Herroww!
Well when I said Elder Wu's Mandarin wasn't that good I mean his pronunciation is pretty poor. But his mandarin is quite good. Despite the fact that mine might be just a little bit better (mainly in the pronunciation dept.), we only use Mandarin to communicate. Elder Wu is pretty cool. We get along really really well for the most part. Maybe even better than Elder Luo and I did since Elder Wu grew up in the church and as a HongKonger is a little more westernized. Also doesn't have random radical views of Chinese superiority/ethnocentrism haha.
Whatever the case, that sounds pretty serious about the nuclear plants in Japan. Although, let me share with you how it's affecting the work here in San Francisco. Got the most ridiculous message the other day from our investigators with an excuse for canceling our lesson I have not yet encountered on my mission. They were like (actually just the girlfriend sister jiang) (and i'm quoting word for word) "Sorry we won't come today and I recommend you not to be out neither. The cloud with nuclear radiation from japan arrives in SF today so that it very dangerous of the rain now. So don't go outside when it rains"... I was soooooo mad. The most ridiculous excuse I have ever heard for canceling anything in my whole life. NUCLEAR RADIATION CLOUD FROM JAPAN!?!?!? ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!?!? Also since we'd already invited a member to come to our lesson and this was about 5-10 minutes before we were scheduled to meet. I was so so angry. So I sent back (although I wanted to be more angry in my text) "We actually invited a firend to come to our lesson today so we'd love it if in the future you could give us an hour or two prior notice to let us know if you won't be available. To be honest there is absolutely nothing to worry about with regards to radiation from japan but if we turn into mutants or something we'll let you know. Are you coming to church tomorrow? or going out of town?" I'm not sure if she knows what a mutant is, but I guess she never will since we suffered very few ill effects from swimming through the dense cloud of nuclear radiation falling from the sky upon our heads.... Well Elder Wu and I had a bit of a headache... but we think that's mainly a result of our investigators being really annoying.
Apparently their parents had like called/emailed them and said that Chinese news was really talking up the radiation that was gonna come over to SF and so told them to stay inside and that although they know local news says it's nothing (it was), they trust Chinese news is more "reliable". Which two terms I always considered somewhat anathema to one another... At least one good thing came out of the experience since I had to learn what radiation was in chinese: 輻射。Whatever the case, that's cool you had a chance to take part in missionary work mom! Yep! That's pretty much how it goes! Investigators drop off the map and then don't answer their phone/the door and you don't have any idea why. Kind of like an investigator who was looking super golden who we met a couple weeks ago and set a baptismal date and then canceled an appt. via text saying she was sick and has, since that time, not answered our phone/texts which is really annoying and frustrating. Anyways, I'm sure everything will be ok in the end. Just depends on the will of God.
Elder Wu and I are always like "靠神的旨意！ 我們什麽都不需要做！“華華華！(the hua hua hua being of course a reference to something Anirudh once said in our chinese class in 9th grade... pretty good... I'm sure you remember...).... Clearly joking... but still fun to say.
I love speaking chinese in downtown san francisco. There really is no downside to SYL here since a)no one can understand you so you can say whatever you want and no one knows what you're saying, b) If they do understand you, then you get to talk to them about the gospel and start teaching them, c) Helps improve the ol' chinese speaking skills and d) Contacting is totally not awkward cause people around you don't know what you're saying and so your conversations are totally private... Also cause I don't have to use english to contact which although I do occasionally, is always awkward and not my favorite activity... although a couple people we've contacted have ended up being pretty cool and getting baptized. (Ok one guy so far... and he's kind of crazy... so... still... not bad.)I actually think about the parable of the sower a lot dad. Like how Sister Ying is like 100 fold awesomeness and then there is brother OuYang who is like the one that falls upon really shallow ground and when the sun comes up, gets all dried out and dies... sigh... so sad... If his stupid kids weren't such brats... ok that was harsh... but they are pretty bratty. Also since his wife isn't that supportive, and although I'd say it would help, I still think most of the power in that family lies in the hands of the children...which doesn't make very much sense to me but is really annoying. Especially since they're 4 and 9 and don't know anything.
However, we had a pretty successful week this week. Had a lot of lessons (11! Which is the highest for our area... Never had more than 11 but it's still the highest... we tried to set a record... but failed.... ) Also we found this awesome hotel right across from our office where we can just 隨便 go in and out without any problems at all and therefore can teach a lot more lessons with female investigators cause we don't need to find a 陪課 which takes a loooot of pressure off. Especially since a lot of the time having a 陪課 isn't even that useful since our members aren't very good at fellowshipping and don't really seem to get the purpose of coming along to lessons which is kind of frustrating. I wish you could come and give a pep talk too mom.
Haven't been singing too much. Had a musical number where we did 3 part harmony (tried 4... didn't really take since I ended up having to go sing base with Elder Wu he was having a little trouble and so the first verse was sounding pretty rough... ok really rough.. but after that it sounded pretty good.
That's pretty awesome you got to participate in that brother's sponge bath hospital experience mom! Keep it up! That's good that rochester is making friends. Always nice to hear updates on how he's doing. Getting in any fights with squirrels/mice lately? Although I guess all he has to do is chase them into the bathroom and they'll do the rest hahaha.
Anyways, that's about it for this week. Had 2 investigators come to church yesterday which is better than 1 but not all that great... at least sacrament meeting was in Mandarin yesterday instead of Mantonese... I just wish our branch was better cause it seems like none of our investigators really understand the importance of church attendance and as Elder Wu said "There's not really anything to attract them..." Which I can't really disagree with... but I don't really know what to do about it. We're thinking of hiring a rock band or putting on some chinese acrobatic shows... let me know if you have any other suggestions...
In any case, I guess i'll stop here since although there are a billion gajllion things that happen within the week, I cannot write but an hundredth part of them (get that reference?!?! I AM studying the scriptures and stuff!)... much less remember that much. Also I only really keep occasional journal entries (once every few days...) since we're pretty darn busy all the time and most nights we have to make a bunch of phone calls anyways....Kay. Love you guys! Thanks for your emails!
Bai bai!
-Ian
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