Week 12: September 23, 2019

你们好!

Let me explain fresher's week! What a crazy week it's been! We've been out on the streets from 10 AM to 5 PM monday through saturday! Except for Thursday, which was my Pday as you all know. But it was exciting and also super hard. Basically what we do all day is try to get people to stop and talk to us. We start off with normal conversation topics like asking if they're a student, what they're studying, etc. Then we bridge over to the gospel and hopefully interest them into either giving us their phone number or getting them to go to an activity or to church. So that was super exhausting to just talk to people all day. The goal was to get 200 people's contact info, but we way surpassed that goal, we got like 500! Which is super exciting! There was an insane amount of people, and so many chinese too! The Chinese people are more likely to stop and talk to you-I guess they're more curious about religion- so I got to speak plenty of Chinese this past week! I also got to talk to a bunch of bible bashers, one of which claimed that Mitt Romney was in the Illuminati. When I asked how he found that out he said “From the Google!” So pretty interesting week to say the least haha

Every night this past week we had activities for fresher's week. We had hotpots, movie nights, etc. at the church all week. So we had a lot of people go to those activities. And then we had church yesterday! And there was soooooo many people that went! The Chinese group basically tripled in size, there was at least 15-20 interested people there! And that's not even a portion of the Chinese people we found. We found about 150 chinese people on the street that showed some interest, and we haven't even contacted all of them yet. I'm so excited for the next couple weeks (or months if I stay in this area next transfer). 

But now that freshers week is over, they divvied up all the names to the missionaries in my area. And we got so many Chinese phone numbers this past week that me and Elder Chen are pretty much exclusively teaching Chinese people now. Which I'm excited for but also a little terrified at the same time. Also this is kinda random, but when all the Chinese people speak English they have super British accents. It's super funny because it's not at all what you would expect, but I guess it makes sense because that's where they learn English.

Honestly Chinese has been super hard for me. It's really hard to be in a lesson and feel like you're not really helping them since you can't understand most of the things they're saying. It feels like I'm basically a spectator in every lesson... I kinda just sit in the background while Elder Chen does most of the teaching, and occasionally I'll give a brief portion. But from what I've heard from the other Chinese missionaries in my mission is that that's usually what happens for the first couple transfers. And their chinese is all really good, so that gives me some hope that I'll be able to learn Chinese. It's been especially hard this week with Freshers week, we haven't had time for language study at all. So I'm really grateful next week will be back to normal.

Also I finally got a bus pass! Before it used to be like a 30+ minute walk to and from the church but now it's a less then 10 minute bus ride. Super nice. Oh and all the buses are double decker so pretty high class. I have yet to sit on the bottom level haha I'm basically a child

That's it for this week! 爱你们!

-Elder Ensign

Another view of University of Manchester from the double decker bus haha. Also with the classic England weather

My district! Bottom row from the left: Sister Fernandez, Sister Gremillion, Sister Bullock, Elder Chen, and Elder Brochu (he's one of the AP'S). Top row from the left: Sister Hawkins, Sister Ward, Sister McDonald, me, and Elder Stephens (the other AP)

Also me and Elder Chen in Picadilly Gardens

Me and some people in my district in line for Domino's about to take advantage of their freshers week deal: 1 pound pizza!

A bee-bees are really symbolic to Manchester because of industry and stuff. They have statues and pictures all over the place. Like on trash cans, or I saw that statue in the hospital. So that kinda just reminded me of Utah haha

And one of our hotpots!

A picture from Picadilly gardens (in Manchester)

Week 11: September 19, 2019

Hey all!

My first P-day of the field is today instead of on monday like it should be, cause this week is Fresher's week! I'll explain later what that is. But here's some things you all should know real fast. So my mission has a rule that we can't read any emails until pday, which is different from the MTC. So if you send me emails throughout the week, just know I can't read them until mondays. Also, there's no wifi at my apartment, we have to go to the chapel, which is a 25-30 minute walk both ways. So I might not have time to communicate with everyone on P-day... sorry! Also this email's gonna be super long cause it's almost been 2 weeks. And next email will probably be pretty short, cause monday is in like 4 days haha.

