Hai! Merry Christmas one and all!
So yeah. Last week was pretty tough. But this week was wayyyyy better. We ran into loads of pretty golden investigators. And of course, golden investigators is really just anyone who is actually willing to meet with us haha. But pretty good. We had 4 whole investigators come to church on Sunday! Which is basically a record for this area.
No idea what was different about this week from last week but we kept running into interested people. On Tuesday we ran into this super golden investigator (actually golden not just willing to listen to us haha) from a place near Shenyang (didn't really catch the name). Anyways, he said that he didn't know much about religion but when I shared the first vision with him on the street he recognized it since he had just moved from near richmond, VA where he had a mormon friend who had helped him and his family a lot when he had first moved there and had shared a little bit about the church with them. Anyways, so we went to the nearby park and taught a lesson which went really well. When he said the closing prayer he was like "and I hope this will be something I can pursue my whole life." Elder Luo and I were like "Yay!" and then found out he actually lives in the Daley City area haha so we just referred him over to the new sister missionaries who are serving there. But still cool.
Actually we had like 6 referrals that we sent over to Daley City this week. Helped improve our guanxi with the new sisters though so it's cool. We also met a guy who we started teaching and were like "Yeah this could work" and then it came out that his career basically consists of going to the casino every day. Elder Luo and I were like "wat?!" So we don't really know what we're gonna do with him. Plus we invited him to church and he was like, "Nope, sorry, the casinos give out even more money on Sundays..." I don't really know how he makes money but he must have some kind of system since he says he's never lost before. Pretty hilarious though.
We also met a woman (Sister Yu) who we started teaching and looked pretty promising. She was really interested in getting us to teach her son who's 26 years old, dropped out of college, and basically stays at home playing computer games all day (pretty much what i'm planning on doing after the mission). So pretty much super pathetic. We arranged to meet with her and her son and it pretty much turned into the most awkward lesson ever. We started teaching by watching "our search for happiness" which went ok and then we started talking about the plan of salvation and like what the purpose of life is and stuff. In the middle of the lesson he stood up and was like "Wo bu dong zhege" [I don't understand this.] and went back to his room. We were like... "ummm...." So we started to continue teaching Sister Yu but she like shook her head and pointed to the door. I was like "oh... I guess we'll leave then" haha. She came down with us though and we finished our lesson with her down by the entrance of the apartment. Ended up that her husband opposed her continuing to meet with us and so we had to drop her as an investigator, but yeah... pretty awkward lesson. And a pretty pathetic situation overall to be honest. I can't believe their son man. Such a waste of a life, honestly.
Anyways, we also added two investigators from Vietnam and are continuing to meet with the OuYang family which is cool. However, one our investigators from Vietnam (Brother Liu) has had like one of the roughest lives ever. First, he's got all these like wounds and scars and stuff since he served as a soldier in the Vietnam War that he goes to the doctor for 3 days a week. Also, he was telling us about his life in Vietnam after the war where I guess he got sent to some kind of re-education camp once the Americans left and he was caught trying to escape Vietnam which was pretty dismal from his description. He's now living with his nephew and his nephew's family and kind of looks after their kids in return for them allowing him to stay with them, but for some reason neither Elder Luo nor I are entirely clear on, he can only live with them through the 23rd of December, after which he'll have to move out. Basically, he has no idea where he's going to go and at the moment looks like he might end up without anywhere to live. Elder Luo and I are fasting for him today and we have faith that the Lord will prepare a way for him to avoid being homeless. At least we hope so since at the moment we really can't tell what will happen.
On a bit of a lighter note, the other guy from Vietnam (Tony Liu) is pretty funny. He speaks like 7 languages and just joined another Christian church. As we were on the train back from the church into downtown, Elder Luo was chatting with him and was like "So do you think what we talked about in our lesson is true? (we taught the restoration). And he was like "yeah I guess I do" And then Elder Luo basically committed him to be baptized right there for Jan. 23rd haha. Don't know how solid that is but I guess we'll find out. He was also telling us about everyone who comes into association with him either dies or stops associating with him. So I guess we'd better be extra careful from now on... haha.
Wow, 96 is pretty old! [Our former neighbor just passed away.] That's neat you guys got to attend his memorial service but yeah I guess a bit of a bummer you didn't get around to seeing him before he passed away. That is way older than what I would've thought. If I ever get that old i'd definitely be telling everyone. Pretty big accomplishment.
