Becoming a Chinese celebrity

New flat is smaller but cleaner. I spent a few hours organizing and I feel AMAZING. It's so nice to have my own space and have it all clean. I am very excited for the next transfer. I also found some furniture in the storage here and used it in the bathroom to make shelves. I like the new flat a lot.

Hey what's up everyone I'm still over here in Australia doing my best and always trying to see the good in everything. I'm learning a lot about how serving other people is really what makes me happy and I don't need much more than that to feel good. Honestly I'm grateful for the challenges that come with missionary work because if you can't say you had to grind every day then what were you doing? Also if you can't say you laughed and joked around then what were you doing? Find joy in the journey. That's what I'm all about. Anyway, this week my P-day is today since there are transfers tomorrow. Elder Wang is heading to a new area and I'm getting a new companion named Elder Song. I met him once a couple months ago, and here's what I know about him:

He's from China

He's 27

He's about to finish his mission

He smiles a lot

He is a professional boxer in China

So I'm pretty excited. I am secretly hoping that someone will try to attack us one day on the street and he just KO's them. Anyway, this next transfer should be great. I'll be in charge of this area and we've already seen a lot of progress. I'm looking forward to more miracles.

Some experiences from this week:

We went to visit this guy named William who is an Australian that always comes to the Chinese ward. He says he really likes it even though he can't speak Chinese. This guy was so nice. We showed up and he had cooked us a lunch and then started working on dessert. I was able to help him a bit with his college plan since he is starting online classes at BYU-Idaho. He's well over 40 and I have a lot of respect for him taking on college as well as working full time. 

I got to see a pretty awesome miracle in his life. This Sunday I was sitting by him and a different member was talking to him. When we went to visit him later that week, I asked him about it and he told me about how he had been at church trying to figure out the college stuff on his phone. Then a member who he barely knew started talking to him and asked what he was doing. It turned out that she used to be a scheduling counselor at a university and was literally the perfect person to talk to for his problem. She helped him figure it all out and I think it's amazing how mindful God is of all of us.

This week when putting on my shoe I found a cockroach inside. Now I always shake my shoes outside before I put them on.

I had a feeling to go to this basketball court after we had tracted for a couple hours. We showed up and there was only one guy there. He looked pretty standoffish and didn't seem like he wanted to be bothered, but I walked up and grabbed his rebound and then started talking to him. We ended up shooting hoops together for the better part of an hour while I got to know him and he asked questions about my mission. It was such a natural way for me to share why I'm doing what I'm doing and I could see that my motivation to spend these 2 years serving others really had an impact on him. I especially liked seeing his reaction when I told him that I want to get married in the temple and be sealed with my wife for this life AND the next. He told me about his girlfriend that he wants to marry. It was cool just hanging out with this guy and being able to share what I believe with someone who became a friend. You never know how getting someone's rebound can open them up.

We went to visit a member named Mrs. Zhang who hadn't been to church in months. We showed up at the address and an old Chinese guy answered the door. He started smiling and shaking our hands and welcoming us in. It turned out that he had seen us before and just thought we seemed like really nice guys. Right as I stepped inside, we got a phone call and Elder Wang stepped into the entryway to take it. Now I was inside the living room, surrounded by 5 Chinese people and they were all looking at me expectantly. I asked "is Mrs. Zhang here?" and the 4 year old, the old grandma and grandpa and the young lady all pointed to this lady sitting at the table apparently very busy on her laptop. She looked at me from across the room with a look of annoyance and contempt and asked "what do you want?" I figured maybe we had come at a bad time and told her we had come by to visit but we could come back another time. Or maybe she was a member who didn't want people to keep pestering her to come back to church. The old man was still behind me smiling and just then someone else in the family had walked in the door, past Elder Wang who was still on the phone. It was a scene of chaos and confusion, which only got worse as my conversation continued with this lady. When I said we could come back another time, she still looked frustrated and then looked at me and asked why did I want to visit her? I was still trying to be polite and navigate the situation, and explained that we just wanted to see how she was doing. Then she said "have I ever met you?" and I explained how I was the new missionary in this area. I knew something was wrong when she glared at me and impatiently asked "what's a missionary?" 

"Oh, are you a member of our church?" I clarified.

"What church?" The lady answered.

She wasn't even a member. She had never heard of us before and she must have been so confused about why we were trying to visit her. Her name just happened to be Mrs. Zhang. Things were pretty awkward but that didn't stop me from turning around, inviting the old Chinese guy to English class, grabbing Elder Wang (who had no idea what was going on) and then inviting myself out. It was pretty funny. 

