Hello everyone!
This week was great! We went on two exchanges this week, the first being with Elder Arevalo (I went to his area and worked with him for a day). He is from El Salvador and he is by far one of the greatest missionaries I have met out here. Throughout the day he taught me some spanish and I taught him some good english phrases. We had a pretty crazy experience with one man that we knocked into. The man came to the door and we started to talk to him, I asked him if he believed in Jesus Christ and he said "Who is that?" and I then asked him do you believe in God?. He said "That is personal man.", Elder Arevalo and I didn't really know what to say but before we could he said "Do you want to see my religion?" and then he reached for something behind his door and we got a little nervous and he pulled out a full sized Katana (Very sharp sword) and he quickly pulled it out of the sheath (he opened it scarily close to me) and then said "this is my religion". Then he put it back in the sheath and said have a good day and slammed the door. We both had no idea what to think about what just happened but later on we thought it was pretty funny.
This week we did a lot and lot of knocking and talking to everybody we saw. I love talking to people on the street because we meet so many people and we really learn a lot because each person is so different. We had a referral given to us from other missionaries and we went by the mans house to say hi. He let us in and we taught him and he has a baptismal date for the 10th of April and he is working towards it! His name is Todd and he is one the nicest guys I have ever met. He really absorbs the scriptures when he reads them and he came to church this Sunday and loved it. I am excited for him! By far one of my favorite investigators we have right now is one named Davi, he is from Brazil and he has come to church twice now and is reading the Book of Mormon, I just felt an instant connection with him when we met him. Every time he sees me he says "Hey man!" with almost a Jamaican type accent to it ;). The work has been going so well and it really has been such a neat experience to work as a Zone Leader.
This Sunday was the baptism of Guo Jiemei (sister Guo) from the chinese branch. She is the lady that I started teaching when she moved here. It took her a very long time to finally accept a baptismal date but sadly it was after I had left the branch. She kept telling the chinese elders that I had to come to her baptism, and I wanted to so bad but we have a rule that if we want to go to a baptism we need to bring an investigator with us...this is how the story happened.....So we asked our investigator Todd on Saturday if he wanted to go to the baptismal service and he said yes. But on Sunday he told us he wouldn't be able to make it, so I started to get a little sad because I really wanted to be there for Guo Jiemei (because she told me she thinks of me as her son she never had and I needed to be there) hah. So we tried a few other investigators but none of them were able to make it to the baptism. About 15 minutes before the baptism we had an idea of trying to ask one of our former investigators to come to the baptism. We went to his house and asked him and he said he would be glad to come. So we quickly called a member to come pick him up and take him to the church building and we would meet him there. We were able to attend the baptism and rekindle the testimony in the former investigator! I know this is the Lord's work and I feel so blessed he helped us out in two ways! I love this missionary work so much! I know this church is true! Until next week!
PS. Transfers is next Monday, I doubt anything is changing with my companionship but it is going to be exciting this next transfer!
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
March 21, 2011
Hello everyone!
Wow, so this past week has been SOOO AMAZING!! So many spiritual experiences and just plain good hard work :). On Monday my companion and I decided to go tracting up by UCI (University of California Irvine) again and we started tracting in a set of apartments we hadn't knocked before. But that wasn't where we had planned to go and the whole time we were there I kept having this really strong feeling that we needed to go to the part of campus we had planned to go to. So I kept telling my companion we should go to that place and after a little bit of persistence we decided to go there. On our way to the other apartment complex we saw a man walking on the sidewalk and I went up to him and started talking to him. His name is Francesco and he is from Italy. We talked to him for a bit about what we had to share and then asked him if we could use 15 minutes to teach him and he said yes. So we walked over to a less walked on path and sat down on a dirt path. It was a really neat experience because we were teaching him there on this little dirt path as people walked by all around us. He said at first he didn't know why he wanted to talk with us more but he felt something special. He said an amazing prayer asking if the Book of Mormon is true and then he accepted a baptismal goal! It was such a cool experience. This week has helped me realize that we can teach people ANYWHERE, not just in a closed apartment. This week we also taught a lesson to a man in the middle of a parking lot at a shopping center and he also accepted a baptismal goal. Then we taught another man named Jimmy on a patch of grass near the path we found him on. To me it has been great to notice that really we can teach people anywhere because I notice some missionaries may be afraid to teach someone in public, but really that doesn't give me any fear whatsoever because I know these people need this Gospel, so my companion and I will teach them wherever we find them. There was another door that we knocked on and the man opened the door. I asked him how we was doing and he said not very good. He told us that he had just separated with his wife earlier that day and he was going through some really rough times. I told him we had a message that will definitely help him and he let us in. It was one the most touching lessons I have ever had on my mission. He told us we were angels sent from God because he really needed people to talk to. We felt strongly to talk to him about baptism and how we can become clean through and it wipes away our past mistakes and we can start anew. He said he was so happy we asked him that because that is exactly what he felt he needed. He set a baptismal goal and we have given him as a referral to the other elders in that area but it helped my testimony to grow, that I know that God loves his children and will help us in our time of need.
