Officially no longer a greenie

Or, as we call them here, goldens. Vidmar likes gold. 

Hey everyone! Another great week. Lots of exciting things - first and foremost, I've bid Elder Hu adeiu and am now serving with Elder Feng. We're still up north in Heidelberg, but I'm exciting to work with him. It's his very last transfer, so I also have the pleasure of killing him at the end of his mission. What fun. 

This last week was certainly busy. Most of our investigators went home to China for the break, so our teaching pool has shrunk considerably. We're a little worried, seeing as Melbourne gets a little hotter with every passing day and it seems our schedules have more and more open time for contacting on the street. Really, really, really hoping for some new and very keen investigators - for both their sake and ours. 

As for the ones who are staying, they're all doing great. J has really been trying to keep commitments. S is progressing and learning a lot. YMN spent a lot of time with us this week - the branch loves her. We really hope she sticks with the lessons. She attended our honorary Thanksgiving feast (organized by our lovely American senior couple), which was a lot of fun. They're all so good, our investigators. I love these people. There's a shift, when you go from teaching people to trying to help people you love. I'm not that good at it, to be honest. I'm not that outgoing or social of a guy. But here, I'm willing to work for them. I hope and pray I can continue to increase my love for them.

As the title suggests, I finished my training. Wooohoh. (party noisemaker sounds)

Last week, I went to the museum with Elder Norby and Elder Mourino. It was virtually the first time since I've been here I've been surrounded by Americans, which was kinda weird. We spoke Chinese anyway. We had a fantastic time looking at the art and trying really hard not to make jokes about too much of it. Attached below is one lovely statue we found. It's titled, "Elder Hu training Elder Blackhurst". Weird, how fittingly named. 

I had a very interesting experience this week. I'm sure most of you are familiar with the Peter of the New Testament. One night, they were out sailing when the Savior approached them, walking on the water. Peter asked Christ to bid him come, and he stepped out onto the water. When he saw the waves and the storm around him, Peter lost focus on the Savior and began to sink. Christ pulled him from the water, later asking him, why had he doubt? I had a moment like that this week. Phone calls are really hard. Really, really hard for me. I hate doing it, for anyone, forget Chinese people who don't really want to talk to me. But I do it anyway. The other day, I made a call to a less active who picked up. I just started talking to her, trying to figure out her situation, trying to figure out how I could help her. I remember asking a question and she went off in Chinese about whatever her concern was and I realized, oh man, I'm speaking in Chinese. I panicked. My comprehension went from 65% to a solid 10%. I lost focus on my purpose and let fear get the best of me. I eventually just handed the phone to my companion - I couldn't do it. Later, in studying, I found that story and it hit me like a wall. Why did I doubt? Why did I fear? I have the Savior with me. He's promised to never let us be confounded before another, and yet I let my own fear get in the way. As we rely on the Savior, He will help us become more than we are. When we focus on them, on loving them, on sharing what really matters - language and other differences become less of a concern. The Book of Moroni teaches that perfect love casts out all fear - that's who I want to become. To overcome my fear so that I can have true Christlike Charity instead. Isn't that really what the Savior has encouraged us to do? Give up of ourselves to give more to others. As we do so, therein lies the power of the Atonement. Therein lies the true power of change. How grateful I am for Christ's perfect example and sacrifice, I hope and pray I can continue to become more like Him. 

Have a fantastic week everyone! December is coming up. I hope you've all been hearing plenty about #LighttheWorld. If you're thinking, 'Oh no, I've already heard about this thing from my bishop and ward mission leader and ward missionaries, Elder Blackhurst, please don't talk about this thing again, I unapologetically tell you to get over it and go look up the website again. Christmas is such an incredible chance to serve - I strongly encourage you all to look into the church program provided and find a way to bless the lives of those around you. In fact, I'll offer this challenge: all of you who send me pictures of the way you're "lighting the world" next month will receive a special reward from me and my companion. It'll be magnificent. Definitely worth it. So, go and do, friends. Love you all. 

Elder Blackhurst

Another week

I'm starting to really understand why so many missionaries start writing shorter and shorter emails. It's hard coming up with clever tags every week. Nevertheless, I will do my best.

