3/25/13
So I have enough time this week, but my brain is kind of weird today, so I hope you guys don't mind that I'm just going to copy and paste my letter to President Fluckiger and then add some stuff.
Ola President,
This week has been truly amazing! We are seeing so many miracles here in Lapa and our investigators are progressing really well.
Our investigator Margarida is marked for baptism on the 7th and is incredible. The first day we met her she was so depressed and just weary looking and sobbed from her depression and physical pains she is going through. She attended church the next day and in our second lesson with her, she said that she wanted to be baptized before we even had a chance to mention it. We told her she would need to quit smoking and also give up coffee and she accepted wholeheartedly. The next appointment we had with her she said she had already spoken to her doctor and started a plan to quit smoking within 15 days, which worked perfectly for the date we felt for her! I have never seen so much will power in a person, ever! She is already a completely new person and recognizes that it comes from the Gospel. She is reading the Book of Mormon every day and has a completely different spirit and light about her. The Gospel is changing her life so much already!
We are also teaching a man named Dean Lee, from China. He is here studying abroad and was a reference from a member in the same study program. He has already attended church three times, is past Chapter 20 of 2 Nephi, and said that after the first time he prayed he had a dream and saw an image of Christ, but that it was a little far away and he couldn't get to it. He is having some trouble recognizing the answers he is receiving to his prayers about God's existence and nature. We have seen so much grow in him though and to our baptismal invitation (without a date, just the general, will you be baptized when you know for yourself this is true) he responded, "I don't think I can say yes right now because if I'm going to be baptized I must know for myself that it is right and that I will be able to honor this commitment I make with God." So he basically said yes while trying to say no. I love working with Dean! My dad, brothers, sister-in-law, and best friend all served missions in Taiwan my family has lived in Asia for a long time, and my Dad served as a Branch President while living in China, so I felt a little like an outsider of the family coming here to Portugal. I feel like Heavenly Father has given me this tender mercy of working with Dean to have the same experience and joy my family has felt of bringing the gospel to the Chinese people. He was not at church on Sunday because he is in Spain right now, but sent a message to his member friend saying he went to visit the Madrid Temple grounds and loved it!
President, I love this area and all of the people we are working with so much. I have loved serving with Irma Walton and can honestly say this has been the best transfer of my mission as far as the work, as far as my confidence, and as far as my desire to keep participating in this work. Thank you so much for following the prompting to put me in Lapa. I know because of how badly I want to stay here, it probably means the Lord has other plans, but honestly the desire of my heart is to stay here one more transfer and continue to care for this area and these people I love so much. I do trust your judgment though, so I'll happily serve wherever the Lord wants me.
Thank you for everything,
Irma Dean
So yeah, we are working with incredible people. We also have an investigator named Claudia who is working to be baptized on the 14th. She needs o get married first, but same with Margarida, she mentioned being baptized before we even brought it up, said she wants so badly to be baptized and has been to church every Sunday for a month (PS: she walks 40 minutes to get there). Today we went with her to the Guinea- Bissau embassy to see what papers she needs to get married. Guess what! His embassy is right across the street from the mission home! Sister Fluckiger saw us and invited us to come over after we finished at the embassy. She invited us to all come over and we made soup and had lunch with her and two of the office Elders and President. Claudia loved the soup and liked being with President and Irma Fluckiger as well.
Oh another miracle! We have a standard of finding ten new investigators every week. Friday we had only found 1 all week and then started a fast on Saturday to find new people to teach. We only found one new person that day, but on Sunday after we broke our fast, we found 8 investigators in one day without even trying! People approached us and asked to know more and there were new people in the homes we visited! Fasting woks and the lord blesses his missionaries!
Hope you’ve all had a wonderful week, sorry this is forever long, but I love you guys and I love Heavenly Father and I love the mission and I love these people!
Love,
Irma Dean
Monday, March 25, 2013
Monday, March 18, 2013
We Bought a Zoo
Well, we didn’t buy one, but I just got back from one!
