Herrrowww!
Yes I am 20 now. So I am no longer a teenager. It doesn't feel all that different. However I might be a little more brief in this email since we have to go back for Elder Luo to pack.
Why pack you ask? Well I'm glad you inquired. He's going to SUNSET! Chinese speaking still!!! It was pretty funny since we were joking about him getting sent there and now he actually is. Not that Sunset is super horrible... but it is cold, and dark, and members don't really like the missionaries that much over there... and there is hardly anyone to teach... However I'm sure he can turn it around. My new companion will be an elder from Hong Kong named Elder Lin. He's actually coming over from the English program as a zone leader in San Francisco West zone. I've heard he's super super obedient and doesn't like to speak Chinese with white people so I might be speaking a lot of English in the next 2 transfers before Elder Lin heads back to Hong Kong. In any case, I'm sure there's a lot of things I can learn from Elder Lin.
We had a pretty excellent week this week. I really feel like we were able to find a lot of the elect in this area. We found a very golden investigator in our English class this past week who actually approached me and asked, "How can I develop a faith in Christ?" So we immediately met with him once class was over and started to teach him. We gave him a Book of Mormon on Thursday and by Sunday morning when he came to church he had finished 1st and 2nd Nephi. Pretty crazy. I don't think I've ever had an investigator who has had such an excitement for reading the scriptures. He owns a restaraunt in Fremont and is pretty busy but is really humble and willing to learn about and follow Christ.
We also went to the Visitor's Center with one of our investigators Linda Xu who is coming along really well. She loved the visitor's center and it was almost magical the way the Spirit worked upon her since out of the blue she mentioned the Word of Wisdom which is a commandment she had previously said she wouldn't be able to accept. She was like "I think I can live it now." It was pretty great. The only concern that she has is she doesn't really like coming to church because she can't understand English and doesn't really like listening to the translation. So she's planning on going to the Oakland branch this coming Sunday to check it out which is something that we discouraged because we'd love her to get integrated into the group here but she's not to be dissuaded. Which is kind of strange because she has been developing some relationships in the Ward here. However, we're still working with her to help her resolve any other concerns and continue building her faith in the Book of Mormon.
Anyways, I've gotta go email the rest of the kiddos. Meaning michelle and Joel.... but anyways, thanks for your letters! That sounds pretty exciting about the basketball game dad. Did you look it up on Youtube? Cause that sounds pretty funny haha. Also since you were able to chew out the Chinese DCM which is always fun.
My birthday wasn't anything too fantastic although I did really enjoy all of your presents. And despite what you think about the cookies not being fresh, they were actually really delicious. Also, the socks are very comfortable.
In any case, I love you! Have a great week!
Ian
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Sunday, August 21, 2011
If You Fail to Plan...You Plan to Fail...
Herrowwww!
Howsit? I have not yet received said cookies or said birthday box, but that's ok. I'm sure it's just a matter of time. With packages, they generally just leave them at the mission office till someone in the zone goes there for some reason and picks them up. We haven't had anyone go to the mission home for a while for any reason so we still haven't gotten any of the stuff there.
In any case, your trip to Philidelphia sounds pretty exciting. Despite the fact it wasn't planned very well. But that's ok. When you make plans, you lose spontaneity and romance and stuff. At least that's my motto. Except not really cause we plan everyday now and I guess I've been at least partially converted to it and my motto is no longer the opposite of dad's. Although I still have a lot of work to do before I actually master goal setting and planning etc. Although Elder Luo and I have been running every morning for the past 2 weeks and are going strong on week 3... so... I feel pretty accomplished about that. I've heard (from Julie Belnap and from no other source so I can't hardly be sure if it's true or not... I'm inclined to think not...) that to establish a new habit you have to keep it up for 3 weeks before it becomes solid. However, I've discovered that a large part of life is about doing challenging things that you may not really want to do but learning to love it. Or something like that.
We didn't have any investigators in Sacrament Meeting this week which was a bummer. Linda had to go to San Jose for some reason and then no one else who promised to show up did... However Linda really is our only investigator with a fair amount of promise. We went over to her (Sister Ye's) house yesterday and talked to her for awhile and set some good expectations of meeting 3 times a week and having daily contact which we think will really help her progress. She's just meeting quite a bit of opposition from friends who seem to mindlessly regale her with accusations of our church being a cult. (Can you use regale that way? Oh well I just did...). However, she does have a fair amount of promise. I do really like her though. She's really funny and has a weird twitch type thing when she blinks where she just crinkles up her whole face. Also her new husband (she married him! which is great cause it remove a barrier to her baptism) and her are always arguing, but in a kind of hilarious way where they're both randomly voicing their opinions and neither really listens to the other and then they start turning to us and explaining themselves as if we might have some solution or judgment of who's right and who's wrong. Pretty funny.
