9/08/13

Wo de Jiating!

This week was really good. Monday was just the pick-me-up I needed after having a hard week last week. We didn't do anything incredible for Preparation Day or anything, just made cookies for our district but for some reason it helped me feel a lot better. I swear, baking is therapeutic. And it was a miracle in itself to help me feel better. After baking, we went to visit one of our LAs that we visit every week that has become more active than Less Active lately. We visit her weekly and she comes to church weekly. I think she's come to church every week but one since Sister Chao moved down to Taidong with me :) I love reactivating LAs. We also got to go do a family home evening with one of the couples in our ward. They have twins so are usually really busy but I honestly felt like I was with good friends from back home that I've known for forever. Who knows, maybe I have known them for forever :)

This week I also strengthened my testimony of back-up plans again. Every time we got fanged or had a lesson cancelled we had a back up plan and it proved to be exactly what we needed to do. All of our new investigators this week came from our back-up plans, whether that was to go knock a certain street or to go visit an investigator, all of our back-up plans are the times that we got new investigators with the exception of 1 who was from our back-up plans last week. It's so incredible! Definitely shows how we need to make good back-up plans and then to follow them!

One thing I've really loved this week was the Book of Mormon. I've made sure to have one on me everywhere I went and it really has blessed us because there were times we weren't able to have a full-on lesson but we could give them a Book of Mormon really fast, give a short introduction of what it is then let them be on their way. Sometimes, they wont take the book. But I've found some really awesome people through just handing them a Book of Mormon, letting them know why I love it then giving them the opportunity to use their agency to learn more about their Savior. I've grown to love it so much. One of my favorite miracles happened Saturday night. We'd had district dinner at a restaurant and were going out to our bikes because we had a set-up. However, I noticed 2 girls staring at me so I said hello. They were so excited the waiguoren was talking to them, it was funny and cute. One of them has no religion, the other has a Christian background. We were able to give them both copies of the Book of Mormon and I think they'll both come to english class next week. Sadly, we weren't able to get their numbers or anything but they really did seem interested so I think they'll appear again.

Another thing these last couple weeks is that I have truly grown to love working for team jesus! Especially as we find these golden investigators to hand off to our elders. One of which gave us a wrong number but we were in his area last night and the lights in his house were on so we knocked his door, handed him a copy of the Book of Mormon, he gave me his number again, and we got a set-up for this next week for our Elders. I feel like he really is golden and I pray for the day he enters the waters of baptism.

Another miracle was as we went to visit our investigator this week, Shi Jiemei. She's from Vietnam and our first time meeting with us she asked if we could bring her another copy of the Book of Mormon in Vietnamese so she could share it with her family. As we went to visit her this week as a back-up plan since we haven't been able to reach her lately, her sister-in-law also came out to talk to us and kept asking questions about the church. She actually seems rather interested. Plus, we now have their house phone so we can better get ahold of them and Shi Jiemei came to church yesterday! She showed up for the end of sacrament meeting as Hou Huizhang was giving a talk and stayed for the rest of church! She even knows one of our LAs that we've been working with. So, not only did we find her through the elders, who found her through an investigator of theirs, but she also wants to share the gospel with her family, and now her sister-in-law is also our investigator. I love working for Team Jesus. He tends to win :)

I have really felt blessed and strengthened this week. I have a renewed vigor for this work and I truly am so blessed.

Honestly, it was a really good week. I feel like I made some progress in a lot of areas. I just wish more of our investigators had been able to meet with us :( Maybe this coming week we'll be able to change that or start doing some spring cleaning... We've already hit the pavement a lot this last week and will probably continue doing so this week. We have souls out there waiting for us that we need to find and help come unto Christ.

I did buy a new camera, a Canon. It's really fancy and I'm still figuring out how to work it. Buying a camera is hard, doing so in a foreign language you barely speak is even harder! haha but we did have success at last so I will still be able to send you pictures!

Mom, you'll get a kick out of this. You know how much I love sugar and used to love cookies? Both times I've made them this week,they're too sweet for me. I can eat one or two but then I'm done. It's because Taiwanese food is NOT sweet. Even their desserts don't really have sugar. Tasted bland to me when I first got here to eat their desserts, but now I love them and American desserts are too sweet for me, it's so funny. Though we have a Young Woman in our branch that is more like an American than a Taiwanren because she LOVES sweet food. She was eating the cookies like it was nothing, like most Americans would. But my companion and I both said they were too sweet, and we even cut down on the sugar. haha. We're more Taiwanese than American now I guess :) But that was a blast Saturday night, we taught our young women how to make cookies. I really enjoyed it. I love the young women in our branch, they are very incredible women!

I think that's about it on my end for the week... Hope all is well on yours!

Wo ai ni-o! Jiayou!

Sister Thomsen