Ha-ha it was really strange and really fun. The office elders, (our district) took a stand and declared that they would finally spend a p-day out of the office! So they invited us, more like convinced us for almost an hour and even offered to pay us, to come with them. It was worth it because really the day was awesome. The only bad thing was that I didn’t feel like a missionary all that much. We were definitely outside of any kind of missionary bubble for a while.
Other than the zoo, we definitely had some adventures this past week. You want to know something sad? I am so far in the mission that I have to look at my planner to remember what happened every day because every day just blends into the next and every week passes so quickly that I’m still processing things from two weeks ago.
First, I got to do another division this week! I went to an area called Odivelas with Irma Parker. She is in her second transfer and a rock star. She’s the only member in her family, she’s from Utah and is super fun. She’s half black and half Portuguese! We had a complete blast getting to know each other and being able to teach together. She has so much greenie fire its ridiculous and I barely remember what it felt like to be that new in the mission. I still feel like I barely know what I’m doing so I don’t think I really want to remember how nervous I was feeling at the beginning!
I also wanted to update you all on our Chinese investigator, Dean Lee. He is amazing. Seriously so incredible. He has been to church three weeks in a row and he has already finished reading the first book of Nephi (in English because he thinks that translations have bias and wants to read the original). He has been online researching where the closest church group to his house is in China and asks so many questions. He has already researched tithing, the Word of Wisdom, and tons of other doctrine from the church. He is making such a huge effort to really comprehend all of the beliefs that are so foreign to him. We will be inviting him to be baptized in an appointment on Wednesday, so pray that the spirit will touch his heart to accept! He is so curious but is still struggling with making the gospel personal. He like wants to keep himself at a distance still.
We also got to meet this woman named Margarida. She is a reference from a member and has been super depressed and having some health problems. When we went to visit her we talked about hope and comfort that come through Christ and gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon. When we came back three days later, she was so much happier and had been reading and taking notes every day! She then came to church on Sunday and was absolutely beaming. She was so happy and so excited to learn at church. It helped strengthen my testimony of the book of Mormon so much.
We have put a huge emphasis on using the Book of Mormon in our teaching lately and we have seen a huge difference. We also made a goal to hand out at least two books during street contacts every day. There was one night this week that we were on our way to an appointment; and I felt like we should talk to a young man in the street. We talked to him and had a little mini lesson right there about Ether 12:4. We invited him to read and pray about the Book of Mormon, and said a prayer with him. He said in the beginning of the contact that he was struggling with his faith and he wasn’t really sure where he stood with God. So at the end, when we asked if he would say the prayer, he declined and said he didn’t feel very comfortable doing it. About an hour later, we got a text message from him with a four page long prayer where he poured out his heart about the struggle he’d been having with feeling like he could turn to God, asked for blessing for himself, his family, and asked that God bless Sisters Walton and Dean for bringing him the message of comfort and peace to his heart. We have a return appointment with him on Thursday and we are really excited!
Goodness this week was full of miracles!
And also hilarity.
Like when a gypsy man tried to convince us that we couldn’t have our appointment with his family because no one was home except him. So when we pointed to the two women in the back of the room (whom we were supposed to be visiting) and asked "what about them" he just replied, "No, there’s no one here. I'm by myself. They all went to the hospital to visit family"
Or when we went to visit a less-active woman and asked her how she was introduced to the church. She said she was getting really old and forgetful and at the moment couldn’t recall. Later on in the visit she asked how we had her contact in our records because she had no idea what we were talking about. She said she’s catholic and has always been and has zero recollection of being baptized. We even showed her a picture and asked if she remembered a day when she was baptized that way and she just stared at us and said "nao faco minimo idea" which means, I haven’t the slightest idea. Really sad because she probably has Alzheimer’s, but it also made for a very interesting lesson...
Well, time is up but I love you all a ton! Only 20 more emails from me! Ugh sad. Keep praying for me and especially our investigators! Love you all and thank you for the prayers and support! Irma Dean
Other than the zoo, we definitely had some adventures this past week. You want to know something sad? I am so far in the mission that I have to look at my planner to remember what happened every day because every day just blends into the next and every week passes so quickly that I’m still processing things from two weeks ago.
