Sept 15 Week 58 - Still HOT, Dong Fang, Alan, Shelly in Elder Simmons ward, Lost Korean Student, Louis, Jim Baptism

I am dying reading all of your letters about being in sweats and taking walks in the brisk fall air.  It is HOT here.  I think this is the hottest it has been the whole Summer.  Hopefully it gets a little nicer in the next few weeks.  Alright well this week has sort of been a blur. 

Monday night we met with Dong Fang.  We read the Book of Mormon with him since he hadn't been reading the last couple of days.  Then we gave him the Word of Wisdom pamphlet to prepare for the next lesson.  He wasn't too thrilled with it. 

Tuesday was rough. No one could set up to meet.   We had DDM and then just went out to look for people without a lot of success.  That is basically what we did all day.  We just bike around areas where Chinese people might be, and try to talk to everyone we can.  It is tiring, but also fun.

Wednesday we had a trainer trainee meeting.  It was fun, but I don't really know why we had it.  It was probably mostly for the trainees.  We split up and they met with President while we met with the AP's.  They put in a District video for us and left.  Then came back and realized they had put in the wrong video.  Oh well.  After the meeting we met with Shell.  She is still doing good.

We also saw wen xun, she referred her son to us.  He doesn't speak Chinese though. Darn.  At night no one came to English class so we went and visited this potential named Alan.  He is really cool.  He has been in the US since he was 9.  He knows about the Church from when he lived in Hacienda Heights.  Speaking of that, it is the ward that Shelly is now attending, and guess what?!  Elder Simmons from the MTC is serving there.  Small world.  Alan was cool, but we might have to give him to English too.  He understands things better in English than Chinese.  

Thursday I set up an interview with President.  President told me he is thinking that he is going to move Merriman and I to Eastvale.  I have mixed feelings, because I really love the investigators we have right now, but at the same time, I really want to be with the ward over there.  I have been at UCR a long time.  Thursday night we met with this family that I have oymed a lot, but they always rejected me.  Finally they set up.  Tomorrow they are going to SLC to see the temple, and they to Yellowstone.  They were really nice and talked forever.  We committed them to read and pray and be baptized if they knew it was true.  They are coming back to Riverside Sept. 28.  so we will see them when they get back!

Thursday we met with Emma,  Dong Fang was going to come, but he cancelled.  Emma said that she really wants Dong Fang not to drink, and that she will thank us if we could get him to stop.  

Friday we got our new English class sign.  It looks really good.  We met with Li Rui for the first time this transfer so she could help us write a smaller sign to put out on Wednesdays and Fridays so people see that it is happening that night.  We also talked to her about doing family history, hoping they have Chinese records.  She also asked us a lot of questions about BYU I dress code.  She is hoping to go up in Dec,  Then we went to find.  We ending up helping this lost Korean student find her apartment.  She was going the totally wrong way into the more sketchy area next to the school.  We saw Wen Xun's son that day.  He was a little awkward, but he was nice and agreed to meeting with missionaries when he starts school again in Oct.  At night we had English class and this guy we talked to 2 weeks ago came.  His name is Francis Deng.  He liked the spiritual thought and we set up for the next day.

Saturday was super hot.  We had a good day though.  We met with Francis, he said that he had prayed the night before for the first time and felt really peaceful.. We taught the first lesson.  At 3:00 I was going to Jim's (the muslim from Eastvale) baptism.

  So I invited Francis to come.  He came the baptism was really good and afterward Francis told me he started to cry during one of the talks.  He came to church yesterday too!  Pretty awesome!  At night we went to meet Dong Fang again, he stood us up again.  He has things come up in the lab.  We are going by again tonight.  I hope we don't lose him.  Oh Frank dropped us on Thursday, that was a bummer.  

Sunday was really good.  In the morning while Merriman was at ward council I went out with the Engish Elders and got 3 potentials in 2 hours.  Really successful.  Church was good.  After Church we met with Louis.   He didn't come to church.  We taught the Sabbath Day and committed him to come every week.  He said yes.  He is ready to be baptized on the 28th.  He is doing awesome.  At night we met with Alan again.  He is doing good.

Today we are going with Elder Heaton and Huggie and Morgan and Tracy from Eastvale to the Mission Inn in Riverside.  Should be cool, not temperature wise though :(

Love you guys have a great week!

