He is the Gift!- December 1, 2014

Hey everyone!

HAPPY DECEMBER! Yay! I set a goal that I would wait until December 1st to start celebrating Christmas. Today I am going to open my Christmas package, write Christmas cards to RCs and investigators, and members, decorate our apartment and start listening to Christmas music! YAYAAYYAYAY. 

The other day we received some training from President Day. The Brethern want us to go crazy on sharing this video called "He is the Gift" below is a link:

http://www.mormon.org/christmas 

Everyone should watch it right now, and then post it on your FB wall or your twitter or your whatever. Share it during visiting and home teaching, share it at church, share it with a random stranger. 

Missionary planning meetings

Why do we celebrate Christmas? Why do we give and receive gifts? It's to remember and celebrate the greatest gift of them all! The gift that God gave us--Jesus Christ.

The other day Sister Wu and I were at a park and we contacted a mother watching over her little boy. We asked her if we could show her a video on her phone and she said okay. After she watched the video we asked her how she felt and she said she felt good and wanted to learn more about Jesus Christ. We then began to show her the Book of Mormon and how Christ knows her every trial and every happy moment and that she can rely on His gospel to help her. She accepted the book and even agreed to meet with us again next week. 

The Gospel is for everyone. I testify that we all have a Savior. We all have a perfect example. We all have this person, who knows every pain, every happy moment, every little detail of our life. It only makes sense to trust Him, to trust this Gospel. 

 11 And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions andtemptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilledwhich saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses ofhis people.

 12 And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bandsof death which bind his people; and he will take upon him theirinfirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according tothe flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succorhis people according to their infirmities.

I know that the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ is true and  can change lives. I see it every day in the lives of others and my own. I invite everyone to read the Book of Mormon and try its teachings out. They're true. 

I love playing with kids.  Especially Jenga!!!

Love, Sister Tracy

A week of charity- November 24, 2014

I'm Studying my Chinese!

Hey everyone. Thank you so much for the emails and letters of encouragement :) I love you. 

So obviously last week was really rough, BUT thanks to the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ, I was able to jump a huge hurdle and figure things out. This week was a lot better. After reading Preach My Gospel Chapter 6 on how to Develop Christlike Attributes I decided to make a goal of developing more charity. This has changed everything about how I go about doing missionary work. I made a goal that this last week, I would not focus on trying to have a lesson with someone or just going through the motions of teaching/street contacting...I made a decision to constantly ask myself this question, "How would Christ do this?"--"How would Christ make this bike contact?" "How would Christ talk to this struggling mom?" "How would Christ treat the man smoking on the side of the road?" It all came down to--He would love them. It all came down to love. As I kept Christ on my mind this week I was able to love everyone and listen to them and just BE HAPPY. I absolutely LOVED doing missionary work this week and it's because I made a conscious effort to follow Jesus Christ. I know He is my Savior. I know He is the perfect example. I know that it’s only through following Him that we are able to find happiness. 

I invite you all to try this experiment out with me. Develop more charity. PMG lists these attributes of a person with charity. Commit these to memory, strive to develop them and you will be so much happier.

Strive to:

1. have a sincere desire for the welfare and happiness of others

2. pray for the pure love of Christ

3. try to understand other's feelings

4. always forgive others

5. help those who are sad/struggling

6. tell others you love them

7. look for opportunities to serve

8. say only positive things about others

9. be kind and patient with others

10. find joy in others achievements

On that note...I love you all!

Sister Tracy 

Christ is the reason- November 17, 2014

So not gonna lie, this past week was probably one of the roughest weeks of my mission. Just a lot of things tested my faith this week. 

One being: we have an investigator who was supposed to get baptized next Saturday. We spent the majority of this past week getting her ready: teaching her the rest of the lessons, took her to Yi Lan for a stake activity, she passed her baptismal interview and everything. Last night after a lesson our investigator called us crying telling us that her parents were arguing. Apparently her father extremely opposes her getting baptized. We went over to her house to talk to the mom. When we got there our 11-year-old investigator was sitting on the doorstep in the rain crying. I've never felt more discouraged in my life.

I got super sad last night because...I guess stuff like this has just been happening for the past 2 months. Baptisms getting so close but falling through last minute, no one willing to set up with us, people not keeping commitments. And we've been working super hard, non stop. I’ve never worked harder in my mission. I guess last night was kind of the final straw for me. I told Sister Wu I felt like my faith was dwindling. 

God answered my desperate prayers through my companion, Sister Wu. After I told her what was going through my mind she just looked at me and...I don’t even know how to explain it but then she just said everything I needed to hear. She spoke with the Spirit. She reminded me that no effort is wasted out here. Even though our investigator wouldn't get baptized anytime soon, she reminded me of all the good we've done for her. We helped her meet people in the ward, we did service for her mom, we helped her know how to pray (which she does every day now). She reminded me that were here to do what Christ would do. That's all this mission is about. She asked, "Do you feel that you help people the way Christ would?" I said, "Yes." "Then your efforts are not wasted."

I love my companion. I love that God answers our prayers through others. Despite my doubts and my feelings of distress, I know that this church is true. I know that I am not wasting time out here. I know that faith is the power. Love is the motive. The spirit is the key. And Christ most certainly is the reason. 

