Jacob Dyer Missionary Blog: January 5, 2015

Happy New Year! May this next year be full of fun memories and amazing experiences!

This past week was hard work. Elder Schoonmaker and I taught a record amount of lessons for us while finding a ton of new people to teach! I was physically pretty beat. Missionary work is tiring, but fulfilling at the same time!

One of the highlights of the week was an impromptu dumpling making party among us missionaries and the Chinese investigators/members in the area. By impromptu I mean we organized it on the 31st and had it on the 1st.

It was so fun! I got to practice making "jiao zi" with my hands. It's pretty hard to make them look really pretty. At least I got a "hen bu cuo" ("not bad") from the lady teaching us. Got to thank the Aunties for that!

One of the interesting things a recent convert said about God, is that God is a speaking God, not a closed mouth God (literal translation). It's true though! He talks to us, through feelings, through scripture, through a Prophet. But you can talk to him too! Just pray and ask a question, try it!

We brought this 11 year old member from a Spanish ward out with us to teach some lessons. He really wants to learn Chinese so he likes to work with us. It was funny, after explaining some principle to our investigator. He said, "you understand it's true right?" It's amazing the faith of young people.

Today for our Zone's p-day activity, we hiked Mt. Rubidoux to watch the sunrise. Had to get out of bed early, but it was really fun. We got to enjoy the sun rising under a huge cross and a very large American flag. Church and state – yay. Got some very patriotic pictures though!

HAPPY NEW YEAR, have a great 2015. My "black-out" year has started! (that means the year you don't see your family at all)