March 31 2011

Wow I just typed 2010 in the heading... weird. Anyways this past week was a fantastic week and a week of miracles. SO.. since sister La got here we've essentially had to re-start an area from the ground up because sis L and I focused on the other 3 areas out of the six before they split the area. We started with just 2 investigators and a couple of less actives. I can't tell you all the things that have been put together as we've been working hard and doing all we can, but now in just a couple of weeks we have around 14 investigators and 4 with baptismal dates. And this past week has been the most awesome of these few weeks. See, our mission has been focusing a lot on planning and really setting goals with the lord and then planning with Him how He wants you to achieve them. So this past week we started a new move and I also got a copy of this great talk about how to acheive your goals and how to really do what the lord wants you to do. SOoo... basically sis La and I had an amazing planning session and fri-sun worked ourselves *almost* to death. We ended up having some pretty cool experiences like S bringing her mom and her little sister to FHE, a contact wanting to come to church and really accepting what we taught, a family just essentially walking into english class in Ma On Shan, yeah... it was pretty awesome because we were doing all we could just talking to people and calling people and then the Lord provided. When you do your part the Lord isn't going to let you down. Now it is just getting the desire and the faith to do your part thats sometimes the tricky part.

BUUuuuut luckily I'll have some help getting the desire and the help because.... Dun dun DUN... Tuesday night the mission president called (after i was asleep because i always go to be a few min early, and at like 11, our mission is 30 min later than other missions in our schedules) and called me as a trainer for next move! So I get a month now to essentially prepare myself and really step up to become the absolute best missionary I can be before I get to teach a new missionary how its done. :) I'm really excited and really grateful that the Lord trusts me with this responsibility. Yesterday we had to change plans completely so I could attend the leadership training meeting and I learned SO MUCH. Each of the zone leaders and some of the district leaders were asked to give sharings on the new 8 foundation principles, and relate it to planning, as well as share their own miracle story in relation to their sharing. It was really cool because, after knowing these missionaries for a while and serving with many of them (you kind of get that way in the mission when you;'ve served 11 areas....) I can see how their hard work and their faith have allowed the Lord to literally work miracles through them.

So then, for a little miracle story of our own. We are all taught to make plans and goals and stuff... but also an important part of that is that we need to be willing to change those plans when the spirit directs. SO last night after the trainings we came home at like 7ish and had dinner. Sister La had been on exchanges all day teaching (her and the TST sisters covered all our and their appointments, luckily they just bounced back and forth and it worked perfectly) so she was exhausted. I had been in trainings all day so I was also exhausted. After dinner we had planned to make calls and just kind of take it easy but as i was gathering my stuff to go into our office i had the feeling/thought to go finding. But i was like UH NO im seriously so tired right now and we planned to make calls and its already 8:08 and we have to be back by 930 and we'd only have a half hour once we get to one of our areas so there is basically no point. Then one of the elders' miracle stories came into my mind how they left their weekly planning session mid-way because they had a prompting to do so. But i was still like whatever. Then before we started calling we said a prayer right, well the thought came again, finding, sha tin park. kind of like i could just feel myself being drawn to go there... it was so weird. So after the prayer i was like sister La... if i said right now we need to get ready to go and go finding at sha tin are you willing to go? OF COURSE she's the BOMB.COM and said yeah, so we left. seriously praying the whole time I was right about the whole prompting thing...Anyways we talked to a few people and then at the end there was this like 20 year old guy sitting on a bench just sitting in the park. We went and started talking to him, taught him a lesson about the purpose of life, and he's willing to meet us again on saturday night. We only had about 30 min to contact, it was late, but because of the lord leading us we were able to meet him.

I read a talk the other day that was talking about really devoting yourself to the work. If missionaries around the world would truly give their heart might mind and strength to this cause, there are miracles to be seen every single day. So thats my plan, i only have a little bit of time left because sisters' missions are SO SHORT, but I'm going to give it my all and work on trusting the lord to do all I can't. I'm WAY excited to be a trainer because trainees are new and have huge faith and have no idea what mission life is like. If we can both devote ourselves to the work and make our mission meet our personal expectations... there's really no limit to what we can accomplish. SO.. praying that my 'baby' will be a hard worker and quick learner! Ps. Elder d, Elder W, sis Smith and I are all training. Seriously SOOO awesome to be training with them at the same time because they're all missionaries I really look up to. yeeeaaa! But until then I can't wait! Sister La and I are re-doubling our efforts and really pushing ourselves to help this area and these people. I am just so, so grateful.


OK in other news general conference for us isnt until the 9th-10th here because they have to like send the translations here and stuff or something. so.. we'll be watching it in a couple of weeks. I am pretty excited!! It seriously feels like yesterday we had general conference, time is going by so fast. Let me know anything big that happens though!!

Love you all tons!!

Sister Black/Baahk jimuih