So here's what's happened since I left the MTC! So after a 4 hour long plane ride to Georgia, I had another 7 hours on a plane to Manchester! I flew with a bunch of missionaries going to Frankfurt Germany on the flight to Atlanta which made me feel less lonely haha. I actually knew one of them-he went to Mountain Crest-Elder King (Schylar). But then I was alone from Atlanta to Manchester. Super boring flight, I couldn't sleep at all which did not help my jetlag haha. Also I guess I look old enough for alcohol cause they offered me wine with my dinner haha. I got to the airport, the AP's picked me up and took me to the mission home! They told me a couple quick things I needed to know, I had an interview with the mission president, and then they sent me out with my trainer. All the other missionaries arrived last week, so I guess I missed all the welcome festivities haha 

My trainer is Elder Chen! He's from Taiwan, and also on a mandarin speaking assignment. His native language is Mandarin but he's also learning english cause... England. So yeah I'm super glad I'll be able to speak chinese a ton and hopefully I learn fast! He's been super helpful in learning Chinese. So after a quick trip to the store he took me out finding. And I guess finding in my area means going to this really busy street called Oxford road where there's like 3 universities right next to each other. Also our church building is on that road. And then we just stop people and talk to them. So that's super different from anything I've ever experienced. I've never randomly stopped people on the street to talk to them, so I've had to get used to that haha.

So there's actually sooooo many Chinese people here! If you go out on Oxford road, you're pretty much guaranteed to always see a couple pretty much all times of day. Manchester is super diverse, theres pretty much more people of other races than there are English people! I'm so glad, I'll get to practice speaking a lot. Because my Chinese is actually terrible, and that became apparent pretty fast. We've had so many lessons where I have no idea what's going on, I can understand about half the words they say. But it gets a little better every day which gives me hope!  Pretty much all of the Chinese go to college here, but there's a couple that live here permanently. So now I'll explain what "fresher's week" is. So basically all 3 universities on Oxford road open at the same time, so all the students arrive at the same time. And Oxford Road is full of people. Like seriously sooo many people. And there's tons of Chinese too. It's like someone opened a football stadium to let all the fans out, except they kept coming out. All day. It's insane. So they staggered everybody's pdays so there would always be missionaries out on the street. And that's why my pday is today! They also pulled like 20 missionaries from different areas to come help us find people cause of how busy the street is. I'm gonna save most of the details about fresher's week for monday, cause we still have 2 days left, and that way my email will be a little longer on Monday.

We already have so many friends (investigators) progressing for baptism! We have Michael who's the most prepared person pretty much ever. The missionaries taught him one lesson before I got here, and then me and Elder Chen taught him 2 more lessons and set a baptismal date on my 2nd lesson with him! He just pretty much accepts everything we teach him. Way cool! We have another one named Daisy, who pretty much said she'd get baptized as soon as she has a testimony of the Book of Mormon. I'm so excited for all the people I'm teaching! And they're pretty much all chinese! I've actually only taught one lesson in English. The rest have been Chinese which also means I dont really say much because I dont really know what's going on haha.

You all know that article I sent a couple weeks about the chinese YSA branch in Manchester?? Well that's where I'm serving! It's actually a super tiny group right now, there was like 10 people there on sunday, including the 4 missionaries in that ward. So there was 4 missionaries, 3 members, and 3 friends! There's at least 5 other members in the ward, but they're all on vacation right now together. It's been a super crazy transition, from my huge ward, to my zone at the MTC, to my tiny branch in Manchester. But it makes me want to work harder to have more people at church! We don't actually meet in the chapel at the church, that's for the english YSA wards. We meet in a classroom on a different floor. It's super cool, everything's in Chinese!

Sorry this email is SOOOO long! So much to talk about! 我爱你们!

-Elder Ensign

The church in our area, its kinda cool cause it's not like normal churches- it has 6 levels

A bridge in Manchester

University of Manchester has some pretty buildings

Me and Elder Chen

Me and Elder Chen helping this random guy push his van at like 9:30 at night haha

Week 9: September 9, 2019

大家好!

It's been a really good last week! I don't even know where to begin, so I'll start with this: We're supposed to watch 12 Safetyzone videos before we leave the MTC, which are basically missionary training videos centered on keeping us safe. I kinda didn't watch most of them until this week. So this past week I've had to watch a safetyzone video pretty much every day. Truly a great time haha. They're cinema gold, or at least they are now haha.

There's so much I'm gonna miss about the MTC! The green place: where my whole district would study together everyday. I'll miss the devotionals, and all I've learned from them over the past 9 weeks. I'll miss service- setting up and taking down the devotional was hardly a chore, it was essentially a social activity, so much fun haha. I'm definitely gonna miss exercise time - volleyball, my early morning death runs on the track, and OF COURSE 4-square!! 4-square is literally the funnest thing ever, I'll have to start something in England haha. And studying at the fountain! Every saturday night pretty much my whole zone would study together at the fountain. I've honestly gotten to know so many people here, and I'm a little sad to have to leave them behind.

My teachers! My teachers have honestly been so great. We started off with 2 main ones: Guan Jiemei and Ai Jiemei. I've learned so much from them. But about 3 weeks ago, Guan jiemei got assigned to a new class, so we've had a couple different teachers to replace her, mainly Ma dixiong and Mao Jiemei. They're honestly all super good, I've enjoyed being taught by all of them. I'm gonna miss not having someone I can ask questions about Chinese, I'm sure it'll be hard, but I'm sure I'll learn a lot in England.

