A little Relax (3/4/2013)

Ok, so you are in class, but by the time I finish this email you'd be done :)

P-days here are a little more relaxing, we don't have tourist sites to go to. We thoroughly cleaned our apt today, washed the car, vacuumed the car, and I took a nap because my limbs were tired. So it's pretty nice. I like seeing things clean and organized.

The members here have been good. We got lots of dinner appointments. They are helping us to find, teach, and fellowship those we teach. Really awesome ward.

Do you know where the Francom sons are serving their missions? I saw a mail package in the mission home for Timothy Francom from Aaron Francom. The assistants to the president said an Elder Francom is in the mission waiting for his visa to go to Taiwan, so he is in our mission and serving in Oakland with an Elder Kwok. Is Tim getting transferred to Taiwan?

This week was a little slow. We had great expectations but turned out to be lots of cancellations. We found some new less actives to teach though. A lot of them are willing to meet and to feel the spirit again. They never lost their belief, it was just they were too busy and got distracted from church things as life picked up.

We got a great chance to be trained by two guys from the church missionary department. It's such a great opportunity, and those guys were amazing. One of them was showing us how to use the visitor center more effectively. He had everyone gather around a picture of Jesus healing a blind man with the crowd all around him looking at the miracle. He asked us one question:"who do you identify with the most in this picture?" This simple question led to so many amazing answers, it opened us up and we knew each person and what they need from that one question. If they identify with the protective father, who realize something important is happening and doesn't want his child to disrupt, we know that visitor might need God's Plan for his Family. If they identify with the blind man, then maybe we should take them to the Book of Mormon table and share a scripture from there...I really learned the importance of asking good questions that morning, so that day in our lessons, we were asking questions and using questions to teach and have them come to their own conclusions and find their own testimony. It was amazing to see how different it was.

The training also helped us remember to use short and simple statements. Don't get long-winded. It's funny how short sentences has so much power. They had us practice a page in Preach My Gospel about families. (160) --There is nothing more important to us than our families. Having a strong happy family is the priority for many people throughout the world. You have been part of God's family since before you were born. He wants us to return to live with him and be part of His family again. Families can be together forever. God gave us the gospel to help us to know how. It gives us the greatest hope for a strong happy family in this life. -- I just think, if we get to share that with people, who wouldn't be interested in the gospel? Even if they don't accept us, at least it will have left a impression, whereas long conversations probably wouldn't have.

We had an experience like that last week. We were tracting, not much success, then we talked to this one guy for 30 minutes. He was non-practicing Christian (doesn't go to church). We talked a lot about doctrine because he kept going there. He was skeptical about everything and doesn't want to share the gospel with Anyone. Finally at the end, I just bore my testimony, short statements, looking at him straight in the eye. We didn't get an appointment at the end, but he said we could come back and talk to him later.  He also surprised us by saying that if he knew someone who need God, he would send them to us. Wow, big change. I think we left an impression, planted a seed :)

But most exciting thing was yesterday, we got to go back to San Francisco to see Yanni's baptism. I got to teach Yanni from the beginning, more than two months ago, and now she is finally baptized. She had lots of experiences where her prayers were answered. She also had lots of opposition from family and friends making her waver whether she wants to join the church or not, but after she decided, she found out that everyone was not as opposed to it as she thought they would. Anyway, baptism was great. Loved to see those wonderful people again. Hope my Cantonese/Mandarin isn't getting too bad. There is almost no Chinese people in Concord that I can see.

Anyway, that was my week. :)

Now, when do I get a picture? And it can't be a picture of a picture.

1st Week at Concord city (Feb 25,2013)

Can't believe it's only a week in Concord. feels like so much longer. The area is pretty much dead. First because I cam get to one end the other end of our area in ten minutes with out taking the freeway. pretty small place. good for the ward cuz that means there are lots of Mormons here, but we have less area to work with. The ward didn't have any baptisms last year, and only one this year with a miracle.

However, we've blessed this week with lots of new investigators. One we found while trying to visit a less active. That person moved but the new family was interested in hearing the gospel. We taught the Restoration to the Mom and she told us that she had been looking for a church for a long time. She didn't like the church she went to before cuz she said they were more concerned with getting her money than teaching her kids. She accepted everything--Apostacy, Joseph Smith, Book of Mormon. She said she already know this is something she wants for her family. We are so excited for her. We invited her to be baptized and she said ok. :) Seeing her this Wednesday. :)

Another one is from the recent convert here. She is having the missionaries teach both her sister and her boyfriend. We got her boyfriend. He is great and we are looking forward to him learning more too. We also got to teach two less active family's husbands. So it's going forward here. Really praying that we can keep this up.

