Hey Family!
First of all, I want to encourage you all to make a Mormon.org profile. Not only so that you can share it
with you friends (and I can share it with people out here), but also so I can
read them (: K thanks!
This week has been great. I have a lot to say so I'm just gonna
start typing and hope I have time to finish everything. I have a little less
than an hour to crank this out!
Last week we saw so many miracles and I had some good experiences,
but first, to answer your question, Mom. I think they celebrate valentines day?
I saw some decorations in stores, but it's the same time as Chinese New Year
(which is a 9 day holiday), so it's not that big.
Also, last week I found out why the Lord has asked all his
missionaries to wear helmets. I TOTALLY biffed it on my bike. We were riding
back home and on this thin road that we travel often. There are scooters parked
on either side of the street. My handle bar hit a scooter and my front wheel
turned 180 degrees around. There was not stopping me from falling over. It hurt
pretty bad. My knee was all cut up and I'm still kind of bruised all over. I
just laughed the whole time. The miracle is that when I took of my helmet, my
hair still looked SO GOOD! Also, there's a huge crack in my helmet now.
BLESSING. That could've been my head! That was a week ago. I'm perfectly fine
now. I still have some gnarly looking bruises, but they don't hurt at all. Lol.
On our way to one of our member meals (we had 8 last week) we saw a
girl who was crying. We turned around. I asked her if she wanted any help. She
said no. I didn't feel like my work was done there. I just started bearing
testimony that she is a daughter of God and He loves her and she can overcome
anything through Him and Christ's atonement. As I testified, she slowly turned
around and listened. She probably won't remember much of what I said because
she was pretty drunk, but she told us that she was Christian once and quit
going and some other stuff that I didn't understand. She was just talking and
crying. I really didn't know what to do or say.The thought popped into my head
to hug her. I opened my arms and she just melted. I hugged her for a minute
while she cried. We wrote down our number on a restoration tract for her and
told her to call us sometime. She's not actually gonna remember the
interaction. She may remember the hug, but she will find the number. We really
hope she calls. It was a really spiritual experience for me that really tested
my charity.
So yes, 8 meals with members in the last week. That equals a LOT of
crazy food. Actually it wasn't too bad. They all feel bad for us so we ate a
lot of pizza. The pizza's here are crazy too. A lot of seafood pizzas. They're
really good actually. Last Monday for lunch we also went to IKEA with a family.
It was stellar fun! They are so great and afterwards the mom was really willing
to help us fellowship one of the sisters that lives in her area that is
investigating the church. That evening we went to the home of a mixed couple.
White and Taiwanese. We had steaks. SO GOOD! It was awesome to speak English.
We also went to a Korean restaurant with a family. The interesting
part about that is that there was a little girl running around in just her
undies and a shirt. So random. I'm pretty sure I've seen that in America too.
Things aren't too different here!
After this week I'm stuffed to the brim. It's exhausting eating as
much food as we did. You have to finish everything they give you. And they just
keep going. I pace myself, but I get full quickly and they all still eat. I'm
amazed by how much I've eaten. On Saturday I had to eat stinky tofu. I was NOT
looking forward to it because I don't even like regular tofu. It kind of tasted
like the zoo. I couldn't swallow. I felt terrible for having to leave and spit
it out. Later I realized that I didn't have a piece covered in sauce, I just had
straight tofu. I'll probably have to try it again sometime. Eek.
Something we do here for the missionaries is we have phases of
language study. We periodically test our language study during these phases.
There are three. Phase one focuses on teaching skills and teaching the lessons,
vocabulary for the lessons, phrases for the lessons, commitments, questions
etc. Phase two is just a set of 2000 words to memorize. And Phase three is
targeted on characters and reading the Book of Mormon in characters. My goal is
to pass of phase one by March 19th. That means I'm getting tested on my
language skills twice a week. Its hard, but I'm doing well. Yesterday I passed
off the second lesson. I only have 3 more to pass off. I also want to try to
pass off phase 2 by the time Sister Daye leaves. That will give me 5 weeks to
learn 2000 words. We'll see!
Something that just makes me laugh about being here is our
district/zone meetings. It's just a bunch of white people sitting around
speaking Chinese. HOW HILARIOUS IS THAT?! Maybe its not, but I just get so
tickled watching everyone have a discussion all in a second language. So funny.
Oh stop! I have to tell you about food again. Wow! We ate this
fruit. I honestly don't remember the name. It smells like a pumpkin. It tastes
like a sweet pumpkin. SO SO SO DELICIOUS! I will find out what it is so you can
look it up online. It is seriously the greatest thing in the world. We had it
for breakfast with toast. We don't put butter on out toast. We eat it with this
AMAZING coconut spread that literally makes me want to die of happiness. I'll
send some home. We're obsessed with it.
Okay let me brag about my companion for a minute. She's so amazing.
I can't even tell you enough how much she helps me with everything. Her
language is REALLY good and she is so helpful to me. We click well. We're
always singing and laughing and singing some more. We are obsessed with this
little Chinese folk song that we learned from the children's songbook. It's
called Molihua. We sing it while we ride around and people always look at us
and smile.
Speaking of Sister Daye. She is so good at following the spirit. I
was looking through a list of former investigators and I picked one that I felt
like we should visit. I told her. She agreed and felt like 4:00 was the time to
visit her. (This was Saturday). We made plans and went to this girls apartment
complex a few minutes to 4:00. We ran into a HUGE family and were able to talk
to them a little about the church. They don't all live in Xin Zhuang, but they
were really open to talking to us (especially about English classes). We ended
up giving and English tract to them and also a Restoration tract. I committed
the mom to go to Mormon.org that night. She
said she definitely would. Then we went to our former investigators home. She
wasn't there so we sat on a bench to finish up the language study that we
didn't have time to do that morning. While we sat there, a woman came out and
started to talk to us. She and her husband invited us in. We talked a lot and
really got to know them. They are definitely being prepared. They are pretty
buddhist, but the husband was originally atheist. We taught the first lesson.
