Week 58: August 17, 2020

 Heyyy!

Not much happened from this week

-Had zone conference for the first time in like 6 months! It was obviously online but still good. Plus our interim mission president, President Turvey, will finally be replaced by our new mission president, President Johnson, who comes on friday I think! So that'll be exciting

-Taught some more mexican people Chinese, we're trying to find more people in Manchester at the moment haha, but until then there will be a huge language gap haha

-Took advantage of #eatouttohelpout and went to a fairly expensive chinese restaurant with one of our chinese members, godfrey. It was like 20 pounds after the discount 

-We went to visit our friend Vivianne who's and older chinese lady. We were just gonna help her update an app on her phone but she ended up making us a TON of dumplings instead which was super nice

Sorry for the short email!

Week 57: August 10, 2020

 Hey yall

It was quite an eventful week full of a lot of highlights

The UK government started a thing so every Monday-Wednesday in the month of August, they'll give restaurants a bunch of money to give us a half off discount on everything we order! #eatouttohelpout. I guess a lot of restaurants are struggling because people dont go out to eat much anymore, so the government is trying to help out. And I'm not complaining, half off 5 guys? Yes please (UK's 5 guys is a relatively new thing and also like twice as expensive as in america so the discount is a lifesaver)

It was Sophia's birthday this past week (I baptized her in october haha), so we made her some cake and brought it over to her flat! It was fun to see her in person for the first time in like 5 months. Plus elder cheang and I are basically professional bakers now

I got to video call with Elder Beam, my MTC companion! He's serving in Scotland right now and they're making a Chinese group just like the one in Manchester! So we talked a little about how the one in manchester has been run. It was actually so fun to talk to him for the first time in almost a year, the MTC was lowkey the best haha. And they're gonna help so many Chinese people in Scotland 🧧 

Michael went back to china for forever yesterday  He finished his masters degree at the University of Manchester and now he'll go find a job back in china. I have so many memories with him, he was the first person I ever met, coincidentally on my first full day in england. He was also my first baptism. He gave me a lot of heartache, whether it was making fun of my chinese or sleeping through church, but I'll miss him a lot! We met with him this last week and got some five guys with him (he loves eating with us haha), and just walked around manchester with him for a bit since he probably wont ever come back. It was pretty hard to watch him walk away for the last time, of course after breaking government guidelines for a second to give him a last handshake. He'll love going to church back in china, and I'm sure his branch in 哈尔滨 will be so happy to have him! He also said he's gonna work on getting his parents to learn about the Gospel so that'll be good haha (Also keep praying they open up China for missionary work soon)

Sister Shen (another chinese sister in the mission) was apparently teaching this Mexican member named Alma chinese every week, and since Sister Shen left manchester, she decided to pass her off to us to teach her. Well theres two problems with that, one being that she lives in mexico, and two being that she's a member, and we probably shouldn't spend a ton of time meeting with her if it's not effective. So what did we do? Like any other missionary in the same situation, we asked for referrals! So she posted on her Facebook that the missionaries are teaching free chinese classes, and the response was HUGE. Literally like 30 people responded saying they were interested, most of which are nonmembers. So we taught some of those people last Saturday, we actually had to split up there were too many people, so I taught one group and elder cheang taught another group. It was quite an adventure teaching chinese to people living halfway across the world in Mexico, with English being their second language ahha

Also this week we had church in person! It was so exciting, of course everybody was wearing masks, social distancing and all that, plus we had all the safeguards with the sacrament, but it was so nice! I havent felt the Spirit like that in a while, it almost felt like I was in the temple with how reverent it was. I seriously took church for granted

-Elder Ensign 高长老

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Altrincham Road

Manchester M22 4BJ 

England 

My comp and I, plus Elder Beam and Elder Hatch (who was also at the MTC when I was there) (Also shoutout to Sister McLaughlin who was in the call for like 30 seconds but I didnt get a pic!)

Delivering birthday cake to Sophia haha

Michael! 

The district cleaning the chapel in prep for church on sunday

Week 56: August 3, 2020

Hey yall

Not much this week, just a couple goodbyes. I think like 25 missionaries went home this week, one of them being Elder Chen. And we have no new missionaries so our mission is pretty small now haha. It was so weird to say goodbye to him, we served together for 3 transfers but it didnt feel that long at all. I'm also no longer in a trio for the first time since February which has definitely been new as well, it always feels like we're missing someone haha 

President & Sister McReynolds also went home this week. Their going home was postponed by a month, so they went home last thursday instead of in June. It was definitely sad to see them go, they've been the best. We had a really spiritual mission devotional over zoom last week where they basically gave us a ton of advice. We now have an interim mission president - President Turvey - until our new mission president (President Johnson) gets his visa and is able to come to England. So that'll be fun, they seem really nice. But if things work out theyll only be serving here for another week or two, because President Johnson should be getting his visa in a week or two

