5-26-13

Hi family!!!

This week it is finals... so there are no chinese people out in the streets or anywhere hahahaha :) SO we talked to a lot of interesting apople. hahaha. Well yeah. there are so many strange people out in the world here :P hahahaha. it's too funny tooooo toooo funny. :) Most of the drunk people kinda like us, but there are a lot of them that really DON"T like us hahaha. It's ok though because most of the time we ignore them anyway. so it's fine.  Elder Tsai got blessed by a man with the gift of tongues so that was pretty exciting. Elder Bingham, Elder nelson and I were just watching and laughing... it was pretty funny. Elder Tsai is the man and he handled it pretty well so it was alright hahaha.  :) he's a very soft guy and isn't very aggressive at all so he is very godo in those situations.  He doesn't like to offend anybody :) hahahahaha

ALRIGHT! Shout-outs!!!! first of all

Well this week, there were a few intersting things that went down. We went to The Huang Family's house again to eat, and they KILLED A CHICKEN FOR US!!! hahaha. here's apicture of Brother Want cleaning the chicken for us! :) hahaha and then Sister huang cooked San Bei Ji!!!! SOOO DELICIOUS! but it was really spicy as well. ) but here's a picture of the chicken! :) hahaha

the other pictures are of the IOC (Isle of Capri) elders in our district. Elder Bingham's family always takes awkward pictures like that and so yeah... hahahahaha it's so funny. we call it the Bingham Family Foto! so the BFF hahahaha excuse my poor spelling. my chinese is poor as well. I have digressed in all things :) hahahahahaha

Also this is elder Curtis. He goes home in a week, but he's the MAN!!! he gave up his career to be on a mission. He was a professional ballerina. When I was on tradeoffs with him, he told me all about it. There are like four different levels in a ballet corp and he was a soloist.... soooo HE WAS REALLY GOOD! and he was on the national Australian Ballet corp and is super great. this is a picture of him and a swan we saw on the tradeoff hahaha. i took videos because it's a pretty cool area, but then yeah... :) hahahaha it was pretty good. I enjoyed all the different things that went down that day. We met with so many interesting people.

One of the people we met with on that day was a sister who is dating a member. here's the fun part. She's a professional Fighter and beats her boyfriend up sometimes ;) hahahahahaha but they're funny. one time they got in a fight and yeah.... hahahaha she won. ANYWAY! she's changing so she doesn't beat him up anymore :) she's really really nice and happy and bubbly. hahaha :)

AND for some reason, recently, I've given so many people my phone number and told them to call or text if they are interested (always leave something behind) and three people have called/texted!!! unfortunately, they're super duper busy with all their tests and exams and stuff so they won't be able to do anything for a while. there was one that is super duper humble and has felt like she hasn't had church in her life for too long, and so she wants to come back and had heard of mormons before but had never had a chance to ever take a look at a mormon church. Missionaries had come to her school before and talked to the student body, but yeah.... now she finally met missionaries. unfortunately, we can't actually teach her.... we have to give her to the other missionaries... :(

but yeah... time is running down, but love you all!!!!! Hope you have a great week!!!!

5-20-13

GOOD MORNING FAMILY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ok. so this is another week that was actually slow again. This area seems to be rather depressing during midterms and finals. we had a little bit of a break between the two seasons because they have a week between the last midterm and the first final.  It's really interesting. I don't really like the whole concept of tests here because it destroys our work :P hahaha. The students are all here to study and they don't like reading anything other than their materials or else they feel like they're wasting their time so they disappear for a few weeks and then reapear. :P hahaha it's interesting in this one. In EMP the people actually just lived in their houses and had emmigrated over :) hahaha. oh well. LOTS of working holiday visa people :P hahahahaha.

Though there WAS one really cool experience we had :) hahaha. it wasn't so much cool as it was funny. we were at the bus stop talking to random people one time and it was so funny because the bus stop is right next to a really nice bar restaurant thing so we'll usually avoid it when there are lots of people drinking there haha. Well this one time, there was a group of three gentlemen that were yelling "JEHOVAH'S!!" at us from the bar and so we decided that it wasn't a very good environment for us so we were going to hop on the next bus out of that area so we could keep finding. anyway. well the security guard came down and told us that one of the patrons wanted to have a word with us and said that it wouldn't be a problem because he was the security and would kick them out. so we went over to the window and started talking to them and it was really weird.... :) When we were talking with them, they just kept asking us about stuff like the word of wisdom and the law of chastity and stuff... it was interesting. :) hahahaha. and then they told us that they wanted to sign up for it, and we told them that they had to give up stuff... it was pretty funny hahahahahahaha. :) they were pretty cool. anyway... at the end, it turns out they were gay... soooo.. yep.... ok. the end

That was our finding story for this week. other than that, there are a looooooot of american pepole in this area! It's insane howmany of them there area hahahaha :)I don't even know what I'm supposed to do with all of them hahahaha. One day, I contacted 6 of them in a row. one from chicago, new york, new jersey, hawaii, etc. it was pretty fun. :) hahahaha  I'm still not used to the american accent

