Sister McKenna Tracy: Adventure is out there- September 15, 2014

This past week was pretty bad but also had some great things too.

I’ll start by sharing the bad because I like happy endings.

This past Wednesday through Saturday I felt super duper sick. Went to the doctor and it turns out that I had an internal stomach inflammation (probably from something unclean I ate). Soooooooo long story short, I’ve been living off bread and soup and we weren’t able to get too much done this past week...BUT we still had miracles...

Zhao Li Rong and Zhang Xi En got baptized! It was such a good baptism :) Lots of people from the ward came out to support them including some members from the English ward. I got to meet a lot of people from all over the world and a few returned missionaries as well. They were all super cool. Sister Zhao is a rock star. She was super nervous (and so was the guy who baptized her). It took about 4 times but she never gave up and when she came out she said "I am clean!" Yay! Yes she is! :) Samantha didn’t plug her nose and almost choked BUT she also couldn’t deny the feeling of following her Savior Jesus Christ. They both got confirmed yesterday. :)

Brother Lee came to church yesterday. He seemed to really like it! Our members were awesome. They totally reached out to him and sat with him and shared about their lives and joked around with him. MEMBERS HAVE SUCH A BIG INFLUENCE ON A PERSON’S CONVERSION. Brother Lee said he already felt really comfortable. He took off before we could meet with him but he set up for Tuesday.

Last week we met a lot of cool people on the streets--A realllllly rich family, a girl in her 30s with goals for a future family, a Catholic mother with four children, a youth who wants to join the Olympics. We will be meeting more with these people next week so I’ll let you know what happens.

My companion is moving. I am staying here in XinDian. Transfer meeting is tomorrow. I am happy I’m staying here but I am also really going to miss Sister Fan. She taught me a lot about faith. The other day Sister Fan was telling me that while she was investigating the church she wasn’t sure about a lot of things. Even after baptism she still wasn’t sure about certain commandments or Joseph Smith or Prophet Monson...I asked her, "So, why were you willing to be baptized in this church?" She said, "Because I finally learned who I was. A daughter of God. And I was willing to do anything for Him." I believe that's key...knowing who we are. We are children of God. He is perfect. Trust in Him. It’s so simple but also pretty hard. But I know the gospel of Jesus Christ will help us know who we are and who our Father is. With that faith we can triumph over anything.