6/6/2016 P-Day #85

6/6/2016

大家好!

I hope you all had an amazingly awesome week!

Thanks Alison for the letter this past week!

Another crazy week for us Chinese missionaries serving in Eastvale!

We had MLC this week and President Mullen gave a really great training on "finding those the Lord has prepared". There are so many scriptures that talk about how the Lord is preparing people right now to receive His gospel. It's just up to us to prepare, plan, and be obedient so He can put us in their path, or place them in our's. That's the big focus for the mission right now. Working to find the elect and not to spend so much time with the people who aren't ready yet. The field is white and ready to harvest!

This Saturday our Chinese group had a barbecue to celebrate 端午节, or the Dragon Boat Festival. There was probably close to 70-80 people there! It was a lot of fun! We invited a few investigators, but the members in the group reached out and invited a ton of friends to come as well! We have some amazing members here! 

Saturday was also Harry's baptism! We weren't sure if he was going to get baptized, because earlier this week he texted us asking if we could meet before Saturday to ask us a few questions. We met on Thursday afternoon and he told us that a few days before he felt so ready and excited to be baptized, but now he wasn't too sure. He asked us why we chose to believe in God and Jesus Christ, why we believe Joseph Smith was a prophet, and how we know the Book of Mormon is true. I thought they were all incredibly good questions. So we talked with him and bore our testimonies to help him realize how he has already felt the spirit testify to him about these things. We knelt down during the lesson to let him pray and ask God if Joseph Smith was a prophet and if the Book of Mormon was God's word. The spirit was so strong! At the end, he decided that he needed to be baptized

On Sunday, we had ward council for the Chinese group. Bishop Louden really talked about how he wants us to have our own branch soon, and he's been really impressed with the progress he's seen within the group recently. I've seen it too. Since I got here in November, there have been tremendous changes within our group and the individual members! So Brother Miao invited all of the members over into his home on Sunday night to discuss what everyone needs to do, how we can all step up to improve. There seems to be a real push for them to have an individual Chinese branch now! I'm excited to see how they continue to grow! It's so much more fun than serving in an already established ward!!

On Sunday, Thomas Spencer Li had his baby blessing! It was so cute! Brother Li has to wait until the next stake conference before he can receive the Melchezidek priesthood, so Brother Miao did it for him. But Brother Li was able to stand outside the circle and hold the microphone for the blessing! It was such an amazing experience! Tommy was wearing a little tie with suspenders!

Today we had a Crossfit activity with the north half of the mission and it was so much fun! It was a really good workout! I learned the reason why we have all these Crossfit activites! When President Mullen first started as the mission president, the assistants made a comment about how their investigators was really old. President Mullen asked them how "old" this person was, and they said 65! (President Mullen was 64 at the time). So in response to that, President Mullen challenged the whole mission to a Crossfit-off! I think it makes him feel pretty good when the "old" 65 year old is passing the 18-20 year olds up in the cultural hall! It's a lot of fun! Today we had 10 rounds, and each on consisted of an amount of burpees, squat jumps, situps, and then we ran 3 laps around the gym. We started at 10 reps of each, then went down to 9, 8, 7, etc. I thought it would be easier than adding on rep each round, but it was killer! It was running that was the hardest part because it stayed the same each round.

So today's Chinese lesson is on enduring to the end! Or 持守到底 (chí shǒu dào dǐ)! 

持 means to hold, or to grasp

守 means to keep, observe, defend, guard, or serve

到 means until

底 means end

Enduring to the end, in my mind, is probably the hardest part of the gospel of Jesus Christ! It includes continually exercising faith, repenting, and renewing our covenants. It's not just a one-time act. What helps me to continue to endure is grasping on to the gospel. Holding on with everything I have to what I know to be true. When times are hard and good! If we defend what we believe, hold on to the Atonement, we can make it to the end! 

Well that's all I have time to email today! I love and miss you all! Have an awesome week!

Love,

Elder Wu