First, I got to do another division this week! I went to an area called Odivelas with Irma Parker. She is in her second transfer and a rock star. She’s the only member in her family, she’s from Utah and is super fun. She’s half black and half Portuguese! We had a complete blast getting to know each other and being able to teach together. She has so much greenie fire its ridiculous and I barely remember what it felt like to be that new in the mission. I still feel like I barely know what I’m doing so I don’t think I really want to remember how nervous I was feeling at the beginning!
I also wanted to update you all on our Chinese investigator, Dean Lee. He is amazing. Seriously so incredible. He has been to church three weeks in a row and he has already finished reading the first book of Nephi (in English because he thinks that translations have bias and wants to read the original). He has been online researching where the closest church group to his house is in China and asks so many questions. He has already researched tithing, the Word of Wisdom, and tons of other doctrine from the church. He is making such a huge effort to really comprehend all of the beliefs that are so foreign to him. We will be inviting him to be baptized in an appointment on Wednesday, so pray that the spirit will touch his heart to accept! He is so curious but is still struggling with making the gospel personal. He like wants to keep himself at a distance still.
We also got to meet this woman named Margarida. She is a reference from a member and has been super depressed and having some health problems. When we went to visit her we talked about hope and comfort that come through Christ and gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon. When we came back three days later, she was so much happier and had been reading and taking notes every day! She then came to church on Sunday and was absolutely beaming. She was so happy and so excited to learn at church. It helped strengthen my testimony of the book of Mormon so much.
We have put a huge emphasis on using the Book of Mormon in our teaching lately and we have seen a huge difference. We also made a goal to hand out at least two books during street contacts every day. There was one night this week that we were on our way to an appointment; and I felt like we should talk to a young man in the street. We talked to him and had a little mini lesson right there about Ether 12:4. We invited him to read and pray about the Book of Mormon, and said a prayer with him. He said in the beginning of the contact that he was struggling with his faith and he wasn’t really sure where he stood with God. So at the end, when we asked if he would say the prayer, he declined and said he didn’t feel very comfortable doing it. About an hour later, we got a text message from him with a four page long prayer where he poured out his heart about the struggle he’d been having with feeling like he could turn to God, asked for blessing for himself, his family, and asked that God bless Sisters Walton and Dean for bringing him the message of comfort and peace to his heart. We have a return appointment with him on Thursday and we are really excited!
Goodness this week was full of miracles!
And also hilarity.
Like when a gypsy man tried to convince us that we couldn’t have our appointment with his family because no one was home except him. So when we pointed to the two women in the back of the room (whom we were supposed to be visiting) and asked "what about them" he just replied, "No, there’s no one here. I'm by myself. They all went to the hospital to visit family"
Or when we went to visit a less-active woman and asked her how she was introduced to the church. She said she was getting really old and forgetful and at the moment couldn’t recall. Later on in the visit she asked how we had her contact in our records because she had no idea what we were talking about. She said she’s catholic and has always been and has zero recollection of being baptized. We even showed her a picture and asked if she remembered a day when she was baptized that way and she just stared at us and said "nao faco minimo idea" which means, I haven’t the slightest idea. Really sad because she probably has Alzheimer’s, but it also made for a very interesting lesson...
Well, time is up but I love you all a ton! Only 20 more emails from me! Ugh sad. Keep praying for me and especially our investigators! Love you all and thank you for the prayers and support! Irma Dean
Picture from the Zoo
Top:
Elder Brady, Irma Walton, me, Elder Souza, Elder Rodriguez, a random man
Bottom:
Irma Blanco, Irma Urgiles Encaldada, and Elder Fausset
Elder Brady, Irma Walton, me, Elder Souza, Elder Rodriguez, a random man
Bottom:
Irma Blanco, Irma Urgiles Encaldada, and Elder Fausset
Monday, March 11, 2013
Men's Hearts shall Fail Them
If you would like to know what I learned this week, watch this video.
