Sister McKenna Tracy: HAPPYＢＩＲＴＨＤＡＹRYAN!!!!!! May 19, 2014

Hey there!

Well we're a little upset because Wayne/ Zhou Di Xiong did not get baptized this week. He hit a few brick walls. He did not pass his first interview because of some issues in his past. And now his wife opposes his baptism because of his past and is taking out her anger on the Church. She told him that he could not go to Church anymore and that he could not pay tithing. He is in Taidong right now. We have it set up so that when he comes home our MM Leader and the Branch President will go visit him.

Not gonna lie, I've been pretty down about it all week. It hurts! You spend so much time and energy on helping someone and then suddenly it just all blows up in your face. It feels like getting dumped but a million times worse because were dealing with someone’s salvation here. All week I've been praying really hard to be patient with everything. It’s hard. But there is still hope. In fact, he just called me like 5 minutes ago to tell me that he would not be in Hua Lien for awhile because his uncle is dying. He asked me and Sister Williams to pray for him and his uncle. He says that he has been praying. He also says that he wants to see us again when he comes home; that he will call us when he comes home. Wayne is our friend. That’s what I am happy about in the end. He isn’t just some baptismal statistic. He isn’t just some goal we are trying to hit. He is truly a good friend of ours. He trusts us enough to ask us to pray for his family, and we trust him enough that we are not going to give up on him. When he comes back to HuaLien we are going to work with him some more. He needs this. And he knows he needs it too.

In other news, Li Shi Hao...GAHHHHHHHHHH That man! He is sooooo close! We reset his date for the end of this month. If I could ask EVERYONE -- I don’t care if you are a member of our Church or not--we need prayers going out to this guy! Pray that Li Shi Hao will have the control to quit smoking and make his baptismal goal for the 31st of May! He CAN DO IT!

Our Beautiful Chapel

We are also working with this adorable old man in his 70s named Zhang An Fu. He also has a smoking problem. He came to church for the first time yesterday and he loves it! He is so adorable. I love working with the elderly. I was sitting next to him during a baptismal service yesterday and he saw me scratching my mosquito bites and he immediatley pulls out this mosquito healing liquid and pours it all over my legs hahaha. It worked too! He wears a pink hat every day but for church he took it off and said, “I need to be reverent!” He was drunk called us at 2 in the morning the other day...that was interesting. We taught him the Word of Wisdom yesterday and he said in English, "I will do! I will do! I will do!" We need more investigatgors like this guy. He is a riot. Bring on the grandpas.

I have been EATEN ALIVE by mosquitoes. I counted the other day...122 bites. 22 on my arms and 100 on my legs. It’s a mark of the east coast.

Also our RC told me the other day that I have a pokerface. That is the first time I have ever been told that. Do I have one? really?

Also, we teach the higher level students in English class now and it is a PARTAY. We spent the whole class talking about what Jumbo Shrimp is.

Gotta love life.