Hai!
Wow that does sound like a pretty churchy weekend. Although I guess my everyday is pretty churchy. It's like you guys are missionaries or something. Geez louise. That's cool you had a bunch of people at the temple on Saturday. It seems pretty true what dad always says or someone always says: some high percentage (99% or something...) of success is just showing up. [“85% of success in life is just showing up.”] Yeah you can tell I'm really familiar with the phrase. Whatever the case, you get the point.
Had a pretty decent week this week I suppose. The OuYang family is doing.. well.. ok. The good news is that Brother OuYang got baptized on Sunday and they came to church only an hour late! The bad news is that Sister OuYang decided at the last minute (last Tuesday) that she wasn't ready to be baptized since she's still a little too committed to her Buddhist traditions and feels that she needs more time before she can commit to getting baptism. Anyways, I'm still optimistic that she'll be ready by next month, but we'll keep working with her. The other bad news is that their son appears to be the naughtiest kid on the earth. He's absolutely ridiculous. Not that I can really blame him that much since he's only 4 years old but he has the most ridiculous temperament ever. He was like flipping out at church on Sunday for the first hour. Fortunately he quieted down a bit for sacrament meeting but he was still being rather ridiculous. Their daughter seemed to be doing pretty well during primary though. She brought her hamster which seemed to win her a lot of fast friends haha. Hopefully we can bring a couple people from the primary over to talk to the OuYangs during this week or next week along with some other 4 year-old kids so that Allen (their ridiculous 4 year-old) will be a little more comfortable going to primary. Also since we're only a branch, our primary program is combined with the English speaking ward primary since most of the little kids speak English. But the primary president only speaks English which is a bit of a bummer for this situation. Still though, good plan I think.
Unfortunately, this has all become my responsibility since Elder Luo is going to Hayward to be the Zone Leader there (the only Chinese speaking zone leader position in the mission) and I’m getting a new companion from Hong Kong named Elder Wu. Elder Wu has only been out for 2 transfers though so I'm being made senior companion which seems rather fast to be honest. I don't really want the responsibility, but I guess that's kind of when you get called to stuff like that since if I wanted to be senior companion I’m sure I'd stay junior the rest of my mission haha. Fortunately, I suppose the Lord figures I’m ready and I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that when the Lord calls he qualifies (Moses 6... ba) which I certainly hope proves to be the case. At least I'm pretty familiar with the geography of the downtown area and the public transportation has become pretty clear to me. Hopefully ,Elder Luo will leave his map with me. Or I should say his two halves of a map since it got all ripped up as a result of heavy use.
Whatever the case, I'm pretty excited that I get to stay in downtown since it really is one of the coolest areas in the mission. We really are having more and more success it seems. We have a couple other investigators with a lot of promise for baptism this next month which is really great. I just hope we don't end up having any more people tell us in the week before their baptism that they don't think they're ready all of a sudden.
Haven't gotten any mail from the Beijing pengyous but I can't really blame them since most of them probably don't know how to use the mail system. Qingwei and Dixon sent me an email but I told them I couldn't use email to contact them so would send them letters back. So I have their mailing addresses at least but I've basically just been too lazy to send them mail since p-days are rather busy...
That's awesome you're taking a class on American art at the art museum mom! Although I don't really understand what the word docent means, it sounds awfully sophisticated. Speaking of which, I found a world heritage sites book in our apartment today and was looking through it until I decided it was too apostate and stopped. Looked at the Angkor Wat page before I did though. Have to admit that place was pretty darn cool. Unfortunately I think my appreciation for the sites lessoned the more that we visited them haha. I guess that's always how it is though. Like how in art museums your eyes start to glaze over after the first two or three galleries.
Had a pretty good personal study session today in which I was reading in Joseph Smith history about his receiving revelation from James 1:5 (Preach My Gospel pg... 18?...) It just made me realize what a huge impact that one verse of scripture has had on our family and I guess the whole world. I don't think I would have any real faith in Jesus Christ without the Book of Mormon and First Vision as the foundation of my testimony. Not to say the Bible isn't really great but it really is true that a second/third witness makes the message so much more powerful.
Glad to hear Hu Jintao's visit went well dad. And that American diplomacy won the day by hammering the sleep-deprived Chinese negotiators into submission (although not literally I hope). Unfortunately I don't really know what a 4th communique thing is... I'm thinking you guys are giving my English language skills more credit than they warrant since you seem to keep using words I don't understand. In any case, there are quite a few Falun Gong practitioners here in San Francisco. They were having some random exercise session in this park in Chinatown on Saturday. It was pretty funny actually since there were like 40 Chinese ppl and then 1 white guy randomly in their midst haha. Interesting.
I guess I should go write my email to the president now. No need to worry about my being too cold though since it's probably around 60-70 degrees here every day lately. For some reason I wore my jacket today even though it's really nice outside... Basically one thing that is NOT wrong with San Francisco is it's weather.
K. Gotta go. Thanks for all your love/support/prayers. I love you guys! Have a great week!
-Ian
Monday, January 24, 2011
Friday, January 21, 2011
The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh...
Jan. 16, 2011
Had a pretty good week here. And by good I mean we had a whole bunch of appointments cancelled and ended up spending a whole lot of time walking aimlessly around Chinatown getting ignored by the same 80-yr-old Cantonese speakers. Then again it could be worse... since... like...
We DID however find a super super golden contact yesterday in Chinatown which was really awesome. This guy is named Brother Kuang and he seems really really golden. He fortunately had a bunch of time right when we ran into him so we immediately went to our office downtown and taught him a lesson. He's really humble and we already got a baptismal date with him for next month which is really cool. He was like "yeah, I definitely will prepare myself to be baptized on that date" and we were like "YES!" Hahaha. Especially since we got owned earlier in the day by our investigators who pretty much all didn't come to church. The OuYang family's daughter keeps abusing her agency and not wanting to come to church causing their parents to come either A) Really late or B) Not at all (yesterday). They said she was "sick" but then we went later that night and she was fine. The only thing I find weird about that is the fact that she's 9 years old but still pretty much controls their ability to come to church which is really annoying. Elder Lee was telling me that if he did that his dad would just like drag him along haha which I'm thinking the OuYangs really need to step up and do. Of course it doesn't help that their fellowshipping family the Tans set pretty much the worst example ever in that respect since they haven't been to church in forever and seem to treat it as a "well if I really really really really really really have nothing else to do I'll go" kind of activity. Which is really really really really really really really really annoying. However, they still have reasonably strong testimonies which they aren't shy bearing to the Ouyangs which is good. If only they would practice what they preach...
Whatever the case, things are still looking good for their baptism next week. Our mission is a minimum of 3 times at church before they get baptized and the OuYangs have fortunately already been twice so next week will be their third time and then afterwards they'll be getting baptized!!! Hooray!
Thanks for the notes on sacrifice. My first day in the mission field we had zone conference from Elder Jensen (some 70) who talked a lot about that. He said that faith cannot come without sacrifice. Which is definitely true. Reminds me of Ether 12:6 where Moroni says that we receive no witness until after the trial of our faith. It's true, though I've realized which means people have to at least have a desire to believe before they can receive a witness that it is true. Which I can recognize is hard for some people since there are a lot of things that if you believe hard enough you really can convince yourself is true. Fortunately, we have the Spirit to help us with that process and with that desire. It really is true that practically no one would convert to the gospel without the help of the spirit and if our lessons don't have it then they're pretty much useless. The spirit was definitely really strong in our lesson with Brother Kuang yesterday and I could really see his desire and his humility.
Oh also another guy, Xu, Ayong, who promised us he would come to church, didn't end up coming. The funny thing is that he called us at like 10:30 and then the OuYangs called us at like 10:31 to cancel right as we were ending our conversation with AYong who was cancelling. Double Whammy.
Oh well. The Lord gives success and can take it away I guess. And comparably, our area is doing really great. Compared with earlier that is.
