Tuesday, September 17, 2013

16 September ,2013


Sister Loh and I have a new profession here. It is editing our Chinese investigators/ members papers for school. I guess this is why I took a writing class my last semester at BYU? Who knows. Unfortunately, my missionary brain has pretty much eliminated all of my pre-mission knowledge so I wouldn't say I am all that good at helping them edit just yet.

We taught a new investigator last week. He is a professor at the Uni. One of the Chinese recent converts was his student and we already knew that he knew she was a member. Turns out that he shares an office with another one of our investigators and they talk about the church. This man is meant to have the gospel. The last time we met him he asked if he could add us on facebook and I was like ''sure! but I won't be able to accept your friend request until after my mission.'' He is very friendly and told us that we could call him any time we were down by the Uni.

Thursday was another day of exchanges! I got to stay in our area while Sister Smith (she trained Sister Merrill) came in Sister Loh's place. This was only my second time leading my area and things went pretty well. We went to call by an investigator (call by= visiting someones house with out an appointment). As we were walking to our various destinations, Sister Smith and I met a couple people on the street that said they would be interested in learning more about the gospel. Some of my favorite memories from this exchange was when we went to Liverpool One to street contact, chased down an Asian man who turned out to be Japanese (oops), and then we met a young man from Malaysia who spoke Mandarin Chinese. He was in UK on holiday with his mom and sister and he was waiting for them to come out of Primark. We explained to him how to pray and before I offered a prayer, Sister Smith told him that at the end of the prayer, if we agree with what was said, we all say Amen. He didn't exactly understand what that meant so as I am saying the prayer he said 'amen' multiple times. It went something like this: ''Please bless Yan that he and his family will be blessed with health (amen) and happiness (amen). Help them enjoy the rest of their trip (amen). We are thankful for our families (amen).'' The first time he said amen I was confused and opened by eyes to see that he still had his head down and arms folded so I continued praying. By the second one, I realized what was going on and I started laughing to myself.  Needless to say, it was hard to keep a straight face during the prayer. I felt like a preacher at church that had a great sermon. We meet a really interesting man before we returned home for the night, not that that is unusual here in Liverpool. He started talking to us about how we could shampoo and wash our hair outside when it starts raining really hard.. never thought of trying that before haha.

This weekend we were able to visit a less active that we have been trying to get a hold of since last transfer. Sister Loh and I have only been able to text her and not ever able to see her in person until this last week. She has told us via text message that she has been in a lot of pain so we told her we would bring someone with us to give her a priesthood blessing. We brought a couple of members with us and I was so grateful that they were willing to come see her with us because she was in great need of a loving embrace. Before we arrived at her flat she texted us that she was afraid that we wouldn't like her but I told her that we did love her and so did God. It is amazing how much compassion and love you can have for a person you have never met.

Sister Loh and I will be going out of our assigned proselyting area to St. Helens to teach a Chinese investigator that has a baptismal date. The Chinese Sister missionaries that were teaching her were transferred out and there were not any Chinese missionaries in their area to teach her so we have the great opprounity to pick up where they left off in teaching her. She is 17 years old and despite her mom not realy wanting her to be taught at her house some days, her mom has given her permission to be baptized. Sister Loh was actually able to teach her once last transfer while she was on exchange. Since she understands English pretty well the English speaking Sisters have met with her a couple of times to teach her but we think she is more comfortable asking questions and able to undertand more when her lessons are in Chinese. We taught her the library and after our lesson her siblings came over. Our investigator  needed help on math so we were going to help her with that but her little sister also asked us for help on her sceince homework. Chem 105 was waaay too long ago. Her twelve year old sister can't read and understand English and doesn't understand it when it is spoken to her. Oh boy!  On top of not being able to remember Chemistry I also didn't know how to explain everything in Chinese.  Good thing I had my langugage study edition of my Book of Mormon and I was able to look up how to say some words since my companion didn't know how to say it either. I think I helped her understand what she had to do for the assignment. I think.. haha. The  sister kept asking us if we would come back the next day to help her again but we kept telling her we couldn't. It feels so good to be able to serve in any capacity and you can't help but love those you serve. Our investigators siblings aren't being taught right now but I want them to be baptized so badly! After meeting them once I love them all. Maybe one day they will all be baptized. We ran for our train to get back to Liverpool but we missed it by 30 seconds. Ahh!! Everything happens for a reason though and Sister Loh was able to give a lady a Book of Mormon and I met a young lady named Carla. What is with this trend of meeting people with the same names as by parents? Same spellings and everything.

When we finally made it back to our area, we went to the church building to help prepare food and set up for the ward activity. It was so much fun! It was great to see all of the ward members come together and build unity.

The crazy winds that have been known for breaking umbrellas are back.. We were on our way to an appointment yesterday with our recent convert Yan and she left with an umbrella because it was sprinkling. We weren't even half way down the street before we almost got blown away by the strong winds. The winds were so strong they flipped her umbrella inside out. We were able to flip it back everytime it was flipped inside out but there are only so many times an umbrella can take that sort of torment. Let it be publically known: umbrellas are just not able to survive out here. I guess I will continue to brave the rain with out one.

My lightbulb moment this week would have to be the moment the scripture ''if ye love me, keep my commandments'' made so much more sense: If we truly love Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, we will want to return back to live in their presence. If we want to return back to them, then we need to follow the guidance they give us through the conditions they have established. The overall condition is that if we keep the commandments, we will be able to return to live with them. Maybe you have already realized this connection but it finally was clear to me. Although we may not understand all of the reasons why we are given certain commandments, we should still obey them because by obedeince we can return to live with them again. The gospel is simple. If we do not already love our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ then we should seek to develop that love because once we love them we will willingly keep their commandments.

Love you all!
Sister Jordan

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