Another great week out here in Chin...err, Melbourne. The work is going along. This week was a little slower, but that's alright. Heidelberg is still a great place to serve. 

Nothing really too out of the ordinary this week. The weather was all over the place, the Asians were still Asians and the Australians still Australians. We taught lessons, bemoaned the fact that we never have enough language study time, went on exchanges. Missionary work. 

Our investigators are still all golden. Except for the ones that aren't, those ones we're going to drop this week. Y is progressing so well. His baptism is scheduled for less than a month and we're so excited. He's getting there, one day at at time. S is progressing so well too. She made friends with one of our members and they're awesome. Elder Hu and I have visions of making all of our members friends and then them all being active together. This is what missionaries dream of, friends - active investigators. Y M N came to church which was so fun. Also, her hair is green so she kinda stood out. But we were so grateful to have her there. The others aren't progressing too much, which is sad. It's hard to tell some of these people that we can't keep meeting because they can't keep commitments. It's so vital that they try and exercise faith. Just a little is enough - we know God will answer us. It just takes that bit of faith. 

I've had lots of questions about how the Chinese is coming. The thing about learning a language in an immersion setting is that it's pretty difficult to compare. At no point in my mission will my Chinese sound as good as my companion's. But it will continue to grow, every day. Bit by bit we increase our vocabulary, learn to better listen and understand the dialects. I love Chinese. I truly do. It's a beautiful parallel to the way we learn spiritual truths - line upon line, bit by bit, until we realize one day just how much of a complete knowledge we have. How beautiful it is.

During our lesson with S, we were teaching about the Atonement of Christ. You have to remember that these people have almost zero familiarity with the Bible. I remember as we were explaining, there was a moment where we were talking about the magnitude of the Savior's sacrifice. I was explaining in my broken Chinese, doing the best I can. I remember when it clicked in her eyes. I could see the change, the switch, the realization of what this means to us. There is no power on this earth that compares to the magnitude of Christ's atonement. Nothing in the world. How grateful I am that he would die for me. I hope you all know the same applies for you. Each and every one of you. He loves you individually and He wants nothing more than for you to come to Him.

I hope you all have a fantastic week. I'll do my best to try and be mildly more entertaining next letter. Make sure you all call my mother and personally sing your own composed birthday song to her this week, she's turning 29. Or maybe just one of the classic songs, those work too. 

Love you all. Hope to hear from you all soon.

Elder Blackhurst

The fruits of missionary work

For all of you who thought I was dead because I didn't email yesterday, I apologize. Some of our P Day time was moved to today because of a baptism that was scheduled out of the ordinary, which was quite a blessing. I know you're all dying to read my email, so here you go.

This last week was one of those weeks that you remember for the rest of your mission, and for years after. Liu Jing Long was baptized on November 11th, last Saturday, and I was able to participate the following Sunday to give him the gift of the Holy Ghost. Brothers and sisters, there is nothing in this world quite like seeing someone come out of that font, committing to change their lives to follow God and to receive the blessings promised by the Gospel of Christ. I am grateful for Liu and for every event that's happened in the last several years to get him to where he is today. 

My words will be brief this week. Liu's baptism was truly the highlight. Still, we had quite a few memorable experiences besides. Most of them are substantially less serious than the baptism. 

For example. At FHE last Monday, one of the sisters (bless her heart) decided that we would sing In Our Lovely Deseret for the opening hymn. I didn't even get through the first line before I busted up laughing. I was a mess. I can't take that song seriously. The Asians were all confused - I don't blame them, honestly. 

The other day, for language study with Elder Hu, I explained Mormon and American dating culture. That was quite the adventure. I also realized that all of the stereotypes I was explaining to him, more likely than not, many of my dear friends are currently living them. Gotta love BYU marriage rates. Also, I never want to define the words "making out" to any one ever again. Definitely not to a Chinese who keeps asking for alternative definitions. Aurgh. Besides that, the language is still coming along fine. One day at a time.

We spent a whole lot of time this last week focusing on our less actives. A message to all of you return missionaries: contact your members. If you served a mission in the last several decades and have a way to contact the people you associated with in the field, please do so this week. It makes a world of difference for them to know they haven't been forgotten. 

