"Dear God, I'm Victor" It's interesting
listening to a prayer of someone who has never prayed before - very basic and
simple, but so genuine. Very spiritual experiences. Times like
these are when I realize how much of a "fit" I have with
Riverside. My experiences are great for these Chinese people who have
never experienced religion before. It's like I was meant to be here.
One of those difficult experiences was working with an
investigator whose parents would have nothing to do with religion. She
started crying during one of our meetings at the thought of her parents'
reactions to her being baptized. How do you ask someone to do something
their family would disown them for. You can't... you can just invite
people and hope they commit to something that can bless their life.
Unfortunately some of our investigators have a very unstable
arrangement in America. We were going into a restaurant the other day and
ran into an investigator. He told us he was returning to China that night
at 10 pm. He said they gave him a day or two notice - there was something
about his visa. Luckily he lives in Guangdong, so if he wants to get
baptized, Hong Kong is only a stone's throw away. It was sad to see him
leave!
It's great working with Chinese people, but I'm still in
America! The other day some guy just walked up to us and started a little
story about how his car broke down and he needs a couple dollars to go to the
"liquor sto-gas station" I couldn't stop laughing. He was so
forthright I almost wanted to give it to him! I didn't though... At least
he was nice. Nicer than some of the people shouting stuff at us.
But I'm still trying to figure out if "F*** YEAH MORMON MAFIA!" is a
good thing or a bad thing.
I'm still loving how many young people are around
here. It's invigorating to see all these students learning. Our
dinner appointments are often with young married couples. I didn't really
see a lot of that in Shanghai, so that new perspective is pretty enjoyable.
One of our finding techniques is the free lunch our
Institute has every Thursday. This past Thursday, they had us
missionaries on the grills, grilling some incredibly healthy hot dogs and
hamburgers. It's amazing how hot a grill can get... I didn't realize that
before. We must have smelled like smokers for the rest of the day
too!
One of the interesting phenomenon on the mission is how
approachable we become when we're wearing sweaters on the outside - when our
typical white shirt and tie is covered. People suddenly want to talk to
us when we say hi! It's great for missionary work! Plus it's getting so cold
here, it's necessary [to wear a sweater]! I don't care what Brown is like this
kind of year, I'm freezing outside at night.
This week will be my first Thanksgiving on the mission! I’m
excited for that!
When I was teaching the lesson, I was trying to talk about
temple ORDINANCES so I said jiao yi, but apparently I said the wrong tone and
it meant drug deals or some sort of drug transactions. Everyone was
laughing and I didn't know why.
It's crazy how expensive California is, or maybe that's just
me coming from China. My contact lens solution was 20 dollars the other
day.
Being on a mission is hard sometimes but it's fun! I get to
talk to so many Chinese people! This area has been blessed by the Lord, there
have got to be 30 to 40% of the people walking to UCR every day who are Chinese,
it's crazy.
It's funny, every time I talk to investigators I show them
the pictures I have in my planner. It's Ash me and Kari behind the front
cover and our family (minus Ash) on the Bund [in Shanghai] last Christmas on
the back cover. People love seeing pictures of family, especially my cute
Chinese mom!
In the kitchen
At the grill
Elder Dyer's planner covers (with family photos)
With investigator
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