8/29/2016 P-Day #97

8/29/2016

Thanks Alison and Sage for the letters this week!

This week has been really good! Monday night we went on splits. Elder Yang went to go visit a member family and I went up to Rancho to go visit a referral we got from a member! It was a really good lesson. The spirit was really strong. We were teaching about the restoration, and she had a lot of good questions! She has been to a church before and really wants to follow Jesus Christ. When we invited her to be baptized, she accepted really fast! It was an amazing experience!

Thursday was our temple trip! I feel so blessed to be able to go to the temple once every three months! I just feel recharged and ready to keep going on afterwards! The Miaos took us up to the temple and then took us to In-N-Out to eat afterwards because Elder Yang still hadn't tried California's best hamburgers yet! Haha

Sunday was our Chinese sacrament meeting again! As I have said many times before, I love the opportunity to go to the full Chinese meeting! 

On Sunday, Brother Li had his interview with the stake president to receive the Melchezidek Priesthood! I got to go and help him translate! It's amazing to see their family progress within the gospel. Yoyo has started saying prayers in English and it's adorable!

Friday night, our Chinese group put on a fireside and invited any Chinese members that are living within the surrounding stakes. We were hoping more people would come than actually did, but it was still a pretty good turnout. They invited one of the first branch presidents of one of the Chinese wards in the area to come and speak. He talked about the history of Chinese members in southern California and his wife talked about eternal marriage. I got to translate the talks into English because our bishop and stake president were there. It was so much harder than translating from English into Chinese! It gave me a huge headache afterwards!

Saturday we went on exchanges with our zone leaders.I was with Elder Hale in Eastvale. Elder Yang got to spend a whole day in an English area, which he was pretty excited about! Our day in Eastvale was pretty crazy! We had a lot of good plans made, but other things kept coming up! We had to drive out to Riverside to go visit Q and translate some things for the members he's living with. We had dinner in Rancho Cucamonga with some members! They took us to a restaurant and all of the surrounding shops/businesses were all in Chinese! It was really funny! I didn't have my camera with me, otherwise I would have taken a picture!

Sunday night we also had a stake Priesthood training meeting that we weren't going to go to until they asked us to come and translate! Haha so we ended up spending our night over there! It was really good, though! One of my favorite talks was from the stake president's second counselor. He shared the story of Peter and the apostles returning to fishing after the Savior's death. He said that we will all have points in our lives when we are tired and it would be so much easier to return to our previous lives. But the Lord needs servants that are going to keep pushing even when they're tired, even when it's hard, even when all you want to do is stop and rest. His work isn't going to stop moving forward, so He needs us to keep moving forward with it.

I love you all and miss you lots!

Love,

Elder Warren

吴长老

8/25/2016 P-Day #96

8/25/2016

**P-Day on Thursday due to trip to the temple**

大家好,

Thanks Grandma Clark and Grandma/Grandpa Gray for the packages!

Since it's already Thursday, I'm trying really hard to separate what happened last week from what happened this week!

First off, I am very grateful for spellcheck, because as I am learning Chinese, my English is going slightly downhill. It's a real problem. The other day I was talking about a family that we haven't had dinner with for along time and the words I used were: "They haven't fedded us in a while." It's pretty bad. So as I am typing these emails, there are lots of words underlined in red that I have to go back and fix. Hopefully I can fix this problem before I go back to school! Haha

Last week we went by and saw the Zhang family one last time before they went back to China. It went really well. We read through some of the Book of Mormon with them to help them grasp the story a little bit better. We also found out that if we send the Church their address and contact information, they will contact the Church leaders in China who will reach out to them and invite them to attend church over there! Exciting!

Everyday Elder Yang and I have four hours of studies that we do in the mornings. Sometimes it seems like a reaaalllly long time, but it's amazing to see as we take the time to prepare in the morning, miracles happen! I was a little worried that as we were taking so much time to study, there wasn't going to be time to teach or do anything else! But surprisingly there is! We've been crazy busy!

