Hey hey, 大家好!!
Another week in the books! Normally I write about one or two experiences in these emails because the days are not too different. However, this week was crazy because we had ZERO normal days in our area due to three exchanges!
'Exchanges' are when missionaries switch companions for a day with junior missionary leaders. They usually happen once or twice every six weeks (1 transfer) and are kind of spaced out.
However this week we had all three because all of the junior missionary leaders, (district leaders, zone leaders, and the assistants to the presidents) requested them in the same week! The most in a week is usually two because APs don't usually do exchanges. However, we had this opportunity because I am still in training and they wanted to meet with each trainer-trainee.
Since we go to the junior missionary leaders' areas during exchanges, we were out of our own area for three days out of the week. As Sundays and Mondays are church and them p-day, we had two open days in our area. That Wednesday and Friday was filled with zone conference and district council, respectively. So no days left open!
We do reports on exchanges, so I've changed them a bit and pasted it below!
9/9 Tuesday was my first transfer with Elder Chuy in Sheung Shui. He is the district leader and lives in our apartment, so you probably see him in the pictures a lot. He is half Peruvian! Recently during District Council Elder Chuy and Elder Cole introduced the "5 second rule" which encouraged us to identify someone to talk to someone within 5 seconds of getting on transportation. During this exchange, Elder Chuy was an awesome example of how to do it well. He also teaches in Cantonese very impressively! We had a referral come to church for the first time and Elder Chuy and I worked well together to share about the many different aspects of our worship. It is cool to see how different Elders teach about this gospel differently.
9/10 Friday was the exchange with Elder Rooks in Shatin/Tai Wai! Elder Rooks made a big emphasis on "chumming" before "setting the hook" or basically getting to know people before asking them a golden question. I feel like I usually try to gauge if they are interested in our message right off the bat, but Elder Rooks showed me the importance of finding their needs before sharing how our gospel could benefit them! I feel we worked very well together. Our finding felt very natural and his relaxed composure helped us start a lot of conversations. It was also cool to see the different cultures in different areas. Shatin had a lot of schools, so scheduling our finds when students had rest periods gave us a lot of chances to find people!
This last exchange with Elder Jayagran was a blast. Elder Jayagran and I talked a lot about the best way to approach people, because his method seemed very bold to me haha. However, I understood that he acted in the ways that the spirit prompted him! In the evening of this exchange I had the unique chance to invite a person off the street to have an impromptu chapel tour. It was my first chance to do something like this, and it was so cool to be able to have this experience with Elder Jayagran teaching with me. We also had a cool experience where I was able to not just stand but sit down to talk to a grandpa. Elder Jayagran and I sat down where he was resting to share about the Book of Mormon. Their new friend is also golden. We talked a lot about the fourth watch, and how it was all coming possible! We shared a lot about our own experiences with weakness and how aligning our will with God's will bring us the most strength, and most importantly, joy!
