Hallo meine Familie und Freunde!
Wie geht's?
This past week was fairly similar to the first. Thankfully, all the jet lag has worn off and the accompanying feelings of nausea have dissapated. Let's get right down to it.
Yesterday was certainly a roller coaster, and I imagine many days on the mission will be similar to that. I attended church in the local ward for the first time. I could certainly follow what was going on, but I'm nowhere close to being able to fully understand it. No matter, it will come in due time.
I did have the opportunity to introduce myself and give my testimony for a little while. That was fun and slightly nerve-wracking but overall it was fine. Some members complimented me on it afterwards, saying my German was good for a greenie. That's compliment enough for me. I'll take anything positive I can get out here haha.
Just after we ate lunch and wanted to go back out, it started to rain. It didn't stop until late in the night, so the whole time we were outside, no one was on the streets. The few people that were had no desire to talk about the gospel (understandably so, I probably wouldn't want to either) while soaking wet, so we tried to just make a couple vorbeis out of the afternoon (just drop-ins auf English, I don't think that translates very well). People were home, but the one time a lady let us in she was too engrossed in the German-dubbed Runaway Bride to really talk to us. She made us tea, would sit down for maybe a minute and then say how she loved that part and would watch it with her daughter for a while. We just left after it happened a few times. Never try to pull a woman away from a chick flick is the moral of that story I guess.
The whole afternoon was somewhat gloomy. We came home to have our study time that we had missed earlier in the day and I felt somewhat lost. What had we done with our day???
I just sat and thought about it for a while. I tried using my own logic and rationale to explain it, but that was to no avail. Finally, simply, I turned to the Lord in prayer. I received a definitive feeling of comfort as a result. It wasn't particularly overwhelming or anything, but it just made me realize how we can learn something everyday and see the worth of every experience we have. Our whole time in this life is very short. Our existence here is simply temporary. The point of all this is to learn and to grow, to improve all our weaknesses and refine our ability to love, whether it be our family, our neighbor or our enemy. I'm grateful for the constant reminder that I have of this every day, because it's a challenge. Every day we as missionaries have to climb that hill of being able to talk to people. I look at it as we have to climb to hill of why we decided to come out here. It's been difficult these first 12 days or so to realize that. Throughout I've questioned my decision to come, especially when I struggle to contribute to a lesson with my limited language ability. Nevertheless, every day is a wonderful opportunity to learn. I've come to love the limited time we have to study in the mornings. There is never enough time, and it's crazy how quickly my perspective has changed about that. It's just so much fun to learn and to change how you see things in the world.
We have a few teaching appointments every day it seems which is always a positive. A few people are keeping their commitments to read further in the Book of Mormon. It's always exciting when they have read and we can have a discussion about it. That's what really interests me.
Other random things of note: I just finished my second journal ever! It's addictive. I have eaten more chocolate in the past two weeks than I've probably eaten in the last few years. I haven't bought very much either which is the funny part. It's as amazing as it's hyped up to be.
Also, my companion/trainer Elder Whitsitt was trained by my teacher at the MTC in Utah, Brother Turville. So I knew my "grandpa" before I knew my "father" out here. Fairly strange, rather funny.
Ummm I don't know what else. Internet cafes here all smell of smoke. Actually, a lot of places smell of smoke here. That kind of stinks (pun!)
Okay, that's all I have for this week. I hope you enjoyed my musings.
Aufwiedersehn!
Love
Elder Ek
Monday, March 30, 2009
Monday, March 23, 2009
3/23 LB
Guten Tag meine Familie und Freunde!
So much has happened since I last wrote (obviously). I flew into München through Atlanta on Tuesday morning and everything has been crazy ever since. Even this German keyboard is crazy.
So the rest of Tuesday I stayed in München for orientation meetings and such. President Condie and Sister Condie (mission presidents) were very welcoming. The mission office is just a part of a building in this nice residential area, super classy.
Tuesday night we walked over to the mission home (I believe it´s where Pres and Sister Condie live) and had a lovely meal of lasagna. Danach, we found out where our first areas were. It took a long time since there were 14 of us new missionaries. So as many already know, I was called to serve in Wien Drei (the third ward in Vienna). We live in an apartment between the fifth and sixth districts and have two proselyting areas: the tenth district and the 13th and 14th districts. It's somewhat strange that they aren't contiguous but whatever.
I took a train to Wien on Wednesday with some other missionaries who were transferred there. It took about 3 hours, don't remember exactly. At 13:40 it arrived in Wien west main station.
