Emails 7/25/16

I miss US food. The food here is AMAZING!! :D but I still miss US food sometimes. :)

We've (Elder Ward and I) got two more weeks together, then he goes home! :o I'll stay here probably one more transfer and have a new companion. After that, I'll probably move, but I'm not sure where. Haha he's only the second companion I've killed. :) It's super strange, I'm a pretty old missionary at this point--I only have about 3 or 4 more transfers left, but I seem so young still because Elder Ward is going home soon! :o Anyway, two more weeks until the transfer, and no, I'm not a grandpa yet. :/ Hopefully soon, though! :D

Eternal hardships are the most difficult! :o "I can do hard things!" haha! :) It has been kind of hard this week. :/ It's super strange because when you think about the work itself it seems so simple: ride around on a bike and invite people to learn about the Gospel. Teach people and help them come unto Christ. Help them repent. There's no quota, there's no being fired for not working hard enough. It's service. But the internal struggle is immense. It amazes me the opposition we face--and that most of it is internal. Our attitude, our resolve to go and talk to a person on the corner can seem impossible sometimes. It is another testimony that what we are doing is the Lord's work. Why else would the devil be fighting so hard against us and telling us we can't do things. I read a talk called the "circle of fire" this week. I loved it. I don't know if you can look it up, but if it's available, everyone should read it! :) It talks about how the most worthwhile and most valuable prizes are almost always if not always protected by the most difficult challenges. These challenges and opposition are intended to stretch us and make us better. The Lord puts us in the crucible to let us sweat a little. We sweat out the dross and become more pure, more refined, and more resilient. It's awesome! :D

So anyway, I don't know why I typed that up, it just came out. :) It's been a good week, we saw lots of miracles, and there have been some inner challenges that I've had that are hopefully shaping me into a better person. :)

Sorry not much time this week. :/

Monday was great! Pday! We played basketball with a bunch of the youth here, so that was super fun! Night time, we had time to talk with a bunch of people on the streets, met a cool guy and had a sit-down lesson with him, then met someone else we scheduled to meet with who was super awesome! He's got a Christian background, and is about 60. It's really different teaching someone with a Christian background. :o It went super well though and he came to the baptism on Saturday! :D

Tuesday was good. contacted in the morning (contacting=talking to people on the street) also there are a ton of people on the street here, which is pretty awesome! You can talk to sooo many people that way! Then we, well we contacted all afternoon, then ate dinner with a less active youth who said he's coming to church on Sunday, yay! :D Then we contacted some more at night.

Wednesday went well. We got to do interviews with our new mission president, President Teh! It was awesome! Then we came back, met with another less active youth right before English, and then had English class. That was pretty sweet.

Thursday was also pretty awesome. More of the same. Lessons and contacting. :)

Friday was pretty amazing. We were eating dinner outside a 7-11 (they just call them 7's here), and this guy was looking at us. As he was walking out we said hello. He chatted with us for a while. I guess he got in a car accident and just didn't seem like he'd been doing well lately at all. He said he wanted to learn a little more about Christ and how He could help us. He also set up a time to meet with us--two hours later--himself! That was super cool to see this man who was humbled and wanting to learn more about the Lord. We met with him and it went well. :)

Saturday went great! We met with our Christian-background investigator, brother Zhang. We talked about the Book of Mormon and where it comes from and its role. He then attended the baptism and read the Book of Mormon while he was there! :D It was great!

Sunday, we had a new investigator family come to church as well as one of our other investigators. :) It was really good! That's about it!

Well, time's about up. I love you all and I pray for you every day. I hope you had a great week! Love you!

Elder Fleming