Happy B-day EJ!

Dear Family,
   Sounds like it has been a great week! Can't believe Ethan is 12 years old.. that is awesome! So proud of that guy. I'll send you a little present today, EJ!
   This week has been good for us as well. Lily, her son James, andKyle were all baptized yesterday. James flew in to America on Wednesday, we taught him Thursday and Friday, and then baptized him on Sunday. It worked out great! All this time Lily had told us that hewas 8 years old, but Chinese people say their age by the year they'rein not by the actual date, but it worked out PERFECTLY because James' birthday was on Saturday... the day before! We didn't know that when
we set the date... but the Lord did. That was a miracle. Lily's husband came to church and was really touched by the baptism, we'll be working on him to be baptized in June :) He just has Word of Wisdom problems, but the other man that got baptized yesterday, Kyle, after he was baptized he bore his testimony about how the gospel helped him quit smoking and drinking, so it worked out perfectly. We're excited for the things to come.
   My companion is crazy trunky. He still works pretty hard, he justtalks about home A LOT.  I'm pretty sure I know everything about Snowflake, Arizona. This is the 3rd missionary I've sent home though so I'm kinda used to it. We had a trunky experience on Saturday. The English ward in the building we meet at held a "star wars marathon" at the stake center to find more investigators (yes, only in California would they do that) ... all 6 episodes in one day. One of our investigators sons (6 years old) asked if we could go and translate it for him... so we got permission from President. We watched half of episode 4 and we just couldn't take it anymore! haha. Star wars is hard to translate, there is no word for "storm trooper" or "death star". It was a good time though.

   Our zone has done AWESOME this month. We're so happy with all the missionaries in this zone. We set a goal of 12 baptisms for the zone, and we got 12. We set a personal goal of 4, and got 5! So the Lord has really been blessing us. President is happy and pleased, so that feels good.
  I love those pictures of Ty and Kalvin, hahaha. He's growing up so much, can't believe it. I'm excited to have yet another boy in the family! That's all we get, but none of us know anything different so it works out great! How many months is Kelly now?
  Well I love you guys, thanks for everything. I'm sorry if my emails
are boring, haha. Hope everybody is happy!

Mother's Day!

 (Ben skyped from this couples home for Mother's Day just hours after they were baptized!  So amazing!)

Fam,

  Long time no talk! It was so good to see you guys yesterday. Everybody looks so good! Noah looks so darn mature, I can't believe that. Don't let it get to his head! haha. I'm sorry if I didn't sound excited or anything, I was feeling kinda sick yesterday. But nonetheless it was still so good to talk to and see you all. Kalvy is all grown up and Asa is so cute.

  We got a call this morning from President, and we're having to work out an emergency transfer in our zone... so it's been kind of a hectic morning. But hopefully it will wake up some of the missionaries and make them start remembering why they're here. We have been blessed with a lot of really obedient missionaries in this zone, there's just those certain few that throw a rock into the picture :) I'm excited for a new week. We'll be working on turning all those people that came to church yesterday into solid good investigators. 2 families came yesterday, so we're excited about that. Families are a rare sight in the chinese ward. It's difficult sometimes, because chinese wards breed english wards here in america. The kids usually end up switching at some point. So growth is a difficult process in our ward. We just need the miracle of baptizing 100 families. Then all would be well :)

  Well. I pretty much told you guys everything about everything yesterday, so I don't really know what to say! Except that I love you guys like crazy. I'm grateful that I have such a good support base as a family. In todays world we see so many broken families, but it's good to know that ours never will be. love you guys!

Ben.

Great week

Family,

   It's sure great to be hearing about what goes on around at home, I'm grateful for that. Thank you for always keeping me updated. And that's cool about the Priesthood Training sessions you guys have, dad. It's amazing how much training and preparation the church does behind the scenes. It's definitely one of the most amazing aspects of the church. Information and knowledge is always being taught, trained, and passed down from the prophet and the apostles. I think thats why they structure missions like they do. Revelation is given to the president, taught to the assistants, trained to the zone leaders, trained to the district leaders, and then given to everyone else. They're training us to be future leaders in the church. So cool! Speaking of which, transfers calls were this weekend. Elder Fish and I will be going one more as Zone Leaders here in Rowland Heights. He goes home this transfer, so be expecting some changes in six weeks. My DREAM is that Elder Tryon will come and be a zone leader with me. We would do so well together. We'll see!

  This week has been so great. We are teaching so many people right now, it's hard to keep track of. We have a goal for 6 baptisms this month, and it's definitely feasible. Jonah and Autumn are getting baptized this Sunday, mothers day. :) They are so excited. Autumn is 8 months pregnant and HUGE, so that'll be interesting. We're praying she doesn't pop before she can be confirmed. Kyle will be baptized the week after. Jonah and Autumn introduced to two of their friends that should also be baptized soon. Lily introduced to her friend Sylvia, and they should both be baptized at the end of the month. Lots of miracles are happening. We're working hard, and could always be working harder. I'm excited for the things to come.

