More pictures

I found Nemo!!!

Nemo’s baptism

A weird Chinese restaurant

Pictures for Mom :)

The Gift of Tongues and 'Merican Thanksgiving!

So the gift of tongues is real. Oh, and happy Thanksgiving to all of my American friends!

Well, because me and my companions really don't speak Chinese we have just praying really hard for the gift of tongues. And guess what? IT WORKED! It's insane, I can totally have conversations with people on the street. I understand what they say to me and they understand what I say to them. And I'm able to teach and get the points across that I want with no issues. I'm no where near perfect, and there are still parts that need help, some things I don't understand, or that I can't say; but overall as soon as Monday came around I noticed a tremendous difference. For all my friends learning a language, it really just comes to you one day out of nowhere. Just have faith!

Monday night we were finding in the Metro Town mall (the 2nd biggest mall in Canada, and maybe North America? I don't know, I can't Google it.) and we were just trying to find somebody to talk too. I said a prayer in my heart and asked God if we should stay there or go somewhere else. I just felt that we should stay for just a little bit longer. And lo and behold, I saw Jacky sitting on a bench and sat down and talked to him. He is the coolest Chinese guy ever. His kids are 8, 6, and 4 and just the most adorable things ever. They loved talking to us in Chinese. Jacky loved us so much he bought us all McDonald's right there and wouldn't take no for an answer. We've met with him twice so far and he seems really solid.

Tuesday we teach a scripture class. Normally they have just been going through the whole Book of Mormon chapter by chapter which is fine, but we had a feeling that we needed to change it and instead taught about Lehi's dream. One of our recent converts came up afterwards and said that we answered her prayer. It's amazing how much the spirit really can lead you if you try and listen.

We don't have a lot of solid investigators who can meet often so it's been a LOT of finding this week. It's cold outside here but still fun, and I really do meet so many cool and crazy people all day, it doesn't ever get boring.

Thursday was 'Merican Thanksgiving. It was amazing. We made a pot roast during our weekly planning for our Thanksgiving lunch/dinner. It was really good actually. The other missionaries just had McDonald's and then we walk in with a whole roast and fancy plates and it was really funny.

I'm grateful for so many things, but most of all for my family, friends, this chance to spread the true gospel of Jesus Christ, and the Chinese people.

Black Friday exists here in Canada too. Just not Thanksgiving. There were SO MANY people at Metro town so finding was really nice. Of course it's nothing compared to the American Black Friday. We really just saw lots of miracles as we followed the Spirit more while finding.

Saturday we went to go see PoPo again. She is the cutest little old lady. She is just hilarious. She has been sick recently so she has been kind of sad, so she was really happy to see us. She really is just like my Chinese Grandma, it's so funny!

Sunday I got to go to Nemo's baptism. I love that kid a lot! He was so excited and he said a little testimony afterwards that was the most awesome thing ever. I forgot my camera but I'll go home and grab it and send a picture of him later. That ward is awesome, he is going to do great there! And Vaughn got the Aaronic priesthood and he asked me to be in the circle for it. He is awesome too. It's so crazy how close friends you get to be with all of these people.

Well that's about it. I LOVE being a missionary. If y'alls wants to sends me anythings for dis here Christmas, I won't complain. *wink, wink*

Shout out to my friends back home getting engaged. It's SO weird, but I'm happy for all of you!

WO AI NIMEN!

​王長老

Elder Wallace

“One of the greatest secrets of missionary work is work. If a missionary works, he will get the Spirit; if he gets the Spirit, he will teach by the Spirit; if he teaches by the Spirit, he will touch the hearts of the people, and he will be happy….Work, work, work- there is no satisfactory substitute, especially in missionary work.” -Ezra Taft Benson

Work hard, give everything your all and God will provide!

I stole my companion's camera so I have some pictures. I'll send more later though!

Elder Claflin, Wallace, PoPo and Russell

Giving thanks for their Thanksgiving roast

may have broken a pan in the process

The Raost!!

Exorcism and E.T. - not the movies this time :(

So this week I kind of performed an exorcism, killed my companion, and got E.T.'d AGAIN (Emergency Transferred)

So yeah, life has been good

So Monday was a standard P-Day. We slept over in Burnaby with Elder Claflin and Elder Russell because all of the Chinese missionaries had a meeting in Burnaby on Tuesday. Elder Claflin was my companion in the MTC and Elder Russell was about 7 weeks ahead of us, so we knew him in the MTC as well. They are companions so it's really interesting because they both don't know Chinese (but more on that later)

Tuesday our meeting was pretty cool. Nothing to talk about really, just a faith booster I guess! We taught Yu Chen about the Baptismal interview questions and she is SO ready to be baptized on the 5th! Also taught Nemo who is getting baptized on Sunday! He is so cool. If you remember Fei, from back when I was in Richmond, he met with us again so that was really cool! He seems interested again.

Wednesday we spent the whole day up at UBC just teaching lessons and finding. It was really cool, some of those guys seem pretty solid. A recent convert took us out to dinner (#foodblessings) and we had some weird Chinese food. I ended up eating some pig ears, and pig stomach lining which was pretty good actually.

Thursday was really cool. The Assistants called in the morning and said that when Elder Hay leaves on Monday that I will be going to Burnaby to be with Elder Claflin and Elder Russell! It was crazy because we all don't know Chinese! But I guess this is what God wants, so that's what we'll do. We had Zone Conference with 6 other Zones (the whole lower mainland basically) and Elder Teh from the 70. It was a good meeting, and I felt God tell me that I need to give it my all go find somebody to baptize here in Burnaby. So that's what I'm going to do! We taught Nemo about the Plan of Salvation and it was easily the strongest I have felt the spirit in a lesson. It was awesome! Elder Hay said goodbye to him because he was going home and it was cool to see just how tight we had gotten with Nemo. He really likes us, I love that kid.