I met my companion there. Er heißt Elder Whitsitt, er kommt aus Chicago. He's a super nice guy and everything. Ummm he went to BYU Idaho for a semester before leaving on his mission. He's 13 months into it I believe, so we actually graduated high school in the same year (very strange to think about). He's about my same height and wears glasses, so we look very similar when I'm not wearing contacs. I would best describe him as poised under presssure, a characteristic that has been apparent given our first few days here (more on that later)
The very first thing we did after putting our bags in the apartment was go across our apartment building to a member's house for lunch. Thank goodness there were a bunch of other missionaries there to talk, because I didn't understand a thing. Wienerisch accents are straight up ridiculous. The old couple there seemed nice enough, but it was hard to tell when I couldn't understand anything, ya
Anyways, we came back to the apartment and I unpacked for a little while. Then we hit the streets. Definitely a harrowing expereience the first time around.
I believe we were in the 13th district when we started to do our street contacting. Natrually Elder Whitsitt took the lead, but after he did five or so I finally mustered up the courage to ask someone if they had heard about the Book of Mormon. Nothing came of it, but it was good to face the fear. We tried talking with other people for a while. Eventually two young men who were eating kabobs I believe stopped and listened to us. After I had spat out a few sentences, I tried listening to what they were saying. No dice, but we did get their numbers. Afterward I inquired as to what had happened and Elder Whitsitt said that they wonder about the purpose of life quite frequently. We still haven't gotten in touch with them yet, but who knows what can happen.
Thursday was a day full of appointments. Our first thing was to go to student housing and knock on doors. No one was home until the very last one: guy had read a little in the book of mormon but didn't have interest to talk about it.
We met with this 60ish year old lady in the hospital named Slaviza. I guess she was super stressed out by her 30 year old daughter at home. Once more, I didn't understand anything much at all. We gave her a blessing of health and shared a spiritual thought.
We met with Björn and his mother in the afternoon. He's like 6'3 or so and was wearing a cast on his right arm. I was taken aback by his appearence and thought he probably could pummel me in two seconds flat. Despite that, he was super nice and had kept his commitment to read in the BOM in Alma 40. We discussed the first half of the plan of salvation. Well I actually didn't talk whatsoever besides a bit of an introduction in the beginning. Björn spoke English to us and his mother spoke in German but I guess understood English too, I don't even know. Elder Whitsitt was teaching in German, it was crazy.
I remember coming back to the apartment after that and being just dead tired and kind of sick all over too. It was some awesome combination of jetlag and nausea from trying so hard to listen to German all the time haha. Ya, not the best. We took our afternoon pause and I gathered myself.
In the evening we watched The Testaments with a woman named Zaimar and her 9 year old daughter. I believe they mover from Cuba a few years ago. Anyways, we watched it in Spanish on her computer (after failing to get both the DVD player and hotpink Playstation to work). I actually spoke after it was done and talked about the nature of faith. Little steps of improvement.
Friday we had Zone Conference. So within the mission boundaries there are four stakes: Salsburg, Vienna, Nurnburg and Munich. Each zone in the mission corresponds to a stake. All the missionaries in Vienna gather together for these things, so that was cool in itself. Better was the presence of Elder Kopieschke of the quorum of the 70. The conference lasted around eight hours, and besides introductions and lunch, Elder Kopieschke taught basically the whole time. It was so excellent. I also had Schnitzel for the first time. Glorious.
Our appointment that night fell through, so not much else happened. Saturday we did some service for a member who was renovating his appartment. We then delved into weekly planning, which is only supposed to take three hours or so. It took much longer, as I became acquainted with the area book that contains records about what we've taught and to whom. We actually had to finish everything on Sunday haha.
Saturday night we taught Brother Tanasee with his family. He's the only one who can speak German. The rest of his family speaks Romanian. He's in a wheelchair and the only member of his family. Moreover, there are 6 people there living in the space of maybe two rooms. I felt really bad for their circumstances, wow. They even fed us a really wonderful meal too. So he's a new convert and we're reteaching the lessons to him. Spaß
Sunday was stake conference, so we got to go to the international UN part of Wien. Totally different look and feel. Everything looks so modern and clean as opposed to where we live (it's still really clean, but it's quite old. It was cool to see all the members in the Vienna stake come. We met in a conference center of some sort, I don't even know.
Also Sunday, we had a lesson with Raby, a 40 year old Egyptian guy who only wears a shirt and a speedo. He's genuinely crazy I believe haha. Nice enough, but has some super strange ideas about drugs when we talked about the Word of Wisdom with him.
So here I am today, typing away in some small internet cafe. Although I have much more time to write emails, I still can't email to friends. Shame. Oh well.
Ummm oh I'll give my address here. The apartment is incredibly nice and is huge. I love it. There are three large rooms plus our kitchen, washer, bathroom and everything. No dishwasher and dryer, but everything else is promising.
Linke Wienzeile 156/14
1060 Wien
Austria
Okay well I miss you all like crazy and love you!!! Hopefully I'll be able to settle into some sort of groove by next week in terms of everything: language, sleep schedule et. all
Love
Elder Ek
So much has happened since I last wrote (obviously). I flew into München through Atlanta on Tuesday morning and everything has been crazy ever since. Even this German keyboard is crazy.