This week, I hit one year on the mission, and exactly five months left on the mission. It was kind of a roller coaster. It’s really weird to be two thirds done. Five months! That’s like tomorrow!
So I started kind of panicking a realizing that I only have five months left to take advantage of living every day completely focused on the Savior and on helping other people and on teaching the Gospel. I realized that I only have five months to be the kind of person I wanted to be by the end of my mission. But then I had a really awesome talk with my district leader, Elder Brady, Elder Fausett, and Irma Walton and then the elders gave me a blessing. The whole thing talked about how Heavenly Father wanted me to recognize the progress I’ve already made and just continue the way I’ve been working and with pure desires. I really had expected to get some constructive criticism because I’ve been pretty distracted this past week and not super focused on my purpose. But that’s why we have the atonement, so we can move forward.
A few days later, I found that video, and felt like I needed to apply it. Instead of an airplane crashing toward earth, I’m on a mission crashing toward its end. I found a lot of peace from the video, especially when it says, "Don’t demand things that are unreasonable, but demand of yourself improvement. As you let the Lord help you through that, He will make the difference" So that’s what I’m trying to do, because really things are going well with the work. We have a girl named Madelena marked for baptism on the 24th and she is incredible. We have seen more people in church than in the last seven weeks, we have had more lessons taught and we’ve been finding new people. The quality of our work has increased so much. So it’s not perfection, but improvement that matters.
Also, this week I got to do a division with our coordinating sister, Irma Wilde, whom I knew in the MTC and we had an absolute blast. It was actually on my one year mark too so that was really fun. The closest we got to being able to celebrate was McDonald's and some candy, ha ha ha missionary life.
This week really has been great and so many of our investigators are starting to really get answers to their questions and recognize the truth of the gospel and the love God has for them. Ahhhh I love the mission! it’s so amazing
I love you all, and please pray for me to make it through these last five months as best as I can!
This week, I hit one year on the mission, and exactly five months left on the mission. It was kind of a roller coaster. It’s really weird to be two thirds done. Five months! That’s like tomorrow!
So I started kind of panicking a realizing that I only have five months left to take advantage of living every day completely focused on the Savior and on helping other people and on teaching the Gospel. I realized that I only have five months to be the kind of person I wanted to be by the end of my mission. But then I had a really awesome talk with my district leader, Elder Brady, Elder Fausett, and Irma Walton and then the elders gave me a blessing. The whole thing talked about how Heavenly Father wanted me to recognize the progress I’ve already made and just continue the way I’ve been working and with pure desires. I really had expected to get some constructive criticism because I’ve been pretty distracted this past week and not super focused on my purpose. But that’s why we have the atonement, so we can move forward.
A few days later, I found that video, and felt like I needed to apply it. Instead of an airplane crashing toward earth, I’m on a mission crashing toward its end. I found a lot of peace from the video, especially when it says, "Don’t demand things that are unreasonable, but demand of yourself improvement. As you let the Lord help you through that, He will make the difference" So that’s what I’m trying to do, because really things are going well with the work. We have a girl named Madelena marked for baptism on the 24th and she is incredible. We have seen more people in church than in the last seven weeks, we have had more lessons taught and we’ve been finding new people. The quality of our work has increased so much. So it’s not perfection, but improvement that matters.
Also, this week I got to do a division with our coordinating sister, Irma Wilde, whom I knew in the MTC and we had an absolute blast. It was actually on my one year mark too so that was really fun. The closest we got to being able to celebrate was McDonald's and some candy, ha ha ha missionary life.
This week really has been great and so many of our investigators are starting to really get answers to their questions and recognize the truth of the gospel and the love God has for them. Ahhhh I love the mission! it’s so amazing
I love you all, and please pray for me to make it through these last five months as best as I can!
Monday, March 4, 2013
Aloha Gente
Well as you all know, I didn't have time to write a group email last week. My apologies. But not really. It wasn't my fault.
