Dear family,
First of all, Happy Birthday, Joseph! I'll be celebrating it today in Taiwan and tomorrow for you in America. :) I hope you keep having an awesome time in Utah! I loved the pictures so far - especially of Puppy Skywalker.
This week was a good one. We had a few scares with some of our goals this week but Heavenly Father really helped us pull through on a lot of them yesterday; it really was a huge miracle. I think it's so amazing that He is so mindful of even the most seemingly inconsequential things. I'm so grateful for His help in this, His work.
So, general conference! Wow, it was so amazing. I totally agree with my brother Daniel, who said it best: "General conference to missionaries is like Twilight to teenage girls." For those of you wondering which language we watched it in, we were with everyone else who were watching it in Chinese, but we had a little table with headphones attached that let us listen to it in English. We totally ate it all up - especially the parts about "ask the missionaries!" and changing the mission age (we were all making peace signs in the back when they said things like that - I know, I'm turning Asian). We invited all of our investigators, recent converts, less-actives, and anyone else we met with in the week before conference to think of a question. I did the same - I wanted to know what things I could do, both now and especially after my mission, to keep spiritually progressing and to become a better disciple of Jesus Christ. Well, I definitely got my answers. It seemed like half of the talks emphasized the importance of praying to see who you can help, listening to the Spirit, and then acting right away to help those in need. I'm glad I can practice doing that now so I can get in the habit of doing that before I get back. I also want to be better about doing my own family history - thankfully I have a grandma on a mission in the Family History Research Center who will be close by when I get home who can help me out. :) I'm so happy that Heavenly Father answered my prayers of what I can do to be better, and I also take comfort from the assurance that there's "no pavilion" between us when we do what's right.
One cool moment I had with Becky afterwards: you might not have noticed this, but there was a speaker who said that if you're not exercising faith, repenting, and not baptized yet, do it NOW! Becky's thinking about changing her baptismal date to December, because "it just seems like a good time to make a change." I said: "Becky. If Peter, James, or John came up to you and said for you to get baptized now, would you do it?" She just stared at me and finally stammered, "I don't know, I've never thought of that before." I said, "Well, I'm asking you to think about it now! If one of Jesus Christ's apostles came up to you and told you to get baptized right then, would you do it? This is the exact same thing! These men are called as Apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ! They are His spokesmen! These men are just like the apostles talked about in the Bible! It's exactly the same thing!"
....Well, you all know the truth now - I sometimes get a little intense as a missionary. As Sister Marler said to me last night (and this had nothing to do with anything I said to her, by the way): "When you feel strongly about something, you aren't afraid to let other people know." Another missionary in my district calls it my "righteous indignation." I'm not sure how I feel about that one.... Anyway, these words didn't necessarily produce an instant change in Becky with the exclamation, "YES! I want to get baptized NOW!!!!!!!!!!", but they did cause her to think about it a little bit. And I hope she's still thinking about it.
Now, Mom, you asked about baptisms. Well, our goal for this month was four. We'll see about Becky, so we're hoping now for at least three. That would be so awesome. Anyway, let me tell you about one of the people who's getting baptized this month. Her name's Arwen (so great, right?), or Hou Jiemei. Anyway, I met with Arwen yesterday to go over baptismal questions and make sure everything was good to go. She is so prepared. She gave these awesome answers, such as, "I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior, because I haven't been happier at any time of my life than when I've been trying to follow His example," or "I loved that talk that President Monson gave about helping other people. I know that he is a prophet of God," or, "Yes, I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet, because I know that the Book of Mormon is true. It answers my questions and makes me feel good inside." Wow! Was I really the one lucky enough to teach this girl? In reality, the answers to these questions were totally not taught by me. They were all dependent on her faith and her resolve to act and to go and do what God wanted her to do. I've felt blessed by going and doing what God's wanted me to do as well - both as far as my general testimony is concerned, and also with regards to Arwen specifically: Arwen told me, "I know that God loves me, because when I was at my lowest, and I didn't know what to do, you pulled up next to me on your bike and invited me to church. That is one of the greatest demonstrations of His love for me." Moments like that are ones that you'll remember a whole lifetime. Arwen will be the first person that I found from the beginning, taught, and then baptized. I'm so grateful that Heavenly Father is willing to let me see her spiritual progression to baptism before I go. We also have another sister named Tian Jiemei who's super-amazing that I'll talk more about later. And another person named Wan Jiemei.
Time is going by so fast - it's incredible to think that a year ago, I was so stressed and worried about the decision to serve a mission. And now I'm speaking Chinese (sort of), I'm in Taiwan (paradise), and I'm loving the people and experiences here. We're now entering week 4 of the transfer. I'll know at the end of next week whether or not I'm being transferred. Still no feelings on whether or not I'll be moving - it just probably makes sense logically that after 8 months I'll be going somewhere else... Sister Marler is predicting Zhubei (on the northwest coast), so that I'll avoid Taipei my whole mission. We'll see! I love you all so very much. Have an amazing week!
Love,
Sister Winters
No comments:
Post a Comment