Another week went by!! Can you
believe it?! I was thinking about how long I've been out already, and I was
surprised to realize that it's been TEN months since I left to the MTC.
WHAAA?!?! Time really is a weird thing.
Anyway, other than being able to
SKYPE all of my family next week on CHRISTMAS, (HOLLAHHHHH!!!!) I'm super
excited because this week is the mission social at Sun Moon Lake!!! Since Mom
is awesome and totally sent me the best Christmas arrangements for piano over
the email, I have been able to practice and prepare my musical number.
I'm performing "Oh Holy Night" this Thursday for the mission
social. :) It'll hopefully go smoothly, since missionaries only have so
much time to practice instruments. (Basically only P-Day, and whenever at the
church waiting for lessons...) I'm gonna do some slow work and good, solid,
cram practicing today. It won't be my best, but I'll work with it. :)
SO EXCITED TO SKYPE THE FAMILY! - Oh
wait, I've said that like a frillion times already. Sorry. Just had
to say that again!! Don't worry, Sister Anderson and I aren't letting our
excitement get in the way of missionary work. We're just really happy
that we get to see and hear our families again next week. It's been a
long time, and I feel like everyone has changed a lot!!!
Alright, here's what happened this
week:
TUESDAY:
-Met the new district at district
training meeting
-Rode all the way up to Beidou to
have lunch and chat with Kiki. We committed her to everyday prayer
-English proselyted.
-Taught a member lesson/RCLA lesson
with Zhang Li Xue at Chu A-gon and A-ma's home in Yongjing.
Ok, on the side note, we have a total
of SIX secondary areas. Yeah, that's how big our area is, so the amount
of lessons we have everyday also depends on how far we have to ride to every
lesson. We try to plan all of our lessons pretty close together in terms
of destination, but there's only so much you can control with the time needs of
all the people we teach and everything.
I've noticed that an important part
of being an effective missionary is using your brain and planning efficient and
SMART appointments. It takes practice, I can tell you!!
-After Chu A-gon and A-ma, we visited
Chen Shu Yue and Chen Kai Rong, her daughter. We read part of the
Strength of Youth with her as well as the Book of Mormon introduction. We
were really happy because after we taught them, Chen Shu Yue expressed how much
she really liked and appreciated how we stressed having high moral standards for
the youth. Her daughter Kai Rong is 14 and it's around that time when
parents have to start worrying about their kids. :) They're really
progressing and everything. The only thing keeping them in the way of
hitting their baptismal goal in March is the fact that the grandma is
traditional Buddhist "baibai", and she doesn't want her children or
grandchildren to change those traditional beliefs... WE'll keep praying!!
-When we got home, I made a lot of
phone calls to set up all the appointments for the week. :) Happy
to say that all of our plans were pretty much set up on Tuesday night!! :)
There's no better way to start out a week than to have all plans and
appointments already set up.
Sidenote: Apparently oreos with
peanut butter are really good. That's what Sister Anderson has been
telling me... I'll have to try it sometime, but I'm trying to watch the amount
of sugar I eat. Maybe I'll let myself eat one on Christmas. :) hahaha
WEDNESDAY:
-Visited Ye Yi Rou, a less-active
sister who lives in Yuanlin. We talked and invited her to come to the
Christmas party this upcoming Saturday. She needs a priesthood blessing
since she's been ill recently and her father has cancer.
- Li Zeng Ya Shan (the cool member
with three crazy boys) called us up randomly before we left our apartment to
invite us over to her home for lunch. Of course, we agreed to lunch at
her home, and it was absolutely delicious. Holy Cow!!! We had a
warm, chicken soup, FISH, broccoli, rice with a yam, green beans, pork, and a
delicious scrambled egg dish. Having a home-cooked meal was HEAVEN.
Seriously, it reminded me of all the meals that I had at home before the
mission. Oh man, that was the best meal in a while!!!! The whole
time, I was like, "It tastes just like what my Dad and Mom cook at
home!!" I kept thanking her over and over again and still have to give her
the thank you note I wrote to her this last week.
SO GOOD.
-We then visted Tina Ye. She's
so amazing!! WOW. So, you know how we gave her a Book of Mormon two weeks
ago?! I made a box and wrote her a really long letter to go with it. When
we met with her, Tina said that her parents were really touched that I even
made a box and wrote her a letter to go along with the Book of Mormon.
