Nihao everyone! I feel like I say this every
single week, but this week has been a great one! I have learned and grown a
ton.
Last week, I started feeling comfortable as a
missionary...a little too comfortable- and that's a sign to me that I'm not
pushing myself enough and trusting in the Lord enough and that my relationship
with Him is getting a little lax. So, I asked Him to humble me and help me get
back to where I needed to be. He showed me all of the things that I needed to
improve, which sounds like a terrible thing, but it was actually quite
wonderful! I made a list of the things I need to work on- my weaknesses. I
decided I needed to have more frequent and sincere prayers, to be more humble,
to listen more to the Holy Ghost, to improve my planning, to push myself with
the language, and to use every single minute I have to serve the Lord- really,
just to be a more intentional missionary. As I've striven this week to improve
those things, I have seen miracles- it's been amazing!
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| It's been a while since she's seen the sun! |
We got to see J and H (a couple that comes
to the MTC to eat with the missionaries) at lunch 3 times this week!! I love
them so so so much- they are the most amazing, sweet, loving, truth-seeking
people I have ever met in my entire life. I usually talk with J- he has the
most thoughtful questions about the gospel, and we have really deep discussions
about our beliefs and God, and he is so open to everything. He also comes up
with AWESOME analogies based on the things we talk about. The missionaries who
are officially teaching them taught them about the word of wisdom this week.
H loves tea, but the missionaries told her that keeping the word of wisdom
would help her have the Holy Ghost more and feel his guidance. She said that
she wasn't sure if that was true, but she wanted to believe because if it were,
that would be the greatest blessing to feel the Spirit more. Even though she
had just purchased a big jug of expensive tea, she decided to not drink it. She
started crying as she told us how much it has blessed her and that she feels
like it is true. When we saw J on Monday, we could tell he was really
excited about something. He had this grin on his face, and he said, "guess
what? I went to church yesterday." We were so excited! We asked him what
he thought, and he told us that he and H thought it was beautiful. He told
us all about the two people who spoke- both were converts, and told about how
they gained a testimony of the gospel (not a coincidence at all, right?). He
just said that the speakers and the classes touched his heart and how he agreed
with everything. We talked to them again yesterday, and they told us that they
love music, so of course we told them about Music and the Spoken word and the
Mormon Tabernacle Choir. J told us the sweetest story about how he met H
and how much he is thankful for her because he knows that she is a gift from
God for him. When he took her home to meet his family, he was a little
embarrassed because his family was very poor and had literally nothing. She
told him that she didn't care what he had, she just cared about him. He said,
"this is why I love your church- because I want to be with her forever and
ever". So so sweet! They are going to be the most amazing church members-
I have no doubt in my mind that they will be baptized. We bought them a
Tabernacle Choir CD yesterday at the bookstore as well as a Spanish Book of Mormon
that we are all writing our testimonies in to give them tomorrow. They are
actually leaving on Mon to go to Guatemala for a month, so we won't see them
again until we get back from our missions, which is really sad. But we told
them how to find a meetinghouse in Guatemala and we gave them our contact info,
so hopefully we can stay in touch with them and they will keep progressing in
the gospel. They just make me want to talk to EVERYONE I see, because you just
never know who will be like J and H and just be super prepared and ready
for the gospel.
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| Good thing Samuel Smith didn't have to carry his laundry too |
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| This is for you Zoe |
Please go to lds.org and search for "Hastening the
work in Europe" and watch the video that comes up when you click on the
first result. Also, to https://www.lds.org/training/wwlt/2013/hastening/members-and-missionaries?lang=eng and
watch the video "I'll go where you want me to go". I watched
them this week, and I just caught the vision, so to speak, of how amazing this
work is. It is NOT just something missionaries do- we can't do it alone. We are
here to assist members- YOU are crucial! You could even write me a dear elder
about what you thought about it... :D (sorry people, gotta solicit for mail
somehow! but really, it's an awesome video!). I love what Elder Oaks
says: "when you are involved in the work of the Lord, the power behind you
is always greater than the obstacles before you".
This morning was a little different than a
normal p-day, because we had to go to class! For some reason, our district was
chosen out of all the classes at the MTC for executives from GM to come to! The
church gets missionary cars from GM, so they like to let the executives come
and see what missionary work is all about! We introduced ourselves and told
about what we were doing and our schedule and how we (are trying to) learn
Chinese. It was actually super strange to introduce myself as "Nicole
Murri". They asked us to speak for them, so Elder Stewart recited the
purpose in Zhongwen, and I gave the first 2 minutes of the first lesson. It was
pretty neat to get to tell them all about missionary work! The 9 of us in our
class represent the church's entire force of 84,663 missionaries to them, which
was pretty cool!
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| Three more weeks until she is in Taiwan! |
Thank you to everyone who sent me letters and
dear elders and packages this week! If I didn't email you back, I'll be sending
you a handwritten letter today!
I love being a missionary so much. It is hard
work, but it is so worth it. Sometimes it can be discouraging but the Lord
really does bless his missionaries and all those who desire to follow Him.
Love you all! Thank you for the support and
prayers.
Mu Jiemei
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