A fresh start.

Hi all,

 

Last night I got the call that I would be transferred in zone. I was kind of excited about it as I really did feel like I needed a fresh start, so I had been praying for a change for the past week. I'm happy to be in the Bellevue zone as it means I will still see Sister Capener a few times throughout the transfer because of zone meeting, zone conference, and zone sports day. Sister Capener is staying in the area and is training a brand new missionary. She was nervous about it, but I just know that she will do great! She truly is an amazing companion, and I feel so blessed to be able to serve with her for 3 months.

 

I'm now serving in the Overlake ward with Sister Payne. She is friends with my trainer Sister Boyd back home, was in the same MTC district with Sister Capener, and started training my trainee Sister Whetten (I finished her training) See all these connections? I had heard lots of good things about Sister Payne before we became companions. I'm excited to be serving here. I miss Elder and Sister Allen, the senior couple in my last area, but I'm glad that we have another senior couple here, Elder and Sister Bingham. I just LOVE to be around senior couples. They are my parents in the mission field.

 

I don't really know anything about this area yet. But Sister Payne just told me that we would have a lesson tonight with a progressing investigator. He has the desire to be baptized but is fear of water. I remember I was so scared about getting baptized when I was 8 because I didn't think I could put my head in the water. So hopefully I will be able to relate to him a bit and to overcome his fear.

 

Sorry I don't really have a lot to share this time, but I do get some pictures to share. Last week, Sister Capener and I did chalk finding! We drew the Plan of Slavation in downtown and wrote the church service information on the street. It was really fun.

 

I hope you all have a great week. And I'm sure I will have some adventure to share next time.

 

Love,

Sister Leung



We drew the Plan of Salvation outside the downtown park





Last District Meeting before transfer



At transfer. From left: Sister Matheney, Sister Capener, me

Sister Capener and I are Sister Matheney's "moms"

At transfer. Sister Payne, Sister Whetten, me

Sister Payne and I are Sister Whetten's "moms"

Let us all press on

Hi all,

Sorry I didn't even write anything for my mission blog last P-day as I was having a rough week that I couldn't think of lots of positive experiences to write about. This past week was still a bit rough, but at least I wasn't as depressed as I was the week before.

Our week didn't start off great. We didn't really get to talk to anyone for more than 30 seconds. Our zone set a goal to invite 100 people to be baptized. To achieve this goal, each companionship would need to invite at least 8 people. However, we didn't get to invite anyone until Thursday. And lots of people tried to bible-bash with us.

I really like President Uchtdorf's talk at this past General Conference about gratitude. He said that the Lord doesn't expect us to be less grateful when we are having hard times. My companion and I set a goal to write down at least one thing that we are grateful for each day. It is indeed a good way to help us stay positive during those hard days. I truly believe that no matter how bad our day may be, there has to be something that we can be grateful for. As we continued to stay positive and to work hard, we finally found a prepared teenager last Saturday. His parents are from China, but he is born and raised here, so he speaks perfect English of course. I was just really glad that I didn't need to talk to him in Mandarin. He was so open to listen to our message. He told us that he never liked to slam the door on people's face. He had researched Christianity quite a bit and had a LDS classmate. We shared with him the Restoration, and he said it made sense to him. I could really tell that he was listening with an intent to understand. He also asked a lot of good questions. The best question he asked was "How did you decide to be a member of this Church but not any other Christian churches?". That is my favorite question ever. It gave both my companion and I a chance to bear our testimony. Even though we are both born and raised in the Church, we still had to gain our own testimony. I wouldn't have come all the way from Hong Kong to Washington to be a missionary if I hadn't known for myself that the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints is the only true church on the earth. He was busy with his tests at the time, but he said he would want to come to church after all the tests.

Our District has set a goal for this week that each companionship will have at least one "Dan Jones investigator" meaning that we find one new investigator this week and he or she will be at Church this Sunday. This is definitely not an east goal, but it can help us stretch. I truly believe that there are people sincerely searching the truth. And I know that God will create miracles when we have done everything we can.

Love,

Sister Leung

We had real Hong Kong chow mien last P-day:)

Me, Hermana Pingree, Hermana Hales, Sister Capener

Brownie for dinner:)