Speechless Miracles

Hello my wonderful people mostly from Utah!

I'm going to attempt to summarize one of the most amazing and stressful weeks I've ever had on my mission!

We are going to start with last Sunday. Sister Bao told us she would be returning to China this Wednesday. We were so sad to see her go, but had full faith in her to stay on the path to her Father in Heaven.

Monday: 

We receive a call from Sister Bao around 7:00am informing us that she will be leaving on Aug 13 now (Saturday)! We continue to talk to her and get on the subject of Baptism. We ask her directly, "Sister Bao, would you like to be baptized"? She pauses for a moment (longest seconds of my life).  She says, "Yes, Yes I would like that very much". Me and Elder Willes are frozen with joy! We begin to explain how excited we are for her, and explain what it will take for her to be baptized on Sunday Aug 6th. She fully agrees to meet with us everyday and said she will do whatever it takes!

Then NOT 20 MINS LATER! Jacky calls us to say he wants to be baptized on Aug 20th!! We got hit with those 2 things in rapid succession! Me and Elder Willes are losing are minds! What an amazing Monday! 

As for the rest of the week, we met with Sister Bao every single day to catch her up and help her be ready for baptism! We found a group for her to go out to when she gets back to China! So she was all set and ready to go! Every lesson we taught her, she loved and understood very quickly she was so prepared for everything!

We went and saw Jacky on Wednesday to talk to him about his date and he made us both HUGE sushi rolls, since he is a sushi chef! He is very committed to his date and is also willing to progress towards it! Love that guy so much! 

Then jumping to Sunday the big day! I wake up as sick as I have ever been! I got one of my terrible migraines that put me over and I was throwing up sooo much. I was so frustrated that this had to happen on the day of her Baptism. I laid down accepting I was going to miss it, and just prayed til I finally fell asleep. I woke up at 3:00p (time of the baptism) and felt completely fine! I rushed up and got ready still quite sick however and went to the baptism! I got there just in time to see Sister Bao smiling as she was baptized! 

Yet another amazing miracle I was able to go. She came up to me after and said, "I have been praying for you over and over you could come!" 

What an amazing week! I'm going to miss her so much and thank you for all the prayers! 

The pics with Sister Bao. I came late so I took a pic after her baptism and I'm super pale lol! 

Elder Nelson 孙长老

Ben, Jacky and Elder Willes

When Ben gives us more detail from his week on his recording it always makes me smile because he gives us those details from his journal. He was pretty adamant that he wouldn't use his journal since he didn't really write in one before he left, so it makes me sooo happy to hear that he will have memories to read and look back on later on in his life.

This week Ben had the AMAZING opportunity to try something called "Bowl of Stinky Tofu". Brother Miao loves to give them really good food and then likes to have them try some questionable food, just to watch them squirm. His description of this entree is hilarious. 😂

"It smells and tastes just like you spread someone's butt cheeks and rubbed your face in it!" Hahahaha

Right after that they went and met with Jacky who made them TONS of sushi. He shared a dream that he saw his dog and that he ended up abandoning it. The 2nd part of the dream was that he was fighting an animal and he didn't know what that was about. When he woke he explained to Ben and Elder Willes that he believes that the dream meant that he was going to abandon his sins and be baptized. That was Jacky's "conversion" to be baptized. So more on that to come. 

Ben had the opportunity to go "seeking with faith" in the English part of the mission. He is now being able to help train and teach the new missionaries that come out on how to talk to people and invite people to hear the lessons. 

They felt prompted to stop and talk to this family, which they thought was someone else, but asked if they could share a message. The Dad has named himself "Jo-rel", the father of Superman, which is hilarious. LOL They ended up having a really good lesson with this family but realized they were at the wrong house. When they finished they went to where they were suppose to be and the man there said he was no longer interested. Ben shared with us how listening to the spirit has really helped him on his mission find those people that the Lord has prepared, like the family they "accidentally" went and taught.

Listening to my son share his experience of being sick the day of Sister Bao's baptism is heartbreaking and inspiring. He shares how deathly ill he was. In his words:

"Sunday morning comes. I don't get sick very often but when I do...it's bad! I woke up with a little headache that turned into a full blown migraine. It gave me a terrible stomachache too. I thought to myself, This cannot happen today, please not today on Sister Bao's baptism day. I am hosed, I get annihilated I am so sick. I get in the shower, I am so weak, I am losing depth perception, I am losing feeling in my hands and I start to tear up and think, Please, Please, Please not today. I cannot miss this miracle baptism. 

I had the Elders come over and give me a blessing and I am just getting worse. I start throwing up and I'm like dang it, you've got to be kidding me. So I decide to stay home from sacrament meeting but I am determined to go to that baptism no matter how sick I am . Elder Peraz stayed back with me while Elder Willes and Elder Gulbranson went to church. Elder Peraz is super sweet, just getting me anything and everything I could need. I am throwing up like crazy. I threw up over 10 times in 1 hour. I am dying. We get on the phone with the nurse who tells us, "I don't care about companionship's right now. I want you to go by yourself and get him some Excedrin." He comes back with it and she tells me to suck on it. I do and throw it up. She asks me to do it again, I throw it up again. We are 30 minutes away from the baptism and I have nearly given up about being able to go. I had been praying for 3 hours, please let me go to this baptism. I cannot miss this. I want to be there to support Sister Bao before she goes back to China. I fall asleep and I wake up about 2:55p and my stomach is just fine. I sipped a little coke and get ready to go. I am far from feeling OK, but I bolt to the church and I get there just in time to see her smile as she is going into get baptized. The Lord healed me JUST ENOUGH to be able to watch her be baptized and confirmed. I was able to hear her bear her testimony on the gospel and how she is going to endure to the end no matter what and how me and Elder Willes are true representatives of the Lord. It was AMAZING! 

I was lucky enough to take a picture with her even though I look like Casper the Friendly Ghost and blessed just enough to do the Lords work for that day!"

Sister Bao Ji Lei Baptism

"Stinky Tofu"