Good week this week! Thank you for all the fasting and prayers it really helped. I'm realizing I just have to take it one day at a time. If I think about the 18 months I have left, I get stressed out. So I just focus on what I need to do now, and I am able to get through days and weeks ok.
Monday we met with our recent convert Dave. We were trying to help him get in contact with the head guy in China that is over the church. We got an e-mail reply and he gave a phone number to call, but when we met with Dave it was still early in the morning over there. Well Dave was supposed to go back to China today, but he extended again on a student visa and has gone to Santa Barbara. He says he will come back this weekend and say hi. I hope he does.
Tuesday we had our DDM district development meeting. That was pretty good. I always leave excited and ready to go teach people what we just practiced. That day we met with a guy named Clark. We taught him the Plan of Salvation, and he seemed interested, but not really wanting to investigate the Church. That night we met with Shell (the buddhist girl). We invited her to be baptized and she said yes, but said she needed some time to learn more. We got her on date for March 2nd!
Wednesday we couldn't find anyone to meet, so I spent 1 hour calling every unknown person in our phone. There are a lot of contacts in our phone, and a lot of them were put in before we got here, and they have no teaching record. So I called them, and made a big list of notes on all of them. It was good to get done, but I don't know if it was an effective use of time since there weren't any really find any solid potentials. After that we went out and hung up English class signs and met a white lady that spoke Chinese selling girl scout cookies with her daughter. We talked to her in Chinese for a bit, and she told us about lots of programs that send American students to China to look up when we get home. We also bought a box of Samoas. At night we met with a girl named Jenny, She didn't want to be baptized anymore because of her parents. She was worried about what they might think. We tried to help her resolve that concern, she believes in Heavenly Father and we helped her recognize that she has felt the spirit. So we told her to pray and ask what Heavenly Father wants her to do. We are meeting with her again on Friday to follow up (that was the earliest she could meet again)
Thursday it rained! It hasn't rained here in a long time. I finally got to wear the rain jacket you sent for Christmas! It was perfect...thank you! On thursday we weekly planned. We taught Shell again, for dinner we tried a new Chinese place. It was pretty bad, but Elder Schoonmaker and I had a nice break together.
Friday: We met with a girl whose name I found in our phone a few weeks earlier. We invited her to be baptized. She started crying and said she did not know if she could trust God. She said that she really wanted to, but that she didn't know if she could. Well what ended up happening is that our member that came with us totally freaked out and talked to her straight about 15 minutes trying to comfort her. Which was nice but he didn't give us a chance to talk to her or ask more questions then she had to leave really fast to get to class. So that was a bummer. I hope we will see her again.
Saturday: We helped Li Rui move into a member's house. It was a really short move. Her bed was easy. It is just a piece of plywood with four 4X4 as legs. She said that she really doesn't like mattresses; she just lays on that with a thin little mat on it. She said a lot of chinese people sleep like this. It doesn't look very comfortable.
(This is a picture of Li Rui and Dexter and Schoonmaker.)
Saturday night we met with that kid named Leo or Liu. He is really cool. He said that he hasn't felt anything as he has been praying everyday. Well Elder Schoonmaker talked to him about how he feels the spirit and Li Rui shared an experience about how the Holy Ghost helped her know where to find her car after she got in an accident. It was a cool lesson. Then he said talked about how he felt peace when he went to temple square. I told him that was the spirit. He agreed to come to church the next day, because that feeling of peace is what he wants more of.
(This is a picture of Li Rui and Dexter and Schoonmaker.)
Saturday night we met with that kid named Leo or Liu. He is really cool. He said that he hasn't felt anything as he has been praying everyday. Well Elder Schoonmaker talked to him about how he feels the spirit and Li Rui shared an experience about how the Holy Ghost helped her know where to find her car after she got in an accident. It was a cool lesson. Then he said talked about how he felt peace when he went to temple square. I told him that was the spirit. He agreed to come to church the next day, because that feeling of peace is what he wants more of.
Sunday we had Liu, and four others come to church!! Two of them were a mother and daughter (Sunny and Yudi) from English class. It was a really good sacrament meeting. Afterwards we had our Chinese gospel principles class. The class was on the priesthood, Then mom (Sunny) asked about why women couldn't have the priesthood. Shelly was teaching and asked me to explain. It was hard to figure out how to say it all in Chinese, but I think I got my meaning across. That class is hard. It is all in Chinese and the students always bring up crazy questions.
Ok well that is my week. This is the last letter you will get from me as an 18 year old! I love you guys. Brothers thank you so much for your letters sorry I haven't had time to respond. I will try when we get home. Oh today I ate a ghost chili that a spanish Elder gave me. It was dried so it wasn't as hot, but it was still pretty bad. Alright that is all! Happy Valenitines Day.
-Elder Murray
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