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| A picture of me with our awesome investigator Linda! |
We
also ate dinner at the Bishop’s house! It was delicious!! And we were sent a
referral from one of the visitor center sisters. Apparently we had already
received the referral back in September but neither Sister Muench nor I were in
the area back in September. So, we're going to meet him when he gets back from
vacation!! And he gave us a referral for his friend too!!
Saturday:
The saying "one person's trash is another person's treasure"
definitely was true today. When we took our trash out today we found a pair of
brand new fancy leather shoes that had never been worn! They were just sitting
on the garbage can!
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| Hey Sister Muench - look what I found!!!! |
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| Brand new without a scratch on them! |
I
also studied Elder Uchtdorf's talk in the January Ensign titled "Aiming at
the Center" It's an AMAZING talk!! Elder Uchtdorf talks about how it takes
time and practice to master something and I am applying that to myself
regarding missionary work. It also talked about someone asking the Savior which
of the commandments was the most important and he replied with loving God and
then loving one another as well and it talked about how Christ not only aimed
at the target but also got the bull's-eye. It talked about the importance of
loving others and gave really great suggestions on how to love them :) At the Oakland
Temple Visitors Center today we met a man named Ray who had talked to some
sister missionaries there before we came on shift and we ended up talking to
him after they left. I think he is a literary artist. He was riding his skateboard
around and found the Oakland Temple and came in to the visitors' center. He
kept asking us if we could go to one of his shows or galleries or something
like that on Fridays and said he'd be so honored if we did but we can't… and
then he wanted to pray with us holding hands. Thankfully Sister Muench told him
we pray folding our arms so we didn't break any rules :) He’s really spiritual
and a talker HAHA.
Sunday: Ward Conference!! President Swenson talked about five
ways we can overcome the trials and to pick one of the five he was going to
share to work on in our personal lives. They are:
1. Yoke yourself to the Savior by
participating in covenants.
2. Recognize when Heavenly Father is strengthening us.
3. Be busy doing good!
4. Set aside pride.
5. Serve others.
2. Recognize when Heavenly Father is strengthening us.
3. Be busy doing good!
4. Set aside pride.
5. Serve others.
I also loved our lesson in Relief Society about
testimonies!! When
we went over to a member’s house to teach a recent convert;
we
sat in on the last few minutes of the family's home teaching
discussion. I
can't believe what these kids have to go through in school here! I’m so glad I
grew up in Utah…
Monday:
Nothing really happened today. We stopped by a less active member's house and
her daughter pulled up as we were leaving, so we ended up having a good
conversation with her. We did normal P-day stuff. I splurged and got salt and
vinegar chips :D Sister Muench is sick now for the 3rd time since December. So, while she's napping I'm making more Indian food! :) After that, we went to classic burger
again with the Samoan sister missionaries :)
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| Sister Muench and I with the Samoan Sisters (The Four Stooges) |
Tuesday:
So while reading in The Book of Mormon, specifically in Helaman, a few verses
stuck out to me Helaman 3:27-30 talks about how Christ will show us mercy if we
come unto him and repent sincerely. I love Helaman 3:35 because the Nephites
were being persecuted and in their time of affliction they turned to the Lord
and were made strong and it helped to strengthen their faith as well. Also,
it's important that we turn towards Him and not away from Him in hard times. Helaman
4:15 talks about how we're blessed when we repent. I really liked Helaman
4:21-26 because it talks about how the Nephites recognized that they had done
something wrong and that is the first step in the repentance process. We had
district meeting where we learned how to define gospel terms simply. We went to
the Visitor Center but we went home after an hour because Sister Muench was
sick. So while she slept I started the assignment to break our area into sub
groups (which we’ve already done) and the hard part was making a list of all of
the ward members in each area. Which is what I was working on and which I'm
still not done with.
Wednesday: FEBRUARY!!! The day started off crazy! We were doing our studies at the Visitor Center when a recent convert from our ward called us needing a priesthood blessing ASAP. So we scrambled trying to find people who weren't working to go over. I am so thankful to retired brothers in our ward who were able to go over :) Something really special happened today. A Vietnamese lady who comes in every once in a while came in today. I talked to her for a few minutes and she told me how she felt so happy coming here. A little while after we talked, she took off her shoes and climbed on the base of the Visitor Center Christus statue and I can't even being to have the words to describe how she looked up at Christ’s face as she ran her hand over his robes and then made her way to one side and reached up encompassing his large hand in both of her hands and just stared in awe and love and humility at him. Then she went to the other side and did the same but this time it looked like she was talking to him. Since I was seated behind the Christus statue, I couldn't see what she did when she went in front but another sister said she got on her knees and bowed to him paying respect to him. Then she quietly got up, put on her shoes and with her hands together in prayer position she bowed to him and left. This really touched me. It made the spirit stir inside of me and it reminded me of all of the people who came to Christ during his mortal ministry and begged him for mercy and forgiveness. It reminded me of his atonement, that he knows and is aware of us all and how pure and close people with disabilities are to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. We also found a potential investigator named Elizabeth while we were out tracting (knocking on doors).
