HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!!!!!
WOOOOO!! So since it's like the biggest celebration over here, the
ward members from BOTH 1st and 2nd ward are treating us missionaries out to eat
like every day of the week starting February 30th.
WARNING: Any picture you may be
seeing in the future may or may not be shocking.
In other words, I may or may not
look/seem/appear to be ... fat. (Let's just be blunt.) Okay, but to be
true, I am aware and will be aware of my weight. I'll try keeping it in
control. HA
Okay! Sister MEdrAno. (Yeah, in
the last email, I mixed up the "E" and the "A" in her
name... HOW EMBARRASSING!") Anyway, I am redeeming myself right now.
Sister Medrano is amazing. I haven't heard her complain ONCE since
we have started serving together. She is so humble, patient, kind, and
mature in all she does and say. I don't know why, but everyone says that
training is hard, and for some reason, it's probably the easiest thing I've
done so far on my mission. I'm not even kidding. My mission just
seems to keep going uphill. I didn't think it could just keep getting
better and better, but it IS. I'm learning so much with/from Sister
Medrano, and we're working better than ever to help pull this work here in
Yuanlin.
This week was another great week.
I learned so much. I'll just include some of my journal entries so
you can get a little taste of the most important events.
WEDNESDAY:
-I've been contacting more and
finding more success with the people recently.
-I'm happier. I pray more.
Last night, Trevor bore his testimony
during our ward correlation meeting. He made mention that our hands are
really only so big. It brought into perspective the fact that we as
missionaries weren't expected to pull this work all by ourselves in the first
place. Heavenly Father loves us. We ARE His children. He is
working here in the vineyard with us, and He IS full of grace and mercy.
I love Him for that. I love Him for loving me unconditionally.
That allows me to love HIM always and TRUST in Him always.
Yesterday, we went tracting behind
the church. We were able to find and say prayers with two young people
who opened up their doors. Bishop Li's daughter actually accompanied us,
and it was great to witness such an awesome, pure desire to do missionary work
in such a young woman. I felt a lot of admiration and respect for her.
Jacob 5:4
Jacob 7:14
During English class tonight, Sister
Medrano and I taught the children. As always, they were running around
and shouting at the top of their lungs. It was pretty hilarious because
we were trying to teach them how to say "I like to swim! I like to run! I
like to jump, etc." We would do the actions to go along with the words, so
we would run in place, jump, walk, dance, etc. to help the children learn the
words. Anyway, in an attempt to help the children say, "I like to
swim!"... I said, "I like to SWIMMING" instead... After I said
that, Sister Medrano and I couldn't help but start cracking up in the middle of
class. All the kids didn't know why we were laughing so hard, but it was
seriously the funniest thing. (It probably doesn't sound as funny as I'm
typing/trying to explain it now...) Hopefully you get the point.
Also, our investigator VILIA, the
Russian teacher is now on date for March 1st. We had to give her to the
elders since we're not taking over 1st ward anymore, but the transition went
really smoothly. :) She's so awesome.
THURSDAY:
-Yes... AS bitter cold as this
morning was, I DID wake up to go running.
The whole day, Jamie (Wu Jia Shan) -
one of the young women in our ward - helped accompany our lessons. She is
so awesome, and I'm pretty sure I'm giving her my mission bike at the end of my
mission. She has a twin, and her parents are currently less-active. Oh
man, I can't wait to tell you all about her when I get back home. She's
seriously such an amazing young woman, and I love/admire her so much.
FRIDAY:
This morning, we contacted with the
youth at the train station. One of the girls I contacted ended up looking
me up on facebook. Maybe I'll be able to introduce her more to the gospel
when I get back home. Anyway, everyone that I talked to told me that they
usually hate talking to the missionaries. Missionaries over here don't
really have the best reputation, and so when people see them on the streets,
they kind of just ignore them. It was a great opportunity to clear up
some misunderstandings and just let the people feel and understand that
missionaries are normal people. There's nothing like planting seeds.
I talked to this one guy who agreed to give missionaries a chance the
next time he ran into them. :) Score!
Here are some scriptures that I've
been dwelling on recently:
2 Nephi 22:3
Enos 1:4
Enos 1: 27
SATURDAY:
Jiang Me Hui treated us out to dinner
last night. She cooked hot pot dishes. I was able to speak and
spend time chatting with her son about religion, our Book of Mormon, etc.
It was interesting. Her son is 16/17. Anyway, he got baptized
young and then he left our church for a different Christian church. He
explained to me the prejudice that people have against "Mormons" and
missionaries.