We went to the temple yesterday. How lucky we are to have the House of the Lord there for us, to go and serve and learn and grow. I am so grateful for temples. It's been too long since I've gone. I'm not sure how I'm going to make it to the next quarter without.

Beyond that, the work is going well. Our investigators are progressing and our area is growing, bit by bit. We changed the Heidelberg voicemail to our names, so we're pretty official. We love the work and we're grateful for the opportunity to serve. I'm grateful for all your kind messages (and to the occasional letter, thank you so much to those who have sent me things, you know who you are) and constant prayers and support. Keep up the good work, and I look forward to hearing from you all soon. Love you all.

Elder Blackhurst

 

Let's put Freddie up against Rekindling, see who wins this time

你们好! Hope you've all had a great week. I can't begin to express what a blessing this week was. I swear that's what I've said every week for the last month, but I truly mean it. God keeps on pouring out His blessings upon Heidelberg. This last week was full of a lot of little miracles. 

...and for such a great week, it kinda stinks that I left my notes back at the flat. I'll do my best to remember. 

The first Tuesday in November is a special day for Melbournians. We were on the train, headed to the branch, and we started to see something was different that day. People were dressed funny and had unusually large grins on their faces. Lots of women in bright dresses and fake hats and veils. Lots of men with top hats and bow ties and suits in every imaginable nasty color. All these people were all headed in the same direction:  The Melbourne Cup. 

The annual "Melbourne cup" is a huge deal in Victoria. It's this huge horse race. Aaaaaaand that's pretty much everything I know about it, except that a horse named REKINDLING won.  Melbourne is pretty weird.

The Chinese, on the other hand, don't really care about things like that. Our investigators are still great. This week was so good for them all. Liu passed his interview. Leo read and prayed consistently. Stacey is consistently meeting with us and even offered to make us dumplings. Lian Rong is incredible, her scripture study honestly might be better than mine. John is still great. So many others are starting to open up their schedules and are willing to meet and learn. It's so incredible. 

The musical The Book of Mormon is playing in Melbourne, and it's a big deal for a lot of people. This week in particular, we got a lot of people who made the connection between the show and us. I was called Elder Price at least two or three times. It's funny, the reputation we have. The show definitely doesn't portray us well (if you don't know the show, PLEASE don't google it. Please please please don't. Yes, Porter, that includes you), but people know our tags. We're representatives of Christ, despite the slander. We're here to set an example as He would have done.

The highlight of this week wasn't in the food or in the places or the lessons, though all those things were great. We got off the bus the other day and were walking to the branch when we - Elder Hu, our investigator and myself - were approached by a man who didn't seem to be completely right in the head. Kinda staggering, he was wearing a neon green construction vest, he had a small carton of milk in one hand and a cigarette in the other. He started shouting something mostly in cohesive, something about Mormons and the Word of God. Whenever we're approached by this kind of person (there's a lot of them in Melbourne) we typically just smile and nod and move on by. This guy followed us, kept shouting, asked us if we had the Word of God with us. I told him I didn't have a copy (I had no English copies, this is true) and he went off about something. We got to the branch entrance, so I stopped to confront this guy. I was ready to tell him that we didn't have time, that we had to go, to tell him to go somewhere else, but when I looked at him, something stopped me. I'm supposed to be a representative of Christ. This man, crazy as he was, is God's son. So I put my hand out instead, introduced myself. His personality did a u-turn, and we had a friendly conversation. His name is Michael. He's got two kids. He wants to get off the streets so that he can go to school and get a degree and get his son back in his custody and show him that he doesn't have to end up like him, that his son can be whatever he wants to be. He wanted to talk to us because he just wanted to find more of God's word, because he felt it was God who was guiding him, God who as giving him a second chance. I sent another set of missionaries (who conveniently came by at the right time) up to the branch to grab an English copy of the Book of Mormon. The glow on his face when I gave it to him was indescribable. This guy was schizophrenic and went from crying because he was so happy to know God, to crying because of the horrible things in his life. Here's the thing. This guy isn't going to get baptized. I probably won't ever see him again. But I was willing to give this stranger a hug and tell Him that God has a plan for him because that's what Christ would have done. He smelled funny and the hug was moist and there was a weird stain on my jacket afterwards. But that doesn't matter. Because he went away better than when I found him and that's what counts. He's in my prayers. I'm grateful to have met him, and I hope and pray to be able to have more experiences like it. 