Sep 8 Week 57 - Mid-Autumn Festival, Promptings and Dong Fang, Frank, Louis, Bruce and Daniel, "Set Apart" hair

Well today is the mid-autumn festival.  An investigator gave us a moon cake last night.  Not bad.  We are going to see if we can find some better ones after e-mailing.  

Also I have to go get my hair cut by someone I don't know for the first time.  (I have always had mom, myself, or other missionaries do it.)  So we will see how that goes.  

This week was pretty wet.  Tuesday we met with Xiu Huang again.  She is not progressing.  She won't pray to know if this Church is Jesus Christ's true church.  She went on to tell us how the Catholic's were much more "serious and strict" than us "Christians" (we haven't taught her any commandments yet.)  At first I was just frustrated.  I had to take a deep breath and realize all I can do it bear my testimony and invite.  If they won't I have to accept that.

Tuesday I did have a really cool thought while pondering as I rode my bike.   

Preach My Gospel has a quote on how to recognize the promptings from the Spirit.  You'll have to look up the exact quote, but it says something about how anything that invites us to do good, to stand tall, and help others is of God.  So I was wondering if every thought I had to do something good was a spiritual prompting.  For example what if I have a thought to go talk to a guy across the street, but we are hurrying to an appointment and they street is full of heavy traffic.  There is another quote in PMG from Dallin H Oaks that says that while we should desire to be led by the spirit we need to recognize we will not be led in all things.  Sometimes when we pray for guidance we don't receive an answer because both choices are good, or the Lord trusts us to make the right choice and wants us to use our own reasoning power to make choices and grow.  

So he is my conclusion.  We definitely need to pay attention to thoughts and feelings we have that invite us to do good things.  They could be Heavenly Father telling us to do something.  However, if we aren't sure about it.  We should study out the pros and cons.  Then pray about it.  One of 3 things will happen.   Heavenly Father answers and  you will feel that it is right, or He answers you and tells you not to.  The third option is you don't get an answer you still feel unsure.  This means that Heavenly Father trusts you to use you best judgement to make the decision.  

I had a cool experience with this this week.  We were on our way to go look of Chinese people to talk to.  I had a thought to try to visit with Emma and Dong Fang.  Usually we meet with them on weekends because he is super busy.  I wondered if calling and asking to meet would annoy Dong Fang.   So I prayed and asked if the thought I had was what we should do.  After I prayed I felt the answer, yes you should.  So I did.  They answered and were really happy to meet and we had a great lesson.  

Sorry that took up the bulk of the letter.  Ok well I will just write a few things really quick about the investigators.  

Frank didn't come to church.  Worried that he hasn't felt the spirit.  He want's to push his date back.  It is a bummer, but if he isn't ready there is no point in pushing him.  

Dong Fang.  SUPER BUSY.  He still reads and prays though.  The only thing is Church. We can't get him to come.  He has a lot to do to graduate.  We tried promising him blessings of help, strength, peace to deal with the stress he is having, but he still didn't come on Sunday :(

Louis.   Accepted a baptismal date despite Li Rui trying to dissuade him.  It was so funny.  We got him on date.  And right after Li Rui said.  Are you sure?  Have you taught him the Word of Wisdom yet? :)  So we taught him the word of Wisdom and he said no problem!  He didn't come to church either though.  

On Sunday we taught two new guys Bruce and Daniel.  They are cool, but not too sure how solid they are.  We have a return appointment for Saturday.  Oh and Andrew dropped us this week too.  He is moving to San Jose.  We have a final meeting with him next Monday.

On Wednesday we had multi-zones.  On Wednesday President told the whole mission that 4 missionaries went really bad.  Watched a ton of movies, took naps, slacked off, and to top it off drove to  Newport beach.  President said he almost sent them home, but after praying felt he should try to work with them.  He did send in some disciplinary stuff to Salt Lake.  They still might get sent home.  Pretty crazy  

Saturday we had a meeting with all the Chinese.  Elder Heaton and Elder Huggie, us and Elder Dyer and his English trainer.  Elder Heaton is struggling with a non-Mandarin speaking comp. He asked president to switch us.  President asked my thoughts.  I said it would give us both a chance to speak more Chinese.  So we might get sent to Eastvale.  nothing for sure though.  We will see in 2 weeks!  

Alright that is the week.

Some funny stuff.  This missionary spoke up in our meeting and told his experience of how parting his hair every Sunday to set himself apart from the world had helped him have the Spirit.  