Our new member, brother Chen (who's also reallllllyyyyyy hilarious because he's always got this really funny grin on and his accent is ridiculous since he pronounces his Y's with an R sound like Ruan Lai and Mu Ru and is always saying really funny things) was like "wow I think you really have qing diao or like romance or something haha.
Anyway, it's funny that you mention the weather cause it's not hot or humid here either... although it was pretty hot yesterday... but for the most part it's kind of like paradise here.
Also, that's interesting that you came over to Marina Food the other day dad. Looks like I should've gone there proselyting. You probably saw our church then since it's right across the street from Marina Food. Pretty exciting. I guess that just means there won't be anything for me to take you to see when you come to pick me up at the end of my mission. Oh well. We can just go to the Oakland ghetto.
That's pretty crazy that Alicia's engaged right now. I can't imagine being engaged. She actually sent me a letter this week and mentioned she was going to go to California to meet her boyfriend's family which does sort of indicate a level of seriousness in the relationship, but little did I know the true extent of it. That's cool though, I'll have to write her back now I guess haha.
Congratulations on your passing the tour guide test thing mom! You're gonna be the best tour guide ever!
Also Brother Jiang has kind of fallen off the map just because he found a new job that works him 12 hours a day and hasn't had a day off yet... kind of frustrating because it's not as good as his last job was and now he has the original problem of not being able to come to church... sigh... I'm sure the Lord has a plan for him somehow I just hope he can get baptized sometime soon.
Thanks for your emairs! I love you! I'll miss you on my 20th birthday on the 20th of August, which sounds pretty auspicious although I'm sure it'll be much like any other day... oh well!
Love you!
-Ian
Howsit? I have not yet received said cookies or said birthday box, but that's ok. I'm sure it's just a matter of time. With packages, they generally just leave them at the mission office till someone in the zone goes there for some reason and picks them up. We haven't had anyone go to the mission home for a while for any reason so we still haven't gotten any of the stuff there.
In any case, your trip to Philidelphia sounds pretty exciting. Despite the fact it wasn't planned very well. But that's ok. When you make plans, you lose spontaneity and romance and stuff. At least that's my motto. Except not really cause we plan everyday now and I guess I've been at least partially converted to it and my motto is no longer the opposite of dad's. Although I still have a lot of work to do before I actually master goal setting and planning etc. Although Elder Luo and I have been running every morning for the past 2 weeks and are going strong on week 3... so... I feel pretty accomplished about that. I've heard (from Julie Belnap and from no other source so I can't hardly be sure if it's true or not... I'm inclined to think not...) that to establish a new habit you have to keep it up for 3 weeks before it becomes solid. However, I've discovered that a large part of life is about doing challenging things that you may not really want to do but learning to love it. Or something like that.
We didn't have any investigators in Sacrament Meeting this week which was a bummer. Linda had to go to San Jose for some reason and then no one else who promised to show up did... However Linda really is our only investigator with a fair amount of promise. We went over to her (Sister Ye's) house yesterday and talked to her for awhile and set some good expectations of meeting 3 times a week and having daily contact which we think will really help her progress. She's just meeting quite a bit of opposition from friends who seem to mindlessly regale her with accusations of our church being a cult. (Can you use regale that way? Oh well I just did...). However, she does have a fair amount of promise. I do really like her though. She's really funny and has a weird twitch type thing when she blinks where she just crinkles up her whole face. Also her new husband (she married him! which is great cause it remove a barrier to her baptism) and her are always arguing, but in a kind of hilarious way where they're both randomly voicing their opinions and neither really listens to the other and then they start turning to us and explaining themselves as if we might have some solution or judgment of who's right and who's wrong. Pretty funny.
Our new member, brother Chen (who's also reallllllyyyyyy hilarious because he's always got this really funny grin on and his accent is ridiculous since he pronounces his Y's with an R sound like Ruan Lai and Mu Ru and is always saying really funny things) was like "wow I think you really have qing diao or like romance or something haha.
Anyway, it's funny that you mention the weather cause it's not hot or humid here either... although it was pretty hot yesterday... but for the most part it's kind of like paradise here.
