Elder Brigham Blackhurst: Nihao from the Land Down Under

My companion and trainer - Elder Hu

Hey everyone! It's been a crazy couple weeks since I last emailed. For all those of you angry at me for not sending anything out last week, sorry about that. Between that morning and the time zones and all that craziness, this is the first chance I had.

So! For all my American friends, I'm sitting at a Heidelberg library computer in Melbourne Australia at 10:30 AM on September 13. Most of you will probably read this before that time.

Lots to talk about, and I've only got about 90 minutes before I have to run. We have two hours every P Day (Wednesday) to email. Forgive me, friends, if I don't respond to your personal emails. I promise, I read them all, and they bring a smile to my face. Keep them coming.

Most of you will be familiar with the old comedy routine, Who's On First? (If you aren't, look it up - it's funny and it's about baseball. Two fantastic things.) In the sketch, there are two men - the first asking for the names of the players on the teams, and the second answering him. I bring this up for a number of reasons. One: Since arriving in Melbourne, I have been the first man. I ask questions and the responses I get, whether or not they're true, are going over my head. Two: there is no baseball here. Three: the first day I arrived, we all met together with our zone, and within six hours of arriving, we were on the street, talking to people about the gospel. We were randomly assigned companions for that first hour - we'd get our actual companions the next day. I was assigned to Elder Hu. We go out, we teach (more about that later) and we come back. On the way back into the church, Elder Hu asks me, "Do you know who will be your trainer?", to which I respond, "No, I don't know yet."

Surprise. He knew. Hu (who) is my trainer.

Elder Hu is my missionary trainer/father/companion and we've had a blast the first week. Native zhongguoren (yessss) and a great leader. He's only been out for four months or so, so we've been growing a lot together. Both of our languages are growing together. He's also a phenomenal cook, so I've been eating very, very well.

The food. Oh my goodness, the food. I've been introduced to so many new foods, none of which are Aussie. I've had more noodles in the last week than I had the four months prior and it has been awesome. I've also eaten more spicy food than I ever would have cared for, and I'm mastering chopsticks. A word of advice if any of the friends back home are called to Melbourne Mandarin speaking: forget the Melbourne. I'm virtually in China. The food I eat, the meetings I attend, the streets I walk, the people I meet - Asian. Everything. Even the people I'm supposed to approach on the street are only supposed to be the Chinese (which is hard, because Chinese and Japanese and Korean and Vietnamese and Malasia and Singapore...). I'm learning to love this culture and I'm grateful to be a part of it.

Chinese. To be perfectly honest, I've never been more worried about any personal burden I have to leap than this language right now. I understand maybe 10% of the words in any given conversation and my understanding is low. My speaking is pretty rough, especially in every day coversations. Grammar is rough. Vocab is rough. It's all kinda bearing down. Still, day by day. Line upon line, precept upon precept. It will come.

I love my flat. It's roomy and the only one I share with is Elder Hu. Pictures below.

So, every day follows a similar pattern. Wake up, morning prayers, workout (run or pushups or whatever else) for half an hour. Shower. Breakfast. Planning for the day. Planning is usually followed by personal studies, companion studies, and a bit of the program they have for the newbies (typically referred to as Greenies, but in Melbourne, Pres. Vidmar calls us 'Goldens' - Olympian, go figure). After that is lunch, and then we head out. If we have a lesson, we go to the lesson. Otherwise, most of the time, we go GQing: find a place on the street and talk to anyone (any Asian) who will listen to me. And to be honest, there aren't that many who do. But we keep going anyway. Those of you who know me know I was bad enough at conversing in English - forget my broken Chinese, especially with people who don't speak English as a native tongue. It's hard and I've got a long way to go. Even then, I love it. I love being out there and sharing it. It means the world to me. Just waiting for the ones who are ready to take it and let it mean the world to them too.

Anyway. After that, we head back to the flat. Dinner and language study. I've fallen asleep with my head on my book and a pencil in my hand almost every day this week. It's long and it's hard but it's so good. Looking forward to being totally adjusted to this new world.

Let's see. What else?

We've got several investigators. The Chinese are different - it's a different culture and different contacting. Still, there's a few and they're all golden. Love them. First day, I met Chelsy. Super sweet. Very curious about the church, but not a lot of desire to change. We're working with her. We've also got Shan, who is a little less good. She likes railing on Australian politics. We can't really discuss politics, so that's been interesting. Leo is awesome. Love him. Willing to keep commitments and wants to follow God. Not so sure about everything we teach, but he's willing to learn. And Liu - he's golden. Praying and studying. Accepted a commitment to baptism. We're so excited and proud of him. The glow and joy in him is apparent. I'm very excited to keep working with him.

And then there's Kong. To all my speakers: Ta fang women gezi le.

DRIVING. Aurgh. Thank heavens my companion drives, because the roads are terrifying. Wrong side of the road. Enough said. When the time comes for me to drive, I'm going to die.

More stories. First night here, we stayed at the mission home. Sis. Vidmar beat every one of the new Elders at ping pong. That was fun. A little humbling.

I found Beanie hair on a shirt today. Beyond all logic and physics and reason, that dang dog still managed to follow me over here. What the heck.

Being on the opposite side of the world is weird. The jet lag is still lingering. I spent a fair amount of time stargazing back home - all of a sudden, the sky is different and it's a little bizarre. But the sky is so clear. Unlike the MTC, the stars are bright every night. And that's been a blessing. In all this madness, it's been stressful. There is no doubt that mission work is hard. And I've only been here a week. I know, however, that God is watching out over me. He answers my prayers. He comforts me when I don't think I can do it. He helps me find the courage to go and open my mouth. We've all got struggles and trials and walls in front of us. I've got Chinese, I'm sure you all have your own. May we all better rely on our loving Father in heaven this week. He's ready to help us, to bless us. We just need to trust in Him.

I love you all dearly. I miss you all. But this work is the most incredible thing. I'm honored to be out here and I'm excited to see what adventures will come.

Elder Blackhurst