Priorities

Hellow! Howsit?

Yes I can send you the memory card for my camera. It may or may not surprise you that I haven't been taking a lot of pictures lately... mainly because the scenery in Union City isn't exactly all that exciting but also because I'm too lazy and you're not allowed to take pictures during proselyting time so... it's hard!

So in any case, this week went much better than last. Although the beginning was still a little rough. We had two of our investigators who were scheduled to be baptized yesterday (Xia Yong and Xia Yu) tell us that they don't really believe in God and don't think it's really necessary to join the church etc etc. Of course, they tell us this only in the last week before their baptism where the whole time they've been telling us that they feel really peaceful as they pray and read the scriptures. After meeting with the younger brother on Friday night, we discovered that their father is also rather opposed to their joining the church, presumably because of the law of tithing which would reduce his son's income for the family. It does make much more sense that their concern would have to do with family opposition rather than the concerns they were telling us about but it's still kind of a bummer because they were doing pretty well and looking really solid before this. But we'll continue to invite them out to activities and hopefully be able to continue meeting with them although their father declined to come downstairs to talk to us when we went over which was rather rude of him and will make it awfully difficult to resolve the concerns that he has.

Our other investigator originally scheduled to be baptized yesterday, brother Zhao, is still doing pretty well. We went by and visited him late on Saturday night and discovered that his lack of communication is not a result of any doctrinal or social concerns but a result of him being very busy with his job lately, which produced the same effect of him not being able to meet with us/come to church/be baptized, does help us maintain hope that he will be baptized in the near future when his work settles down a little. Unfortunately, he did say he would come to church yesterday but then didn't end up showing up which we can only assume is because he was again called into work. This assumption was then solidified as we went by his house later that day and he wasn't there. Still, we pushed his date back to the 30th and are optimistic that he'll be ready to be baptized on that day. Dependent, apparently, on his work schedule.
We did manage to find 6 new investigators this week which was great. We found a pretty cool family from ShenYang who we're really excited to be able to continue teaching. They also speak pretty good English which bodes well for them being integrated into the ward a little better so that's good.

I read again one of my favorite scriptures again today in D+C 131:6: It is impossible for a man to be saved in his ignorance. This scripture really helps me understand the importance of missionary work and why we do what we do. Because sooner or later, everyone's gotta know what we know or they're not going to be saved.

So we had some shocking news yesterday in church. The first counselor in our bishopric, brother Kwok, passed away yesterday morning. I was really really surprised by the news. He seemed to be perfectly healthy although apparently he had been struggling with depression for a while. I don't really know any details but it was pretty sudden and big news. t's really too bad too because he was the only leader in the Ward who could speak Chinese so it's unfortunate to lose him. Apparently his wife, Sister Kwok, was the person who taught Steve Toronto his Chinese, according to what she said. And she has lived in Beijing and stuff and is from Taiwan. Pretty sad for her.

Anyways, I don't really have too much else to report. That's exciting you're going to Taiwan! I met a girl in San Francisco who graduated from TAS haha and we talked about a mutual friend we had there. Small world. Maybe I'll run into her when we go back... unlikely... but you never know!

Love you! Thanks for your emairrs! Have a great week!

-Ian