Also, that's interesting that you came over to Marina Food the other day dad. Looks like I should've gone there proselyting. You probably saw our church then since it's right across the street from Marina Food. Pretty exciting. I guess that just means there won't be anything for me to take you to see when you come to pick me up at the end of my mission. Oh well. We can just go to the Oakland ghetto.
That's pretty crazy that Alicia's engaged right now. I can't imagine being engaged. She actually sent me a letter this week and mentioned she was going to go to California to meet her boyfriend's family which does sort of indicate a level of seriousness in the relationship, but little did I know the true extent of it. That's cool though, I'll have to write her back now I guess haha.
Congratulations on your passing the tour guide test thing mom! You're gonna be the best tour guide ever!
Also Brother Jiang has kind of fallen off the map just because he found a new job that works him 12 hours a day and hasn't had a day off yet... kind of frustrating because it's not as good as his last job was and now he has the original problem of not being able to come to church... sigh... I'm sure the Lord has a plan for him somehow I just hope he can get baptized sometime soon.
Thanks for your emairs! I love you! I'll miss you on my 20th birthday on the 20th of August, which sounds pretty auspicious although I'm sure it'll be much like any other day... oh well!
Love you!
-Ian
Monday, August 8, 2011
Things Are Lookin' Up
Herrow!!!
That's a sweet story about Sister G and her friends! I wish every member was like that! It'd be so great! I watched some video on lds.org that Elder Holland was speaking in where he said that nearly 1/10 of the population of Ulaan Baator are members of the church. Which pretty much blows my mind! Here's a link to it in fact: http://lds.org/church/news/elder-holland-instructs-mongolian-saints-missionaries?lang=eng&query=mongolia+ulaanbaatar.
This week was way better than last week. Our area seems a lot more stable now and kind of more organized in a sense. Also very seldom went to Marina Food, which has become a loathsome and dark place in my heart haha. I really agree with you mom that maybe we need to find a new foodmart... although that's pretty much the one that every Chinese person goes to in the whole area. It seems like people should be a little bit more willing to come to church etc since it's right across the street... sigh... oh well, Cal State is proving to be a pretty cool place to go. Kind of like this area's AAU a little bit. Although not quite as many Chinese people I think. We went there this week and found out that we do have permission to go and talk to people about the gospel without getting arrested or told to leave. Even though someone told Elder Luo to leave when we were on exchanges, but that clearly a belligerent anti-mormon possessed with a dark spirit of rebellion against God. Ok probably not, but now we can wave the rulebook in his face and be like "neener neener we're allowed!!!" And that's really what life's all about anyway haha.
Unfortunately, this comes as kind of a result of the fact we only have 3 really stable investigators. Which is better than none admittedly and it does make it pretty easy to keep up daily contact and plan really well for them. We found one new investigator at Cal State East Bay last week who seems really receptive and willing to believe in Christ which is great. She actually seems a lot like the students I used to work with in San Francisco who were studying at AAU. The only difference here is that it will be a lot easier to get her to come to church which is fantastic. She's only been in the States for about 1 or 2 months and is still studying in the ESL program up at Cal State. She was planning on coming to church this week but then had to prepare for a test that she is taking next week. Hopefully she will be able to come next week. We hope that seeing her a couple times next week will help her come around. We were able to set a baptismal date with her for this month though which is really cool. I just hope we'll be able to help her be prepared in time.
Our investigator who was coming along really well, Brother Jiang, isn't doing too great now just because he's still not willing to be baptized. After two lessons of just trying to resolve his concerns, he's still unwilling, so we decided to back off for now so we can help him prepare for a later date. He's also still out of work and is finding the job search pretty difficult due to his lack of a green card. He does have a fake work card but he said now that he believes in God, he doesn't feel right about using it to find work which I really respect and feel is pretty strong evidence of his faith. He's also still reading and praying and I really believe his faith is increasing. I just hope God can help him find work soon so he doesn't have to become homeless, which I hope is an experience he doesn't have to go through.
Our other investigator, Linda Xu, is actually a new move-in to the area from Toronto, Canada. It's crazy to see how the Lord has been preparing her to join the church. She first had contact with the church in Toronto and had a really good impression of the missionaries. After she moved here to meet her fiance for the first time who she met online, she was introduced to our English class by the neighbors of the people she and her fiance were staying with. Just this last week she moved houses and is now staying with members! Basically the biggest, if I didn't believe that God was involved which he almost certainly was, coincidence ever. So she is coming along pretty well. She seems pretty receptive to our message, despite the fact that she is living with her fiance which is going to be a problem probably since they're not really getting along very well and haven't really set a date for the wedding yet. But I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.Our recent converts in the chinese group here are really great though. Our most recent, Rachel, is doing very well and we went with her to do temple baptisms on Saturday which was really good. She had a good experience and then had us and the other Elders over to her house yesterday for dinner. We're going to have her come along to a lot more lessons now since she's on summer break.
