That's us ;) for more info, see Saturday.
Monday: Joanna and Lucas came to visit! We went to a Chinese buffet that was alright. I ate a small fried fish.
Tuesday: We did some unsuccessful passbacks and I got a pastry called a "penguin" because it looks like a horse. Totally kidding it does look like a penguin, I'll send a picture :) we also had a rdv with our old recent convert, she kind of has no teeth and is a little off her rocker, but she's hilarious! Elder Alvarenga cracks up every time we're around her. Oh and we met a Chinese girl, but she's not really interested in the Gospel :(
Wednesday: We went over to an older member's house at 10 in the morning to help him figure out his new smartphone. That afternoon we met Gregory our amazing amazing recent convert and we all shared little miracles and tender mercies from when we first got transferred here and he wasn't sure if he was going to keep taking the lessons or not. He said that when he other Elders got whitewashed out, he thought maybe that was his answer and that God was telling him not to meet with the Mormons anymore, but he took a chance on us and both he and we are so glad he did! That evening we also met an African man who showed up at the church wanting to increase his faith. There are no coincidences :) afterward we had that crazy Worldwide Missionary Broadcast! They made a few big changes, including to the missionary schedule and key indicators. We now have a half-hour lunch, a couple hours of proselyting in the morning with language study and lunch afterward, almost no more studies on p-day, and a lot of people now have planning in the morning instead of at night. In our mission President Brown decided to keep planning at night (which I'm happy about, it's a lot easier to fix rendez-vous and talk to members in the evening than in the morning). Also we now only count amis baptized and confirmed, amis at church, new amis, and amis with a baptismal date. No more counting lessons or referrals or conversations or anything. I'm happy about the change, to me it's a shift more towards the original missionary work done by Peter, James, John, Paul, and everybody else. Numbers never mattered, but now they don't even exist! :D
Thursday: There's a Chinese less active family here that we've been trying to see for the past 13 weeks, but they're super busy. He said we could pass by the university where he teaches Chinese to see him, so we've been trying to do that and it finally worked! We saw him in a classroom teaching and he came out to see who we were (didn't see the missionary plaques at first). He realized pretty quick who we were, but had to immediately resume class so we didn't get to talk at all. Still, just that bit of eye contact was a step in the right direction :)
Tuesday: We did some unsuccessful passbacks and I got a pastry called a "penguin" because it looks like a horse. Totally kidding it does look like a penguin, I'll send a picture :) we also had a rdv with our old recent convert, she kind of has no teeth and is a little off her rocker, but she's hilarious! Elder Alvarenga cracks up every time we're around her. Oh and we met a Chinese girl, but she's not really interested in the Gospel :(
Wednesday: We went over to an older member's house at 10 in the morning to help him figure out his new smartphone. That afternoon we met Gregory our amazing amazing recent convert and we all shared little miracles and tender mercies from when we first got transferred here and he wasn't sure if he was going to keep taking the lessons or not. He said that when he other Elders got whitewashed out, he thought maybe that was his answer and that God was telling him not to meet with the Mormons anymore, but he took a chance on us and both he and we are so glad he did! That evening we also met an African man who showed up at the church wanting to increase his faith. There are no coincidences :) afterward we had that crazy Worldwide Missionary Broadcast! They made a few big changes, including to the missionary schedule and key indicators. We now have a half-hour lunch, a couple hours of proselyting in the morning with language study and lunch afterward, almost no more studies on p-day, and a lot of people now have planning in the morning instead of at night. In our mission President Brown decided to keep planning at night (which I'm happy about, it's a lot easier to fix rendez-vous and talk to members in the evening than in the morning). Also we now only count amis baptized and confirmed, amis at church, new amis, and amis with a baptismal date. No more counting lessons or referrals or conversations or anything. I'm happy about the change, to me it's a shift more towards the original missionary work done by Peter, James, John, Paul, and everybody else. Numbers never mattered, but now they don't even exist! :D
Thursday: There's a Chinese less active family here that we've been trying to see for the past 13 weeks, but they're super busy. He said we could pass by the university where he teaches Chinese to see him, so we've been trying to do that and it finally worked! We saw him in a classroom teaching and he came out to see who we were (didn't see the missionary plaques at first). He realized pretty quick who we were, but had to immediately resume class so we didn't get to talk at all. Still, just that bit of eye contact was a step in the right direction :)
Friday: taught our old ami who struggles with believing in God when he hasn't seen any signs. We read Alma 32 with him, faith comes little by little!
Saturday: We forgot to do Weekly Planning on Friday, so we did it today. It went pretty well. Also this is the reason for the email title! We went to the Business University where a lot of Chinese people and some ward members go. Since we are young and 帅, nobody stopped us to ask what we were doing. We weren't actively proselyting because that would get us in trouble, just scoping out the area. It was fun :)
Sunday: I wore the new suit to church and Gregory was so sparky (he complimented me a ton on it, which is funny because he's the one who picked it out for me pretty much). During church I was thinking about why we have everyone in the ward take turns giving talks and not have a couple people with the calling of "Ward Orator" just speak every week? I realized that it's because in teaching, we learn. Yeah everyone in the ward understands the very basics (God is our Father, faith is important, etc.), but when preparing a talk we realize that we may not know as much about a given topic as we think we do. We want to gain a deeper understanding in order to give an enlightening talk and also because the things we're learning are actually important! In working through this process, we study, learn, and grow. In doing so we open our hearts to the Spirit who will teach us what we need to know. Also when speaking, we should testify. In order to truly testify, you have to have already gained a testimony about that topic! The process of learning a specific thing is completed when we apply it in our lives, which allows us to experiment upon the word and gain that testimony which will then touch the hearts of others as they hear it. One by one, every member in the ward has this experience and over time, we all grow together. Isn't that cool? So next time you're asked to give a talk, think about that :)
Thanks for reading! Have a great week, love you!
江长老
Saturday: We forgot to do Weekly Planning on Friday, so we did it today. It went pretty well. Also this is the reason for the email title! We went to the Business University where a lot of Chinese people and some ward members go. Since we are young and 帅, nobody stopped us to ask what we were doing. We weren't actively proselyting because that would get us in trouble, just scoping out the area. It was fun :)
Sunday: I wore the new suit to church and Gregory was so sparky (he complimented me a ton on it, which is funny because he's the one who picked it out for me pretty much). During church I was thinking about why we have everyone in the ward take turns giving talks and not have a couple people with the calling of "Ward Orator" just speak every week? I realized that it's because in teaching, we learn. Yeah everyone in the ward understands the very basics (God is our Father, faith is important, etc.), but when preparing a talk we realize that we may not know as much about a given topic as we think we do. We want to gain a deeper understanding in order to give an enlightening talk and also because the things we're learning are actually important! In working through this process, we study, learn, and grow. In doing so we open our hearts to the Spirit who will teach us what we need to know. Also when speaking, we should testify. In order to truly testify, you have to have already gained a testimony about that topic! The process of learning a specific thing is completed when we apply it in our lives, which allows us to experiment upon the word and gain that testimony which will then touch the hearts of others as they hear it. One by one, every member in the ward has this experience and over time, we all grow together. Isn't that cool? So next time you're asked to give a talk, think about that :)
Thanks for reading! Have a great week, love you!
江长老
Chinese buffet
Grenoble is getting a nice new chapel next year!
Small fried fish
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