One afternoon, I was reminded by the simultaneous complexity and simplicity of the gospel. One moment I was having an in-depth discussion about the existence of God with an atheist. The next, I was drawing a picture of a stick figure going from heaven to earth on a whiteboard in our chapel while teaching a Korean guy named Joe about where we came from. I felt the Spirit in both lessons, but I especially loved teaching Joe. It was our first time meeting with him, and he wanted to learn some English. It was a little difficult because our common language is English but it ended up being a lot of fun. After getting to know him (asking him where he was from, about his family, and what his goals were, etc), I began to explain very simply about God's plan for us. I was grateful for the language barrier- it forced me to focus on just the simple, beautiful truths of the gospel. I drew pictures and told Joe about what we teach. 'This is where we came from. God is our father. He wanted us to be happy. So we came here to Earth. We have families. We love them. We want to live with them in heaven after we die'.

I felt a lot of joy as Joe learned about new answers to the questions I had asked him: where he was from, what was in store for his family, and what his goal was. It was kept so simple and I saw Joe smiling as he grew to see the beauty of being with his family again. He told me he had never considered anything after this life and liked the idea of going back to live with God. When I finished explaining the basics, he asked me "do you have any more of these stories? I like them" and I told him I would teach him more next time. There is something so awesome about these truths, I love being able to share them with others. The way it all related together was amazing and I could see Joe connecting the dots in his mind. It's always powerful to me when I see somebody else learn and understand who they really are.

We met a ghost this week. We knocked on the door and it opened by itself. Then it creaked shut. Then it opened again. At first I thought someone opened it but no one was there, I even checked. Elder Wang and I didn't know what to do, ghosts aren't really in the missionary handbook. 

We had a little miracle when we had been finding for a long time in the hot sun and then this little Iranian woman let us in. Her name is Faran and she fussed over getting us watermelon and making sure 'my friend from China' knew how to use a fork. I am often touched by how genuinely good some people are. It makes me grateful to see how often God puts these little angels in our path. 

I went up to a lady in a park that I thought would certainly turn me away. Once again I learned not to judge people because she was so kind and especially interested in the fact that I was speaking Chinese. Her name is Vicky and she invited us to come visit her family. Sometimes I try to see from these other people's point of view - it must be a little strange to have some guy in a white shirt and tie come up and talk to you while you're just minding your own business. That's why I'm always so amazed at how kind and friendly some of the people are. Vicky is one such example. I'm excited to go meet her family next week.

We brought Jenny (a lady we've been teaching) to an after-church lunch at a member's house. The impact of welcoming members is huge. Jenny felt included and loved and when we had a gospel discussion, she felt comfortable asking lots of questions and getting great feedback from different people. We all felt the Spirit really powerfully when one of the members shared about how they lost their son when he was only 2 years old and how comfort and peace has come from knowing that through God's plan, we all have the opportunity to be with our families again. Before I was a missionary, I never realized how much of an influence the members can have. Just a kind word or small conversation can make a huge difference. I love being the 'matchmaker' between members and investigators and seeing their new friendship bless both of them. 

We had a mission-wide contest this past week that motivated all the missionaries to work hard. The incentive was flour-bombing the mission president's assistants. Our zone won the contest, so this week we all met up at a park downtown to do it. I had never heard of flour-bombing, but I learned quickly that we would take a cup of water, splash it in the face of the assistant, then reach into a bag of flour and throw it on them and it would stick all over them. It sounds pretty funny, but when I saw the scene from an outsider's point of view I wondered whether or not they would call the police. It was 30 young people all wearing dress clothes, surrounding two people who seemed to be receiving some form of tar-and-feather. After this activity I can see why some people think our church is a cult. 

