Chalk another one up, as Grandpa would say. I can't believe this is the last week of the transfer. Time flies when you're doing the good work! I was thinking about how I would be going back to school right now if it were the last like eleven years of my life and I'll easily say I'm not jealous of them!
I don't think anything too interesting came up this week except for continuing to teach our Mongolian investigators. We gave them copies of the Book of Mormon in Mongolian and taught them about the Atonement and prophets and dispensations this week. Random stuff sort of. As for any Chinese investigators we're a little short but hopefully the freshman week will bring them in by the boatload. Chinese students are really afraid of Christian missionaries sometimes and they don't like to talk to you if they are around their friends. Usually it doesn't work to talk about the Gospel the first time you meet them, maybe just tell them you will teach them English or play ping pang haha.
The flat Elder Sidhu and I live in is like a Chinese missionary legend. I think almost every Chinese Elder in the mission has lived there except the first few. We were looking at their progress records and no offense to the past but I have higher expectations of myself haha. Elder Lybbert, the Michigan man, will be an amazing asset to the Chinese work as well. He bears an Elder Holland-esque testimony.
I decided this week I would map out my days and what I do because some of the questions I get indicate I haven't explained it well enough. But before that, Elder Sidhu and I figured out that in this transfer alone we have taught at least a principle to people from:
Peru, Russia, Portugal, China, England, Lebanon, Libya, Mexico, Tanzania, Romania, Greece, Turkey, India, Nigeria, Mongolia, Brazil, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Cypress, and Mauritius.
Isn't that crazy? I am so privileged! Everyone needs His light and truth, but there is so many false ideas out there that plague our spirits.
So my days go as follows. Wake up at 6.30 and pretend to exercise for half and hour. Shower and almost fall asleep/eat cereal and soymilk and muffins if it's a good day till 8. Then we do personal study in the which I mostly read the Book of Mormon or Conference talks or study Preach My Gospel. Then we do an hour of companion study which basically means a prayer before we talk about the day and maybe listen to a talk, read from the white Bible. We're pretty bad at using that time haha. Then I do my Chinese study for an hour, which is either really entertaining or I stare blankly at my desk wondering what to study about. Then we eat lunch, maybe some fajitas or chicken and rice, the usual. If I take a nap during this time my motivation sours like old milk so I try to stay awake haha.
Then it's time to hit the streets! We usually are out proselyting by 1, which is pretty late for missionaries but England doesn't even wake up until then anyway. We go out on Oxford Road and talk to people, or sit at a little desk talking about family history. If it's raining we lie in wait underneath the subway to pounce on the innocent Asian who happens to be walking by or just hope people are attracted to our umbrellas. Dinner time comes around 5 or 6 and we head back to the flat for whatever is lying around. It's a ten minute walk to the flat from the YSA building, so that's about all the travel we do in this area. Usually there is an activity at night like YSA FHE or Ping Pang Tournaments that we go to if we have an investigator.
We come in at 9 to 9.15 usually and do our planning for the next day, hoping we turn the page and have at least one appointment in there. It's a pretty simple area and you don't have to be too creative to use your time, and we teach most lessons at the building, which is really nice. At 9.30 about I get into my PJs and write in my journal or we listen to a talk or something until 10.30, at which time we sleep. I have never in my life been so tired every single day. By the time my head hits the pillow my body feels like I'll never move again and I always wake up with plenty of little kinks to stretch out.
So that's the life and it gets easier everyday. We can adapt so well as humans. My feet have thicker soles and what would have bothered me a month ago just rolls off now. It really is the best lifestyle. Except for those days where I can't believe how long my mission is going to be haha I really do love it. Something about dedicating almost every minute of the day to other people fills your heart with a new power and satisfaction and joy that comes in no other way, and it accelerates learning, growth, and healing. Missions are an amazing time of healing, nothing else like it. I feel so much stronger everyday and "set apart" has a new meaning to me now.
Love you all and go do some missionary work!
-Elder James Manchester Webb
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