Choir of Angels

Hello!

Let me first answer some questions so I don't forget. California is really slow I guess so I still haven't received any word about my speeding ticket... I guess it would be too much to hope that they just forgot about it... more likely would be that it got caught up somewhere in the post service and I won't get it till I'm 45 and it's grown to $500,000,000... which, of course, by that time will be about $50 in our money now when adjusting for inflation so I suppose it's a bit of a win-win here.

Yes I did get the box! Thank you! We have a pretty sweet Christmas corner in our apartment now complete with the mini Christmas tree that Aunt Katherine sent me last year that I found still kicking around in the apartment where I had left it last year. So that was pretty awesome. What are the odds right?

Also for Christmas we could just call... or Elder Brown and I were thinking we could just use Skype since we're allowed to now... so I guess next week you may as well send me your Skype username as well as phone number since I'm pretty sure I've forgotten it... yep... definitely can't remember.

Sounds like your Christmas program was pretty good. We don't really have any plans as a group for Christmas but the whole branch is throwing a Christmas party on the night of the 23rd at the Sunset building so that should be good. Also we're going to have a Christmas potluck party thing at our English class on the 24th... and then on the 25th... we'll just be going out doing service and stuff. Should be pretty fun. The potluck yesterday went pretty well too. The Cheesecake investigator DID show up. We actually went to the restaurant she works at on Saturday so we could make sure she'd come. It's actually this weird Chinese food vegan restaurant and she makes vegan Cheesecakes with Tofu and imitation cream cheese which sounds weird but was actually really good. I might even like it a little better than actual cheesecake just because it's not so rich. Unfortunately, Elder Brown and I think she may have heard something bad about the church and so she only came for like a minute and then was like "I have something to do so I have to go!" and then left... which was really weird cause she was super excited to come... Oh well, we know where she works so we can see what's up sometime later on. Still, it's kind of annoying to have so much random anti-church rumors/propaganda.

Speaking of which, our awesome golden investigator Gregory got pretty much shut down by his dad who apparently is Christian, but according to Gregory, doesn't really practice his beliefs. Elder Brown and I kind of predicted something like this might happen but it seems like a little more intense than we thought since we think they may have taken away his phone since it's been off the past couple days and he didn't make it to church yesterday... but I guess we'll see how it works out. Hopefully we can get the situation worked out. But it is so annoying to have people who don't understand our beliefs at all just come to really erroneous conclusions and then make irrational decisions. And family opposition is so inconvenient.

Also Alice Luo's mom fainted the other day and hurt herself really seriously and so is in the hospital right now and has been for about a week. However she is doing a lot better and Alice is still really enthusiastic about the gospel and being baptized so things are still going really well in that area.

We went to this high school winter concert the other day (with permission) since we had a couple investigators who invited us to go and we went and met loads of their friends there which was awesome. It was a pretty hilariously unprofessional concert where the choir teacher (this super tall black guy) was like calling people out in the audience who ware making too much noise haha. He was like "Hey! You, you, and you - not in the choir, get out of the choir section! You know who you are!" Haha. It was a really hilarious concert though and we got loads of good contacts. Hopefully we can get them all to church. Even and Joseph are two students there who are scheduled to be baptized on the 24th. Pretty awesome. I don't really understand why they like coming to church so much but I guess it really is just easier for some people to feel the Spirit and helps them have motivation to do the right thing. Joseph texts us all the time and is like "hey guys go on Facebook right now and check this sweet video I posted!" We're like "um.... we don't have access to a computer right now... but..." And then follow up on his reading of the Book of Mormon haha.

Anyways, we just got back from Fisherman's Wharf where we ate at an overpriced restaurant with very mediocre food. However the view out the window was pretty nice so it wasn't a total loss.

Yes I am writing in my journal pretty often lately... not too much in Hayward... but without roommates you have a lot more time in the evenings so I'm keeping up pretty well here.

Alright well I'll just go ahead and end there since I don't have a whole lot more to report. But thanks for your emails! Sounds like not having a car is pretty inconvenient... if only the States actually had convenient public transit! Pretty sure it's not really possible to not have a car any place other than San Francisco... and maybe NYC.. but taking the bus in Oakland was pretty darn annoying haha.

Love you!

-Ian

The Gathering

We had a pretty good week. We met a guy named Gregory Huey the other day on the bus. He's a 16 year-old kid who was born here but who's parents are from Guangdong. We taught him yesterday after he came to church and had a really great lesson. He has a really strong desire to follow Christ. On the bus he was like "I think I'm going to join the Catholic church because I want to be closer with God." I was like "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Wait a second! Come to our church first!" haha. It was pretty cool. He had a really great experience although he doesn't really speak Mandarin very well... but that's ok. We speak Taishanese... ok just kidding, but he speaks English so that works too. So as of right now, 3 of our 4 investigators scheduled to be baptized on the 24th are in high school. It's interesting to me how interested they are in the Gospel despite the fact they're so young. Pretty cool.

Our other investigator scheduled for the 24th is Alice Luo and she's doing pretty well. Yesterday was her second time at church. We taught her on Saturday and she was like "sorry I can't come tomorrow, I need to go register for classes..." Elder Brown was like "no. You need to come to church." She was still being a little resistant so finally, I was like "just get someone else to do it!" She paused for a second and was like "hmm... you're pretty smart. I could do that." Haha. She cracks me up. Especially since she brought a notepad and paper to Sacrament Meeting so she could take notes and stuff.

I love church here. It's usually stressful and people don't have a good experience but our group here in downtown is really great. We had an awesome fast and testimony meeting yesterday where we had our recent convert Ian Yan (moving to Provo at the end of the month haha), a member who had been less active for 35 years because church was so far away but who is active now because of the new group, and a couple other really awesome members share their testimonies. It was so great. And then afterwards everyone just kind of hangs around and chats with one another. Church is awesome here. Also we have a potluck activity every second Sunday of the month after church which is coming up this weekend which Elder Brown says is awesome so I'm excited for that. We met a woman on the bus coming home yesterday who we invited to church and it turns out she works for this place that makes all kinds of cakes and pies and she said she'll bring 2 cheesecakes to church next week. I told her "looks like us meeting you really WAS arrainged by God!" Haha. Pretty sweet.

Anyways, the new movies about Jesus' life look really sweet. I'm excited for when we can start using them as proselyting tools and stuff. I guess some of them are already up on LDS.org. Also, I don't have much time left so I'd better go write a quick letter to President Wade. Zone Conference this week. Hoorah!

Love you!

-Ian