Thursday, July 3, 2014

The work is rolling on!

June 16

Woah SHOCKER! My companion got transferred into a different area! WOW
that was quick! I now have Elder Chan, the chinese program veteran. He
is the last surviving Chinese senior of the chinese branch. He will be
leaving the mission in 3 transfers.

I am excited to have this opportunity to serve with him because I know
I will be able to learn a ton from the last surviving "Ancient."

Okay so I gotta say, if there is one word I can use to describe my
current companion (well, two words) I would have to say "Severus
Snape."

Why?

Severus Snape is a person you grow to loathe and hate until the very
last part of Harry Potter, when you discover that he is actually a
super awesome heroic stud muffin x 1000.

All i have heard about Elder Chan thus far are the most horrendous
things.... won't get up in the morning, isn't too obedient, doesn't
care about missionary work... so on and so forth.

I was expecting some hardcore trials.

What ends up happening? He is a pleasure to work with and is a
terrific missionary. I respect this elder so much. So much.

This week was not too eventful.... Other than the fact that our
investigator Fan passed his interview a couple days ago :) I am so
stoked... He is accepting baptism this saturday, the 21st. He has
asked me to baptize him. I love this guy so much-- we hit it off so
well when I first met him. He has grown tremendously. Baptizing him
two days before my personal baptism date will be the best present in
the world.... I am so happy for him. So, so happy. I know his life
will be forever changed and filled with so much light and happiness...

That is simply what the gospel does for people... Over and over and
over and over again.

Have a great week everyone! I love you. Really, really.

Elder Valentine

Workedy Work Work

May 12

Hey there party people!

This week.... WE FOUND MINI CHINA. OH my goodness it was amazing.
Apparently every sunday, the local high school gets rented out by the
chinese community for a huge portion... the kids all attend chinese
classes while the parents either kick back in the cafeteria or do
mother dance classes. It is pretty funny/awesome.

I was walking around and there were only about 2 white people in a
whole cafeteria of several hundred chinese people. I HEARD NO ENGLISH
OH MY GOODNESS I ALMOST FELT LIKE A FOREIGN MISSIONARY.
It was a sweet, beautiful moment for me.
We are allowed to go there to do finding. My question is, will it be
weird for us to go there and bounce from table to table in a huge
cafeteria.... we are the only ones wearing white dress shirts and
ties, after all, so I am pretty sure everyone would figure out who we
are sooner or later.

Mother's Day was yesterday :) That was wonderful! I got to call and
skype the family! (Definitely the highlight of the week!)

Investigators... Paul is doing well. We had to kick back his baptism
though because we felt he wasn't truly prepared. Cathy is still a
tough nut to crack... she does commit though and she does do her
homework! So we are proud of her :) Fan Zhong is getting married soon!
(This is my techy friend who loves anime). The wedding should happen
this month! Yay! Mr. Yin is great! He reads and studies and sincerely
does his best. He is one of those golden ones, in my opinion. Totally
prepared. Those are the four progressing investigators. We hope to
have three, possibly four (depending on Cathy and Yin-- Yin doesn't
have a date yet, and Cathy might not be ready by her date) baptisms in
June. (June is a good month-- that is when I was baptized!)

OKAY PEOPLE SOOO WE FOUND A BETTER WAY TO INVITE. Please use this!
Let's say you and your friend are talking... religion gets brought
up.... and they ask you a question about religion.
Person A: So you believe in ____?
You: Yes! And you know, it is so interesting that we are talking about
this because the missionaries are actually going to be coming over to
our house in about a week and a half to discuss this very topic! (now
this right here is the kicker) It would mean so, so much to me if you
would come over and learn with our family then.

Try it, try it, try it :) Please please please!
I know as you all invite others to come unto Christ, you will actually
find YOURSELF drawing closer to Christ as well :) Please try it out,
and shoot me an email about how it works! :) Love you all!

Have a great week everyone!

Love, Elder Valentine

Vampires

Apr. 28

Elder Beck got sick this week with a crazy bad sore throat-- he got it
from an exchange with the district leader.... He was hoping that I
would get it too, so I could experience his pain.

Ha, like I was going to let him have that small victory! What did I
do? Well, I did what any sane member of the Valentine clan would do--
I busted out the garlic pills.

You may think I am crazy-- I won't blame you-- but yes, we use garlic
pills to combat illness.

Guess what.

It works and worked. I have not had the slightest illness despite
being with Elder Beck for a whole week, enduring his coughing,
grumbling, and whatever other strange noise was emitted from the
depths of his deranged esophagus.

(So yeah, garlic was first used as a remedy back in the "Vampire" days
because it was known to combat illnesses back then-- it may just be a
placebo effect quack, but hey, whatever works works. Oh yeah, I made
the title Vampires because I wanted to make it somewhat interesting.
Hehe. he. he)

This week was pretty awesome in terms of people!
Fan Zhong, my awesome Chinese compadre whom I love so much-- came to
our branch yesterday and loved it! (I totally forgot to mention we
took him to the English ward last week because it would be easer for
him to access... It was so boring... I felt so bad for him. He thought
the Chinese branch was waaaay better. We are happy)
We met Mr. Yin through a missionary referral! That was pretty cool! he
is so great. Missionary referrals are awesome. That is where we get
the most amount of good investigators from!

We have a baptism on the 16th-- Paul's! We just got to get him to
church more. He always says he will come, but then he forgets, or he
forgets to tell his mom. Yesterday we drove to his house to wake him
up, and it turns out his mother knew nothing about it and arranged
things to do that morning.

I kinda sorta cracked down on him yesterday night. Not hard. Just a little bit.

I swear, Elder Beck is like the protective mother of the investigators
and I am the blunt father. That is really what it is like with all of
our investigators. It works well as a companionship though.

Alright all, sorry for the lack of funny stories this week.... I hope
you are all doing well!
The work is working!

Elder Valentine

LOVE YOU!!!
Sent from my iPad