The night she got it, her entire family read the Book of Mormon together
for the FIRST time. Her parents have been less-active for YEARS, and it
was just so refreshing and so touching to hear that they are finally making
progress and reading the scriptures together for the first time!!!! WHAT A
MIRACLE. Plus, Tina is only 11 and takes NOTES every time we visit her.
She's amazing!!!
OKAY - SIDE NOTE AGAIN: The mission
office just sent all of us an email that was subjected, "THE CHRISTMAS
PARTY IS CANCELLED..." - And for a moment, Sister Anderson and I had a
heart attack because we thought it really was, but turns out - it's not, and it
was just a joke. haha
-We then had a member lesson with
Chen Jian Ru and Huang Mei Hua. They are amazing!! I made a protective
case for Chen Jian Ru's Book of Mormon. I had included a bunch of
scriptures on the case and spent the lesson reading them and explaining to her
why I included them on her case.
-So remember the two young men that
we contacted last week after the elder's baptism on our way home?! - They
totally came to English class and had a lesson with the elders!!!
-English class was a ball.
Since the 2nd ward elders couldn't make it to class, we had a shortage of
teachers, so I ended up teaching the little kids by myself. Sister Anderson
was doorman, and the other Elders taught the other two classes by themselves.
It actually didn't go that bad!!! :)
There were actually MORE people in
the children's class than there have ever been. There were about 19
students (parents AND children) in my class, and although the kids were kind of
rowdy, I was able to keep them under control, and the parents were all pretty
happy. It was funny because the whole time, they kept snapping photos of
me while I was teaching. Apparently, some of the parents are referrals
from members and they posted the pictures they took of me on facebook.
So, somewhere on facebook are the pictures of me teaching English to the
little kids last week. :)
Okay, so I was thinking about what I
want to do after my mission, and I realized that an awesome option that I would
absolutely LOVE to do is become a kindergarten or 1st grade teacher... Well, at
least something to do with 4-5 year old children. I don't know why, but I
LOVE being around kids and teaching them. It's something that I'd like to
go into after the mission. I'm sure I could mix teaching/performing piano
into there somewhere. :)
THURSDAY
-Thursday actually had a kind of
oddly funny start to it. In the morning, Sister Anderson turned on her
music which happened to be the Canadian Tenors. Yeah, if you don't know
who they are, then look them up. The point is, they sing really touching
music, and they sing with so much passion.
Anyway, I just had woke up and was
lying in bed when the music started going on, and I just started tearing up!!
hahaha I didn't even know why, but I started crying, and I'm pretty sure it's
because of the music and the fact that I just woke up and was totally out of it.
hahaha
Sister Anderson came in the room to
check if I was awake and when she saw the tears, she was so worried!! haha
Later, I told her that it was TOTALLY the Canadian Tenors that made my cry.
hahaa Isn't that a funny way to start out a morning?! yeah, at least I thought
so...
Personal study:
2 Nephi 4
When I read this chapter, I felt like
I was receiving a lot of answers to my prayers. Here are some versus that
I LOVE:
16-21;26-35 (Basically the whole
chapter.) Just go and read it.
For the sake of happiness, I will
just type out my favorite versus:
34-35: "O Lord, I have trusted
in thee, and I will trust in thee forever, I will not put my trust in the arm
of flesh; yea, cursed is he that putteth his trust in man or maketh flesh his
arm."
"I know that God will give
liberally to him that asketh. Yea, my God will give me if I ask not
amiss; I will lift up my voice unto thee, yea, I will cry unto thee, my God,
the rock of my righteousness. Behold, my voice shall forever ascend up
unto thee, my rock and mine everlasting God. Amen."
AMEN!!!
We must always remember to put our
trust in God and NOT man. Even in marriage, we must trust God and love
God ABOVE ALL, and then love our spouses. When we do that, God will
direct and allow those marriages/relationships to grow and exist in a deeper,
more reliable environment. I know that God loves me, and I want and do
put my complete trust in Him.
DON'T FORGET THAT!!!
Funny moment: When we visited Liu Wei
Han at her hair salon Thursday, we were biking to Yongjing and we saw the
FATTEST dog just chilling on the side of the road. It was hilarious
because the fat rolls were ENCOMPASSING the entire road. Sister Anderson
and I were both like being super careful about biking around him, and then he
totally barked. It was probably the weirdest bark I have ever heard come
out from a dog. Anyway, point is this: Taiwan has a really obese dog
problem.