So the rest of Tuesday I stayed in München for orientation meetings and such. President Condie and Sister Condie (mission presidents) were very welcoming. The mission office is just a part of a building in this nice residential area, super classy.
Tuesday night we walked over to the mission home (I believe it´s where Pres and Sister Condie live) and had a lovely meal of lasagna. Danach, we found out where our first areas were. It took a long time since there were 14 of us new missionaries. So as many already know, I was called to serve in Wien Drei (the third ward in Vienna). We live in an apartment between the fifth and sixth districts and have two proselyting areas: the tenth district and the 13th and 14th districts. It's somewhat strange that they aren't contiguous but whatever.
I took a train to Wien on Wednesday with some other missionaries who were transferred there. It took about 3 hours, don't remember exactly. At 13:40 it arrived in Wien west main station.
I met my companion there. Er heißt Elder Whitsitt, er kommt aus Chicago. He's a super nice guy and everything. Ummm he went to BYU Idaho for a semester before leaving on his mission. He's 13 months into it I believe, so we actually graduated high school in the same year (very strange to think about). He's about my same height and wears glasses, so we look very similar when I'm not wearing contacs. I would best describe him as poised under presssure, a characteristic that has been apparent given our first few days here (more on that later)
The very first thing we did after putting our bags in the apartment was go across our apartment building to a member's house for lunch. Thank goodness there were a bunch of other missionaries there to talk, because I didn't understand a thing. Wienerisch accents are straight up ridiculous. The old couple there seemed nice enough, but it was hard to tell when I couldn't understand anything, ya
Anyways, we came back to the apartment and I unpacked for a little while. Then we hit the streets. Definitely a harrowing expereience the first time around.
I believe we were in the 13th district when we started to do our street contacting. Natrually Elder Whitsitt took the lead, but after he did five or so I finally mustered up the courage to ask someone if they had heard about the Book of Mormon. Nothing came of it, but it was good to face the fear. We tried talking with other people for a while. Eventually two young men who were eating kabobs I believe stopped and listened to us. After I had spat out a few sentences, I tried listening to what they were saying. No dice, but we did get their numbers. Afterward I inquired as to what had happened and Elder Whitsitt said that they wonder about the purpose of life quite frequently. We still haven't gotten in touch with them yet, but who knows what can happen.
Thursday was a day full of appointments. Our first thing was to go to student housing and knock on doors. No one was home until the very last one: guy had read a little in the book of mormon but didn't have interest to talk about it.
We met with this 60ish year old lady in the hospital named Slaviza. I guess she was super stressed out by her 30 year old daughter at home. Once more, I didn't understand anything much at all. We gave her a blessing of health and shared a spiritual thought.
We met with Björn and his mother in the afternoon. He's like 6'3 or so and was wearing a cast on his right arm. I was taken aback by his appearence and thought he probably could pummel me in two seconds flat. Despite that, he was super nice and had kept his commitment to read in the BOM in Alma 40. We discussed the first half of the plan of salvation. Well I actually didn't talk whatsoever besides a bit of an introduction in the beginning. Björn spoke English to us and his mother spoke in German but I guess understood English too, I don't even know. Elder Whitsitt was teaching in German, it was crazy.
I remember coming back to the apartment after that and being just dead tired and kind of sick all over too. It was some awesome combination of jetlag and nausea from trying so hard to listen to German all the time haha. Ya, not the best. We took our afternoon pause and I gathered myself.
In the evening we watched The Testaments with a woman named Zaimar and her 9 year old daughter. I believe they mover from Cuba a few years ago. Anyways, we watched it in Spanish on her computer (after failing to get both the DVD player and hotpink Playstation to work). I actually spoke after it was done and talked about the nature of faith. Little steps of improvement.
Friday we had Zone Conference. So within the mission boundaries there are four stakes: Salsburg, Vienna, Nurnburg and Munich. Each zone in the mission corresponds to a stake. All the missionaries in Vienna gather together for these things, so that was cool in itself. Better was the presence of Elder Kopieschke of the quorum of the 70. The conference lasted around eight hours, and besides introductions and lunch, Elder Kopieschke taught basically the whole time. It was so excellent. I also had Schnitzel for the first time. Glorious.
Our appointment that night fell through, so not much else happened. Saturday we did some service for a member who was renovating his appartment. We then delved into weekly planning, which is only supposed to take three hours or so. It took much longer, as I became acquainted with the area book that contains records about what we've taught and to whom. We actually had to finish everything on Sunday haha.
Saturday night we taught Brother Tanasee with his family. He's the only one who can speak German. The rest of his family speaks Romanian. He's in a wheelchair and the only member of his family. Moreover, there are 6 people there living in the space of maybe two rooms. I felt really bad for their circumstances, wow. They even fed us a really wonderful meal too. So he's a new convert and we're reteaching the lessons to him. Spaß
Sunday was stake conference, so we got to go to the international UN part of Wien. Totally different look and feel. Everything looks so modern and clean as opposed to where we live (it's still really clean, but it's quite old. It was cool to see all the members in the Vienna stake come. We met in a conference center of some sort, I don't even know.
