August 29, 2011

  Glad you guys had a great weekend in Vegas! But i'm gonna skip the comments about your email and jump straight to the big news. Got transfer calls on Saturday... I'm training this transfer! I'm not exactly sure why President Becerra picked me, honestly. i'm the freshest of the chinese elders... but I know God does things in His own way. I'm kinda nervous, but mostly just way excited. I'm pretty sure he's a native, not exactly sure where he's from though. He comes in tomorrow. I'm way excited, I feel like with this new start that It'll be a lot easier to not hold anything back anymore. I can be at 100% all the time, especially because this new missionary's next 2 years depends on his first impressions of missionary work! I've already planned some things and set up some good appointments that'll be sure to get him off to a good start... it'll be a good time!

  It was sweet to look at all the pictures of Grampa Jack, I miss that guy. I'll try to write him today! It'll be a super busy day though so I'm not sure if I'll get any letters sent out. But tell him one will be coming in the next couple weeks. It was cool to see that picture of the whole Huntington fam, one day I hope accomplish the handlebar mustache just as Uncle Scott has... a man of men! It has been SO HOT this week by the way, I could possibly die of heat stroke in the coming days. Who knows.

  We set a baptismal date for Lydia's mom this week, she's doing great! They love coming to church, more than I've seen in any investigator of ours. The ward has fellowshipped them so well. In our lesson with her on Saturday, we asked her what she feels like when she comes to church, and she said it's a feeling of peace that she can't describe. Of course, that's the normal answer for missionaries and that's what we expect because we know how the Holy Ghost works, but she doesn't! She's slowly learning through her own experiences how the spirit works... it's an incredible process to be a part of.

well I love you guys! hope the littles are having fun in school... is Noah still considered a "little"? haha. He always will in my eyes. have a good week!

Love, Ben.

August 22, 2011

Picture of the FISH Ben ate this week... hmmm..

 

     Hahaha man those pictures of you whitewater rafting are freaking sweet! And mom... I always thought my love for extreme sports came from Dad, but I guess I was wrong. haha. too cool.

  This week has been a great one! Our little vietnamese family were all baptized yesterday :) it was one of the sweetest baptismal services I've been to so far. Meiho, the mom, told us her conversion story from her point of view. She's been working at this one restaurant for a while, and everyday she rides her bike home on the same route. But for some reason one day she decided to take a different route home. And thats when she met the missionaries, on the corner waiting for the light to tell her she could walk across the street. She met with us a few times, came to church, and then she brought her oldest son to meet with us. They met with us a few times, came to church, and then she brought her next son to meet with us. Meiho commited to be baptized, and because of their strong family relationship the kids decided to follow their moms example. Such an awesome family. President Becerra interviewed her for baptism, and during Stake Conference yesterday he shared her conversion story and even though he couldn't understand her language, he knew from just looking into her eyes how good of a mom she is. it's all just been so awesome. I've gotten to know President pretty well this past transfer, he's an incredible man. He is very personal and loves the chinese work, and is planning to make some changes to it as well. He wants more chinese elders, so we'll see how that goes! He puts a lot of trust into our small little unit.

  Because Elder Au is leaving next week... everyone is feeding us like crazy. It's almost not even fun anymore, haha. I'll have a good time next transfer trying to lose all the weight I've gained! One of our less-actives took us to the Arboretum in Arcadia this week, it was so cool! It made me miss my camera like crazy, though. oh well. I sent some pictures of it. I also attached a picture of me and Lydia, and a picture of the huge fish I ate this week. mmm.

  I can't think of anything for you to send me in a package... I could use some new music! maybe the latest Alex Boye album if possible. Or anything. I love you guys! have a good week.

love, Ben.

 

Ben with "Lydia"

 

At the Arcadia Arboretum with a less active member!

 

August 15, 2011

helllooooo.

   Man, you guys are going around having all this fun after I leave. haha. Sounds like a good time! and EJ looks so pro in those diving pictures! I'm impressed. I can't believe Matt and Natalie already have a baby, it feels like we just went to their wedding not to long ago, awesome!

   This week's been a good one. I think I pushed myself harder than I ever have and the blessings really came out. Brother Jin was confirmed in sacrament yesterday, and Meiho, Zhineng and Zhiwen are all getting baptized next Sunday. We're really excited for that. This week we started teaching a really special family. A mom and her 7 year old daughter. They've been in America for about a month now, so they're still adjusting to everything. We knocked on her door and invited her to a church tour, she was hesitant at first but she eventually accepted. She knew absolutely NOTHING about Jesus or anything, it was a really hard lesson to give and I didn't think it went very well at all, but she still agreed to bring her daughter to church. So yesterday they came and our ward moved upon them and fellowshipped them SO well! It was incredible, they usually have the hardest time fellowshipping new people. But the spirit really moved upon them yesterday and they made such good friends with this lady and her daughter. They were taken care of so well, we hardly had to do anything. And then they came to our wards family home evening last night and had a blast. It's so cool to see the mom, Zhang, just in 3 days develop the habits of a follower of Christ. She went from never saying or even hearing a prayer to saying the closing prayer in one of the church meetings in just 3 days. :) so cool. And one of my favorite parts of working with these people in America is they always trust us missionaries to choose english names for them... So last night I named the daughter Lydia, after the band :) it's such a pretty name and fits her perfectly! Theres also lots of Jordans, Brysons, and Scotts flowing in and out of our english class, too. haha. Nobody has accepted the name Noah or EJ yet though... they don't seem to like them very much. haha. One of the Scotts is set to be baptized this month! I'm determined to baptize each one of my friends... haha.