This past week we had my first Zone Conference as a Zone Leader! It was great to be able to help out all of the missionaries! For that Zone Conference we were all asked to prepare a ten minute talk. The tradition is that one of the missionaries will get randomly selected. Sister Watrous had a basket full of every missionaries name and she grabbed one, it ended up being my companion, he was pretty surprised ha ha. i love Zone Conferences because they give everyone a huge spiritual boost! This week my companion and I also gave talks in our sacrament meeting for the NCYSA (Newport Coast Young Single Adult Ward), and it went very very well. Our investigator came to church! His name is Davi and he is from Brazil! He has the funniest personality and I love him to death. He is progressing very well and I am excited to see him this week when we teach him. When my companion started his talk he began in spanish and nobody expected it, and then when I got up for my talk i started in chinese and it caught them off guard again and then I told them "Well, with my companion knowing spanish and me knowing chinese and we both speak english, we can speak to about 90% of the population here in Orange County) they all thought it was funny...I thought it was funny ;). Anyway, this week has been lots and lots of finding! I love it, we talk to so many people.
This week I also got the opportunity to help my companion by translating for him for Guo Feng Zhi's baptism (she is the investigator from the chinese branch that I started the teaching with her), when she saw me come to her house she ran to me and gave me a huge hug ha ha (we aren't supposed to hug girls and she knows it, she is just funny that way) she told me she misses me a lot and she is being baptized this coming week!!! I really hope we can go to her baptism (in order to go we need an investigator that can come with us) so we will be searching hard for an investigator we can bring! I have something cool I guess i could share, I am mainly putting this in for my mom and little sister Hailee but I think others will like it too. This Saturday we had a Temple Tour and as Zone Leaders we are asked to go to supervise and make sure everything runs smoothly. After the temple tour was over and we were getting refreshments and talking to investigators my companion saw someone that looked strangely familiar and then pointed him out to me. It was David Archuletta (and I am not joking), he was at that building because he was going to be recording there later that night. I didn't talk to him but he was there and apparently he comes down here often and sometimes goes to the OCC (Orange Coast College) institute building randomly, previous missionaries in this ward have talked to him there. Anyway, personally that's not something that distracts me but I thought I would put it in to let my little sister know ;). For other news, on the 28th of April (my exact year mark) L. Tom Perry will be coming to Fountain Valley and he has asked for the Long Beach Mission and the Anaheim Mission to meet together for a special conference with him! I am way excited!! I love you all!! I can't believe I hit my year mark next month! Time is going by so quickly and I am enjoying every minute of this mission. The church is true! Until next time!
Wow, so this past week has been SOOO AMAZING!! So many spiritual experiences and just plain good hard work :). On Monday my companion and I decided to go tracting up by UCI (University of California Irvine) again and we started tracting in a set of apartments we hadn't knocked before. But that wasn't where we had planned to go and the whole time we were there I kept having this really strong feeling that we needed to go to the part of campus we had planned to go to. So I kept telling my companion we should go to that place and after a little bit of persistence we decided to go there. On our way to the other apartment complex we saw a man walking on the sidewalk and I went up to him and started talking to him. His name is Francesco and he is from Italy. We talked to him for a bit about what we had to share and then asked him if we could use 15 minutes to teach him and he said yes. So we walked over to a less walked on path and sat down on a dirt path. It was a really neat experience because we were teaching him there on this little dirt path as people walked by all around us. He said at first he didn't know why he wanted to talk with us more but he felt something special. He said an amazing prayer asking if the Book of Mormon is true and then he accepted a baptismal goal! It was such a cool experience. This week has helped me realize that we can teach people ANYWHERE, not just in a closed apartment. This week we also taught a lesson to a man in the middle of a parking lot at a shopping center and he also accepted a baptismal goal. Then we taught another man named Jimmy on a patch of grass near the path we found him on. To me it has been great to notice that really we can teach people anywhere because I notice some missionaries may be afraid to teach someone in public, but really that doesn't give me any fear whatsoever because I know these people need this Gospel, so my companion and I will teach them wherever we find them. There was another door that we knocked on and the man opened the door. I asked him how we was doing and he said not very good. He told us that he had just separated with his wife earlier that day and he was going through some really rough times. I told him we had a message that will definitely help him and he let us in. It was one the most touching lessons I have ever had on my mission. He told us we were angels sent from God because he really needed people to talk to. We felt strongly to talk to him about baptism and how we can become clean through and it wipes away our past mistakes and we can start anew. He said he was so happy we asked him that because that is exactly what he felt he needed. He set a baptismal goal and we have given him as a referral to the other elders in that area but it helped my testimony to grow, that I know that God loves his children and will help us in our time of need.