  I've been studying a lot this week about tender mercies from the Lord. I wanna copy an entry from my study journal this week.

   May 5th, 2012, "I'm thinking, mostly pondering about the Lord's tender mercies. I don't have a very clear question or goal in mind, other than I know I should be studying this. In D&C 46:15 it says about the Lord that he "[suits] his mercies according to the conditions of the children of men." This tells us and bears testimony that the Lord lives. He is not just some great unmeasurable power that is intangible and incomprehensible, but he is a living being that watches closely and cares deeply for each one of us. He gives us according to our needs. How do we continually receive and notice that we receive these tender mercies? Alma 34:38 puts it into great perspective... "Contend no more againts the Holy ghost, but that ye receive it, and take upon you the name of Christ; that ye humble yourselves even to the dust, and worship God, in whatsoever place ye may be in, in spirit and in truth; and that ye live in thanksgiving daily, for the many mercies and blessings which he doth bestow upon you." This scripture lists out some great things we are to do to show our gratefulness for receiving tender mercies, which I believe is also the way we continue receiving more of them. When we are grateful, the Lord is more willing to send more, because we notice more. I love the line "live in thanksgiving daily"... the word 'live' has an obvious conotation to words like 'continuously' or 'without stopping'. In other words, giving thanks is not an action we perform, but a state of being that we live in, in which if we live in that state, his grace and mercies are abundantly upon us. No matter who you are, or what skills or talents you have or don't have, this principle and promise are the same. Truly the Lord is more concerned with our availability, not our capability, because he knows our possibility."

  

  I'm so grateful for morning studies. I don't know what I'd do without them.

  Well. I love you guys. By the way I'll be using skype next week to talk to you guys... :) Can't wait! See you guys Sunday!

love, Ben.

Extending for Life!

HELLOOOO.

  I love this week. The Lord is just pouring out blessings on this area right now, and all I can pray for is that my weaknesses won't get in the way of the work. Everybody we're finding is prepared, and it's just a miracle. Alice brought her daughter to church yesterday, and we're meeting with her this week. That family will soon be completed! President Becerra came to our ward yesterday and dominated Alice and her daughter with the spirit, so she pretty much has no choice now. :) We're also working with another incredible couple, Jonah and Autumn (we named them). They're from Beijing and came here to have their first baby, they're going back in July. They found us through english class. They came to church yesterday, and the gospel principles teacher (GENIUS) got them to come up in front of the class and share their feelings on prayer. Autumn sounded like a prophet! She was so profound. The crazy thing is, she has grown up a qiancheng (you'll have to look up the translation, I can't remember) buddhist her whole life, and over the course of a week and a half, her and her husband can't go a day without reading the scriptures and praying together. I LOVE THE SPIRIT. Also, Lily is doing great as well. She has been SO involved in every church activity so far, and we are hardly even doing anything. She came to our stake's Mormon Helping Hands service project. She has made so many friends and the ward loves her. She has a goal to be baptized with her husband and son on June 17th (they don't come to America until May 23rd). Alice referred one of her friends from work to us, Kyle, and he has a goal to be baptized on may 20th. He gave up smoking last Tuesday, and gave up drinking yesterday! The spirit has just been working on him like crazy. ANOTHER miracle is, we were filling up gas the other day, and Elder Fish felt prompted to talk to the guy next to us, his name's Jack. Turns out he had met with missionaries 4 years ago, before he joined the navy. We met with him 2 days later, and he told us about his struggle to have the spirit with him at all times. The last time he was baptized, he wasn't required to make any changes in his life and he felt like he was still living an unclean worldly life, and he wants to change that. He has a goal to be baptized on May 27th. We met with him and our Stake President last night (his english is pretty good), and set up a plan to reach his baptismal date with him.  We have a goal to baptize every week of next transfer... and I really believe we can accomplish that goal.

  My favorite thing about being a zone leader is doing baptismal interviews. I interviewed a young lady named Sarah the other day, and it was a sweet experience. She told me of the changes she's had to make in accepting the gospel, and the experience she had when she knew the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. The spirit prompted me to have her write her testimony in a new Book of Mormon, and she committed to give it out within a week of her baptism. It's just amazing. There really is no way this gospel cannot be true, the spirit works on people in ways that are unimaginable and indescribable. It changes people for the better, and only for the better. I know the gospel is true.

 Well I love you guys. CONGRATULATIONS to Noah on getting his eagle. I told you I didn't think you'd get it before I came home, and you proved me wrong. Like usual. Can't wait to see baby Asa. It's sooner than I can even comprehend. I don't wanna go home... I'm extending for life.

 

Ben.