Grand - Week 42

大家好，

This week was grand. Every week is grand. It's a grand mission.

On Wednesday we had our annual mission tour. A mission tour is when a
member of the Seventy comes with his wife for a few days and they
speak to us and see how the mission is doing. Last week Elder Kacher
and his wife came. He is a new Seventy as of this year. I really like
him and his wife, they are so sweet. We met with them from 10am to 4pm
and then an extra hour as sisters with Sister Kacher. Everything that
was said that day was exactly what I needed to hear to boost myself.
Sister Cooke spoke first and addressed the exact thing I've been
struggling with recently. She even quoted the primary song that has
been going through my head as I struggled to understand. To me that
very talk was proof of God's love and that He does inspire His leaders
to help us and tell us what He wants said. Elder Kacher spoke for most
of the time. It was sporadic but I loved it. He didn't have a set
talk, it was really led by the spirit and by us. Whenever he felt like
we needed to spirit more, he called up a few people to sing a hymn. At
one point three other sisters and I stood in front of everyone and
sang a hymn a Capella. The spirit was so strong. It's been a while
since I've felt the spirit so strong and for the first time I
understood why people said they wished the feeling could stay with
them forever. I felt a constant warm glow in my chest and I was warm
all over and I felt so happy. I came out of that meeting feeling a lot
better about myself. I am good enough. God isn't expecting me to be a
perfect missionary or to run faster than I have strength. Ever since I
switched to Chinese I've been feeling like a bad missionary but now I
feel a lot better. I just need to do my best and not expect perfection
from myself.

On Thursday night we taught Lin. We taught him in Virginia again. The
lesson went alright, not the best, and quite frankly I couldn't
understand a lot of what was said which was frustrating. We didn't get
out of the lesson until 9:15 and at night the metros only come every
20 minutes so we waited at least 10 minutes for each one and we didn't
get home until way after bedtime. We aren't doing that again. Virginia
isn't my mission and President Cooke doesn't really want us there
anyway and basically said that that was our last time going.

Friday night we taught our new investigator, Wendy. She and her
teenage son and husband (who is mostly gone in China) live in a
mansion in a neighborhood of mansions in a city full of mansions. She
is super nice and down to earth and normal. We were expecting some
prissy rich lady but she is so cool. We spent the whole time answering
questions she had which were pretty much all about the restoration. We
were going to teach her a different lesson but before we left I had a
feeling I should grab my restoration cups I use to teach people just
in case and we ended up using them. Thank you, Holy Ghost, for the
prompting. Afterward we just chatted in Chinese for a few minutes and
then she gave us two big bags of Kit Kats and a box of cookies. Most
of them are gone already... Anyway I love her, she's one of my new
favorite people.

Saturday was a great day. At 3pm we went to the temple and did a
Chinese session with the branch. It was so cool. I didn't understand
everything but I understood enough to know what was going on. Sister
Liu was so happy, she's never done a Chinese session before. After
that we took a group picture outside the temple and then had dinner at
the stake center next door. There were members and a pair of elders
from the Chinese branch in Virginia so that was cool to meet them.

Saturday night there was also a Chinese music event at the visitors
center. Dinner was all done and cleaned up at 7:30pm and we figured we
could either go check on 3 less actives or go contact at the VC so we
went to the VC. The performance wasn't over but we talked to a few
stragglers. I was trying to decide what to do because there were
200-300 Chinese people downstairs, none of which were members, and we
couldn't talk to all of them. We have referral cards we give out and
we have some Chinese ones where they can send missionaries to a friend
or themselves but I figured none of them would actually do it. I
grabbed another sister from the VC while Sister Liu was talking to
someone and we ran out to our car and grabbed a couple Chinese family
proclamations we had in there. We ran back inside and started making
copies with the printer in the senior couples office. I grabbed 40
copies and ran out to the floor right as the event ended and people
started leaving. I gave some to Sister Hansen and taught her to say 给你
which means "give you" in Chinese and we gave them to every Chinese
person and family on their way out as Sister Amparo kept on making us
more copies. I was able to speak Chinese with a lot of people as they
left and they were very willing to take the papers and were holding on
their hands for them. We gave out over 100 copies of the family
proclamation. Only later did I realize we should've put our phone
number on them but oh well. All those Chinese people are going to read
it and feel the spirit and hopefully come back or be ready for next
time they see missionaries. One of the senior elders was very
impressed and said I was the improviser of the night. It was so fun
and I was in a really good mood for the rest of the night.

Last night was Why I Believe at the VC. We called every single active
family, every less active we've been working with, and all of our
investigators and none would come. The speaker was Dennis Pitta who
plays football for the Baltimore Ravens. Chinese people don't care
about football unless it's soccer. We went anyway since it's mandatory
even though we had no one come. There were so many people there. The
500 seating theater and the overflow theaters were completely full and
at least half of the attendants weren't church members. Sister Liu and
I didn't end up watching it because there was no room left and we
didn't have anyone. Oh well, I'm sure it was great. It felt like a
waste of a night because we just waited for it to be over and then
left.

This week we will be volunteering at a big Interfaith Concert and then
Friday morning a big chunk of the mission is going on a tour of the
White House. Getting a tour of the White House is a pain so it's
amazing that we get this opportunity. Usually you have to send in your
social security number and other info six months in advance and then
they choose the day and time for you. Also they don't do tours on
Mondays so that's out for a P day activity. But we got lucky so I'm
excited.

I can't believe the holidays are coming up already. Time is speeding
up. I don't know what we are doing for Thanksgiving yet. Hopefully it
doesn't include rice and tofu but we'll see. At this point it doesn't
really matter to me since I won't be home anyway.

Love and miss you all! D&C 29:7

贝姐妹