So last week I had my first P-day in the field and it was pretty fun. Much better than the MTC for sure. We started off the morning by going to the Rock Chalk gym for about three hours. The whole zone came down so we did basketball, soccer, and some more basketball! We left and went back to the apartment and started some laundry up (because we are blessed with a washer and a dryer in the apartment.) Other than that we spent a lot of time at the institute building with the zone playing games and having a good time with other missionaries! All in all, an awesome day in the field.
Tuesday was a lot of planning for the week and kinda getting prepared for this next week of work! We planned how we are going to work harder and get more work done! Two years is only so long you need to make every second count! Keep the "eye of the tiger" focus on the work and the purpose. One great thing that happened today was that I found out I could pass off my lessons (since we need to memorize the PMG ones) in Mandarin! Another Elder in the mission speaks Chinese and President gave the approval for me to Skype the Elder and pass off the lessons, HURRAH!! Other than that, Tuesday was a lot of trying to contact but also going to Institute! I got registered so I can start getting credit for it. Hopefully, in Taiwan I can go also! I guess we will have to wait and see. And lastly, Elder Zolik and I tried to bake cookies and they turned out a little less than half-decent, nobody is perfect!
Wednesday was a good day. Also, 1 week of being in Kansas too! Time flies so fast on the mission it's so insane! I'll blink and be sitting back at home wondering what just happened! Today we had a Zone Council Meeting where we talked about things we can do better at as a zone and how we can make our work more effective. It was really good and definitely gave me some good insight. After ZCM we had a zone lunch at this Hawaiian place and it was mega good. They had stickers and I couldn't resist!! I now have 1 sticker on my mission Hydroflask! You know how I am with stickers. Other than that, nothing much happened. We tried to contact somebody and we were successful so we are going to set up a return appointment for her. We also taught a lesson today! It was with two ladies named Tara and Diana. They are nice and we invited them to be baptized! They said they would have to think about it since they have some Word of Wisdom issues. I'm hoping and praying they will be able to take that next step! Only time will tell.
So time did tell and we got the dreaded text that the people from our lesson yesterday no longer want to meet with us and told us to stop coming. A little sad but God has a plan for all his children and we don't know how his timing will work. After that, we decided to go out and knock some doors. The good old fashion tracting grind. We knocked a whole street and only found one person willing to maybe listen so hopefully when we contact them tomorrow it'll go well! We had an appointment with a family today and taught them some Plan of Salvation stuff. They have a lot of deep doctrine questions that are a little challenging. We invited them to come to church and hopefully, they can come! We had an awesome dinner with some members from the ward and we burned Elder Zolik's 1-year shirt because it was his 1-year mark! Another awesome thing that happened was that the sisters in our district asked me to baptize their convert this Saturday!!
Friday was a long day. Probably the toughest yet. We had a good study in the morning with the institute teacher, Brother Mitchell. He's a wizard at the gospel and knows a bunch so he lets us ask him questions and stuff it's awesome! After that, we had studies and stuff and then started with our day. Elder Zolik interviewed the person accepting baptism (the one I baptized). He's all good to go! After driving the YSA elders to a few places we had dinner with a family in the ward. The lady has memory issues and it reminded me a lot of Grandma. She had some cool stories so listening to them a few times was totally cool! We tried to contact some people but once again had nobody answer their doors. It's kinda tough hearing about all the other areas in the zone get a bunch of new people and yet we can't even get a door opened. We'll keep on trying and have faith in the Lord and his timing for people. That was all the highlights from Friday. The weeks are flying by so fast here!
Today was William's baptism! It was such a nice service and I got to baptize him. He's a little bigger and the water shallower. So yeah, they ended having to get another elder in the font to help me get him all the way under. It was a little rough and I feel really bad about it (still)! But the ordinance was done, properly, which is what matters. I still feel bad though! Anyway, other than that we found two potential persons being taught today and so hopefully we can start teaching them! We also had a missionary correlation meeting with the new ward mission leader (he went to Taipei on his mission! He doesn't know much Mandarin though). The work is still progressing here and hopefully, it picks up more!
Sunday was awesome! We had church and that was good. After church as Elder Zolik and I were going to check the meal calendar I got run down by a YSA sister. She asked where I was going after my visa wait (I hadn't said a word to her so I was a little weirded out she knew that.). It turns out she served in the Taipei Mission a couple years ago and she saw my Chinese tags and figured I was going there. We talked a little in Mandarin and it was such a nice thing. I miss talking in Mandarin! As much as I may have disliked it in school I love it so much now! She also told me a lot about Taiwan but probably the most awesome thing she told me is that there is a Taiwanese bakery in town!! I can't wait to go try it! Such a small world. I've had a few people come up and say some Mandarin things to me and it's great. At the baptism yesterday some guy I didn't know read my tag as he walked by and I just started talking to him in Chinese and turns out he went to Taichung! Speaking of Mandarin this week I was trying to say Moroni 10:4-5 in English and halfway through I totally forgot it all! But I knew it in Chinese! It's nice to forget English now...it means my Mandarin is improving! I'm still trying to study every day and trying my best to still improve. Okay, Mandarin tangent over. Sunday was a chill day with not much happening. Though it rained and that was sweet. We spent most of the day in the apartment because apparently they don't want us going out in the rain. A little strange but I'm not here to question rules. Overall it was a good day and we have a fun p-day planned out so it'll be "most excellent".
I love you all so much and hope this week is also most excellent for you all!
Elder Heber Ciminski