Hello everyone! First I have some news for those in farmington and within the Ogden Mission. Be on the look out for Elder Kim (he is from Korea, but he speaks almost flawless english as well as decent mandarin) and Elder Medveczky (he is from Hungary, he is the amazing organist). Elder Kim will know me better, but I have talked to both.
Besides that this was one of the most relaxing/quite weeks because we had no older generation to talk with. I feel like I learned a lot this week in regards to how to study and how to improve my language skill beyond that which I already have. My big weakness right now is vocab, but that isnt too bad having a companion who does nothing but vocab, we work together very well in lessons.
The big news about my investigators is that Allan now has a baptismal date that he remembers and is commited to and he is smoking less and very excited about everything. He is set for May 21. We are still learning with Amy, we have figured out a new way to really involve her in lessons and make them personal by asking more questions and talking about service and how we can know God. We plan on talking about Baptism with her tomorrow so that she has a goal and so that we have everything on the table. We also contacted a new investigator, his name is Wang (as in king) He has a family and travels between America and Taiwan, interestingly enough he wanted to see the missionaries because he lives next to a church. We taught the entire first lesson focussing on families and he was really involved and willing to keep commitments and even pray with us on our next visit some time this weekend. We are really excited for the progress we have made on our teaching. This week we decided that I would talk less in lessons. The very next lesson we taught I got these weird hiccups and couldn't put together a coherent sentence for the life of me...luckily during this time my companion was prepared and ready to talk and explain what I couldn't. He was even guided to invite Allan to come to a xili hui baptism meeting. You may think that after that I would learn and that would go away, nope, not until yesterday...that's right, every single meeting including in the TRC I was doing these weird hiccups. Overall it was very good, I really learned that sometimes it is much better for me to not open my mouth and let my companion go, because he really knows what is going on and really pulls in the spirit.
Last friday was our half way mark, so we had a 6 weeks party, Elder Kirklin hosted. towards the beginning the Branch President stopped by, I love President Baker, not only does he speak chinese but he knows how to have a good time. He gave us some advice and reminded us who we were and who we are serving and gave us the list of incomming elders, then said to party on.
The international elders all came in today, I have met the 2 from New Zealand and the 1 from Sweden, there is one more coming from Tahiti (going to Paris France Madaring speaking). they are all really excited and I think will be a great addition to our zone. only 25 more missionaries to meet.
Saturday Night after TRC (which was awsome, there were some many mandarin speakers there and it was cool to come out and feel like those speaking english were odd). We learned the character for casting lots...which has the character for struggle and the character for turttle...then learned some more about taiwanese culutre. Sunday was just good we talked about christlike attributes and how to use time and overcome pride, I spent some time pondering but the best ponder session came on monday when i was reading through Mosiah 18 (thinking about Alma's escape from sin/the king and his army, and how the Lord prepares a way and how that story can be symbolistic of our own escape. In the end the only way to really get away from past temptations is to leave them entirely so they can't come and search you out again). We also were sent to a guided study meeting with some teachers and the ones in charge of pilot and expecially the chinese, this is where we learned to focus our study and prepare in every way to meet the needs of our investigator and be ready to serve in the field. It was a great to see how much pilot has helped us all to improve and really learn our purpose as missionaries.
I hope all is well, and that everyone is reading their scriptures and saying their prayers (one of the reasons why Alma the younger was rebellious is because he didn't remember to cry to the lord) there is a lot of peace and strength in sincere prayer.
With love,
Shen Zhang Lao
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