The boy who referred himself got baptism, Yeah! (Nov 26, 2012)

Hi Mom,

So we got our transfers call last Saturday. I'm staying in SF, still with Sister Lao. So I guess we'll have a San Francisco Christmas. Extra cold. We are quite happy though.

Thanksgiving was great. We had three dinner appointments. I was quite proud of myself not eating too much, even though I liked some of the food very much :) It wasn't my best day though. I think it's true what they say, you are happiest when you are working hard. I felt like I'd rather have a day teaching and talking to people rather than sitting and eating too much food. We have awesome ward members though. I think we'll be eating Thanksgiving leftovers for the next week still. We still have turkey leftovers in the fridge.

We had a ward Thanksgiving dinner too, so that's more food. I just eat normal amounts though. We had lots of less actives and investigators come, so it's good to have them talk with members.

Most exciting last week is of course the baptism. :) Brother Zou from Shanghai. He is great. He was the one that referred himself on mormon.org to meet with us. He was totally happy. Everything went smooth. He was happy. Lots of people went. Perfect :)

We are having a baptism next week too, in Berkeley. The person I got to teach before. :)

You take care yourself, Mom....

More byptism (Nov 19,2012)

So. Got your letters :) Chen Meng is in Hawaii? I don't remember that happening. Forgetting everything again. Hm...she should send me emails :)

We didn't get to vote, but that's ok. We heard Obama won. No one asked us about it though, so that's good.

Best thing about this week so far is that we had a baptism from Berkeley. We are allowed to back for baptisms in our last area if it is within one transfer (six weeks). So Tuan got baptized yesterday. He was so prepared. He had been coming to church for years and everyone thought he was a member. When he was ready to take the lessons, he emailed the priest quorum leader, and asked for missionaries. So when we taught him, he pretty much already knew everything. He knew how important baptism is and how important enduring to the end is. The perfect investigator. He is great!

I went to a leadership training meeting. I still don't know why I'm invited to go, but I certainly learned a lot from it. They talked about decision making and how important it is to gather ALL of the facts before making a decision. We already knew it but actually role playing it made it more obvious how we should do it. It's great. President Meredith also talked about the story in 1Nephi3, how all 4 of the brothers went to get the plates, but they went with different motives. None of them knew why. Nephi didn't figure out why they needed the plates until he was trying to decide to kill Laban or not. But attitude made all the difference. Nephi had to try twice, but his attitidue saved the day, and the plates. So he talked about exact obedience, that we don't just do things because we are told to, but we do it willingly. Obedient in thought and action. I liked that.

We took our recent convert, Robert, to the visitor center this Friday. We watched the Joseph Smith movie, 60 minute one (you can watch at Temple Square too. Bottom floor of the statue of Jesus place). He really liked it, everyone liked it. Definitely went away with a stronger testimony of why this church is here, why he didn't just join another church instead.

We got another investigator we are teaching who is gone a 180 this week. Last week when we saw him he was denying the existence of God and everything. This week he read the pamphlets and was asking a lot of questions. Still doubting, but he didn't say God doesn't exist anymore. He thinks our bodies are amazing. He read the Liahona, and is now ok with the Joseph Smith story. Great change, all in two lessons. Sister Olvera, the missionary who taught him with us, was great in testimony, I think that is a reason why he is softened a lot. Great to see the change.

Next week, we'll have two baptisms. One in Berkeley, a person me and Sister Poon taught from the beginning. He is finally ready. Another is from our area. He self-referred on mormon.org and has been looking forward to his baptism for a while now. He goes to church every sunday, mixes in well with the ward, and is keeping the commandments. All just great. Will say more next week.

That's pretty much my week.! :)

Happy shopping day (Nov 12, 2012)

So today we are emailing in the Chinatown English class room, which they also use as computer class room, joint rent. So I get a little bit more time. We just came back from shopping in Chinatown. So crazy, bought lots of stuff. Is there anything you want me to look for here that's not in UT?

 

So this week, we took our investigator to the VC. He really liked the place. I think he is at the point where he has and will believe everything. So we watched Finding Faith in Christ. Have you seen it before? It's really good. Makes me tear up every time.

 

We also went on exchanges this week. It's different doing it with the full-proselyting sisters. Almost the whole day we spent out trying to visit people. We mostly knocked doors. Their area is Spanish speaking, so I couldn't understand much, but enough to know the topic. It's good. We almost had to tract in the rain, but 'tis a blessing it stopped right as we were parking to go out :)  I learned that I need to be more persistent when talking to people about the gospel. Talk more, give out cards later. :)

 

We had weekly coordination with Aaron Wong. He is sooo helpful. He always asks how the ward can help with each of the people we talk about.

 

This week I also got to eat dumplings at a less active's house. Haven't ate it for a long time. :) Our meeting with different less actives were really good. Three of them said they'd come to church on Sunday. Most of them have a hard time waking up though.

