"Even when people do not accept the opportunity to learn the gospel, your service and words are evidence of God’s love for them and may plant seeds that future missionaries and members of the Church will harvest."
I made sure that I will put that quote in to my weekly email to President Poulsen today. This week has been a struggling week for Sister Chen and I. We couldn't find people to teach. Some of our investigators are not answering the phone, people on the square are not interested to learn more and somehow, we see other sisters having high numbers and we are not having as much success. We both are doing our very best to find new investigators to teach.
In the midst of almost going to a point of thinking negatively and me comparing our efforts to other Sisters' successes, I would always think of the quote above found in page 170 of Preach My Gospel under "No Effort is Wasted". And as I was writing in my journal, I evaluated on some things that I needed to change, things that I think have been hindering us on being able to teach people.
1. We need to have the faith that we WILL have/find people to teach.
2. We need to be grateful even for the small and simple blessings or miracles that the Lord has given us in the work.
3. We need to strive to be exactly obedient.
4. ALWAYS REMEMBER the SAVIOR'S ATONEMENT.
Thinking about these things, I knew I needed to start this within myself so that I will be able to help my companion. Earlier this morning, I made sure that I say "WE WILL" rather than "we hope" or "we can" in our prayers. That in itself shows that we have that faith that the Lord WILL help us in our efforts, and we were able to get three potential investigators today. And I need to remind myself to thank the Lord later on.
Last night, Sister Chen suddenly asked me that we think of the Savior and what is our favorite bible story about His life. I chose the Savior's Atonement from the Garden of Gethsemane until the Savior's resurrection. If I remember correctly, I told her that the reason why I picked that is because it reminds me of how much the Savior loves us that He was willing to sacrifice His life for us. Then I thought that the reason why we are sad when people do not accept our message is because we love them, but that doesn't mean that we need to be discouraged. We need to strive to maintain working hard.
... So I know that my email is getting really long, but there's something that I need to include in this email before I forget and it's something that I am really grateful for and I really find this experience as something beyond than just a coincidence:
On Wednesday evening, I received an inbound call from a Brother Edmonds looking for a Sister Missionary from Japan. His granddaughter, Alyssa Edmonds, was in town for visiting and that she wanted to meet with the Sister Missionary. Alyssa had family problems and her parents came here to Temple Square and gave Alyssa's contact information to them and this Sister has been in contact with her until two weeks ago. Now, the really amazing part was that on the evening, while planning, I told Sister Chen that we would go to the Reflection Pool around 4:00pm and Sister Chen wondered "Reflection Pool?" and I just said yes. At around 4:00pm the next day, after contacting this wonder member couple by the reflection pool, a lady approached me saying "Excuse me, have you heard of an Alyssa Edmonds?" I turned around and said "Yes! I received a call yesterday from a Brother Edmonds about her and I passed up an email to the mission after the call." Little did I know that it was her grandmother and Alyssa was standing right next to her with Brother Edmonds and her cousin Olivia. They came to visit Temple Square and we went looking for the Sister Missionaries... who in the end were Sisters Sorto and Ichikawa (from El Salvador and Japan, respectively). It was certainly a miracle for me and that experience made my day because I was able to become an instrument so that Alyssa would be able to find her Sister Missionaries.
This week has truly been wonderful despite the challenges that we are facing, because of the things that we have been learning and because of the small and simple things that we are seeing everyday. I guess the very highlight of this week is aside from the experience that was mentioned above is that my investigator, William, whom I met from an inbound call two transfers ago... has accepted to be baptized on the 14th of June, leading us to accomplish our baptismal goal for our companionship this transfer. Miracles do happen. :)
我愛你們!
我愛你們!
Sister Ngo / 吳姐妹
Utah Salt Lake CityTemple Square Mission耶穌基督後期聖徒教會
猶他鹽湖城聖殿廣場傳教
P.S.
親愛的吳長老,
你不用讀到的一切我的電子郵件. 哈哈哈!
我愛你！
