Week #11 - The Field is White Already to Harvest


 你们好！

The last two weeks have flown by! I was very busy last week and was not able to get an email out so I will cover the last two weeks in this email. On Tuesday the 18th I left the MTC and had a layover in Pheonix before flying into the Ontario Airport in California. My mission president picked me up and took me to the mission office. I then met my trainer. Elder Ferguson, who is from San Antonio Texas. We have gotten along great and he has taught me a lot. Right now I am in the Hacienda Heights area, and it is wonderful. There is so many Chinese natives here that most the stores and billboards are in Chinese. 


My apartment is in Rowland heights and everyone in our neighborhood either speaks Chinese or Spanish. Also fun fact, the mall from Back to the Future is near our apartment so that's pretty cool. I have had the opportunity to teach many lessons so far. It has been hard to understand all these natives speakers Chinese but I am seeing improvement. There are so many immigrants from China yearning for truth because they could not practice religion in China. One of my friends, Brother Li is making great progress in the gospel and he is trying to overcome his addiction to cigarettes so please pray for him. We are also teaching a family who moved here from China three weeks ago and they are very accepting of our message.



Another fun story is that on Saturday all six of the Chinese Elders in my area were invited to a ward members friends house for dinner. The ward members friend is a famous actor from China and is very wealthy. Her name is Wang Zi Wen and according to Google she is the 87th most famous person in China. It was very surreal for me as we sat in this marble palace, eating pizza hut and teaching her about the Book of Mormon in Chinese. She was somewhat interested in our message but wasn't to excited about the word of wisdom. She also had 4 huge German Shephard guard dogs but they were friendly and I even played fetch with one of them. 

Yesterday I taught a man from China who's younger brother is in the NBA. Apparently he plays for the Lakers, but I think he might just be in the G league. I should have known something was up because it's not often you see a 6'6 Chinese guy. 


On Sunday I spoke in sacrament meeting in the Chinese ward, and it was a little intimidating. I spoke on charity, the pure love of Christ and I hope the ward members understood the message I was trying to get across. Recently I've been reading through the gospels of the New Testament and I would challenge all of you to do the same. There is so much I have been able to learn from Jesus's parables. I feel I have grown so much on my mission already and I am so excited I get to keep serving for the next two years. That is all for this week!

Scripture of the week: Matthew 11:28-30
aCome unto me, all ye that blabour and are heavy laden, and I will give you crest. Take my ayoke upon you, and blearn of me; for I am cmeek and dlowly in eheart: and ye shall find frest unto your souls. For my yoke is aeasy, and my burden is light.

再见，
-Elder Rees




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