The Most Surreal Week of My Life (probably)
Hello everyone!
Hi! I hope you're doing well. I love you all so very much, is why.
Well, things got really switched around this week in peaceful Yuen Long,
but in good ways. So, Sister Cook and I were just plugging along, doing
our clueless best and working hard, and then on Saturday evening we got
a phone call. This was just after a ward BBQ, which just confirmed to
us that our wards are awesome and totally welcoming to all our
investigators, so we were happy and content.
So, when we got a phone call at 10:30 from President Chan, we were
unsuspecting, but maybe we should have been. President Chan informed us
that Sister Cook would be moving to Kwun Tong on Monday and that Sister
Wan would be coming to serve with me here in Yuen Long for the last two
weeks of her mission. She has been having a really rough time lately,
and needs some help. She actually requested to serve with me, and
President Chan prayed about it, then just started making phone calls.
So, here I am, with my mission mom again! It's really quite incredible.
It's funny how it really feels like being with an old friend and
teacher, But then again, that's what she is: my friend and teacher. And
it's surprisingly so comfortable to be with her again. At first I was
totally overwhelmed because I didn't know how to help her (and I still
don't), and I just felt like I couldn't do it all, especially as I am
getting ready to train in June. And so I prayed kind of constantly. And
you know what, It's all been ok. Heavenly Father will increase our
capacity beyond what we ourselves can do. And our Zone leader said
something really wise, in passing, about these new arrangements. He
said, you know, you just have to be yourself. It was enough before to
help her, so it will be enough now. And amazingly, with Heavenly
Father's help, it has been. I think Sister Wan is a lot happier now.
Sister Cook, she was really sad to leave because this is her first
area, and an amazing one, and she has made lifelong friends here. But I
think that's part of a mission: giving your whole heart and then having
to suddenly leave. It makes me realize a lot more about what's
important: these relationships really are most important and do have
eternal impact. But the most important one is the relationship we have
with our Savior and with our Heavenly Father. No matter where you go,
you will have that one.
Anyway, that's all I have time for this week. Just remember that
this gospel is true and that Heavenly Father loves us. We've seen
miracles this week as well (went tracting and right away found a girl
from the Netherlands studying here who invited us into her house to teach
her - first time that's happened for me, Sister Ng from Kwai Fong quit
her job to be able to go to church!). I know that HF will continue to
help all of us.
I love you all so much!
Love,
Sister Nielsen
P.S. Talk to you this Saturday!
And this is from May 17, 2012:
Hey, Family!
Well hello there, wonderful people. It was the best thing in the world to talk to you all this weekend. Seriously restorative. It was interesting to see that other missionaries, once they'd finished calling their families had a noticeably different expression on their faces. Somehow more relaxed and happy. You know, I think that our mission rules are such so that we don't stay here forever. If we could call our families every month, even, we'd probably stay here for 5 years. As such, though, I think they want us to eventually miss our families and want to go back. Eventually. I love you all so much, and your support and you just being yourselves helps me be able to work hard here.By the way, you probably want to know where I'll be/ who I'll be with. I am staying in Yuen Long and Sister Taylor (also in Sister Cook's MTC group) will come serve with me for one move. Sister Taylor was serving in our neighboring area, but her companion is now training, so Sister Taylor will just move next door and will serve with me! I'm excited. Sister Taylor is a brilliant and lovely person, who can quote all of the Lord of the Rings movies, has graduated and worked in a laboratory before her mission, and who acted in an improv group, too. She is very beautiful and composed and you'd never guess that deep down, she is very much a nerd. I love her.
But, as for finishing missions (or 'dying' as they call it), that's what my companion, Sister Wan is doing today. Strange! It has been a weird experience to accompany her in this last week, yet a privilege too. I think it's a difficult process to go through for them. All the dying missionaries had to go to a career workshop on Tues and Wed., and on each day, at least one missionary had to politely excuse themselves to go and have a slight breakdown. That included my companion. I think for some people, they haven't prepared themselves for the fact that they're actually finishing, and so they suddenly have to deal with that thought. And for others, it's just all overwhelming already. I was just really grateful I got to be there with my companion to say a quick prayer with her and then send her back on in to the workshop. She's doing really well right now, and is really happy, too. It's such a blessing to see.
We also got to have a last week of miracles together. May I please list this week's miracles? Please oh please?
Well, during the career workshop, all the way in Wan Chai on Hong Kong Island, a woman just walked into the chapel. So, I and Sister Lier (who was waiting for her dying companion, too) taught her a lesson. She had just been laid off and was very unhappy and worried about her family (she has two teenage sons), and was looking for comfort. And so we told her about the restored gospel on this earth today. Man, I love being a missionary. Anyway, turns out she's from Yuen Long! So on the one day that I was in Wan Chai, I got to meet her, and now I get to keep teaching her in Yuen Long. A miracle. I saw how the short message we shared with her helped her already. I know it will continue to.
Next miracle: Yesterday, on Sister Wan's last day of doing proselyting work, one of our lessons got cancelled, so we had to decide what to do. Sister Wan kinda felt like finishing packing and not going out, and that made sense to me, but we prayed first to know what to do. And the answer came clearly that we needed to go to Yuen Long Park (just came to mind, is what). And do finding. So we did. And Sister Wan ended up teaching a 45 minute lesson to a girl she contacted at the park. Miracle. I know that it was Heavenly Father's gift to Sister Wan to let her see miracles till her last moment in the mission.
Then: That evening, after we'd done everything and were getting ready for bed, the phone rang. It was a contact that Sister Cook and I had met on the subway last month - John Chow. He had chatted with us and was very nice and interested in talking with the elders. Well, he called and told me that he'd been meeting with the elders (first time was on the Tuesday, second time was on Wednesday - two days in a row!). And he had just quit smoking and gambling. Had quit for 4 hours. He did not know why he was calling, he just felt like he needed to chat. Well, normally we do not chat with the elders' investigators, and I was about to kindly cut the conversation short, but then I had a feeling that I needed to tell John Chow about Peter's story. So I did. And I think it inspired him. John Chow told us that he'd also been learning how to pray from the elders, so I suggested that we say a prayer together that he can keep going strong. So me, Sister Wan, and he prayed over the phone. I think it helped him a lot. Kind of cool.
Well, I'm out of time but I love you all so much! This gospel is true!
Love,
Sister Nielsen
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