Sawyer's Letter 9/18/19

Mom email:

Hi mom I love you and miss you. We are going to the temple today until probably 1 PM our time. I'm not sure I'll be able to call. I might be able to squeeze in a few minutes at around 8 am my time (in just over an hour)

Just letting you know, I got in a car accident two days ago. Im okay and so is everyone else, no one got hurt. So don't worry about me. And I wasn't being irresponsible or dumb or anything. I will send you my journal entry about it which will explain what happened. You can tell me if you think I should put it in my big email. 

We went to mission office yesterday where we filled out accident report and what happened and everything. The church pays for the damage. I don't know how if affects my personal record I didn't hear anything about that. We got a new car immediately and just went back to work. However there is a possibility I won't be able to drive for the rest of my mission because the church just instituted a policy that says if the damage is over 4000 then you can't drive. Which it definitely is. But I guess we will see. They will tell me in a few weeks but I'm pretty sure I'll be able to drive for my whole mission. The guy at the mission office told me that the mission president will probably override the new policy. Anyway, yeah it was pretty crazy and scary. But I'm glad everyone is okay. And I'm going to be even more safe now.

 Pretty crazy experience today when we decided to go finding in the rain again. On the way to the area, I was behind a car that was turning right. I wanted to go around the car on the left side so I waited for all the cars  to go by. Once I saw that there was an opening, I started edging out to the left of the car in front of us. I had checked behind me and there was no lights and no cars that I could see. However it was raining so it was hard to tell. As soon as I started accelerating into the turn, the next few moments seemed to last forever. I instantly heard a deafening BEEEEP and saw bright headlights rapidly approaching in the mirror. I've never experienced anything like it- I knew what was about to happen and yet I couldn't do anything to change it. So I just waited. That one split second I waited felt like forever. I knew we were about to get hit and I knew there was nothing I could do. It was such a unique feeling. In that moment I just felt total peace and accepted whatever outcome would befall us. Then, as quickly as the moment came, it was shut out by the impact of the fire truck smashing into the left side of our car. It was jarring and sudden. It felt like when an ocean wave comes crashing down on you and pushes you into the sand. I got thrown against the right window and slammed back the other way when we hit the next car. The momentum sent us flying across a lane of traffic and we slid into the car to the right of us, obliterating the side mirror. Then, it was still. Other cars kept passing by, but I just looked around and tried to process what had happened. I quickly made sure my companion was alright, then pulled the car over and checked on the guy in the fire truck and the lady we had slid into on the right. Luckily, (and I realized later how much of a miracle it was) no one was injured. And since we got hit by a fire truck (it was off duty, it's lights and sirens weren't going or anything), the fireman driving it was super helpful as well. After ensuring everyone was safe we exchanged information. My mind was blurry, I've never been in an accident before and I just couldn't believe what had happened. And it was raining and cold so all the papers and stuff were just a mess. We finally got it all figured out and I am so grateful to the mission headquarters who we called and were of great help to us. It all ended up going about as well as a car wreck can go. I wanted to get back to work so I asked the tow truck driver to drop us off at our next lesson with an investigator since we no longer had a working car (one of the tires was destroyed). He was really nice and helped us out.

That truck hit us hard. But as I reflected later, I was hit even harder by the realization that we got hit by a FIRE TRUCK going 70 kilometers an hour and nobody was hurt in the slightest. I was looking at the destroyed side of the car and just shaking my head wondering how we had ended up completely fine. I know God protected us. I couldn't believe how much of a miracle it was. (This does not lead me to believe that because I am a missionary I am invincible, but I am really grateful for the blessing we received today).

Group email:

Crazy week. Pday got moved to Thursday because we are going to the Sydney temple today. Pretty hyped. 

So this week we did a lot of different kinds of creative finding. I'll share a few.

Cookie finding:

Our mission president told us to get creative with new ways to find people. So I decided to try cookie finding. I made chocolate chip cookies, realized our Australian oven is trash, burned all of them, made cookies again very carefully and salvaged a few, put them in plastic bags along with a pass-along card about church, wrote my phone number on them in Chinese, put them all in a big red bowl, and took to the streets. We went right to the middle of the Chinatown here and started asking people if they wanted a cookie. At first it was a little strange going up to someone and asking if they wanted a cookie. All these Chinese people were so confused why this tall white American was shaking cookies at them and worried about whether or not they were poisoned. I was asking myself 'when did it get so hard to give someone a cookie?' So I switched my approach and started going up to the young people. I would tell them in Chinese:

'hello, I made this cookie just for you. Here' and I would just give it to them. Then they would want to talk to us. We found so many people who wanted to meet with us again, including a guy named Ray who I stopped on his motorcycle in the street. He was so excited to get a cookie. We also gave two younger guys cookies, talked to them for a bit, agreed to teach them English, and left. But not 10 seconds later they came running up to us on the sidewalk and started pulling papers out of their backpacks and giving us phone messages to listen to. They were university students and had all this paperwork to do but didn't understand any of it because it was in English. It was pretty cool to translate it for them and help them out. Cookie finding was a success. 