Also this past week we had another spike in covid cases in the Manchester area. So the government put more lockdown restrictions for people living in manchester, which, luckily, is where I live. It's not super serious or anything yet, but it's a little scary because the uni's are starting up again in about a month or two, so hopefully things will be a little better by then. We definitely wont be street contacting anytime soon which will be sad with all the uni students here 

-Elder Ensign 高长老

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Altrincham Road

Manchester M22 4BJ 

England 

Tea appointmenttt 

Bye elder chen haha

Super expensive Pho in chinatown

Ran into Michael on the street! He goes back to china forever on sunday which is literally heartbreaking

Week 55: July 28, 2020

Hey yall

Well transfers are tomorrow! And after spending 7 of my 8 transfers in England in the Manchester YSA ward/Chinese group, I will be here yet another! This'll be my 8th transfer in the same area, in the same flat, in the same bed, walking the same roads to the same chapel  But I'm super excited, I'll be with Elder Cheang another transfer so that'll be interesting. We will also say goodbye to elder chen tomorrow which will for sure be sad! And then he'll be flying back to taiwan on Thursday. What a legend haha

This week we went out and recorded a video about family history with a bunch of well-known places in Manchester and it was honestly just fun to walk around. It's been quite a while since we've been to city centre and whatnot which was nice! We also had a tea appointment sunday night and on the way was some other fun things to look at (including the Man United stadium, lucky us) so we stopped and took a couple pics on our way haha

Also this week we taught two of our friends in a park! Those have been the first in person lessons we've had in 4 months so it was super nice! Also I was totally awkward at first cause I hadn't had human interaction or made eye contact for several months outside of my companionship haha. But we got to see Wangyue in person for the first time in like 4 months which was exciting!

We've been teaching a weekly chinese institute class every week since lockdown started like 4 months ago. Well to spice it up since not many people would go, we've turned it into a game night haha. So we share a short spiritual message and then we play a bunch of games in chinese over zoom. Literally so fun, we played Spyfall (a game some youtubers would play a lot that I used to watch haha) which was so good! Plus we like doubled institute attendance which was nice

I keep thinking I'm finally understanding missionary work and what it means. But every now and then I get a pretty big jolt back to reality that shows me how little of missionary work I understand. As I was listening to the Character of Christ a couple weeks ago, it talked a lot about how we need to be looking outwards rather than inwards, not making anything about ourselves. Well the past couple months without realizing it, I've really just been belly aching to myself about how I just want to go serve in a different area. Or how I've been in manchester for so long and I havent had the opportunity to experience work outside of manchester. Or how bored I am in the same flat, or how tiring it is for me walking the same street everyday for 10 months now. I was really just thinking about myself which I realize now is so selfish. Well on sunday we got a surprise tea appointment from Jared & Christina, who lead the Chinese group. And they told us that with everything going on right now, the chinese group isnt feasible anymore, and that they're probably going to have to close it down.

Which honestly is just super devastating. I remember coming to Manchester being super excited to hear that there was going to be a chinese group meeting on sundays, in england of all places. And now that's all crashing down to the ground, theres not enough chinese members - especially right now with the virus and everything going on. With all the missionaries going home and no new missionaries able to come to England, they're getting rid of the chinese sisters area in YSA, so we will be the only companionship in charge of chinese people in Manchester. 2 chinese speaking missionaries in Manchester, which will be the lowest it's been in several years

With everything going on, I've just realized that I would honestly prefer to stay in manchester the rest of my mission now and work with the Chinese people here. As boring as that may seem, theres not really any other chinese missionaries to do that.

We have been given a little bit of time before they completely close the group, a big reason is that Jared & Christina wont be able to stay in Manchester forever to help, and that most members are students who come and go back to China so fast. They've made the decision to get rid of the chinese sacrament service, but still have a sunday school class in chinese. We have probably until I go home next year to save the group. So everyone please pray we find lots of chinese people!!

-Elder Ensign 高长老

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Altrincham Road

Manchester M22 4BJ 

England 

Since I got my hair cut last week, I took pictures everywhere now I actually look like a missionary. So I actually got some pics this week. It's not letting me attach them all so heres a couple pics

Man United stadium

The Salford Quays

Post box haha

Chinatown

And oreo dairymilks 

BYU??

Week 54: July 20, 2020

Hey yall!

Some quick news:

-Now we can have two companionships in the chapel at the same time so we now go to the chapel everyday! Getting out everyday has been quite the blessing

-Baptisms can now happen at the church starting saturday!! But we still have yet to start church again cause we're in the YSA ward and all the students are home for the summer. But hopefully in September!

