Faith brings forth miracles

Hi all,

 

Last week was a pretty rough week. I just got a new companion last Tuesday and realized that I didn't know the area as well as I should. Getting along with companions, for me, is the hardest thing ever. We are doing fine at teaching together, but it will definitely take us time to develop a better teaching pattern. My companion and I couldn't really teach in unity until our 8th week together. And once we felt like we could work well together, she got transferred. But I do know that I'm going to learn a lot from my new companion if I would humble myself.

 

We went finding most of the time as we really didn't have lots of investigators to teach. And one evening, everyone was so rude to us. We didn't get to talk to anyone after tracting the whole street. My companion prayed that we would at least get to talk to one nice person. The next door we knocked on, a young lady came out and talked with us. She had faith in God but didn't go to a church. She was so nice to us even though she didn't seem to be interested in our message. However, she said that we made her day as she was having a rough day. And we told her that she made our day also! Suddenly I got a prompting that I should share Alma 36:27 with her, so I did. She loved it and asked me how she could find that verse. So I gave her an overview of the Book of Mormon and invited her to read Alma 36. She accepted the invitation. I don't know if she will be interested in learning more or will get baptized anytime soon, but I know that it was a miracle that we met her after the prayer.

 

I used to think that miracles have to be something really big, but I now understand that if we are mindful of our surroundings, we can always see tiny miracles in our lives.

 

Last night, we finally got to meet with one of our investigators. We hadn't seen her since Christmas Eve. She told us that her family went to a Christian Church that morning. She said that she felt bad that she didn't go to our Church. She told us that her family had been saying to go to a church for more than 3 years, and they wouldn't have gone to a church if we hadn't visited them. She also said that she liked our visits and members of the Church but didn't think our Church fit her lifestyle. My companion and I started telling her more about the Book of Mormon and its role in our conversion. We testified to her boldly that all churches had part of the truth, but only The Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints had the fullness of the Gospel. We promised her that she would know if our message was true if she read and prayed about the Book of Mormon. We invited her to read Alma 32, which was about faith. She accepted the invitation, and we are going back this Sunday to teach her more.

 

Missionary work requires lots of faith. When I was little, I hoped that God could appear to me and told me that the Church was true, but of course it never happened. As I study the Book of Mormon every day, I have come to understand that miracles cannot bring forth faith. Lots of people in the Book of Mormon like Laman and Lemuel saw miracles, but they were never converted to the Gospel. I know that if we have faith in God and obey His commandments, we will be able to see miracles, tiny or big,  every day.

 

Love,

Sister Leung

You'll never know.

Hi all,

Today is transfer day. Ever since I came on my mission, I can always tell if I'm leaving or staying, and this time I felt like I was going to stay in North Creek, and yes I'm staying! My companion Sister Matheney got transferred to the Cougar Mountain Ward, which is right next to my first area Somerset. I got Sister Madsen as companion. We knew each other on Facebook before we both went to the MTC on June 5. And she has served in Somerset with my first trainee Sister Whetten, so we have lots in common.

 

Last night, all the missionaries in the Bothell Zone had dinner at the Stake President's house. It was so much FUN! I got to talk with Elder Petersen for a bit. He was my Zone Leader when we were serving in the Bellevue South Zone. One time, he put me on the phone when I was having dinner with members as they were teaching a Chinese investigator. He and his companion asked me to invite that investigator to be baptized in Chinese. I thought they were crazy, but I did it anyway. That investigator didn't really understand much as she was taught in English. So I had to explain the Book of Mormon and the Bible to her with my limited Mandarin on the phone. It was pretty stressful. But Elder Petersen told me that she had already been baptized and wanted to share the Gospel with the people around her! I was so happy to hear that. I had never thought that she would be baptized as she really didn't understand much. This experience definitely strengthens my testimony that we should never prejudge anyone as we won't know until we invite.