This past week we had my first Zone Conference as a Zone Leader! It was great to be able to help out all of the missionaries! For that Zone Conference we were all asked to prepare a ten minute talk. The tradition is that one of the missionaries will get randomly selected. Sister Watrous had a basket full of every missionaries name and she grabbed one, it ended up being my companion, he was pretty surprised ha ha. i love Zone Conferences because they give everyone a huge spiritual boost! This week my companion and I also gave talks in our sacrament meeting for the NCYSA (Newport Coast Young Single Adult Ward), and it went very very well. Our investigator came to church! His name is Davi and he is from Brazil! He has the funniest personality and I love him to death. He is progressing very well and I am excited to see him this week when we teach him. When my companion started his talk he began in spanish and nobody expected it, and then when I got up for my talk i started in chinese and it caught them off guard again and then I told them "Well, with my companion knowing spanish and me knowing chinese and we both speak english, we can speak to about 90% of the population here in Orange County) they all thought it was funny...I thought it was funny ;). Anyway, this week has been lots and lots of finding! I love it, we talk to so many people.
This week I also got the opportunity to help my companion by translating for him for Guo Feng Zhi's baptism (she is the investigator from the chinese branch that I started the teaching with her), when she saw me come to her house she ran to me and gave me a huge hug ha ha (we aren't supposed to hug girls and she knows it, she is just funny that way) she told me she misses me a lot and she is being baptized this coming week!!! I really hope we can go to her baptism (in order to go we need an investigator that can come with us) so we will be searching hard for an investigator we can bring! I have something cool I guess i could share, I am mainly putting this in for my mom and little sister Hailee but I think others will like it too. This Saturday we had a Temple Tour and as Zone Leaders we are asked to go to supervise and make sure everything runs smoothly. After the temple tour was over and we were getting refreshments and talking to investigators my companion saw someone that looked strangely familiar and then pointed him out to me. It was David Archuletta (and I am not joking), he was at that building because he was going to be recording there later that night. I didn't talk to him but he was there and apparently he comes down here often and sometimes goes to the OCC (Orange Coast College) institute building randomly, previous missionaries in this ward have talked to him there. Anyway, personally that's not something that distracts me but I thought I would put it in to let my little sister know ;). For other news, on the 28th of April (my exact year mark) L. Tom Perry will be coming to Fountain Valley and he has asked for the Long Beach Mission and the Anaheim Mission to meet together for a special conference with him! I am way excited!! I love you all!! I can't believe I hit my year mark next month! Time is going by so quickly and I am enjoying every minute of this mission. The church is true! Until next time!
Monday, March 14, 2011
March 14, 2011
Hello everyone!!
