Emails 8/8/16

Welcome home, Tyler!! :D

My new companion is Elder Musgrave. He's from Alaska. I had seen him before and knew who he was, but I didn't really know him know him. He's probably been out about the same time as me. I'm guessing he's a few months behind me. Maybe 2 or 3 months?

I haven't really noticed a lot of people getting into the Olympics here. :/ They're obsessed with this new game where you go around town and find pokemons on their phones. Last night, there were people everywhere playing that game. It made it difficult to contact because they were so dialed in. Phones are a big thing here. People are always on them. I have decided that I'm not going to put ANY games on my phone when I go home--so make sure I don't! I don't want to waste my life away on a 3x5 inch screen.

The week was pretty good. The last week of the transfer, we had MLC Tuesday, then ZTM on Thursday. It went well. We also were with another missionary for 3 days because his companion was training and they start on Friday, so we were with the other Elder. He is from Taiwan, which is pretty cool. It was a good week. :) It was kind of weird saying goodbye to Elder Ward. We both tried to stay focused to the end, which we did, so it didn't feel like it was goodbye, but it was. It was interesting being with him. I like him and he's a great person and a great missionary. It was great to learn from him and I definitely learned a ton from him, so I'm super grateful for that. He was a great companion, too.

Alright, it's a new transfer and I don't have my last planner on me. Let's see what I can remember...

This last week has been good. It's been very busy, which is good. :) I feel like it is the last little bit of being busy from July when we got the new mission president. Monday we had preparation day, so 10:30 to 6 we had time to rest and prepare for the week. It was Elder Ward's last one, so we bought a scroll for his parents before he goes home.

Monday night, I think we just proselyted.

Tuesday, we went up to Tai Zhong for a meeting, so between going there, being at the meeting and coming back, we were gone all day. It was great to learn from the new mission president, President Teh!

Then on Wednesday, we had a bunch of lessons, which was great, especially since we didn't have a lot of time to meet with people Monday or Tuesday. Then Wednesday night was English class. That was pretty good. Our English class has been awesome for finding people lately and has a lot of potential! We set up a family to meet with us on Sunday, which was awesome!

Thursday, we had ZTM, yay! ZTM is always fun. :) We got together with the zone, about 20 other missionaries and met and did some training.

Friday we kept proselyting.

Saturday was the same.

Sunday was great! It was Elder Ward's last day, so we told all our investigators to come, so we got a lot of investigators at church!

Sorry, I don't really remember a ton, but it was a good week and we were able to work hard. I love you all and hope you have an amazing week!

Oh! Also, here's my letter to President this week:

Dear President,

We just dropped Elder Ward off at the train station and are now emailing as we wait for the new missionaries to come in. I am very grateful for the opportunity I had to serve with Elder Ward. So far on my mission, I have had 2 very influential companions, who helped me to stretch myself beyond what I thought I could do to become an even better missionary. One was my trainer, and the other was Elder Ward. He was a great example for me and he stayed focused until the very end of his mission. It was a great experience to learn from him.

While I was with Elder Ward, during a more difficult week, when we were out on the roads a lot and not finding very many people who were willing to talk to us, I read a talk called "The Circle of Fire." I can't remember who gave it, but he was talking about how as we work harder for something, the more opposition we will face. He also talked about how the most valuable things we have to earn in life will require going through a crucible of experiences to ensure that we are worthy to achieve that prize. Being on a mission hasn't been easy, but it's definitely been worth it. It has been hard work, but the blessings I've received have been innumerable. I also learned about unity this week. We visited a member and discussed unity. He asked us what we thought "unity" meant. I was a little surprised by his question. I explained that unity was working together towards a common goal, and like many small threads put together in a rope make it very strong, so can we, if we work together, be strong. Elder Ward said it was an "equality of consecration." It wasn't a division of tasks of "you do this, I'll do that," but rather "We will do this, and We will do that." Like a circle divided down the middle, with a division of tasks and separation as opposed to one circle, not divided and all together. Then our member talked about how (especially in a council or a ward) everyone has their own viewpoints, but as we increase faith in Christ, He will make a center point of our views, and the more faith we have, and the more we are accepting of His will, the more our view points will align. I think that in the Book of Mormon we can see this pattern. During times of peace, the Nephite's faith in Christ is strong. Especially after Christ visits them, they are very unified, because their faith in Him is strong, but when they lose faith in Him, that's when they start to have problems and lose that unity. I am going to try to apply that principle of developing faith in Christ and try not to divide tasks of "I'll do this, and you do that" especially as I start to work with a new companion.

I love you lots and I'll email next week!

Elder Fleming

Brother Peng, our newest member in San Min Ward!! :D