Simple Testimony- September 29, 2014

Hey everybody!

This last week was pretty busy, like all other weeks. But good!

I met this couple and they use to live on MERCER ISLAND!  

Fun Relief Society Activity

Teaching investigators-wise things have been a little slower...we have a few really awesome progressing investigators. They read the Book of Mormon every day and pray about its truthfulness every day...but still haven't really gotten an answer. Its been making me a little bit nervous. The other day during studies I was reading the Book of Mormon and thinking to myself, "Have I really received a witness that this Book is true?" "Can I really promise my investigators that they'll receive a witness?" I said a few honest prayers and asked Heavenly Father and then I felt a peaceful feeling come over me. I flipped through my study journal and found an entry from a LONG time ago, back in October 2013 the day before President Monson made the announcement about the mission age change.  

It says: "I finished the Book of Mormon today. I prayed about it...I know it's true."

That one simple sentence hit me soooooo hard. Suddenly all the doubt I was feeling previously just washed away and I felt a real confirmation that the Book of Mormon is indeed true. It is the word of God. 

It is soooo important that we keep records of our testimony! If it weren't for that short journal entry I wrote almost 2 years ago I wouldn't have had this experience. EVERYBODY KEEP A JOURNAL. And don't forget your faith!

I know my investigators will receive a confirmation. I must have faith in that.

MY DISTRICT!  

Special request: PLEASE pray for the 31 missionaries waiting on their VISAs. If we don’t get new missionaries by mid-October they are going to have to close down a few areas. This Fast Sunday please fast for them!!!

Look who I met up with on a wonderful hike?  My Trainer!  

So fun to see these girls again!  

I love you all. I know that the Book of Mormon is true. 

Love, 

Sister Tracy

p.s. please no one die of e-coli poisoning 

My heart is here!- September 22, 2014

Hey there friends and fam!

So here's the update: I am still here in Xin Dian and I'm still livin it up with the natives! My new companion is Sister Wu. She's from GaoXiong and she ROCKS. This is her 8th transfer but it feels like she's been serving for a long time because she's a super duper stellar hard worker. Which is cool because I prayed really hard for Heavenly Father to send me a super hard working companion and He did! We're gonna tear it up together/we already have. Because of some leadership stuff I found out Im going to be with Sister Wu in Xindian for the next two transfers...probably going to finish my mission here with her. YAY!!!!!! :) 

This week was a little slower missionary work wise because we were in the process of moving apartments. Our old apartment got bought out, so I got to experience first hand what it’s really like to move....and it’s the most annoyingly tedious thing in the world. BUT I learned a lot of life skills and got some character building. Plus I lifted a fridge. And I can install a water filter. and I put together a washing machine using a Chinese instruction manual...I still have no idea how I accomplished that...miracles happen on this mission. I like our new apartment though, it’s a work in progress but it’s a good location and we’re making it a cozy sister missionary apartment. Also we live right across the street from an RC so that’s super convenient. Last Sunday morning I literally stuck my head out of the the window and yelled "Sister Lin! Good morning! Are you ready to go to church???" Haha. It’s super fun. And we live by this really pretty hiking trail area so we get to run through that in the mornings. 

Missionary work wise...pretty good stuff. We visited a lot of the members so that Sister Wu could get to know the leadership. Also visited a ton of LAs. Sister Wu is really good at working with LAs. I’m learning a lot from the way she teaches. She is a very simple teacher and bares powerful testimony. She’s good at gaining peoples’ trust and being their friends. It’s awesome. We have a few really awesome investigators who are progressing really well. And our RCs are being very welcomed by the ward. 

I’m a happy missionary. I think I’ve finally reached the point in my mission where I’m really content. I feel like I could keep serving for another year and be happy. My heart is here.

Short email today sorry. Just not much to say other than I am really really happy here. :)

Sister Tracy

P.s. Sister Wu is friends with the Asian missionary in Mercer Island ward!!!!!!!!! Super random. He just sent her a picture and in the back was our ward building lol. small Mormon world!

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. 

More adventures ahead of me! Time is dwindling and its really daunting. 

Thanks for all the emails from friends and family. I love you :)

Surprise visit from my RC from Ji Long.  She came to see me!

Sister Tracy

Let your light so shine... September 8, 2014

This last week was interesting because a lot of bad things happened but a lot of good things came out of it...

1. So we were anticipating 34 new missionaries to come in but because VISA problems are super annoying they won’t be coming for a few weeks or even a few months...yikes. So transfer meeting has been postponed...But on the plus side this means I get one more week with my bendi (my native companion)! We are going to party!

2. Sister Zhao admitted to drinking coffee after she passed her interview...NOOOOOOOOOOOO but its actually okay. She’s going to get baptized this weekend and we spent this entire past week going over every single commandment ESPECIALLY the Word of Wisdom. As she's been living the commandments and been getting more clear explanations from us and the members she's been seeing lots of blessings. Her family situation has been better, her health is better, she's overall a lot happier. God wanted her to wait another week. 

3. Samantha's lessons were really tightly taught together but in the end she passed her baptismal interview!!! She and Sister Zhao are going to get baptized together next week. :)

When we face trials we need to KNOW that everything is going to be okay in the end.We need more eternal perspective.We also need to know that “The Lord is involved in the details of the details of the details of our lives.”  Elder Sam C.H. Wong (Asia Area Presidency)

I made a goal with God this week that I would nonstop talk to everyone around me. I told Him that if I did this I would hope to find a really prepared person who would be ready to be baptized next month. At first it was REALLY HARD. I would get tired really easily and I’d find my Chinese suffering because I was tired plus we were biking up and down hills a lot and it was over 100 degrees. I’d get a few numbers and maybe a few lessons here and there but no one was really "interested."