Well it has been another fantastic week!! This week we did a lot of exchanges with all of the district leaders in my zone. I worked in my area alone for the first time with Elder Kato for two days! We had so many amazing experiences! I'll give one very good experience in particular. OK, so, since i have been in this new area, every time we drive down to UCI (University of California Irvine) we pass by this certain apartment complex, and we have never tracted there before so I always asked my companion has anybody ever tracted there and he said no, I asked why and he said he doesn't really know. But we would never seem to go there. So on this exchange I had the feeling that I needed to satisfy my curiosity and go to that complex and tract. When we got there we talked to a couple people outside and they were very nice and we had good conversations with them. Then as we walked in further to the complex we realized that every apartment building was highly secured and there was no way that we could get in. So we started to walk out but I saw a boy and went and talked to him, after talking to him I found out that he just recently moved out to UCI and he comes from a part-member family, that is slightly less active in the church. He was excited about meeting with us and coming to church, but after the whole experience I knew that the reason I have been so curious about that complex is because we were supposed to meet him there on that day at that time. I have had so many experiences like that on my mission! I also went on an exchange with the elders that work in Newport beach! So i got to work in Newport Beach for a day, it is so expensive and beautiful down there! However despite the perfectness of it, there are a lot of rich people there that aren't the nicest of people to missionaries, but I love them to death! Back in my area the other day we knocked a door and a rude younger man opened the door and was being pretty insulting but as we continued to share our testimonies, his friend told him to stop being rude and he came out and talked to us. He told us how he has had a very rough life so far and has made some pretty bad decisions in his life. He told us that he was kind of amazed that we had come to his door because not more than 10 minutes prior to our knocking on his door he had gone to their back porch and said a prayer for the first time in his life, asking God for help. I know the Lord is in this work. He leads and guides it! I am so happy to be able to be a part of this missionary work! Another experience when I was on exchanges with one of the assistants to the president, we went to an area we had planned and we decided to park in a spot where we usually don't park. When we got out of the car a young man was walking by so we walked up to him and started talking to him, he said he would love to sit down and talk with us so we went to a nearby table and we taught him about the restoration of the gospel and about the book of Mormon. He loved it. Then he told us that he thinks we were meant to meet with him, because he explained how everyday he gets a ride home from school from his cousin, but for some reason the night before he felt he should take the bus and so he told his cousin that he would take the bus. That day as he was walking to the bus we found him, he told us he has been trying to learn more about God but didn't really know how, and then we met him :). There are many more experiences that I have had just in this past week but I am sharing these because I do know that this gospel is true. More importantly, I know that God has a plan for each and every one of us. He knows us better than ourselves. He is there for us. If we pray to him he will answer us. To close with one final experience of this week. My companion and I were knocking on doors in an apartment complex we had been to before. At one door we met a Chinese man, and i was able to talk to him and bear my testimony and I asked him if we could come in and share a message with him. He said yes so we went in and my companion used the phrases and words I had taught him in mandarin but I mainly taught him about the Book of Mormon. I felt the spirit very strongly and even though it was the first time he has ever met missionaries I decided to follow the counsel given in Preach My Gospel and by the first presidency of the church which is to commit people to be baptized on the first lesson. So I committed him to be baptized, and he said yes. Then committed him to prepare for the 26th of march and he said he will!!!! I am so glad that the Lord has been helping me keep up my Chinese, I know it is all because of the Lord that I can do this. That night we gave him as a referral to the Chinese speaking elders and they were extremely excited :). I love this work! I still love the Chinese people even though I am in an English area ;). I have seen so many blessings from the Lord and I know he lives. I hope all is well! Until next week!!
Well it has been another fantastic week!! This week we did a lot of exchanges with all of the district leaders in my zone. I worked in my area alone for the first time with Elder Kato for two days! We had so many amazing experiences! I'll give one very good experience in particular. OK, so, since i have been in this new area, every time we drive down to UCI (University of California Irvine) we pass by this certain apartment complex, and we have never tracted there before so I always asked my companion has anybody ever tracted there and he said no, I asked why and he said he doesn't really know. But we would never seem to go there. So on this exchange I had the feeling that I needed to satisfy my curiosity and go to that complex and tract. When we got there we talked to a couple people outside and they were very nice and we had good conversations with them. Then as we walked in further to the complex we realized that every apartment building was highly secured and there was no way that we could get in. So we started to walk out but I saw a boy and went and talked to him, after talking to him I found out that he just recently moved out to UCI and he comes from a part-member family, that is slightly less active in the church. He was excited about meeting with us and coming to church, but after the whole experience I knew that the reason I have been so curious about that complex is because we were supposed to meet him there on that day at that time. I have had so many experiences like that on my mission! I also went on an exchange with the elders that work in Newport beach! So i got to work in Newport Beach for a day, it is so expensive and beautiful down there! However