Week 41

This week has been really good. It seemed to go by really fast. But I feel we're balancing work on all aspects a lot better. This week we have successfully gotten all of our phone referrals off the phone. We have a phone referral system to get information across our mission. Some people leave names on their for until they're up to like 100 people uncontacted, so President has made an invitation to get it all cleared out. I guess the hard part is keeping up with them now. But it's been good to be able to feel like I've done a lot of what I need to to help out these prepared people. This week Elder Bowler has been doing great. His fire definitely has not diminished, and that is a very admirable accomplishment. We're finding ways to help each other improve, including Chinese as well as Christlike Attributes. I'm doing my best to teach, bless, lift, and inspire as a leader. But sometimes it's hard. I think my biggest problem is that I can't really find out what his needs are. But Elder Lusubudan gave me some good insight in our exchange. He said that as we do our part to encourage them, then they naturally give you back some places that they need to improve. I also feel that I pull a lot of the weight...sometimes. Definitely not too overly much. But I hope I do a good job at still training Elder Bowler in more aspects of missionary work. We have a lot of good investigators recently. Including a lot of Zhou1 dx's. The first one we call Zhou "Surfer", because he looks like a surfer, and we don't know his full name yet. He's really interesting. His uncle's family are all LDS and are living in Japan. But I think they had a good influence because he was willing to come meet with us. He's pretty funny -- he laughs at just about everything: "Zhou dx, can you give us a closing prayer?" "Hahahaha! Okay, sure!" He's a really great guy and loves to learn. He's working for the government. We've only met him for a week, but he's already done with 1 Nephi. Oh yeah. Another Zhou1 dx is Zhou1 Yong3 Xiang2. He's really cool, too. Sister Rosander found him on the street. He's super socially inept. But that's because he's been at his computer for a few years with limited communication with anyone. He said he used to love to talk in school. But now he doesn't know what to say. But while meeting with us he's gotten a lot better. He should go out and play with us today. I think it'll be a very good experience for him. He accepts our message really well, and asks a lot of great questions. It'll be amazing to see his change through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And yet another Zhou1 dx! Zhou1 Jun4 Yu3. He's great. He's been meeting with missionaries for months now. But now he's finally been able to pray more often. He said he started to pray at least once every day, and he has felt a difference in his prayer. His aunt is a member, but they're in the US. Benjamin Lin2 has had some more girlfriend problems. Recently she's had some health problems and he's been worn down by having to take care of her over the phone (she lives in Taipei, about 7 hours away), but then she gets mad at him super often. It's not the best situation. But we shared with him 3 Nephi 14:3-5. We helped him see that right now they're both in a fallen position right now. And that he needs to be able to get himself fully up and standing (get baptized!) before he can be able to effectively help his girlfriend. I think it helped him a lot. Hopefully we'll see even more good change and improvement. I can't believe this is the last week of the transfer! I really really do not want to leave -- I love the people and the place here. Cross your fingers! I love you all! Enjoy conference! (I'm so jealous!) -Elder Liu