The Natural Man

Oct. 10, 2011

Hahaha! I was wondering myself why you bothered to include the pronunciations of these places myself... but I read them all out loud just to make sure it wasn't done in vain. So don't worry.

Well that sounds like a pretty cool vacation replete with all sorts of European old world quaintness and beauty but also fused with new world extreme sportiness and excitement!

I was sorry to see Elder Lin go but it's cool being back with Elder Lee. And yes we are both Zone Leaders although I am now the senior companion which is a bit of an adjustment again since I'd been getting used to being junior zone leader for the past 3 transfers and while a zone leader is a zone leader, a junior companion is still a junior companion. But I do kind of like being more in charge as well since it gives more opportunities for growth and taking responsibility. I really like the scripture in 2 Nephi 2 where it talks about how God created things that act and things that are acted upon and it seems to me that most of the time you're either one or the other and it's pretty easy to tell the difference between people that act and people that are acted upon. I feel like it all also kind of ties into the whole putting off the natural man doctrine since I'm pretty sure the natural man is always getting acted upon by Satan and whoever. Also, it's kind of part of the reason why we've run every morning since August. Gotta put off that natural man somehow and it always seems in super good control in the mornings so I gotta beat it down early.

Anyways, had a pretty good week this week. Except for Sunday... which was probably one of the most discouraging days of my mission so far. First off, none of our investigators came to church and about 5 of them promised they would. That, of course, includes our 3 investigators who are scheduled to be baptized this Sunday. Then, we weren't even able to meet with any of them yesterday because they didn't answer their phones. We have managed to contact brother Zhao this morning and hopefully will be able to meet with him tonight, but we still need to continue to try to reach our other investigators with a baptismal date to help them progress as soon as possible. So so discouraging to have them all do that. With no good excuse whatsoever.

I have been thinking a lot yesterday and today about the future of our Chinese group and have really come to realize how important it is that we work with our leaders to determine what we can do to improve the unity and stability of our group. I read chapter 13 of PMG today and it seems like every time I read that I'm reminded again of loads of things I could be doing to work more in harmony with the ward. One thing I was surprised to read about because I've never seen one before is the "convert action list" which definitely seemed like a really good idea. It's more of a challenge in our ward however because most of our leaders don't speak Mandarin so it's pretty difficult for them to feel a real personal connection to those that get baptized into the Chinese group since they can't exactly communicate with them. But we're arranging to set up a time with our bishop this week that we can discuss it a little more with him so hopefully we can get some goals set and plans made since, according to President Hinkley, there is absolutely no point in doing missionary work if you can't hold on to the fruits of that effort...

Anyways, so that's what's been going on here this week. There was a lot of other things that happened obviously, but I cannot record but a 100th part of these occurrances in this email.

Love you! Have a great trip back to the US of A!

-Ian