早早早
This. week. was. nuts. Like so nuts I cannot even explain, but I will try.
To paint a picture of this week for you, we were covering 3 areas, we had interviews, MLC, had to pack up a 10+ year old missionary apartment (full of 10+ years of old missionary's stuff), move into a new apartment, got locked out of our new apartment the first night because one of the movers accidentally locked the one lock on our door we didn't have the key for (and our landlord was out of the country), had the new member fireside which I sang two musical numbers at, and taught about 100 lessons on the side....:) I count the fact that I am sitting here alive today as a great blessing. haha
A fun little start of this week was finding out that an investigator from one of my old areas got baptized! Hong Jm has quite the story. Here is an excerpt from one of the missionaries email who recently taught her:
"Hong JM's Husband and 2 daughters got baptized together a long time ago. For the past 15 years, Hong JM is what we sometimes call a "dry Mormon" meaning they live a life of an LDS person but they just have never been baptized. A reason that was holding her back is that she had responsibility to "bai bai" or do the worship thing to the Buddhist alter in their home. The tradition belonged to her husband's mother and so when he got baptized, she took that on to avoid family problems. She is stubborn. And even though she always knew the church was good for her family, and even gaining testimony of truths of the gospel, she wasn't willing to change.
When Sister Yee and I began visiting her it was right at the time that Hong JM's oldest daughter was preparing for her mission. It really helped a lot that her daughter was preparing to help with the duty of bringing people to repentance and baptism. That influence was very important for her mom. Sister Yee and I took courage that we needed to set a baptismal date. We decided to set it for the last week of September (4 months in the future) so there would be time for them to discuss things with the Grandma. We invited her boldly and she was being funny about it but she technically agreed! So we kept reminding her of that goal that she was going to pray about and work for.
We discussed ways we could deal with the alter and on a fast Sunday we invited her to fast for her baptismal date as a family. That week we met with her and she told us nonchalantly that the Grandma said they could take the alter out of their house. We flipped out and jumped up and down cheering. Her daughter left on her mission and we continued to visit her twice, sometimes 3 times a week. By the time I left the area, I knew Sister Yee, in her final transfer of her mission, could do what seemed impossible, and help Hong JM get baptized.
At the baptism, Hong JM bore her testimony and recalled that over the years she has had 50+ missionaries visit her. I am so grateful for all those sisters that might never know that their hard work was worth it. They didn't give up on her! Hong JM finally was humbled to recognize all the blessings that God had given her over the years and finally humbled herself to know that she needed to do what God wanted her to do." SO grateful for the work of Sisters Clyde and Yee to finally get that woman baptized! All in the Lord's time.
Though so incredibly busy this week, we were still able to see SO many miracles. We started our week with a super cool lesson with our new investigator Susan from VIETNAM. MY FIRST VIETNAMESE INVESTIGATOR! It was so cool teaching her. She speaks some Chinese and some English, so teaching her was kind of just a fun game of trying to understand each other. hah But good thing we have Vietnamese pamphlets and Book of Mormon:) She was so touched to have these resources in her native language! She is super cool, and it was so cool to hear her read some of the passages in Vietnamese! It reminded me what it felt like to hear Chinese forever ago, when it all sounded so foreign and weird and unbelievable that people actually understand it! So cool. She ended our lesson by praying in Vietnamese, and though we couldn't understand what she was saying, we felt the spirit enter the room as she said her LONG prayer. The one thing we did 聽得懂 (understand) was "sack mac mon" which means book of mormon. When we asked her how she felt after praying she said "I feel like this is the start of something. I feel like I need to know about this Book of Mormon, and that I want to pray like that a lot more often." SO SO cool. Plus it was so cool to be reminded of my sweet Vietnamese Grandma and her culture! I love it!
Other miracles come from teaching three area's worth of investigators.... IT'S NUTS. But so fun. We got to witness some really great steps in the conversion process of many investigators this week, and we are feeling so blessed! Many had the chance to come to church yesterday, and set baptismal dates this week, and we just feel like we are constantly on a spiritual high!
But the DEFINITE highlight of the week was our investigator Penny. Holy cow she is the coolest person I have ever met. I told you guys about her last week, but long story short she is unreal. In the past week, she completely dove into Christianity, and took it all head on. In the past week, she met with us three times, came to church all three hours, came to a fireside, and played basketball with us:) But the coolest part is that Penny has such a great desire. And that desire is something that she had before we had the chance to meet her. This is so cool to me, because I feel like most of the people I have met on my mission have had to find that desire in their process of learning about the gospel. Most of them didn't realize they were looking for the truth and light, until they found it. But Penny knows what she is missing and has this great fire to find what is true. At the start of our second meeting, Penny goes "I feel like I should tell you guys something. I started an experiment four days ago. I am praying every day for a month to see what happens and see if I feel any differently.".. just casually on her own starts this experiment.. yep that's Penny for you! For the sake of time, I won't go too crazy into more details because I could talk about her for years. But, I have had some of the coolest lessons of my mission with Penny and I know she will receive the answer she is looking for because she is willing to do the work!
One thing I have been thinking a lot about this week is something President told me in interviews this week. I went into interviews prepared to hear all these new things I can do to be better and see more success and change and all this great stuff. But, when I asked President my questions, he just simply said, "Sister Richards. Just keep doing the things you know you should do, and you will see success and become who the Lord needs you to become." It is just as simple as that.
I think that is such a parallel to all aspects of our lives. Sometimes we spend so much time thinking about how we can be doing better or what we need to do to see certain results or blessings in our life, but really the principles behind it all never change. Do the things God has asked you to do, do you the thinks you know you should do, and these blessings will come. We have God's promise.
I love this work so much and I love my mission in Taiwan! I hope you all have a great week and really do those little things. Read the Book of Mormon. Say your prayers. Go to Church. Keep the Commandments. It's just that simple.
xoxo
Sister Richards
李姐妹
Lǐ Jǐemeì
Taiwan Taipei Mission
4/F, #24, Lane 183
Jin Hua Street
Taipei, Taiwan 106
1/2- last week's pday! soccer game- taiwan vs colombia
3- the famous penny
4- Moving...hah!
5/6- The rain chronicles!
4- Moving...hah!
5/6- The rain chronicles!
No comments:
Post a Comment