Working in the Rice Fields

My dear family and friends!!

First things first....a BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO LACHLAN!!! I hope you have a great day on Tuesday?!?! YOU'RE TURNING the big 11!!! WOW that is crazy!!!

What a great week this has been. The miracles are amazing. Times like this have made me really realize how much love Heavenly Father has for each and every one of us-In every point of our lives, we can feel His love towards us as individuals!

This week started off by us heading to Hualian for Sister Wright to go to the Hospital. We spent most of our day there getting checked out and we will head back tomorrow to check on the results. She has been sick the last couple of weeks but we have been able to see so many miracles through the hours we have been able to work outside!!

Every week, we continue to have great lessons with 朱惠鈴(Zhu Hui Ling). She is still working really hard to give up her Word of Wisdom addictions and set a new baptismal date for September 30th. She has a really hard personal family life, but she has seen the power from relying on God to help her through her challenges. She has so much faith and knows through the power of prayer, Heavenly Father can help her overcome her 30+ year addictions. She continues to attend sacrament meeting every Sunday! Her daughter is also one of our investigators and can't get baptized due to her dad. Her dad says that as soon as he sees a bigger change in her, he will allow her to be baptized. So, we are working on that with her. This week, her younger brother has started noticing she is being more patient with him! And, this week we helped her write a note that she put in her moms scriptures encouraging her and telling her that Yu Zhen wants to work with her together to prepare for baptism. A couple days later, we were meeting with the mom, (we meet with them all separately--they all have different challenges) and her mom brought up how she found a note from Yu Zhen in her scriptures. Her mom teared up and talked about how moved she was by her daughter :)

On Friday, we went to go visit a potential investigator in the afternoon and it was really weird because I knew she didn't get off work until 5:30 but I had the strongest feeling we needed to just at least go knock on her door. So we did and her 17 year old daughter was home, let us in, and we shared the first lesson and the video Because He Lives with her and she became a new investigator! She leaves for school down south next week so we wont be able to teach her for very long before we transfer her records to her new area but, this experience was another testimony to me of the importance of listening to the Spirit. This has been one thing I have really had to learn on my mission. It definitely isn't easy, but when we get in the habit of listening and following, God provides us with miracles.

Saturday, we got permission to go and do some service for a member of our branch in a RICE FIELD! Let me tell you! It was the funnest, greatest experience of my life. It was really funny because when Sister Wright and I were coming home from the hospital on Tuesday, we were talking about how great of any experience it would be if we could go work in the rice fields for a couple of hours--just for the experience. And, we had the opportunity!. We walked up and down the rows and picked all the weeds in between the rows of rice. We did it in bare feet with gloves and we had a great experience. Elder Aiono couldn't help because he has a pretty bad grown in toenail right now, so he became our photographer..See the pictures attached.
 

 

 
Sunday night, we also saw a really big miracle. We were finding on 大同路 and visiting some former investigators we found in our area book on the way. One of the last houses we knock, it was supposed to be a former investigator, but, as soon as we knocked on the door, the sweetest young lady answered and invited us right in. 李姊妹 is a single mom (I believe) of a 1 year 9month old--who is adorable. And her 19 year old sister also lives with her. She just moved into the house we knocked on a couple months ago. She is Catholic but was really willing to learn about the church. We shared the first lesson with her and she thought it made a lot of sense. She said it might take some time because she has never really investigated another church but that she is willing to meet with us and continue learning more!!

There are miracles and experiences that occur everyday. I wish I would have more time to write about all of them. But, these are a few. I am so grateful for this opportunity to serve. I love serving my Heavenly Father and helping others come unto Him!!

I love you all so very much!!!

We ate dinner with Zhu JM and her kids Tuesday night. We had snail...it was actually pretty good! 

 Where I serve is beautiful!!