Week 96 T-9

Hello everyone! hope yous all had a great week. Mine was awesome. Elder Liao is the man. we were smashing it out with finding this week and got a couple new potentials so we're hoping to see some good stuff in the near future. I realized this week that having a native companion is awesome because i feel like my chinese is improving very quickly, but lessons are a bit more difficult for me because they get talking and they start slow for me and then without thinking they get faster and faster until i'm struggling just to know what principle in the lesson we're talking about! haha its fun, though. Yesterday we didnt have P-day because it was a public holiday. The queens birthday. Not sure if it was her ACTUAL birthday, or the fake one, not sure how many birthdays a person can have... wish I was royalty... haha but regardless, we had a holiday and our mission doesn't take p-days on public holidays. so we were out contacting people pretty much all day because no one wanted to meet with us since it was their day off. all goods, though. we got a couple people's contact details so it was a success! 

Joy is doing good. she came to church and told us that she's been praying regularly and i think she enjoyed church. We had a really good fast and testimony meeting. usually i wonder what's going to happen in testimony meeting, but everyone that bore their testimony said some really good stuff. and there was nothing weird that was said! haha actually, this branch is really good with that stuff. it makes it nice to bring investigators.

We had a great lesson with shirley on saturday where we talked about the restoration. and we had a great member there to bear testimony and share her experiences and it was awesome. I think she ran into some anti material because she was asking questions about polygamy and stuff. but it was a really good lesson. and all in chinese so it was even better:) there was a point where we were talking about baptism and we were explaining how it works and she was having trouble understanding what elder Liao was explaining and she got this puzzled look on her face and said "pao yi pao ma?" which i had no idea what that meant but elder liao and our member both started laughing way hard. Elder liao told me later that in chinese it's what they say to describe the action of soaking your oreo in milk. hahahaha she's crack up. but she wants to learn a bit more before she commits to anything as far as baptism goes, which makes sense, but we're still praying for her. and she didn't come to church so we were a bit sad about that. this week, though.

Jack is doing great as well. He's very busy with school because finals are coming up, but he came to all three hours of church and had a lesson with us after AND he joined the ward choir! oh yeah, the branch is turning into a ward soon. at least, that's the word on the street. so that's exciting. but we talked to jack mostly about baptism and why its so important to us and why all the missionaries he's met with keep inviting him to be baptised. he gets it and he wants to be baptised, but just wants to learn a bit more. he is pretty cool, though. and so humble. haha this week i was thinking about how lucky i've been to be able to serve in so many areas with universities. i love teaching people my age. it is awesome. i feel like i'm just talking to one of my friends from back home. just in chinese... haha it's great. 

other than that things are pretty much the same. if we're not in an appointment with an investigator or recent convert/ less-active we are walking the streets or riding the train or sitting at the bus stop to try to find people. It's the life. 

One experience stood out to me this week i want to share. Elder Liao and i were walking through hurstville and this kid who was sitting with these two girls waved us over so we walked over and i was mentally preparing myself to get bible bashed. But he asked us to sit down next to him and he proceeded to tell us about the tough life he's lived. he can't be more than a year older than me and he's had a rough go of things. and the experiences he's had in life have convinced him that there is no God. So i was able to testify of the reality of a loving God that allows bad things to happen because he gave each of us agency and he wants us to use it. And i felt the spirit testify to me that what i said was true. but he said something that caused me to think a little bit. he told me that his goal in life is "to be able to walk into one of these shops and buy anything, EVERYTHING, and then walk to the next one and do the same thing. and then walk up the street to the car dealer and buy any car i want, and then drive to the Ferrari dealer and get the most expensive one and then drive that ferrari down the main street of hurstville and crash it on purpose and then walk to the Lamborghini dealer and buy one of those and still have money left over to go have a beer." So i thought about that and why that isn't my goal in life and i decided that that is a goal that will never bring satisfaction. No matter what we do, we will always be able to make one more dollar. and as soon as you buy that last Lambo, they will come out with a new model and you won't be happy until you have THAT one. and it never ends. What i believe is that the gospel gives us an attainable goal that brings us infinite happiness. And we are very lucky to understand that.  

Love you all! Have a great week. Happy birthday Grandpa! Cant wait to talk to him about his australia mission stories. Talk to yous next week!

-Elder Tingey

FHE with the Branch

Elder Liao took me to a taiwanese dessert place. have you had this before, dad? mango ice.