We had interviews with President Fluckiger! So p-day got cancelled.
So I'll start with the week you missed. IT WAS AWESOME: It was Irma Walton's and my first week together and we saw so many miracles it was ridiculous. We also had a lot of adventures.
First of all, our area is huge, and these past two transfers Irma Olson always knew where we were and everything about transport. Yeah, I may have gotten us lost for two and a half hours one day, but we had a really fun time! Then we found some really cool new investigators! That day was also the first time I've ever been splashed by a car on my mission. Yay for having another missionary cliché!
But really that week was a huge testimony of following the Spirit. We had so many things fall through and so much confusion because of the transfer change, but we fasted, prayed and searched diligently for opportunities to teach and to serve, and as we did so the Lord blessed us so much!
Then this past week was pretty much the same thing. So many appointments are falling, like never before in this area, but we always find out what God's purpose for us was in that moment. I feel like these past two weeks have been weeks in which the Lord is using us to administer tender mercies to people. Members, less actives, recent converts, investigators, neighbors, strangers, everyone! We helped a group of students move and some tourists find their hotel and a ton of little things, but we've also had the really important tender mercies as well.
For instance: one day we all of a sudden had a three hour block open because things fell through and we felt like we needed to go to this is lodging house in part of our area. We know a lot of people there but we had to try so many different people before we got a hold of someone we could go teach. We went and started to teach Manuel, a newer investigator, and we ran into Admilson.
Admilson is an old investigator I met with Irma Olson and he is incredible, like extraordinary. On the day we were going to commit him for baptism, he dropped us. He said that he had to tell us something, and that he knew what we were teaching him was right but that he wasn’t ready to act on it right now. He said that he couldn’t make this commitment to God yet. Then he started crying. The weirdest part was that the Spirit told both of us that it was right to drop him and give him space until he was ready to act.
So, we ran into Admilson, and he was so sad from missing his family in Cabo Verde and he joined in the lesson. Not five seconds later Manuel said he was feeling really sick and needed to go lie down, so we just kept talking with Admilson and we were able to really lift his spirit. The same thing actually happened last night. We ran into him while teaching another investigator and he was really sad again so we just joked with him and got him smiling and told him Heavenly Father doesn't want him sad. He said, "I know, because every time I´m sad like this you show up and always make me smile" !!!!!!!!!!!! That is being a disciple of Christ. Don't get me wrong, I love baptizing people, but I just love being able to remind people of how much God loves them and is aware of their needs and their hard days.
BUT THAT’S NOT ALL. While we were in that first lesson with him when he was so sad, we started to wrap up reading a passage from the Book of Mormon, when a woman walked in and talked to him and then saw us. She asked who we were and then saw our name-tags and said, "AH! SISTERS! LIKE IN CABO VERDE!" and went on to explain that she is a member of the church and was the first person baptized on the island where she lives. She moved here to Portugal about two months ago for medical treatments and had no idea where the church was or if there even was one around here. She said she had been praying because she felt so lonely and wanted to be back in church to feel closer to God. We were able to give her the address of the church and arrange for a recent convert who lived downstairs to accompany her to church on Sunday!
GOD IS GOOD YA KNOW
Oh! Also, cool story for you guys, I am now an official Dean missionary! I'm teaching a Chinaman!!!!! Ha ha ha no but really. An American exchange student who is a returned missionary brought a friend of hers to our activity on Wednesday night and his name is Dín Lí. He is so cool and was so excited to come and to hear I grew up in Taiwan. He thinks it’s hilarious that we have the same name (Dín and Dean), and helped me brush up on/ laughed at my Chinese. He’s really cool though, we had a lesson with him on Saturday about who Christ and God are and why they are important and how much they love us. He’s having a hard time grasping that we can be forgiven for things we've done wrong and that God could love him unconditionally and talked a lot about the difference in Chinese culture. He came to church yesterday and said he really liked it and felt something good, so he understands why western cultures like this feeling of Christ so much. He’s so cute. So fam bam, if you have any tips on how to share the gospel with him and help him understand and feel the spirit, PLEASE LET ME KNOW!
