Aug 28th

Well this was probably the best week of my mission. It was just incredible! This week Xie Mama had her interview with President Teh and we had to skype for that. Also we had to translate and that was super great! She is so awesome! President just kept saying that he can see a new light in her eyes and it's so true! This week we reviewed the lessons for her interview and we reviewed the Law of Chastity and we asked if she was still willing to follow it and she laughed and said, "Of course I am!!! I am a grandma!! I'm not going to do any of those things!!" We laughed very hard. Cool story about her: Through her whole life she has loved drinking coffee and green tea. Every day she would drink a ton. But a few weeks ago the topic in Gospel Principles Class at church was the Word of Wisdom. We hadn't even taught her the Word of Wisdom yet, but after that lesson she completely stopped drinking coffee and tea. Just entirely dropped it!! She told us that she knows God wants her to follow that commandment so she will. So awesome! We are excited for her baptism this week! Elder Williams will be the one dunking her so we are just stoked!! 

At the beginning of the week we had lots of time spent out on the streets finding. No one seemed willing to talk but that didn't get us down. Even though it was a billion degrees and people were rejecting us, we kept going. Still didn't get anything. But then one day we were doing calls and like 6 or 7 people set up from one hour of calls!! So awesome! Four of them in particular: Brothers Wang, Wan, Zhuo, and Fu. All people that we contacted a while ago and they never answered but they did an set up! As we met with all of them they all had lots of interest in the church and they all accepted baptismal dates!! The first 3 are for October 1st and Brother Fu is for the middle of September. This just really built my faith knowing that when we are working our hardest, we might not see immediate results, but God will always bless us. 

I want to talk a little bit about Brother Fu. He is very special and has really got me pondering lots of things. Brother Fu works on a freighting ship and is on break now. This job has him at sea for 10 months to about a year at a time. Then they get a few months to rest. He is probably one of the nicest guys ever and really wants to learn about this gospel. When we first sat down with him he instantly told us that he knows that God led us to him. He knows it was not by accident. We taught him the Restoration and he just loved it. When we invited him to be baptized he accepted, but the only problem is he isn't sure when his next boat will come in. It could be next week or next month. Who knows? but he is willing to work towards baptism before he leaves. He told us that if he does this he really wants to be a true follower of Christ. He doesn't want to "draw near to Him with his lips" but he wants to be close with his heart. As I thought during this lesson, I thought about why God had us meet him. He could be leaving anytime, so why? I just thought about how God really does know us all and has a plan for us. Whether Brother Fu gets baptized this coming month or a year down the road or even years down the road, I know meeting him was no accident either. Pray for the best.

Our investigator Samson just told us that his parents won't let him get baptized so he might not get baptized next week. Luckily his birthday is October 16th so he can definitely get baptized in October but we are hoping for some miracles to happen. Especially with Gryphon. There is not much we can do for him. We are just leaving it in God's hands. We are really hoping that when he comes to the baptism this week that he will have a strong desire to be baptized and will change something.

One last thing. This is something that is very dear and important to me and that is the importance of good friends. Our investigator Shark really wants to get baptized but he feels like he can't follow the Word of Wisdom because when he gets with his friends they all drink and smoke and he feels like he needs to also. This is exactly why choosing good friends is so important. If we have friends that give us a negative influence, then we can potentially fall away from God. When we moved to Springville, I had a big choice when it came to friends. Who did I want to be friends with? Deep down, who did I really want to be and who did I want to surround myself with? Luckily my parents taught  me well and I knew exactly what I wanted. God blessed me with the best friends and best families. Don't let people let you fall away from God. Stay close to him. Shark said he will think about it a lot and we will talk to him tomorrow. Pray for the best again.

I love you all so much! Keep the flame burning bright!