Dear family,
Hello hello hello from Hualian! It's been an amazing meek of wiracles - I mean an amazing week of miracles. The best one yet, actually! So awesome. This week is the last week of my first transfer (I have 11), so I'm hoping to "go out with a bang" (even though I have a lot more time before I actually "go out" :)). First things first, I got a whole slew of letters this past week - you'd better believe I was one of the happiest people on the planet! Letters from the family, Grandma, Grandpa, Keith (sorry Anna, he won!), a random elder from the MTC who wants me to contact his friend in Taiwan, an MTC friend, Dallin's sister Tiffany (thanks, Tiff!), Sister Bortchard, and the entire Peachtree Corners Ward. Thank you thank you thank you for the letters! I woke up early this morning (and I mean EARLY) so that I could read them - I felt like a little kid on Christmas. :) And for those of you who have emailed me and are feeling left out, I love the emails that I get on Mondays. Thank you for thinking of me and for praying for me! Today I have a little more time (hopefully) to write/start writing you back. The only problem is that I've currently misplaced my handy dandy little 3x5 card with all of your addresses on it. I'll update you all next week if I can't find it still after spring cleaning today.
Aunt Bev, thank you for your response to my last email! I was a little worried it was kind of lousy, but I'm glad that my small description of missionary work made sense. There were some really funny contacting moments this week (as usual) that I wanted to share. First, I was riding my bike on the street and started talking to someone at a stop light. They weren't interested and left, but I noticed out of the corner of my eye that there was this husband and wife on a scooter that had pulled over from the main road and were inching toward me. I turned around and faced them with a big smile on my face, thinking that they were people whom the Lord had prepared and put in my path to preach the Gospel to. Well, the lady said something I didn't understand, so I asked her to repeat it. She gestured toward my feet and spoke again, but still nothing was making sense. Finally, the third time I got it - "where did you buy your shoes?" I was so confused, and looked at her again with a face that said I-have-no-idea-why-youre-asking-me-this-right-now. Then she said, "Your feet are so big! But you were able to find shoes that were big enough! WHERE DID YOU BUY YOUR SHOES?" Then she pointed to her feet, which, bless her heart, were as big as mine. I tried to explain that I had gotten them in America, that I was new here. She was extremely disappointed, to say the least, and then they pulled away. So much for prepared people. :) Also, it seems like I'm making my mark here in Hualian. I came out of the church building onto the street to start talking to people. I knocked on the window of the first car I saw. Well, this lady rolled down her window and said, "I've already talked to the missionaries, you don't have to talk to me! I have Wei Jiemei's number!" I said, "What?" Then the lady pulled out a tract (a pamphlet that we give out to like everyone we see) from her glove compartment and said, "Wei Jiemei gave me this, so you don't need to talk to me." I said, "I'M Wei Jiemei!" And then she looked at me again closely and said, "What? Oh, you are! Well, you already gave me this. So you don't need to talk to me again. I'll call you if I have time." Then she pulled away. So that lady didn't seem too excited about the gospel, but hey, if I'm already getting "repeats" after 5 weeks here, then the odds are that I'll find the people that I need to find while I'm here! Last one: There was this family that we saw while we were contacting. The dad walked really fast ahead of his wife and daughter, so biked ahead to go up and talk to him. My companion went for the daughter and wife. The dad told me that he was busy, but that I should go talk to his family, which I took as an awesome sign. My companion was still talking to them when I got to her, which was an even better sign. Well I got there and the daughter has a big smile on her face and says, "I believe in Jesus too!" Then she hands me a pamphlet with a bunch of flames on the cover. The title was in Chinese, but I was pretty sure what it meant, and I looked up to my companion, who confirmed my thoughts. "She's a Jehovah's Witness." Well, the situation was just so funny that it was hard for me not to laugh. We were both trying to kindly tell the other that our religion could bring them closer to God, bring them more happiness, etc. We even traded pamphlets at the end before we left that we encouraged the other person to read, but I don't think any of us were convinced that the other person was right. It was so weird to be on the other end of having missionaries talk to you, too - we clearly weren't interested but she pressed on anyway (something we have to do every day). Kudos to her!
