2-28-12

I just got back from transfer meeting and I'm still in The city area
:)  Elder Tsai got transferred to the other city area, so I'm still
living with him, he's just with Elder hadfield now :P hahaha.  My new
companion (maybe) is Elder Monsen.  Dependent on one of hte new
missionaries.  president said that there's another Elder Chen coming
in (yay!) but we don't know if he can speak chinese.  So... they're
trying to figure out where to train him.  If he can speak chinese,
They want me to train him into the chinese-speaking program.  If he
can't, Elder Tito will train him into the English program.... we'll
find out later tomorrow. Yikes.  So.... in that case, all of transfers
will change.  Elder monsen will have to move or we'll have a
tri-panionship. hahaha.  We'll see, but I'm really excited to be
serving with him.  he's a really good missionary.

Well, this week has gone SUPER fast!!!!!!! We might get ANOTHER Elder
Chen like I mentioned, and I just found a guy named Joseph Chen....
CRAZY!!! I was talking to him at one of our bus stops and he was
talking about how we were both bananas.  I asked him is name and he
was like: joseph :) GAH!!!! and like every other chinese person here,
his last name is chen.  So I hope to teach and baptize myself this
transfer.  :D definitely possible.  YAY!  Crazy eh? That might be one
of the weirdst baptizms for me if it DOES happen.  We'll see.  I have
faith.  It will happen!

Yesterday, I picked up a missionary from the Airport, again.  He was
WAY cool.  Elder Balmforth from OC California.  Orange County.  He's
really funny and this is where I got the nacho libre mask.  He just
happened to have one because he got it for his birthday.  Anyway, that
was me using the sweat suit that you sent me while I was in the MTC.
:D hahaha, we had a lot of fun last night in the flat.  ELder
Balmforth is the MAN! I love him so much.  We taught a lesson with him
on monday and he's a really good teacher.  :)  He's going to be
serving in my birthplace: Eight Mile Plains.  That'll be a lot of fun.

Oh fun story :D.  We baptized a guy named Frank, a chinese
business-like man.  He looks really old, but he's actually only in his
twenties, which was really weird for me. hahaha.  At the baptism, I
was sitting next to him and he saw my ctr ring and asked if I was
engaged. :P hahahahahahahaha.  CTR=Engaged.  :) So I explained about
choosing the right and stuff.  Enduring to the End.  It was a perfect
segway into the next part of the plan too.  Marriage, enduring to the
end, etc.  It was perfect.  He's really excited and wants to go to
America soon.  one of our members told him: If you go to America, you
must go to Utah, or I will kick your butt.  It was kinda strange to
tell a new baptee, but it was funny because from now on,  Frank tells
all the members: "When I go to America, I will go to Utah.  Please to
not kick my butt", but he didn't say butt... so we taught him about
language. :D

One of my favorite missionaries is going home soon because he's been
here SOOOO long :P hahaha. just kidding.  He's almost done.  This is
his last transfer.  Anyway, he is the CRAZIEST missionary ever.  Elder
Wilson is the MAN!!! hahaha, President wanted him to train Elder
Hopooate (the famous rugby player) and they are doing SOOOO good in
their area.  It got me SUPER SUPER fired up and we've been working to
beat them.  We can DO IT!!!! hahaha.  I love it.  I get kinda fired up
about random things, but that's ok.  I really enjoy seeing how far I
can go.  Sometimes, when I go home, I fall asleep REALLY fast :P it's
really bad.  I've been trying to study at night, but sometimes I'm so
tired from teh day, I just pass out on the bed.  hahahaha.  DOn't
worry, I am doing really good and feel really healthy.  Everyday in
the city is just a really long day and I am really tired.  I'm really
excited about serving with Elder Monsen though.  He's the man.  We're
going to chai diao brisbane! :) hahahaha.  YEAH!!!! The best mission
in the world!  I don't care what Jeff says about Hong Kong, Brisbane
is the best :) hahaha.  hard, but fun.

I am also learning Korean!! only in my spare time though.  I've been
working on chinese really really hard, but we've found so many fresh
off the boat koreans that we can't communicate, but when we show them
a korean pamphlet they get REALLY excited.  So I need to learn Korean.
 The other elders baptized one korean last transfer and he's inviting
ALL his friends to church, which is super exciting.  We have heaps of
koreans now.  HEAPS.  We have one korean fellowship that was an RM and
a few recent converts, but we're really worried about using our recent
converts.  We're not sure how ready they are, but we've been using
some of them anyway because we want to try getting them more involved
in the church.  it's really good.

Vicky sounds like she's killing it in Taiwan!!!!!!!!! She is doing so
good.  She's such a great example to me.  Sometimes, when I'm finding
people, I'll think that this is really hard and I should take a break
for just a second, but then I think that Vicky is talking to HUNDREDS
of people a day, and then I get more energy and enthusiasm.  So, it's
good.... I might just be too competitive, but you know.  :) It's ok.
Nobody can get more competitive than vicky.  :)

Well, the improvement that I've been working on for this week is
something called the Process of Purification.  A general Authority
told us about this and I really wanted to do it, so I've started it
this week.  He told us that we need to start this process with a fast.
 Fast for a day and pray for help and inspiration on what we need to
do, as missionaries, to become the best missionaries that we can
become.  After our fast, we need to write down a list of ANYTHING that
pokes at our spirit.  Anything that could potentially distract us.
Then, promise the Lord that we won't do ANYTHING on that list for the
next forty days.  Every night we're supposed to pray and tell the Lord
how we did on the list and add anything that we feel like we should
write down.

It's HARD!!!!!! As soon as I wrote down things on that list, they
appeared EVERYWHERE! I had never seen so many different distractions
in a week than I did last week.  It was crazy, but I really wanted to
do this, so I was able to get away from those distractions and
continue to work.  because of it though, I've become more focused and
more in tune with the spirit! It's crazy!!!!!! It really does make a
big difference.

One of the miracles that happened helped us move a baptismal date
forward from one our investigators.  Our investigator is what we call
an Eternal Investigator.  He was being taught before I even got to
Australia, and he hasn't really been progressing too much.  Well, we
were asking him about what was holding him back, and he was creating
excuses.  Well, I suddenly felt like asking him about his family.  So
we talked about his family, and we found out that he had never talked
to his family about the church.  Well, we told him that they would
respect his choice to join the church if he told them about it.  So he
told them about it and they were actually fine with him being
baptized!!! :) so.... yep.  The spirit is the best.  My favorite
companion EVER. :)

I definitely know that this is God's work.  he does it in a way that
no human could ever do.  We truly have been blessed to know the
thoughts of our investigators.  Their concerns, their questions.
Everything.  Only if we listen.  It's the greatest.  It blows my mind.
 Every day, we see miracles.  Everywhere around us.  They're there, we
just need to look for them and recognize them.... and work for them.
but they are there!!!!!!!!! I know that through the Book of Mormon,
God has taught us so much, and has blessed our lives!!!!

Well, I've gotta go, the other Elders need to go shopping before our
P-day is over... Transfers take a long time :P hahahaha

Cheers,

Love you all!!!!

Elder Chen

Ps: this is Elder Bellingham and I by the temple across the river from
the City.  it's the best :)

Nacho LIbre mask in our flat