Last week as a greenie!!

My district

So it's my last week as a greenie! Crazy! It's the last week of my second transfer in the field...which scares me. I have a feeling that Sister Kuo might go....

This week went by so fast!! and I can't believe this Thursday is Thanksgiving!! Thank goodness we're celebrating Thanksgiving :) All the Americans in the zone are super pumped! 

This week, Yan Lin has just been AWESOME! She's come to FHE, institute, the ward activity, a baptism, AND met with us! We are so excited for her baptism on Saturday. PLEASE PRAY that all will go well this week because we know Satan will do everything he can to stop her from being baptized. She really is special. She is so prepared for this Gospel. I see her being such an active example for women in the church, especially in Singapore! 

Yan Lin has also started inviting and bringing our friend Nora to all of these activities, which is sweet. Nora is also from our English class and she's from Mongolia. She has pretty good English, but it's sometimes hard to communicate. So we're slowly working with her. She's come to institute for the past 2 weeks on her own without being invited by any missionaries. Amazing! 

Theodore's baptismal date is pushed back because meeting with him is pretty hard...but he's still good. 

Frances hasn't been replying to our texts, so we're a little concerned.

Amin is great and is progressing well. 

We had a really good finding day this week. We went with Sister Yamashita and just talked to EVERYONE. and we were able to teach everyone we talked to, make return appointments with most, and ended up having 4 new investigators in that hour and a half. MIRACLES! Heavenly Father ALWAYS provides a way. 

I learned that I have no patience in teaching English 1-on-1 to those who can't speak English...we had a lesson with this old Chinese man who can't speak or read English, so I have to use Mandarin to translate, and it's just maafaan, but it's good. He's really sweet...Heavenly Father is trying my patience. 

So chapter for the week for y'all...Alma 32. FAITH. I love this chapter. We shared it with one of our investigators, Tom. We need to ACT on our faith in order for it to grow. If we don't do anything after baptism, then what's the point of being baptized? Salvation only comes through acting on our faith. 

Something of concern that's come up is our investigators and RC's finding anti-LDS-lit/sites, etc. WHICH IS THE MOST FRUSTRATING THING EVER. but It's okay. We're working lovingly and patiently. They have all sorts of questions on polygamy, race, women and the priesthood, etc... 

I find it hard to tell people they need to pray and have faith to receive their answers... but we're not supposed to really go in depth. We use the scriptures as well though. 

Also, Hillsong...that church. Great music, great message. But they keep attacking us and our investigators and RC's...please just let it stop...

DTM this week was on asking questions, which has been a theme this transfer. Asking inspired questions is so important because that is when we are really trusting the spirit and that is when we allow the spirit to work in the person. Sister Dick came up with one which was brilliant. "If God communicates with his children, but doesn't use His voice, how does he talk to us?" Inspired questions are ones that make people really think about the WHY of the Gospel. 

Lately, there's been A LOT of focus on the Chinese members in our ward and our investigators and building the Chinese program. Sharon Wang is amazing. She's been working with the bishopric and missionaries to help us understand their thinking when introduced to the Gospel. She's also VERY aware of the situation of the church in China. Since most of the Chinese are students and are returning home for the holidays or for CNY soon, we're ordering all materials so that every one can bring 1 copy of everything back with them to China. This is also great for our preparation of our Chinese Conference this Thursday!!! We are so excited. All 20 of the Mandarin speaking missionaries in this mission will come to the city for this conference. We have sweet trainings, panels with Chinese converts, etc... It's going to be so good! This is the first one, so we're really hoping that this will have a long term effect in terms of China opening up. 

On Saturday, we were supposed to go to a stake YSA activity that our ward was hosting, but then because it was near the beach, the ZL's said to turn around (since we were on our way on the bus) since it was pretty inappropriate for the missionaries. I love having such obedient missionaries who are able to make calls like that and can do so boldly. 

Anyways...I think that's about it for now. I love you all and hope you are all doing well. Enjoy this Thanksgiving. I really am SO thankful for being part of such a wonderful family. I'm thankful for your examples and your love. I'm thankful to be serving in the most beautiful city (aside from HK) to do the Lord's work. I'm thankful to have the Gospel in my life. It is the biggest blessing and I would not be here if it weren't for the Gospel. 

Love,

Sister Lew

The Mockinjay symbol is everywhere in Sydney!

We made cookie dough this week just to eat.  Sister Kuo is digging in!