Ni hao tout le monde. I ate a ton of food for lunch (leftover rice from last night, I'll explain later), so I'm kind of lethargic right now, sorry.
A little jealous of Mom and Kellie going to Norway! The cousins there are sooooo grown-up, I can't believe it. I'll be back someday!
Something fun happened earlier in the week! We found out that our recent convert Yali who moved back to China in February wasn't going to church because she hadn't been able to find out where it was, so we slightly took matters into our own hands to help her out (since a lot of websites are blocked in China). Tuesday we went to the mission office, got some help from the senior couples there, and called the Hong Kong Temple. We had originally tried to find a phone number for branches of the Church in Shanghai, but to no avail, so that was the closest we got! The Temple President, President Wang, was super nice and gave us the number to the Asia Area Office, also in Hong Kong. We didn't end up calling it because we got in contact with another Church official in Beijing, but it was a fun experience nonetheless :)
On Wednesday, we had a Skype lesson with a Chinese student in Fribourg whom Elder Pien has been teaching for a while now. He's incredible. We taught the Word of Wisdom and at first he freaked out a little bit when we said that tea was off-limits, but after a little explanation he committed to live the commandment, and that was that. His faith is inspiring :)
Thursday we had Zone Training, which was fun since this transfer has some new faces, including a brand new blue from Bora Bora (de la Polynésie
) being trained up in Chalon. We had a bunch of pizza for lunch afterward. Yum yum. After that we had to go to the office because we found out the day before that Elder Zhu had a small problem with his legality, so the office couples were working on a way to keep him from having to finish the last half of his mission in Hong Kong. They found a solution, which involves us going on a little trip! Tomorrow morning Elder Zhu and I have to get up early to catch a 7:00 train to Valence (like an hour south of Lyon) and do some visa stuff while poor Elder Pien gets to stay with Elder Tomlinson and Elder Thorley. Should be fun :)
We had about four back-to-back lessons planned on Friday afternoon. It was crazy. My throat was a little scratchy too, so I was trying to drink a lot of water. Nevertheless, that scratchy throat quickly developed into a sniffly nose and watery eyes, both of which are super annoying. I'm getting better now, just wondering if I'm getting spring allergies even though I've never had them before in my life. Stranger things have happened.
Spiritual thought for the day! Last night we went to the Walkers' house for dinner with a couple amis and Lucas our recent convert. We had delicious chicken curry and Soeur Walker made cinnamon rolls that were suuuuper duper. For spiritual dessert, we watched a couple conference talks including Elder Holland's which I hadn't yet had the occasion to see! It was soooo awesome. I loved his quote:
"...the first great commandment of all eternity is to love God with all of our heart, might, mind, and strength...But the first great truth of all eternity is that God loves us with all of His heart, might, mind, and strength."
It's so true. I had moments this past week that could've gone better if I was a more Christlike person, but I know that despite my weaknesses God still loves me! I know that despite any trials you may have, whether you feel like you deserve them or not, God still loves you! He really does! And if you trust Him enough to let that love motivate you to keep going and look forward to better days ahead, He will bless you more than you could ever expect.
"And then, behold, according to your desires, yea, even according to your faith shall it be done unto you." -Doctrine and Covenants 11:17
:)
A little jealous of Mom and Kellie going to Norway! The cousins there are sooooo grown-up, I can't believe it. I'll be back someday!
Something fun happened earlier in the week! We found out that our recent convert Yali who moved back to China in February wasn't going to church because she hadn't been able to find out where it was, so we slightly took matters into our own hands to help her out (since a lot of websites are blocked in China). Tuesday we went to the mission office, got some help from the senior couples there, and called the Hong Kong Temple. We had originally tried to find a phone number for branches of the Church in Shanghai, but to no avail, so that was the closest we got! The Temple President, President Wang, was super nice and gave us the number to the Asia Area Office, also in Hong Kong. We didn't end up calling it because we got in contact with another Church official in Beijing, but it was a fun experience nonetheless :)
On Wednesday, we had a Skype lesson with a Chinese student in Fribourg whom Elder Pien has been teaching for a while now. He's incredible. We taught the Word of Wisdom and at first he freaked out a little bit when we said that tea was off-limits, but after a little explanation he committed to live the commandment, and that was that. His faith is inspiring :)
Thursday we had Zone Training, which was fun since this transfer has some new faces, including a brand new blue from Bora Bora (de la Polynésie
We had about four back-to-back lessons planned on Friday afternoon. It was crazy. My throat was a little scratchy too, so I was trying to drink a lot of water. Nevertheless, that scratchy throat quickly developed into a sniffly nose and watery eyes, both of which are super annoying. I'm getting better now, just wondering if I'm getting spring allergies even though I've never had them before in my life. Stranger things have happened.
Spiritual thought for the day! Last night we went to the Walkers' house for dinner with a couple amis and Lucas our recent convert. We had delicious chicken curry and Soeur Walker made cinnamon rolls that were suuuuper duper. For spiritual dessert, we watched a couple conference talks including Elder Holland's which I hadn't yet had the occasion to see! It was soooo awesome. I loved his quote:
"...the first great commandment of all eternity is to love God with all of our heart, might, mind, and strength...But the first great truth of all eternity is that God loves us with all of His heart, might, mind, and strength."
It's so true. I had moments this past week that could've gone better if I was a more Christlike person, but I know that despite my weaknesses God still loves me! I know that despite any trials you may have, whether you feel like you deserve them or not, God still loves you! He really does! And if you trust Him enough to let that love motivate you to keep going and look forward to better days ahead, He will bless you more than you could ever expect.
"And then, behold, according to your desires, yea, even according to your faith shall it be done unto you." -Doctrine and Covenants 11:17
:)
江长老
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