Week 16: October 28, 2019

你们好！

Sophia got baptized on saturday! So excited for her and the decisions she's made, we've really seen such a change in her life for the better since we've started meeting with her. Also peep the pic I may or may not have snuck into the program (she did approve by the way, she really liked it. Also she did make us change the program to literal perfection (we had to change the fonts for the characters, the alignment of the names, etc.), which took literally forever. But she never wanted to get rid of or change the picture on the last page, sooooo...). But yeah she's so good! She's really changed her life so much more for the better as she's kept the commandments and followed Jesus Christ. I'm excited to see her grow more!

Sophia also asked me to confirm her yesterday which I was excited for, but also super nervous cause I knew the blessing would be in Chinese. But as I gave her a blessing, I could feel the Spirit so strongly, telling me what I needed to say. And I know that I myself definitely wouldn't have been able to say what I said if I didn't have the Spirit guiding me. Gift of tongues is real!

So can I just talk for a second more about England the past week?!? So it's literally soooo cold here. Like I know Utah is colder temperature wise, but here it's like a wet cold cause of the humidity. Also this past week, it rained a months worth in 2 days! A months worth in England is a lot too! Pouring rain for 2 straight days, it was horrible. Even with 2 coats on I was still freezing. We went on exchanges again with the Zone Leaders and we went tracting again. I felt like a real missionary going around door to door at 8 o'clock at night in the pouring rain in a foreign country. It was amazing haha

Also, I have to talk more about Chinese people. So they put peanut butter on things that makes no sense, at least to me. So it started like my first week with Elder Chen, who put peanut butter on his hamburger, and a lot of other things (tuna fish sandwich, etc.). I kinda pushed that aside cause I just assumed it was a personal thing. But then last sunday, we made sandwiches together before stake conference with some of our friends. One of our friends made a ham and peanut butter sandwich. And Sophia made a peanut butter and KETCHUP sandwich! Seriously so gross. She also hardcore judged my PB&J sandwich for whatever reason too, we had a heated argument about that haha. Chinese people!?

This is a little disappointing, but we're gonna have to push back Daisy's baptismal date. She just all of a sudden had a bunch of concerns about what we believe in, and we're gonna take some extra time to resolve her concerns. But I'm hoping she'll still want to be baptized!

-Elder Ensign

England food (Yorkshire pudding & lots of gravy)

The baptismal program :)

The chinese missionaries in my district enjoying some soymilk when we should've been studying

Lots of people from our Chinese group!

Sophia's baptism!

Week 15: October 21, 2019

Hey all!

Michael got baptized on Thursday! So excited for him, he's sooo good! I also figured out how the missionaries found him. So a sister gave him a pass-along card. And normally people dont ever look at the cards after you give to them, they either lose it or throw it away. But Michael being AMAZING just randomly showed up at the church not too much long later, no questions asked. Probably surprised the heck out of the missionaries there haha. And about 2-3 months later, here he is, a baptized member of the church! He was honestly so prepared for this Gospel. He basically just accepted everything we taught him from the beginning, all the commandments too! I'm so excited for him and the decisions he's made! His testimony is so strong!

Our next baptism is coming up on Saturday! Sophia! She's sooo good as well, she loves meeting with us. And she's helped my Chinese a lot haha. She's ruthless when I make mistakes which I'm so glad about! But yeah she's so prepared for Saturday, I can't wait! After that, our next baptism should be on 7 November, Daisy! She's also so ready, she loves learning. She's started going through the Bible the past little bit which she LOVES. She literally reads it like a novel. And then when she meets with us she tells us all about what she reads, the stories, everything. I of course have no idea what's going on cause her vocab is actually so huge, in addition to all the Bible words she's using. And she also comes with like a million super hard questions. For example, one of her questions was about what the difference between Jehovah and Jesus Christ was, and she wanted a scripture that explained it too. So that was quite the question to answer. At least she loves reading scriptures haha

For the past couple days, Elder Helzer stayed with us. He was temporarily assigned to the Manchester mission because he was Visa waiting. He got his Visa though and left to his mission in America today. And guess where? Ogden Utah! So all of y'all back home in Logan, look out for an Elder Helzer from Germany!

In terms of other things that happened that happened this week, I'm actually super poor right now. Last week on P-day we went out to a super posh chinese buffet for dinner, and I blew 15.5 pounds. 15.5 POUNDS! Big hit to my bank account haha. And then we went out to eat with one of our new friends from China a couple days ago, and his family's like super rich or something cause he's travelled to pretty much every country in Europe. And been to like all the continents. So we ended up going to a super expensive Japanese restaurant for lunch. I got one of the cheapest things I could get, which still ended up being 10 pounds. So as of right now, I have about 2 pounds left in my account and 2 weeks until I get more money. Oh and everything in England is super expensive for whatever reason. Pray for me! 

-Elder Ensign

Starting to become Autumn here! Also featuring some of Manchester's MANY cranes. They're literally building so many skyscrapers right now, it's insane how fast Manchester is growing

Michael's Baptism!

