NO BEARD!!!

To explain my subject heading, Bishop Dibdin finally shaved his beard off! It was a pretty big deal for him. Most of his family absolutely hated it when he began to grow it, but he kept it up for quite a while. And then he finally shaved it! And he looks completely different. He's still my mission dad though, and he and his family have been taking good care of me and my silly dumb back. We went over to their home one day this past week to try out their car buffer massager. It felt SO good, but only while it lasted. Afterwards, it didn't really feel much different. Bishop also gave me a Priesthood Blessing yesterday, so hopefully it'll soon get better. I'm tired and frustrated of the constant pain and stiffness I feel every day. I'm going to look into an osteopath that Bishop recommended I look at.

Other than that, this week has been wonderful! Sister Wu was fed up with there being no Chinese, so we ended up invading a Chinese Takeaway place. She GQed the woman behind the counter, and set up an appointment with her! It's pretty cool hearing full conversations in Chinese. I understood none of it. Our appointment with her was on Friday, a few hours before the restaurant opened in the evening. It's a family owned shop, and apparently their living quarters are attached to the restaurant, so we went into a little back area, sat at a table, and Sister Wu taught her about the Godhead and Holy Ghost. Phoebe's husband Ken brought out some Chinese porridge and some other stuff with the consistency of a slug. We had just had lunch, and I'm not a big fan of Chinese food, so I just about threw up/burst eating it all. (Sis Wu didn't like it much either). But it was very very kind of them and so sweet, so I made sure to gulp up every bite. During our (Sister Wu's) lesson, their oldest daughter, Jennifer came in, and she joined us. Occasionally Sister Wu would stop speaking Chinese and would ask me to share a personal experience, so I would do it very briefly and simply. Phoebe doesn't speak much English, but all their children do. Anyway, we got Phoebe to say a prayer, and we set up another appointment! It was a good lesson :)

Another Chinese miracle! We visited a less-active last night, and found out that his step-mum's Chinese! So he called her out to the door, and they chatted for a bit. Then we were left with talking with Donald for a while longer and got his number! It was a double wammy. We'll reactivate him and teach her! (We're hoping.)

Friday night we had a ward activity. It was the annual Hugh's Big Quiz Night! And it was so much fun! Sarah came too and it was great! Bishop, Sarah, and I were on a team, and boy did we wreck everyone else! Just kidding. We got 5th, and I honestly had no clue what any of the answers were so I was pretty useless. There were 150 questions, with 10 categories (landmarks, films, music, etc) of 15. All the groups sat at tables, Brother Hugh Auld was at the front, he would ask a question/play some music/show a picture, and we would have to answer it/guess the composer/guess what it was, and write it down on a sheet of paper. Another team graded each one, and all the points were added up! We're pretty sure the other team cheated us when they were grading ours. It was really fun though, and Sarah had a great time. We saw her again on Saturday and committed her to do some things, and then she came to church yesterday! We'll be having lunch with her on Friday too. We're praying for her.

Yesterday we taught Helen Stronach's youth sunday school class, and let me tell you, it was ROUGH. Those teenagers are stinker butts. Erin and Hannah Dibdin were angels though. They rescued us. Gotta love the Dibdins! They're amazing!

One last thing! The Primary kids were taught I Am a Child of God in Spanish a while back by a missionary, and they sang it in the Primary Presentation last week (it was so so cute btw). Sister Wu had the idea to teach them the first verse in Mandarin, so we're gonna do it! First she has to learn it, then I have to learn it, then they'll learn it. It'll be great!

"Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the Light."
- Albus Dumbledore

"He is the light and the life of the world; yea, a light that is endless, that can never be darkened; yea, and also a life which is endless, that there can be no more death."
- Mosiah 16:9

Our Relief Society President loves Harry Potter, and so yesterday, we talked about the first quote. Christ is our Light. With Him and through Him--by remembering Him, happiness can be found. His light is never darkened. It can never be hid. The only reason we sometimes lose sight of it, or feel lost and confused as to which way we should go, is because we turn away from the Light and face the darkness. He's always there though. And no matter where we are, or how far we've wandered, all we need to do is turn around, and His light will be there, shining as brightly as ever before. It will lead us home.

I love you all and I hope you stay safe and happy and warm!

Sister Syphus

- Quiz Night-Our team name was The Young Ones (and Jeff)