Sept. 26, 2011
Herrow!
So we had a pretty good week here! One thing Elder Lin and I are really considering lately is improving the fellowshipping power of our Chinese group. Really, aside from meeting together every Sunday for church, they don't really have much other outside contact that builds their friendship and unity. So we've been talking with our members and are starting to work with them to start a kind of Chinese group potluck family home evening activity where our Chinese group members could meet together at least twice a month and that we could bring investigators to and use to build more unity in our group. We talked to the bishop and he's really supportive so we're really hoping to get that in the works so we can help improve retention.
I'm really beginning to understand more and more that scripture in the Doctrine and Covenants that talks about being actively engaged in a good cause and that it's not enough to just obey commandments in a robotic fashion but that we need to get going and take initiative to build the kingdom. Our great recent convert Chen Bing really understands that. He does have shortcomings of his own but he is definitely very enthusiastic about getting our Chinese group more established and unified so we can build up to eventually the level of a branch. I think it would be great if we could get that vision instilled in all of the members of the group. We talked about it with a couple of the older group members and didn't feel like they really had much of a grasp of it... but that's ok, we can keep working on them.
Meanwhile, we are definitely seeing some great success in this area. We seem to be adding more and more really quality investigators who have potential to progress. We took Brother Zhao to the Visitors Center last night and he had a really good experience and is looking very solid for his date on the 16th of October. He's also doing well on his commitment to give up alcohol.
We are also teaching the nephews of brother Zheng and they have a lot of potential. One of them has a baptismal date for the 16th and we're going to try to set that goal with his older brother tonight when we meet with them. Unfortunately, they did not make it to church yesterday which was really frustrating because they just woke up late and didn't tell their uncle they were coming today. Guess that was kind of our fault as well since we should be planning for that kind of stuff to make sure we're doing all we can to get them there.
One of our older investigators, brother Jiang, is back in the picture since he just lost his job again. He does like to meet with us and I believe he has had a witness of the truthfulness of our message, but he's kind of still being held back by the old concern of "his lawyer told him not to get baptized". We had a pretty intense lesson with him yesterday where we told him his lawyer has absolutely no authority to advise him on things like this... but he still insisted that he needed to wait to be baptized. Pretty frustrating, but we'll keep working with him. Hopefully by building his trust in the reality of God's power, we can get him moving forward since he still seems a little shaky on that point.
We had a great sacrament meeting yesterday where the speakers talked about how God will accept nothing less than a complete sacrifice of everything we have. We must be willing to give everything for him including our will and desires. It was pretty good. One of the speakers said "If you don't read scriptures and pray, it's not because you don't have time but because you don't think it's important." So true. I just wish I could use a priorities straightener-outer machine to get everyone on track so they'll stop "laboring for things of no worth" etc etc.
Anyways, that's pretty exciting that you're getting to go to Croatia this week. I wish I could go with you!
A bunch of other missionaries just came into the room though so it's really hard to concentrate haha. But I'd better go anyway.
Love you! Thanks for the letters and support!
-Ian
Monday, September 26, 2011
Monday, September 19, 2011
I Dream of China
Hello!
The interview with Elder Edwards went pretty well. It was pretty short and simple. Just asked some questions like "is your apartment clean? Do you get along with your companion? Are you obedient? Etc etc..." To which I all answered in the affirmative so I was able to pass pretty easily. I knew all the answers so it wasn't that hard. Haha. Our Zone Conference was pretty good though. He talked a lot about following the Spirit and how the Spirit doesn't work well on demand haha. So you have to create an environment into which the Spirit can flow and help you teach and learn and whatnot.
He didn't mention anything about the covert Chinese mission, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed haha. Last night for some reason I dreamt that I was serving a mission in Beijing but not in the Chinese language cause we weren't allowed to talk to Chinese people about the gospel so I was serving in the Beijing Branch and like teaching foreigners haha. It was pretty weird. I was like "hey it's cool I get to serve in Beijing but kind of weird that I'm serving in my old branch... speaking English... In China..." Haha.