Also, I discovered that the pen that my recent convert gave me is SOOOOOO expensive!!! OH MY GOODNESS!!!! hahahaha I was like: THERE IS NO WAY!! hahaha :) so I'm just keeping it hidden. I have ink for it, but I don't think I'm Gaoji enough to use it yet :P hahaha. maybe when you're a doctor Jeff, you can go and use it. :)

Well this week, we met with a few working holiday visa people. mnostly from Japan. They all don't really have any interest in church but they want to practice english.... soo.... yeah. SO many japanese people here. the funnny thing is that they can't speak ANY english at all. hahahaha. Elder tsai set up a lesson with a japanese person and they were so confused the whole time hahahahaha. we tried our japanese on them and then they were like: OOOOOH  KIO KAI!!!!! NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!!! hahahahahahahahaha. :) it was so fun. anyway. Elder Tsai reacts sooo funny. when they say no to church he's feels so bad haha. He always feels like he was wasting some time whenever that happes and feels guilty and then works harder :) it's good. when someobdy is SOLID, he's sooooo happy and works even HARDER! he's the man.  I'm gong to have to develop such a hard work ethic like that ;)

 NExt week is interviews with president and I have to renew my temple recommend O.o OH I'm old hahahahahahahaha :) it'll be good.

Elder Chen

5/13/13

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!!!!! :) It was sooooo good skyping you! I had a whole list of things to tell you, but I seem to have fortgotten them as I was talking to you on the phone, so it was rather depressing as we were going. hahahahaha. oh good. well the person next to me is watching some kind of medical thing and it's really gross but it looks soo cool. :) hahahaha I am so excited!!!!! :) hahahaha.

OK. well this week, it seems that everybody has a bunch of investigators that are asking really crazy weird questions like, who is Joseph's real father? (like in the bible), How come there is iron in the book of mormon when there wasn't iron in that time period.... hahahah etc. hahahaha. but yeah. those were some fun ones. a few of them asked about time stuff, but yeah.  ALSO OH MY GOODNESS THERE HAVE BEEN SOME CRAZY FUN THINGS!!!!!!

There was this one crazy guy in the middle of the bus stop. I talked to him and he was rather friendsly, and then I left, and then ELder Tsai went to go and talk to him and then he was super duper angry and started speaking in tongues and yeah... it was really interesting. hahahaha so we left the bus stop.

OK ALSO We ran into this korean lady that was actually french!!! :) hahahaha. so strange talking to somebody with that kind of accent but didn't look likje it at all hahahaha :) OH and I ahve a lot of pictures for you all this week

First of all SHOUT OUTS!!!! :) hahahaha. GO MOM AND DAD! you two are looking super healthy and happy! that's good for you! nobody believes that you're my parents ahhahaha. I showed the family picture to one of our member families and she was like: Which one is your mom? :) HAHAHAHA. and dad looks super happy! :) GOOD ON YOU!!! :) hahahahaha  Either mom looks really young or Vicky and Verina look really old :) hahahaha. I vote for the first one

  

Alright well we started teaching another vietnamese girl.... ONCE AGAIN!!! NO CHINESE PEOPLE HERE!!! hahahaha. if you can't tell I wish there were more chinese people here in Gold Coast. there's been talk of removing and stuff to different areas and see what happens in different circumstances...  hahaha.

One of my recent converts, after peike-ing for another set of chinese missionaries told me that the other missionaries have a really different teaching style from me because they can actually speak chinese hahahaha. BUT I think it's a good thing that I can't really speak chinese too well. Because I can't speak that well, I have to ask them a lot of questions so that they can explain it themselves. It really helps to be with Elder tsai because he can speak chinese and fully understand their concerns, but I can't :) hahahaha. and my zhuanshi is OSOOOOOOO strong :) hahahaha. oh dear. but for some reason when I talk to taiwanese people it goes way. ;) hahaha

  

ALSO this week, i was following up on one of my former investigators the first time I as in this area and she called immediately after and told me that she was thinking about going back to church, but wasn't sure if she should when I called her. she also had a lot of oquestions that were so easily asnwered by the gospel!!! it was AWESOME!!!!!!!

Well, I love you all, I don't have TOOOOo much time to email you all, but I have to get to you all these pictures so I'm going to send them in multiple messages because they all won't fit :) hahahaha. I probably should've put them in order so I knew exactly what I was sending you.... actually, you know what? I think I SHALL :) buwahahahahahaha

ALRIGHT

This is Michelle!!! Elder Tsai and I baptized her a while ago She's from vietnam... those glasses are worth 250$ AMerican.... O.o

Elder Curtis, ELder Tsai, Michelle and I. Elder Curtis, and all the zone Leaders and three of the AP's all die within the next three transfers...... O.o selfish president :P hahahahahahahah everybody is so worried for when that happens because yeah....