 

Scariest thing this week was that President Pearce asked me to speak in sacrament the day before. I only got about one hour of preparing time to prepare. It wasn't cool, but at least I didn't mess up. Talked, told stories, not too bad I hope. :)

 

We tracted for a few hours on Sunday, since all of our plans fell though. It must've meant to be though, cuz of the four people we talked to, three of them agreed to have us come back. One family was Bhuddist and wasn't wanting to talk at first, but keep talking and eventually it turned out that they accepted a pamphlet on the plan of salvation and will have us back to visit in a few weeks and talk about what they read.

 

It was really funny today. It's our p-day but we try to share the gospel when possible. When we were on the bus coming to Chinatown, Elder Ho, our district leader, talked to a woman from Cambodia in Mandarin for a while, then we joined in the conversation. Not two sentence in, Sister Lao knew that she actually spoke Cantonese and they just starting talking so fast and for the rest of the ride, they were talking about families and gospel and everything. Me and Elder Ho were really amazed at her. :)

 

So, that's my week. Not too much new things. Lots of shopping.

Another good week! (Nov 5, 2012)

Sorry, late again. But today we finally got to go to San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. Sadly, I'm in the library where it doesn't recognize my camera card, so I'll have to send it later.

 

Aaron and Jade goes back to Salt Lake on the 19th, so you can meet them and get the box of clothes and thank them. :) They are so good. The whole Chinese branch is depending on them here. And they are so good, they are actively looking for ways to help the missionary work.

 

So, this last week is crazy. So many things happened this week.

 

First of all, our recent convert who just got baptized last sunday, was already being tested. He borrowed friend's car and it got towed on Monday so he had to pay for it. That made it easier for him to accept the job he was offered a few days later to work at a restaurant. But it wasn't until later that he found out he had to work Saturdays AND Sundays. He didn't know what to do. We told him it was his test and he needed to make the decisions, but inside we just wanted to make the decision for him. We jokingly said that missionaries don't like agency, but of course, we respect his choice. Anyway, after struggling for days and us praying for him, we got the news that his boss okayed him to work whole days on Saturdays. We were SOOO happy. He came to church on sunday and got confirmed. :)

 

And, this Friday, we took one of our less actives to the visitor center. I LOVE the visitor center. So happy to see all the sisters again. San Francisco is like elders territory. You don't get much of the sister-ness here. We only see the Tagolog sisters every week or so, but we see elders pretty much about everyday. So, I was happy to see all the sisters. Anyway, Sister C Chan and Sister Lau (Hong Kong) was great and they talked about temples after seeing God's plan for his family and temple pictures. They got him committed to come to church on Sunday. We watched Finding Faith in Christ together. The whole tour was in Cantonese, but I knew what was going on. So amazing. Anyway, he felt great about the whole experience. We were a little apprehensive whether he would really come to church or not, but he did. He came for elders quorum and for sacrament (we have sunday school first, then relief society, then sacrament). He had a great experience. The fellowshipper who went with him to the VC sat by him and he was welcomed and talked to. It was great. He said he'll come next week too! :)

 

We also talked to one of our recent convert young woman's mom. She is just like us. Her husband is back in China and she is here alone with her child and they are pretty much relying on each other. But anyway, her daughter took her Mom to church. At first she was wondering what her daughter was getting into, she thought all churches have a lot of good people and a lot of bad people, but she was very happy with our meetings. She said there was nothing bad she heard. She liked it. She is busy so we don't get much chance to share the gospel with her, but she said she'll be there when we teach her daughter. :)

 

So, it was a week full of miracles. Many times we couldn't find people to go with us to lessons, but at the last minute prayers answered, it all works out.

 

We did a street display in Chinatown. 免費英文班 poster and 我的家庭怎麼樣可以更和睦? or something like that. Spoke Cantonese most of the time, definitely learned the phrase 免費英文班. It was fun.

 

What else happened...let's see. We went to Aaron and Jade's for missionary coordination meeting, since he is the ward mission leader. They live really close to the stake center chapel. Their place is beautiful though. :) They are so nice too.

 

We had a missionary fireside held by President Meredith and Elder Packard? of the 70. They talked about how to share the gospel. Pray for missionary experiences. Exercise faith. Invite people to do something. If anyone asks a question about the church, turn it into an invitation. They had the stake president demonstrate it. He asked his wife, role play, "so I heard your church has magic underwears" So his wife, playing the member, said, "Yeah, I have some people you can see and they can tell you all about why we have it." Anyway, it was really funny. And the last thing he mentioned was to invite people to church. He said if all members who are speaking at church invited their nonmember friends to support them by going to church, they we'd have lots more poeple exposed to the gospel.

  

很高興你有機會看到Elder Eyring. I know Stephanie Eyring. We were in the same seminary class together. I think it was in Brother Hugh's class in Bountiful High. I sat right by her too. Yeah, she is really nice. Awesome person. Glad you like the ward and gets to meet so many amazing people. Elder Eyring does have a way of making you cry. He is so spiritual. :)

 

That's pretty much my week. :) I like your letters :)

  

Loves and hugs and kisses :)