And most of all, my district! My district has honestly been so amazing these past 9 weeks, they've essentially been my family! One of my teachers wrote a poem about us, and I'll share just a short portion cause I feel like it describes my district really well below the surface:

From Xia JM (Sister Sheffield) I've learned more about prayer. About how to ask for help when you need it, especially when it's hard.
From Dai JM (Sister Davis) comes joy, jolly stories and a sweet sense of humor to brighten our moods. Every day.
Gao ZL (Elder Ensign) taught me through quiet diligence about what it means to truly give one's time and energy to the Lord. What it looks like to be a walking VP 書。
Li ZL's (Elder Beam) testimony is an inspiration to me...even amid difficulties with his family he helped me to see what it looks like to be increasing in conversion to the Lord.
Lu JM (Sister Low) showed me patience and persistence. Laughing in the middle of hard times, and bringing laughs and smiles to others.
Bo JM (Sister Berglund) shared her grace and wisdom each day, perhaps without knowing how wise she really is.
From Bi ZL (Elder Bickmore) I was reminded about the importance of planning; of humbly asking questions and always seeking to improve. 
From Lin ZL (Elder Lindsay) I learned about faith. Humility. And trust in the Lord that if you just keep trying, God will help you.

I'm sending this email out as I'm literally minutes away from leaving the MTC which is why it's so early. I can't wait to get to England! 我爱你们!

英国!!!

-Elder Ensign (高长老)

Last time in my classroom haha

My district in front of the map. Left to right: Elder Bickmore (Singapore), Sister Sheffield Sister Berglund and Sister Low (Taiwan Taichung), Sister Davis and Elder Lindsay (Arcadia California), Elder Beam (Scotland and Ireland), and me!

My district and our teachers one last time in front of the Baptism sign!

All the Mandarin missionaries in my zone that got here on the same day! (2 pics)

My super awesome district yet again

All my name tags, plus the 2 new Chinese ones

Plus a pretty cool sunrise (I'm gonna miss the mountains in England!)

Week 8: September 2, 2019

你们好!

This week was honestly kind of uneventful except for flight plans!! I'm leaving the MTC on a week from today (September 9) at 5:45 AM. I go to the SLC airport and at 11 AM I'll be on a flight to Atlanta, Georgia. Then after about an hour and 15 minute layover in Georgia I'll fly straight to Manchester where I'll arrive at about 7 AM England time! And I don't mean to brag or anything, but guess who's travel leader for my group??? That's right, me. I'm pretty big time, I know. Also guess how many people are in my travel group? 1, just me haha. So that'll definitely be interesting and maybe a little lonely. But I'm sure I'll be fine, and I'm so excited to go to England! I have a total of about 11 hours of flight time. The MTC's been great, but it has been 9 weeks so I'm so excited for a change! 

I for sure know my mandarin is not perfect but I know it's improving so much! We have 5 TRC's a week-one with a member and the remaining 4 with nonmembers. This week started off really hard. The first TRC with a nonmember was probably the hardest TRC I've had yet-I couldn't understand what she was saying, and I couldn't say what I wanted to in Chinese. So this week, I've  worked harder on Chinese then I have any other week. I've been pretty much spending all my free time on memorizing new vocabulary. And by the end of the week, I had improved enough where I felt like I was able to understand what they were saying, and able to answer questions. It's been super hard to see improvement for the past 3 weeks or so, but I know I am improving, little by little! And I hope when I get in the field, my Chinese will continue to get better, even with the very small population of Chinese speakers in England. I'm also excited to start to learn how to read and write characters!

I wanna talk a little about the devotional we had last night, it was super cool! Sister Ulrich spoke, she has a PhD I think and has written a bunch of books. She talked a lot about mindsets-Growth vs. fixed mindsets. It honestly helped me so much because I realized how much I need to change. Basically a fixed mindset is when you think things are hard just because you're inadequate. With that mindset we give up easily, don't try to change things, etc. Whereas with growth mindsets we believe our brain continues to get smarter and get connected, and we rely on effort rather than genius and things like that. So basically fixed mindset is bad, growth mindset is good. And this devotional was really good for me at least, because I realized how much I've been living in the fixed mindset, when I should be in the growth mindset.

My next email is probably gonna be right before I leave the MTC or when I get to England! 我爱你们!

-Elder Ensign 

Cool picture of a sunset from my classroom

Here's a picture of my district with the Fung's! They're members of my branch presidency and are honestly so cool! They're both fluent in Cantonese, Mandarin, and English. Everyone in my zone loves them, they're super cute