Anyways, I'd better wrap up since Elder Luo is finally finished pretty early today. I guess now that he's done applying for school things are much quicker.
Thanks for your letters and your support! Thanks for being such awesome parents! Have a great week!
Love,
-Ian
That's a sweet story about Sister G and her friends! I wish every member was like that! It'd be so great! I watched some video on lds.org that Elder Holland was speaking in where he said that nearly 1/10 of the population of Ulaan Baator are members of the church. Which pretty much blows my mind! Here's a link to it in fact: http://lds.org/church/news/elder-holland-instructs-mongolian-saints-missionaries?lang=eng&query=mongolia+ulaanbaatar.
This week was way better than last week. Our area seems a lot more stable now and kind of more organized in a sense. Also very seldom went to Marina Food, which has become a loathsome and dark place in my heart haha. I really agree with you mom that maybe we need to find a new foodmart... although that's pretty much the one that every Chinese person goes to in the whole area. It seems like people should be a little bit more willing to come to church etc since it's right across the street... sigh... oh well, Cal State is proving to be a pretty cool place to go. Kind of like this area's AAU a little bit. Although not quite as many Chinese people I think. We went there this week and found out that we do have permission to go and talk to people about the gospel without getting arrested or told to leave. Even though someone told Elder Luo to leave when we were on exchanges, but that clearly a belligerent anti-mormon possessed with a dark spirit of rebellion against God. Ok probably not, but now we can wave the rulebook in his face and be like "neener neener we're allowed!!!" And that's really what life's all about anyway haha.
Unfortunately, this comes as kind of a result of the fact we only have 3 really stable investigators. Which is better than none admittedly and it does make it pretty easy to keep up daily contact and plan really well for them. We found one new investigator at Cal State East Bay last week who seems really receptive and willing to believe in Christ which is great. She actually seems a lot like the students I used to work with in San Francisco who were studying at AAU. The only difference here is that it will be a lot easier to get her to come to church which is fantastic. She's only been in the States for about 1 or 2 months and is still studying in the ESL program up at Cal State. She was planning on coming to church this week but then had to prepare for a test that she is taking next week. Hopefully she will be able to come next week. We hope that seeing her a couple times next week will help her come around. We were able to set a baptismal date with her for this month though which is really cool. I just hope we'll be able to help her be prepared in time.
Our investigator who was coming along really well, Brother Jiang, isn't doing too great now just because he's still not willing to be baptized. After two lessons of just trying to resolve his concerns, he's still unwilling, so we decided to back off for now so we can help him prepare for a later date. He's also still out of work and is finding the job search pretty difficult due to his lack of a green card. He does have a fake work card but he said now that he believes in God, he doesn't feel right about using it to find work which I really respect and feel is pretty strong evidence of his faith. He's also still reading and praying and I really believe his faith is increasing. I just hope God can help him find work soon so he doesn't have to become homeless, which I hope is an experience he doesn't have to go through.
Our other investigator, Linda Xu, is actually a new move-in to the area from Toronto, Canada. It's crazy to see how the Lord has been preparing her to join the church. She first had contact with the church in Toronto and had a really good impression of the missionaries. After she moved here to meet her fiance for the first time who she met online, she was introduced to our English class by the neighbors of the people she and her fiance were staying with. Just this last week she moved houses and is now staying with members! Basically the biggest, if I didn't believe that God was involved which he almost certainly was, coincidence ever. So she is coming along pretty well. She seems pretty receptive to our message, despite the fact that she is living with her fiance which is going to be a problem probably since they're not really getting along very well and haven't really set a date for the wedding yet. But I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.Our recent converts in the chinese group here are really great though. Our most recent, Rachel, is doing very well and we went with her to do temple baptisms on Saturday which was really good. She had a good experience and then had us and the other Elders over to her house yesterday for dinner. We're going to have her come along to a lot more lessons now since she's on summer break.
Anyways, I'd better wrap up since Elder Luo is finally finished pretty early today. I guess now that he's done applying for school things are much quicker.