Guitar finding:

I found an old guitar in our flat, so one night I grabbed it on the way out. I started playing and singing as we walked through the streets. Guitar finding didn't result in much more than weird looks, but I had a lot of fun and it was a cool experience to just walk around the city at night and sing to people.

IQ test finding:

Continuing the trend of creative ways to find people, we tried IQ Test finding. We wrote a brain teaser on a whiteboard in Chinese and English and then walked around asking if people wanted to solve it. We wrote 'Test your IQ' at the top. It was fun because once they looked at it and started to read, they would always want to figure it out. It was great to bring a bunch of smiles to people when we were able to give them some wholesome fun in their busy lives. And it was an effective icebreaker, then we had a great opportunity to talk to them. I think we chose a pretty hard brain teaser though because only 2 people ended up solving it. I'll attach a picture, see if you can solve it.

One of my very favorite things about my mission is when I just get to sit down and talk to people, especially Chinese people. I LOVE the Chinese people so much. I'll just go to a bus stop and sit down next to the old Chinese lady and ask her about her family and it's so much fun. It makes me so happy to talk to the people. I don't really feel like I'm in Australia, more like I'm in China. I'm growing to love the Chinese culture more every day and I just have a special place in my heart for these people.

We have a lot of different opportunities to help people. For example, we met an old man named Bian on the street and asked him if he wanted to learn English. He was excited to have a white teacher. His English is already pretty good but he really wanted someone to practice with. He's so old that he can't really make it to our class each week, so he decided to take matters into his own hands and called us the next day. It was such a funny phone call. He tried to do it all in English and this is what happened. 

Me: Hello? 

Bian: Do you know me?

Me: Uh, I'm not sure, what's your name?

Bian: I am Bian. You are my teacher. The white teacher. OK?

Me: Ohh Bian hey yeah I'm your teacher.

Bian: OK. Can I have a word with you?

Me: 可以 （Chinese for yes you can)

Bian: So, I will be talking English to you and you tell me if bad. OK?

Me: You will be SPEAKING English to me.

Bian: I don't understand. OK?

Me: *in Chinese* I am helping you right now.

Bian: Oh. I will be speaking the English to you. OK.

Bian then spent 10 minutes practicing his English. He chose to practice by explaining that he would be getting knee surgery in Utah next month. He had found a lot of words in the dictionary and was really excited about using them. 

Bian: After I live at the hospital for re-hill-bit-teeayshun I will have my fizzoh-tare-pust come my home. (Rehabilitation and physiotherapist). He tried really hard.

Bian: He will restore the function of my knee.

Never in my life did I think I would be correcting an 82 year old Chinese man's pronunciation of 'physiotherapist' while driving through the streets of Sydney Australia, but I absolutely love it.

We ran into a very unique situation when we knocked on the door of someone we had planned on visiting. We had never met them, just had the name and address. We had tried visiting them 2 weeks ago and heard the TV blaring at deafening volume. We knew someone was inside and tried knocking several times, but no answer. We figured that they couldn't hear us because of the TV and decided to try again another time. 

So we come back, this time determined to actually make contact with this mysterious person. We approach the door and can hear dishes tinkling and someone moving around inside. Based on the speed, they sounded old. We knock and no answer. Again, no answer. A third and fourth time we try, and then begin calling through the door. There is no response nor any stoppage in the sound we hear coming from inside this house. I'm 100% sure this person should be able to hear us and I'm trying to figure out why we're getting nothing. Finally I realize what must be going on. This person is DEAF. They had the TV so loud and didn't realize that it must be disturbing the neighbors because they couldn't hear it. So now I'm at the door wondering how I could get someone's attention who can't hear... my companion made a good call when he suggested I DON'T climb in the 2nd story window. It would have been worth it. Maybe next time.

