Saturday, February 6, 2016

Holli - January 25, 2016


Da Jiā hao!

It has been a pretty amazing week!

Sister Maughan left for Glendora on Sunday so Sister Ausen became my
companion for this week. She doesn't have a bike so we've been busing
and walking but we've enjoyed every minute!

We met this sweet Egyptian family this week. We actually had caroled
to them around Christmas time on accident but Sister Maugan had the
impression that we should go meet them a couple weeks after. The mom
is Maria and she has three kids, Josiah, Daniel, and Angelina. She was
telling us that she came to America for her church. She told us she
joined her church because she felt this great light come into her
heart when the choir sang. But when she came to America and started
going to the church here she felt that the light had dimmed. We taught
her the Restoration but because she speaks and understands mostly
Arabic, she got confused pretty quickly. We were able to give her a
Book of Mormon and Restoration pamphlet in Arabic but it's pretty
frustrating because she goes to her church pretty much because it's
the only one in Arabic. Our mission has missionaries for 7 different
languages but Arabic isn't one of them! However, Sister Ausen's
brother-in-law who lives in Italy currently, knows Arabic so we are
trying to set up a Skype between him and Maria so he can teach her the
gospel.

We were walking one day and we saw this guy (Ryan) sitting at a bus
stop. We got to talking and he had had some pretty rough experiences
through the his life. We were next to a pretty busy street but I felt
impressed to show him this video about two brothers going through
pretty hard things and eventually turning to Christ. By the end of the
video Ryan was sobbing over the iPad. The spirit was so strong and we
both just felt this love for Ryan, even though we didn't really know
him. We gave him a couple websites and some information to help him
out and invited him to church. We hope the Lord continues to direct
him!

We had a missionary broadcast on Wednesday morning and it was amazing!
It was a really neat experience knowing that I was watching the
broadcast along with my siblings :)

On Friday night I switched companions to the Chinese Sisters. It was
super cool because Friday night they have their "sports night" where
investigators and members come to learn how to play badminton and
shoot some hoops if they want. It was pretty awesome!

On Saturday we had English class - I got to teach bit of that :) There
was only one lady there but she was so sweet and her English is pretty
good. Haha, I think I made her English worse!

We've just been running around a lot this weekend! The Chinese Sisters
are pretty busy so we have lots of lessons which is awesome. I've
picked up a little Chinese but not too much. Sister Huang has been out
for almost a year and speaks both Chinese and English and Sister Gong
has been out for over a year and speaks hardly any English so during
language study I get to teach her a little English :) So fun!

On Sunday Sister Ausen became my companion for half the day and we
both gave talks in sacrament meeting about the Ward mission plan. Then
we went to teach the 11 year old primary kids about obedience and
Nephi. Then we taught Yiwei the third hour of church about the temple
and the things we do there. Brother and Sister Garrard helped us teach
and it was the most amazing experience ever. They are both such great
teachers! And have such strong testimonies! Another member in our Ward
(Brother and Sister Park) are going to take Yiwei and Amanda to the
temple on Saturday with the Garrards and show them around. So excited
for them all!

We had dinner at the Ward Mission Leader's house last night - tons of
Chinese food! Thankfully most of it was identifiable :) and really
good! I got to say the prayer at the end and they taught me how to say
“Our dear Heavenly Father" in Chinese so it was awesome! 

Haha, the Ward Mission leader told us this funny story.
There was this guy who attended a class in China. The teacher told
everyone in the class that if they ever went to America and
accidentally brushed up against someone or bumped into someone they
should always say sorry. So this man goes to America and is in the
airport and accidentally bumps into someone. He turns around and says,
"I'm sorry" . The man he bumped into says, "Oh, I'm sorry too." The
Chinese man pauses and then says, "I'm sorry three." The man he bumped
into inquires, "What are you sorry for?" The Chinese man replies, "I'm
sorry five.” This story is supposed to help Chinese people learning English
differentiate the difference between too, to, and two, and for and
four :) Funny right? Ok maybe it's funnier in person :)

The District Leaders call the missionaries every Sunday night so we
can report our numbers for the week. As I was reporting my numbers
Elder Shu (our DL) asked about who as at church. I told him one person
came. He asked if it was Amanda (Yiwei's wife) and I said no, Yiwei
came. He like paused for five minutes and then said, So one person
came? And I said yes and then he asked if Amanda came again and I was
like, no Yiwei came. Well apparently Yiwei means one person in Chinese. 
This week is going to be awesome :)

Hope you all are doing well! Looks like you had tons of fun at
Disneyworld without us :) The pics were awesome mom - thanks for
sending them :)


I love you all so much! Have a great week!

Sister Dunn

No comments:

Post a Comment