They say that missions change you. I'm here to tell you that's true,
because I ate both bananas and tuna this past week....and liked them! My
taste buds really have become Taiwanese- I can't even eat American sweets
anymore. One of our members bought us ice cream cones from McDonalds last week,
and I took one lick and just couldn't put any more of it into my mouth, it was
so sickeningly sweet.
Anyway....the work is going great here! We are so tired and time is
flying by so fast with exchanges and meetings and basically just working our
little bums off. We come home every night and just crash!
H and M are making incredible strides. M should be
set to get baptized this weekend or next weekend! And H...I love that guy.
He set a goal this week to quit drinking alcohol by May 11 (seems like a long
time away, but he is pretty addicted.) He is SO set on May 11- he even told his
super devoted Buddhist wife that he was going to be quitting alcohol, and
invited her to church! He said a great closing prayer in one of our lessons
this past week in which he pled with God to help him overcome the "bad
habit" (there is just no good English translation for what he actually
said....) of drinking alcohol. Sis Smith and I walked out of there fist pumping
and said, "YES!!!! HE CALLED ALCOHOL A BAD HABIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
So much progress for him. He wants it now.
The Spirit of Elijah is so real. This past week, Sis Smith and I
were working on our My Family books (pamplet published by the church to help
people get started on family history- our area seventy asked us to complete it
for mission tour, and we want to use it with those we teach). I really felt the
spirit as I recalled memories of my family and grandparents. The Lord intends for
families to be together forever, not just because he thought that families
would be a good way to help us out here on earth, but because the family is an
eternal unit- not just a good idea God came up with.
One of my recent converts from Danshui went to the temple for the first time
last week! And L went to do baptisms on Saturday! There is nothing sweeter
to me than seeing those I taught go to the temple. That, and being passed the sacrament by
the man whose baptism I watched just last month. Too many blessings. :)
Finding has been a little rough lately. Actually, the whole time
I've been in XinZhu, finding has been tricky. If you could specifically ask in your prayers for us to be sensitive
to the Spirit to know how to find the prepared people- because they are here
somewhere! I've noticed in my mission that God
often tests our faith before giving us his greatest blessings. And even if
there's not some huge blessing waiting in store, I can have confidence before
God in knowing that I am doing all I can. And that's really all that matters!
This week I realized how much I love being a missionary. Although
there are definitely days that I can't wait to just take a nap, I really am
dreading the day the tag comes off forever (well, at least until I serve a
senior mission!). It's God's work. I'm so grateful to get a front row
seat.
Love you!
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