One time we were walking down the street. There was no one outside so we decided to knock on some doors. Then I heard a thud a few feet behind me. I turn around and see a 50 year old man laying on the ground at the base of a huge tree. He's wearing all black and he's got dirt all over himself. I realize this guy literally just fell out of the tree. I start going over to help when he scrambles up, looks around apprehensively, then takes off down the sidewalk. I just stood there trying to process why he was in the tree. One of the weirdest things I've ever seen. 

While advertising English class, we got a call from an unknown number. It was a lady named Tina who we had found in the area book, called two weeks ago, never got an answer and forgot all about it. But she called and said she wanted to meet with us at the church. So we go to the church that night and she shows up just extremely prepared to learn. She was full of sincere questions and just so humbly wanted to know about God. When we got done, it was a complete flip from what we're used to. Usually we worry about our investigators keeping commitments and what we will teach next. But at the end of the lesson, she told us all the things she was going to do this week to prepare for our next lesson (which she scheduled for us) and then gave us specific things to teach her about next time. This is a person who is ready to learn. Plus I understood almost all of her Chinese.

This week we got more people to come to English class. I have so much love for the Chinese people we teach. There was a Chinese holiday this week so Enjoy and Joy brought us little cakes. We had a lot of fun this week teaching them how to make a phone call. They all wanted to learn how to schedule an appointment with the doctor. It's really a special experience to be able to teach them, it makes me so happy.

Every once in a while I discover random gaps in my companion's English knowledge that it seems like he would have known by now, but he doesn't and it's hilarious. We were filling out some forms and he came across quite the roadblock when faced with the question 'What is your first name'

He turned to me and asked: 'what is my first name?' 

I was pretty confused: 'you don't know your first name?' 

He exclaimed: 'no! What is it? Companion tell me what is my first name!!?'

Rest assured, he now knows what 'first name' means.

I have my fair share of Chinese fails. Earlier this week when trying to explain to a man that we could meet at a convenient location like a library or a park, I accidentally said 'we can meet in your bedroom'. He looked pretty scared until my companion came to the rescue. They say you have to make 10,000 mistakes before you master a language. I'm getting up there. To put it in perspective, it's pretty easy to make a mistake. In Chinese there are 5 different ways to pronounce the same word or syllable. They are called 'tones'. For example, there is a sound 'zhu' (it sounds like Jew). Depending on how it is pronounced (zhū, zhú, zhǔ, zhù, zhu) it can mean pig, bamboo, Lord, pillar, and a variety of other words. Like in English, you could say 'read' and to anyone listening it could be to 'read' a book, or it could sound like 'reed' like the plant. In Chinese every word has like 3-4 different meanings along with all the different tones. So it gets tricky but it's so much fun to learn. I love the challenge of learning it.

It can be easy to get discouraged, disheartened or feel lonely. I'm pretty much all by myself in this new and foreign country. Throughout the week I will only see other missionaries maybe once, and other than that it's just my companion and I. We try to make the most effective use of our time and help and serve as much as we can. But in the face of opposition, when it feels like everyone just hates us or rejects us when we genuinely have such a strong desire to show our love for them, it's hard. It's difficult to keep going and it requires digging deep into WHY we are doing this. However, I am grateful for these times because they force me to grow. Through experiences that require everything we have, we grow to more than what we already are. I am BECOMING someone because I realize time and again that I can't do this alone. I need the Lord's support, and each time I reach out for help, He is there. He constantly guides me or gives me just what I need to keep going. Step by step, God is taking my efforts and changing me because of it. I'm giving it my all and God is blessing me as a result. I am so grateful for the change that is taking place in my heart each day. I am constantly filled with love for each person we meet, along with a desire to leave them better than I found them, even if it just means a smile. 

At church, there are only a few non-Chinese members. One is an Australian named Blake, he is in his 40's and married to a Chinese woman. One unique thing about Blake is that he loves to play the harmonica. Like, really loves it. He told me he picked it up a few years ago and he's been playing for 6 hours a day ever since. He absolutely loves to tell you what songs he's been working on and have you listen to different recordings he's made. He'll play for anyone who will listen and always wants to know 'how did it sound? Pretty good huh?' After church he came up to me and asked how well I could play piano, since he saw me play in Sacrament meeting. He wanted to play together. So after church I found myself accompanying Blake while he performed his country-blues rendition of Sweet Hour of Prayer. And it must be mentioned that he pulled out a giant microphone that lights up with different colors when he plays into it and broadcasted his song to the whole building. It was pretty awesome. I'm just glad I got to be a part of the big event.