 

I don't really understand how time can go by so fast when you are on a mission. I have been out for 7 and a half months now. And recently I had a dream that I was being released as a full-time missionary, and I had tears on my cheeks when I woke up in the morning. I can't even imagine how sad it will be when I get on the flight to go home. I know that since we have set the goal to baptize 1663 people, Satan is going to work so hard to distract us, but I know that we can all be stronger than Satan if we stay on the Lord's side. I have been praying each day that I will be able to finish my 18- month mission. I love my mission. And I'm definitely staying on my mission as long as I'm alive:) Hope you all have a good week.

 

Love,

Sister Leung

President Choi called us to REPENT

Hi all,

 

The last week was a great week. We had a pretty intense Zone Conference. Not surprisingly, President Choi talked about "High Expectation" again. Each of us was given a paper saying how many souls we could bring to the water of baptism at the end of our mission by baptizing one soul each week. Mine says 46, which means I can help 46 souls to make the covenant with our Father in Heaven by having a baptism each week. President Choi said that we had to repent if we still had doubt about our baptismal goal for this year, which was 1663 convert baptisms. I don't have any doubt about it. I know that it isn't going to be easy, and we all have to make lots of changes, but this goal is definitely achievable as the Lord has really been hastening His work. One of the evidence of it is the age change of missionary. There are now over 80000 full-time missionaries all over the world because of the age change announced in October 2012. I said at the beginning that it was quite an intense Zone Conference because President Choi called all of us to REPENT a couple times. He talked about the importance of DILIGENCE. He said that if we worked hard throughout the week, we would still be happy even if we couldn't find any new investigators. He said that missionaries who were not happy or depressed was because of their slothfulness. I wouldn't say that I was slothful, but I really could be more diligent. I know that sometimes I get less motivated in the late evening because most people get upset when we knock on their doors. I asked myself if it was because of my lack of faith. I have been praying to have more faith that the Lord will still put people on our path even during those evening hours. I definitely have pondered a lot after the Conference. I have been praying for the strength to overcome my weaknesses. My companion and I have been getting better at talking to EVERYONE, even those awkward situations. Instead of just saying hello, we would tell them we are missionaries, and most people ignored us. But at least we have given them the opportunity to learn more about the Restored gospel.

 

My companion and I also talked about how we could teach better as a companionship. We both knew that we had to be bolder and more persistent, so that our investigators could understand the importance of our message. One of our investigators always tried to switch topic whenever we asked him if he had prayed about the Book of Mormon. We decided that we had to keep asking him until he answered, and we did. I think my companion asked him at least 4 times before he said that he hadn't prayed about the Book of Mormon. So I told him again why we invited him to pray and extended the commitment again and again throughout the lesson until he finally said yes. We both agreed that we had never been that bold and persistent before. I know that as we continue to make changes and try our best to overcome our weaknesses, the Lord will lead us to those who are ready to hear the gospel.

 

We had a miracle last Saturday. We were prompted to tract in buildings 5 and 6 of an apartment complex close to where we lived, so we went there. After getting door slams and rejection for a million times, we found one person who was interested to learn more about what we believed. His name was Alex and was 16 years old. He didn't show any interest at the beginning but didn't shut the door either, so we started bearing testimony of the Book of Mormon. He said that he used to go to a Christian Church with his family when he was younger and told us that his grandpa passed away not too long ago. So we briefly told him about the Plan of Salvation and testified to him that families could be together forever. We invited him to be baptized as he received a confirmation that our message was true, and he said he wanted to be baptized! We prayed with him on his doorstep, and he said he felt something, which we know was the Spirit. We set up an appointment for this Saturday, and we would bring someone who was about his age with us. We are very excited about it.

 

I am grateful for my Mission President, who always teaches us in a simple way. He reminded us to always check our spirituality as Satan could get into our heart very easily when we started breaking the rules. I am grateful for the Atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ that we can repent and do better each day.

Love,
Sister Leung

With Sister Lee (from Korea) We are the only Asians in our zone.

