Whoa,
This week was suuuper good. It was full of miracles. I think Elder DiPeri and I finally kind of clicked on how to work everything so it's gonna' explode!
I'm kind of to the point where the only thing that is exciting in my brain is the actual course of the missionary work, not like the little quirks of missionary life, so I think that might be all I start to remember and talk about. Usually I don't like to talk about investigators because our teaching pool fluctuates too much for it to be worthwhile to document. But my soul is becoming more missionary.
So on Tuesday we prayed to know what street to knock and the first door to answer was this Vietnamese lady who was friends with all these Chinese Christians. She told us about them meeting at a chippy (fish and chips takeaway restaurant) once a week and it so happened that it was the exact time of the week they met that we met the lady. So we drove over to "China Chef," but I guess they actually only meet every fortnight (yes, we use that term here) so we just talked to the owner. He was like, "I no English." I be like, "Meiyou wenti, wode pengyou, jiu keyi gen jiang Putonghua." Know what I'm saying?
Then on Thursday we drove up to a little village called Silverdale in the top part of our area. There is one member who lives there that never sees missionaries so we worked in his area and then visited him. He lives in this little cabin like home and paints Warhammer minifigures so we got on well. It was a good feeling to be a blessing in his life and I think for some reason that day my heart took the final leap after all these months whereby missionary work feels like normal life, like that's all I have ever done.
Friday was where the big miracle came! Wooohooo! So there is a member from Hong Kong named Ken who was baptized a year ago that is preparing to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood. We taught him on campus a little bit to help the ward as they are preparing him, and he's super solid and super intelligent. He's thinking of a mission and then on our way out we saw this Chinese kid with a suitcase looking really confused. As elders we're not really supposed to proselyte on the university, usually only the sisters do. But I felt prompted that we needed to talk to him so we were walking over and he actually came up to us and asked for directions. His name was Ming and he just got off the plane practically from Guangzhou to start a four year course here.
Basically he had to sort out his room and get his key and all this crazy stuff, and was super stressed. So our friend Ken was able to help him and Elder DiPeri and I were feeling like Ammon when King Lamoni asked him if he was the Great Spirit. We helped him do all this stuff around campus for like two hours and got to know him and he instantly loved us. So we invited him to a baptism on Saturday and he was super excited and was like, "I hope to have the opportunity to join your church. But I don't know too much about it." Well, no problem, Ming.
Then Saturday was where it all culminated! There was a baptism of a man called Paul that the other elders in our ward were teaching. Feeling the Spirit completely changed his life and he went from a pretty low point in his life to keeping all the commandments and happier than he's ever been in like a month. But Ming came to the baptism and also two ladies called Becky and Louise (they say "called" instead of "named" here so that's why that sounds weird) who started crying during the whole thing. When Paul came up out of the water you could just see this huge feeling of relief, like a spirit finally united with his Father in Heaven. It was amazing and we took him to fellowship Louise and Rebecca later.
Ming came to church on Sunday and said he has never met kinder people. One of the members will be one of his course teachers and took him under his arm. This ward is on fire! Elder DiPeri and I have been so blessed and I think this new transfer will be a lot of good teaching and maybe even some baptisms! I talked to hundreds of Chinese students in Manchester, a few of which have learned and progressed a lot, but it literally took one here and he's so golden. It really is a lesson that nothing is in my hands, it really is all up to the Lord.
Oh yeah and then our teaching appointment with the Chinese family. We just talked to the husband, GaoYang, and taught him the Restoration with Ken, our Hong Kong member. My Mandarin is a little rusty and it was a good wake up call, but he said he would read the Book of Mormon. It's hard to see them often though, so we'll see.
And then the last miracle! So since Elder DiPeri is a former assistant he kind of gets the downlow on all the transfers and mission happenings. We learned about our transfer before the usual calls and I was supposed to go down to Wales with another Chinese missionary. I was super bummed with everything that happened, and we thought it was weird because the area really seemed to need us both. But we submitted because, you know, we're super humble, but prayed and talked and thought about it a lot. Then came the actual call this morning and we're staying together another transfer! So I'll kill off Elder DiPeri and send him back come February. I guess the assistants said they thought and prayed about it more and knew that it was actually right for us to stay. Weird little story, kind of relieving though although Wales sounded like fun haha.
But anyway, sorry this was super long but it was a great week. The Lord really brings blessings after much tribulation and I'm excited to keep growing. I finally feel like I'm in control of the destiny of my mission and have overcome the initial challenges, so it's all great :)
Love you all,
Elder Webb
