Alright ya'll, so much to say, so little time.
First of all, being a trainer is so fun. I love it. But it is lots of work. WOO. Sister Birch is doing a great job and we are loving working together here in Hualian! Our weeks are full of lots of hard work, but lots of miracles as well.
With the recent focus on finding investigators in the receptive age bracket (15-25ish), we have been really focusing a lot on the college in our area, and as a result, we have many many investigators from there! (It is actually really funny because it is a Buddhist college and sometimes I imagine the equivalent of what we are doing if it were to be in America- two monks walk onto BYU campus trying to teach people. hah i don't know. just so funny sometimes) College students are awesome because really so many of them are seeking for truth, and we connect with them so well! The problem is that they are all SO BUSY. Tests come and "oh sorry, can't meet for two weeks". Remembering my own college experience, I don't blame them and know it really can get so so busy, but I just wish people were more free! It has been killing us lately because finals are coming up and everyone is going into study mode and "too busy" to meet or come to church. So, that has been a bit of a challenge lately, but you know what...it is so ok because they are just paving the way for the really prepared people to come along.
This week, we were pleased to see some good progression in our investigator Cindy. Cindy has been meeting with us for a while, but is such a "sciencey" thinker kind of person. She wants to know things 100% before going and acting. Which is a little hard, but she is doing well. She has been reading and praying and coming to church, we are just doing all we can to help her receive the answer that she needs that will make her feel comfortable enough to be baptized! Pray for her everybody. SHE IS SO CLOSE.
We saw some other great progression and met some cool people this week, but what really stood out to me were two particular lessons.
I shared the story about our friend Liao Mei Qi last week that we met in the 7/11. Finding her was a miracle in and of itself, but she just keeps on proving to be a miracle. She is a pretty busy woman, but agreed to come to our activity last night where we invited everyone to come to the church and watch the Joseph Smith Movie with us! We were equipped with caramel popcorn (thanks to the Beutlers- our senior couple) and ice cream! Everyone loved it, and so did Liao JM. That movie is SO POWERFUL. The spirit was at level 100, and everyone who came was able to feel of the power of the message. Seriously, everyone go watch it. We were able to meet with her after the movie, and she had so many questions. She has pretty much no background in religion, and so everything we share with her is new to her. But, she is so willing to learn. As we talked with her more about the restoration and plan of salvation, she just opened her heart to us, and with tears in her eyes expressed to us how much she just wants to understand and know these things for herself. She is so prepared, and we are so incredibly excited to be able to help her on her own journey to coming to know of the truth for herself.
We had a similar lesson earlier this week with an investigator named Mao JM. I won't go into too much detail because time is a tickin, but long story short, everyone needs the gospel. End of story. It doesn't matter if you are happy, sad, struggling, successful, or whatever. The gospel takes all of us and makes us into so much more than we ever were before. I have felt that over and over again in my life and especially on my mission.
This week, we had the amazing opportunity to hear from many General Authorities of the church. We had Elder Quentin L. Cook (Quorum of the 12 Apostles), Ulisses Soares (Presidency of the Seventy), Randy D. Funk (Area Presidency), Peter F. Meurs (Seventy), W. Christopher Waddell (Presiding Bishopric 2nd Counselor), Elder Guan (Area Seventy), Elder Chang (Area Seventy), as well as each of their wives come and visit our mission this week. CRAZY. So much priesthood in that room, let me tell ya. It was incredible. We had an incredible training by them and I wish I could put into words all of the feelings that were felt in that conference. They all shared many amazing things, but the main focus I noticed was relying on the Spirit, and really learning to recognize and access it in our lives. We are just the tools. The Spirit is the teacher. It is not the other way around. When we have the Spirit with us we have absolutely nothing to fear. No task is too great, no storm too strong, no mountain too high. The Lord is with us every step of our journey, and He is leading us and always helping us. I especially loved hearing from Elder Cook. Just being in his presence, I could feel the love of the Lord for each of us so strongly. As I heard him speak, the Holy Ghost continually testified to me that he really is called of God to be an apostle and prophet of the Lord. I am so so grateful we have modern prophets to live and guide us today. THE CHURCH IS TRUE FOLKS.
I am just loving this work. It isn't all easy that is for sure, but oh is it worth it. I know that the Savior Jesus Christ is always with us, each of us. We just have to choose to open the door and let Him in.
Have Faith - Be Believing - Be Cheerful - Be Not Afraid.
Have a wonderful week! Love you all!
xoxo
Sister Richards
李姐妹
Lǐ Jǐemeì
Taiwan Taipei Mission
4/F, #24, Lane 183
Jin Hua Street
Taipei, Taiwan 106
1- This week rained and rained and rained...
2- views
3- just the usual
4- temple:)
5- i. miss. the. temple.
6- just doing what every good trainer would do- forces her to answer the phone sometimes. hah
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