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 :)

Twin companion & Fun Hollowen ! (Oct 29, 2012)

Sorry! Just had a rushed p-day, as usual. :) We tried to go to San Mateo today. It's a lot warmer and not foggy. We went to the gardens, that's where I took the pictures. 

We got a baptism just yesterday. Brother Wang from Zhejiang. He came to U.S. when he was in high school on exchange and stayed through college. His host family was Christian, so he was exposed to God but he didn't believe. Anyway, one thing led to another, he believed in God and wanted a Bible. He requested it on mormon.org, so the missionaries came and gave him a Book of Mormon. So he started taking the lessons and now he has a great testimony. He bore his testimony at his baptism and all the missionaries were going "wow" because of what he said. :)

The members are really good at feeding us. We have a couple who give us food every week. Others are quite willing to feed you if you go to their place around dinner or lunch time. :) I hardly have to buy anything. So amazing. I think the members here are quite amazing. Their testimonies sometimes aren't shown on the outside, but when you talk to them, deep topics, you see. The benefits of being a missionary :) Amazing people really. The branch is small, but growing. Aaron and Jade Wong does a lot of the things here. Aaron (or as Brother Wong, we were supposed to call him) is in the bishopbric and is the ward mission leader and sunday school teacher. Sister Wong is the RS president. Both of them work a lot. Really the branch here needs them.

I think full proselyting is just tracting a lot. We probably do two hours of tracting everyday. A little intimidating to talk to people, especially since I don't speak Cantonese, but learning :) I think I understand conversations pretty well. I don't know every word, in fact, only about 30, but I know enough about the sounds from Mandarin that I know what they are talking about. Since most Hong Kong people understand Mandarin as well, I'll just speak in Mandarin from what I guessed in Cantonese.

We teach English class too. Not too many people come, only two regulars, but it provides an opportunity to talk to them one-on-one. We taught one of them how to pray this past week. Hopefully they didn't get scared away. :)

We are doing what they call "haunted housecleaning" on Halloween night. So we'd be moving furnitures and scrubbing the whole apt down. It's really interesting here in CA that really no one is planning on going outside to go trick-or-treat as far as I know. Too many stories of poisoned candy and other crazy things people do. It's quite sad.

Anyway, San Francisco is great.

I just got your two letters this week. We get mail slower here. Remember not to eat TOO much. If you have to, eat fruit :) or yogurt is good too. :) I'm the only person who is allowed to get fat 

First week at San Francisco (Oct 22, 2012)

Hi Mom!!

How was your week? How is church this week? Are you eating well? Exercise? Piano? Any news?

So, I'm in San Francisco now, Daly City to be more specific actually. It is absolutely FREEZING here. The day I came I was wearing a light jacket and a summer skirt. I learned that night that it was not a good idea. Next day I was wearing my thickest winter coat. Sister Lao tells me I'm getting a nice day still! Anyway, two days later I was wearing wool scarves and two layer of tights. Freezing. I'm good though. At least we have a car, the elders have to bike.

San Francisco has been taken over by the Chinese people, I've decided. I didn't think it was possible to have so many Chinese people together outside of China in U.S. About half, if not more, of the people here are Chinese. Sadly, for most of them, their first language is Cantonese. Which means I'm attacking Cantonese now. Have to learn it fast or I'm not gonna be able to stop people. Most speak Mandarin, but won't continue the conversation unless it was in Cantonese. Anyway, Sister Lao is a good teacher, so I'll be good, hopefully.

The ward is quite good. Saw Aaron and Jade Wong yesterday. Quite happy. They are coming to UT around Thanksgiving, and they offered to bring something if needed, so I was gonna give them the package I was gonna send home, so I guess I'll send it later. The members are willing to help with lessons and with feeding us and giving us food. It's all quite good.

This week we got a really good referral. The guy had been learning from the missionaries before in Texas and he gradually started to believe in God. He moved to SF for job and tried to find the missionaries on the street, he went to the church building but it was on Saturday so no one was there. He eventually went on mormon.org and referred himself. He is quite amazing and is already ready to be baptized. :) We usually confirm appointments before we come, but last Saturday for some reason we forgot. We just went there and when we got there we realized it and was a little nervous when no one answered the phone call to open the door, finally we decided to just push the doorbell (usually lots of poeple live together so we try not to push doorbells if we can). He came down and told us that he got locked out of his work along with his phone and his keys so he couldn't get into his room and don't have warm clothes and has been sleeping on the floor. So it was good that we forgot to call, otherwise we'd've never came, and he'd never gotten help. He was so glad to see us and said he's been hoping we'd come even though he knew we'd try to confirm appointments. He said he's been praying :) And now, he has lots of time to read the Book of Mormon. ;)

