Wu an!!!
Hello my dearest wonderful family and friends!! I hope you all had a very happy and energized week :) Just realized this week is my 5 month mark---crazy! The weather is changing here and I LOVE it! It's just barely chill, but everyone wears big coats and parkas....but it's nothing compared to a Utah cold so I'm just in my little sweater confusing all of the people I pass on my bike :)
Funny story: We were visiting one of Sister Liang's old members and her brother made his son speak to me in English for 10 minutes before he could play his computer games....poor kid :)
What a wonderful week of blessings! We had some great lessons and also had some great tracting experiences this week!
First off - Dear Sweet ZJM..........This was quite the week with ZJM. She gave up tea on Tuesday and we were elated by her faith! We taught Shi yi feng xian on Thursday with a great pei-ke (member) couple and ZJM had some questions, but it all seemed fine. When we came back Friday, she seemed a little different. She said she felt like there were too many commandments and had been drinking tea that day :( My heart broke.....we found out she had a lot of concerns with shi yi feng xian. As we were talking to her, we reemphasized the Plan of Salvation and other parts of the Gospel to help her understand the importance of commandments. It didn't really seem to be helping her.....we finally asked her how she felt about her relationship with Heavenly Father and she said she still didn't even really know if He was there or if He listened to her prayers. Aha....that was the key :) We realized we needed to focus on her relationship with Heavenly Father, through daily prayer and scriptures, and set everything else aside for a little bit because this was the most important thing. This was one of those "how to be a better missionary moments" ;) Everything just seemed to be good with her, so we kept teaching her the commandments and knew her faith would be fine. The problem was that she had a little foundation of her trust in God, but it wasn't very strong. If an investigator understands their relationship with God, prays with an earnest heart to Him, and reads the scriptures to grow closer to Him....than they will be fine to live the commandments and progress quickly to making a baptismal covenant.
There is an awesome triangle depiction I learned in the MTC: Heavenly Father at the top connected to the missionaries in the left corner, who are then connected to the investigator/less active in the right corner, who is then connected to Heavenly Father. All of the relationship lines are important, but if the investigators line with Heavenly Father is not the darkest and strongest, true conversion won't take place. Now how do we strengthen our relationship with Heavenly Father???? PRAYER, SCRIPTURE STUDY, CHURCH :D Isn't that amazing? The three simplest parts of the Gospel: daily prayer and scripture study and attending church are all it takes to come to know our true relationship with Heavenly Father and our Savior. I feel that Heavenly Father was really helping me to understand this principle this week......if our foundation is not strong, it won't hold our for long......our relationship with our loving Heavenly Father and Savior need to be the strongest part of our faith! So this is what Zhen JM is seeking to do right now and am so grateful for her humble attitude and pure desire to receive an answer from Heavenly Father. I know that I have to continually build upon this foundation every day, so when the rains come (and they do!) I can stand strong through Faith in my Savior :)
We have two other great investigators right now, both moms :)....one who has a Christian background, who is so humble and willing to read and pray - she is earnestly seeking to feel Heavenly Father's love. We have another whose family is Buddhist, but she has always been interested in Jesus Christ and His Gospel. She is also so humble and sweet, and I feel that Heavenly Father is really preparing her to accept this beautiful Gospel :) O we also have an adorable 72 year old a ma and her 12 year old grand-daughter who we are also teaching.....they have had a hard life, and we know this Gospel can bring them much needed love and joy :) We had two Less Actives who came to church on Sunday, who both have not been for a long while :) That is one of my favorite things - to see a less active return to church and partake of the Sacrament :)
I'm learning a lot from LJM :) She has amazing empathy and love when she teaches - you can't help but want the joy of the Gospel when she teaches about it.
Well I love you all so much! I know that this Gospel saves lives....reiterating my favorite scripture (it means way more now then it ever has :) ) "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding, in all they ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct they paths." Our Savior loves each one of you so very much and knows us all so personally.....I'm grateful for this time to share with these people that they have a Savior who loves them!
Love you!!
Sister J.
The Sister Missionaries of Tainan!
Sis. Jarvis & Sis. Liang
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