Week 50: June 22, 2020 我们决定自己的幸福

Wow we really hit week 50 already...

First off happy fathers day to my dad yesterday! Thank you for all the fun adventures and good times, whether I enjoyed it at the time or not hahaha. 

I'm going to be honest, the past month I've been back out have been really tough on me. I've been kinda struggling to find joy in the work, or to really feel the spirit throughout the days. I was so in the zone in Australia and it feels like I have to start all over again here. But anyway, something this week kind of changed that. We had a member lesson with the other 3 chinese elders, and one of them, Elder Gibson, shared a scripture that kind of changed my whole perspective, 2 Nephi 5:27. It says "And it came to pass that we lived after the manner of happiness." At first I thought it was kind of an amusing spiritual thought because of how short it was, but it got me thinking after the lesson and reminded me of a couple of quotes throughout the week. One quote is from one of my favorite movies, The Pursuit of Happyness, and Will Smith simply says "If you want something, go get it. Period." Another is from Rebecca Critchley who's been sending out quotes to a lot of missionaries every month, so shoutout for the quote! This was the most recent quote: "Those who move forward with a happy spirit will find that things will always work out" by Gordon B. Hinckley. I feel like these quotes go pretty hand in hand, so I'll just leave it at that with no explanation, some food for thought. 

Also some less important but still pretty lit stuff-

 •I bought two penguin ties worth $55 each and a pair of Cole Haan shoes worth $230.... for 70 dollars all together. Proud of me? Sorry mom I promise I'll be better with my money but I saved like 270 dollars plus I'm going to look extra fresh sitting in my apartment all day

•My ward missionary leader is a professional videographer, and makes insane videos, hes going to help us and the other 2 YSA elders make sick videos every saturday, so for real SEND ME SOME CREATIVE IDEAS that I can tie into the gospel!! Also stay tuned because we made a video on saturday and it should be up sometime this week on my facebook hehe.

•oh also we just got news that 1) you can wear blue shirts/no ties only if you are spanish speaking or serving on a college campus, and 2) you can visit members under 65 with a set appt. So this all works out for me I guess haha

Elder Ensign

2 Nephi 22:2

Pics- 

Farewell to President and Sister Holland, they leave on the 29th

My new car... haha just kidding but I got absolutely drenched this day when we were fixing our car

Not much else happened but heres a video of me drinking a cup of apple cider vinegar for a dare... not worth it

Week 49: June 15, 2020

Yep we still in quarantine but this week was pretty interesting to say the least. We went to a sushi place with our old mission leader, who took the elders there a couple weeks ago when I wasnt here, and it's one of those places where different types of sushi comes by on a conveyer belt and you can grab it. Last time the high was 15, which is insane, but I made a goal to beat that, and to eat more than anyone else that came with us (6 elders and 2 members). Haha I ate 22 plates of sushi so it was kinda lit. I almost stopped at 20 because I was about to throw up, but another elder ate 21 so I had to go the distance. Never again hahaha. I did win though just to set the record straight.

some other tings 

•The 2 taiwan elders that came with me are going back to taiwan beginning of July, so that's pretty exciting. Maybe I will get to go back to Australia soon??

•Hit 11 months last wednesday. Feels weird that I'm almost halfway through

•I gained 15 pounds in australia, lost 10 when I got home, but I just gained those 10 back in the past 3 weeks! 变胖了

•got kicked out of a building by a security guard when we were taking pics with our ZL's... awkward. One of my ZLs is from Logan Utah though so that's cool, Elder Semadeni

•taught a lesson yesterday and invited someone who served in Taiwan to help teach, turns out he served with my older brother Michael! 

Elder Ensign 

2 Nephi 22:2

Me with President and sister Holland

My pic with my 22 plates of sushi, the guy in the background is the one who ate 21 haha

My face when they announced the new dress guidelines for elders (tears of joy, not sadness)

Some of our pics we took before we got kicked out haha

Some of our pics we took before we got kicked out haha

Week 48: May 25, 2020

What up what up! First couple days back in the field down and I am loving it. So quick update I am actually serving in a city called Durham, in a small chinese group along with the YSA ward which covers both Duke and UNC. So basically I now have an excuse to bandwagon with both teams in basketball hehe. It's been way fun and we actually had a baptism on saturday, a guy named MingZhe who my comp found and baptized. Super cool experience even with the limited amount of people there. 

My Comp Elder Su is super tight and we hit it off from the second we met. If you didnt know basketball is super big in the Durham area given it's right next to the 2 largest basketball universities in arguably the whole world, so the elders in the district get together to ball a lot, it's been heaps of fun. We are still in quarantine though, but the online work is going strong! I dont want to bore you all with a classic quarantine email so that's about it haha. Oh and also Elder Su's best friend is serving in Toronto chinese speaking and was comps with elder Brenchley, fun fact of the week for you ;) 

Love yall, let me know what's going down in CV or wherever you're at right now!

Elder Ensign

Dont really have any pics but theres this place called Bo Jangles and it's so good haha. Love southern food

Week 47: May 21, 2020 We Back

What up what up we back!!! Just a couple things: I made it to Raleigh this afternoon and got to meet my mission president and trainer! Fun fact, my mission president is actually Elder Holland of the quorum of the 12 apostle's son. So I'm hyped for some surprise visits hahah. 

The best part of this though is: there is only 1 chinese missionary in this whole mission! And he just happens to be my comp, hes from hong kong and his name is elder su. He loves basketball, and we are serving on THE university of North Carolina campus, in the only chinese branch in our mission I think. 2 other missionaries from taiwan also came with me so the chinese work will definitely be speeding up. Anyway that's just an update on life and I think I'll be a UNC fan in no time haha.

Elder Ensign