Friday was the most full I've been in months! We ate Wendy's with an investigator who wanted to say bye to Elder Hay, White Spot with some awesome recent converts (picture down below) and Burgers with our ward mission leader who wanted to say goodbye. All within a few hours of each other, but somehow I was able to eat it all! (#foodblessings)

So that Exorcism thing was weird. Friday morning a recent convert (who is a little quirky) texted us freaking out and said we need to come over and give her house a blessing. So we went over there and she said that the previous night she tried contacting spirits and then weird stuff started happening. It was a nasty feeling walking into her home. You could totally tell there was something evil in there. So, we said a prayer and cast out whatever was in there and gave her a blessing and instantly felt SO much better. She promised she would never do anything like that again! I guess it wasn't a full blow exorcism with people being possessed and stuff but exorcism sounds cooler, so we are going to go with that!

Saturday Elder Hay and I just moved all of my stuff to Burnaby, helped the new missionaries move into our old apartment and visited some of his recent converts. We got to eat dinner in one of their homes which was really cool. Just some standard weird Chinese food that I didn't want to ask what it was!

Sunday I killed my companion. Before you freak out, that's just missionary slang for somebody going home. Since I was his last companion before he went home, I "killed him". Elder Hay was an amazing missionary and I'm so glad I got to be with him. He really changed my mission. Now, it's the 3 "green" Chinese missionaries so it'll be an interesting rest of the transfer! We did teach a lesson all in Chinese and it went pretty well. I was actually pretty surprised at my Chinese skills. The gift of tongues is real! That's all I can say.

BTW: Today is my 2 month mark in Canada, and yesterday was my 4 month mark on my mission. It`s CRAZY how fast time is flying by.

Well, that's about it for now. It's going to be a crazy week, but I'm really thinking it's going to go well, and we are going to have success here. Love you all! See y'all next time!

Love,

王長老

Elder Wallace

"Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever." Alma 26:12

This scripture has meant a lot to me this week because I know that if we are going to be successful missionaries here we can't rely on ourselves. We NEED God. There is no way we could speak Chinese or teach effectively if not for the Spirit.

Elder Claflin and Russell, Elder Hey right before he went home

#FoodBlessings

Food blessings are the best blessings because, well, you can eat them!

This week we taught 9 new investigators which was amazing! When we first got into the YSA area it was completely dead, meaning there were 0 investigators. They all seem pretty solid. We taught a recent convert named David who basically does nothing with his life. He plays video games all day and wears the same clothes everyday. So we went in and basically ripped him a new one. It was interesting. It was what he really needed though, we ended up going with him right then to the store and just picking out a bunch of nice clothes and telling him to buy them. He did and said he will change so it was actually a lesson guided by the spirit, even though it might not have looked like it from the outside. We said everything he needed to hear and he changed!

We had 4 new investigators on Thursday through a miracle! Monday we didn't know where to go finding, so we said a prayer and felt that we should go to UBC. Well,we got 7 new investigators out of it so God is real! Thursday was a real miracle though, because we asked the girl we were meeting with to bring her friends who might also be interested and they are all really solid! They have been texting us about how well their prayers have been going and how they feel God answering them! The Kid I found last Monday is named Harry and he is really a true seeker. We have met with him twice and he is just really awesome. He wants to know more and get baptised.

Friday we had our Zone Meeting which was a really great meeting. President and Sister Burt were there which was really special. 

It's been super cold and rainy this week, but that's life! We still go out and work no matter what!

So about those Food Blessings (I know, you are all dying to know what that was about). This week we have had no food (not really our fault, it's a long story) so we just said a prayer that God would help us to eat. It worked! We had members text us and invite us over to dinner, we had a recent convert take us out to Boston Pizza, members just buy groceries and give them to us, it's been insane. As soon as we asked God to help us get food we became stuffed! We have even more appointments this week. I'm telling you, God is REAL!

So the big thing about Paris is huge here in Vancouver. They just started letting in thousands of refugees from Syria here, but then the attacks happened and now nobody wants to keep letting them in and send the ones already here back. People are scared what happened in Paris is going to happen here in Vancouver. There is supposed to be another boat of refugees this week and people are freaking out here. I don't know a ton, just what people on the street or our investigators tell us, but it's kind of scary. Make sure you keep all these people in your prayers. The world really needs it right now.

Well, love you all. The weeks just fly by here. I didn't take any pictures. I'll try, I'm just so busy!! Hope you all have a great week!

Love,

王長老

Elder Wallace

"Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?... for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself." (Matthew 6:31-34)#FOODBLESSINGS!!!!

For real though. As long as you seek after God, he will really bless you and take care of you, I have seen that over the past 4 months of my mission.

Exchanges, Miracles, and Meetings I'm Not Supposed To Go To.

So this letter is going to be a lot shorter. I don't have a ton of time because we just got back from the temple (which is why this is so late) and I forgot my journal so we'll see what I remember from last week!

Last Monday we moved completely over to Vancouver which took most of our P-day. We went to a former investigators new hair cut salon because he invited us over and apparently all he wanted was for us to be models. He didn't even cut our hair so that was interesting. So I might be a poster in a window for a random Asian hair cut place... Chinese people man.

We went over to see Chen PoPo, an old lady who has been spoiling missionaries for the past 30 years or so. She made us tons of food. It was fun to just get to visit with her. She is kind of crazy but really funny! Family Home Evening in the YSA ward is so much fun too!

