One week into my last transfer, and we are receiving some fantastic miracles from the Lord. In one day, we had five members tell us to meet with their friends, which is practically unheard of. God is truly blessing us for our efforts.
Elder Zhu is hilarious. And he's just a charm. He makes me a gourmet breakfast every morning. I try to beat him to the kitchen, but he's already there chopping up peppers and cooking eggs, and he just kicks me out and tells me to go take a shower. He experiments a lot with his foods and for the most part, they all taste pretty dang good. I think he enjoys having a companion that appreciates his desire to experiment. His cooking reminds me of my dad and his occasional experimentation with meals.
One of his strengths is that he is a very good teacher. He can very carefully discern the investigator's needs and accordingly alter the content of the lessons to address those needs. He is very professional, but also a lot of fun at the same time. We have a slight language barrier (especially because he speaks very high level Chinese), but it's less of a hindrance and more of just a funny thing to laugh about.
Working together, we found some great new investigators, all of which have accepted baptismal goals. If all works out well, we should see about 5 baptisms in Fengyuan before I go home. This would be a dream come true!
Sister Li, a ward missionary, asked me what I wanted to see happen in Fengyuan during my last transfer. I prayed about it, and then on Sunday I had an opportunity to fast for my desires. My greatest desire is to see the members in Fengyuan ward to become more personally converted to the Savior as they help their friends and family in their own personal conversion processes. I also hope to see Sister Xie and her youngest son baptized, as well as see Sister Li's family start investigating the church.
I shared my testimony on Sunday during Fast and Testimony Meeting, and I had all the members laughing a lot. My Chinese has come a long way. Also in attendance was a guy from Utah who had studied Chinese for 3 years and was here on business, but I still served as his translator throughout all the Church services. God has truly helped me learn this language a lot.
The members are planning something for my farewell, and my companion is in on it. However, I can't understand anything they are saying, considering they refrain from Mandarin and switch to Taiwanese and Hakka dialects when I'm around. Today I ran into a youth member from my first area, and my companion started talking with her in Hakka about it. Gosh, what's going on!?
I got to call my friend Brother Chen, whom I taught in my first area. He's still doing great, going strong in church! He feels his faith is not up to par though, so I'm thinking about how I can help him out. He's a great friend, and I'm so glad I had the chance to meet him during my time in Lingya.
Have a wonderful week!
-Elder Jorgensen
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