University of Manchester's new engineering development, literally right next to the chapel. I took this picture from the top floor of the chapel. But when its finished, theres gonna be thousands of students walking right past the church everyday. Idk when its gonna be finished, I've heard people say it'll be next summer, some have said it won't be done until 2022 though. I have no idea but I feel like itll be done pretty quick cause they started building it a year ago and look how much they've done!

Entrance to the super posh Chinese buffet

Week 14: October 15, 2019

大家好

Really quick, my first transfer is over tomorrow, but I'm in the same area with the same companion! So grateful I'm gonna have more opportunities to continue speaking Chinese!

Baptisms, baptisms, and more baptisms! We got another on date! Sophia, I think I mentioned her in my last email, the one going to institute classes! So this is actually kind of a funny story. We were doing weekly planning last Thursday and were planning what we wanted to invite her to do on that day. And eventually we both came to the conclusion that we wanted to invite her to be baptized. So later that night, we were at the baptismal service for Levi, some sisters in my district taught him. I was sitting next to Sophia, I remember she was looking at the program. And then out of nowhere she says something to me (in Chinese) along these lines, “When I get baptized, I want my program to look like this but with pink and yellow”. So I was shook, like did she just say “WHEN”?!?! And also I was super pumped for our lesson for obvious reasons. So lo and behold, 2 hours later she said she'd be baptized! October 26! That's our 3rd on date! We have Michael for this Thursday (Oct 17), Daisy for 7 November, and Sophia. 

Also on that same note, my district set some crazy high baptism goals for the rest of the year-we basically planned to have 24 people baptized into the ward from October through the end of December. And so far we're doing pretty good, we've gotten 3 baptized so far, we have at least 5 more for this month, plus who knows how many we'll have November and December. The work is moving quick here, I'm sooooo excited to see what the future holds. 

We went on exchanges again with the zone leaders. This time I went with Elder Nathan. Fun fact, he's from Australia, from the Brisbane mission! I learned a lot, we taught a lesson, we got fed by members (first time on my mission I've gotten fed by members, poor college students don't want to feed us I guess), and went out tracting! So I've never knocked on doors before so I was a little freaked out. But it's not even bad. Basically the same thing as street contacting but you're knocking on doors instead. 

I've now been in England for just over a month! And on my mission for 3 months- 1/8 of the way done! Heres some of my changes haha:

1. I can't call apartments anything but “flats” now. Also I call dinner “tea” now cause England is weird

2. I don't like ice cold water anymore (I know, whattttt). So in England the tap water isn't super clean I guess so every flat has a sort of electronic pitcher to boil the tap water. So for the past 4 weeks I've drunk nothing but lukewarm water and occasionally boiling hot water when I dont realize the water was just boiled haha. The other day we went to a fast food restaurant-Nando's- and I got a glass of ice water. Idk why but I really disliked it haha, didn't feel right at all

3. I'm finally used to the whole left side of the road thing. Took me wayyyyy too long to figure that out haha

I'm not gonna lie, being on a mission has been really hard. Chinese is super rough and I still have no idea what I'm doing every day. But to feel like I've made a difference in these people's lives - in Michael's, Sophia's, Daisy's - it's amazing! D&C 18:15-16

      15 And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!”

16 And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me!

Church is true! 我爱你们!

-Elder Ensign

Some pics at the Manchester United Stadium!

Me and some other missionaries-Elder Murphy and Elder Smith

Me, elder Chen, Sister Ward, and Sister Larsen (she's from cache valley, her cousin is Corbin Larsen!)

Me and Elder Chen treating ourselves haha

Some chinese people! From the right to the left: me, sister ward and sister mcdonald (the other Chinese sisters in my district), Sister Quinn (one of the senior couples, she's done so much work for the chinese group-she basically founded it), Sophia (on date!), Jane (Sister Ward/McDonald's friend. She also goes to the institute classes so she's basically gonna get baptized super soon), and Elder Chen

Week 13: October 7, 2019

大家好！

Really fast I need to let everyone know that next week is my first transfer, so my next pday will be a week from tomorrow, on October 15 rather than on monday

I wanna share a quick kinda funny story! So I went to a fireside a week ago yesterday (sunday) called “why I believe” where basically a bunch of recent converts shared their testimonies. And one of them was baptized because of the Book of Mormon musical, which is crazy! So what the missionaries did for a couple weeks was every night at 10 they would wait outside the theater and then when everyone walked out of the Book of Mormon musical show, they handed out cards that said “you've seen the show, now read the book”. Apparently lots of people thought they were the actors haha. And this convert-Lawrence- was one of the people that got a card. So long story short he started meeting with the missionaries and because of it, him, his wife, and his daughter all got baptized. And I think 3 other people got baptized too because of the musical. Crazy, right?!

