Elder Valentine with companion Elder Beck
At a zone missionary breakfast on April 12
Monday, April 21, 2014
tippy's tacos
Apr 14
Houston, we have a problem.
(Hey, Houston is a good place by the way. Well, I like the people.
Okay false, just one person there. That makes Houston the best place
in the world. . . that's how it works, right? Wait... I guess I should
be saying Brazil is a good place now. Okay, they are both good places.
:) You get the picture.)
ANYWAY. Last week I sent a bunch of photos to myself to send to you
all! I will get them out eventually, buuuut they came out all
corrupted and just... weird when I opened them on my Ipad to send you.
It stinks. Hopefully I can make it work today. We shall see what
happens!
Hey! Good news! Lu Jiang is getting baptized this saturday! Wappahh!
Woot woot! Holla back!
I am going to be performing the baptism! I am pretty nervous, to say
the least. Well, not really, I just need to go work on the baptism in
Chinese. That is the tough part.
You know when you pronounce a tone wrong it make a whole different word, right?
Yeup, this will be interesting. I'll tell you all how many times it
takes before the deed becomes official.
Now I would like to tell you about Tippy's Tacos.
Elder Beck and I were in the mood for some mexican food. I am not
talking Taco Bell, or little do-it-yourself-party tostadas, I am
talking some legitimate, hole in the wall, mexican food.
We called all the missionaries (starting with the spanish elders) and
finally secured a cheap hole in the wall restaurant.
We went and it ended up being too expensive for our tastes... we then
looked through mexican food on the gps and one particular place caught
our eye....
Tippy's. Tacos.
It sounded pretty wall-holish so we thought we would give it a go. We
were so stoked on the way there.
We arrived, and it was A HOLE IN THE WALL RESTAURANT! WE WERE SO EXCITED.
We looked at the menu... I ordered the big wrap, and Elder Beck
ordered the "Tippy's famous California Enchilada" that came with a
side of two tostadas.
We were so excited, we couldn't handle it.
The food came.... Here was my huge wrap, there was a beautiful
enchilada with some rice and beans on the side... but where were the
tostadas?
We look over and there was a small bowl with two hard corn disks.
Now, I know I am not the El-Mexicano-Foodo-experto, but I was
expecting his tostadododos to be covered with lettuce and stuff... no
matter. He still had his enchilada, which looked beautiful, might I
add.
He finished his little disk things and cut open his beautiful
enchilada. He took a bite and.... I see a mixture of confusion,
surprise, followed by a dash of "Is this real life?" appear on his
face. He cuts off a piece and tells me to try it. I take a bite
and....
Beef. With cheap 99 cent taco seasoning. That is all I taste.
We proceed to dissect his enchilada, only to discover a tortilla with
sauce on it and beef inside. That was it.
I helped him finish it up and we walked away, cursing the day this
"Tippy's Tacos" Tippy was ever born.
On a good note, my 6 dollar wrap was the equivalent of a 3 dollar
burrito at Taco Bell.
Oh did I mention we found Bollywood? We went to a neighborhood for a
couple chinese families and holy mackerel I swear we found ourselves
smack dab in the middle of rich india town. There were Indian kids
everywhere-- on bikes, balling it up in games of basketball, playing
swords in the grass, walking dogs, chatting up other indian folks,
playing with babies, so on and so forth.
The chinese people we met told us that the 2 percent chinese
population in this area refer to it as America's "Dubai".
It was funny, to say the least.
Well, folks, that is all I have for you today. I hope you enjoyed the
stories. I hope you are all busy making your own fun stories at home,
too.
OH YEAH I SAW MARIE. PRESIDENT GAVE US PERMISSION TO SEE HER!
funny, we ended up going to an Indian restaurant with her. It was
literally the day before we were being followed by some Indian kids in
that Dubai neighborhood.
IT WAS GOOD HOLY SHISHKABOB.
Have a good one everyone :) Love you all.
Elder Valentine
Houston, we have a problem.
(Hey, Houston is a good place by the way. Well, I like the people.
Okay false, just one person there. That makes Houston the best place
in the world. . . that's how it works, right? Wait... I guess I should
be saying Brazil is a good place now. Okay, they are both good places.
:) You get the picture.)
