Monday March 10, 2014

Monday March 10, 2014

Dear Family,

Hello! I hope all of you had a wonderful week! This week was pretty good for us. One horrible/wonderful part for us was Zhang Family. Because of some new mission policy (splitting our area into two sections, one for sisters, one for elders, rather than having the same area and elders teaching men and Sisters women), we had to give the  Zhang family to the Elders. NOOOO!!!!!! We were really sad about it. But, we still got to meet with them once more this week. They are amazing!  It's cool to see how much Heavenly Father is working with them. Sister Zhang, because of her weekend classes, hasn’t been to church enough times to make their baptismal date on the 15th; consequently their new date is April 5. But their faith is strong.  Brother Zhang came to church yesterday with their daughter, while Sister Zhang was taking a test. Yesterday afternoon we got the neatest phone call from Sister Zhang. As she was going to take her test yesterday she was really nervous, so she decided to pray. After she prayed, she wasn't nervous at all.  As she was taking the test, Sister Zhang came to a problem that she didn't know the answer to. She said a prayer, and then she just knew which answer was right. After finishing the test, she and her friend were waiting for the results. Her friend realized she might have done a part wrong, and became really anxious. Sister Zhang offered to say a prayer with her. In her prayer she asked that they would both pass. And they both did! Her friend was  touched by the experience, as was Sister Zhang, as we all were :)  They are a special family. I realized that I want to see them go through the temple. I believe they will.

Another cool experience was our peike with a Brother Jiang. He is an investigator that the Elders gave us. His biggest issue is obeying the Word of Wisdom, especially his smoking addiction. We asked  Meng Qi to come with us-- partially because she is an angel and is willing to help, and because she was addicted to smoking for 20 years, but was able to quit. It was cool to see her faith, hear her testimony, and feel her love for Brother Jiang. She testified powerfully of the power of the Atonement, and faith in the Savior. When she decided to give herself to Heavenly Father, she was able to stop smoking. Probably the best part happened on Sunday. Brother Jiang came in to Sacrament Meeting late, and there weren't many empty seats (which is how it is every week lately . . . Yeah!!). Sister Chen saw him, looked at us questioningly for a second, but then got up herself and directed him to a seat on their row. It was just a small act of kindness, but one that was profound to me. I think he needs just a little bit of attention from someone so badly. The Elders told us how hard it's been getting brothers in the ward to befriend him, and I think that this change of missionaries might give him a chance to get to know some other members who might be able to help (seeing as we can't meet with him without a peike, because he is male).

Angel is a miracle as well. I don't know how to explain it, but she is just different after being baptized. I think it is the gift of the Holy Ghost. There isn't anything specific that I can point to that is distinctly different from before, but she just . . . is good. She helped us peike twice this week (lately a lot of members that used to be able to help us can't anymore . . . so finding members to help us peike has again been difficult), and that fact alone is a miracle! And on top of that are the things she shared. I don't think she recognizes her own testimony. It is still a newer testimony, but her faith is there.  She helped our investigator understand faith and talked about her own experience receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost (we were sharing the gospel of Christ with the investigator).

Another small but significant miracle was Sister Lai and her two kids agreeing to come to English class! They are our LA's that we've been working with for a while. Last week they agreed to come to class, kind of half-heartedly, and as feared they never showed up. This week Sister Lai and her children were figuring out how they were going to get to the English class, what time they needed to do stuff in order to fit it into their schedule, etc. It was soooo interesting to see how her kids rose to the occasion. I was  touched by her son's commitment to come once he decided to come.

I love you!