I cannot believe it is the end of the move call already! Man, time goes by super fast!! Well, Sister Nelson and I are staying in Sha Lu together! So stoked for this upcoming move call. We found out Sunday morning and had a mini dance party together. So happy :))) Sister Nelson and this area are the BEST!
This week was full of miracles upon miracles.
For P-day some members took us to Gao Mei Shi Di (the beach) and out to a big buffet. But the buffet closed like 20 minutes after we got there. I have never eaten so much food in such little time.
This week was full of miracles upon miracles.
For P-day some members took us to Gao Mei Shi Di (the beach) and out to a big buffet. But the buffet closed like 20 minutes after we got there. I have never eaten so much food in such little time.
That night we went to visit a member referral. A husband and wife with a little 4 year old daughter. Her last name is Zhang and his last name is Chen. When people get married in China they don’t change their last names. She wants the quality of her life to improve. He doesn't really care. It was a great first visit. We talked about God and families, and taught them how to pray. Then we met with them again a few days later. She is sooo prepared! She said that whenever she had to face something hard she remembered what we told her about prayer so she tried it. And she has a strong testimony in prayer and that Heavenly Father answers our prayers. During that lesson she bore her testimony to her husband about prayer. It was amazing! Girl, we just met you like 2 days ago!!!! And she had no belief in God before. This is all new stuff for them. But I have faith that they will progress quickly.
We met with Liu Pin Shao this week. She has been wondering what path Heavenly Father wants her to be on. After talking about it she told us that if she has to choose the gospel or family it would be family. Yep family is super important. And do you know what is awesome?! Heavenly Father's path is all about families! Her family does not disapprove of her learning about the gospel. Actually they are all for it. But she is scared about the responsibilities and the time that church things would require if she got baptized. After a spiritual pause in thought, out of nowhere she said, "can we make a baptism goal?" Yes we can! She made a goal for next week. Well, for her to qualify for baptism she has to come to church two more times. So she made the goal to come to church two more times. At least she has that desire to be baptized. I know that this gospel is family centered. Families can have success if founded upon the principles of the gospel.
We met with a girl who is going to college here. Her name is Shu Hui. She is already Christian and very open to our message. She is so cool and loves the Book of Mormon. We have met with her twice now and hope to invite her to be baptized this week. We are already good friends. She is our age so we connect really well. That’s a really positive thing about serving next to a college town.
We ate dinner at Chen Ji Zi's house and shared a great lesson. We invited her to be baptized. She does not want to give up her tea, coffee and alcohol. We got on the subject of temple ordinances and baptisms for the dead. May sound like that was a huge jump...but it was just what she needed. She shared with us about her relationship with her grandfather who passed away when she was a young girl. She will do anything for him. It was a very spiritual lesson. And she was able to come to church! She brought her 4 grandchildren too. When we saw her we invited her to come in to class with us. She said, "no no no I just want the kids to get used to the church building. man man lai.(come slowly)" but then the kids started getting crazy with the members kids and they were all over the place. So in short they found friends and wanted to stay. SO they stayed throughout the whole meeting. And guess what saved us during sacrament meeting!!! The kids section in the Liahona and crayons. Now I know why I was always given a paper and crayons in church.
We went to visit someone who lives kind of far away. We were hesitant to go see her because we knew that she didn’t have a lot of interest. But we felt like we needed to go see her one last time. Good thing we did! On the way there we met a mom (Grace) and her son (Tommy). She has been to our English class before and also to church! She was super chill and willing to meet. Family does not oppose (her dad gave her a pen and paper to write their address down). So that was very very exciting! And then we met with the investigator. The spirit told us that we just had to leave … that we were better off doing other things. I hate dropping investigators. But if you can be helping someone else who will actually listen, it is better.
This week I learned that even if we know someone will say no to a baptismal invite we should still invite them. This week we invited two of our investigators to be baptized. We planned our lessons prayerfully. Both declined but we were able to ask questions and to figure out what their needs were. I am really grateful for the spirit to direct the work. Without the spirit telling us what to say and ask we would not know how big the investigators spiritual cup was.
We had a Thanksgiving FHE (Family Night). And look Mom - we made Apple Turkeys like we used to when we were little! We played games, made our turkeys and had a little lesson on giving thanks - it was a great time!
We went to see Sister Voss this morning. Ah I miss her so much! Sister Voss was my trainer. She was also Sister Nelson's trainer. It was so cool to see her again and to see the other peeps from my last area. Alexis was there and so was Vicky. We have spent the whole day here in TaiZhong. This area is more city. I like the country side better. Less distractions.
Sister Nelson and I have a really bad cold... it really stinks being sick on a mission. It affects every aspect of the work. Started out with a sore throat and then has just gotten worse. We have been trying to rest but it is hard...and boring. It is really hard to talk to anyone with a porcupine going down your throat. Love you all! -Sister Graham |
The BLUE District!