-Got my haircut today finally. First real haircut in 4 months

I went on exchanges with my zone leader this past week. He's one of the reassigned missionaries, he was serving in Calgary Canada before corona. It was also the first exchanges I've had in over 4 months so that was fun! We had to maintain a 1 meter distance apart from each other the whole time, even when in video call lessons so that was interesting. But we spent pretty much the whole time recording a video for Facebook. The theme is family history so we decided to make a video about trees and tie it to family history. Good idea right? Yeahhhh its pretty cringey haha. I recorded a really cheesy voice over to out on top “This is a tree! This is also a tree. Trees come in all shapes and sizes..." and you get the point. So look out for that video when it eventually gets posted. But don't look on my Facebook cause I wont be sharing it there haha

My current mission president, President McReynolds, was scheduled to fly home at the end of June. But due to my new mission president not being able to come in because of problems getting a Visa, the McReynolds extended their stay until July 31. So as a good bye, they spent 2 weeks to drive around the whole mission and just talk to all the missionaries. They had to drive around the whole mission cause we still cant have zone conferences or anything like that yet. We might've been basically the last missionaires to get visited, but they finally stopped by yesterday! Honestly their timing was pretty perfect cause I was having a hard time with some things this past week, but basically everything they said/scriptures they shared felt like they were addressed directly to me. I just wanted to share something they said because it really stuck out to me

Sister Mcreynolds shared this scripture from Isaiah 46:4, which I had never really heard of. It says “And even to your old age I am he; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you.” I think it's such a powerful scripture the more I think about it. To dissect it, Christ is always the same. And He will always help us; carry us. I think a lot of us will say that Christ will carry us when life is the hardest, which I agree with, but I feel it's more than that. Christ can carry us at all times as we humble ourselves and remain faithful.

-Elder Ensign 高长老

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Altrincham Road

Manchester M22 4BJ 

England 

Week 53: July 13, 2020

Hey everyone!

I hit my one year mark last Friday!! Its so crazy to think that I'm already halfway done, time has really flown by. Other than that there wasnt a ton that happened this week, but I guess heres some stuff:

Baptisms can now happen! I guess the government is letting people go swimming outside together so that means baptism by immersion is allowed outside. But it has to be in a sanitized, outdoor swimming pool. So the mission bought a swimming pool for the mission home and now people are being baptized in the backyard of the mission home haha. So maybe we'll get Wangyue there soon!

Funny/kinda scary story - a cult is currently trying to convert me haha. It's a church in Hong Kong called 全能神教会. All you Hong Kong missionaries PLEASE hit me up if you've heard of this church. Basically this girl slid into my DM's on facebook like a month ago and has been constantly messaging me since. But her account got deleted like 3 times (maybe cause shes in a cult...? haha) so she keeps messaging me with new accounts. I finally met with her and her friend over voice chat by myself (they said they would prefer if they just talked to me, probably cause Elder Cheang is from Macao and would know their church is a cult haha). Of course I had Elder Cheang & Chen listening to the conversation though the whole time. Basically they believe only in the Book of Revelations, not the rest of the Bible, and also that Jesus has already come again. They sent me a lot of kinda scary videos just showing a bunch of the things predicted in revelations would happen before the Saviour comes. When I met with tried to hide what they were doing- the wouldnt tell me the name of their church and stuff, but by the end of the conversation elder cheang was 100% sure they're the cult he was thinking of. So I'm gonna teach them the truth and hopefully get them baptized 

I was listening to the Character of Christ by Elder Bednar the past week (shoutout to the other Elder Ensign for the MTC version), and at the end he gave the invitation to read the whole Book of Mormon, from cover to cover, highlighting everything related to one particularly topic. I've done it 2 times on my mission already, but after listening, I decided I would do it again, but with something I've been thinking a lot about recently, the Will of God. I think it's always so fascinating to see all the new little bits of wisdom that show up, even though I've read the Book of Mormon quite a few times already. Something that stuck out to me as I was reading, was the simple but important reminder that no matter what, God's will never involves forgetting or forsaking us. I guess I already knew that, but wow it was such an important reminder

Heres a video for you all to watch! This is a video our mission put out, it's actually a chapel tour of the chapel I've spent basically my whole mission at, downtown manchester. It's a super unique building, I would highly recommend you all check it out! Has a good message as well.

https://www.facebook.com/englandmanchestermission/videos/713835609403218

-Elder Ensign 高长老

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Altrincham Road

Manchester M22 4BJ 

England 

Me and my year mark trifle 

You might've seen it on facebook but heres the picture I put out for our year mark. Cute right? I had like 3 random people living in england I had friended that messaged me because of it, so quite an effective post if you ask me

Also ignore how pale I am in comparison 

Sneak peak for a post this week (peep the sanitizer)

Week 52: July 6, 2020

Hey yall!

