WEEK 12 - Korea's Hottest Wing

95% of the people I teach and talk to are immigrants from China who came to America by themselves. Lots of them tell me that they feel alone. I have come to the conclusion that the idea of being alone is false and stupid. It is impossible to be alone. How could you be alone, when somebody literally lived AND died for you? How can you be alone when no matter what you do, good or bad, somebody is gonna stay by your side and love you? How can you be alone when Henry thinks about you 24/7 and loves you so much? Your not alone I promise. I hope you just absolutely marinate in the spirituality of that thought throughout your week, but before that, let me tell you about my tremendous week: - At the beginning of the week Ma Na sadly informed us that she could not go to dinner this week. She said she had ordered us a pickup for lunch from a Korean wing place. She knew we liked spicy so she ordered us one spicy and one normal. When the server gave us the wings he was like: "be careful, the red ones are very very hot." I took this advice as a grain of salt because he was watching some very suspect K-POP music videos on his ipad when we got there (idk I feel like people who like stuff like that wouldn't have a crazy spice tolerance). So I ate the wing. It was nice, definetly spicy but good. Then the spice hit. I was in insurmountable pain. That is the spiciest thing I have ever eaten (Elder Seo your people got some spicy food). Then it hit Elder Campbell. Poor guy. I did not see him for the next little while, as he was confined to the bathroom of this restaurant. As I was slamming water I looked at the menu and apparently this was Korea's hottest wing. After what felt like years, Elder Campbell emerged from the lavoratory, and we went and got dairy queen blizzards, I was battling passing out for the rest of the day, but it was a fun experience. Also Ma Na felt so bad that she couldn't take us to dinner that she bought us a family meal from panda express, gave us a voucher to go to this all you can eat indian restaurant. And I guess that wasn't enough because at church today she just gave me $60. Ma Na is great, but I plan to never eat those wings again. - The next day Will and Lauryn picked us up to go to a food court for lunch and a message. I thought Will used up all of his nutritional knowledge on us last week at lunch, but I was wrong. For some reason we parked like a mile from the food court. We were talking about some of their hard things they were going through during the car ride there (they sadly have a lot). When we got out of the car Elder Campbell threw us all off by deciding to chime in. He said that many people in his family line suffer from heart disease and it is a hard thing. I think Will had been bottling up his thoughts on how cholestreol affects your heart health all week, because as soon as Elder Campbell said this Will exploded with knowledge on this very topic (at me for some reason) I was trying to listen and to care about what he was saying so hard. I just could not do it. I zoned out for probably 5 minutes and woke up to him talking about lipid preoxidation. I just wasn't in the mood to talk about lipid preoxidation at that very moment, luckily I had a beautiful solution. I just walked slightly faster than Will and Elder Campbell. I guess Will was fine telling this to Elder Campbell, cause after about two minutes I was too far ahead of him and I was able to talk to his wife. Elder Campbell was kinda just a prisoner of war for the next 25 minutes though. After we got our food we had a really deep spiritual conversation and it went super well. On the walk back I did the exact same strategy and I am happy to report that it worked really well. When we got back to the car Will was giving him a vivid description about some questionable practices of the Byzzantine empire, and why we can learn from it. We got home and I thought Elder Campbell was gonna be like "what the heck man, why did you leave me?" but no. He was very proud of himself. I was like "oh.. ya! good job with that today you killed it!" If you were to ask elder Campbell today what is our best lesson ever? He would say that. Will just really likes to talk about super random stuff and go super in depth about it. And I guess Elder Campbell just really likes to not talk. If you ask me this is a match made in heaven, I will let you know how it goes this week. - Layla was baptized yesterday and it was amazing! Setting up a baptism is not as amazing though. Some of the members just straight up didn't believe me that we had a baptism this week, because we already had one last week, which kind of threw a wrench in planning the baptism. Some of them genuinely just thought we were mistaking this for Crystal's baptism from the week prior. Ivan Tang, the man conducting the baptism, was not convinced until the morning of. I have no idea what I have done to make my credibility this low, but it really took some concrete evidence to get people there. We got there in the morning (stressed) and we started filling the font and setting up. I love spending time around Elder Campbell until it is time to set up baptisms in the morning. We had to move a piano into the room we were doing the baptism at. We went into the relief society room to go get a piano, but Elder Campbell was not convinced that we were allowed to do this. I kid you not he took a seat and pulled out his right hand man: The general handbook. Since Elder Campbell had no intention on helping me move this piano it was all up to me. I had to move it literally one room down, and alone it took me probably 20 mins. I got it in the room, and Elder Campbell was still skeptical, but hey at least we got it there (writing that it sounds funny, but I was genuinely peeved). - Layla is the first convert of her family so I was really hoping that her family would show up and support her. And they did. It was like a missionaries feeding ground there, it was wonderful. So long story short Layla asked me to baptize her. But according to a member who has gotten close to her, that while she has developed a love for the gospel she apparently developed a love for me as well. Which wouldn't be a big deal if she wasn't 15 and I wasn't a missionary. That is currently my biggest stress, because apparently that could emergency transfer me and I really don't want to leave. I was also super stressed because her and Elder Campbell aren't super close and he was the one baptizing her. I was praying for everything to work out all week and guess what: it did. It worked out amazing. I gave a talk and confirmed her. And I know there was definetly a reason I gave that talk. I don't think I have ever felt the Spirit more in my life then during that talk, and some of her family started crying during the talk and some are now interested (it wasn't me, it was the Spirit). Everything went so well, and I'd say it was our best baptism yet. They served cake after the baptism, and at church the next day like 9 different members asked me if I had diahrrea from the cake yesterday (they love talking about intestinal movement with me for some reason). I am pleased to say that I did not. So besides the cake I'd call it a 10/10 - We also had a very very promising friend come to church for the first time today. Since it was the fifth Sunday (fifth Sundays are usually special and awesome) I felt comfortable promising her that it would be a great place to feel the Spirit and it would be a great lesson. We pulled up and it was a very old english lady from another ward giving a lesson on emergency preparedness. This would have been wonderful if all of our ward knew english. But we do not. Also this lady was using the most strangely advanced terms I have ever heard. I barely understood this presentation and I have spoken english my whole life. It was like she was reading from the book of Isaiah. But our new investigator friend especially loved it. I have no idea how or why but she did. We had a huge potluck after church because it is 5th sunday and guess what? Remember that one email where I told you how all of the chinese women grilled me for eating all of those dumpling things one time at someones house? Well she brought them to this potluck. And as soon as those johns got layed on the table, all of the chinese ladies looked at me. I was actually exiled to the corner until everyone got food. If I could go back and not eat so much that one night I would. Because everywhere I go that those things are, I am automatically the villian. But I love my branch and the potluck was actually really fun. - I love you all so much thank you so much for reading my emails and I hope you have such amazing weeks! let me know how you are doing, I am literally dying to hear! I am sorry, you probably want to see the pictures but do not want to join this, but the pictures are refusing to work right now. So for now the google photos is the best I got. Also it's fun so join: https://photos.app.goo.gl/qwGY1QhS99ne5wGy8