April 17, 2013

Zone Conference: Hiding just left of center (as they say).  Click to view large image.

Please...ACCEPT THAT OFFER [to work in the campground at the Hill Cumorah Pageant]. That is all I have to say on the subject. Will the Dones keep coming still without the calling, or did they get a different call?

I'll make sure to send pictures as I get more of them collected. Speaking of pictures, did my last SD card with all my MTC pictures arrive? You said I needed to use the right postage. Do those bubble wrap ones need more stamps?

We had transfer meeting today. We lost Elder Williams from Chinatown, he's going upstate to YorkTown for a few cycles, but we got Elder Folley back (he was a zone leader in upstate for a few cycles, now he's a companionship zone leader with Elder Mok.) We also got one new sister, Sister Chen (the symbol for her name is the same as mine.) She's from Taiwan, and speaks decent English too. We got another 33 missionaries in, and one of the old APs left.

I had already heard about the bombing in Boston, some of the ward members filled us in on it. Sad day, but there isn't much that we can do as missionaries to help provide service or relief, especially since it's outside of our mission boundaries, so we're just focusing on our work here.

I have a million crazy stories I could write you, but I'm saving some of them for when I get home, both because I want to see your reactions when I tell them, and also because some of them are just things that aren't particularly relevant, and I have limited time to use the computers.

The weather has been very nice these last few weeks, we haven't had any snow really at all, and only a little bit of rain. Most of the cold just comes from the fact that it is always windy. ALWAYS. I'm not sure why all the people I'm writing in Utah are complaining about the cold, it's really decent here (watch though, summer will be death.)

Teaching English class is...interesting. We have a number of ESL books that we resort to, and we also have a few native speaker missionaries who are able to help explain if we run into problems typically, its just fun sometimes since they can't speak English (verb=wourb type stuff.) And also the fact that I never really figured out how English works anyway, so I'm having to relearn Elementary English so as to be able to teach it. As for me learning THEIR language, I'm starting to have some words that have reached synonymous meanings in my head, especially when praying, I find it really easy to slip back and forth between English and Chinese. I'm understanding more and more of what is being said in lessons, even with Lin's Fujanese accent (yes, our blind friend is still meeting with us, although Zhou (the new investigator Elder's Williams and Cook found on splits) dropped us.)

So as I'm sure you noticed, I said that Elder Williams went up-state. This implies a change in my companionship. Say hello to Elder Murray. He's a piano performance major at BYU, and his older brother was my RA. He was also trained by Elder Williams (which makes him my [mission] brother), and now he's my follow-up trainer (which makes him my [mission] mother).

Love you all, Don't eat raw duck (cooked duck is delicious though, trust me.)
Elder Christensen New York Style