Chinese improving - able to read characters!

Well, this last week was alright. Lots of confusion as to what’s going to happen with me and this minor setback (lower back problem). I’m not going to lie though the work has gotten significantly more difficult. We have had way less sit-down lessons (which is good for my back but bad for progressing investigators) and way more contacting and tracting. However, we tracted into 2 very friendly families this week. We found 2 families who live right next door to each other, both have little children, and very nice to sit down with. Also, last night our zone leaders called us and told us they have 2 "Week C" referrals (week c means they have been to church once and have a baptismal date set up for 3 weeks later). This was such a blessing to receive. I really hope and pray that these 2 new families and 2 new "week c" students here for college will progess and turn into solid investigators. I could really use your prayers for these people and for my companion and I to find more people to teach. We will see what happens.

Oh, one cool thing this week is how much progression I have noticed in my Chinese. I can really understand basically everything people say. My reading skills have improved heaps. I usually never read during lessons because I never have confidence in reading Chinese characters however, our branch president peike'd for us (came and taught with us) and brought an Ensign article along. We always read these articles in a circle with the people we're teaching, each switching off reading a paragraph. My branch president always asks me to read but I always turn down in fear of not being able to recognize the characters. This last time he made me do it. He was like “I have faith you can do it, go for it!”. So I agreed and when it was my turn to read... to my surprise I read 3 paragraphs of Elder Eyring's talk on personal scripture study with making only 1 or 2 character errors. It was amazing to realize how much I actually do know and can do. My branch president has told me over and over again how impressed he is with my progression in the language.

Attached is a photo of me and my companion with a member friend who lives in Taichung.