WEEK 58

This week was a "hou saileih" week...so awesome :)

We got to have a wonderful lesson with Katherine. We called it "memory lane" lesson. We took her around the church and reminded her of all the important events that occured in her life to lead her to the day of her baptism. it was really really special. and then one Sunday, 2 years after officially meeting with the missionaries, she got Baptized!! She finally did it! me and my comps were running around like chickens with our heads cut off, getting her towels, finding her mom, getting her dressed, handling our papers..haha it was so great and everything went so smoothly. Katherine was beaming and so happy. She shared her testimony and talked about how she hopes she will have an eternal family. She talked about how she wanted to give up so bad. But then she saw the hearts we taped on her door and remembered that she wasn't alone. She overcame her trial of faith and made it to this special day. I remember 7 months ago when I first met Katherine. It was a trial of my faith too, teaching her, keeping contact with her, then when she stopped answering the phone....ahh! but she made it and she did it :) She is so wonderful!

YAY Katherine!!!!

And then Lolo also passed her baptismal interview and will be baptized this Sunday! She was so happy! She told us that she wants to be baptized so that she can have an eternal family. It was amazing to see how her testimony had grown and now she knows that she can see her Dad again :) So sweet. 

I also want to share something that I have learned on my mission that I really love. My Mom asked me to share my thoughts on this topic from a talk Elder Holland gave last Conference.

"Are we not all Beggars." 

I remember where I was sitting when I heard Elder Holland give that talk last conference on my mission. It was during the time we were helping Angela prepare for Baptism :) in fact, on that same day, my companion and i helped her to clean up her vommit between sessions when she got sick. How ironic, right? You know about Angela, she's not very clean and dosen't have a lot of money, and how many hours we spent reviewing and reviewing and reviewing the lessons for her so that it would stick in her memory. And how us sisters and ward members brought extra skirts for her to hide at the church so she could wear them since she would always misplace them in their messy home. haha. But it was all so worth it :)

I think this talk came at a good time for me to be reminded that our Heavenly Father loves every other person in the world just as much as He loves me. And I know that He loves me a lot, so he must love all these other people a lot as well. That is one thing I learned early on on the mission that I have really cherished. It has been a theme for me as found in Mosiah 4:19 from King Benjamin. It keeps me going everyday out here. I don't think us Sisters do as much administering to the poor in wealth as we do to the poor in Spirit. But I guess it is equally important. Because our testimony is our substance. And there are others out there who don't have that knowledge of the gospel. So in a sense are beggars. Beggars for mercy, beggars for the fruit fro mthe tree of Life. It's hard out here when day after day people shut us down or mock our testimonies, but I really do reflect on this scritpure often. "Are we not all Beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all te substance which we have..?" It helps me to not have anger or be disappoited when we get rejected because a lot of times I think it might just be easier to give up. But then I remember that I am a beggar too. I depend on God for all I have too. And what if those missionaries gave up on my Mom when she heard the lessons? What if my Parent's gave up on their road to the temple? No we can't give up, we can't just keep it to ourselves. 

Elder Ballard came to talk to our mission a few weeks ago. He instructed us that we need to be talking to at least 10 different people, per missionary, every single day, outside of scheduled proselyting and teaching. I thought we could easily reach 10 everyday. We found out that we can, it just takes a lot of work. When you just want to take a breather with your companion on the bus or train, when you want to let your mind wander when you are waiting in a crowd at the red light, when you don't want them to mess up your order for food, just little tiny amounts of time...but you gotta be talking to them all! It has blessed me so much! It has helped me to remember this, Someone else, our Savior, worked so hard, constantly giving of himself to complete our Heavenly Father's Plan. So it is the least we can do to help our Brother's and Sisters-Spiritually and Temporally, so one day we all can faan dou Sahn ge sanbin (i tried so hard to say it in English but I can't remember. but it's like go back to have Salvation). 

"And now, if God, who has created you, on whom you are dependent for your lives and for all that ye have and are, doth grant unto you whatsoever ye ask that is right, in faith , believing that ye shall receive, O then how ye ought to impart of the substance that ye have one to another." - Mosiah 4: 21

I love you all :) 

The gospel is true, it really is.

love,

Sister Warner