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| This is a picture of the Christus statue in the Oakland Temple Visitors Center. This is where the Vietnamese lady was showing her respect to the Savior. |
Something
really special happened today. A Vietnamese lady
who comes in every once in a
while came in today. I talked to her for a few minutes and she told me how she
felt so happy coming here. A little while after we talked, she took off her
shoes and climbed on the base of the Visitor Center Christus statue and I can't
even being to have the words to describe how she looked up at Christ’s face as
she ran her hand over his robes and then made her way to one side and reached
up encompassing his large hand in both of her hands and just stared in awe and
love and humility at him. Then she went to the other side and did the same but
this time it looked like she was talking to him. Since I was seated behind the
Christus statue, I couldn't see what she did when she went in front but another
sister said she got on her knees and bowed to him paying respect to him. Then
she quietly got up, put on her shoes and with her hands together in prayer
position she bowed to him and left. This really touched me. It made the spirit
stir inside of me and it reminded me of all of the people who came to Christ during
his mortal ministry and begged him for mercy and forgiveness. It reminded me of
his atonement, that he knows and is aware of us all and how pure and close
people with disabilities are to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. We also found
a potential investigator named Elizabeth while we were out tracting (knocking
on doors).
Thursday:
We had Visitor Center training and departing Visitor Center Sisters testimony
meeting. Sister Wirthlin (she was Sister Muench's trainer) couldn't stop laughing and
crying while bearing her testimony about how happy it makes her to share the
gospel with others. She talked about how, in this dark world, we have Jesus
Christ to be our light (Mosiah 16:9). But I really loved Sister Chiang's
testimony. She shared about how her grandparents were one of the first people
to be baptized in Hong Kong and how her grandma knew this gospel was true and
when she passed away Sister Chiang found out that her grandma had saved some
money so that she could go on a mission.
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| Sister Chiang and I in the Oakland Temple Visitors Center. I'm going to miss her! |
She
also talked about the scripture found on her grandpa's grave, 2 Timothy 4:6-7. She
talked about how, even though her mission is over, she will be starting her
Hong Kong chapter. She talked about how we're all the army of Jesus Christ. I
also love this story she shared about a father with children who grew up and
were leaving home and he talked to them individually and said "Please make
good choices. Please come back home." This is our loving Heavenly Father
and we are the children. He wants us to follow His guidance and make good
choices so that we CAN come home. Role playing a lesson is SO important! This
is the second time it's happened with one of our lessons. A concern that came
up when we role played actually was a concern in one of our lessons and we were
better prepared to answer it. Also a man came into the Visitor Center because he
dropped his parents off at the temple. He had been less active for a while but
is now coming back to church and we showed him around. At the end he said he
felt really bad for being inactive but Sister Muench told him that it counts that
you're here now and there isn't anything the Savior wouldn't forgive you for if
you sincerely repent.
Friday:
We had an awesome lesson with Linda again!! We ate at the Coopers for dinner.
We are going to have a new art gallery in the Visitor Center! Pictures about
Christ's life!!
Saturday: BIG NEWS!!!!!! We found out Sister Muench is getting transferred to Berkley to be the new Sister Training Leader. I'm going to be staying in this area and Sister Shkapich will be my new companion!! Yay!! We also talked to a really nice guy who found Christianity and said it changed his life for the better and he's more patient etc.
Sunday: I finished the talk on love that my dad mailed to me; "Love - the Essence of the Gospel" by President Monson (Look it up!!) I loved how it talked about how we need to love each other! Dale Carnegie said each person has within himself or herself the "power to increase the sum total of the world’s happiness … by giving a few words of sincere appreciation to someone who is lonely or discouraged." I GOT HUGGED!!! A man from Texas came in and asked if this was the building he saw from the freeway. I said yes and he went to shake my hand but ended up pulling me in for a hug and halfway there I put my hands up and said sorry! I can't hug you! Hahaha Sister Muench said that still counts as being hugged. ;P
Monday (TODAY)!!! Miracles!! I only have 1 minute left! But a former investigator we tried contacting in the past randomly stopped us today while we were leaving the laundry room in our apartment complex. He asked us to help him with something on his computer and then we found out it was the former investigator we’ve been trying to contact!! It was SO cool! He said he had prayed and asked to find someone who was smart to help him with his computer and was about to leave and look in the parking lot when he saw us. Funny thing is; we had to refill our laundry card and that made us have to come back to do our laundry, so if it hadn’t been for that, he wouldn't have seen us!! Then we went to lunch with a member at "The Mexican"!! It was SO good!!
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