It was another wonderful week out here in the land of Asia. I am literally in Asia right now! haha crazy man! This week absolutely flew by, and we truly saw so many miracles! We met some awesome people, and saw some great progression with our investigators! Our biggest miracle is with our dear sweet friend Serena. This is our investigator who brought her dog to church a couple weeks back. ha! She is the best. This past week, we got her all set up to be baptized this Wednesday! She had her interview on Saturday and PASSED! So, 11/16 is about to be the best day of our lives:) Serena is so incredible, and is so ready for baptism. Yesterday, was fast Sunday for us here because we had stake conference the week before, and she got up and bore her testimony!! She bore the most beautiful simple testimony of the Savior and of her knowledge that God lives and answers her prayers. She shared some experiences of Heavenly Father answering her prayers and helping her through her trials. She was so confident up there, you wouldn't have ever known she was an investigator! I loved her stories she shared of feeling comforted by the Lord, of Him easing her pain from an illness, and helping her mom (who is also an investigator in another city and will be baptized the following week!!) This gospel is truly one of change and of new beginnings. I have already seen so many people become transformed through this message, including myself. As I come to more deeply understand the gospel and come to know and emulate my Savior, I am changed and bettered everyday. What a blessing the gospel is in my life. Serena is a great example to me of being faithful and truly relying on the Lord!
This week I had lots of fun things from hearing country music in a 7/11 (BIGGEST BLESSING. TIM MCGRAW FOREVER), hitting day 100 as a missionary, running into a lady with a pet raccoon, and receiving my new name tag:) I am an official Taiwan missionary now:) One of my favorite things of this week was going on exchanges with Sister Bain!
Once every transfer, each missionary goes on exchanges with the leader over them, so for us sisters, it is our Sister Training Leader. We spend a day with them and go to their area, teach their investigators, and do all that fun stuff! The point of it is to be trained and to learn from these great missionaries! I learned a ton from sweet sista bain, but my biggest take away was this: Keep Christ at the center of everything you do. In every contact, every lesson, every testimony, everything should come back to Christ. He truly is the center of our message and the center of our Heavenly Father's plan for us! It is His gospel that we are preaching and Him that we are representing (whether we are full time missionaries or not). Sometimes when meeting people on the street, we are tempted to just talk to them about one specific gospel principle and leave it at that. Yes this is important, but every time it needs to come back to Christ. We are talking to people with the goal of bringing them unto CHRIST. Helping them start to develop faith in Him and His gospel and a desire to follow Him.
With this in mind, I've thought a lot about keeping Christ at the center of our lives, and how important it is to do so. This week in personal study, I studied some of the war chapters in Alma. I studied all about Moroni and the Nephites, and their battle against the Lamanites and all of the craziness that that entailed. While studying, I came across this well known verse about Moroni. In Alma 48:17, it says "Yes, verily, verily I say unto you, if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men." This is a pretty crazy statement. If we were all like Moroni, Satan himself would have no power over us. We would be too righteous for him to conquer us.
Reading this made me think a little bit about the why behind it all. Why was Moroni so awesome? What made him so strong that the devil had no power over him? As I studied, I realized that it is because Moroni always remembered his Savior. He kept his eye single to Christ, and because of it was able to do incredible things. He was faithful, diligent, and humble, and the Lord delivered him and his people time and time again.
How can we become more like Moroni? How can we become so strong that Satan won't even be able to touch us because we are too righteous? Keep Christ at the center of everything you do. We are all followers of Christ, and I know that as we keep Christ at the center of our lives, we will not only be delivered from our afflictions, but will about to work mighty miracles just like Moroni. That is a promise we see time and time again throughout the Book of Mormon. And God doesn't lie!
I invite you all to think about how you can apply this principle in your life this week. How can you better follow your Savior? How can you better remember him everyday? What do you need to change/give up in order to keep Christ at the center? I love in John when the Savior asks "Do you love me more than these?" I think we all have our own personal "these". Maybe we need to be better about reading our scriptures or praying everyday. Maybe we think we are too busy with work or school or are just "too tired" to do these simple things. When we do these things or have these thoughts, we can imagine our Savior asking us, "Do you love me more than sleep?" Or "are you willing to show your love for and faith in me by giving up a little sleep to serve me? To keep my commandments?" Think about this this week, and I would love to hear how you all are coming closer to your Savior!
I want you all to know that I know Jesus is the Christ. He is our Savior and Redeemer, and through him we can become the sons and daughters God knows we can and wants us to become. I know that He loves each of us and is constantly cheering us on. I know that he atoned and died for us to save us and also to be able to succor us. To strengthen us in our afflictions and allow us to lean on Him for support. Rely on Him. Use the atonement to strengthen you and allow you to become more like Christ.
The work is moving forward here in Taiwan, and all throughout the world, and how lucky are we all to be apart of it! Look for ways to share this sweet message! Love you all and have a wonderful week!!
xoxo
Sister Richards
李姐妹
Lǐ Jiéměi
Taiwan Taipei Mission
4/F, #24, Lane 183
Jin Hua Street
Taipei, Taiwan 106
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