Week 38: "Come in, Come in!" Chinese in Idaho

10/17/2022

What’s up family and Friends! I hope you are all doing well! This week was the first week of the transfer and BOY it was a lot! I wish I could say that this transition was as easy as unicorns and rainbows but it was the opposite. The only reason I share this is because my testimony was greatly strengthened because of it. I will share that with you at the end!

To begin the week I had to send Sister Jackson home to Arizona. I think it was pretty tough on her. She is the best missionary I have ever met and she blessed the rest of my mission because of the things she taught me. Then I got Sister Oliphant! And…. We got our new ward assignments. I was really bummed when I opened my phone and saw that most of our progressing people are in the wards they took from me:( Because of the amount of missionaries we just got they had to split areas in half. They took away 3 of my wards but gave me a different one. I now cover 4 wards still in the star stake! I have come to terms with it because I know that God has work for me to do. I’m excited because I got to keep the STAR 2 ward! Aurora is still on the right path to her baptism in a few weeks.

The 1st night Sister Oliphant and I were together we found a friend named Chance! He is kind of a weird old guy but was super kind and willing to meet with us again. He is trying to regain purpose in his life because he just lost his wife and his father. Thankfully we have the perfect gateway to the peace that he is searching for. We were able to meet with our other progressing friends and discover who needs us in our new ward. We also found a 25 year old girl who wants to learn more!

POWER! This week was not it as us youth would say. I was fighting my thoughts to maintain some positivity. I am a firm believer that you find what you look for. I can say I have found many moments where I dau God’s hand this week and where I felt happy. We asked Elder Mestre and Elder Matthew’s for a blessing. The spirit that was in this room was very powerful. I asked this new missionary Elder Mathews for mine. I could tell he was nervous at first. He placed his hands on my head and I immediately felt love. God’s love. I didn’t tell Elder Matthew’s what I needed but God knew. He blessed me will ALL of the things that were on my mind and ALL of the things I needed to hear. In this moment I gained a firmer testimony of the power of the priesthood. This day was the best day Sister Oliphant and I have had all week. That is another testament to me that the power of the priestood is so real and is so powerful. It was quite a special moment for me.

Some Highlights!

The Chen Family! They signed up to feed us in our new ward. We knocked on the door and brother Chen said,” come in, come in, welcome welcome” This family treated us so well! They are from Taiwan and left everything they had to provide an education for their son. They met the missionaries as part of this journey and were all converted. Their son is now preparing to serve a mission in Japan. The coolest thing about this family is that they house other taiwan people/families so they too can get an education. They have a mother and son living there right now. We were able to teach them the restoration! They were super interested and super open to learning more. We would say a few words and the family would translate into mandarin chinese for them. It was really cool to be a part of. BOY does Chinese seem hard! Then we watched the first vision video in Chinese and the spirit was very strong. Despite the language barrier the spirit always testifies of truth!

SERVICE! Just as I always update you, we had a lot of service this week. We were able to help the stake with a humanitarian project and quilt baby blankets. It was a lot of fun. When I was able to serve this week I was able to set myself, my worries and struggles aside. This is the true blessing of service.

I love you all so much!

Pictures sorry not many this week