I can't believe it is already the 14th. I feel like it was August yesterday! Speaking of.. Some people have a really hard time keeping track of the days here. Yesterday, Sister Bernhardt and I got a taste of this. As I mentioned, many people from our zone and the other zone left this past week. Most of them left yesterday, and so most of our zone got up with them to send them off. This happened to be at 4:30 a.m. mind you.... True dedication right there. Anyways, we sent off our friends, gave lots of handshakes, and tried not to talk too much to anyone because it was the middle of the night and we were definitely still rocking our retainers. ha! After saying goodbye, we headed back to our room when a security guard stopped us and asked us what building we lived in. We told him and then he proceeded to ask us to do him a favor. He wanted us to go and knock on this sister's door and see when she was going to be ready to go (as in leave the MTC) because people on the bus were waiting for her. We offered our help, and went to go find this girl. Remember it is 5 a.m. right now. SO, we knocked on this door and are feeling a little crazy because it is dead silent and there are no suitcases outside of her room. A sister opens the door and we ask her if such and such sister is there and if she is ready to go. She says "Oh ya that's my comp, but she doesn't leave until tomorrow." We, not really knowing anything other than what the security guard has told us, tell her again what he told us and she says "ya, no it's not today. She doesn't leave until the 13th." At this moment, I look at my watch and say "Sister... today is the 13th...." She about dies, flips on the lights and starts yelling at everyone to help her and this poor sweet girl is not packed, not ready, hasn't said bye to anyone yet, and is supposed to be on a bus heading to the airport right that second. Needless to say it was chaos and we helped where we could, but we felt SO bad for this poor sister! But don't worry ya'll, she is alive and well and (probably) in Korea now. hah We don't even know. This was just the start to a crazy morning as right after this Sister Bernhardt tripped up a series of stairs; we tried for 20 min to get into a room that we later realized wasn't even ours; and tried our hardest not to laugh loudly as it was so early in the morning. haha Good times man.
This week was one of the best so far. Each week really does get a little better. We had a lot of fun things happen to us this week! First of all, Sister Bernhardt and I got called as our zone's Sister Training Leaders! We are just starting our assignment, but love it! Such a great opportunity to get to know the sisters in our zone and get to serve and love them as Heavenly Father does! Plus, now we have authority over our Elders and have a cool new flip phone.... from 2005... hah! Also, being 6 weekers, we got to start doing Skype TRC's. This is exactly what it sounds like. We skype REAL LIFE TAIWANESE PEOPLE and teach them lessons! They are members, so they are so nice to us and are so patient with our Chinese (or lack thereof). We taught about "the small and simple things" of the gospel, that bring about the great things. It really is the little things that bring about the greatest blessings. It was a great thing to be reminded of. Teaching is incredible, because it truly is just bearing testimony of what you know and helping others to come to know it too. This week, I truly came to know that the Spirit is the teacher. We are speaking, but the Spirit is putting words into our mouths. HE does the teaching. HE does the converting. But through our preparation and worthiness, we invite the spirit and help our investigators to feel His presence. Often times, when we teach, I find that I am learning so many things from what I, myself, am saying. I surprise myself each time I open my mouth and share this gospel with how much I know. Yes, we are physically teaching our investigators, but the spirit is teaching me. He is teaching each of us.
A mission is a giant learning experience. You work hard, you try, you evaluate, and you do it better the next time. That is what I have really learned. We aren't perfect, and the Lord doesn't expect us to be, but He does expect us to give it our all. For church, each Sunday, we have a theme that all of the talks and lessons are based around. This week's was Faith. I loved this because faith is so crucial. It is the first principle of the gospel for a reason. It is our faith that leads us to act--to follow God's commandments, to do good, and to repent. Faith is the WHY of the gospel. As we exercise faith in Christ, He WILL help us and strengthen us. "Faith is not believing that He can, but KNOWING that He will." Faith is confidence. Faith is having complete trust in someone or something. It is truly a gift from God. But we personally choose whether to cultivate and grow our faith, or stop its progression and destroy it. When we have faith in Christ, we rely wholly upon the merits of Christ and His Atonement. I think many of us say we have faith in our Savior and many principles of the gospel, but do we completely trust and rely on Him? Do we understand how fully His Atonement can help us? I invite all of you to think about this. Do I have faith in Christ and His Atonement? If so, what will I do now?
Somehow, in the past week we have had THREE APOSTLES SPEAK TO US. I touched on Elder Christofferson's message last week, but this past Sunday and Tuesday we had the opportunity of hearing from Elders Ballard and Cook. This is SUPER rare. Sister Percival must be the lucky charm, because since she has been here, we have had only apostles speak to us! ha She said last night "my presence brings all the apostles to the MTC" to the tune of "my milkshakes bring all the boys to the yard"! hahahah But really, we are blessed.
I'm not trying to write a novel here so I'll keep it brief. But my biggest take away was to look past ourselves and just serve the Lord. We are on a rescue mission. We are rescuing people from the floods of evil, confusion, and darkness. We are bringing them the light of Christ to rescue them from that darkness. Not just as missionaries but as part of His church. As members of the church, we are all representatives of Christ. We are His hands, His voice, and His heart here on the earth. We must do his work, speak His words, and love as He has done. Let us all look past our own concerns and let the Lord guide us. Through Christ, we can do so much more than we believe we can do. Philippians 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."
Love you all. Be good, and have faith in our Savior and Redeemer because ALL things are possible through Him.
Have a wonderful week!
xoxo
Sister Richards
李姐妹
Lǐ Jiéměi
1- Japan friends
2- Sweet comp
3- Korea friends- we have friends all over Asia. haha
- we are just all in the same building so we have all become friends hah
4- surprise visit from sisters at the temple
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