The spirit was very strong during the part about Joseph Smith. After we were
finished we committed him to looking up Mormon.org and also checking
out the family history website. They told us to come back anytime. They aren't
quite ready for all the lessons, but they live right by a recent convert/new
investigator's home so we will probably go back. I guess that was our 4:00
appointment!
Then right after that we stopped by the home of the recent convert
that lives close by. We started teaching her sister. Yesterday we went back and
taught her sister the whole first lesson. It was so great! She committed to
being baptized once she gains a testimony. She's already well on her way. She
said she likes the Book of Mormon and loves how she's seen this church change
her sister's life. They are probably two of my favorite people in the world!
At some point this week (I can't remember when) we were home ten
minutes earlier than we had intended to be. We decided to bike around our
street for a minute and see who we could find. I felt like we should go visit
this man who we had contacted a week or so previous. Mr. X. As we were
turning the street to the road in the direction of his house, he was right
there on the street. We immediately started talking to him. He is very smart
and knows a lot about God and religion. He is buddhist, but he said that he
alters his beliefs as he encounters more truth. There are so many churches out
there, so he said he just tries his best and hopes he finds the right one.
Until then he rethinks everything once he encounters truth. We told him a
little about Joseph Smith. He is very good about praying and he seems to have a
really good understanding about his relationship with God. We told him that we
would love to talk to him about our church. He said he wasn't sure. I felt like
I should ask him if he feels like he gets answers to his prayers. He said he
knows he can. Then I said, "Okay, when you pray tonight before bed, I want
you to ask God specifically if you should meet with us and learn about our
message." He said he would start praying about that. He has our phone
number.
This past Wednesday I made an awesome plan for our Advanced English
class. I planned to teach them about plot structure and the different parts
that make up a story then split them into groups to write a 10-15 sentence
story. I did the same thing myself and wrote the story of the 2000 stripling
warriors in 12 sentences to give them an example. Then for the spiritual
thought, I intended to read with them the story in the scriptures about the warriors.
I planned it all out and was so excited! Only one person showed up to English
class. Our investigator (name a). I told her we would still have class so we went
and sat down. Sister Daye stayed out in the hall where I could see her
welcoming newcomers. (name a) and I said a prayer to start our class. I told her we
would first answer any questions she has. Before we started, one of our
investigators with a baptismal date (she's really just waiting on permission
from her mom) came in to give me a cookie. I introduced them. She told (name b)
that she is excited to serve a mission someday. When she left I asked (name a) what
her questions were. She must have had a change of thought because she asked how
people come unto God at a young age--before they know how much they need him. I
shared with her how I gained my own testimony and bore testimony of the
atonement. She asked why Christ atoned for us. I beckoned Sister Daye to come
in. We taught her the Plan of Salvation. At the end, I bore testimony that the
Lord knows her. He knows her hopes and her fears. She started to cry. The
spirit was so strong and she is starting to feel her worth in the world. We
just hugged her a lot. When the time was right, we invited her to be baptized.
She said she already has been, but she'll pray to know if she should. She is
really so open to the gospel. She really knows the Book of Mormon is true. She
doesn't even question it. The key will be helping her realize the Book of
Mormon's role in her conversion and baptism into the Lord's church. I
absolutely love her so much. We're teaching her again tomorrow evening after we
get home.
^^I don't want to share people's names for the sake of privacy.
I set a goal to start making more phone calls. The other night, I
just started calling referrals. Sister Daye was using the bathroom, so I just
decided now is the time. The first three people I called either set up a time
to meet with us or told us a better time to call them. I was so pleased. I
really felt like I was doing my job as a missionary. I was amazed by the fact
that I had an entire conversation on the phone without bailing on the plan and
handing it to Sister Daye.
We have a girl who is 16 and wants to get baptized. Her mom won't
let her. We felt like we should use the planner with her and have her set goals
of things she will do to try to get her mom's permission (ie, read the
scriptures everyday, pray for permission to be baptized, fast, ask her moms
permission on specific days). When we taught her about goal setting from preach
my gospel (which is perfect because she wants to serve a mission), she was
really excited. She picked a day that she thought she could get baptized. March
23. Then she started to fill out the planner. She committed to ask the Lord in
prayer every morning and night and before every meal for permission to be
baptized. She also picked seven or so specific days to ask her mom. She picked
two days to fast, and she decided that she would read two chapters in the Book
of Mormon every day instead of one. As I watched her fill out her planner, her
faith was evident. She just kept adding more and more plans. Afterwards she
prayed with us for help from the Lord. She told Him her goal and plans and
asked for His support. I could feel His love. He is so proud of her. In every prayer
we say, we also pray that she'll have permission. We are also going to fast
with her. I feel very good about this. We also have specific times that she
wants us to get in contact with her mom. This girl is on FIRE! She
will be a great missionary someday. (She's the same girl that gave me a cookie
on Wednesday night).
Anyway I'm running out of time. I wish I could say more. I love this
work. I want to share everything I'm learning from my studies but I only
have two minutes. I don't have any pictures this week. Sorry!
I hope you all know how much I love the Book of Mormon. I love
reading it. Talking about it. Writing about it. I know absolutely that it is
true. READ IT! LOVE IT! SHARE IT WITH ALL YOUR FRIENDS!
Love always,
Cae
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