Sister Chan (her grandma is Guo Mama in the Chinese ward) was the missionary here before. Anyway, we are having a baptism next week. He is a quite boy/man and always accepts what was taught but he does ask questions. Quite sincere. So big event next week :)

Our district is the San Fran Chinese district. Just us and two sets of elders. One set with our district leader, the other set is our zone leaders. Elder Lai, who was my district leader before from Singapore, is my zone leader now. :) Elder Guan from Fujian is the other one. Our district leader, Elder Ho is from Hong Kong. His companion, Elder Anderson is from Logan, UT. So we get a nice combination of everything here, different accents and so too. All of us are assigned to the San Francisco 7th Chinese branch. :>

Full proselyting, I found, is just different because there is a lot more tracting--talking to people on the streets and knocking on doors. We also teach English class. Have you been to the English class at our home ward before? How did they get those people to be interested in the gospel? But anyway, lots of variety, it's fun. We can't do street board or booths anymore, because it's illegal in SF.

We had a little miracle this past week, among the many. We tried to find a member to go with us to teach this investigator. But no one was available, we drove there intending to just stop by insteading of teaching, since we can't teach men without a woman there. On the way, we went past hte street we were supposed to go, but a few seconds down, we saw our member coming back from running on the street. We stopped the car and said hi, and she was willing to go with us to the lesson. It's amazing how everything works out. :)

Hmm...yeah, that's San Francisco. And that's my week.

Loves, hugs, kisses,
Meng

TRANSFER TO SAN FRANCISCO!! (Oct 15, 2012)

Hi Mom!

Ok, I have to tell you the BIG news first before I can think about anything else.

We got transfer calls yesterday. I'm not gonna be in Berkeley anymore. I'm going to San Francisco!! :) I'm gonna be in the 7th branch, the Chinese branch. So cool. I was totally not expecting to go to San Francisco at all, so it was a big surprise. This means that I'm not gonna be in visitor center anymore, for the next transfer and probably longer. I'm hoping I'll come back to Oakland area a few months later though. So San Francisco is full-proselyting, so no visitor center, and we get our morning studies everyday. My new companion is gonna be Sister Lao, the same companion as the one I had in the MTC :) Such a surprise, but quite happy. :) I'm packing today and have to finish. This is the second time I've had to pack, then you realize how much stuff you have... So anyway, that's the big news.

So this week lots of things happened. One of the people in our singles ward got married, our ward mission leader. They are such a cute couple. We got to go to their wedding and help out. They were just so happy and gleaming.

Saturday night in the VC was a miracle. We always set goals in the VC to see how many referrals we can get and how many tours we give. This time I really tried to listen to the Spirit when I set those goals. At the end of the day, we had three amazing girls come in. Two of them weren't members and were so touched by one of the presentations that they cried. One of the girls said she felt something special, she thinks it's God calling her to come back. So she left her information for missioanries to visit her. So amazing. So with that group, all of our goals were completed. No more, no less, exactly what goals we set. Amazing how when you listen to the Lord, he helps you accomplish the goals. :)

Sunday was a little sad cuz I had to say goodbye to a lot of people. I have to do it tonight too, since we have FHE. Transfers aren't until Tuesday mornings. I'm gonna miss Berkeley. In these few months I really got to know the people here. The members are so amazing and always willing to help. We can almost always get members to go with us to lessons and to give people rides to church. I think being a missionary you get to know a lot of the people personally. You get to see their spiritual side more than their fun side or whatever. The RMs are amazing. We know about four poeple who are already planning to go on missions after the age has been lowered. It's just such a good place. It's so pretty there too. We see beautiful sunrises every morning when we go running, and sunsets are just so pretty. So it's an amazing place and I'm sure I'll miss it. If I didn't know the Lord wanted me in San Francisco, they'd have to drag me to leave Berkeley. But I guess San Francisco is where he wants me to be. :)

Hmm...not much else happened. We are having a baptism this sunday. One of the investigators is ready :) So I'll be back in Oakland for his baptism. He's come a long way, from not knowing God to wanting to be baptized. He even tells us he wants to go on a mission. :)

One picture is of the Berkeley University clock tower, the landmark in Berkeley. The other one is of Berkeley toward the bay area. Quite pretty.

Anyway, loves, hugs, and hope you are ok :)

Meng