January 2, 2012

Happy New Year!!

This week has been by far one of the greatest weeks of my mission. It started out very slow, and it seemed that our investigators haven't been progressing. Elder Bray and I just continued to work hard but it seemed everything kept falling through. Then near the end of this week we had a miracle given to us! We were called by our Branch President and he told us that he was just called by a member of another ward that was at our Chapel. The member ran into a Chinese lady that was asking for a Chinese Book of Mormon. The member got her information and then we were given her number. I called her and she told me how 4 years ago she met the missionaries. At that time she said she just had a baby and he was delivered pre-maturely and she was having a really hard time with all of the complications. She said that on one of the hardest days she was having that two missionaries came and knocked on her door. They talked to her for a while and then they prayed for her and her baby. She said they continued to come back to serve her and pray for her. She told me how she was so touched by how they would go out their way to do those simple things for her. She said those missionaries gave her a Book of Mormon, but after a few months she had to move and when she moved she accidentally lost the Book of Mormon and lost contact with the missionaries. She said she forgot about all of it during those 4 years but recently she has been having very strong feelings to get a hold of another Chinese Book of Mormon. She said she looked up where she could find a chapel online and then went to the closest one. She tried going 5 times but each time no one was there. This final time was when the member was there. So when I was on the phone with her I asked if we could meet her at the Chapel again that day so we could give her more information about the Chinese branch and she did. When we arrived I got out of the car and asked if she was Shanel and she said yes, then she said "Where is the Chinese man I talked to on the phone earlier to meet him here." I said it was me and she was completely shocked haha. We took her on a quick tour of the Chapel and explained more about the Branch and she said she was really excited to come to church. On Sunday she came and in Sunday school the teacher taught about Baptism, and at the end of church Shanel came up to us and said she wants to be baptized! We had a lesson with her after church and through out the whole lesson she kept saying she felt so happy and had these feelings that were telling her this is all true. I shared with her the experience that the prophet Joseph Smith had when he was praying to know which church was true, and afterward she said she was very moved, I asked her if she could explain what she was feeling and she said "Wubi de xiyue" which translated in English means "Incomparable Joy". She is leaving for China on Saturday and she said that after feeling that peaceful feeling she wants to be baptized before she leaves. It was the most amazing lesson I have taught on my mission and she has been so prepared for the Gospel! It is such an amazing story, one that I never thought could happen on my mission, but it really builds my testimony that God is preparing people to hear the Gospel. God loves all of his Children. I can't believe it is already January of 2012! I am so excited for this new year and to see this Branch continue to grow! I love serving the Chinese people! I hope everyone had great New Years celebrations! I love you all!