Elder Winters - April 1, 2013 Hi! Happy Easter!

Hello everyone, and happy Easter slash April Fool's Day slash my sister's slash my father's slash my cousin's birthday.  Goodness, a lot happened this past weekend.  

This was a great week, culminating in a great Easter Sunday.  One day during this past week we did some super fun service, involving us taking out a bunch of roots, some of which were a foot in diameter.  As I hacked away with fury at the roots with my pickax, I was reminded of how bad shape I am, a point that was strongly reinforced when we recently took turns stepping onto a scale at a member's house and everyone, excluding myself, burst out into laughter when I stepped on.  Anyway, to those interested, I am newly committed to run every day and to not throw out my back at the ripe old age of 20.  

In spiritual news, this Easter season allowed me to reflect much on the Savior's resurrection.  "Easter" in Chinese is "復活節(Fuhuojie)," or "Resurrection Celebration," which is a nice reminder of what the holiday is all about.  After personal contemplation and prayer and receiving a witness from the Holy Ghost, I know that we will all live again because of Jesus Christ.  I witness that our Savior rose from the dead three days after being crucified, and I know that He still lives and He still leads His Church.  Teaching and testifying of this wonderful message at this time is a wonderful blessing in my life.

Have a great week, everyone.

- Elder Winters

Elder Winters - March 18, 2013 Jackie Chan lives in Irvine

Hello all, welcome to another week in the life.  Good things are happening in Irvine, there's no doubt.  There are two baptisms lined up for this weekend in the Yale Branch, so we're all pumped for the events.  Our branch mission leader set a goal of 30 baptisms for the branch this year, so fortunately we've got six elders and the Lord all combined to get the work done.  Of course, I've also heard that two people can do anything, as long as one of those persons is God.  

Another thing I've learned this past week is that my learning Chinese is improving my Jackie Chan abilities.  I think I am safe to say that at least two things that happened this past week are able to prove that: 1) I caught a living fly with chopsticks and 2) I arm wrestled the endurance weight lifter champion of the world, Dragan.  I am not making this up.  Google Dragan if you want (it's pronounced Dragon. Like the mythical creature).  Okay, so the fly was placated by some strawberries on the table and Dragan almost tore my arm off, but still, I feel like those two things merit some kind of attention.  

A disadvantage that learning Chinese has brought is that I have no capabilities to speak any other language other than English.  We tracted into this Vietnamese lady that only spoke French and Vietnamese (Vietnam was occupied by the French), and so I was like, "parlez-vous francais" and she looked all excited and was like, "Oui, oui" and then I was like "太棒了！我也會講法文！" and then I had to pause, because everything French flooded out of my brain and was replaced with Chinese.  So I said "merci beaucoup" and then we got out of there.  So, that dashed any hopes of me becoming tri-lingual.

One super cool thing happened this week.  We were tracting/street contacting in an apartment complex that we've visited a few times before, and we finished visiting all the potentials we knew in the area.  So then, we were clueless as to what to do for about a second, and then the thought came to mind that number 73 in the complex had a Chinese thing on the door last time (why did my brain not have these capabilities when I took calculus??), so we headed in that direction.  And then we met two Chinese girls taking out the garbage, and after starting a conversation, one of them was super interested and they both agreed to come to church the next day!  Awesome, right?  I think I have said this before, but the Holy Ghost absolutely can bring all things to our remembrance.  

Well, the work is awesome, I love it, it's true.  I hope you all have a great week.

- Elder Winters

Elder Winters - March 11, 2013 晚上好

Hello all, it's been an intense week this week.  Biggest news is my new companion, Elder Dahl from Taylorsville, Utah.  He's got awesome Chinese from being straight out of the MTC, so it'll be exciting to work with him.  

In terms of the work, it's going well.  We had an awesome member attend some of our lessons this week, and she just rocked house.  Literally, picture exactly what you think is perfect for a member to say to help someone who is striving to develop a relationship with God, and that is what she said.  Plus, having someone there who is actually fluent in Chinese is a real support.  

