Hsinchu - Week 49 - Repent and Be Happy
Hello friends and family!
Happy October! How are you all? I taught a cute 11-year-old girl with Sister Tu, then Sister Jensen, then Sister Lee for a loooonggggg time and she finally got baptized last night! Sister Lee video called me so I could chat with her and her mom for a bit! There were a lot of obstacles that we faced before she was baptized, the adversary was fighting, but all is well now! She was so lovely and all smiles last night.
I am just so dandy here in Xinzhu 新竹. Seriously I have just felt so, so 開心 ever since day one of being in this exciting new place! (And I have been constantly hungry for some reason). Sister Phillips is such a fiery missionary. There are tons of people to talk to allllll the timeeeee and our ward is full of people who are excited about helping us do missionary work. They really know how to fellowship and take care of those we are teaching. ALSO, my level of responsibility has heightened with my new assignment as a Sister Training Leader, but I feel like my heart has grown bigger! We have some incredible sisters in our zone to love and look after! We are privileged to talk with them every night over the phone and follow up on their daily and weekly missionary efforts. Tomorrow will be mine and Sister Phillips' first exchange, and we get to learn with and from the Miaoli 苗栗 sisters!
This last week on Thursday we attended what is called Missionary Leadership Council, or MLC. We met with President Peterson, his wife, and all the other Sister Training Leaders and Zone Leaders and discussed what our mission wants to focus on this transfer in order to better Teach Repentance, Baptize Converts. Though the goal is not to pick a "flavor of the month" and only focus on these areas while disregarding other important missionary skills guidelines, we will be zooming in on these three areas:
1. Urgency. We are motivated to work as effectively as we can and talk to everyone (have at least 10 quality gospel conversations a day!!!) by the same reason that motivated Alma and the sons of Mosiah:
"Now they were desirous that salvation should be declared to every creature, for they could not bear that any human soul should perish; yea, even the very thoughts that any soul should endure endless torment did cause them to quake and tremble (Mosiah 28: 2-3)."
2. Short, powerful lessons that bring the Holy Ghost. We are trying something in our mission where we are going to shorten our lessons to 30 minutes or less, according to how the Spirit prompts us. We believe that as we spend short amounts of time with people and blast them with the Spirit, haha, they will want to meet with us more and they will begin to recognize the Spirit more quickly. Also, this will encourage us to teach more simply and powerfully so our friends can understand the doctrine and the importance of the message.
3. Preach My Gospel, Chapter 11. We want to learn to better help people make and keep commitments by teaching powerfully, testifying of what we know to be true, promising blessings for keeping commandments, extending bold invitations, and following up promptly and in a way that encourages and shows our love for our friends.
We go after our goals until the goal becomes a given! That's a piece of wisdom that one of the sisters shared. Another key takeaway I had from MLC was this: Our friends need to know that "We are not trying to bring perfect people into the waters of baptism, we are trying to work toward perfection through baptism." All Jesus asks is that we are repentant.
As President Spencer W. Kimball puts it, when Jesus told us to "Be ye therefore perfect," he wasn't making fun of us. He was teaching us about our incredible potential to actually become perfect in Him. As we live the gospel by exercising faith in Christ, repenting daily, staying true to our baptismal covenants, remaining worthy to have the Holy Ghost's companionship, and enduring to the end, through the grace of God we can and will become as God wants us to become (see Moroni 10:32 and "Jesus: The Perfect Leader" by President Kimball).
But we all make mistakes. And we all need help and love and support. This is why we must love each other. Church is a place to learn and grow. It's been said that we should have the smell of tobacco more in our church buildings. I love that! You don't have to be "worthy" to come to church. Jesus Christ's Atonement is for those who have any manner of sickness, for those who feel like they can never measure up, for those who need forgiveness, aka all of us. So come to church, strenghthen and be strengthened by your brothers and sisters!
I just want you all to know that God loves you and there is a place for everyone in His fold. Jesus Christ is the perfect Shepherd. Come unto Him, repent and be happy.
I love you all!