ANYWAY. Last week I sent a bunch of photos to myself to send to you
all! I will get them out eventually, buuuut they came out all
corrupted and just... weird when I opened them on my Ipad to send you.
It stinks. Hopefully I can make it work today. We shall see what
happens!
Hey! Good news! Lu Jiang is getting baptized this saturday! Wappahh!
Woot woot! Holla back!
I am going to be performing the baptism! I am pretty nervous, to say
the least. Well, not really, I just need to go work on the baptism in
Chinese. That is the tough part.
You know when you pronounce a tone wrong it make a whole different word, right?
Yeup, this will be interesting. I'll tell you all how many times it
takes before the deed becomes official.
Now I would like to tell you about Tippy's Tacos.
Elder Beck and I were in the mood for some mexican food. I am not
talking Taco Bell, or little do-it-yourself-party tostadas, I am
talking some legitimate, hole in the wall, mexican food.
We called all the missionaries (starting with the spanish elders) and
finally secured a cheap hole in the wall restaurant.
We went and it ended up being too expensive for our tastes... we then
looked through mexican food on the gps and one particular place caught
our eye....
Tippy's. Tacos.
It sounded pretty wall-holish so we thought we would give it a go. We
were so stoked on the way there.
We arrived, and it was A HOLE IN THE WALL RESTAURANT! WE WERE SO EXCITED.
We looked at the menu... I ordered the big wrap, and Elder Beck
ordered the "Tippy's famous California Enchilada" that came with a
side of two tostadas.
We were so excited, we couldn't handle it.
The food came.... Here was my huge wrap, there was a beautiful
enchilada with some rice and beans on the side... but where were the
tostadas?
We look over and there was a small bowl with two hard corn disks.
Now, I know I am not the El-Mexicano-Foodo-experto, but I was
expecting his tostadododos to be covered with lettuce and stuff... no
matter. He still had his enchilada, which looked beautiful, might I
add.
He finished his little disk things and cut open his beautiful
enchilada. He took a bite and.... I see a mixture of confusion,
surprise, followed by a dash of "Is this real life?" appear on his
face. He cuts off a piece and tells me to try it. I take a bite
and....
Beef. With cheap 99 cent taco seasoning. That is all I taste.
We proceed to dissect his enchilada, only to discover a tortilla with
sauce on it and beef inside. That was it.
I helped him finish it up and we walked away, cursing the day this
"Tippy's Tacos" Tippy was ever born.
On a good note, my 6 dollar wrap was the equivalent of a 3 dollar
burrito at Taco Bell.
Oh did I mention we found Bollywood? We went to a neighborhood for a
couple chinese families and holy mackerel I swear we found ourselves
smack dab in the middle of rich india town. There were Indian kids
everywhere-- on bikes, balling it up in games of basketball, playing
swords in the grass, walking dogs, chatting up other indian folks,
playing with babies, so on and so forth.
The chinese people we met told us that the 2 percent chinese
population in this area refer to it as America's "Dubai".
It was funny, to say the least.
Well, folks, that is all I have for you today. I hope you enjoyed the
stories. I hope you are all busy making your own fun stories at home,
too.
OH YEAH I SAW MARIE. PRESIDENT GAVE US PERMISSION TO SEE HER!
funny, we ended up going to an Indian restaurant with her. It was
literally the day before we were being followed by some Indian kids in
that Dubai neighborhood.
IT WAS GOOD HOLY SHISHKABOB.
Have a good one everyone :) Love you all.
Elder Valentine
PICTURES FINALLY!
OH MY GOODNESS DAD LOOK WHO I AM ON A DINNER DATE WITH. (If you have ever
seen somewhere in time, you will get this)
Guo yi xin (baptism #2)!
Lin Lin (baptism #3)!
Salmonilla, 4AM, Captain America, General Conference, Oh my!
Apr 7
Sorry for the not-so-creative email title. Haha I am getting lazy...
Elder Beck and I had an interesting week! Not too successful, though
:( Many breaker days.
We have reasons though!
1)We both got really sick this week. He ate some raw meat, and I ate a
few too many uncooked eggs... we both had the same symptoms so we
looked on the internet aaaand... Salmonilla poisoning. Just name all
of the symptoms on a pebto bismo bottle, and that's what we had. Not
too fun!
