Sunday, June 29, 2014

New Found Profession: Miracle Banking

(Sent June 23)

So last week, I talked about how Sister Billings and I changed our attitude and miracles began, right?

Well, lemme provide some examples from just this past week.

Last Monday, we had an appointment with D, who invited us back the Saturday previous. Turns out he's good friends with his neighbors who are members of the church so we invited them to join us. Apparently, he's been invited to take the missionary discussions since 2012, but never accepted...until now.

He told us that he's finally meeting with the missionaries because he wants to be more happy, more positive about life. I told him that he came to the right people! We taught him about the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and by the end, he was very curious as to what the Book of Mormon is all about!

+1 heavenly addition to the Parker miracle bank.

Then, Tuesday morning, one of the Assistants to the Presidents (APs) called us. We thought that he was either bringing bad news to us or very bad news. He told us that some elders in some area other than Parker crashed their car and they needed a car. And they thought that they should take the car from the smallest area in the mission, namely, Newlin Meadows. They were going to take our car away.

Let's just say I was #speechless.

Sister Billings and I were beginning to think of how we were to rearrange our schedules to include walking from place to place. In the dead of heat. In Colorado, where civilization can't get any closer to the sun.

Saturday, June 21, 2014

The Key to Success!

(Sent June 16 | Photos on Facebook)

This past week was super rough for me because I've been feeling super duper discouraged. It's a new transfer and I thought we could start off great and we ended up having an incredibly unsuccessful week. Our key indicators were dangerously low and absolutely no one was accepting of our message. I became so discouraged that I'd reached a point where I just didn't want to go out and work. I thought, if no one's willing to listen to us, why should we go out? But I got myself out there that day. It was yet another unsuccessful day.

I always think about President Hinckley's experience of when He wrote to his father about how discouraged he felt. His father responded, "Forget yourself, and go to work." So I thought, oh, I'll just forget myself...but I never knew what that meant....

Until last Saturday. Because I figured it out! I know why missionaries are sent to areas where no one accepts them. This was our time to develop ourselves not just as missionaries, but also as true disciples of Jesus Christ. I'd noticed myself getting more and more angry because no one was willing to meet with us (yes, I was angry. I'm not perfect. Surprising, I know), and my attitude was horrible. So I decided to read "A Successful Missionary" in Preach My Gospel, chapter one. It says that a successful missionary is measured by their commitment to the work, not by how many people they find, teach, and baptize. Many, many, many missionaries come home having not witnessed a single baptism that resulted directly from their hard work.

As I read the section, it referred me to a scripture (now my new favorite scripture) in Helaman 10:4-5: "Blessed art thou, Nephi, for those things which thou hast done; for I have beheld how thou hast with unwearyingness declared the word, which I have given unto thee, unto this people....And now, because thou hast done this with such unwearyingness, behold I will bless thee forever; and I will make thee mighty in word and in deed, in faith and in works" (emphasis added).

I realized that if we go out there with full heart, might, mind, and strength in the work, we will be blessed foreeeeeever. That's a reeeeally long time.

So Sister Billings and I decided to work on Christ-like attributes each week for the rest of the transfer because we know that a change in attitude will bring all sorts of success. We decided to have faith and hope this week by being enthusiastic about the area, optimistic about the people, and confident that God has already prepared people for us to teach.

And guess what? Many people accepted to say a prayer with us. All because we changed our attitude and our outlook. All because we, essentially, changed ourselves.

So even though I was so down in the dumps for so many days, I felt rejuvenated by my new sense of purpose. I really do feel hopeful.

Sister Wen

Monday, June 9, 2014

Much Awkward

(Sent June 9 | Photos on Facebook)

If you want to serve a mission to become less awkward, you should change your purpose. Not only because your purpose should be to invite others to come unto Christ, but also because you only become more awkward on your mission.

Allow me to expound:

I went on exchanges with the sister training leaders this past week and I went with Sister Waters (who goes home in 3 weeks #cray). Anyway, We were knocking some doors on the street where our dinner appointment was. Knocked on a door, invited us back later #awesomeness. Walked to next door, saw the family feeding us for dinner pull into their garage and totally watch us while tracting. Knocked on the next door, no one answered and began to walk away but the garage door suddenly opened and a car pulled in. I was thinking, agh...do we run now? Or just suffer the awkwardness? Well, we said a prayer with her so it was #worthit. Saw a house across the street with a car in the driveway, so we decided to knock on that door. I began walking across the street on the pavement andddddd the garage door opens and people quickly walk to their car and drive away. So to avoid awkwardness (unsuccessfully) I continue to walk on the pavement and act as if I wasn't just going to knock on their door.

So that was a jumble of awkwardness. I mainly wrote about that because I invited (just like missionaries do) Sister Waters to read my blog when she goes home and she asked me if she was going to be in it. So #shoutout to Sister Waters! (I'll be looking forward to some particular mail from you concerning your next covenant in life, wink wink.)

Anyway, the biggest experience I had this week answered so many questions I've had for like all my life. Maybe not all my life, but pretty close. I'm only 19.

Monday, June 2, 2014

Bible study anyone?

(Sent June 2)

One day, Sister Billings and I saw an Indian woman entering her house via her garage. We wrote down her address because Indians are really nice people so we wanted to offer to pray with her. A couple of days later, we knocked on her door. No answer. We knocked on some of her neighbors' doors with no luck. We began walking back to our car anddddd...lo, and behold: the Indian woman. We knocked on her door again and she accepted our offer to pray with her. She and her husband are both from India and practice Christianity. She invited us back to meet with her.

Miracle? Not quite.

So we go back to meet with her and her husband. Turns out, the woman left out a small little detail that her husband is a pastor for a local community church. Oh. So we begin teaching the first lesson about how Christ's church has been restored to this Earth today. We taught with the Spirit, we testified of our faith and knowledge, we shared the word of God buuuuuuut they didn't want to continue with our discussions because they couldn't believe that God would send a prophet even though Amos 3:7 ;D

But, they invited us back to bible study sessions with their community church in their home!

Another day, we were a bit early to an appointment at 5:30. So we knocked on some doors to leave blessings on people's homes. There was one house that had a sign outside their door saying "NO SOLICITING" and listing all the reasons, even threatening to add business cards to a "vending blacklist." BUT, it said that open-minded religious discussions were always welcome. So we knocked on the door. Ka opened the door and let us in to pray with her. Turns out she believes in a faith that believes in all faiths. It was something like Bahist or something like that. I wasn't able to catch it. We said a prayer with her and she, in return, opened up her prayer book and recited a prayer.

Oh, and she invited us back for spiritual classes she holds in her home!