Wednesday, March 30, 2016

March 28, 2016

Fun Easter week.  It was the last week of the transfer and we celebrated it with dyeing eggs!  I hadn't done that in what's seemed like a very long time.  Where did the tradition come from? I do not know, but pictures below.

We got to enjoy seeing a bunch of our investigators' children in our Ward Easter Egg hunt.  They all did not take to heart my advice to come early because once the egg hunt starts it's over fast because, like I told them, "kids run fast."  We had some very nice kids re-hide eggs for our late Chinese friends though, which made it very fun for everyone!

We're in with a group of pregnant ladies in our apartment complex.  A couple weeks ago, we had a zone activity playing tennis at the tennis courts in the complex.  A Chinese family came to watch, so of course I abandoned my post at the side of the net as the Riverside Mission Wimbledon Finals ball boy and went to talk to them.  We sat down with them and had a fun time sharing about the church.  She was calling all her pregnant friends to come meet us.  We'll see how that goes!

We had a lesson with Sunny, one of our recent converts and she was telling us how she had prayed the other day when she got sick and asked Heavenly Father if she could just go straight to bed instead of reading her scriptures.  She decided to read anyway but fell asleep during her reading.  It was fun to hear and discuss her experiences with prayer and scripture study.

We helped one of our investigator families level their back yard.  The Dad is doing his backyard renovations all by himself and so we dug and dug and dug, and wheelbarrowed tons of dirt with him.  It was a good workout!  My back is sore and my legs are still feeling it.  We had already eaten at one of our Sichuan member's house for lunch, which was deliciously spicy, and ate MORE Chinese food for dinner.  Suffice it to say that I ate too much...

I returned back to Riverside to do another exchange in my old Chinese area at the University.  It was fun talking to all the college kids and freaking them out with random Chinese phrases non-nonchalantly thrown into the conversation.

There's this reoccurring thing that happens whenever we contact younger adults.  We get their information and so we ask for their number.  They always look at us weird like we're trying to take them on a date or something and say "smooth"...  My standard reply is to just look at them with really bored eyes (just picture me doing that) and say, "I'm a missionary..."  They're still suspicious though.



very serious

my egg fell!!!

waiting...

professional egg DYER (haha)

All the Chinese missionaries together!



It's fun to be back in a district again!

what do I do with my hands?

would not be complete without a selfie!

so artsy

getting my flowers ready

Elder Pennington got transferred :(

Monday, March 21, 2016

March 21, 2016

Great week because we had our first all Chinese sacrament meeting on our group here in Eastvale.  Sunny, who was baptized two weeks ago, gave a short talk and shared her testimony.  It's amazing to see her progress in such a short amount of time.  She's awesome!  It was cool to see some recent converts take more responsibilities at church, like blessing and passing the sacrament.

Our Chinese group got volunteered by one of our very musical Taiwanese members to sing in an Easter music devotional on Sunday.  Unfortunately, she had to visit Taiwan for a family emergency so that left us without a leader!  Elder Warren had to step up and lead us as we sang "How Firm a Foundation" in Mandarin.  It was a miracle because during all the practices we didn't sound very good at all.  The men kept getting pulled away to start singing the women's part!  Then when we got to the devotional, we found out we were second to last.  We went through all the musical numbers just thinking how we were going to be able to sound remotely as good as all these talented people.  When it actually came time to sing though, it sounded great!  Elder Warren and I wore matching Chinese ties for the occasion.

We have some great members in our ward.  We're teaching a 16 year old and he's making good friends at church.  He's new to the US and is enjoying the fellowship at his youth activities.  He'll be participating in youth conference next week which is awesome!

This transfer is a 7 week transfer rather than a 6 week transfer because of a change in the MTC assignment times, it's weird not having to go into transfer meetings!

Everyone make sure to remember Easter this next week, and feel free to let me know why we have the Easter Bunny and Easter Eggs.  But watch the video "Hallelujah" at followhim.mormon.org!

One of our member's dogs would just lie down on its back.  The member had just finished mopping, she the dog did a great job drying the floor!

hunting for fly's before dinner.  They had an electric fly swatter!


finally organizing all of my papers from the office.  not fun...

The Scientology church at their headquarters down in Hemet.

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

March 14, 2016

It's almost Easter time!  The church recently put out a very nice video on Easter, Jesus Christ, and the Resurrection.  Everyone needs to watch it!  It's on followhim.mormon.org.

Wonderful week, ending in a couple baptisms.  I got to return to my old area to see the eight year old son of the Quinonez family get baptized.  It was awesome.  His dad was able to baptize him.  The five year old daughter is excited to get baptized too in three years!  When the actual ordinance was happening, she was part of the crowd of little kids at the edge of the baptismal font.  She made sure to let everyone know that, "that's my dad and that's my big brother, and he's getting baptized today!"  

We had a baptism in our area as well.  Our investigator was the first Taiwanese person to ever get baptized into our group.  That's a big thing!  It was awesome to hear her share her testimony after the baptism.  She said at the start, she just met with the Elders because she thought she could improve her English, then she slowly started reading the scriptures and coming to church.  The turning point was when we invited her to give up coffee and live the word of wisdom.  She had tried and tried before to not drink coffee but for some reason could not.  We gave her a blessing that day, and she said after that she had no desire to drink it more.  She's an awesome addition to the ward.

English class this past week was fun. One of the recent converts in the ward (she's eight years old) had a funny response to my "homework" that I gave everyone.  I like to ask them to do small things like go to the supermarket and have a conversation with an employee to help them improve their English.  When I asked everyone to do that, she got a concerned look on her face and said "Elder Dyer, do you think you could give me less homework please?  My teacher at school gives me a lot of homework and I haven't finished it yet."  It was cute, I told her she was exempt from this time!

