November 28, 2010 Thanksgiving and I gave my first Blessing!

Dear family,
I haven't gotten an email yet from you guys but that's OK because you guys didn't know I would be emailing this early. But my bike is at the shop because I'm putting new handlebars on it. Anyway we are going to the island today so we emailed early.

I got the package last Saturday! Thank you guys! And again the pictures were the best part! I still expect to get pictures in the mail once in a while! And all the thanksgiving stuff was perfect because on Friday we went to our white bishop's house and had a massive Thanksgiving feast! That was the first time I've seen sushi and dumplings at a Thanksgiving party.. Anyway as we were leaving, the bishop's wife gave us lasagna and a whole chicken from Costco! And we were going to make all the stuff last night for dinner but we forgot to buy milk and butter and other essential things. So we haven't made it yet. And tell the girls that the cookies were amazing! I ate them all already. And I gave my companion 3 of them and he said (directly translated into English) "super good eat!" Which of course means they were really good.

This week I did something I have never done before. I gave a blessing! An older lady named Amy Lee needed a blessing and us Elders were the only ones at the church with the authority to do it. I gave it in English and she understood. It was just a normal priesthood blessing. Not one for the sick. But it was cool and she has told me several times that she is feeling a lot better.

So this week I started reading the Book of Mormon in Chinese. So far in any random verse I can read about 50-60% of the characters. Yay for progress!!

On Saturday we went to this place to buy some parts for my companions bike and it was so funny. Everything there is secondhand which here just means it was stolen. Anyway, we went there and I bought a watch for 50 Yuan which is really cheap and its cool because it is solar powered which is perfect because I'm out in the sun all day!

Last week we got an email from President Bishop saying he wants us to add lots of investigators this past week and give them all goals to be baptized on Christmas! cool huh? Anyway so this week we talked to lots of people and had lots of first lessons. That lesson just never gets old does it?

This is from Elder Lai:
我愛你們的餅乾 !! 這些餅乾讓我覺得我在美國傳教 ! (I love your cookies!! These cookies make me feel like I'm serving a mission in the United States!)

OK umm if I don't get an email from you guys by the time we leave, I'm going to try and pull out money to buy the camera. Thanks you guys so much. I hope its not like a big financial burden.
Ummm right now I have to write my presidents letter so if I think of anything else i want to say I will email again.

See ya in two years,
桂长老
桂俊杰
Elder Graham