We were out talking to people in the park last Saturday, and we've been working on helping Elder Yang feel more comfortable with talking to random strangers! So I felt like I would let him take the lead while talking to this one lady. As we were talking, we showed her the Hallelujah video and afterwards, Elder Yang just invited her to be baptized! The crazier part was that she said yes! And then we set a baptism goal right then and there! They Lord truly is preparing people everywhere to receive the gospel! My faith in this is strengthened every day!

Well we've got to get going to the temple! Have an awesome week! Love and miss all of you!

Love,

Elder Warren

8/15/2016 P-Day #95

8/15/2016

大家好!

I hope everyone had a good week! Thanks Mom, Maddy, and Tenley for the package/letters!

This week was really good! Both Elder Yang and I are super tired, but that just means that we've been working hard!

This week we went to go visit a referral from some sister missionaries in Lake Elsinore (which is about a 45 minute drive from Eastvale!). The family was really cool! We showed them the Hallelujah video and they loved it! There are five people that live there, Young, Michelle, their son Jayden, and Young's parents (Bro and Sis Wen). Michelle and Bro Wen are Christians already.  Young would go to church with them and their son Jayden loves church too! They loved the video and we invited them to be baptized. I don't think Brother Wen really understood what we were asking him to do, but before we could help answer his questions, Young basically did our job for us! He told Brother Wen that we were just asking them to learn more, and when they feel that what we've shared is true that's when they would be baptized. But other than that little confusion, the rest of the lesson went really well! They were supposed to come to church on Sunday, but they didn't show up. We'll be going back this week, though!

We got together with our zone this morning and played volleyball at the stake center! It was a lot of fun. Normally we get together with the La Sierra zone as well, but they had their temple trip this week, so their P-Day is a different day. 

On Thursday, we had a member of the stake presidency's son with us all day. He just submitted his papers, so he wanted to spend a whole day with the missionaries to see what it's like. Unfortunately, that day was pretty slow for us! We knocked on so many doors, but nobody answered! Haha but I think it was a good experience for him to see that missionary work has good days and slow days. I'm not sure if he enjoyed it or not, but we are going to set up another day for him to come with us when we will have a lot of set appointments!

Elder Yang is doing really well! He's really good at teaching and helping answer people's questions. He LOVES to share scriptures with people! His Book of Mormon is full of sticky notes, tabs, markings, etc. It's exciting to see how excited he is for the work! We're working on overcoming his nervousness of talking to people on the street, but that's normal! I was the same way! Haha

Today I wanted to share the word for convert, which is 归信 (Guī xìn). The first character, 归, means to return, or to come back to. The second character, 信, means to have faith, to trust, or to believe. So when we talk about our own personal conversion, it's not just a process or a checklist of things we need to do. It's a change, a turning back to our Heavenly Father. Putting our trust in Him by doing what He wants us to do. Reading His word every day, praying to Him every day, and attending church meetings to strengthen our relationship with Him. It's a really simple process of returning back to our Heavenly Father. I also think that if it's our goal after this life to return and stay with our Heavenly Father, we must become converted while here on this earth. We must do everything we can to show that we believe Him, that we trust Him, that we have faith in Him. I know that He is waiting for us to return to Him. During this life and in the life to come. As we turn towards our Heavenly Father and Savior, we feel their love and peace in our lives. We have the strength to overcome the trials that we face, the weakness we have. I am incredibly grateful for my Savior's atonement. Without it, there would be no way for me to improve, no way for me to have joy. I hope all of you will continue to work on you personal conversion. Strengthen your relationship with your Father, and become clean through His Son's atonement.

I love and miss you all!

Elder Warren

吴长老

8/8/2016 P-Day #94

8/8/2016

大家好，

This has been yet another crazy busy week for us!

I spent Monday night and Tuesday morning/afternoon with our zone leaders. They dropped me off at the mission office around1:00 when we had a training for all the missionaries who would be training. It was a lot of fun! That evening we ate dinner with all of the new missionaries. They made baked potatoes and chili (I thought the weather was a little too hot to be eating that!). Afterwards we found out who our new companions were going to be. Since there was only one Chinese elder coming in, it was a huge surprise for me! Haha but my new companion is Elder Yang, 杨长老. He's from Zhuhai, China (which is right next to Hong Kong). The AP's had told me that his English wasn't going to be good at all, but it's actually pretty good! He joined the church five years ago, when his aunt introduced his family to the church. She had joined when she a colleague at work had invited her to come to church. I'm really excited for these next two transfers with him!

