Every Member a Missionary (No, seriously!)

Good times in Gangshan this week! Living the life. The missionary life. It's great.

Last P-day we went shopping at a clothing market, which is always fun. Except that they don'yt really plan for tall American girls to shop there, so selections were few. But it was a nice adventure, and we went with a cute lady in our ward, Sister Zhuang. She is so nice, and loves to take us places and take us out to eat and is always willing to serve. Last night we had a lesson with a recent convert. The ward has asked that we only meet with this woman when we have another member with us, so we set up a member to come to the church, but she cancelled last minute! So we called Sister Zhuang who was happy for us to all come over to her house and have the lesson there, and she fed us dinner as well. She is way cute about studying English, too, and tapes English words around her house. Love her!

Seriously, members are so great. It's so nice to have the support of the members around who are willing to fellowship investigators and help them feel comfortable, and it's great to have someone who speaks better Chinese than you along to explain what you can and can't do on Sunday in order to keep the Sabbath Day holy. Being on a mission has definitely taught me that I want to be a much better member missionary when I get back. One reason is the examples of good members here. Another is because as a missionary, you want to be people's friend, but you just can't do it the same way you would at home. I would love to watch movies with investigators and spend time with them doing fun things so they could see that the gospel really is fun and happy, but I can't because I'm a missionary. But if I were a regular member here I could do that! So when I go home and am actually a regular member I am going to try to be a good example and be people's friend and do the work that the missionaries can't do but really wish they could. This is a new life goal I have. It is also a reminder to you to see how you can be a missionary at home! Go and do likewise.

The lady at the counter of the internet cafe place we are at right now is using a mop to wash the ceiling. I'm not sure I've ever seen someone do that before. But it's not a wet mop, it's like a duster thing. I wonder how successful it is. 

Gearing up for the Chinese New Year right now. In church yesterday they passed around a sign-up sheet for people to feed the missionaries. I've heard the whole week of Chinese New Year as a missionary you just eat and eat and eat. I keep wanting to make goals to eat healthy. But then my companion reminds me that New Year is coming and there's no point in being healthy now, let's go get some ice cream. Maybe after next week I will have more of a desire to change. There's a lesson in there somewhere. 

Ah! I know. It's easy to put off changing yourself: "I'll do it after the New Year" "I'll stop smoking when my house is clean" "I'll get baptized when school is over" (yes these are things I've heard people say recently). But the truth is, change is always going to be hard. No matter when you start, it's not going to be easy. So you should start now so you get it over with! And the Atonement has power to get you through anything. It's true. I am resolved. I am going to eat healthy this week. Until my companion reminds me they have strawberry ice cream at FamilyMart.

OH WAIT most exciting thing: a General Authority came to our sacrament meeting yesterday! Elder Gong of the Seventy, who is in the Asia Area presidency. A counselor in our mission presidency, the whole stake presidency, and Elder Gong and his wife all came and spoke. It was so cool! I got to shake his hand, and chatted with Sister Gong for a few minutes. So that was exciting.

Hope you all have a good week!

Sister Cardon

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