By far one of the most unique experiences I've had so far happened just before the flour-bombing. Elder Wang and I arrived at the park a little early and were still waiting for the other missionaries to arrive. As we walked I heard some Chinese flute music and then saw a group of 20 or 30 old Chinese ladies doing a mixture of line dancing and swing dancing. I wasted no time making my way to the center of the group and soon had the attention of everyone. What was a young white guy doing in the middle of the Chinese dancing group? They were delighted when I asked if I could dance with them and I had these little Asian ladies pulling me this way and that and showing me this and that dance technique, all while chattering to each other about how insane it was to them that I could speak Chinese. A few minutes later when the AP's (assistants to the mission president) arrived, they were surprised to see me in the center of a crowd of Chinese people, all of them listening to every word I said. The AP's (who don't speak Chinese) were then overwhelmed as I summoned my newfound band of Chinese followers and instigated a giant line dance. I was shouting directions in Mandarin, and quickly the AP's were engulfed as Chinese ladies also grabbed them and pulled them into the dance. Over the next few minutes, the rest of our zone arrived, and each new missionary was also dragged into the dance as Chinese ladies grabbed them by the arm and pulled them in. So there were now dozens of missionaries in this huge line dance with old Chinese ladies. The ladies were overjoyed to have tall white dancing partners and it was really cool to see how welcoming they were to all the newcomers. All the missionaries had literally no idea what was going on but they went along with it and everyone was just looking at each other and shrugging like 'let's go for it'. Finally we finished the dance, now with a huge group there. I addressed all the Chinese people and thanked them, organized them so that we could take a picture (taught them how to say cheese and do a thumbs-up), and then everyone started intermingling and talking and it was this huge missionary event. It was also our mission president's birthday so we took a video of all the Chinese people singing Happy Birthday. It was pretty amazing how it all just happened. I loved being immersed in the culture like that. I felt like a celebrity for a few minutes there and I'm not gonna lie I think the fame went to my head. Those little Chinese ladies asked if I would come back every week and I think I might. It was so fun and crazy at the same time.

We took our car into the service shop for a 6 month check up, dropped it off and went about our work by train. A few hours later when we returned, we walked back to the shop only to see our car being driven out of the shop by one of the workers. We waved at him and tried to talk so that we could get the car back, but he clearly didn't recognize that it was our car and then took off. He went for a little joyride, clipping 60 through the nearby neighborhood. We looked at each other in confusion and wondered if the worker just stole our car. Several minutes later, we were still standing outside the shop when he returned. He parked near us and got out. Upon learning that it was our car that he had just taken for a spin, he looked sheepishly at us and handed over the keys. He clearly had some extra time on his hands that day. I was honestly glad he had a good time. 

I learned the power of planning and how the Spirit always supports our preparation. We went back to Lily's house this week. We went by to visit and taught her daughters English and got to know her family more. With 3 kids there and a loud environment, it was hard for us to share the gospel as well as we wanted to. Additionally, we hadn't really planned out a lesson and just shared some basics about who God is and why we're here. It was a bit jumbled, confusing and I could see that we weren't really getting to Lily with what we were saying. I was especially struggling with my Chinese and being able to express what I wanted to say. We bore testimony and we had a good conversation with her, but I left feeling unsettled and unsatisfied with what I had taught and especially with how well I had prepared. I was determined to counsel with the Lord and learn how I could be better. It was our last appointment of the day and I went straight home and began to pray. First I asked God to forgive me for not preparing as well as I should have, and then told Him that I was going to do better. I expressed my desire to be able to teach the gospel in a way that Lily would understand. She had invited us to come back the next day and I wanted to be able to share a powerful message with her. As I opened the scriptures and began to study, I had some impressions come to me. The first led me to prepare a lesson based on Alma's teachings in Alma 32: comparing our faith to a seed. As I continued to study, the lesson all came together in my mind. I practiced explaining it in Chinese it with my companion. I also found an apple and took the physical seeds out so that we could show them to the kids and get them involved. As I studied the scriptures and sought to understand the principles with the intention of teaching someone else, I felt the Spirit helping me learn and truly internalize what I was studying. By the time we went to Lily's house the next day, I was excited to have another chance, this time knowing that I was accompanied by the Spirit because of the effort I had put into the lesson. The difference was remarkable. When I pulled out the seeds and began explaining the analogy, I could see in Lily's eyes that she was understanding. My Chinese came easily and I even found myself using words I didn't remember learning. Everything we taught seemed to hit home with her much more so than it had the day before. I knew it was not because I was so much better at speaking or convincing than I had been the day before. The difference came from the powerful Spirit that was in the room, which calmed the children, helped Lily focus, and eventually brought her to tears when we shared powerful experiences in which we knew God loved us. I was grateful that the Spirit was there. I know that God loves His children and I'm grateful to be an instrument in His hands to spread the gospel. 

Keep doing your best everyone, and I know the Lord will bless you. 加油

哥哥你什么时候会结婚

Elder Halverson