HAI!
Howsit!? Thanks for your emairs guys! Had a pretty good week this week. Although it kind of seemed rather long... anyways... glad to hear your weeks went fairly well. Happy Birthday yesterday mom! I'm glad to hear my birthday "card" made it in time haha. Did you also pick up the memory card I had slipped in with it with a bunch of pictures on it and whatnot? I hope so... since you didn't really mention it...
Anyways...
So... lessons learned this week...
1. (Today) Don't try to cut your own hair. And especially don't try to get at the back yourself.
2. Singing hymns on the public bus is exceptionally awesome
3. Find out if your investigator has a word of wisdom problem BEFORE you commit them to baptism 2 weeks later.
4. The Book of Mormon is the foundation of this church and my testimony. And is true.
So I already included this list in my email to Michelle but I thought it could use repeating. The list is, of course, in order of... uh importance I guess... But seriously. Cutting my own hair... Not the BEST idea I've ever had.
However, I've decided to make it more of an object lesson in agency since... We can choose our own actions but we obviously can't choose the consequences. I chose to save money and time and hassle by cutting my own hair using a hair cutting kit I picked up in the MTC from some missionaries who left it the transfer before... and now I get to live with the consequences.... haha. Ok to be fair the front actually looks pretty good... however the back... well let's just say I wish I didn't have the ability to take a picture and see what it actually looks like... Ignorance being bliss and everything... oh well hopefully it'll get really cold all of a sudden so I can wear a big coat that covers up the back of my head without attracting too much attention.
So we sang The Spirit of God on the bus this Thursday which was pretty much awesome. No big deal... ok fine, probably one of the scariest things I've ever done... Pretty funny though. Pres. Wade told a story at the New Missionary follow-up training of how he sang on the public bus and so my companion and I decided that we wanted to do the same. Ok well mostly my companion. Even though singing... well let’s just say it's not one of his strengths... But it went pretty well. And I think my heart-rate has gone down a little bit over the weekend.
The word of wisdom problem actually turns out wasn't such a big deal. We taught the word of wisdom to Brother Chen on Thursday and it turns out he's a fan of drinking coffee and tea... however, once we explained the commandment, he committed to stop drinking both and on Saturday we gave him some barley tea we had in our apartment and he gave us his green tea. Pretty well executed tea-swap if you ask me. However, his baptism is set for next Sunday and people are supposed to have been living the word of wisdom for at least 3 weeks before they're baptized, but we actually called the president today and he said it was ok to go ahead with the planned date which is good since moving it back wouldn't be the best thing in the world... and is generally not a very good idea. We went to church with Brother Chen yesterday and he had a really good experience despite the fact it was the English ward downtown since he didn't have time to go all the way out to sunset where the Chinese branch meets. Said he had a really warm and peaceful feeling in sacrament meeting and everyone was really friendly which is always kind of what you want to have happen.
Oh and the Book of Mormon is true. Seemed to be talking to a lot of English speakers yesterday and the Book of Mormon is definitely the most powerful resource we have in the church to convert. The Book of Mormon is the evidence that the first vision happened and that Jesus Christ restored the fullness of his gospel through Joseph Smith. The only thing I don't really understand is how not everyone knows about it and believes it. Too busy I guess. Especially people in Chinatown. Elder Luo and I were talking this morning about how people who speak Cantonese seem to be way less receptive than Mandarin speakers... which is good since I don't know any Cantonese despite the fact every Chinese person in this city seems to speak it. Kind of annoying sometimes actually... but maybe I'll end up picking up some Cantonese. Lei hai bindo lai!? Means Where are you from!? Haha basically just say that to everyone since I don't know how to say anything else. Although, Elder Luo's Cantonese is improving pretty fast...
We lost our phone on Saturday since we got a ride from some members we just happened to run into downtown and were kind of pressed for time to get to an appointment and so they were kind enough to take us to the civic center where our next appt was. Then our phone slipped out of Elder Luo's pocket onto the seat and we left without noticing. Not having a phone is pretty debilitating I have to say. I can't imagine how missionaries did anything back in the old days without a cell phone. i guess they just used soap boxes... we did finally get our phone back after having loads of our money get eaten by stupid public phones... like... come on! If it doesn't connect don't steal our money!!! But we ended up meeting up with the members and their car yesterday at church and fortunately enough, it was there on the seat. With like 50 missed calls from us and the other elders in our district. This is of course after we had prayed and fasted all day (for our phone and for Brother Chen....) but it's nice that we have it back so we don't have to communicate via the pony express or carrier pigeon.
We've been kind of making some friends with the random homeless people around San Francisco which is kind of fun. Lately we've been seeing this guy Dwight everrryywheerreee haha. Ok not everywhere, but twice in the last like 3 days which is pretty funny. And he always like talks at us for like 10-20 minutes about random stuff. He's pretty funny though and it's fun to see him around and say hi.
Thanks for sending the quotes and scriptures. I definitely can feel the unity that's present in every ward that I go to and it's definitely a huge blessing of the Gospel.
I'd better go write my email to the president since otherwise I'll probably forget... and I’m also getting pretty tired of standing and writing this letter since I'm here at the apple store again haha. Also, standing here kind of exposes the back of my head a little too much to the public which looks really really cool. Maybe they'll just think I’m super avant-garde and INTENDED to have my hair look this way... oh well. It'll grow out... at some point...
Anyways, thanks a lot for your emails. I love you guys and hope your next week goes fantastically. Have fun with unpacking! (And I guess I kind of am serious about the having fun part ... for mom at least haha).
Love you!
-Ian
No comments:
Post a Comment