Sister Winters - January 2, 2012 "My cabbages!"

Dear family,
 
Welcome to a grand new week of my life! First of all, let me try and fail to describe how absolutely wonderful it was to talk with all of you last week! So fantastic. I agree with Daniel - even better than Tangled. However, unlike Daniel, I will probably write a very long email, since the delay of this week's P-day has given me a lot more to talk about.

 

Just a review for those whom I didn't get to talk to last week, Christmas here was wonderful. Highlights were of course Christmas morning, doing our Christmas choir performance, eating with a great family, and finding a wonderful new investigator. Actually, it ended up being a great Christmas week with talking to my family on the 26th, a million and one Christmas cards coming on the 29th (THANK YOU to everyone who sent those!), and my brother's Christmas package coming yesterday. Woohoo!

 

It's funny because I've sort of felt like this week was kind of hard and exhausting but looking back on it there were so many miracles! So many. And funny experiences to boot! Let me tell you about them.

 

Funny story: the other day we were making calls in 7-11 and this lady came up to me and said (in English): "Hey, sorry to bother you, but do they have M&m's in here?" So random. Since 7-11 has pretty much become my second home, I was able to quickly bring her to the chocolate aisle and help her out. She thanked me and then said, "Sorry, but do you know if they have any bigger bags? Or where I could find bigger bags?" I tried not to laugh as I wrote out directions to Carrefour. Turns out she's an ABC (American-Born Chinese) who's here with her aunt for a couple of weeks, who doesn't speak very much Chinese, and who said that she needed to go out and buy some American snacks so she wouldn't starve so she went to the only store with a name she recognized: 7-11. She was very nice and I hope that she wants to learn more about the church in the future because of an unorthodox encounter with a missionary because of some M&m's.

 

Miracle: Okay, so last week we were riding back home with not too much time and I saw this lady sitting on a bench and thought, "I should go talk to her." But of course we were whizzing by, which gave me time to think, "Well, maybe that thought was me and it wasn't the Spirit and maybe I'll wait to see if He prompts me again," etc. Thankfully I also thought, "If He prompted you once and you listened, He won't prompt you again!" and quickly turned back to talk to her. She was sitting on a bench reading. As we approached her I thought, "I have no clue what I'm going to say, but here goes nothing." I apologized for interrupting her but then talked about my love for reading and asked if I could share my favorite book with her. She looked very excited as I gave her my Chinese copy of The Book of Mormon and my companion and I explained what it is, etc.. Unfortunately my Chinese copy was a little worn and I asked if it was all right that I gave her that one instead of a shiny new one but she said, "No, I like this one! It looks like it has a lot of meaning to you." And she took it, we got her phone number, and that was that. I felt really happy that we could help her and I'll be thrilled if (when) she or her family member gets baptized, but honestly, I think one of the greatest feelings of happiness and gratitude came from how it helped my companion. Sister O'Brien was so excited after we did that - she said that she hadn't seen that woman at all but as soon as she saw her she felt like she was the right person for us to talk to. If nothing happens at all from that experience (which I doubt), I'm grateful that a new missionary was able to see that miracle and learn from it.

 

Funny story: We went to go visit an investigator who was not very interested in our message but did give us a free cabbage. I was very amused as I rode around that day with a huge Chinese cabbage in my bike basket. I kept wanting to say, "My cabbages!" but I don't think Sister O'Brien gets that reference...

 

Miracle: This past week when we were riding our bikes I had a feeling to stop and talk to someone - but it was the sketchy internet cafe worker girl, smoking a cigarette. I hesitated for a second and then thought, "well, a prompting's a prompting I guess!" and we talked to her. It turns out that she's Christian-ish (her boyfriend takes her to church sometimes) and that she is interested in hearing more about our message. So we set up a time and then met her again. It was a little weird since it was in the sketchy internet cafe place and that's the only time that she has time... But the Spirit was there. And Sister O'Brien did a great job of introducing the BofM and giving one to her, which she seemed very excited about. And she has school off this week so we don't have to meet at the sketchy internet place next time! Woo!

 

Funny story/miracle: So lately I've been thinking about having a part-time job of full-time missionary, part-time catnapper. The reason? There have been these cats outside of our apartment who do nothing but moan and groan and wail and sound like they're dying. It's awful. Sister O'Brien and I came up with all sorts of possibilities of putting bowls of milk outside of the doors of people in the neighborhood who have slammed their doors in our faces, but that's not the point. The point is that it was getting to be a problem. Then our office assistant missionary called us and said we needed to move apartments! Originally we were given about a week, but then yesterday we were told that we needed to pack our general things before the afternoon when he'd come... And then when he came he informed us that he wanted the entire apartmentempty that day. Man, I knew that this mission was supposed to prepare me for the future, but honestly, this was a little more than I expected! First the cats which really do sound like a crying baby, then having to move our entire apartment in a day. Insane. And not quite what I was expecting missionary work to be. But you know, you take it in stride I guess and just try to love life. I do love our new apartment - it's beautiful and closer to the church and in a place where they don't have construction going on 24/7 (unlike my old apartment)... The only downside are the grandmas. This morning I woke up at 4:something in the morning to a grandma selling vegetables in the park behind us saying: "You don't want my cabbage?! This is great cabbage! Buy my cabbage!" Again with the cabbages!

 

Last thing that I wanted to mention - I was reading in the Doctrine and Covenants this week and saw a scripture (I didn't write down the reference, sorry!) that I had never noticed before - it was the Lord giving out some missionary advice, and among it He said: "Be not cumbered." Reading my emails might have given you a hint that missionaries have a lot of responsibilities and things to worry about sometimes - and that if we're not careful, it's easy to be "cumbered" by the load of it all. But Christ knows that. And He can help. There's a reason He says that "[His] yoke is easy, and [His] burden is light." I know that through Him we really can do all things that are necessary of us. Please continue to pray for me that I can carry out His Father's will! I'll keep doing the same. Family and friends, I love you all. It was an incredible feeling to realize on New Year's that I had just spent all of 2012 being a missionary. This is a great work and I love it.

 

Love,

Sister Winters