-Elder Murray

Sept 2 Week 56 - Dong Fang accepts, Rainy and Zong Family drop, Xiu Hang, Pizza Shop Group, 4am Hike, Jay, Christy Move

Monday was sweet!  We had a lesson with this super cool guy I talked to in the family housing area.  (This place that used to be army housing, but now they rent to student families.)  His name is Andrew Zhang.  When I first talked to him he told me he had been thinking about becoming a Christian that morning.  We had a good first lesson with him and he accepted the invite to baptism if he felt that it was true.  We got a return appointment for Friday.

Tuesday was awesome!  We had a lesson with Dong Fang and Emma at our ward mission leader's house.  We taught about baptism and why it was important.  We bore testimony of how through baptism they could have an eternal family.  Elder Merriman was awesome and when I looked to him to say something, he just invited him to baptism again and he accepted!  We got him on date for after he graduates October 12th.  Thanks for your prayers.  They worked!  Also we met with another cool oym named Louis.  He just got here with his family to study at UCR.  He was really interested in religion.  

Wednesday things got a little hard. We went to go see the Zong family.  They dropped us hard.  All because they are members of the communist party and they said "we can believe in nothing but them."  It was so sad,  We really just bore solid testimony that these things are true, that God is real, and that this gospel will help their family more than anything.  They still said no thanks.  We also got dropped by Rainy.  She is going to China the 19th of September and said she was too busy to meet.  Also we went by that Liu guy that I talked about last week.  He was pretty annoyed that we stopped by and they said they'd just contact us.

In the afternoon we met with Xiu Huang (the lady in Moreno Valley that came to church.)  She can't read, but she has super strong faith in Christ.  I might've gone too fast.  I invited her to be re-baptized by someone holding authority without really explaining the apostasy or restoration very well.  She said she needs to think about it.  It is hard because she can't read the Book of Mormon.  She had her husband read it to her, and they read the part where Jesus gives the sermon on the mount.  So the next time she was like "This is just the bible with a different name."  She came to church again this week.  We are planning on showing her the restoration video today.  Hopefully that will help.  At night we had English class.  People actually came.  They were just 6 high school students that we met when some members who owned a pizza shop invited us to come in and talk to a group they were hosting. (their supervisor sent me an email he was really nice) They were really nice.  I think a lot of them were touched by our lesson on prayer at the end.  They were all really quiet and asked good questions.  One even said she wanted to get baptized.  Too bad she left to NJ to go to high school.  Another one is going to Idaho for school.  He will probably meet the church there.  

Thursday we met with Shell and Alina.  They are both doing ok.  Both skipped church this Sunday though.  We met with Jay/wen xun.  The less active lady that we found.  She is really nice and tried to give us a time when we could "run in to" her son on campus and talk to him.  We missed him though.  She went back home for the weekend and isn't sure if she is coming back though.  

Friday was rough,  No one could set up.  It was really hot too.  We spent hours just walking around this little shopping center thing next to campus, the place where Uncle Chuang's is.  Frank and the other guy we wanted to meet with cancelled.  It was a bummer.  At night we helped Christy move with Bro Caldwell.  Then we had an awesome English class; people came again!  It was awesome.  This coupled named Sammy and Jack came and during the spiritual thought they asked to buy a copy of the Book of Mormon from us.  We gave them one, and got their number.  Haven't been able to make contact so far, but we will keep trying.  Hopefully they come to class tomorrow.  

Saturday we went on exchanges with the ZL's.  I stayed in the area.  It was another hot day.  We had 3 lessons with Kenny, who dropped  us yesterday.  Xiu Huang, and Emma and Dong Fang.  We had to spend a lot of time outside trying to talk to grumpy people and hanging up English class signs.  Dong Fang said he can't make it to church every week he is so busy with work.  I asked him after baptism if he could.  He said maybe.  So we need to work with him on that.  He didn't come to church the next day.  Again I got worried about offending him.  I still need to work on being bold.  Also I tried to teach in English with my Zone Leader there.  I think I do better in Chinese.  I was basically just translating everything I wanted to say, back from Chinese into English.  It sort of came out funny.