I hope you all have a great week. I know the church is starting to roll out Light the World material for this upcoming Holiday season (yeah, yeah, I know. It's November and I'm talking about Christmas. In Australia, they have no Thanksgiving, so after Melbourne Cup, Christmas is fair game. There's Christmas lights and candy canes everywhere already. Take that, you Scrooges). I highly encourage you all to look into that - service is the greatest thing. Start thinking about ways that you can share your light with those around you in the coming months. I miss you all and hope the best! 

Elder Blackhurst

Adventures in Hot Pot

The Circle of Liiiiife

A happy Halloween to everyone! Most of you Americans are a day late - we already celebrated and moved on. But hey, who am I to spoil your fun? Enjoy our creepy holiday. 

This week was absolutely incredible. There's so much I could share, I hardly know where to begin. I'll try and keep my thoughts short because I know that most of you just look at the pictures anyway. But there's no doubt in my mind that there are miracles happening out in the mission field. Australia Melbourne Heidelberg area is being blessed, and I'm the fortunate missionary who gets to be here when it happens. 

Let's start with last Sunday: we had a record six investigators show up to sacrament meeting, which is unheard of with the Chinese. We had to get other companionships and go on exchanges to deal with them all. Elder Mourino and I had a chance to sit down with Lian Rong after the meeting (and lunch) and have a simple lesson with her. Mourino has only been here one transfer longer than I have, so neither of our Chinese is all that refined. But we taught, and we bore powerful testimony of the Savior and of His Atonement in what little Chinese we had. It was a powerful, powerful lesson. I'm so grateful. 

The rest of our investigators are coming along as well. Liu 's baptism is coming up and we're all so excited. Leo and John accepted baptismal dates. We got a call from Chelsea last week, asking if we knew how to help with her 'dandelion' problem. We offer to do service, and show up the next morning with Elder Liu and Elder Mourino. Turns out her whole yard is infested by 5 foot weeds - hours of work. So what else do we do, besides dive in and start pulling everything up. Three and a half hours later, we had a mosty weed-less yard and a well-mowed lawn. Nothing special, but we missionaries can work. In all honesty, that was the most familiar thing I've done since arriving in Melbourne. The food is new and the language is new and the teaching is new...but work is always work. That, I can do. 

Our language study yesterday was phenomenal and worth noting. Elder Hu is preparing to take his English exam that for schooling after the mission, so we've been working on his reading and listening and comprehension. Yesterday, for review, I recited the plot for the majority of the Princess Bride and made him describe back to me each of the characters in the movie. It was fantastic. He's been shouting "Inconceivable!" and every car that cuts him off on the road. I'm so proud. The other priceless line was when he was going through the dictionary and found the word "cantankerous". I asked him what he thought it meant. He pauses, and then said, "I use it to describe my old girlfriend, right?" I just about died laughing. I love my companion. Couldn't ask for a better teacher.

Last week for P Day, we got eight missionaries together in the ZL's flat and made dumplings. I probably downed 40 of those things, they're so good. Oh, man. I'm going to be fat by the end of the mission if the Asians keep feeding me. I'm starting to get a hang of cooking their food myself, and I know where the shops are where they buy their spices...dangerous. Of course, that doesn't mean we don't eat regular food over here too, though. Last week, we made American french fries topped with Chinese ash pepper (highly recommend you all go find and try some of that stuff, it's awesome) to side with our spaghetti and Turkish Delight, which our investigator gave us. We're multicultural. 

Game night last week, I taught a few branch members to play Rage. It went about as well as you'd expect Rage to go with Asians. No other comments. If you know the game, you'll have a pretty good picture of how it went. If you haven't played, go find my father and question your friendship with him that he hasn't introduced this fantastic game to you yet. 

