November 17, 2014

The perks of working with Chinese people are the potential for some good Chinese food.  One of our investigators, David, invited us and he made Zha Jiang Mian [noodles with ground pork and soybean paste sauce].  It reminded me of Taiwan – SO delicious.  He gave us the sauce so we could make our own for lunches in the week.  

One of our investigators is pretty much ready for baptism he just doesn't want to live the commandments.  He lives them now but doesn't want to be "restricted" in the future.  He asked us why we had to tell him about the commandments because then he could just live in ignorance - happy.  We told him he gets blessings for obeying each commandment! 

English class is really fun.  The people love talking to us.  On Friday, one guy walked 2 hours to get here because he didn't have a ride.  A part of that is I'm editing a LOT of graduate school application essays.  It’s fun. I will edit while Elder Heaton reads scriptures with them.  Mutually beneficial!

Whenever we walk on the streets and try to hand out English class cards, everyone says they already have one or have seen our flyers.  We need to find a new way to access the people! We've saturated this method of advertising.  It's like we're selling stuff... for free... So if anyone has ideas, let me know!

Sometimes it's nice to not have to do midterms this time of year.  Everyone we're working with is stressing like crazy about them - one of the perks of being a missionary is NO MIDTERMS.  But we have to work with that when everyone cancels because they have midterms.  

Everything's pretty good.  I'm freezing at night sometimes because it drops below 60 degrees! The other day some guy showed a sign of a C and I thought hey California. Apparently “C” means “Crips” down here! Fun stuff! Not very many "Hail Satans” this week! More "HEY IT'S THE MISSIONARIES!!!" which is a lot nicer!

Noodles

Chef Dyer 

So gourmet

Zone conference

November 10, 2014

Saying goodbyes is no fun at all! I had to say goodbye to Johansen and everyone in my old area last Monday – all the families in my last ward, my investigators, and the missionaries serving around me.  Moving isn't much fun either.  We packed up the red Corolla and drove to University of California Riverside.  I'm living right next to UCR.  It's more "California-y" than my last area.  Tons more palm trees and just a lot of young people. 

We have to walk everywhere here, because my new companion, Elder Heaton, can't be on bike for health reasons.  We walk a little over a mile to the Institute of Religion for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints at UCR (the "Institute") to teach lessons.  It's funny because on the walk, we run into a ridiculous amount of Chinese people. 

Seriously, there are more Chinese people than other nationalities.  We just kind of assume most of them are Chinese when we start to talk to them and for the most part, they are.  We go up to them and say, "Hey do you speak Chinese?" Most of the time they respond. Sometimes the Chinese people pretend to be Japanese because they've gotten so many of our English class cards.  We teach 2 English classes for an hour and a half every week at the Institute. The classes are really related to religion (aside from a spiritual thought at the end).  So as we walk, we pass out of ton of our cards.  

At the English class, the first time, we started with conversation, just having conversation topics, and then moved to slang words.  It was funny hearing middle aged Chinese men shouting "DUDE" and "BRO" and "STOKED."  Last time we talked about food and they all got into an argument about how much and when to tip in America.  It's all very fun. 

The funny thing is that we get a lot of students from UCR (Chinese) who are applying to grad school.  They want us to read/edit their essays, which is very fun! But we do a lot of them! My head starts to hurt after a while.  Service is service though!  I feel a little inadequate to help them with grad school personal statements though.  Most of them are electrical engineering.  Lots of technical words! 

Teaching Chinese people about the gospel is different.  They ask a lot of more specific, directed questions than Americans.  It's fun, but difficult sometimes when they just keep peppering me with questions!  One of our recent converts, when we were going over new member lessons we have to teach, we reviewed the commandments.  He got all serious and said, I broke the law... last week my friends and I went to the beach and I didn't know you couldn't park at the space I parked in.  I got a ticket for 53 dollars.  I am sorry, who do I talk to.  

