Hello!!!
OK, well today is Transfers!! We got the transfer calls on Saturday night. After about 10 months of serving in the same area they are moving me out. I am now going to be a Zone Leader, and I am going to be serving in the Newport Coast Singles Ward!!!!!! When I got the call from President Watrous to be a Zone Leader I was very surprised, I am way excited for this next transfer!!! My new companion's name is Elder Whited and he is from Texas. he is a very hard working elder and he and I are going to do so well!! I will be in an English ward, but I still get my hour study every day so I can keep up my Chinese, and maybe someday they will put me back in the Chinese program. This past week we found a lot of new investigators! We spent a lot of time up at the campus of UCI (University of California Irvine) and talked to so many Chinese people! We found one girl in particular that was very interested and we set up a time to meet with her this week. When we met her for the lesson it went really well and she is a very honest and open person. She came to church and loved it, and loved talking to the members! I also remembered a cool experience that happened about two weeks ago I forgot to talk about. A member in our branch took us out for dinner for Elder Kim's birthday, they took us to a really nice Korean BBQ restaurant and the food was amazing. While we were there I saw a couple come across the room and they sat down at a table. I immediately thought that I recognized them but I couldn't figure out who it was. But then I remembered that a couple that used to be in my ward back home a few years ago had moved out to this area (The Westphals). I really thought the man looked like Brother Westphal (he was my brother and my Sunday school teacher back in the Beaverton 2nd ward) but I wasn't entirely sure if it was him or not so I was to chicken to go up and ask. But as we were leaving and I walked by them i saw that it was him and his wife!! I said his name and he was completely shocked to see me and he and his wife didn't even know I was in this area on my mission! I thought it was neat because he lives in another city not Irvine, and just by chance we were in the same place at the same time! So other than that experience this week has just been good old hard working! I have truly noticed how much my Chinese has improved and I know it is all because of the Lord's help. I am definitely going to continue studying it! I love this work! I love you all! Hope all is going well! Until next time! Zaijian!
Monday, February 21, 2011
Friday, February 18, 2011
February 14, 2011
Hello!!!
Well the last time I wrote was Thursday, so I will talk about the past couple of days! So on Friday, we were told by our mission office that we needed to call the Toyota dealership and set an appointment so that we could get the recall and our car fixed. So we set the appointment for Friday and just planned on doing our weekly planning session at the dealership. When we got there a man came to check us in and write down the information we needed, he told us he is Mormon and we had a fun time talking to him, he was a very nice man. They took our car and said they would call us back in a little bit once they were finished. So we went with a couple other missionaries to Taco Bell for lunch. After we ate they called us and said the car was done and we could come pick it up. So we went back and they had us talk to the lady at the front counter, and she gave us a buzzer and said when that starts buzzing it means your paper work is done and you can come back to get your keys. However, after some time we realized that none of the other missionaries were getting buzzers, nor were they having to wait for their car. They got all there stuff and keys and cars and left before us, even though they got there after us. So we were confused as to why it was taking so long. but we soon found out why. While we were sitting outside a Chinese lady asked us if we spoke Chinese, we said yes and started a really good conversation. She was very interested in what we had to share and we ended up teaching her right there outside of the Toyota office. We taught her about the restoration of the gospel and about the Book of Mormon. We gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon and she gave us her information. She is coming to our English class!! I am very excited. This experience helped me see that the Lord truly has his own ways. Sometimes things don't seem the way they should be, and sometimes we may not understand. But I know that there is a reason for everything! On Saturday we taught one of our investigators up in Orange, CA. We watched Finding Faith in Christ with him, and he had amazing questions about the Plan of Salvation, so I am excited for next time we meet with him and teach him about that. Our Chinese branch had a Chinese New Years party at our building that night, we had about 9 investigators show up to it! It was amazing! One thing I have learned on my mission is that Chinese people (and Asian people in general) LOVE karaoke. It was fun to see some of the members of our branch singing :). On Sunday we had a lesson with 2 new investigators that are from mainland China. I love teaching people from mainland China because they are so much different to teach. When we teach them these things they are hearing them for the first time. And they don't get caught up in things they have heard about our church or things like that, because they have never heard it before. i love this work! I love you all! I know that God has restored his true Gospel on the earth! Until next week! Zaijian!
