News from the Field - at Last!

Note: We received a very short note from Ian last week so I didn't post it. We put it down to it being Columbus Day and the libraries being closed, but, evidently, it wasn't the problem. He has redeemed himself with this long, newsy letter ---

HERROWWW! So actually even though it was Colombus Day last week that's not the reason why we were here in the apple store emailing you. This place is actually the most convenient place for us to write emails haha. And it turns out the website for email isn't blocked on the laptops so I'm using a laptop this time to contact you which is way better since I can actually write more than a paragraph without shooting myself in the face. (With my imaginary gun.)

That's hilarious and awesome that that girl Tracie contacted you about me. I have absolutely no recollection of meeting her and I have no recollection of giving anyone your email address. But that's super cool she sent you an email and thanks for her number. I'll make sure to call the referral center tonight and get some English speaking missionaries to contact her. Thanks.

So anyways, that's so cool you got called as the relief society president! You're gonna be so great! Of course they called you to be the relief society president in the ward. You're like righteous as (Yay for Auzzie expressions!). Also, now that you hold the most powerful position in the women's heirarchy, you can exercise unrighteous dominion and make everyone in the relief society bake you things!!!! Mwuahhahaha!

And yes the mission home called me to tell me they had received the blanket you sent me so I'll get that at some point. Meanwhile Sister Wade is loaning me a blanket to use which is really nice of her. And also she gave me a pillow.... which is kind of awkward cause if I return the blanket i'm wondering if i'll have to return the pillow too... I guess just wont... since it's comfortable... and i'd know since it's so dang hard to get up in the morning haha. Like I seriously think that's the hardest thing in my mission right now. Getting out of bed. 6:30 is far too early to be awake ha. But running in the morning is good. Like actually kind of tolerable. My companion never did it before I got here but I decided if I'm gonna be anywhere near as pro as joel was on his mission, i'd better institute as pro an exercise program... although I'm not sure about the marathon since there are so many hills here and yeah... we run them...

I'm in downtown San Francisco right now. I think there are 12 Chinese elders total both in Oakland and San Fran. So there are 6 elders in my district covering the Daily City, Sunset, and San Francisco areas. It's pretty cool. I've already had my share of crazies come up and say stuff to us haha. Like this woman the other day who was speaking English but I had absolutely no idea what she was saying. I caught something like "devils in Salt Lake City who think they're representing me" and then other than that I was like... uhhhh... and then she was like "yeah i'll see you then!" And then we left. But aside from that not too bad. We do a lot of street contacting. Which involves walking around looking for people who look Asian and then saying "Ni hao! Ni hui shuo zhongwen ma!?" And if they stop and listen then we set up an appt and if they're ABCs then it's basically just kind of awkward and they get annoyed that a white person can speak Chinese and they can't.

Sorry if this email seems kind of disjointed but I'm thinking I'm typing faster than I'm really formulating coherent thoughts. It seems like time just flies by on p-day since we meant to get here like 20 minutes earlier but ended up arriving at like 5:15 so I don’t have a whole lot of time before I have to go.

We have a baptism this Sunday which is cool. We actually had 3, but 2 of the people scheduled to be baptised (in the Sunset and Daily City areas) decided they weren't prepared or they just didn't want to at all which is a shame. But the guy in OUR area is still on schedule! He's the man. His name is brother Zheng and he is like 78 haha. It's hilarious cause he just moved onto Broadway Street which is like the seediest part of downtown since it has loads of like strip clubs and topless bars and whatnot. So basically every time Elder Luo and I go and visit him we have to like walk super quick and keep our eyes down haha. People always like walk or drive by and shout, "You boys are in the wrong neighborhood!!!" And we should back, "We know!!!" Hahaha. It's cool though. Our biggest focus now is trying to get him to build faith in the Book of Mormon since he's already a big fan of the Bible. Last time we visited him we prayed right there to know if the Book of Mormon was true and the spirit was super super strong. I just hope he felt it. His friend in the church and person who referred him to the missionaries, Sister Luo, was out in LA last week but just got back today so she should be really helpful in getting him to follow through with the baptism which is good.

Oh btw, do you think you could send me out a cookbook or something? I mean Elder Luo and I are getting by... but having some recipes would be really really good so we don't have to starve that much. Speaking of which, I'm like down to 150 pounds again so I guess I've already lost quite a bit of weight from the MTC haha.

So I think I'm probably going to learn Chinese better here than I even would in Taiwan since I really am SLYing (Speak Your Language-ing) all the time and only speaking Chinese since Elder Luo is a REAL LIVE CHINESE speaker! But Joel told me that the elders in Taiwan don't really SYL that much with their companion which I think is super vital if you want to get a grip on the language and I really am speaking it all the time.

I'm still working on relying on the spirit for guidance in what to say and who to talk to. I think I have a pretty good recognition of when it's around but not like listening to it and following promptings. Anyways, yue lai yue hao I guess.

Haha a Jack Johnson song just came on! Yeah! Anyways, that sounds like a good plan dad to not unpack before mom gets back since she'd probably just make you rearrange everything anyway haha. Glad the weather is good. It's not bad here either although sometimes it gets a little cold at night. PRetty darn shufu if I do say so myself. Better than Toronto.

Ok well I'd better go write Joel and Michelle. I love you guys! Thanks for your support and for your examples to me! I think that's probably the biggest thing. We had a lesson in church on Sunday about the responsibility of teaching your kids and you definitely did a pretty good job I'd say. We're going to teach a less active family tonight and it's so annoying to see people who have the gospel but don't come to church and don't value it when their lives could be so much better if they just listened to the prophet and came to church.

Anyways, gtg!

Love,

Ian