As I said, this has been a great week! We taught our first investigator, A-Wai, for the last time and got him to agree to attend a baptism! The next day we found out that... He's our teacher! I don't know if they do this with every language, but it's a great idea! He knows exactly how each of us struggles, what our vocabularies are, and how comfortable we all are with teaching in Cantonese. Jeh Jimuih, whom we thought was our teacher, is pregnant and will be leaving us in a week or two.
The food here continues to be amazing, the Spirit is so strong here, and even though there are a TON of new missionaries, it's still easy to get around. My District is all doing really well, even with our new schedule, it was designed to keep us obediant! We have our Service Assignment at 0615 on Wednesday mornings, and Sacrament is at 0800. And I thought 9-12 was early! Every week everyone writes a 5 minute talk, and President Miller (the leader of our tiny congregation) ask a Sister and an Elder to give the talks they wrote! It keeps us accountable, because you never know when it's your turn! This week was repentance, and an Elder who just leaves for TX today and a Sister going to Manchester, NH gave their talks. They were both really good
At the Sunday Night Devotional Elder Allen, Managing Director of the Missionary Department, gave a such a good talk. At first he had us stand up for various reasons, like if we thought the food was good, if we thought it would be better in the field, if being a Missionary was what we thought it would be, if we had siblings who were serving, to point at our sibling if they were in the MTC with us, etc. There were a brother and sister here at the same time, I'm so going to have a daughter and then a son 2 years later so my kids can have that experience! The funniest thing he had us stand up for was if there was a special someone ("not your mother") back home waiting for us. Many missionaries stood up and he said "Well, the mail comes tomorrow; we'll see how many of you are left standing". I have never heard so many Missionaries laugh so loud. He got Dear John'ed with a wedding invitiation, which I expect from EVERYONE who gets married while I'm gone. I can't attend, but have the love in your heart to keep me informed!
Anyways, his talk was about, you guessed it, Missionary work. He related Satan trying to get us to go home like the drinking fountains in the older Church buildings. My LDS friends are rolling on the floor right now, but I'll explain for everyone else. There are always 2 fountains side by side, and they feed off the same source. If someone is drinking and you push the button on your side, their water pressure goies down and they have to bend lower to drink. If you then release your button they will get shot in the side of the face with water. Satan does the same kind of thing! He throws things at us Missionaries that typically aren't huge, but if we let them get to us can perturb and derail us. The thing to do is to deny him the satisfaction of pushing your buttons! Surround yourselves with good things so that you can crowd out the deciever's influences with righteous thoughts.
My cousin, Hermana Leavitt accompanied an Elder who sang a beautiful arrangement of "I Stand All Amazed", and then we watched "Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration". What a powerful movie and song!
I'm so happy that I have this opportunity! I love the message that I get to teach so much, and I am so grateful that Heavenly Father sees enough good in me to allow me to go to such a special mission! I know that this is the Lord's Church, and that by following it's teachings we can draw closer to Christ than by any other means. I love you all, alnd I hope everything is going great for you. Thanks so much to all of you who have sent me letters and DearElder.com messages. I love you all, have a great week!
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