Sunday was ok.  I sent Elder Merriman to ward council.  There was 1 hr 15 min before church.  I didn't know what to do with the time.  So I just did extra language study.  Next week I will plan something to do with the other missionaries, while my comp is in council.  At church we had Louis, Frank, and Huang Xiu.  It was good to see them.  After church we did studies and went to the Woolf's for dinner.  I love them.  They remind me of you guys.  Right now they are in a doctor who phase.  They like everything you guys like.  At night we tried to go visit this referral up in the hills that didn't answer, then we went Chinese hunting.  Got some white people who's houses sort of look Asian angry and they went and Oymed in the university village shopping center... again.  There aren't really a lot of Chinese right now. It is super hard to find.  

Monday.  Our whole zone got up at 4:00 to hike a mountain and watch the Sunrise.  I thought it was fun, but now all the missionaries are worried that President will be mad.  I hope it will be ok.  I didn't think it was disobedient, but maybe it is.  If he gets mad I guess I'll just say sorry and not do it again.  At night we met with Louis again.  He rejected a date, but is still willing to get baptized if he feels it is true.  He is an awesome guy.  

Today we helped some people in our apt complex move.  Have good week.  Dex

Aug 25 Week 55 - Christy and Emma doing great, Dong Fang investigates, Jay already member, Chinese Hunt, Uncle Chuangs' hot chocolate

Well we had another good week!

Tuesday this week we meet with Christy.  She is doing great!  She said she feels really good after her baptism and she got confirmed just yesterday!  Awesome!  We taught her lesson 5 so her teaching record is all filled out now!  Tuesday we also picked up a former from when Heaton and I were together.  Her name is Rainy.  She has a really cute 2 year old named Do Do.  We met with her again and tried our best to teach the Plan of Salvation to her.  She kept getting a little distracted watching her kid, but it was ok in the end.  She came to church yesterday!  She's is going back to China for a while though so we won't see her till end of September.  Tuesday night we went Chinese hunting on a street close to campus.  If you guys ever find yourself in a situation like me where your whole purpose is to find Chinese people here is how you "Chinese Hunt."  Talk to all the Asians... 8 times out of 10 they are Chinese.  (However always ask if they are Chinese first -don't just start speaking Chinese to them.)  Next you can look for a couple clues to know where they live.  Shoes outside the door, a mop or broom leaning against the wall, potted plants, leftover Chinese new year decorations, also really poorly taken care of lawns are all pretty good indicators.)  

The hunt turned out to be a success,  We got a lesson with this group of Chinese guys living in one house.  We haven't been able to get back in with them though.  We also met this lady named Jay.  She was super nice and invited us back.  

Wednesday it rained... a lot.  All of our appointments cancelled.  Everyone that we contacted told us to go inside, but we stayed out.  It was a pretty cool storm!  It was a little cold though.  We were pretty wet, muddy, and cold.  I took Elder Merriman to Uncle Chuang's and got some Chinese desserts and hot chocolate.  I think he liked it.  We changed our clothes and went back to try to have English class.  No one showed up.  So we went Chinese hunting again.  No luck.

Thursday was a lot better.  We went to Jay's house.  Turned out she was already baptized in 2000.  She was super excited to tell us.  So we just practiced re-teaching her the first lesson, and gave her a version of the 2010 translation of the Book of Mormon.  She enjoyed it and said, that she needed to end her own apostasy.  She came to church on Sunday and made some friends with the people.  She is going back to her home town in 1000 Oaks CA, but we committed her to going back to church there.  I hope she will.  Thursday we also met with another former named Frank.  He was super cool.  Elder Yeung oymed him.  We put him on date for September 21.  Hopefully everything goes well.  He is really cool.  We also met with another former named Kenny.  He isn't so solid, but it was nice to see him again.  

Friday we met with Frank again and read the Book of Mormon.  We also met with Emma and Dong Fang again.  He has been reading, and praying, but hasn't been asking about the Book of Mormon.  We invited him to set a baptismal goal.  He said no.  I backed off.  I should have been more bold and tried to resolve his concern, but I chickened out.   It will be harder to set a date now.  He did come to church for the first time on Sunday though.  Friday night we also taught a family that just moved here.  They were really nice and impressed with our Chinese, but after we taught the first lesson, they said they were too busy to read the Book of Mormon or pray.  So they aren't super solid yet.  They said we could come back, so maybe when we go back we will just read with them.  