2) Elder Beck had to make some videos for the Assistants to the
President! They were for the beginning of the second quarter. It was a
tad frustrating due to how the others were going at a snail slow pace.
Elder Beck tried to do work but the others would always just waste
time. We ended up staying at the mission office until 4 blinking AM in
the morning. That day was ridiculous! They are taking us out to eat
tomorrow, though, so we are happy about that!
(Elder Beck spent a total of two days there-- they called us up after
the first day and told us they wanted to do it all over so we had to
go again on Friday)
OKAY SO WHO WATCHED GENERAL CONFERENCE?? It was pretty great, if I do
say so myself :) I saw a link on facebook that addressed General
Conference as "Ted talks with a twist." I thought that was pretty
neat! Have any of you watched the link? I haven't yet.
Anyway, what was your favorite? I love it when the apostles talk about
how they themselves received their testimony and faith of this gospel.
I really love it because it shows how HUMAN they are. It means that
they were at one point at where you, me, our friends, family, ANYONE
is at, in terms of faith. The real kicker is if they were once where
we are now, we are all very well able to be where THEY are now, in
terms of faith.
How wonderful would that be? I will continue to apply the steps they
took to increasing their faith in hopes that I may too one day have
the faith they all possess.
Here is the link for conference in case you want to check it out :) I
encourage you all to check it out :)
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/sessions/2014/04?cid=HPSU040614654&lang=eng
Love you all :) thanks for the prayers and good wishes!
Elder Valentine
方長老
Elder Beck and I had an interesting week! Not too successful, though
:( Many breaker days.
We have reasons though!
1)We both got really sick this week. He ate some raw meat, and I ate a
few too many uncooked eggs... we both had the same symptoms so we
looked on the internet aaaand... Salmonilla poisoning. Just name all
of the symptoms on a pebto bismo bottle, and that's what we had. Not
too fun!
2) Elder Beck had to make some videos for the Assistants to the
President! They were for the beginning of the second quarter. It was a
tad frustrating due to how the others were going at a snail slow pace.
Elder Beck tried to do work but the others would always just waste
time. We ended up staying at the mission office until 4 blinking AM in
the morning. That day was ridiculous! They are taking us out to eat
tomorrow, though, so we are happy about that!
(Elder Beck spent a total of two days there-- they called us up after
the first day and told us they wanted to do it all over so we had to
go again on Friday)
OKAY SO WHO WATCHED GENERAL CONFERENCE?? It was pretty great, if I do
say so myself :) I saw a link on facebook that addressed General
Conference as "Ted talks with a twist." I thought that was pretty
neat! Have any of you watched the link? I haven't yet.
Anyway, what was your favorite? I love it when the apostles talk about
how they themselves received their testimony and faith of this gospel.
I really love it because it shows how HUMAN they are. It means that
they were at one point at where you, me, our friends, family, ANYONE
is at, in terms of faith. The real kicker is if they were once where
we are now, we are all very well able to be where THEY are now, in
terms of faith.
How wonderful would that be? I will continue to apply the steps they
took to increasing their faith in hopes that I may too one day have
the faith they all possess.
Here is the link for conference in case you want to check it out :) I
encourage you all to check it out :)
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/sessions/2014/04?cid=HPSU040614654&lang=eng
Love you all :) thanks for the prayers and good wishes!
Elder Valentine
方長老
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
WOAAAH NELLIE COMPLETE VERSION (
Sorry everyone, me in my ultimate gooberness sent out the email before it was completed...
Soooo what ended up happening was they shut the font doors (so it people could not see the baptism happening) in order to help her not feel as nervous... President Hsu then asked Elder Johnson to play some music during the baptism. Man, I have not heard someone pound those keys so hard! You could hear more screaming and giggling emanating from the font behind the music. After a while, the bathroom side doors open and these people come out with these thumbs up signs and everyone smiling. I was expecting someone to walk out and announce "IT'S A GIRL!" because I really felt like I was sitting outside in a waiting room hearing some crazy thing happening that I could not see.
From: Kelley Valentine <kelley.valentine@myldsmail.net>
Date: March 24, 2014 at 10:47:33 AM EDT
To: Kelley Valentine <kelley.valentine@myldsmail.net>
Subject: Woaaah Nellie
I heard a woman say that recently.
