Tuesday was pretty run of the mill. Did usual stuff but also had 2 bomb lessons with some super cool people! My Chinese is getting better every day so I'm able to understand and speak a little bit more every lesson! There's honestly not much to say about Tuesday except we got a package of new copies of the Book of Mormon and these are the new translation ones! They recently revamped the translation and we just got a fat box of them. I can't wait to be able to read it!
Wednesday was pretty dang good. We spent the whole day doing studies and English prep. Hopping around from 7s and McDonald's around town till we ended up at our 3rd 7 of the day to finish up language study and prepare for English class. After we finished that it was time for dinner and we rode over to eat with the District. It was Thai food and since I'm not a big fan of that, I picked up some other food and took it with me. While we were riding to dinner though we got stopped by this dude who was pretty wild. He made handmade pottery and sold it and it was actually pretty dope! But his street shop neighbor started talking to us and started noticing how I looked a little confused and then he just went off and started calling me out for not understanding and he said some pretty harsh things that I didn't get until Elder Pope told me. I don't really care. I still smiled and moved on. English class went well and we talked about sleep and then related it to getting a fresh start through the atonement of Jesus Christ and I really felt the spirit as I testified of Jesus. He is truly our Savior and through Him, we can become happier and better people!
Thursday was quite the busy day. We had 4 lessons scheduled but sadly only 2 happened. We also had District Council so between all of our visits and stuff we barely had time for our studies! The first lesson we had went well. The person we were teaching seemed not interested but he brought a friend with him today so we are still gonna try and set up another time with him. Perseverance is crucial! Our second lesson was with a super promising guy and today was our second meeting with him. He came asking us questions about Jesus Christ and his Second Coming. It was pretty wild but thankfully my personal study for the day was a lot about that so we were able to read some scriptures and help him learn more about Jesus Christ and we asked him if he would follow Christ's example and be baptized and he said yes! A lot of the people we have baptismal goals with I am a little worried about but I'm not worried about this friend and I'm gonna have faith in all of our other people with goals will happen as well! Elder Pope's bike broke today so we had to go to the local bike shop and get it fixed. While we were walking to it we saw the sister's bikes and I noticed one of the bikes didn't have grips on it (they were on exchanges so it was a lesser used bike used mostly for exchanges). While we were at the bike store I decided to buy some grips for that bike (I also bought a slick bicycling hat that Dad would be proud of
Friday was an unexciting day. We did have a lesson though which was a pass off from the Sisters and the dude tried to give us bing lang. Bing lang is basically the Taiwanese equivalent of chewing tobacco and it makes your teeth red and gnarly and gross. This guy tried to give us some and when we said no, he kept on trying to force us to do this stuff but we kept on saying no. He got a little offended but this old guy walked up to him and told him to respect our wishes and we were so grateful for him. Turns out he is from New York and now I know that New Yorkers got your back! Wild lesson, but he said he would come to General Conference so that's good! The rest of the day we didn't get to do a lot since we had to do weekly planning. Elder Pope and I also talked a lot today about life stuff and we were able to bond and grow closer through that! Elder Pope is truly an awesome guy and I love him a bunch! We also had this old missionary that went home about 9 weeks go pop by our apartment and visit us. I didn't know him but he reminded me a lot of Chicken Joe from Surfs Up. A super chill dude but cool. I can't wait to watch Conference tomorrow!
Sunday was a good day! Not much happened but we finished up watching conference! It was cool to see Elder Carpenter speak since he is from our ward in Colorado! He's the one who invited me to write in my journal every day on my mission and so far I haven't missed a day. Super cool stuff and I loved hearing President Nelson speak. He's so powerful and I loved hearing his message about using the correct name of the Church! I definitely could be better about that. After Conference, it was just studies and eating so nothing else exciting!
I love you all a bunch and am constantly praying for you all!
我愛你們!
宋長老