I'm so happy to be here

Sept 26, 2006

Dear Family,

I'm always sure to make sure investigators get introduced to members, but really, there's something to be said for the member who will go up to somebody they don't recognize, ask their name, introduce themself, and thank them for coming. That's how all members should be. Just like if one of the girls brought a friend to the house, you wouldn't just wait around until you were introduced, you'd be friendly and make sure they felt welcome immediately. Right? Right. But, yeah, it's easier when missionaries introduce the investigator. Way to go, mom, for taking the time to seek out those you don't know.

This week has been so great. I don't remember anything before Friday, to tell the truth. On Friday, Elder Jensen and I had a planning session and I told elder Jensen, "This is your last transfer. There's no reason we shouldn't get 5 baptisms before you go home." Something sparked at that moment, and we really focused and tightened ship, concentrating on using our time effectively and making our prayers more sincere. That night, we were able to meet a new investigator and set a baptismal date of the 22nd of October with him. His name is Mr. Huang, which means Mr. Yellow. In fact his answering machine says, in English, "This is Mr. Yellow's phone." Heh.

Then Saturday, we had an English class, a car wash, and a wild goose chase. Let me explain the wild goose chase part. At a zone dinner we had, a member told us that 2 mainland Chinese warships had just landed in San Diego Harbor for a few days, meaning that in downtown San Diego there would be several hundred, if not thousands, of mainland Chinese people roaming the streets, never having been exposed to the gospel before. At least, that's what it meant in our minds. So, we grabbed a bucket to stand on for street preaching, 15 Book of Mormons, several pamphlets, and headed for the city. Well, we got downtown, and drove around for about an hour looking for them but they were nowhere to be found. We did, however, have a backup plan to visit a referral in downtown San Diego, but when we got to the address it turned out to be a business. We had been trying to operate on the WWWWD (What would Wilford Woodruff do?) principle, but apparently we left out an important step - to pray and make sure it was the right thing to do. That's an important lesson - before you do something for God that's ambitious, time-consuming, and very out-of-the-box, make sure it's actually something God actually wants you to do.

Speaking of ambitious and out-of-the-box (or, as elder Jensen says, outside-the-rectangular-prism-made-of-cardboard), we've started setting up appointments with leaders of Chinese churches in San Diego. There's about 20 churches. Statistics indicate that if we teach a first lesson to all of them, at least one will eventually be baptized. So, please pray for our success in following the spirit in those lessons. And that we'll be able to get those 5 baptisms this transfer.

We met with Sister Yue on Friday, and worked with her toward a baptism date, but she worked herself up a lot on how soon it was, so we're going to take the pressure off her next time we see her and just pray that she can join in Taiwan when she goes back in a couple weeks.

Sunday, out of the blue, we got a referral of a lady who's very interested in church and wanted to come. So a member picked her up from her home right next to the temple. She, of course, loved it, and is now a new investigator. Her name is Mrs. Jiang. After church we went with the Ongs to drop her off and then to get out and do some work in La Jolla by the temple. We talked to this Indian couple on the way, who were actually investigators and said they were on the road to baptism. That was really cool. The first referral we knocked on was pretty rude, and just said "I'm busy right now," and that was all. I doubt we'll go back. The second referral let us in and we made good friends with him. His name is Gavin and hopefully we're going to help him move tomorrow (thankfully to a place still in the area). He's been taught some by the sister missionaries in la Jolla, but we are teaching him now, since he's Chinese.

Yesterday, we checked on a couple referrals, taught Jimmy... then we went to 99 Ranch with our English table for 2 hours. We had religious discussions with 2 people, and got a phone number of one of the guys, named mister yu, whose father was china's first Christian martyr. That night, we took the Spanish missionaries over to Ronald's house to meet and teach his Mexican friend (the one we took to church) and committed him to read, pray, and meet with them again on Wednesday.

So the work is doing exceptionally well, and I'm so happy to be here. I hope you all are having a wonderful week. I love you all.

Love,
Elder Myers

Conference talks and Chinese restaurants

Dear Family,

Hello! How are you all doing? I'm doing great.

Elder Jensen has 7 weeks left in the mission as of today. He's trying not to think about it too much. He's a big help, but my Chinese is still slowly approaching par.

Michelle, how's school going? Are you enjoying cross country? It's not giving your legs any trouble, is it?

On Sunday we were over at Ronald's house so he could give us a ride to church, and we met a Mexican friend, Herman, that's been living with him for a week. I didn't see any harm in inviting him to come to church with us, so I did. He accepted, and Ronald got him a white shirt and tie to wear. So we brought a Spanish-speaking nonmember to the Chinese branch, and he had a good time. Last night we went to their house for family home evening and showed a conference talk on the multilingual DVDs. We actually watched it in Spanish with English subtitles so that Calvin, Ronald, and Herman could watch it. It went well.

