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
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