Have a new senior couple serving in our branch which is nice. They're really cool and have already taken Elder Luo and I out to lunch twice in the 3 days they've been here haha. Once for Elder Luo's brithday which was on Saturday and once today since we went over and set up their internet and wireless printer. They're from Oregon, near Portland. Elder Johnson went on his mission in England and I don't think Sister Johnson has ever been outside of suburban America haha since she keeps commenting about how astonished she is that no one here has yards haha.
Whatever the case, thanks for your emails guys. I don't have a whole lot of time to write back since I have to go write my email to the president now. Love you! Thanks for all your love and support. I hope you have a fantastictubularisticlysplendiferous week!
Love,
Ian
Had a pretty good week here. And by good I mean we had a whole bunch of appointments cancelled and ended up spending a whole lot of time walking aimlessly around Chinatown getting ignored by the same 80-yr-old Cantonese speakers. Then again it could be worse... since... like...
We DID however find a super super golden contact yesterday in Chinatown which was really awesome. This guy is named Brother Kuang and he seems really really golden. He fortunately had a bunch of time right when we ran into him so we immediately went to our office downtown and taught him a lesson. He's really humble and we already got a baptismal date with him for next month which is really cool. He was like "yeah, I definitely will prepare myself to be baptized on that date" and we were like "YES!" Hahaha. Especially since we got owned earlier in the day by our investigators who pretty much all didn't come to church. The OuYang family's daughter keeps abusing her agency and not wanting to come to church causing their parents to come either A) Really late or B) Not at all (yesterday). They said she was "sick" but then we went later that night and she was fine. The only thing I find weird about that is the fact that she's 9 years old but still pretty much controls their ability to come to church which is really annoying. Elder Lee was telling me that if he did that his dad would just like drag him along haha which I'm thinking the OuYangs really need to step up and do. Of course it doesn't help that their fellowshipping family the Tans set pretty much the worst example ever in that respect since they haven't been to church in forever and seem to treat it as a "well if I really really really really really really have nothing else to do I'll go" kind of activity. Which is really really really really really really really really annoying. However, they still have reasonably strong testimonies which they aren't shy bearing to the Ouyangs which is good. If only they would practice what they preach...
Whatever the case, things are still looking good for their baptism next week. Our mission is a minimum of 3 times at church before they get baptized and the OuYangs have fortunately already been twice so next week will be their third time and then afterwards they'll be getting baptized!!! Hooray!
Thanks for the notes on sacrifice. My first day in the mission field we had zone conference from Elder Jensen (some 70) who talked a lot about that. He said that faith cannot come without sacrifice. Which is definitely true. Reminds me of Ether 12:6 where Moroni says that we receive no witness until after the trial of our faith. It's true, though I've realized which means people have to at least have a desire to believe before they can receive a witness that it is true. Which I can recognize is hard for some people since there are a lot of things that if you believe hard enough you really can convince yourself is true. Fortunately, we have the Spirit to help us with that process and with that desire. It really is true that practically no one would convert to the gospel without the help of the spirit and if our lessons don't have it then they're pretty much useless. The spirit was definitely really strong in our lesson with Brother Kuang yesterday and I could really see his desire and his humility.
Oh also another guy, Xu, Ayong, who promised us he would come to church, didn't end up coming. The funny thing is that he called us at like 10:30 and then the OuYangs called us at like 10:31 to cancel right as we were ending our conversation with AYong who was cancelling. Double Whammy.
Oh well. The Lord gives success and can take it away I guess. And comparably, our area is doing really great. Compared with earlier that is.
Have a new senior couple serving in our branch which is nice. They're really cool and have already taken Elder Luo and I out to lunch twice in the 3 days they've been here haha. Once for Elder Luo's brithday which was on Saturday and once today since we went over and set up their internet and wireless printer. They're from Oregon, near Portland. Elder Johnson went on his mission in England and I don't think Sister Johnson has ever been outside of suburban America haha since she keeps commenting about how astonished she is that no one here has yards haha.
Whatever the case, thanks for your emails guys. I don't have a whole lot of time to write back since I have to go write my email to the president now. Love you! Thanks for all your love and support. I hope you have a fantastictubularisticlysplendiferous week!
Love,
Ian
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Word of Wisdom Resolutions
Herrow! Man I can't believe you had to get up to go to 9 am church! Man! How early did you wake up?!?! Like 8?!?! I can't even imagine getting up that earlier since I pretty much get up at noon most days here.... Except for when I get up at 6:30... which is everyday... wait...
Hai! Yes! OuYang family did come to church along with Liu Tony... despite the fact that Liu Tony probably won't be able to get baptized this month since he's having trouble quitting smoking and drinking tea. We've decided to take a more realistic stance that he can't just quit it all at once and work out a plan of step-by-step reduction and whatnot so that he'll at least be able to shoot for next month's baptismal service (since our branch decided they were having too many baptisms so we only hold one every 4th Sunday of the month... which is actually ok... but kind of funny of our branch...).
The OuYangs are doing really well though. We taught them the word of wisdom on Saturday night knowing Brother Ouyang had a problem with drinking tea since he'd always drink it when we went over. But it turns out he also likes to drink alcohol and smoke which we didn't know earlier. Whatever the case though, he agreed surprisingly readily to live the word of wisdom which was really cool. His wife was like "I don't believe you!" and he was like, "What? It's not like I'm robbing a bank. Why don't you believe me?!" Which I didn't really get but Elder Luo thought it was pretty funny. Still though, doing really well and it's looking good for their baptismal goal of the 23rd. We also went to the temple with them and the Tan family yesterday which was pretty cool and will definitely be super helpful for them. Unfortunately, we did everything in Cantonese so I didn't really get it... but it seemed like they were having a good time. Only foreseeable challenge now is the law of tithing... but judging from how they've been doing so far I don't think it'll be too bad. High hopes!
Had a pretty good week this week I suppose you could say. Went on exchanges with Elder Lee which was pretty fun. Although not as much fun as it could've been since it seems like we were out doing missionary things all the time... I mean since we probably would've had more fun sightseeing or just like hanging out. Whatever the case, it rained super super hard that day and we both got pretty wet. They have this super awesome park with a science museum inside next to their apartment there in the Sunset Area which we walked through at night in the rain. Then the power went out in our apartment which is always good fun haha.
Had a New Year’s party thing for the whole zone on Friday night which was pretty fun. We got to watch 2 whole movies! “The Last Airbender “ (clearly the pick of a pop-culture ignorant missionary population) and “How to Train Your Dragon.” Elder Luo and I ended up missing the “Last Airbender” though since we were out helping Brother Liu [homeless investigator] find a place to spend the night. We took him to a homeless shelter downtown to get him registered in the system and try to find out how to get in contact with people who might have access to a more permanent solution. I have to say there are a lot of interesting people down there. There was this 20-30 yr-old woman at the desk who was really really nice and helpful. I was really impressed with how incredibly Christlike she was. Really patient with everyone and you could definitely feel how much love she had for others. She arranged for Brother Liu to be able to have a bed there that night and gave us some numbers to call for him. Unfortunately, the organizations we got the numbers for were only open today so I called them this morning and got referred to some other organizations. Finally got a number for the County Veterans Office and had him head down there. It sounds like they might be able to get him some money which is really good but I'm not entirely sure of the result at the moment. I really hope they can help him.
Sounds like your guys' holidays went (are going) well. I don't really remember many of those people from Hong Kong. Or maybe any... haha. I did however, run into a lady at the branch here who works at HKIS teaching Chinese and has for like 20 years meaning she probably taught me at some point haha. Pretty funny. It's a small world... afterall... it's a small world... afterall... (Reminds me of a really good song or something...)
I need to wrap this up so I can still have time to go to the chapel and play the piano for about an hour. I love you guys! Thanks so much for all your love and support and for your righteous examples to me!