I'm really excited for conference too; I have been for months. Yesterday, we watched several conference talks in Chinese with people. We watched Elder Holland's "Broken Things to Mend" talk (Definitely a top notch missionary talk to give to non-members) with Sister Yue, and it made her cry. It's super-powerful. She's really bummed about having to go back to Taiwan soon. She really likes the church, the missionaries, and everything. She says she'll keep reading and everything when she goes back to Taiwan. I'm not sure that her baptismal date is going to hold - not that she's not ready, but that she doesn't feel ready. That's a common sentiment among most Chinese investigators. She wanted to know so much more. So we gave her "Gospel Principles" book and challenged her to read it within a week. Yesterday, the only real question she had was some confusion from some Jehovah's Witnesses' pamphlets she had been given. We had to explain that the J-dubs were well-intentioned and taught many good things but that they, like other churches, are also part of the confusion of the apostasy, and we have clarity of who God is through the added strength of the Book of Mormon and modern prophets.

And last night, we showed another talk, "Beware the evil behind smiling eyes" to Jimmy, and then again to Ronald (which I already talked about). At Jimmy's house, he had a friend visiting from Vietnam (she's Chinese-Vietnamese) and watched it in Chinese. We then gave her a Book of Mormon and got her contact info. Elder Jensen is going to be in Vietnam in December, and going to try to visit her or something. His brother and sister-in-law live there. They hold church meetings in their house, since the government won't allow them to have a chapel.

On Sunday Morning, we went to the MCRD again to teach the marine boot camp recruits, and we set some baptismal goals with people. It's pretty cool down there. The APs are in charge of the work down there, we just teach lessons. One guy last week came up and told me "I've been coming to church the last several weeks, how do I join?" I don't know how we missed him before, but he'll probably get baptized.

Last night, President Leung took us out to eat at a northern Chinese restaurant, where all 4 dishes were nothing I had ever eaten before. There were some new vegetables, a very spicy lamb, Chinese-style ribs, and a very good marinated smoked duck (not Peking duck). The only thing I was accustomed to was the rice and the water, but it was a very good meal. I think I'll be very good at ordering Chinese food for when we all go to Chinatown in Vancouver... except Vancouver's Chinatown all speaks Cantonese, so maybe I'll have to reconsider.

Sunday night we had a Chinese tractout. 10 branch members teamed up with 10 missionaries, and we got some pretty good leads. I'm excited to see how it turns out. I heard that in my old area they picked up a new investigator from the tract out we had there.

We got a referral for a Chinese family this week who went to temple square and were able to set up an appointment with them. We taught them the basics and invited them to church, but weren't able to get a return appointment. It was nice to have a referral that actually let us teach, though. :)

Thursday we went with the Korean missionaries to help one of their part-member families move from Chula-Vista to la Jolla. All 4 of us helped load the truck, then Elder Jensen went on exchanges with Elder Bates to go teach Sister Yue, while I stayed with Elder Kim to ride up with the non-member husband to go to la Jolla to unload. On the way there (about a 30-40 minute drive), Elder Kim taught him the whole time and committed him to read the Book of Mormon, and from what I hear things are going well. So service does help. We moved him into a 17-story building not far from the temple. I've never been in a residential building that tall before.

On Thursday, Brother Lau, the branch mission leader took us to dinner at the Silver Ark Chinese restaurant and it was really excellent. Not just the dinner, but the conversation. He is a really good leader to work with; he has lots of good ideas and, even better, he actually puts them into practice.

I am about 4 pages from finishing Jesus the Christ, that 793 page whopper. Yes!

And that's about it for this week. I hope you all are doing pretty well and that dad is still recovering. I love you all.

Love,
Elder Myers

Back to Chinese

September 12, 2006
Dear Family,

Well, I'm back down in San Diego now. Elder Gould went home Thursday morning, and I got the call right afterwards to pack and get ready to leave that night. So I spent Thursday saying goodbye to people in Foothill Ranch and that night, the APs picked me up and brought me down to Mira Mesa. I'm with Elder Jensen again.

I had lost a lot of the Chinese. But, the Lord helps me a lot, and it is coming back very fast. I still have about the same listening comprehension as I had just before I left. Speaking is a bit harder, but I can still say what I need to, generally, and I've got Elder Jensen to fill in the gaps. We don't have an English ward right now; we're exclusively Chinese work. We have a car 4 days a week.
We have an investigator named Sister Yue who has a baptism date in 2 weeks and is pretty faithful. We've joined with the Korean Branch in teaching English Class, and now there are LOTS of students, mostly Korean. The Chinese branch hasn't had any baptisms since I left, but a former Hong Kong mission president moved into the ward. Emily's husband moved back and now lives with them here, looking for a job full-time. They come to church every week, but still haven't accepted a challenge to baptism. We have a new Ward Mission Leader named Brother Lau, a very sharp businessman who is extremely on top of everything. Ronald was inactive for a few months, and is now active again. And that's how the branch has changed since I've been there.