Have fun with the Spirit

Hi all,

 

The work has been going pretty slow recently. We didn't have much success during finding, but at least we have been working hard. Our Mission President has told us a million times that we should always have fun with the Spirit, and one of the way to do it is "Sing, sing, sing". He encourages us to sing as often as we can, and my companion and I have been trying to follow this counsel. When people told us that they weren't interested in our message, we would offer to sing to them. We practiced singing the first verse of "O come all ye faithful" and have sung to lots of people. Most of them would complement on our singing, and some people even said that we sounded like angels. Both of us never agreed that we were good singers, but I guess the Spirit can really hide all our sour notes. Singing hymns is definitely a powerful way to help people feel the Spirit. We actually got a return appointment by just singing. We knocked on a door, and a guy and his daughter who was about 7 years old came to the door. The dad wasn't friendly at all at the beginning and asked why we knocked on his door. We offered to sing to them. He was still really hesitant, but he let us sing because his daughter really wanted a song. His face totally changed as we started singing to them, and he said that we could come back to share a message at some other time.

 

President and Sister Choi spoke in our ward yesterday. It was so fun to hear from them. President Choi asked my companion and I to go up to stand next to him. He didn't tell us anything about this before the Sacrament, but we weren't really surprised either as we knew our Mission President well enough already. He asked us to share with members how we could have fun with the Spirit. And of course the answer was "Sing, sing, sing". He then asked us to show them, so my companion and I sang the first verse of "I am a child of God" in front of the whole ward. Lots of members thought that it was a plan, but we told them it wasn't.

 

A lot of people asked me if I got homesick a bit during Christmas, and I told them I didn't at all. I know why I am out here at this time. I know that I am here to help people come closer to our Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ. I am grateful that we got to share the message of the birth of Christ with some investigators and members last week. And our Zone also did caroling, and it was so much fun! It was definitely the most special Christmas in my life.

 

Love,

Sister Leung

I love the Gospel. I love my Savior.

Hi all,

 

Since I'm not going to be able to email next week, I think I should share my gratitude for the Restored Gospel and my Savior at this special holiday season.

 

A year from yesterday, my service as a full time missionary will come to an end. My companion asked me how I felt about it. I said "It's scary.". I remember I wanted to go home my first month in the mission field, but now I hope that I will never get released. It has been 6 months since I came to the mission field. My first two transfers were pretty rough that we struggled to find investigators. And I was called to be a trainer right after I finished my 12 week training. I didn't know how to be a good trainer even though I really tried. My trainee and I had a hard time getting along, but now when I look back, I know that we wouldn't have argued that much if I was more humble and patient. Being patient was the hardest thing for me ever, and I guess it was why the Lord gave me that companion to help me learn a lesson of it's importance. I trained for the second time last transfer and did much better. I constantly reminded myself that I had to be patient and couldn't expect my trainee could do everything that I could. And I pray every night that I could always keep my eye single to the glory of God. I was never homesick, but at the beginning of my mission I was missing the relaxing life style I used to have. I sometimes would think about school or things I could do after my mission, but I have come to a clear understanding what I am here for. I'm not here to think about my family and friends. I'm not here to think about if I am going back to BYUH after my mission. I'm not here to think about what places I am goin got when I get home. I am here to find, teach, and baptize. 18 months is really short, and I have less than a year left. I wish I had learned to turn my eye single to the glory of God earlier. I know that i would regret someday if I didn't focus on the Lord's work. Being able to serve a full time mission is a privilege, and I'm grateful for this opportunity to serve the Lord with all my heart, might, mind, and strength. I almost went inactive when I was 16, but the Lord saved me from going astray through one of my friends. He really could have just let me go inactive, but He preserved me. And I know that He preserved me so that I can serve a mission. I know that the Church that Jesus Christ set up when He was on the earth was restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith. I know the Heavenly Father lives. I know that we will be able to live with Him again.

 

Love,

Sister Leung

 

(Posted late. Should be in the Christmas week.)