Elder Mark Ensign: Week 24 - Christmas! December 26, 2019

Merry Christmas everyone!

This past week and a half was so fun! We did a bunch of caroling as a district, and a whole lot of street contacting cause like all our friends are on vacation or with family. But that's ok! We ended up finding a really good person a week ago named Kate, who we gave a chapel tour to and is just super good. Also, we got a referral from the Leeds mission of an older Chinese man, Frankie. Shoutout to Elder Carmen from the MTC! He's soooo good, he basically talked about how he really wants to learn more about Jesus, and that he's excited to meet with us more. So I'm excited to see how that goes!

We ate a lot of food this past week and a half! We started off trying to do a meat fast, but that failed pretty fast haha. Godfrey (one of our few chinese members) just found us on the street again and took us out to eat at pizza co, which is basically the most unhealthy places ever haha. Then we got fed later by a member of our bishopric, who took us to this fried chicken place, Nando's. Also, we treated Michael to a real english christmas dinner at his flat. The list goes on, there was sooo much food! We had a member give all the missionaries a huge bag of chocolate too, so all in all, this week I've probably gained like 10 pounds

I guess I'd better share a short spiritual thought since I'm a missionary and its christmas time! This past district council, Sister Ward bore her testimony, since she's going home next monday. She's one of the few Chinese speaking missionaries here, so itll be sad to see her go! But she bore testimony about always testifying of Jesus Christ, and that just stuck with me. This past sunday, we were street contacting home, when this random man walked straight up to us and asked if we were the missionaries. He then proceeded to spend the next 45 minutes bashing on our beliefs, asking us really hard questions, really in an effort to shake our faith. At the end of the conversation, I just had a prompting to bear my testimony. And at that instant, I could feel the Spirit so strongly, testifying to me that the things I was testifying of were true. He didnt end up changing his mind on anything. But that's ok! He has his choice. 2 Nephi 25: 26 “And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins.” The church is true! I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and that as we turn to Him, he will help us overcome anything! Hope you all had a merry christmas!

-Elder Ensign