Taking it to Taiwan: Flood Gates & Faith

My trainer, Sister Wu(right) and my trainee, Sister Johnson(left) One big happy family!!!

Pres. Hou and his kids, Angel and Johnny. His cute wife is taking the picture in the background:)

Planning meeting at the church:)

Dear ones,

So I thought I should write about a cool thing that the Lord taught me this week! Well... actually it's something he's taught me my whole life... but it's something he reminded me of in a very big way this week.

SO!

It was a week full of miracles.

We had about 10 people set up for church. Now... logistically I knew this wasn't very likely but, our branch president has given us the goal to have each companionship have 4 investigators at church on Sundays and I was positive we could hit that. So we were just feeling super good. Then Saturday night we went to visit one of our investigators families to make sure that they could still come... they cancelled on us. So that made 2 less investigators. But that was still ok! We still had 8 all set up and ready to go!

The next morning (Sunday) we called our investigator's mom to make sure they could come and she was already awake and getting the kids ready to go! It was awesome! So then we rode off to the church. The meeting started and we only had 1 investigator there. (She's the daughter of an RC). But that was still ok! Because people always show up late. So we waited and waited. I was constantly looking over my shoulder. People kept walking in... but it was never our investigators. We sang the opening hymn... no one. We listened to the announcements... no one. We started the sacrament hymn and we went outside to call some people and make sure everything was ok and they were still coming... no answer. As we walked back into the chapel I was very frustrated and angry. I didn't even want to sing the hymns. But I prayed. I told Heavenly Father exactly how I was feeling and that I didn't understand why no one had come. They had all seemed so certain! But... No one was here. But then I prayed that the Lord would help me to have a good attitude. Because at that point... I definitely didn't have one. haha

As I opened my eyes after that prayer I saw one of the LAs we've been working with just as she took the bread to partake of the sacrament. I really thought about what that meant... she was forgiven. How beautiful was that? Then I looked over my shoulder and I saw another LA that we had been working with had come. Her life is really hard and she struggles to get to church because of her husband... but she was there smiling and waving at me. I realized how blessed I was. I started to smile. My attitude changed.

AND THEN THE DOORS OPENED AND A FLOOD CAME IN.

As soon as the sacrament portion had finished, I looked behind me and in came walking the family we had called that morning! Then our phone rang and one of our investigators told us he was waiting for us outside. Then another one of our investigators came in behind us and tapped us on the shoulder.

The Lord will try our faith. But he always follows up with blessings.

I was studying about courage today in the scriptures. I realized a cool thing... courage always comes because people have hope. People have hope in a change, in the Lord's promises, their covenants, etc. and then they can perform acts of great courage. What I've been focusing on a lot more is developing hope. I testify that the Lord keeps his promises. I testify that our covenants are the most important promise we will ever make. If we really remember our covenants we will feel the Lord's love. He doesn't immediately take away our challenges, of course not. We're here to learn and grow and change and improve. If we never fail or fall or make mistakes we'll never learn and grow and change and improve.

I love you all.

The Church is true.

Gu Jiemei