Some members invited us to attend their kids' piano recital this past week so we could talk to the Chinese families that would attend.  That wasn't a problem, mostly because outside of Church members and missionaries, everyone there was Asian.  Oh, the memories.  I talked to this thirteen-year old Chinese provincial gold medalist in piano who rocked a piece that I gave up on as a seventeen-year old because it was too hard (Chopin's "Polonaise," anyone?).  Yeah.

Another exciting change is that missionaries can now email non-family members.  I know that my reader base is less than the population of the Yukon in Canada, but if you'd like to shoot me an email I can now actually get back to you without procrastinating writing a letter for months.  So, my email is dwinters@myldsmail.net, for those that are interested.

Well, this week has been good.  I know that God has been in this work.  It is amazing to me that if we are praying for help and are living right, He will truly guide our paths, sometimes without us even knowing.  The work is true, I love this Church, and you all have a great week.

- Elder Daniel Winters

Elder Winters - March 4, 2013 只有百嘉可以懂這個句子！

[Editor's note: Just when you thought they couldn't get any shorter!  Daniel starts training a new missionary tomorrow and it looks like he will be moved into the California Irvine mission.  His mission president is trying to make it so that the Chinese elders will be able to teach in both the Anaheim and the Irvine missions.  Also, I have never, ever known Daniel to think he was awesome.]

Hey everyone, today you get a 60 second email.  This past week was awesome, mostly because our branch mission leader set up 5 appointments for us.  I'll just leave a thought with you.  I was reading in Alma 26 where Ammon talks about how wonderful God is in doing His work.  Sometimes if I ever think, "Oh man I can't believe how awesome I am," I always need to go back and look at how I am nothing, and it is God that has given me everything, including every success in the mission field.  The work is true, you guys are great, and have a great week.

- Elder DBW

Elder Winters - February 25, 2013 元宵節快樂！

That's a happy lantern festival to you, family!  Well, it was yesterday, and it means that Chinese New Year is over.  But a big thank you for all of the emails and pictures and updates from this week.  Also, congrats to Brighton and his call! I can't believe it - now Brighton will replace me as Alison's favorite cousin.  

We did get some teaching in this week, thankfully.  And we set a baptismal date with someone!!!  So exciting.  Not quite like Becca's eight people, but when this guy (Vincent) accepted the baptismal invite, his mouth was slightly open, and then he started nodding really fast, so it looked hilarious, so we've got high hopes for him.  

Hello everyone, and Happy Lantern Festival Day.  It seems like the Chinese have more festivals than a Cafe Rio has Mormons on a Friday night.  Actually, I'm fudging it a bit, because the Lantern Festival was yesterday, but still.  

So exciting stuff from this week, one thing being there will be a new Irvine Mission starting in July.  I'm guessing that I'll be a part of it, mostly because I'm attached to the Chinese branch, located in the Irvine Stake.  We're still not sure about the boundaries, but I heard from a reliable source, AKA the elder quorum president's seven-year old son, that the Irvine Mission will have six stakes in it.  We'll see how it all turns out, but in the meantime we just want to concentrate on the work.  

Yesterday the other Chinese elders had a baptism, so that was super fun to attend.  It was pretty hilarious as the guy being baptized wasn't really instructed to plug his nose when he went under water, so he ended up putting it on the side of his face, resulting in a lot of water up his nose.  And then because it looked so funny, all the little kids that were invited up to watch the baptism were pointing and roaring in laughter, making it a pretty loud room.  But!  Despite all this, I still felt the Spirit, which I thought was cool, because "in the ordinances thereof, the power of godliness is manifest" (D&C 84:20).

So I've got to head out, but this work is definitely, positively, 100% true.  How could it not be?  Anyway, have an awesome week, everyone.

