August 16, 2010

Nimen hao! (Hello Everyone)

Alright well this week was a big change up from what normally goes on. This week started an all week leadership training from Tuesday to Friday from 9am-4pm everyday. Since my companion Elder Chang is my trainer and district leader he went to the training while they temporarily paired me up with Elder Mensink and Elder Vargo. They assigned me to drive for the week (which driving in California is soooooo different than Oregon, they go so fast and you always need to be watching). Anyway, we were assigned to work in the West Park area and the Newport Hills area (down by Newport beach). Newport Hills was so beautiful! The people that live there are very very rich and I got to at least get a glimpse of the ocean! Anyway, we tracted quite a bit in the Newport hills area and all the people there were very nice but none of them were interested but we just kept trying. In the West Park area we talked to a lot of people in parks, and we met some really cool people and got a few referrals. On Wednesday when we were walking around a park we ran into a Chinese lady and that was the first time I have contacted someone in Chinese without Elder Chang there to help if I needed it. It went very well! This week we ran into a couple more people that were calling us a cult and yelling at us, but I have learned now that when people do that I just look at them and smile and wave :). We hold an English class every Tuesday and Friday at 7pm and all the elders involved in it decided that I will be the teacher because I am the only white american elder. Everyone else even though they speak english and are asian, and we have found that the people coming to class get annoyed when they have another asian teaching them english, they like the white teacher haha. But the past couple of classes have been awesome! The people we teach are always so grateful for our help and I love working with them. This Sunday we had a little miracle happen. We were expecting 4 investigators to come to church so we waited outside but nobody showed. Elder Chang and I were pretty sad that no one showed up and it seemed like it was going to be a rough day. So in sacrament I decided to say a little prayer and ask the Lord to help our investigators to show up or help us somehow achieve our goal (which is 2 baptisms per transfer, and we already had one scheduled but needed another) But in the last 10 minutes of our Priesthood meeting a man walked in and asked if he could talk to Elder Chang and I. We were a little confused but went outside with him anyway. Turns out he got a new roommate who is from shanghai, China and he is not LDS but the man brought him to church to show him around. He asked us if we could talk to him because he doesn't really speak english. SO we got to know him and he is such an amazing guy, he is about 19 or 20ish (not exactly sure) but he came here to California and is going to college up in Santa Ana. As we were talking to him he told us that he smokes and he didn't know why his roommate brought him...needless to say we thought it wasn't going anywhere. But we asked him if we could teach him right then and he agreed. We taught him the first lesson and talked about the word of wisdom. He committed to a baptismal date of September 18th and agreed to live the word of wisdom! He told us of how he used to smoke 2 packs of cigarettes a day back in china but he promised his mom when he came to America he would stop, so he has been trying and is now down to only 5 cigarettes a day compared to 2 packs. But he loved here about the word of wisdom and saw how it would help him. I am kind of overwhelmed at the lord's blessings. I said a simple little prayer and he blessed me beyond what i expected or think I deserve. I know that this work is important and I love being out here serving others. It is changing me so quickly and for the better. I love all of you and your continued support. Until next week, Zaijian!