Thanks for your letters and your support! Thanks for being such awesome parents! Have a great week!
Love,
-Ian
Sunday, August 7, 2011
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
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
Monday, July 25, 2011
Two New Investigators
Hellow!
Howsit going? Sounds like it's going pretty well. Although I'm sorry you have to be back in Washington Humid Town. The weather is very splendid here to say the least. Like, really really nice. About every day. It hardly seems fair to the rest of the world to have such nice weather here. Especially since I've heard that the rest of the US is going through a pretty bad heat wave...
In other news, Brother Jiang is doing fanstastic. He has quit smoking altogether for about a week now, and after we taught him about keeping the Sabbath Day holy, quit his job so he can come to church. It really is amazing how strong his faith has become in such a short time of teahing him and Elder Luo and I can just see how he has been prepared by the hand of the Lord to receive the restored gospel. We are also trying to help him find a job and also find someone that can help him obtain a green card or some kind of legal status since he's been here for about 9 years illegally which is a bit of a barrier to his finding work easily. However, we visited with the branch president of the spanish branch here, President Deleon and he seemed optimistic that we could find help for Brother Jiang, since he said it's easier for Chinese people to get legal status than for people from south or central America, which is what he is more familiar with. Anyway, we're going back to see President Deleon tomorrow night and he says he will prepare some more information for us. I'm confident that God will bless Brother Jiang for his faith.
We also found a very promising new investigator through English class on Saturday. She just moved here from Toronto about 12 days ago where she had also had contact with the missionaries. She seems to have a very good impression of our church and even came to 2 hours of church on Sunday which was great. Unfortunately, her fiance, who seemed fairly receptive when we taught them, was unwilling to come to church for some reason we have yet to discover. However, we are confident that we will be able to unearth any concerns and will do our best to resolve them.Our zone focus this week is finding new investigators, which I think is also something that Elder Luo and I need to work on because although we are finding quite a few new investigators, a lot of them don't really seem to have much potential to progress. We also have a leadership conference this week which is cool. I'm excited to find ways that I can personally improve and help the rest of the zone to become more successful.
You could buy me some music to play... except I already have quite a bit of music... more than I have time to play anyway... You could get me some... socks? I don't know... It's tough to think of anything that I desperately want. I do want some Chinese study materials... like a dictionary. OH yeah! Elder Reed had a sweet dictionary called like the "Tuttle" something dictionary. For some Chinese proficiency test used in China called the like HSK or something like that... In any case, if you can find that dictionary based on the very detailed description I just gave of it, I would like that so I could have something to find common useful words to memorize....
In any case, I'd better go and let this sister sitting behind me get on the computer I'm using. That'd be cool if you moved to either Taiwan or Vietnam dad. I'd be supportive of either decision. Although Vietnam would be more fun...
Anyways, love you guys!
Thanks for your love and support. Have a great week!
-Elder Christensen
Howsit going? Sounds like it's going pretty well. Although I'm sorry you have to be back in Washington Humid Town. The weather is very splendid here to say the least. Like, really really nice. About every day. It hardly seems fair to the rest of the world to have such nice weather here. Especially since I've heard that the rest of the US is going through a pretty bad heat wave...
In other news, Brother Jiang is doing fanstastic. He has quit smoking altogether for about a week now, and after we taught him about keeping the Sabbath Day holy, quit his job so he can come to church. It really is amazing how strong his faith has become in such a short time of teahing him and Elder Luo and I can just see how he has been prepared by the hand of the Lord to receive the restored gospel. We are also trying to help him find a job and also find someone that can help him obtain a green card or some kind of legal status since he's been here for about 9 years illegally which is a bit of a barrier to his finding work easily. However, we visited with the branch president of the spanish branch here, President Deleon and he seemed optimistic that we could find help for Brother Jiang, since he said it's easier for Chinese people to get legal status than for people from south or central America, which is what he is more familiar with. Anyway, we're going back to see President Deleon tomorrow night and he says he will prepare some more information for us. I'm confident that God will bless Brother Jiang for his faith.
We also found a very promising new investigator through English class on Saturday. She just moved here from Toronto about 12 days ago where she had also had contact with the missionaries. She seems to have a very good impression of our church and even came to 2 hours of church on Sunday which was great. Unfortunately, her fiance, who seemed fairly receptive when we taught them, was unwilling to come to church for some reason we have yet to discover. However, we are confident that we will be able to unearth any concerns and will do our best to resolve them.Our zone focus this week is finding new investigators, which I think is also something that Elder Luo and I need to work on because although we are finding quite a few new investigators, a lot of them don't really seem to have much potential to progress. We also have a leadership conference this week which is cool. I'm excited to find ways that I can personally improve and help the rest of the zone to become more successful.
