Thursday, April 16, 2015

Putting the TRAINING WHEELS ON

Forget about counting the weeks, I'm done with that. Now that I'm over the HUMP, just like a camel, I've got all my knowledge and everything I need stored up in order to keep on going on this journey!!!!

Well this week was a whirlwind in the best kind of way. 

Thursday (MY HALFWAY MARK, NO BIG DEAL) we went to Taipei and I got my temporary companion of Sister Luo, the cutest funniest little Taiwanese sister and we were companions for like 24 hours but I LOVE HER!!!!!! The funniest thing that happened was the mix-up about where we were going to sleep and how we were getting there, so we waited in the Taipei chapel until like 9:30pm and finally found out that they WEREN'T coming to get us, we had to take a train and meet them somewhere. Then we get there and they don't pick up the phone and the temple sisters thought that the Xin-An sisters were meeting us there, but THEY thought we knew how to get to their house. 

Finally we get the address of the apartment, and we ask a taxi to take us and he says to WALK, it would waste his time and our money to take us. 好吧 so we walk and we get lost cuz neither of us had ever served in Taipei so its 10:25 at night and Sister Branch and Sister Wu run to find us and we finally get inside at 10:27 pm and it was TERRIFYING to be outside that late, so uncomfortable, how did i EVER pull all-nighters in college????? But yes, i got to spend the night with MY trainer and I LOVE HER SO SO SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!! Friday morning, I picked up the amazing Sister Haupt!!!!! She is a ballroom dancer, graduated last year, and took 3 years of Chinese. How LUCKY am I??? 

Saturday, we had conference!!!!!!!!!! My favorite talks were the one about music and dancing of course, it spoke to my soul!! And the one about Shiblon, SO GOOD!! What were everyone's favorite talks?:) THEN we had the world's most stressful, quickest baptism in the one hour break between sessions!!!!!!!!!!! We ran and took like a 2 second picture, We filled up the water during the beginning speakers and no one had hymn books and turns out his friend who baptized him--the one who introduced him to the church!!!--was a recent convert and so we FREAKED out, not knowing if he even had the priesthood, so they had to ask as they went into the font!! Haha he did so it was fine though:) Anyways,
Pan Dixiong was dipped slowly and gracefully into the water and came up just GLOWING!!!!!!!!!!!! HE GOT BAPTIZED GUYS, HE GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sunday was awesome, Liao Dixiong is excited to learn commandments so he can keep them, which is SUCH  good attitude. Wang Dixiong is just immersing himself in our church culture, he was at General Conference ALL day Saturday and ate dinner with us too!! We also saw a miracle visiting Gao Family, who we have visited a million times, but THIS time, the 3rd oldest and 4th oldest daughter were home and had a lesson with us and the 6th daughter!!!!!!!! We gave them copies of the Book of Mormon because they didn't have one!! Then the 4th oldest daughter is our age and wants to come to English class and church! We read about faith in Alma 32 and she was IMMERSED and so focused and it was magical, SUCH a miracle that we met them both, because they are NEVER there!!!! 

Sister Haupt is already racking in the miracles:) She is so cute and just READY to go!!!!!! She ate seaweed already and rode her bike down a Taiwanese highway at night on her first real day of proselyting!!!!! We have been so busy, we have hardly had time to talk at all!!! But I am excited to get to know her more and I am determined to get to know her thoughts and desires and what she likes and all of that and just LOVE her. I think one of the only things I did to prepare to train was filling my heart up with love for this new missionary even before I met her, and it really has helped. I just want to do what she needs in order to feel like she can DO THIS. I really am just incredibly blessed to have Sister Haupt though.

I also have been made aware of a lot of my weaknesses as well, and this morning in personal study, freaking out about teaching a super awesome lesson to a less active family offended by the bishop and worrying about how my companion wouldn't be able to say anything, I was hit with the recognition that Heavenly Father has different expectations for our companionship now. His expectations for me now are to be more patient and more loving, helping this new precious soul accustom to this new life. His expectations for her are to learn and soak it up as much as she can, and my expectations of her canNOT be to bike fast, speak Chinese fast, and make phone calls while I update teaching records or fill out a progress record. 

I am used to going fast fast fast and right now it is a good reminder to take things a little slower,ease my new companion into things, because it will not benefit anyone if I remain high stressed and impatient. Heavenly Father will provide for the weak things, He will most definitely make this weak trainer into His tool. I believe that with all my heart and soul as I have seen it happen in my mission. Yes, I still have a lot A LOT to work on, and most of the time I expect too much of myself even. But I am learning what Heavenly Father expects of me and how everyday, we just have to make sure we are living up to His expectations and pleasing Him. I cannot set higher expectations for myself than God does, and if I do, I will ALWAYS feel inadequate. I don't know if any of this makes sense because my English is failing me, but I hope you understand that I am trying to help this new missionary and totally forget myself. I have had 9 months for myself, these last 9 months are for others. 

Sister Wright (Taiwan Taipei Mission)
Rèn Jiěmèi 任曼欣姐妹


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