Letter #58

Hello hello everyone!

 

Well this week was just fantastic! Elder fan and I worked really hard and it really paid off for us! The best part of the week was that we had a baptism! Those are always the best! It was the husband of hou jie mei, lin di xiong! He is a really cool guy! He met with us every day this last week and was able to be baptized on that Sunday! We were so happy for him! He was able to quit smoking in that short amount of time! I really believe it was because of his faith! It was amazing how even in that short week; you could just see a new light in his eyes. We have not been able to see him again this week but we gave him a call and everything is still going great. Before he was baptized, I looked over at him dressed in all white sitting next to his wife. His wife was baptized two weeks ago. The spirit came over me so strong as I tried to picture these two preparing to go into the temple and how much that this one small choice would really change their life. I am so happy I was able to meet those two.

We had a really cool lesson with one of our recent converts this week. Her name is Ellen. She is 17 years old and is the only member in her family. She joined the church about six months ago. A little bit after I left to go up to Connecticut. She is truly incredible! She does not have any support from her family but she continues to try her best! She even goes to seminary despite the fact that it is a long slow subway ride to get there and she has to wake up really early. She met with us and told us that she does not feel like she is ready to go into the temple because she said that she does not feel worthy. She said there are some weeks that she is not able to come to church and she is too tired to go to seminary sometimes. She then continues to explain that the temple is a serious place and it should not be taken likely. Elder Fan and I went speechless. I never have seen someone take the temple so seriously. I think often times we will take that place for granted and really forget how special it is. But we also explained to her that she is doing great. She is trying her best to do all of the many things that are placed on her plate. I think the reason that we are given so many things to do is so that we will not be able to do all of them! If it were easy, there would be no need for the atonement of Jesus Christ. But, as we began to rely on him, to help us with our burdens, life becomes a whole lot easier. We learn that these things are real! Not just something we talk about for fun!

Street contacting this week was very fun! We met some great people! There was one day that elder fan and I decided we wanted to go to top of the rock area, over on 47th street. The Chinese missionaries cover the whole island but it is very rare that we leave because it is harder to find Chinese people. But this day we were feeling kinda crazy. When we first got up there it really was not going that well. We ran into a few Chinese people but none that were willing to listen to us. We ran into some really nice members that were here for a younger adults conference but other than that nothing. But then finally I saw a Chinese man walking slowly looking down at the ground. I walked up to him and started talking to him in English (just in case he was not Chinese.) He responded back in perfect English. He was really not interested at all in what I had to say. Even though in my mind there was no way this guy was Chinese, I gave it a shot and asked. He said that he was! And we started to talk in Chinese! His eyes lit up and he became so excited! He really opened up! He is a lawyer from Bei Jing and has a couple friends that are Mormon. He said that he would love to meet with us and talk about our church! I was so excited! After we talked with him, we did not talk with one more Chinese person! It was like we just needed to go there that one time to find that one guy!

A plane flew over the top of china town this week and wrote "last chance" in the sky. Elder fan and I went inside to take cover, thinking that a bomb was about to hit china town. Then we realized it was talking about a sale at a local store! That was a relief! There was also a fire in china town this week! That was pretty cool to see! There was no need to fear dragons were here! The fire department in china town calls themselves “the dragons”! I have no idea why! Dragons make fire; they do not put it out! I also met a man this week that had a pigeon on his shoulder! I walked up to him and began to talk with him. He said that pigeons are smarter than dogs and he has two that will fly away and come back to him! As he talked to me, the bird flew onto my shoulder! He got so excited and said that means he can trust me because the bird has never done that to any one else! I have to say I felt very loved! We had a great conversation about the church! I was also on a Japanese TV show this week! It was some cooking channel thing! They would give me random Japanese cooking utensils then have me guess how one would use it! They were laughing at me so hard and I have no idea why! So I am probably famous in Japan now!

Those are just some of the weird things that happened this week! Well, I sure do love you guys! Thanks for all of the love and support! I hope that you guys are all having a great week! Talk to you next week!

Elder Barton