Love you!
-Ian
Hai! Yes! OuYang family did come to church along with Liu Tony... despite the fact that Liu Tony probably won't be able to get baptized this month since he's having trouble quitting smoking and drinking tea. We've decided to take a more realistic stance that he can't just quit it all at once and work out a plan of step-by-step reduction and whatnot so that he'll at least be able to shoot for next month's baptismal service (since our branch decided they were having too many baptisms so we only hold one every 4th Sunday of the month... which is actually ok... but kind of funny of our branch...).
The OuYangs are doing really well though. We taught them the word of wisdom on Saturday night knowing Brother Ouyang had a problem with drinking tea since he'd always drink it when we went over. But it turns out he also likes to drink alcohol and smoke which we didn't know earlier. Whatever the case though, he agreed surprisingly readily to live the word of wisdom which was really cool. His wife was like "I don't believe you!" and he was like, "What? It's not like I'm robbing a bank. Why don't you believe me?!" Which I didn't really get but Elder Luo thought it was pretty funny. Still though, doing really well and it's looking good for their baptismal goal of the 23rd. We also went to the temple with them and the Tan family yesterday which was pretty cool and will definitely be super helpful for them. Unfortunately, we did everything in Cantonese so I didn't really get it... but it seemed like they were having a good time. Only foreseeable challenge now is the law of tithing... but judging from how they've been doing so far I don't think it'll be too bad. High hopes!
Had a pretty good week this week I suppose you could say. Went on exchanges with Elder Lee which was pretty fun. Although not as much fun as it could've been since it seems like we were out doing missionary things all the time... I mean since we probably would've had more fun sightseeing or just like hanging out. Whatever the case, it rained super super hard that day and we both got pretty wet. They have this super awesome park with a science museum inside next to their apartment there in the Sunset Area which we walked through at night in the rain. Then the power went out in our apartment which is always good fun haha.
Had a New Year’s party thing for the whole zone on Friday night which was pretty fun. We got to watch 2 whole movies! “The Last Airbender “ (clearly the pick of a pop-culture ignorant missionary population) and “How to Train Your Dragon.” Elder Luo and I ended up missing the “Last Airbender” though since we were out helping Brother Liu [homeless investigator] find a place to spend the night. We took him to a homeless shelter downtown to get him registered in the system and try to find out how to get in contact with people who might have access to a more permanent solution. I have to say there are a lot of interesting people down there. There was this 20-30 yr-old woman at the desk who was really really nice and helpful. I was really impressed with how incredibly Christlike she was. Really patient with everyone and you could definitely feel how much love she had for others. She arranged for Brother Liu to be able to have a bed there that night and gave us some numbers to call for him. Unfortunately, the organizations we got the numbers for were only open today so I called them this morning and got referred to some other organizations. Finally got a number for the County Veterans Office and had him head down there. It sounds like they might be able to get him some money which is really good but I'm not entirely sure of the result at the moment. I really hope they can help him.
Sounds like your guys' holidays went (are going) well. I don't really remember many of those people from Hong Kong. Or maybe any... haha. I did however, run into a lady at the branch here who works at HKIS teaching Chinese and has for like 20 years meaning she probably taught me at some point haha. Pretty funny. It's a small world... afterall... it's a small world... afterall... (Reminds me of a really good song or something...)
I need to wrap this up so I can still have time to go to the chapel and play the piano for about an hour. I love you guys! Thanks so much for all your love and support and for your righteous examples to me!
Love you!
-Ian
Monday, December 20, 2010
Merry Christmas!
Hai! Merry Christmas one and all!
So yeah. Last week was pretty tough. But this week was wayyyyy better. We ran into loads of pretty golden investigators. And of course, golden investigators is really just anyone who is actually willing to meet with us haha. But pretty good. We had 4 whole investigators come to church on Sunday! Which is basically a record for this area.
No idea what was different about this week from last week but we kept running into interested people. On Tuesday we ran into this super golden investigator (actually golden not just willing to listen to us haha) from a place near Shenyang (didn't really catch the name). Anyways, he said that he didn't know much about religion but when I shared the first vision with him on the street he recognized it since he had just moved from near richmond, VA where he had a mormon friend who had helped him and his family a lot when he had first moved there and had shared a little bit about the church with them. Anyways, so we went to the nearby park and taught a lesson which went really well. When he said the closing prayer he was like "and I hope this will be something I can pursue my whole life." Elder Luo and I were like "Yay!" and then found out he actually lives in the Daley City area haha so we just referred him over to the new sister missionaries who are serving there. But still cool.
Actually we had like 6 referrals that we sent over to Daley City this week. Helped improve our guanxi with the new sisters though so it's cool. We also met a guy who we started teaching and were like "Yeah this could work" and then it came out that his career basically consists of going to the casino every day. Elder Luo and I were like "wat?!" So we don't really know what we're gonna do with him. Plus we invited him to church and he was like, "Nope, sorry, the casinos give out even more money on Sundays..." I don't really know how he makes money but he must have some kind of system since he says he's never lost before. Pretty hilarious though.
We also met a woman (Sister Yu) who we started teaching and looked pretty promising. She was really interested in getting us to teach her son who's 26 years old, dropped out of college, and basically stays at home playing computer games all day (pretty much what i'm planning on doing after the mission). So pretty much super pathetic. We arranged to meet with her and her son and it pretty much turned into the most awkward lesson ever. We started teaching by watching "our search for happiness" which went ok and then we started talking about the plan of salvation and like what the purpose of life is and stuff. In the middle of the lesson he stood up and was like "Wo bu dong zhege" [I don't understand this.] and went back to his room. We were like... "ummm...." So we started to continue teaching Sister Yu but she like shook her head and pointed to the door. I was like "oh... I guess we'll leave then" haha. She came down with us though and we finished our lesson with her down by the entrance of the apartment. Ended up that her husband opposed her continuing to meet with us and so we had to drop her as an investigator, but yeah... pretty awkward lesson. And a pretty pathetic situation overall to be honest. I can't believe their son man. Such a waste of a life, honestly.
Anyways, we also added two investigators from Vietnam and are continuing to meet with the OuYang family which is cool. However, one our investigators from Vietnam (Brother Liu) has had like one of the roughest lives ever. First, he's got all these like wounds and scars and stuff since he served as a soldier in the Vietnam War that he goes to the doctor for 3 days a week. Also, he was telling us about his life in Vietnam after the war where I guess he got sent to some kind of re-education camp once the Americans left and he was caught trying to escape Vietnam which was pretty dismal from his description. He's now living with his nephew and his nephew's family and kind of looks after their kids in return for them allowing him to stay with them, but for some reason neither Elder Luo nor I are entirely clear on, he can only live with them through the 23rd of December, after which he'll have to move out. Basically, he has no idea where he's going to go and at the moment looks like he might end up without anywhere to live. Elder Luo and I are fasting for him today and we have faith that the Lord will prepare a way for him to avoid being homeless. At least we hope so since at the moment we really can't tell what will happen.
On a bit of a lighter note, the other guy from Vietnam (Tony Liu) is pretty funny. He speaks like 7 languages and just joined another Christian church. As we were on the train back from the church into downtown, Elder Luo was chatting with him and was like "So do you think what we talked about in our lesson is true? (we taught the restoration). And he was like "yeah I guess I do" And then Elder Luo basically committed him to be baptized right there for Jan. 23rd haha. Don't know how solid that is but I guess we'll find out. He was also telling us about everyone who comes into association with him either dies or stops associating with him. So I guess we'd better be extra careful from now on... haha.
Wow, 96 is pretty old! [Our former neighbor just passed away.] That's neat you guys got to attend his memorial service but yeah I guess a bit of a bummer you didn't get around to seeing him before he passed away. That is way older than what I would've thought. If I ever get that old i'd definitely be telling everyone. Pretty big accomplishment.