Well the last time I wrote was Thursday, so I will talk about the past couple of days! So on Friday, we were told by our mission office that we needed to call the Toyota dealership and set an appointment so that we could get the recall and our car fixed. So we set the appointment for Friday and just planned on doing our weekly planning session at the dealership. When we got there a man came to check us in and write down the information we needed, he told us he is Mormon and we had a fun time talking to him, he was a very nice man. They took our car and said they would call us back in a little bit once they were finished. So we went with a couple other missionaries to Taco Bell for lunch. After we ate they called us and said the car was done and we could come pick it up. So we went back and they had us talk to the lady at the front counter, and she gave us a buzzer and said when that starts buzzing it means your paper work is done and you can come back to get your keys. However, after some time we realized that none of the other missionaries were getting buzzers, nor were they having to wait for their car. They got all there stuff and keys and cars and left before us, even though they got there after us. So we were confused as to why it was taking so long. but we soon found out why. While we were sitting outside a Chinese lady asked us if we spoke Chinese, we said yes and started a really good conversation. She was very interested in what we had to share and we ended up teaching her right there outside of the Toyota office. We taught her about the restoration of the gospel and about the Book of Mormon. We gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon and she gave us her information. She is coming to our English class!! I am very excited. This experience helped me see that the Lord truly has his own ways. Sometimes things don't seem the way they should be, and sometimes we may not understand. But I know that there is a reason for everything! On Saturday we taught one of our investigators up in Orange, CA. We watched Finding Faith in Christ with him, and he had amazing questions about the Plan of Salvation, so I am excited for next time we meet with him and teach him about that. Our Chinese branch had a Chinese New Years party at our building that night, we had about 9 investigators show up to it! It was amazing! One thing I have learned on my mission is that Chinese people (and Asian people in general) LOVE karaoke. It was fun to see some of the members of our branch singing :). On Sunday we had a lesson with 2 new investigators that are from mainland China. I love teaching people from mainland China because they are so much different to teach. When we teach them these things they are hearing them for the first time. And they don't get caught up in things they have heard about our church or things like that, because they have never heard it before. i love this work! I love you all! I know that God has restored his true Gospel on the earth! Until next week! Zaijian!
Sunday, February 13, 2011
February 10, 2011
Hello!!
OK, well I am writing on a Thursday today because we got to go to the temple today, so it became our P-Day for the week. So this past week we were supposed to have a baptism of our investigator Yang Jiemei. She is so amazing and was so ready, but she called us an hour before the baptism and told us that she no longer wants to be baptized. So we tried to talk with her but she wouldn't answer her phone and we didn't know where she was so we couldn't go personally try to talk to her. So I have to say that these past three baptisms falling through at the last minute have been a little tough. But I think they have definitely helped me to turn more trust and faith to the Lord. We found two new investigators while we were tracting up by the UCI campus. They invited us in and we taught them about the Book of Mormon, it went very well. One cool thing is that one of the girls had the same surname in Chinese as me. Now, I say that is cool because my teacher at the MTC gave me one of the rarest surnames out there and till that day I had never met anyone with the same surname. When we were teaching we talked about pondering to know whether the Book of Mormon is true or not, and one of the girls turned to the other because her friend was being really quite and asked "What are you doing", the other replied "Pondering". It was an amazing experience because the whole lesson she kept asking very good questions and kept saying she felt something special about the book. One of the branch members had us over with his family for a Chinese new years eve dinner. I don't think I have ever seen or eaten that much food in my life. I ate duck for the first time in my life! We had exchanges this week and I got to work with Elder Tensmeyer in my district, he is such an awesome elder!! I was working in the English area for that day but we actually found a ton of Chinese people and every time I saw them I would say hi in Chinese and then ride my bike quickly across the street to talk to them. There was this one lady we talked with that was especially funny, I rode along side her and asked her "Do you speak English" she said in Chinese "bu dong (in English it means "I don't understand"), so I said in Chinese "well i speak Chinese, do you?" and she said "bu hui (which means 'I can't'), then i looked at her funny and said in Chinese "Well you just said you don't understand and you don't speak English in Chinese, so you probably speak Chinese" and she gave up and said yes. ha ha I never get tired of the different kinds of reactions I get once Chinese people realize I can speak Chinese. We have been doing a lot of trying to find new investigators this past week and I can't believe that next week is the last week of this transfer! Time is going by so fast. Well I want you all to know I love you all! Keep smiling! Until next week...Monday! Zaijian!
