Week 59

Qin Ai de FAMILY!!!!!!!!!!

Oh how I love you so much!

It has been a great week! So many miracles!

We have been blessed with many wonderful investigators! Sister Yan is doing so great and really progressing to her goal. She talks about when she gets baptized and after she gets baptized quite frequently. She came to a Relief Society activity on Saturday and in the process received an answer to her prayers. She said that when she pulled up to the church it looked like the gates were shut. She was worried because she was late... she decided to pray and then the thought came to her mind that we wouldn't invite her if we weren't going to be there and that she should walk around. She found the open gate and came in. She heard the piano and found us. She also sad that her family has been going through some struggles lately and since she started meeting with us things have been getting better and her little sister would like to meet with us as well. So great! I love her!

Also the Wang/ Tong family that I have talked about the past few weeks... So as you know we have started working with Sister Wang's little sister who is amazing! We met with her this week and she asked us a really good question about her job... She reads palms and taro cards and stuff. Well she is going to school to learn how do to these things. Sister Wang (member and her older sister) told her that it is not right... and that that isn't how we receive revelation from God. So Sister Wang (little sister) asked how it was that we receive revelation. We share with her about the spirit. She asked how the spirit feels and we reminded her of how she feels at church and how she often has this feeling to cry... She said she feels it every time she comes to church and when she came to her nephews baptism. She also bore testimony of the blessings she is receiving from her prayers. Then she asked how she can receive answers to other things like about work, school, friends and future things because that is why people like the palm reading and stuff... So we testified of how the spirit can teach us all things and show us all things. We read with her in the Book of Mormon and anywho at the end she said that she is willing to pray about her job and to find a new one. WOW!!!! It was so amazing! The feeling there... It really was so amazing to see that change. And then her sister said "yep what you need to do is pray more, read more, and come to church every week and get baptized and you will see even more blessings!" So bold and so great! It was so amazing! What a blessing to be there!

We also had a miracle at church.... A woman that I taught in ZhangHua (my last area) came to church!!!!! Her name is Sister Huang and when I saw her I was so confused. We only met with her a few times and then she came to church twice but then stopped answering our calls and came down to JiaYi where I am now... She just decided to find the church herself and just come. And she was so surprised to see me there! It was so miraculous! So... I can't think of the English word except for saying that the Lord's hands truly are in all things.... WOW!!!!

So what a week it has been and will be....

I pray that the Lord will be with you all this week as we remember mom. This year has gone by so fast. So much has happened. We have all grown in our own ways and together as a family. I have felt our relationships and love for one another grow just as mom would want it to. I just want to testify again of the Plan of Salvation and what it means to me... not too long ago we had a Combined District Training Meeting where President Bishop shared with us about the Plan of Salvation... he paused for a second and then shared of when he found out that mom passed away and how he shared it with me and then he said "Sister Bray what does the plan mean to you?" and I said "Everything" "Why?" "Because it gives me hope..." It gives me HOPE!!!! It gives me purpose. It lets me know that we WILL see mom again... That we can be together forever!!! It is true! It is real! It is the plan that Heavenly Father has given to His children. It is the plan for OUR family!!!! I am continually grateful for this plan and so grateful for the opportunity I have to share this plan with His children. I am so grateful that in the past year I have been so blessed to feel so close to you all yet I'm so far away. I am so grateful that I have been blessed to feel mom's presence and have truly felt "angels round about me" just as it says in D&C 84:88... Mom continues to love us and help us. I am so grateful for all the beautiful lessons she taught us. For her light and her smile. For her many "I love you" 's and her singing and dancing.... I love her so much! I love you so much! I will be praying lots for you this week...

I love you all soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much!

Until next week!

Week 68

Dearest Family!!!!!!! and friends!!!!!

It has been another great week!

AHHHH! Time is going by so fast! It's crazy! Weeks fly by like days! SO FAST!!! Too fast!!! (breathing noise)  :)

But can I just tell you...I continue to love the work more and more. It is just pure joy! I love it so much!!!!!! I am so very grateful for this opportunity... words can't even describe it.... or my love for these beautiful people. I love this work and I feel so blessed everyday to be doing it!

I love my companion Sister Tanner.... She is so great... So I realized when I said she is from Canada I was really vague because Canada is rather large.... She is from Smithers which is 12 hours north of Vancouver. She is so awesome and she is picking everything up so fast. I LOVE HER!!!

We had a great miracle this week! Sister Wang son got baptized. Sister Wang use to be less active... but we started working with her and she started to come back. Along that process we started working with her 9 yr old son Tong didi... he got baptized on Jan. 1st and has been such a great example to his family. Especially his older brother.... Tong gege :) We started meeting with him then the Elders started meeting with him and yesterday he was baptized. A beautiful family! Sister Wang also has a daughter that we hope we can start sharing the gospel with. Sister Wang also invited us to start teaching her mom and little sister. They are great! They came to church the past 2 weeks but the mom is still having a hard time accepting the gospel but I they both often cry as they have heard about the Atonement and eternal families. The little sister has said that she feels something special that causes her to cry.... So I have faith that they will continue to progress. I am in awe at the change I have seen in Sister Wang. It amazes me... we'll have to ask her what made that change? What changed that helped her come back?..... I feel like her experience and testimony could really help other less actives.

We also have some other really great investigators right now. Sister Yan is really progressing! She has been praying and reading and came to church. After she stayed for the baptisms and was like "I might need 2 men to help me do that... I'm scared of the water!" It was so cute. Not only did we find out that she has a fear of water but we also learned of her desire to be baptized and that that is her goal and her plan. Even though she has this fear she is willing to go and do... she just might want some extra help just in case :)

We really see miracles everyday! It is so miraculous.... obviously. Yep, that was redundant. But really... It is amazing and glorious. I am continually amazed by the atonement and the love that God and Christ have for all of us.... It has been testified over and over again that I am not doing the work. They truly do all the work. They change their hearts. They do the work... I just pray that I can continue to become and always be an instrument in Their hands.

It passes all my understanding!
 
Well that's about it for this week!

I love you all soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much!!!!

Until next week!!!!