Miracles Ain't Ceased
Hello Everyone!
This week was super awesome, we taught a lot of amazing people!
Tuesday: We gave a training on "Having great Faith". We trained about 60 missionaries and the mission presidency. So that was a little intimidating, however it went super well!
Jumping to Thursday: I had the opportunity to go on a Exchange with Elder Lowry. Great newer missionary in our zone. He came to our Chinese area, it was a super fun exchange. The Lord blessed me with so much energy and desire to do the work! We met some great people that day, one being Lucy and Lucia!
So we were teaching English class and a new family came in I didn't recognize. They said a friend told them about our English class. Lucia, the younger one, like mid 20's asked me about our church since she read my name tag. To quote her she said "I want to learn more about your church and who you represent. Can we meet sometime so we can learn more? We would also like the address to your church please." I was super surprised by how quick she asked for that! After class we exchanged information and said I would call her the following day!
Friday: We got to go see Evangel one of our recent converts. The first thing I noticed was she had one of her major teeth missing! That threw me for a loop but at least she still had her mullet!!! Then the first thing she said was, "Elder Willes you have gotten fatter. Elder Nelson you have gotten skinnier and I like your sweater". Oh how I love the bluntness of Asians! She is doing great and said she would be at church on Sunday!
Later that night we had the opportunity to go over and teach Ryan one of our very Less-Active members. He agreed to take the missionary lessons over again, however his wife is not baptized and not interested. As we were teaching him the first lesson she came into the kitchen to cut some vegetables. We could tell she was listening very closely to our conversation. Ryan expressed how he felt God had not been answering his prayers, and felt that God needed to give him everything. I explained that just like our parents here if they give us everything in this life, we wont grow or know how to do anything! I said, "Our Father in Heaven is the same. He expects us to learn and do our part in order to receive help and guidance, so that we can continue to grow and have our own testimony." Ryan fully agreed and thanked me for the help. The cool part was Selina came over and sat down she said, "You know what you are doing, and you answered a question I have had for a long time." She sat in for the rest of the lesson and agreed to read the Book of Mormon. We are so excited that she was touched by the spirit and I knew what to say not only for Ryan but for her also!
Saturday: Today was super awesome! We had the opportunity to go and teach Lucy and Lucia. Their lesson was super good, they were eating everything up we taught them. Lucia took a Baptismal date for 2/11 since she will be leaving to China on the 2/15... She is super solid and she said something super cool during the lesson.
This week was super awesome, we taught a lot of amazing people!
Tuesday: We gave a training on "Having great Faith". We trained about 60 missionaries and the mission presidency. So that was a little intimidating, however it went super well!
Jumping to Thursday: I had the opportunity to go on a Exchange with Elder Lowry. Great newer missionary in our zone. He came to our Chinese area, it was a super fun exchange. The Lord blessed me with so much energy and desire to do the work! We met some great people that day, one being Lucy and Lucia!
So we were teaching English class and a new family came in I didn't recognize. They said a friend told them about our English class. Lucia, the younger one, like mid 20's asked me about our church since she read my name tag. To quote her she said "I want to learn more about your church and who you represent. Can we meet sometime so we can learn more? We would also like the address to your church please." I was super surprised by how quick she asked for that! After class we exchanged information and said I would call her the following day!
Friday: We got to go see Evangel one of our recent converts. The first thing I noticed was she had one of her major teeth missing! That threw me for a loop but at least she still had her mullet!!! Then the first thing she said was, "Elder Willes you have gotten fatter. Elder Nelson you have gotten skinnier and I like your sweater". Oh how I love the bluntness of Asians! She is doing great and said she would be at church on Sunday!
Later that night we had the opportunity to go over and teach Ryan one of our very Less-Active members. He agreed to take the missionary lessons over again, however his wife is not baptized and not interested. As we were teaching him the first lesson she came into the kitchen to cut some vegetables. We could tell she was listening very closely to our conversation. Ryan expressed how he felt God had not been answering his prayers, and felt that God needed to give him everything. I explained that just like our parents here if they give us everything in this life, we wont grow or know how to do anything! I said, "Our Father in Heaven is the same. He expects us to learn and do our part in order to receive help and guidance, so that we can continue to grow and have our own testimony." Ryan fully agreed and thanked me for the help. The cool part was Selina came over and sat down she said, "You know what you are doing, and you answered a question I have had for a long time." She sat in for the rest of the lesson and agreed to read the Book of Mormon. We are so excited that she was touched by the spirit and I knew what to say not only for Ryan but for her also!
Saturday: Today was super awesome! We had the opportunity to go and teach Lucy and Lucia. Their lesson was super good, they were eating everything up we taught them. Lucia took a Baptismal date for 2/11 since she will be leaving to China on the 2/15... She is super solid and she said something super cool during the lesson.
"The night we came to English class I met Elder Nelson (Elder Willes was in another area). I wanted to learn more about your church and who you represent because you had a literal light coming off of you. You were so polite and knew what you had was good for my family".
I thought that was so awesome! She thanked me for my kindness and knew we were representatives of the Lord.
Sunday: Lucia came to church and had a great time! She met many great people and has lots of new friends. We are very excited for her and the major progression she has made in so little time!
Sunday: Lucia came to church and had a great time! She met many great people and has lots of new friends. We are very excited for her and the major progression she has made in so little time!
Elder Nelson 孙长老
Eating weird things on the mission-✔
(Crawfish Service & Pigs Tongue)
Ben LOVES feeding ducks!
Cafe Rio (Tender Mercy) & Visit with Evangel
I know I say this all the time, but I LOVE listening to Ben's recordings! As a Mom it helps me know where he is emotionally, because you can hear it in his voice. This week he sounded so, so, so happy! When talking about his exchanges with the District Leaders he laughed and said that the other missionaries chuckle at how different their (Mandarin Mission) is from the others.
In this mission when they try to find prepared people, they call it "Seeking with Faith", but Ben calls it "Stalking with Faith" Haha😁 and he talked about how you have to "Racially Profile" people, which sounds so wrong. But what he means is there are a lot of Asians that live in the states that are born here and only speak English. Then there are those that only speak Mandarin. Those are the ones they are seeking out. The Elders that are not familiar with the "Mandarin" finding process, think it is crazy. LOL😀
Ben told us that most of the Chinese people he meets always say they have been to our "Big Church" in Utah! They mean the Salt Lake Temple! Whether they like our church or not, so many of them have been to our Temple and love the beauty of it.
One thing that has been funny on this mission journey is the "secret" competition between Isaac and Ben on who is going to be more fit and have bigger muscles than the other. Well... maybe I should say the determination that Isaac is having on being bigger than Ben. This week Ben told us that he benched 200 pounds!! That is insane!!😲😲 I am so proud of him for accomplishing something he has worked so hard for.
Ben went on to talk about one of the women they taught and baptized, Shanon. Hearing how much he loves and cares for her is endearing. She literally came from talking about the BOM being nothing but "fairy tale stories" to having it be one of her most prized possessions. What a testament this has been to Ben of the power of the Gospel and the happiness it can bring.
What a great week he had out in the "Mish"!
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