I'm in the library today sending emails and I only have 11 minutes left to go email Joel and Michelle so I'd better wrap this up. Sounds like your holiday season's going pretty well. I hope you get lots and lots of super interesting emails on your blackberry dad! And don't worry I won't tell Elder Luo about the submarines. I'm kind of interested as to why Taiwan even bothers. Wouldn't they just get wiped out if China actually every decided to attack them anyway?
Anyways, Merry Christmas mom and dad! I love you! Thanks so much for your love and support! I will call grandma and grandpa's phone probably around noon your time if that's ok. And if it's not then... well... too bad!
Love you!
-Ian
P.S. Don't have too many xmas plans to be honest. Our district is getting treated to lunch by a member though... which I just remembered is at 12... so maybe I'll be calling a little earlier... but either way, pretty good! K Love you bai!
Monday, December 20, 2010
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
On the Streets
Oh Hai!
So yeah. That was pretty random. Felt a little panjiao [apostate] though to be honest. ALMOST talking to you guys. Pretty panjiao. Whatever the case, pretty fun. I wouldn't worry about the scarf since it's really not that cold here and I'm thinking of dropping by the subway lost and found which I haven't checked yet to see if they have my scarf. And then while we're there we can ask them if they have our umbrellas... and then see if my camera's there too on the off chance it got left on BART accidently... whatever happens, I'm sure those BART (the name of the subway) employees have been spending the past couple weeks following me around and picking up all the stuff that has left my person and taking it to the lost and found until I decide to go and pick it all up so I really should be fine.
Anyways, yeah we had transfer calls the day before yesterday which was pretty exciting. Well not really since Elder Luo and I are staying in this area as companions haha. Elder Luo is being made district leader though and our current district leader is headed to Oakland where he will be taking the bus and training someone. No more car for him! And no more rides for us unfortunately since the two missionaries coming to take the place of our district leader and his companion (they're both moving away) are sisters and therefore are not able to give us rides anywhere. Pretty zaogao I have to say. Especially since sister missionaries always strike me as super hardcore and it's kind of awkward talking to them since they're girls and stuff. And have cooties.
On the other hand, Elder Luo being district leader means I'll have the opportunity sometime this transfer to go on exchanges with Elder Lee which should be pretty much awesomely hilarious... I just hope we can still keep working hard since every time we're together we just joke around. Like how at church we were like joking about how we need to sabotage the new sister missionaries so they don't make us look bad hahaha. Our proposed pranks kind of got a little out of hand though with the bucket of nails above the door to the bathroom and the venomous snakes in their beds. However we're still planning on seran wrap on the toilet seat and itching powder on the chairs. I am, of course, kidding. But I have heard that sister missionaries are pretty awesome. So we're pretty much expecting a huge upsurge of baptisms in the branch which should be good. Meanwhile, Elder Luo and my district suffered some setbacks earlier in the week which forced us to spend most of the time street contacting. On Tuesday we had 4 appointments set up, 3 with investigators, and 1 with a potential we had contacted on Monday night. 3 of them cancelled, and the prospective then fanged our gezi (stood us up)... Which was pretty lame. But we did have a stroke of luck as we first ran into a member who had served a mission in Gaoxiong 3 years earlier and so treated us to dinner which was nice of him. And then we ran into Roger Andelin, which of course you know about already. Then we had a couple more appts cancel so we basically spent most of the week street contacting around Chinatown which is where we spend most of our time. Although, for some reason, there seemed to be trouble in Chinatown this week since not only did people seem rather uninterested in listening to us (rather a lot), but we kept running into the rudest people ever haha. First there was this random white guy who just started swearing at us for some reason which was rather uncool of him, and then we contacted these people on the bus yesterday who were saying the most ridiculously rude things ever to us haha. It was funny cause one of them was from Shenyang and usually when people say that Elder Luo goes "ME TOO!" except this time he was like "oh yeah I'm from like somewhere near there......" Looks like Shenyang isn't the zionistic paradise Elder Luo would have me believe it is haha.
