I hope you all had a wonderful start to the week, and a great start to the new year! We definitely did over here! Life is going great over here in Zhongli, and we are loving every day! This week was so fun and full of lots of great memories! Starting our week off with hiking these beautiful mountains called Daxi, then being pressed for time so sprinting literally up and down it, zone conference, early morning sunrise with the district to start off our pday, and THE TEMPLE (well in an hour). But all in all, two thumbs up for our first week of the year in sweet old Taiwan.
As always, SO many miracles, but I'll spare some of the dramatics and share about two main ones from this past week.
The first miracle is our sweet investigators Ye Yu Ting. You people think your investigators are golden? No. You have not met Yu Ting. Holy cow people she blows our minds everyday. Sister Cullen and I met her about 3 weeks ago, and have been consistently meeting with her twice a week since. She loves the gospel and is progressing so well! This week though was the scarier one because we were teaching her the commandments. Not scarier per say, just that it was the make or break kind of thing. We started off easy with teaching her obedience, everyday prayer and scripture study, and keeping the Sabbath Day holy, and she loved them all. She even promised us she would never work on Sunday again. haha OK COOL. This is a big deal for Taiwanese people. Their work schedule is nutso. But just like that. "Yes sabbath day got it." So yes, we were pumped. Then two days later we met with her again and planned on teaching her the Word of Wisdom. We knew she drank tea and coffee, and the Taiwanese LOVE their tea, so we were a little worried. But to prep her, we gave her the Word of Wisdom pamphlet the time before and invited her to read it before our next lesson. OH did she read it. In her own words she said, "So I was reading that pamphlet, and I totally agree. I love that God has given us guidelines to help us be healthy and strong. It shows how much he really loves us." Yes we agree Yu Ting good... good. But we still needed to make sure she got it. So we asked her specifically what the WOW included, and she listed all 5 main things no problem. When she talked about tea she said "So, I was drinking tea as I was reading this pamphlet, and when I read that we couldn't drink it, I threw my tea away. I really like tea so it's going to be hard, but if God doesn't want me to drink tea, then I won't! Water is better for me anyway:)" . . . . . . . . . DO YOU PEOPLE REALIZE WHAT SHE JUST SAID. We taught the word of wisdom in 5 minutes... FIVE MINUTES. We planned an entire lesson on the WOW and following the Prophet, but she was just so accepting! We ended up teaching her ALL the rest of the commandments, and just setting up her baptismal interview right there because she is just so ready! Holy cow she is the best ever, and we are SO pumped for her to be baptized not this coming Saturday but the next! There really are prepared people out there, we just have to find them!
Speaking of prepared people, our other miracle this week was with a Gu Jiemei. Gu JM is a church headquarters referral, which in her case means that she was met outside of our mission boundaries and then sent in to us! She is the coolest person ever. Long story short, we met her for the first time when she came to church on Sunday for all three hours! Throughout all of church, she was practically taught all 5 lessons hah. But it was good. It gave her a good preface to everything, and made her very interested! We met with her yesterday, and had one of the most incredible lessons I have had on my mission. We taught her one of the deepest first lessons I have ever taught just because she has so many questions! But it was awesome. The most special part was when she asked us how we knew this was all true. She said " I want to believe it is true, but how can I know it is true?" I then had the opportunity to bear my testimony to her of how I knew it was true. As I spoke, the Spirit filled the room, and we all got a little emotional. As I struggled to continue speaking, I looked at her and saw tears streaming down her face. I promised her that I knew it was true, and it could bless her life in ways she couldn't even understand. Then she said "I don't know why I am crying! This is so weird! But I just feel so touched. I believe this is true, and I think this is exactly what I have been looking for. I know God led me here to meet you two. I just feel so touched." It was so special, and the best part is that the Spirit did all of the teaching.
That was a big thing that I thought about this week, that the spirit is truly the teacher. We are the instruments, and the Spirit is the teacher. Not the other way around. I recently have started studying the Doctrine & Covenants, and this week found a scripture that I loved that pertained directly to this. Christ is talking about Joseph Smith, and Him giving commandments so Joseph can share them with the world. In D&C 2:19-23, Christ talks about the fullness of His gospel being proclaimed by the weak and simple, but these weak and simple things will break down great and mighty things of the world. As I read this, I thought "this is me. this is us." Christ has called us, weak and simple people, to bring forth His mighty work. To break down the mighty grasp Satan has on this world and the hearts of so many, and bring the world His truth. How great a calling it is. But we cannot do it alone. The mighty miracles are wrought through the Spirit, not by us. We are the instruments. We open our mouths, and they are filled with the Spirit's words. I invite you all, this week, to think about how you can be a better instrument in bringing forth Christ's gospel to the world. How can you be more worthy to have the Spirit with you at all times? To be an instrument in the hands of the Lord?
I love you all so much, and I love this work. I am so grateful to be here serving the Lord and serving the people of Taiwan. I hope you all have a wonderful week! Look for the miracles because I promise they are there!
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