As far as things happening while I've been here so far... Ronald and Calvin's dog died on Sunday right before we came over to visit. So we helped them dig a grave in the back yard and we had a memorial service. It was actually a really good experience.

On Sunday morning, we went to MCRD, the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego. There is an LDS branch there that baptizes very regularly. The APs are in charge of the missionary work there. I taught 5 nonmembers at once right after sacrament meeting. 11 other nonmembers were taught by other missionaries. The 5 all committed to read from the Book of Mormon and pray, and to be baptized if they felt that our message was true. There is some promise with some of them.

We taught Jimmy and went to dinner with him yesterday. He is doing really well, and is very faithful. He's had a couple small miraculous healings lately, and he's hoping to be able to walk soon. Jimmy's been in a wheel chair for 20 years, but he can feel something in his legs and he's starting to be able to move his toes. When we gave him a blessing in the hospital last December, a brother from Mesa Arizona was there at the hospital and we had him give the blessing. He blessed Jimmy that he would be blessed with increased mobility and that he'd be able to use that as a testimony of the Gospel. He didn't even know Jimmy was paralized from the waist down. Jimmy is expecting a miracle, but not because he's seeking a sign. He's just that full of faith.

I'm glad Dad is starting to get better. I'm glad we've been blessed with stability. That's great that you were able to do the bike tour and raise so much money.

That's about all that's going on. It's still taking some adjustment, but it's good, and I'm happy here. I love you all, and I hope that all the recoveries go well.

Love,
Elder Myers

Tracting in the park

Dear Family,

So, this week has been interesting. On last Tuesday night I went on exchanges with Ryan Schoessow, who is leaving on a mission in 2 weeks. We tracted and then practiced teaching the first lesson to the family he home teaches. On Wednesday, I went on exchanges with Elder Bird in Lake Forest; we did some gardening in very hot weather for an old lady. That night we taught a lesson to a member family. Thursday, we did service at the library and taught Mary. We also did a lot of finding activities, but I can't remember exactly what we did. On Friday, we planned, and then made a lot of check-backs. No new investigators from it.

On Saturday morning we made another checkback - a Muslim man named Hameed. He let us in and we taught him the message of the restoration. He told us we could come back. He had a couple questions, but I asked president garner how to answer them, so now we're prepared. I don't know if he's sincere about really investigating though.

Jeff Evans got back this week and we taught him. He had done a lot of reading on his vacation, and now he's really excited about what it all means. So, we're working with him. We have a couple appointments lined up for this week - tonight, we're seeing Nadre, and tomorrow night, we're going to visit Jeff.

Also, on Saturday, President Warnick from the mission presidency called and wanted to interview elder Nielson. So we had to go down to Mission Viejo and have him interviewed. It had to do with a false rumor (started by a less-than-stellar missionary) that he had called a girl in his last area and told her he wanted to marry her. Uhh.... whatever. so that got cleared up.
3 times this week, I went to give a baptismal interview for Elder Bird and Elder King's investigator, and 3 times, he didn't show up. He's got a pretty hard crazy life, so I can't condemn him for it, but hopefully the fourth time's a charm. He's supposed to be baptized this Saturday.

On Sunday, I went with Ryan Schoessow on exchanges again, and we went to the park to contact people. It was awesome; we taught a guy while he was washing his truck, then we taught a few other people just hanging around (and left them with commitments), and finally, we approached this couple with 6 kids, and taught them for 2 hours. They had a lot of questions (they had heard a LOT of anti-Mormon stuff) but by the end they were very interested and I got their address and phone number. Unfortunately, it's not in our area, so we'll have to hand them over to other missionaries. They kept telling the kids they can go play, but the kids just sat watching, saying "no, this is interesting."

Monday was labor day, and we got special permission to go play ultimate frisbee with our ward. After that, I went on exchanges with Elder Pebley. Holidays are the BEST days to contact people and to tract. We taught 4 long lessons at the door that day, plus teaching Mary. A couple of those people were REALLY hard-hearted; one man in particular refuses to read any book but the bible. Period. Not magazines, not novels, anything. Uh, okay. How do you teach the restored gospel to somebody like that?

And finally, tuesday, yesterday, we had interviews with President Garner.

We also were able to get in the house of Brother Andre's Taiwanese neighbors. He just asked them if we could go see their huge fish tank, and of course they wanted to show. Then I happened to speak Chinese, and talked to the kids and them, and it was very cool. Brother Andre's going to keep working on them, but now they've at least met the missionaries.
Anyway, that's about all the time I have. Thanks for the letter, Michelle; I'll have to write back, eh?

I hope you're all doing well. I'll make sure to write Grandma and Grandpa and thank them for their awesome support. I love you all.

Love,
Elder Myers