Also Sunday, we had a lesson with Raby, a 40 year old Egyptian guy who only wears a shirt and a speedo. He's genuinely crazy I believe haha. Nice enough, but has some super strange ideas about drugs when we talked about the Word of Wisdom with him.
So here I am today, typing away in some small internet cafe. Although I have much more time to write emails, I still can't email to friends. Shame. Oh well.
Ummm oh I'll give my address here. The apartment is incredibly nice and is huge. I love it. There are three large rooms plus our kitchen, washer, bathroom and everything. No dishwasher and dryer, but everything else is promising.
Linke Wienzeile 156/14
1060 Wien
Austria
Okay well I miss you all like crazy and love you!!! Hopefully I'll be able to settle into some sort of groove by next week in terms of everything: language, sleep schedule et. all
Love
Elder Ek
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
March 12, 2009 from Elder Cheng
Hello all!!!!
Another week has gone by here in Hong Kong and things have been going smoothly. So a couple of interesting things happened, but I wont write all of it.
Yesterday, we had a mission conference, a conference for all missionaries (150ish missionaries in HK). And a monumental thing ahppened. We finally received our outlimate language help tool, the Missionary Vocabulary and Phrases book, MVP!!!!!! For a years now, they were developing this book to help us with the difficult Cantonese language and the first draft came out yesterday for us missionaries to begin learning correct language principles. Before, what we did was straight up learn from the Cantonese teachers' experience and phrases they used. Wit hthis book, we now have a guide with phrases and vocabulary that we would most likely use as missionaries. It also has the romanized pingyam and the chinese characters next to the english, so this is the ultimate tool for language progression!
another thign that happened was that a member in our ward told us that her husband recently was diagnosed with liver cancer and he only has a few months to a few years to live. after a long while of crying and sorrow, they finally accepted the fact that there is only so much time left before he departs from this world so they've decided to make the best of his remaining years. what we are doing now is teaching him the lessons of the gospel, which bring peace people's souls. the gospel message gives us a clear knowledge of our life on earth and where we will go afterwards. it is the appropriate time because he is only a matter of years before he goes beyond the veil to see the other side and we can share our knowledge about this to him.
the sad part of it is that he doesnt have a lot of time to apply gospel principles to his life to feel the extent of God's love for him. i see that in a lot of people in the world. there are truths that are revealed to us that people still wont accept. if we open our eyes and apply these gospel principles to our lives, we can see how much more our lives can be happier. our message won't only give us relaxation about what will happen in the future, but it will also tell us about our purpose here on earth and what we can do to achieve the best life on earth, including what everybody cherishes the most--happiness.
i want to leave you all with a testimony that has taken me a while to progress to. i know that this gospel is true and that it has blessed me so much throughout my life. for this reason, i am serving a mission for the Lord to help others receive the knowledge that i have received and to help them know that there is a loving Heavenly Father that has a plan of happiness for us and wants us all the return to Him. i also know that in order to return to God, there needs to be ordinances performed with the proper authority and through this church, we have the authority and power to perform these ordinances. each one of us on this earth are brothers and sisters. i would love it if all my brothers and sisters can live eternally happy after this life. i encourage you all to pray and ask Heavenly Father if these things are true, He WILL answer your prayers and tell you what you need to do. i leave these things with you in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Love,
Elder Stanley Cheng
Elder Stanley Cheng
China Hong Kong Mission
July 2008 - July 2010
Another week has gone by here in Hong Kong and things have been going smoothly. So a couple of interesting things happened, but I wont write all of it.
Yesterday, we had a mission conference, a conference for all missionaries (150ish missionaries in HK). And a monumental thing ahppened. We finally received our outlimate language help tool, the Missionary Vocabulary and Phrases book, MVP!!!!!! For a years now, they were developing this book to help us with the difficult Cantonese language and the first draft came out yesterday for us missionaries to begin learning correct language principles. Before, what we did was straight up learn from the Cantonese teachers' experience and phrases they used. Wit hthis book, we now have a guide with phrases and vocabulary that we would most likely use as missionaries. It also has the romanized pingyam and the chinese characters next to the english, so this is the ultimate tool for language progression!
another thign that happened was that a member in our ward told us that her husband recently was diagnosed with liver cancer and he only has a few months to a few years to live. after a long while of crying and sorrow, they finally accepted the fact that there is only so much time left before he departs from this world so they've decided to make the best of his remaining years. what we are doing now is teaching him the lessons of the gospel, which bring peace people's souls. the gospel message gives us a clear knowledge of our life on earth and where we will go afterwards. it is the appropriate time because he is only a matter of years before he goes beyond the veil to see the other side and we can share our knowledge about this to him.
