Bittersweet

Ben was only able to send us an email the day before he came home as his last email. 

Oh, my sweet baby boy! ️ I am overwhelmed with emotions today! Happy, excited nervous, anxious, sad but mostly GRATEFUL! 

Ben, you have given me an experience that I will NEVER forget.  In 2 years time I have had to learn to deal with heartache (missing you), trials, (of all kinds), happiness (for your success), worry (for you and our family), missing you and your calming spirit, patience, learning to trust, but also coming closer to my Heavenly Father more than I thought was possible. 

Your example of endurance through adversity, strength, courage, bravery, tenacity, and love has taught me more than I could ever express. Thank you for sharing your experience and journey with me. YOU, Ben are an AMAZING example of Christ and I feel so lucky to be your Mom. 

I'm sure you are a ball of emotions too, but I really hope 1 of them is excitement to see everyone who loves and has missed you. My phone has BLOWN UP ALL DAY with family and friends who are SOOO ANXIOUS to see you and spend time with you! It warms my heart Ben to know how loved you are! The people of California love you, the people you have served with and everyone back home. You should be so proud of the job you have done serving the Lord these past years. 

Enjoy this last day/night. Soak it all in sweetheart . You are AMAZING and I am so excited to spend the days with you hearing ALL about your incredible journey in the mission field. 

"Well done thou good and faithful servant"

LOVE MOM️

QUESTION:

#1- What would you like to do tomorrow? Go grab a bite? Have people over here? 

Oh my gosh, Mom, I can't begin to express how many emotions I have right now. Yes, I am excited to see you guys! It is also super hard to leave the people I have come to love over these 2 years. I fill complete and know I accomplished what God expected of me. Thank you for your encouragement and support throughout these 2 years!

The members have been so kind to me. It is really hard to leave this Chinese group.

I have been crying ALL DAY!! Happy tears, nervous tears....I can almost feel that hug! 

Answer: Probs go get some food is fine, I doubt I will eat anything until I get home. I did have Duck Neck, so if we could avoid that, that would be great.

We Are Going Out With A Bang

大家好！我快死了... 

Hello everyone! 

It is true... I am in the last week of my mission, sadly. I have truly come to love these people with all of my heart. I have come to love God's Chinese children I since I have been here on my mission and it's hard to say goodbye!! 

HOWEVER!! We are not going out without a bang! We have many miracles lined up for this upcoming week. The Lord still continues to prepare his people to receive the Gospel even when his missionaries only have one week left. Hahaha.

We have 4 baptisms this Sunday for 4 different individuals. They all have their unique stories and I have been so grateful to play small parts and their conversion. I don't have a lot of time to talk about all of them. But I will post about them later on. 

Shannon Yang a convert of mine from about a year ago. Will be going through the temple this weekend to get her endowments out. I'm so excited about this very eventful week. I get to go to the temple twice and have 4 baptisms! I could not think of a better way to finish my mission. I love this work and I am so excited to see all of you next week. I'm not sure if I will send out a group email next week. But that doesn't really matter because I'll see you all in person!

我爱你们！ I love all of you see you soon!

A Little Extra from Ben to Us:

Guys, I have never had such a large mix Of emotions in my entire life! I have gotten told about a million times this week I am basically dead haha. We had our outgoing testimonies at Multi-Zones and I cried my eyes out haha. I have only cried one other time in my whole mission. But it was about to let it out in front of 55 missionaries haha. I have come to love these people with all of my heart! I can not express the gratitude and the true love I have for these people! 

Now let me take a moment to talk about how lit last week was and how lit this week will be. 

We currently have 4 people bring baptized on our last Sunday! Talk about going out with a bang! Every one of these people have amazing stories and were found in different ways. I could not think of a better way to go home than that!!!

We also have the pleasure of getting to go with Shanon to the temple on Saturday to get out her Endowments!!! Man this last week is amazing. God is sooo good. Let me give you a rundown of some of these lessons and how everyone is doing. We are sooooo busy right now. 

First off Sunny: 

We taught her the remainder of the commandments this week and it went great! She had been reading every day in China and brought us all back books from Beijing and gave them to us as gifts! She had her baptismal interview on Sunday and is good to go! She asked me immediately after to baptize her on Sunday! Her friend told me while she was in her interview that I was her favorite haha. She said I had played a very major role in her conversion! Aka God played a major role haha. We are excited for her this Sunday! 

