Week 37

Wow, it's crazy to think how fast time has passed! This week has been wonderful. As usual. Three miracles of the week: 1. Our main investigator has been taking off with the Book of Mormon reading, and though just a couple weeks ago she seemed unsure about baptism, she's now progressing well. Church is a hard one in her situation, but she will probably be baptized next transfer! 2. We took a way solid member to an appointment with another investigator, and it turns out they knew each other from high school. Plus they concluded they were distant relatives. The member also bore powerful testimony, and we're excited to see if she, too, will become converted through the power of the Book of Mormon. 3. We've been working with another member's mother for a few weeks, and disappointingly, she told us this week she thinks she's going to stick to the church she's accustomed to. However, she told us she wants her daughter to start going to our church as soon as possible. She specifically cited the love and acceptance of the missionaries and other members as reasons why. When we brought this up in branch council, people thought we were kidding because only a few months ago, the mother was in opposition to the daughter learning. Cool, cool. Another fun experience: 1. Exchanges! They're the best. I went into a Malay elder area, and we went contacting poor areas together to maximize the language abilities we had. They ended up mostly being Chinese, so I got to argue, teach, and testify for hours! We met lots of cool people from lots of backgrounds. One of the funnest parts was him bringing me to a house where some Indians live, and they were from Maharastra! We reminisced a bit, and then introduced the Book of Mormon. It was great. Also way cool was Elder Hanks handling an action-packed day all by himself. He did wonderfully. To think he's not even done training is weird. He's way ahead of where I was 10 weeks into the field for sure. We also had fun playing American football, doing zone meeting, and more. Next week should be even more awesome, as Chinese New Year is supposed to be the coolest thing ever! Love you all! -Elder Earl