I am currently writing my WEEK 8 email... Well folks, you know what that means. I'M ABOUT TO GET OUTTA HERE. HALLELUJAH. My time here at the MTC has been some of the greatest, but 2 months is PLENTY of time. I am ready to get out to Taiwan and start teaching some real people! Speaking of, we got our flight plans this week! So we are actually leaving! haha We leave next Tuesday bright and early, and you know I will be getting Cafe Rio at the airport no matter the time. Gotta leave America on a good meal. hah
This past week was chock full of fun things and spiritual experiences and all that good stuff, so please bare with me as I try to organize it all into an email for ya'll.
To start off, this week our zone had Christmas...again. hahah people are really gettin' antsy to leave, so they are doing all they can to keep these last couple weeks interesting. haha It wasn't quite as good as our last Christmas, but Elder Kaufusi did make a pretty great Santa in his paper towel beard. haha Good mems always. As far as holidays go, the more important one this week was Sister Percival's birthday! She turned 20, and Sister Bernhardt and I LOVED spoiling her and making her day so special! Our whole zone made such an effort to make her birthday one to remember, and throughout the day our zone decorated her room, we gave her birthday donuts, her Elders ordered her a cake, all wrote her nice notes, sang happy birthday to her throughout the hallways, and showered her with love and kindness. She seemed to love it, and we were so happy to show her a little taste of our love for her!
Our general conference choir practices are in full swing, and they definitely are not taking this assignment lightly. hah All we do is sing these days. Yesterday, we literally had THREE practices, each for TWO hours. My bum still hurts from all that sitting. But, it is such an amazing experience! We are singing some really powerful songs, and I really invite you to all listen to the words that we say. I feel so blessed to be apart of something like this, and everyone look for me in the Saturday Afternoon session of conference! Of course Katie (Sister Cardullo) and I are sitting next to each other, so we are reppin' Timpview well. hah
This week was the start of all of my "lasts" here at the MTC. Yesterday was my last full Tuesday here, and now everyday is full of lasts. Last district temple trip today, also last temple trip in AMERICA, last devotional, and last times with friends. We had a big group of friends leave this past week, and it was so hard to see them go, but so exciting to think about the work they were about to embark upon. It made us so pumped because that is us in 6 DAYS. Man time has flown. We have loved making so many great friends here at the MTC, and even better is that we are all serving the Lord. We have all made the decision to do the Lord's work, and now we get to lift each other up as we do it!
Each Sunday here, we have a topic for all of our meetings. This means that each talk and lesson prepared is on this subject. Each week, every missionary has to prepare a 5 min talk, and you don't know if you're giving the talk until after sacrament when the Bishop announces it, so you have to be prepared. Somehow, I made it all 9 weeks without ever being called up! ha. But this week, as I was preparing, I had some really wonderful thoughts that I wanted to share. The topic this week was on baptism. The thought that I want to share with all of you, is that baptism is not just a one time ordeal. At baptism, we make covenants with our Heavenly Father, but each week as we partake of the sacrament we renew them. We have promised to take Christ's name upon us, to keep his commandments, and always remember him. He promises us, in return, a remission of our sins and the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost. These covenants aren't just a one and done thing. It is a constant effort. We are constantly trying to improve ourselves, and be better today than we were yesterday. As we remember these covenants, it can help us to do these things. As we remember that we promised to take Christ's name upon us, how will that change our actions? We are representatives of Jesus Christ. How can we be the best reps? - by striving to keep his commandments, and remembering him. Next time you partake of the sacrament, remember what you are promising, and think of ways you can be constantly improving and coming closer to your Savior.
A story that was mentioned a couple times this week was the story of Peter walking on water. In the midst of a storm, Peter sees Jesus walking on the water. In faith, he asks the Lord if he can come out to him. Jesus beckoned him to come, and with eyes single to Christ, Peter was able to walk on water. It was only when Peter was distracted by the storms and tempests, that he started to sink. He took his eyes off Christ and let his fears, trails, and tribulations get the better of his faith. In this moment, he reached up to the Savior and said "Lord save me." Christ did save Peter but said "Oh ye of little faith." We must learn from Peter's example. He taught us the if we Stay focused on Christ, we can overcome anything. Christ has provided a way for us to succeed. His hand will ALWAYS be outstretched, but we must keep our eyes on Him. Let our faith take us the rest of the way.
I love this thought. Stay focused on Christ, we can overcome anything. ANYTHING. There is no limit to what the Savior can help us with. No limit to what the Savior's atonement can save us from. Through Christ, we can do ALL things.
In a demo lesson this week, our teachers were teaching us (as fake investigators) about God being our Father in Heaven, and Christ being our Savior. We were trying to give him the hardest questions we could, so we could use his tactics to answer our investigators questions, and learn from his example. After stumping all of our questions, we asked him one last thing. "I understand what you are teaching, and why it is important to you, but why should I follow what you say?" At this moment, our teacher started to share his testimony of this, and why we all need Christ's gospel. He closed his testimony with this line. "Your Heavenly Father loves you. He misses you. He wants you to come home." Everyone read that line again. Our Father in Heaven misses each of us. He is devastated when we choose to stray from His path. He sorrows when we are struggling and He cannot help us because of our choices. We wants more than anything for us to come home to Him. We know this. Moses 1:39. The Lord tells us His purpose right here: to bring to pass immortality and eternal life of man. Remember this and remember that God loves you NO MATTER WHAT. It is His eternal purpose to help us gain eternal life, eternal happiness, and eternal exaltation.
I love all of you and more importantly, God loves all of you. Remember this and turn to Him. His arm is ALWAYS outstretched to each of us. We just have to reach up and grab it. Have a wonderful week!
xoxo
Sister Richards
李姐妹
Lǐ Jiéměi
1- FLIGHT PLANS
2- Happy Birthday Sister Percival!
3- Bye bye Korea friends:(
4- a little taste of Taiwan:)
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