Dear Family!
Hello. This is Elder Graham. Nice to hear that you guys had fun in Vegas. And its cool that Sisi got her patriarchal blessing.
My District is flying right now. Since I've been here we have had 4 baptisms and two more coming this week for the girls that I did baptismal interviews for. And many more to come. Conference was awesome. (duh) but we only got to watch Sundays sessions because they never burned the Saturday session for us. Anyway. we will probably get to watch those next preparation day. This is my third Conference as a missionary! Every night is really busy for me because I am on the phone talking to my district and then reporting about my district to the zone leaders. All night until 1030 when its lights off and time for bed. But that's OK.
So last week on Tuesday was 4 yue(month) 4 hao(day). and when you say the number four in Chinese it sounds like you are saying "death" but with a different tone. So here that is a holiday called "tomb sweeping day" And every year the missionaries go and help out with the tomb sweeping. (pictures will come in the next email i send today). It was interesting. All the yellow paper that you see is fake money for the ancestors to use in the afterl
ife. They normally burn the money after they "bai bai" an ancestor. One thing that is super weird is that after seven years of being buried the oldest grandson of that person has to go to the grave and dig up the bones (sometimes they just bury the bones in a pot, not the whole body in a coffin). Then after the oldest grandson digs up the body, he destroys the tombstone and all the "gods" that were built around the grave to protect it. Its really weird.
Then not much happened until Saturday when we had the two baptisms, and three sessions of conference! we didn't have time to do any proselyting. But we managed to get two lessons in that day. Anyway. At the baptism, I was the one who conducted it. In Chinese. sweet. So it went pretty well. The sisters here really helped us out by helping the littl
e nine year old girl in the bathroom. Her name is Jiang Pei Huan and she was really scared to bear her testimony. But while she was changing into her normal clothes, the sisters practiced with her and she did great. They also took my camera and took a few pictures of jiang pei huan as she came into the bathroom all wet from baptismal font water. It was really good. Then right after they left I had to do a Phase 1 evaluation. And that just means I make sure that the younger missionaries have good Chinese. Then RIGHT after that conference started. It was really good. I got a lot of revelation for my self, for my district, and for my investigators.
One thing that I learned this morning in personal study is how important the book of mormon is to missionary work. If you would turn with me to Alma 37:9, you will find out how I found out.
We are teaching this kinda crazy guy named li3. His job is fixing and painting and just all around maintaining Daoist gods. But the reason he is meeting with us is... well he has 2.
1. There are way too many Daoist gods and he is sick of trying to memorize them all.
2. If they really were real gods then they wouldn't break down and need repainting and stuff like that and his job would be really easy.
haha isn't that funny?
I forgot to tell you that my last day in Gaoxiong I drank this soup that is made by crushing turtle shells to dust and then adding hot water. Its really good for your bones apparently.
Also we have a ton of lizards that are in our house. Its so annoying. All they do is poo everywhere.
Love elder graham.
--
See ya in a year,
桂長老
桂俊杰
Elder Graham
Hello. This is Elder Graham. Nice to hear that you guys had fun in Vegas. And its cool that Sisi got her patriarchal blessing.
My District is flying right now. Since I've been here we have had 4 baptisms and two more coming this week for the girls that I did baptismal interviews for. And many more to come. Conference was awesome. (duh) but we only got to watch Sundays sessions because they never burned the Saturday session for us. Anyway. we will probably get to watch those next preparation day. This is my third Conference as a missionary! Every night is really busy for me because I am on the phone talking to my district and then reporting about my district to the zone leaders. All night until 1030 when its lights off and time for bed. But that's OK.
So last week on Tuesday was 4 yue(month) 4 hao(day). and when you say the number four in Chinese it sounds like you are saying "death" but with a different tone. So here that is a holiday called "tomb sweeping day" And every year the missionaries go and help out with the tomb sweeping. (pictures will come in the next email i send today). It was interesting. All the yellow paper that you see is fake money for the ancestors to use in the afterl
ife. They normally burn the money after they "bai bai" an ancestor. One thing that is super weird is that after seven years of being buried the oldest grandson of that person has to go to the grave and dig up the bones (sometimes they just bury the bones in a pot, not the whole body in a coffin). Then after the oldest grandson digs up the body, he destroys the tombstone and all the "gods" that were built around the grave to protect it. Its really weird.Then not much happened until Saturday when we had the two baptisms, and three sessions of conference! we didn't have time to do any proselyting. But we managed to get two lessons in that day. Anyway. At the baptism, I was the one who conducted it. In Chinese. sweet. So it went pretty well. The sisters here really helped us out by helping the littl
e nine year old girl in the bathroom. Her name is Jiang Pei Huan and she was really scared to bear her testimony. But while she was changing into her normal clothes, the sisters practiced with her and she did great. They also took my camera and took a few pictures of jiang pei huan as she came into the bathroom all wet from baptismal font water. It was really good. Then right after they left I had to do a Phase 1 evaluation. And that just means I make sure that the younger missionaries have good Chinese. Then RIGHT after that conference started. It was really good. I got a lot of revelation for my self, for my district, and for my investigators.One thing that I learned this morning in personal study is how important the book of mormon is to missionary work. If you would turn with me to Alma 37:9, you will find out how I found out.
We are teaching this kinda crazy guy named li3. His job is fixing and painting and just all around maintaining Daoist gods. But the reason he is meeting with us is... well he has 2.
1. There are way too many Daoist gods and he is sick of trying to memorize them all.
2. If they really were real gods then they wouldn't break down and need repainting and stuff like that and his job would be really easy.
haha isn't that funny?
I forgot to tell you that my last day in Gaoxiong I drank this soup that is made by crushing turtle shells to dust and then adding hot water. Its really good for your bones apparently.
Also we have a ton of lizards that are in our house. Its so annoying. All they do is poo everywhere.
Love elder graham.
--
See ya in a year,
桂長老
桂俊杰
Elder Graham
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