12/14/2015 P-Day #60

12/14/2015Hellooo family!

This week has been quite exciting!!! 

First off, thanks Deatons, and Mom for the Christmas package/card! I'm getting super excited for Christmas!

This week we were able to go to the temple on Tuesday, which I always love doing. I wish we could go more, but I can't complain. We're pretty blessed to be able to go every three months! It makes me realize how lucky I will be back home, because there are so many temples that are all so close. It's a great spiritual boost for the next couple of months!

Wednesday night, we were able to go to downtown Riverside to see the Christmas lights! It was like temple square on a bit of a smaller square. And a little more chaotic! But I really enjoyed it! We asked the Tatums to drive out and take us, so that was a lot of fun! We just walked around the block and looked at all the lights. 

Thursday was our zone meeting. Elder Zeng was really nervous about giving a training because he's never done it before, and he had to do it in English. He did very well! He talked about how the spirit helps us become converted. Something that stood out to me, is that conversion is a process. It's not a singular event, but continuation of events. Constantly striving to do the right thing. I gave a training on setting expectations with our investigators. Figuring out what they expect out of meeting with us, what we expect them to do, and also what the Lord wants them to do. Setting the expectation that we, and the Lord, want them to keep commitments (such as reading, praying, attending church, baptism, etc..). And as they do these things, their relationship with Jesus Christ will be strengthened. Elder Zeng and I have been working on this recently and it's really stood out to me that if you're bold and loving with people, it's a lot easier for them to feel the Spirit and for us to recognize those who are sincere and those who are not.

I also learned that dress shoes are not appropriate attire for playing tennis! Neither is a shirt, tie, and sweater! Haha our investigator met us at the park, where her 7-year-old son was practicing tennis. He was actually really good! Elder Zeng was talking to the mom in Chinese and I was distracting her son and learning how to play tennis! His name is David and his mom's name is Julie. After our game of tennis, we showed them the Christmas video and talked to them about God and Jesus Christ. David doesn't really believe in God, which was kind of sad. But we were able to help understand a little more about who God is! They came to church on Sunday and both of them loved it! David loved primary and already knew some of the kids there!

Well that's about all that happened this week..

I love and miss all of you lots! I hope you all remember the reason why we celebrate Christmas! To remember the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ! Do your best to strengthen your relationship with Him each and every day!!

Lots of love,

Elder Warren

11/30/2015 P-Day #58

11/30/2015

Hi Momma!

Hope your Turkey Day was fantasmic! Sounds like loads of fun!

Now to answer your questions:

1. The Chinese members in our ward got together to celebrate Thanksgiving. Every family was supposed to bring two dishes and then everyone would vote to see whose was the best. Elder Zeng and I made mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie the day before! Everybody else made some traditional Chinese dishes. Somebody made turkey, but it wasn't the same as American Thanksgiving turkey! Haha

2. No, we didn't get a traditional Thanksgiving dinner.

3. The meals at Chinese homes have been good! Nothing too crazy (yet)! We ate these whole little fish over at our ward mission leader's house the other day. Bones, head, eyes, fins, everything. It wasn't too crazy, and it was actually pretty good! They also made these super yummy steamed roll things called baozi! They were like mini chicken pot pies! I ate tons of them! Haha

4. We are teaching quite a few people right now! We're teaching Levy (most Chinese people pick an English name when they come to America), Annie, Antonio, and Lucy. Levy is working on being baptized on Dec 26 (fingers crossed!) We met him from the English class we teach Wednesday and Friday nights and asked him if we could teach him more about Christ! He's really awesome! He's willing to read the Book of Mormon and come to church too! Woohoo! He's from Tianjin, China, and he is going to college right now in Riverside. Annie is from Chengdu, China (she actually lives only a few minutes away from Elder Zeng!) and we met her at the park! We
invited her to be baptized, and she told us that she would! She hasn't come to church yet, and we need to find out why! Hopefully she will be baptized within the next month! We also found Antonio and Lucy through our English class. We only taught them once, because their daughter has been sick with the stomach flu and I don't want to catch that! :P But they seem pretty interested. They've only been in America for a few months, and they actually live with a less-active member of our ward! They've made pretty good friends with the Jiang family, who invited them to the ward's Thanksgiving dinner potluck thing!

5. Our new apartment is super nice! Eastvale is a really new area, so everything is really nice. We're really spoiled here! Haha

Sorry I don't have any pictures to send this week. I left my camera at home on Thanksgiving, so another elder has all the pictures of what happened. I'll get them from him this week and send them next Monday!

