5/1/16
This last week was Zhu Jia Wei's baptism! The best part is that his English name is Joe, and his baptism was on my grandpa's birthday who is also named Joe! When I told Jia Wei that, he was so excited! Despite being very stressed because the water was the temperature of lava to match the oven outside, the baptismal service was awesome. I'm not sure if I have already told the story of how we found Joe, but I will just share it again because it was so stinking cool.
Elder Humphries and I were eating at this super cheap restaurant (50 kuai bian dang (boxed lunch with rice, fried chicken, and a few vegetables for US $1.75)) and right after we walked out of the door, Elder Humphries says, "I can't ignore the Spirit, we gotta go talk to that guy that was sitting behind us." So we turn around, go back in, and start talking to the guy behind us. He seemed really receptive, and then we asked him if we could sit down at a FamilyMart and share a message right then. As it turned out, it was one of his rare days off of work, and he was totally willing. We sat down and taught him for about an hour, and from then on he was just a perfect investigator who had already started keeping all the commandments on his own and devoured everything we taught him.
The other cool thing that happened this week was Tepanyaki lady. Her name is actually Yi Quan, but we became friends with her and the five or six other guys that work at this one Tepanyaki restaurant. Every time we ride our bikes past their restaurant we wave and they all wave back, and when we go to eat there they all come over and say hi. Well one day, Yi Quan came over to us while we were eating, and asked if she could meet with us sometime and have us pray for her. We finally got the chance last week. It turns out that she had been in prison for a long time for drug abuse, and only recently had been let out on terms of weekly drug tests. She found a job were she could work an insane amount to stay out of drugs, but because she was working so much she got sick. She took medicine for her illness, but failed the following drug test, and now faces a big court case and heading back to prison. She cried while she told us this, and asked why when she was trying to change for the better, things just got worse. We shared some awesome scriptures about faith, hope, and taking Christ's yolk upon us, and she was very grateful afterwards. She is so awesome, and I really hope we can continue meeting with her and sharing the gospel of Christ. I love you all and hope you all have a good Mother's Day! I love you Mom!!!
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Ok, I was just planning on emailing friends only on every other week, so I would have a little bit more time to write family. If you don't want individual letters I mean fine, have it your way ;) I will try to pack in a ton into one little letter though. I can write about Elder Zhu now. He was pretty rough. I really loved having Elder Karlinsey as a companion, and I was super disappointed when he went home in the middle of the transfer. Elder Zhu came, and I knew it was going to be pretty difficult. He is a little different, and it taught me so much patience. Between Elder Humphries and Elder Zhu, I have become an incredibly patient missionary. Elder Zhu would always walk his bike up the huge hill, but through some gentle gospel principles like humility for me and perseverance for him and through a little reverse psychology (me riding my bike at an ant-like pace 50 ft behind him to think he was leaving me behind) I got him to ride his bike up the hill non-stop for the last week and a half, and would give him a high-five at the top. I love Elder Zhu, he was totally awesome. Just a lot of things that I had to be patient with, like him always following me into rooms in our apartment (including when I was changing) or yelling at me because he didn't want to get off his bike and knock doors. It was a super interesting three weeks. Lately has been pretty rough going from kind of the only companion in the companionship to a senior companion in a equal seniority companionship, and I have been under a lot of stress without any time in the week to stop and breathe (returning home at night till my head hits the pillow is the most stressful and active part of the day), but I am having an incredible time here. The people are amazing, I love the culture and the food, and I get to ask people questions about God that make them think in new ways and let them feel of the love God has for them. Elder James and I are going fossil-collecting today with a member at the place Dad told me about, so we will see if we actually come home with something or whether we will just go hiking in a beautifully secluded area just exploding in green. Oh darn, I might as well tell you about the centipede now while I've got a minute. So Elder Zhu and I bought these two huge pizzas, and brought it home to put in the fridge to eat the leftovers another time. As you might have guessed, we forgot about them. We were reminded when we woke up one morning and an unearthly smell was radiating from the corner. It was the pizzas, and they were covered in a thick layer of mold. So, we did what any missionary would do and put them on the porch until we could find a time to deal with it and sort the trash into recycling and otherwise (our apartment complex yelled at us the other day for not sorting our trash well enough). A week or so went by, and Elder James and I finally got around to it. He opened the lid, and this HUGE centipede shoots out like a rocket. It was disgusting! It was about 8 inches long or longer. We trapped it under a cup, put a plate under it like Dad likes to do with mosquito hawks, and then Elder James flung Hades noble steed flying through the air from our second story apartment and into the wild jungle of bushes on the other side of a wall. It would have made for an epic photo, but I was unable to capture it. Well, I've spent too long today emailing, so I better go. But I love you all and I can't wait to talk to you next week!!!!!!
Ok, I was just planning on emailing friends only on every other week, so I would have a little bit more time to write family. If you don't want individual letters I mean fine, have it your way ;) I will try to pack in a ton into one little letter though. I can write about Elder Zhu now. He was pretty rough. I really loved having Elder Karlinsey as a companion, and I was super disappointed when he went home in the middle of the transfer. Elder Zhu came, and I knew it was going to be pretty difficult. He is a little different, and it taught me so much patience. Between Elder Humphries and Elder Zhu, I have become an incredibly patient missionary. Elder Zhu would always walk his bike up the huge hill, but through some gentle gospel principles like humility for me and perseverance for him and through a little reverse psychology (me riding my bike at an ant-like pace 50 ft behind him to think he was leaving me behind) I got him to ride his bike up the hill non-stop for the last week and a half, and would give him a high-five at the top. I love Elder Zhu, he was totally awesome. Just a lot of things that I had to be patient with, like him always following me into rooms in our apartment (including when I was changing) or yelling at me because he didn't want to get off his bike and knock doors. It was a super interesting three weeks. Lately has been pretty rough going from kind of the only companion in the companionship to a senior companion in a equal seniority companionship, and I have been under a lot of stress without any time in the week to stop and breathe (returning home at night till my head hits the pillow is the most stressful and active part of the day), but I am having an incredible time here. The people are amazing, I love the culture and the food, and I get to ask people questions about God that make them think in new ways and let them feel of the love God has for them. Elder James and I are going fossil-collecting today with a member at the place Dad told me about, so we will see if we actually come home with something or whether we will just go hiking in a beautifully secluded area just exploding in green. Oh darn, I might as well tell you about the centipede now while I've got a minute. So Elder Zhu and I bought these two huge pizzas, and brought it home to put in the fridge to eat the leftovers another time. As you might have guessed, we forgot about them. We were reminded when we woke up one morning and an unearthly smell was radiating from the corner. It was the pizzas, and they were covered in a thick layer of mold. So, we did what any missionary would do and put them on the porch until we could find a time to deal with it and sort the trash into recycling and otherwise (our apartment complex yelled at us the other day for not sorting our trash well enough). A week or so went by, and Elder James and I finally got around to it. He opened the lid, and this HUGE centipede shoots out like a rocket. It was disgusting! It was about 8 inches long or longer. We trapped it under a cup, put a plate under it like Dad likes to do with mosquito hawks, and then Elder James flung Hades noble steed flying through the air from our second story apartment and into the wild jungle of bushes on the other side of a wall. It would have made for an epic photo, but I was unable to capture it. Well, I've spent too long today emailing, so I better go. But I love you all and I can't wait to talk to you next week!!!!!!
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