We laughed and told him it was okay, not intentional.  He was surprised.  In his prayer at the end, he said it was nice to meet Elder Dyer (Dai Zhang Lao).  He thanked my family for allowing me to be here and said (wo zhi dao ta men dou shi hao ren) [“I know they are all good people”]. Very nice man.

It's weird because it's so cold at nights compared to the day when it's only 50 something or 60 degrees.  I'm started to acclimate to the freezing weather though! (just kidding).

Last night, I was walking around and saw a tank top of a guy that said Koh Samui 2014.  He was from SAS Puxi! It was funny seeing someone from SAS (Shanghai American School) all the way in the US!

Other than that, things have been fun.  We get the occasional "Hail Satan" from passing cars, but people are generally very nice - especially Chinese people - especially when we give them free water!

New apartment:

Elder Jacob Dyer

2700 Iowa Ave Apt. 28

Riverside, CA 92509 (I think that's the right zip code, not sure)

Our free water stand - a lot of people took it!

Elder Heaton, Elder Dyer, and three investigators, and a small member on the left who really wants to go to Taiwan on a mission

Last picture with Johansen (at the Webb's house)

Elder Dyer, Tom, and Elder Johansen

November 3, 2014

Mission goodbyes are no fun.  I got transferred this week to go to University of California Riverside and be in the University Heights Ward.  I'm Chinese speaking now, so I need to brush up!  I'm really going to miss everyone though.  Not only the missionaries in this area, but the members of the ward too.  It's like I'm leaving my family again! We had to say our last goodbyes last night with some members in the ward.

This past week we did a lot of errands preparing Johansen for tomorrow (when he goes home), sending his bike and books home, and packing up.  I had to pack up too because I'm being transferred! – my first transfer.  I'll be in the University Heights congregation of our church so my new address is:

Elder Jacob Dyer

2700 Iowa Ave. Apt 28

Riverside, CA 92507

I'm excited because now I'm Chinese speaking so I'm going to be talking to a lot of Chinese people! (and maybe eating more Chinese food).

Saying goodbye to the people we've talked to for the past three months was hard to.  Tom, our friend who owns the Pho restaurant was nice.  He's a member of the church.  Today, his son called the Elders in the ward he lives in and thanked them (us - me and Johansen) for going over all the time and becoming such good friends with him - apparently it helped him a lot.  We love him. I'm going to have to stop by sometime in the near future!

For Halloween night, we had to get off the streets by 6 o'clock.  Johansen and I went as soccer players (Arsenal for me, Real Madrid for him).  We got to watch the movie, "The Best Two Years."  It's surprising how accurate it is about missionary life!  We obviously kicked a ball around in the gym or a little bit too.  It's going to be sad leaving this stake, because apparently it's the only Stake that plays soccer on p-days! I do not like basketball... but sometimes we have to do hard things... :)

Johansen turned 21 on Saturday so on the mission that entailed eating lots and lots of sushi, which was really fun.  When I turn 21 I'll be back at Brown! – weird thoughts.

Elders Dyer and Johansen at the "Riverside" (what the city is named after)

Elder Dyer and Easley, investigator and bowling expert

Elders Johansen and Dyer in Halloween garb as grocery store workers

Elders make cookies

Last Pho (for now) with Tom

Last Taco Tuesday

Halloween soccer customers 1

Halloween soccer customers 2 (what is different in this photo from the previous one?)

Elder Dyer sews pants for companion

We go to go to a wedding!

Elder Dyer with the Bishop and his family

With the Hafer family

With the Hunsaker family

October 27, 2014

I'm most likely getting transferred next week on Monday, so my address will be:

Elder Dyer

5900 Grand Ave.

Riverside, CA 92504

Until I know my new address

This was probably the slowest week on my mission.  We had a record low lessons taught - partly because we weren't getting into people's houses, they either weren't home or not answering the door and partly because Johansen and I were sick for part of the week.  It was not fun - not teaching people.

