Hello again,
You know, every week I think, "Phew. Glad I survived that one. Can't wait for life to calm down a bit!" and then BAM. The next week hits.
This week man. hah Where to even begin?
Well, for starters, we finished moving in which was nice. We are LOVING our new apartment! It is so nice and in a new complex (is that what it is called in English?) and has a doorman, about thirteen security measures from the door into the building to the door into our house, and a GYM. I could cry I am so happy about it! Real tears were shed. GUONIAN (Chinese new year), I AM READY FOR YOU.
Aside from that, we had transfers and both of my companions got transferred out, which left me to take over all THREE of our areas, and train a new sister training leader:) hah Challenge accepted. My new companion's name is Sister Weaver! She is from Sandy, UT and is so cool. This is her last transfer so I will be "killing" her (weird mission terms) here in YongHe! She is a great missionary, super chill and fun, and we already get along really well! It should be an awesome transfer! That is... if we survive it.
With the joys of covering three areas, we are SO busy. Practically always teaching and trying to plan and guanxin investigators in any other free time we have! It is so awesome, but also NUTS. We taught seven lessons last Saturday and thought it probably couldn't get any crazier than that. Until, we have EIGHT investigators at church on Sunday, all for different wards... Then came the struggle of having only two missionaries trying to attend three wards.... Besides the fact that we needed to be in two places at once at multiple times during the day... Thank goodness for splits. Most of our investigators had really wonderful experiences at church yesterday, and we were so happy to see many of them really progressing and making those necessary steps towards baptism!
We saw some really cool miracles this week with investigators. I'll try to summarize a few for you!
Alice: Alice is a member referral that is just GOLDEN. We met her a couple of weeks ago, and she just LOVES this gospel. She is so diligent in her studies and efforts to know God. For example, we send scripture texts to our investigators and RCs each night with a scripture and a question they can ponder. Alice texts us her responses to those questions every day. You want to know what else? She texted us this week saying: "I really want to understand the scriptures more, so I decided to make a scripture study notebook so I can really right down my thoughts and ponder on the verses more." ... AND THAT'S NOT EVEN ALL. She comes to our lessons having read all that we have given her and more, with questions to ask, and with scriptures she has read recently and wants to share with us. SHE IS AMAZING. She came to church yesterday and just loved it. She is progressing so well to her date on 10/7!
Han Ming: Oh man. She is the coolest miracle. Han Ming is a member referral that WE harvested! We have been working with this recently returned RM in our ward and constantly asking him for referrals. After some failed attempts of trying to invite his friends to things, he decided to try one more time with one of his friends from high school, and she pulled through! She came to our YSA FHE activity, where we happened to be talking about the restoration, and she loved it! Since then, we have been able to meet twice, and put her on a baptismal date as well! She is so cool, and has a great desire to know her Heavenly Father and Savior.
Eva: Eva is someone we have been teaching for a while, but this week she KEPT THE WORD OF WISDOM. We were so so happy for her and the progression she is making! She is getting there.
Liu Jm: Ok, she is a special one. But, the big miracle with her this week came from her acting in faith. Liu Jm really loves the gospel and knows how important it is, but has a really hard time coming to church because of her son. She says he pulls the puppy dog eyes out on her every time she tries to go and says "Mom, who do you love more? Church or me." And she falls every time and never comes. SO, this week I had the idea to do a role play with her to help her when in that situation. We helped her change her answer to "I love you both! So come with me!" instead of keeping these two aspects of her life separate. We didn't know what would happen, but she surprised us on Thursday night, by bringing her son to our lesson with her! And he was adorable! He is 11 and loves video games (so does my new comp so she knows all these things he loves hah) and loved what we shared. And when Sunday came around, guess who were both at church? :) These two:))) We are so excited to teach them together and really know that they will help each other out so much!
Penny: Ok last but not least, Penny. Oh man. Penny continues to be amazing. Over the course of this week, we learned that Penny likes to go on our church website and watch videos and read talks in her free time... We were wondering why every scripture and video we try to share with her she has somehow heard of or seen before! ha We had some very powerful lessons with her this week and she is starting to receive answers! She is starting to feel the Holy Ghost confirming things to her. She is just waiting on her answer to the Book of Mormon! I have so much faith in her. Unfortunately, she hit a little bump in her progression this week, but we have faith that as she continues to root herself in what she knows, rather that what she doesn't, that she will make it. But, definitely pray for Penny.
Well ya'll. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I love being a missionary. This is the best life there is. It is exhausting. It is hard. It is trying in every way. But it is worth it. Seeing the changes in others and in yourself make every day worth it.
One thing that really stood out to me this week was the simplicity of the gospel. As I shared earlier, we share a scripture and a question every night, and one of our investigators said that she feels like most of the answers are the same. Pray, read your scriptures, have faith, repent, etc. And as I was thinking about it, I realized that she was right. The gospel is simple and unchanging. There is not a new formula for each individual aspect of the gospel. It is all laid out for us. Have faith, repent, be baptized, be worthy to have the spirit, and endure to the end. Develop faith by reading and praying and coming to church and keeping the commandments. It is just that simple. Simple enough that a nursery child can understand it. I know that it was designed like this for a reason.
And so my invitation to you all this week is to do those simple things. To remember those promises you made with God when you were baptized, and continue to endure to the end. Endure well my friends. I 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- the new district
2- japanese food
3/4- OUR GYM
This is the song Micah, Sister Mensie and Sister Calderwood sang at the fireside last week. She is the one singing mostly the melody throughout the musical number (not the high one though).
**side note...our family had just finished watching "The Other Side of Heaven" when we listened to this...
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