I channeled my inner Rafael Nadal on P-day today.  We played tennis.  Still working up to his level, but I'll be there soon!

Our Taiwanese investigator's baptism

Quinonez family before their son was baptized by his father

Younger sister takes selfie of her older brother - the "man of the hour" at his baptism

Elder Dyer with younger sister

They're back! We made chocolate covered strawberries for a zone meeting

The most beautiful output

Ready to deliver

With one of my recent convert's daughters.  Every time we leave her house, she always says, "but, but, I'll miss you guys!" In her high pitched Chinese.  It's cute.

I was on exchanges and my companion for the day introduced me to these brilliant mirror pictures...

The new Rafael Nadal - action shot of tennis match







artsy pics through the net


Tuesday, March 8, 2016

March 7, 2016

Another week gone.  We attended Mission Leadership Council and it was weird not having to prepare any statistics or trainings for it.  The night before I was thinking about what I needed to get ready, which was NOTHING!  It was interesting attending and receiving the training from the other side.  I learned a lot!

The other week, I was walking around eating the big orange/pomelo/grapefruit thing that someone at their door who rejected us gave me.  Some guy runs up to us and in a raised voice starts going on about how we're not allowed in the parks and we're not allowed to proselyte here.  I should have pretended I didn't speak English but instead I asked him why I'm not allowed to eat my orange in the park (the park was empty).  This park janitor guy said we're not even Christian and we're doing religious solicitation (To who? The trees?) and he was going to "call the cops."  It was an interesting conversation.  He turned out to be a Southern Baptist who was not a fan of our church and thus reacted, or should I say ACTED so interestingly.  I tried to shake Bill's hand at the end, but he wouldn't have it.  The people you meet sometimes!

I got to go back to my old area on exchanges!  It was really fun to see some of the people there.  It almost felt like I never left!

We were driving through a neighborhood and I spotted a grandma from one of the families in the ward.  They're from Sichuan and make really good "cold noodles" (really spicy!).  We didn't have a dinner appointment that night, so I asked her when she was going to make us these cold noodles next.  She said come back in an hour!  I told her I didn't want to be a bother and maybe we could set up a time that would work for everyone.  She snapped back, that time is now!  Come in one hour, and started walking away.  She cracks me up.  Sometimes it's hard to understand her because she has a really thick accent (all of this is in Chinese of course), but the noodles were delicious!

We went to visit a former investigator I had taught when I was here a year ago and found a whole separate family living there.  The grandpa was very excited to meet us and was wondering how we spoke Chinese.  Turns out, when he retired, he took up painting, and decided to give us a little notebook of some of his paintings.  He made sure to write, "for Elder Dyer" on the inside cover.  Must be famous or something :).  It was funny because he wanted a picture, but first went to get his glasses on so he would look just like he does on the cover of his little booklet.

This guy was so excited that he met his FIRST american friends (Elder Warren was sleeping)

Stopped by my newly baptized family on exchanges and had to get a picture with their youngest daughter

What the... totally not planned?


Okay maybe a little planned ;).  I'm slowly building up the amount of people I can match with :)





Tuesday, March 1, 2016

February 29, 2016

Wonderful week!  We got to attend the temple which was awesome.  Then we got to go to Cafe Rio!  (the temple's out of the mission, so every time we go, we get our Cafe Rio on the way home).  

The highlight was the baptismal service we had on Sunday.  I got to attend the baptism of the Quinonez family, who I taught in my last ward.  Their story is amazing, and the whole family got baptized.  The seven year old son, who turns eight on the fourth, will get baptized by his father in two weeks.  

The whole teaching process started with my Bishop getting a call from a member outside of the mission, saying there was a family that was very interested in the church.  We went over and met the amazing Quinonez family of two parents and four kids ranging from five to 14 years old.  Long story short, after attending church and loving it, they finally got baptized on Sunday.  The father had an aunt in Brazil that got baptized a while back who he had not spoken to in a few years.  The Thursday before the baptism, she decides to message him on Facebook, telling him she felt like she needed to share her testimony about the church.  He goes on to tell her that he and his family were about to be baptized that weekend.  Tender mercies.

Claudia [name changed to protect the innocent], the five year old is adorable.  When her family was getting baptized, each time one of them entered the water, she said "that's my dad," "that's my mom," "that's my older sister," "that's my other older sister."  It was an experience that I will never forget for my entire life.  They have started along a path full of so much joy and happiness!  I love that family so much!

I got to return to my old area on exchanges in Riverside on the University of California Riverside campus.  Lots of fun talking to all the college students and catching the Chinese ones off guard when I speak Chinese to them.

I got passport pictures taken, and it was a struggle.  The lady said I COULDN'T smile in it, or at least, show my teeth, which was crazy because I'm smiling in my last passport picture.  I complied and it took me a couple of tries because I felt so weird doing it.  Is that a real thing or was she just messing with me?!

I think I specialize in getting fruit from people that reject me at the door.  This past week we met a wonderful Taiwanese woman (we were following up on a referral) and she gave me this weird mix between an orange, grapefruit, and pomelo. It was good!

Quinonez family baptism

Quinonez family baptism

Elder Dyer with Quinonez kids

Missionaries with young family member

Elder Dyer with young family member

Missionaries with family kids 

With Elder Zeng on exchanges in Riverside

With Elder Zeng on exchanges in Riverside

My free fruit 

Photos at the temple





Putt putt group. we won...

Making sure the shot was perfect

Picture from inside the hole! innovation

Sunny!


 More putt putt