Seriously not a super exciting week! Not much happens in quarantine really. I'm realizing that pretty much all my favourite parts of last week was the food haha. Heres a quick list

-made more funfetti cake 

-made banana bread (yeah I'm basically a Baker now) except we didnt have any brown sugar and the banana bread turned out really gummy. Still tasted fine though haha

-bought a huge trifle from the store. Plus some rolo pudding cups 🤤 I bought another trifle and like 12 of the roll pudding cups today for myself as well rippppp. My sugar fast only lasted for like a week and a half haha

-bought an 11 pound insanely chewy roast. Still tasted good though haha. I basically dont even do anything while grocery shopping anymore. They kinda just pick things off the shelfs while I watch. I dont really care though. Today is the 3rd week in a row we've bought a £10+ roast though so rip my missionary funds

-also shoutout to my mom for sending me goldfish. They dont exist in england (or at least I havent found them yet haha). They're literally my favourite snack and I didnt realize how much I missed them until this week haha

Elder Cheang and Chen both gave each other buzz cuts this morning and are trying to convince me to get a matching cut. So I'm a little terrified they're gonna buzz my hair while I'm sleeping or something. I'm also a little worried that with all the pubs and whatnot opening theres gonna be a second wave of corona so I'm gonna try to get a real haircut next week to avoid that haha

Well sorry not much really happened. The life of a quarantined missionary really isnt that exciting. We still go to the chapel 3 times a week and I'll practice piano for a couple minutes usually. It's been good to get outside a little bit, even if it has been cold and rainy the past little bit

But I guess a theme for this week has really been faith. Yesterday the mission had our Why I Believe devotional over Facebook, and something that pretty much all the speakers talked about was the theme of faith. Theres a phrase the Saviour says when he's ministering to the people of ancient day America in the Book of Mormon. He says “I see that your faith is sufficient that I should heal you”. Just simply, I feel like that's super true. We all have our wounds in life, whether they're big or small. But I know if we just believe in Christ and ask for help he will give us the help we need

-Elder Ensign 高长老

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Altrincham Road

Manchester M22 4BJ 

England 

Quality pic of elder chen and chang with their buzz cuts

The expensive roast

My stash this week ahah

Week 51: June 29, 2020

Hey yall!

The government announced this past week that lots of things will be opening up on July 4th, so that's exciting. That includes barbershops so I'm pretty excited to get a turkish haircut soon  Also church is allowed to happen if theres under 30 people and we social distance and whatnot. Right now our local leaders are talking about options and if we really want to open up the church yet

England's summer came and passed this past week haha. It hit like 29°C this past week which is like 80°F. And I was dyingggg it was so hot haha. I know it's way hotter in Utah but I guess I've just spent the past like 10 months being uncomfortably cold, this week was the first time in a while I've been uncomfortably hot haha. Plus literally nowhere has AC in England-flats, houses, churches, shops - nowhere has AC. It was super hot for 3 days, and then literally the next day the temperature dropped drastically and it dumped rain. So that's fun haha

I also found out I'm actually really starting to like the rain and despise the heat. The heat was literally unbearable this past week. I could barely go outside for a couple seconds cause it was just too uncomfortable haha. Guess I'm moving to england after I graduate from uni 

Also all the rain makes it super green here in England. Which means more pollen. So for the past 3ish weeks my hay fever has been going haywire. Theres been days where I literally have to blow my nose every 5 minutes, it's pretty awful haha. So if any of you have hay fever tips send them my way

I ended my week of no sugar with elder chen finding a box of funfetti cake hidden in our cupboard that has probably been in this flat since before I got to the mission. I've spent 8 months of my time in England in this flat and never looked where he found it haha. So last night I chowed down on a delicious slice of funfetti cake and then today I bought myself a trifle. Soooo my one week health diet was pretty successful if you ask me  Dont worry I got myself more hummus and carrots today though ahah

The British Government announced this morning that even with so many things opening on July 4th, for the time being, baptisms will not be allowed to take place. So that was really disappointing to hear. Pray for our friends that theyll be able to get baptized, especially Wangyue! They've been waiting a long time already!

Last thing, it's that time of the month again! The next “Why I believe devotional” is this next Sunday, I'll put stuff on my Facebook if yall are interested in watching

-Elder Ensign 高长老

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Altrincham Road

Manchester M22 4BJ 

England 

Funfetti cakeeeee

A really bad pic of the rain