We were finding and I found this really solid kid who is going to meet with us this week. I said a prayer with him on the street and he really felt it.

MIRACLE!

Tuesday we went on exchanges with the Spanish Elders in our district. It went pretty well. I just went finding the whole day.

2 pretty funny experiences: An old lady came up to me and asked me to help her cross the street. So I did, but when I tried to talk to her, she just started bashing the Mormon Church the whole time! It was an interesting experience to have somebody on your arm, but bashing your religion the whole time. She was a funny lady, that's not super weird in Vancouver to be honest.

The other one was we were finding down town, and there was this big group of old ladies from Taiwan I started talking to, and they just freaked out that I could have a conversation in Chinese with them. They wanted me to take pictures with them, and marry their daughters. Pretty standard stuff. There's a picture down below.

Actually, the Spanish Elders have been struggling recently, and the Elder I was with was able to find a potential who speaks Spanish!

MIRACLE!

I can't remember what happened on Wednesday. We have been teaching this SUPER solid kid named Nemo recently, and he is getting baptised at the end of the month.

So yeah, I found Nemo!

And I kid you not, his best friend is named Ariel. So we found Nemo and he was hanging out with Ariel! No joke.

It was actually a miracle how we found him. We were late for something and leaving the sky-train station and felt we needed to go back up there. And lo and behold, in the corner was Nemo! He actually got off on the wrong stop and was waiting for the next train. And now he is getting baptised.

MIRACLE!

Thursday we taught this amazing guy named Greg. He is white, but his wife is Chinese. His car got stolen and then he was cleaning out his rental car and found our Mormon.org card with out number written on the back so he called us and we meet with him and he is SO ready for the gospel. Basically all of the questions he asked us were from Lesson 1, and were able to be answered by the Message of the Restoration of the Gospel. God really worked hard to get him to hear the truth, he and his wife are getting baptised in December!

MIRACLE!

Friday was MLC (Mission Leadership Council) where all the Zone Leaders in the whole mission get together for an all day meeting with President and Sister Burt. Elder Hay was on the council for over a year, and since this was his last one, President invited him to come. I'm still a greenie, but President Burt let me come with Elder Hay which has never happened before. Apparently I was by far the youngest missionary to ever be allowed to be on the council. President pulled me aside and said the reason he wanted me there was so I can learn how it goes "just in case you happen to come back" (wink, wink). So it was a huge honour to be trusted so much by my Mission President. Friday night I went exchanges AGAIN with the Zone Leaders.

Saturday we just taught a lot of lessons with the Zone Leaders. It was in English, which is weird to teach in, since I'm so used to Chinese. The Zone Leaders broke the front bumper on their car which was really funny! It rained all day which was nice I guess.

Sunday we had church. That's all I remember, whoops!

Yesterday was really awesome. We went finding at UBC (University of British Colombia) and it is insane how easy it was to get people to talk to us. Literally everyone stopped to talk to us and we got about 13 potential investigators now. It was really awesome. Also taught a really inspired lesson with a semi former investigator Bruce. He committed to baptism on December 14 which is amazing. I really think he is going to follow through this time. The scriptures we felt inspired to share are just what he needed to hear.

Today we went to the temple and it was an amazing spiritual experience. I love to go to the temple, and it is really beautiful there. We took a picture but it hasn't been emailed to me yet, so maybe next week!

Love you all, you are all amazing. I love it here and hope you all see miracles every week!

Love,

王長老

Elder Wallace

 

Wallace Street in Vancouver, Happy Birthday Rachel

The Chinese ladies he met downtown, who were fascinated by him.

My friend just entered his mission and is working in the office so she tool these and sent them to me last week while he was in the office getting supplies!!!

Rain, Rain, Car Accidents, Rain, and Halloween

So this week most of our lessons fell through and most of our investigators dropped us. It's been an interesting week.

Monday was a slow P-day. Didn't really do anything, this P-day is going to be crazy busy because we have to move our whole house in Richmond over to our new house in Vancouver. That kid we found by a miracle and were going to meet up with didn't show up so that was a sad night.

Tuesday I kind of just broke down. Missions are really hard if you are wondering, plus there is a lot of stress from learning a new language. But I felt sorry for myself for about a half hour, then made myself a burrito and got over it and went to work! Because there is always work to be done and we just need to forget ourselves. We taught Joanne again. She is super awesome and we had Ning DiXiong be our member present again. He is an amazing member present. Just such an amazing member. I know I've talked about him a lot but he really is probably the coolest member of the church I have ever met. Then we had an appointment with a guy Elder Hay met on the street and right before he called and asked if he could bring 2 friends with him. So we got 3 new investigators which was awesome!

Wednesday we had District Meeting and I did my first Training. It went pretty well, I trained on our Mission President's weekly newsletter and about faith which went really well I think. Then we brought clothes for a few days and went over into our new apartment in Vancouver. I didn't take a picture but it is a REALLY nice apartment. Lots of space too. We taught a former investigator named Karrie and she seems pretty solid. Then I got to give my first Priesthood Blessing in Chinese which was a really cool experience.

So I'm in the YSA branch now and we had our Branch Mission Correlation meeting and it was AWESOME! It is just so much fun being in the YSA because all these people you are working with are the same age so it's really easy to make friends. It really is just a big family in that branch. I'm loving the YSA. Since we moved into a new apartment and didn't have any food, one of the girls at Correlation had some groceries in the fridge at the church that she gave us so we could eat the next day. Gotta say, I really love this branch.

Thursday we taught a recent convert named David who brought us Sushi which I loved. We got some more free food from an investigator who owns a butcher store. Also, do you remember Vicky? She was the girl who seemed really solid but found anti-mormon stuff? Well we met with her out of nowhere and she still isn't interested but we were able to answer her questions and I feel like later down the road she may get baptised. We taught another lesson with Emrys. She is an awesome girl.

