Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Time flies! August 5, 2013

Inline image 2Sara is pictured here with one of her favorite families in Taiwan.  She had a great week and is feeling blessed and rejuvenated and excited to continue working hard.  The time is passing so quickly!  I recently spoke to a tour guide who served in her area several years ago and said it is seriously his favorite area in the whole mission.  Just like she has been telling us, it is a smaller town near the ocean with beautiful scenery and kind people.


"Right now our apartment has my companion on her first transfer and the other companionship is whitewashing.  One is on her 4th transfer and one is on her 3rd.  Sooo crazy! Currently, I am the oldest sister missionary in the area of Taidong and not only in time on the mission ha ha, but in time on the earth!  ha ha the new sisters aren't that young and they have so much faith, but it is definitely different.  As I have been privileged to give them all a little counsel and comfort, I have seen how much I have grown.  I still have a lot of things to learn, but I am much stronger than I used to be.  I am not letting Satan's attacks on me bring me down.  

This week we had some neat experiences.  We decided to do a bit of spring cleaning with our investigators.  We prayed to know who we should keep meeting with and who needs to rest for awhile.  The lord answers in funny ways... almost all of them stopped answering their phones... yep and our investigator pool went from like 20 to like 6 with only 4 actually progressing and only 1 with a baptismal date... the thing is the lord loves us and we saw so many miracles finding. 

We prayed to find the prepared people and that was definitely what the lord gave us.  One day we had the chance to pray with two different people.  They both reacted really strongly to prayer.    One cried as we finished saying a prayer for her and the other looked at me and told me it was the strangest thing.  She said that all the things she was worried about that week I had prayed specifically for her.  She was so amazed that somehow we knew the concerns of her heart (that was ALL the spirit!)  It was so cool to feel the spirit so strongly and to know that they needed those prayers.  It was also a testimony to me that the spirit really can guide our prayers.  I had no idea why I was praying for her for certain things, but the lord definitely knew her.  After we invited them to church and to meet with the missionaries... both of them told us strait up that they were not prepared yet and when they were they would come to church.  SOOO cool how the lord answers our prayers and the prayers of others.  It was interesting that they didn't set up with us, but the lord still let us find 10 new investigators this week and 3 new families with 2 more potential families.  I have never found so many families my whole mission and I know that is also a direct result of prayer.  The lord knows we need some awesome families to assist the branch out here.  I feel like the lord is giving us a bit of a trial, but that we are going to help this branch get through the trial and be awesome missionaries with us.  We are so excited!  The prepared people are out there and we are starting to find them.  

My new companion has been faced with many physical and spiritual trials, but she follows the spirit and that is most important.  Despite our challenges we saw sooo many miracles this week.  

I love you family.  It sounds like all the trips were super fun and you lucked out with weather!  I hope someday we can all come back to Taiwan... there are some really awesome places I want to take you to in Taidong.  I am really in the most amazing place.  Luckily I get one more transfer here for sure!  I could honestly stay here my whole mission and be ok.  I love Taidong ha ha.  There are some things that are difficult, but I think the lord has been training me my whole life. I feel like I have not wasted a second and I am definitely living my mission with no regrets. Sometimes it may have been super difficult and I'm sure it will just keep getting harder, but it is worth every second!  I love you all and send hugs and prayers your way!!!

Sister Gummow "

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