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| Introducing my new companion - Sister Fiu! |
Hello Everyone,
7/25 Tuesday: We had transfers and I'm officially companions with Sister Fiu and now serving in the Oakland 9th ward!
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| Transfer lineup! |
One of the ward mission leaders drove
some Elders to transfers in his Tesla SUV (Model X)
7/26 Wednesday: We went to
go see Djenaba the investigator who is getting baptized this Sunday (7/30) and
one of the first things she told us was after reviewing the pamphlets to
prepare her for her baptism is that she realized that being baptized would mean
she'd become a member of our church and she doesn't want to be a Mormon. She
just wanted to be baptized. She said she didn't want to be part of a church
that was restrictive and said told us that she drank coffee today. But she said
she hadn't really taken the time to "ponder" on the things we've
taught so we invited her to read the Book of Mormon, ponder and to pray and
that we knew she would get her answer so she agreed and said we could call her
tomorrow to see what her answer was. But a miracle with her was Sister Fiu felt
prompted to bring a copy of the Restoration DVD for her. So we gave that to her
and hopefully she won't be skeptical about Joseph Smith. Then we had a nice
lesson with some recent converts about the Tree of Life. Then we ate pizza with
our investigator Tom. We also had an awesome lesson with our investigator
Andrew and he brought his girlfriend and their Son Ace to meet with us! We
shared the Plan of Salvation with them and showed them around the Visitors Center.
Andy, our recent convert from Russia, said he could come for Cyril's lesson at
the Visitors Center on Friday!
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| View of the Oakland Temple from my new apartment in down town Oakland |
7/27 Thursday: We called
Djenaba and she didn't pray or do anything but sleep of a few hours and just
decided she didn't want to join our church and wanted to cut all ties and not
have us contact her anymore sadly... I met Bishop King and then our lesson fell
through so we went tracting and found a lady named Kimberly who said we could come
back! We also went to a less active members group home and read from the Book
of Enos with her and refreshed her memory on what we do to repent and then the
Elders came over and gave her a blessing for her foot :)
7/28 Friday: We mainly did
weekly planning all day and then we had an awesome lesson with Tom at his home
with the Chadwell's about tithing and fasting which he agreed to do after he's
baptized :) Cyril canceled our meeting at the Visitors Center and Andy didn't
know so he still went to the Visitors Center but he said he got to do Baptisms
for the Dead for the first time. He was able to do baptisms for his Grandpa and
other family names!
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| My last picture together with Sister Bosco as companions. |
7/29 Saturday: We got to a
recent convert's apartment complex a little early and we decided to street
contact. I saw an older Chinese couple that I tried talking to in broken
Chinese about the event schedule and musical performances at the Visitors Center
and it turns out the man was from Changsha where my little sister was born!!! They
wanted to take a picture with me afterwards (typical in China). The recent
convert we were visiting ended up not being able to meet with us BUT we met a
lady who worked there who walked out the door and it turns out she works with
the Ward Mission Leader in Hayward and she’s been to church with him a few
times there and lives in Oakland! And she wants to learn more! So we're super
excited :) It just goes to show how easy member missionary work is. The ward
mission leader was just a friend for her to turn to and gave her
encouragement by talking about the gospel and simply invited her to go to
church with him. There is a myth about how to gauge how successful you are in
missionary work which is "if they don't get baptized or want to learn more
then I'm a failure." This is completely wrong! Missionary work is simply
inviting others! Everyone has their own agency and it's then left up to them to
use it. :) My mom also sent me more flowers! They were super pretty!
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| Oakland is FILLED with street art and grafitti |
7/30 SUNDAY!: My
first Sunday at the Oakland 9th Ward was amazing! It was
nice that I already knew a handful of people there :) And Tom our investigator
came with us and participated in the Sunday school classes! And the Sacrament
meeting was amazing because we had the Temple president and his wife (President
and Sister Southwick) speak during the meeting. It was AMAZING! Then we were
able to show a Spanish family around the Visitors Center and then we went to
visit 2 less active members and they were SO sweet!
7/31 Monday: We've only
cleaned so far and went to the dollar store but we're going to be having a
district activity at the Berkeley institute playing games and eating pizza from
Cheeseboard. Then we're going to Emryville to shop around at all of the stores
there :) Then we have some lessons tonight I'm excited for!
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| Oakland Temple |
P.S. I'm going to be 20 the
next time I write to you all! :D I'm not really sure how I feel.. 0.0 If you
wanna send me anything just send me a letter, your favorite conference talk,
and or your testimony :)
Love you all!!!!!
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