I'm in the library today sending emails and I only have 11 minutes left to go email Joel and Michelle so I'd better wrap this up. Sounds like your holiday season's going pretty well. I hope you get lots and lots of super interesting emails on your blackberry dad! And don't worry I won't tell Elder Luo about the submarines. I'm kind of interested as to why Taiwan even bothers. Wouldn't they just get wiped out if China actually every decided to attack them anyway?
Anyways, Merry Christmas mom and dad! I love you! Thanks so much for your love and support! I will call grandma and grandpa's phone probably around noon your time if that's ok. And if it's not then... well... too bad!
Love you!
-Ian
P.S. Don't have too many xmas plans to be honest. Our district is getting treated to lunch by a member though... which I just remembered is at 12... so maybe I'll be calling a little earlier... but either way, pretty good! K Love you bai!
So yeah. Last week was pretty tough. But this week was wayyyyy better. We ran into loads of pretty golden investigators. And of course, golden investigators is really just anyone who is actually willing to meet with us haha. But pretty good. We had 4 whole investigators come to church on Sunday! Which is basically a record for this area.
No idea what was different about this week from last week but we kept running into interested people. On Tuesday we ran into this super golden investigator (actually golden not just willing to listen to us haha) from a place near Shenyang (didn't really catch the name). Anyways, he said that he didn't know much about religion but when I shared the first vision with him on the street he recognized it since he had just moved from near richmond, VA where he had a mormon friend who had helped him and his family a lot when he had first moved there and had shared a little bit about the church with them. Anyways, so we went to the nearby park and taught a lesson which went really well. When he said the closing prayer he was like "and I hope this will be something I can pursue my whole life." Elder Luo and I were like "Yay!" and then found out he actually lives in the Daley City area haha so we just referred him over to the new sister missionaries who are serving there. But still cool.
Actually we had like 6 referrals that we sent over to Daley City this week. Helped improve our guanxi with the new sisters though so it's cool. We also met a guy who we started teaching and were like "Yeah this could work" and then it came out that his career basically consists of going to the casino every day. Elder Luo and I were like "wat?!" So we don't really know what we're gonna do with him. Plus we invited him to church and he was like, "Nope, sorry, the casinos give out even more money on Sundays..." I don't really know how he makes money but he must have some kind of system since he says he's never lost before. Pretty hilarious though.
We also met a woman (Sister Yu) who we started teaching and looked pretty promising. She was really interested in getting us to teach her son who's 26 years old, dropped out of college, and basically stays at home playing computer games all day (pretty much what i'm planning on doing after the mission). So pretty much super pathetic. We arranged to meet with her and her son and it pretty much turned into the most awkward lesson ever. We started teaching by watching "our search for happiness" which went ok and then we started talking about the plan of salvation and like what the purpose of life is and stuff. In the middle of the lesson he stood up and was like "Wo bu dong zhege" [I don't understand this.] and went back to his room. We were like... "ummm...." So we started to continue teaching Sister Yu but she like shook her head and pointed to the door. I was like "oh... I guess we'll leave then" haha. She came down with us though and we finished our lesson with her down by the entrance of the apartment. Ended up that her husband opposed her continuing to meet with us and so we had to drop her as an investigator, but yeah... pretty awkward lesson. And a pretty pathetic situation overall to be honest. I can't believe their son man. Such a waste of a life, honestly.
Anyways, we also added two investigators from Vietnam and are continuing to meet with the OuYang family which is cool. However, one our investigators from Vietnam (Brother Liu) has had like one of the roughest lives ever. First, he's got all these like wounds and scars and stuff since he served as a soldier in the Vietnam War that he goes to the doctor for 3 days a week. Also, he was telling us about his life in Vietnam after the war where I guess he got sent to some kind of re-education camp once the Americans left and he was caught trying to escape Vietnam which was pretty dismal from his description. He's now living with his nephew and his nephew's family and kind of looks after their kids in return for them allowing him to stay with them, but for some reason neither Elder Luo nor I are entirely clear on, he can only live with them through the 23rd of December, after which he'll have to move out. Basically, he has no idea where he's going to go and at the moment looks like he might end up without anywhere to live. Elder Luo and I are fasting for him today and we have faith that the Lord will prepare a way for him to avoid being homeless. At least we hope so since at the moment we really can't tell what will happen.
On a bit of a lighter note, the other guy from Vietnam (Tony Liu) is pretty funny. He speaks like 7 languages and just joined another Christian church. As we were on the train back from the church into downtown, Elder Luo was chatting with him and was like "So do you think what we talked about in our lesson is true? (we taught the restoration). And he was like "yeah I guess I do" And then Elder Luo basically committed him to be baptized right there for Jan. 23rd haha. Don't know how solid that is but I guess we'll find out. He was also telling us about everyone who comes into association with him either dies or stops associating with him. So I guess we'd better be extra careful from now on... haha.
Wow, 96 is pretty old! [Our former neighbor just passed away.] That's neat you guys got to attend his memorial service but yeah I guess a bit of a bummer you didn't get around to seeing him before he passed away. That is way older than what I would've thought. If I ever get that old i'd definitely be telling everyone. Pretty big accomplishment.
I'm in the library today sending emails and I only have 11 minutes left to go email Joel and Michelle so I'd better wrap this up. Sounds like your holiday season's going pretty well. I hope you get lots and lots of super interesting emails on your blackberry dad! And don't worry I won't tell Elder Luo about the submarines. I'm kind of interested as to why Taiwan even bothers. Wouldn't they just get wiped out if China actually every decided to attack them anyway?
Anyways, Merry Christmas mom and dad! I love you! Thanks so much for your love and support! I will call grandma and grandpa's phone probably around noon your time if that's ok. And if it's not then... well... too bad!
Love you!
-Ian
P.S. Don't have too many xmas plans to be honest. Our district is getting treated to lunch by a member though... which I just remembered is at 12... so maybe I'll be calling a little earlier... but either way, pretty good! K Love you bai!
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
On the Streets
Oh Hai!
So yeah. That was pretty random. Felt a little panjiao [apostate] though to be honest. ALMOST talking to you guys. Pretty panjiao. Whatever the case, pretty fun. I wouldn't worry about the scarf since it's really not that cold here and I'm thinking of dropping by the subway lost and found which I haven't checked yet to see if they have my scarf. And then while we're there we can ask them if they have our umbrellas... and then see if my camera's there too on the off chance it got left on BART accidently... whatever happens, I'm sure those BART (the name of the subway) employees have been spending the past couple weeks following me around and picking up all the stuff that has left my person and taking it to the lost and found until I decide to go and pick it all up so I really should be fine.
Anyways, yeah we had transfer calls the day before yesterday which was pretty exciting. Well not really since Elder Luo and I are staying in this area as companions haha. Elder Luo is being made district leader though and our current district leader is headed to Oakland where he will be taking the bus and training someone. No more car for him! And no more rides for us unfortunately since the two missionaries coming to take the place of our district leader and his companion (they're both moving away) are sisters and therefore are not able to give us rides anywhere. Pretty zaogao I have to say. Especially since sister missionaries always strike me as super hardcore and it's kind of awkward talking to them since they're girls and stuff. And have cooties.