Thursday night we were out finding and we saw a car accident which was pretty cool. It wasn't bad and nobody got hurt, just the cars were a dinged up kind of bad. They were both Chinese so we went over and helped them out and one of the guys is going to meet with us again! He is an old guy named Baldwin and is really funny!

Friday we taught a sweet new investigator named Sasuke. He seems really solid. He has been praying to come to church ever since he moved to Canada, but his Aunt that he lives with doesn't like church, so when he is meeting with us he tells her he is going to the library. The YSA just got a new Branch President a couple of weeks ago so him and his wife invited us over to dinner. They made us salmon and potatoes which were really good. He is a really awesome and spiritual man.

By Friday most of our investigators from Richmond dropped us which really sucked. A lot of them were SO solid and now none of them want to meet with missionaries anymore. Our most solid, Simon, hasn't been answering his phone but we are praying that he will still meet because his date was in 2 weeks.

Saturday we met with another former from the YSA named Yu Chen. She is really awesome. She even set her own baptismal date for December 5th. She really wants to get baptised so we are really excited for her. She is coming to Family Home Evening tonight at the YSA so we will teach her again tonight. Because it was Halloween we had to go back inside our apartments by 6:00 and start weekly planning so our Halloween was pretty uneventful.

Sunday was really good. It was daylight savings for the rest of the world (sorry Arizona, you aren't cool enough apparently) so we got to sleep in an extra hour! Buuuttt... we changed our phones before we went to bed, and then they changed on their own in the middle of the night so we actually slept in 2 extra hours. It felt awful to waste the Lord's time and we were kind of rushed in the morning but we did everything else on time which was good. The fast and testimony meeting in the YSA was really spiritual. Emrys was supposed to get confirmed but she showed up 2 1/2 hours late to church. Sacrament meeting is last in this branch so when she showed up halfway through the testimony meeting we stopped and then confirmed her and gave her the Holy Ghost. it was really cool, and she cried and said she really felt God's love. Afterwards they do a big "break the fast" dinner so the whole branch gets together and we ate a big dinner of pulled pork sandwiches which were really good and fun to bond with the branch.

Life is still good in Canada. Moving to a new area this week which is fun. We've been over there all week, but sleeping in both apartments on different days. As of today, we will be officially moved in! Hope you all have an amazing week, I know I'm planning on it! Love you all!!!!

Jia you!

王長老

Elder Wallace

This was a cool quote somebody said in Testimony meeting yesterday: "No matter how dark of a world you live in, Christ will always provide a light for you that can dispel ALL the darkness."

 

 

 

 

Top 2 photos are at Stanley park a few weeks ago

Got my hands on a 1970 edition of the Book of Mormon

Posing in front of the church

A Month in the Field and... Oh Look, I've Been Transferred Again...

So this past week I hit my 3 month mark on my mission. I've only been in the field about 5ish weeks and I've already been transferred 3 times now. So that's fun. I guess I must just be a troubled missionary XD.

So this past week was super busy and insanely long, but it was still awesome!

Since we were going to be busy this week we planned on sacrificing our P-day and teaching 5 lessons on Monday. But we would show up to the lesson and they all texted us that they were cancelling so that was an effective P-day (not). But I met a kid named Will on the street and was able to get his number and set up a return appointment all in Chinese. It's nice to see that my Chinese has improved enough that I can do that! But Tuesday we went to call him his phone didn't work so we figured it was going to happen...

Tuesday Elder Hay had his Departure devotional. He was supposed to go home on Wednesday but he extended so he is still here for 4 more weeks, but still went to his Departure Devotional. Basically they just go to the temple and have a big dinner with President and Sister Burt and have a big testimony meeting and then they all go home the next day. So for Tuesday I was with a Spanish speaker Elder and I got the Car!! It was AMAZING to get to drive again. It's been 3 months since I've driven a car and I missed that a lot. We basically just went finding the whole day since my Chinese is only a little better than my Spanish so we weren't able to teach any lessons.

Wednesday was Transfers and so all of the other missionaries that were getting transferred had to be driven around by us, so not a lot happened that day. We did get to go eat lunch with a recent convert who is kind of struggling at a Chinese restaurant (because that's all we ever eat XD) so that was really nice. 

Also for all you movie nerds, Wednesday was the day that Marty McFly went into the future. No hover boards yet, but the Cubs are supposed to win the World Series so we'll see how that goes :D

So because Elder Claflin and I came into the mission a week after transfers (because the MTC schedule is funky) we went to the Transfer Meeting this Thursday with the brand new missionaries. It was nice to get to spend time with President and Sister Burt, and to see all of the new missionaries and "impart our wisdom to them".
Because of Transfers last week there are no Chinese missionaries over Vancouver YSA Ward any more; so President said this week Elder Hay and I will cover it and then this week he will transfer new missionaries there (and if you're smart you can probably guess who it was :/). So because of this we were able to teach a girl named Emrys (Prounced Em-Er-Us) who ended up getting baptised yesterday. It was a miracle for us because we were praying that we would get a baptism this month after all our hard work, and the transfers happened and we were able to teach Emrys one last time and baptise her! God really does answer prayers and it was a miracle that we got to baptise her. Then we also got to teach our most solid investigator Simon. He is so ready to be baptised on the 14th and we are so excited for that day. After our lesson we went and ate Hot Pot together. For people who don't know what that is, basically the Chinese people just take a ton of random meat, veggies and other junk and put it all in a big pot and cook it. It was actually pretty good. I had some parts of a pig you don't want to know about (for example the intestines) and it actually wasn't half bad. I kind of liked it. There's a picture below.

