3/28/2016 P-Day #75

3/28/2016

Hello family and friends!!

Thanks so much Mom(and family!), Grandma Clark, and Omie and Papa for the packages this week! I hope you all had a great Easter, too!

This week went really well! Our Easter was awesome! On Saturday, we went to our ward's Easter Egg hunt, because we had a lot of investigators coming. It was a lot of fun! Most of them showed up late to the activity, and almost all of the eggs were gone. We felt really bad, but I am sooo grateful for wonderful Primary leaders and children! We distracted our investigator's kids while a member of the Primary presidency and her kids refilled some of the eggs with the candy they found, and went to go hide them out in the park so that our investigators would be able to go find some eggs! It made me really happy to see them reaching out to our investigators! That night, Elder Dyer and I went home and dyed eggs after we planned for the next day! It was a lot of fun! haha

Also on Saturday, we called Tony Ding to see if we could come by and visit his family sometime, and we also asked if he still needed help with some service in his backyard, because he's re-landscaping the whole thing! He asked us to come over around 4:00, and Elder Dyer and I got all excited, because we figured now is our chance to get really tan! But unfortunately we were in the shade the whole time... Oh well. We helped him level out a huge chunk of his backyard, where he's going to be planting a garden. It was a good workout! Afterwards, he asked us to stay for dinner and they made a ton of really delicious food! There was some fish, tofu, beef, and of course, rice! They had this one dish that was beef with some curry, carrots, potatoes, and other vegetables that were really good! I was eating some, and took a huge bite out of what I thought was a potato... It turned out to be a big chunk of ginger! It was nasty! I was very careful after that to make sure I knew what I was eating!

I'm sitting here trying to think about what else happened this week and nothing is coming to mind.. Haha the weekend was just too much fun, I forgot the rest of the week! Oh well.. I'm sure it was super spiritual and full of great memories that I'll remember when I hit "send"...

I hope you all have a good week! Sorry for the short email today.. Next week will be longer! Happy Spring!!!

Love,

Elder Wu

3/21/2016 P-Day #74

3/21/2016

Hellooo family and friends! 

Thanks Mom and fam for the St Patrick's Day package! I hope you all had a happy St Paddy's day! It was pretty boring over here! Haha I don't quite understand why we have this holiday.. but oh well!

This week went really well! The beginning was a little bit slower, but the weekend was amazing!

This Sunday, we had an all Chinese sacrament meeting! We went into the Relief Society room with all the Chinese members, and had our own meeting there! It was amazing. Hands down, my favorite sacrament meeting ever. I didn't have to play the piano, but I was asked to be the chorister, again.. haha I'd much rather be sitting behind the piano instead of standing in front of everybody else! It was really amazing to see a lot of the brothers have the opportunity to bless and pass the sacrament! They have been baptized for a year or two, and this was the first time they got the chance to participate in the sacrament! Sister Lin (Sunny), gave a talk! We asked her just to share her testimony for 3-5 minutes, but she ended up being up there for almost 10 minutes! It was really good! She told the story of her quitting coffee and how the priesthood blessing helped her again, and bore her testimony at the end of how God is real, and He loves us and will help us through our trials! It was so powerful. Then our ward mission leader, Brother Miao, and his wife gave talks. It was just a really amazing meeting! We had about 30 people there, including 8 of our investigators!

We also heard during priesthood opening exercises that youth conference is this next week. We have our investigator, David, who we really want to go! So we pulled him aside and talked to him about it, and he's really excited! He's made really good friends with a priest, Daniel, and unfortunately Daniel won't be able to go to youth conference. :( But we're still excited for the opportunity that David has! If everything goes well, the weekend following will be his baptism!!

