Hello family and friends!
Haha
no, I'm not kidding. No, that's not the name of my new home but there's
a place here called the Republic of Chocolate. Laughed so hard when I
saw it Friday night. I'll send pics next week since my stuff still
hasn't arrived and it has my USB stuff. I am in the land of BaDe and our
area is HUGE! It seems like the majority of it is in YingGe, a 40
minute bike ride that is KILLER when you're riding home since it's back
up a HUGE hill! Thanks XiZhi for preparing me for that. haha. My new
companion is a Taiwanese, FINALLY!!! YEA! So happy. I'm already loving
life with her. She's so incredible! Her name is Sister Wu and I love her
to death. Yep, my new home is incredible. More or less back in the
country and loving every single second of it. You should've seen my face
Friday night, I was grinning from ear to ear and couldn't stop. Life
really is good. I love being a missionary of the Lord. I love being a
Representative of Jesus Christ. Is there anything better?
As for miracles, Thursday I was blessed to see a huge miracle and know
that I was an instrument in the hands of the Lord. We did another little
"blitz" for the last time in XiZhi and I was blessed to be with Sister
Chen. We were out contacting and had a lot of people that didn't want to
talk to us but it's true what Preach My Gospel says, that we need to
believe that the Lord is placing prepared people in our paths. With Ye
Jiemei all we did was say "hello! how are you?" And she stopped and just
started talking to us, telling us about her life. She was talking about
how she already believed in Christ and everything but her friend is
Christian and said Buddhists can't get baptized. I simply don't
understand some Christians. However, we shared about the Book of Mormon
and she was SO excited to read it! She said she already gets little
quotes on her phone from the Bible but when we told her we'd never heard
of it she was like "oh. Ok. I'll delete it right away." We told her if
it's from the Bible and helps encourage her it's probably a good thing
so not to worry about it. Then we felt inspired to invite her to
baptism. For the 22nd of March. Her reaction? Could I be baptized? And
so fast?! It was incredible and humbling to be able to tell my sister
how truly important she is, how much her Father loves her and how much I
believe in her, that the missionaries will truly help her to come unto
Christ and I know she could definitely be baptized the 22nd of March
without any problems. So we were able to help a daughter of God come
unto Christ a little more, to invite her to baptism, to give her a
chance to read the Book of Mormon, and found XiZhi a new investigator.
Definitely one of the best ways to end my time in XiZhi. That night we
were also able to meet with an LA I've been trying to meet with my
entire time in XiZhi. 4 1/2 months! And a miracle happened so we were
able to meet with her. It has been humbling to me as we've met with
people, handing off investigators or meeting with an LA right before I
move, and as we've asked them who they would like to say the opening
prayer, 2 of them have looked at me and said "Sister Thomsen because she
wont be visiting me anymore." If they only knew how this touched my
heart. It's a miracle to me that in a way, to me that's saying, "I will
miss this Sister." And it's one last time I can pray for them where they
can hear it. Of course, we always keep praying for them, but it's
different when they can hear it. When they are reminded that you're
praying for them, that you love them. Definitely a different type of
miracle to me, one I am always grateful to receive.
I love you all and hope all is well in your neck of the woods. I
was reading the Liahona today and read an article from an apostle about
how he would always watch Finding Nemo with his daughter. Then he said
"Missions are hard." and I can't remember what else but he always ended
his e-mails with "just keep swimming." LOVED it! So my attitude is,
"life is hard." So here's my advice to you...
Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming. What do we do? We swim, swim, swim!
Jiayou! Wo ai nimen-o!
Sister Thomsen
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