I hope that I don't offend any patriots with that topic of
my email. Just a story to tell that gives me reason for why I'm irritated.
So we have a lot of alcohol here in China. Beer is cheaper
than water bottles here most of the time, so that's just a natural struggle for
people here. There is also a lot of superficial news shared by the government
via MTR. The televisions are always just blaring something about America's
political standing and missionaries just have to ignore it. With this combination,
you get a lot of drunk old men that see a couple of young looking american guys
and they just get really angry. Nothing hinders them. We were teaching a lesson
a couple days ago. This kid was really feeling the spirit and our amazing
Elders Quorum president was describing Nephi's experience in an Angel answering
his prayer about his father's vision. We were just about to close very
powerfully when a drunk man stands up from his table and begins to storm over
to us, almost lozing his pants and running into a waitress on the way. I closed
with testimony just before he go there thankfully (because I get very irritated
if a lesson is interrupted when there's no closure. It's like a concerto that
ends on a half cadence. THAT'S NOT COOL! He came over and I became somewhat
frightened when he reached for my Book of Mormon. I didn't want to make any
sudden movements so he got to it before I did and kind of waved it in my face
and slapped it back on the table. I immediately reached for it and put it in my
lap. He went off about every president from Bill Clinton to the Elections soon
to be happening. We tried to explain that it's got nothing to do with us, but
he couldn't hear. Then we both looked at the Elders Quorum President. He was
smiling, and we kind of got a message that he sent to us through his look. We
applied what we had just discussed and decided to do our closing prayer right
then. The investigator looked a little surprised, but he too bowed his head and
the Elders Quorum president offered the prayer. Nothing crazy. He didn't talk
to the drunk man or anything. When we lifted our heads though, the man was
gone. The investigator then said "well, now I know that it works
too!" Brothers and Sisters, God works in mysterious ways.
I cannot tell you the buzz among the missionaries here with
conference coming up. I've already been getting ready for a month. Some
missionaries have been even longer. Be ready everybody. You never know when
china's gonna open, and General Conference is the place for it to happen...
Chinese characters are the worst and best things ever. I'm
finally beginning to understand what stuff says! Then I realize that other than
the scriptures, I wasn't really missing out on much. Just a bunch of useless
advertisements.
神是你們天父.祂愛我們.加油!-戴長老
I also told him that we gave the local missionaries a ride home last week. They were great. The trainer, Elder Moore, was from Missouri, and his companion he is now training is from North Carolina. His name is actually Ian Taylor too! Elder Moore cited a quote from Rex C. Reeve:
"These
are days of great missionary service. Over thirty thousand young men and women,
together with faithful, devoted couples, are carrying this message to many
nations and lands. [HA! This number is now over 85,000]. Never
before in this dispensation has such a worldwide effort been made to reach
every soul in the earth. It is great, and we are mindful of the time and means
which you and many others have so willingly given to this purpose.
But
as great as our effort has been, it is still far, far from being enough. If we
are going to carry this message to every land, every nation, every people,
every soul as our great missionary prophet-leader has directed us, there is
still one part of this vital missionary force that has not been awakened. It
is like a sleeping giant waiting to be aroused. When this sleeping giant is
fully awakened, the day of the sickle will have come to an end, and the day of
the combine will come in. The harvest will be in millions in place of
thousands, as it is today.
Here was Ian's response:
The Utah missionaries probably understand the same
truthfulness of the message that they shared with you as I do. I have used a
sickle here. It is NOT effective. It's fun, and you feel like you are some cool
guy taking it back to the 19th century and old schooling the field. It's not
useful though. The organization of the church is literally a well oiled reaping
machine that for the time being is being primed for the starting of it's
engine. A sleeping giant...I like that. Have you ever thought that our family
is part of that sleeping giant?"
I also asked him about sweet Sister Yeung. She is doing so well, and he related a story from that Sunday:
"Funny thing about sister Yeung, she called us on Sunday and
said the biggest miracle happened. She prayed the night before that everyone
would be nice and that she would be accepted into the ward. What she described
seemed nothing out of the ordinary. The Bishop asked her to stand and recognized
her recent start on the Lord's path and the other teachers in the classes did
likewise. She took this seemingly commonplace occurrence and magnified it
though. She was so grateful for the leaders of the church and her testimony of
prayer was strengthened. I think that she is an example of a principle of
gratitude that I am in dire need of learning. D&C 78:19!"
No comments:
Post a Comment