When we talk to each other, it's all in Chinese, so my brain is really confused right now! Many many times this past week, I'll be talking to somebody in English and then all of a sudden I'll say something back to them in Chinese! Or I'll try and literally translate a phrase from Chinese to English and it just sounds really weird. Hopefully I'm not going to forget all my English over the next three months!

I was so excited to take Elder Yang to go and visit Brother Yang, because our last lesson with him had been so amazing. We went by last Friday and as we were talking with him, he told us that he had talked with his wife and they had decided that they didn't need to be baptized twice. Afterwards, I was really worried because he was the most solid person that was going to be baptized this month! We didn't have anybody else. So I decided that now was the time to continue working diligently and obediently to find somebody that was! We kept working and working but nobody seemed ready. So we were at church on Sunday and there were some investigators that we hadn't seen at church for about a month (Brother and Sis Zhang). They had been taught about two years before but went back to China and were never baptized. Now there were back in the US so the wife could have here baby. We met them a month or so earlier but never had a chance to go visit them because they were busy and we didn't have an address for them. So I thought, maybe they're the ones! So I went up to talk to them and found out they go back to China on the 20th of this month. I realized that there probably wasn't enough time for us to teach them everything and felt a little disheartened again. We had to leave the Eastvale ward early to go to a ward in Riverside for an investigator. After church, Brother Jiang called us and told us that we needed to get in contact with the Zhangs as soon as we could. They had apparently talked to the members after church asking if they could have a baby blessing for their son before they go back to China. The ward clerk said that one of them needed to have record number in order for them to do it, so the huband said "Perferct! I was wanting to join your church anyways!" We were both a little shocked when we heard this, but we got Bro Zhang's telephone number and gave him a call. We're going over tonight to visit the two of them with Brother Miao. I know without a doubt that the work we are involved in is the Lord's work. He is in the middle of it, working right alongside us. It's an exciting work to be a part of. I feel incredibly blessed to be able to participate in it! Pray that everything goes well tonight! It will be a tight squeeze, since they leave in less than two weeks!

I hope all of you have an amazing upcoming week! I love and miss you all! Look for the Lord in your life each and every day. I promise that He is there!

Much love,

Elder Warren 

 Elder Warren's Ward had a talent show and a thoughtful Sister in his ward sent this pictures to me.  He accompanied 4 of the 12 musical numbers. One he was handed the music minutes before the performance!

8/1/2016 P-Day #93

8/1/2016

Yep, it's transfers again!! It's crazy! It's pretty sad to see Elder Dyer leave since we were together for 6 months! That's the longest I've ever been with anyone, but it doesn't feel like it was that long! Today has been really crazy! We only have about 30 minutes to email because we have to run home so the Miao's can pick up Elder Dyer! It's going to be a short one this week! Sorry :) Elder Dyer's family is still in Shanghai, so he will be going back there for a few weeks and then coming back to the US for school.

I'm staying in Eastvale (so you can send the package to Sister Biehn)! My new companion is Elder Yang 杨长老 (pronounced like "yawn" with a soft g at the end!) who is from Guangdong, China! I'm so excited! A little nervous, but I think that's a good thing! I feel like missionaries coming from China are a lot stronger and consecrated because it's not just a part of the "culture". They sincerely want to go and serve the Lord! I'll get to meet him on Tuesday afternoon! I'll be spending the rest of the day with our zone leaders. Unfortunately, I am no longer a zone leader :( I'm a little sad because I've been one for about a year now, so I'm not sure what to do! Haha jk I'll be a district leader and it will be a lot of fun! Before, I was a little worried about the language, but now I'm not really worried. We had a big party with all the Chinese members last night to say bye to Elder Dyer, and I was just easily chatting with all of them and had a really good time! It's amazing to see how the Lord blesses us when we truly need it!

It was Rui's baptism on Saturday! It was a really awesome experience! He was really nervous about bearing his testimony after his baptism, but he did a really great job! President Mullen came as well and I think he really enjoyed it!

