June 28, 2010

Hello Everyone! Alright, well to start off this week was spiritualy draining because so many things have happened.. First of all, this week was mission presidents week where they bring all the new mission presdients from around the world to the mtc and they are trained by the first presdiency and the quoroum of the twelve apostles, which mean all twelve apostles and the first presidency were here this week! We had a special devotional this week, and the people who came that i sat about ten feet away from were Elders......Jeffrey R.. Holland, Dallin H. Oaks, Richard G. Scott, Russel M. Nelson, David A. Bednar, D. Todd Christofferson, Neil L. Anderson, Quentin L. Cook :) :). It was ana absolutely amazing meeting! And the whole first quoroum of the seventy and their presidency was there as well. I can't really describe it justly but it can be simply put......It was amazing. Other than that happening this week the chinese has still been chugging along, we taught a native this week and i had a full on conversation with her. IIIItttt is crazy to see how quickly i have improved but I do not give any thanks to myself for that. It is all the lord. This week I have been studying on how to recognize the Holy Ghost in my life and when I know if it is a prompting or my own thoughts. I have learned that the Lord wants to act on our own thoughts and when we do as the lord commands and stay faithful our steps will be guided. David A. Bednar said that we need to just stop worrying about it.. If we are making the right choices and act then our steps will be guided by the lord. I like what he said when he talked about how some people wait for a huge spiritual experience to get them going and he said "The lord should not have to be smacking us with the spirit to get us to get up and serve, we need to serve using our own effort and believe he will guide us". I love that talk. Well, i will be getting my flight plans this week, and then on the 14th I fly to california! I am so excited for what the Lord has in store for me! I love you all and thank you all! Dad--- Ok, there is an elder in my district his name is Dallin Erickson, he said his dad is about your age and also played football for ricks college! I want to know if you know him, his dads name is Todd Erickson. And please could you possibly send a pocket sized english to mandarin dicitionary......it would help me so much. The one they gave us is not a pocket sized one.. Mom--- I think the 8 apostles in one meeting is the most amazing meeting I have ever witnessed! It was so great! I love you! O and the box, well if you are sending it I don't have much longer here so it might need to be sent quickly. Hailee--- I am so happy to hear about you making the Guard!!! That is awesome! I always knew you were crazy good! Just try not to hurt yorself anymore, ok? ;) I wuv you! Aaron--- I am so excited to be getting into the field soon! I love you and I can't wait to experience the things you have been writing about. Everyone---I want all of you to know I know this church is true.. With all of my heart! And mom and dad I thank you both for helping me get to this point in my life. It has only been two months and i have already learned so much about myself and our purpose here. You are the best parents in the world, and I'm not just saying that because I am your son ;).

June 21, 2010

Hey everyone!, alright well this week has been really fun and a lot of hard work. We prepared all week to teach the second lesson al in chinese. I have learned to make best of the little amounts of random time i have throughout each day to study. Some of the elders learning mandarin with me say that learning the chinese words are hard to memorize because you have to remember a new word plus tones and they all sound the same but for some reason it just makes sense in my brain that the tones make a certain word. So i don't find it all that hard to memorize them but I also believe that my praying to the lord for help has blessed me with that. Well anyway, this saturday my companion and I had our TA, lets just say....we were sufficiently humbled. Our investigator was a native and she spoke so quickly and asked questions that were difficult to answer in english let alone trying to answer them in chinese. We did our best for the situation we had and at first I was dissapointed because i felt we didn't do well and that i did poorly, but then I realized that even though I may not have been able to answer her questions in chinese, I understood everything she was saying! The gift of tounges and interperation of tongues is real, BUT it only comes through hard work and having faith in the lord. Although I know there is sooooooo much more I can work on. I have been trying to change my focus to focusing on the investigator and not just teaching a lesson. It comes clearer to me everday why I am truly out here. The Lord loves his people and wants everyone to return to live with him. I have been thinking of that while I teach because I truly want people to know that the Lord does love them, he wants everyone to hear his gospel so they can live with him again. I know this is true. And the only way i know this is true is because I have studied it out, pondered, and prayed....a lot. We have to do our part before the Lord will give us that testiomny, it doesn't just come randomly. We had another awesome devotional this week and the speakers focused on remembering. Remembering all that god has given us, all that he continues to give us and bless us with, and how remembering that will help us become better people. For whoever is reading this go read (Mosiah 2:18-the end of the chapter.) Those scriptures are so strong on how much God has given us and how we need to remember that. I love this Gospel and I love all of you :). One thing I have learned here is to put on a smile, no matter what. Even if you dont feel like it, because once you smile it will only make you happy! Happy Fathers Day to all the fathers out there!

Dad - I love you. Thank you so much for your example. It has helped me greatly, and I look up to you soooo much :) Happy Fathers day and birthday and "you are awesome dad!" I tried finishing a present for you in time but i will probably send it a little late.

Mom - Thank you for all the scarifices you have made for me, none have gone unoticed, I love you :)

Hailee - I love you. I hope all is going well, and know that God and Jesus Christ do know you and love you :)

Scooter - Woof!