However, this week had a lot of really good stuff too. On Saturday night we went to visit a family that's been inactive for years (Tan family). Everything has basically already been taught to them so every time we go over there we're like "what should we teach?!" At the end of the lesson, we asked who they knew who we could teach the restored gospel and they actually had a referral for us! And what was even more amazing is that the referral walked in like 5 minutes later! We set up an appointment for last night and it went really well. Basically pretty golden since it's a family (one of the first we've been able to teach) and both the husband and wife seem really receptive. AND we have an automatic friendshipper since they're a referral. Member referrals really are the best way to do missionary work. The only problem we see now is how we're gonna get them to come to church if their member friends, the Tan family, don't even come. But I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it which we hope won't be an unbreachable gap since church is really important... seeing as how they can't get baptized or anything without going. But we still have hope that the Tan family will be able to come back to church since they clearly still have super strong testimonies which they bore pretty freely last night as we taught our lesson. We hope that they'll just get super excited about missionary work and then just naturally want to come back to church. We have hope!
Whatever the case though, teaching them really made me realize how important the gospel is in our lives since there really is very little to go by without it. Like I can't imagine what values I'd teach my kids if I didn't have some kind of golden standard to go by. Definitely hopeful for this family... who's surname is O'Yang which makes me think of like O'Reilly or O'Malley or something. Pretty sure they're not Irish though...
And Dad, you of ALL people should know that tithing is really more of a SUGGESTION than a real PRINCIPLE... haha. Yeah that's definitely really lame of those missionaries. And there's no way they'd even be able to pass the baptismal interview if they weren't prepared to pay tithing. Which seems to kind of be a pretty big problem for most Chinese converts. Which is a shame since I'm a pretty big fan of those bigger commandments that are generally harder to keep since the blessings really are so much greater. Tithing really is such a blessing.
Glad to hear you're keeping my legend alive in the Arlington Ward. Make sure to tell them about the thousands of people who are being baptized here in San Francisco as a result of my efforts and how I can shoot laser beams out of my eyes. (That last one is pretty new though.)
Pretty cool you're in the news dad [Wikileaks]. Although I can't imagine you've said anything really ridiculous in any of your cables or whatnot. If so though, I'd be excited to see your name in the headlines of the papers I occasionally get glimpses of. And if you lose your job in the government, there's always reality television.
Glad to hear things are going well as the Relief Society Czar mom. I'm sure you're top notch! Tip top! Recent converts are the best. Oh except for that one that we baptized a month or so ago since this week we think he's been avoiding us. Ok we know he has. But yesterday we finally found out why since his friend Sister Liu said that he said we shouldn't get him to accompany our lessons anymore like we had been doing before since he doesn't really feel like he's up to that. Just wish he'd just have said that in the first place haha so we wouldn't have to get avoided which is a bummer. Still, it's always a fun time to go by his apartment on Broadway haha.
Elder Luo and I basically spent most of our P-day restoring our apartment to the Celestial Glory we assume it at some point had possessed. It does look a lot better now since we spent quite a while cleaning it. At the very least Top Degree Terrestrial.
I need to go write michelle and joel back but thanks a lot for your emails! And for your presents! I love opening one every day before companionship study haha. So fun. And all the stuff you've sent so far has been so awesome and useful... except maybe the clay.. but i'll find a way to use it! I love you guys! Stay strong in the gospel and whatnot!
Love,
-Ian
So yeah. That was pretty random. Felt a little panjiao [apostate] though to be honest. ALMOST talking to you guys. Pretty panjiao. Whatever the case, pretty fun. I wouldn't worry about the scarf since it's really not that cold here and I'm thinking of dropping by the subway lost and found which I haven't checked yet to see if they have my scarf. And then while we're there we can ask them if they have our umbrellas... and then see if my camera's there too on the off chance it got left on BART accidently... whatever happens, I'm sure those BART (the name of the subway) employees have been spending the past couple weeks following me around and picking up all the stuff that has left my person and taking it to the lost and found until I decide to go and pick it all up so I really should be fine.
Anyways, yeah we had transfer calls the day before yesterday which was pretty exciting. Well not really since Elder Luo and I are staying in this area as companions haha. Elder Luo is being made district leader though and our current district leader is headed to Oakland where he will be taking the bus and training someone. No more car for him! And no more rides for us unfortunately since the two missionaries coming to take the place of our district leader and his companion (they're both moving away) are sisters and therefore are not able to give us rides anywhere. Pretty zaogao I have to say. Especially since sister missionaries always strike me as super hardcore and it's kind of awkward talking to them since they're girls and stuff. And have cooties.