My companion, Elder Beck, didn't understand what it meant, so I told
him it was an old saying.
The lady put her hand on her hips and said "Uh uh, did you just date me?"
She then went on to say that that was not "tubular or rad" whatsoever.
Hahaha such a funny moment.
ANYWAY!
There was another baptism last saturday! WOOH BACK TO BACK BAPTISMS
FOR THE CHINESE BRANCH! YEAHYUH!
At church yesterday, there were 45 people! It was awesome (We actually
filled the relief society room for sacrament meeting and had to bring
out extra water cups! Woot woot!! There were 7 new people there
altogether! Our Branch president was soooo happy. He had the biggest
grin on his face. As we were sitting in a completely filled gospel
class, (he and I were in the far corner because of how many people
were in the class) he leaned over and slapped me on the leg and said
"Every week. Let's do this every week." and then a few moments later
"I love this." He couldn't be quite about how stoked he was. It was
awesome. It was like watching a forty year old man show his birthday
boy side.
His excitement made me feel like I was that kid in an elementary
class who had the gold star on his chest.
ANYWHO
LINLIN'S BAPTISM OH MY GOODNESS. This is the one who is a little
slower than the rest. The baptism is going fine, she starts giggling
when they are about to perform the baptism but then as they start to
lean her over into the water.....
"AAAAHYEEEEEEEEEE AHHAHAHAHAHA"
SHE POPS OUT AND STARTS GIGGLING AND SCREAMING! This process happened
about 9 more times (please, trust me when I tell you I am being
serious and am not exaggerating whatsoever!)! People were gathered
around trying to coax her and calm her, but nothing seemed to be working! They had her try and put her face in the water herself so she could feel it before the next attempt, but as soon as her face got close to the water she would laugh and scream.
Needless to say, it was a baptism unlike any other.
She was totally cool about it afterwards, saying things like "Yeah, so were any of you as scared of the water like I was?"
Saturday night we started tracting.... Knocked on the first door and it was a lady who invited us in as soon as she discovered we could speak chinese! Yaaay :) We had a lesson! AND SHE CAME TO CHURCH THE NEXT DAY! Now that is a missionary miracle. A one door knock out! :)
Lu Jiang's lessons are going great! All of the other youth in the branch and in other wards are bonding together to help teach him on the sundays he comes to church. It is wonderful :) It's really sad, actually. His mother is in china, and his dad is at work all day, so he just lounges around and reads books by himself all day. He told us we can come teach him every single day if we wanted to because he is always just at home.
I am so excited that he is making new friends at church. Really really
Hey everyone, Thanks for reading! I am so glad to be out here :) The chinese program is on fire right now-- altogether there are 6 to 8 people on date for our branch. We have had about 500% to 1000% growth so far compared to the years before we came. It is truly wonderful. I love my branch. I love my chinese family. I love being able to give the gospel to the members of my family I haven't quite met yet!
Have a great one, all :)
Love,
Elder Ching chong fong kang wong ping pong Valentine
Sunday, March 30, 2014
Woaaah Nellie!
I heard a woman say that recently.
My companion, Elder Beck, didn't understand what it meant, so I told
him it was an old saying.
The lady put her hand on her hips and said "Uh uh, did you just date me?"
She then went on to say that that was not "tubular or rad" whatsoever.
Hahaha such a funny moment.
ANYWAY!
There was another baptism last saturday! WOOH BACK TO BACK BAPTISMS
FOR THE CHINESE BRANCH! YEAHYUH!
At church yesterday, there were 45 people! It was awesome (We actually
filled the relief society room for sacrament meeting and had to bring
out extra water cups! Woot woot!! There were 7 new people there
altogether! Our Branch president was soooo happy. He had the biggest
grin on his face. As we were sitting in a completely filled gospel
class, (he and I were in the far corner because of how many people
were in the class) he leaned over and slapped me on the leg and said
"Every week. Let's do this every week." and then a few moments later
"I love this." He couldn't be quite about how stoked he was. It was
awesome. It was like watching a forty year old man show his birthday
boy side.
His excitement made me feel like I was that kid in an elementary
class who had the gold star on his chest.
