This week was so so awesome! We went to the Buddhist temple as a cultural outing last wednesday for Pday and it was really cool! I couldn't take any pictures cause that is against the rules, but there were heaps of kangaroos outside of it that I took some pictures of and I'll send those! It was really interesting to learn about Buddhism and it made me really happy that we have the plan of salvation.
We have had some trouble with our investigators this week. Our investigator on a date for next week told us that her parents don't want her meeting with us anymore and she doesn't want to be baptized anymore. So that is really hard. And another one has a friend from another Christian Church and he told us that if he gets baptized in that church then he wouldn't tell us haha. But he keeps saying "Wo keyi shouxi, wo keyi shouxi meiyou wenti" Which means: I can get baptized, I can get baptized, no problem. So its kind of concerning that he doesn't really understand what baptism is yet. He's pretty crazy too, but we are still working it out! Something good did happen though, I promise! Haha. We had been out contacting for a few hours and it is what I call "fruitless" contacting. We collectively had talked to about 80 people and no one wanted to hear it. Then our recent convert friend went and bought us smoothies and I started to drink mine and something told me that I had to talk to the next person who walked by. There was no one in sight, but I just felt like I needed to. So I waited and kept talking with Moroni (our recent convert) and then a couple walked around the corner. It would have been pretty easy to just keep enjoying the smoothie on a hot day and let them pass. It had been a hard day and I almost did just that! But the thought or feeling came back again and said you need to talk to those people. I guess a sense of duty asserted itself within me and I was like "It's your job, go talk to them" So I put the smoothie down and went and talked to them! I spoke with my limited chinese and they were really impressed! They were really genuine about the message and then we met with them on Saturday! We are meeting again with them tomorrow and they seemed really willing to do anything to find out more! It was an amazing experience and I know that as we follow spiritual promptings, we will be blessed!
Last thing, conference is like Christmas for a missionary. I loved it so much and I know that there is so much that we can all learn from our living prophets! I love and miss you all and I hope that you all have a great week!
Elder Jackson
We have had some trouble with our investigators this week. Our investigator on a date for next week told us that her parents don't want her meeting with us anymore and she doesn't want to be baptized anymore. So that is really hard. And another one has a friend from another Christian Church and he told us that if he gets baptized in that church then he wouldn't tell us haha. But he keeps saying "Wo keyi shouxi, wo keyi shouxi meiyou wenti" Which means: I can get baptized, I can get baptized, no problem. So its kind of concerning that he doesn't really understand what baptism is yet. He's pretty crazy too, but we are still working it out! Something good did happen though, I promise! Haha. We had been out contacting for a few hours and it is what I call "fruitless" contacting. We collectively had talked to about 80 people and no one wanted to hear it. Then our recent convert friend went and bought us smoothies and I started to drink mine and something told me that I had to talk to the next person who walked by. There was no one in sight, but I just felt like I needed to. So I waited and kept talking with Moroni (our recent convert) and then a couple walked around the corner. It would have been pretty easy to just keep enjoying the smoothie on a hot day and let them pass. It had been a hard day and I almost did just that! But the thought or feeling came back again and said you need to talk to those people. I guess a sense of duty asserted itself within me and I was like "It's your job, go talk to them" So I put the smoothie down and went and talked to them! I spoke with my limited chinese and they were really impressed! They were really genuine about the message and then we met with them on Saturday! We are meeting again with them tomorrow and they seemed really willing to do anything to find out more! It was an amazing experience and I know that as we follow spiritual promptings, we will be blessed!
Last thing, conference is like Christmas for a missionary. I loved it so much and I know that there is so much that we can all learn from our living prophets! I love and miss you all and I hope that you all have a great week!
Elder Jackson