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
No comments:
Post a Comment