2nd:

Rosie is another one getting baptized on Sunday. We finished all the lessons with her and she is good to go! She came over to dinner with us at Shanons home this weekend! She has been amazing through the whole teaching process. Very little concerns and in fact referred herself! 

3rd. Mr. Wang

We literally found this family last week but they are so ready!!! They leave back to China right after we go home. They would be baptized together except she just gave birth last week which was, in fact, a C-section. However, they came has a whole family to church! Mr. Wang will be baptized on Sunday!

4th

Michelle is someone we are teaching all the way in Palm Springs which is about `. 5 hours from our home... However, she is amazing and will be baptized out there on Sunday. Her baptism is at 1:30 and the rest are that night at 7:00. She flew through the lessons in about 2 weeks. Elder Lai and I have been the only ones that taught her through the whole process. She said she is so excited and we are too! 

Anyways as you can see the miracles are never ending. I still haven't fully registered the fact I am going home. This just seems like my life haha. I love this work and I am sooo excited to see you. But my heart is truly with the Chinese people I have served for these last 2 years. Love you both soooooooo much! See you next week. 

Come Unto Me And Be Baptized In My Name

The Work Never Stops

Hello everyone! 

I have very little time and I apologize this weekly will be a little lame.

A few things to know:

The work is on fire right now. We are currently a 4 man companionship which has been quite the trial. But has been very fruitful and we have many many new people this week. 

We are teaching so many amazing people right now. We are planning to have 4 baptisms on Nov 18th which is coming up soon. These 4 people are doing amazing and truly could hit their goals. We have a very busy week ahead of us. We hope to have them already by that date. 

Sunny is doing soooooo amazing, she is in China right now but stays in contact with us. She said she still read the BOM every day. She is even reading it with her parents who love it!! Huge miracles, we are excited for her and know she is going to hit her date.

I would talk about all the other people but we have so little time! I am so excited to work hard these last 2 weeks. Elder Crowther and I refuse to go out without a bang! We want to do some amazing things this past 2 weeks. We know there are many amazing things on the way.

We had a Stake Conference this weekend and had a member of the 70 come visit. He is a great guy and we took a picture with him after.

LOVE THE WORK AND I LOVE ALL OF YOU! 

Elder Nelson 孙长老

A little extra from Ben's recording:

For some reason my cute son cannot keep track of his recorder, haha Thank heavens for Elder Crowther having one that Ben could borrow. 😀

Sunny is still on date for Nov. 18, which the boys are excited about. She went to China for a minute and told the boys that she went "clubbing" and drank a bit while she was out. Uh-Oh. But...she felt so guilty and in her words, "prayed deeply" for forgiveness and is back on track. One thing about her story that is cool is that when she went home, she started reading the BOM with her parents and they LOVED it. They expressed that is brought them peace. So who knows where that will lead, but hopefully she can continue to share her feelings for her Savior and this gospel. 

They met with Pius again and he has fallen back a little, but the boys LOVE him and they have gained hopefully a lifelong friend.

Rosie is doing really well and is on date for the 18th as well. Ben is pretty excited for these 2 potential baptisms, right before he goes home. 

Ben and Elder Crowther got a random call from someone that lives in Palms Springs who has a friend that is extremely interested in the gospel. The boys went out to see her and found that she is "on fire". They put her on date mid-December and she said, "Wait! aren't you going home soon? I want to be baptized before you go." Sooo, they put her on date for the 18th as well! 3 BAPTISMS FOR THE 18TH, the boys last Sunday!! They are meeting with her 3 times a week and working really hard to see if she can make that date. 

The Wong family is next. The wife just had an emergency C-section and there were complications with the baby who had to stay in the hospital. They do not have insurance so they were paying EVERYTHING out of pocket, which was getting too hard for them. Needless to say with LOTS of prayers, the baby was able to come home! YAY! The husband wants to be baptized ASAP, so the boys put them on date for the 18th as well! WHAT!! This is so CRAZY and EXCITING for them and these investigators! 

Ben will be giving his final testimony😢 this upcoming week and Elder Crowther and Ben were picked to teach one last training on baptisms and how to get people from point A to point B. What an honor to teach one last lesson to all the Elders. 

They had the privilege of having Elder Joaquin Costa of the 70 come and visit and speak to them for Stake Conference. Ben said he is a really great guy and they were able to talk to him for a bit. 

Ben's body "hates him right now" as he puts it, but as he says, "it will NOT stop me from finding the Elect". He is such a great example to me of perseverance and enduring to the end. Hopefully, the Lord will continue to bless him and Elder Crowther so they can Finish Strong these last few weeks!