2.18.13

This week dragged on for quite a while. Not having our own car really is quite annoying. Everyday we had to plan pretty closely with our zone leaders to share the car. Everythings worked out alright, but our productivity was a tiny bit lower. Everything worked out though. We just got our car back this morning, so everything is back to normal. The library here even happened to be open, so we could have a normal pday.

 

We started teaching a new investigator. It was super wierd, actually. It had been many months since we had taught someone who wasnt a member of the Church. We had to shake off the rust a bit, (and pretty quickly too as she doesnt have any Christian background) but overall the lesson went pretty well. We were super grateful for the member that came with us because it wasnt until after he shared an experience that she seemed to get it.

 

Our zone conference was pretty good. We focused alot on our purpose as missionaries. That purpose is to invite. If we havent invited people to do something, then we havent done our job. Sometimes as missionaries we try and protect our investigators (or members) by assuming that they need more time to understand and exercise their faith, but that causes us to not fulfill our purpose. Maybe they arent ready yet, but we still have to invite them.

 

Well thats about all I've got for now. Have a great week!

 

Love

Elder Phong Manhardt

2.11.13

Well, yesterday was the lunar new year. Because of the holiday, our week was a little slower. This holiday is big, much bigger than Christmas is in our culture. So, that slowed us down on the weekend. Also, our car is in the shop right now, so we have to share a car with our zone leaders. Covering the whole city on a bike doesnt really work. We'll see how that affects us this week. Other than that, not much has changed.

This week, we have a zone conference and its also stake conference. It means it should be an uplifting week. Stake conference also means that we will do a lot of translating this weekend. Fortunately one hour of it is a broadcast and will be translated in Salt Lake. Thats one hour of ease for us!

Make it a great week!

Love

Elder Phong Manhardt

2.4.13

Well, this week was extremely different, but it went well. We spent a lot of time making sure everyone was invited to the party on Saturday. And it turned out to be a big success. There were tons of people there. We initially set up for about 90 people, hoping that we would fill up enough that it didnt look empty. But we ended up with around 125 people. There were people from other wards that came and brought friends, members of the branch brought friends and many less active members made it too. It was a lot of fun and kept us really busy. We couldnt even come close to talking with everybody we didnt know. 

The main event of the party is the lion dancers. Its pretty intense and way fun. My pictures dont do it justice. I think the lighting was pretty hard for my camera to handle. I have some videos that maybe did a little better, but there to big to send through email. I'll see what I can do.

It sounds like life has been an adventure for you guys this last week or so. Keep up the hard work and make it a great week!

Love

Elder Phong Manhardt