In any case, we had a pretty good week last week. We found 3 new investigators and they all seem to have a lot of promise. We also set a baptismal date with brother Zhao for the 16th of October and he's doing really really well. He said he feels really good every time he meets with us and we shared with him the Word of Wisdom yesterday and he said he would stop drinking alcohol which he used to drink pretty regularly. So he's on the right track.
So, our investigator Linda Xu got baptized in some random Christian church yesterday which was pretty annoying... I guess we weren't able to provide her with what she was looking for, namely: a Chinese speaking social organization that also study the Bible sometimes. It's just discouraging that we would teach her for such a long time to really no avail it seems like. Probably the biggest problem that I feel kept her from being converted was that she didn't read the Book of Mormon regularly and therefore wasn't able to establish her faith in it even though she said she believes it is the word of God... but if she really believed that and understood it then it wouldn't make very much sense for her to get baptized into another church. Although we did explain it very very clearly in a way that she could not understand why our church is the only true one and the others just aren't. I think she's a little less interested in what God thinks and more interested in what she wants to do. I was thinking about this during my personal study today and read in the Joseph Smith history where Joseph talks about how when he was stirred up to all kind of uneasiness and thought over the matter of religion he said in verse 8 I think "although my feelings were deep and often poignant, I still held myself aloof from joining any of the religious sects..." It sort of helped me understand that there could definitely be feelings from the Spirit or from some other source that can result from attending different churches but you can't always discern truth from that. But then again, it is easier to be a member of other churches.
Also I don't know if you had this in Taiwan, but it seems like every educated or uneducated Chinese person who has heard MoMenJiao before thinks we're a cult and it's impossible to convince them otherwise. So obnoxious. Last night we were going to teach a sister and her husband but then they cancelled on us cause her husband called and was like "hey, so what gospel do you teach? Like... the Old Testament and the New Testament...?" Of course, I wasn't going to lie to him, but it was really stupid because there's really almost no persuasion that can be done over the phone....
That's too bad about BYU... I heard they beat Texas though... which makes it kind of funny that we'd get destroyed to bad by Utah. But fortunately, neither Michelle, Joel, or I are going there at the moment, so we are effectively protected from the shameful depression resultant from such a sound thrashing.
Good to hear you got the job in Taiwan dad. Although Vietnam would be more exciting... do you know when they'll be making that decision?
Whatever the case, love you! Thank you for everything!
-Ian
The interview with Elder Edwards went pretty well. It was pretty short and simple. Just asked some questions like "is your apartment clean? Do you get along with your companion? Are you obedient? Etc etc..." To which I all answered in the affirmative so I was able to pass pretty easily. I knew all the answers so it wasn't that hard. Haha. Our Zone Conference was pretty good though. He talked a lot about following the Spirit and how the Spirit doesn't work well on demand haha. So you have to create an environment into which the Spirit can flow and help you teach and learn and whatnot.
He didn't mention anything about the covert Chinese mission, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed haha. Last night for some reason I dreamt that I was serving a mission in Beijing but not in the Chinese language cause we weren't allowed to talk to Chinese people about the gospel so I was serving in the Beijing Branch and like teaching foreigners haha. It was pretty weird. I was like "hey it's cool I get to serve in Beijing but kind of weird that I'm serving in my old branch... speaking English... In China..." Haha.
In any case, we had a pretty good week last week. We found 3 new investigators and they all seem to have a lot of promise. We also set a baptismal date with brother Zhao for the 16th of October and he's doing really really well. He said he feels really good every time he meets with us and we shared with him the Word of Wisdom yesterday and he said he would stop drinking alcohol which he used to drink pretty regularly. So he's on the right track.
