September 1st, 2013

Zaoshang haoooooo,

It's been a beautiful week!  Not only has the weather been lovely but miracles are just coming at us left and right. This week we were traveling so only really had a few days in our area but we were able to add five new investigators.  I never thought I'd reach a point in my mission where we'd have more people to teach than time allowed, but I'm thrilled to say we are nearing that point. As a zone, we've baptized 25 people into our ward - our Bishop is overwhelmed.  It's such an exciting time in our ward right now. All the missionaries are working so hard, the work just keeps progressing more and more and I don't think it's going to slow down anytime soon.

Sister Slade and I traveled a good 30 minutes to work with the sisters in Ashfield on Thursday and Friday.  It's the Mandarin ward, so basically full-on China City. I love visiting there so much, and let's be honest...I'm a tall white girl, I stick out in the crowd a little bit. We were walking through a park and there was this cute older Asian man power walking in his matching track suit.  So, I stopped him and asked where he was from. He just said, "sorry, no English."  I then asked him in Chinese and he said, "sorry, no.........w...what...!? yess! I from CHINA!" hahaha He was so shocked and excited, then of course he started talking a million miles per hour and i understood ten words!  We had a good chat once i got him to slow down.  He has lots of free time so the Sisters are going to visit him this week! Hopefully, I can come back and teach him in a few weeks. :)

Another miracle: I was helping teach a Conversation English class and I was paired up with a guy from Japan. I started talking with him and he asked where I was from and I told him Utah.  He said, "Oh yea, the Mormons!" Honestly, I was really surprised. Asians usually never know about religion let alone who Mormons are.  I asked him how he knew about Mormons and he said his family in Japan is Mormon. They were all baptized when he was seven years old, and we don't baptize until children are eight, which explains why he wasn't baptized yet.  I couldn't help myself and asked if he wanted to be baptized. He said, "yes, I think I would." I about peed my pants, I was so happy! So we set up an appointment and we met with him last night. He is really sweet and sincere, we have a few things to work out but he'll be baptized soon. :) Miracles are just falling into our laps, it's amazing.

Of the five new investigators we added this week, 2 of them have baptismal dates for the end of this month :) We are so excited! Sister Slade and I are teaching 5 now who are preparing to be baptized this month, it's so great! We are also teaching a professional ping pong player, as well as a Christian rapper in the making, he's from Brisbane. We meet lots of fun new people every day, I love it.

We had a fun ward activity on Friday night.  It was a multi-stake game night for the YSA.  We brought some investigators and they made sure the games were missionary appropriate.  If any of you have seen the show, "Minute to Win It" that's what it was. You only have a minute to complete certain tasks that are so ridiculous, I was laughing so hard, I have it all on video. The best one was probably where you have to sit down with your head back and an Oreo cookie on your forehead.  You have to get the cookie into your mouth ONLY using your facial muscles. Go ahead...try it. I was laughing so hard at the faces people were making. What a crack up!

Well I had a whole study I wanted to share with you today but I forgot it back at our apartment, so it will just have to wait until next week. :) I love you all very much, have a great week.

Love,

Sister Raitt