On the other hand, Elder Luo being district leader means I'll have the opportunity sometime this transfer to go on exchanges with Elder Lee which should be pretty much awesomely hilarious... I just hope we can still keep working hard since every time we're together we just joke around. Like how at church we were like joking about how we need to sabotage the new sister missionaries so they don't make us look bad hahaha. Our proposed pranks kind of got a little out of hand though with the bucket of nails above the door to the bathroom and the venomous snakes in their beds. However we're still planning on seran wrap on the toilet seat and itching powder on the chairs. I am, of course, kidding. But I have heard that sister missionaries are pretty awesome. So we're pretty much expecting a huge upsurge of baptisms in the branch which should be good. Meanwhile, Elder Luo and my district suffered some setbacks earlier in the week which forced us to spend most of the time street contacting. On Tuesday we had 4 appointments set up, 3 with investigators, and 1 with a potential we had contacted on Monday night. 3 of them cancelled, and the prospective then fanged our gezi (stood us up)... Which was pretty lame. But we did have a stroke of luck as we first ran into a member who had served a mission in Gaoxiong 3 years earlier and so treated us to dinner which was nice of him. And then we ran into Roger Andelin, which of course you know about already. Then we had a couple more appts cancel so we basically spent most of the week street contacting around Chinatown which is where we spend most of our time. Although, for some reason, there seemed to be trouble in Chinatown this week since not only did people seem rather uninterested in listening to us (rather a lot), but we kept running into the rudest people ever haha. First there was this random white guy who just started swearing at us for some reason which was rather uncool of him, and then we contacted these people on the bus yesterday who were saying the most ridiculously rude things ever to us haha. It was funny cause one of them was from Shenyang and usually when people say that Elder Luo goes "ME TOO!" except this time he was like "oh yeah I'm from like somewhere near there......" Looks like Shenyang isn't the zionistic paradise Elder Luo would have me believe it is haha.
However, this week had a lot of really good stuff too. On Saturday night we went to visit a family that's been inactive for years (Tan family). Everything has basically already been taught to them so every time we go over there we're like "what should we teach?!" At the end of the lesson, we asked who they knew who we could teach the restored gospel and they actually had a referral for us! And what was even more amazing is that the referral walked in like 5 minutes later! We set up an appointment for last night and it went really well. Basically pretty golden since it's a family (one of the first we've been able to teach) and both the husband and wife seem really receptive. AND we have an automatic friendshipper since they're a referral. Member referrals really are the best way to do missionary work. The only problem we see now is how we're gonna get them to come to church if their member friends, the Tan family, don't even come. But I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it which we hope won't be an unbreachable gap since church is really important... seeing as how they can't get baptized or anything without going. But we still have hope that the Tan family will be able to come back to church since they clearly still have super strong testimonies which they bore pretty freely last night as we taught our lesson. We hope that they'll just get super excited about missionary work and then just naturally want to come back to church. We have hope!
Whatever the case though, teaching them really made me realize how important the gospel is in our lives since there really is very little to go by without it. Like I can't imagine what values I'd teach my kids if I didn't have some kind of golden standard to go by. Definitely hopeful for this family... who's surname is O'Yang which makes me think of like O'Reilly or O'Malley or something. Pretty sure they're not Irish though...
And Dad, you of ALL people should know that tithing is really more of a SUGGESTION than a real PRINCIPLE... haha. Yeah that's definitely really lame of those missionaries. And there's no way they'd even be able to pass the baptismal interview if they weren't prepared to pay tithing. Which seems to kind of be a pretty big problem for most Chinese converts. Which is a shame since I'm a pretty big fan of those bigger commandments that are generally harder to keep since the blessings really are so much greater. Tithing really is such a blessing.
Glad to hear you're keeping my legend alive in the Arlington Ward. Make sure to tell them about the thousands of people who are being baptized here in San Francisco as a result of my efforts and how I can shoot laser beams out of my eyes. (That last one is pretty new though.)
Pretty cool you're in the news dad [Wikileaks]. Although I can't imagine you've said anything really ridiculous in any of your cables or whatnot. If so though, I'd be excited to see your name in the headlines of the papers I occasionally get glimpses of. And if you lose your job in the government, there's always reality television.
Glad to hear things are going well as the Relief Society Czar mom. I'm sure you're top notch! Tip top! Recent converts are the best. Oh except for that one that we baptized a month or so ago since this week we think he's been avoiding us. Ok we know he has. But yesterday we finally found out why since his friend Sister Liu said that he said we shouldn't get him to accompany our lessons anymore like we had been doing before since he doesn't really feel like he's up to that. Just wish he'd just have said that in the first place haha so we wouldn't have to get avoided which is a bummer. Still, it's always a fun time to go by his apartment on Broadway haha.
Elder Luo and I basically spent most of our P-day restoring our apartment to the Celestial Glory we assume it at some point had possessed. It does look a lot better now since we spent quite a while cleaning it. At the very least Top Degree Terrestrial.
I need to go write michelle and joel back but thanks a lot for your emails! And for your presents! I love opening one every day before companionship study haha. So fun. And all the stuff you've sent so far has been so awesome and useful... except maybe the clay.. but i'll find a way to use it! I love you guys! Stay strong in the gospel and whatnot!
Love,
-Ian
So yeah. That was pretty random. Felt a little panjiao [apostate] though to be honest. ALMOST talking to you guys. Pretty panjiao. Whatever the case, pretty fun. I wouldn't worry about the scarf since it's really not that cold here and I'm thinking of dropping by the subway lost and found which I haven't checked yet to see if they have my scarf. And then while we're there we can ask them if they have our umbrellas... and then see if my camera's there too on the off chance it got left on BART accidently... whatever happens, I'm sure those BART (the name of the subway) employees have been spending the past couple weeks following me around and picking up all the stuff that has left my person and taking it to the lost and found until I decide to go and pick it all up so I really should be fine.
Anyways, yeah we had transfer calls the day before yesterday which was pretty exciting. Well not really since Elder Luo and I are staying in this area as companions haha. Elder Luo is being made district leader though and our current district leader is headed to Oakland where he will be taking the bus and training someone. No more car for him! And no more rides for us unfortunately since the two missionaries coming to take the place of our district leader and his companion (they're both moving away) are sisters and therefore are not able to give us rides anywhere. Pretty zaogao I have to say. Especially since sister missionaries always strike me as super hardcore and it's kind of awkward talking to them since they're girls and stuff. And have cooties.
On the other hand, Elder Luo being district leader means I'll have the opportunity sometime this transfer to go on exchanges with Elder Lee which should be pretty much awesomely hilarious... I just hope we can still keep working hard since every time we're together we just joke around. Like how at church we were like joking about how we need to sabotage the new sister missionaries so they don't make us look bad hahaha. Our proposed pranks kind of got a little out of hand though with the bucket of nails above the door to the bathroom and the venomous snakes in their beds. However we're still planning on seran wrap on the toilet seat and itching powder on the chairs. I am, of course, kidding. But I have heard that sister missionaries are pretty awesome. So we're pretty much expecting a huge upsurge of baptisms in the branch which should be good. Meanwhile, Elder Luo and my district suffered some setbacks earlier in the week which forced us to spend most of the time street contacting. On Tuesday we had 4 appointments set up, 3 with investigators, and 1 with a potential we had contacted on Monday night. 3 of them cancelled, and the prospective then fanged our gezi (stood us up)... Which was pretty lame. But we did have a stroke of luck as we first ran into a member who had served a mission in Gaoxiong 3 years earlier and so treated us to dinner which was nice of him. And then we ran into Roger Andelin, which of course you know about already. Then we had a couple more appts cancel so we basically spent most of the week street contacting around Chinatown which is where we spend most of our time. Although, for some reason, there seemed to be trouble in Chinatown this week since not only did people seem rather uninterested in listening to us (rather a lot), but we kept running into the rudest people ever haha. First there was this random white guy who just started swearing at us for some reason which was rather uncool of him, and then we contacted these people on the bus yesterday who were saying the most ridiculously rude things ever to us haha. It was funny cause one of them was from Shenyang and usually when people say that Elder Luo goes "ME TOO!" except this time he was like "oh yeah I'm from like somewhere near there......" Looks like Shenyang isn't the zionistic paradise Elder Luo would have me believe it is haha.