I could keep going with stories, this week was eventful. But I only have a little time to email, so here's the quick rundown for the rest:

9 lessons

I got lost for the first time (miracle it took this long)

Elder Hu and I shouted at seagulls

A branch member bought me a pumpkin (long story)

Elder Hu and I got a total of zero phone numbers from our GQing this week

So, lots of fun. Last couple thoughts:

We spent a lot of time studying this week, preparing to teach our investigators and finishing my golden training. Amidst everything we looked at, there was something that always kinda stuck with me. We teach a lot of doctrine. We share lots of stories. But at the end of the day, everything we share points back to Jesus Christ. Every invitation we give is about finding our relationship with Him. And truly, the way we get to know Him is through repentance. Through applying His Atonement in our lives. My simple reminder to you all this week is to stop and recognize your relationship with Him. Do you really understand what His sacrifice means for you? No understanding or truth can ever begin to compare with what He did for us. May we all focus more on the Savior this week. I can promise - as we do, we'll better understand and be ready to face whatever trials and challenges come our way. He is our Savior and Redeemer. Through Him, all things are possible. 

I love you all. I hope those of you back in the US are loving this cool season as much as I'd like to. As we approach Thanksgiving and the beloved Christmas season (shrieks) I hope you're all thinking a little less about yourselves and a little more about those around you. Have a fantastic week and I look forward to hearing from you all!

Elder Blackhurst

Journey to the West

Hey, everyone! Hope you're all having a great time back home. Australia is still very hot and very crazy and very much Asian. This week was absolutely incredible. The area I'm in has been prepared by the Lord and I'm so grateful to be here. 

I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but Australia weather really is all over the place. It's supposed to be summer, and it's definitely getting warmer. But the weather changes every hour or so. The worst decision you can make is choosing what you'll wear based on how it looks in the morning. You'll put on a suit and a jacket because it's dark and stormy and by the time you drive from your flat to wherever you're going to contact, it's blazing hot and you're regretting everything you've done up to that point. And then the wind picks up and you're fine until your pamphlets and teaching records are flying away. And then you think the sun is coming back and then all of a sudden it's raining. Welcome to Melbourne, my friends. It's a weird place.

The weird doesn't stop at the weather, though. There are so many interesting characters you meet in the city. I've mentioned a few in past emails, and I assure you, they keep coming. The street art is quite something as well. But, we love it. 

Our area is truly the best. I'm still in Heidelberg, which is way north of the city. You can google it. Because it's so far from the city, it's been known to be one of the harder areas in the mission for finding people. And yet, the Lord has seen fit to bless us with so many incredible investigators and so many new people to meet and teach. This coming week, we've got at least one lesson every day until P Day, if not two or three. For where I am in Melbourne, that's incredible. I'm so grateful to be here with the companion I have right now. My own abilities have nothing at all to do with whatever success we're having - I can't teach or speak or even understand them most of the time. And yet, so many are on their way to the font of baptism. How merciful the Lord is to us. 

I haven't spoken much about Elder Hu in the last few weeks. My companion is pretty incredible. He's from Chengdu, towards the center of China. He's a devoted disciple of Christ. Everything he does, he does with purpose and direction in the way he feels will best bless our investigators. He's an example to me and, again, I'm grateful that the Lord put us together to serve right now. We've spent a whole lot of time drilling each other's language, which is a lot of fun. It make me feel a teeny bit better about my Chinese when my companion can't pronounce the letter I to save his life...so we've both got room to grow. But we're doing our best to better follow the example of Christ. 

In Asian culture, there are four really famous pieces of literature that all Chinese people know. The largest is called Journey to the West. I was asking around to learn about the story and why it's important to their culture. The general idea is that a monk goes on a religious quest and is accompanied by a pig king (who was kicked out of an equivalent of heaven), the monkey king (whose fault it was that the pig got kicked out of heaven), a river king, and a dragon horse prince vehicle something and they have lots of adventures. I'm not sure if they ever reach the destination, as I was too busy trying to figure out the characters. I'm not sure why I bring this up, I have no funny joke to go along with this story. Maybe there's some good parallel I can draw that will get me out of a pinch when I don't have anything good to share for a talk. But if any of you happen to know anything about Chinese literature, please share. 

Lots of little miracles this week. Liu Jing Long has his baptism in two weeks. It was such a tender moment when he came to us after a rough week of trying to live the Word of Wisdom and vowed to stop smoking forever. His faith is a testimony to me. We also finally got one of our other investigators - Leo - to commit to actually take a question to the Book of Mormon and read.  

