You Never Know

(Sent Sept 22)

So I hear I'm the star of the Newtown Ward now back home b/c of my amazing Frozen lyrics. I actually parody-ized the rest of the song, but I'll type it out later. It's funny because the only reason I changed those lyrics was so that I could get worldly songs/movies out of my head. So I thought that the best way to do so was by making it (somewhat) related to our missionary purpose. #consecration

Some members that we had dinner with last week showed us this Mormon Message called "You Never Know". It's a quick 10-minute video about a mother who is being the charitable, hardworking person that all moms are, but has no idea what a great impact she's made on other people's lives. Watch it here. Everyone can use a message like this.

Even though this is a message about mothers and the influence they have, this can easily be applied to missionaries of all kinds (full-time and member missionaries) and the impact they have. We invite people throughout the world to accept the message of Jesus Christ. They say it takes an average of 7 encounters for someone to accept anything they are approached with. So even though we may not be teaching too many people right now, we are planting seeds as long as we go out and invite people to come unto Christ.

Way waaaaaaaaay back when G was on a football team, they took a trip to Spain. Apparently, when he was there, he met with the missionaries for a week and they'd taught him. Now, that was at least 40+ years ago, but those missionaries probably have no idea where G is now. They probably have no idea that he was baptized and that, even though he fell away, he's finding his way back! Those missionaries planted a seed and made an impact on G that he never forgot.

The work is difficult here in Parker. There are many things here that make it difficult BUT I will never say that there is no work here, because there is ALWAYS work to be done in every area we're called to serve in. Even when you're not a full-time missionary, there's always someone out there whose life we need to touch and influence. Hey, you never know!

#cheesyending

Love ya!

Sister Wen

P.S. New problems with a new computer. No idea how to upload pictures....

The Spirit, A Missionary's Best Pal

(Sent August 25 | Pics on Facebook)

I got my hair cut today! Unfortunately, my mission president didn't allow me to fly out to New York to get my hair cut by my favorite hairdresser. Let down, I know, but it really took all my might to allow the hair school student to touch my hair. It's free for missionaries, though, so that was nice of them.

Anyway, on a more missionary-related note, we taught J this week and it was amazing, as usual. He shared a personal experience he had the week before when he was on his trip to New Orleans with his buddies. He realized how easy it was to neglect his routine of studying the scriptures, and he expressed how guilty he felt for not doing so. He noticed how neglecting that simple routine negatively affected him for that weekend.

And so we shared with him a scripture:

"For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father" (Mosiah 3:19, emphases added).

We explained to him that it is in our nature to not read our scriptures and pray every day because obeying the commandments of God really does take effort. Anytime we do something that brings us closer to God is, essentially, us acting upon our faith by doing works. Just like James said, faith without works is dead.

Here, J was given an experience last weekend to teach him about what kind of situations he wants to put himself in. It taught him the importance of scripture study. It taught him of the protection that studying the scriptures provides for him. It's these kinds of experiences that help him progress more than anything anyone could ever say. He needed a chance to notice lacking the Spirit in his life for a time in order to realize his need for Him.

We, as missionaries, are instruments in the Lord's Hands. We are placed to teach people about the gospel of Jesus Christ and create an environment where they can feel the Spirit. Then the Spirit takes it from there.

I love missionary work. I really do! What a fantastic blessing it is!

Love,
Sister Wen

G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G

(Sent August 18 | Initials are to protect the identity of Illia's investigators)

G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G
I know GW,
He is a Latter-day Saint,
He's knows most everything
Since we taught him

WOO!

Someday he will be back,
He'll have eternal life
Oh, how I love the missionary work!

M-I-S-S-I-O-N. Mission! Mission! Teach it again!

If any of you know what song I'm parody-izing, props to you for attending girls' camp. This past week, Sister Billings and I reminisced on girls' camp songs from back in the good ol' Young Women days. I created a parody of "Mormon Boy" to G's life just now. Just. Now. Look at how creative and conceited I am!

But, in all #seriousness, for those of you just jumping in on the story, please feel free to refer back to my last two posts. But G is amazing. He really has come a long way. Four months ago, he didn't have a testimony of God. Now, he has a testimony of God, of Christ, of prophets, of personal revelation, of the Holy Spirit...of everything in the gospel! He accepts everything we teach him.

Last week, we taught him once again the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and how Joseph Smith was called as a prophet to bring Christ's church back to Earth. We shared Joseph's experience in his own words:

I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me. When the light rested upon me, I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of Them spake unto me, calling me by name, and said, pointing to the other, This is my Beloved Son - Hear Him!

G says that 3 years ago (when he was baptized), he would've thought this was a made-up story. But now, when we explained basically the whole timeline of how the world was prepared for the restoration of Christ's church, G knows it's true.

Coincidences? I think NOT!