OK, well I am writing on a Thursday today because we got to go to the temple today, so it became our P-Day for the week. So this past week we were supposed to have a baptism of our investigator Yang Jiemei. She is so amazing and was so ready, but she called us an hour before the baptism and told us that she no longer wants to be baptized. So we tried to talk with her but she wouldn't answer her phone and we didn't know where she was so we couldn't go personally try to talk to her. So I have to say that these past three baptisms falling through at the last minute have been a little tough. But I think they have definitely helped me to turn more trust and faith to the Lord. We found two new investigators while we were tracting up by the UCI campus. They invited us in and we taught them about the Book of Mormon, it went very well. One cool thing is that one of the girls had the same surname in Chinese as me. Now, I say that is cool because my teacher at the MTC gave me one of the rarest surnames out there and till that day I had never met anyone with the same surname. When we were teaching we talked about pondering to know whether the Book of Mormon is true or not, and one of the girls turned to the other because her friend was being really quite and asked "What are you doing", the other replied "Pondering". It was an amazing experience because the whole lesson she kept asking very good questions and kept saying she felt something special about the book. One of the branch members had us over with his family for a Chinese new years eve dinner. I don't think I have ever seen or eaten that much food in my life. I ate duck for the first time in my life! We had exchanges this week and I got to work with Elder Tensmeyer in my district, he is such an awesome elder!! I was working in the English area for that day but we actually found a ton of Chinese people and every time I saw them I would say hi in Chinese and then ride my bike quickly across the street to talk to them. There was this one lady we talked with that was especially funny, I rode along side her and asked her "Do you speak English" she said in Chinese "bu dong (in English it means "I don't understand"), so I said in Chinese "well i speak Chinese, do you?" and she said "bu hui (which means 'I can't'), then i looked at her funny and said in Chinese "Well you just said you don't understand and you don't speak English in Chinese, so you probably speak Chinese" and she gave up and said yes. ha ha I never get tired of the different kinds of reactions I get once Chinese people realize I can speak Chinese. We have been doing a lot of trying to find new investigators this past week and I can't believe that next week is the last week of this transfer! Time is going by so fast. Well I want you all to know I love you all! Keep smiling! Until next week...Monday! Zaijian!
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
January 31, 2011
Hello everybody!!
