Week 69

Alright first things first 

i want to wish my mother a happy birthday last week! Technically last monday for me was not yet the 24th for all of you so i had to wait until this week. haha Love you mom, hope everyone was nice to you and you didn't have to clean the house on your birthday to get ready for thanksgiving... haha You're the best mom ever. Literally. It sounds like you had a great thanksgiving down in st. George. I wish i could say the same. My comp isn't into the american holidays so i tried to suffer in silence and then thursday night i dreamed of  turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes and ham and all the great stuff. i honestly can't wait for next year. What i didn't hear is what the outcome of the tingey family turkey bowl was!  haha too good. i'm just glad i don't have to miss my favorite holiday again.

We had a pretty decent week. numbers-wise it was our best week this transfer, but we didn't see much progression. It's been really interesting this past week because most of the people we teach are very strong in their religion so we get into really core doctrine. You can't just skim across the top. So i've had to do a lot of study and deep-thinking, which has given me a few headaches haha but it's been really good for me, i think. 

Two main thoughts have come to mind this past week. First, i am amazed at how much i've learned since i've come on a mission. It is really priceless how much i've learned. And the more i learn, the more i realize i don't know. i'm just really glad that i was able to develop a strong foundation of faith and now everything i learn is just building off my testimony of the saviour. And i love learning about the gospel and the church. The second is that i am truly so grateful for Christ. I've gained a much greater appreciation of the atonement as i've been able to discuss the doctrines of Grace and Mercy and Justice. I wish i was able to comprehend just exactly how powerful the sacrifice of our saviour was, but from what i've experienced, it's amazing. and that's just for one person! And one of the most amazing things to me about it is that he did all of that so we can truly have agency and be able to accept him or reject him. As we begin the christmas season i hope everyone gets a chance to reflect on the influence Christ has on their own life. Haha i'm lucky that i get to do it all the time and it's the best. And even though it doesn't feel like christmas time because its like 100 degrees here, i still feel a little bit closer to christ at this time of year. 

We were meeting with our man, Justin this week and he showed us a copy of the 1830 edition of the book of Mormon that he ordered on the internet. it was pretty cool. it's the brown one that's in all the pictures and the restoration video and stuff and he let us borrow it so we're going to go have a photo shoot with it. haha but it's pretty cool. he's the man. he's read the whole book of mormon, D&C and most of the Pearl of Great Price. He has some really deep questions. I really like teaching him because i learn so much from studying the questions he asks.

Other than that, things are pretty chill here in Mudgee, mate. Hopefully we can grow our teaching pool a bit. (haha that seems to be the slogan here...) Love you all and hope you have a great week. Talk to you next week!

Love,

Elder 田

(haven't given up on the Chinese yet!)