Wednesday, June 3, 2009

May 27, 2009

Today's e-mail contained an update on how Elder Shen is doing. Elder Hansen reports that he is a "really, really good missionary," who teaches the gospel very well in Chinese and has a strong testimony. Elder Shen joined the church when he was 11, and has two older sisters and a younger brother. His parents are not members of the church. Apparently, Elder Shen actually served as a missionary in Taiwan for the past 6 weeks while waiting for his visa problems to be cleared up. He enjoyed that time but is happy to be in England.

One of the difficulties Elder Shen faces is his command of English. With Elders Keables and Combs in the flat with them, the 4 American elders often speak quickly and use expressions that are unfamiliar to Elder Shen, making it hard sometimes for him to understand what is going on. On the other hand, Eric is excited to have a greater opportunity to use his Chinese, and is being reminded of just how far he still needs to go to master the language.

Eric is enjoying training, but said the first couple of days he was a little uptight and trying to be too perfect. Elder Liu had to tell him to relax and just be himself. This is what Eric said about that:
"I just think it is so important to help Elder Shen to get off on the right foot. He has great potential and could help a lot of people while he is here. I am really grateful for the opportunity to train and teach him how he can find success and enjoyment on his mission. The training has also shown me a lot of areas that I can improve upon, so I can find more success and enjoyment. It has been really good for me because I've realized that I have a lot of places that I can work on and reach more of my potential."
In other news, the three amigos continue to teach their Afghan friend Hyatu, who is doing well but wasn't able to make it to church this week. They are also teaching an Italian man named Michael, who comes from a Catholic background, but is searching for new answers to some of his concerns. They are teaching others as well, but these are the two who are progressing the most.

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