I feel so good right now. Want to know why? Because President and
Sister Cooke are now allowing us to sleep in on P days instead of
getting up at 6:30. So I'm just sitting here in my pjs at 9am writing
an email. Normally I would be dressed and studying for another hour.
So happy (: (:
This week was really good. Wednesday we had transfers. After transfer
meeting, the whole mission got to watch "Meet the Mormons" in our
theater at the vc. It was SO good. You all have to watch it. That's
your homework for the week. It made everyone a little homesick the
whole day though. The soundtrack was great and the part with the
football coach was getting us all pumped up which is an emotion I
haven't felt for nine months. The worst was when the missionary was
telling his family goodbye at the airport before leaving to South
Africa. There were quite a few missionaries tearing up. Apparently
leaving our families is still a tender subject haha. I'm glad that was
a one time thing and I'll never have to do that again. Anyway it was
really good and it depicted perfectly how the gospel is a part of our
lives and helps us to become better and centered. Go watch it and
write me a one paragraph report when you're done.
On Wednesday night we taught MengQi. She cried and spoke in fast
Chinese for half an hour because she's having problems with her
boyfriend. I understood half and was very proud of myself. We taught
her about how we receiver answers to prayer since she has been praying
but still doesn't know what to do. She's from Shanghai and is afraid
to be baptized because her parents work for the Chinese government.
She's a cute girl.
Thursday night we went finding with the sisters serving in Bethesda.
We went to Bethesda "row" or "roe" or something. When I come back to
visit DC I'm going there. We talked to some people, gave out a couple
Book of Mormons, and got Georgetown DC cupcakes as seen on TLC
apparently.
Halloween. That was fun. We went to the VC that morning for a Festival
of Lights training meeting. I also had three rehearsals for different
songs I'm performing. This Sunday is Night of Music and Inspiration
and I'll be singing "Be Thou Humble" in a small group and playing the
piano for another song. On Christmas Day the sisters are doing a
performance so I'm singing in a group and playing the piano for
another song. After the rehearsals were over, Sister Liu and I hid
back stage and did some weekly planning. Every missionary had to be in
their apartments by 5pm that night so we were gonna grab pizza on the
way home for dinner. I told Sister Liu we were gonna get Little
Caesars and the whole time she thought it was called "Little Scissors"
hahahaha. I died when I found out. So we were on our way there when we
got a call saying we are having an emergency drill and to report to
your Ward building. Great. We were in Kensington and our Ward building
is 30 minutes away. So we abandoned our pizza idea and had to go there
and sit there for 20 minutes until they told us we can go home.
President Cooke is worried about a terrorist attack so he's been
having a lot of these drills. When we eventually got home we ordered
Dominos Pizza which was good if not a bit disappointing. It's thin as
paper. Then we were stuck in the apartment for 5 hours until bedtime.
I got bored really fast. Sister Liu watched The Testaments in Chinese
two and a half times and hugged the portable DVD player whenever
Christ appeared. I decided to get creative and I constructed a witch
out of a broom, pillow, clothes, paper, and lots of tape. It's not the
best thing but this apartment doesn't have mannequin heads. So that's
what I did for a good hour then I studied some Chinese and went to bed
early. No one knocked on our door except the pizza guy which was good.
Happy Halloween!
Saturday morning we taught Apple and the three kids that she
permanently babysits because their parents are too busy running a
restaurant to care about them. The kids are 12 year old twin boys and
a girl who looks about 7-9. They are so polite and well behaved. They
have been taught before and are very smart and were really
understanding what we were teaching them. They are so sad because they
want to be baptized but their parents won't let them. :(
Saturday night we went to the VC for a performance. A cute 88 year old
lady in the Ward asked if we would take her so we did and I was on my
very best driving behavior. We arrived an hour early so we could help
the Chinese elders teach a member's friend the Plan of Salvation. The
performance itself was very good. It was in honor of Mary and Sidney
Foulger who were humanitarians and musicians and very famous with the
Chinese. They had some famous Asian musicians who benefitted from
their music programs at Weber State University perform and it was
awesome.
Finally: Sunday!! First of all, Sunday at church Apple and the three
kids and Lin came to church! Lin was introduced to the church by his
coworker and the elders were teaching him for a few months but
stopped. We started teaching him when we got here but we've only been
able to meet with him a few times because he never answers our emails
or texts. Yesterday after church I went up to him and he was like, "ok
when are we meeting this week? We need to come up with a plan to get
me baptized." I was pretty surprised but happy since that's what us
missionaries try to do for everyone. He then told me that he had an
experience. He said he was praying last week and had an experience and
right away he called his friend to tell him and now he's super onboard
to get baptized. He told me he would tell me more about it when we
meet this week then he left. WHAT. He received his answer to prayer!!!
Moroni's promise in Moroni 10:4-5 is real!!! God isn't kidding, ask
and ye shall receive!! So so so so cool. I've never had my
investigator have that before. With Meredith she felt the Holy Ghost
right away and knew it was true, she didn't necessarily have a
spiritual experience after praying to know. Amazing, God is there
waiting for us to ask!!
Now for the grand finale. DEE TURNER GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!!!! I've only
been waiting for this moment since February!!!!! Yesterday while
Sister Liu was calling people, I was jumping around the apartment like
a crazy cat in excited anticipation. I also realized that morning that
Dee is getting baptized the exact same day I did, only 12 years later!
At 6pm Sister Liu and I met Sister Johnson at the VC then we all drove
to the Seneca Ward building. It was weird being there with Sister
Johnson again, it's like old times (: It was the biggest convert
baptism I have ever seen. We had to meet in the chapel and every row
was filled with people. Lots of people from the Ward and at least 20
missionaries and Sister Cooke. It was like a zone conference. I
definitely miss that Ward. I think Kensington was my most fun area but
Seneca was my favorite Ward because it reminds me so much of DC2 at
home. Anyway, we took lots of pictures and whatnot before and then had
a great program. The baptism itself was great. It was slightly funny
because Dee's family was there and the Ward was obviously trying
really hard to have them feel the spirit. People performed 2 musical
numbers, we sang "The Spirit of God" while waiting for her to get
dressed, we had 3 testimonies, and the bishop got up and talked about
how much we are feeling the spirit right now. The spirit was super
strong and it was great. I hope they felt it because everyone else
did. It was a beautiful baptism. (: I love Dee so much. She's my best
friend forever. She's been through so much but she has overcome it.
Her son died and she was super depressed for a few years and had a
drinking and smoking problem. Now she doesn't even drink coffee. She
has influenced so many people though. That many people came to her
baptism because she is such a Christ-like person and loves
unconditionally and serves in any way she can. She is an incredible
lady.
Today we were gonna go to the National Aquarium but we got there and
found out it's been relocated. Awesome. So we went to the National
Museum of Natural History which was super fun. We didn't spend much
time there but I really enjoyed it.
Mosiah 18:8-11. The baptismal covenant (: Love you all! Have a great week!
Love,
贝姐妹
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