One of the fun parts, was one of our investigators, K. is feeling a lot better health wise.  When we visited her last, after we gave her a blessing last week, she said, "That stuff you put on my head really worked, because I've been feeling great this past week."  Miracles happening with her.  And she's really excited about learning more about the church.

One of the reasons we got sick was probably because we ate tons of spam for lunch (sorry mom).  I used to get spam and rice at Raph's house so I wanted to make it here. I felt like a chef wearing an apron the aunties sent.  It tasted delicious, but afterwards we felt really really sick.  So probably not a good idea.

Other than that, very slow week, not much happened.  It's Johansen's last week in the mission, so that is bittersweet for him.  

I finally got my Chinese nametags!

Johansen and me on his second to last P-day with his Real Madrid birthday present from me.

My Halloween costume for next week! 

Ready to make some spam!

Still happy with my spam! (for the time being)

October 20, 2014

Just a heads up, I might be transferred at the end of this transfer (November 3rd) so my address after that will change.  So if anyone is sending anything that won't get to me before then, send it to:

Elder Jacob C. Dyer

5900 Grand Ave.

Riverside, CA 92504

We got a visit this past week from a General Authority of our church, Elder Evans.  He talked about a lot of stuff, but my favorite was his discussion on forgiveness.  His main idea was, "just let it go."  Sometimes in our lives we hold grudges, we have bad feelings about our peers because of something they said, something they did.  But those feelings don't help us at all. In fact, they hurt us.  It's like we're intentionally inflicting pain on ourselves for something someone else did.  We can't control other people's actions, but we can control our own.  It can be so hard sometimes to "just let it go" but when we eventually have the capacity to do that, it's a huge burden lifted off our shoulders!  One of the other things he said was that we no longer have to get OYM's  - our requisite 10 people we talk to (per person) each day.  Instead, we have to "talk with everyone," not "badgering" people, but just being friendly with everyone.

One of the low points of our week was our investigator K., falling off baptism date.  Her dad told her to check out some other churches before getting baptized.  I totally understand waiting and making sure this is the right decision.  But she has told us this is the right decision for her, she's felt the healing power of the Holy Ghost and Jesus Christ's Atonement, so it was a little frustrating.  She's doing a lot better health wise, so that's a plus!  We gave her a priesthood blessing and she's been feeling way better, so that's another testament to her.

We went to this huge Halloween party our Bishop has every year.  There were about 250 people there – lots of Mormons but lots of non-members too.  Everyone kept asking us if we were real Elders, real missionaries.  It was fun! I lost count of how many of the little girls were dressed up as Elsa from Frozen.  

The other day, we had to leave early to go to Elder Evans.  It was still dark outside, and 59 degrees Fahrenheit.  I was absolutely freezing inside my car. I must have already adjusted to California weather because in Rhode Island, that's quite pleasant. I'm going to be bundled up tight if it drops below 50...  At least walking around during the day in this weather is perfect!

When we were over at the home of E., our 81 year old investigator, I asked him if he liked baseball, and he was like, “oh yeah there was that one guy on the dodgers.”  I was like “Sandy Koufax?” and he was like “no it was like, Jackie Robinson.” I was like ”OH MAN you're old...” 

One guy at church, whenever he says hi to me, he's like “ni hao” and bows to me, so funny.

Love you!

Jake

Elder Dyer eating "Frutas Frescas" in Mira Loma (mini Mexico).  Pretty much fruit with chili, lime, and salt.

Elder Dyer and Johansen preparing for P-day soccer

October 15, 2014

Our job as missionaries is to invite people to do things.  We obviously can't force anyone to act, so we just invite.  And it's frustrating when people don't keep their commitments because it means we're not progressing with them.  Lots of disappointments on missions!

The interesting thing about having gone to a year of college before my mission is that I'm around lots of people who only know what high school is like – all good fun.

I was at the mission office the other day for interviews with the mission president, and it was so funny listening to the senior missionaries talking about their "grandbabies". Each of them were sharing pictures.  At the mission office I got a chance to watch "Meet the Mormons", a new documentary that is out in theaters.  EVERYONE GO SEE IT.  It was so good, it was just like a documentary about 6 very different but very interesting people.  I loved it! 

