-31°

It's chilly. Hello everyone! How's it going? This week has been cold. Once it gets to a certain point, cold is just cold. But the spirits are high and the layers are plenty! I'm absolutely loving the work that I get to be a part of right now! The start of the Bicentennial year is crazy. ESL is up and running at 13 different places around the mission, The Chinese work is coming together, and we haven't slid the car into a post yet:) Here's what we did!

Zone Council and Zone Conference

We had both big meetings this week. Zone council is where our zone (west) gets together and looks at our numbers, goals, and discusses what we can do to improve as a group! Zone Conference is where we come together with central zone and receive training from the APs, President, and other missionaries. Also talk about numbers and goals. Both meetings were super sweet! In Zone Council we talked about the Book of Mormon and how it can answer our questions! in Zone Conference we talked alot about Joseph Smith-History and that whole story. The spirit was strong in both meetings.

The ups and downs of learning a language

Chinese is coming along, slowly but surely. This week was weird though. At the beginning of the week, I felt like I was at a complete low. I wasn't able to express my feelings and I did know how or what to study. Through Prayer, Practice, and Pleco I turned around. I felt the gift of tongues helping though every conversation! I just had forgotten to ask for it recently! God really does answer our prayers and the gift of tongues is real.

Sarah

Met a new awesome friend named Sarah! She is so cool. She is originally from Korea but she lived in China from some amount of years. While she was in China (mainland) she actually attended our church! In different peoples houses... She told us all about the underground church and how big it actually is already!! Gave me goosebumps. So yea, Sarah has gone to church alot but she hasn't received the discussions. We had a really awesome dinner with her as we talked about the spirit and how light can diminish dark every time! We also invited her to take the lessons and come to church. Such a great friend!

Translating Sacrament

The branch is delegating different tasks to the missionaries as they find out where they want all the members. One of our new tasks is to setup the translating machines. So, on Sunday I set it up then sat down. Sacrament started and the girl who normally does it wasn't there! So I started doing my best... The announcements were pretty easy since I had a program, I could just kinda read what was being said. The prayers were a little harder but manageable, Sacrament prayers, Cake. Then, when the talks came around I finally got help from a different member. She saved me! It was so cool being able to do that for the first time!

Elder Kato Piano

After ESL on Sunday we had a few extra minutes before we had to head home. Elder Kato is amazing at the piano so he sat down to show up his skills. He told me to yell out any song and he would play it. I did not only that, but had a perfectly smooth transition with key changes and everything. I'm a firm believe that music is a God-given talent that is decided before you come to earth.

Like I said, the weather is cold and the spirits are high. I think today is -33 without windchill so wish me luck! I'm so grateful to be a missionary right now. I know that God answers our prayers because he knows each of us 1 by 1. He knows what we need even before we ask! So just ask him. I also know that he sent us here to learn and grow, that's why we experience trials! Just like the refiners fire, to become better! Have a good week everyone! Much love:)

Elder Giles