Welcome to Seneca!

I forgot what it's like to be able to teach in my native language English! The first morning I was so tired, I think I prayed in Chinese with my new companion Elder Jensen. It is really tiring to move around and get going in a new area. I feel like I've entered a whole new world! Our mission was visited this past week by Elder M. Russell Ballard, an apostle of The Lord. I'd like to share some of the principles that he taught us. First of all, he declared that not enough people are being baptized. We're not yet hitting our potential as a church. He simply stated that if we want to accomplish the will of The Lord and baptize more, we need to talk to more people. That's it, that's his solution. It seemed so appropriate for me and our generation of missionaries. I feel like because of advances in technology and general tendencies to be selfish, we've turned ourselves inwards and developed an entitlement sort of attitude. We need to learn how to turn our concerns outwards and become socially engaged individuals. Sometimes that can be hard but I don't have the excuse that my Chinese isn't so good anymore! I think all of us need to slow down and take time to talk to the new people that we come across every day. When I think of some of the friendships I've formed that way, feel like I can't afford not to open my mouth and talk to the cashier at the store, or the man next to me on the metro. I just had an awesome example! We were at a specialty store looking for some new shaving stuff, and the man at the counter kinda looked Chinese to me. I asked him where he was from, and he said China! I asked him what part in Chinese, and it threw him back for a second, and then he said Fujian! That's where my grandparents are from! I got to talk to him a little bit about the gospel and invite him to check out Mormon.org. There truly are opportunities all around us, let's catch them all this week.