Week 12: September 24, 2019 An Answer to My Prayers

大家好!

2 weeks down in Brisbane! And a really exciting yet confusing week as well! I'll expound on my title later, so just "endure to the end" hahahaha. We've been teaching a bunch of really awesome people that are progressing and it's been fun! I've also been trying to look for a lot of people to speak Chinese with, and one way was with the sisters in my area. I was feeling pretty confident with my Chinese abilities around them until they told me "ni de zhong wen hen bang" which is basically saying your Chinese is awesome, but they told me at the MTC when they say that they really mean that your Chinese sucks hahaha because thats something they like say to little kids. Kinda made me depressed but that's ok.

Something funny that happened this week was Elder Setiawan and I were visiting members houses, and we were walking up to this one person's house, and there was a big tree with some really colorful birds in it. I was just walking under the tree when j just heard a little rustling and then something really wet hit my arm. THE BIRDS PEED ON ME! Haha it was so gross and I was just complaining about it, but then Elder Setiawan brought up the come follow me from like 2 weeks ago that talked about your trials being a blessing. So after we knocked and no one was home, we started walking back to the car, but I joked around and told elder Setiawan I was going to run under the tree so I don't get peed on again, so I started running and no joke the birds tried to pee on me again, but luckily I ran so they just missed me. Your trials truly are a blessing!

Anyways, about the title. Monday evening me and Elder Setiawan were visiting people and one of the Ap's called us. He basically said that Elder Gao in the Sunnybanks area told them that he wanted to go back to an English area so he could learn English, and they wanted me to go switch with him, so I would be with Elder Hohneke and Elder Gao would be with Elder Setiawan. He told me the transfer would take place the next morning after district council. I honestly had mixed feelings because I like EMP but I want to be able to use Chinese more. So we get back and I just start packing everything frantically, not really folding anything because I'm lazy and was just gonna unpack the next day. And the next day after district council, we go up to Elder Gao and ask if he's ready to move and he gets the most confused look on his face haha. The Ap's only told me about it and not him, and he wanted to stay in Sunnybanks for the rest of the transfer and then move out. So we were all confused but we just went on with the day because we were all busy and Elder Gao was going to call our mission president later, and tell him that he wanted to switch at the end of the transfer instead. Later at night when we were about to go home and unpack everything, Elder Gao told us that we are indeed doing the transfer on Thursday, so guess I'll be in Sunnybanks now! A lot of mixed feelings in this because I was just starting to really enjoy my time in EMP but now I get to go to a Chinese area and work on my Chinese. Oh well, the work must go on! 加油!

Elder Ensign

Sorry no pictures this week!

Week 10: September 9, 2019

The night is dark and I am far from home... lead thou me on

Sorry I'm too lazy to make a new email one so I'm going to reply just for this week. I arrived in Brisbane today and got to meet my mission presidents and even got to drive around on the left side of the road. The toilets do flush the opposite way however so that's fun. 

I just got dropped a bomb however that is very hard for me in all honesty. Turns out I'm getting trained by an English elder for my first transfer so I won't be able to use my Chinese as much as I wanted to. I know it's not what I want but it's what the Lord has in plan for me. I'll email more next week and reply next week as I'm very busy this week.

Elder Ensign

Just minutes before I left I looked up and saw the England Flag and the Australian flag next to each other. It's hard saying goodbye to my best friend for 2 years but I know he's gonna do good work out there.

Week 11: September 17, 2019

Craziest week of my life so far, and probably the hardest! I'll go a little more in depth of everything that's happened because it's been super fun! So first off I left the MTC Monday morning at 11 and went to the airport and on the tracks we met some guy who actually went to Adelaide Chinese speaking so that was awesome! Then after that I looked out the window and MY MTC TEACHER sister Hendrix was outside the window so that was an awesome surprise. So anyway we finally got to Australia after a horrible plane ride, and then I got told my trainer was going to be Elder Setiawan, an English Speaker who doesn't speak a word of Chinese. I was honestly so depressed because I knew I wasn't going to be put in Sunnybanks, the main Chinese area but I at least hoped I would get put with a Chinese companion so I could practice my Chinese. So Anyway I got assigned to an area called Eight Mile Planes to whitewash, which is super cool and fun, plus I get to drive because elder Setiawan doesn't have his license because he's from Indonesia. And it's on the left side of the road haha. I've turned on the windshield wipers a couple times instead of the turn signal but besides that I'm pretty good at driving here now.

