Opposition in All Things

Well Helloooo!

I am in complete support of your bid to Istanbul. That would be awesome! Maybe they'll just give it to you for all those years of dedicated service to the govt that you've put in and stuff. And yeah that sounds about right about the dictionary. I'm pretty sure it is that concise one that you mentioned. Also in answer to your question mom, my Sunday wasn't that great... we got rejected a whole bunch at Marina Food and then no one came to church... so yeah, I've had better Sundays... but also worse... probably... We did however, have some random chinese guy show up at church on Sunday which was pretty cool and we're going to go teach him on Thursday... so... hooray! Also, in our combined 5th Sunday meeting, we had a talk by OUR bishop on that Being and Doing talk... man! It's like it was all coordinated or something!

Last week was both excellent and horrible. We had a Leadership training which was was great. I definitely learned a ton of things that I hadn't been doing very well and could improve on and I truly believe will help me to become a better missionary and better leader and trainer. I also went on a pretty good exchange with Elder Joseph in Hayward 4th, an Elder from New Zealand who's just pretty awesome. However, Saturday evening and Sunday were probably the most discouraging days of my mission so far.

However, for the sake of organization, let's start with the positive. Elder Joseph is a great missionary. We had a wonderful exchange and he is incredibly humble, diligent, and hardworking. He also knows Ryan King haha! Pretty crazy. He said Ryan used to go and help teach a mission prep class on Sunday mornings that he would attend and that he went tracting with him one time. So random but pretty cool.

His companion, named, Elder Kleopfer, has a fairly serious speech impediment, but is in no way letting that stand in the way of his becoming a successful missionary. Elder Joseph is also not letting it stand in the way of their companionship working in unity. By all reports, Elder Joseph does not dominate the companionship at all, but is patient and really gives Elder Kleopfer the opportunity to speak and participate in the companionship which is something I really admire and I feel like is something that I'd have a lot of trouble with if I was his companion.

On another note, people are being really really mean lately. I don't know why, but people here are really causing me to feel a lot of frustration. Which is weird cause I faced about the same amount, if not more rejection in San Francisco while I was street contacting, but, I don't know, it just gets on my nerves so much more here for some reason. Possibly because the places where we can go here are rather more limited. We have spent a lot of time at Marina Food where there are loads of Chinese people, but a lot of them have seen us quite a bit and I'm really beginning to doubt the effectiveness of going there to find people to teach. Although to be fair, our investigator with a baptismal date, Brother Jiang, was found there so... not a total loss.

Speaking of which, it's almost ridiculous how much opposition there is to missionary work sometimes. And sometimes in places you hardly even expect. We met with Brother Jiang last night and he said he wants to wait to be baptized. After further investigation, it turns out his lawyer, who is going to help him apply for a green card, told him not to get baptized because, and I quote (roughly), believing in Christ is bringing him bad luck. This is of course, based on the fact that his boss fired him for wanting to come to church on Sunday and if God really was looking out for him, his boss would've said it would be ok to go late to work on Sundays or give him Sundays off. So, I'm no lawyer, but that hardly sounds like professional advice to me. Is that the kind of thing they're teaching in law school these days? I hope not. In any case, I really hope God helps him find work soon because his rent is due on the 5th and it seems as if he might not have the funds necessary to foot the bill. But I suppose he's got to get through this trial of his faith. I really hope he does. On the upside, he has pretty much completely quit smoking. He said he doesn't really even think about it anymore, which is pretty miraculous considering less than a month ago he smoked a pack a day, not to mention the fact that that was a 40 year old habit.

In any case, I was feeling pretty discouraged yesterday just because it seems like we've talked to everyone who speaks Chinese in this whole city and they all hate us (judging from the Marina Food representative sample), which I know is not the case, but sometimes it really feels like it. But I guess I can't give in to frustration and rejection etc etc and keep thinking of new ways to find the elect, since we really don't have that many investigators right now...

Anyways, thanks for your emairs and support! I got your postcard mom. Thank you! Love you!

-Ian