Saturday was good.  We met with Jay again to practice Chinese.  She actually called and scheduled us.  We also met with a former investigator's boyfriend visiting from Spain.  He was cool, and made me want to go visit Spain.  He also wasn't too keen about reading the Book of Mormon.  We also met with Emma again.  After dinner we went to family housing again to Chinese hunt.  We knocked on a Brazillian family's house by mistake.  The wife rejected us, but then as we were about to bike away, the dad came out.  Talked to us for a while and invited us back for chocolate cake in an hour.  I called the English speaking Elders and they came down.  We split up and Elder Merriman and one English went to the Brazillian guy's house and I went around Chinese hunting with the other.  We talked to a white couple for a while that always waves to us and is super nice.  They are from the mid-west, but went to China on a study abroad trip.  They have a few member co-workers.  They are awesome and would make great members, but when I asked if they wanted to meet some members in the neighborhood they said no, but they said we could stop by anytime.  So  I will pass them off to the English guys and see how it goes. We also got a lot of other good potentials that night.  Lots of people had arrived recently, so they are starting to come!

 Sunday was good.  Dong Fang came.  Also this other Lady that the car chinese missionaries found.  I gave a talk in another ward and told them to keep an eye out for Chinese speakers for us to teach.  At night we meet with Dong Fang and Emma again.  He still hadn't prayed about the Book of Mormon, because he hadn't found a good quiet time.  We committed him to find a time and pray.  He know's how to recognize his answer.  We also taught about the atonement.  We read the pamphlet and I tried to explain it.  He was still a little confused.  We asked Emma to help.  She explained it perfectly.  It was so cool.  Dong Fang got it and said.  "I think this is really good, if more people thought like  this the world would be better."   I am really praying for them. 

Today was good.  Basketball was fun.  Elder Merriman is good.   His Chinese is getting better too.  I am so glad to get to be comps with him.

-Elder Murray

Oh I can't remember if I sen this but when Elder Heaton  was telling Emma about how baptisms work, he tried to say afterward you wear your normal clothes again, but he accidently said one half of your clothes....  awkward

Aug 18 - Week 54 The adventures of Elder Murray and the UCR Chinese exchange students part 2 - Emma And Christy Baptisms, Awesome Elder Merriman

Hello!  Well I feel pretty bad I spent all of last letter just telling you about the situation and not recording the week.  It was a pretty good week last week.  Emma got baptized!  She is doing awesome.  She got the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and is going to the temple this Thursday to do baptisms for the dead!  I will send the pictures real quick. 

Yay! Dong Fang is on the right. Emma is in the blue dress

Monday this week was good.  After e-mailing we went with Elder Yeung to Brother Caldwell's house.  I can't remember if I have ever told you guys about Brother Caldwell.  He is super awesome.  He is a professor at UCR.  His wife is Chinese, but doesn't speak it anymore.  He is a professional rock climber.  In fact this week the forest service called him in to retrieve a body of someone who died while climbing and fell to an inaccessible spot.  Pretty intense.  He is super smart and he helps us out a lot.  Anyway, he has us over to his house.  He told us he wanted to take us on a swing.  I thought it was just a little rope swing in the backyard.  We had to take a small hike to get to it.  It was a huge swing that we had to get harnessed in for.  I am not completely sure if it was in line with the white handbook.   It was really fun though.  Afterwards we went back to his house and they made us the best meal I have had on my mission.  It was smoked salmon.  For dessert we had blueberry and pear pie.  It was really good.  That night I went out with a temporary English companion and talked to a bunch of Chinese people in student family housing.  One family said we could come back.  A lot of the families I have already talked to, or talked to their friends.  So they already sort of know who we are.  

Tuesday I went to get my new companion.  I am with Elder Merriman!  He is AWESOME!!!  I could not have picked a better missionary to come here.  He is super hard working, he follows all the rules.  He isn't afraid to go try.  He helps me do stuff (he took change of the  phone and kept it on his 2nd day!!!)  I am so glad we are together.  We worked really hard this week, it was really good.  We do go running every morning.  He is really good.  He did every event in track, he also is really good at basketball.  He is a little quiet, but I think I was too when I got here.  He is going to be a great missionary here.  

Wednesday we went to DDM.  I am a district leader again.  My district is pretty awesome!  They are struggling to find people to teach though.  Both are in really rich areas.  We also met with Alina on Wednesday.  She is doing good.  We practiced teaching her the first lesson.  We also met with Emma. No one came to English class, so we went around trying to find some people around campus.  I ran into a lot of former investigators, who said we could come back.  