the sad part of it is that he doesnt have a lot of time to apply gospel principles to his life to feel the extent of God's love for him. i see that in a lot of people in the world. there are truths that are revealed to us that people still wont accept. if we open our eyes and apply these gospel principles to our lives, we can see how much more our lives can be happier. our message won't only give us relaxation about what will happen in the future, but it will also tell us about our purpose here on earth and what we can do to achieve the best life on earth, including what everybody cherishes the most--happiness.
i want to leave you all with a testimony that has taken me a while to progress to. i know that this gospel is true and that it has blessed me so much throughout my life. for this reason, i am serving a mission for the Lord to help others receive the knowledge that i have received and to help them know that there is a loving Heavenly Father that has a plan of happiness for us and wants us all the return to Him. i also know that in order to return to God, there needs to be ordinances performed with the proper authority and through this church, we have the authority and power to perform these ordinances. each one of us on this earth are brothers and sisters. i would love it if all my brothers and sisters can live eternally happy after this life. i encourage you all to pray and ask Heavenly Father if these things are true, He WILL answer your prayers and tell you what you need to do. i leave these things with you in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Love,
Elder Stanley Cheng
Elder Stanley Cheng
China Hong Kong Mission
July 2008 - July 2010
SC March 5, 2009
Hey all!!!
Well, nothing big happened this week. It feels like another pretty normal week. although i am starting to get a good grasp of what missionary work is all about.
our big focus for this moves is working with the members. having members help us missionaries out is the best thing members can do. i never realized how to work with members until now. there are so many things that members can do for ivnestigators than what we can do. I think the example from members rubbing off on investigators is the biggest importance, and because they can have a friend. what president gordon b hinckley said is true. to stay active, recent converts need three things: a friend, a calling and nourished by the good word of god. so sad this week, one of our recent converts started telling us that chruch was restricting and he told us he wanted to go back to his old church. this happened after getting scolded by "the friend" at church that he had to wear a white shirt every sunday. but we knew that our recent convert had financial problems so it didnt matter, afterall, he was already wearing a collared shirt and tie. it made me so angry. i dont understand why the member did that. so right now, we're still trying to work with our RC, no success just yet.
but ishouldnt be telling you about sad thigns! it should be about happy things. after that incident though, heavenly father was trying to lift us up again by preparing people on the street for us to talk to. right after, we bumped into a less active, and him seeing us signified that he had to go the church that week. now i dont know if he did but it made us feel better from that event with our recent convert.
members are important in missionary work as well. one cannot work without the other. if it is just missinaries doing the work, as soon as somebody becomes baptized, we just got ourselves another less active. everybody needs to take part in this marvelous work! anything as small as saying hello to the invesigator at church on sunday or as far as helping the missionaries fellowship. if everybody can work together, the work can be carried out quicker and more effecitvely.
this is all the time i have this week and i will kepp you all updated next week!
-Elder Stanley Cheng
Well, nothing big happened this week. It feels like another pretty normal week. although i am starting to get a good grasp of what missionary work is all about.
our big focus for this moves is working with the members. having members help us missionaries out is the best thing members can do. i never realized how to work with members until now. there are so many things that members can do for ivnestigators than what we can do. I think the example from members rubbing off on investigators is the biggest importance, and because they can have a friend. what president gordon b hinckley said is true. to stay active, recent converts need three things: a friend, a calling and nourished by the good word of god. so sad this week, one of our recent converts started telling us that chruch was restricting and he told us he wanted to go back to his old church. this happened after getting scolded by "the friend" at church that he had to wear a white shirt every sunday. but we knew that our recent convert had financial problems so it didnt matter, afterall, he was already wearing a collared shirt and tie. it made me so angry. i dont understand why the member did that. so right now, we're still trying to work with our RC, no success just yet.
but ishouldnt be telling you about sad thigns! it should be about happy things. after that incident though, heavenly father was trying to lift us up again by preparing people on the street for us to talk to. right after, we bumped into a less active, and him seeing us signified that he had to go the church that week. now i dont know if he did but it made us feel better from that event with our recent convert.
members are important in missionary work as well. one cannot work without the other. if it is just missinaries doing the work, as soon as somebody becomes baptized, we just got ourselves another less active. everybody needs to take part in this marvelous work! anything as small as saying hello to the invesigator at church on sunday or as far as helping the missionaries fellowship. if everybody can work together, the work can be carried out quicker and more effecitvely.
this is all the time i have this week and i will kepp you all updated next week!
-Elder Stanley Cheng
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
DB 3.10
Hello!
So I FINALLY have access to some type of communication. I have so much to say, but not that much time to say it. Because this is the very first week and so much has gone on, I will talk about the most important things and then catch up on the second most important things next week, when there's not as much new things going on.
