Hello again Family! I love you!
Kinda funny to be emailing again
so soon, isn't it? But it's good. Time certainly marches on, doesn't it?
The crazy thing is that today is the last day of this year. This entire
year of my life has been spent on a mission, and I would hazard to say
that it's been the best year of my life. I think it's changed me
drastically, and I'm hoping I've let it change me enough. I'm definitely
a work in progress, as Heavenly Father knows. It's been interesting to
see how far I've come/how far I still want to go. Life is good.
So, I don't have a lot of news from this past few days, but it has
been good. In training Sister Palmer, we've definitely seen how the Lord
has given us certain things to learn a lot about at certain times. This
past week we have learned a lot about finding people and we have
concluded that at this time, we need to be working with the members
more. It's just been so apparent that referrals are 20 million times
more stable than our own finds.
A few short stories to illustrate: last week we went finding after
praying about where we should go. We felt strongly that we were supposed
to go to a certain area, but after finding there for almost 2 hours, we
were only getting a lot of rejection. We were just waiting for Heavenly
Father to show us why we were supposed to be there, so we kept going
(when I think about all the different people I've talked to on my
mission, my mind is blown. Heavenly Father has really helped me to
become less shy. I have also noticed how some people are really prepared
and some aren't yet. But it's all a preparation anyways). Anyways, near
the time that we had to leave, we met this girl named Kara. And she was
the reason we were there, we had no doubt. She is Baptist but has been
having some doubts lately and looking for answers. Well, we shared the
1st lesson with her and a Book of Mormon, and explained that if she
wanted to know if it was true, she would have to ask God. She committed
to do that and to see us again. However, about a half hour later we got a
bunch of texts from her....she had talked with her mom and probably
been anti-ed and didn't want us to contact her again. In fact, she said
she would change her number if we called her again....well, we sent her a
text saying that we knew that we were supposed to meet her and that God
would answer her prayers and that we knew that our message was true.
She said that she would still pray, but that she couldn't talk with us.
She said she took our Book of Mormon because she wanted to know if it
was true. And then, we had to delete her number at that point. So sad!
But we prayed hard and felt strongly that God has it all under control.
She has a Book of Mormon, and she knows how to pray, so she can find an
answer. In fact, after praying, Sister Palmer and I both felt a huge
feeling of peace, and an awareness that God is watching over His
children in Tai Wai. He will help His children find truth. And you can
tell that the message we missionaries share is true because there is so
much opposition to it. Satan doesn't want people to have this message.
He works hard to have people be apathetic/scared/annoyed by this. But I
know that this gospel is true and brings happines and salvation....to us
and our families! So if you face opposition in sharing/learning this
message, you can know even more that it's true!
Well, our other finding experiences this week were good learning
opportunities too. We learned that members are way more effective at
finding actually, even though we're here full time to do this. For
example, we went finding the other day and ran into a lady whose best
friend is a member and this friend's daughter is going on a mission.
Well, we missionaries asked if we could meet with her sometime to
explain more about what we believe and why it means so much to us. She
said no. She said her friend hadn't shared much with her, but that she
would ask her friend if she had any questions. I kinda got the
impression that she wasn't going to ask. How many of us might be that
friend? It was so clear to us missionaries that there was only so much
we could do to share, because she wasn't familiar or comfortable with
us. How important it is for members to be more open with their friends!
We just need to share the joy that this gospel brings to us! And they'll
be able to have open conversations with us. I encourage all of you to
be just a little more open and willing to share (not only when asked)
about the gospel. We can do it!
Well, in other news, we finally got to see Ammon again. He's
amazing. He is very endearing. He hasn't been progressing much lately
because he's been busy, but we committed him to reading 10 minutes of
the BoM every day this week! We feel that this will help him have a
stronger testimony and a greater desire to live this gospel. He is a
good kid, but he hasn't made time to go to church yet. We committed him
to come in the beginning of January! Hope he makes some progress. We
care about him a lot.
Oh, further news. I forgot to tell you all that Franky, that miracle
man from before has quit answering his phone....so sad when this
happens.
Also, the Christmas miracle girl we met before the Xmas
party? She came to church on Sunday and we introduced her to the
Mandarin elders, because Mandarin is her mother language. She's very
prepared. :)
Lastly, speaking of working with members, we've been trying to do
that more, and praying about which members to ask. We felt strongly to
talk with a certain Sister Chan, and so we did on Sunday. And she
invited us to lunch at her house that very day at which we met her
nonmember teenage daughter and taught her a lesson! She committed to
pray every day this week! Well, isn't that just amazing? Yes. Also, this
member gave us huge bowls of ice cream after lunch, which is yet
another reason why I love her.
So, all in all, Sister Palmer and I have had a good week. Also, she
is a wonderful companion and I keep forgetting that she hasn't been here
for ages already.
And I love life too. Life on a mission even
more so. It's the best. Truly. Thank you all for your support and
enthusiasm and love. You're all the best!
Love,
Sister Nielsen
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