Week #...I don't even know

Who would've thought my best Valentine's Day would be on my mission?!?

First of all, a huge thank you to Nin Nin for my Valentine's Day card!! #feelingthelove

And to Mom, Dad, Jessie, and Rhoda for my Valentine's Day/ Chinese New Year package!! #bestpackageever

I loved the goodies! and the shirts! and especially the jewellery! It really did make my day!!!!!!!! 

WHERE DID YOU FIND FROZEN LAI SEE??? I was so happy! 

Care package for Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year!

One of the highlights for this week is that we're finally working with Chinese people in Newcastle!! It's great!! They're all starting to come back from China to start uni (university) soon. We are working with a couple, Christina and Sam. They're young and studying and are not married yet! Christina has a baptismal date and both are super keen in finding a church to figure out if God is real. They came to the baptism we had on Friday and both really felt the spirit. We also had a new investigator come to church with her son! They're also from China! It's been exciting. 

Also, as I mentioned earlier, we had the best Valentine's Day ever!! We had an amazing PMG study with our zone leaders on Charity & Love and extending commitments. Charity is a spiritual gift and we need to ask God for more of it. If we don't extend our commitments with love, our investigators' faith won't increase. It's pretty simple.

Yummy Fish and Chips

Afterwards, we got yummy fish & chips right by the chapel. Many of our investigators decided to cancel last minute or not be at home when they said they would be, so we heart attacked members' homes. We got busted by one family, but did all the rest successfully. That was fun.

Heart Attacking some members' homes on Valentine's Day

We also had a miracle! We stopped by the Rayment's but they weren't home :(  However, we ran into their neighbour, Vicki, who really needs God in her life and has been searching for a church, but has been too busy. She's hoping to finally settle down and rely on Jesus Christ to help her through everything. She became our new investigator :)  Then we went over to the Parkes' house (members) for Valentine's Day dinner. At our dinner place setting, there were darling Valentine's day cards, a teddy bear, a long stemmed rose, and a heart-shaped box of Lindt chocolates!! And she even created her own cake recipe called "Sister Weiss & Sister Lew Cake of Destiny"...man that was phenomenal. Chocolate and chocolate and chocolate and raspberries. So yum. The Parkes are an awesome family...absolutely hilarious. The members in Newcastle are so great!!! They are very supportive of the work and are always so willing to help. Our WML (ward mission leader), Brother Boeree is the bomb. He's in the air force and just got back from serving in Iraq. He's very on top of the work here. 

Dinner at the Parkes' 

Spoiled by the Parkes family

"Sister Weiss & Sister Lew Cake of Destiny"

This past week, we've been really trying to spiritually prepare ourselves for Elder Bednar's visit this coming Saturday. I AM SO STOKED! We were assigned to read 3 of his talks and to study them and prepare questions.

 

I've had lots of good personal scripture study time this week...here are some of the things I learned:

Luke 9: 62
62And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough , and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. 

We can't look back in sin, but only look forward with faith.

James 5:11

 11 Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.

Enduring to the end is so hard, but those who endure will be made happy.  When we endure to the end faithfully, we'll be able to return to our Heavenly Father and be happy with our families for eternity. Being a missionary is exhausting. We do nothing else but the Lord's work. I love it, but there are times when the natural man comes out and we simply don't want to do anything, but I've seen as we still continue to do it, we will be blessed and when we are blessed, we are happy. 

Anyways, life is good. Jenni and Tori are doing well. The work in Newcastle is hastening. We have 12 people in our ward on date for baptism!!  Miracles are always happening. I think part of the reason I'm so exhausted is because we've been playing soccer with the elders every morning...running around with mozzies (mosquitoes) chasing us is no fun... but it's good. :) 

I hope you're all doing well! Kung Hei Fat Choy! Sun Tai Gin Hong!

Oh yeah and dou jie for the laisee :D 

LOVE YOU HEAPS!

Sister Lew