However, this week had a lot of really good stuff too. On Saturday night we went to visit a family that's been inactive for years (Tan family). Everything has basically already been taught to them so every time we go over there we're like "what should we teach?!" At the end of the lesson, we asked who they knew who we could teach the restored gospel and they actually had a referral for us! And what was even more amazing is that the referral walked in like 5 minutes later! We set up an appointment for last night and it went really well. Basically pretty golden since it's a family (one of the first we've been able to teach) and both the husband and wife seem really receptive. AND we have an automatic friendshipper since they're a referral. Member referrals really are the best way to do missionary work. The only problem we see now is how we're gonna get them to come to church if their member friends, the Tan family, don't even come. But I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it which we hope won't be an unbreachable gap since church is really important... seeing as how they can't get baptized or anything without going. But we still have hope that the Tan family will be able to come back to church since they clearly still have super strong testimonies which they bore pretty freely last night as we taught our lesson. We hope that they'll just get super excited about missionary work and then just naturally want to come back to church. We have hope!
Whatever the case though, teaching them really made me realize how important the gospel is in our lives since there really is very little to go by without it. Like I can't imagine what values I'd teach my kids if I didn't have some kind of golden standard to go by. Definitely hopeful for this family... who's surname is O'Yang which makes me think of like O'Reilly or O'Malley or something. Pretty sure they're not Irish though...
And Dad, you of ALL people should know that tithing is really more of a SUGGESTION than a real PRINCIPLE... haha. Yeah that's definitely really lame of those missionaries. And there's no way they'd even be able to pass the baptismal interview if they weren't prepared to pay tithing. Which seems to kind of be a pretty big problem for most Chinese converts. Which is a shame since I'm a pretty big fan of those bigger commandments that are generally harder to keep since the blessings really are so much greater. Tithing really is such a blessing.
Glad to hear you're keeping my legend alive in the Arlington Ward. Make sure to tell them about the thousands of people who are being baptized here in San Francisco as a result of my efforts and how I can shoot laser beams out of my eyes. (That last one is pretty new though.)
Pretty cool you're in the news dad [Wikileaks]. Although I can't imagine you've said anything really ridiculous in any of your cables or whatnot. If so though, I'd be excited to see your name in the headlines of the papers I occasionally get glimpses of. And if you lose your job in the government, there's always reality television.
Glad to hear things are going well as the Relief Society Czar mom. I'm sure you're top notch! Tip top! Recent converts are the best. Oh except for that one that we baptized a month or so ago since this week we think he's been avoiding us. Ok we know he has. But yesterday we finally found out why since his friend Sister Liu said that he said we shouldn't get him to accompany our lessons anymore like we had been doing before since he doesn't really feel like he's up to that. Just wish he'd just have said that in the first place haha so we wouldn't have to get avoided which is a bummer. Still, it's always a fun time to go by his apartment on Broadway haha.
Elder Luo and I basically spent most of our P-day restoring our apartment to the Celestial Glory we assume it at some point had possessed. It does look a lot better now since we spent quite a while cleaning it. At the very least Top Degree Terrestrial.
I need to go write michelle and joel back but thanks a lot for your emails! And for your presents! I love opening one every day before companionship study haha. So fun. And all the stuff you've sent so far has been so awesome and useful... except maybe the clay.. but i'll find a way to use it! I love you guys! Stay strong in the gospel and whatnot!
Love,
-Ian
Monday, December 6, 2010
Setting Goals...
NI HAOYA DOIN?!
I GOT IT! And you guys really DO love me!!! The zone leaders dropped it off on saturday night and I was like "Whahttt?!?!?! SO BIG!" And then I opened it and was like "WHATththth?!!? SO MANY!" And then I was like "I should take a picture of this!" and so went to my backpack and reached into the pocket where I kept my camera and was like "Whaththt?!?! SO NOT IN HERE!"
So basically it was all at once, the happiest night ever and the most depressing. I really have no idea where it went though. The only think I can think of is that someone reached into my bag and appropriated it as a kind of early christmas present. Such a bummer though... I feel like I keep losing stuff since I lost my scarf the other day on the stupid subway. Which basically keeps taking Elder Luo and my stuff since another time we left a couple of umbrellas at a stop and got on the subway and realized our umbrellas were outside right as the doors closed and we watched them disappear into oblivion.
On the bright side though, it had like 2 pictures on it... however there really aren't many bright sides to losing stuff like that. Sorry!
Sounds like your xmas activity went well. That's pretty cool you got to have it with those heathens, err I mean, fellow christians across the street :D We had the chance to go see the devotional too which was fun. And there was even a music program beforehand put on by various people in the stake. Had a really good performance by 4 missionaries who sang silent night and had basically really good harmony. I think theirs was probably the best performance of the night.
Music definitely is very powerful in conveying the spirit. I've never heard that experience before either mom! But then I guess I've never really been all that clear on what was going on in your 6th grade year dad haha. Thanks for sharing it though. Elder Luo and I have committed to sing even more than we do to our investigators... which will be an even better goal once I get a new companion who can stay on key! :D Don't tell him I said that... not that you would be able to... but... anyways!
We had a really good zone conference this week on asking refrerrals and setting goals/making plans. Definitely inspired since those were two places I've been struggling with lately, particularly goal-setting. But I have definitely already felt the benefits of following the advice of Pres. Wade and our goal setting is definitely way better now...
Unfortunately that's not really reflected too much in our success lately it seems... since Brother Chen didn't make it to church (and is now sick which is a bummer since we don't know when we'll be able to next meet with him), Brother Zhang said the answer to his prayer was that he was already saved and didn't need to get rebaptized (asdl;kfj;lkjaslk!!!), Sister Loi is "sick" and not very interested in continuing to meet with us (we think possibly cancer since she showed me some letters with medical information saying she might possibly have it and then she went to the doctor's right before cutting it off with us)...
So basically this week didn't go exceptionally well... but we do have high hopes that this next week will be better. We have a new investigator named Sister Zhao who's like 30! So about 50 years younger than the average! And she seems to be doing fairly well. I was on companion exchanges with Elder Mak from hong kong on saturday and we taught her in mandarin/cantonese (he used the cantonese) which was pretty interesting. Cantonese is pretty hilarious. I think i might have to learn some though before I leave since there are so many canto-speakers in this mission. Can actually understand it marginally well or at least guess at the meanings. Anyways, that lesson went pretty well. Although it seems like a lot of our investigators seem to have problems with prayer and knowing that what we're telling them is the truth. Anyways, have a couple other new investigators too which is cool but getting them to church could be a problem since our district is the furthest away from church and none of the people living downtown have cars basically.
Anyways, i'm almost out of time since it's like 1 minute before six but I just want to say that I love you and thank you so much for the big box of christmas presents. It basically feels like home in our apartment with all the xmas music and lights and stuff haha.
Anyways, gtg. Love you!
-Elder Christensen
P.S. At least the govt. is doing SOMETHING right. Probably cause there are so many mormons in the state dept. haha
I GOT IT! And you guys really DO love me!!! The zone leaders dropped it off on saturday night and I was like "Whahttt?!?!?! SO BIG!" And then I opened it and was like "WHATththth?!!? SO MANY!" And then I was like "I should take a picture of this!" and so went to my backpack and reached into the pocket where I kept my camera and was like "Whaththt?!?! SO NOT IN HERE!"
So basically it was all at once, the happiest night ever and the most depressing. I really have no idea where it went though. The only think I can think of is that someone reached into my bag and appropriated it as a kind of early christmas present. Such a bummer though... I feel like I keep losing stuff since I lost my scarf the other day on the stupid subway. Which basically keeps taking Elder Luo and my stuff since another time we left a couple of umbrellas at a stop and got on the subway and realized our umbrellas were outside right as the doors closed and we watched them disappear into oblivion.
On the bright side though, it had like 2 pictures on it... however there really aren't many bright sides to losing stuff like that. Sorry!