Most importantly, I am currently serving in Aurora. It's the southern-most part of the mission, directly east of downtown Denver (by the way, we'll never be in downtown Denver because all of it is in the South mission). It's a coincidence that Aurora is to the east of the city, because I would classify it as the East LA of Denver. Very poor and very Hispanic, which is exactly what I wanted. Unfortunately though, for now, I'm serving in an English ward, the Peoria Ward. There are about
6 or 7 wards in the Aurora Stake, one of which is a singles ward and the other is a Spanish ward (not branch, ward!), the Denver 3rd Ward. There are 3 sets of missionaries in the Denver 3rd since they cover all the Spanish speakers in the stake. 2 of the 6 missionaries in Denver 3rd are Elder Robinson and Elder Bolo. I'd say about half of us in the Aurora Zone (about 10 out of 20 or so) are Spanish-speaking, but only 6 of them are in the Spanish ward. Hopefully I'll get a chance to serve there at some point, but I'm still using my Spanish a lot. I'm doing lots of contacting and tracting in Spanish, but all the Spanish lessons are taught by those in Denver 3rd. I feel bad for Elder Shaw though, he got sent to Cheyenne. I wonder how many Hispanics are there, haha. But anyway, I'm not sure how many zones there are, but the ones I know of are Aurora, Denver North, Boulder, Fort Collins, Greeley, Cheyenne, Laramie, Longmont, and Loveland. Some of those might be combined, I can't remember.
My companion is Elder Carrazco from Chihuahua, Mexico. His English is OK, but sometimes he has a hard time communicating. He's a really nice guy and I like him a lot. But now I turn to my frustration, not with him, but with the situation. He's been out 3 months, so he's the youngest trainer in the mission. We are both new to the area (he's been serving in Aurora, but in other areas), so we are both starting from scratch in getting to know the members and investigators. We are English-speaking for the moment and he has trouble expressing himself. We don't have a car even though our area is huge. We just barely got some bikes (we borrowed them from members) so yesterday was our first day using them. And all of this on my first transfer. It seems to me like like we'd be just fine if we just had ONE of these conditions reversed: If it was my second transfer instead of my first, or if he had already known the area, or if he had been out longer, or if we had a car, or if he knew English better, or if we were Spanish speaking. It seems like after describing all this that I'm miserable, but I'm really not. I'm having a good time, but it just gets frustrating sometimes. And again, I'm not blaming Elder Carrazco because it's not his fault, but I thought my trainer would be a crutch I could lean on, but it turns out that's not really the case here. I'm sure it will all improve as we get more accustomed to things here.
Wow, so many things to say, I don't even know what to start with. We've had dinner at a member's home every night, except one when they didn't call us back. But it was more than okay because we went to place called Las Tortugas and I got a concoction called the Super Cubana with EVERY kind of meat possible (and I'm not exaggerating), cheese, avocado, tomatoes...Dad would love it. So far, my breakfast and lunch has been one and the same, cereal and bread (oh and OJ), haha. But we're going to go the store and get some more variety today. The members are VERY humble. I was really noticing that I sat in church yesterday. There are a lot of big families who don't have a lot, but they're very caring and happy. There are some great people. As for the people waiting to be harvested, it is VERY apparent that Hispanics are much more open and willing to listen. They're so much nicer than white people, haha. We went tracting on Saturday (in a more white area than Hispanic) and out of the 70 or so houses, we had 2 houses who were open to another visit and they were the only 2 Hispanic houses that we knocked on.
I am becoming slightly more accustomed to contacting and tracting, but it's still very hard for me. It really is the one thing that's holding me back, and I hope that with time, the fear will die down. My very first lesson was while I was on a split with one of the zone leaders Elder Ferreira, from Paraguay. He's serving in the singles ward (English speaking). The guy we taught has been taking the lessons for like 5 months and he's ready, but he needs to quit smoking. Anyway, I had the easy part and Elder Ferreira had the hard part: I taught the 10 Commandments, he taught the Law of Chastity. It went well though. And then, later on in the week, Elder Carrazco and I went to teach a couple (probably in their 40's) who had got in touch with the bishop. I guess the guy had some experience with the church while living in Utah and he knew that the Mormons were the nicest people around. They just got to Aurora and don't know anybody and are trying to look for work, and in the meantime are staying in a motel. So that was my very first experience teaching the first lesson on the Restoration and I think it went really well. I really felt the Spirit and I think they did too. They were at church yesterday and we have another lesson scheduled (this time with a member) on Thursday. One thing I noticed though was that I was definitely doing most of the talking and it kind of annoyed me, but then Elder Carrazco later told me that he just has trouble with the English. And that's exactly how I would be if it was in Spanish, so I understood completely. He's a really good companion, diligent and obedient.
(In response to my telling him about the Prop. 8 rulings last week...) What else...I didn't hear about any of the Prop 8 stuff, very interesting. We'll have to see what happens. Luckily I'm not in Boulder, haha. But I do want to go there, it'll probably be very familiar. Anytime anyone here describes it, it sounds like they're describing Berkeley, haha.
So I FINALLY have access to some type of communication. I have so much to say, but not that much time to say it. Because this is the very first week and so much has gone on, I will talk about the most important things and then catch up on the second most important things next week, when there's not as much new things going on.
