Hello Family! Sorry for the change to the regularly scheduled
program! I forgot that the libraries would be closed for most of this
week and so I didn't warn you about this. Please forgive me....I'll send
some pictures to make up for it.
But Happy New Year anyway! So, this past week and a half has been
wonderful, but I didn't have time today to go through and list out what
had happened so it might be a little incomplete. Again, please forgive
me.
To start things out, Happy Valentine's Day! I love you, Family, and
I'm glad you're mine. Happy hearts and chocolate to you. By chance,
today is also the fifth day of the Chinese New Year, and we got to walk
by a "lion dance" (dragon-costume dance stuff) on the way here. The
Chinese NEw Year is by far the biggest holiday here, and it's full of
eating at different family members' homes, giving out red pockets (only
give them out if you're married, only receive if you're single), and
lots of other traditions. This means that people have been off of work,
but they've also been really busy and not able to see us. Sigh. Ah well.
We have been able to get out more in the lovely weather here (don't
even need a coat!) and find lots more. And we've seen absolute miracles.
But I suppose that I should back up chronologically since I didn't
even tell you about last week. THIS week has been New Years. LAST week
has been full of lessons!
So, do you remember Wong SinSaang who we met on Fast Sunday? Well,
we saw him twice last week, and he's amazing. He's been a bit busy with
new year since, and hasn't made it to church yet, but he's been reading
and praying, and even had a special experience where he really felt like
he was talking with diety. Hard for him to describe, but isn't it for
everyone? That's the Holy Ghost telling him that God is real. Wong
SinSaang is a father of two children, but we haven't been able to teach
the family yet....working on it. He himself is so prepared for this
message, and is so humble. At the end of our second lesson together he
said he was so grateful that he met missionaries and that we were here
to share this message with him. So heart-warming! Wow! No one says that!
He also told us that he's looking for belief and for optimism in life,
since he's struggled with depression before, and we've told him that,
though the trials won't go away, the gospel can help us face them.
We just love teaching him. We also taught Chan JM another time last
week. She's amazing as ever, but she's been out of town for the new
year. Here's the miracle: do you remember Choi JM? She is the LA with
little kids at home. Well, she has been coming back and really repenting
and changing her life, which is amazing to see. We've actually taught
her all the lessons again by now and we encouraged her to visit the
bishop again. AND she's able to take the sacrament again and she's
getting a calling soon! Yay! And what does this have to do with Chan JM?
Well, Chan JM lives near her, and we taught Chan JM at Choi JM's home!
Choi JM was so excited to help us, and we had her share most of the
lesson. Choi JM bore powerful testimony and was just so excited to help
someone. I really love and admire her. I definitely will introduce you
to her, Mom and Dad. Chan JM seems to be doing well, too, but we haven't
seen her for a while. She's very simple and guileless.
Well, beyond teaching them, we've been doing lots of finding
mostly, which is great. Then, for New Years we had a miracle. On the
first day of New Years we had a family come to church! YEAH! Coco and
her family came! We had planned to see them yesterday, but they were
busy. We're hoping for Saturday. They heard about Joseph Smith and
temples on Sunday, and we really want to explain what makes this church
so special. They go to church every week, just a different church. We
think they'd love to hear about temples and eternal families.
Also, for new year we deep cleaned our apartments on Monday (yay!)
and it felt good. We also had P-day on Tuesday, but none of the
libraries were open. I called up Penny and we went hiking in Tai Po,
which was wonderful! She leaves in two weeks for her mission, and she's
so ready. I love her and admire her to no end. She is such an incredible
example of faith.
And today we had a multi-zone conference, which was amazing and
inspiring. President Hawks is an inspired man. He talked a lot about
faith. Everyone's going to need it since so many new missionaries are
coming in. 18 sisters are coming in the next transfer! Every sister will
have to train and two new missionaries will have to train each other!
Not kidding! And more are coming in June. Wow. What a historical time
period. But I'm realizing how this mission is training for life
in general and is all about building faith, a principle of power, and
working hard as a result. Yeah!
Well, that's all for now. I'm out of time. But I love you all so
much, and I'm grateful for your support and prayers and faith! I have
decided to trust in the Lord to help us baptize this family, and I can
tell it's an exercise of faith and humility. As long as I do my best and
have faith (a principle of power) it will be exactly what it needs to
be. My other big purpose right now is to help Sister Palmer get ready to
train twice by the end of July. Wow. She's great.
Well, I love you all so much! You're the best!
Love,
Sister Nielsen
The first photo is a little holiday special. The other two are from this last p-day. Hiking with Penny!
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