We have another on date for baptism! Daisy, another one of our Chinese friends! She's on date for November 7. It's been so amazing to see how much she's been progressing towards baptism! She has such a desire to learn more, shes been pretty much reading all the scriptures she can. She also wants to start going through the seminary guides haha. Other than her and Michael, we have 2 friends that are progressing really well. We have a lot more friends, we just haven't been able to meet with all of them a lot. We have Xuétíng (Sophia) and Bótǐng. They both seem like they really want to learn. Boting is still trying to figure out if God exists but I really think she wants to believe He does. Sophia pretty much comes to all the church meetings and activities. She also signed up for the chinese institute class even though she's not even a member. She's a legend haha. She also spent like 30 minutes “fixing” my Chinese cause I guess I was overemphasising my tones way too much haha. I'm hoping we'll be able to get them to progress enough to be baptized in November!

This past week I went on my first exchange with one of my zone leaders, Elder Stayner. He's one of the 4 chinese speaking elders in my mission right now-theres me, my companion, Elder Stayner, and another elder from China. I felt like I learned so much, we had some pretty amazing experiences. I asked him a little about learning Chinese, and he said that he's only had 3 chinese speaking companions throughout his whole 18 months in England. But he's had most of them for more than one transfer, so he's had a Chinese companion for about 6 transfers. So he said that learning Chinese has been really hard, especially with all the english speaking companions he's had, but also gave me a bunch of tips. All the other Chinese missionaries say that his chinese is the best they've ever heard from any other chinese speaking missionary in my mission that isn't a native speaker. But he mentioned he's still not close to being fluent. So that really just made me realize how hard it's gonna be to become fluent in Chinese in a country where really not that many people speak Chinese, where you're not constantly immersed in the language. But I know I want to become as fluent as possible, so I'm definitely gonna work as hard as I can to make that possible

Also on the exchange, I finally got to experience England outside of the city! It's really as nice as they all say! It's super green, the air is soooo fresh, I love it! But it was also FREEZING. We went on a morning run the second day of the exchange and I forgot to bring a jacket. So i went running in short sleeves in 3° C weather (37° F). Crazy cold, but also I really enjoyed the country air. I'm probably gonna be in cities my whole mission because that's where Chinese people are. And likely in only 3 places, most chinese missionaries only end up serving in 3 cities-Manchester (where I am right now), Liverpool, and Lancaster. But there's also a chance I'll go to Wales, which would be amazing!

I think that's it for this week! 

-Elder Ensign

Old buildings

Old buildings

In Chinatown

In Chinatown

In Chinatown

in Chinatown

The theatre is where the BoM musical was at

Week 12: September 30, 2019

Hey yall!

 

To start off, I have to talk about England. So it's rained everyday this week. And up this past week, I've had pretty much nothing but sunshine. So what a week haha. Also there's been a bunch of protests on the road right next to the chapel for whatever reason. The first one was a while ago, it was a bunch of people protesting about the climate I think. And then the second one was yesterday, with a bunch of people protesting about the new Prime Minister. Yesterday's protest was HUGE, it was essentially a parade- all the buses were stopped, it was crazy. Oh and it happened right in the middle of us giving a chapel tour haha. So Manchester's been pretty exciting haha

I'm feeling good about the Chinese group! We had 28 people at sacrament meeting yesterday, which was even bigger than the week before! And some of our friends weren't able to make it, so I hope next time is even bigger. Our friend Machael (on date for Oct 17!) is pretty much the most prepared person ever and I can't say that enough. We taught him the Word of Wisdom the other day and he was already keeping it. He doesn't smoke, drink alcohol, he thinks coffee's gross and he doesnt drink tea either cause he says it's too expensive, not worth it. He's amazing! Also my district combined has 6 people on date for baptism! So exciting! Elder Chen and I have 2 we're teaching that are really close

And now some random events from this week:

I finally tried the chocolate here in England! And it's actually soooo good! Just like everyday chocolate at the grocery store is literally sooo much better than in America. Also, I've started doing what one of the chinese members-Stella- says: 请自便 (qǐng zì bìan) which translates roughly to treat yourself. That was kinda my thing at the MTC. Dinners were when I treated myself so I needed to bring something here. So I bought a container of frosting and I have a spoonful occasionally haha. Soooo bad, Elder Chen thinks its soooo weird and I dont blaim him haha. 

Also, one of the sisters in my district-Sister Bullock- has the Pacer Test on her phone for whatever reason. So of course I had her send it to me. And then during exercise time the next day, guess what we did? Yeah... I'm the worst companion ever. Elder Chen had no idea what the Pacer Test was haha. He didn't like it of course, but of course he ran like a 75 on his first try haha

Also I'm sooooo excited for General conference! But also I'm not gonna be able to watch the sunday  afternoon session so let me know if anything interesting happens. That's it for this week!

-高长老

A church in Manchester that looks really good. But they also stole a couple potential friends ):

Statue in Piccadilly 

Elder Chen and I

Forgot to send the pic of me, my mission president, and his wife