Getting Cold Now

Well, it's actually cold here all of a sudden. I had to buy a sweater. I mean, it's nothing compared to what November ought to feel like, but I must say I was surprised.

What is a tittle? I know what a jot is (I think, it's like, something that you jot down?) but I don't know what a tittle is. My native companion asked me.

The other day we were waiting for an investigator to come to the chapel for a lesson. I picked up a copy of the Ensign and opened it up, and there was "Fall Coming Like Three Sisters". Later I tried to buy that issue at the distribution center, but some how got the wrong one. Oh well, it still has good words, even if the pictures aren't quite what I was looking for.

But that made me realize that it might be a good idea to have some show cards or something to show to people. People always like to know about life in America, so any pictures you can send of people and or activities we do would be great.

Speaking of pictures, everyone always makes at least on of the following comments about our family pictures.
"Your sister (either or both) looks like a star."
"You look so young" or "Is this your little brother?"
"Your mother is so young!"
"Such a happy Family"
Yesterday for the first time someone said, "Your dad looks like a star." So there you go. We're a happy, young, star-filled family. They also always ask me if I look more like my mom or my dad. I often think, "you tell me, you're looking at the picture."

In district meeting an elder suggested that we put our mind in our investigator's shoes. I also heard this said, "I never said that! Stop quoting me!"

Eden, there are so many malls here. In each mall one floor is about the size of university mall, and there are always at least five floors. Sometimes the floors are a bit smaller and there are more like twelve or thirteen floors. And they have stores like Deisel and Marc by Marc Jacobs and Armani. It's pretty cool, but I never have time to look of course.

Some members had us over for dinner the other day. They spoke Cantonese, so I couldn't communicate much. The dad was introducing them all to me in English and he said, "and this one is Joseph (They all have English names too. It's a bit weird), so we call him little fatty (Bursts into laughter) because he is... he is a bit.. a bit fatter than I am." He wasn't even fat.

I found out that pistachios here are called "KaiXin Guo" or happy fruit because they are all smiling.

Most of our investigators want to go very very slowly. They don't really understand religion, so they want to be super sure before they commit to anything. They like meeting with us though, I think a lot of them really need friends. We pass some graffiti all the time that says, "Density rises but still we feel alone." I think that is how a lot of our investigators are. So we need to keep on being their friends and help them see all the other friends they can get at church.

Some see religion like just a bunch of meaningless rules. like, (us)"I'm hungry." (God)"well I'm not making you any food until you get on your bike and ride to the store and buy all of these things and bring them back" when really it's like, (us)"I'm starving to death" (God)"I know. And you can't make it to the store on your own. Here, take this money, buy everything on this list and bring it back. It will be hard, but not impossible if you use my bicycle. Here are directions. Go quickly so we can eat!" but we complain that he didn't give us a car, or enough money, or that we have to buy to many things, or that we bon't like broccoli, we'd rather buy a Snickers bar and spend the rest of "our" money on pokemon cards. I don't know about us all.

But we have one amazing investigator. Well, two. Yang Tai Tai and her daughter. Yang Tai Tai is willing to come to church, even though it's early, and she really wants to find the truth. She is progressing well. But last time she brought her daughter, who is incredible. This little girl is 8 years old, and this is an actual quote from here (which I didn't understand but was later translated for me) "My teacher at school had to pray for ten years before her family started believing in Christ. I've only had to
pray for two." She's like a tiny Joseph Smith!

I got a package with gloves and letters. Thank you so much! such good timing, it arrived on the first really cold day.

Today is my three month anniversary. I can't believe I'm already 1/8 through the two years! Two years really isn't very long. In another three months I'll be halfway through my first year! Sometimes it seems like a long time, but I know there is plenty of work I still need to do, and not enough time to do it.

Work hard everyone! I will also work hard. I love you!
-Noah