Elder Mark Ensign: Week 92: April 12, 2021

Hey everyone!

What an amazing week it's been being back in Manchester in the YSA ward!! Literally my first day back, we called a chinese member to tell him we were back and 30 minutes later he showed up at the chapel and took us out to a really nice chinese restaurant. It was sooooo good, I've actually really missed speaking Chinese the past 8 months too so it's been good to practice a bit more. It was good to see all the YSA members at church yesterday as well and talk to them! There's a lot of familiar faces but also a ton of new students that I don't know at all so it'll be good to get to know them all a little better the next couple months!

It's honestly been so surreal being back. Being in the same flat, walking the same roads, it's been so cool. The first 3 days I literally couldn't stop smiling just walking around manchester, it's been amazing. I'm so happy to be back, we went to Chinatown and some other places which was pretty cool, I also had some brown sugar milk boba for the first time ever which was really good, highly recommend

Elder Ko and I are getting along really well and speaking more chinese together which is a blast! He's actually hilarious, we have a pretty similar sense of humour so the past week has been a blast haha. We're whitewashing into the area though so we've only had like 1 lesson so far but we've been trying to find more people to teach so hopefully we'll have more lessons and things to do soon!

But the highlight has probably been training Elder Mortier! It's all been virtual - he's in quarantine with a couple new missionaries for 10 days - but he's actually amazing! His chinese has a ways to go but I guess so does every chinese missionary straight outta the MTC haha. He's from Mulhouse in France and is learning both Chinese and English, so he's an absolute legend. We've basically video called for like 8 hours everyday - for planning, studying, finding, and lessons. So basically everything but meal times, personal study, exercise, etc. We're really excited for him to get out of quarantine and be with us, he's honestly like the most humble missionary I've ever met. He's gonna be such a good missionary

Also he said he's gonna make us some Ratatouille so basically all my childhood dreams are unfolding right before my eyes at the moment