Week 2

As we say in Australia, how yous going everyone? 

This week I have learned a lot and had some awesome experiences. I am growing and being changed every day. It's a process that I could only ever go through being a missionary, so I'm really grateful for the opportunity.

This week we met with Pan a few times, our golden mystery man from Hong Kong who in the first 5 minutes told us he wanted to get baptized. So we've taught him a lot, but it turns out that he needed to go back to China, so he's gone now. We pray that he may find some members over there. Meeting with him and teaching him the gospel was really powerful, even though some of the time he gets distracted and starts asking me about American TV shows like Breaking Bad. And he speaks no English, so to try to get his point across he squints his eyes super tight to focus, then slowly sputters out 'Braeeee. Keeeeeen. BAD' It cracks me up. He also loves to discuss astronomy and will often get out this constellation app on his phone and begin showing us different nebulas and other stuff. I usually take it as a chance to talk about how God created everything.

We had dinner with Pan and a couple members that he had met at church at a Chinese restaurant this week. 

The other members there were really impressed with my Chinese which made me feel good. They couldn't believe I've only been learning it for two months. My chopstick skills are coming along. Dinner was going great until one of the members, a recent convert, saw the restaurant workers taking a lobster out of one of those tanks that they have in the front. She was getting very upset that it was being mistreated. She turned to me and began challenging me, why would God allow that lobster to be subject to such abuse?! I explained that God loves all His creations and wants us to use them for what we need, like eating. But we should always respect them. Then she started on how when we kill animals they still have to go through pain and fear. She was creating quite the scene and turned the dynamic from cheerful to tensious/awkward pretty quickly. I just smiled and told her that she could pray about it and assured her that God has all the answers. I was grateful when Pan mumbled something in Chinese about the Orion Nebula and began showing me constellations on his phone, I needed a good way out of the animal rights conversation.

I've learned there are a lot of interesting people that you will run into when your goal is to talk to everyone. A few from this week include:

Satan Boy- I approached two teenagers and asked if I could share our message about Jesus Christ. One of them began to swear profusely and say he couldn't listen because he worshipped Satan. I thought that was pretty interesting.

Towel girl- When we knocked on a door and a 20 year old girl inside said 'hold on one second' and then came to the door wearing just a towel but invited us in, we quickly recognized Satan's cunning plan to distract missionaries and promptly turned around and told her we could come back another time when she had found some clothes. 

Bee lady- We came across an old Asian lady in a park doing some sort of stretching ritual or something. When we came up to her she started giving us pamphlets and everything and inviting us to do the ritual with her. She had music playing and everything. I couldn't really focus on what she was saying, however because the whole time I was just looking at the huge bee that was on her back. I kept trying to tell her about the bee but she would just interrupt and keep talking about stretching. I started to think that maybe the bee was part of the ritual. But it turned out she just couldn't hear me, because when we were leaving she noticed the bee on her back and began jumping up and down trying to get it off until I came and hit it off using the pamphlet she had just given us. So at least I put it to some use.

My companion cracks me up. The way he speaks English just makes me laugh. He came up to me tonight and told me there is 'a cockroach that is trying to take it's life in the toilet. It dropped in there. It probably saw our apartment and how it so clean and then it had to choose to take it's life'. (It's true, the cockroaches seem to stay away, that was the first one we've seen *fingers crossed*) Then I saw him go back into the bathroom and heard the flush along with 'see you in spirit world!' 

He also loves practicing new English words, no matter what the context is. For example, he told me yesterday: 

'you make me feel so hypothetical'. 

This week I learned about how God blesses us in our trials. It is winter here in Australia and pretty chilly. Some days you need 3 layers to stay warm. One day this week, it was pouring rain, like a complete storm. And it was cold too, probably around 45 degrees. But I refused to be defeated. My companion and I were out for hours in the storm, going from house to house, seeking to spread our message. And I was SO HAPPY. Even though I couldn't feel my hands and I could barely see since there was water in my eyes and the rain had soaked through all my clothes, I was so excited and had a huge smile on my face as we went from one house to the next in this Australian suburb, sharing the light of Jesus Christ. And that day, not one person listened to us or let us in. Many told us to go home and stop trying. But I smiled at each of them and told them that this message was too important. And after doors got slammed in my face, I was just so full of joy that I couldn't help but keep smiling. God put that joy in my heart, and I was so grateful for that because it turned a day that could have been miserable into such a great experience. I was glad I could my name on that day and say I did my best.

I know God is preparing people for us to find. We found a lady named Duan on the street and have been meeting with her, teaching her the gospel. She is from China and I love bearing testimony in Chinese. Because my vocabulary is limited, I stick to the basic truths and they become very powerful. 

We also knocked on a door and this old Chinese lady told us to come in. She sat us down and told us that she knew God had sent us. I thought that was just absolutely amazing and I was grateful to be recognized as God's servant. We taught her about the Restoration of the gospel. Sadly she is also going back to China in a week, but I was glad to have met her. God has people out there for us to find, those people who have an open heart and are ready to hear this message which will change their life.

This week we taught English class. We had advertised around town to all the Chinese people, and we had an old couple show up to the chapel to learn English. They were cute, their English names were Enjoy (the husband) and Joy (his wife). Teaching English is so much fun, it gives me a new perspective on how I must sound to all these Chinese people. Enjoy spent the better part of an hour learning how to say 'I like to play basketball'. He's pretty awesome.

I was asked to play the piano for church this week so I got to re-learn some of the hymns. And I guess now I'm the ward pianist. Not really sure how it ended up like that but I love to play the piano.

We are striving to get to know the members, which comes along with learning about Chinese culture. We had dinner with some members last night and it was a learning experience.

At their house we had hot pot, a popular Chinese dish. It was so much different from food I've eaten in America, but I was excited to try it. Basically they throw a pot of boiling water in the middle of the table and put some spices in it. Then they have bowls of all sorts of different raw meat, mostly seafood. Most of them I didn't recognize and had never heard of. Some looked like noodles, or slugs, or something that was found at the bottom of the ocean. They toss in different foods at random, wait for them to cook, then each person reaches in with their chopsticks and grabs whatever they want to put in their own small personal bowl. I am proud to say I tried one of everything, even the ones that I think were still squirming. Some were good, I really liked eating them. A few weren't as great but it was a good experience to try. When they took an entire raw fish and tossed it in, I realized how far away from Kansas I am. I grabbed a piece of meat, examined it and found that it was still bright red in some places- it didn't look fully cooked. I began to put it back in the water but the member assured me that it was good. I thought of the scripture that says God will protect His servants from poison, shrugged and popped it in my mouth. My mom, who spent the last 19 years encouraging me to make the most of cultural experiences, would be so proud. Chinese culture is pretty awesome. I'm grateful for the opportunity to be immersed like this.

I'm learning a lot out here and growing a lot. I welcome the challenges and trials because with the Lord by my side I have nothing to fear. I love doing the work and all the experiences that come with it.

I hope everyone is having a great time! I will try to find a kangaroo next week and show you all. 

Elder Halverson