Blub Blub and Carwash

11/6/16

A few nights ago Elder Hamilton (one of the zone leaders that is in the same apartment as us) decided to make a water-balloon. Apparently in one of his previous areas they had had those huge balloons (the ones with rubber bands that you can punch back and forth) and they filled it up with around 40 lbs of water. Once he figured out that I had gotten some in a birthday package last month, he just couldn't resist. So him and his companion went to the sink and began filling, and filling, and filling. It had no idea those balloons could get so big. It took both of them to get it out of the sink, and by the time they got it to the bathroom we were all sore from laughing. We named it blub blub, and it spent the night in the bathroom looking like an egg yolk that lost its white. The next morning I got the privilege of smashing blub blub into the floor and then standing in the 3 inches of water that completely filled the whole bathroom.

     Our whole mission has been talking about new ways to find new investigators, so we decided to try one this last week. We keep running into people that ask if we were the church that did the free carwash, and we didn't know that that actually was us until we asked a member and they said that about ten years ago missionaries did a free carwash. We figured if people still remembered it after ten years, it was probably worth it. The first day we did it, we geared up, held huge posters, and danced outside of the church to no avail. We only got one motorscooter... The next time though, we ended up washing three cars and four motorscooters! The Taiwanese are just too bashful to take advantage of our service and feel guilty about not giving us anything, so even though the success was low we got a ton of smiles and thumbs-up!

    This last week I went on exchanges with Elder Clegg. Usually at the end of an exchange, we do a little exchange review and help set goals moving forward to better accomplish our purpose as missionaries. Because he was working on inspired questions, we decided to ask each other an inspired question. I asked him what in his mind would be his biggest failure, and he responded with, "missing an opportunity". I loved that. It really made me think about how we should best use the time we have been given here on this earth, and to take all those opportunities that the Lord gives us. I know that as we move forward and take advantage of the blessings we have that we really can be successful and just have fun. I love you guys and hope you have a great week!

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 - Monday - had three awesome miracles today. First, met a person on the street who loved us a lot better than previous missionaries because he said that we weren't nearly as pushy as they were and not nearly as annoying. Then it turned out that he knew a recent convert in our ward and it was super cool. Second was when we followed an invite from the zone leaders to invite someone to baptism on the street and we had no idea how we were going to do it but then a person we went and talked to brought up baptism on his own and then when we invited him he said yes! super cool. The two setups we had for tonight cancelled.

 - Tuesday - zone meeting this morning all about sheep and shepherds. Even though the metaphor was taken a little bit to an extreme at some points, it was a really good comparison and it really made me think about my investigators and my sheep. Then I went on exchanges with Elder Clegg. We mostly just found on the street and had a not that great lesson with one of his investigators. I barely survived the weird electronic massage chair that night.

 - Wednesday - had the awesome exchange review I talked about with Elder Clegg. He asked me what the three happiest times where on my mission. I said when someone left with more hope than I found them, when someone took time to actually ask me how I was doing, and when a gospel principle just unraveled in my mind and I could understand it very clearly.

 - Thursday - carwash during the morning, lessons that night fell through so it was mostly finding on the street. Didn't find anyone super cool. Ward correlation meeting went pretty cool, our ward mission leader Jiang Ba is a little bit grumpy and opinionated, but tonight he was actually kind of excited about Fenglin.

 - Friday - had interviews with President this morning. It was super amazing as usual. He invited me to open up more to my companion and just talk to him about my concerns and everything. He said it would really help our companionship. I guess I just find it hard because my companion isn't exactly the most friendly person ever, and it is really hard to just open up to someone you feel like you don't have a normal connection with. That being said, I feel like there has been a lot less conflict lately. It may be the fact that transfers end in a week and a half, but we have been getting along better.

 - Saturday - had about 6 setups fall through. Super disappointing. Did the second carwash which had way more success than the last one and was super duper fun.

 - Sunday - church was great, and we finally had an investigator come. It was Zhang An Fu, the old guy that doesn't really talk, so it wasn't one of our really progressing investigators but it was good to see him there. Next week is Stake Conference, so today was actually probably my last regular church meeting here in JiAn. Crazy!

oh man, I am getting pretty thin on the top.....

 this is what I think is a WWII bunker

preparation day at shui yuan di

the new apartment arrangement done by yours truly (interior design major?)

huo guo with the zone

last thing, shavingisnotthefunnestthingintheworld,sowouldastraightrazorbebettersoicansharpenitmore often?Iamjustsickofhavingadullbladeafterusingarazorforlikeaweek.IfyoureallycansharpenastraightbladeeverynightandkeepitreallysharpallthetimethatwouldalsobereallyniceforChristmas.SorrrythespacebarbrokeonthecomputerthatIamusingrightnow.Loveyouguys!!!!-Jojo