Sounds like your xmas activity went well. That's pretty cool you got to have it with those heathens, err I mean, fellow christians across the street :D We had the chance to go see the devotional too which was fun. And there was even a music program beforehand put on by various people in the stake. Had a really good performance by 4 missionaries who sang silent night and had basically really good harmony. I think theirs was probably the best performance of the night.
Music definitely is very powerful in conveying the spirit. I've never heard that experience before either mom! But then I guess I've never really been all that clear on what was going on in your 6th grade year dad haha. Thanks for sharing it though. Elder Luo and I have committed to sing even more than we do to our investigators... which will be an even better goal once I get a new companion who can stay on key! :D Don't tell him I said that... not that you would be able to... but... anyways!
We had a really good zone conference this week on asking refrerrals and setting goals/making plans. Definitely inspired since those were two places I've been struggling with lately, particularly goal-setting. But I have definitely already felt the benefits of following the advice of Pres. Wade and our goal setting is definitely way better now...
Unfortunately that's not really reflected too much in our success lately it seems... since Brother Chen didn't make it to church (and is now sick which is a bummer since we don't know when we'll be able to next meet with him), Brother Zhang said the answer to his prayer was that he was already saved and didn't need to get rebaptized (asdl;kfj;lkjaslk!!!), Sister Loi is "sick" and not very interested in continuing to meet with us (we think possibly cancer since she showed me some letters with medical information saying she might possibly have it and then she went to the doctor's right before cutting it off with us)...
So basically this week didn't go exceptionally well... but we do have high hopes that this next week will be better. We have a new investigator named Sister Zhao who's like 30! So about 50 years younger than the average! And she seems to be doing fairly well. I was on companion exchanges with Elder Mak from hong kong on saturday and we taught her in mandarin/cantonese (he used the cantonese) which was pretty interesting. Cantonese is pretty hilarious. I think i might have to learn some though before I leave since there are so many canto-speakers in this mission. Can actually understand it marginally well or at least guess at the meanings. Anyways, that lesson went pretty well. Although it seems like a lot of our investigators seem to have problems with prayer and knowing that what we're telling them is the truth. Anyways, have a couple other new investigators too which is cool but getting them to church could be a problem since our district is the furthest away from church and none of the people living downtown have cars basically.
Anyways, i'm almost out of time since it's like 1 minute before six but I just want to say that I love you and thank you so much for the big box of christmas presents. It basically feels like home in our apartment with all the xmas music and lights and stuff haha.
Anyways, gtg. Love you!
-Elder Christensen
P.S. At least the govt. is doing SOMETHING right. Probably cause there are so many mormons in the state dept. haha
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Octogenarians & the Gospel
Man not fair at all. Good thing i'm sure i'll be getting a fair share of blessings myself. I mean. Cause that's the only reason I’m doing this. Cause like... no blessings, no payoff or whatever. Haha that actually reminds me of this guy we contacted a while back who we ran into yesterday again who I was like, "What do you think brings the most happiness?" and he was like "Money!" and I was like, "don't you think there's some happiness money can't buy?" And he was like "NO MONEY NO HONEY!!! HUA HUA HUA!" And all his friends started laughing. I guess it was pretty funny. I hope he really was joking though... haha.
Beautiful day here across the country too btw. Although it's getting a little cold. Starting to wear this large coat which at least covers up my hair in the back. Tell Eric I didn't really expect him to break anything... but I mean, you never know. I've just heard people with red hair are like that. And that they also are big on eating red stuff like tomatoes.
Whatever the case, this week went pretty well. Ok, not that well. It seems like all of our progressing investigators aren't really progressing anymore which is kind of annoying. That 72-yr-old guy Brother Chen is kind of slowing up since he keeps not coming to church since A) it's too far, B) it's too early and, I guess, C) he thinks he'll just come up with too many unanswerable questions about the church or something like that. Basically kind of annoying. However, we're still working on it and are hopeful for this next week. For some reason, Brother Chen always goes to sleep at like 2 in the morning since he stays up reading books and stuff like that. “Professor's habit,” he says. And then we have this 70-yr-old woman from Vietnam, Sister Loi. Although she was looking really good earlier this week when we managed to set a baptismal date with her for the 12th (requiring her not to miss a day of church till that date) and got a pretty solid commitment to come to church. She then went to San Jose for a Thanksgiving celebration with her family and when she got back, she missed an appointment with us on Saturday night since she was still there. Then she couldn't make it to church on Sunday for some reason. It was really weird since we called her the night before and told her we were gonna come pick her up the next morning which she said was ok but then we got there and she wasn't home... which is weird since one of her concerns was that going out at 9:30 was too early. Anyways, then we kept calling back all day since we have later and later sacrament meetings with other wards and she never got back home which was really weird and rather frustrating. Then we called at like 9:30 pm and the phone was busy. Anyways, mysterious, so we're gonna have to check and see what was going on that day. I still have no idea. The bad news with that is that now we have to automatically shift her baptismal date a week or probably two back to the 26th since she still has to get to church 3 times before she can get baptized. A bummer.
We have another investigator who lives here in chinatown named Brother Zhang who's like 80+ yrs old. He's already been baptized into another church and so doesn't feel like he needs to be baptized again. However, the last lesson we taught him was super spiritual and we basically told him if the Book of Mormon is true, then we really are the only church with the proper priesthood authority to perform those kinds of ordinances. He said he believes the Book of Mormon is true and so we asked him to pray to know whether or not God wanted him to get re-baptized into our church which for some reason he was really reluctant to do. Elder Luo and I think he already knows he needs to be baptized again and just doesn't want to go through all the hassle of doing it since our church is pretty far away and he says he doesn't want to pao lai pao qu all the time since he's already like 80 something years old. We were very close to a commitment I feel and so we're going back tonight to teach another lesson with recent convert, Brother Zheng, who we baptized last month and who's situation was pretty much the same since he had already been baptized and didn't want to have to be rebaptized but finally changed his mind. Basically, really awesome since he's also like almost 80 years old so we're thinking it'll come off pretty well. At least we hope so. I guess I'll let you guys know next week.
In other news, we got a couple new investigators this week which is cool. Things are looking up in our area apparently since I heard that before, downtown was like the hardest area with no investigators or baptisms and nothing really going for it but I can't really imagine that since things seem to be going pretty well and we have enough investigators to keep our hands full (despite the fact that they all seem to be octogenarians).
Thanksgiving went pretty well. Actually, we had a lot a lot of members inviting us to eat this week. On Wednesday, had the stake president and his family take us out to dinner (which was kind of pan jiao [apostasy] since we stayed kind of too long... but it was kind of bu hao yisi to leave... and our district leader was there too... so yeah... I blame him)... and then on Thursday night we went over to Brother Yang's house which was really good and actually pretty American despite the fact that Elder Lee and I were the only 2 white people there since our whole district was there (all 6 of us!). Then on Saturday had another ward party thing with loads and loads of jiaozi which were really good. Then today had a member take us out to a buffet BBQ restaurant which was pretty darn good. Basically just blessed all over this week.... in the food dept. at least...
Haven't gotten a package from Katherine yet but I am waiting in joyous anticipation. I am almost done with a letter to her which I will send off as soon as I can but there always seems to be precious little time to write letters on p-day since most of the time is spent doing random stuff that takes a lot of time. Especially travelling...
Anyways, I am pretty impressed with your relief society acheivements mom. In office like a month only and already guanxi-ing it up with your subordinates. And by subordinates I mean fellow relief society members. But now that you're in a position of power or whatnot, I don't think it'd be too out of place to exercise some unrighteous dominion. Since I'm pretty sure that's what leadership positions are for right? Anyways, once I become assistant to the president I'm thinking I'll probably just have some more lowly missionaries make me meals and stuff. I mean... you know.. cause like... power.. and stuff...