So, our investigator Linda Xu got baptized in some random Christian church yesterday which was pretty annoying... I guess we weren't able to provide her with what she was looking for, namely: a Chinese speaking social organization that also study the Bible sometimes. It's just discouraging that we would teach her for such a long time to really no avail it seems like. Probably the biggest problem that I feel kept her from being converted was that she didn't read the Book of Mormon regularly and therefore wasn't able to establish her faith in it even though she said she believes it is the word of God... but if she really believed that and understood it then it wouldn't make very much sense for her to get baptized into another church. Although we did explain it very very clearly in a way that she could not understand why our church is the only true one and the others just aren't. I think she's a little less interested in what God thinks and more interested in what she wants to do. I was thinking about this during my personal study today and read in the Joseph Smith history where Joseph talks about how when he was stirred up to all kind of uneasiness and thought over the matter of religion he said in verse 8 I think "although my feelings were deep and often poignant, I still held myself aloof from joining any of the religious sects..." It sort of helped me understand that there could definitely be feelings from the Spirit or from some other source that can result from attending different churches but you can't always discern truth from that. But then again, it is easier to be a member of other churches.
Also I don't know if you had this in Taiwan, but it seems like every educated or uneducated Chinese person who has heard MoMenJiao before thinks we're a cult and it's impossible to convince them otherwise. So obnoxious. Last night we were going to teach a sister and her husband but then they cancelled on us cause her husband called and was like "hey, so what gospel do you teach? Like... the Old Testament and the New Testament...?" Of course, I wasn't going to lie to him, but it was really stupid because there's really almost no persuasion that can be done over the phone....
That's too bad about BYU... I heard they beat Texas though... which makes it kind of funny that we'd get destroyed to bad by Utah. But fortunately, neither Michelle, Joel, or I are going there at the moment, so we are effectively protected from the shameful depression resultant from such a sound thrashing.
Good to hear you got the job in Taiwan dad. Although Vietnam would be more exciting... do you know when they'll be making that decision?
Whatever the case, love you! Thank you for everything!
-Ian
Monday, September 12, 2011
Baptism and Promising Area
Hello!
I decided to reply to you first dad since your letter is very long this week. Although not as long as Joel's blog entry which I just read haha. Pretty funny though. You have all kinds of blogs to check up on these days! I'll try to be as clever and witty as Joel was in his blog but I'm afraid I might fall short. Mainly because it takes much more effort and time than I have or am willing to expend.
However, Tony Zheng is actually from SiChuan and owns a SiChuan not-mongolian-barbeque restaurant. We've only eaten there once since we happened to be there when they were starting lunch for the workers but what they made that day wasn't really that great so I don't think we really got a sample of how their food really is. However, they don't get a lot of business because (Brother Bing Chen, his fellowshipper and our #1 go to fellowshipper man, suggests) their food is too authentic and they don't have enough variety to attract the local general population and certainly not the American population who seek after oily American imitations of Chinese food. It's kind of funny actually since brother Bing Chen is always using our appointments lately to do business... which isn't that ideal... but there you go. He has sort of gone into business with Tony Zheng to write some software to help his restaurant be more organized and help him attract more customers. We'll have to wait and see how it works out. Hopefully well.
In any case, Brother Zheng's baptism went pretty well. We didn't get a huge turnout from the ward which was a little disappointing, but the Spirit was there and it seemed to be a good experience for him. There were a couple things that were really ridiculous though. For example, the person we invited to do a talk on the Holy Ghost, Sister Ren, didn't show up... because... she forgot. So we weren't too happy about that. I ended up giving said talk. Also the person we invited to play the piano said she couldn't play the first hymn and could only play the last hymn... so I ended up playing the piano. Our ward mission leader wasn't too pleased with the turnout either which is understandable... but when he talked about it it felt a little like he was blaming us for that... and I suppose we could have taken a little more initiative in inviting people to come, but at the same time, I don't really feel like it's completely our responsibility that no one was willing to make time to come and we did invite a fair number of people who didn't show up. But that's ok.
I'm really excited about our area and the Chinese group here. Elder Lin and I are working really hard to find more people who are ready to receive the gospel and I feel we are being blessed a lot to find them. Although we didn't have any of those we expected to be to at church actually come, there was another Chinese brother who randomly walked into our meeting and we then were able to begin teaching last night who seems very humble and prepared. He's named brother Zhao and does renovation work in the bay area. There are definitely still some challenges to his progression as he likely smokes and sometimes has to work on Sunday but he definitely is willing to change and I have faith that as he continues to build his faith these things won't be a problem. He also suggested to us that him and a lot of his friends have interest in studying English but only have time at night so Elder Lin and I are thinking of starting a night english class because I'll bet there are a lot of Chinese of a different demographic of the ones we have in our class now who could make it at night. We're also considering making a lot of changes to our English class to make it a better finding tool than it is now which is really exciting cause I think we can find a lot more people through English class.
