8/04/13

Jiaren! Pengyou!

My favorite miracle this week was out finding. We went to visit some of our members Thursday night and ended up just knocking by their house. Well, we said a prayer and started out. We had about an hour until curfew. I don't remember what goals we'd set. We knocked the first house. The lady let us teach her and said a prayer with us but was unwilling to keep meeting with us. Her time just had not yet come. Then, we went to the house next door. No one was home. The third house we knocked, the mom came out. Then, she let us in to talk to her and share. Turns out she's Buddhist that works at a Christian hospital. I felt like her interest is more in the middle, like she's not completely certain. However, she's willing to let us go back this week and teach her and her daughter! It was so cool! We walked out and I turned to Sister Chao and asked "what just happened?!" I've been praying so hard for a family in my last two transfers, 2 different areas, and we may have found one, or at least a mother and a daughter. I was incredulous when it happened and still am when I think about it.

Another amazing miracle was the referrals we met with. We had 2, one from the elders, one from a member. The one from a member has been scheduled since the first week I got to Taidong but every week something comes up that stops us from meeting with her. Well, last week we finally got to and she seems really interested. She also came to English that night with her son. The funny thing is, she seems willing to go to church but seemed really worried her son's just too loud and would be too distracting. We're working on it. Hopefully she'll be able to come this next week. Our other referral, the elders had already taught her prayer. The thing is, I'm not sure how much she understands since she's from Vietnam. She's lived here for 8 years but still seemed really confused at the end of our lesson with her, and we ended up teaching prayer again. Hopefully she'll progress. It was really cool though, we gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon and right after I handed it to her she asked if maybe next time we could bring another copy so she could share it with her family, her mom or her sister! It was so cool. Now we just need to find another Vietnamese copy of the Book of Mormon... She said she'd read it so I really hope she does. She seems so ready for this gospel!

One thing I really loved this last week was meeting with Chen Jiemei. She was part of a gang and because of things she did while associated with the gang, she has to wait until November to get baptized. We'll she's super golden and ready to get baptized already. We are always having to find new things for her to read because she reads everything so fast. Well, I talked to her on the phone Thursday night to make sure she could still meet with us Friday and she told me she had something she wanted to share with me the next day. Our branch president gave her a triple to read! She was so excited! She loves reading and learning. She still has a lot of changing to do but I know this gospel has definitely changed her life already. Friday she also shared her story of the day I came. That she knew Zhong Jiemei was going to pick up a new companion in Taibei that Friday and how Zhong Jiemei called and set up with her Saturday and she said at work she was so happy, everyone kept asking her why she was smiling so much. She said it was like a little kid when they're given candy, just smiling from ear to ear (She loves biyus...) and when everyone asked her why she just kept telling them, "there's a new sister missionary here and I get to meet her." Means a lot to me because she was so excited and she said she's still happy about it, even though my Chinese is really hai hao and I have a hard time understanding her. I love her to death and feel like she really is my friend.

As you can tell, it's been a good week in my neck of the woods but there's still a lot of room for growth, ways to be better and make it better. I look forward to doing that this week, to astonishing the amazing people of Taidong. Anyway, I think I've rambled long enough. I hope this e-mail finds you all well.

Wo xiangnian nimen! Wo ai ni-o!

Sister Kim Thomsen/ Tang Mei Xing Jiemei