Hello everyone! I am doing great this week just in case any of you were wondering. I have been learning lots and I continue to progress in Chinese and in this gospel each and every day! Some days have been really hard, but we're doing our best to stay cheerful. We have had a really hard time with our investigators recently. Last week all of our baptismal dates basically dropped us and it was really tough to see that. We have been working as hard as ever and it just has been hard. We are basically starting over with our investigator pool and Steve and Queenie are progressing but they cancelled 2 hours before church started, so they still haven't been to one. Ah it's frustrating! But this week we'll hopefully see more success. One problem with all of these students is that some of them are too nice to say no to meeting with us but then when the time comes they just make up an excuse and don't come and then stop answering their phones. So that is pretty rough, but we're doing okay!!
Some fun things have been happening to me recently though haha. Like one is that our flat gets cockroaches pretty bad in the summer. We've already seen heaps and Elder Wood says that it gets a lot worse. I'm going to try and figure out how they get in and keep the flat clean so I guess we'll see. He said that it's pretty bearable until they get in your bed while your sleeping. So I guess that's going to be a pretty fun adventure here as it gets a little bit hotter. Haha also, we had my very first zone conference on Friday and it was amazing!! President Henderson is so awesome and I learned so much! I am so grateful to have such a great man leading this mission. I know that he has been called to do so and he is doing a great job. It was also really important to give us motivation and energy that was starting to fade as the week got longer. So that was awesome! I don't know why I thought that the field would be any easier than the MTC, but I was wrong. Hahah some days we have 7 hours of straight contacting because appointment after appointment falls through. I sure hope that we can fix that this week!
The last great thing that happened was that I was asked to give a talk in church yesterday! It was really crazy and Elder Fu (The Chinese Training Leader who we live with) asked me to give a 20 minute talk on the teachings of Harold B. Lee. Then after discovering that the book about Harold B. Lee was only in Chinese characters, he kindly changed the assignment to a 10 minute talk on the Restoration. So I accepted and I was really nervous. I didn't know if I was going to have 10 minutes straight of things to say on the Restoration. In lessons, I can ask questions and gather my thoughts a little bit, but not when giving a talk! So I prayed and worked to give this talk and then on Sunday morning, he came in and said that the second speaker had cancelled and he needed me to make it as long as possible. So for some strange reason I told him that I would go for 20 if he needed and he was happy about that. Haha so that was pretty crazy of me and I honestly don't have good enough Chinese to speak meaningfully on the restoration for 20 minutes. But it was all good because the Holy Ghost has perfect Chinese. I got up there and basically trusted that the words to speak would be put into my mouth. I decided to just go up with a couple note cards too so I was very nervous. But, I gave the talk and sat down and to my absolute shock, I spoke for 21 minutes. So now, I can honestly say that the longest I have ever spoken in sacrament meeting has been in a foreign language haha. I was so grateful for the opportunity because our area is the only one with enough Chinese members for a Chinese branch. My companion has only spoke in church in Chinese once and he goes home in two weeks. So what an opportunity that my Heavenly Father gave me to learn and grow!
I am so grateful for all of the blessings that I am experiencing out here. I know the power of the Holy Ghost and I know that as we each continue to follow our Savior and allow the Atonement to work in our lives, we will be blessed and changed for the better.
Love and miss you all! Have a great week!
Elder Jackson
Some fun things have been happening to me recently though haha. Like one is that our flat gets cockroaches pretty bad in the summer. We've already seen heaps and Elder Wood says that it gets a lot worse. I'm going to try and figure out how they get in and keep the flat clean so I guess we'll see. He said that it's pretty bearable until they get in your bed while your sleeping. So I guess that's going to be a pretty fun adventure here as it gets a little bit hotter. Haha also, we had my very first zone conference on Friday and it was amazing!! President Henderson is so awesome and I learned so much! I am so grateful to have such a great man leading this mission. I know that he has been called to do so and he is doing a great job. It was also really important to give us motivation and energy that was starting to fade as the week got longer. So that was awesome! I don't know why I thought that the field would be any easier than the MTC, but I was wrong. Hahah some days we have 7 hours of straight contacting because appointment after appointment falls through. I sure hope that we can fix that this week!
The last great thing that happened was that I was asked to give a talk in church yesterday! It was really crazy and Elder Fu (The Chinese Training Leader who we live with) asked me to give a 20 minute talk on the teachings of Harold B. Lee. Then after discovering that the book about Harold B. Lee was only in Chinese characters, he kindly changed the assignment to a 10 minute talk on the Restoration. So I accepted and I was really nervous. I didn't know if I was going to have 10 minutes straight of things to say on the Restoration. In lessons, I can ask questions and gather my thoughts a little bit, but not when giving a talk! So I prayed and worked to give this talk and then on Sunday morning, he came in and said that the second speaker had cancelled and he needed me to make it as long as possible. So for some strange reason I told him that I would go for 20 if he needed and he was happy about that. Haha so that was pretty crazy of me and I honestly don't have good enough Chinese to speak meaningfully on the restoration for 20 minutes. But it was all good because the Holy Ghost has perfect Chinese. I got up there and basically trusted that the words to speak would be put into my mouth. I decided to just go up with a couple note cards too so I was very nervous. But, I gave the talk and sat down and to my absolute shock, I spoke for 21 minutes. So now, I can honestly say that the longest I have ever spoken in sacrament meeting has been in a foreign language haha. I was so grateful for the opportunity because our area is the only one with enough Chinese members for a Chinese branch. My companion has only spoke in church in Chinese once and he goes home in two weeks. So what an opportunity that my Heavenly Father gave me to learn and grow!
I am so grateful for all of the blessings that I am experiencing out here. I know the power of the Holy Ghost and I know that as we each continue to follow our Savior and allow the Atonement to work in our lives, we will be blessed and changed for the better.
Love and miss you all! Have a great week!
Elder Jackson