(Sent June 30 | Photos on Facebook)

The other night we were teaching L, a 7 year-old girl who is preparing for her baptism. During our amazing lesson, her mother interrupted us to go find this girl's missing 3 year-old sister. She was just gone! Up and disappeared! We searched the house for her, the backyard, front yard, asked neighbors...the whole works. Then Sister Billings and I all of a sudden realized we were the only people in the house....The mother and L were gone! So we left the house and noticed the mother in the distance talking to someone. We walked towards them and saw a little half-naked, 3 year-old child running around the playground with her sister, L. (Then later their brother joined to wreak #havoc).

Turns out the mother was talking to a young man who was going door-to-door selling something. Turns out he was LDS! But he was still deciding whether he should serve a mission or not. He asked us why it seems that people in Parker seem very hostile towards salespeople. Sister Billings and I were like, *COUGH COUGH* UH HUH TELL US ABOUT IT. Try offering to say a prayer!

After our conversation with him, we returned to their home and the mother apologized for her runaway children. She asked us to share a message with her; she'd felt the need for a missionary visit just for her. Soooo Sister Billings and I had to come up with a quick message for her.

And a very simple scripture came to my mind: "And because he hath done this, my beloved brethren, have miracles ceased? Behold I say unto you, Nay; neither have angels ceased to minister unto the children of men" (Moroni 7:29).

I had no idea why I shared that scripture. But my thoughts were directing me to that scripture so I read it to her and bore a simple testimony. It was literally the Spirit telling me to share a simple scripture. And she cried. And, the whole time, my mind was being flooded with words and thoughts to share with her.

4 Seasons in a Year?

Nope. It's actually 4 seasons in just one day. Colorado weather. Cray.

But, good week, good week! We put K and N on a baptismal date. K had already accepted the invitation to baptism but N hadn't. So when we asked her if she'd be willing to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by the priesthood authority of God, she looked over to her mom and said, "Can we!?" Her mom said yes. N was SO happy! She's so cute. She takes notes on our lessons and writes down questions she has when she studies the Book of Mormon.

Half-way through the week, we got a call from K and she said that N was devastated because she thought her dad and brother wouldn't be able to attend their baptism because they're not members. But we were like, gurl, naw! Everyone is invited to baptisms! (Maybe not exactly like that, but you catch my drift, yeah?) But she was so relieved. I'm telling ya, she's a cutie!

We also met two little girls, 12 and 13. One of the girls' name has an apostrophe in it. So cool. But they opened the door and Sister H introduced ourselves and asked, "Do you have a belief in Jesus Christ?" One of the girls' eyes opened way wide and was like, "Yeah! Of course!" And we were like, whoa now that's he kind of response we've been praying for! So we said a prayer with them and just before we asked if we could come back to share a message, the other girl asked US to return to say another prayer! Two new investigators! #miracleshappen

Also, Sister H and I decided to adapt the lyrics to Myra's "Miracles Happen" song to the real world: Miracles happen ev-er-y day! When you have faaaaaaaaaaaiiiith!

Livin' la Missionary Life

Email home #7, sent March 10

So last P-day, we went shopping for the rest of the day. And let me tell you something. Shopping as a missionary is the weirdest thing ever. It's probably weirder for other people to see, though. People with black tags roaming around the shopping mall. But it's still weird for me because it was like...normal life.

But I got a cool panda watch. It's beautiful.

It snowed a couple times this week. But the nice thing about Colorado is that even if snow piles up, it melts within hours. It's amazing. One day we went to crossfit at 6 in the morning and our car had a huge pile of snow on it but by the time we left the house again at 10AM, it was all gone. 360 days of sun! #OHYEAH

We had a potential investigator that we met probably our second week here. She was diagnosed with cancer and told us to come back during the weekdays. So we did. We prayed for her and we were so excited to teach her about the gospel because we knew it would help her through this difficult trial. Buuuuuut she ended up rejecting us. She just didn't know how to say no so she felt bad turning us away the first two times we visited her. My heart sank. It was painful to see her turn it down....Then I realized the new lyrics I wrote to that Frozen song had a whole new meaning to me now. Oh man, it was so sad to see her push away the message of the gospel.

An elder in my district said something interesting: the only thing that trumps the Atonement is agency, our own free will to choose to accept or not.

On the bright side, we visited the family with a baptismal date last Saturday. Vince asked, "What do I need to do to get baptized?" It was so amazing hearing that. He thought he needed to fill out some paperwork or something. Heh. But we just explained to him that in order for someone to be baptized, they need to show they're obeying the commandments of God including diligent prayer and scripture study, attending church, obeying the Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity, following the prophet...etc. As for the Word of Wisdom, Vince was all in. He said he'd stop drinking coffee and tea, though he doesn't drink that much anyway. As for Kathy, however, she drinks tea at least 3 times/day so she was a little hesitant. But we know that in obeying God's commandments, she will be blessed with the strength to overcome and to add onto the knowledge that our Savior, Jesus Christ, is by our side rooting for us on our journey back to Heavenly Father.