We've been doing a decent amount of contacting recently, we usually average around 2-3 hours, which is a bit less than the average 5 or so we were doing last year.
We have one investigator named Xx Xxxxx, he is a friend of Xxx Xxxxxx, a convert who was baptized in April. He is a pretty nice guy, he has no background in religion, his biggest issue is the fact he lives in Massachusetts, and not very close to Boston either. He comes down to Chinatown every week or two, but he lives in a region without much [missionary] coverage, so it is hard to follow up with him during the week. (Did I ever mention I don't really like New Hampshire? Every person I've met here who moved to New Hampshire disappeared because the coverage there is so bad.)
I have realized that one of the main things that was impacted by my becoming a district leader was my journal. I did a decent job for the first year roughly in the field, but ever since I became a district leader, it has been quite a challenge to record everything. I still try to write when I get time, but I think I probably average about once every week or 2 for the last 7 months. At least I get lots of pictures!
You don't know these people, but This is Chad Faulkner and his wife. He served a mission in Chinatown back in 2010-2012 (he trained Elder Mok, who was the Zone Leader when I first got here). The reason he was in town was because he was performing the baptism for an eternagator that he contacted on the street while he was serving here. Her name is Xxxx Xxxx, but a lot of the time we call her Xxxx. He promised her when he left for home that if she ever got baptized he would find a way to make it to her baptism. I conducted her Baptismal interview on the 21st of last month, and when she passed she decided to try and let him know, not because she thought that he would be able to come, since he goes to BYU Provo, but just to let him know. She wasn't able to get a hold of him until Friday night. Low and behold, he and his wife are both doing the Washington Seminar internship program that Ethan is part of, and so despite the last minute notice, 4 hours on a bus later, he was able to come, and she asked him to perform the baptism. Then we had a bit of a hard time finding a suit that would fit in the men's changing room, they were considering having a different person do it, when the sisters found an XL suit hanging on a door in the Women's room that fit pretty well. Random, but the Lord works in his own ways. It was an interesting experience for me personally because usually baptismal interviews are quite strong spiritual experiences. Xxxxx's though...let's just say that it was one of the most awkward interviews I've ever participated in, on either side of the table. I felt the spirit, but not much, and so I wasn't really sure if I should pass her or not, but I didn't feel like I needed to NOT pass her either. In the end, I decided to pass her, and it turned out to be a wonderful experience, which probably wouldn't have been able to have Elder Faulkner participating if I had decided that she needed to wait. I guess I am just glad that I was able to identify one very clear instance in my life where the Lord didn't really need to push too hard to get me to do the right thing, he just trusted me to do it.
There was another similar experience that occurred this week regarding revelation. Normally, our president gives us outlines for District Meeting. This time though, he didn't. I wanted to have a discussion on General Conference, so I prayed to know if that was right, no real response either way, so I decided to go ahead. I started reading "Ensign to the Nations" by elder Holland (April 2011). After reading the talk though, I didn't feel like the specific point that I wanted to convey was well covered in the talk, so I went back to the basics of my district meeting. "What principle did I want them to learn about?" "What invitation did I want to give them?" What I realized was that having the principle for the discussion JUST about general conference didn't match with my end vision of inviting them to try and write some questions for General Conference to answer. So I realized that what I actually wanted them to learn was revelation, and how to get it through General Conference. So I started looking for another talk, I skimmed through a couple, and then found "The Spirit of Revelation" by Elder Bednar (also April 2011). If you haven't read these 2 talks, do it, they are awesome. I realized after reading it that the process of how I had come to the conclusion I should share THAT talk during district meeting was a prime example of how revelation is often piece by piece, and that the Lord will always give us the chance to choose. Probably, if I had shared the original talk, it still would have gone fine too, but I felt that that was one of the better district meetings I've ever led, and it was a very neat experience to realize that I had been receiving greater guidance in the process of preparation than I had originally suspected.
Which brings me to my final topic, General Conference! Don't take minutes, come with questions, don't write down the names of the speakers, just write down the answers to your questions when they come. The best are questions that are not open ended, because those will be answered at least a half dozen times over the course of conference in different ways. Yes/No, True/False, or option 1/option 2 questions tend to bring the most direct answers in my experience. Of course, being willing to act on the answer is important too, Joseph Smith asked an open ended question, (Which church should he join?) and still got a specific response (None). It was his willingness to act on the answer that was most important.
I finally had pigs ears, pigs feet, and duck feet for lunch with a member. Surprisingly, all weren't bad, just messy to eat (and in the case of the duck, took a long time to get what little there was to eat into your mouth.)
You were saying we would replace the floor while Wes was on his mission. Let's be honest, that floor will probably get replaced when Cameron is on his mission. I hope the new couches look good, I liked the old ones.
I currently can do about 30-40 non-stop push-ups depending on the day. Let's see if he can beat me.
Well, this might be the longest email I've ever sent to you.
Love, your son/sibling in service,
Elder Christensen
陈少驹
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