I am still in the verge of trying to calm down and letting go. And because there are a lot of things that I wanted to share this week, I don't really know where to start. There are a lot of them and to be honest, I wasn't able to write them down in my journal because I didn't have time, so I don't remember much details. But as they say, spiritual experiences are hard to forget. The Lord works through the spirit in various, mysterious ways.
After having the faith-increasing experiences with my family for the past 3 weeks and finding news about most of my friends going on missions, I have seen so much blessings in this week. This has been a hard, difficult, yet very blessed week that I've ever had so far in this transfer. We have not had much success in teaching or reaching our key indicators, which made me feel awful and made me feel that I'm not fulfilling my missionary purpose, but Sister Cuevas comforted us by saying that "your missionary success is not based on your numbers. You are doing a great job, keep it up." I remember that before we started calling people, my companion and I prayed on our knees and asked Heavenly Father for help. I prayed in my heart that somehow a miracle would happen today because I really don't know what to do anymore. Suddenly, a miracle did happen. We were able to get a hold of one of our investigators and found out that he was getting baptized this Friday. My companion put one of our investigators on date for August 2 while I was attending the Mandarin meeting and we met a guy from England who is super golden and has been meeting with the local missionaries.
And somehow, this all happened after being weighted with much trial. I got sick the day before because of the excruciating heat (Utah was a desert when the Pioneers came here and my body prefers the humidity of a tropical country.) I threw up in the middle of a tour and I just couldn't concentrate on feeling the spirit so after cutting the tour short, I had to be wheeled to make my body rest.
July 4, my very first time to celebrate American Independence day (and yes my dearest sister, I was being a traitor to my country because I sang the "Star-Spangled Banner" and "America the Beautiful" twice. I'm in American Territory and it's found in the hymnbook so I'm not really being a traitor. hahaha). I am really grateful that Heavenly Father has prepared this wonderful land of liberty to give way for the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We are so blessed that because of the liberty and freedom of the American continent, most of us who are serving our missions wouldn't have had this great opportunity. We wouldn't have found each other if it wasn't for the True Church of our Savior Jesus Christ.
I also had a wonderful experience earlier today that I took a leap of faith in doing so. I took a MANDARIN / English tour with my Malagasy companion who did not speak Mandarin. I haven't passed off in Mandarin but since they sent a text to sisters as an English "tour" I took it to find out they were a Chinese family of 3 from Beijing and the parents did not speak much English. I told myself that I am going to grab this opportunity to practice and I did. Being super nervous, I was grateful that I was given the opportunity and the family appreciated my efforts. They took a picture of us. It was HARD for me to do because I only have a very limited Mandarin Vocabulary. But it felt great. I did my very best.
I am really grateful for the small and simple to the great and wondrous blessings that the Lord has been putting into my life as I am serving here on my mission. Despite the challenges that I have had, the Lord continues to show and bring forth miracles. It has just been great! I am really happy and each single day, I can truly testify that the Church is true (and the Book [of Mormon] is blue. 
) and I have never been so blessed to be on this earth. I may not be perfect, I can never be perfect, but I do know that I am a daughter of God. I am an instrument in His hands to bring about this great work. I truly love the people and sharing my testimony that we are all children of our Heavenly Father no matter who we are and what we have been through.
Sister Kristel Marie Cruz Ngo
Utah Salt Lake CityTemple Square Mission