Most importantly, I am currently serving in Aurora. It's the southern-most part of the mission, directly east of downtown Denver (by the way, we'll never be in downtown Denver because all of it is in the South mission). It's a coincidence that Aurora is to the east of the city, because I would classify it as the East LA of Denver. Very poor and very Hispanic, which is exactly what I wanted. Unfortunately though, for now, I'm serving in an English ward, the Peoria Ward. There are about
6 or 7 wards in the Aurora Stake, one of which is a singles ward and the other is a Spanish ward (not branch, ward!), the Denver 3rd Ward. There are 3 sets of missionaries in the Denver 3rd since they cover all the Spanish speakers in the stake. 2 of the 6 missionaries in Denver 3rd are Elder Robinson and Elder Bolo. I'd say about half of us in the Aurora Zone (about 10 out of 20 or so) are Spanish-speaking, but only 6 of them are in the Spanish ward. Hopefully I'll get a chance to serve there at some point, but I'm still using my Spanish a lot. I'm doing lots of contacting and tracting in Spanish, but all the Spanish lessons are taught by those in Denver 3rd. I feel bad for Elder Shaw though, he got sent to Cheyenne. I wonder how many Hispanics are there, haha. But anyway, I'm not sure how many zones there are, but the ones I know of are Aurora, Denver North, Boulder, Fort Collins, Greeley, Cheyenne, Laramie, Longmont, and Loveland. Some of those might be combined, I can't remember.
My companion is Elder Carrazco from Chihuahua, Mexico. His English is OK, but sometimes he has a hard time communicating. He's a really nice guy and I like him a lot. But now I turn to my frustration, not with him, but with the situation. He's been out 3 months, so he's the youngest trainer in the mission. We are both new to the area (he's been serving in Aurora, but in other areas), so we are both starting from scratch in getting to know the members and investigators. We are English-speaking for the moment and he has trouble expressing himself. We don't have a car even though our area is huge. We just barely got some bikes (we borrowed them from members) so yesterday was our first day using them. And all of this on my first transfer. It seems to me like like we'd be just fine if we just had ONE of these conditions reversed: If it was my second transfer instead of my first, or if he had already known the area, or if he had been out longer, or if we had a car, or if he knew English better, or if we were Spanish speaking. It seems like after describing all this that I'm miserable, but I'm really not. I'm having a good time, but it just gets frustrating sometimes. And again, I'm not blaming Elder Carrazco because it's not his fault, but I thought my trainer would be a crutch I could lean on, but it turns out that's not really the case here. I'm sure it will all improve as we get more accustomed to things here.
Wow, so many things to say, I don't even know what to start with. We've had dinner at a member's home every night, except one when they didn't call us back. But it was more than okay because we went to place called Las Tortugas and I got a concoction called the Super Cubana with EVERY kind of meat possible (and I'm not exaggerating), cheese, avocado, tomatoes...Dad would love it. So far, my breakfast and lunch has been one and the same, cereal and bread (oh and OJ), haha. But we're going to go the store and get some more variety today. The members are VERY humble. I was really noticing that I sat in church yesterday. There are a lot of big families who don't have a lot, but they're very caring and happy. There are some great people. As for the people waiting to be harvested, it is VERY apparent that Hispanics are much more open and willing to listen. They're so much nicer than white people, haha. We went tracting on Saturday (in a more white area than Hispanic) and out of the 70 or so houses, we had 2 houses who were open to another visit and they were the only 2 Hispanic houses that we knocked on.
I am becoming slightly more accustomed to contacting and tracting, but it's still very hard for me. It really is the one thing that's holding me back, and I hope that with time, the fear will die down. My very first lesson was while I was on a split with one of the zone leaders Elder Ferreira, from Paraguay. He's serving in the singles ward (English speaking). The guy we taught has been taking the lessons for like 5 months and he's ready, but he needs to quit smoking. Anyway, I had the easy part and Elder Ferreira had the hard part: I taught the 10 Commandments, he taught the Law of Chastity. It went well though. And then, later on in the week, Elder Carrazco and I went to teach a couple (probably in their 40's) who had got in touch with the bishop. I guess the guy had some experience with the church while living in Utah and he knew that the Mormons were the nicest people around. They just got to Aurora and don't know anybody and are trying to look for work, and in the meantime are staying in a motel. So that was my very first experience teaching the first lesson on the Restoration and I think it went really well. I really felt the Spirit and I think they did too. They were at church yesterday and we have another lesson scheduled (this time with a member) on Thursday. One thing I noticed though was that I was definitely doing most of the talking and it kind of annoyed me, but then Elder Carrazco later told me that he just has trouble with the English. And that's exactly how I would be if it was in Spanish, so I understood completely. He's a really good companion, diligent and obedient.
(In response to my telling him about the Prop. 8 rulings last week...) What else...I didn't hear about any of the Prop 8 stuff, very interesting. We'll have to see what happens. Luckily I'm not in Boulder, haha. But I do want to go there, it'll probably be very familiar. Anytime anyone here describes it, it sounds like they're describing Berkeley, haha.
