The crazy man I told you about is [xxxx], he thinks that his hand is his cell phone, and will talk on it as such, despite the fact that he told us that his phone is broken. He also answers it very abruptly, which makes me think he believes he can feel it ringing, despite the fact that it is actually just his hand.
Thank you for the birthday package, the mustaches are a nice touch. I considered sending home the Ipod until I found out is has HCP on it, now I'm conflicted on if I should or not. We were going to go eat at Pelligrinos (I think that's how you spell it) for my birthday with the Blairs, but Sister Blair got sick, so we're going to go out to lunch with them some time this week instead.
I think mine is probably going by faster because I'm still in the first 6 months, and Ethan is in the last 8-9. It's the difference between the count down and just starting I think. Also the fact that aside from when I'll get sent upstate for a few months, we know that I'm going to be doing much the same stuff every week for the entirety of my mission, the only variation will be in who I'm teaching and who I'm companions with.
Sister Shu took some of the Elders to MaLaTan (Sichuan restaurant) this last week. She's an old Cantonese member. Great lady, and the food did a number on my stomach. Chinese spicy and Mexican spicy are 2 different things. Mexican is on your lips and tongue, Chinese is all in your throat and sinuses.
When we did the big going away party for sister Chueh, Huang Kai (1st counselor in bishopbric) brought a lot of food to the Chapel and all the missionaries had a big dinner together. Duck was present, and duck was delicious. Actually, almost every store that sells meat has ducks hanging in the windows like that mom, and most of them seem pretty decent places to eat. The one you don't want to trust is called CNO on Chrystie street. There WILL be bones in your dumplings if you go there.
Tell Robin congrats, and also that her "annoying" card wasn't so annoying, seeing as the sound part was broken, so I never heard what song it was supposed to play. I should hope that she passed the first time, if she got in that much more driving time than me.
Speaking of driving, I've decided that when I get back- since we will have to go to pageant early, and you and dad have to be in meetings, I want to see if it is possible to steal the car for a couple days and take the kids down to Chinatown for a day or 2. That would be just about the coolest thing ever to go back and visit with some/all of the family.
The current biggest change in the companionship since elder Murray came is contacting. We typically do at least a few hours a day. The best description I've heard of it thus far is that we are basically begging people to listen to our message, just in a more dignified manner. Hurray for humbling experiences as a missionary. Speaking of contacting, I got my first number (with elder Foley's help on translation.) The most effective method for Christians is to ask them to share their feelings on Christ, that usually gets them to stop walking. Most of them just blow us off. If they're buddhist, then we tell them that the gospel can help them and try to show them how. My favorite is when we start by asking them what their names are and they say that they don't remember/don't have one. Sometimes [one of the Elders] gets mad at them all and just starts quoting scriptures about going to hell under his breath as they walk away.
Elders Mok, Foley, Blonquist, and Cook all went to the temple this last week to help read the names for temple work. It seems that here they just use the Chinese speaking missionaries to read the pinyin for the names.
We're hoping to go to Central Park today for a picnic and frisbee for a little while. I'll make sure to take some pictures for you. The weather here has been pretty much fantastic, we've only had 1 day of rain, and we only got caught in it for about 5 minutes (You'll enjoy the pictures of how wet we got on that, Blonquist and Cook had to make it from the Chapel to East Broadway in that, and they looked like they just got out of the swimming pool.)
Liang [xxxx] dropped us this monday. She said she wanted to find out for herself if it is true or not, not through meeting with the missionaries. All we can do at this point really is pray for her, and hope that she gets an answer.
Spiritual thought of the letter: The only constant in life is change. That means that the nature of the Gospel itself is change. Taking what you were before, what you want, think, and feel, and changing it all to become something better, something more in tune with what god wants of and for you.
Love you all, your relative in service,
Elder Christensen (PS, operation find out how to make my pants less tight is now in effect.)
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