Friday we taught a new Investigator Max who also came to church. He is super solid and I really think he will get baptised. Grace (the girl I taught my first lesson too) got baptised on Friday so that was my first baptism which was really awesome. We didn't get to go because we had lessons planned but I heard it was a really good service, and her testimony was really strong.

Saturday my favourite recent convert and his Mom took us out for lunch at this crazy Chinese food place. The Chinese eat the weirdest things. Let's just say: "Women de duzi bu tai shufu he women you hen duo de la duzi" which basically means our stomachs were having issues that day and leave it at that! Anyway, my favourite recent convert is named Bill, and he is a 13 year old kid and has one of the strongest testimonies I have ever seen. He is amazing and super funny. His English is terrible and his Chinese has a really thick accent but I love him to death. Had some really good lessons with out investigators though.

Something that is really funny about the Chinese people is that when they come to Canada they all want an English name and sometimes they will just Google names, or sometimes they just make things up. So in a week I literally meet about 20 Kevin's, Vincent's, and John's. But we have meet some interesting ones like Santa, Ice-e, Reindeer, Rudolph (and yes Rudolph and Reindeer were friends, I kid you not) Dark, Banana and whole lot of others. Then you get people who just make up stuff like Emrys, Garmer (who is an amazing convert) and a girl we met the other day name Krilddy. Not even I could make this stuff up.

Sunday we had about 6 hours of church because we had to cover YSA too. It was good though. It was weird going to YSA because:

One: They are all about my age

Two: Only about a 1/3 of them are Chinese which leads us to

Three: I got to go to my first Sacrament meeting in 3 months that I actually understood!

To be honest, it was weird to go to church in English, it just isn't the same! Our Gospel Principles class is still in Chinese which is nice though.

Emyrs' baptism was awesome. I got to be one of the witnesses which was nice. She is a super solid girl.

Sunday we saw a miracle. I was praying we would see Will again (the kid from Monday) and we DID! He is meeting with us tonight. His phone doesn't work right now so that's why we couldn't call him, but God put him back in our path which was amazing!

So if you are playing along at home, yes we got transferred again! We are being moved into the Vancouver YSA ward permanently! So we are leaving Richmond and most of our solid investigators, (we have 6 baptism dates as of right now) but I have faith that this is where the Lord wants us to go. Plus Elder Hay is super stoked to get to go finding at UBC (University of British Colombia) and I am too because it is really cool there and all the people are our age so it's easy to talk to them. So hopefully I'll actually get to stay there for a whole transfer. We'll see how it goes! I'm so excited.

Well, I guess that's about it today. I don't have a ton of pictures, just because we are so busy all the time. Hopefully I'll be able to keep at least one picture every week, but we will see how long that lasts.

Love you all, hope you have a blessed week! Happy Halloween this Saturday! 

Wo ai nimen!

王長老

Elder Wallace

"And now behold, I say unto you my brethren, if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?" This is a good thing to always be asking ourselves. Do we, right now, feel the Holy Ghost in our lives, and do we feel the joy of the gospel in this second. and if we don't, why?

 

The Hot Pot, full of meat, intestines, corn, random other vegetables and other assorted things I don't even know about. YUM!

Dead People and Lots of Food

So this week I got to dress a naked dead guy so that was fun

Tuesday was our P-day last week and it was super awesome. Elder Hay gave me a haircut which was fun! I got to skype a Chinese investigator living in Nanimo which was really cool. The really cool thing is that it was Sister Hemenway's investigator, somebody I knew from high school, so that was a fun connection. Then Tuesday night I went on exchanges with Elder Yue, who is Elder Claflin's Trainer.

Wednesday Elder Yue and I went to go dress that dead naked guy I mentioned. He was a member in our branch who died last week. He was a pretty old guy. I had never met him but his son, Ning DiXiong (Brother Ning), is probably the greatest member of the Church I have met in my entire life. He is a convert of about 6 years and has just taken a hold of the gospel and even though he only speaks Chinese so I don't understand a lot, when he teaches he has SO much power. He is an amazing man. Dressing his Dad was a little weird, and definitely not something I thought I would be doing as a missionary, but it was kind of a cool experience. Just very different. Dead people just feel like really cold, heavy clay, in case you were wondering.

While we were out finding on Wednesday night we were going to stop for dinner, but decided to just keep going and hope we would find time to eat. Then just before we had to leave we walked into a pizza place planning to just buy 2 slices for like 4 bucks. But (A blessing from God for staying out late to find people) The guy behind the counter said that he would sell us a whole extra large pizza for 8 bucks because nobody picked it up or something. Blessings for serving a mission are evident everyday.

I Especially love the ones for food. Those are nice.

Something I forgot to mention last week is that we were going back to the apartment on Monday night to go do my missionary training and we felt prompted to go finding again for 15 mins and the first person we met was Joanne. She is Golden. We have taught her twice already and she really wants to be baptized. Her story is that her Mom died and saw God who brought her back to life, and Joanne has had some very spiritual dreams where she has seen angels and she says she knows that God sent us to find her. Very awesome. Honestly I see miracles like this everyday, It's amazing how much God's hand is in our life if we just look for it.

Friday was Ning Bobo's Funeral (the guy I dressed on Wednesday) and it was a sweet service. I got to be a pallbearer which was also not something I expected to be doing on my mission. Ning DiXiong is amazing, because after the service, a lot of people were just standing around crying and he just shouts with the biggest smile on his face: "Why are you all crying? My Dad is in heaven and he is happy and resting. Stop crying, and go Eat!" The Luncheon was cool too, because it's all Chinese food. I eat so much Asian food it's ridiculous. I thought I was in Canada! XD The members here are awesome and they also gave us tons of food to take home.

