WEEK 8 - I am officially Chinese now

Dang, I wish someone would have told me to go on a mission before I left. Maybe like a mission story every now and then from someone in my ward would have sufficed. Oh well, I am out anyway. I'm kidding, this leads me to my first point: thank you all who helped get me out here because its actually pretty neat. If you are reading this and thinking to yourself "there is not one thing that I would like to do less than to serve a mission." Trust me I know how you feel very very well. I arguably wanted to come out less than you. But now I am out and plot twist, it is great. Maybe just give it a chance. If you actually hate it after like 6 months, just give up. I'm kidding don't, but like I'm pretty sure you would like it. Now my week: - I had a way cool lesson on Monday. I have been missing Paxton Newell (my friend who passed away in August) a lot and I have been feeling sad because he wanted to go on a mission very badly and I didn't. And guess who is out, me. So that had been weighing on me a lot. Anyways we were teaching this girl we were about to drop who literally never talks and when she does it is so quiet (ask anyone who knows me, that is my all time biggest pet peeve). Anyways, I got a strong feeling to talk about how I will be able to see Paxton again, guys I could literally feel Paxton there helping me speak in this way too hard of a language and it felt so good. Then after I said that Bella (who literally never talks) said: "I believe." Thank you Paxton, he made that lesson amazing and now that lady is moving closer to baptism. So Paxton is living his dream of being a missionary. So that was cool. - I went on exchanges the next day with the GOAT himself Elder Jeffries. Elder Jeffries kinda has a hard time understanding like harder English. So I was a little concerned with Ma Na's broken English and Elder Jeffries understanding levels. At lunch, I once again was trying to diagnose how she could take us to such nice places, and I got my answer. We were talking about how she went back to China with her 2 year old son Christian for Chinese New Year. For his present he got in his Hong Bao (like the red envelope thing) Ma Na said he received "14,000." I was like "cool Ma Na he must have been so happy with 14,000 yuan (chinese currency, which wouldn't be nearly as much as 14,000 dollars, but still a decent amount for a two year old) Then she was like "No 40,000" and I was like "Judas that is awesome for Christian, a nice investment seed for him, 40,000 yuan that is insane!" Then she was like "no 40,000 USD." At this point Elder Jeffries wasn't following this conversation to well, so he decided to counter with a spiritual thought saying: "It is crazy how much a small gift or offering can mean to someone, just like how we give our small gifts to God." I was just absolutely blown away by the fact that this two year old had received $40,000 for I have no idea. Elder Jeffries and Ma Na were having compeltly different conversations with each other, but overall a wholesome experience. So basically my theory is that Ma Na situation is kinda like the movie Crazy Rich Asians, but she is so awesome and I appreciate her so much. We get taken out so often and it has come to my knowledge recently by other missionaries that this is not common. Even though this causes me to eat such weird food I am soooo grateful. - We always have some crazy service things, but I got word that we were going to like a far away spot to help these members move some food storage in a English ward. I was like cool this is going to be normal service. And it was, until it wasn't. They were so nice, at the end of it all he was like "thank you guys so much, you are such a miracle. We have a gift for you." This man came out with just a regular target bag and in my mind I was like "oh boy I can't wait to be gifted with like some taffy or something" But what he pulled out of that bag could not have been predicted by a mortal man. He pulled out four mini waffle makers. I was like "oh boy, he is going to make us 4 mini waffles." False. He gave us the waffle makers. I now have an empire of kitchen supplies. My mom sent me an air fryer, I found a rice cooker, and I have a waffle maker. So then now that he had given us a waffle maker the next logical thing to do was tell us about his daughter in law Jasmine. He was like it's so awesome because her name is Jasmine, and she looks like Jasmine from the animated disney movie aladdin. I have noticed in my time that some of the Texan Elderly do not quite have a grip on cultural diversity. Because he showed us a picture of his daughter and I think he may have south america and India a bit mixed up. But what matters was the intentions of his heart and they were good. I love the people here, they often say the strangest things but you can just tell they are amazing people. - Hope Restored service was awesome as always (where I help homeless people). There was a lady there who I think wanted more from me than a snack pack and water, but my girls at the front Tenita and Lisa made sure that her lustful ways were stopped before it got out of hand. I didn't mind it to much though because honestly the old chinese ladies have done worse lol. But I met a super cool guy named quinn, he was handicap so he was