On Monday we had the longest day of my mission so far. We were awake for 19 hours straight! We got up at 4:30 to go watch the sunrise with the district and that was a good time to get to know each other even more. After that, we grabbed some grub and went to choir practice down by the temple. Singing is getting more and more enjoyable and I am slowly developing that skill! We came back to our neck of the woods with 2 other companionships and we all hung out on the wharf and had a solid time. Then before you knew it we had bought groceries and had to get back to the missionary work grind! We visited an awesome family in the ward and when we got to what we thought was their apartment on the 17th floor it turns out we were in the wrong building... So we walked down SEVENTEEN flights of stairs and made it to the right building to share our message! Those stairs were quite arduous, to say the least.
Tuesday was a busy but super good day! We had our first district council in 3 weeks and it was quite enlightening. We have some really good discussions to go along with our theme of #become. After the council, we had a lesson with one of our only solid people. Lately, we have been struggling a little bit in the people being taught department so we are in a rebuilding sort of phase I feel like. It is going well though and the lesson about commandments went well! As we were biking back to town my tire was being depleted of air and so we went to a scooter shop and I asked the dude to add some air for me and he not only added air but also added oil to my chain and hooked me up good! It is the little things in life that make the biggest difference. Speaking of little things we had a dinner with a member (he was the one in New York on his mission during 9/11) and it was such a good thing to happen. It was a great way to end the night! After that, we just finished studies so nothing too exciting. I did give my bike a name! A lot of missionaries name their bikes so I named mine, and the name I chose is Emma! I don't know why but it just sounds good to me! Miracles are brewing over here I am excited to see them manifest soon!
Wednesday was a roller coaster! We did a lot of studies and such but even though we didn't have a lot of time to find people we still used our time super effectively and were able to talk to people along the way between our scheduled items. I love the time we have at stop lights to talk to people because you can meet so many interesting people! It is a good way to practice talking in Chinese. We also had English class and I had an awesome burst of revelation to help a student in my class. He is trying to pass a test so he can live his dream and he is struggling with accents. I was thinking about it today and it came to me how I can help him! He is not a member of the church but I am going to start sending him a conference talk from someone who has an accent, for example, Elder Uchtdorf! When I told him this idea he was so happy!! It is not only a good way to help him hear different accents but also get some gospel influence in his life! Personal revelation is so real and everyone is entitled to it. If we live worthy of it it is ours for the taking! Lesson learned from today.
Woah Thursday was such a great day! And I know that because after all was said and done I felt like God was pleased with our efforts and I felt great about what we did! We had three lessons today, a new member lesson, a first-time lesson, and another lesson with our progressing friend. All of them went well and we are trying to help our progressing friend quit smoking and he has already made leaps and bounds of progress so I have great faith in him. Today I also had a great "small things" moment. There was some extra ice cream and Coke in the fridge of the chapel and so I made Elder Pope and I some Coke Floats and we watched some Bible videos as part of our companionship study and at that moment I just felt super happy and great about life. The power is in the small things! Today was amazing and I am so lucky to have been able to live it first-hand!
Friday was pretty normal. We had to do our weekly planning session and make some awesome friends for all of our awesome people being taught! That took a long time though so by the time we finished it was time for our daily ministering and then we had to buy some dodge balls for an activity with the youth. Then before you know it it is almost 10 o'clock and we are rolling up to our flat. The day flew by! Another awesome thing that happened today is that I passed my Book A test! The mission has a language learning program based on three books. Book A, Book B, and Book C. A is gospel words based on the lessons they appear in, B is everyday words you would use on the street and C is characters specifically. So today I passed off Book A which means I can start studying more common words and increase my overall Mandarin vocabulary. There are 2700 words I need to learn by next March (the goal I set with President to have it passed off), and I couldn't be more excited! I am also becoming more proficient in Zhuyin which is the keyboard that the natives use. Basically, today was a big day for language learning improvement!
Of all the days to not go as planned, Saturday was the most different from our plans. The reason being that we had a dodgeball game in the morning with some youth (we are supposed to do an activity with the youth every week, and if we don't President says our week is incomplete). The result of those games was a Sister going to the hospital with a broken nose after colliding with Elder Pope. Elder Pope is OK but he sparked up a previous back problem so he was out for the count for the whole day with a hurt back. The only time we were out of the apartment after that was for meals. That is why the day did not go to plan because we didn't even make one! I got a lot of organizing of my personal stuff done so I am feeling good about the whole situation thus far but I am hoping and praying for Elder Pope's speedy recovery.