Re-united (albeit briefly) with Sister Maynard for the first time in 6 months! Happy reunion!
Happy October! How are you all? I taught a cute 11-year-old girl with Sister Tu, then Sister Jensen, then Sister Lee for a loooonggggg time and she finally got baptized last night! Sister Lee video called me so I could chat with her and her mom for a bit! There were a lot of obstacles that we faced before she was baptized, the adversary was fighting, but all is well now! She was so lovely and all smiles last night.
I am just so dandy here in Xinzhu 新竹. Seriously I have just felt so, so 開心 ever since day one of being in this exciting new place! (And I have been constantly hungry for some reason). Sister Phillips is such a fiery missionary. There are tons of people to talk to allllll the timeeeee and our ward is full of people who are excited about helping us do missionary work. They really know how to fellowship and take care of those we are teaching. ALSO, my level of responsibility has heightened with my new assignment as a Sister Training Leader, but I feel like my heart has grown bigger! We have some incredible sisters in our zone to love and look after! We are privileged to talk with them every night over the phone and follow up on their daily and weekly missionary efforts. Tomorrow will be mine and Sister Phillips' first exchange, and we get to learn with and from the Miaoli 苗栗 sisters!
This last week on Thursday we attended what is called Missionary Leadership Council, or MLC. We met with President Peterson, his wife, and all the other Sister Training Leaders and Zone Leaders and discussed what our mission wants to focus on this transfer in order to better Teach Repentance, Baptize Converts. Though the goal is not to pick a "flavor of the month" and only focus on these areas while disregarding other important missionary skills guidelines, we will be zooming in on these three areas:
1. Urgency. We are motivated to work as effectively as we can and talk to everyone (have at least 10 quality gospel conversations a day!!!) by the same reason that motivated Alma and the sons of Mosiah:
"Now they were desirous that salvation should be declared to every creature, for they could not bear that any human soul should perish; yea, even the very thoughts that any soul should endure endless torment did cause them to quake and tremble (Mosiah 28: 2-3)."
2. Short, powerful lessons that bring the Holy Ghost. We are trying something in our mission where we are going to shorten our lessons to 30 minutes or less, according to how the Spirit prompts us. We believe that as we spend short amounts of time with people and blast them with the Spirit, haha, they will want to meet with us more and they will begin to recognize the Spirit more quickly. Also, this will encourage us to teach more simply and powerfully so our friends can understand the doctrine and the importance of the message.
3. Preach My Gospel, Chapter 11. We want to learn to better help people make and keep commitments by teaching powerfully, testifying of what we know to be true, promising blessings for keeping commandments, extending bold invitations, and following up promptly and in a way that encourages and shows our love for our friends.
We go after our goals until the goal becomes a given! That's a piece of wisdom that one of the sisters shared. Another key takeaway I had from MLC was this: Our friends need to know that "We are not trying to bring perfect people into the waters of baptism, we are trying to work toward perfection through baptism." All Jesus asks is that we are repentant.
As President Spencer W. Kimball puts it, when Jesus told us to "Be ye therefore perfect," he wasn't making fun of us. He was teaching us about our incredible potential to actually become perfect in Him. As we live the gospel by exercising faith in Christ, repenting daily, staying true to our baptismal covenants, remaining worthy to have the Holy Ghost's companionship, and enduring to the end, through the grace of God we can and will become as God wants us to become (see Moroni 10:32 and "Jesus: The Perfect Leader" by President Kimball).
But we all make mistakes. And we all need help and love and support. This is why we must love each other. Church is a place to learn and grow. It's been said that we should have the smell of tobacco more in our church buildings. I love that! You don't have to be "worthy" to come to church. Jesus Christ's Atonement is for those who have any manner of sickness, for those who feel like they can never measure up, for those who need forgiveness, aka all of us. So come to church, strenghthen and be strengthened by your brothers and sisters!
I just want you all to know that God loves you and there is a place for everyone in His fold. Jesus Christ is the perfect Shepherd. Come unto Him, repent and be happy.
I love you all!
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