When an investigator told me about his breakup with a girlfriend, I asked him if he was sad. As always, the Chinese to English language gap cracks me up. He replied:

'No I not too sad. Usually I don't sad'.

We went back to Jean's house this week and helped her move some furniture around. Man that place has a unique smell but it was worth it. She's in her 80's and was baptized several decades ago. She hasn't been to church in years and it seems like she isn't mobile enough to do much of anything so it was really great to be able to help her. One of the coolest things about the visit was when we sat down to teach her a lesson. She has this little dog that is always barking and trying to bite you, but as soon as we said a prayer with Jean and started talking about the gospel, the dog went silent and laid down at my feet for the rest of the visit. It was insane, the little guy was totally docile after that. Jean couldn't believe it. She said 'you must be saying something true because I've never seen him do that!'

The truth and peace that comes from the gospel is something that we can FEEL. Even dogs can feel it. Who knew?

This week I had an experience that was a testimony to me of the power of the Spirit and how much I can truly rely on God. We went to visit someone in Campsie, a city that's about a 25 minute drive from our flat (apartment). We ended up parking just in the general neighborhood of the person we were visiting and decided to walk the last half mile to their house so that we could talk to people on the way. As we started walking, I began talking with someone on the sidewalk, and to continue the conversation I just walked with them to where they were going- the train station in the middle of town. By the time I finished talking with him, my companion and I were a 10 minute walk from the car. To ensure we could find it later, I wanted to mark where the car was on our map. But we had walked pretty far and couldn't remember exactly where it was, so we couldn't mark it. We wanted to keep working, so we agreed to just find the car later since we knew that it was within a half mile or so of the person we were visiting, and we both felt like we pretty much remembered where it was. So then we got to work. We roamed the streets for a few hours, had some great conversations, taught a couple lessons, had a new investigator buy us dinner, and really had an awesome afternoon. Around 7:30 PM we were all done and headed back to the car. But at this point we realized that we still weren't sure exactly where it was. We had walked so far and in so many different directions that we were pretty disoriented, plus it was a new city we'd never really been to. It was dark and everything that had looked familiar before looked totally strange now. As I considered the situation, my first thought was 'God is going to help you find the car because there's no way you can do it by yourself'. I said a prayer that we would be able to find the car and then tried everything I could to do so. As we consulted the map, walked back and forth to different locations and kept ending up walking in circles and making no progress, I became discouraged. It had been a long time since I had felt this utterly lost. It was getting late and we were tired. We had been trying to find the car for almost an hour and had found nothing but frustration. The city had a bad feeling at night and I just wanted to go back, but we were miles and miles from our flat and without a car there was no way we could return. We were just walking up and down streets that all looked the same, and there was a pressing feeling of dread as we came to the reality that we were nowhere near finding our car. I did my best to maintain a positive attitude, and I realized that whatever happened it would be a good learning experience. I still had the thought that God could help me find the car, and I 100% believed it. I knew that if He wanted to, He could take me to exactly where I needed to go. I kept waiting for the Spirit to take over and guide me, and the longer we went without feeling like we were making progress, the more I wondered when the divine assistance was going to kick in. Finally, after we had tried seemingly every direction and ended up nowhere, I asked God ever more fervently to help us find the way back, and He came to the rescue. 

And it was like night and day. I went from feeling lost and alone to walking with purpose and direction. I was filled with a confidence that I knew where I was going. It was seriously so awesome. My companion and I had been wandering dejectedly around the city for an hour, and now we were striding side by side. We no longer looked at the map or tried to remember which way was which. We didn't even need to talk to each other to know the right way. The Spirit completely took over. I can't even explain how amazing it felt when we would simultaneously turn down a random side street without communication, both knowing that it would take us to the car. We walked in silence for 15 minutes being guided by this new power and we were led directly back to where we had parked. We were truly led by the Spirit, and it was an amazing feeling. We were completely lost, and then suddenly we just KNEW where to go. This experience was a powerful reminder that God knows right where we are and exactly where we need to go. Sometimes He will let us wander because we need to choose to rely on Him, and to realize that only by relying on Him can we get to where we need to go. But when we need Him most, He will always guide us and deliver us to where we need to be. (Also, from now on, I'm going to make sure to mark the car on the map).

The work is going well. Different investigators bought us dinner the past 4 nights in a row. We're working hard out here and growing a lot. I love it. I love these people so much. And I love the gospel and the direction I have in my life because of it. I love sharing it with others. 

加油

Elder Halverson