This week was an awesome one, but SO BUSY. I. am. so. pooped. hah Let me paint this picture for you a bit. In the past week, we had 2 exchanges, 2 zone conferences we had to attend (we cover two zones so we had to attend two separate conferences), 100+ degree weather, probably 10,000% humidity, broken AC, and then just normal missionary life on top of all of that! hah we are so tired. As always tired and happy, but really tired. hah
With the busyness of the past few weeks, I have had what feels like a total of 3 hours with my companion hah, but good thing she is awesome!
This week I LOVED zone conference. Oh man President is so inspired. The focus of this transfer's conference was on the sweet Book of Mormon. President really believes that if we learn to use the Book of Mormon more effectively in our work- finding, teaching, etc, we will baptize more converts! So, our entire zone conference was focused on how we can do that! We thought of some awesome creative ideas to keep it as more of a focus in everything that we do. But, really what it came down to was just using it more! Bringing it up in every contact ("Hey are you guys the Mormons?" "Ya! That's our nickname! Want to know why people call us that? Because of THIS AWESOME BOOK." Bam. Book of Mormon), using it as the main source of teaching in lessons as well as the main source to help investigators overcome concerns, and helping our members to be reading it everyday personally and with their families. As we have tried applying these principles more into our work, we have already seen so many miracles! We have found people that are really interested in the special message we bring instead of just a slight interest in hearing a "happy message about families" or "learning more about Jesus Christ." Obviously these things are still so important and are what we are sharing about, but we have found that as we focus in on the root of our religion- the Book of Mormon- we are finding those really prepared people. For example, Mistral.
I shared a little about her last week, but long story short she is just amazing. She is SO prepared! She reminds me a lot of my first RC Serena. She is Christian and already very converted to Christ, just needed some direction to know where to put her belief into. We have now known Mistral for a little over a week, and in the past 10 or so days, she has come to church twice (for three hours both times), met with us three times, came to a fireside, english class, been taught the first three lessons, came to a ward activity, reads the Book of Mormon and prays every day, got her parent's signature saying she can be baptized (because she is 19 and here in Taiwan 20 counts as an adult), and is WELL on her way to be baptized 8/26! We are so pumped about her. She is so awesome. And because she has already been to many church events, she has already heard the basis of many of the commandments, so Sister Reinhard and I are both feeling confident that she will be able to make her date! She is SO prepared. It's just so awesome. So many blessings.
In other news, Li Xiang Ting (one of my investigators in HuaLian) got baptized on Saturday! Ah man, she is such a miracle. I'll tell ya'll this story. So, at the beginning of my first transfer training Sister Birch, our RS President asked us to go and visit this LA sister. We go over there and as we pull up their dog starts barking, the woman comes out, and before we get off of our bikes she "bu yongs" us and tells us she is not interested in coming back to church and we shouldn't waste our time on her. So, yeah, that went well! But, we didn't really think much of that experience, UNTIL about a month later. As I shared about earlier, Sister Birch and I were HUGE fans of former finding, and one night we decided to go out and visit this former part-member family. From the record, their daughter sounded super golden so we were pumped to go and check them out! Until we pulled up to their home and du du du dunnnnnn IT WAS THE MEAN LADY'S HOUSE. Our jaws dropped when we realized it and frankly we were pretty discouraged. But, we decided to leave it all in the Lord's hands and go forth in faith! We said a prayer, and right as we finished praying the dad came outside to smoke. Great I know, but it gave us a perfect opportunity to talk to him a little bit. He is also a (very) less active member, but knows that this church is such a great thing for people to have in their lives, and was very open to us coming back and teaching his kids. Over a period of time and lots of exercised faith, Heavenly Father just worked everything out for us. The dad started gaining a desire to repent and change, the mom opened up her heart and let us come over every week multiple times, would listen to and participate in the lessons, and allowed her children to be baptized, Xiang Ting (15 year old daughter) gained a great desire to be baptized and overcame her concerns and doubts, and Hank (almost 8 year old son) also is planning to be baptized on his birthday this October! It was so so amazing to see this family just transform. They still have a ways to go, but I know that Xiang Ting's faith will take her family so far. She is so diligent in reading her scriptures and praying daily, and has such a great desire to follow Christ. I LOVE HER. I LOVE THEM.
With this new refocus on the Book of Mormon, I took some time this week to rededicate my own study of the scriptures. To reconfirm my testimony of this sacred book and all of the teachings it contains. It is with great joy that I share with you all my convinction of this book of scripture. I KNOW the Book of Mormon is true. I know without a doubt. It has changed my life. It has given me so much hope and happiness as I read and apply the principles taught therein. It has given me direction as I read and receive answers to my prayers and questions. I know that as you all read the Book of Mormon, you too will be able to find direction, answers, and peace.
My invite to all of you this week goes in line with the invitation our Prophet gave us in the last general conference.
1- read the scriptures everyday- personally and with your families
2- re-ask Heavenly Father of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. Renew your testimony!
Alright, my Dan Jones moment is over, but I truly hope many of you, no ALL of you, will be willing to take my challenge this week and really dedicate this week to the Lord through the Book of Mormon. I promise it will change your life.
I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week as you enjoy all of the amazing blessings that will come from feasting upon the words of Christ each day! See ya'll in the blink of an eye!
xoxo
Sister Richards
李姐妹
Lǐ Jǐemeì
Taiwan Taipei Mission
4/F, #24, Lane 183
Jin Hua Street
Taipei, Taiwan 106
1- the best mango cuabing of my life
2- do they have yellow watermelon in America?
3- exchanges with cutest Sister Eyring!!
4-5- Skyping Xiang Ting before her baptism!
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