Qin ai de jiaren he pengyou! (Dear Family and Friends)
Thank you to everyone who sent me letters and packages this week. I truely feel loved. This week has been really great. Nothing really out of the ordinary. We are still doing the work, and my Chinese is still bad. Hehe! I was told it would probably take 3 months for comprehension and 6 months for pretty good speaking skills. That has been the trend here.
We are struggling to meet the Standard of Excellence (goals/standards set for the mission) for lessons taught in a week. People in Chinatown work 12+ hours a day to make ends meet. Everyone is very busy. We have some luck setting up appointments, but for most of them we are juked. People stand us up all the time. Yea for backup plans!
A couple of weeks ago, Sister Chen and I contacted 1093 people (in a week). We contact a lot in Chinatown, to say the least. Our Mission President sent us an email, telling us that it is an all time high for the mission! Woot! The Lord is definitely blessing us.
I don't know if I have mentioned what we have been doing on P-days. My first P-day, we got settled into our apartment. Second P-day, we went to the New York Public Library. I have been really slacking with taking pictures/videos. I just don't want to look too much like a tourist. And our missionary handbook, says to "Be careful not to look like a tourist." P.S. I love it when people ask me for directions. It makes me feel like they think I have been in New York for a while, and I know my way around. I don't. Hehe! But it is nice that they think I do.
Last week, we went to 87th Street Chapel to hang out with other missionaries, and I ate "Street Meat" for my first time. I got lamb over rice. Pretty good. Today, when we are done with emailing, we are going to the Museum of Natural History. I am pretty excited. The nice thing is, a lot of places here are free to go to just on Wednesdays and that is when our P-day is. Yea!
I keep forgetting to say, that while on the mission, everyone has the opportunity/permission to go see one Broadway show. Cool, eh! I will wait until my mission is almost over, so that it will be a more special treat. Sister Chen is done in October, so she is going to see "The Lion King" this summer with another sister. There is an approved list of shows, including: "The Lion King", "Wicked", "Phantom of the Opera" and other shows that are Disney. I would want to see "Aida," but it is not playing in New York. My next choice would probably be "The Lion King," just because I heard it is really spiritual, and it would be really weird to see something like "Wicked" as a missionary. :o) I have a long while though before I will go.
We are also allowed to go to Yankees games. This session just started. We are going to go soon. We have to get Mission President approval. I think that we are allowed to see a few baseball games. Pretty much everyone in the mission requested to go to the first Wednesday game of the season. Only a few people got permission, but I will get to go soon enough. :o)
We are also allowed to site-see on P-days, as long as we don't leave the island of Manhattan. (We need permission to leave the area boundaries.) I am in the Manhattan South zone. Our area goes up to 125th Street.
I am very happy because I discovered an Italian Ice place really close to my apartment/our chapel. Mmm! I partake of the goodness often. Because of the warmer weather, Italian Ice carts are popping up everywhere.
Sister Chen taught me how to solve a Rubik's cube. I am almost pro. Hehe! As a way of befriending and fellow-shipping English class students, potential investigators, investigators, and members, we play ping pong with them. Sister Chen is helping me improve my skills. There is a table at our church building. Sister Chen told me that she has started a new tradition with the Sister Missionaries in Chinatown. Everyone, including the Elders, can play ping pong really well, and can solve a Rubik's cube pretty quickly.
Because apartments are really small in Chinatown, and a lot of times, multiple families live in one apartment, we do all of our lesson in the Chinatown Church building. That also means that we don't get dinner appointments. We had our first one on Sunday. Sister Chen said that we are lucky if we get 2 a month. The dinner appointment was at our Branch 1st Counselor's house. He is an American. It was such a nice break to eat American food. I eat Chinese food or cheap noodles for every meal. I am not complaining. I like Chinese food, but Sister Cannon's Lasagna and fresh homemade cookies were a special treat. :o) Sister Chen and I are actually working on reactivating a sister in our branch. She appreciates our meetings, and sometimes brings us leftover food from the restaurant that she owns. She has a great heart. We have high hopes for her.
Everyone had interviews with President Smith this week. He told me that he is impressed with me. He said that Church Headquarters called him and asked him about me, and he told them that I am doing great, and if there is a problem, he will call them. I am pretty happy. I love New York and I love my mission! It was tailored for me and the things that I need to learn!
Sometimes contacting is hard because I don't like getting rejected. I feel like they are rejecting a lot more than just me and it makes me sad. My companion, Sister Chen had a great thought about contacting though. She told me that when she was new on her mission, it was hard for her to be rejected too. She said that it became better when she changed her way of thinking. The Lord has prepared certain people to receive our message at this time. So when we are contacting, most people don't want to hear what we have to say. But there are a few people whose interests are peaked. These are the people we are looking for. It doesn't matter if most people don't want to hear what we have to say; these are not the people we are looking for. What matters is that we are diligent, and faithfully seek those people whom the Lord has prepared. We have two new investigators who met through contacting this week. Everything is great!
I love you all so much!
Yan Jiemei
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