Hellow!
Howsit going? Sounds like it's going pretty well. Although I'm sorry you have to be back in Washington Humid Town. The weather is very splendid here to say the least. Like, really really nice. About every day. It hardly seems fair to the rest of the world to have such nice weather here. Especially since I've heard that the rest of the US is going through a pretty bad heat wave...
In other news, Brother Jiang is doing fanstastic. He has quit smoking altogether for about a week now, and after we taught him about keeping the Sabbath Day holy, quit his job so he can come to church. It really is amazing how strong his faith has become in such a short time of teahing him and Elder Luo and I can just see how he has been prepared by the hand of the Lord to receive the restored gospel. We are also trying to help him find a job and also find someone that can help him obtain a green card or some kind of legal status since he's been here for about 9 years illegally which is a bit of a barrier to his finding work easily. However, we visited with the branch president of the spanish branch here, President Deleon and he seemed optimistic that we could find help for Brother Jiang, since he said it's easier for Chinese people to get legal status than for people from south or central America, which is what he is more familiar with. Anyway, we're going back to see President Deleon tomorrow night and he says he will prepare some more information for us. I'm confident that God will bless Brother Jiang for his faith.
We also found a very promising new investigator through English class on Saturday. She just moved here from Toronto about 12 days ago where she had also had contact with the missionaries. She seems to have a very good impression of our church and even came to 2 hours of church on Sunday which was great. Unfortunately, her fiance, who seemed fairly receptive when we taught them, was unwilling to come to church for some reason we have yet to discover. However, we are confident that we will be able to unearth any concerns and will do our best to resolve them.Our zone focus this week is finding new investigators, which I think is also something that Elder Luo and I need to work on because although we are finding quite a few new investigators, a lot of them don't really seem to have much potential to progress. We also have a leadership conference this week which is cool. I'm excited to find ways that I can personally improve and help the rest of the zone to become more successful.
You could buy me some music to play... except I already have quite a bit of music... more than I have time to play anyway... You could get me some... socks? I don't know... It's tough to think of anything that I desperately want. I do want some Chinese study materials... like a dictionary. OH yeah! Elder Reed had a sweet dictionary called like the "Tuttle" something dictionary. For some Chinese proficiency test used in China called the like HSK or something like that... In any case, if you can find that dictionary based on the very detailed description I just gave of it, I would like that so I could have something to find common useful words to memorize....
In any case, I'd better go and let this sister sitting behind me get on the computer I'm using. That'd be cool if you moved to either Taiwan or Vietnam dad. I'd be supportive of either decision. Although Vietnam would be more fun...
Anyways, love you guys!
Thanks for your love and support. Have a great week!
-Elder Christensen
Monday, July 25, 2011
Monday, July 11, 2011
Sowing, Daily Sowing
Helloooooo!
Sorry I missed the reunion. Also sorry that Jarom has amnesia now... isn't that what usually happens when people get hit on the head by falling trees? That's what I seem to have learned from the movies...
Elder Luo and I had kind of a rough week last week. We did, however, find a new investigator with a lot of promise who we set a baptismal date with. A 68-year old man from ShangHai named Brother Jiang. He has, as far as I can see, one tooth left which I believe is likely due to the hard life he has led as a smoker, and likely devoid of any semblance of dental hygene. However, he is very humble and willing to believe in our message. Brother Jiang is kind of a refugee from China. He has been here for 9 years, previous to which he was something of a political victim of the Communist Party for years and years during which he was incarcerated twice for special brainwashing programs. One of them lasted two years, which is something I can hardly begin to imagine. I am deeply grateful to the Lord for placing him in our path and allowing him an opportunity to accept the gospel. It seems like those brainwashing programs aren't very effective though to be honest since he still seems radically opposed to communism, although he wishes he could go back to China to be with his family who lives there and it wasn't really his own choice to come to America since he wouldn't have without being persecuted so much by the goverment there. He rather miraculously made it to church yesterday too. He was telling us that he wasn't going to be able to make it because he works Sundays and his work starts at 9:30 so there was no way he would be able to have time. He was also not very willing to talk to his boss to get his hours changed since he just started this work and doesn't want to lose it. However, his boss called and told him he was going to be opening the restaurant late on Sunday which allowed him time to come to church. So you can imagine our surprise when we arrived at Sacrament meeting (late, since our stake correlation meeting went a little long... first time I've been late to church as a missionary...), and there was Brother Jiang sitting in the congregation. It was pretty great.
And aside from him, we don't really have any other investigators... which is kind of sad. Although we do still have some other investigators since we found 3 last week, but one of them has already kind of dropped us and the other is really busy. One of our investigators went to scout camp this week and the of the others, which compose the Pei family, the kids went back to China and the mother and father have friends in town from China and so they are going out of town with them for much of the next month.
So basically, our teaching pool is running rather dry. Elder Luo and I spent a lot of time finding yesterday, with disappointingly little success... we hope to be able to change that this next week... since we will have a lot of time to find. We are doing our best to work through referrals since that is clearly the best way to find, but haven't had any yet, and are running out of members to visit and ask for referrals from, which I suppose is the downside to a small Chinese group with only about 15 members at best.
