"Yay!! So this week x..... Jei mei got baptized!!!!
She is 17 years old and her older brother got baptized about 2 months ago. Her boyfriend helped her get baptized. They are both so awesome and she really wants to have an eternal family. We felt like we were such a small part in it, but so so happy for her! I love her!!! (Sister G is standing next to me :) Well that was on Saturday, but this week was full of lots of little and big miracles! We have been increasing our level of obedience and have really seen some cool blessings. We were able to find some really cool new investigators this week. One is named E . She came to our English class. She lives near by and saw the English banner on our church gate so decided to come and see. Turns our she really is super willing to learn about the gospel. She set a baptismal date for March and is reading, praying, and came to the baptism on Saturday. she is super super cool. the other 2 were also really cool miracles. I have just seen the importance of talking to everyone... even if it is just to ask for directions or say hi. It makes a difference!
I must admit I feel a little bit like the lord is just handing things over to us... I wonder if my whole mission I had focused more on obedience if it would always have been like this, but the truth is I know that we really do learn from our trials and I definitely needed those trials, but now I am really grateful to see how much the lord is willing to bless all the efforts before and then some...
My companion is wonderful and ready to go and do. She is a little intimidated by all the expectations and responsibilities, but she has Faith and is ready to try. Sister training leaders work the same as zone leaders in a mission so they work in a team (thank goodness!) We usually only serve for 4 transfers and zone or sister training leaders (which I don't have to worry about because this is my 3rd transfer as a sister training leader). It is a really neat opportunity to serve.
This week I went on exchanges with the sisters in jilong (which is sister Z - my baby :)) and in Beitou. It was very interesting being with sister Z again... not quite as I imagined it would be, but she is doing great. She has grown so much and is really doing great. The end of the week I was with sister ch.. ( she is from Hawaii and just finished her training in taiwan) It was so cool to be with sister ch.... Beitou is one of my favorite areas! If we ever come back to Taiwan we have to go back there! I looove it!!! anyways Sister ch... she wanted to find a family and we found 2! I also always had a dream to have a really old person become our new investigator. One of the families was a super old grandpa and grandma. the grandpa was 93 yrs old! ha ha but he said he would come to church on Sunday!
The other family was the result of another obedience miracle.
I forgot my new safety belt so we weren't able to ride bikes unless she had an extra headlight and rear light... which she didn't... so we had to find a bike shop to buy one. It was super inconvenient and took up so much time, but we decided it was worth it to be obedient. As we were looking for a bike shop we asked a lady right next to us. She wasn't actually from the area (she lived near their church) and after inviting her to their English class she told me she has been looking for something to help their family. Their situation has not been great lately and she has been wanting to go to a christian church to see if it could help them... yep what?! That was exactly my reaction. Super cool... and she really wanted the gospel to help her family... the thing we talk about all the time!!! They had to run to the dentist, but numbers and information and times were all exchanged and I am sure that she will keep meeting with the missionaries.
One cool thing I learned this week was that the definition of faith in the Bible dictionary says it is a CONFIDENCE in someone or someone. Faith is developed by OBEDIENCE. It is strengthened through righteous living... A lot of missionaries (and probably other people too) feel really incapable of doing all the things the lord wants us to. Sometimes all we can see is the weaknesses we have and think how can we... us small little people... ever ever have the ability to help out others? The thing is we don't need to have confidence in our own abilities, we just need to have confidence in the savior and his atoning power to make up for those weaknesses. Then we go and do... we OBEY and that is when our faith is strengthened. I realized that that is exactly what is happening is that with increased obedience also comes increased faith.
Some advice for the kids and all of us... read CH 8 of Preach my Gospel. I think you will find that you can do more than you are doing now. Learn now to cut down the things that maybe aren't as important. Put Christ first... the rest will all fall into place just fine. He will always give us the strength to make our goals.
Well there were many other miracles, but we are going to focus on those few for now. I love you all and am praying for your success!!! love,
Sister Sara Gummow
PS. Here is a picture of our Christmas Choir with President and Sister Day.
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