Surfboard in surfers paradise. :)

THIS IS MINH!!! she is from vietnam! She iS GOLDEN!!! :) hahahaha. but goes back to vietnam in June BAPTIZE

And right after the lesson, we were walking in the rain :) it was really rainy

5/6/2013

HI EVERYBODY!!!!!!!!!!!! Mother's day is coming up so I think I'm going to call you on my monday around 9 or 10 am because that's about the same time as I usually skype right? :) hahaha, that's like 4 or 5 for you?? :) ok :) only if that's ok hahaha, if necessary, I'll have on of the members in this area correlate that with you because We'll just make sure that I want to skype you at the right time :) hahahaha  YAY! THE LAST TIME TO SKYPE HOOOOOOOOMEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!! :) ok. I'm not trunky. I promise. I'm going to finish my mission strong over here. sadly, recently it's not been going too hot because my timing is very poor and all the students are in midterms. Qimo Kaoshi!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOO. I don't like it when we start to hear people saying that they're busy studying for tests and stuff because then we know they won't meet with us forever :( and there are no families here so iw on't be able to be like: "NO you don't have qimokaoshi because you're not a xuesheng!!!!" bahahahaha.

OK. anyway. this week, still finding. we found af ew fun people, but like I said, the qizhong kaoshi's are killing us. hahahaha :) it's fine though. we're just plugging along. we find a lot of referrals for the english elders. anybody that looks remotely white has to be given to them so we don't "waste time" on people we're not specifically designated to teach. :) hahahahaha YEH! anyway. so... yeah. that was basically the summation of hte week. people were like: WOAH! HOW DO YOU FIND SO MUCH?! well that's because there is nobody here to teach :) bahahahahahahaahahahahahahaha.  EXCEPT JAPANESE AND KOREAN PEOPLE!!!

ANYWAY! OK. so this is a longer story: :) hahahaha IN EMP, I found and started teaching this sister named Jane. Before I left, I let Elder Lee teach her (which made him super duper happy hahahaha because he hadn't baptized for 8 months prior) He baptized her and then I got transfered. Well this week, she came to Isle of Capri gold coast and she was like: OH. I KNOW WHY YOU MOVED! and iw as like... ok.... who told you? and she was like: OH... I can't tell you. and i asked if it was elder lee and she said that she was butai shou with him, ahhaha. anyway. yeah. she wrote a poem for me and it was really awkward... and so yeah.... :) I' here

I'm learning french!!!!!!! and we're out of toilet paper so we have to buy some today. hahaha that was an awkward realization.

LOVE YOU ALLL!

sorry it was a short week. I'll plan on skyping you at 9 australian time :) if that changes, I'll let you know!! THANKYOU!!!!!!

Love

elder chen

we had a little photo booth thing :)

 

On the bus there was this little girl and we played games with her to keep her amused because she was being mean to her nanny hahaha she's so cool

 

and these are the missionaries/return missionaries/going on a mission today from our ward :) hahahahaha

5-1-20213

HALLO!!!!

So this week was week one in the gold coast. Wee actually have no investigators so we found lots and lots and lots and lots and lots :) and there are no chinese people here... so... yeah. We found lots of referrals for all the english areas around us but that's about it. :) hahahaha. so we're still going to find lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots. which is really boring, and I'm kinda sick of that bus stop especially since it's just a tent with a few benches. SOOO we're going to go try tracting :D hahahaha. But the weird thing is everybody down here is japanese or korean... so. yeah. hahaha. we got a sister from korea in the area next to us, so we just plan on giving all of the referrals over to her. That'll be a fun one hahahaha.

HOWEVER we did find a really cool japanese girl that we're teaching. Since we had so much time finding, I decided that I wasn't going to be racist and decided to talk to everybody :) not just my good chinese and taiwanese friends :) hahaha. AND I talked to Shuko! she is the GREATEST! ever hahahahaha :) most of the japanese just want to talk to us because of english or to have a good friend or something or they're lonely, but she's really cool. When we sat down and set expectations with her for the first time, she was like: oh, I like to meet new friends... :) hahahaha. and then I asked her if she was interested in church, and she was like: YEAH! ABSOLUTELY!!! I Want to go to church! we were kinda weirded out because she was so enthusiastic about it, but as the lesson continued she told us of how there were so many sad things in japan and it helped her realize that God was their and it made sense to her that god was her Heavenly father... too bady my japanese is terrible. but I'm not called to speak japanese so that's ok. NExt time we'll bring this sister called sister Parker who is STRAIGHT from japan :) hahahahaha

Sister parker is really cool because whenever she sees us, she'll give us some random piece of food or whatever she has in her bag that she just bought hahahaha. bread, cereal etc. it's usually really humble stuff, but we LOVE her SOOOO much. she's fantastic. She's willing to do anything for the Lord :)

OK. So also this week we found at the bus stop

AND we went to the temple. we had to wake up at 4 to get ready to get on the train to get up to brisbane to make it on time for the session. I"M STILL OSOOOOOOOO TIRED!

  

ANYWAY! we're still finding so there really isn't too much to report on. hahahaha :) honestly. I wish there was more. A lot of the families saw me at stake conference and jumped on me hahhahaha. then some of them fed me the next few days :P it was funny.

ANYWAY! I hope everything is going well for all of you, there were only a bunch of drunk annoying people this week, hopefully we'll be able to do more fun things next week :) hahahaha JIA YOU!!!!

Love

Elder Chen