Hey
Dad!
Hmm, where to begin?
Definitely I feel the tender mercies of the Lord continuously in my life and
see so much, so many times when He reaches out to me. Thank you for what you
have shared with me. Lots of things you share with me I strive to do. I actually
had the thought go through me last week about a previous letter you sent about
asking if I am doing what the Lord has asked me to do, am I doing my best, and
are people accepting my message.
I really had thoughts
a lot directed towards the second question, about am I doing my best. That is
the thing that sometimes gets me. I never really know if I am actually doing my
best. Because of how deep sometimes my sense of perfectionism can run, I can't
see clearly and understand that I am giving and doing my best. I constantly see
others and see what is being done around me and immediately feel that I need to
be doing that as well and that my work I have been giving is not satisfactory
as I am not doing that (sometimes these are things I had already learned of before
or had already seen done before). And so it sometimes gets hard for me to
really tell myself to calm down and know I have been giving my best.
One thing about church
and befriending those around us. President Blickenstaff actually came out and
said that for the 3 hours of church we companionships are not allowed to
separate from each other and that we must sit side by side, even in sacrament
meeting. He said he had been seeing one too many problems to come out and give
this rule. So we still strive to befriend and help those around us. But we also
call on our RCs as well as LAs to help in befriending, accompanying, and
sitting by those in the ward.
So this past week as I
have mentioned has been a week of great strengths as well as some further
furnace time to really put me on the right path of recovery and improvement.
Tuesday came and that
day Elder Kou (my district leader) had scheduled to do companion exchanges with
us. Elder Kou came to our area and I went to his with his companion Elder
Chiang (a native companion, whose English is just about the same as Elder Chen
or maybe a little better). As we started the day out I was still feeling down.
But as we progressed on and seeing Elder Chiang with his love and desire he has
helped to start to heal me. By the time night came and we came home I was doing
a lot better. But I still didn't know a lot about Elder Chiang himself. It is
actually really amazing how much I don't know about people and how often my
first views of someone can be quite wrong. One instance was before with Elder
Watson on exchanges. And now this instance. I thought Elder Chiang was probably
some 18-19 year old native who had just gotten done training (yes he actually
had just gotten done training). Turns out that he is actually 25 and has
already graduated in civil engineering and has also done his military service
as well. And that part of his family is inactive even though he was born into
the covenant. From this experience and exchange it helped to revitalize a lot
the desire and fire within me to go out and serve and help others.
Also during that
Wednesday with Elder Chiang we went to visit a potential investigator who is an
artist. He has a pet weiner dog who I was pretty much playing with and petting
the whole time while we talked with him and got to know him. Needless to say I
think that dachsund really loved me because he might not have had that much
attention or love in a long time. I did try to pick him up and give him a hug
at the end of the lesson, but the guy quickly told me not to do that because he
is scared of heights. :( Oh well, I did get to pet him a lot though and learned
how to say weiner dog in Chinese now.
Thursday came and it
was Birthday day (thanks for singing to me and everything, the time you sang
actually was when I took those few pictures I have sent with everything I got).
Also thank you for going to the temple and praying for me. But so originally
Zone Conference was going to be in Yuanlin, so we would need to take a train
ride to get to the chapel there. But instead they changed the location to our
chapel here in Zhanghua. So Elder Chen and I took a nice 2 minute walk to the
chapel to attend Zone Conference (I got to wear my new suit). Zone Conference
for me was really great in overall but still had some parts that nicked at my
feelings of worry and stress. Large parts of time when ever leaders go on over
expectations or numbers it can get to me sometimes pretty hard with my stress
and worries. But it was still good. The assistants taught and reviewed over our
morning schedule, emphasizing Elder Holland's statement saying "you tell
me how your morning goes at 6:30 am and I will tell you how the rest
of your day goes". President Blickenstaff in particular focused on
teaching the doctrine of Christ and had us split into groups discussing 2nd
Nephi 31 in the aspect of before baptism to after baptism. I was studying after
baptism, then what? and right out the start I noticed in verse 3 it talking
about the Lord will bring light to understanding. It made think on how we come
to know things to a point to prepare for and receive baptism. But afterwards we
still continue to learn and grow. It is like the sun as it progresses and rises
more and more is illuminated (like our knowledge and understanding) until it
progresses to noon day where it shines the brightest and in a sense
is perfect (like what we are progressing towards).
Right now Elder Chen
and I are working with a really solid investigator. He had a baptismal date for
this Saturday, but we have pushed it back to April 19 (together with
him we have set this date). We reviewed the first lesson yesterday and watched
the Restoration video. He has been doing really good of trying to read the Book
of Mormon each day, has been praying, and even praying asking questions about
what we have taught and shared. He has come to church 3 times and he frequently
comes and attends other activities. We introduced the Plan of Salvation to him
and plan to continue on teaching him to help him reach his goal in April.
I am striving to work
towards really having that true joy and happiness. To be happy each day. President Blickenstaff actually mentioned in
ZC about a talk by P. Uchtdorf on love that got me interested and I have copied
over to my external drive now so I can print it off later to study.
I love you and miss
always!
Elder Roo
