April 20 Week 89 - Transfer Call to be English speaking Zone Leader, Laughter at night made me think I was home, Edwin Deng, Become Christ-like through pain, suffering and service, Big Wild Fire

Transfer calls - I am going to be a Zone Leader in the ward right next to here. Jurupa 2nd. It means I can be by Elder Dyer and Zeng still so I can practice Chinese with them. So that is good. I asked President if I would be back, and he said most likely. So I think things worked out as best as they could have. Keep praying that all goes smoothly and I go back to Eastvale 1st for my last transfer! Ok so this week we hit standard. All the walking around paid off, with getting us 3 new investigators. Some of them seem pretty solid. Elder Dyer will have some good potential to work with next transfer. The first one was this old lady we talked to when our appointment fell through. Usually old people aren't interested, but this one was, and even told us where she lived. So we went back and found out that she and her daughter Amber were totally looking at churches to attend. So they came on Sunday! I think they liked it! Amber's two daughters weren't so good with primary and nursery though. The other guy is named Zhang. We talked to him one day when we were just walking around. He is a recent immigrant that is renting a room in the Xiong's neighborhood. Brother Xiong is an excellent missionary and came with us to teach the lesson. He seems pretty interested. He is bringing his family to church next week! ther news on the Xiongs. Brother Xiong is just awesome. He has been reading "Our Heritage" recently. We had a nice discussion on Church history this week. He also got his temple recommend interview on Sunday. Sister Xiong sat in on the interview. I don't know if that is ok or not, but it happened. I translated for them so I sat in too. Brother Xiong explained some of the temple to sister Xiong and how they have to get married again for eternity in the temple. Sister Xiong just said "what do we have to do to prepare?" I said "get baptized!" Then I asked when she wanted to get baptized. She said "right now." Then Brother Xiong said. "You have to meet with us together and read the scriptures then." Then came Sister Xiong's classic reply. "I am too busy!" Darn it. She is closer now though. I can tell how hard Bro Xiong is trying to be nice since his baptism. Baptism/Christ's atonement really does change people for the better! Sister Xiong will be baptized one day I know it! I want to just thank you guys again for being such great parents. This week I was falling asleep, and Elder Dyer and Dalmer were up past 10:30. I was half asleep when I heard laughing and I thought I was back at home. There were lots of times when I was trying to fall asleep and you and Dad came upstairs and laughed about something and woke me up. It used to bug me. Now I realize how cool it is that I have two parents who laugh with each other. Seeing lots of families on my mission has shown me it isn't always that way. Thank you! Edwin Feng is doing good. He didn't come to church though. So his baptismal date will have to be moved back. He is so ready though. He asked me to come with him to the DMV. But it doesn't look like I will be able to go, so we need to find someone to help him. That is sort of stressful. This Sunday there was a great talk on how we become more like Christ as we serve others. He said as we going through pain and suffering for others (just like Christ did) we become more like him, and Christ is proud of us for following his example. It made me think about how sometimes when people are rude to me it literally pains me to bite my tongue and smile and not say anything back. It doesn't feel good. However, I know that Christ is pleased when I try to act like him. Also this week we saw a big fire. I drove by it with Elder Carling. I forgot to write that in.

Pic of Fire from Elder Jacob Dyer Blog

 Ok that is all this week! ILY -Elder Murray