We went to dinner with one of Elder Hay's recent converts who bought us some amazing sushi. Sushi is my favourite food so anyone who knows me knows I was stoked for it.

I kid you not, I have gained 14 pounds on my mission so far, and I've only been gone for 3 months! I'm gonna get fat!

Saturday we had to go take our car in for the month service (just changing oil and rotating tires) and it took 4 FLIPPING HOURS!!! It was the biggest waste of time, and we couldn't really find any Chinese people to talk to. But we did meet this really cool man from Nigeria who said he would come to church so that made it all worth it. My first transfer calls came. I'm still staying in Richmond with Elder Hay, but we used to have a Chinese Zone but that is gone now. I'm apart of the Vancouver Zone as of Wednesday.

Sunday we taught Gospel Principles and I think it went pretty well. Chinese is still hard, but I'm able teach a little more that I could a week ago, or a month ago, so that's all that matters. I got to see how God puts us in the right place at the right time even more Sunday night. I gave a pass-along card with a picture of Jesus to a lady and she just started bawling. She said 15 years ago she found the same kind of card on the ground and she took it home and cleaned it and then kept it. She was actually just coming from a funeral of someone she really cared about when I stopped her and she said it was evidence that God really does know who she is. It feels great to be that instrument in God's hand to bless others. Also, I met a kid and talked to him all in Chinese and was able to set up a return appointment for Wednesday. It was the best because I'm finally improving my language skills enough that I can be a useful missionary.

I love being here so much, and I love seeing just how much God cares and how he blesses me and the people around me everyday. Love you all, and I challenge you to really look around you this week and see how God has blessed you, because I promise you will find it!

Wo Ai Nimen,

王長老

Elder Wallace

"...He doth require that ye should do as he hath commanded you; for which if ye do, he doth immediately bless you..." (Mosiah 2:24) God will bless us as we do what he commands us, and like it says in the scriptures, he will IMMEDIATELY bless us as long as we follow what he says.

Sorry, not a ton of pictures this week.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

No, I'm not crazy. I'm Canadian.

So Canadian Thanksgiving was yesterday, which is why P-day is today. It was really fun. Especially spending Thanksgiving with Asians who don't really care or know how to make Turkey! It's so much fun here

Last Monday we went to Stanley Park which is a big Island right next to down town Vancouver. I have pictures down below. Monday night we were finding and saw a kid named Fei. Fei used to be an investigator but his Aunt made him stop meeting with the missionaries about a month ago. Then we saw him Monday night and he said he doesn't care what she says, he wants to get baptised. So that was sweet!

Tuesday was kind of a waste from a missionaries stand-point. The are some English Sister Missionaries in Langley who are teaching some Chinese investigators, and we were going to drive all the way out to the BC Temple (about 45 mins) to go teach them and see if they understand the English Sisters or need us to teach them. But they all cancelled so that was 2 hours of our day wasted. Then, since my companion is a Zone Leader, we had to take another companionship to the doctor and so it was just more time we could have spent talking to people. But we had an awesome lesson with an investigator named Simon who really wants to be baptised. He is an awesome kid.

Wednesday we had District Meeting and I felt like I could understand a lot.

This past week I've actually realized that I can understand about 80% of what the Chinese people are saying. I just still have a hard time talking back. But I can hear and understand a ton. We taught Fei Wednesday night and I asked him to be baptised at the end of this month and he said yes! The other missionaries asked him to quit smoking last month and he has been doing it which is super awesome! We ate dinner at this amazing place in Richmond. It's called the Richmond Public Market and it's just this huge ghetto parking garage and you go through these doors and in the middle is this GIGANTIC Chinese market. With tons of food stands and shops. It's super cool. No English anywhere, and ordering food in Chinese is the best!

Thursday while we were at the church doing weekly planning a Chinese family just walked into the church and said they want to learn more. My companion and I just looked at each other and said: "Yeah, we can help with that". It was a nice miracle and it was great that we were there because none of the people who work in the mission home speak Chinese. We are teaching the son and the Dad right now (Zhong Zhu and Ma Xian Sheng) and it seems to be going well. On Friday I asked Zhong Zhu to be baptised and he said yes. We taught a lesson with a girl named Vicky that we met on Wednesday. It went pretty well, but I'll talk more about her later. It doesn't have a happy ending. Also I forgot to mention that last Saturday I asked a new investigator name Yang to be baptised and he said he really wants to. We taught him again Thursday and when I was teaching him the Joseph Smith story he kept saying: "and then what happened? And then what?" He seems really solid.

Friday we taught a kid named Sammy his first lesson and he also said he would be baptised when I asked him. Then we went to this semi-active members house and watched the Joseph Smith video. Their kids are the most adorable things I have ever seen in my entire life. Asian little kids are 100x cuter than White kids, no question.

Saturday we taught Simon again. He is one hundred percent willing to give up coffee and tea and try and live the Word of Wisdom. He is probably my favourite investigator I am teaching right now. Saturday night we had Leo's baptism. He was taught by Elder Hay for like 3 months and then he passed him off to the other Elders when they opened their area so they had people to teach. We see Leo a lot and he is an awesome member. When he was baptised he just said "wow, I'm clean. This is the best" It was a good baptism service and Vicky and Fei both came. Fei said he really felt the Spirit and knows he needs to get baptised.

