January 19, 2011

Hello!!!

So this past week and couple days have been great! A lot has happened so I will try to figure out where to start. So this week we received a new missionary in our district. His name is Elder Tensmeyer and he is from Cincinnati, Ohio. He is an amazing elder and he reminds me so much of my good friends back home, he has their exact same humor. The other day we went up to UCI (University of California Irvine) and went to visit a potential investigator but they were not there. So as we were walking back we saw a younger Chinese man walking by us. So we said hello to him and immediately he was taken back. So Elder Bray and I said some more things in Chinese to him and he covered his mouth and looked absolutely stunned that we were speaking Chinese (haha I love it when we get that reaction). We talked to him some more and he invited us to his apartment where we taught him and he is now a new investigator! We got to teach a lady that was a referral from temple square, but we could not find a member to come with us to save our life. So we ended up having a brand new returned missionary come with us, he did not speak Chinese, he went on his mission to Poland. But he loved it and we extremely grateful he came with us. The language stressed me out a lot this past week, and I remember we went up to a door and in my head I was still frustrated but I told myself I would knock on the door because the Lord would help me get over those feelings. I knocked on it and a Chinese man came to the door, I started to talk to him but since I was still a little frustrated I kept stumbling all over with my Chinese and I started to feel bad, but immediately he said "Come in, come in". I knew right then, that the Lord knew what I was feeling and as long as I forget myself and just go to work, he will take care of me. It may seem like a small thing but it meant a lot to me. We also had a lesson with an investigator that I have been teaching since I came into this branch, she said she has decided she will get baptized!!! The only thing is that she is keeping it a secret! She is 68 years old and has the funniest personality ever! It is definitely a funny situation but she is very stubborn about not telling us yet, when the date is that she chose haha. Please pray for her so we can finally find it out! This week I also came to know that our recent convert loves photography and more importantly, sponge bob!! i think it is so funny that my first convert out in the field would love those two things, just like I do ;). We also met with another investigator for the first time and the lesson went amazing, we committed her to be baptized on the 5th of February and she accepted! She said she had an amazing spiritual experience at church the reaffirmed that she needs to be baptized! There has been so much more that has been happening but I don't have enough time to write about it all. i love this mission and I love being able to help and serve other people! I know this church and this work is true! I love you all! Until next week, Zaijian! (Btw, zaijian means goodbye).