If you haven't seen the new Christmas video, you have to go watch it @ christmas.mormon.org!!1 It's so powerful! I'm so grateful for this upcoming Christmas season to remember the birth of our Savior. Without Him, nothing would be possible!

我很感谢有耶稣基督的福音! 我爱你们! 去事奉神有你的心脏，可能，思想和力量！

Love,

Elder Warren
吴长老

12/4/2015 P-Day #59

12/7/2015


Hellooooo family!


Unfortunately I sent my group email last week to a wrong email.. My bad! But I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and are getting pumped for CHRISTMAS!!!

This week was awesome! Elder Dallin H. Oaks in a mission president seminar said that all of the missionaries need to refocus on teaching baptism and repentance. Elder Zeng and I did that and it works!!! We have five people preparing to be baptized within the month and most of them came to church. We felt the spirit even more during our lessons as we focused on baptism and repentance. So now I will tell you a little bit more about what happened this week!

I still haven't quite recovered from the illness I got right after Thanksgiving :P I'm losing my voice and my sinuses are all jacked up. But nonetheless, I have been going out and working to bring souls to Christ! And we've seen a lot of blessings!

Thursday we had MLC with all the zone leaders, sister training leaders, and President/Sister Mullen. We talked a lot about being bold and setting expectations with people. Figuring out what they want out of meeting with us, and then setting the expectations of what we will want them to do (which is also what the Lord wants them to do!). We worked on that this week and it went really well! Whenever we are bold in inviting people to do things, they are much more willing to repent and change! But I've noticed when we aren't very straightforward, people don't feel the Spirit and they don't feel like they need to change!

Sunday night we were able to watch the Christmas devotional and it was awesome!! I really loved President Uchtdorf's talk on gratitude. It made me really think about if there were blessings that I had been taking for granted. Every night, I've been
writing in my journal how I have seen the Lord's hand in my life that day. It's helped me realize all of the blessings that I have received. Not necessarily the big noticeable ones, but the small ones as well. He truly loves us and is always reaching out to us!

Today for our zone activity, we got together with all the missionaries and had a Christmas kick-off party! We played some board games, drank hot chocolate, decorated cookies, and listened to Christmas music! It was a lot of fun! Our zone here is quite a bit smaller than the one in Moreno Valley, and I like it that way. It's easier for all of us to build unity when we're in a smaller group!

I hope you are all getting in the spirit of Christmas and remembering why we celebrate! I love you all and miss you lots!

Love,

Elder Warren

p.s. He has four missionaries in their apartment and they all chipped in $14 to buy a tree and some lights! The little things that make them happy!

11/23/2015 P-Day #57 Meet Elder Wu

11/23/2015

Nǐ hǎo ma?! 

So the phrase you sent in Chinese literally translates to "Hello, how are you in Mandarin?" An easier way to say that would be: 你好吗? Nǐ hǎo ma?  Haha but I think I can guess what you meant ;) I'm doing good! My brain feels like mush right now, but I think that will be normal for these next few weeks! I've got Chinese, English, and Spanish all swirling around in my head! Haha oh well. Now to answer your "5" questions!

1. My companion is Elder Zeng! He is from Chengdu, China. He has been out for about 9 months, and he does speak English! It's pretty good! I'm trying to help him with his English while he helps me with my Chinese! We get along really well! He's a pretty funny person. He's very orderly? I'm not sure of the right word to use.. Haha he just likes everything to be done a specific way (not necessarily a bad thing) but I really like him! His Chinese is good! Sometimes too good and he gets talking really fast and I don't understand what he's saying! Haha

2. We are technically serving in an English ward, but we have a group of Chinese members here. Not enough for a branch so we meet with the Eastvale 1st ward. For sacrament and other meetings, Elder Zeng or another Chinese member will translate and the rest of us wear headsets and listen to the Chinese. It's quite interesting. There are about 6-ish active Chinese families in the ward. Then probably like 10 that are less-active. We cover a huge area! We cover all of the Riverside mission, except the campus of UCR (the other Chinese elders cover that), and then we also cover the Redlands and Rancho Cucamonga missions! So, yes we have a car!

3. There are two ward in Eastvale and both of them take turns feeding us. Last week we had dinners with the Eastvale 2nd ward, and this week we will eat with the Eastvale 1st/Chinese  ward! I've only had one Chinese dinner so far, with the Jiang family, and that was good! We have dinner with the Miao family tonight and Elder Zeng says they are really good cooks! When we got to the Jiang's the other night, they asked me if I wanted a spoon instead of chopsticks and I told them that I can use chopsticks and they were shocked! Haha apparently most white people don't know how to use chopsticks!

