December 20, 2010

HELLO!!!!!

Ok, so this week has been absolutely fantastic out here in the beautiful California, Anaheim mission!! I have so many experiences to talk about....Well, I will start talking about our tracting this past week. So being the Chinese speaking elders in this mission, it is our job to find the chinese people. However tracting we meet mostly Americans and find few Chinese people. So lately we have been trying to figure out a new method to find these Chinese people, and as a companionship we had an amazing idea come to mind! We call it "Phonebooking". We look up a common Chinese last name and then go visit all those people that live in Irvine with a Chinese last name! We have found so many people already!! This week our numbers were higher than this mission has seen! We had over 20 people say that they want to come to church and said that we could meet with them again. This Sunday we had 12 investigators at church!!!!! It was actually quite overwhelming because there are so many people to talk to and only three of us in our companionship. I have made a goal with myself to just try and speak to every Chinese person around me, whether they be in a line next to me or at the store, and my Chinese has been improving a lot, but it is still very difficult. This week got especially difficult because I got sick with a fever of 100.2 and had to stay at our apartment, I am still a little sick and my voice is almost gone but it isn't stopping me because we have to much work for us to do, so I have faith the Lord will help me get better. I love the atmosphere of Christmas time because people just tend to be happier and nicer, although down here in California it does tend to get extremely materialistic. We recently found a family of 5 that is from shanghai china (I have picked up a couple Shanghainese phrases), they are so amazing!! And our investigator Guo Jiemei (that I have been working with since I got here) has now said she wants to see the baptismal font and next week will set a date!!!! I am just so amazed at the blessings the Lord has given us! Some days out in the field are very tough and it seems like nothing is really happening but one thing I have learned on my mission is that if a day is going slow and seems like nothing is happening "MAKE IT HAPPEN!", we just get out there and do the work, find those people, and if we don't find any people that day, well at least we made one person smile that day :). i am really excited to be out and working on Christmas Day and be out and about finding people, although my companions are reluctant to go proselyte, but I know there will be people that need the Gospel, especially on Christmas! The weather has been a little strange lately and raining quite a bit. One thing about Chinese people is that they hate the rain, they won't even go outside if it is raining, so I am hoping the rain will leave soon. Well I love you all and hope all is well wherever you are! Merry Christmas!!! Remember the true meaning of Christmas and go help others have the happiest holiday :) until next week, Zaijian!!