Whitewashi​ng is FUN!

Hi all,

 

This past week has been wonderful. Whitewashing is not as scary as I thought it would be. It has been pretty FUN so far. I think one of the reasons is because I'm companions with a Sister Training Leader who knows how to handle different situations.

 

Even though I haven't even been in this area for a week, I have already talked with lots of Chinese people. I use Mandarin every day. We visited a Chinese family that had investigated the Church before. The mom could speak pretty good English, so we just kept talking with her in English until she didn't know how to express some of her feelings. Her 10 year old son was next to her, so she spoke to him in Mandarin and asked him to tell us in English. Of course I could fully understand what she was saying, so I started talking to her in Mandarin, and she became more open to us because of it. She started asking lots of questions. I was surprised by her misunderstandings about the Church. I'm glad that I got to clarify her misunderstandings in her native language. I can be quite bold when I talk to people now, especially to Asians. I explained to her the role of the Book of Mormon in our conversion and testified to her that the fullness of the Gospel could only be found The Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints. We committed to her to pray about the Book of Mormon. Hopefully we will see some progress.

 

I don't think I mentioned in my email last week that we are serving with the Elders and the senior couple in the same ward. I served with Elders in my first area, and it was fun. But this time the Elders we serve with are the Assistants to the President! Both my companion and I were really nervous about it. I'm now surrounded by missionaries who are in leadership positions. I studied about HUMILITY the other day during personal study and understood that my fear of serving with the assistants to the President came from my pride. I should see this opportunity as a blessing as I know that I'm going to learn a lot this transfer. And I know that the more humble I am, the more I am going to learn.

 

We were tracting the whole afternoon in the rain. Lots of people were wondering why we would be out in the rain, so we took the chance to tell them it was because we had a wonderful message to share. No many people were willing to listen but two. We talked with a Chinese teenage girl who didn't have any religious background. My companion asked her if we could come back another time to share a message with her whole family. She said maybe not as she was always busy with school. She told us that she cared a lot about her grades. It was a perfect time for me to bear testimony of how the Gospel could help us with school work. I shared with her 3 Nephi 13:33 "But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." and bore testimony of how prayers and scripture study helped me survive in college. She then shared with us her experience of prayer when she was little. We then got to talk with her a bit about the Plan of Salvation and our purpose of life.There is definitely some potential there. We then talked with another lady named Liz (name changed). At first she wasn't interested at all and told us "Mormon is not for me". I then asked her if she already knew something about our Church. She started telling us things that she had heard about our Church, and all of them weren't true. Luckily, she gave my companion the chance to clarify those misunderstandings. She then asked us why there were so many churches then. Perfect question! My companion told her briefly but clearly about the Great Apostasy and how the Restoration was needed. Her attitude completely changed after that. She told us that she had asked many people that question, but no one could even give her the answer. She then asked us for the Church address and even grabbed the Book of Mormon from my hand! She said that she would love to learn more about what we believed. My companion gave her an overview of the Book of Mormon and committed her to read it.My mind was full of people from the North Creek ward yesterday when I was sitting at Church. I'm grateful to have met lots of wonderful people in that ward: Crandall's, Jackson's, Farley's, Roll's, McDonald's, Dingle's. Ivie's, Cain's, Gardner's...I can't name them all. My companion also served in that ward before (I actually took her plate), so we often talk about members in that ward and how awesome they are. And I still miss my first area Somerset even though it has been 5 months since I left. But that's alright, I know that I will see them again when I come back to visit. I know that I will meet lots of amazing people in this area also and am very excited to be serving here!

 

Love,

Sister Leung