We also have stake conference next week which is cool. And brother Chen Bing is going to receive the Melchezidek Priesthood! Which is really awesome especially since I thought you had to wait like a year before you could get it but brother Chen was baptized only about 4 months ago. Maybe Bishop Lee is trying to get a Chinese branch established as soon as he can so is trying to get the Melchezidek Priesthood leadership going.
The weather has been very mild and temperate here for as long as I can remember. And that's all there is to report here in California haha.
Sounds like your stake president was a clever clever young man haha. That sounds like the most dangerous thing ever! But I guess you just gotta do what you gotta do sometimes. Boys will be boys. That's just the way it is sometimes. It is what it is! Etc etc.
I'd better go so my companion doesn't have to keep waiting!
Love you! We have a 70 in town to visit our mission named Elder Edwards and for some reason he's doing 1 on 1 interviews with all the zone leaders. Which means me! So we're going up to the mission home tonight at 5... which is kind of annoying cause it cuts off some of our p-day but on the other hand, it should be a pretty unique experience. I've never had a 1 on 1 interview with a general authority before.
I'll let you know how it goes.
Love you!
Have a great week!
-Ian
I decided to reply to you first dad since your letter is very long this week. Although not as long as Joel's blog entry which I just read haha. Pretty funny though. You have all kinds of blogs to check up on these days! I'll try to be as clever and witty as Joel was in his blog but I'm afraid I might fall short. Mainly because it takes much more effort and time than I have or am willing to expend.
However, Tony Zheng is actually from SiChuan and owns a SiChuan not-mongolian-barbeque restaurant. We've only eaten there once since we happened to be there when they were starting lunch for the workers but what they made that day wasn't really that great so I don't think we really got a sample of how their food really is. However, they don't get a lot of business because (Brother Bing Chen, his fellowshipper and our #1 go to fellowshipper man, suggests) their food is too authentic and they don't have enough variety to attract the local general population and certainly not the American population who seek after oily American imitations of Chinese food. It's kind of funny actually since brother Bing Chen is always using our appointments lately to do business... which isn't that ideal... but there you go. He has sort of gone into business with Tony Zheng to write some software to help his restaurant be more organized and help him attract more customers. We'll have to wait and see how it works out. Hopefully well.
In any case, Brother Zheng's baptism went pretty well. We didn't get a huge turnout from the ward which was a little disappointing, but the Spirit was there and it seemed to be a good experience for him. There were a couple things that were really ridiculous though. For example, the person we invited to do a talk on the Holy Ghost, Sister Ren, didn't show up... because... she forgot. So we weren't too happy about that. I ended up giving said talk. Also the person we invited to play the piano said she couldn't play the first hymn and could only play the last hymn... so I ended up playing the piano. Our ward mission leader wasn't too pleased with the turnout either which is understandable... but when he talked about it it felt a little like he was blaming us for that... and I suppose we could have taken a little more initiative in inviting people to come, but at the same time, I don't really feel like it's completely our responsibility that no one was willing to make time to come and we did invite a fair number of people who didn't show up. But that's ok.
I'm really excited about our area and the Chinese group here. Elder Lin and I are working really hard to find more people who are ready to receive the gospel and I feel we are being blessed a lot to find them. Although we didn't have any of those we expected to be to at church actually come, there was another Chinese brother who randomly walked into our meeting and we then were able to begin teaching last night who seems very humble and prepared. He's named brother Zhao and does renovation work in the bay area. There are definitely still some challenges to his progression as he likely smokes and sometimes has to work on Sunday but he definitely is willing to change and I have faith that as he continues to build his faith these things won't be a problem. He also suggested to us that him and a lot of his friends have interest in studying English but only have time at night so Elder Lin and I are thinking of starting a night english class because I'll bet there are a lot of Chinese of a different demographic of the ones we have in our class now who could make it at night. We're also considering making a lot of changes to our English class to make it a better finding tool than it is now which is really exciting cause I think we can find a lot more people through English class.