I hope your blood drive is successful dad. I don't think giving that many pints of blood is really very healthy. I mean I'm no doctor... and I'm not that familiar with the imperial system of measurement but that sounds like too many pints for one person to give. Fortunately, I have AB negative or positive blood which is basically the most useless blood-type ever. Whatever the case, that's cool that William Xu is so active. And yeah I mean waking up so early would probably affect his studies at that incredibly academic institution. You know how ridiculously difficult American public schools are and everything...
Sounds like that Wikileak deal is kind of a mess. But I'm sure everything'll turn out ok in the end. Either that or we'll plunge into a state of anarchy and everyone will start eating each other and whatnot. Speaking of which, Brother Zhang was telling us a bit about the Cultural Revolution as he experienced it back in the day before he escaped to Taiwan which was pretty interesting (despite the fact that it kind of sidetracked our lesson... a lot...). Turns out Elder Luo's Chinese-censored education form of events is rather drastically different. He told me that the famine during the Cultural Revolution was due to natural causes which kind of made me laugh in an ironic bitter kind of way. I guess it was pretty natural that they had no food since no one was really growing any. Pretty interesting to learn about Elder Luo's Chinese take of the world. Like how in school he was taught that America will be a lot better when they finally learn to accept communism hahaha. Aiya. Kind of scary how Elder Luo seems so rational and yet is incredibly nationalistic. Although, seeing the plight of all the Chinese immigrants here in San Francisco I really can't fathom why any Chinese people would immigrate to the states these days which seems only to mean working really long hours, not being able to find work, or just struggling with the language. Hardly seems to be the land of opportunity anymore.
I need to wrap this up and go write Joel and Michelle a bit. Thanks for your emails mom and dad! Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Christensen
Beautiful day here across the country too btw. Although it's getting a little cold. Starting to wear this large coat which at least covers up my hair in the back. Tell Eric I didn't really expect him to break anything... but I mean, you never know. I've just heard people with red hair are like that. And that they also are big on eating red stuff like tomatoes.
Whatever the case, this week went pretty well. Ok, not that well. It seems like all of our progressing investigators aren't really progressing anymore which is kind of annoying. That 72-yr-old guy Brother Chen is kind of slowing up since he keeps not coming to church since A) it's too far, B) it's too early and, I guess, C) he thinks he'll just come up with too many unanswerable questions about the church or something like that. Basically kind of annoying. However, we're still working on it and are hopeful for this next week. For some reason, Brother Chen always goes to sleep at like 2 in the morning since he stays up reading books and stuff like that. “Professor's habit,” he says. And then we have this 70-yr-old woman from Vietnam, Sister Loi. Although she was looking really good earlier this week when we managed to set a baptismal date with her for the 12th (requiring her not to miss a day of church till that date) and got a pretty solid commitment to come to church. She then went to San Jose for a Thanksgiving celebration with her family and when she got back, she missed an appointment with us on Saturday night since she was still there. Then she couldn't make it to church on Sunday for some reason. It was really weird since we called her the night before and told her we were gonna come pick her up the next morning which she said was ok but then we got there and she wasn't home... which is weird since one of her concerns was that going out at 9:30 was too early. Anyways, then we kept calling back all day since we have later and later sacrament meetings with other wards and she never got back home which was really weird and rather frustrating. Then we called at like 9:30 pm and the phone was busy. Anyways, mysterious, so we're gonna have to check and see what was going on that day. I still have no idea. The bad news with that is that now we have to automatically shift her baptismal date a week or probably two back to the 26th since she still has to get to church 3 times before she can get baptized. A bummer.
We have another investigator who lives here in chinatown named Brother Zhang who's like 80+ yrs old. He's already been baptized into another church and so doesn't feel like he needs to be baptized again. However, the last lesson we taught him was super spiritual and we basically told him if the Book of Mormon is true, then we really are the only church with the proper priesthood authority to perform those kinds of ordinances. He said he believes the Book of Mormon is true and so we asked him to pray to know whether or not God wanted him to get re-baptized into our church which for some reason he was really reluctant to do. Elder Luo and I think he already knows he needs to be baptized again and just doesn't want to go through all the hassle of doing it since our church is pretty far away and he says he doesn't want to pao lai pao qu all the time since he's already like 80 something years old. We were very close to a commitment I feel and so we're going back tonight to teach another lesson with recent convert, Brother Zheng, who we baptized last month and who's situation was pretty much the same since he had already been baptized and didn't want to have to be rebaptized but finally changed his mind. Basically, really awesome since he's also like almost 80 years old so we're thinking it'll come off pretty well. At least we hope so. I guess I'll let you guys know next week.
In other news, we got a couple new investigators this week which is cool. Things are looking up in our area apparently since I heard that before, downtown was like the hardest area with no investigators or baptisms and nothing really going for it but I can't really imagine that since things seem to be going pretty well and we have enough investigators to keep our hands full (despite the fact that they all seem to be octogenarians).
Thanksgiving went pretty well. Actually, we had a lot a lot of members inviting us to eat this week. On Wednesday, had the stake president and his family take us out to dinner (which was kind of pan jiao [apostasy] since we stayed kind of too long... but it was kind of bu hao yisi to leave... and our district leader was there too... so yeah... I blame him)... and then on Thursday night we went over to Brother Yang's house which was really good and actually pretty American despite the fact that Elder Lee and I were the only 2 white people there since our whole district was there (all 6 of us!). Then on Saturday had another ward party thing with loads and loads of jiaozi which were really good. Then today had a member take us out to a buffet BBQ restaurant which was pretty darn good. Basically just blessed all over this week.... in the food dept. at least...
Haven't gotten a package from Katherine yet but I am waiting in joyous anticipation. I am almost done with a letter to her which I will send off as soon as I can but there always seems to be precious little time to write letters on p-day since most of the time is spent doing random stuff that takes a lot of time. Especially travelling...
Anyways, I am pretty impressed with your relief society acheivements mom. In office like a month only and already guanxi-ing it up with your subordinates. And by subordinates I mean fellow relief society members. But now that you're in a position of power or whatnot, I don't think it'd be too out of place to exercise some unrighteous dominion. Since I'm pretty sure that's what leadership positions are for right? Anyways, once I become assistant to the president I'm thinking I'll probably just have some more lowly missionaries make me meals and stuff. I mean... you know.. cause like... power.. and stuff...
I hope your blood drive is successful dad. I don't think giving that many pints of blood is really very healthy. I mean I'm no doctor... and I'm not that familiar with the imperial system of measurement but that sounds like too many pints for one person to give. Fortunately, I have AB negative or positive blood which is basically the most useless blood-type ever. Whatever the case, that's cool that William Xu is so active. And yeah I mean waking up so early would probably affect his studies at that incredibly academic institution. You know how ridiculously difficult American public schools are and everything...
Sounds like that Wikileak deal is kind of a mess. But I'm sure everything'll turn out ok in the end. Either that or we'll plunge into a state of anarchy and everyone will start eating each other and whatnot. Speaking of which, Brother Zhang was telling us a bit about the Cultural Revolution as he experienced it back in the day before he escaped to Taiwan which was pretty interesting (despite the fact that it kind of sidetracked our lesson... a lot...). Turns out Elder Luo's Chinese-censored education form of events is rather drastically different. He told me that the famine during the Cultural Revolution was due to natural causes which kind of made me laugh in an ironic bitter kind of way. I guess it was pretty natural that they had no food since no one was really growing any. Pretty interesting to learn about Elder Luo's Chinese take of the world. Like how in school he was taught that America will be a lot better when they finally learn to accept communism hahaha. Aiya. Kind of scary how Elder Luo seems so rational and yet is incredibly nationalistic. Although, seeing the plight of all the Chinese immigrants here in San Francisco I really can't fathom why any Chinese people would immigrate to the states these days which seems only to mean working really long hours, not being able to find work, or just struggling with the language. Hardly seems to be the land of opportunity anymore.
I need to wrap this up and go write Joel and Michelle a bit. Thanks for your emails mom and dad! Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Christensen
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