The Self-Driving Car

Hey everyone,

Life in California is moving forward. I'm still in Chino Hills with Elder Yang. He's from Beijing and has turned out to be a great companion, one of my favorites. He's a good missionary, fun to be around, and it's been a blessing to end up in this area with such a stud. 

The missionary work goes on, despite not being able to proselyte the way that we're used to. I never expected to put someone on baptismal date by solely teaching them over the phone, but the Lord works in all sorts of ways. We've been teaching an 18 year old Chinese girl named Jenny for a while now. Her parents were baptized several months ago, and attending the baptism helped her decide that she wanted to learn more about the gospel. Because her parents don't want to force her, this has been her own learning journey. Finally, we invited her to be baptized and she said yes! The best part is that her dad will be baptizing her. After that, they will be able to go to the temple next year and be sealed together as a family. That means that even after this life, they will still be together. The thought of it is so exciting. Her baptism is this next Saturday and I'm really looking forward to it.

For some reason the mission office decided to give Elder Yang and I a new car. This thing is literally insane. I feel like I'm in Star Wars or something. It's a brand new Rav 4, with some insane features. It didn't take us long to find the cruise control feature which means the car turns, accelerates, stops, starts, all by itself. You literally don't have to do anything. It's advanced stuff over here. Not going to lie, it feels weird to be a 'humble missionary' who's rolling around in this thing.

I'm still in touch with a lot of the people I met over in Australia and it's been so cool to still be able to do video lessons with them once in a while as well. I hope that I'll be able to see them all again someday. 

I've been touched with how much I love the people here. It feels like after every single lesson, we hang up the phone and I just turn to my companion and say something like 'they are so AWESOME'. I really feel like I'm in a little piece of heaven over here. The Chinese members are so full of love and faith and it's really uplifting talking to them.

My Chinese continues to improve as I discuss unique topics with the people here. This week I had a conversation with one of the members who was exasperatedly telling a story of how her German Shepherd bit the neighbors' Chihuahua almost in half and the she spent the next week running back and forth from the hospital to pay the insurance bills. I felt really bad, you never know what life will throw at you. However, I was reminded of the power of the Book of Mormon to help in ANY circumstance, because the scriptures we were able to share with her actually did a lot of good.

When I arrived here, I quickly noticed that the thing missionaries are struggling the most with in this quarantine was positivity. However, as time has gone on, and Elder Yang and I have worked to uplift and motivate the zone, we've felt the Lord supporting all of us. The atmosphere is more light, more optimistic, and I'm so glad to see that all of us are a little better than we were before. 

We were finally allowed to go visits members on a per invite basis. One night, the Jia family had us over, and though we weren't allowed to eat with them because we had to keep our masks on, it was so fulfilling to finally meet the people that I've been teaching over the phone for 6 weeks. The first 5 minutes, all of us were just looking at each other like zoo animals. They were all way shorter than I'd imagined, and I was much taller than they thought. But just being in person, seeing people's mannerisms, their facial expressions, and having the Spirit right there with us made me so grateful to finally be going in person again.

Many many people in the world are wondering when this whole virus thing will end, when people will stop protesting, how can we make it through, how can we be happy? I have felt so blessed recently to be following a living prophet. I know that we are being guided by the Lord in these times. I also know that this virus and everything along with it is a trial to us, but in the end it will be for our good. I'm so grateful to be a missionary during this time, to be someone who represents Jesus Christ, to share the message of hope with the world. I've been struck by the influence that one person can have, for good or for bad. May we all choose to be a light in the lives of others, to uplift and nurture, to strengthen and support.