August 2, 2010

Hello everyone!
OK, well this week went pretty well. I have been getting to the members a lot better and I absolutely love the people in this branch. They all continue to try and help me with my Chinese, which i desperately need. The language has seemed to be a huge barrier for me lately and has been causing some stress, but I am continuing to have faith that the language will come. This week when we were tracting we ran into a man named Rick James Deleon, at first he came up and had a ton of tattoos and a bandanna on his head, so of course my impression was he wouldn't be interested. Turns out he was the nicest guy ever. We talked to him for quite a bit about the Book of Mormon and the restored Gospel, and he told us how he has relatives that are LDS in Idaho. I had a feeling to start explaining to him that the Book of Mormon can give him comfort, didn't exactly know why but i did. Only to find out that his 3 year old son was just diagnosed with leukemia. He told us the whole story and it was really sad but I assured him he would find solace in the Book of Mormon and he said he will start reading as soon as we left. We set up an appointment with him but had to refer him to other elders because we can only teach Chinese investigators...i think that has been hard on me. We have found so many great people and set up appointments but we can't teach them because they go to the English elders. But it's alright because as long as they are being taught the gospel and coming closer to Christ that is all that matters. David our investigator we haven't been able to get a hold of and it makes me sad because he seemed so ready, but i will continue to keep faith that things will all work out. This week we got to go to the temple for a grounds walk and the Mission President, President Watrous told us all about the Newport temple. Just to purchase the land it is on was $14,000,000. And to build the temple members around the area donated over $20,000,000. I was able to go inside and do some temple work and it is so beautiful! Starting tomorrow we are doing exchanges, so i will be temporarily moving to a different area with another elder while elder Mensink (my MTC companion) comes to serve with elder Chang so that he can use his Chinese. Well there is a lot more i could talk about but I don't know how to fit it all but I guess the thing I learned the most this week is the need for the spirit. The spirit is so quiet and needs so much preparation for you to be able to heed to its promptings. This next week I am going to focus on having the spirit more so that the people we meet can feel that spirit, because that is what helps them know that this gospel and the Book of Mormon are true. I love you all and I hope all is going well! Zaijian!