Welcome to Primary

Hello, everyone! Another great week in the city. A happy Father's Day to all of our wonderful fathers. We had some really special experiences this week, and I'm so grateful to be working where I am. 

We'll start with the biggest, of course: our investigator Chichi was baptized this last Saturday. Super sweet experience. She's been learning and progressing for a very long time. We were proud to see her make that commitment to follow the Savior and be baptized as he was. Pictures below. It is so special to watch these people go from no faith or belief, to trusting in God enough to decide to change their lives to follow Him. Magnificent. That truly is what the Savior taught, is it not? All He did in his mortal ministry was give up of Himself to bless others. We do the same - change our own wills to align with the Father's. 

Working with Elder Zhao has been a blast. I've said this before, but I'm repeating for emphasis: he's absolutely nuts. Loves the lord and knows the doctrine and not afraid to let anyone else know it. He spent about half an hour yesterday debating with an Chinese man over the phone over necessity of baptism and the relationship between doctrine and church organizations. He speaks super quick and loves teaching. I swear he's going to be a first class university professor some day. We spent the bulk of a companion study the other day going through all of the old primary songs - Keep the Commandments, Book of Mormon Stories, Popcorn popping on the Apricot tree, Books in the New Testament...lots of fun. He particularly liked Follow the Prophet, so it was a lot of fun singing about Adam and Noah and Moses and Elisha. 

Mandarin is still progressing. 慢慢来，one day at a time. I bought a Chinese textbook today, which I'm hoping will improve my reading comprehension. Incredible to reflect back and see my progress - the Lord has blessed me so much. 

We've got a few other progressing investigators, and one or two are moving towards baptism. Exciting stuff.

A shoutout to everyone in my family except for Porter for writing me letters last week. I love your notes and seeing your handwriting. Miss you all bunches.

Have a great week, everyone! Make it a good one. Look forward to hearing from you all next week!

Elder Blackhurst