In case you all haven't noticed, I've been kind of spastic in my emails. It's often just "word vomit" - I share whatever I think would be funny or interesting without any real pattern or anything. It'll still probably be like that a lot from now on, but I want to include three concrete parts in every email so you can at least know what to expect (sort of): contacting/proselyting stories, a spiritual thought, and miracle(s) of the week. I've already done my contacting stories, I'll save the spiritual thought for the end, so here's my miracle of the week! Actually, I see miracles every day, so I kind of have to narrow it down. I'll share a couple of them today. We had zone conference this past week, which was great. We talked about loving and finding people, and how to be better at that. I realized that I needed to rely on the Spirit a lot more when I contact, but I honestly didn't know how to do that very well (and I still don't). My companion invited me to try and set goals to actually TEACH people on the street when I talk to them - normally I'll chat, teach a gospel truth, and then get there phone number and hope that I'll see them again. My companion, however, encouraged me to actually teach them a lesson (where we actually say an opening and closing prayer, teach a principle, extend a commitment) on the street. AND rely on the Spirit to do it. No big deal. Well, I prayed. A lot. I always pray a lot, but I prayed specifically for this. And guess what happened? A miracle. I was talking to this lady on the street and I saw this girl on her bike out of the corner of my eye. I kept talking to the lady but there was a feeling that was like, "she's not interested. Talk to the girl." So I quickly ended the conversation, got on my bike, and raced to catch up to the girl. Well, I talked to her, started fumbling about prayer, and then actually ended up teaching her right then and there on the street! It was a miracle. The Lord gives specific answers to specific prayers! Another example of this principle: well on Saturday we were having a "chapel tour hour," where we invited members to bring their friends and we'd give them a tour of the chapel so they could feel the Spirit, maybe teach them a lesson, and have them set up with us. Well, Saturday came, and nobody showed up. So we prayed. We prayed that we'd find someone who happened to have nothing to do on a Saturday who could come to the chapel so we could give a tour. And guess what? After about 20 minutes of trying, Sister Wu found a girl who really had nothing to do and was perfectly willing to come on a tour of the chapel. And she loved it. And she's meeting with us later this week. Hooray for miracles!
As far as how my investigators are doing - they're doing pretty darn great. We think that we'll have about five or six baptisms on March 31 (happy birthday, Dad and Rachel!), which we're SUPER excited about (and that's when Lu Jiemei's kids will be baptized, Mom. Along with her nieces and probably her sister as well - she's such a good missionary!). It's most likely that I'll stay here in Hualian next transfer because I'm new and I've only been here for one, but there's still the possibility that I could leave. I really really really hope that I can stay! And not just for the baptisms, although that'd be great. :) There was one baptism that we had scheduled for this week that won't happen - bummer. She didn't come to church on Sunday, and she needs to go three times before she can be baptized (she's only been twice). BUT, this leads me to my spiritual thought for the week. In 2 Nephi 2:2 it says that the Lord will consecrate our afflictions for our gain. Let's just say that I've thought about that promise a few times already thus far on the mission. :) Well, yesterday we were pretty disappointed that Lin Jiemei didn't come to church and that she can't be baptized on Saturday, so we went over to her house to talk to her about it. Turns out she wasn't there. Bummer again! But guess what? Her husband was, and we were able to talk to him about his feelings about us, the Church, how his wife's changed since she met with us, etc. It was awesome! He's really noticed some obvious changes in her, and although he personally wasn't very interested at the get-go, he's interested now, and he told us that he really wants to come to church sometime soon. The Lord DOES consecrate our afflictions for our gain! It's true!
So just so you all know, I know that this message that I share with people every day is true. I love it, and there are so many times every day where I'm just so happy because of it! I haven't been out here for very long, but I've seen the Gospel change lives - I know that it's the path that God wants us to follow. I love you all, and I'm praying for you! Thanks for your continued love and support.
Love,
Sister Winters
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