We also had the performance for our Chinese choir! It was an Easter musical fireside, so all the wards in the stake had a musical number or two. My favorite song was "Savior, Redeemer of My Soul". Two sisters from one of the wards sang it and a young woman from their ward played the violin with them. It was so beautiful, and the spirit was so strong!! Beforehand, we went to the Miao's house to practice and have dinner. I was playing the piano at that time, because our pianist speaks better Chinese, so she could pause them and tell them where to improve, etc. I was feeling really worried because it sounded reaaally bad... They were trying so hard, but it just wasn't working out right. As we were sitting and listening to the other choirs, my anxiety just grew bigger and  bigger. They were all so good! We were second to last in the program, so we were going to sound even worse compared to the rest of the choirs. But when we got up and performed, it went very very well!! I think it was a good reminder of how if we try our best, and do our best to prepare, Heavenly Father helps us magnify our efforts! People came up afterwards and thanked us for the song, and said they really enjoyed it. It was just another great meeting to get ready for Easter!

I hope you all have a happy Easter! I love and miss every single one of you so much! Have an awesome week! 

Love,

Elder Warren

3/14/2016 P-Day #73

3/14/2016

Hello family!!

I was thinking about how bad I have been lately at responding to letters! I feel like I have been spending all my "free time" trying to study Chinese! So if you have sent me a letter and I haven't responded, I apologize! I'm not ignoring any of you and haven't forgotten! I pray for all of you daily and hope you know how much I care about and miss you all! :)

I'm so excited for Easter! If you haven't seen the Church's new video, Hallelujah, go watch it now! FollowHim.mormon.org! It is so amazing! I feel like this is really the first Easter where I've actually thought about and realized how amazing this holiday is! Christmas is great, because we celebrate the coming of the Savior into the world, but Easter is when we remember and celebrate His triumph over spiritual and physical death! In Chinese, the word for Easter is 复活节 (fu huo jie). 复 (fu) means "again", 活 (huo) means "life", and 节 (jie) just means "holiday"! It think it's a great reminder of why we celebrate Easter! Not only because Christ lives again, but because we all will receive the same blessing! Both spiritually and physically!

This weekend was Sister Lin's (Sunny) baptism! It was amazing! The spirit was so strong during the service! Brother Li was able to baptize her, which made it even better, because he was able to exercise the priesthood authority he holds! What a great opportunity for a new member! She got up at the end of the service and bore her testimony. She told us that when she first met with us, she only wanted to learn English, but what really changed was when we asked her to quit coffee. Coffee was one of her favorite things. She loved drinking it! She told us that when she was in the hospital for a long time after her stroke, her sisters brought her coffee every day, because that's what helped her feel better. She had tried quitting before, but it had never worked. So when we asked her to keep the Word of Wisdom, she was doubtful she could do it. We had given her a priesthood blessing, and she said that after that she just quit. Never drank it again. It was a neat experience, because I didn't know how much she relied on coffee! She was confirmed by another new convert, Brother Xiong, who just received the Melchizedek priesthood a month or so ago!

Brother Miao, our ward mission leader and unofficial Chinese group leader, really wants to pick up the work within the Chinese group. It's slowed down a lot lately, because everyone has just gotten so comfortable hanging out with the English ward. They don't have a lot of responsibility, they just show up and relax, listen to the translation, then go home. So every third Sunday, we are going to have a sacrament meeting with just our Chinese group! I'm very excited! The mission has had Chinese missionaries for 6 years now, and we still don't have a branch, so maybe this will help light the fire that we need! It's also good to help out the new members, especially the brothers! They will actually get a chance to bless and pass the sacrament! Brother Li will be doing in next Sunday with Brother Su, who was baptized a few years ago! I was also given an unofficial calling as the "Chinese group pianist"! Haha I'm also the conductor for our Chinese choir, since the usual conductor is in Taiwan right now! She volunteered us to perform at a fireside on March 20th, but her sister is really sick, so she had to go and see her in Taiwan.. So the responsibility of chorister fell upon me! We'll see how it goes! We're singing "How Firm a Foundation"

I also got to go on bike this week! We went on exchanges with the Jurupa elders, who do not have a car! It was so much fun! I hadn't realized how much I enjoyed being on bike! Well I guess I really enjoyed it because it wasn't hot outside, there wasn't a crazy headwind, and it wasn't raining... but I still liked it! Haha it was a lot of fun! Not that I'm not grateful for my car! It was nice the other day when it was pouring rain, and the wind was blowing like crazy!

