Mooncake Festival week.
My companion has been very sick this week so we couldn't go out very much the last three days. The food is very dirty here and so it is quite easy to come down with a stomach bug here. My stomach also has been getting thrown all over the place since I have been here but its ok. You can eat food forever here which is basically just noodles and rice and chicken and then still you will feel hungry. Today he feeling better though so we should be good.
This week was the Mooncake Festival and so we went with a member. We all carry these lanterns down to the park about a mile and then write your wishes on the lanterns (in chinese of course) and then put then in like a mini hot balloon type of thing and then let them float into the sky. My companion is very good at writing Chinese so he did the writing for us. This holiday is only for the Chinese so there are no Malay people that participate.
It was really cool because literally like thousands of Chinese people at this random park at like 9 oclock at night and the sky is filled with lights (lanterns). Super cool. You also have to eat Mooncake but we didn't take the chance to do that. We were quite busy.
So one guy we are teaching is Anglican pastor. He came to church last week and he is in charge of 5000 people at his church. Imagine if we could get him to join the church. We would have the like two stakes here in kuching in no time but we will see. He studied theology for like the last 70 years and so his knowledge is off the charts. His questions are insanely hard but we are doing are best. Most of his questions we have write down and then go back and research them before we teach him next. We are giving an hour lecture to his 15 priests on the 30th of this month which should be quite interesting. Quite hard to be honest but we will prepare.
Church is great we have a really nice building which is unusual because all the other branches meet in shoplits which is a dirty outside food court. They rent them out for Sunday church meetings. The meeting is in English but we translate for people into Chinese. Translating is hard not gonna lie.
Have not gone tracting yet. We have been good and getting referalls through investigators and members so that we haven't had to go out and tract to find new investigators. We are teaching about 8 people right now. 4 are set to be baptized on the 27th of this month but we aren't sure if they all will on that day but hopefully at least just 1 :)
Everyday the language gets easier but it is still really hard. Also this Sunday I had to go on splits with a Malay Elder to sacrament meeting because my companion was too sick to go. That was quite a test because I couldn't rely on my companion for the Chinese. It was a challenge and I definitely didn't understand a lot but I made it work. I also gave a talk this week in Sacrament. Shared about my testimony of Jesus Christ in English and then translated it to Mandarin.
Before I end I want to share a miracle this week that we saw. One of our new investigators we were telling her about the Background of the Book of Mormon and how a family travels from Jerusalem to America. As soon as we said that she stopped us mid-sentence and told us she had to tell us something. She then proceeded to tell us about a dream she had had long before she had met us where she met two people who were dressed in shirts and ties but she couldn't see their faces. They then gave her a book and explained that it was a bout a family that came from Jerusalem to america. Then she said she took the Book and read and applied the Book in her dream it made her so happy. We were both just like dumbstruck. She is not crazy at all either. A very down to earth lady. I testify that God is behind this work and is preparing people to recieve the gospel. Jesus Christ is my Savior. And he really is behind the restoration of his gospel.
It's true.
Love,
Elder Pierce
P.S. Someone asked me if I like the mission field or the MTC better...I love the mission field I hundred times more because it is so fulfilling. It is so much harder than the MTC but it is so fulfilling. In the MTC its all about preparing yourself yourself yourself. In the field its all about preparing others others others. Forgetting yourself is one of the greatest things that ever happened to me and I never realized it happened until a few days ago.
"For whosever will save his life shall lose it: And whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it" -Matthew 16:25
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