Monday, September 30, 2013

ELDER RICHARDSON'S WEEKLY LETTER #18 -- SEPTEMBER 23, 2013

ELDER RICHARDSON'S WEEKLY LETTER #18
SEPTEMBER 23, 2013


I had a pretty good week this week! Our missionary work was a little slower, mostly due to the Moon Festival and another typhoon, but all in all it went pretty well.

This week we worked a lot on "Project Pylon" which is our area's vision for this ward. Our goal is to "construct additional pylons" by increasing the membership of the ward and helping them become self sustaining. (I don't think anyone gets the Starcraft reference, but if you did, you would know that it was sufficiently nerdy.) "Project Pylon" is a part of "Project Honeypot" which is our district vision. So this week we spent a lot of time reorganizing our ward list by road so that it is easier to find less actives. It was a good project for when it was raining buckets outside. But don't worry, we did get out on our bikes for plenty of time out in the windy and rainy typhoon. That was super fun.

This week I went on an exchange with Elder Montierth. He has been on his mission for even less time than me, so it was weird being senior companion, and being the one who had to speak Chinese to everyone! We taught an investigator the first lesson and also found a new one! I could DEFINITELY feel the Lord's help in my Chinese during both of those lessons.

As we were walking on the street to try to find one of our new investigators (who ended up not being there) there were a couple of people barbecuing on the street who invited us over to eat some of there food. That's what they do for the Moon Festival. They all get a sidewalk grill and just cook outside their shop and eat different kinds of meat. So we went and sat with them and they just showered us with food; we almost couldn't eat it all! Throughout that, they offered us cigarettes, alcohol, and betel nut, which we of course turned down. It's funny that a lot of times the Word of Wisdom is the first thing that we teach. 

We've gotten a lot of fruit the past few weeks. Apparently it is especially this time of year. People just like to give us fruit! I've eaten a lot of Pomelos, which America doesn't have. It's hard to describe. They are shaped like a pear, and you peel it kind of like an orange. We've also eaten a lot of passion fruit and got some star fruit as well.

Something my companion and I were discussing this week was about people who are atheist. Something that Talmage talks about in Articles of Faith (what my companion has been reading) makes an interesting point. A lot of people think that the religious people must prove the existence of God in order to be right. Talmage makes the point that since the beginning of time, humans have believed in the existence of God. It is a part of our nature to believe in something greater than us. Therefore, among other reasons, Talmage says, it is the responsibility of the atheist to prove the non-existence of God. I thought that was an interesting point. A lot of people use science to claim that God does not exist, but I don't think there is anything science can do to deny the existence of God, simply because of the nature of science itself! I thought that was really interesting.

-When it rains, and I'm trying to keep my stuff dry, I use a plastic bag that you get when you buy a comforter or blanket. It's just a little plastic pouch that is surprisingly waterproof, and it protects my stuff! I just put my stuff in that, and then the whole thing in my bag.

-I bought a Chinese/English Bible. It's super nice, and I'm really excited to be able to use it. I didn't get one in the MTC because they ran out, but now I have one to share Bible verses with people!

-When we read the white handbook in the morning for companionship study, my companion reads in his best George Bush voice.

-My companion had a dream that he was fighting North Korean raptors and I cut a flying bullet with a dagger.

-That have a drink that is just called "juice milk." If you ate trix cereal, and then drank the milk afterwards, that's exactly what this takes like.

I had a good week! I hope you did too!
Elder Richardson
田長老

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