ANYWHO
LINLIN'S BAPTISM OH MY GOODNESS. This is the one who is a little
slower than the rest. The baptism is going fine, she starts giggling
when they are about to perform the baptism but then as they start to
lean her over into the water.....
"AAAAHYEEEEEEEEEE AHHAHAHAHAHA"
SHE POPS OUT AND STARTS GIGGLING AND SCREAMING! This process happened
about 9 more times (please, trust me when I tell you I am being
serious and am not exaggerating whatsoever!)! People were gathered
around trying to coax her.
My companion, Elder Beck, didn't understand what it meant, so I told
him it was an old saying.
The lady put her hand on her hips and said "Uh uh, did you just date me?"
She then went on to say that that was not "tubular or rad" whatsoever.
Hahaha such a funny moment.
ANYWAY!
There was another baptism last saturday! WOOH BACK TO BACK BAPTISMS
FOR THE CHINESE BRANCH! YEAHYUH!
At church yesterday, there were 45 people! It was awesome (We actually
filled the relief society room for sacrament meeting and had to bring
out extra water cups! Woot woot!! There were 7 new people there
altogether! Our Branch president was soooo happy. He had the biggest
grin on his face. As we were sitting in a completely filled gospel
class, (he and I were in the far corner because of how many people
were in the class) he leaned over and slapped me on the leg and said
"Every week. Let's do this every week." and then a few moments later
"I love this." He couldn't be quite about how stoked he was. It was
awesome. It was like watching a forty year old man show his birthday
boy side.
His excitement made me feel like I was that kid in an elementary
class who had the gold star on his chest.
ANYWHO
LINLIN'S BAPTISM OH MY GOODNESS. This is the one who is a little
slower than the rest. The baptism is going fine, she starts giggling
when they are about to perform the baptism but then as they start to
lean her over into the water.....
"AAAAHYEEEEEEEEEE AHHAHAHAHAHA"
SHE POPS OUT AND STARTS GIGGLING AND SCREAMING! This process happened
about 9 more times (please, trust me when I tell you I am being
serious and am not exaggerating whatsoever!)! People were gathered
around trying to coax her.
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
Another mesmerizing week, if I do say so myself.
Good afternoon, everyone!
We are snowed in again.
Now that I have been living in the cold snow for awhile, I am now able
to look upon the saying "Beauty is pain" with a much greater
understanding.
We have another baptism this Saturday! Linlin is getting baptized :) I
am so happy for her! The other missionaries were able to get her
going. I guess it required making flashcards for her and having her
review them every day to understand what was going on. One of the
missionaries said he enjoyed it so much, he is considering going into
an Elementary Ed major !
Haha, kidding, he did not say that, but they really did have to make
her flashcards! They definitely paid off though! (Just to make some
clarification, Linlin is a 24 year old student in college, not an
elementary aged girl... didn't want any confusion!)
Our two current progressing investigators are doing great! They love
to learn and read so everything is going great there :) (Liu Jiang and
Paul)
Last time we were at Liu Jiang's house, his dad asked us what our
favorite chinese food was! I told them "I love everything-- I could
eat the ocean" and Elder Beck said "BAOZI!" (Those rolls filled with
meat and such)
They called us a few days later to come on over and they loaded us
with (hold your seats) 6 BOXES OF BAOZI. Wowzers.
These are like big things-- not little baby rolls you can buy from
costco. These were legitimate hand made baozi in these take out boxes.
The dad told us he bought them from a vendor in New York. Man that was
some good eating.
Hey, did you all get a chance to go see stake conference? The
broadcast? That was so great! I loved it. Really. The self mastery
message was amazing! (I cannot remember the last one but it was
hilarious how he called out the stake president!)
Transfers are this thursday! This has been the fastest transfer in my
life. Laughter and merriment really does make time go by quicker.
Haven't laughed as much in my life as now. I love it.
We ran into a less active by chance the other day... when she opened
the door, all of these foamish things fell over... I asked her "Hey...
is that for... larping?"
(In case you do not know, LARP stands for "Live Action Role-play"-- in
other words, people make swords, shields, bows and arrows out of foam
and duke it out as if they were a live version of dungeons and dragons
or lord of the rings)
Her eyes got wide "HOW DO YOU KNOW ABOUT LARPING???"