Anyway, I just listened to him and
then expressed/bore my testimony of the truthfulness and the sense that comes
from truly making efforts to first understand others before making
judgement/presumptions. Well, in the end, he was actually comfortable and
reasonable as he talked and admitted he really hadn't understood the Book of
Mormon. He hadn't really made that extra effort to understand scriptures
in general.
The main point of this story is this:
In his past, missionaries would just talk his ear off. They would just
talk and talk about the gospel and not listen or try to know him first.
He said that when he talked to me, there was definitely a shocking
difference. I'm not saying this to brag about the way I teach or how
amazing I am as a missionary. Don't get me wrong!
I'm sharing this experience to make
this point: God really needs genuine missionaries who are honest and true.
He needs people who are willing to open themselves and humble themselves
- people who are REAL and really listen to His children.
These people are REAL people.
They aren't just numbers or foreigners! These people are God's
children. They have great worth. Their souls are great. They
are individuals who have real needs. They are our brothers and sisters
who need to be loved with a perfect and patient love.
More than that, we must have
integrity. We must respect ourselves enough to respect others. We
must try. We must try to stand in the shoes of those we see - those we
hear - those we associate with.
We MUST try, and when we do, we
discover great things. Our eyes are opened to new sights, and we are able
to decipher what to do - what to say- what to HEAR before we make significant
decisions.
I guess it's hard to put my exact
feelings/thoughts into words. I don't know if any of you get/understand
what I'm saying, but I hope that maybe you can get something from the point I
tried to get through.
SUNDAY
Today, Sister Medrano and I spent a
lot of time with Miranda. We ended up walking from her hotel to the
church so that she could come and attend family home evening with us.
In the morning, we had stake
conference. Chen Shi Xuen and Huang Ren Mei made it to church, and I was
able to translate for Sis. Medrano. The talks were all really enriching
and uplifting.
After conference, we went home for
studies. I fasted again for our area. Can you believe it?! It's
already been 19 days since I started the purification process, and I already
feel like I'm transforming/changing into a different kind of missionary.
During FHE, Miranda wanted to take a
little walk, so Sister Medrano and I ended up talking to her for an hour about
her recent reflections/thoughts. As we talked with her, I realized that
God really has a perfect plan for all of us. Coming out on the mission
has allowed me to meet so many people that I otherwise wouldn't have been able
to meet. Since Miranda grew up in New York/America basically all of her
life, we were able to communicate the whole time in English. It felt
really weird having such a long conversation about God and life with her, but
it was also really cool!
I've realized that what the world
needs is real, genuine good. We do need more people who are tender, kind,
refined, faithful, good, virtuous, and pure. Coming on the mission has
led me to realize how important our actions are. Especially in regards to
sisters and women in the church, our actions are so important! We DO have
an influence on the world. We DO impact and control more than we know.
If women allow bad things to continue happening, then the course of our
existence will continue making a downfall. I've realized/noticed that
when women lower their standards, the world lowers its standards as well.
The other day, Sis. Medrano and I
were talking about this, and she mentioned the quote from "Fiddler on the
Roof." It goes something like this: "The man is the head of the
household, but the woman is the neck." Anyway, it really helped me to take
a step back and look at my actions. I'm more determined to be a better
example and to never lower my standards. Women DO need to continue
fighting and standing for that sold, good truth. I know that if we do
what we know is to be good and true, the world will become a much better place.
We will be rewarded numberless and infinite blessings in the Kingdom of
God.
I know that God is there. He is
listening. We can communicate directly with Him. I know that
sometimes we are judged and mocked for upholding the standard that we do, but
in the end, it really just comes down to what we ourselves have thought - what
we have done - what we have decided to choose and do. Others may mock and
scorn, but we can choose to love, to be open-minded, to understand, to make
righteous judgement, to live a better life. Life is full of decisions and
choices. I know that I have been changed and uplifted by this gospel.
Sometimes I'm not able to express it through words (especially now as I'm
trying to type this), but the point is I have a testimony and a knowledge of
the truth of this gospel!
God IS weeding out the good from the
bad right now. We're like His army, and all we need to do is stand firm
in the faith - believing and fighting for His name and His cause.
Scriptures are amazing!! If you
haven't read them and understood them, then I definitely invite you to do so.
That's really the only way to understand everything that I feel and
everything that I try to say all the time!!
Alright, sorry for another confusing
email. I really don't have time to make my emails concise, and so that
makes them a little scatter-brained all the time.
haha
Love you all,
Sister Verina Chen
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