Beside that, I'm not quite unpacked  yet. Mostly done, I'm just taking it slow for the rest. Apt is pretty good. Need some cleaning, but will be ok. It's really quite here.

Sister Boac is from Philippines, I just haven't took a picture with her yet. Sometimes I have hard time to understand her, but other than that, we are pretty good.

About being senior companion. It's really not too much different. At least what I think, but what I do somehow just comes out different. I was still a little hesitant about talking to people on the streets before, but now it's just a matter of talking to them or missing another opportunity, especially in this dead area, so we just end up talking to everyone, which is what we should be doing anyway.

Yeah, that's pretty much the week. :)

Transferred to Concord as senior companion!!! (Feb 18,2013)

Glad Aunt Qi will go to Hong Kong. :) So many of my companions are from Hong Kong. :)

So is Lao3yi2fu getting baptized soon? :) Hey, they can be eternal family!

So this week has been crazy since Saturday night. The past saturday night was transfers week. We almost forgot. Well, I'm leaving San Francisco Chinese. And I'm going to Concord. Concord 1st ward. All I know is that it's on the other side of the Bay, and it's really warm, and I'm gonna speak English. My new companion will be Sister Boac, from Philippines. I've seen her before. She was in Tagalog speaking here in San Francisco, so we know each other, but it was just such a surprise. I mean I kind of thought I was leaving since I feel like I've done what I can for the area, but never expected to go so far away inland and away from the VC.

Oh, I forgot to mention. Besides being in a new area, I'll also be the senior companion, which is like a BIG change for me. Feel a little inadequate at the time. Thought about the new change all night, had a little hard time sleeping well. But then on Sunday, it was a great spirit booster. First of all, read the introduction to the Book of Mormon, and how Joseph Smith was receiving instruction all night when Moroni was telling him about the plates, and he received instruction every year for about four years before he actually got them. I saw that earlier I had written in the margin, "The Lord qualifies whom He calls". Felt a little better, I know He'll definitely provide some instruction as I stay in that area. Second of all, I heard in sacrament meeting, at different times during the meeting, great reminders that the Spirit is there to help and that we are loved and taken care of. :) Yep, so I slept pretty good last night.

Almost packed everything. Have to stuff it :) Surprising how much stuff you accumulate. Food. Really want to take all my food, since I'm going to a place with no Chinatown, but that's ok.

Really showered with lots of meal appointments since Sunday. Sunday, after everyone knew I was going. Sister Zhao invited me to her house for dinner. We ate lunch today with the Wongs (Aaron and Jade), and have dinner tonight with the YSAs of the ward. Caos wanted to also but the day was filled. :) Feel so loved. Sister Cao got really emotional too. She gave me some pineapple snacks she made. Wow. Such an awesome branch. Such awesome people.

This week also saw the miracle of another new investigator. One of our appointments didn't show up. (Actually. we had 3 lessons planned but did not show up) But after waiting for a while, a lady just came in asked us to help her with a letter, she can't read English. We helped her and offered her to know more about the gospel and taught her a lesson. She had no belief in God but is curious to know, so we are teaching her now. Every opportunity is a chance to share the gospel. :) Because nearly all our appointment didn't show up, we were blessed with another lesson that night with teaching an investigator who we haven't been in contact for a week. She decided to come to someone else's lesson so we had two lessons instead of one in that hour. :) Lord makes up for what we lose.

Also had another miracle finding. A recent convert suddenly decided to bring a friend. He wants to know everything. He was will to take the spiritual and intellectual. He asked great questions. And he started bringing friends to activity, church, and our lessons already. We only met him four days ago. Golden. :)

Oh, and we had branch chinese new year party. We did a song. We sang long2 de chuan2ren2 with lyrics from Armies of Helaman (the primary song) it was fun. Elder Davidson (sun2 zhang3lao3) and Elder Guan did the beat with the table. :) It was fun. Lots of new people came.

Um...that's about it. So, next week, you'll hear me from Concord.