On the other hand, Elder Luo being district leader means I'll have the opportunity sometime this transfer to go on exchanges with Elder Lee which should be pretty much awesomely hilarious... I just hope we can still keep working hard since every time we're together we just joke around. Like how at church we were like joking about how we need to sabotage the new sister missionaries so they don't make us look bad hahaha. Our proposed pranks kind of got a little out of hand though with the bucket of nails above the door to the bathroom and the venomous snakes in their beds. However we're still planning on seran wrap on the toilet seat and itching powder on the chairs. I am, of course, kidding. But I have heard that sister missionaries are pretty awesome. So we're pretty much expecting a huge upsurge of baptisms in the branch which should be good. Meanwhile, Elder Luo and my district suffered some setbacks earlier in the week which forced us to spend most of the time street contacting. On Tuesday we had 4 appointments set up, 3 with investigators, and 1 with a potential we had contacted on Monday night. 3 of them cancelled, and the prospective then fanged our gezi (stood us up)... Which was pretty lame. But we did have a stroke of luck as we first ran into a member who had served a mission in Gaoxiong 3 years earlier and so treated us to dinner which was nice of him. And then we ran into Roger Andelin, which of course you know about already. Then we had a couple more appts cancel so we basically spent most of the week street contacting around Chinatown which is where we spend most of our time. Although, for some reason, there seemed to be trouble in Chinatown this week since not only did people seem rather uninterested in listening to us (rather a lot), but we kept running into the rudest people ever haha. First there was this random white guy who just started swearing at us for some reason which was rather uncool of him, and then we contacted these people on the bus yesterday who were saying the most ridiculously rude things ever to us haha. It was funny cause one of them was from Shenyang and usually when people say that Elder Luo goes "ME TOO!" except this time he was like "oh yeah I'm from like somewhere near there......" Looks like Shenyang isn't the zionistic paradise Elder Luo would have me believe it is haha.
However, this week had a lot of really good stuff too. On Saturday night we went to visit a family that's been inactive for years (Tan family). Everything has basically already been taught to them so every time we go over there we're like "what should we teach?!" At the end of the lesson, we asked who they knew who we could teach the restored gospel and they actually had a referral for us! And what was even more amazing is that the referral walked in like 5 minutes later! We set up an appointment for last night and it went really well. Basically pretty golden since it's a family (one of the first we've been able to teach) and both the husband and wife seem really receptive. AND we have an automatic friendshipper since they're a referral. Member referrals really are the best way to do missionary work. The only problem we see now is how we're gonna get them to come to church if their member friends, the Tan family, don't even come. But I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it which we hope won't be an unbreachable gap since church is really important... seeing as how they can't get baptized or anything without going. But we still have hope that the Tan family will be able to come back to church since they clearly still have super strong testimonies which they bore pretty freely last night as we taught our lesson. We hope that they'll just get super excited about missionary work and then just naturally want to come back to church. We have hope!
Whatever the case though, teaching them really made me realize how important the gospel is in our lives since there really is very little to go by without it. Like I can't imagine what values I'd teach my kids if I didn't have some kind of golden standard to go by. Definitely hopeful for this family... who's surname is O'Yang which makes me think of like O'Reilly or O'Malley or something. Pretty sure they're not Irish though...
And Dad, you of ALL people should know that tithing is really more of a SUGGESTION than a real PRINCIPLE... haha. Yeah that's definitely really lame of those missionaries. And there's no way they'd even be able to pass the baptismal interview if they weren't prepared to pay tithing. Which seems to kind of be a pretty big problem for most Chinese converts. Which is a shame since I'm a pretty big fan of those bigger commandments that are generally harder to keep since the blessings really are so much greater. Tithing really is such a blessing.
Glad to hear you're keeping my legend alive in the Arlington Ward. Make sure to tell them about the thousands of people who are being baptized here in San Francisco as a result of my efforts and how I can shoot laser beams out of my eyes. (That last one is pretty new though.)