In any case, to be perfectly honest, my gospel study is going rather horribly lately. I am so tired in the morning and while I hardly ever fall asleep during my study time, I find it almost impossibly difficult to focus. I definitely need more focus in my study just because if I don't have anything in particular that I'm studying for or focusing on, it seems rather impossible to remember anything or receive any kind of revelation, which is something I feel fairly lacking in lately. But I suppose that's the way it goes sometimes. I'm going to stive to improve my study next week hopefully through improving exercise in the morning as well as planning study around the lessons we are scheduled to teach that day. Anyways, I don't have a whole lot of time to keep writing. Plus I need to write Aunt Cammie back since she wrote me a couple weeks ago and I haven't gotten back to her yet.
But thanks for you emals! And encouragement. Yesterday was pretty lame... but I'm sure we'll find some people this week... we just gotta! Hua hua hua! Also I did read that talk by McConkie. Just cause it was in an Ensign that I was reading the other day. Pretty good. And yes, Marina Food is very unimpressive. But we mostly stand outside the doors and contact people... I'm pretty sure they wouldn't be too happy with us going in and contacting in the noodle aisle... etc...
Anyways, love you!
Thanks for being awesome parents!
-Ian
Sorry I missed the reunion. Also sorry that Jarom has amnesia now... isn't that what usually happens when people get hit on the head by falling trees? That's what I seem to have learned from the movies...
Elder Luo and I had kind of a rough week last week. We did, however, find a new investigator with a lot of promise who we set a baptismal date with. A 68-year old man from ShangHai named Brother Jiang. He has, as far as I can see, one tooth left which I believe is likely due to the hard life he has led as a smoker, and likely devoid of any semblance of dental hygene. However, he is very humble and willing to believe in our message. Brother Jiang is kind of a refugee from China. He has been here for 9 years, previous to which he was something of a political victim of the Communist Party for years and years during which he was incarcerated twice for special brainwashing programs. One of them lasted two years, which is something I can hardly begin to imagine. I am deeply grateful to the Lord for placing him in our path and allowing him an opportunity to accept the gospel. It seems like those brainwashing programs aren't very effective though to be honest since he still seems radically opposed to communism, although he wishes he could go back to China to be with his family who lives there and it wasn't really his own choice to come to America since he wouldn't have without being persecuted so much by the goverment there. He rather miraculously made it to church yesterday too. He was telling us that he wasn't going to be able to make it because he works Sundays and his work starts at 9:30 so there was no way he would be able to have time. He was also not very willing to talk to his boss to get his hours changed since he just started this work and doesn't want to lose it. However, his boss called and told him he was going to be opening the restaurant late on Sunday which allowed him time to come to church. So you can imagine our surprise when we arrived at Sacrament meeting (late, since our stake correlation meeting went a little long... first time I've been late to church as a missionary...), and there was Brother Jiang sitting in the congregation. It was pretty great.
And aside from him, we don't really have any other investigators... which is kind of sad. Although we do still have some other investigators since we found 3 last week, but one of them has already kind of dropped us and the other is really busy. One of our investigators went to scout camp this week and the of the others, which compose the Pei family, the kids went back to China and the mother and father have friends in town from China and so they are going out of town with them for much of the next month.
So basically, our teaching pool is running rather dry. Elder Luo and I spent a lot of time finding yesterday, with disappointingly little success... we hope to be able to change that this next week... since we will have a lot of time to find. We are doing our best to work through referrals since that is clearly the best way to find, but haven't had any yet, and are running out of members to visit and ask for referrals from, which I suppose is the downside to a small Chinese group with only about 15 members at best.
In any case, to be perfectly honest, my gospel study is going rather horribly lately. I am so tired in the morning and while I hardly ever fall asleep during my study time, I find it almost impossibly difficult to focus. I definitely need more focus in my study just because if I don't have anything in particular that I'm studying for or focusing on, it seems rather impossible to remember anything or receive any kind of revelation, which is something I feel fairly lacking in lately. But I suppose that's the way it goes sometimes. I'm going to stive to improve my study next week hopefully through improving exercise in the morning as well as planning study around the lessons we are scheduled to teach that day. Anyways, I don't have a whole lot of time to keep writing. Plus I need to write Aunt Cammie back since she wrote me a couple weeks ago and I haven't gotten back to her yet.
But thanks for you emals! And encouragement. Yesterday was pretty lame... but I'm sure we'll find some people this week... we just gotta! Hua hua hua! Also I did read that talk by McConkie. Just cause it was in an Ensign that I was reading the other day. Pretty good. And yes, Marina Food is very unimpressive. But we mostly stand outside the doors and contact people... I'm pretty sure they wouldn't be too happy with us going in and contacting in the noodle aisle... etc...
Anyways, love you!
Thanks for being awesome parents!
-Ian
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Happy 4th of July!
Herrrowww!!!
Happy 4th of July!
