Like a pioneer

Hey everyone, this week I learned that in 110 degree weather you can really cook an egg on the sidewalk. It doesn't taste good though and it's hard to clean up. But anyway, it's been another week here in Sydney, just an American white boy hanging out with Chinese people all the time, telling people about Jesus and His plan for us, and just trying to make the world a better place. 

Honestly being on a mission is so weird. It hit me this morning as I was eating Chinese food for breakfast while watching 2 white cockatoos playing in the grass. I'm in a whole different world. It's a good experience and really unique and constantly pushing me to grow.

I've learned that God is really patient with us as we strive to grow and improve. It doesn't matter how many times we fail, He will always be there to pick us up and support us as we keep trying.

Our English class is going great. We have some students who have been coming for months and it's really cute how they explain everything to the newer students. Like we get these old people telling the newer students "they are from America, they teach us English because they are following Jesus Christ. They really won't make you pay. I know, I thought the same thing when I started"

It's good to know that they've learned bits and pieces about Jesus Christ.

For the New Year we went to a crowded street and held up a couple whiteboards for people to write their New Year's Resolution. It was cool to encourage people to achieve their goals and be a positive influence to others. It was kind of sad though how many people said they didn't have any goals or resolutions. Well, I think if you're not going forward you're going backward! So I hope everyone has a new goal for this year or at least is always working toward our overarching goal of becoming more like Jesus Christ. 

I made a goal to pray more. Which means more by myself and more with others. One time as I was talking to a guy on a train, I felt that I wanted to say a prayer and invited the guy to pray with me. It was pretty awesome and even though the guy didn't really understand what was going on I think he felt good about it too.

Praying is so simple - it's just us talking with Heavenly Father. A lot of blessings come when we ask for them.

It's always such a cool experience to meet with somebody for the first time and begin teaching the gospel. You start as random people that know nothing about each other and an hour later you're close because of the Spirit and love you've felt during the lesson. This week we met with Elaina, a girl from China who was introduced to us by another one of our friends. We sat down in this park and just started talking. It was amazing because for whatever reason Elaina felt she could trust us. I think it was the love she could feel from us even though we didn't know her. Anyway, she ended up telling us about all the things she wanted to accomplish or do in 2020. We helped her make a list of goals, and then came the awesome part. We were looking at the goals and saw that the gospel would help her achieve every single one. It was a testimony to me that God truly blesses every aspect of our lives. 

The Lord blesses patience and perseverance. We all felt we should visit this park and go finding. We talked to every single person there and nobody wanted to talk with us. But we didn't give up and decided to try knocking doors around the area. We did that for about an hour and it was the same story: rejection after rejection. But we kept going and then felt to go back to the park again. My hopes were not as high as they'd been at the start but when we came back to the park there were a bunch of new people there. We got to sit down and teach a lesson with one of them just on the spot. And then as we were leaving, a Chinese man was passing through the park right in our path. We talked to him and it was an awesome little lesson. I love the times when somebody starts by saying "no English" and then we're like no worries we speak Chinese and their face just lights up and we get to talking. Anyway it was a nice little miracle the Lord gave us after we worked hard and did our best.

There's definitely been challenges this week. It seems like no matter what approach we use, many people don't really want to learn about Jesus Christ. Sometimes it's frustrating - I can see how much this gospel has blessed my life, why won't other people just listen? But this way of thinking doesn't help much. So instead I've just focused on being loving and uplifting. My very favorite moment this week and probably one of the highlights of my mission so far was when one of our members told me:

"Because of your listening and caring, I feel Jesus loves me"

After that I could go home and feel good about my mission. That's the kind of impact I'm out here to have- through small and simple acts I can help others see how much Jesus Christ loves them and how much He can bless them. Little moments like that make the rest of it all worth it.

I know we are all children of God and that He loves us. He understands all our challenges. When we pray, we can tell Him about what we're struggling with and He can help us figure it out.

Being a missionary is awesome. It's the most fulfilling thing I can imagine. I get to give my all to serve Jesus Christ every day. I love it.

我有两个同伴，两个都特别喜欢睡觉

Elder Halverson