Thursday we had a meeting in the morning with the new institute director.  He wanted to take away our key.  He didn't think it was necessary for us to have it he said "other missionaries don't have a institute to teach in."  "Can't you find another place like them?"  "Why can't you use the Church building?"  So I just used my missionary skills.  I asked questions to figure out his concern.  As far as I could tell he was worried about us trashing the building, or leaving it unlocked.  I promised him that we would be very responsible.  He still wasn't convinced and asked if it was really necessary for us to use the building.  I explained how the building was right in between international housing and the campus.  So all the Chinese people walk by, and it is a perfect place to meet.  I also listed of the names of all the 9 converts baptized in the last year.   I also told him that I believed that Heavenly Father placed the institute here for the purpose of spreading the gospel to these students.  It might have been a little intense but he was convinced.  We have secured the use of the institute.  

Thursday day we met with Shelly.  She moved to Rolland Heights on Saturday.  I got in contact with the bishop of the Chinese ward there and gave them her number.  Hopefully the transition from ward to ward goes well.   Thursday we got a lesson with a guy that used to come to English class.  He seemed interested and agreed to read and pray.  We went back last night though and he dropped us because he was too busy.   We also found this guy named Joseph he invited us back Saturday night, and then dropped us because he is already a Christian and doesn't believe Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are separate.  I explained why we believe that, and invited him to pray to know if Joesph Smith really did see them.  He refused.  Oh well...

Friday we had another good day.  A member printed us off some English class signs.  I asked him if he needed any service.  He asked us to find him some service projects to put on the new Justserve.org started by the church.  He told us to try the International center, and said they might have an English conversation partner thing for exchange students.  We went and they were more than happy have their name on the website, and also tried to recruit us to become partners.  I am going to see if it is allowed.  It is one hour a week we just sit and talk with an exchange student.  Hopefully Chinese.  I think it might be some good exposure for us.

Friday we also met with Christy she was ready to be baptized!!

Saturday we helped out with an Eagle project for a bit.  Then we did studies.  Then we met with this girl named Angela that I OYMed.  She was really nice and said she would be baptized if she got an answer from God.  We have a return apt tomorrow.  The only problem is her English is probably better than her Chinese.  She has been here for 9 years.  We will see if we can keep her or have to pass her off.  That night we tried to find, more people.  We have gotten a lot of people that say we can come or who seem interested, but few that actually will meet with us. That is just how it goes.

Sunday we went to meetings.  After Church we had the baptism.  It went really smoothly, no problems.  Christy was really happy.  She has thought a long time about this, I am glad she made the decision.  

At night we had dinner with a member couple and Emma and her husband Dong Fang.  We invited Dong Fang to read and pray and if he feels that it is true he will be baptized!!!  He said that he wasn't sure when that would be though.  We told him everyone's time is different.  He also agreed to meet with us every weekend.  The member couple born testimony about how the gospel helped them because better people for each other, and Emma bore her testimony about how the Book of Mormon makes her feel "happy and comfortable"  It was really good.  I am excited for him.  

Well that was the outline of the week.  It included a lot more biking and oyming than I put in.  I had a great time.  I think Elder Merriman did to.  I was dead tired and slept really well last night.  I had a dream I bought a small blow up raft for 200 dollars with my msf $ and tried to sail to some other part of American along the coast.  

I love you guys have a great week

Aug 11 Week 53 - Headed back to UCR

Here is how it all went down.  On Saturday morning we got our leadership calls.  (when they call to let you know what calling you have next transfer.)  President called me as a trainer and as a district leader.  Elder Heaton got called as a district leader.   He figured that he would be put into UCR area with an English speaking missionary.  He was lamenting over the fact that it will be a while till students come back, and that he would probably not do Chinese work.  I told him it would be fine and I am sure it would all work out.  

Elder Heaton texted president.   At about 2:00 president calls and asks to speak to Elder Heaton.   About 5 minutes later he comes out super happy.  President told him he wasn't going English speaking, in fact he is staying in Eastvale and I am going back to UCR.....  Elder Heaton's new companion will be an English Elder named Elder Huggie.  I lived with him back when I was at UCR.  He bought a Chinese Book of Mormon a couple of months ago and has been begging to go Chinese speaking.  So that is who is coming to Eastvale with Elder Heaton.  

I am a little upset.  I feel like I have already more than served my time there.  I am sad to leave this place where there is actual Chinese ward members. School doesn't start for another couple weeks so I don't know how many people we can find.   I am worried about my and the new guys Chinese.  