 

Outing to the Museum!

Love,
Sister Tracy

You Never Know How Much Good You Do- November 10, 2014

So this past week was super busy. Went on 3 back-to-back exchanges. But it was super good too. I'm slowly learning more and more throughout the mission that I like being busy (if it’s for the right reasons.) Also I got the chance to work with some incredible sisters. It's weird to think that I'm one of the older missionaries in this mission now.

This past Saturday I was feeling super down. I made a few goals earlier last week and basically I just really worked hard this week. I talked to literally everyone, made a super conscious effort to be exactly obedient, kept mission invites, worked diligently, and there just wasn’t a lot of progress going on with our investigators, RCs, LAs, the ward vision or anything really pertaining to missionary work. People were rejecting us more than usual. People cancelled on us last minute. For a few days I felt a bit of doubt about the promises in Preach My Gospel or from the prophets or cousel of our leaders. Basically I just felt like my efforts were being wasted. 

Saturday night I got on my knees and said a prayer, "Heavenly Father...just please help me feel better."

The following day we were sitting in Relief Society at church and a leader showed us this video called "You Never Know" Watch it right now!

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2014-00-008-you-never-know?lang=eng 

I was asked to translate the dialogue into Chinese for everyone but I completely failed because I got super emotional and basically cried the whole video haha. This message was an answer to my prayer. We never know how much good we really do. Heavenly Father reminded me of a really important principle yesterday...eternal perspective. I was reminded that none of my efforts are wasted. This is GOD's work. Service will never lead to failure. We don’t always see the fruits of our labors...but we need to trust that they are there. 

Proverbs 3: 5-6

·        Old Testament

5¶ Trust in the Lord with all thine heart ; and lean not unto thine own understanding . 

6In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths . 

Don’t forget that you never know how much good you do. So don’t ever hesitate to serve others. 

 

This was me on my very first day in the MTC.  WOW!  I had no idea what my mission would be like.

Love,

Sister Tracy

Happy Halloween! November 3, 2014

This week was good! Lol i feel like I just emailed you all since my pday was last Wednesday. 

Sister Wu and I last Wednesday at the Temple

I’m going to keep this email short because I've got some other stuff I gotta do today BUT I can share a quick miracle:

An RC from a past area came and visited me recently. By the time I left this area my companion and I had taught all of the lessons to her and had invited her to baptism multiple times. She always refused. To my surprise, shortly after I left the area I got an email from a member saying "She got baptized this week!" and attached a picture of my RC. I was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO happy! Well when she visited me last week I asked her, "What happened? Why did you decided to be baptized?" She told me that she would email me the story. I thought I would share it with you all (p.s. She typed this in english. Her English is awesome)

Dear Sister Tracy,

nice to see you in Xindian last Sunday! I was so happy to have this chance!

You asked me why I finally joined the church. Well, I have to admit, it is not because our church is the only true church, nor we have the living prophet (so I still confuse about why I can pass the interview……) It is due to the holy spirit. It worked on me.

All began with the Alma 32:27-42. It is said that we should try to plant our faith in our heart and to cultivate it carefully. And the first thing we need to do is action, just like doing a experiment. So as I did. I read the scriptures (Bible and BoM) and prayed everyday, and step by step, I felt something started to change inside my soul, but I didn’t know what have changed.

The more I did (readthe scriptures and pray), the more desire I had. I became more and more eager for getting closer and closer to Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father. I realized I should do something. But I still struggled and resisted it. I didn’t know why. When Sister Zippro asked me to set my baptism date and interview date, I refused, and told her I need to consider it well. I went home and pray for it. I was so surprised that God comforted me and eased my misgivings. So I set the dates one week later. But when I passed the baptism interview, I still refused it. I didn’t give the paper to sisters till the next day. It was Gu dixiong encouraged me to make the decision. No kidding, when I told my parents that I will have a baptism soon, I even hoped that they could refused it, and commanded me do not meet the sisters anymore. But unfortunately it didn’t happen. I was so shocked because I knew that my parents didn’t like me to go to the church and insisted in our traditional religion. Even the day before the baptism day, Sister Miller asked me the feeling, I told her ”I don’t know. I feel so strange and so uneasy. I doubt that I made a right decision.” She suggested me that I should try to put myself in God, let him help me to get out of this feeling. So as I did, and then received the baptism next day.

It was 按手禮 (sorry I don’t know this term in English) which ended the strange feeling. I knew that I’m belong to Jesus Christ after the rituals. It gives me strength and helps me to overcome the problems what I meet in the reality or in the spirutual life. Although I still meet the challenges now, I know everything will be fine if we keep laying our faith on him. He came, preached the gospel, and then crucified in order to set us free from the sin and to be free in the truth. I know this is true.

Hope this helps!!

I LOVE YOU TONS!!

All I really have to add is that I KNOW I KNOW I KNOW if anyone wants to find truth it is through daily reading and praying and pondering. I know God will answer His children. I've seen it in the lives of others and in my own. 

I ran into my first companion from the MTC!

Love you all!

Oh and happy halloween!

(I completely forgot about Halloween :( )

Love Sis Tracy