We also have stake conference next week which is cool. And brother Chen Bing is going to receive the Melchezidek Priesthood! Which is really awesome especially since I thought you had to wait like a year before you could get it but brother Chen was baptized only about 4 months ago. Maybe Bishop Lee is trying to get a Chinese branch established as soon as he can so is trying to get the Melchezidek Priesthood leadership going.
The weather has been very mild and temperate here for as long as I can remember. And that's all there is to report here in California haha.
Sounds like your stake president was a clever clever young man haha. That sounds like the most dangerous thing ever! But I guess you just gotta do what you gotta do sometimes. Boys will be boys. That's just the way it is sometimes. It is what it is! Etc etc.
I'd better go so my companion doesn't have to keep waiting!
Love you! We have a 70 in town to visit our mission named Elder Edwards and for some reason he's doing 1 on 1 interviews with all the zone leaders. Which means me! So we're going up to the mission home tonight at 5... which is kind of annoying cause it cuts off some of our p-day but on the other hand, it should be a pretty unique experience. I've never had a 1 on 1 interview with a general authority before.
I'll let you know how it goes.
Love you!
Have a great week!
-Ian
Monday, September 5, 2011
Caution: Do Not Wear a Wig to Your Baptism
Sept. 5, 2011
Helllowww!
That's a sweet story about Nymka! That's exactly what I hope would happen with all our investigators. For example brother Jiang! Who we can only meet with on Wednesdays cause he's so busy and doesn't have time to meet with us any other day or get baptized. We also heard from one of our members who was down by his place of work, that she saw him smoking again... which is a bummer because it was pretty miraculous that he was able to stop... but I guess he's probably back in an environment where all his coworkers smoke so it'd be pretty hard to resist that kind of a temptation. Oh well, I hope there are more things in store for brother Jiang because his faith has definitely been weakening.
We have a couple really heavy people in our ward here too. It is really pretty sad that people would let that happen to themselves. There is definitely a genetic predisposition to obesity but I also believe that there's no reason to be obese if you have the will not to be. For example, I've been running every morning (except Sundays) since August 1st... although it's really hard and it seems like I have to force myself every time to build up the willpower to do it, it's definitely worth it. Hopefully.
Sister Sun's baptism went pretty well on Saturday. Not a huge turnout, but most of our Chinese group was there to support her which was great. I ended up being the one to baptize her cause we were a little pressed for time preparing her baptism and couldn't think of anyone else to do it haha. But it was a good experience. Kind of funny actually since she was wearing a wig (it looks so real!) and it kind of came off when she was baptized... but that's ok, at least we only had to do it once haha. She was like "this church is so much better than my church in China!" Haha. She is going over to Chicago this next week on the 13th but then we found out she's coming back after like 10 days and she'll be here for a couple more months which is really great cause we can continue helping her to understand the gospel and make sure she understands clearly that she needs to keep going to our church when she goes back to China.
Good to hear you're going out with the missionaries a lot lately mom! It'll definitely be a blessing! We have a really cool investigator scheduled for baptism this Saturday named Tony Zheng. I've probably talked about him before. I was a little concerned to teach him about the Law of Tithing since he owns a restaurant and really works pretty hard to earn what he has but I guess I should've had more faith cause he accepted it without a problem. We're going to go to the visitor's center with him tomorrow morning and getting everything set up for his baptism. It's going to be really great. Last week he was like "I want you to come by my restaurant more so we can talk more about the gospel" haha. We were like "Ok! No problem!"
That's interesting I was the center of attention in your primary cause we also went and did a presentation type thing in primary here too!
There aren't really any sights in our area... so... but we'll probably play some piano etc etc.
Anyways, I'd better go since there are a bunch of people waiting to use computers here in the FHC... but thanks for your letters and support!
Love you!