The work is awesome and by the way my interview with President went ALOT BETTER than the last one ha-ha like it was really great and he helped me understand how we can keep this area doing so well and really strengthen our ward. It was very productive.
Oh my gosh. AND. ha-ha sorry I just have a lot to tell you! So in my district this transfer, we still have the office elders, but their proselyting area got split and now there are sisters sharing their ward. One of them is Irma Barlow! My MTC companion! It’s been a lovely reunion ha-ha and the new office Elder who is also our District Leader is Elder Brady, who we knew in the MTC. So on Tuesday we had this training meeting with the Assistants and President and Irma Fluckiger, and it was amazing. Seriously inspirational. We talked a lot about teaching people and not just teaching lessons and how to understand the needs of our investigators so we could really help them come unto Christ. We also talked about conversion and that it is the priority, not just to baptize which used to be the mentality of this mission. For part of the training we divided into districts to discuss our goals for the month and how we would accomplish them. We only had ten minutes to do that. Those ten minutes were the most inspirational ten minutes of my entire mission. I am not kidding. Elder Brady talked about how he once had a companion who said he wanted to disappear in the lessons. That he wanted to make it so the investigator couldn’t see him the missionary, but instead would see Christ because of the spirit in the lesson. He said that was the vision he had for our district because our areas have so much potential and we as missionaries have so much potential. He wanted us to work to become the invisible district. The district who transmits the spirit and treats people the way Christ would treat them so much that the people don’t even process that we are our own entities. That we can just completely consecrate ourselves and be one with the spirit and one with Christ to show people how much He loves them. The spirits was so strong and like half of us were tearing up. Literally the most inspiring ten minutes of my whole mission and even as a whole the best training of my whole mission. We are so excited to teach to people’s needs and be consecrated missionaries.
Ahhhh the mission is great you guys.
Yeah, it’s been a good two weeks.
Love you guys a ton!!! And I hope your week was wonderful!!!
So I'll start with the week you missed. IT WAS AWESOME: It was Irma Walton's and my first week together and we saw so many miracles it was ridiculous. We also had a lot of adventures.
First of all, our area is huge, and these past two transfers Irma Olson always knew where we were and everything about transport. Yeah, I may have gotten us lost for two and a half hours one day, but we had a really fun time! Then we found some really cool new investigators! That day was also the first time I've ever been splashed by a car on my mission. Yay for having another missionary cliché!
But really that week was a huge testimony of following the Spirit. We had so many things fall through and so much confusion because of the transfer change, but we fasted, prayed and searched diligently for opportunities to teach and to serve, and as we did so the Lord blessed us so much!
Then this past week was pretty much the same thing. So many appointments are falling, like never before in this area, but we always find out what God's purpose for us was in that moment. I feel like these past two weeks have been weeks in which the Lord is using us to administer tender mercies to people. Members, less actives, recent converts, investigators, neighbors, strangers, everyone! We helped a group of students move and some tourists find their hotel and a ton of little things, but we've also had the really important tender mercies as well.
For instance: one day we all of a sudden had a three hour block open because things fell through and we felt like we needed to go to this is lodging house in part of our area. We know a lot of people there but we had to try so many different people before we got a hold of someone we could go teach. We went and started to teach Manuel, a newer investigator, and we ran into Admilson.
Admilson is an old investigator I met with Irma Olson and he is incredible, like extraordinary. On the day we were going to commit him for baptism, he dropped us. He said that he had to tell us something, and that he knew what we were teaching him was right but that he wasn’t ready to act on it right now. He said that he couldn’t make this commitment to God yet. Then he started crying. The weirdest part was that the Spirit told both of us that it was right to drop him and give him space until he was ready to act.
