“Darn Coronavirus”

Quote of the week explanation

Since I'm out of the Chinese program for a time this one is not affecting me as much as it could. I was talking to the Chinese elders, though, and they say that the Coronavirus outbreak has made everybody they're teaching drop them because they "don't want to catch it". Supposedly there’s nobody really walking the streets of either of the Chinatowns, and the work in the program has slowed because of it. From what I understand, the virus hasn’t broken out into a huge pandemic out here or anything, but we're so isolated at times that for all I know it might've already claimed half of the Chinese population.

A calm silence has fallen upon the Bay Area. To an outsider; perhaps someone ignorant of recent events, this might seem like a quiet peace. However, that is not the case. The silence that has come to rest on this sliver of the world is a drunken, hung over stupor that comes with the loss of a loved one... The loved one in question being not a person or even an animal, but a game. The 49ers lost the Super Bowl, and the people of the Bay Area are hurt.

For "safety reasons" our mission president asked that we did not go out after 2:30 yesterday except for pre-confirmed appointments and meetings, and there came a time when we heard no shouts, no cheers but only the sad, slow shuffle of feet coming from the other apartments. And then we knew that the killing stroke had fallen.

On a more... Relevant note:

We have had quite the week. We were able to teach a bunch of lessons and meet a bunch of people. It's been good.

We found people who really want to learn and hear of the message. It's quite spectacular, really. If you will humor me while I relate one experience...

Elder June and I were tracing in one of the "bad parts" of Concord. (I actually had been thinking that we were in a pretty nice area but then a guy told us that we might want to choose a different spot because this neighborhood's pretty scary. I responded in a polite, civil, professional manner; but inside I was just like 'bro, Oakland must've hardened me because this place doesn’t look bad at all' but I guess maybe I was looking at it though a different lens). Anyway, after that poorly punctuated interlude... We had been out knocking doors for two hours or so, and not really getting anywhere. Nobody wanted to hear much of what we had to say. We were out of time, just about, but we decided to knock on one more door. We were wondering which one to do, and our eyes caught a small apartment building on the street corner. We walked up to it only to see that it was gated. At first, we turned around to find a different door, but then we thought "you know, what the heck let's just try the gate" and sure enough it just happened to be unlocked. We went up to the top and knocked on the last door... And... Miracles. A lady answered and we had a really solid doorstep lesson and gave her a Book of Mormon. As we were closing up she said "You know, I just moved here and I was afraid that the gate would scare people away. I'm really glad that you guys came."

We also found a super open elderly couple who is really interested, and Chris told us that he's never seen so many blessings in his life as he is now receiving from the gospel. It's crazy the rate that things are starting to move.

Transfers are this Tuesday, but everything is staying the same here. Elder June and I will both linger for a season, it appears (unless President Durham has any last-second tricks up his sleeve, which I've seen him pull before). The future is bright.

-Ben

P.S. I found out from a fine, upstanding gentleman this week that the store Hobby Lobby plays Christian music inside and is therefore run by a cult. What is world coming to?

P.P.S. The mighty hunter Nimrod

P.P.P.S. That's a pretty dumb name, eh?