Ian
Helllowww!
That's a sweet story about Nymka! That's exactly what I hope would happen with all our investigators. For example brother Jiang! Who we can only meet with on Wednesdays cause he's so busy and doesn't have time to meet with us any other day or get baptized. We also heard from one of our members who was down by his place of work, that she saw him smoking again... which is a bummer because it was pretty miraculous that he was able to stop... but I guess he's probably back in an environment where all his coworkers smoke so it'd be pretty hard to resist that kind of a temptation. Oh well, I hope there are more things in store for brother Jiang because his faith has definitely been weakening.
We have a couple really heavy people in our ward here too. It is really pretty sad that people would let that happen to themselves. There is definitely a genetic predisposition to obesity but I also believe that there's no reason to be obese if you have the will not to be. For example, I've been running every morning (except Sundays) since August 1st... although it's really hard and it seems like I have to force myself every time to build up the willpower to do it, it's definitely worth it. Hopefully.
Sister Sun's baptism went pretty well on Saturday. Not a huge turnout, but most of our Chinese group was there to support her which was great. I ended up being the one to baptize her cause we were a little pressed for time preparing her baptism and couldn't think of anyone else to do it haha. But it was a good experience. Kind of funny actually since she was wearing a wig (it looks so real!) and it kind of came off when she was baptized... but that's ok, at least we only had to do it once haha. She was like "this church is so much better than my church in China!" Haha. She is going over to Chicago this next week on the 13th but then we found out she's coming back after like 10 days and she'll be here for a couple more months which is really great cause we can continue helping her to understand the gospel and make sure she understands clearly that she needs to keep going to our church when she goes back to China.
Good to hear you're going out with the missionaries a lot lately mom! It'll definitely be a blessing! We have a really cool investigator scheduled for baptism this Saturday named Tony Zheng. I've probably talked about him before. I was a little concerned to teach him about the Law of Tithing since he owns a restaurant and really works pretty hard to earn what he has but I guess I should've had more faith cause he accepted it without a problem. We're going to go to the visitor's center with him tomorrow morning and getting everything set up for his baptism. It's going to be really great. Last week he was like "I want you to come by my restaurant more so we can talk more about the gospel" haha. We were like "Ok! No problem!"
That's interesting I was the center of attention in your primary cause we also went and did a presentation type thing in primary here too!
There aren't really any sights in our area... so... but we'll probably play some piano etc etc.
Anyways, I'd better go since there are a bunch of people waiting to use computers here in the FHC... but thanks for your letters and support!
Love you!
Ian
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Where Angels Fear to Tread
Hello!
I wish we had a good earthquake here to call people to repentance. Sometimes I feel like we need that here.
This elder next to me was telling me an elder from Hawaii who got called to Oakland and who's patriarchal blessing said he would get called to a city where even angels are afraid to walk hahaha. So that makes me feel pretty hardcore. Fortunately, I'm over in Union City/Hayward/Fremont where I'm sure some of the more courageous angels would endeavor to take a stroll.
In any case, that sounds like a pretty golden investigator that those sisters have. We have a couple who are pretty golden as well... and also some who need a bit more work... However, we had a great week this week. I have never taught so many lessons! We taught a total of 15. We also added 3 new investigators even though we didn't spend a whole lot of time doing traditional finding like street contacting or tracting or that kind of thing. It was really great.
We also added 2 baptismal dates that were immediately dropped on Sunday. 1 because she urgently needs to return to China and may not be coming back which was really too bad because she is really prepared to accept the Gospel. Another because he didn't come to church along with his wife who is one of our more stable investigators, Linda Xu. Really frustrating that the two of them seem so flaky. Something that really bugs me is people who profess to have a very strong faith in Christ but then don't keep the commandments. It seems so hypocritical. But then I suppose I can't say that I'm perfect either and so I shouldn't judge them so harshly. It is frustrating however and we'll definitely strive harder to help them shape up.
