September 26, 2011

CAMI IS FREAKING PREGNANT! Man alive. I freaked out for at least 8 minutes straight when I got that letter. What am I going to do with a 6 month old Brami running around when I get home! haha. I can't even comprehend it right now. My guess is a girl, too. Just cause brad's so whiney.

This week has been pretty great. We went to the temple this morning, and took a detour through Hollywood on our way back. That city will probably sink first in the 2nd coming... haha. But we got to see all the cool sights... and we drove past the Pantages Theater which flooded me with memories of Wicked with the Bergquists... haha. Good times.

I've actually been sick all week. I'm finally getting better today, but I've been stuffed up and coughing like crazy all week, it's been pretty dumb. Elder Wong is doing well, sometimes he gets on my nerves like crazy though. He's quite lazy, so I feel like I'm pushing him all the time, which in turn makes me feel like a huge jerk, haha. But things are going well. He's learning. and for some reason he also thinks I'm the funniest person on the planet, so that's nice too. We had a mission conference this Friday, a lady  came and spoke to us about how to do member missionary work. It was incredible! I've always wanted to work with members the best I can, but It's hard to figure out the best way. She outlined everything for us which has given me a vision and a way to accomplish it! We've been able to build lots of trust with our members this past week, which is going to change everything we do in Chinese work. I'm really excited!

I don't have so much time today but I love you all! Keep working hard and being good... everything will work out.     и稲琌程產畑

September 19, 2011

Hello!

   This week has been pretty great. Things were slowing down for a while but they're starting to pick back up again. We've had to drop a few investigators this week, but doing that has given us time to find the people that are even better prepared. Training Elder Wong has been way fun. I learn a ton every day from training, and the responsibility makes me work a lot harder than I think I can.

   We had a ward party this week for the "mooncake festival." The missionaries put on a little play about the story of the holiday, it was super funny! I'll have to send some pictures some time. Our relationship with the ward has been getting a lot better, which is awesome because we definitely need that. Our ward has a lot of struggles, people don't like each other and stuff like that. But they're finally getting things figured out, and their trust in the missionaries has grown as well.

  I'm having a hard time thinking of what to write... nothing crazy or exciting happened really! And it doesn't look like i'll get to read an email from you guys today. I hope everything at home is going all right! I think I've prayed for you guys more than I ever have before this week and I'm not really sure why. I love and miss you guys every day, and your guys example drive me to work even harder. Always be good!

love, Ben.

September 12, 2011

Hello fammmmmmmmz.

  I can't believe it's been 10 years since 9-11! that blows my mind. It feels like just yesterday we were watching it on TV before I went to school.

  just to clear things up, I fell out of the tree AFTER Elder Toole called you... and I'm fine. really. I just got a stick stabbed into my side and i didn't pull it out 'till the next day so it's nice and infected for now. But it's healing and doesn't really hurt anymore :) no worries.

 This past week has been okay for the work, we didn't teach as many lessons or find as many people as we hoped, but it's been okay. I'm really trying to change how missionaries work in this area i'm serving in, Mountain View North, and making that transition has been kinda hard but it will pay off in the end. For the past few years all the missionaries in this area have been mostly working in the city of San Gabriel, which is where all the chinese move to when the first come to the Los Angeles area. Because of that, lots of them have no jobs, are really unstable, or illegal. You find a LOT of chinese, but you rarely find the people that are going to last in the church. We're trying to move completely out of San Gabriel up to working all day in Arcadia, because thats where people have stable lives and have families. Those are the people that the Lord has prepared up to the point of being able to accept the restoration in their lives. We're still working on finding the most effective way to work in Arcadia, and because we're showing our faith the Lord has already given us quite a few blessings, we have lots of really good potential investigators, that, if they turn out to be ready to accept the gospel, could make some awesome improvements to our ward. It's kinda hard right now but it will be awesome for the chinese work in the long run! Some sad news though... Lydia and her mom haven't been able to meet with us for a while now and it's not looking like they are going to be able to. She called the other day telling how grateful she is that we could meet with her and teach for this long... which kinda was a hint that she won't be able to teach her anymore :( I don't know if it's her husband, or if it's because she's just to busy. Hopefully we can find out this week.

  Tonight we're teaching the Geng family in our ward. The mom and 18 year old son are members but the father isn't. He's been meeting with missionaries for about 7 years now and has come to church every single week since then, but for some reason he won't get baptized. He even has a sort of calling in our ward as the "ward cook" haha. He cooks for all of our activities. While studying this morning I was thinking all about him and what we could possibly do to help him realize that he needs to be united with his family. I thought a lot about the role of the father in a family and how awesome of an example Dad has been to me. I thought of one certain experience when i was 14 or 15 years old when dad came into my room before I went to bed and said "I want you to know you can tell me anything. no matter what it is, I will not be dissapointed or judge you." Looking back on that, I noticed just how much that one experience has changed my life in so many ways. I've always known I can trust my father. They also have a 5 year old son that they just brought to America from ShanDong, so tonight we're going to teach them the importance of the role of the father. I'm going to share that experience, and I really hope that he'll see how important it is for him to be a good example to his sons by joining the church and partaking in the ordinances of the temple.

    My watch broke again... so i'll probably send that back. I might just buy a cheap one from wal-mart. We'll see. But for now, have another good week! I love you guys!

Love, Ben.

(This is an Elder serving in the Chinese program in Ben's Mission, he is from Beijing China.  Even the Chinese Elder is taller than Ben ;)... but not nearly as handsome!)

September 6, 2011

      I don't have a whole lot of time today but I wanted to shoot an email out! This week has been great. My trainee's name is Elder Wong, he's a good Elder. He was born in America but his parents are from Taiwan, so he can speak Chinese. kind of. But he works hard and is willing to learn, and I really admire that about him. We've had a good first week! We're trying to do new things in this area that will hopefully get the work moving faster and better, and so far we've made some good progress. Lydia's mom, sister Zhang, is set to be baptized on the 18th. But we didn't get a chance to meet with her this past week 'cause she's been pretty busy, so pray that she can still make her date! We've also been meeting with a brother Fu for about 2 months now, he's got a date at the end of the month, but he's kinda crazy so we'll see. He's convinced that because of background of atheism he'll never be able to believe in God. But he's slowly progressing. I fell out of a tree this morning trying to pick fruit for a less-active, it's super painful. But I can deal. Hope you enjoyed that phone call from Elder Toole, mom! he's one of my favorite senior missionaries, haha. Well I wish I had more time but we've got an appointment soon! Have a good week and thanks for the music! I love mindy gledhill... does she have any other CD's? I would love that. And thank you for the cinnamon rolls, they made me gain 10 pounds. love you guys! love, Ben.

(info from Mom... I received a phone call from Ben's Mission this morning!  Of course, I thought something was wrong ;)  Elder Toole (an older senior missionary) said... "No, everything is fine... in fact I am looking at Elder Dixon right now-- he is a great young man."  I made sure Elder Toole told Ben I love him!  They just had some questions about his health insurance that I answered.  Now that I have read this email, I wonder if he really is hurt ;)... Elder Toole said everything was fine, so I choose to believe that!)

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.