Transfers are coming up! It sounds like I'm going to be staying in the area, though! It's nice to have a companion that knows all about the plans for transfers and such! Haha unless they do something totally crazy, I'll be staying in Eastvale with Elder Dyer! Because they added an extra week onto the MTC time for missionaries, this transfer is seven weeks instead of six. So it ends on March 27th!

Well I'm super excited to tell you all about our Chinese sacrament meeting next week! And also how our Chinese choir does on Sunday! It will be a good week!

I love and miss you all!!

Love,

吴长老

Elder Warren

3/7/2016 P-Day #72

3/7/2016

Hello family!

Thanks Mom for the letter this week! I hope all of you had a great week! 

Let's see... This week just flew by like crazy!

Thursday, we had MLC. So we met with President and Sister Mullen, all the zone leaders, and all the sister training leaders to talk about how to help the mission progress! We focused a lot on commitments again, and specifically the three most basic ones we have: church, prayer, and reading the scriptures. One thing that stood out to me, is that I haven't been too good and teaching the "why" behind prayer. We have been super good at teaching the "how"; Dear Heavenly Father.... We thank thee... We ask thee.. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen. But I have failed to help people realize that we pray to build a relationship with God. He is our Father and He wants to help us. He loves us. Prayer is the way that we communicate with Him and how we come closer to Him. 

On Saturday, we were on exchanges with the assistants to the president, and I stayed in Eastvale with Elder Westenskow (who doesn't speak Chinese). I am sooooo very grateful for a loving Heavenly Father that didn't let me crash and burn! I feel like my Chinese improved a ton just for that one day! I definitely wasn't fluent, but I was at least able to make it through all the conversations we had with people! Haha we met with Brother Li and he was asking questions about college tuition and student loans and I was really struggling to answer his questions! Haha, but everything went well! Sunny had her baptism interview and passed! So her baptism will be this upcoming Saturday! I'm so excited for her!

There was one day this week where we didn't have a dinner (there have actually been many days, the ward here has been slacking a little bit!) and we weren't sure what to do. We were just planning on going to some fast food place or try and find something at home. But we were driving around this neighborhood and saw the mom of one of our members, Brother Yu (but she is a nonmember). So we pull over and wave hi to Yu Mama (that's what you call the old single grandmas in Chinese! Haha we also have Brother Su's mom, who we call Su Mama!). We talk to her for a minute out the car window, and Elder Dyer asks her when we get to come eat her homemade noodles again (apparently they are delicious, but I hadn't ever eaten them). So she tells us to come over right now and eat some! In the Chinese culture, you have to accept an invitation like that by not actually accepting it. You first have to tell them "oh no, it's okay! we'll be fine" twenty times, throw in a couple "oh it's not convenient right now for you", maybe two "we don't want to trouble you", etc.. She responded by telling us 现在是方便 (now is the time!) and so we came back an hour later and ate some delicious homemade noodles with sauces! Sooo good! She's from 四川 (Sichuan province) where Elder Zeng is from, and they are famous for their insanely spicy food! Thankfully this wasn't too bad, but I'm slowly developing a taste for spicy!

We also got to watch the Church's new Easter video they're making called "Hallelujah"! It is so powerful! The message is incredibly simple, but the Spirit is so strong when we watched it! It isn't techinically available until March 13th, but we got a preview of it, and we have it on our phones, so we've watched it many times! Make sure you go and watch it next Sunday!!! I'm incredibly excited for the upcoming Easter season when we get to celebrate the resurrection of our Savior. Because of Him allof us get to return to our Heavenly Father. We all can overcome the trials and temptations of this world, so we will be worthy to stay in our Father's presence! I'm grateful for the Atonement, and the power that reaches beyond any pain or suffering!

I love you and and hope all of you will feel the love of you Savior in your lives this week!

Love,

Elder Warren