4. Yes, I'm still a zone leader but there are only 4 Chinese missionaries (and they are in Riverside) so I'm a zone leader over a zone with Chinese, English, and Spanish missionaries! I'm back in the same zone that I started my mission in, Jurupa. (Hurupa, not Jurupa :) ) We have quite a few investigators we are working with right now! It's exciting! We're kind of cheating because we cover such a big area, but most of the people we teach come from referrals.

5. I got the Thanksgiving package today! 谢谢 xièxiè! (Do you remember what that means??) Elder Zeng and I will rock those Thanksgiving ties on Thursday! Haha and thanks for the gift card! That will be helpful! I ended up spending most of my money today on groceries, so this will help! 

6. I think I'll be fine without new shoes! But thanks for remembering! Haha I mentioned that a long time ago! Yes, the black Nike ones are the tall ones. Christmas music on a USB would be great! We have a USB port in the car, so that is easy to use! 

7. We have a Chinese potluck for Thanksgiving dinner! Everyone is supposed to bring two dishes and it sounds like it will all be Chinese food :P Hopefully we can find an English family to feed us on Thanksgiving also!! Haha we are bringing mashed potatoes and a pumpkin pie to the potluck so I can introduce them to some American Thanksgiving traditions! And no, no weird food yet! We'll see after tonight! Haha

8. The language is coming along pretty well. Some of it is coming back to me. I need to keep reminding myself to be patient because it's only been a week since I started learning Chinese. It's a lot harder than Spanish because I can't guess what the words mean based on their sound. But I know that if I keep studying and relying on the Lord it will all work out! I can't wait to talk more about it at Christmas! And yes, I am getting a new tag in Chinese! This is my new name: 吴 长老 (Elder Wu) 

Hopefully that answers all your questions! You had a lot of them! Haha :) I don't have the Tatum's address yet, but I will try and get it for you soon!

Love and miss you! Have a happy Thanksgiving! I'll be thinking about you guys!

I love you!

Elder Warren

吴 长老

11/16/2015 P-Day #56

11/16/2015

Well another transfer is complete... I can't believe how fast the time flies by.. I feel like I say that a lot, but it's true!

Thanks Maddy, Tenley, Alison, Danielle, and Noel for the letters!

So we got our transfer calls this weekend! *drum roll*

I'm going to be leaving Moreno Valley :( but I'm going back to the Jurupa zone (as a zone leader)!!! I'll be serving in the Chinese branch!! I'm still recovering from the shock! I'm super excited and super nervous, too! My companion will be Elder Zeng, and he is from China so that will help me learn the language!

I'm kind of sad to be leaving, but excited for the new adventure!

This week has been pretty uneventful. We went on exchanges with Elder Dall and Truman. I stayed in our area with Elder Truman because he was sick. So I cleaned our apartment before we had inspections the next day! 

We had stake conference this weekend and it was amazing! There were some really good talks given. The new Redlands temple president and his wife (Pres. and Sis. Bawe) spoke and I their talks were my favorites. They talked about temples (surprise) and why we need them. It's through temples that all of our Heavenly Father's children receive the blessings of the gospel.

I know this is a short email, but I feel like next week I will have a lot more to talk about! Love and miss you all!

Love,

Elder Warren

11/9/2015 P-Day#55

11/9/2015

Happy P-Day!

How is your Monday? Mine has been great so far! I got a haircut today! It was starting to get a bit too long, so I got my ears lowered a bit! Haha my hair seems to be getting thicker and curlier now.. strange! We are going to go drop our suits off for dry-cleaning and going bowling! We have dinner tonight with the Tatum's and that will be a lot of fun! I really love that family! They've basically adopted me (my picture is on the family side of their fridge!) and it's good to have a "family" away from home. Not that I'm replacing any of you! Haha but I thought you would like to know that there are amazing people out here that are taking care of me :) 

I'm becoming a bit of a baby... It has been around 60 degrees here and I'm FREEZING! I don't know what's happening! I look at the thermostat and think "I should not be this cold!" I guess I have just adjusted to the California weather now. I'm thinking coming home next October is going to be a bit brutal! I had to go and buy some sweaters on Wednesday it's been so cold! Haha but of course I would never wear a coat in the house 