So today I thought I'd update you guys on all the weird food I've eaten since I've been out. All types of squid, octopus, fish head, fish tail, pig intestine, pig stomach, curdled pigs blood (yes, they really eat it.), pork tongue, actually pretty much every part of the pig, molded vegetables, and theres more that I can't think of. I've stopped asking what the food is, actually. I think my favorite is the pig stomach, it's super good.

Well I hope everyone at home is happy! keep being good! love you guys.

Love, Ben.

1st Baptism!

 

 

Hello!

  We've had a great week this week. Jin DeTao was baptized on Sunday! :) It was an awesome experience. He's one of my favorite people that I've ever met. Super funny and super solid. He gave his testimony during the service and I was nervous that he'd start telling dirty jokes or something, but he gave a super powerful testimony, especially about the restoration and the atonement. He was super grateful to the missionaries for helping him quit smoking after 36 years, but I honestly feel like we hardly helped him at all with that. He truly relied on the atonement for everything. Awesome guy. We've also got 4 more baptismal dates set for this month, the cantonese/vietnamese family of 3 is scheduled to be baptized on the 21st. They're an awesome family, they read the book of mormon in vietnamese every night as a family, and the mom is making huge changes in order to apply the gospel into her family's life. We were able to give her a blessing the other day, and it was easy to tell the faith she had in the priesthood after that. And she's the only one that understands mandarin so I can communicate with her, haha. We've been teaching and finding a lot more these past few weeks, and it feels so good just to watch things play out in the Lords way. Our ward is struggling though, for the past few months we've only had about 60 people showing up to sacrament every week. So these next few weeks, now that we're able to eat with members again, we're really trying to focus on getting the ward re-involved in missionary work. I feel like i'm finally catching a vision of what I want my whole mission to be like, and I'm slowly being able to put it all together and make it happen.

   Sounds like you guys have had a rough week with all the sicknesses! I've been sick this week as well, but nothing that'll kill me. :) Hope everyone is feeling better by now! We had an awesome zone conference yesterday, I love President Becerra. He really knows exactly what he's doing, and he knows the doctrine so well. He's always making new changes and trying new things, like he just put texting on all our phones. Not that it will really do anything for us because you can't type chinese on american phones... but maybe! haha.

  Things are going well! I'm a happy man. thanks for everything! Enjoy the pictures! I really don't take very many pictures... I'll try to take more. haha. love you guys! Have a good week.

 

Love, ben.

 

August 1, 2011

 

 

Hello!

 Man I can't believe i'm missing Shark Week and the X games... BUT oh well. I guess missionary work is pretty alright. :)

 This week has been a pretty awesome one for us. We've got 4 baptismal dates set for the month of August, so we're pretty dang excited about that. 2 of them are cantonese people though, and all I can really do for them is say the prayer at the beginning of the lesson and occasionally nod my head, but they are awesome! Jin should be being baptized this Sunday, if things go alright! He has to have an interview with President Becerra this Friday, so that's when we'll know for sure. And our other baptismal date is a guy that we picked up this last week, we met him while street contacting outside of an asian supermarket, and then he agreed to come to the church that night and meet with us. He accepted the message of the restoration so well! That lesson strengthened my testimony that people are more prepared than we will ever know sometimes, and if we don't make the effort to reach out to those people, some of them will never get the chance! He's set to be baptized by the end of this month. ALSO we had another miracle happen this week as well. We had about 30 minutes of time to go knock some apartments, so we went to a road that looked pretty promising. It didn't have any parking on it, so we pulled onto the next closest road. We decide to just knock the apartment right in front of our car. It had 5 doors, the first 4 were vietnamese so we almost didn't knock the last one, but we did anyways and it was our former investigator Tyler! He had just gotten back from Shanghai and agreed to start meeting with us again... We had no idea he lived there! It was such an awesome miracle. These experiences really strengthened my testimony that the Lord's work will and must go on. He will shape us into the tools he needs as long as we're worthy and ready. freak man this work is awesome. 

Make sure the ward knows how grateful I am for their support! Their prayers mean a lot. I love you guys! have a good week.

Love, Ben.