So, we ran into Admilson, and he was so sad from missing his family in Cabo Verde and he joined in the lesson. Not five seconds later Manuel said he was feeling really sick and needed to go lie down, so we just kept talking with Admilson and we were able to really lift his spirit. The same thing actually happened last night. We ran into him while teaching another investigator and he was really sad again so we just joked with him and got him smiling and told him Heavenly Father doesn't want him sad. He said, "I know, because every time I´m sad like this you show up and always make me smile" !!!!!!!!!!!! That is being a disciple of Christ. Don't get me wrong, I love baptizing people, but I just love being able to remind people of how much God loves them and is aware of their needs and their hard days.
BUT THAT’S NOT ALL. While we were in that first lesson with him when he was so sad, we started to wrap up reading a passage from the Book of Mormon, when a woman walked in and talked to him and then saw us. She asked who we were and then saw our name-tags and said, "AH! SISTERS! LIKE IN CABO VERDE!" and went on to explain that she is a member of the church and was the first person baptized on the island where she lives. She moved here to Portugal about two months ago for medical treatments and had no idea where the church was or if there even was one around here. She said she had been praying because she felt so lonely and wanted to be back in church to feel closer to God. We were able to give her the address of the church and arrange for a recent convert who lived downstairs to accompany her to church on Sunday!
GOD IS GOOD YA KNOW
Oh! Also, cool story for you guys, I am now an official Dean missionary! I'm teaching a Chinaman!!!!! Ha ha ha no but really. An American exchange student who is a returned missionary brought a friend of hers to our activity on Wednesday night and his name is Dín Lí. He is so cool and was so excited to come and to hear I grew up in Taiwan. He thinks it’s hilarious that we have the same name (Dín and Dean), and helped me brush up on/ laughed at my Chinese. He’s really cool though, we had a lesson with him on Saturday about who Christ and God are and why they are important and how much they love us. He’s having a hard time grasping that we can be forgiven for things we've done wrong and that God could love him unconditionally and talked a lot about the difference in Chinese culture. He came to church yesterday and said he really liked it and felt something good, so he understands why western cultures like this feeling of Christ so much. He’s so cute. So fam bam, if you have any tips on how to share the gospel with him and help him understand and feel the spirit, PLEASE LET ME KNOW!
The work is awesome and by the way my interview with President went ALOT BETTER than the last one ha-ha like it was really great and he helped me understand how we can keep this area doing so well and really strengthen our ward. It was very productive.
Oh my gosh. AND. ha-ha sorry I just have a lot to tell you! So in my district this transfer, we still have the office elders, but their proselyting area got split and now there are sisters sharing their ward. One of them is Irma Barlow! My MTC companion! It’s been a lovely reunion ha-ha and the new office Elder who is also our District Leader is Elder Brady, who we knew in the MTC. So on Tuesday we had this training meeting with the Assistants and President and Irma Fluckiger, and it was amazing. Seriously inspirational. We talked a lot about teaching people and not just teaching lessons and how to understand the needs of our investigators so we could really help them come unto Christ. We also talked about conversion and that it is the priority, not just to baptize which used to be the mentality of this mission. For part of the training we divided into districts to discuss our goals for the month and how we would accomplish them. We only had ten minutes to do that. Those ten minutes were the most inspirational ten minutes of my entire mission. I am not kidding. Elder Brady talked about how he once had a companion who said he wanted to disappear in the lessons. That he wanted to make it so the investigator couldn’t see him the missionary, but instead would see Christ because of the spirit in the lesson. He said that was the vision he had for our district because our areas have so much potential and we as missionaries have so much potential. He wanted us to work to become the invisible district. The district who transmits the spirit and treats people the way Christ would treat them so much that the people don’t even process that we are our own entities. That we can just completely consecrate ourselves and be one with the spirit and one with Christ to show people how much He loves them. The spirits was so strong and like half of us were tearing up. Literally the most inspiring ten minutes of my whole mission and even as a whole the best training of my whole mission. We are so excited to teach to people’s needs and be consecrated missionaries.
Ahhhh the mission is great you guys.
Yeah, it’s been a good two weeks.
Love you guys a ton!!! And I hope your week was wonderful!!!
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