allowed to be inside the whole time, me and this man just talked and talked for so long. These are such good and nice and respectful people and I can't even explain it. It is so hard watching single moms with little kids come in, it happens so often. Their parents just make one slip up and boom their life is like ruined. So I try my best to spread God's love for them and they always appreciate it so much. So many cool people I met there. - We had a mid autumn festival event on Friday and that was cool until like 15 minutes into it. When somebody pulled out these like dumpling things I was like "yum I love those" and Wei Wei had the audacity to tell all the other women that I had like 20 of them at her house at dinner. In my defense she just kept handing them to me and they were so good and she kept like pressuring me to eat them. But these ladies did not care about the full story. They were like "there is not enough Elder, you can't eat them all" I was like "I know I know, I won't there was just a lot at Wei Wei's" And they were like "No you don't understand, there are also a lot of people here who like these. you can't have them all" I was like "yes I am aware of that, I will only have one." Then they said "We know you need them for your big muscles, but we just didn't make enough." I was like "Yes I know, I know, I have come to the conclusion that I will have just one." This went on for about 10 minutes not even kidding. Guess what, I literally had one. Anyways, the rest of the party was awesome. Zhang Fan pulled up to the function with like 2 gallons of tea to disperse (one of our friends who is such a good guy, just doesn't know word of wisdom yet lol), the moon was super cool, Got like 20 numbers, a group of chinese men sat me down and gave me career advice for like an hour and half. Overall super cool night. - The next morning Chu Yang was baptized. It was way cool because we found him literally 3 weeks ago. And this area is not known for success or baptisms, but we have been getting a lot done so I am happy. We got to the church early to fill up the font. About 30 minutes before his baptism we noticed that we did not have the correct keys to open the doors so the viewers could see the baptism. I had no idea who had these keys and how I was gonna get this thing unlocked. Elder Campbell had a sudden desire in this given moment, to take a little break and watch the Church World Report. So I was alone. By some miracle I tracked down someone who had them and he came and we got it opened up. And even better news was that Elder Campbell thoroughly enjoyed the World Report. So that was way clutch. I baptized him and we got out of the font and he was like "hm, I feel better." So simple but true. It was awesome, lots of members came and we had conference right after. - At the baptismal after party pre conference tailgate event, they had cake. Some other missionaries wanted cake so they came in. Now these missionaries were not ready for the Plano 5th branch. You gotta come in there pretty humble because they have a true love for giving you a compliment, then pointing out one of your physical flaws. So Elder Jacobs was a certain members chosen victim for this morning. He came up to us and told me in chinese to tell him he is really strong and that the ladies must really like him. So I hit him with that and his face lit up. Then I was told to translate that he would probably do better with the ladies if his eyebrows weren't so bushy. Which leads me to the title of this email. I did not think that through and I translated. Nor did I notice it was a bad thing until like 15 minutes later. I have kinda just accepted this culture and I love it. Luckily Elder Jacobs is so dope and literally was not offended whatsoever. But I wouldn't dare call a Sister to this branch. They can be pretty brutal. Their recent favorite for me has been the size of my nose. But it was awesome and conference was awesome. And I love President Nelson and hope he lives till 350. - I have heard from the grapevine that there are apparently women of my grade who are going on missions and have their mission call. Oh my goodness if you got a mission call or are thinking about going, I would love to hear about it. - You are probably thinking to yourself: "When Henry says he wants to hear from everyone this week, he is probably talking about everyone but me." False, that is a horrible mindset and I condemn you for thinking that way. I want to hear from you. Yes you. Even if we have talked literally one time. I love hearing from everyone good and bad, I love to celebrate and to help. I love hearing on messenger and email. I miss people. If I die, its gonna be due to the love in my heart (elvis quote). I love you all so much, thank you SO MUCH for reading my subpar emails, and have such an amazing week! All my pics throughout the week: https://photos.app.goo.gl/qwGY1QhS99ne5wGy8 Pictures: 1. We were at walmart 2. Insanely nice lunch with Elder Jeffries and Ma Na 3. Disneyland ride tier list (me and elder jeffries) 4. The moment I recieved my own personal waffle maker 5. Quinn from hopes restored 6. A chinese lady made me squat for lke 3 minutes while she tried to get a cool pic 7. Chu Yangs baptism 8. Eric told me I looked handsome in this picture 9. Conference at the church