Last P-day in P-town:(

This is my last preparation day in Provo. I go back all the way to Temple Square on Wednesday. It's been such a good 3 months, meeting people so many good good people. 

For my last full week here, we got to go to the Provo City Center temple twice! The first time with our district missionaries, and the second time with Amy to do baptisms for the dead.

I looooooooooove going inside temples. It's architecturally beautiful, but it is so much more than that. You know that queasy happy feeling that you feel when you look at something so wonderfully beautiful, like a painting that resonates with you, or the view from a mountain summit? It's like that but x10. You just know that God loves you when you walk inside a temple.

And I am so blessed that I'm getting transferred right next to another temple. Hehe. 

Other things that happened: 

Zone Training Meeting

Hong Long cooked for us 

(notice the zhong zi on the left side. I almost died from happy)

And my last Sunday here as a missionary:

I know that God is real and that He loves me because I have met so many good people that inspire me.

Until next year, Provo! 

"Have You Ever Had All the Things Happen in One Day"

Here is the craziest story with the happiest ending you will ever hear: 

Last last Wednesday, Sister Sandall and I just came out of a zone conference, where we had an inspiring training on how  God blesses us with miracles and guides us to people who are ready to be baptized if we have faith and are working hard. Not even a minute after we leave the building, we received a call from Sister Ferrre from the mission office, telling us that there was an "emergency referral" for a woman who is here from China for one week and she wants to meet with missionaries and be baptized (there are no LDS missionaries in Mainland). We immediately set up an appointment for Friday. 

Friday afternoon, we went to meet K for the first time, and she told us that she has several friends who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, one of whom is her boss. A few years ago, she went to visit the home and family of this boss, and she felt something so palpably different and wonderful about this family. She said they were so kind and united and loving to each other and to her. 

She learned more and more about the church and all the teachings and standards of the members over time and eventually decided to come to America again and really learn from missionaries. So her friend called up the Chinese speaking missionaries to teach K. And there we were! It turns out that the family is the Wootans, who are dear friends of my family from Shanghai. I used to have sleepovers with their daughters! And go to church with them! And Sister Wootan used to be my primary teacher! It was the neatest thing to know that people that I know and love are being great examples and shining the Light of Christ all over the world.

Four days later, on Tuesday May 31st, K was baptized by Brother Wootan. 

And now she is back in China. 

The end. 

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Right after that baptism, we met E, who moved here from China to teach Chinese to little elementary school kids. Before we even sat down in her living room, she asked us, "what is the difference between the Mormon Church and other Christian Churches?" we quickly proceeded to teach her about the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She absorbed it and understood it better than anyone that I had ever met before. Not even halfway through the lesson, her face lit up and went, "oh! So this is the Church of Jesus Christ restored completely on the earth!" She then asked us, "so I don't get it. I have been taught that God and Jesus and the spirit are the same thing. Why do they have different names?" and then we explained to her what the Godhead is and why people think it is the same. Then she said, "Oh! So its the Holy Spirit that I've been feeling! That makes sense!" 

People talk about "golden investigators" but I don't think it gets any more golden than E. She has been prepared by God for so long. She went back to China three days later because the school year ended, but she said she will get baptized in December when she goes to Taiwan, and she will keep us updated. 

I felt so blessed to even meet her. When we prayed to end the lesson, E did the prayer. It was her first time ever praying, and it was beautiful. It was like she finally found a friend that she had been looking for for a long time. 

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Then right after that awesome lesson we went to pick up Sister Lenogon, who is now our new companion. She is from Manila and is the funniest munchkin in the world. We have a lot of fun together. Trio life is actually the bomb. 

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It was a busy Tuesday. The rest of the week has been full of regular teaching and lots of food. 

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kind strangers fed us

Free Doughnut Day 

This was from last week but I just got the picture sent to me this week and I like it because it has better lighting so here it is

Happy Birthday Amy!

"It's All Too Good in the Hood"

Oooooh what a week! This week we had zone conference, we planted some flowers in someone's front yard, we ate a lot of Rancheritos, and Amy got baptized, and Hong Long made us a lot of food, and we cooked dumplings, and we had some surprise investigators who might be getting baptized in two days (we met her three days ago), said goodbye to some great people we taught who are going back to China for the summer, and I found the prettiest rose bush!

God is real and I can't even describe all the numerous miracles that happened this week. In every single moment, I felt like God was directing me and my companion to meet the people we needed to, be where we needed to be, and say just the right things at the right time. Just read the Book of Mormon my friends.That is where it all starts.

"This Week We Took Many Pictures of Mystical Beings"

Grafitti, spotted on the concrete stairs of some apartment buildings 

Charlie, spotted in the home of a kind couple that fed us dinner

~American Dreams~

 

The dynamic duo 

This week Sister Sandall and I started listening to the Old Testament in the car. I completely forgot how hilarious and scandalous and riveting that book is! Maybe it has to do with the fact that I haven't had television or Internet for 8 months, but it seriously would make the best tv drama series. Murder! Marriage! Crazy moms plotting to help you steal yo brother's birthright! Concubines! Babies everywhere! (My favorite story is probably the story about Dinah, Simeon, and Levi in Genesis 34)

If anything, the Old Testament has really made me appreciate living in this time period, in the millennium. If this is the last time period before Christ comes again, it means we have had all of the revelations and commandments we can possibly have to prepare us. How blessed are we to live in the most evolved and civilized time period! Sometimes we complain about commandments and they seem like a burden, but the time before Moses and Jesus Christ without a lot of the laws we have today didn't look like a lot of fun to live. Fun to read, but not to live.

