Chinese New Year has begun and Sister Jarvis now has her official missionary story of being chased by large dogs!
How was your week?? Hope it was wonderful!! This week was a little different from last week, maybe not as crazy happy, but still lots of blessings and seeing lives changing :)
We had a miracle last night!!! First off, let me just say that Heavenly Father's timing is incredible.......and that He's really the one who is the missionary! :) We went to an RC's house for dinner, LJM, whose brother just got baptized and her younger sister has been an investigator for half a year now. Her sister, LMM, comes to church almost every week, but just hasn't wanted to get baptized yet. We met with her this week and reviewed a 1st lesson in which the Spirit was really strong and then at the end of the lesson asked her about her concerns with baptism. She loves Heavenly Father sooooo much and said she has always believed in Him, but has just had a weird feeling about baptism and didn't know why. We invited her to pray to Heavenly Father and ask Him about it. When we came over to their house for dinner, we didn't talk to her about it at all. After dinner, we were sharing scriptures with the two sisters and then suddenly everyone got quiet and LMM suddenly said, "I prayed about it......and I got an answer." We all paused........she said, "I feel like the answer Heavenly Father gave me is that He wants me to choose." Still frozen! Just waiting for the answer.....I started assuming in my head that she probably decided she needed more time, etc, (doubting Thomas ;) )......then really quietly she said, "My choice is OK" ahhh! My heart dropped, skipped, and jumped with joy!! I looked at Sister Cole and her sister and we just smiled.....did that just happen??? Yes, yes it did! An adorable 15 year old girl, recognized a hard answer- that it was her own choice and decided she did want to be baptized! Now what part did the missionaries have in this? Other than inviting, not too much........what part did Heavenly Father and her have in this? ALL :D and that's what it's all about (just like the hokey pokey, but better)...She doesn't have a set date, but she could get baptized next week, next month, pretty much whenever she wants and I know she will make the right choice. Love it.
So with Guo nian (Chinese New Year) it's pretty much like Christmas in America! Everyone closes their stores, everyone travels back to their family homes, and it's just a lot of eating and celebrating. Due to Guo nian we only had Sacrament yesterday.....it was a little sparse people-wise, but the coolest part is that we had 7 out of 8 new recent converts there!! How cool is that!! All of these brand new members still came, no matter what :) They are stellar! We also had a less-active who we have been meeting with come as well and she was talking to everyone....it was so great :) Our 9 days of eating has begun!! It's actually been really fun and really delicious......eating with members in their homes is the best :) Our Thursday night meal canceled and the ward was so worried who would feed us, they started asking everyone if there was someone else who could feed us....we kept telling them over and over again we could survive one night on our own :) There are so many families all together right now and we have been almost hit by fireworks a few times! We also had this random man come up to me on his motorcycle while we were biking and handed us a cake.... Yay Guo nian :)
It happened.....I have my very first missionary dog story! We were biking out on this big road by the banana fields and as we went past a house two HUGE dogs (ok, they were pretty big) came running out and started chasing us.....so we biked faster and then they ran faster! Sister Cole being the smart one she is, went to the other side of the road and one dog kept following her. I kept biking as fast as I could, assuming the other would leave me alone, but all of a sudden he was at my left leg! So ke pa! His nose started to rub my leg as he was barking! It was so scary! They finally left us but we were in shock for a minute or two...it was so crazy!
This week I read 1 Nephi and had a couple thoughts......in 1 Nephi 15 Nephi's brothers complain that they don't understand Lehi's vision. Nephi asks them if they had inquired of the Lord, verse 9 and 10: "And I said unto them: Have ye inquired of the Lord? And they said unto me: We have not; for the Lord maketh no such thing known unto us." Nephi reminds them that the Lord has promised them that if they will ask, He will tell them....Nephi goes on to explain the vision to his brothers himself, but it made me think.....if Laman and Lemuel had inquired of the Lord themselves, would they have had a vision too? I don't know, but I like to think that the Lord would have shown them a vision as well.......but they won't ever know what the Lord wanted to give them because they never asked. It is so important for us to ASK or else we never know what "visions" may be waiting for us! :) Also, I love 1 Nephi 17 when Nephi talks about he has no physical strength, but is powered by the Spirit of God and has so much POWER to testify against his brethren....I wonder what that moment sounded like in person......I really love this story. I especially love that no matter our physical strength, our spiritual strength, and specifically the strength of the Spirit of God is greatest! Our physical strength sometimes leaves us or some people may be very weak.....but they are powerhouses with the Spirit, which power will never leave us as long as we are faithful. :)
Ok, I wrote a lot this week- all different things! I hope you have a powerful week and that you will daily feel of God's love for you because it is real!! Thanks for the continued letters and prayers :)
Love you!
Sister J.
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Visiting an art exhibit |
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View outside her apartment window |
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With Sister Cole and some members |
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