Pretty cool you're in the news dad [Wikileaks]. Although I can't imagine you've said anything really ridiculous in any of your cables or whatnot. If so though, I'd be excited to see your name in the headlines of the papers I occasionally get glimpses of. And if you lose your job in the government, there's always reality television.
Glad to hear things are going well as the Relief Society Czar mom. I'm sure you're top notch! Tip top! Recent converts are the best. Oh except for that one that we baptized a month or so ago since this week we think he's been avoiding us. Ok we know he has. But yesterday we finally found out why since his friend Sister Liu said that he said we shouldn't get him to accompany our lessons anymore like we had been doing before since he doesn't really feel like he's up to that. Just wish he'd just have said that in the first place haha so we wouldn't have to get avoided which is a bummer. Still, it's always a fun time to go by his apartment on Broadway haha.
Elder Luo and I basically spent most of our P-day restoring our apartment to the Celestial Glory we assume it at some point had possessed. It does look a lot better now since we spent quite a while cleaning it. At the very least Top Degree Terrestrial.
I need to go write michelle and joel back but thanks a lot for your emails! And for your presents! I love opening one every day before companionship study haha. So fun. And all the stuff you've sent so far has been so awesome and useful... except maybe the clay.. but i'll find a way to use it! I love you guys! Stay strong in the gospel and whatnot!
Love,
-Ian
Monday, December 6, 2010
Setting Goals...
NI HAOYA DOIN?!
I GOT IT! And you guys really DO love me!!! The zone leaders dropped it off on saturday night and I was like "Whahttt?!?!?! SO BIG!" And then I opened it and was like "WHATththth?!!? SO MANY!" And then I was like "I should take a picture of this!" and so went to my backpack and reached into the pocket where I kept my camera and was like "Whaththt?!?! SO NOT IN HERE!"
So basically it was all at once, the happiest night ever and the most depressing. I really have no idea where it went though. The only think I can think of is that someone reached into my bag and appropriated it as a kind of early christmas present. Such a bummer though... I feel like I keep losing stuff since I lost my scarf the other day on the stupid subway. Which basically keeps taking Elder Luo and my stuff since another time we left a couple of umbrellas at a stop and got on the subway and realized our umbrellas were outside right as the doors closed and we watched them disappear into oblivion.
On the bright side though, it had like 2 pictures on it... however there really aren't many bright sides to losing stuff like that. Sorry!
Sounds like your xmas activity went well. That's pretty cool you got to have it with those heathens, err I mean, fellow christians across the street :D We had the chance to go see the devotional too which was fun. And there was even a music program beforehand put on by various people in the stake. Had a really good performance by 4 missionaries who sang silent night and had basically really good harmony. I think theirs was probably the best performance of the night.
Music definitely is very powerful in conveying the spirit. I've never heard that experience before either mom! But then I guess I've never really been all that clear on what was going on in your 6th grade year dad haha. Thanks for sharing it though. Elder Luo and I have committed to sing even more than we do to our investigators... which will be an even better goal once I get a new companion who can stay on key! :D Don't tell him I said that... not that you would be able to... but... anyways!
We had a really good zone conference this week on asking refrerrals and setting goals/making plans. Definitely inspired since those were two places I've been struggling with lately, particularly goal-setting. But I have definitely already felt the benefits of following the advice of Pres. Wade and our goal setting is definitely way better now...
Unfortunately that's not really reflected too much in our success lately it seems... since Brother Chen didn't make it to church (and is now sick which is a bummer since we don't know when we'll be able to next meet with him), Brother Zhang said the answer to his prayer was that he was already saved and didn't need to get rebaptized (asdl;kfj;lkjaslk!!!), Sister Loi is "sick" and not very interested in continuing to meet with us (we think possibly cancer since she showed me some letters with medical information saying she might possibly have it and then she went to the doctor's right before cutting it off with us)...
So basically this week didn't go exceptionally well... but we do have high hopes that this next week will be better. We have a new investigator named Sister Zhao who's like 30! So about 50 years younger than the average! And she seems to be doing fairly well. I was on companion exchanges with Elder Mak from hong kong on saturday and we taught her in mandarin/cantonese (he used the cantonese) which was pretty interesting. Cantonese is pretty hilarious. I think i might have to learn some though before I leave since there are so many canto-speakers in this mission. Can actually understand it marginally well or at least guess at the meanings. Anyways, that lesson went pretty well. Although it seems like a lot of our investigators seem to have problems with prayer and knowing that what we're telling them is the truth. Anyways, have a couple other new investigators too which is cool but getting them to church could be a problem since our district is the furthest away from church and none of the people living downtown have cars basically.
