Day 4

7/9/2023

SUNDAY, JUNE 9th

Hola again, señors and señoritas!

Welcome to day four of our blog! I was woken up at ~11:00 PM last night by a fiesta (parties/festivals commonly held on weekends), then at around 4:00 PM by a perro (dog) barking, then an hour later by a person singing (?) at the top of their lungs. Hopefully, their voice is okay.

It was soon time to wake up; we planned to leave at ~8:00 AM to walk to church, which takes around 15 minutes. We ate a filling breakfast of avocado and egg sandwiches, oatmeal, and a fruit called granadilla, which is orange on the outside and filled with this slimy, translucent bundle of seeds that look identical to frog eggs.

Trust me—they look even more similar in person. Granadilla's delicious (can't say the same for frog eggs) and quickly becoming my favorite fruit here. It's super high in vitamin C as well!

Sunday service

We arrived at the church half an hour before worship began, giving us plenty of time to prepare. April and I rehearsed the worship songs led by Auntie Connie as we waited for other church members to arrive. Today, around ten members came in person, and around 7 or 8 were following us online.

Elder Larry's sermon was based on Psalm 42:1

"As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God."

so Auntie Connie led with the song "As the Deer," with April on the keyboard and me on guitar. Some of my favorite lyrics included: 

"You alone are my strength, my shield

To You alone may my spirit yield."

We then read some verses together as a congregation before Elder Larry began preaching. I found his message to be very powerful, insightful, and applicable to my life. The imagery of the deer resonated in my mind to symbolize a deep spiritual thirst and a yearning to be in God's presence. We learned that by recognizing His power and will, we can find true peace that can only be attained through a relationship with Him. Afterward, the church announced that we would hold an English camp, and we prayed independently.

Later, we chatted with the other brothers and sisters, making plans to meet soon before heading out for lunch.

Lunch at Anna's restaurant was delicious as usual, and she graciously served us dish after dish of noodles, meats, and veggies that never seemed to end. We were so stuffed that we could only manage a few bites of the final dish: a fragrant pork and string bean stir fry that would have been wiped out in minutes if we weren't so full. April and I talked to a girl our age (she spoke English pretty well) and shared our favorite foods, hobbies, and TV shows. It turns out we all have a ton in common, and it was so fun to practice speaking Spanish (even if my vocabulary is HIGHLY limited). We'll see her again this week soon, and I'm looking forward to it!

Trip to the mall

After lunch, we headed to a nearby mall to buy groceries and invite more people to join our English camp and church. On the way, we passed by a park with the most iguanas we've ever seen in one place. We saw almost ten of them in a single tree, and dozens were also crawling around on the ground.


The mall we went to was huge, way fancier than the Stoneridge Mall, and packed with people because it was a weekend. However, there weren't that many Chinese people—or so it seemed. Elder Larry amazed all of us with his hawk-like ability to spot Chinese people (and his keen sense of hearing to detect people speaking Mandarin), and we found quite a few families to talk to. 


There was a couple from Fujian who Auntie Connie could chat with in Fuzhounese, and they were open and receptive to the idea of church and what we had to say. They even let us join their hotspot because we had no connection when we tried exchanging contact information, and since we'll be passing by their shop sometime this week. Though some of our other attempts weren't as successful, some saying they were too busy or believed in another religion, others accepted the newspapers and pamphlets we offered. We hope they'll find them helpful and receive the calling to learn more about God. 


Since it was getting late, and we didn't want to walk home in the dark, we quickly ordered takeout for dinner from a restaurant in the food court. Even though we only ordered three items, there was so much food we had an entire box left over. The portions here are HUGE. Auntie Louise also cooked some string beans with chicken (the chicken here tastes so fresh), and we ate until we were stuffed.

Huge food court inside the mall!

Lizard park!

Trying empanadas and pan de yuca for the first time!

Dinner! (We did not finish)

After dinner, we moved on to our daily devotional led by Auntie Eileen. We explored John 4:10-15

“Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.’

‘Sir,’ the woman said, ‘you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?’


Jesus answered, ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’


The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.’”

Discussion Questions

Auntie Eileen also discussed how the living water represents truth, the Holy Spirit, and Jesus. We agreed that we could learn from Jesus’s approach to spreading His word, remaining patient, and never giving up. Furthermore, we talked about how we can become a spring of water that flows to eternal life rather than stagnant water. This passage relates to the goal of our STM to connect with people and introduce them to a sense of peace from God. 

We'll be going downtown tomorrow to pass out more newspapers and pamphlets to Chinese locals there, so please pray for our safety! Hope you enjoyed reading, and we appreciate your continued support!

Chau (bye) for now!


Elaine