I'm NOT kidding at all. AT ALL.
Oh, and I am NOT being sarcastic because everyone who knows me knows that
I don't like to joke around.
... I hope you all got that.
Wait, I hope that you all DIDn'T get
that.
Okay. ONWARD!!!
- Thursday night, we went and visited
Song Xiu Cuen, the woman who helped us find the Less active house that one
night a month ago. We brought her a thank you card and sat down with her
to begin teaching. She tried offering us some tea, and we had to tell her
that we didn't drink it because of our church's standards. Anyway, she's
great and she's totally willing to let us bring other members over and continue
visiting her in the future. At the end of our meeting, she gave us some
of her home-planted green beans and guava fruit!! SCORE!
FRIDAY
In the morning, we had a member
lesson with our awesome investigator Vilia. Remember her?! She's the
member referral who teaching Russian, and she's looking for truth.
Anyway, she had totally completed all the assignments we gave her last
week, and she brought more questions. I actually shared the scripture
about trusting God in 2 Nephi 4 with her. She had been asking us for ways
to deal with a relationship that she has going on in her life, and we just told
her that the only person who COULD and CAN tell her all the right answers to
all her problems is GOD.
We encouraged her to continue reading
scriptures, and I gave her an assignment to read 2 Nephi 32, the scripture
about answers being given through the holy ghost. She also offered an
awesome prayer at the end of the lesson, and it was SO GOOD. She's a
star!!!
Later that day, Sister Anderson's
stomach was really upset, so we ended up going home and cancelling all of our
lessons so she could rest. I made phone calls and called APR while she
was trying to rest up. Later that night, she totally made an extra effort
to make it to ward correlation meeting. She just bought a soda and
crackers, and headed out the door!! WHAT A TROOPER, eh?!
The next day, she felt all better.
:)
SATURDAY
I'm getting tired of typing, so I'll
just share my favorite part of the day:
We taught a member lesson to Chen Shi
Xuen. Ya Ting helped us "peike". We taught the plan of
salvation, and gave her a pamphlet. At the end of the lesson, we
encouraged her to flip to the back and answer/write out all the answers to the
questions in the back. Yesterday after church, she showed me the back of
the pamphlet and guess what?!
ALL THE ANSWERS WERE WRITTEN OUT.
She had spent FOUR hours just filling out the back and finding out the
answers to questions about the plan of salvation. Can you believe that?!
I was so happy to see her desire and diligence to learn more about the gospel.
Isn't she amazing?!
SUNDAY
I gave my talk in sacrament meeting
in 2nd ward. It lasted about 15 minutes. I couldn't have done it
without the help of Ya Ting, one of the sisters in the 2nd ward. She had
helped me prepare it on Saturday afternoon after helping us accompany Chen Shi
Xuen's lesson. :) I basically talked about the ways members can do
mission work and how simple and small means can bring about great results.
Sometimes members get afraid of doing
missionary work, but in reality, missionary work is NOT just tracting and
contacting on the streets. It includes doing the small and simple things,
including the personal study and personal growth/effort/time that you spend
being truly converted to Christ. When you do yourself a service by
reading scriptures and praying, you actually are doing missionary work!!!
Think about it.
We had a good THREE investigators at
church on Sunday. Our goal WAS three, so it was perfect! The music
rehearsal for the Christmas party on the 21st this Saturday went pretty well as
well. Sister Anderson and her beautiful voice are going to be providing
entertainment for the crowds to come on Saturday night. :) We are going
to have a final rehearsal on Friday night. :) I'll tell you all about how it
ends up going next week.
Oh, and last night, Sister Anderson
pulled out her DELICIOUS YUMMY stuffing from her mom, and we totally ATE IT.
: ) SOOO GOODD!!!
This morning, I studied in 2 Nephi 8
and 9, and it's all about the plan of salvation. I'm thinking about
having Chen Shi Xuen read chapter 9 for her next reading assignment. :)
It's awesome!!!!
Alright, today, Sister Anderson and I
are probably gonna just chill and I am wanting to practice the musical number
for this Thursday's social/party. :) It's gonna be fun!!
Sorry for no pictures this week.
There may or may not be a lot of pictures next week from the Christmas
party. :)
I love you all!! Keep your heads up!!
thanks for all the support and love you all send me.
Remember God is merciful and NEVER
forgets us.
How could he?!
Love,
Sister Verina Chen
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