Why?
Because everything awesome comes in twos. A couple. 2nd helpings. 2 eyes, legs, arms, ears, etc. 2 parents. 2 is easy to count to. 2 yr olds are adorable and can show how old they are. 2 is just AWESOME! AND, on 2/2 we baptized 2 boys. Now on march 2nd, we had another baptism! WAAAAAHOOOO!!!!! This girl Sis. Christensen and I taught right before we got transferred and then some other sisters taught and then me and Sis. Kunishi taught again is now baptized!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!! And it was seriously one of the best baptisms I've ever been to!
There were so many people there we filled up the whole chapel! It took 20 minutes for us to get started because people kept coming in and wanting to take pictures with Ariel before it started! It was so insane! After the talk on the holy ghost she asked if she could get up and say a few words, and we were like, "yeah, sure! If you want to!' And up she went! She bore one of the purest most powerful testimonies I've ever heard! She has SUCH a strong testimony in the savior, she KNOWS he lives! I felt so privileged to have been a part of helping her reach that point where she just jumped and had faith that this was the right time :)
ALRIGHT, so, I need help. I need EVERYONE to really pray for this girl we're teaching. She's from China...........MAINLAND.....China.....And she's here for 2 semesters (8 months) doing a program with BYU-H. She's married, But she's living in the YSA dorms because her husband is living back in China. She's the DRIEST MORMON I've ever met in my life and she can't get baptized because it's illegal.........I don't think anything's ever broken my heart more. She has a contract with the hotel she's working at for 5 years, and they're paying for her to do this program right now. And because of the hotel's affiliation with the government, everyone's a communist, which means, SHE'S a communist so long as she works there. And without us even asking her to, she texted her boss in China and asked to confirm if she really can't get baptized and he totally blew up at her and basically said absolutely not. How sad is that? She said she'd be willing to do ANYTHING to keep the commandments since she knows they're are true. She's gonna change her whole wardrobe and get rid of anything immodest, she's not gonna drink tea or coffee, EVERYTHING! I told her about the story of Jacob and how he had to work for Rachel's father for 14 YEARS before he could marry her. And she (seriously, this chick's testimony is incredible) was like, "YEAH! So maybe I can keep all the commandments, and then maybe write a book about Mormons, and then everyone can read it and become a Mormon, and THEN! In 5 years, we could have a TEMPLE!!!!"
Oh my goodness, her faith puts mine to shame.....she wants to be baptized so bad but the whole government thing is totally being ridiculous. Having to deal with other countries' laws, was the LAST thing I thought would conflict with an investigator being baptized. Didn't even cross my mind seeing as I'm in HAWAII!!!!!!!!! WHAT DA KINE?!?!?! Ugh! Anyhoo, she could use to prayers. But who knows, maybe she will have to wait 5 years, but by then who KNOWS what will be available by then! And then for the next 5-=60 years she'll be able to bare a very powerful testimony to her children and grandchildren about having to keep to the correct standards and follow the commandments even when there was LITERALLY NO ONE else around to support her! She's incredible........
So anyhoo, besides all that, things have been going awesome! With the new change in the accountability for the VC I've been calling Elders all over the world all week asking if they ever contacted my referrals.........I'm pretty sure I totally scared the beegeebees outta ALL of them! You could hear the *thump.....thump....thump* of the areabook pages flipping back and forth trying to find records of which elders contacted them, if they EVER contacted them. I love it though because I finally feel like a missionary and being able to follow up with all my investigators, not just hoping and praying there wasn't a computer glitch, or there wasn't transfers that week so the new missionaries didn't get the info, or whatever. Now, I can really find out what happens to all of those I teach in the Visitor's Center! And who knows, the next time I send a referral to the Omaha Nebraska Mission, I could be having to call Elder Bradley up to make sure he's following up! ;)
Well I love you all and I hope everything's going awesome with everyone! LOVE YOU! Work hard! Pray always!
love,
Sis. Bradley
NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.
No comments:
Post a Comment