7/22/13

Hello family!

Well, there have been some huge changes in my life once again... Transfer calls came to the East Coast last Monday, and one just so happened to come to my companion, Sister Zhong. So I now have a new companion, Sister Chao (Pronounced Zhao). She's an ABC in her third transfer. Yes, this means she's an even younger missionary than I am. It also means I'm on my fourth companion on my fourth transfer. That's another huge change, I'm now senior companion and we're basically white-washing Taidong 1st branch. It has been a roller coaster this last week as I found all of this out, but mostly I was terrified. Many days I still am as I feel so inadequate to do this work, but mostly as I feel inadequate to lead, especially in an area I mostly don't know. But because of it, I have been blessed enough to see some really awesome miracles. I know this transfer will be hard but I feel like I will grow a lot because of it.

Sadly for poor Sister Zhao, time has mostly been spent finding, knocking on doors, and doing our best to find some new investigators. Not to best impression of a new area, but it happens when you're already basically white-washing an area and our investigator pool was pretty small to begin with when I got here. But I feel like our efforts have somewhat paid off as we are looking at a pretty full week this week. It's added to by the fact that we have 2 days we aren't really doing anything before 6. This is also why my e-mail is a day late. Yesterday we had Specialized Training in Hualian so our p-day got moved back a day.

The weird/cool thing is, I got a blessing last week since I've been feeling so sick since I came to Taidong. It was bad on Thursday and I just felt totally worn down and I got sick again that morning. So, I got a blessing and the feeling that I had was that this transfer is going to be really hard, it will take a lot of faith and diligence, but I think it's also going to be really incredible. I was promised that I'll be able to find those Heavenly Father has prepared for us and I've already gotten to see this happen as our miracles have occurred these last few days.

One of our biggest miracles happened yesterday but started on Sunday. Sunday afternoon after church we got a text from an investigator I haven't met who said she was outside parking her bike. I was so confused since church had just ended and we didn't have any set ups. Well, I call her but she texted us by accident. The cool thing is, I still got her to set up with us for yesterday and last night, she came! She showed up late but she still came! And it was truly one of the most incredible lessons I've ever had. It's the first lesson Sister Chao and I have taught together to an actual investigator and it was incredible. For the time we were teaching her, everything else just melted away, I didn't notice the 7 we were in or the people around us. Everything was so centered on her, on this daughter of God finally learning how to come to Him, to come to His Son. The spirit was so strong there and she's so ready! She's met with missionaries before but said they never taught her anything but prayer and she hasn't really seen or heard from them since May and didn't understand why. She even set a baptismal date with us to work towards. It really was an incredible lesson, I wish I had more words for it but my words have been inadequate. Right after her lesson, I was buying a drink really quick and this man comes up to me and was like "I know you. I met you with Sun Zhanglao and An Zhanglao a while ago." I was totally taken back because I don't know this man and I've never been around a companionship of Sun Zhanglao and An Zhanglao, not to mention I just arrived in Taidong a little over 2 weeks ago. However, we got his number and he'll probably be coming to our branch's activity on Saturday! It's been so incredible to see the blessings that have come to pass this last week. I was promised that Heavenly Father would help me find those I've been prepared to find and that have been prepared to me. I'm getting to see this amazing blessing come to pass and honestly, I really do "Stand all Amazed." I am beyond grateful for this wonderful blessing I have been given.

So, that's been my exciting adventure lately. Just getting one new companion, being told she's moving, getting a new companion, basically white-washing the wonderful branch of Taidong1, and being made a senior companion as we're doing this. I know there are many more adventures ahead as I continue to work hard and try to learn Chinese. It's been hard that almost everything is in characters, and I'm still learning to slowly read characters. Been interesting and I'm sure my characters will get better this transfer, lol! That's about it for now... Thank you for your e-mails and your prayers. I truly have felt your prayers helping me lately. I love you and hope all is well with you!

Sister Kim Thomsen