despite the perfectness of it, there are a lot of rich people there that aren't the nicest of people to missionaries, but I love them to death! Back in my area the other day we knocked a door and a rude younger man opened the door and was being pretty insulting but as we continued to share our testimonies, his friend told him to stop being rude and he came out and talked to us. He told us how he has had a very rough life so far and has made some pretty bad decisions in his life. He told us that he was kind of amazed that we had come to his door because not more than 10 minutes prior to our knocking on his door he had gone to their back porch and said a prayer for the first time in his life, asking God for help. I know the Lord is in this work. He leads and guides it! I am so happy to be able to be a part of this missionary work! Another experience when I was on exchanges with one of the assistants to the president, we went to an area we had planned and we decided to park in a spot where we usually don't park. When we got out of the car a young man was walking by so we walked up to him and started talking to him, he said he would love to sit down and talk with us so we went to a nearby table and we taught him about the restoration of the gospel and about the book of Mormon. He loved it. Then he told us that he thinks we were meant to meet with him, because he explained how everyday he gets a ride home from school from his cousin, but for some reason the night before he felt he should take the bus and so he told his cousin that he would take the bus. That day as he was walking to the bus we found him, he told us he has been trying to learn more about God but didn't really know how, and then we met him :). There are many more experiences that I have had just in this past week but I am sharing these because I do know that this gospel is true. More importantly, I know that God has a plan for each and every one of us. He knows us better than ourselves. He is there for us. If we pray to him he will answer us. To close with one final experience of this week. My companion and I were knocking on doors in an apartment complex we had been to before. At one door we met a Chinese man, and i was able to talk to him and bear my testimony and I asked him if we could come in and share a message with him. He said yes so we went in and my companion used the phrases and words I had taught him in mandarin but I mainly taught him about the Book of Mormon. I felt the spirit very strongly and even though it was the first time he has ever met missionaries I decided to follow the counsel given in Preach My Gospel and by the first presidency of the church which is to commit people to be baptized on the first lesson. So I committed him to be baptized, and he said yes. Then committed him to prepare for the 26th of march and he said he will!!!! I am so glad that the Lord has been helping me keep up my Chinese, I know it is all because of the Lord that I can do this. That night we gave him as a referral to the Chinese speaking elders and they were extremely excited :). I love this work! I still love the Chinese people even though I am in an English area ;). I have seen so many blessings from the Lord and I know he lives. I hope all is well! Until next week!!
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
March 7, 2011
Hello everyone!!!
First off I want to thank everyone for the birthday wishes and cards! I cannot believe I am no longer a teenager! I am really noticing how fast time goes by out here in the field. This week we had a baptism! Actually, it was yesterday to be exact, I'm including a picture to go along with it. The converts name is Lauren, she is the most amazing investigator I have ever met! She has the strongest testimony about this gospel and I learned a lot from her! The baptism went perfectly and she was able to bring a lot of non-member friends and her family who are also not members. This week we have done a lot and lots of tracting and knocking door to door. There is so much that I am learning from talking to everyone around me, it is very interesting to see so many different types of personalities and habits and it really helps me to see how we are all so unique and individual but at the same time, we are all children of God. It amazes me to know that he truly knows each and every one of us individually, he knows our likes and dislikes, he know our happy times as well as the sad times, but no matter what he is always there for us. Always. I got to go on a companion exchange this week with my old companion Elder Kim back in the Chinese branch! We had a lot of lessons and I noticed that the Chinese was still there hah. I know the Lord has given me so many blessings with this language and i will continue to learn more because i absolutely love the Chinese people! Anyway, we had a Zone Leader council on my birthday and I learned a lot about what we are to do as Zone Leaders and the things we need to work on with our zones. I knew before that Zone Leaders were busy but i never thought it would be this busy! But I love it! This week we had a lesson with a Less Active convert of the church. My companion and i prayed about this lesson a lot and we were trying to know what the best thing we could do to teach him was. We both felt that we would just focus on Faith in Jesus Christ and read a talk by President Monson about Jesus Christ and all he has done for us. It wa one of the most spiritual lessons I have had on my mission. It reaffirmed my testimony to know that God and Jesus Christ LIVE, and more importantly we can talk with our heavenly father through prayer. I was thinking about my own prayers this past week and was trying to think of how i usually pay. After putting thought into it, I randomly thought of an analogy that really opened my eyes to how we pray. Here it is: 'Relate prayer to a phone call with a friend. When we call and talk to a friend we usually say hello and address them and then we ask them how they are doing. After that we may ask them a few questions, and then we will wait for their reply.' Then I thought about prayer 'Sometimes we pray and and talk to heavenly father and we ask and ask and ask and then end our prayer. But sometimes we forget to let God have time to answer our prayer.' With a friend we wouldn't ask them a question and then hang up before we get the answer, so why would we do that with God?' He wants to answer us but sometimes we don't give him anytime to reply and give us that answer. I know God listens to our prayers! I love this church with all my heart and I know it is true! Until next week! I love you all!
