Armenian. It was also great to get acquainted with the elders who had served in Armenia prior to coming here; Elder Craft, Judd (who goes home on Tuesday) and Elder White. All seem to be doing well and the missionary work is progressing. We also had an opportunity to visit with the Stake President, President Morgan and with the mission president, President Pike, to map out some plans and ideas for what we can do while we serve here. We now have a list of all members in the Stake with Armenian names and we will get to work to meet them, bring them back to church if they are inactive, participate with them however we can. We are going to try and help them do some family history so they can have their own names to take to the temple the end of May. We’re also hoping to make connections with those who have family members still in Armenia…to sort of synergize our efforts. Maybe it will work that those in Armenia who have family names and can’t readily get to the temple, will be able to work with California Armenians to get the work done for their families. They would also like us to help find and activate members who could serve in leadership positions in Relief Society and Priesthood. They may be able to meet again as a branch if there is enough leadership and attendance. They are also going to be starting ESL classes the first week of May and we can help identify Armenians that would benefit by participation in these classes. At any rate, it’s exciting to think about what we can do. We will work with the full-time elders, too, to coordinate our efforts.

As the mission president said today, quoting from one of the prophets, “it’s great to be back in the harness.”

We send our love to all of you and hope you are having a wonderful week of Spring.

California, Here We Come

Well, it's official. We're headed to California (Glendale) this coming week. We will be staying with Kent and Kathy Lee of the Glendale 2nd Ward.

We will be doing a temporary assignment with the Armenians there, working with young adults and less active. We're excited about the possibilities. Hopefully, it won't be too long and we'll be able to return to Ararat and resume our responsibilities there. We appreciate all your prayers in our behalf!