Week 17

This week was great...and it's already November, so that means.... CHRISTMAS MUSIC!! 

Some highlights

2 baptismal dates! Theodore, from HK, and Holly from China! All set for Nov 29. So please pray that all will go well with our lessons and their progress.

Taught quite a few good lessons this week. Lots of finding time. 

Had a great lesson with Amin!! He shared his conversion with us. He said at first it was because of the people and he liked what he saw in them at the church. and as he started reading the BoM and praying and interacting with the members, he started to see God's hand in his own life. He said that Elder Nolan is his role model. It was super sweet. 

Institute was really good this week. it was on 3 Nephi 11, which I love!!! Christ visiting the Americas is just beautiful. So I finished the Book of Mormon today for the second time on the mission!!! Of course I knew it was another testament of Jesus Christ, but I never actually felt and knew it from reading it...I guess I just didn't pay attention as to how it testifies of Christ. I usually just read for personal revelation. But as I've really started to focus on my relationship with Christ, my testimony of the Book of Mormon as another testament of Jesus Christ naturally came with it. I absolutely love the book of Moroni. It nicely sums of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. God's love for the people shown in the scriptures is the exact same love he has for all of us. We need to do our part and act righteously so we can feel and accept his love.

Some other miracles are that we ran into a Less Active on the street, and I felt good about inviting him to church..he didn't come, but I feel like that seed was replanted :)

I've focused this week on acting on my "hunches". There are far too many times where I ignore small promptings to talk to certain people on the street, but I've been better about just trying to listen and actually following through with it.  

We taught an awesome lesson on the pioneers. I just love talking about the pioneers with the early saints, and then relating it to the members today. We're all pioneers, enduring some of the hardest trials of our life, but because of our faith, it makes the journey worth it.

We went to a recent convert's uni graduation this week. It was so weird being at a graduation again... it was a nice ceremony, but it was so hot. The University of Sydney is a gorgeous campus!! The whole event reminded me of when Rory graduated from Yale on Gilmore Girls, hahha. 

Also we had the hit party of the year...the institute Halloween party! That was fun!! A ton of people from our English class came...probably a total of 120 people throughout the night. The first bit was games and activities that we, as missionaries, could participate in and then the rest was a dance...so we went home well before that started, haha. The costumes were great! 

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On Saturday, we went to a baptism. He's an Aussie who has an amazing testimony of the Atonement of Christ. He's really solid. Such a nice guy and his service was beautiful. That's when I saw the Wrights! We were at Summer Hill chapel, where they meet, and ran into them...she started saying "Sammi! Sammi!" It was so weird because I haven't heard my name in so long......

This Sunday, we had an area wide fast for missionary work. We've also been planning the first Chinese Missionary Conference for all the Chinese speaking missionaries. It's going to be awesome...

One thing I'm sick and tired of is people telling me that I should've learned Chinese because I lived in HK... honestly, I couldn't care less anymore. Although it's something I wish I paid more attention to, I don't regret the life I lived. I was able to focus on other opportunities that have led me to where I am today. #storyofmylife -____- it just gets old after 19 years... 

Anyways, it was a good week! Today is a special zone preparation day, meaning we had 30 accident free days in the mission. So we're going to watch Frozen, Space Jam, How to Train your Dragon2, and Dispicable Me...so that means I have to go soon :( But I hope you're all doing well! I love you all so much!!!

Sister Lew