We got a call from Antonio and Maggie this weekend asking us if we could come by and have a lesson. We found out that have been going through some trials, and their mom was out of town, so they just needed somebody to be there for them. We shared a mormon message with them about hope, and we all really felt the spirit. It was powerful. Then we listened to some Christmas music, helped clean up the kitchen, and made some brownies with them! We were late getting home that night (whoops) but they needed us to be there. I was thinking of a quote Myra sent me by President Monson. "Don't ever let something to be done get in the way of someone to be loved." I think this applied perfectly to this situation! Normally I would feel guilty about staying out so late, but I don't. I honestly felt like we needed to be there. And it was good! They came to church on Sunday and we are helping them out as much as we can! They're also helping Cynthia learn more about the gospel so she can be baptized in January. (They maaayyy be coming up to Utah this weekend and may want to stop by and say hi again... I'll let you know what their plans are haha)

We went to an awesome youth fireside yesterday! Peter Vidmar, he was an Olympic gold gymnast in 1984, spoke. I'll just share some of the notes that I wrote!

-champions don't work "twice as hard" as their competitors. They win by 1/100 of a second, centimeters, or inches.

-Do just a little bit more over a long period of time to get so much farther! Spending fifteen minutes a day, every day, adds up to 91 hours in a year!

-Choose beforehand how you will react/respond

-Flee temptation! Don't walk away, look back, take your time, but RUN. (He shared a funny story about how he literally ran away from some girl that tried to lure him into her room!)

-Don't test the waters. If the signs say "no swimming", don't see how far you can get in before you're swept away.

-Why are you here? What is the goal? Is it still worth working for?

-The most important time to put forth effort is when we don't feel like it

I really enjoyed his message! I felt like it was something I really needed to hear. Sometimes I catch myself pushing myself to go twice as hard, when really all I need to do is a little bit more, and slowly add on. It takes time, patience, and effort to reach our potential. 

Yes, I saw the email of the MoTab tickets! Haha hopefully I don't get transferred! If I do, I'll make sure the new missionaries know to look out for them! I just realized that I'll be home for the next Christmas concert!!!! It's crazy that this will be my last Holiday season as a missionary. Ugh it's going by so fast! Tenley sent me and email saying "we'll see you in 51 days!" haha

Well Mama, I love and miss you lots! Thanks for all your love, prayers, and support! I miss you soooo very much! 

 Have a great week! Don't freeze!

Love,

Elder Cole

11/2/2015 P-Day #54

11/2/2015

Hey all!

Happy Halloween!! Hopefully you all had a spooktacular weekend! Haha

Thanks Grandma and Mom for the packages this week! And thanks Kam and Brandy for the letter!

Halloween was a lot of fun. We went out and worked a normal day, and then at 6:00 we went to the stake center to hang out with the zone. We played soccer and basketball. I played a game of soccer, and then started some board games with some missionaries that aren't as athletic. I didn't want them to feel left out all night, because that sometimes happens with zone activities. Everyone gets so caught up in the sports that they forget there's one or two people that don't want to do that! So we played Phase 10 and a game called Munchkins. It was a lot of fun! The sisters showed up dressed like Disney princesses, and my companion was the Joker! We had some treats that some missionaries brought! Members in our ward gave us two HUGE bags of candy they weren't going to use and I'm still trying to figure out what to do with them!

This week was really good! We saw a lot of people and got a lot done! Cynthia (Maggie and Antonio's mom) gave us a call this week and asked us if we could come and teach her daughter, Vi. We went over and had a really good lesson with them! We talked about how the commandments keep us happy and how coming to know our Heavenly Father will bless us! We're going back tonight, so I'll keep you posted with what happens!

Friday was our ward trunk-or-treat! We combined with the Spanish ward and we had a lot of fun! They had a chili cook-off in the cultural hall, and had some prizes for the hottest, and then 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place! The Young Men's was the spiciest, and I didn't dare try it. I had heard some rumors about what they put in it and what happened when they tested it, so I decided to stay far away from it!

I was playing the piano for Primary on Sunday, and I've decided that I like Primary a lot more than Elder's Quorum! Haha maybe we will keep going back to help! But it was really cool to listen to some of the kid's answers to questions. Some were a little crazy. Like, "What is tithing" and the response, "the money we pay for our baptism!" but other times they had really good answers. They're all pretty smart! And it was nice to listen to a lesson on the basics, which is what we teach people!

That's about it for this week... This upcoming week is going to be interesting with multiple meetings and exchanges. It'll be fun!

I love you all and miss you lots! Have an awesome week!

Love,

Elder Warren