Sunday was hard. Vicky came to us with all of these false things she read on the internet about our church and was accusing us of all these things she "knows" is true, just because she read them on the internet. It was sad, especially because she wouldn't listen to us when we said those things were just downright lies but she said she is done meeting with us. It was sad to see her go because she really liked us and she really had potential. Simon and Fei came to church and both really loved it. Simon even was participating and making comments in the classes. Sunday night we went to a members house for Thanksgiving dinner. They had a ton of Chinese food, not really a normal Thanksgiving meal. They did have a Turkey, but it wasn't really that great. The other Chinese stuff was awesome though!

Monday was Thanksgiving. It was cold and pouring all day, and being from Arizona, it was the best Thanksgiving weather I could have asked for! There is a member who we call Chen Popo which means Grandma Chen in Chinese. She LOVES the missionaries, especially Elder Hay. She had her 85th Birthday yesterday and so she took Elder Hay and I and Simon out to lunch at a cool Chinese restaurant called Dim Sum. LOTS of strange Chinese food, and all of it was awesome! It was especially cool because she was able to help us teach Simon more. He is really progressing and it makes me so happy. We went to teach a couple who wanted to meet with us but they were really weird. They were trying to convince us that Christ has already come back and he is living in China, but not teaching or performing miracles, just moving around and serving. It was really weird. They said tons of other stuff that made no sense. It was basically a waste of time because they were not willing to listen to reason. Thursday night we went to a members house for another Thanksgiving dinner. She made Turkey, and it was actually pretty good, but it was definitely made by a Chinese person so it was not what Americans would think of when they think of Turkey. And we got to teach a good lesson with her non-member son. Monday night we taught Zhong Zhu and Ma Xian Shen again which was good.

All in all, it was a really awesome week. Our investigators are really solid and my Chinese is slowing improving. I'm loving my area and loving being a missionary so much. I've been really bad about including a spiritual thought, but now is better than never to start!

I really like what Elder Durrant said about "ponderizing" in General Conference so I'll include the scripture I'm "Ponderizing" this week:

"Behold, the Lord requireth the heart and a willing mind; and the willing and the obedient shall eat the good of the land of Zion in these last days." D&C 64:34

It's important to remember that God requires us to be willing and to give our heart and mind to him or else he can't bless or guide us

Love you all, have an awesome week!

王長老

Elder Wallace

The view from Stanley Park:

Leo's Baptism:

Leo's Baptism Program

E.T. (Emergency Transfers)

So I got transferred this week so that was fun.

I'm ok, but my trainer Elder Lau has been having some issues so they transferred me to Richmond for the rest of the transfer and possibly the rest of my training (10 more weeks)

I got Transferred on Friday night so I am no longer in the Vancouver Area. It kind of stinks because I really liked that place, and our investigators were doing awesome.

Monday night me and Elder Lau meet with John. He was teaching John back in August but he disappeared for like a month. He called us out of the blue and said he wanted to meet again. Apparently his friends just decided to go to America for 3 weeks out of nowhere so he just got in and went with them and we couldn't get in contact with them. But he said since he stopped meeting with the missionaries he noticed a real difference in his life and realized that he wants to get baptized. So I invited him to get baptized on the 23rd and he said that he would! The only problem is that he still smokes and is trying to quit so we were working with him on that.

Tuesday was awful at first, but then became super awesome. Elder Lau and I went out finding in the morning and I just wasn't getting it. I didn't know what to do, and I still can't speak the language and it was just really hard for me. I had one of those days that every missionary has where they wonder if they really can do this for 2 years. Luckily a miracle happened. Every week we do 24 hour companionship exchanges and I exchanged with Elder Hay (who happens to be my new permanent companion, but more on that later) He is the Chinese Zone Leader and is the coolest. He is just an amazing missionary and he taught me so much in those 24 hours and help me realize though Christ I can do anything, even talk to Chinese people on the street. We taught John and Grace again Tuesday and it seems like they still both want to be baptized. Also Tuesday night, we went to a baptism that the Burnaby Chinese Sisters had. It was a sweet service.

Wednesday we went and helped Zhu Jie Mei (Sister Zhu, a lady in our ward) move. It took forever and we she had a lot of stuff, but it was still fun. Service is always fun, and it was super fun to just speak Chinese as you do it.

Thursday was pretty uneventful. We went and finished helping Zhu Jie Mei move, and taught another lesson to John.

Friday we had Zone Meeting. It was all in Chinese so it was kind of hard to understand, but I could get the basics. Elder Lau and I went down town to teach a lesson to a kid from Brazil we found last week, so we actually taught in English. It was really weird to teach in English, and I've heard that I'll maybe only do that like once or twice my whole mission. But he seems pretty solid. We referred him over to the English Elders to keep teaching him. When I was down town I saw a dude on stilts, wearing a kilt, beat-boxing, and playing the bagpipes at the same time. It was so weird, I love the big city! So then later that night we taught John again, and I felt like I was able to teach and contribute more which was a great feeling. Then the Zone Leaders showed up and said we are going on an exchange for now.

Apparently Elder Lau was having a hard time being a trainer and it sounds like he is struggling with some other things, so that's kind of sad. But I love Elder Hay and he is an amazing trainer so far. The sad thing is I've been transferred to Richmond and don't get to teach John or Grace any more.

Saturday was General Conference and it was amazing. I watched it in English because I still don't know enough Chinese, but they did have a Chinese one. It was so cool to get to see our living Prophets and Apostles speak. I loved Elder Larry R. Lawrence of the 70's talk. We should always be asking God how we need to improve. I also loved Elder Holland's talk about mothers which made me realize that I got the best one! (Love you Mom!) Other good ones were Elder Hales', Elder Durrant's and Elder Bednar's.

