WEEK 51 - PoliTICKS

What up everyone I love being a missionary, it's the best thing ever! I love and miss y'all so much I hope life is amazing for you! Alright tbh when I found out I was coming back here to the Chinese branch 2 months ago I was slightly disappointed. I was so hyped being an English missionary because, uh idk how to say it, just being an English missionary was legendary. I found out I was coming back here to the branch and I love these people with all my heart, but out of pride I guess I thought my efforts would go unnoticed because the branch is difficult and it is just so different from all other missionary work in this mission. I remember coming back and reading a poem that my dad gave to me when I left for my mission (the mission has gotten me dependent on inspirational poems haha), the poem says: "Father, where shall I work today?" And My love flowed warm and free. Then He pointed out a tiny spot And said, "Tend that for me." I answered quickly, "Oh no, not that! Why, no one would ever see, No matter how well my work was done. Not that little place for me." And the word He spoke, it was not stern;... "Art thou working for them or for me? Nazareth was a little place, And so was Galilee." Oh my heavens that poem hits so hard as a missionary. This poem is like scripture to me, as a missionary I have to choose if I'm working for the pride of my heart or for the Lord. I choose the Lord. I don't care where the Lord sends me, I don't care who He puts me with, I don't care how difficult the work is, I am choosing to go where He needs me to go for the rest of my mission, and my life. My gosh, the Lord is so good. Also the people we are teaching and the people of the branch are so ELITE so I am absolutely hyped to be here! I am so grateful that this is the little spot the Lord needs me to tend. There were a lot of small great things from this week! For example: For personal study I read Luke 2 and I decided to listen to Silent Night while I read it and now I am knee deep in that seasonal mood. I also went to a trainers meeting and met all of the new missionaries (except my new companion, he gets here tmw). I had no idea what to talk to them about so I just said what was on my mind and I told all of the new missionaries that there is an Elder in this mission that I genuinely believe might actually be a half blood wizard. I was like "if this man was wielding a wand and he said avada kedavra to you, actual green stuff would come out of that wand and kill you" everyone laughed but one particular Elder seemed very paranoid about it... They made me the branch translator now which is lit but I fear for what unhinged comments I'm going to have to eventually translate but it's cool. Also all of our friends are so lit and progressing so well, and a few of them were hyping me up telling me that I was looking really good (I lost 15 lbs), but apparently something changed because they all flipped, lots of obesity comments were sent my way at church, haha idk it's a cutthroat environment. Judas I could write so many things but I'll just share like the main fun story from this week: - Church this week was fantastic my goodness. We had a lot of our friends pull up to church, and literally my best friend Chu Yang came back from Houson and he also pulled up to church and it was just so great to be with him again! We mosied our way on over to Elder's Quorum and it was a pretty average Elder's Quorum lesson. Peter Chen was the teacher per usual and he got up and said "I will now sing a song." He then decided to start the class off with a decently brutal comment to Elder Cox in order to solidify his authority or something. Then he said today we are going to be talking about the talk from the last general conference about integrity. He said that everyone in China is brainwashed and we need to be more integral. As soon as I heard him say the word integrity I knew for fact he was going to bring up his almost bank account scam, and I was right. He talked about that for a few minutes, then meandered his way over to me and pointed at me and said "I am disgusted with the new generation" and he started talking about elderly abuse and ways we could avoid it. That topic got good class participation so that was good I guess. Then Peter surprise hit the class with a really good genuine testimony and he talked about how grateful he was for something I said to him like 6 months ago about the temple and eternity. Then he got right back on track and started talking heat on a congressman and then he tied that to Mitt Romney's religious beliefs. Then he hit the class with a joke in broken English and said "Why do we call it politics? It should be poliTICKS!" Me and Wei Ming laughed very hard and literally no one else understood it, so the joke didn't quite land haha, but it definitely was an above average Elders Quorum class so that's good! Right after class we went to sacrament meeting and I was torn from my dearest Chu Yang so I could go to the back and translate. One of the guys who spoke started talking about a Russel M Nelson conference address from 2001 that he liked that involved a banana boat analogy, and that was a beast to translate haha, but the Lord provided per usual. Then it was time for the potluck. If you ever want to make a crew of Chinese people get absolutely hyped for something, you're gonna wanna have a potluck, everyone in our branch is die hard about the monthly potluck haha. Anyways I'm putting away the translating gear and turns out someone wanted pizza at the function, so this pizza delivery man walks in looking as confused as a man can be, but we help him and it works out. Then a couple of kids started playing "rhinos" with me, which is a game where they charge at me with their heads as they repeatedly shout racist things, idk it was fun. The food slapped, the people were lit, and the church is true. I love this branch and I love these people so much! I love y'all so much as well and hope everything is great. I am about to go play some real freaking bayou jazz with a missionary named Elder Ducos, so that'll be a good time. I love you all have a great week! Pics: 1. Goodbye Elder Schneider 2. Apple vision pros 3. Billy gave Elder Yee's poem a thumbs up 4. English class is a mighty good time 5. I am now the branch translator 6. I am now officially the holder of the sacred Tiwi stack (thank you Elder Waters)