Hey everyone,
This week has been pretty great. Here's some of the amazing miracles I have seen and learned. So first off we've been trying to get our district to have unity. That was a concern of our zone leaders, so Elder Pao and I have been working hard on obtaining that. With our ideas combined, we've seen a lot of success and our district is really looking better. We've also been working on finding, and trying to find ways to serve others more.
So we got to go to Bileg's (a recent convert) Painting studio and see his paintings. It was so cool! His paintings are so amazing, definitely a must see. Sometime I'll get a picture with it to you.
So we had a special activity this week, a bunch of members, new converts, less actives, and us all went to Costco (right next to our chapel) and proselyted for like 2 hours. Elder Pao had the idea to pull a Camp of Israel and walk around it 7 times, giving pass along stuff to everyone with in our reach. (like the Israelites who walked around Jericho 7 times to conquer Jericho). It was super fun, we all had a blast. But a miracle happened. So as we traveled around the first time we saw a worker who was helping direct traffic in the parking lot, one of the members went to hand a pass along to him, but immediately he put up his hands shook them and did the "掰掰" motion (in other words he's Buddhist and he doesn't want to be talked to. Jokingly I said, "hey studies show that people take about 7 times to accept the gospel from missionaries, he might have rejected us this first round but by 7 times he'll be begging us to be baptized." In the end, we didn't get a full 7 rounds, we got about 4, but here's what happened. the second round he said "no thank you I'm 掰掰的" Then the 3rd he took a pass along, but immediately gave to his friend. The 4th time, he said to us "Church is tomorrow afternoon eh?", then we started to talk to him. He told us he had work on Sundays so he couldn't come, but his daughter had gone to our church before for English, said he likes our church. He went from completely rejecting us to willing to chat with us in a matter of 30 minutes, I really do wonder if we were to continue for another 3 rounds, what would have happened. Maybe he would have ended up coming to church, who knows. It just adds to my testimony the line in Preach My Gospel that says "No effort is wasted, your diligence in sharing the gospel with everyone is God's way of preparing all of his children to receive the gospel someday." I know that this is true, and that maybe we as missionaries (and members) will be rejected every now and then, but that doesn't mean we have failed.
We also have a new Bishop and he is doing awesome, knows the members needs, been focusing on getting home teaching done, helping us missionaries... He's awesome. Oh, the Gangshan members came to the chapel yesterday to said hi, It was so cool to see them. It really did bring back a lot of great memories, and once again, helped me see how much I've grown. It's crazy what can happen in a matter of 3 months.
This week I've also been reading the Book of Mormon, and I really do know that it is the true word of God, it is a true record of ancient inhabitants of the America's, and most importantly its testimony of Jesus Christ is true. It's purpose is to help us know of God and the covenants that he has made in the past with his children, and He is letting us know in these days that he fulfills all his Promises. I love ya all! Sorry no voice recording this week. Until next week...
Love,
Elder Brandon Bean
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