(Quick tangent - I swear, all of our investigators are named Leo or Liu or some other variation. I can't keep them all straight. They all sound the same to me and apparently they're all different. But it's fine. No different than the rest of my Chinese. Anyway.) 

It makes me laugh a little, how much encouragement it takes to get someone to just sit and read the scriptures we're so lucky to be blessed with. They tell us they couldn't ever believe that God is out there. So we say, alright. Moroni 10:3-5. Read and pray and we promise you, you'll find an answer. We meet with them a week later, and they say, I still can't believe God is out there. So we ask, did you read and pray? ...no, but I still can't believe it. We cry a little bit inside and encourage them to actually read and pray. The Lord has taught time and time again that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass. He just asks us to consistently do the basics with the faith that we will receive. We will receive. Anyway, we got Leo to finally read and pray. And then we call him in the middle of the week... Hey, Leo, how's the scripture study going? I read 1 Nephi, and I think I actually felt something... 

So, we're working with him. He's so good. We just have to go to Christ and He'll give us those answers. I'm rambled a lot already this week so I think I'll leave my invitation there. Go take Moroni's promise, all of you. Whether or not you have before. I promise. You go with real intent, and an open heart - He will answer. 

I love you all. Attached are pictures my companion took the other night of himself. What fun we have. I miss you all. Keep on doing good. Enjoy Halloween. I look forward to hearing from all of you soon. 

Elder Blackhurst

Really don't like spiders

Another week has come and gone. I swear, I sat down to write you all yesterday. I hope you're all making the most of your time because it's flying by faster than we think. October has been so fun. This week was an incredible one for the work - our investigators are so incredible. Progressing so much. Don't be surprised if I report two baptisms by the end of next month. This truly is the Lord's work. 

So, it's hot. October in Australia is hot. I'm not very happy about it. But it's fine. Enjoy your beautiful October Arizona weather, to all my AZ friends back home. Or wherever else you are, in the correct hemisphere. October shouldn't be hot.

Speaking of October, Halloween is coming up. I spent about twenty minutes earlier this week explaining Halloween to my companion. It was totally foreign to him. The thought that people get dressed up in weird costumes and go knocking door to door for treats was totally bizarre. Things completely fell apart when I tried to explain why pumpkins and bats and skeletons and witches and ghosts and such are all associated with the holiday. So, anyway, enjoy the adventure that is Halloween in a few weeks. I expect to hear you all dressed up well. 

Game night again. It was Werewolf this time. You can pretty much go back and read last week's bit about Catan and it's pretty much the same. I hadn't any clue what was going on, I was picked off in the beginning. Still, somehow won. I think. Anyway, that was fun. Our branch is incredible. I love our members - so many recent converts, working hard to hold onto the truth and the gospel light they've found. I've seen people who've given up so much to follow Christ. It's humbling to see their testimonies. 

So, I met my first real Australian spider this week. Yes, I mentioned Peter last week, but he sits still and is nice. This one was huge and wriggling and in my flat where he didn't belong. No clue how he got in. I thought growing up in AZ, I'd seen enough spiders to not have a problem. But, no. I don't like spiders.

Chinese is still the same adventure it always is. Things are still slow and steady. But hey, I learned to say "Spider-Man" and "Soft Chicken Cake" and "Help me, I'm bleeding" so things are going well. 

[It's alright, mother. Just the vocabulary. I only needed to use one of those in practice. You can guess which.]

This last Sunday was incredible because we had 3 of our investigators show up, which isn't common. John and Leo and Lian Rong all came. I don't think it's really hit me all that hard until now that I'm the missionary; I'm the guy in the suit and tie with the name badge who answers the investigators questions that might change their life. So when John leaned over during the first sacrament talk and out of the blue asked what was wrong with tea and coffee, it hit me like a brick wall. I'm so grateful that the Lord has given me this opportunity to be His hands in this small corner of the vineyard. I'm so far from perfect. Honestly, I feel more like a child than a missionary 95% of the time. But we give our best and trust that He will take us the rest of the way. 

As always, I miss you all lots. Stay faithful, stay hopeful. Find ways to serve those around us. God will take us all the way. 

Love you all. 加油. 

Elder Blackhurst