June 14, 2010

Well hello everyone!
Well it is hard to say the weeks are more crazy or exciting than others now because it is the same schedule everyday. I have been doing a ton of studying both gospel things and language. I have got to the point now where the chinese has taken over some of my english, i know longer think of some words in english anymore, they are all chinese. I have especially noticed this week the blessings of the spirit. The spirit in this work and in our lives is of huge and major importance. An example of this would be our TA (Teaching Assesment) this past saturday. I memorized the first vision in chinese and we planned that i was going to say it during our lesson, and this time around i decided I was going to prepare a lot spiritually before hand. I focused on not thinking or worrying about chinese and just have faith that through my hard work that the lord would bless me with what to say. I can tell you it is true. When i started saying the first version i noticed i was saying it a little differently than i had studied and the pronunciation sounded like something i had never practiced. After the TA my teacher and the people we taught came up to me and told me that what i said was flawless, and i sounded like a native. I know it was all the lord that allowed me to be able to do that. Other than that experience I have been feeling the spirit more than I ever have before and it has been amazing. This week we had an apostle at the devotional again :), it was Robert D. Hales. He is somewhat softspoken but the messages he gives are so powerful and i learned so much from him. All of our new mandarin missionaries came in this past wednesday, we now have about 70 mandarin missionaries in our zone! We are all on one floor and with only 6 working showers, it gets crazy, but i wake up at 5:30am every morning to study and shower so it really doesn't affect me. One of the new missionaries in our zone is from beaverton, oregon! He went to Westview High School and I know some of his friends! It is awesome to have a fellow beavertonian here ;). Well, I am kind of in a rush today so i will end with my testimony. I know that God and Jesus Christ live. I know that because i have studied the scriptures and prayed about it. I know that the Book of Mormon is truly the word of God and is the writings from the porphets in the ancient americas. I know that Jospeh Smith truly was a prophet and he restored the true gospel on this earth. I know that families can be together forever. I challenge anyone reading this to read the Book of Mormon. Even if you have before, read it again, and if you haven't find one and read it. I promise that if you read it with a sincere heart and study it out in your mind and pray about it you can know of the truthfulness of it for yourself. I love you all :)

June 7, 2010

Hello everyone!! Well I am sorry for any short responses in email or anything but I am pretty crunched on time. This week has been interesting. We have been speaking chinese as much as possible and I have found it is so much easier to learn chinese when you just speak it and try to use it, pounding my head with memorization and everything i have found doesn't work to well. My district bought chopsticks at the bookstore so we are practicing eating everything with chopsticks....haha and anything, i even tried cereal this week with chopsticks ;), yes i'm still a dork. Anyway, we found out the my favorite teacher leaves on the 19th of June, which is sad because he has really set a huge example for me and helped me out a ton. But the good news is, is that our new teacher that has been coming that will replace him is just as awesome and I get along with him really well. I have been reading the scriptures a lot during personal study and it amazes me how when i take a break from chinese to study the gospel, all the sudden my chinese improves :). The lord is amazing and works in wonderful ways. I am reading through the book of mormon again and chapter 13 of 1 nephi has been sticking out to me. It amazes me that Nephi was having revelation, and in that revalation such a long time ago, he talks about the revolutionary war, columbus, the native americans, the forefathers, the pilgrims. It is amazing, i challenge whoever reads this to go read that chapter of the book of mormon. It is amazing. Anyway, this week we had a devotional by one of the quoroum of the second seventy, brother foster (which by the way dad, is he related to your old bishop you loved? because he is from idaho). Anyway he talked about how large the universe is and how small we are in the whole picture of things. It just reassured me how this world and us, could not, and did not, happen by accident. This sunday we had a devotional and we had three LDS composers come and talk, robert cundick (composed Thy Holy Word), crawford gates (composed Our Saviors Love), and sister watkins (composed Press Forward Saints), I got my hymnbook signed by brother gates and sister watkins! Other than all that my chinese is slowly improving, this language is very awesome but very humbling. But i know i can do it :). The new missionaries for our zone start coming tomorrow! I am very excited. Anyway, I love you all and thank you for your continued support. I know that Jesus Christ lives. I know he loves everyone. I know we can all know this for a surety if we pray to him with a sincere heart. I love this Gospel and I know it is true. Until next P-Day :) Zaijian!

May 31, 2010

Ok, Hello all!!
This week has flown by very quickly but it as been absolutely amazing! First of all, I said earlier that my companion and I have been having some struggles, well I have been praying and focusing on trying to change myself so i could be a better companion and this week my companion sat down and we talked. We were both very honest and we worked it all out. We are having such a better time and our teaching is getting much better! This next saturday we teach all in chinese! So we have been gearing up for the lesson! I have studied so much vocab i think my head could explode! But it is good, because i enjoy it! I had a dream the other night that was all in chinese, and in the dream I completely understood the natives i was talking to, but when i woke up i couldn't remember what they were saying or what i had said. It has also gotten to the point where i have trouble falling asleep because i have so much chinese stuff floating around in my head. Anyway, For my personal study I have decided to read through the doctrine and covenants, and i have found so many things in there. The older elders in my chinese zone are leaving tomorrow, so that means that my group becomes the top dogs :). But in about 2 weeks we have 40 new mandarin chinese missionaries coming in to our zone. It will be awesome. This past week for our devotional on tuesday we had the apostle D. Todd Christofferson talk to us. It is amazing hearing aposltes speak, they are so powerful and there is a spirit in the room like nothing i have experienced before. He gave us somthing very special, an apostalic blessing, he said "I bless you that if it is your desire that you will be able to teach so that no one can disbelieve you." He did however tell us in order to recieve this apostalic blessing, we must pray for and work for it. It is funny how the lord has so many blessings for us, but we need to realize that we need to actually work for them. That is one of the lessons I am learning while I am out here. The lord is waiting for us to our part and use our effort and then he will give us his blessings and pick up the rest. Be cause "Faith without works is dead". I believe that with all my heart.

I love you all :)