Good morning(evening) everyone!!
Elder Smith
From left to right: Brother Ramos, Elder Crook, me, Dhylyn, Sister Ramos, Elder Stevens
left to right: me, Sister Lu, Chichi, Brother Lu, Lulu, Elder Millheim(first missionary contact Brother Lu had in Taiwan), Elder Stevens
Elder Smith here. This week was pretty fantastic. It didn't start out so fantastic, but it ended really well. Actually. The very start was pretty great because I got to go to lunch with Elder Colvin(my MTC companion) and Elder Dawson(also from the MTC days) at this sweet BBQ place with all-you-can-eat Haggen Daz ice cream and ninjas on the roof. That was pretty tasty and it was fun catching up with them. They're both doing really well.
Anyway, after that, it kind of went down hill. We found 2 new investigators, but one kind of disappeared after his dad expressed his disapproval. Then the other one who we thought was super solid(she asked us when church was, committed to go, and seemed really excited to read the Book of Mormon) called us the next day and said she read the scripture in Luke16:13 that says "No man can serve two masters...you cannot serve God and mammon." then proceeded to let us know that she felt as though mammon suited her better and that she wouldn't be coming to church on Sunday. She was pretty polite about it but EXTREMELY mislead. We're still scratching our heads and massaging our wounded hearts over that. I also felt pretty alone this week in my desires to be obedient and diligent. That's never fun:(. Anyways, I was feeling kind of stressed and a little discouraged when Saturday morning came around. That was lame because we had a baptism that day. Luckily, the Lord came to the rescue just in time as always. He sent me Isaiah this time(that's a first). Isaiah 49:14-16 to be exact. It reads:
14 But, behold, Zion hath said: The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me but he will show that he hath not.
15 For can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee, O house of Israel.
16 Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.
I felt so much love from those verses. I knew that God was very much aware of me and my struggles and I just felt like things would be okay. And they were! That night, Brother Lu and Dhylyn both got baptized. It was a great service. Dhylyn had to get baptized twice(my bad), but other than that, it was all smooth. I feel so blessed to have been a part of that. I hope I can stay in Tainan a little longer and see it all pan out, but I'm afraid that when the new missionaries come, I'll be the first to go(I've been here over 6 months which is a long time in this mission).
I love you all! I hope you have a great week. We also had a Harry Potter party this week for English class. You can check out the pictures on Facebook. I think I'm tagged in a couple. We played quidditch dodgeball. And now I know how to say quidditch in Chinese along with a host of other Harry Potter vocabulary.
Love,
Elder Smith
Pictures!
From left to right: Brother Ramos, Elder Crook, me, Dhylyn, Sister Ramos, Elder Stevens
left to right: me, Sister Lu, Chichi, Brother Lu, Lulu, Elder Millheim(first missionary contact Brother Lu had in Taiwan), Elder Stevens
This week's song: "'Tis Sweet To Sing The Matchless Love"
No comments:
Post a Comment