March 27, 2013

Elder Christensen with President and Sister Morgan

On the subject of food, we do eat out a lot (dumplings and Mianbao are my friends here). They actually give the Chinatown missionaries a little extra money just because they know we don't get member-offered meals ever. I cook dinner about 70% of the time though. We found a regular grocery store. I've had Quesadillas, Pot Roast, Chicken Alfredo, a lot of Ramen noodles, sloppy joes, I think we did tacos one night... basically I'm probably going to get pretty good at cooking on my mission. Thanks for the cornbread and all that such stuff by the way, it was much more helpful than the candy (are you TRYING to make me fat?). Have Robin tell brother Allen that I might not have used his recepies in college, but I've used them out here, and I don't even have them. I just do it from memory. Also, I have had the tea a few more times, and every time it has given me a headache, so I don't think I'm a tea guy.

We do most of our lessons in the Chapel. Only 2 of our investigators thus far have allowed us to meet them in their house, and one of those 2 is blind (can't come to the church on his own). The other is 86 years old (Chui, the old man we found, and we probably won't be visiting much any more). We finally managed to overcome the language barrier thanks to elder Ling, (cantonese native) and apparently the man has no interest at all in religion, he just wanted someone to talk to.)

Regarding having an Easter program in the ward here, your guess is as good as mine. I can't understand the announcements made in church, so I don't know if the bishop said we are or not. On a random note about the chapel, we had a man walk in yesterday and ask if we had any BoMs in Russian. He wasn't a member, he just looked us up on the web and found the Chinatown chapel, and wanted to get a copy of the book for himself (yes, he was Russian, had a pretty thick accent, said he had been in NY for a few years.) and give some info so that the missionaries in Russia could find and teach his friend. Really weird/cool.

I was able to buy the hymn book online myself using my mission card, so no problems there. The back pack works great.

We don't really speak the language much simply because Elder Williams and I are always forgetting to do stuff in Chinese, and we do a lot of our lessons in English anyway. We're working on talking more in Chinese though. I have an hour set aside for language study every day, so I don't worry too much about my level going down, its just a matter of how fast I keep it going up.

Contacting is still okay during the night, but we usually try to tract during that time, more people are home, and we don't seem as threatening as when we stand on the street at night and try to talk to people as they walk past. The Jehova's Witnesses took our favorite street contacting place though, so we need to find a new one. Its not actually that cold most of the time, so we don't mind the contacting.

Our investigators haven't changed much: Henry (20s, college student, he believes, but he lives with his aunt, if he gets baptized, she's going to throw him out.), Lin xxx xxx (blind one, still can't understand when he speaks), Liang xxx (friend of a RC, she's open to the idea of god, but has a really busy schedule.). The one new one is a former investigator named Li Xiao Jie (Xiao Jie just means miss/Mrs.) She's been taught the first 2 lessons, but mostly seems interested for the sake of learning, not for the spiritual aspect. She has 2 kids, works full time, and does night classes, and has her kids doing Kungfu, piano, and violin. We really want her coming to church so we have a regular meeting time with her.

P days...thus far, we haven't really gone anywhere, we've been feeling a bit lazy, so we stay at the appartment, we played Monopoly one time. I haven't really been taking pictures that much (at all), but I'll definitely do so when I go somewhere for Pday, and I'll try to take some more overall.

Fun story, Sister xxx (Missionary from Singapore) has found an investigator. Problem is that he's interested in her, not the gospel. Should be interesting to see how that plays out.

Don't worry, I'm staying busy.
Your relative in service
Elder Christensen