Oh hai!
Yeah Broadway [shady part of town in San Fran] is pretty funny. The investigator who lives on the street just got baptized yesterday which was really great. Such strong faith. First of all he's 79 years old which is pretty ridiculous that he's receptive to our message at all. Also, he's living on social security so his income is $400 a month, $350 of which goes to his rent so when Elder Luo and I found out you still have to pay tithing on social security last week we were like... uh oh.... But then when we taught it to him he was just like "ok, yeah i think I’ve heard about the commandment before. No problem." So crazy. And then maybe a 5 dollar fast offering. 5 dollars for the whole month! Except I do think he has family that sends him money every so often. Still. He's the man. I think we're gonna teach him a couple more times this week before his confirmation. So cool. Oh and the last time we visited him it was like 7 pm again and there was some proprietor of one of the strip clubs who watched us walk past and was like "hey guys come on in! Take a break!" We just laughed and were like "Yeah I guess 10 minutes wouldn't hurt..." jkjkjkjkjk lulululul.
This week I was on exchanges for a lot of the time since my companion Elder Luo was attending a training conference in Oakland for all the people in leadership positions like district and zone leaders, and trainers. So I was with Elder Zhang, this hilarious guy from Beijing. Glad to be back with Elder Luo though. I actually feel like a missionary when I'm with Elder Luo since with Elder Zhang it's just like super casual since all he does is joke around. He's a good missionary though. Just has a really unique way of doing things. He's only got 3 months left which I can't even begin to conceive of at this point and probably shouldn't try to think about since I've only been out like almost 3 weeks. Things are going pretty well though so no worries.
Yeah, Dad, I'm pretty much eating as well as you will be for the next 3 weeks (while Mom’s in Utah). Elder Luo's not such a bad cook and Elder Zhang is not bad at all although the food that he makes isn't really the healthiest in the world (he's like 250 pounds himself... so...). Oh man and the Daily City elders' apartment is so gross hahaha! I cleaned their sink when I was over there just cause it was beyond disgustingly dirty. Elder Luo and I were laughing about it last night. Our apartment is actually really nice. The downtown one. It's pretty big and we even have a dishwasher (xi wan ji) and a disposal (Di sa po sa ou le) (I actually don't think there's a word for that...). The Chinese program only has 2 missionaries to an apartment as far as I can tell. Don't know about the English program. We each get $140 a month to live on which isn't too much but seems to be doing pretty well actually. Although, Elder Luo said that in the English program it was a lot easier to live on since members invited them over to eat like every single night whereas in the Chinese program, once a year would be pretty good haha. Elder Tang, our district leader, said he's lost 12 pounds since being in the Chinese program hahaha.
My companion Elder Luo and I get along really well. He's a really good missionary and I'm learning a lot from his example. Despite the fact that some jokes don't really get through due to cultural differences, we still joke around quite a bit and he's good to only speak Chinese all the time so I can practice. Really hardworking and whatnot which is good.
Yeah I remember the Xu family (in Washington, D.C). I thought they all got baptized though... Guess not... that's awesome that William Xu is still active. Takes so much faith and commitment to be the only one in your family who's a member. Man, home teaching. I never realized how vital that is before I came out on my mission. I've only been out three weeks but it's already so evident that there are somany less actives in the Chinese branch which easily could've been avoided had people done their home teaching... As it is it's pretty darn lax in the branch... so the missionaries do a lot of the home teaching type visits. Not in my zone so much since we have like 2 member families that live downtown haha but in daily city there are loads of less active members. Things would just be so much easier if everyone did their home teaching! So good on ya dad!
Thanks so much for your letters mom and dad. Your support means a lot to me. I can't imagine being out on a mission and having your parents not being supportive so thanks so much. Thanks for your examples to me. I'm still trying to build my faith and develop reliance on the Lord and I think it's” man man lai-ing” [coming little by little].
Rained this last week for like 4 days which was annoying but it's super nice today. Going to go check out fisherman's wharf with the Chinese elders serving in the Sunset area today which should be fun. Although, Elder Luo says there's no way to have fun in San Francisco without loads of money... which i guess is partially true... anyways, things are going well. Love you guys! Have a great week!
Love,
Ian
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