Sunday we taught a super powerful lesson to a recent convert named Bill. He's a 13 year old kid from China who speaks like no English. But he is super solid and such a funny spiritual kid. I love him to death.

That's about it for now. Since I got transferred the best place to send mail and stuff is:

Elder Wallace
Canada Vancouver Mission

8440 Williams Rd
Richmond BC V7A 1G6
Canada

I also found out it takes 2 stamps to mail internationally. Didn't realize that until one of my letters got sent back XD. Love you all! Keep the faith, remember who you are, and remember what the prophets said to us this week!

Love,

王長老

Elder Wallace

Brandon and Elder Hay

Another cool car

Sign outside a church

 

Goodbye,America! Hello, Vancouver

It's about time! I'm so happy to finally be out of the MTC and in my mission. It's very different in the field than it is in the MTC. It's so much better! I loved my time in Provo, but Canada is the best!

Wednesday was crazy. We left the MTC at about 6 in the morning, then Elder Claflin and I, literally ran to Cafe Rio. It was amazing to have some real food after 2 months of the MTC food. Our flight was pretty uneventful. Customs was awful. We waited for literally 3 hours in the airport. They didn't even ask us any questions. The conversation went like this. "How long are you staying here?" "2 years" "Why?" "A mission." "Have you ever been arrested?" "No" "Ok, go sit down." That was it. And then we waited forever. But we got our visas so it looks like I'm staying here! Then we met the Mission President (President Burt) who is SO awesome.

My companion is Elder Lau from Hong Kong, who moved to Toronto 8 years ago. He was called as an English missionary but President Burt changed him to Mandarin after about 4 or 5 months. English is his 3rd language so it's not the best, but understandable. When he speaks Chinese it's hard to understand, but I think I'm starting to discern the accent.

My proselyting area is the Vancouver area which is so awesome!

You would all be blown away at how many Chinese people are here. Basically every sign you see is in English and Chinese. It's hard to believe I'm only in Canada. It seems like the only other white people I've seen are other missionaries!

Thursday it rained basically all day, but for a dessert kid I loved it! The only problem is nobody really wants to talk to you if it's raining, they don't want to get wet.

I taught my first lesson in a Tim Horton's which was pretty cool. Tim Horton's are everywhere in Canada, it's awesome! And by taught, I mean my companion and our member present did all the teaching and I sat there trying to figure out what was being said. Chinese is so hard, especially because everyone speaks SOO much faster than what I'm used to. I feel like I learned nothing in the MTC. Luckily everyone has that feeling so I know it will come in time. Our investigator is named Grace Huang and she has a baptismial date for October 23rd and is progressing well, which is so awesome. We then got to go to the church and give the sister missionaries' investigator a blessing, which was a cool experience.

Friday we went to go visit the Ling Family. The wife is a progressing investigator, but the husband doesn't really want to do anything church related. They are both super nice and love listing to us and talking with us though. They are an older Chinese couple who don't really speak English. But they are super funny. I guess he said my hair looks Jewish (whatever that means) and she said I'm very handsome and should get a Chinese girlfriend so I can learn faster. They are really fun to be with! I guess the Chinese people think tall white guys are good looking, because everyone keeps telling me I'm super handsome. It's so funny!

Talking to people on the street is hilarious. I'll just walk up to a Chinese person and start speaking Chinese and they look like they just saw something exploded. They get so startled when a tall white kid starts talking to them in Chinese!

Saturday we went back to the Ling family and taught their son Cation. Sunday was the Mid-Autumn Festival (a really big Chinese holiday) and so Ling Xiang Sheng gave us some moon-cakes which is a pretty popular Chinese dessert. It's really good. Cation doesn't really speak Chinese so that was good for me because I could actually teach. But the thing with Cation is he is the laziest, most un-open kid I've met in my life. All he does is sleep and play video games all day long. he might go weeks without leaving his room. We tried to get to know him and be his friend but he doesn't really want to. Hopefully he'll start to change. His parents are really worried about him.

Sunday we went to church and it was a little bit overwhelming. We go to the Chinese ward in Burnaby so we need to travel for about a half hour to get there. A lot of members tried to come talk to me but I had no idea what they were saying. I'm just praying that the gift of tongues will come soon. We visited a less active young man, and the Zhang Jiating, a part member family. They gave us tons of fruit and moon-cakes again which was nice. I think moon-cakes are my new favorite dessert!

That's about it for the week. Some cool things about Canada; the stereo-types are one hundred percent true. Everyone (at least all the English speakers) totally say "eh?" and "soory" and "aboot". It makes me so happy! Also I'm not sure if it's a Chinese thing or a Canadian thing but you take you shoes off as soon as you enter a house and put on some flip flops. Vancouver is SUPER rich so I see like Ferrari's and BMW's and Maserati's and Lamborghini's every day.

The M in the McDonald's logo has a maple leaf in it, they have this thing called Poutine which is basically french fries, cheese and gravey and is very interesting, their money looks like Monopoly money and the coins are called "Loonies and Toonies" I couldn't make that up if I tried. It's the best!

Oh, and My new address is:

Elder Wallace

112-6015 Tisdall Street

Vancouver B.C. V5Z3N1

Canada

I'll be there for a while so feel free to send me things! ;)

Love you all!

王長老

Elder Wallace

 

Starting on top left:

The Wah Yan Ward program, Canadian Money

Cool Car, Moon Cakes(so good)

Poutine: An interesting Canadian meal., It’s so beautiful here

There was legit, a Chevron just floating  in the middle of the ocean., city

city from a far, what I’ve been eating daily

Chinese signs, Heading to Canada

Me, Elder Claflin and OuYang Laoshi,

Our District and Song Laoshi