Things are actually going really well with Elder Lin as my new companion. He's really motivated to improve and be very diligent which is wonderful and we're getting along very well. I'm also learning a lot about how to be a more effective zone leader since Elder Lin is very organized and planned out. Also, we only speak Chinese one with another which is a very pleasant surprise. I didn't even need to say anything, that's just the way things are going. I think Elder Lin wants to improve his Mandarin as well and he does actually speak it pretty well. I think probably the best out of all the Hong Kong elders in the mission. That was Elder Luo's analysis anyway.
That sounds like a pretty lame anticlimactic hurricane experience. I heard they had an earthquake here on like Tuesday night but I must have slept through it cause I didn't feel anything. Also I've only heard one person talking about it so maybe there wasn't one...
Yes dad I did get that dictionary which is really good! In fact it's sitting by my side as I write. Thanks!
Anyways, Elder Lin's done with his email so I'd better wrap up. Plus we gotta go play some piano. We're teaching a lesson today to a sister who is getting baptized on Saturday, Sister Sun! She's pretty golden. She's actually been baptized before into a church in China but we explained authority and she was like "oh ok I'll get baptized again I suppose." Haha. She's actually here on vacation visiting her son and so we're helping her get baptized and then sending her back haha. We are kind of pressed for time to finish teaching her though so we scheduled an appointment this afternoon so we can get everything taught in time for Saturday.
In any case, love you! Thanks for your emails and support! Have a great week!
-Ian
I wish we had a good earthquake here to call people to repentance. Sometimes I feel like we need that here.
This elder next to me was telling me an elder from Hawaii who got called to Oakland and who's patriarchal blessing said he would get called to a city where even angels are afraid to walk hahaha. So that makes me feel pretty hardcore. Fortunately, I'm over in Union City/Hayward/Fremont where I'm sure some of the more courageous angels would endeavor to take a stroll.
In any case, that sounds like a pretty golden investigator that those sisters have. We have a couple who are pretty golden as well... and also some who need a bit more work... However, we had a great week this week. I have never taught so many lessons! We taught a total of 15. We also added 3 new investigators even though we didn't spend a whole lot of time doing traditional finding like street contacting or tracting or that kind of thing. It was really great.
We also added 2 baptismal dates that were immediately dropped on Sunday. 1 because she urgently needs to return to China and may not be coming back which was really too bad because she is really prepared to accept the Gospel. Another because he didn't come to church along with his wife who is one of our more stable investigators, Linda Xu. Really frustrating that the two of them seem so flaky. Something that really bugs me is people who profess to have a very strong faith in Christ but then don't keep the commandments. It seems so hypocritical. But then I suppose I can't say that I'm perfect either and so I shouldn't judge them so harshly. It is frustrating however and we'll definitely strive harder to help them shape up.
Things are actually going really well with Elder Lin as my new companion. He's really motivated to improve and be very diligent which is wonderful and we're getting along very well. I'm also learning a lot about how to be a more effective zone leader since Elder Lin is very organized and planned out. Also, we only speak Chinese one with another which is a very pleasant surprise. I didn't even need to say anything, that's just the way things are going. I think Elder Lin wants to improve his Mandarin as well and he does actually speak it pretty well. I think probably the best out of all the Hong Kong elders in the mission. That was Elder Luo's analysis anyway.
That sounds like a pretty lame anticlimactic hurricane experience. I heard they had an earthquake here on like Tuesday night but I must have slept through it cause I didn't feel anything. Also I've only heard one person talking about it so maybe there wasn't one...
Yes dad I did get that dictionary which is really good! In fact it's sitting by my side as I write. Thanks!
Anyways, Elder Lin's done with his email so I'd better wrap up. Plus we gotta go play some piano. We're teaching a lesson today to a sister who is getting baptized on Saturday, Sister Sun! She's pretty golden. She's actually been baptized before into a church in China but we explained authority and she was like "oh ok I'll get baptized again I suppose." Haha. She's actually here on vacation visiting her son and so we're helping her get baptized and then sending her back haha. We are kind of pressed for time to finish teaching her though so we scheduled an appointment this afternoon so we can get everything taught in time for Saturday.
In any case, love you! Thanks for your emails and support! Have a great week!
-Ian
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