Ok.. I bet you are all wondering why this week's email has such a weird title. Well, let me tell ya! I was on exchange with another sister who is in my district and we had just called by a potential investigators house when a group of children outside became curious about what we were doing. One of them asked us ''are you a nun?'' to whence I replied, ''Close.. I'm a missionary!'' Sister Hansen laughed at my response but hey, you would be surprised how often we get asked if we are nuns. Nope. Just Sister missionaries. We are allowed (encouraged actually) to get married when we return home from our missions. Nevertheless, we do share about Christ like nuns do? I actually don't know that much about nuns haha.
I'll start off with some somewhat bad news. This week we had to drop Xing :( We weren't expecting to but in last lesson we had with him it went that direction. We were so close to teaching him all of the lessons and this last lesson we read D&C 20:37 with him which talks about the qualifications for baptism. When he saw that the verse talked about ''desire'' he told us he didn't have the desire to be baptized. I was shocked. I guess some things got lost in translation as we have been meeting with him because I was sure he wanted to be baptized. He hasn't been praying as we have invited him to. Consequently, he still feels like he doesn't have a relationship with God nor does he really understand right now why he should. We bore testimony to him that he has a Father in Heaven who loves him and wants to talk to him. He just won't progress anymore if he hasn't developed an understanding of/relationship with his Heavenly Father in prayer. It was sad but I know that he will be baptized one day. In the mean time, we told him he can still come to church, attend institute, and that he should still try to pray everyday but we won't meet with him anymore. We told him that when he likes the feeling he gets from come to church meetings and events to contact the missionaries.
Now some good news- This past Saturday was another consecrated 4 hour finding here in the EMM. Sister Loh and I decided that we would ask everyone what their Christmas wish is and have them write it down on a piece of paper and add it to our lovely ''Christmas wishes'' box. It was a great way to stop people. We didn't really gain that many new investigators despite our efforts finding most of Saturday. On the bus on our way to our tea appointment guess who I saw again? Thomas!--The man I met my first transfer here who was not at all interested in religion when I first met him but his heart has been softening as I have seen him each consecutive time. I feel that each time I see him again is a miracle because I feel like he has such great potential. I asked him if he wanted to write his Christmas wish and add it to our box of Christmas wishes. He asked what we were going to do with them and I was like ''we will pray that they will come true!'' He said he wanted to be richer (-_-). I told him that perhaps he will be richer in Spirit this Christmas. Before we had to get off the bus I asked him if we could come and share a Christmas message with him soon. He said yes! I finally have his contact information! The Lord has been so gracious to me for letting me to slowly work with this man whom I have come to feel the Saviors love for.
I thought it would be creative to sing Christmas hymns as we went tracting this past week. Not effective at all. The people answer the doors, run back in, and come back with money to give us. Turns out they donate money to Christmas Carolers here in England. I don't want your money! I just want to save your soul!
C Minor update:
We followed up with C Minor on the priesthood blessing he received and he told us he has gained so much for self control from it. He has continued to be able to keep the Word of Wisdom! He still hasn't been dated for baptism but he is so close! I had a really great lesson with him while we were on exchange. I asked him how he feels about being baptized and in his response he mentioned that he hasn't received an answer on whether or not he should be baptized this month. He also feels like he should work on more of his weaknesses before he is baptized. I shared Moroni 10:32-33 with him and told him that it is only through Christ and following his example (being baptized) that we will become perfected. We cannot reach perfection on our own, neither will we reach perfection in this life. I think this scripture helped him a lot. I was bold with him and invited him to pray again if the 21st was the day he should be baptized. The following appointment we had with him he told us he hadn't prayed about a date yet.. Weishenme! (why!). Patience, Sister Jordan. Patience. He did receive answers to his other questions he did happen to pray about so that's great. Now pray about the date please :)
The power of prayer:
For a couple of weeks now, we have been helping these two Chinese students, Louise and Carol, with their English and they in return, help us with our Chinese. We have been hoping and praying that this service opportunity would turn into a teaching opportunity. While I was on exchange, we prayed that we would be able to teach them and that they would become new investigators. As I was helping Carol with her English she asked ''what does your church believe about death? I have been thinking of death and I am scared.'' Oh. My. Goodness.!!! It was the perfect teaching moment. I was able to share a little about the Plan of Salvation and I also taught her how to pray. The other Sister that was practicing English with the Louise also taught about the Plan of Salvation. Louise had a similar question to Carol's. They are both new investigators now!
There are two Chinese families in our ward that have been members for only a couple of years, one of the moms will be baptized a year in February. Sister Loh and I have talked for ages how we need to talk with them all about going to the temple to be sealed as Eternal families. We were finally able to yesterday. We committed them to go to the temple next February and take our their endowments and be sealed to their children. I would love to see these two families sealed in the temple. I am so grateful that the Priesthood has been restored here on earth and that we can be sealed to our families for time and all eternity. What a special opportunity I had to be sealed to my family in the Nauvoo Temple :)
Love you all!
Sister Jordan
Recent P-Day Adventures
Multi-Zone Conference
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The Infamous Fell Street
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