Brother Yang is amazing! We went to visit them Saturday and talked about baptism. They had been baptized a few years previously in another Christian church. But their baptism they did wasn't by immersion, it was just sprinkling some water on their head. So we taught the doctrine of baptism. How it's performed and why it's necessary. He told his wife they should have just gone to Rui's baptism service earlier that day in order to be baptized properly! Haha so he's working towards being baptized the end of August! He came to church again on Sunday and has made really good friends with Brother Chen! It's so funny, they'll sit together and you can hear Brother Chen whispering to him and explaining things that are happening and answering his questions!

Much love,

Elder Warren

吴长老

7/25/2016 P-Day #92

7/25/2016

大家好!

This week was quite interesting to say the least! On Tuesday, we met one of investigators, Brother Yang, at the park to practice some Tai Chi! Haha I'm sure we all looked pretty ridiculous but it was a lot of fun! We met him while walking around his neighborhood and he started coming to English class. He told us how he has been doing Tai Chi for 22 years and has taught a lot of people before! It was surprisingly difficult! It's all very slow and controlled movements. He also came to church on Sundayand really enjoyed it! He joined a Christian church in China and was looking for one out here. So, it's a good thing we ran into him!

On Thursday we had our multi-zone conference in Riverside! It was a really long day (7:00 am-4:30 pm), but it was amazing! I really enjoyed President Mullen's training that he gave at the very end. He talked about having the faith to baptize. He asked us if we each have the faith that the Lord is preparing people to meet with us right now. Do we believe that there are multiple people within our are who are ready and willing to listen to us? If we do believe that, then how are we going to exercise our faith to find them? Elder Dyer and I gave a short training on contacting referrals that we get from Church media (mormon.org, temple square, etc...). We went through a bunch of scenarios of how not to go about visiting these people! It was a lot of fun! I really enjoyed doing it.

After the multi-zone conference, we had to drive all the way out to Hemet to go visit a family who had three foreign exchange students from China staying with them. So we spent over an hour talking with three 14-year-old Chinese girls... It was definitely an unusual experience. None of them were interested in church and thought it was really boring when they went the Sundaybefore. But we gave them both copies of the Book of Mormon and some pamphlets, so hopefully they will have some interest later on. They go back to China this week, so we won't need to drive all the way out there again!

Friday was also very interesting... We were supposed to exchange with the Jurupa elders Thursday night, but because we were out in Hemet, we didn't get home until really late. So we went by Friday morning to exchange with them. It was a "Mission Heat Alert" day, which means the temperature was over 100 degrees, so missionaries who are on bike are not allowed to go out and work during the day unless they have a team-up driving them around. I was with Elder Olsen back in Jurupa. Thankfully we didn't have to bike for very much! We just had to get a ride over the the church building where they had left their bikes and then bike back to the apartment! Even at 9:00 in the morning when we were biking, it was really hot! Afterwards, we took them to a meeting they had in Riverside and exchanged back the same afternoon!

Saturday was another exchange! We both went with the APs in their ward.It was a little weird for both of us to be away from our area for a full day, but it was a lot of fun to both be in the other ward! I went with Elder Sy and it felt like we knocked on a ton of doors without much success! When we had knocked on one door that nobody answered, we went to talk to this old lady who was taking a break in the shad across the street. She was walking home from the grocery store with a bunch of stuff, so we helped her carry the groceries back home and they have a return appointment next week! 

Sunday was our Chinese sacrament meeting again! These are probably my favorite Sundays during the month! The Jiang family gave talks this week, and their two kids gave them in English and their parents translated for them! Their daughter is really smart and I felt so bad for her mom who was translating! She used some really big words and really long sentences! Thankfully I wasn't the one who had to translate for them!

Q was also confirmed this Sunday! I was able to confirm him in Chinese, and it was an awesome experience! (I only made one pronunciation mistake during the blessing, so I think that's an accomplishment haha!) We're going over tonight to visit with them since they've been on vacation for two or three weeks! 

Well that's all for this week! It's pretty busy and this week is going to be the same! We're working hard and seeing blessings each and every day!

I love and miss you all!

Love,

吴长老