First off I want to thank everyone for the birthday wishes and cards! I cannot believe I am no longer a teenager! I am really noticing how fast time goes by out here in the field. This week we had a baptism! Actually, it was yesterday to be exact, I'm including a picture to go along with it. The converts name is Lauren, she is the most amazing investigator I have ever met! She has the strongest testimony about this gospel and I learned a lot from her! The baptism went perfectly and she was able to bring a lot of non-member friends and her family who are also not members. This week we have done a lot and lots of tracting and knocking door to door. There is so much that I am learning from talking to everyone around me, it is very interesting to see so many different types of personalities and habits and it really helps me to see how we are all so unique and individual but at the same time, we are all children of God. It amazes me to know that he truly knows each and every one of us individually, he knows our likes and dislikes, he know our happy times as well as the sad times, but no matter what he is always there for us. Always. I got to go on a companion exchange this week with my old companion Elder Kim back in the Chinese branch! We had a lot of lessons and I noticed that the Chinese was still there hah. I know the Lord has given me so many blessings with this language and i will continue to learn more because i absolutely love the Chinese people! Anyway, we had a Zone Leader council on my birthday and I learned a lot about what we are to do as Zone Leaders and the things we need to work on with our zones. I knew before that Zone Leaders were busy but i never thought it would be this busy! But I love it! This week we had a lesson with a Less Active convert of the church. My companion and i prayed about this lesson a lot and we were trying to know what the best thing we could do to teach him was. We both felt that we would just focus on Faith in Jesus Christ and read a talk by President Monson about Jesus Christ and all he has done for us. It wa one of the most spiritual lessons I have had on my mission. It reaffirmed my testimony to know that God and Jesus Christ LIVE, and more importantly we can talk with our heavenly father through prayer. I was thinking about my own prayers this past week and was trying to think of how i usually pay. After putting thought into it, I randomly thought of an analogy that really opened my eyes to how we pray. Here it is: 'Relate prayer to a phone call with a friend. When we call and talk to a friend we usually say hello and address them and then we ask them how they are doing. After that we may ask them a few questions, and then we will wait for their reply.' Then I thought about prayer 'Sometimes we pray and and talk to heavenly father and we ask and ask and ask and then end our prayer. But sometimes we forget to let God have time to answer our prayer.' With a friend we wouldn't ask them a question and then hang up before we get the answer, so why would we do that with God?' He wants to answer us but sometimes we don't give him anytime to reply and give us that answer. I know God listens to our prayers! I love this church with all my heart and I know it is true! Until next week! I love you all!
Friday, March 4, 2011
February 28, 2011
Hello everyone!!
Ok, well this past week was the first week of the new transfer! If any of you didn't hear, I am now serving as a Zone Leader in the Newport Coast Singles Ward. To start off I have to say that going from the Yale Chinese Branch to a Singles Ward in Newport Coast is a little bit of a culture shock! I had to review everything I had learned all in english because I hadn't been teaching or tracting much in english before now. It is also different because I am now teaching people speaking my native language and a lot of them are the same age as me. I absolutely love it in this new area though, and I still do get quite a few opportunities to talk to chinese people! I have complete faith in the Lord that he will help me retain the chinese that I have learned as long as I put forth my best effort to keep trying to learn more of it everyday. This week I was actually pretty sick and it stayed with me the whole week, I think mostly because I never took time to rest. I would rather be sick and doing the Lord's work than worrying about myself and laying in bed missing missionary opportunities. But today I am not sick anymore!! But anyway, this week we met with our investigator named Lauren, she is probably the most amazing investigator I have ever met! She has the strongest testimony and she is going to be baptized this upcoming Sunday!!! At first she was facing some opposition from her father but through answers to prayers he has completely turned around and says he is very proud of her and her decision! So we are looking very forward to this Sunday! I can also say that being Zone Leader, the work is never done haha. We have so much to do and to keep track of for the entire zone while trying to keep track of our own area and doing our own proselyting, I actually find it really fun though, I like being this busy! This past week we also taught a new investigator named Jay. We had a pretty amazing experience and I have a new found testimony of doing role plays each morning as a companionship. That morning we decided we wanted to role play that my companion was Jay and I was the missionary and we wanted to practice how we think the lesson would go. My companion Elder Whited brought up some concerns that he thought would be good to practice. However later that night when we started the lesson with Jay, it literally went WORD FOR WORD the exact same way as we role played it earlier that morning! I know that the spirit was directing us to be able to help him with what he needed to hear!
