5-25-14

Hello! Da jia hao!

This week was so jam-packed full of miracles I don't even know where to start! Heavenly Father has blessed us so much. Sister Singh and I were definitely having an "Ammon"-moment from Alma 26 last night where he says that "I will not boast of myself but I will boast of my God" I definitely feel like boasting of my God. He has blessed me so much and given me so many miracles lately.

Monday and Tuesday were pretty hard on me, hadn't quite hit the boasting in God yet but were still kind of stuck in the "trial of your faith" area. Tuesday it hit a climax for me in district meeting which makes me super grateful for my companion since she really helped me through it. Then right after we all went out English boarding (handing out tracts inviting people to our free english class). It was so fun and so cool. It gave me a break from everything I'm doing wrong and helped me to have a lot of awesome experiences of being self-contacted. We'd brought the signs they handed out when we started this new English program at the beginning of my mission. However, this is the first time we've ever used the signs when I've gone english boarding and I really had people asking me for tracts! I've never had that before! So cool! But after that, the miracles were still waiting in the ranks, cumulative with a migraine and all. So we had a fun lesson with an LA that night since he's usually hard to understand most of the time, often my companion has no idea what he's saying and my brain was struggling with my head pounding. Probably one of the worst lessons we've ever had with him.

Wednesday however, the heavens opened and started pouring rain. As it poured rain it also poured miracles. We were knocking doors in the morning and I kid you not, the first door we knocked opened and let us in. It was amazing. She's already Christian and said she's super busy but it was still a first in my mission :)

That afternoon we went to YingGe and ended up almost bible-bashing using the Book of Mormon with one of our LAs. She's a very special LA that seems to have gone to a lot of Christian churches and has just made her own religion from all the teachings of the different churches. And she takes every word of the book of mormon literally and leaves no room for interpretation. She also said she can't say she believes the prophet's words are the words of God. It was really sad to see. But I'm really proud of my companion and I since we quickly took a step back and stopped bible bashing and just went by the spirit. It was amazing to see how it happened.

After that LA it was literally POURING rain! There is no other word for it, the rain hurt my eyes as we were riding around, they were like water-bullets. So we went to do a pop-visit on an LA and met with her sister then she came home and we met with her. Sadly, her sister's not really interested but it was good to see more of their family dynamics. They're really not very nice to each other.

An amazing miracle that culminated on Thursday came as we've been going to areas we'd chosen in our Weekly Planning Session throughout the week. It was definitely led by the spirit! We've had several lessons from it, given out a couple copies of the Book of Mormon, and even found a super awesome new investigator that really needs the gospel in her life right now. It has been incredible to see the evidence that as we chose those areas in WPS last week, we really were being led by the spirit. I'm excited to see what happens this week! But the super awesome new investigator is also a super interesting story. My companion came up with this fun story of what kind of new investigators we were looking for as she always does. She said we were looking for parents who were home but their kids were on the way home from school. We hit towards the end of our time with very little success but came to this alley that we decided to knock. lo and behold, there was only one door and the lady happily let us in. She's from Vietnam and struggling a lot being so far away from home. Her husband was home and then headed out to go get their son who was on his way home! What the heck?! My companion predicted so much! And we definitely felt the spirit. We finally got to where we could say a prayer with her and when we opened our eyes she was crying. She felt the spirit. Then we shared Alma 26:36-37 with her that God is mindful of all people in every land. It was amazing and I know it really helped this beautiful sister. I was grateful for the spirit :)

However, I think my favorite miracle happened last night. I've mentioned the Wu family in several of my e-mails, they're a part-member less active family I've been working with since I came here to BaDe. They were the first family to get baptized in YingGe but ended up leaving, and I'm not really sure on the reasons why. However, the dad has become really active again lately, still progressing but he's come really far this last month and it's been miraculous to see. Last week we felt like we should focus again on helping their daughter work towards baptism. Last time we'd brought it up she told us she had no desire to get baptized so we felt like we shouldn't push her but should give it some time and help her family come back. However, that is one of the biggest miracles I've seen is this process of how the spirit has been working with us all along. It came to completion last night as we met with them once again. We decided to focus on the atonement and how Christ drank out of the "bitter cup" for us, that it can give us all a new start. The spirit was so powerful in that lesson! Also, it was completely led by the spirit. I'm still totally in awe from it. The mom or daughter brought up that it's a new start when we're baptized or partake of the sacrament. So we asked if they would want that, which of course they all agreed to. Then, the daughter committed to be baptized! We wanted to do it in June before I left but with the Taiwanese culture of school being the end-all be-all and that she has a performance, we scheduled it for the first weekend in July, the earliest they were willing to agree to. It was miraculous to me as we then turned to her father and committed him to prepare himself so he can be worthy to baptize her. Their whole family will be working together towards this goal and it is already amazing to see. The dad even asked her to promise him she would truly work to prepare herself to be baptized that day. I'm super excited for the day I get to see them all in white in the temple, they're such an amazing family and I love them all to pieces! Another miracle associated with this was also feeling the difference I've been able to make in their lives. It even came up that I leave next month and they were all so sad. They told me that they will never forget me and were rather sad that I will not be here for the baptism. At first I was sad too, then Heavenly Father instantly made it okay for me, helped me to see I've really helped them and made a difference, that I've done what I came here to do. It was such an incredible miraculous experience. I don't even have sufficient words to describe it, in any language.

We've had many more amazingly incredibly miraculous experiences but I think I've written enough of a novel for the week. My heart is bursting with gratitude and I truly do feel like shouting from the rooftops and boasting of my God. He's so incredible and I feel his love so much. To sum it up, if you want to know more about my week and how I feel about it, go read Alma 26. It's a great read and explains a lot :D

I hope this e-mail finds you all well and you're also recognizing His hand in your lives! Love and miss you!

Jiayou!

Sister Thomsen