January 19 2011

OK now, this week. wellll.. I dont even know where to begin as usual. We were able to see I on sunday and she came to church all three hours. she's fantastic, saw missionaries like 6 months ago then kind of disappeared for a long time. but now she's back and she wants to get baptized. I'm really excited because tonight we're going to give her a baptismal date at dinner with the L family. I dont know if I told you about the L family. they;re pretty much my favorite. their daughter ch is going to be baptized in a couple of months and she's suuuper cute. basically they saved us one sunday when we didnt have any food and a surprise lesson with the elders and an investigator so we wouldnt have been able to eat all day and since then.. they're awesome.

oh we also had another lesson with mrs c, the recently baptized into another church lady. this time she didnt bring her preacher friend, and it was really nice to have a lesson where we were both able to share and talk. I don't see her changing her mind that we aren't just automatically saved if we believe in Jesus, but there was a lot more understanding on her part of our views. we talked a little bit about baptism for the dead and how we believe that if people didnt have a chance to hear in this life they will get an opportunity to learn about jesus and have these ordinances done for them in the next life, and that it mentions baptisms for the dead in the bible in 1 cor 15 (scripture mastery?). which was cool. Anyways, not sure if we'll see her again but she and her friend were much nicer to us this week.

we also were able to visit our favorite less active li twice this week. She is so nice, and didn't quite understand what she was doing when she got baptized. she always wants to feed us- last time it was at some really famous noodle place in Sha tin, i dont remember if i tol dyou about that experience- basically the most spicy food ive ever eaten in my life. they have 8 levels of hot. I t hought i chose the 5th one, sis L had the 6th, but.. . . . heres the thing. the waitress heard me wrong and when she asked me back what i wanted she said "Daaih laaht?" (big spicy) which is the hottest one. and i just nodded htinking it was right. so on tuesday li told me that last time she was so surprised i got the spiciest level of noodles. and i didnt mean to! but really though- i thought i was going to die but i had to finish it because it was a cheng-out. man. spicy noodles. sorry random story inserted there.

what else happened this week? Well not really anything of note. we pretty much teach lessons if we have them, and if we don't we're out on the streets talking to people or riding the MTR talking to people. Every day i meet a lot of super nice people and also a ton of not-as-nice people. Sis L has a hurt knee so we have to mostly do finding on the MTR lately because if she walks too much it hurts a ton. Like yesterday morning she was limping around the apartment. I feel so bad for her! But like the trooper she is she keeps on working because this is the most important work there is... If you think about it, the charge jesus gave to his disciples to go preach the gospel to the world is the same work us missionaries are involved in... and that's huuge!!

so this week in my studies i've been continuing in the bible and book of mormon, i just finished the four gospels and am at the end of alma. I've been thinking about 2 things then. 1 the nature of god and our relationship with him based on the intercessory prayer in john 17, specifically v21-22 where christ asks heavenly father for us to become one, even as they are one. its very interesting to think about... anyways.. yet again another place the bible contradicts the belief of the trinity (sorry i just tend to see these things while reading). then also in alma at the end when captain moroni is AWESOME and is such a good leader. Ive been thinking about how he must have felt when his armies were getting discouraged. im sure there were moments when he wasn't super energized or wanted to just take it down a few notches, but did he? Of COURSE NOT! he kept going and encouraging those around him and helping them to reach for their potential. basically what each of us needs to do because everyone has moments when they could use a little push, a helping hand. Sooooo serve a little more, love a little more. life is hard enough, theres no use in making it harder for those around us, right?


Love you all! thanks for the prayers & letters

Sis Black baahk jimuih