ANother crazy week gone by. I looked at the transfers calendar this week and realized that transfers are coming up soon again! O.o OH NO! that's not good because then I might lose Elder Chen. He's been in this area for a while, but I don't know. I hope he stays at least one more transfer. hahaha :). It's so much fun serving with him because he's so weird it's funny. Sometimes, he does these faces that are really funny because... yeah... I'll just have to attach some pictures later of some of his faces. he's the man. He's kinda fob, but kinda not at the same time. I love serving with him. Now he's teaching me cantonese hahahaha. but my chinese is still really bad. I'm working on it.
This week, we got to have leadership training and it was really fun! I got to see all the other missionaries that I've served with. Being a chinese missionary is kinda bad in that we have to go out and stay in an area for a long time... yeh. so we don't really get to know all the missionaries, but when we get together with them, it's super fun. hahaha. All of them are islanders and so it's fun most of the time. I learned enough tongan to make them laugh at how fob I sound, but it's ok, because they're fob too! Also, Elder Tuta'i, the man, is going to go to provo!!!! YEH!!!! he's got a really good voice and he was really excited and told me because he knew that I'm from provo, but he won't go home till next january. anyway, he was the youngest AP in our mission :P
Anyway, there was this really funny thing that happened the other day. We started teaching this lady from somewhere in canton and she was really excited about learning about the gospel. She always stared at me when she was talking and I was trying to look back at her and not laugh because she would start in mandarin at first, but then randomly switch into cantonese and ask me questions in cantonese. My companion, from guandong speaks cantonese. Anyway, when she'd ask me a question in cantonese, i wouldn't realized she had asked me a question and then Elder Chen would answer, and he'd do this funny face where his eyes go really big, but just the top of his eyes go up. not the bottom. so his face kinda scrunches up on the top, and the bottom of his face stays the same. and he kinda smiles. It's a funny one. anyway. she would still stare at me when he was answering her. anyway. it was pretty funny to me. she's going to be baptized next month. hopefully. :D
Well this same cantonese lady found out that I'm 20 and her daughter is 20 and it was a really strange conversation after that because she kept bringing up her daughter and how she's really cool and stuff. But she'd say it in cantonese, so I didn't know what was going on, so I would smile and nod and raise my eyebrows everynow and then just to make it a little diverse. I hope I didn't say yes to marrying her daughter...that'd be bad. hahaha.
Speaking of which there were these three chinese students that were coming through, and they live with a member in our ward. We started teaching them and stuff, but didn't have enough time, so we gave them information for the church in china incase they want to search it. we're going to lose contact with them sadly :(. well when they were leaving, it was really awkward because they wanted to take pictures with me, but not the other missionaries, and then they wanted to jump on my back and it was really bad. (don't worry, I didn't let them jump on my back) anyway. They knew that I was still learning chinese and I told them that I was focusing on speaking first. Well, they started drawing on a board and stuff, and wrote "ai ni" on the board. they erased that and then wrote "Jiu Zhe Yang" and I read it out loud and they looked really scared and asked me if I could read chinese and yeah.... it was pretty funny. hahaha. anyway. I hope I don't get emergency transfered because of that. I hear it's happened before when somebody had to get emergency transfered because of girls. Thank goodness they're going back to china. I love this area. :D
Fun fact about this area: The area that the chinese elders cover is the size of the stake plus some. Our area extends down into New South Wales, which is the sydney mission :P hahahaha. We never go down there. It's even a different time zone. So if you look up a map, our area extends from Pimpama down past lismore. hahaha. NOOOO. We have limited Kilometers to drive when we go out and work, and our area is capped at 1900 kilometers. HOWEVER. we just passed 2700 kilometers and this month still has today and tomorrow :P hahaha. I called the office Missionary incharge of the fleet and he told me that it was ok because chinese missionaries are special :) YEH!!!!! hahaha.
I actually feel pretty bad about this one, but I'll tell you anyway. We try to teach all the chinese epeople that come through, clearly, but a lot of the time, the kids are really stubborn, and so they say really funny things. One time, we were talking to a girl about church and inviting, her, but this other kid came by and yelled at us: "Wo jiu xiangxin kexue! Bu yao xiangxin shen!" and I was kinda concerned. I smiled anyway, and told him that I studied Shengwu xue at da xue and he suddenly got quiet. so I sat down and talked with him and yeah.... it wasn't very productive but he left a little more humble.
That experience helped me realize a lot of different things, but the biggest thing is that what the book of mormon says is VERY true. Are we not all beggars? In the scriptures that jeff let me use on my mission, I wrote in it: "all the money in the world cannot buy a single loaf of bread in heaven" remember that quote? we may think we have so much knowledge, so many resources, but when it comes down to it, unless we humble ourselves and turn to the scriptures and the prophets, we won't know as much as we could! God has given us prophets, the bible, the book of mormon, and modern-day revelation for our benefit! We could study science for thousands of years and learn a lot that way and we would feel complete and successful. We could also study the scriptures and realize our true purpose and identity in this life.
Last week, I had to study up for a training on expectations. In PMG, it talks about something called How to begin Teaching. In there one of the steps we do is to ask the investigator their expectations. What do they feel like our meetings will help them learn, achieve or do. It seems like a strange concept at first, but if you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. :) If we understand what they expect, you can evaluate where they stand. But that's besides the point. I learned a lot about our own expectations! What do I expect when I approach somebody. What do I expect when I sit down for a lesson? Well, if we expect success, and we expect miracles, we will see miracles and success. Elder Holland said that we should have the faith and expect to call down angels from heaven and bring about miracles. These are the last days and God has reserved His elect to represent him in these times. We should have faith that He will support us!
It sounds like you're all doing fantastic, don't worry about sending me contacts. I have HEAPS. I think I still have four boxes of them, so I'll be alright. I just like to wear glasses sometimes because In the morning I don't feel like putting in my contacts. :) anyway.
Love you all!
Elder Chen
ps. I was just yaoqing-ed to go chi fan with Wang dixiong and his family, and we realized that his mother just fed Vicky in Taiwan!!!! cool eh?! anyway. They showed me a picture and yeh.... Sister Chen is cool! :) YEH!!! I love sister Chen!
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