January 21, 2013
Wahhh! 30 weeks guys. I've been here for 30 weeks! I feel like I've been here way longer, and also can't believe it has been that long. But I guess no matter how you look at it, it's been 30 weeks. Let me tell you all about it.
Tuesday morning we went to see Bao ama, a dear elderly woman who belongs to another Christian church. We met her through her grandson, Elder Bao, a missionary in my mission who asked us to start visiting her a few months ago. Normally her husband is always there too, but this week he wasn't sitting where he normally does. We sat down and as we started to chat, she broke down and told us that her husband passed away a few days ago. We were sad, but were able to help her feel comfort through prayer and explaining God's love for her and her family. We were asked to go to the funeral on Saturday and sang 2 hymns as a district. How grateful I am for the knowledge that we can see our loved ones again as we live righteous lives. It helped reaffirm how truly important the work of helping others come to a knowledge of the truth is. We love Bao ama and her family and will continue to help her build her faith so she too can see her dear husband again.
We had a neat miracle with Huang JM! She was baptized 30+ years ago, but her husband has not joined the church. He does not support her efforts in the slightest, and is really rough on her. When we visited her a few weeks ago, we talked about our goals for this year. Her biggest one was to be able to go to the temple. Her husband never lets her go, refusing to give her the money and always making her work. We decided to make some plans to help her goal become a reality. My companion is wonderful at chatting with those who don't really want to chat (aka angry husbands who want nothing to do with the gospel) and helping them slowly soften their heart. Her husband has been SLOWLY slowly warming up to us, and even joined us in prayer the last 2 times! Miracle of miracles, the ward is having a temple day February second, and he said she could go!!!!!!!!! She was thrilled and so are we! We know these sacrifices will continue to bless their family and help them have an eternal marriage. So happy!!!
Funny story: We went to Carrefour to eat lunch one day. It's kind of like a mall food court, but WAY better. I stood up to go get some red bean soup and noticed a man sneaking from table to table, eating people who had left's leftovers. I about died of laughter! As we continued to eat, we noticed him prance around, eating this and that. Please try to imagine a tiny asian man, wearing a tight red shirt, hair down to his shoulders, going around eating leftovers in a mall. hehehe
Thursday we had Zone conference! The southern half of the mission got together and had training for several hours. It was so good!!! Every month we have a Christlike attribute that we are working on as a mission. This months is knowledge. Every Zone conference we are all asked to prepare a 5 minute share on what we've learned, and president will randomly pick 2 missionaries to share. As luck would have it, he picked the girl with the last name SMART to talk about knowledge. The gang got a pretty good laugh out of that, and I gave a little talk. I was ultra nervous, and ended up not reading anything I had written down. I just shared the difference between learning and knowing. For example, I have learned that Jesus Christ is my Savior, but it was not until I truly knelt down in prayer asking for help through trials I alone could not face that I could testify that I KNOW Jesus Christ is my Savior. That knowledge is more precious than anything I could ever read or study. I shared a few others truths I have learned and then personally come to know. As we learn truths, we need to personally apply them to our lives and let them influence us for good. Once we gain testimonies of these truths, we can then go and share them with everyone!
Well my time is coming to a close, so I just want to share a few quick funny things. Sister Xiao tried her first twizzler this week. She hated it and I got a really funny picture I'll send next week of her trying it. I also help her with english from time to time and one morning we had decided that she could only speak english! I lost my rulebook and was looking for it, when she said (in a really cute broken accent) "Maybe Lucifer stole your rulebook because he doesn't want you to obey" hahahaha now that is not an exact quote, because that is far too advanced sentence structure, but it was still really cute. I love you all! I love this work! I love the Lord and hope you all know how much He loves each and every one of us.
Love, 宋雨蓉 Sister Smart
Wahhh! 30 weeks guys. I've been here for 30 weeks! I feel like I've been here way longer, and also can't believe it has been that long. But I guess no matter how you look at it, it's been 30 weeks. Let me tell you all about it.
Tuesday morning we went to see Bao ama, a dear elderly woman who belongs to another Christian church. We met her through her grandson, Elder Bao, a missionary in my mission who asked us to start visiting her a few months ago. Normally her husband is always there too, but this week he wasn't sitting where he normally does. We sat down and as we started to chat, she broke down and told us that her husband passed away a few days ago. We were sad, but were able to help her feel comfort through prayer and explaining God's love for her and her family. We were asked to go to the funeral on Saturday and sang 2 hymns as a district. How grateful I am for the knowledge that we can see our loved ones again as we live righteous lives. It helped reaffirm how truly important the work of helping others come to a knowledge of the truth is. We love Bao ama and her family and will continue to help her build her faith so she too can see her dear husband again.
We had a neat miracle with Huang JM! She was baptized 30+ years ago, but her husband has not joined the church. He does not support her efforts in the slightest, and is really rough on her. When we visited her a few weeks ago, we talked about our goals for this year. Her biggest one was to be able to go to the temple. Her husband never lets her go, refusing to give her the money and always making her work. We decided to make some plans to help her goal become a reality. My companion is wonderful at chatting with those who don't really want to chat (aka angry husbands who want nothing to do with the gospel) and helping them slowly soften their heart. Her husband has been SLOWLY slowly warming up to us, and even joined us in prayer the last 2 times! Miracle of miracles, the ward is having a temple day February second, and he said she could go!!!!!!!!! She was thrilled and so are we! We know these sacrifices will continue to bless their family and help them have an eternal marriage. So happy!!!
Funny story: We went to Carrefour to eat lunch one day. It's kind of like a mall food court, but WAY better. I stood up to go get some red bean soup and noticed a man sneaking from table to table, eating people who had left's leftovers. I about died of laughter! As we continued to eat, we noticed him prance around, eating this and that. Please try to imagine a tiny asian man, wearing a tight red shirt, hair down to his shoulders, going around eating leftovers in a mall. hehehe
Thursday we had Zone conference! The southern half of the mission got together and had training for several hours. It was so good!!! Every month we have a Christlike attribute that we are working on as a mission. This months is knowledge. Every Zone conference we are all asked to prepare a 5 minute share on what we've learned, and president will randomly pick 2 missionaries to share. As luck would have it, he picked the girl with the last name SMART to talk about knowledge. The gang got a pretty good laugh out of that, and I gave a little talk. I was ultra nervous, and ended up not reading anything I had written down. I just shared the difference between learning and knowing. For example, I have learned that Jesus Christ is my Savior, but it was not until I truly knelt down in prayer asking for help through trials I alone could not face that I could testify that I KNOW Jesus Christ is my Savior. That knowledge is more precious than anything I could ever read or study. I shared a few others truths I have learned and then personally come to know. As we learn truths, we need to personally apply them to our lives and let them influence us for good. Once we gain testimonies of these truths, we can then go and share them with everyone!
Well my time is coming to a close, so I just want to share a few quick funny things. Sister Xiao tried her first twizzler this week. She hated it and I got a really funny picture I'll send next week of her trying it. I also help her with english from time to time and one morning we had decided that she could only speak english! I lost my rulebook and was looking for it, when she said (in a really cute broken accent) "Maybe Lucifer stole your rulebook because he doesn't want you to obey" hahahaha now that is not an exact quote, because that is far too advanced sentence structure, but it was still really cute. I love you all! I love this work! I love the Lord and hope you all know how much He loves each and every one of us.
Love, 宋雨蓉 Sister Smart
No comments:
Post a Comment