You could buy me some music to play... except I already have quite a bit of music... more than I have time to play anyway... You could get me some... socks? I don't know... It's tough to think of anything that I desperately want. I do want some Chinese study materials... like a dictionary. OH yeah! Elder Reed had a sweet dictionary called like the "Tuttle" something dictionary. For some Chinese proficiency test used in China called the like HSK or something like that... In any case, if you can find that dictionary based on the very detailed description I just gave of it, I would like that so I could have something to find common useful words to memorize....
In any case, I'd better go and let this sister sitting behind me get on the computer I'm using. That'd be cool if you moved to either Taiwan or Vietnam dad. I'd be supportive of either decision. Although Vietnam would be more fun...
Anyways, love you guys!
Thanks for your love and support. Have a great week!
-Elder Christensen
Monday, July 11, 2011
Sowing, Daily Sowing
Helloooooo!
Sorry I missed the reunion. Also sorry that Jarom has amnesia now... isn't that what usually happens when people get hit on the head by falling trees? That's what I seem to have learned from the movies...
Elder Luo and I had kind of a rough week last week. We did, however, find a new investigator with a lot of promise who we set a baptismal date with. A 68-year old man from ShangHai named Brother Jiang. He has, as far as I can see, one tooth left which I believe is likely due to the hard life he has led as a smoker, and likely devoid of any semblance of dental hygene. However, he is very humble and willing to believe in our message. Brother Jiang is kind of a refugee from China. He has been here for 9 years, previous to which he was something of a political victim of the Communist Party for years and years during which he was incarcerated twice for special brainwashing programs. One of them lasted two years, which is something I can hardly begin to imagine. I am deeply grateful to the Lord for placing him in our path and allowing him an opportunity to accept the gospel. It seems like those brainwashing programs aren't very effective though to be honest since he still seems radically opposed to communism, although he wishes he could go back to China to be with his family who lives there and it wasn't really his own choice to come to America since he wouldn't have without being persecuted so much by the goverment there. He rather miraculously made it to church yesterday too. He was telling us that he wasn't going to be able to make it because he works Sundays and his work starts at 9:30 so there was no way he would be able to have time. He was also not very willing to talk to his boss to get his hours changed since he just started this work and doesn't want to lose it. However, his boss called and told him he was going to be opening the restaurant late on Sunday which allowed him time to come to church. So you can imagine our surprise when we arrived at Sacrament meeting (late, since our stake correlation meeting went a little long... first time I've been late to church as a missionary...), and there was Brother Jiang sitting in the congregation. It was pretty great.
And aside from him, we don't really have any other investigators... which is kind of sad. Although we do still have some other investigators since we found 3 last week, but one of them has already kind of dropped us and the other is really busy. One of our investigators went to scout camp this week and the of the others, which compose the Pei family, the kids went back to China and the mother and father have friends in town from China and so they are going out of town with them for much of the next month.
So basically, our teaching pool is running rather dry. Elder Luo and I spent a lot of time finding yesterday, with disappointingly little success... we hope to be able to change that this next week... since we will have a lot of time to find. We are doing our best to work through referrals since that is clearly the best way to find, but haven't had any yet, and are running out of members to visit and ask for referrals from, which I suppose is the downside to a small Chinese group with only about 15 members at best.
In any case, to be perfectly honest, my gospel study is going rather horribly lately. I am so tired in the morning and while I hardly ever fall asleep during my study time, I find it almost impossibly difficult to focus. I definitely need more focus in my study just because if I don't have anything in particular that I'm studying for or focusing on, it seems rather impossible to remember anything or receive any kind of revelation, which is something I feel fairly lacking in lately. But I suppose that's the way it goes sometimes. I'm going to stive to improve my study next week hopefully through improving exercise in the morning as well as planning study around the lessons we are scheduled to teach that day. Anyways, I don't have a whole lot of time to keep writing. Plus I need to write Aunt Cammie back since she wrote me a couple weeks ago and I haven't gotten back to her yet.
But thanks for you emals! And encouragement. Yesterday was pretty lame... but I'm sure we'll find some people this week... we just gotta! Hua hua hua! Also I did read that talk by McConkie. Just cause it was in an Ensign that I was reading the other day. Pretty good. And yes, Marina Food is very unimpressive. But we mostly stand outside the doors and contact people... I'm pretty sure they wouldn't be too happy with us going in and contacting in the noodle aisle... etc...
