This week... I honestly don't know how to describe the experiences of this past week. Some of the most special and some of the hardest experiences I have had on my mission.
This week was one of those "Plan Z" kind of weeks that I loved to talk about at the beginning of my mission. We got stood up quite a bit last week, a lot of lessons cancelled, and over all a lot of random bits of time opened up. But boy am I grateful for those times. Sometimes I think of it like Heavenly Father looking down on us, watching us running around trying to be good and effective missionaries and talking to as many people as we can, setting up with new people all the time, and just watching us with a smile on his face. With the kind of expression of a parent watching their young child try their best to do something that they are just totally messing up. hah but trying none the less. So sometimes when we get stood up, I kind of think it's like Heavenly Father helping us out a bit. Thinking "ah, very cute of you guys to try and meet with this person, but here, let me help you to do what I actually need you to do." And then we go back out and see a million miracles! I love the learning experience Heavenly Father is giving me, called my mission, and really just my whole life. hah
We really saw this principle in action this week. With many cancellations and what not, we met SO many cool people! We were able to find many new investigators last week, and have even more set up for this week! We are excited for all of the new people in our investigator pool! I think a big influencing factor was that Sister Zhong and I focused a lot more on our goals this week. We always have good goals in the back of our minds and do our best to accomplish them, but this week we really worked hard to actively work to hit our goals, and we did! Whether it was with numbers or set ups or ways we wanted people to progress or people at church or what not. We hit them! We exceeded them!
We met with our stake president this past week to ask how we as missionaries can help our stake grow. A suggestion he gave us was to focus to part member families. I have done this throughout my whole mission and have seen a lot of success from it, but since being in YongHe, we have had a harder time with it. We have tried time and time again with some of the part-member families, but haven't seen too much success. UNTIL this week. We have been meeting with the cutest foster child living with one of the families in our ward, who LOVES the gospel and wants more than anything to be baptized. And this week she introduced us to ANOTHER foster child that has the same desires! These poor kids have had the hardest lives and truly see the need for the gospel. They are the best! The only problem is that there are some legal processes we have to go through to help them be baptized, but we are already seeing Heavenly Father providing the way!
Another crazy thing about this week... we got SMARTPHONES. Honestly, I feel like a grandma trying to figure out technology again. IT IS SO WEIRD. Nice. But so weird. Smart phones open a lot more doors for us in our work, and provide us so many more materials to use! It is awesome. But we are definitely still getting used to them. Mission Leadership just got trained on them yesterday, and somehow we are supposed to train everyone else in the whole mission tomorrow and the next day??? So pray for us. haha
This week our best friend, Penny, took LEAPS AND BOUNDS in progress. We had an AWESOME lesson with her that was 100% led by the Spirit. We are at the point with Penny now that we don't follow a lesson order anymore because she has been taught most of them. We are trying to help her build her faith now. Not knowing exactly what we were going to teach her the other day, I dedicated my whole personal study to her and other new needs, and oh man. MIRACLES. She came into our lesson with some questions that I was able to answer because of what I had studied that morning. We were also able to have a very spirit-filled lesson, that just fit right to her needs. It was awesome. And now she is growing! Her faith is increasing, and though she still isn't sure of it, she is feeling the spirit! She is understanding the scriptures. And now it is just a matter of time until she gets her answer! We are praying so hard for her!
Last but not least, the big news of the week! Our sweet Zeng JM got baptized! We had a wonderful baptismal service where she bore a powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon, the Holy Ghost, and the gospel of Jesus Christ. We had many investigators attend, and all in all it was just great! The members were in awe at the faith of this new member. Before going into the water, the member baptizing her says the prayer and all and says amen and she said "YUANYI" or "WILLING" hahah the member was so confused, but Zeng Jm was just smiling wide and ready to be baptized. It was so cute. We were so proud of her.
But for every wonderful thing there is, there is always opposition. This week we learned this lesson very deeply. This is the part where I remind all of you that though missions are so wonderful, they are also very hard and sometimes just about break your heart. We are working hard to help souls come unto Christ, but Satan is working hard too to pull them away. After Zeng JM was baptized, the pastor of her old church came by to visit her. (He hadn't contacted her in years.) He came to her house and pretty much yelled at her for hours about how the Mormon church was of the devil, and that the only reason she felt the "spirit" there was because Satan has power too and it was from him. He told her that if she continued to go to our church she would go to hell and so so so many terrible things. He basically took every wonderful experience she has had over the past month of meeting with us, and polluted it. Distorted it. and Slowly ripped apart her faith. He scared her so badly and that she called us apologizing, but telling us that she needed a break from our church. After doing all we could to help her slowly dimming light, we had to respect her agency. I am going to be honest, I think that day was one of the hardest days of my mission. I have had many heart breaks out here, but it was a whole new level of hurt to see someone so solid, so firm, and having covenanted to follow God, be led away by the false precepts of the world.
I have pondered a lot about why this happened, how this happened, and if there was anything more I could've done. But as I have pondered, I have felt the peace of the Spirit confirming to me our efforts were enough, and most importantly, Heavenly Father's love for His lost sheep. One of the first things Zeng JM said to me was that she stopped going to her old church because she didn't feel anything there. She felt no spirit, she didn't learn as deeply there, and didn't feel peace there. But, the first time she ever stepped into our chapel, she felt like she was coming home. Since that first moment with the spirit, she has had many other special experiences. I am confident that, though for now she has lost her way, she will have the same experience again. She will again realize that the path she is walking down is missing a light. Missing truth. Missing feeling. And she will turn back to the light. We are not giving up on her, and I know that Heavenly Father will never give up on her either.
I learned a valuable lesson this week on agency and on the importance of being firm in our beliefs. We never know what Satan has up his sleeve, whether it is a yelling pastor, tempting you at your weakest moments, or a slowly diminishing testimony. I plead with all of you, the people I love most, to please decide TODAY to stand firm. Decide TODAY what you will do when Satan comes attacking you. Will you stand up or stand down? With my plea, comes an invitation to do something today that your future self standing against Satan will thank you for. Rededicate yourself to read the Book of Mormon everyday. Re-decide to go to church each Sunday for all three hours. Renew your baptismal covenants with the Lord by worthily partaking of the sacrament. Repent.
I love you all so much, and my heart is so full of gratitude for the Atonement and for our infinite chances to change and become better.
23 Therefore, cheer up your he
(2 Nephi 10:23)
xoxo
Sister Richards
李姐妹
Lǐ Jǐemeì
Taiwan Taipei Mission
4/F, #24, Lane 183
Jin Hua Street
Taipei, Taiwan 106
1- love seeing sister eyring and austad at the fireside
2- Zeng JM's Baptism- Sister Zhong and I bought matching dresses:) ha
3/4- last week's hike/jiu fen
5-8: More hike pics! We love p-days!
No comments:
Post a Comment