Australia is seriously so awesome, and so different though. It feels a lot like California in the summertime right now, so its gonna be blazing hot in the actual summer. Literally one of the first things the mission presidents wife told us is to watch out for the birds, because apparently around this season the magpies like to swoop and attack your head for some crazy Land Down Under reason. And she also said that the kangaroo are like deer around here, and you'll always see them run across the road and get hit by people so that's awesome. They have those watch for kangaroo signs all over the place just like in utah they have the watch for deer signs haha. I have yet to see a kangaroo, koala, or a giant spider so I'm pretty upset right now. Another weird thing is that there's this weird car around here and it's literally a sedan on the front and a truck bed on the back. It's super wack but super popular around here. And I've seen plenty of combie vans around here but not a single shrimp on the barbie. If you go watch the Land Down Under music video, it's spot on for how Australia really is haha just kidding.

Much to my surprise though, I was able to get a lot more opportunities to speak Chinese than I thought, but not near as much as I would hope. Every 2 weeks there's like a Chinese district council thing so we went to that on Saturday, and I could actually for the most part understand what the people there were saying even though they spoke way fast. Also in my area there was assigned 2 sisters and they're both from mainland China, so whenever I see them I speak Chinese. It's not much but it's a lot better than I was expecting and I hope to get more opportunities as I go along. 

Even though I was very upset about my calling as English speaking I know it's what the Lord has in plan for me. Some of the investigators we've met here in this area are awesome and I know that I was assigned here to help them. Whenever I get down on myself I turn to one of my favorite Scriptures of all time Alma 26:27. This chapter overall is such a good missionary chapter but this one is my favorite during tough times. I know that as long as I keep pressing forward the Lord will help me through my trials. Shoot me an email and let me know how it's going in Utah or wherever!

Love you all!

Elder Ensign

Sister Hendrix on the train

with my companion

Week 9: September 9, 2019

I leave in about 2 hours to the Salt Lake City airport! I'm so excited to go but I'm very sad to leave a lot of my friends. This week has been awesome! It was a little bit more relaxed because we were all getting ready to leave and doing a lot of packing.

This week for TRC's we were supposed to have 5, 1 member skype and 4 nonmember TRC's but our schedule unfortunately got all messed up so we weren't able to teach all of them. We only ended up teaching the skype, and 1 on Wednesday. I was a little bit upset about it but I'm going to be doing a lot of teaching in Brisbane so I think I'll be fine haha I'll have 2 years to get over it. 

Sorry that this email was so short, I have to go finish packing and everything! Unfortunately I don't have my phone so I won't be able to send any pictures but I'll have plenty of pictures from Brisbane next week! The next time I'll be emailing you is going to be from Brisbane! I love you all!

Elder Ensign

Week 8: September 2, 2019

IN ONE WEEK FROM TODAY IM FLYING OUT TO BRISBANE! I'm seriously so excited, I think after being in the MTC for 2 months has gotten a little old. Last week Elder Christensen left to go to Canada, and he was only here for 7 weeks. So that means the companionships all got changed. I'm now with elder Pangilinin and Elder Packer again. Honestly this week has been one of the funnest weeks at the MTC, especially with the 5 TRCs haha. 

My first one we were studying a ton for, and we were teaching someone named Stacey. she told us she had some family problems in the middle of the lesson so I decided to just share 3rd nephi 18:21. This was totally off our lesson script but I felt like it was what I needed to do and it couldn't have been more perfect. After I shared it with her we just had like a 5 minute rapid fire conversation where she was asking questions and I was just talking back and answering, and my 2 companions were just sitting there and watching me. Honestly my best lesson so far because there's no way Elder Ensign was saying all that stuff. Some of the words I used were like stuff I didn't really even know and my companions said they felt the spirit so strong when I was teaching her and they could barely understand what I was saying. Such an awesome lesson, it was just what I needed to be able to gain some confidence in my non member TRC's because they really scared me before. I definitely couldn't learn this language without the Gift of Tongues and I'm so excited to get to share the gospel with the people in Brisbane next week. I know my Chinese isn't perfect but something Elder Packer said when I was being hard on myself after some of my TRC's stuck with me. Just imagine him saying this with an "Elder Holland 'singe your eyebrows type' of speech." He said "Elder Ensign, you're never going to have a perfect lesson. On the last day of the mission you're not going to have a perfect lesson. All that matters is I felt the spirit, you felt the spirit, and I know that she (Stacey) felt the spirit." 

I'm seriously so excited to get to go to Brisbane, I know that there are people there specifically for me to help. I know even though my Chinese isn't perfect that I'll still be able to have an impact on the people of Brisbane. There's nothing better I could be doing with the next 2 years of my life! The work must go on!

加油！加油！加油！

Elder Ensign

2 of my good friends elder Pinkney (right) and Elder Rigby (left) (Steffon from bear river, the tennis champ) left for Montreal Canada along with Elder Christensen who is not in the picture