- Elder Winters

Elder Winters - February 18, 2013 Year of the Worm

Hey everyone, and Happy Chinese New Year still and Valentine's Day not anymore and Presidents' Day today.  I'm not sure that sentence made sense, but I'm still going with it.  The fact of the matter is Chinese New Year is still going on (it's traditionally 15 days long), but without the major partying.  

I'll share with you a bit of the week and then I'll let you enjoy the rest of your holiday.  It was a pretty major bummer as far as bummers go this week, as I was sick again (bronchitis) and it seemed that investigators had more important things going on than hearing a very hoarse missionary.  But I learned something. I was feeling pretty sorry for myself at one point and then I remembered the story of Ammon.  I have always thought it impressive how Ammon chopped off the Lamanites' arms, but this time something else from the story grabbed my attention.  When Ammon sees the Lamanites coming and the servants around him are all crying, he's over there rejoicing for an opportunity to see a miracle.  That's awesome faith, if you ask me.  So then I thought of things that I could do within my power instead of wallowing in self-pity.  I remembered Whose work it is, and I thought that I could please Him as long as I was doing the best I could.  I know that's the main point of pretty much every movie or book that has to do with missionary work, but I think I learned it, or at least got a better understanding of it for reals this time.  So that was cool.

One quick funny thing.  Near the end of the week members took us out to eat to a Chinese restaurant.  When I was eating my Chinese salad, I discovered a very petite worm on one of the leaves.  My natural reaction was, of course, "what the heck is this doing here."  i told the members, who said to tell the waiter, whom I did.  I was expecting him to at least be like, "I'm so terribly sorry, have all of these dishes for free."  But what he really did was inspect my salad, picked up the worm with my chopsticks, and then popped it in his mouth and ATE IT!  Okay, just kidding.  What he really did was say, "Oh.  We'll get you a clean one."  So they took away my plate and chopsticks and the rest of the salad, and then I got a fresh plate and chopsticks.  The moral of the story is, if you ever find a bug in your dish in an Asian restaurant, don't show it to the  waiter because he'll take away your food.  

Well, that's about it.  It's been a good week.  I know that this is the Lord's work, and He's directing it, even without us knowing sometimes.  It's so great being out here.

Have a sweet week everyone.

-E DBW

.

[He was digging in with gusto before he saw the worm!]

Elder Winters - February 11, 2013 As Becca put it, the Wei Dynasty continues

Hey everybody, and Happy Chinese New Year.  We ended this week with a bang plus a couple of feasts.  Actually, no literal bangs because I guess fireworks are illegal in California.  I did eat my fill of dumplings, duck, chicken, beef, pork, bean sprouts, and goodness knows what else.  All very delicious, though I hope I will still be recognizable when I get back despite the significant weight gain.  

As for the rest of the week, most of it was uneventful due to the fact that I got nailed by the flu.  Bedridden.  It was okay, though, because I got a lot done while I was in bed.  For example, I did quite a bit of science.  One thing I did was prove Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity - I proved that one hour in the middle of the night with the flu is roughly equivalent to one day in real time.  In addition to that, I proved the existence of molecules, mostly because I could feel millions and millions and millions of them smashing into my body whenever I moved or exposed myself from under the covers.  There's just no escaping those molecules.  

The miraculous thing was that I healed up pretty quick, because God still had some work for us to do this week.  Things having been rolling, and I think that this week is the start of the snowball effect.  It was awesome.  Appointments got set up, people got to church, and we were guided every step of the way - we could literally feel it.  It is always an amazing thing to feel that Heavenly Father is using you for His purposes.  I know this is His work, and it's a privilege to participate in it.

Last thing is that my brother got his mission call to Richmond, Virginia, speaking Mandarin as well.  This call makes me happier than I can say.  It turns out the 魏 dynasty must continue.  Best wishes for him.

Have a great week, everyone. 

- Elder Winters