Painful Eye, And More Teaching...

  Hey everyone! My week here has been pretty good. However, my eye has really been bothering me. It might be the same thing that was bothering me during the MTC but I'm not sure. It's basically been hurting for my entire mission so far so I've worn my glasses a lot to lessen the pain. Hopefully the eye drops will work quickly because I really don't like wearing my glasses. One of my roommates bent them a bit so I need to get them adjusted. Until then, it's very annoying to wear them all the time. So hopefully I'll be able to wear contacts again soon. The eye drops he told me to get were $100 and I didn't want to pay that much so I got two different eye drops that were the combination of the medicine in the other bottle. They only cost $22 but I hope that they'll work as effectively as the other kind. Should I buy a few daily contacts to wear until I get to Taiwan? Would that be pretty expensive? and did the doctor say anything about being able to wear my weekly contacts when I got to Taiwan because it would be a lot less dry there? The doctor is pretty cool. He is actually the stake president of the stake that I'm in.

   The teaching has been going very well so far. We had a lesson yesterday with another new investigator named W...  Actually a recently returned missionary met her on the side of the road and helped her fix her tire. They started talking about the church and she wanted to learn more so we came and talked with her. We didn't actually teach a lesson like we were planning, but we really got to know her and her concerns. She is really prepared to hear the gospel and I look forward to teaching her more. She said we could visit her whenever we liked and we're going back this Wednesday. She has a 15 year old daughter and a 9 year old son that we will meet then.

 

   We had a great lesson with C... the other day. We got to know her and were able to share a brief message of the restoration and gave her a pamphlet to read. We're going to see her tomorrow and teach her again. She is amazing too. She's been looking for a church for a long time and her kids are wanting to know too. 

 

  All of our other investigators are going well too, and hopefully they can progress. We haven't been able to get a sit down lesson with J... because he has conflicts when we try to go to his appointment. But hopefully this week we'll meet with him.  Actually one reason we couldn't teach him was because we ran into his neighbor on the way to talk to J... and ended up talking with his neighbor for an hour. He's a less active member named T... and he's great. He's been less active for a long time and is an alcoholic. We came back and talked to him on Saturday with a drug addiction service missionary and had a great talk. He really wants to change and stop drinking alcohol and has had a rough life recently and is turning back to God for help. I hope we can continue to help him.

 

  Elder Carlin and I have had a great time here and have found a lot of people, so if I get my visa this transfer I will actually be a little sad and disappointed that I couldn't finish what we started. I guess that either way is alright with me. I'm really excited to go to Taiwan, but I want to finish the work here, so whatever happens will be okay with me. I really need to work on my Chinese though cuz it's getting worse since I never get to use it. I got to talk to a Chinese speaker yesterday. We were driving by and saw her so we got out and walked to her and started talking. She didn't speak a whole lot of English and I think she was able to understand what I was saying. She didn't know who Jesus Christ was so I told her and we got her name and number. She isn't in our area, but she agreed to meet with some other people. It was a lot of fun to use my Chinese, but I probably didn't have the best approach cuz I was just so nervous about using my Chinese to teach someone haha. That was cool though.

I am trying to work on my Chinese.  I don't have as much time to study as I would like. Sometimes I'm able to study real well, but sometimes it's hard to focus on learning Chinese when there's no use for it around me. That lady was the only Chinese person that I've seen here except for at general conference.  I've been trying to learn lots of characters (kanji), because that's a lot more interesting to learn to take a break from just studying flash cards. I can read about 90 or 100 characters and can write close to that amount. I read from the Chinese Book of Mormon a lot with the pinyin and characters. I can understand a lot of it while reading the pinyin but have to look up a word or two every verse just about. I can read some stuff from the characters book but I have to refer to the pinyin side of the book for help a lot. It's fun to be able to read in a different language. The Chinese Book of Mormon expresses the verses quite differently from the English version in many instances so it's interesting to get that different angle on the verses.

 I am also studying a lot from Preach My Gospel.  I certainly know a lot more now than I did before I left, but I still have a lot to learn. I read from it and I try to apply it when I teach. It's pretty nice, especially the scripture references that they have for the different lessons. I also like the other section about teaching, Christ-like qualities, and recognizing the Spirit.

 As I said before, we get fed by members almost everyday, except on Monday. We get more of spaghetti than any other meal! We eat a lot of eggs and cereal besides that cuz they're on sale. Members sometimes give us leftovers and we eat those off and on. My apartment is pretty good.  It's also a little small for 4 Elders but we get used to it, and we don't spend a whole lot of time there. It's good enough for our needs and I'm ok with it. The kitchen is the worst though. There is lots of dirty dishes.
 

  I'm glad that everything is going well back home and you're all having a good time. I'm sorry it's getting cold again. It's not too bad here but I can definitely feel the chill coming in the air. Hopefully I'll go to Taiwan before all the snow comes! Well I love you all and wish you all a great week!

Love,

Andrew

ps. did you get my letters in the mail yet?

I'll try to get on later and send some pics because I haven't taken any. Sorry about that. I'm just not very good about taking the time to get my camera out to take pics.

 

Our Couch Bunk Beds.  They Are Really Comfortable Except For All Of the Chips That Are Found Between The Cushions!



Elder Stevens And Elder Palhegyi