This week was super great but also super nuts. Staying in the same area and getting a new companion is pretty hard. Luckily, Elder Gish and I get along really well and I know the area, because otherwise, it would have been really tough. For the first few days and sort of still, I felt like the senior companion because I was leading him around and calling our investigators/RCs/LAs. He's adjusted really well, though, and now aside from leading, most of the senior companion responsibilities have been transferred over to him.
Getting a new companion was weird for other reasons too, though. For one thing, I've realized there are a lot of different ways to do the same thing in missionary work and a lot of different attitudes you can have about doing them while still getting basically the same result. Don't get me wrong, Elder Gish is a super great missionary, but his way of being a missionary is very different from Elder Sumsion(my trainer)'s way of being a missionary. It's confusing because I have all these thought processes my trainer instilled in me and then Elder Gish maybe has some new ideas and it's like "What?". But it's also really good for that reason because it makes me think about whether that thought process is one that I really want to have anyway or whether I was just kind of blindly following because I didn't know any better. This is also not to say that Elder Sumsion was a bad missionary, because he was awesome and I respect him like crazy. However, the main point of all this is that it's really helpful(but also confusing) to see 2 different sides of missionary work and I feel myself developing my own thoughts and it's helping me grow so much!
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| An all-you-can eat place we went to with ninjas on the roof. Pretty cool! |
As far as investigators go, the main ones that I want to report on are John and the super golden Chen who can never come to church. John is doing great. He came to church again on Sunday for all 3 hours which was super awesome. After church, he said he couldn't meet with us(we wanted to talk to him about the Word of Wisdom), but that his work finished on Tuesday so Wednesday and onward, he has all the time in the world and, in his words, he can "always be at church". That was super great to hear. It's so awesome seeing his desire and seeing how happy church makes him. If all goes according to plan, we'll be having a baptism a week from this Saturday. Chen met with us and brought a friend(can I get a 'referral'?). We basically taught a quick Restoration lesson about Joseph Smith and the priesthood and had Chen bear his testimony. He said he can come to church this coming Sunday which will make 3 times so he can be baptized, but we're meeting with him on Thursday to talk about being able to come to church every week to take the sacrament. Regardless, his baptism will most likely be on the 15th of February so yeah, that's exciting!
Missionary work is a little slower these days because of Chinese New Year. Students are going home, people from out of town are coming, everyone is "too busy" who actually lives here. It's probably a lot like Christmas break in America so it's a little more tough being able to find people who can meet right now. But the upside is that we basically have a member inviting us over for dinner every single day this next week. woohoo! Don't be surprised if in next week's pictures, I have several extra chins.
Scripture recommendation for this week: Ether 12. First of all, Ether is sweet! Second of all, reading verse 6 and onward with the background of 1-5 gives it so much more meaning. Third of all, faith is pretty much the greatest super power you could possibly have. From now on, if anyone asks me that "if you had any superpower..." get-to-know-you question, I'm definitely saying faith. Or spiritual teleportation(see Helaman 10:16). That wouldn't be too bad either. Alright love you guys!
大家再見！
Elder Smith
施長老
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