Sunday was sweet! Church went well though we got there late because the bus we planned on taking was late. It is all good because we were still able to partake of the sacrament and that is what's most important! Our time after church was pretty slow paced. We just did some studies and walked around town to meet up with some people and trying to grind out the work! It felt good to walk around and get some nice fresh air inside us. Elder Pope is feeling better but it is still a slow process. I am making sure he doesn't overdo it and can be 100% as soon as possible!
What a week! Hope everyone is doing great and know that I pray for you all constantly! Love you all so much!
宋長老
Elder Ciminski
Wednesday was a roller coaster! We did a lot of studies and such but even though we didn't have a lot of time to find people we still used our time super effectively and were able to talk to people along the way between our scheduled items. I love the time we have at stop lights to talk to people because you can meet so many interesting people! It is a good way to practice talking in Chinese. We also had English class and I had an awesome burst of revelation to help a student in my class. He is trying to pass a test so he can live his dream and he is struggling with accents. I was thinking about it today and it came to me how I can help him! He is not a member of the church but I am going to start sending him a conference talk from someone who has an accent, for example, Elder Uchtdorf! When I told him this idea he was so happy!! It is not only a good way to help him hear different accents but also get some gospel influence in his life! Personal revelation is so real and everyone is entitled to it. If we live worthy of it it is ours for the taking! Lesson learned from today.
Woah Thursday was such a great day! And I know that because after all was said and done I felt like God was pleased with our efforts and I felt great about what we did! We had three lessons today, a new member lesson, a first-time lesson, and another lesson with our progressing friend. All of them went well and we are trying to help our progressing friend quit smoking and he has already made leaps and bounds of progress so I have great faith in him. Today I also had a great "small things" moment. There was some extra ice cream and Coke in the fridge of the chapel and so I made Elder Pope and I some Coke Floats and we watched some Bible videos as part of our companionship study and at that moment I just felt super happy and great about life. The power is in the small things! Today was amazing and I am so lucky to have been able to live it first-hand!
Friday was pretty normal. We had to do our weekly planning session and make some awesome friends for all of our awesome people being taught! That took a long time though so by the time we finished it was time for our daily ministering and then we had to buy some dodge balls for an activity with the youth. Then before you know it it is almost 10 o'clock and we are rolling up to our flat. The day flew by! Another awesome thing that happened today is that I passed my Book A test! The mission has a language learning program based on three books. Book A, Book B, and Book C. A is gospel words based on the lessons they appear in, B is everyday words you would use on the street and C is characters specifically. So today I passed off Book A which means I can start studying more common words and increase my overall Mandarin vocabulary. There are 2700 words I need to learn by next March (the goal I set with President to have it passed off), and I couldn't be more excited! I am also becoming more proficient in Zhuyin which is the keyboard that the natives use. Basically, today was a big day for language learning improvement!
Of all the days to not go as planned, Saturday was the most different from our plans. The reason being that we had a dodgeball game in the morning with some youth (we are supposed to do an activity with the youth every week, and if we don't President says our week is incomplete). The result of those games was a Sister going to the hospital with a broken nose after colliding with Elder Pope. Elder Pope is OK but he sparked up a previous back problem so he was out for the count for the whole day with a hurt back. The only time we were out of the apartment after that was for meals. That is why the day did not go to plan because we didn't even make one! I got a lot of organizing of my personal stuff done so I am feeling good about the whole situation thus far but I am hoping and praying for Elder Pope's speedy recovery.
Sunday was sweet! Church went well though we got there late because the bus we planned on taking was late. It is all good because we were still able to partake of the sacrament and that is what's most important! Our time after church was pretty slow paced. We just did some studies and walked around town to meet up with some people and trying to grind out the work! It felt good to walk around and get some nice fresh air inside us. Elder Pope is feeling better but it is still a slow process. I am making sure he doesn't overdo it and can be 100% as soon as possible!
What a week! Hope everyone is doing great and know that I pray for you all constantly! Love you all so much!
宋長老
Elder Ciminski