Diamond Vs. Cubic Zirconia

Feb. 7, 2011

Hai!

Right I was gonna mention about that but I actually got used to it after the first couple of days (being senior companion that is). The first couple days I was like flipping out cause of all the responsibility and having to deal with everything and make phone calls and stuff but I really feel that the Lord has supported me in this calling. Not only with my language but also just with knowing what to do a lot of the time. I feel that my teaching skills have improved a ton in the past couple weeks and Elder Wu and I are seeing a lot a lot of success in this area. Not really through anything that I've been doing, but the Lord has been blessing us so much. This week we added 5 new investigators, have 4 with a baptismal date, and taught 7 lessons with a member present, which is pretty phenomenal. We have a lot of new investigators with a lot of potential.

Actually one of the new investigators we added was totally by accident haha! Last week we set up an appointment with an investigator named sister yin. And when I called to confirm, she had no problem and we set up for saturday at 2:30. Anyways, it turns out she was sick on that day so we rescheduled for tuesday at 4:00. So we set up to meet her in union square and were calling to set up a place to meet and stuff and everything went really well. Anyways, when she finally showed up, Elder Wu and I were like "who... is this?!?" It turns out the person I had been calling the whole time was a totally different person named sister YAN. Somehow, the whole time I was calling her on the phone and setting up and confirming appointments and stuff, it was a completely different person from the person I thought I was talking to hahahaha. Pretty hilarious. So anyways, we taught her a lesson and set up a return appointment and then called the person I had originally thought we were going to meet. She was like "yeah I was wondering about that cause I was waiting for you guys to call me on that day but I don't have your number so I couldn't get in touch with you. Haha so we set up an appointment with Sister Yin yesterday at the library which went really well as well.

For some reason, the only people we seem to be adding as new investigators are young women... which seems kind of sketchy... but it's not! Like we added 5 new investigators this week and 4 of them were girls between 20 and 25. So my new contacting strategy is to ignore everyone except for people who fit that demographic.... Just kidding!... Except only kind of... cause really... success. The other new investigator is a referral given to us by one of the diamond investigators we added last week which just adds to her diamondness. Unfortunately, the other diamond investigator is looking a little bit like cubit zirconium (Don't know if it's cubit... but I'm pretty sure the zirconium part is right... anyways that fake diamond stuff)... since she didn't come to our appoint last week and we haven't been able to get in touch with her lately. But we still have hope that she's actually just super busy lately and still is up for getting baptized in 3 weeks. Anyways, her friend sister Ying is still absolutely amazing and is more active than most of our members haha. Especially since she's already given us a referral which is pretty unheard of for the members in our area.

Another of the girls we added, Anita Long, is looking pretty darn golden. We met her on the street as we were walking towards chinatown and she was like "yeah i'm looking for a church to go to... I went to one the other week but it was all young people and they didn't seem very reverent/serious about their religion so I'm looking for something else"

Anyways so then we had a lesson with her on monday and then on last saturday right before our branch's new years party and set a baptismal date with her on the 5th of march which looks pretty stable. Also, her parents are coming to the states tonight and she said they're also interested in going to church which is pretty much really awesome!
I really don't know what's happened to our area but this is the most success I've seen since I've been here. People are really just coming out of the woodwork and the Lord is putting those prepared to hear and accept the gospel in our path. I've decided that contacting in chinatown isn't the most effective thing ever since it seems like people from GuangDong are almost universally either too busy to care about religion, or too busy and anti-religion. Elder Wu and I were just talking about it the other night and he was like "yeah it's just their culture, they just say "There's no god, rely on yourself" And right after he said that this guy from Guangdong walked past and I was like "hi we're representatives of Jesus Christ!" And he was like "I don't believe in god, I believe in myself!" It was quite ironic.

Anyways, as far as teaching female investigators is concerned, we've got it pretty much covered but we do need a 3rd male present if we teach them in a non-public place. So if we cant find any males to come along we have to end up teaching them in the library or parks and stuff... which isn't that ideal... but better than nothing.

Our other investigator with a baptismal date (Elder Kuang) is doing really well. He came to church for the first time on sunday and really liked it. Looking really solid.

I'd talk more about my investigators, and I really could, but I don't have that much time left and still have to write my letter to the president. Sounds like you're doing pretty good in washington. That's awesome you're having so many missionary experiences mom! I know that there really are so many people that are looking for this gospel and really need it, I know that the spirit will help you to know those times and give you what to say when you need to say it (D+C... lots of places...).

Also, I don't remember writing mean things about yoav in my engilsh journal... but that does sound like me haha. That must have been 9th grade or something... although that seems kind of old to be writing grammar sentences... but I can't really remember not liking him that much before 9th grade haha. Anyways, I've repented... also it helps that I haven't seen him in years...

Anyways, thanks so much for your emails! I love you so much! One thing i've realized this week (well have known for quite a while actually) is that the Ouyang parents are literally controlled by their kids... and I'm so glad I have very little control over you guys... and I really appreciate everything you did to raise me to be the really great and amazing person that I am today (ALSO HUMBLE!).

Love you! Have a fantastic week!

Ian