Her son then came out and gave us a demonstration of his bow and arrow
(which is awesome, by the way) and unintentionally convinced me that I
need to larp with my kids when I am older.
We got pictures, of course.
Another funny experience? We were driving down the road for some
tracting when all of a sudden we spotted a clan of asian people just
walking down the road. Our eyes got huge and we swang a U-ey to go
catch them. We parked and made our battle plan of how we were going to
make our approach...
We charged into the chinese restaurant after parking our rickshaw
(that is what we call the chinese missionary vehicle) thinking they
were headed there... we popped out and found out they went into the
grocery store instead...
We went over and engaged in chinese conversation with them!
Unfortunately, they were just visiting the area and heading over to
New York in the next couple of days.
We gave them a Book of Mormon with a mormon.org card inside then hung
out at the grocery store for an extra five minutes so they wouldn't
get freaked out hahaha...
Okay that story was not as funny as I thought it would be to tell. I
am sorry. I will do better next time.
Hey everyone, you have a good week! I love you all! The church is true! :)
Love,
方�老
Fang Zhanglao :)
We are snowed in again.
Now that I have been living in the cold snow for awhile, I am now able
to look upon the saying "Beauty is pain" with a much greater
understanding.
We have another baptism this Saturday! Linlin is getting baptized :) I
am so happy for her! The other missionaries were able to get her
going. I guess it required making flashcards for her and having her
review them every day to understand what was going on. One of the
missionaries said he enjoyed it so much, he is considering going into
an Elementary Ed major !
Haha, kidding, he did not say that, but they really did have to make
her flashcards! They definitely paid off though! (Just to make some
clarification, Linlin is a 24 year old student in college, not an
elementary aged girl... didn't want any confusion!)
Our two current progressing investigators are doing great! They love
to learn and read so everything is going great there :) (Liu Jiang and
Paul)
Last time we were at Liu Jiang's house, his dad asked us what our
favorite chinese food was! I told them "I love everything-- I could
eat the ocean" and Elder Beck said "BAOZI!" (Those rolls filled with
meat and such)
They called us a few days later to come on over and they loaded us
with (hold your seats) 6 BOXES OF BAOZI. Wowzers.
These are like big things-- not little baby rolls you can buy from
costco. These were legitimate hand made baozi in these take out boxes.
The dad told us he bought them from a vendor in New York. Man that was
some good eating.
Hey, did you all get a chance to go see stake conference? The
broadcast? That was so great! I loved it. Really. The self mastery
message was amazing! (I cannot remember the last one but it was
hilarious how he called out the stake president!)
Transfers are this thursday! This has been the fastest transfer in my
life. Laughter and merriment really does make time go by quicker.
Haven't laughed as much in my life as now. I love it.
We ran into a less active by chance the other day... when she opened
the door, all of these foamish things fell over... I asked her "Hey...
is that for... larping?"
(In case you do not know, LARP stands for "Live Action Role-play"-- in
other words, people make swords, shields, bows and arrows out of foam
and duke it out as if they were a live version of dungeons and dragons
or lord of the rings)
Her eyes got wide "HOW DO YOU KNOW ABOUT LARPING???"
Her son then came out and gave us a demonstration of his bow and arrow
(which is awesome, by the way) and unintentionally convinced me that I
need to larp with my kids when I am older.
We got pictures, of course.
Another funny experience? We were driving down the road for some
tracting when all of a sudden we spotted a clan of asian people just
walking down the road. Our eyes got huge and we swang a U-ey to go
catch them. We parked and made our battle plan of how we were going to
make our approach...
We charged into the chinese restaurant after parking our rickshaw
(that is what we call the chinese missionary vehicle) thinking they
were headed there... we popped out and found out they went into the
grocery store instead...
We went over and engaged in chinese conversation with them!
Unfortunately, they were just visiting the area and heading over to
New York in the next couple of days.
We gave them a Book of Mormon with a mormon.org card inside then hung
out at the grocery store for an extra five minutes so they wouldn't
get freaked out hahaha...
Okay that story was not as funny as I thought it would be to tell. I
am sorry. I will do better next time.
Hey everyone, you have a good week! I love you all! The church is true! :)
Love,
方�老
Fang Zhanglao :)
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