Anyways, love you!
Thanks for being awesome parents!
-Ian
Sorry I missed the reunion. Also sorry that Jarom has amnesia now... isn't that what usually happens when people get hit on the head by falling trees? That's what I seem to have learned from the movies...
Elder Luo and I had kind of a rough week last week. We did, however, find a new investigator with a lot of promise who we set a baptismal date with. A 68-year old man from ShangHai named Brother Jiang. He has, as far as I can see, one tooth left which I believe is likely due to the hard life he has led as a smoker, and likely devoid of any semblance of dental hygene. However, he is very humble and willing to believe in our message. Brother Jiang is kind of a refugee from China. He has been here for 9 years, previous to which he was something of a political victim of the Communist Party for years and years during which he was incarcerated twice for special brainwashing programs. One of them lasted two years, which is something I can hardly begin to imagine. I am deeply grateful to the Lord for placing him in our path and allowing him an opportunity to accept the gospel. It seems like those brainwashing programs aren't very effective though to be honest since he still seems radically opposed to communism, although he wishes he could go back to China to be with his family who lives there and it wasn't really his own choice to come to America since he wouldn't have without being persecuted so much by the goverment there. He rather miraculously made it to church yesterday too. He was telling us that he wasn't going to be able to make it because he works Sundays and his work starts at 9:30 so there was no way he would be able to have time. He was also not very willing to talk to his boss to get his hours changed since he just started this work and doesn't want to lose it. However, his boss called and told him he was going to be opening the restaurant late on Sunday which allowed him time to come to church. So you can imagine our surprise when we arrived at Sacrament meeting (late, since our stake correlation meeting went a little long... first time I've been late to church as a missionary...), and there was Brother Jiang sitting in the congregation. It was pretty great.
And aside from him, we don't really have any other investigators... which is kind of sad. Although we do still have some other investigators since we found 3 last week, but one of them has already kind of dropped us and the other is really busy. One of our investigators went to scout camp this week and the of the others, which compose the Pei family, the kids went back to China and the mother and father have friends in town from China and so they are going out of town with them for much of the next month.
So basically, our teaching pool is running rather dry. Elder Luo and I spent a lot of time finding yesterday, with disappointingly little success... we hope to be able to change that this next week... since we will have a lot of time to find. We are doing our best to work through referrals since that is clearly the best way to find, but haven't had any yet, and are running out of members to visit and ask for referrals from, which I suppose is the downside to a small Chinese group with only about 15 members at best.
In any case, to be perfectly honest, my gospel study is going rather horribly lately. I am so tired in the morning and while I hardly ever fall asleep during my study time, I find it almost impossibly difficult to focus. I definitely need more focus in my study just because if I don't have anything in particular that I'm studying for or focusing on, it seems rather impossible to remember anything or receive any kind of revelation, which is something I feel fairly lacking in lately. But I suppose that's the way it goes sometimes. I'm going to stive to improve my study next week hopefully through improving exercise in the morning as well as planning study around the lessons we are scheduled to teach that day. Anyways, I don't have a whole lot of time to keep writing. Plus I need to write Aunt Cammie back since she wrote me a couple weeks ago and I haven't gotten back to her yet.
But thanks for you emals! And encouragement. Yesterday was pretty lame... but I'm sure we'll find some people this week... we just gotta! Hua hua hua! Also I did read that talk by McConkie. Just cause it was in an Ensign that I was reading the other day. Pretty good. And yes, Marina Food is very unimpressive. But we mostly stand outside the doors and contact people... I'm pretty sure they wouldn't be too happy with us going in and contacting in the noodle aisle... etc...
Anyways, love you!
Thanks for being awesome parents!
-Ian
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Happy 4th of July!
Herrrowww!!!
Happy 4th of July!
Hope the Culdesac of Fire is as spectacular as ever. Especially with all the new illegal, legalized fireworks... why would they even bother changing a law like that? That's pretty cool you got to see the fireworks display from the plane though mom. We only got to listen to it last night going to sleep... although I'm sure there will be more tonight. It's actually been super hot here lately... yesterday was pretty darn hot and we spent a couple of hours contacting out in front of Marina Food... and only found 1 person we were able to set an appointment up with...
