Monday, January 23, 2017

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Elder Smith 2nd from Right and Elder Grimaud tallest Elder-Bon Air

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Looking for service and using Chinese language more

Still in Bon Air new companion Elder Grimaud from Smithfield, Utah. Zone leaders
Jan. 7, 2017
Studies in the morning....well like Elder Kopischke said...if you have good studies, your motivation will be high during your mission. It is really true. It is not unrealistic to feel the Spirit every time you study the scriptures. It was a really good study this morning while preparing for zone meeting. The Book of Mormon is really really wonderful. Well, we definitely had a really good day planned out...but in the morning it was snowing...so we weren't sure what to do...there was probably two inches already on the ground. Super super exciting...but we changed our plans a bit...I tried biking around in the snow..that didn't work...just slid and stuff...so we still went to Brother Conolly, well Elder Grimaud and Elder Starr did, Elder Maedgen and I got gas and went in search of people that needed help shoveling.

There was a good amount of people out...but no one of them said that they needed any help. Nice people for the most part though, there was one house that we thought had a shovel outside...walked up and it was just an intense ice scraper, picked it up just to look at it...then their door opened! So I think I said something like "Hey, we are just missionaries seeing if anyone needs help shoveling, we don't have shovels(Elder Grimaud had the shovel). We thought this might be a shovel...can we help?" It was a really uncomfortable situation...he didn't need help. After that we decided to knock on all the doors that had shovels outside...none of them answered though...it was good though. After that we found out that Michael Bressler had two shovels we could borrow, we hurried over there, shoveled two of his neighbors driveways that were elderly women. One he said was super sweet....the other he said...well was really mean...but actually the "mean" one saw us, and thanked us, I don't think the other one was home. Then we headed back to the apartment.
-Elder SnowySnowyVille


Jan. 11, 2017
Really cool experience, probably the best experience of the day. Recently I have been feeling the importance of me being called to speak Chinese here. That I should specifically look for Chinese people more...I also thought, "these are nice apartments...there has to be a Chinese person living here"...as I pondered this and we were walking around the apartment complex...we were just about to return to the car...when we saw someone pulling in...but they were pulling into the garage so we I stopped....then there was someone way down the road doing something and I thought maybe we should go and talk with them....we discussed and thought it was the same person we already met....but then the closer car door opened and a person started getting out. We walked over, offered a card, saw her and could tell she wasn't American, explained who we were, asked where she was from(she is from Taiwan) and Elder Grimaud mentioned I speak Mandarin, and we said some things....it was pretty cool. Her name is Karey, and she wants to make us tea....we weren't able to mention we don't drink tea...oh well. It was really good, we weren't really able to share much, a little bit about the Book of Mormon, she is Lutheran, she quickly accepted it though just after hearing a tiny bit about it...she was also very impressed with my Mandarin which always makes me feel good and better see the fulfillment of the gift of tongues. We got her number and plan to meet again..that was pretty cool. Really grateful, and humbled for having that experience.-side note to that story...while we were speaking Mandarin, she asked if Elder Grimaud spake any...we said he didn't..then she essentially said the Buford quote "Hey Candace is gone...lets talk bad about her". It was really really funny.

Last thing...well I am being healthier...I look at labels a lot more.... get up at 6:30 exactly...not 6:20 even if it is easier that way...I just have to be smarter about how I use those first few minutes in the morning. Improvement and Progression are one eternal round(Hymn 284 "If You Could Hie To Kolob").

Also, I really like Elder Grimaud different than most companions, but great also...a lot like Jared sometimes.
-Elder Improvement