Happy birthday Dad! I hope you have a lovely day. Your card will be late, for which I am sorry. But I love you!
Wanna
know something else I'm excited for? Hearing about Bethy's mission
call! Can you all believe that my little sister is going on a mission? I
can. Ah, she will be amazing. The blessings are only beginning!
So, there are many reasons to rejoice, clearly. And
of course, there are lots of difficult things to deal with, which makes
for more of that lovely opposition that makes up life.
The good things first! Our mission has formed a Christmas choir which
will perform on Christmas Eve, and I am participating! Elder Nield from
the MTC is directing. I have forgotten how much I love singing Christmas
music. It's magical. We practice every P-day, so that's what we're
doing next after email. Yay!
Another good thing: our members are the sweetest
people you'll ever meet. We ask them to help teach lessons, and they not
only do that but they give you food to eat afterwards. And when we go
to church on Sunday we never go away empty-handed. Ay, they are so
wonderful.
On that note, we have some news: we are only serving
Tai Wai ward now, not Shatin. In the end, I think it's for the better
so that we can focus. We didn't have much going on in Shatin anyway. I
feel very used to this, since I went through the same thing in Yuen
Long, so I think it'll be fine.
Oooo, another important good thing! We had
Thanksgiving celebrations this week! As zones we were allowed to take
half the day to make food and eat together and have a spiritual thought.
It was a blast! At first, we were a little dubious about some of the
elders' cooking skills (understandable, ok?), but it turned out great!
We (the sisters) were impressed. My small contribution was a big apple
crisp. I had forgotten how much I love apples and cinnamon baked
together. I've gotten used to things like red bean soup instead (which
is delicious too). Anyway, we all had a lot to be grateful for, and it
just felt like family in some ways, all us missionaries together.
Ok, here's another good thing: Yuki is getting
baptized on Sunday! Yeah! I love that girl. She has quite a personality
on her, but she's a good person. She passed her baptism interview, but
she has to tell her father still, that she's going to get baptized. She
is afraid to because he really opposes church, for some inexplicable
reason. However, she doesn't need his permission, since she has her
mom's. We fasted together with her yesterday about her dad, and she's
ready to go and tell him. (Ok, evidence of her personality: when we
taught her about fasting, her reaction was "I'll DIE if I don't eat! I
can't doooooo it!" And then not less then 4 days after, she's fasting.
Good girl) Anyway, it's a tender mercy that we get to see her baptism.
Really.
And that's especially apparent because Sister Lin
has been having a hard time. Apparently, from the day that she put in
her papers till now, she's thought about coming home. And almost done it
several times. But she stayed because she felt she should stay just a
bit longer. And now she's convinced she needs to go home again. Sigh.
But here's the thing, we've had LOTS of long discussions this week about
personal revelation and the importance of confirming if something is
the Spirit or not. And she's still convinced that the Spirit is telling
her to go. So what can I do? I have been praying and fasting for her,
and I know the Lord will help her. The other important thing that I feel
is that hard work is a good cure-all, and so this week we have dubbed
"hard work week." I may be a bit of a drill sergeant, but I feel that we
need to work hard for her to really get a chance to see if she should
stay or not. To be honest, I've discovered that I can be quite blunt
when I feel the need. But I am praying constantly for charity and
patience, too. I am feeling the Lord's help, even in my imperfectness.
Here's the main thing I've learned, though: I am so
grateful for my mission. There is no way, when I started from Moscow to
this mission, that I could have imagined the huge blessings that would
come to me and to my family. I love how it talks about this in Alma 26.
I will always think about and treasure this mission time. I wouldn't
trade it for anything. It makes me sad to hear others say that they
think they are wasting their time here, or are not suited for this work.
I know that my mission has been a huge blessing to me. Though it's been
full of trials, it has been perfectly tailored to me. I am so grateful
for it. It's all in how we look at our mission call. If we really trust
the Lord, we will accept it fully and be happy. If not, we may doubt and
become discouraged. I know that the Lord wants us to thrive and be
happy. I know that He loves us.
Thank you for all of your prayers and support. I am one lucky girl.
Love you!
Love,
Sister Nielsen
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