We had a rather interesting week last week. First off, Rachel Luo got baptised last night which was wonderful. Her baptism went really well and was a good experience for everyone that went. She seemed really happy about it and shared a powerful testimony at the end of her baptismal service. I think she will definitely be a great addition to the Chinese group here. She had a great deal of family attend her baptismal service to support her as well which was great. Her aunt who I taught in San Francisco, two of her cousins and her cousin's boyfriend as well as her grandmother all attended the service and seemed to enjoy it. We hope to be able to have an opportunity to teach them since they are all really nice people but it's rather difficult since her aunt works in San Francisco during the week and only comes back here on Sunday night and doesn't really have any time to come to church and I think her cousin lives near Stanford somewhere so if we do get the chance to teach her, we would have to refer her over to the elders in San Jose.
Unfortunately, our other investigator, Sister Yu, lost her baptismal date and it is rather unlikely that we will get another chance to teach her because we left her the Restoration DVD to watch and her husband, who evidently is a devout Catholic which we thought wouldn't be a problem, got extremely angry after they watched it and told her she couldn't meet with us/come to church anymore. Pretty disheartening. Especially since we don't really have a lot of other investigators with the potential she had.... and to be honest... don't really have ANY other investigators... except for a couple ones with next to no desire to meet with us... SO....We are going to focus a lot more on finding this week.
We only found 1 investigator last week and she doesn't seem all that keen on progressing in the gospel. However, she is really funny since she's one of our English class students and is 80 years old hahahaI don't know what it is about Elder Luo and I and insisting on teaching octagenarians. In any case, people that old aren't generally too keen on change... although I do really like her personality haha.
Anyways, I'd better go... but thanks so much for your emairrs! And support etc! Hope you have a great week!
Love, Elder Christensen
P.S. I guess maybe just some chiense study materials for my birthday but I also talked to Joel already about that... not that I really expect him to come through any time soon since.. he's joel... JK!!! Except I can't really blame him since the post office is always rather far away... like this thing I haven't emailed to michelle yet for her birthday... however... I also don't have her address..
Happy 4th of July!
Hope the Culdesac of Fire is as spectacular as ever. Especially with all the new illegal, legalized fireworks... why would they even bother changing a law like that? That's pretty cool you got to see the fireworks display from the plane though mom. We only got to listen to it last night going to sleep... although I'm sure there will be more tonight. It's actually been super hot here lately... yesterday was pretty darn hot and we spent a couple of hours contacting out in front of Marina Food... and only found 1 person we were able to set an appointment up with...
We had a rather interesting week last week. First off, Rachel Luo got baptised last night which was wonderful. Her baptism went really well and was a good experience for everyone that went. She seemed really happy about it and shared a powerful testimony at the end of her baptismal service. I think she will definitely be a great addition to the Chinese group here. She had a great deal of family attend her baptismal service to support her as well which was great. Her aunt who I taught in San Francisco, two of her cousins and her cousin's boyfriend as well as her grandmother all attended the service and seemed to enjoy it. We hope to be able to have an opportunity to teach them since they are all really nice people but it's rather difficult since her aunt works in San Francisco during the week and only comes back here on Sunday night and doesn't really have any time to come to church and I think her cousin lives near Stanford somewhere so if we do get the chance to teach her, we would have to refer her over to the elders in San Jose.
Unfortunately, our other investigator, Sister Yu, lost her baptismal date and it is rather unlikely that we will get another chance to teach her because we left her the Restoration DVD to watch and her husband, who evidently is a devout Catholic which we thought wouldn't be a problem, got extremely angry after they watched it and told her she couldn't meet with us/come to church anymore. Pretty disheartening. Especially since we don't really have a lot of other investigators with the potential she had.... and to be honest... don't really have ANY other investigators... except for a couple ones with next to no desire to meet with us... SO....We are going to focus a lot more on finding this week.
We only found 1 investigator last week and she doesn't seem all that keen on progressing in the gospel. However, she is really funny since she's one of our English class students and is 80 years old hahahaI don't know what it is about Elder Luo and I and insisting on teaching octagenarians. In any case, people that old aren't generally too keen on change... although I do really like her personality haha.
Anyways, I'd better go... but thanks so much for your emairrs! And support etc! Hope you have a great week!
Love, Elder Christensen
P.S. I guess maybe just some chiense study materials for my birthday but I also talked to Joel already about that... not that I really expect him to come through any time soon since.. he's joel... JK!!! Except I can't really blame him since the post office is always rather far away... like this thing I haven't emailed to michelle yet for her birthday... however... I also don't have her address..
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)