Sister McKenna Tracy: I'm going to be a mom! (Missionary Mom)- March 24, 014

I'm going to miss these girls! They are off to new places!

Nimen hao!

First item of news: I'm going to be a mom! Yep, I am training this next transfer! Super exciting! I've actually known for over a week now (President told me at interviews) but I haven't been able to tell anyone other than my companion until now. I'm super stoked! My baby and I are going to have a blast! If there is anywhere I could choose to train it would be in the beautiful bountiful land of Ji An :) I head up to Taipei on Thursday to begin training and pick her up. I have only one goal for this baby--I want her to fall in love with her mission. How are we going to do that? I don't know---BUT We're going to do whatever God wants us to do and have fun every step of the way. The mission is a precious time.

Second: They split up the branches last week so I am getting reassigned new boundaries/opening some new boundaries...so my trainee and I are going to be getting to know people together...even better!

Third: THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS FOR KAI SHENG! So he didn't get baptized on Saturday cuz he relapsed last Monday (gotta be clean for a week). BUT As of Tuesday he has smoked ZERO cigarettes. The first day he smoked zero (last Tuesday) he called us up and was like "Zhong Jie Mei! Wo jintian meiyou chou yan! Wan quan mei you!" IT WAS AWESOME. Sis J and I were jumping on our beds yelling "Gong xi gong xi!!!" And if that weren't awesome enough, yesterday at church he comes walking in--new haircut, new suit, helping the elders carry in bread for the sacrament. I had to do a double take. I was like "Kai Sheng!! You are going to make an awesome priesthood holder!" He just smiled and said, "I can't wait to be baptized on Saturday!" Nothing is greater than seeing somebody's life improve through Christ.

Fourth: Li Shi Hao also relapsed. We are still working really closely with him. He went 4 days without smoking though which is a HUGE improvment. He goes to church every week now though and goes to all the activities with his kids. Church members are very close to him. He's got it.

Fifth: MIRACLE of MIRACLES - remember those three kids that got baptized my first week here? We are working super hard with the mom and she by a complete miracle came to church yesterday. Sis J and I were also freaking out. Who thought that somebody coming to church would ever be so exciting? She's so close!

Sixth: English class is the best thing ever. We had 5 of our English students/investigators get baptized this last week! I love them all and will never forget them!

Our awesome english class students being Baptized!

Seventh: We had a duan chuan activity last week. (The youth came with us for a day to do missionary work) The first part of the day was rough because we got stood up and rejected a few times) but I said a super hard prayer that these girls would be able to see a miracle. We went knocking and the first door we knocked a SUPER golden new investigator opened the door and the girls got to bear their testimony and we invited him to baptism. Afterwards the girls were like, "WOW missionary work is so cool!" It is. :)

Youth came with us to chuan the jiao (spread the church)

Eighth: I have been super sick all week with a ridiculous head cold. My voice gave out several times during lessons. If you don't already know, Taiwanese are BIG into herbal medicines. If they sense you are sick or hurt or have acne or anything they WILL give you a medley of herbal medicine suggestions. Let's just say in the past week I've been given ground up mushrooms, a chain of dr mario pills, packets upon packets of powder, herbal aroma remedies, you name it...do they work? Kinda.