OK, well this week has been a great week! This week was the week that our mission president decided that each companionship had a goal of teaching 13 new people about the Book of Mormon and having them become new investigators. We tried our hardest this week to find those that the Lord had prepared for us to find, and this week overall we found 5 new investigators, now that is not 13, but we tried hard and we will continue past this week to find the rest of those people. There was supposed to be a baptism this past Saturday...but it didn't happen. Some things came up that we felt he needs a bit more time to work things out. I have noticed that my companionship has been tested a lot when it comes to baptism, they seem to get so close and then Satan does as hard as he can to stop it. It is crazy how they are doing so well and then the week of their baptism Satan tries a thousand times harder to stop them. My companions have been getting frustrated with that fact, and it started to get to me a little bit. BUT after some of my personal studies I know that anything is possible with the Lord. We are doing all we can to prepare these people, and then the Lord takes it from there. I know that even though the last couple baptisms have fell through, they will overcome what is stopping them, Satan will never win. We do have another investigator that has a baptismal goal for this next Saturday on the 5th of February. She is so excited and working so hard to be ready for her baptism. As a companionship we are also extremely excited for her. SO anyone that is reading this, please pray for her that she will continue to stay strong. This week was my companion Elder Bray's birthday, so his mom sent him candles and a cake mix in a package and we made it for him. We had an amazing experience this week when we were up by UCI (University of California Irvine). We were there to visit some other people but I saw some Chinese banners on a door so I told my companions and we went and knocked. A really nice Chinese man opened the door and invited us in right away. He told us he was from Main land china and he has never heard anything about a God or Jesus Christ. I thought it was such a neat experience because we were literally teaching someone that has never ever heard about god or has any concept of what that word means or who that is. He accepted the Book of Mormon so quickly. And he bookmarked LDS.org on his computer because he said for some reason he was extremely interested. I know this work is true!! I know it with all my heart. This is the FULL Gospel of Jesus Christ. I want so badly to tell everyone on this world about it, but for now I can tell everyone that I see here in California! I have noticed that in my own life at times I have taken the Book of Mormon for granted, for anyone reading this do not ever take the Book of Mormon for granted. Read it EVERYDAY. Ponder about it EVERYDAY. And CONSTANTLY have a prayer in your heart and thank God for everything he has given you. I love you all so much! Keep smiling!! :) Until next week...Zaijian!!
OK, well this week has been a great week! This week was the week that our mission president decided that each companionship had a goal of teaching 13 new people about the Book of Mormon and having them become new investigators. We tried our hardest this week to find those that the Lord had prepared for us to find, and this week overall we found 5 new investigators, now that is not 13, but we tried hard and we will continue past this week to find the rest of those people. There was supposed to be a baptism this past Saturday...but it didn't happen. Some things came up that we felt he needs a bit more time to work things out. I have noticed that my companionship has been tested a lot when it comes to baptism, they seem to get so close and then Satan does as hard as he can to stop it. It is crazy how they are doing so well and then the week of their baptism Satan tries a thousand times harder to stop them. My companions have been getting frustrated with that fact, and it started to get to me a little bit. BUT after some of my personal studies I know that anything is possible with the Lord. We are doing all we can to prepare these people, and then the Lord takes it from there. I know that even though the last couple baptisms have fell through, they will overcome what is stopping them, Satan will never win. We do have another investigator that has a baptismal goal for this next Saturday on the 5th of February. She is so excited and working so hard to be ready for her baptism. As a companionship we are also extremely excited for her. SO anyone that is reading this, please pray for her that she will continue to stay strong. This week was my companion Elder Bray's birthday, so his mom sent him candles and a cake mix in a package and we made it for him. We had an amazing experience this week when we were up by UCI (University of California Irvine). We were there to visit some other people but I saw some Chinese banners on a door so I told my companions and we went and knocked. A really nice Chinese man opened the door and invited us in right away. He told us he was from Main land china and he has never heard anything about a God or Jesus Christ. I thought it was such a neat experience because we were literally teaching someone that has never ever heard about god or has any concept of what that word means or who that is. He accepted the Book of Mormon so quickly. And he bookmarked LDS.org on his computer because he said for some reason he was extremely interested. I know this work is true!! I know it with all my heart. This is the FULL Gospel of Jesus Christ. I want so badly to tell everyone on this world about it, but for now I can tell everyone that I see here in California! I have noticed that in my own life at times I have taken the Book of Mormon for granted, for anyone reading this do not ever take the Book of Mormon for granted. Read it EVERYDAY. Ponder about it EVERYDAY. And CONSTANTLY have a prayer in your heart and thank God for everything he has given you. I love you all so much! Keep smiling!! :) Until next week...Zaijian!!
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