We heralded in the new year (kinda) with a nice meal! My companion cooks a Chinese stew called "Hot Pot" which is delicious! We were sure to have the things necessary to be able to make the meal, and then my comp cooked. What a lucky missionary I am! One day he will have to come cook for the family..... :)
"Bahh, what will it do for me?"
A neat miracle that we had: I don't think I mentioned last week a time that Elder Wu and I met a certain old woman. We had an appointment that fell through, so we decided to do a bit of walking and street contacting. The streets were empty. We eventually got to this street, and as we were walking up, my companion said "We should go talk to that woman!", just as I had finished saying "Let's knock this door". We ended up knocking the specific door, following which, we heard a low, female voice behind us say "What do you want?" It was the woman my companion had pointed out. We continued to explain that we are here as volunteer missionaries for our Church here to share the word of God. "Bahh, what will it do for me?" She has a bit of a European accent, yet speaks fluently in English. We testified, and she continued to tell us that she has lots of religious questions that we cannot answer. We left her with a pamphlet, and told her that what we have to offer is what she needs. We both knew that we were there for a reason.
Arranged by someone more than human
That happened last Saturday. This week on Friday, we decided to park our car, and use the trains, because the train system here is great! (Side-note: our ward has the most train stations of any in our mission, there are 11 stations here, which pretty much gets us to any part of the ward we like). We hopped on in Bankstown, and just before we entered the train, I noticed there was someone inside the train reading a Restoration pamphlet, opened to the first page. I couldn't see the individual, as they were right next to the door, facing the other way, but it was obviously one of our Church's pamphlets. my first thought was "Looks like a missionary companionship has already been through here!"
We boarded the train, and saw the same woman from Saturday! Crazy! all three of us were surprised. She exclaimed, almost annoyed, yet more amazed than anything "You come on the train right as I open the book out of curiosity!" All 3 of us subconsciously knew that there was a reason for our meeting again. What are the odds? She opens the pamphlet, then we walk on the train? It was arranged by someone more than human. It could only have been arranged by the Creator of All!
She told us about how she has had so many experiences in her life where God has abandoned her. For example, death and misery, work and struggles financially, to name a few. She asked us to answer her why these things could happen? We told her that God has a plan for all of his children. There is opposition in all things. The look in her eye told us that we touched her. She got off of the train a few stops before us. We have decided to do a bit of a sneaky service for her... Heehee! We will keep you updated! What a neat experience!
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| Check out what a bird did to me! |
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| The members that let me clean myself up at their house said it is "Good Luck"... |
An update on Zh*ng; he is doing surprisingly well! We had some concerns that he would not accept the Word of Wisdom, because we knew that he has a smoking addiction. We also had some concerns concerning keeping the Sabbath day Holy. He did not seem committed to come to church last week. We prepared for the lesson by printing out a couple scriptures in large print, in both English and Chinese (Zh*ng cannot read well). One scripture was the commandment to keep the Sabbath Day Holy: Exodus 20:8-11. The other was the Scripture for the Word of Wisdom found in the Doctrine and Covenants section 89:7-12. In our appointment, Zh*ng had some great questions about the procedure of Baptism, which we answered. Then we gave him the scriptures.
Zh*ng is the man! He read the Word of Wisdom and basically went through and told us how easy it would be for him to live the Word of Wisdom, except for the smoking. He wants to quit but doesn't know how. So we reassured him by saying that next time we come we would teach him how. The Church has a "Stop Smoking Program" for missionaries to use. So pray for him! Please! He also understood more clearly that he needs to come to Church. Yay! Next week he should be coming:).
His older brother is married to a returned missionary
We met W*tson's brother this week. Apparently, W*tson's older brother is married to a returned missionary, who served in the Roseville, CA mission!! That was cool! She knows missionaries that served in our ward, like Elder Tanner, Elder Brown, Elder Roberts, and Elder Netane! Cool, eh? I forgot her name.... Woops! But apparently W*tson's bro just got baptized, and just received the Melchizedek Priesthood! Wow!! How cool! That will be a great help in the future to know. W*tson is currently on vacation... All good!
We also saw B*rtha and D*rek, well really just D*rek. We came the same day that B*rtha found out her father passed away in Ghana. Super-sad! So we set up a time to come by a different day. Poor family.
That's pretty much the week! now I will answer your questions.
Generally, people are about the same receptiveness this time of year as every other, because everyone is busy busy busy, always!! From what I gathered, neither Muslim people nor Buddhist people celebrate Christmas at all. They get time off of work and School none-the-less, so there always seems to be good opportunities to relate the gospel to the season. That is good!
JJ--right now it is 12:20PM:)
Ezra--my favorite thing to do here is to teach the Gospel! It is so fun!!!
Mojo--yes, the 26th of Jan is in fact Aussie-day!
Right-o! Love you guys heaps! Thanks for all you do!
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Elder Larsen
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| Here is a pic of the border of our mission! The cops are making sure I don't cross the border! |
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| Hahahaha Someone stop Elder Wu!!! |
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