So many people we teach Moses's Ten Commandments to say "that's so basic and easy!" It didn't used to be that way, and I'm grateful that we've reached a point where that's instinctual. Now if only the new laws and commandments became that way too... 

Sister Kaede Takeshige 

We Cool

Aside from trying to grow out my bangs and having many awkward hair days as you will see in the pictures below we had a greeeeaaaat week! 

Two of our sweetest friends got baptized on Sunday 

It got warm enough to do weekly planning outside in the sun

And I ate some senbei.

But best of all, I learned so much from the scriptures. I couldn't write everything that I learned, but one of my favorites is about this one lady missionary in John. When Jesus travels through Samaria, a woman filling up her water pot meets Jesus and learns that He is the Messiah that was prophesied about. Once she learns this, she goes and tells all the men in the city. 

"And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testifies, He told me all that ever I did.

"And many more believed because of his own word; And said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world" (John 4:39,41-42)

The woman converted many to come unto Christ, but more importantly, she let the Spirit of God do the converting. It reminded me of the worldwide missionary devotional we had a few months ago, when Elder Bednar taught that the missionary brings the message unto the investigator, but the spirit brings into the heart. The church sends out scraggly, stinky, clueless 18 year old missionaries around the world, but the only reason it works is because this is God's work, and if we work just hard enough to be worthy of the Spirit of God to be with us, miracles can happen! 

Another scripture that I really liked:

"And for the space of three hours did the Lord talk with the brother of Jared, and chastened him because he remembered not to call upon the name of the Lord" (Ether 2:14)

Most times we don't hasten people unless we know them really really well, like a family member, or a close friend. If we do that in any other situation, we can alienate them. No one likes being yelled at by strangers, but when it's someone we love, we listen. Most of the time. The next verse says,

"And the brother of Jared repented of the evil which he had done, and did call upon the name of the Lord for his brethren who were with him." 

And so I've set a new goal for myself. I want to be so cool with God that he can chasten me for three hours and I won't feel offended, because I definitely am not at that point yet. It's definitely made me to some introspection and check my pride. Am I humble enough that God would feel okay telling me what to fix? God wants us to be the best we can be, and if we let him fix us, we' would be so much better off! 

And here is a picture of the most confusing and awkward district in the mission:

English Elders (1 stake), Chinese Sisters (3 wards in 2 stakes), Korean Elders (I dont know what they cover), and the APs(not pictured) (116 wards in 7 stakes) 

100

We had zone conference this week! We have a goal of getting 100 baptisms in the Utah Provo Mission for the month of May. Eek! It seems like a bit of a stretch, but I truly know that this is God's work, and if we show our best, and are obedient in every way that we can be, IT WILL HAPPEN. People won't suddenly change their minds, and God won't force anyone to change their life, but I truly think that we will be able to find those who have already been prepared by people other than us. 

This morning I read something that I really liked. 

"For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved." 

If we are allowing people to feel guilt, shame, and condemnation, we have missed the point of Christianity. The point of Christ is to help us feel hope that we can be better and move on from the things that bring us down. 

zone

😆 Happy Mothers (skyping) Day! 👩

tiny snail friend 

"Sometimes I Wish I Could Show Shia LaBeoouoeaf's "Just Do It" Video in Lessons"

This week was awesome. I've really learned that there truly are people that are prepared to listen and accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and people that are not. 

There is a woman we are teaching whom I will refer to in this e-mail as Z. She had met with missionaries before, but didn't feel right and stopped. A month later, she felt like she wanted to continue to learn more and that was around the time that we came into the area. In the short time we have met with her, she has gone from not even feeling comfortable saying prayers to drinking in everything in the Book of Mormon and receiving revelation left and right. It was so cool! As we were answering some questions that she had while she was reading in 2 Nephi, her face literally lit up, and she said, "so... God gave us opposition, so that we would have choices, and not be restricted to just one condition... so I have the freedom to choose. So Adam eating the fruit was not a bad thing."  Watching that epiphany dawn on her and take effect to her very being was like watching a falcon discover for the first time that it had wings and fly away majestically into the sunset. Just a little bit like it. Z has been reading the Book of Mormon every day since. 

There is also another little family that we have been teaching for a while. Every single family member is pretty awesome already, and humble and open hearted, and this week they said a family prayer together for the first time. They said it was the most wonderful and beautiful thing that had happened. 

Ahh!! I love that people let God change them! 

However, sometimes there are people who are unwilling -- unwilling to change, unwilling to try, unwilling to see all the answers to their prayers. And sometimes that's frustrating. Sometimes my first instinct is to shake them and go "JUST OPEN YOUR EYES AND LOOK AT THE WORLD AROUND YOU" One time an investigator literally prayed and said, "if this thing in my life gets fixed, I will believe in you God." Her thing got fixed. She still doesn't think prayers work and God is real. Which is frustrating. But unwillingness is a choice. And like Z taught me this week, this choice is part of God's gift to us on this earth. We have choices so we can grow and know what happiness is.  And if in the future, we learn that we made the wrong choice, we all have a chance to change our minds! That is the beauty of this life and God's design of it. Z at one point chose to stop learning. But look at her now! Sometimes we watch people make the suckier choice, but in the end, it will all be okay. We just have to be patient and not be like Sister Takeshige and have these urges to shake people. 

"For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my firstborn in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holieness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility." 2 Nephi 2:11

WONTONS

 

back at BYU

pls read

One of our investigators started illustrating the stories in the scriptures as he read them