Anyways, i'm almost out of time since it's like 1 minute before six but I just want to say that I love you and thank you so much for the big box of christmas presents. It basically feels like home in our apartment with all the xmas music and lights and stuff haha.
Anyways, gtg. Love you!
-Elder Christensen
P.S. At least the govt. is doing SOMETHING right. Probably cause there are so many mormons in the state dept. haha
I GOT IT! And you guys really DO love me!!! The zone leaders dropped it off on saturday night and I was like "Whahttt?!?!?! SO BIG!" And then I opened it and was like "WHATththth?!!? SO MANY!" And then I was like "I should take a picture of this!" and so went to my backpack and reached into the pocket where I kept my camera and was like "Whaththt?!?! SO NOT IN HERE!"
So basically it was all at once, the happiest night ever and the most depressing. I really have no idea where it went though. The only think I can think of is that someone reached into my bag and appropriated it as a kind of early christmas present. Such a bummer though... I feel like I keep losing stuff since I lost my scarf the other day on the stupid subway. Which basically keeps taking Elder Luo and my stuff since another time we left a couple of umbrellas at a stop and got on the subway and realized our umbrellas were outside right as the doors closed and we watched them disappear into oblivion.
On the bright side though, it had like 2 pictures on it... however there really aren't many bright sides to losing stuff like that. Sorry!
Sounds like your xmas activity went well. That's pretty cool you got to have it with those heathens, err I mean, fellow christians across the street :D We had the chance to go see the devotional too which was fun. And there was even a music program beforehand put on by various people in the stake. Had a really good performance by 4 missionaries who sang silent night and had basically really good harmony. I think theirs was probably the best performance of the night.
Music definitely is very powerful in conveying the spirit. I've never heard that experience before either mom! But then I guess I've never really been all that clear on what was going on in your 6th grade year dad haha. Thanks for sharing it though. Elder Luo and I have committed to sing even more than we do to our investigators... which will be an even better goal once I get a new companion who can stay on key! :D Don't tell him I said that... not that you would be able to... but... anyways!
We had a really good zone conference this week on asking refrerrals and setting goals/making plans. Definitely inspired since those were two places I've been struggling with lately, particularly goal-setting. But I have definitely already felt the benefits of following the advice of Pres. Wade and our goal setting is definitely way better now...
Unfortunately that's not really reflected too much in our success lately it seems... since Brother Chen didn't make it to church (and is now sick which is a bummer since we don't know when we'll be able to next meet with him), Brother Zhang said the answer to his prayer was that he was already saved and didn't need to get rebaptized (asdl;kfj;lkjaslk!!!), Sister Loi is "sick" and not very interested in continuing to meet with us (we think possibly cancer since she showed me some letters with medical information saying she might possibly have it and then she went to the doctor's right before cutting it off with us)...
So basically this week didn't go exceptionally well... but we do have high hopes that this next week will be better. We have a new investigator named Sister Zhao who's like 30! So about 50 years younger than the average! And she seems to be doing fairly well. I was on companion exchanges with Elder Mak from hong kong on saturday and we taught her in mandarin/cantonese (he used the cantonese) which was pretty interesting. Cantonese is pretty hilarious. I think i might have to learn some though before I leave since there are so many canto-speakers in this mission. Can actually understand it marginally well or at least guess at the meanings. Anyways, that lesson went pretty well. Although it seems like a lot of our investigators seem to have problems with prayer and knowing that what we're telling them is the truth. Anyways, have a couple other new investigators too which is cool but getting them to church could be a problem since our district is the furthest away from church and none of the people living downtown have cars basically.
Anyways, i'm almost out of time since it's like 1 minute before six but I just want to say that I love you and thank you so much for the big box of christmas presents. It basically feels like home in our apartment with all the xmas music and lights and stuff haha.
Anyways, gtg. Love you!
-Elder Christensen
P.S. At least the govt. is doing SOMETHING right. Probably cause there are so many mormons in the state dept. haha
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