Half of Mission Day (Feb 9, 2013)

Happy Chinese New Year!! :)  We almost forgot about the day, but the members were so nice and made it hard to forget. A lot of people gave us red envelope, I refused two of them before the zone leaders said we can take them. Aaron and Jade was going to invite us over for dinner Saturday night, but we had another dinner appointment. We ate sunday lunch at another member's house, had dumplings and lots of good stuff. Quite content. It feels more like new year here.

 

It's halfway through mission day this Saturday. Feel like it's going through really fast. Not much happened this week that's unusual, except it's Chinese New Year. Because of that, most of the people are busy and we've had a less busy week than usual. Next week should pick it up though.

 

Had exchanges this week. I got to teach Cantonese-speaking people all by myself, cuz the sister trainer doesn't speak Chinese. It was a little creepy, but I got by alright. I mean, she understood me, I half understood her, and we had laughs and read scriptures and talked and everything. So, not too bad. Cantonese people have different accents too, so some times it's hard to understand them.

 

We had zone conference this week, so there was about 80 missionaries all gathered together to learn. We got to know a lot of cool things. It was almost completely focused on finding people to teach, focusing on members. Because the increase of missionaries, the church is really asking members to step up their missionary work and to prepare and bring their friends to meet with missionaries, so we got trained on how to invite members to do this. President Meredith said there is about 200 missionaries who will be temporarily placed in and around our mission while waiting for their visas in a few weeks (our mission only has about 200 missionaries). The church bought two large apartment complexes in Provo near the MTC because the MTC doesn't fit all the missioanries any more. The Tuesday devotionals we usually have in the MTC gym is now moved to the Marriot Center at BYU, which is where basketball games happen, cuz it's so much larger. We were so awed that the work is moving forward so fast. At stake conference last week they said the number of missionaries have doubled, so amazing.

 

We are getting another Chinese speaking sister in the mission. She is Amercian, we think, cuz of her name, but then she could be like me, have an American last name but do know how to speak Chinese. Don't know if she'll come to San Francisco Chinese or Oakland Chinese, but it's cool :)

 

President told us one thing, we build the house of success by laying a foundation of testimony and faith, and the pillars of obedience, attitude, work, and knowledge/skills. One thing that president said really stood out. He said (president Hinckley said too) that a successful missionary smiles, smiles, and smiles. :) Trying to be more happy, at least let others see it. As they say, if you aren't happy, why would they listen to something you say will make you happy?

 

Also, he said, the Lord has spent so long preparing for his children to receive the gospel, if we don't show Him that we are good missionaries, why would he trust his children to us? Wow. So cool. We are all really stepping up and do more.

 

Also this week, read a talk by President Ezra Taft Benson, it's called Beware of Pride. It was such a powerful talk. should read it when you get a chance. It just hits you on the head that there is so much we can all improve on.

 

Anyway, quite a spiritual week, so awesome :)

Birthday Girl !! (Feb 2, 2013 )

So birthday was super awesome. First of all, I got my Mom's package! :) With good food and cute necklaces and all these other things :) I really liked the purse post-it. Baklava, I really really liked. I'm so happy. Haven't had those for ages. How did you know?   And then of course there was the card :) made me happy

We can't listen to Book on tapes beside four books: Our Search for Happiness, Jesus the Christ, Our Heritage, and True to the Faith. So, eeps. I sent it back today with all the clothes, so you can return it. Thanks though!

Got a card from Steph and Jason and kids. Cute.

Got a drumstick chopstick from Ems, Brookie, Olivy, and Cam. Along with the cards. So happy. Such a special gift, very thoughtful of them.

Sister Chan made breakfast for me--smiley face soup, I call it :) She took me out for lunch. We ate fried food, yep :) For dinner, we were just gonna go to a member's house. She was super nice. Apparently they had planned a surprise for me. Everyone had told me they couldn't come but they all ended up coming :) One member bought cake, most everyone made some dishes, most everyone gave presents too. They all put it in this big box with lots of papers which Sister Chan called sciptures and took out and read them :) (there was nonmembers there...such a awesome missionary for companion). Got chocolates, a big car drawing with my name on the license plate, lots of tissues, ha, so special :) Was quite surprised and happy. Another member bought a shou4 tao2 for us. haha! It was just a day full of surprises and happy. But we did do our missionary stuff too. We taught lessons during the party (off in another room) and talked to potential investigators. it was fun. Good good day. 

Well, so beside my birthday. We've got some pretty exciting developments here this week.

