The Flu

Hey all,

Elder Tsai has been sick for the past few days, so we've had a pretty slow week. The past couple days especially have been mostly sitting around doing not much. At least I've been able to do a LOT of language study.

In other news, on Tuesday we had a dinner appointment with the elders quorum president in the branch. They made dumplings and chicken. I can't tell you how many times I've eaten dumplings and chicken just in the past two months, but it was still good nonetheless. The Metro got shut down for about 15 minutes while we were on our way over, so we had to fight through hundreds and hundreds of people to get crammed into a train. It kinda looked like the world was ending in the stations. 

On Wednesday we had Zone Conference. We spent pretty much the whole time doing trainings on smartphones in preparation for next transfer when we actually get to use them. The main idea was "we don't really know how this is gonna work, but the Lord trusts you to figure it out. Don't do dumb stuff." I'm just excited to learn how to text people in Chinese. 

On Thursday, Oliver and Jiaying (the first investigator I taught in the field) requested that Elder Lehnardt and me to come to Oliver's house for lunch. I'm not entirely sure why they wanted us two specifically, but I suspect it was just so they could laugh at how bad our Chinese is. Which they did, but we were still able to communicate just fine. 

On Friday we took a trip to the Temple to help the branch do baptisms for the dead. The Branch doesn't have enough priesthood holders to run a baptism session, so we [missionaries] got special permission to go. In total, we had President Aloi (the white Branch President), Sophia, and one sister from an English ward in the west of the island who had to leave before we started. It was a pretty unsuccessful trip, but we got a lot of names done. 

After the baptisms, Elder Tsai was really feeling sick, so we went over to President Aloi's house with Elder Hsiung and Elder Saunders, who were also sick, and slept on his couch for about three hours. Elder Saunders helped President Aloi do some paperwork for the Branch to justify us using his couch. 

On Sunday, Sophia invited us to have dinner at her house with about 15 other people. In total, we had Sophia, Alice, Lanying (the recent convert baptized with Alice), Guanghui (the assistant ward mission leader) and his family, the senior sisters in our district, Yang yuan Lan, three of Sophia's super Quebecois friends who seemed very lost in all the commotion of making that much Chinese food, and Elder Tsai and me. Despite the huge number of people, we still didn't manage to even come close to finishing all the food she made.

Here's a picture of the first round of food Sophia made. There was a lot more that came after this

Yesterday, Elder Tsai was too sick to work, so I got to take another four-hour nap and read Chinese Liahona all day. It was pretty nice.

That's all for me this week. It's been an interesting one.

Love you all,

Elder Hadden

Mormonspeak 

elders quorum -   In the LDS church, this is a local quorum organized in each ward, but presided over by a president, who acts under the direction and authority of the local stake presidency, and under the direction of the bishop.

Zone Conference - Every three months, missionaries in several districts (a district is a group of missionaries serving in the same local area) hold a zone conference, which is held under the direction of the mission president. Many of the missionaries will have to travel to these meetings. They conference can cover a wide range of topics.

branch - In the LDS Church, there are two types of local congregations:  a ward is the larger, the smaller being a branch. A ward is presided over by a bishop, the equivalent of a pastor in many other Christian denominations, whereas a branch is presided over by a branch president.

baptisms for the dead - Jesus Christ taught that baptism is essential to the salvation of all who have lived on earth (see John 3:5). Many people, however, have died without being baptized. Others were baptized without proper authority. Because God is merciful, He has prepared a way for all people to receive the blessings of baptism. By performing proxy baptisms in behalf of those who have died, Church members offer these blessing sto deceased ancestors. Individuals can then choose to accept or reject what has been done in their behalf.  (from LDS.org)

ward mission leader - A member of the ward who coordinates the ward's efforts to find, teach, and baptize people who are investigating the LDS church.  He coordinates the work of the ward missionaries and full-time missionaries with priesthood 

senior sisters - female missionaries aged 40 and above.  

The Liahona - Elder Hadden is referring to the church magazine for countries outside the United States.  The magazine provides spiritual messages for adults, youth, and children. Contents also include church news and briefs. The magazine is named after a brass ball described in the Book of Mormon.  The ball had two pointers that gave directions-as a compass--and also spiritual instructions to Lehi and his followers when they were righteous. The Lord provided the Liahona and gave instructions through it.