Monday, October 28, 2013

Summer is coming :/


Good morning!
 
It's official, summer is coming, and way too soon. It got up to 35 this week, I wanted to cry. It's supposed to be SPRING! But it's raining today so I'm happy about that. It's been a good week, we had a great day at church yesterday. We had three of our investigators come and they said they enjoyed it! We had a miracle early in the week when we met a girl last week in English class.  She was so excited when I told her I was from Utah, which was weird because most Asians don't even know where that is, except for some of the boys - they always say, "Utah...Jazz!" haha. Anyways, she told us she has a really good friend who just moved to Utah and recently got married. I automatically assumed her friend must have joined the church, why else would someone from China head off to Utah of all states? She then said, "There is a church there in Utah..." I said, "YES! That's our church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints." We set up a time to meet and she came this week. She told us that she and her friend attended a university in Belgium and that's where he met the missionaries. She joined the lessons with him and learned quite a bit but never got baptized because she was moving back to China. But they've kept in touch and she's been wanting to find missionaries. We taught her the first lesson and invited her to be baptized next month and she said YES! She even said that she will change around her study schedule so she can meet with us during the week and attend church every Sunday. She's so good. 

We're still teaching ________, a recent convert's wife, she is so cute. She's been struggling a little bit lately finding her faith, not sure if she believes or has been feeling like God is listening to her prayers but when we met on Saturday she told us that she has been praying every day, especially for her mom who is pretty sick with a breathing condition. She said out of the blue her mom called her and told her that she feels she has the strength to get better, where as before she was pretty content with just letting the disease take her and be done with it. She said her attitude is completely flipped. She also said she believes, without a doubt, there is a God and her faith is growing each day. Amazing! She'll be baptized in the next coming weeks.

We had interviews this week with President and Sister Howes. We had to prepare a talk to share with them and originally I wanted to share with you my talk but I decided to share with you Sister Campbell's talk that she prepared, I loved it and she put it together really well. The talk is called "Endure" -

There is often a question asked, "Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?" Or when people turn away or reject the gospel, they sometimes justify it by saying, "God wasn't there for me when I needed him," or "God never answered my prayers so why should I do what he asks?" Today I would like to answer that question using the Book of Mormon. In Helaman 7:17 the question is asked, "Why has He forsaken you?"  Verse 18 says, "It is because you have hardened your hearts and will not hearken unto Him." Verse 20: "How could you forget your God in the very day He has delivered you?" This scripture clarifies perhaps it is not God who has forsaken us, but rather us who have forsaken Him. So why would a loving God allow his children, whom he loves, to experience troubling and trying times of sorrow and grief? We learn in D&C Sec. 50:16 that it is after you are weak that you shall be made strong. How can you become strong if you are not first weak? How can you learn from experiences you don't have? How can you build your faith if your faith is not tried? The story of Job is one that demonstrates this perfectly. He endures many trials but never forsakes his God.  It is in troubling times when we should turn to Him, someone who knows us perfectly and personally.  Maybe we need trials so we can learn to turn to Him in both times of good and bad. We all experience trials in our life, what we need to do is just hold out a little longer, endure. In the Garden of Gethsemane when Christ was preparing to begin the Atonement, his disciples fell asleep and He asked, "Could ye not stay awake with me? Could ye not endure?" Remember what Christ did for us, and then we can endure just a little more pain, a little more hurt, a few more trials. He will come to us, John 14:18 "for I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you"
 
I loved her talk, and I want to also testify that he WILL come to us, he has come to me many times and I have never felt alone as I've remembered to turn to Him in times of need. I am grateful for this opportunity to serve, I love it. I love my companion, we have so much in common and I learn so much from her. It has been a great week, enjoy the coming week! Love you all.
 
Sister Raitt

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