ILY Dex

Aug 4 Week 52 - Hao de xinxi - Good News - Elder Dyer and Elder Merriman coming next week, Jim and Mia, Annie and Johhny, Xiong, Christy Baptism planned, Lots of Farewell Dinners for Elder Yeung

Hao de xinxi means good news!!!!!!   President called me today, after receiving an e-mail from Elder Heaton.  He asked me to get the message through to Elder Heaton that we will not be in a trio next transfer.  :)  I am pretty happy honestly.  Also other good news.  Both Elder Merriman from Utah, and Elder Dyer from Shang Hai are coming next week!!!  So sounds like Elder Heaton and I will both be training.  

This week was not the best.  You can read more about what happened after the temple on Tuesday in my handwritten letter.  It was not cool.  

Wednesday I went on exchanges with an Elder in our Zone.  He was a funny guy from Canada.  He really likes Britain.  He spent the whole day telling me about the Common Wealth healthcare system and their secret service called "SAS or SES"  I can't remember.  It was interesting.  I enjoyed learning about it.  The only thing was he whispered as he told me about it,  probably so other Americans don't hear.  It was a long day, we did a lot of walking.

Thursday we had a really long MLC with all the Zone Leaders the STL's and the president.  It was good.  He cracked down on some things like calling our investigators Brother and Sister, and directly going over the baptismal interview questions with our investigators.  Some missionaries were a little angry and argued with him about it.  We also talked a lot about how our mission has a lot of old missionaries that are dying soon, and that they are getting sort of lazy.   Like sleep in all day lazy.

Afterward we had weekly planning, that went ok not the best.  Then we saw Jim and Mia.  They are doing ok.  Jim still feels like he hasn't gotten an answer that the Book of Mormon is true at first I was a little worried, but yesterday I saw another family in our ward's teaching record.  They took 2 years to get an answer and now they are super active awesome family.  So I know that we just have to keep working with them and bring members with us and eventually it will all work out.  Same with Annie and Johnny.. although Annie recently had surgery.  Hope we can see them again this week.  

Dex, Elder Yeung, Jim and Mia Mohammed

Our one guy that we found miraculously has disappeared.  I can't get a hold of him.  Tuesday I asked him if we could come by. I got one response, but the text was blank.  I figured it was probably ok to go stop by, but then this whole crazy thing happened on Tuesday.. so we didn't go over.  Now he isn't responding at all and won't answer the door.  So I am pretty sad about that.  We are trying again tonight.  

Thursday we also saw Xiong.  He is doing really good.  We brought up baptism and the Holy Ghost again.  He was still a little hesitant.   I think bringing more members will help a lot.  He dodges the question every time we bring it up.

Friday we did another one of those presentations to exchange students and then we had ZDM.  It went pretty well.  My Zone chowed down on the jelly beans Grandma Cahoon sent.  I loved the 1/2 package.  It was super good.  Also I got Maren and Matt's wedding invite.  Congrats to them!!!!

Friday we also met with Christy.  She is back from China and ready to be baptized.  She is on date for Saturday.  The same as Emma!  Emma is doing great. We met with her on Friday too.  She recognizes the spirit!  She has come to church 3 weeks in a row now!  Awesome!   

Saturday we cleaned up the road again for service project.  We had lunch with the Changs, a family in our ward.  It is so nice being with Elder Yeung right now. Everyone wants to have him over for a final dinner or lunch and Elder Heaton and I get to tag along.  Today we got sushi.  Pretty good, but not my favorite.  Saturday we also met with Emma. We had a good lesson on the Atonement and repentance.  After wards we went and OYMed a lot and taught Jim and Mia at another member's house. His testimony I think really helped Jim. 

Sunday was also a good day. It finally rained here, which hasn't' happened in forever.  Church was really good.  We had a full house.  Pretty much every Chinese member showed up!  We also took brother Miao, our ward mission leader, to eat dinner with the old Taiwanese Changs in Riverside.  They became good friends.  Hopefully they will come and see how church is.  They are really into their own Christian church.

Well I guess this week was just hard because I felt like we didn't get as much work done as we should have.  I am worried I didn't work as effectively or planned as well as I could have.  Also with all the crazy meetings Chinese study kind of took a back seat.  I still would try to study in the car, but it wasn't as good.  I worry that I haven't been getting my Chinese up to where it needs to be.  I am trying, but I will try harder.  I really am going to be better this week.  

ILY

-DEX