To start here, our mornings have been really fun lately. We have recently had mosquitos getting into our apartment, and each morning we play a game of counting how many bites we got while we were sleeping.. yay... There was literally a morning I woke up with 8 on my hands and 3 on my face.. the only parts of my body not under covers.. THANKS. Just the joys of this sweet place. ha!
This week started with a great district meeting that really got us rolling and excited about the week ahead. Our district leader, Elder Richards (yes that is right), gave us a great training about faith and expectations. He said "faith is a hope." When we have faith we act, and when we have hope, we are expecting a certain outcome. After discussing this, we modified the original sentence to say "act on your expectations." This is crucial in so much that we do. As missionaries, we hope to baptize and have faith to put in the work to do so. Elder Richards reminded us that as we turn that hope into an expectation, and focus on baptism, we will indeed baptize. I think this goes for most aspects in our lives. The focus of our lives greatly affects the outcomes of our lives. Wow, that was pretty profound. Read that again. The focus of our lives greatly affects the outcomes of our lives. What we focus on, we will work towards, and are much more likely to achieve it. After this great reminder, we all went out pumped to refocus our work on our ultimate goal of baptism, and go forward in faith!
With this as our focus, we saw lots of miracles this week. Many investigators made great progression, we met some stellar new people, and we just had so much fun! Our 9 year old, Xu Luo Jia, is all set to get baptized next Saturday and we are loving teaching her! She was pretty shy at first, but now calls us her older sisters and draws us pictures and gives us treats every time we see her. hah She is adorable. She follows us around church and feels like a little sister!
He Jm is an investigator we have had for a while now. I met her one of my first weeks in ZhongLi, but she is just a very "man man lai" (slow coming maybe? sorry I don't know how to say that in English lol) kind of person. She likes to take things at a nice and comfortable pace, but she really likes the gospel. She reads and prays everyday and keeps commitments. Her biggest problem is her husband. He doesn't oppose her coming to church and meeting with us, but doesn't exactly support her either. She is scared to ask him for permission to be baptized, and until then, we are having a hard time helping her really progress. We are praying for miracles with her.
Yang Jm is one that really surprised us this week! She is a member referral that we have only met with twice, but she came to church yesterday and LOVED it. Which is saying a lot actually because we had the most nuts RS lesson ever on the deepest doctrine of Joseph Smith.. Like we were pulling out the maps in the middle of the triple combination scriptures and everything and doing all this crazy stuff that I wouldn't even understand in English... But she still loved it! She said she loved church because it helped her learn about Christ and get closer to Heavenly Father! She has a baptismal date for the 11th of March and has it all marked on her calendar and everything! She is still new and a lot could happen, but we have such high hopes for her!
There were a lot of other great people we met and miracles seen, but for the sake of my fingers and your sanity, I'll save those for later. hah
All in all, it was a wonderful week. Great members took us out to Vietnamese this week because "they wanted me to have a taste of my home culture" hahaha. It was so funny. While we were at the restaurant, our stake president's wife had to tell everyone how my grandma is Vietnamese and my Grandpa is French and my whole life story. hah It was so cute. The members here are so cute to me! Also, we have been praying to meet families to teach lately, and this week, we met two AWESOME potential families. Right now, they are both set up to come to English class and we are just counting down to Wednesday so we can get them rolling! They are adorable and we are really really praying for them!! The work is incredible. I LOVE IT.
This week I read a wonderful talk on the Atonement and repentance called "The Great Plan of Redemption" by Linda S. Reeves from the past general conference. She talked a lot about repentance and utilizing the Atonement. But there was one particular part that stood out to me. She said that in preparation for her talk, she asked some of her grandchildren some questions about repentance. One of these was "How do you feel about Jesus and Heavenly Father when you repent?" In response, her grandchild said "I feel that Jesus feels it was worth it to do the Atonement." . . . . Woah. I had never thought of repentance like that before. When we repent, Christ feels that we are using the precious gift that He has given us. We know Christ suffered so so much for us. Pain and suffering beyond our understanding. But when we simply use His Atonement to become clean; when we repent, He feels all that was worth it. Our Savior loves us so so much. He has given us this gift to help us become clean, have fresh starts, second chances, and ultimately to return to our Heavenly Father's presence again. People, we need to use it! He is holding out the greatest present we could ever imagine right in front of us! All we need to do is grab it. Sister Reeves poses as question at the end of her talk. She says "Why not repent? What is holding us back?" I want to leave you with those questions to think about this week, and invite you all to repent. Turn to your Father daily through prayer and plead for His help. We all need it so much.
I love you all and wish you all the best week!
Also, everyone give Kennan some love because it is her birthday this week! 17 never looked so good! Also happy birthday Grandpa Richards!
xoxo
Sister Richards
李姐妹
Lǐ Jǐemeì
Taiwan Taipei Mission
4/F, #24, Lane 183
Jin Hua Street
Taipei, Taiwan 106
1- some of our english class homies
2- Xu Luo Jia- our 9 year old and our ukes:)
3- dear lin mamma- I LOVE OUR MEMBERS
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