We've been teaching two of our investigators for weeks. They've never accepted baptism before. But this week, for some reason, they just clicked. Both of them said they want to be baptized before we even invited them. Another one of our new investigators did the same thing. So now, we have a awesomely amazing number of 7 baptismal dates, all within these two months. Really wowed!

We got so much food this week that our fridge is full. Members are so awesome!

Moon, our RC, is preparing to go to the temple. Many of our other recent converts are preparing to receive their patriarchal blessings. Brother Wang is going to speak at a stake-wide fireside that will be focused on why they join the church. He is also getting a calling and everything. Just so happy for all of them. Every investigator is got their own obstacles but the are all going forward so well!

This week I was reading a thing about prophets. It's quite amazing. We've taught the same topic this week. It's so good to have living prophets. Sometimes I think we take it for granted, but really it means so much. A quote said that he wished everyone knew how important prophets are, and he wish we would listen to the prophet because he is the one who is closest to the fountain of living waters. The article also gave a lot of examples of early pioneers of how some listened and others didn't listen to the prophet. It was a sad case to read about someone with a strong testimony falling away because of some little thing like a misspelled name. But then it mentioned how others were strong because of their conversion was based on witness of the holy ghost, not because of miracles. So anyway, I don't know why I'm typing this, but that's what I learned most this week.

Aye, happy week. :) 

Almost half-mission (Jan 28,2013)

Hi Mom,

 

Well. Another week. Lots of miracles and prayers answered, sometimes I have to remember to write these down, because sometimes it gets so routine, like you expect these things to happen, but still have to remember to keep them special.

 

Sister Chan had a baptism in Oakland which we went back to. This man has been through a lot of things, especially as an new immigrant. He said he did a lot of bad things. He talks like someone who had such a past. But he is like a totally different person now. When he bore his testimony after baptism, it was so sincere. He talked about his change and how far he'd come. It's always great to see people change because of the gospel. Not many other things can do what the gospel can do to people who want to change. He is not the first case I've seen of the "bad" (as he called himself before) change to a saint. The Atonement can do that to people.

 

One of the great happy thing this week was that one of our investigators finally started not drinking coffee, for two days. He had been taught by so many missionaries and always this one problem preventing him from getting baptized. I don't know what's different this time, but he at least started doing it.

 

We also taught the mom of a part-member family. I could see how hard the situation was for them. All her kids and her husband want her to join the church so they can be an eternal family, but she held on to her own beliefs. It's a hard dilemma for the family--let her be or keep trying and take a little risk. She is an really awesome person, always giving us food too. Sometimes I think it's hard for people to see that they don't have to alienate all their nonmember family, leave all her Buddhist family traditions to believe in Christ. What she seeks is enlightenment, and I wonder if the gospel can't bring more enlightenment than anything else. All the good truths are found here, concentrated.

 

We also found two super awesome new investigators this week. One of them from Taiwan. Her family are just all super religious. Her kids won't let her throw away all the Bible-related flyers. :) She wants to go to church and she loves to read. She said she had no problem with reading the Book of Mormon too. They pray already. Just super prepared. Need to know about the restored gospel though :)

 

Mengmeng

New byptism confirmations, Yeah!! (Jan 21, 2013)

So this week has been busy. We taught 21 lessons this week, that's pretty good for this area.

On Sunday, Moon got confirmed. :) She is quite happy.

We've set a baptismal date with another two people. These two are friends. They are so great. One of them is super ready, loves church, had spiritual experience, just waiting for the date to do it. :) The other is so willing, she just needs to adjust her life a little. Joining the church is a big change for most people, especially here where most people have to work on sundays. I think that is the biggest reason why some of our investigators can't come to church.

Sister Chan is fitting well into the area. She had the personality where people just instantly likes her :) Kind of like my Mom :)

Besides that, not much happened, really.

Chinatown elders had two people baptized this past sunday. They were great friends two. It's funny, they said they remind each other to pray when they wake up. They found the church because they took turns being interested and got the other person there too :) It's my first time seeing two baptisms on the same day.

Sister Chan is cooking mostly. We are really eating lots of vegetables now. Enough on the meat :) we did buy a Costco chicken though, that's an exception.

We got a new senior couple. Elder and Sister Sawaya from Utah Provo area. Elder Sawaya taught at Marriot school of Business at BYU. They are in charge of our area for half of the time.

Um...yeah, that's it for this week. Not much happened.