Hope the Culdesac of Fire is as spectacular as ever. Especially with all the new illegal, legalized fireworks... why would they even bother changing a law like that? That's pretty cool you got to see the fireworks display from the plane though mom. We only got to listen to it last night going to sleep... although I'm sure there will be more tonight. It's actually been super hot here lately... yesterday was pretty darn hot and we spent a couple of hours contacting out in front of Marina Food... and only found 1 person we were able to set an appointment up with...
We had a rather interesting week last week. First off, Rachel Luo got baptised last night which was wonderful. Her baptism went really well and was a good experience for everyone that went. She seemed really happy about it and shared a powerful testimony at the end of her baptismal service. I think she will definitely be a great addition to the Chinese group here. She had a great deal of family attend her baptismal service to support her as well which was great. Her aunt who I taught in San Francisco, two of her cousins and her cousin's boyfriend as well as her grandmother all attended the service and seemed to enjoy it. We hope to be able to have an opportunity to teach them since they are all really nice people but it's rather difficult since her aunt works in San Francisco during the week and only comes back here on Sunday night and doesn't really have any time to come to church and I think her cousin lives near Stanford somewhere so if we do get the chance to teach her, we would have to refer her over to the elders in San Jose.
Unfortunately, our other investigator, Sister Yu, lost her baptismal date and it is rather unlikely that we will get another chance to teach her because we left her the Restoration DVD to watch and her husband, who evidently is a devout Catholic which we thought wouldn't be a problem, got extremely angry after they watched it and told her she couldn't meet with us/come to church anymore. Pretty disheartening. Especially since we don't really have a lot of other investigators with the potential she had.... and to be honest... don't really have ANY other investigators... except for a couple ones with next to no desire to meet with us... SO....We are going to focus a lot more on finding this week.
We only found 1 investigator last week and she doesn't seem all that keen on progressing in the gospel. However, she is really funny since she's one of our English class students and is 80 years old hahahaI don't know what it is about Elder Luo and I and insisting on teaching octagenarians. In any case, people that old aren't generally too keen on change... although I do really like her personality haha.
Anyways, I'd better go... but thanks so much for your emairrs! And support etc! Hope you have a great week!
Love, Elder Christensen
P.S. I guess maybe just some chiense study materials for my birthday but I also talked to Joel already about that... not that I really expect him to come through any time soon since.. he's joel... JK!!! Except I can't really blame him since the post office is always rather far away... like this thing I haven't emailed to michelle yet for her birthday... however... I also don't have her address..
Happy 4th of July!
Hope the Culdesac of Fire is as spectacular as ever. Especially with all the new illegal, legalized fireworks... why would they even bother changing a law like that? That's pretty cool you got to see the fireworks display from the plane though mom. We only got to listen to it last night going to sleep... although I'm sure there will be more tonight. It's actually been super hot here lately... yesterday was pretty darn hot and we spent a couple of hours contacting out in front of Marina Food... and only found 1 person we were able to set an appointment up with...
We had a rather interesting week last week. First off, Rachel Luo got baptised last night which was wonderful. Her baptism went really well and was a good experience for everyone that went. She seemed really happy about it and shared a powerful testimony at the end of her baptismal service. I think she will definitely be a great addition to the Chinese group here. She had a great deal of family attend her baptismal service to support her as well which was great. Her aunt who I taught in San Francisco, two of her cousins and her cousin's boyfriend as well as her grandmother all attended the service and seemed to enjoy it. We hope to be able to have an opportunity to teach them since they are all really nice people but it's rather difficult since her aunt works in San Francisco during the week and only comes back here on Sunday night and doesn't really have any time to come to church and I think her cousin lives near Stanford somewhere so if we do get the chance to teach her, we would have to refer her over to the elders in San Jose.
Unfortunately, our other investigator, Sister Yu, lost her baptismal date and it is rather unlikely that we will get another chance to teach her because we left her the Restoration DVD to watch and her husband, who evidently is a devout Catholic which we thought wouldn't be a problem, got extremely angry after they watched it and told her she couldn't meet with us/come to church anymore. Pretty disheartening. Especially since we don't really have a lot of other investigators with the potential she had.... and to be honest... don't really have ANY other investigators... except for a couple ones with next to no desire to meet with us... SO....We are going to focus a lot more on finding this week.
We only found 1 investigator last week and she doesn't seem all that keen on progressing in the gospel. However, she is really funny since she's one of our English class students and is 80 years old hahahaI don't know what it is about Elder Luo and I and insisting on teaching octagenarians. In any case, people that old aren't generally too keen on change... although I do really like her personality haha.
Anyways, I'd better go... but thanks so much for your emairrs! And support etc! Hope you have a great week!
Love, Elder Christensen
P.S. I guess maybe just some chiense study materials for my birthday but I also talked to Joel already about that... not that I really expect him to come through any time soon since.. he's joel... JK!!! Except I can't really blame him since the post office is always rather far away... like this thing I haven't emailed to michelle yet for her birthday... however... I also don't have her address..
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