Anyway, I'm doing good and I hope everything is going well. Oh by the way, the weather is CRAZY. It was high 70's and sunny when I got here, for about 3 days, and then the next day it was snowing! Then that same day it was snowing AND sunny at the same time, and then the next day it was high 70's again! Crazy.
Well this is going to be a very hectic P-day, I'll probably be more tired after it than before. Oh well. Some guys are playing basketball at 2 so I'm excited for that. Until next week!
Love,
David
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Elder Ek week 7. 11 days to Germany
Hallo Alle Leute!!!!
Ich bin sehr begeistert bald nach Deutschland zu fliegen! 11 Tage!!
I am very excited to fly to Germany! 11 days!!
Another week has come and gone. More German has been learned, more practice lessons have been taught and more spirit has been felt. Hooray for the passive voice! The only verb tenses and voices left to cover are...none! Well at least here anyways. Subjunctive I is still out there...
All my efforts now are geared toward the gospel in German. I've taken up trying to read the Book of Mormon in German exclusively, which is still rather difficult. Rest assured that progress is being made.
I spent a great deal of the last two days in the doctor's office where my other two companions had appointments. Elder Jorgensen had to get his big toenail ripped off and Elder Zenger had to go outside of the MTC (!!!!) to Spanish Fork for a chiropractor. Very exciting. The only damage I've sustained has been to my suits. I got up from dinner to find some butter on the right side, apparently from a misguided attempt to grab a roll behind a butter tub. This was the first day I had worn that dark blue suit too. Oh well, at least my body is intact!
This upcoming week, our schedule will start to change as we have random meetings to prepare for Germany. It helps to break up the monotony that ocassionally causes me to lose focus. I may be able to read German decently enough, but I doubt I'll understand even 50% of what's spoken to me when I get off the plane. Not the greatest concern.
I'd like to share some thoughts I had this morning while reading Alma 32. The chapter is esteemed for verse 21 when it talks about faith, but I found some other critical points that lie hidden in the whole context of the chapter. Alma likens faith to a seed, which upon being planted will usher in a general sense of goodness. As that seed begins to grow, we see the fruit of our efforts to grow it manifest in many ways. The point I'd like to emphasize is how that faith is not a perfect knowledge or fruit-bearing right away. People may look at the message we share or the gospel in general and not see how it immediately bears fruit for them, how it directly makes their life better. The point is that we have to take that step, have that hope that there might be something to it. Anytime we open our hearts, we will have the opportunity to find truth. The point is developing this faith is not to have the end result immediately. It's to see how it feels as we go gradually along its path.
Whew almost made a blatant grammar error just now. Probably have before. Gotta go time is out love ya bye
Ich bin sehr begeistert bald nach Deutschland zu fliegen! 11 Tage!!
I am very excited to fly to Germany! 11 days!!
Another week has come and gone. More German has been learned, more practice lessons have been taught and more spirit has been felt. Hooray for the passive voice! The only verb tenses and voices left to cover are...none! Well at least here anyways. Subjunctive I is still out there...
All my efforts now are geared toward the gospel in German. I've taken up trying to read the Book of Mormon in German exclusively, which is still rather difficult. Rest assured that progress is being made.
I spent a great deal of the last two days in the doctor's office where my other two companions had appointments. Elder Jorgensen had to get his big toenail ripped off and Elder Zenger had to go outside of the MTC (!!!!) to Spanish Fork for a chiropractor. Very exciting. The only damage I've sustained has been to my suits. I got up from dinner to find some butter on the right side, apparently from a misguided attempt to grab a roll behind a butter tub. This was the first day I had worn that dark blue suit too. Oh well, at least my body is intact!
This upcoming week, our schedule will start to change as we have random meetings to prepare for Germany. It helps to break up the monotony that ocassionally causes me to lose focus. I may be able to read German decently enough, but I doubt I'll understand even 50% of what's spoken to me when I get off the plane. Not the greatest concern.
I'd like to share some thoughts I had this morning while reading Alma 32. The chapter is esteemed for verse 21 when it talks about faith, but I found some other critical points that lie hidden in the whole context of the chapter. Alma likens faith to a seed, which upon being planted will usher in a general sense of goodness. As that seed begins to grow, we see the fruit of our efforts to grow it manifest in many ways. The point I'd like to emphasize is how that faith is not a perfect knowledge or fruit-bearing right away. People may look at the message we share or the gospel in general and not see how it immediately bears fruit for them, how it directly makes their life better. The point is that we have to take that step, have that hope that there might be something to it. Anytime we open our hearts, we will have the opportunity to find truth. The point is developing this faith is not to have the end result immediately. It's to see how it feels as we go gradually along its path.
Whew almost made a blatant grammar error just now. Probably have before. Gotta go time is out love ya bye
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