One funny thing about the church buildings is that police cars seem to gravitate to them, to just chill out in the back where nobody can see them.  One time we walked out of an empty church building on a weekday, and there were two police cars just chilling out back, they were just talking.  I guess Mormon churches are the place to be! 

We got to visit the temple this past week.  So we drove out to Redlands and got to visit the Temple.  I spent a lot of time in the Celestial room, beautiful.  I was there for a long time just pondering, beautiful interior and you can really feel the spirit! Afterwards we went to Cafe Rio and I got to try it for the first time! It was good!

When we walk around neighborhoods, we talk to a lot of people and ask if we can pray with them.  One house had the parents and two small girls (the older one 5).  When we asked them if there was anything in particular they wanted to pray about. The older one blurted out, "I want to be a mermaid with a real mermaid tail" (Halloween's coming up).  Her mom explained she can dress up as Ariel, but it won't be a real mermaid, so she said "fine I want to be Elsa [from Frozen] with all her powers."  It's funny the imaginations of children. 

We went to a senior center to feed a bunch of old people (around 60 or 70), and it was super fun.  We started in the kitchen, prepping food and getting it ready to serve. Then we had a food line where we dished it all up.  It reminded me of summer music festivals at Sisters' Pantry (I was really fast). There was some congressman there and the mayor of Riverside.  When they had us go to the front to thank us, they had us say where we were from. When I said China, they started cheering. It was pretty funny.

Our work with our progressing investigators is slow.  K., the one who's been in remission from cancer for 4 months fell and hit her head.  She had a minor concussion, chipped tooth, and half her face was black and blue.   Crazy... Then she was back in the emergency room a couple days later for something else.  So lots of work with her if she's going to make her November 1st baptism date.  We're going to give her a Priesthood blessing, so hopefully it helps!

Elder Johansen and Dyer at the Redlands temple

Elder Jacob Dyer's language study notebook, a great conversation starter (and yes he got the two sides of the river flipped, but he wanted Pudong on the front cover).

Redlands California temple

October 6, 2014

As missionaries, we try to help as many people as possible.  We saw this guy who looked like he needed a hand in the Walmart parking lot.  Turns out he ran out of gas, so we went to fill him some.  When we came back, his friend with a cigarette in his mouth spilled about half of it trying to fill up the car.  But apparently that's not dangerous because static electricity has a higher chance of causing a fire than cigarettes (?). I thought that statistic was fishy.  Anyways, afterwards he asked, "why'd you guys do that," great opportunity to show him we care, just trying to spread the love. 

One of our new investigators we found from a miracle.  The other Elders in our area referred her to us and we visited.  She's been through so much - cancer (in remission 4 months now), broke her back in 3 places from a car crash recently, husband divorced her because of the cancer, and now she's incredibly weak.  She has this huge 220 pound bull mastiff that drools like CRAZY.  We taught her how Jesus Christ can bring healing to her life, and she was crying. 

When we gave her a Book of Mormon, she said she couldn't give us a donation, she didn't have the money.  We told her that it's free, and she just held it super close to her - she loves it.  It's amazing the people that have been prepared for us to visit.  When we talked about baptism, she asked when we were having the next one.  She's now on date to be baptized on November 1st.  She's excited for it.

At general conference, I met this investigator of the Chinese speaking Elders from XuJiaHui, in Shanghai.  I surprised myself with my ability to carry out a conversation in Chinese.  It's nice to meet people from back home!  

One of the guys we visit, who has the jeep, and plays golf surprised us.  He used to play with Tiger Woods in Junior PGA, he was in the top five with Tiger.  Apparently he can drive further than him!  It's amazing the kinds of people you meet.  We love to visit him, super chill guy. 

Elder Dyer with birthday gifts from friends in London on study abroad (Elder Dyer's favorite English football club is Arsenal, hence the team scarf)

Sunsets are nice in the hills of California