Time goes by so fast. This time
ten months later, I'll be going home. Wow. It feels like a long way off, but
then I feel like it's so short too.
I got your package. :) Liked the
snacks. Liked the clothes. They are all very cute and I like them. See, maybe
you do know what I liked afterall :) I'll send back a package of clothes in a
few weeks cuz there is a lot of cute clothes I like but cannot wear here,
either too cold or skirt too short.
This week's most exciting thing
is Moon's baptism. Moon is from Guangdong. She is so awesome. Her family and
friends and roommates all disagree with her choice to associate with the church
and said a lot of things that made her really sad. But she decided that she'd
still talk to us. After talking to us she realized that she is just so happy
when she is with church people. There is nothing she learned that is not good,
so she decided to move ahead with the baptism this sunday. She was like
Grandma, had to do it a few times, but the great thing is that she chose our
recent convert, Brother Wang, to do it. So happy to see a recent convert
baptizing another :) Wow, happy day yesterday! So many people came too, the room
was filled.
She is super awesome. Already
sharing the gospel with her friends and classmates. She brought a friend to
church last sunday, on the day of her baptism. We are teaching another friend
of hers right now. So she is just so good.
Aaron and Jade got all the
missionaries to eat dinner at their place this sunday after the baptism. She is
a really good cook. Yummy food. :)
President's interviews are this
week too. Met with mission president. He asked us if we needed more money. I
think we are fed pretty well here in San Francisco language programs. Us,
Tagolog elders, and Spanish elders are probably the most well-fed missionaries
in the whole mission. :) Oh, by the way, it is confirmed: I have been stable
105 pounds for a while now. I think it's all fat too :) from eating all the
meat. Me and Sister Lao, before she left, decided that we'd go vegan for a
week. We didn't want to eat any more meat, but of course that didn't turn out
very well. We ate a hot dog a few days through :)
New companion is Sister Cherri
Chan. She went to BYU too, but she has 2 years left after mission. She is from
Hong Kong, and speaks great Cantonese. She is also a great cook. So now I'm the
one washing the dishes instead of cooking. :) She does cook good food though,
from whatever is in the fridge. She has been in Oakland Chinese for more than a
year, so this is probably the only transfer she'll have before she finishes her
mission. She has great vision for the area though. She wants to have "20
investigators, 2 baptisms every months". :) So we've got a lot of work to
do.
Another thing this week is that
Brother Wang went to the temple to do baptisms. Afterwards, he said "I
felt so great today. Just so happy. I saved 20 people today" :) He is
awesome.
I also got to see one of my recent
converts, Tuan, speak at a fireside called Why I Believe. It's where recent
converts go up by assignment and bear testimony of why they joined the church
and how has it changed their life. It's great to see your recent convert go. I
was smiling the whole time. Christine, my first baptism, she also spoke too,
but we were riding in other member's car and got there late.
We had zone meeting this week.
That's meeting where all the missionaries in the San Francisco West Stake come
and talk about our goals and get training. Our zone got 62 baptisms last year
:) shooting for even higher next year. The training was on bearing testimonies.
It's great to learn about simple principles. Bear testimonies is simple, but
when you do it in some ways, it just makes it more powerful. We talked about
using "I know...because..." to give personal experience, short and
simple. We talked about how to make testimonies personal for us and the
investigator, and how to relate it to the topic we are going to teach. For example,
if we are teaching the Restoration, we could say "We are going to share
Joseph Smith's experience in his own words. His experience has great
significance for me because.... I know his experience can change your life
too." That makes it relate to them, and they'd listen more. Then at the
end after we recite the first vision, we could say something like "I know
that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ did appear to Joseph Smith. I know that
God answers our prayers, and he can answer yours, if we pray with our heart. I
know God still guides us today, and we receive his direction through prophets
such as Joseph Smith, through prayer, and through scriptures like the Book of
Mormon". Anyway, that's what we learned. Quite good I think. I just feel
the vibes in that room when the training was happening. Spirit was so strong.
:)
That's pretty much what happened
last week. :) Any news at home?
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