I'm really excited to watch General Conference this week. I love General Conference, I don't have to be out in the sun getting sunburned. I can stay inside, listen to English, and eat junk food with the other elders. That should be really fun, but the way our ward scheduled it up, we are watching general conference from 2:00-6:00 PM, 7:00-9:00 PM, and then 8:30-12:30 PM .... I don't know why that is the schedule, but it seems like we're not really going to have a break for anything, which I don't think a ton of people are happy about. There was much complaining in church, but nonetheless I'm excited to watch General Conference.
On Monday, we spent the day moving elders around. When we were at the train station saying goodbye to Elder Rust, he had gone through the ticket gate, and was getting ready to get on a train. We watched from the lobby as he was waiting for the elevator. We waved to him, and then he did something. He blew a kiss to us, but there was a girl working the ticket station standing between us and Elder Rust, so it looked like he blew the kiss to her. She started to freak out and look around. Then she looked back right as Elder Brenchley pretended to catch the kiss in his hand, and put it to his heart. We all made eye contact with her, and then we all just started laughing so hard. She was really confused and really creeped out. Then, Elder Rust boarded the elevator, and away he was. What a great last memory of Elder Rust. We had Elder Chang, his companion with us for a couple of days while we waited to go get his trainee on Thursday.
From there on out the week was just kind of normal. We were a little bit bummed out that we wouldn't be able to baptize Brother Chen that week. He told us that he forgot and all he remembers is setting up Tuesday. We met with him a told him that because he wasn't able to have his interview last week, we weren't really sure if he could get baptized this week, and that we might have to change it. A little disappointed, we had Elder Chang give him a baptismal interview that night and we told him we would let him know when we could baptize him.
We got new sisters in our district. They're white wash training, too, so everyone in our district is pretty much training.
On Thursday, we were able to go up to Taizhong for a little bit to drop off Elder Chang. When I got up there it was pretty nostalgic. I remembered all the good times I had with Elder Hatch and my other companions. I was remembering all the fun times and all the fun things we did. To be honest, it kind of made me a little sad, because I knew that in not too long I'll be on a plane home and all of those fun things will just kind of be good memories. But, upon walking into my old chapel I came across Elder Miller my former companion. Turns out, he's white wash training in Gaoxiong. I was really happy to see him. Then me and Elder Brenchley boarded the next train back to YuanLin. When we got back a couple hours later, we had Brother Zhang come to visit us. He got back from America a couple weeks ago and brought back some American candy for me, so I was able to have a nice visit with him and catch up a little bit and talk about good old Daliao. Then, I was able to enjoy delicious American candy. I'm really grateful for Brother Zhang!
Then, we called our zone leaders and asked if Brother Chen could get baptized on Saturday. They told us that would be fine, so after arranging some stuff, we set up the baptismal time. It wasn't announced in church, so we were kind of worried that there wasn't going to be a ton of people there, so we had the baptism scheduled for 7:00 PM. Everything was working out and he showed up at 6:30, got dressed, and we practiced and waited. Then, 7:00 comes around and no one is there, so I start thinking okay, well I guess I run the show then. Then people started showing up, so we waited a little longer and sung 40 hymns. Then by 7:30 the whole room was packed with people. Then everything was normal, Tai Chi Master (Brother Jang) baptized him and it was great. Brother Chen gave a really powerful testimony where he talked about the love he felt from Tai Chi Master and us (the missionaries.) He talked about how he wondered what kind of church would have this type of people in it and wanted to know more about it. Then he said everything we taught just kind of made sense. He was literally one of the easiest baptisms I have ever had.
The following Sunday, he was confirmed ordained a priest. Shortly after ordained another priest, and then left with a ton of church textbooks to go study up. I think he's going to be made a Gospel Principals teacher or something. He's so freaking smart about the Bible and stuff.
Then that leads me today. Today we're just hanging out in YuanLin. I think we're going to go eat tons of mango ice. Yeah, pretty much it was a good week!
I'm glad mom is feeling better and everyone is doing pretty good for the most part.
I love you all.
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