Week Thirty Seven - Sad and Glad

GeWei XiongDiJieMei Hao!

It is hard for me to believe that I am sitting here writing another weekly email. Time is flying for us in Hayward! Lots has happened this week, both bad and good. 

Firstly, the bad news: Bro. Wu and Sis. Fang decided to no longer meet with Elder Tung and I. We were "dropped." It was a real blow to both Elder Tung and I; they were doing so well and progressing so much in the gospel, and to see them let it all go was sad. I think though that Elder Tung really helped me have a good attitude about it, and to see it as more of an opportunity to find those who are truly ready for the gospel. Finding investigators has always been, and is still a challenge for the Chinese program in our mission, but we have a lot of plans to be out on our bikes this week contacting potentials and former investigators, so we really hope to find a new investigator. Fingers crossed! 

Speaking of finding, we did manage to run into a former earlier in the week, and set up an appointment to do some service with her last Friday. We chopped some of the massive vines that have grown into the fence surrounding her house. We hope to make some gospel progress with her upon our return visit next week.

Lots of fun things happened this last week, too! On Monday, we had a Zone Activity, with a whole bunch of crazy challenges. Lets just say, I had to scarf a bowl of Jell-o (not a fan...) and blow up a balloon with one breath (I won that one!) We also had another Branch FHE where Elder Tung and I prepared another round of "Jeopardy" for the game portion of the evening. We had some crazy hard questions and some really silly ones as well, a whole bunch involving the four missionaries of the branch. We were all dying of laughter. 

Finally the "apostate" portion of our week. I had a doctors appointment for a refill of a prescription, and that prescription was sent to a Walgreens in downtown Fremont....OUT OF THE MISSION!!! We had to receive special permission from Pres. Frandsen to bike out of the mission to pick it up. To think its the first time I've been out of mission boundaries since the MTC! A whole new world! It was fun! I also "learned" to play MaJiang, a popular Chinese game, at a game night we've been hosting in the hope of finding new investigators. There are so many rules, and it still doesn't quite make sense. Elder Tung tried his best to explain to me, but I'm still really rusty!

Have an amazing week! There are miracles all around if you look for them. I love you all and am so grateful for the love and support you show me in my service! Xia Ci Jian!

Elder Butters (Bao ZhangLao)