Sooo this week has been the start of summer! Hao wan... ha ha it is sooo hot!!! It apparently is only starting too. I do like it, but it is tiring to be out in the hot sun and many people aren't outside either. Good thing is the members give us referrals out here. They are all anxious to share their testimonies and we are excited to help their friends come unto Christ.
The lord has been helping me grow so much as well as my companion. She is so organized and her Chinese is getting so good. She is able to talk to many more people and always contributes a lot to the lessons. It is fun to see her grow. I must admit... I am sometimes that perfectionist mother that gets all upset over little dumb things and really expects ridiculous things, but we are slowly getting the communication up. I am learning more and more about what Charity really is and learning a lot about my own weaknesses. They often refer to Trainers as mothers and though I don't feel like that at all with Sister O.... I can also see a lot of the parallels... I'm glad I am having this time to figure these things out... I know it will help me become a better mother someday, or at least that is the hope if I can figure it all out.
I have to tell you all about one specific miracle. This week was pretty average, but we had some awesome experiences where I felt the lord testifying through me and I was just so grateful we could be there to answer people's prayers. We taught one of our investigators on Friday. She hasn't met with us in a while. She is actually a member referral. The member invited us to their work and we taught her there. She was AWESOME but the next two weeks, disappeared. We didn't really know what was going on until Friday. Friday she called the member and said she had time and wanted to meet, so we changed our nighttime plans to go meet with her. We taught her about the plan of salvation. As we taught one of our recent converts 2 sons were preparing for baptism, so as she waited she asked if she could sit in on our lesson.
This was probably one of the best lessons I have taught since my mission. Last month's invite was to focus on Teaching Skills and it has really payed off for our companionship. What was cool was that as we taught we brought in a few things we don't always talk about. The examples we used were new and we brought in a few more points about our life on earth than we usually do. Our recent convert told me on Sunday she loved it. She said she had never understood the kingdoms before and stuff until we taught her. Even better at the end of the lesson I just felt a small prompting to refer to the 5 step process (faith, repentance, baptism, holy ghost, endure) and let her know that next time we would be talking about how she could develop her faith and come unto Christ. We gave her the gospel of Jesus Christ pamphlet and assigned her to read Alma 32 and think about how this chapter would help her develop her faith. (I have never done that before in my mission btw) She just gave me this look and started to explain that she had met with us that day because she knew she needed to develop her faith and she didn't know how. She has been praying for it and she knew that god had heard her prayer.
The spirit taught me a powerful lesson that day. As I looked at this precious daughter of God sitting next to this member friend who desired her salvation. I knew that this was my privilege to teach her. The lord knows who His prepared children are. It is not us finding them, teaching them, baptizing them... This is ALL the Lord's work. I knew that He loved His daughter and He was letting me take part in teaching her. I knew without a doubt that this was the Lord's gift to me to let me take part in His work. I'm so grateful for the opportunity I have to be a tool in the Lord's hand. I know that you all can have the same experience. You never know when the Lord will use you to answer someone's prayer. Mom and Dad I have seen that over and over again as I have seen you serve and love those around you. Thank you for your wonderful examples to me.
Dad you are the best in the world!!! HAPPY FATHERS DAY next week ^_^ Thank you for your amazing example. You don't know how many times I use your example to teach people about obedience to the commandments and the faith to see miracles happen. Thank you for teaching me that when we trust in the lord everything works out. Our family has seen it over and over again because of your example.
Here are a few pictures of recent weeks.
My district here.. yes elder T..... is still in the same ward with me and now he is our new zone leader. Sister Ochoa was just visiting us with her companion. We got to go on exchanges which was soo fun :)
The pictures I sent before were from when we were making mantou it is a chinese bun thing. We made it with sister Wang. She is like my mother here. You would love her mom! I must admit we have become a bit of the favorites of the branch pres and his wife. they are so sweet to us and we have had some amazing experiences with them. They have so much faith!
Well I love you all and look forward to reading every word of your emails and letters. I got one from Lane and Taylor this week and Sister Braithwaite made my life! ha ha thanks for all the support :) love you all!!!
Sister Gummow
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