Dear Everyone,
Another week has come and gone! And
so has another birthday, HAPPY BIRTHDAY JULIA! Happy Sweet-16!
You can now officially trim church bushes on your own, and along with
that you can also start dating. I look forward to hearing more about
those. It was good to hear from all of you this week and to hear how your
summer has played out so far. Pioneer Day is just around the corner,
remember to play safe. Well, without much else lets get right on into
this week...
Monday not a whole lot happened.
Had a few lessons cancel on us, which is a bummer, but things turned out
pretty good from there on out. We were contacting at social education
center and actually ran into a bunch of break-dancing teenagers. I did my
best to keep the tunes out of my head as we contacted one of these
break-dancing kids. One thing we noticed is that when we contact a group
of people, it's usually the ones who have a little bit of interest that stay around
and talk with us. Well, one of them lingered around and we talked to him
for a while. We mentioned he had quite a bit of interest in learning a
bit more, didn't think his friends would, and turns out we will be meeting with
him in just a short little while. From there on out we just hit the roads
contacting.
Tuesday went by super fast for me.
We began by eating with one of our ward members, Brother Lin. Since
I just moved to this area I want to get to know the members well and have good
relations with them, so I've been doing my best to find a time to sit down with
each of them. Got to know him a bit before we went on over to the church
to fix our ward list. Missionaries before I arrived to this area went
through the ward list and made notes on all the changes for addresses, phone
numbers, etc... Well, to make our job a lot easier we met with the ward
clerk to fix it all. Took a long time to fix, and when we did, we went
"power-boarding" to invite people to our english class. We went
to this super crazy intersection with hundreds and hundreds of people at, and
passed out english flyers and invited them all to come learn free English.
We then later on visited with one the recent converts, Brother Lin.
We taught him about repentance and shared the story of Alma the Younger
with him. Just like Alma, we can all be free from the pain, guilt, and
sorrow that comes from sin. It is because of the Atoning sacrifice of
Jesus Christ that we are able to do so.
Wednesday was amazing! We sat down
with our investigator Brother Ke and shared the 10 commandments and about the
baptismal covenant. He understands it completely, willing to live each
and every commandment, and is well on his way towards his baptism, which just
so happens to be this Saturday, the 28th. He is well-prepared and I am
looking forward to his baptism this weekend. Had a wonderfully fun time
at english tonight, teaching with my good friend Elder Nickell.
Zone Conference Thursday was the best,
just like it always is. The overall topic for this Zone Conference was
repentance and forgiveness. There is so much that I could write that
I learned about, but for times sake I'll keep it short. I learned
that it is through sincere repentance that qualifies us for the forgiving,
healing power the Atonement of Christ brings. It is because of Christ's
sacrifice that enables us to be cleansed and free from the burden sin brings
into our lives. I will be forever grateful for my Savior and Redeemer,
Jesus Christ, and for the wonderful gift of repentance he has enabled me to use
daily to become a better person.
Saturday began off bright and early by
going to the hospital to give a priesthood blessing to a 4 month year old baby
of some members from Hong Kong. Without going into a lot of detail with
it all, the baby has had lots of symptoms and random things happen to him that
the doctors were unable to figure out. The father, after many many
prayers, felt that he should invite us missionaries to give a special blessing
to his baby. What a wonderful experience it was to give this baby such a
special blessing, one that I may never get to experience again (Will explain
more 6/5/2013). It was such a humbling and very spiritual opportunity for
both my companion and I to be a part of. We then came back and sat down
with our investigator, Brother Liu (Michael Jackson dancer guy). He
already has the Christian background and so we shared with him what the Book of
Mormon is, where it came from, and why it is so important. He really
loves the Bible and feels like we are trying to get him to stop reading the
Bible to read this new book of scripture; however, he did commit to read daily
from both books. He truly does have a desire to learn more about God and
Jesus Christ, but just hasn't experienced how much the Book of Mormon teaches
us about them. He is doing really great though. We also were able
to sit down with a less-active member, Brother Ma, and got to know him a little
bit. He has a goal of coming back to church, but because of his job working
at China Steel, it is hard to accompany his work schedule. He is such a
great guy, reminds, looks, and has the chill aspect of an 18 year old teen and
we look forward to helping him come back to full activity.
These two years I have to spend as the
Lord's representative was the best decision I have ever made. I am
grateful for the daily experiences, the joys and pains that help me learn and
grow to what and who I am meant to become. It is the small little
miracles I see daily that help me keep trudging on to the end. As I
stated earlier, I am grateful for Jesus Christ, my Savior and Redeemer. I
know that it is through His atoning sacrifice that we are forgiven, becoming
free from sin. I love this gospel, I love this church, and I love being a
missionary. I love you all as well!
Love the One and Only,
司馬長老