One thing about the singles ward here is that we teach a lot of first lessons, but we don't get to many return appointments, we also get a ton of potentials everyday because we literally talk with every person we see. So it is helping me to be a much more outgoing and bold missionary! My companion Elder Whited is probably the best Elder I have met! He keeps the work fun and he is very focused on his purpose as a missionary so I have much to learn from him. Another thing about this branch that I love is that a lot of the members here are returned missionaries and they all have very strong testimonies and they are always willing to come with us to lessons!
This next week I turn 20!!!! I cannot believe it! I am getting so old. I honestly feel like I just started my mission yesterday, but when I look back, it has flown by so quickly! In April I will be hitting my year mark! It just makes me want to work just that much harder and use the time that I have! I love all of you and your constant examples to me! I hope everything is going well!! I would love to hear from you all! Send letters! If you send a letter I will write you back ;), I think that is the way I have to go about it because I have so much going on it is hard to think of who I would need to write. I love you all! Until next week!
Ok, well this past week was the first week of the new transfer! If any of you didn't hear, I am now serving as a Zone Leader in the Newport Coast Singles Ward. To start off I have to say that going from the Yale Chinese Branch to a Singles Ward in Newport Coast is a little bit of a culture shock! I had to review everything I had learned all in english because I hadn't been teaching or tracting much in english before now. It is also different because I am now teaching people speaking my native language and a lot of them are the same age as me. I absolutely love it in this new area though, and I still do get quite a few opportunities to talk to chinese people! I have complete faith in the Lord that he will help me retain the chinese that I have learned as long as I put forth my best effort to keep trying to learn more of it everyday. This week I was actually pretty sick and it stayed with me the whole week, I think mostly because I never took time to rest. I would rather be sick and doing the Lord's work than worrying about myself and laying in bed missing missionary opportunities. But today I am not sick anymore!! But anyway, this week we met with our investigator named Lauren, she is probably the most amazing investigator I have ever met! She has the strongest testimony and she is going to be baptized this upcoming Sunday!!! At first she was facing some opposition from her father but through answers to prayers he has completely turned around and says he is very proud of her and her decision! So we are looking very forward to this Sunday! I can also say that being Zone Leader, the work is never done haha. We have so much to do and to keep track of for the entire zone while trying to keep track of our own area and doing our own proselyting, I actually find it really fun though, I like being this busy! This past week we also taught a new investigator named Jay. We had a pretty amazing experience and I have a new found testimony of doing role plays each morning as a companionship. That morning we decided we wanted to role play that my companion was Jay and I was the missionary and we wanted to practice how we think the lesson would go. My companion Elder Whited brought up some concerns that he thought would be good to practice. However later that night when we started the lesson with Jay, it literally went WORD FOR WORD the exact same way as we role played it earlier that morning! I know that the spirit was directing us to be able to help him with what he needed to hear!
One thing about the singles ward here is that we teach a lot of first lessons, but we don't get to many return appointments, we also get a ton of potentials everyday because we literally talk with every person we see. So it is helping me to be a much more outgoing and bold missionary! My companion Elder Whited is probably the best Elder I have met! He keeps the work fun and he is very focused on his purpose as a missionary so I have much to learn from him. Another thing about this branch that I love is that a lot of the members here are returned missionaries and they all have very strong testimonies and they are always willing to come with us to lessons!
This next week I turn 20!!!! I cannot believe it! I am getting so old. I honestly feel like I just started my mission yesterday, but when I look back, it has flown by so quickly! In April I will be hitting my year mark! It just makes me want to work just that much harder and use the time that I have! I love all of you and your constant examples to me! I hope everything is going well!! I would love to hear from you all! Send letters! If you send a letter I will write you back ;), I think that is the way I have to go about it because I have so much going on it is hard to think of who I would need to write. I love you all! Until next week!
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