I'm not sure you all know, but writing good quality emails is a struggle. I do my best, but after a year, there's only so much you can say without repeating yourself over and over again. I apologize for any redundancy.
I tell you this, not because I need you to know, but I need some sort of header to this email. I think this will do.
Let's dive into this week.
This week convinced me that there is success to be found in tracting if you find the right neighborhood. Last week, you may recall, we went out with Elder Norby and found a good area with several Chinese families. If it ain't broke, don't fix it - we went back to that same place and continued to comb those streets. We've got four or five families we'll be going back to in the next several weeks, along with a couple other students. One of those houses was a young Australian man who invited us in at the door. We shared the message of the restoration with him. For a Chinese missionary who spends all day at the university, that's a special experience. I love being a missionary and sharing this message, all day every day. Nothing like it.
Chinese is still growing, bit by bit. Language study is getting a liiiiitle thin recently, with a lot to take care of, but still improving. I've got a box in our flat, I made it myself. I've got the transfer's Chinese flashcards that slot into the week's flashcards, split into seven parts, so every day I have a few cards I need to memorize. This week we're slacking a little bit, so instead of just 12 in my pocket, I've got almost 30, leftover from previous days. And as all you procrastinators know, the bigger the project gets, the less appealing it is to start. Hopefully we take care of those before they pile up too much.
We get phones in a week! Nothing to report now, but hey. That's exciting.
Woke up Sunday morning pretty sick. That wasn't fun. I didn't really want to get up, but I did, and went and laid down on the floor. Anyway. I know the Lord watches over His missionaries because we had two hours of meetings before a three hour church block followed by a lesson with a new investigator and then a dinner appointment and somehow I got through it all without falling completely to pieces.
By the way, that investigator was one of our several new investigators. The students are all now starting to get over finals and have free time to talk to us again. Very exciting.
A YSA member of our ward is organizing our P Day activity - a nerf war between the Elders in our zone and the City missionaries, which will be a lot of fun. I woke up this morning and got dressed in P Day clothes and stopped a moment in front of the mirror. I was dressed as I would have if I were about to head out to the Red Mountain High School D-Backs performance - red choir T-shirt, blue jeans, tennis shoes. KC hat on my head. Maybe I look a little rounder in the face now than I did when I left, but besides that, all pretty much the same. But the thing that stood out to me was the difference one year and that little black name tag make. I am a representative of Jesus Christ. I get to praise His name each and every day among the people in Melbourne. I love it so. How grateful I am for Him, and for the magnificent plan of redemption. I know why I am here and what I'm doing. I know it isn't always easy - rarely is. But He isn't expecting our perfect performance - just that we do our best. And that, I can do.
I love you all, miss you lots. Lucy turned thirteen this week - crazy.
Jiayou!
Elder Blackhurst
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