 

These are the hills we bike on!

As we were biking to visit an LA (and we were biking fast because we were really late), we pulled up to a stoplight and I glanced at this man in his 50s next to me. I didn't want to say anything. I wanted to just keep going. But i remembered that promise I made and I felt I needed to “woman up” and just say something. So I turned to him and said “hi.” I told him who I was--Sister Tracy, a missionary. I told him my purpose--To invite others to come unto Christ. I bore quick testimony--This gospel has forever changed my life. Then I noticed the stoplight was about to change so I quickly invited him to pull over and let us talk to him for 1 minute. To my complete surprise he said, "Okay." We pulled over and 1 minute turned into 2 minutes which turned into 15. We ended up having a lesson and setting up an appointment. We met with him the next night at a 7/11. His name is Mr. Lee and he is a really smart guy who went to Oxford and got his masters in English. He is very humble and listened to everything we had to say. I asked him, "Why were you willing to pull over to listen to sweaty, young girls on bikes talk about Jesus?" He said, "Because I felt your light." I told him that light wasn’t from us, it was from God. I asked, "Do you want that light too?" He said, "More than anything in the world." He ended up setting a date for 10/11.

My companion and I together contacted 250 people on the street last week...1 was ready. I like to think of contacting as a treasure hunt. You search and you search and then you find the gold! And boy is it the best feeling ever. 

GOD PREPARES PEOPLE FOR US!

I am learning to cook Taiwanese! 

One of my favorite ward members and her baby!

I cant wait to see what this next week's treasure is. :)

Spread the light with everyone you see!

Sister Tracy

Spiritual births and physical deaths- September 1, 2014

Helloooo

I dont have a lot of email time today, we got back late from eating lunch/dinner with our district and playing frisbee. Here are a few thoughts about things that happened last week:

~Sister Zhao passed her baptismal interview! She is going to be baptized this Sunday. She is the wife of one of our RCs. She has come a really long way. My favorite moment with her is one week she didn’t come to church because she was really tired and in a bad mood. The next day went to her house and visited her and she told us that she had felt really bad about not going to church. She said that she wanted to feel better and she remembered the story about Alma the Younger that we taught and it made her want to repent. She said, "It’s cool. I felt a lot better after repenting. You Sisters really are God's representatives!" She rocks :)

 

I love teaching

I let these little girls play with my hair

This is how they did my hair!  

~Samantha, another one of our investigators is getting her interview this Saturday and will be baptized next week. She is an awesome friend and her testimony is really strong. I hope she can start school at BYU with me this winter. 

~Memorial service for the two elders who died was this week. The whole mission came together to celebrate their lives. They were two really strong Elders. They worked really, really hard. They really inspire me to not waste a second on this mission. 

Transfers are next week. I am probably going to stay in Xindian. I hope I stay here for the rest of my mission. I really like it here. The members are my best friends. :)

Love you all!

Sister Tracy

Take No Thought For the Morrow- August 25, 2014

This last Saturday around 1pm, my companion and I were meeting with two members. As we were wrapping up the lesson I looked down at our cellphone (which was on silent at the time) and noticed that we had received 21 missed calls. I looked at the call record and saw that multiple different people had tried contacting us within the past 30 minutes: Mission leaders, members from our ward, investigators, RCs, LAs, missionaries... As I sat there staring at the phone thinking to myself, "Are we really THAT popular?" we got an incoming call from our bishop. I picked up the phone:

"Hello Bishop Chen?"

"(Frantically) Hello hello? Sister Tracy is that you? Are you still alive?"

"What? yeah I'm alive? What's up?"

"Thank goodness, there has been an accident..."

It didn't take too long before we had discovered what was going on. That day, around 12 pm a news report had gone out that two LDS missionaries in Xin Bei City (our area) had been found dead in their apartment due to CO poisoning. Reports had said that one missionary was from Gao Xiong (where my companion is from) and the other from America. Everyone thought that my companion and I had died! Later we had found out that it was two elders stationed in San Chong: Elder Xiong and Elder Thredgold. 

As this all unfolded we decided right then and there to get on our knees with our members and say a prayer. We prayed for the missionaries who had died, the safety of the missionaries in Taipei and around the world, we prayed for their families, for our mission leaders dealing with everything going on. After the prayer we all just kind of sat there in silence for a while. I looked down at my open scriptures on the table. I re-read the scripture that I had just barely shared with our members:

3 Nephi 13:30-34

 30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, even so will he clothe you,

 if ye are not of little faith.

31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?

32 For your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.

34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient is the day unto the evil thereof. 

For the past 3 days members, investigators, RCs, LAs...all have been asking me over and over, "Why did God have to take away two young missionaries? They were doing the right thing. They devoted all of their time to God. Why did He do that?" I even had an LA ask me yesterday at church, "Sister Tracy do you still believe in God?" At first I got really freaked out at that question. It's crazy how such a sudden event can make you question and doubt your faith so quickly. Even if you've spent the past year of your life doing nothing but teach people about God, you can be so quick to throw away faith and doubt. 

I do not know why my good friends had to die so early in life, or why they had to die during their missions, but I do know that God made a wonderful Plan of Salvation for His children, and I know that it is true. The Plan of Salvation is God's plan for his children. It is perfectly designed so that we all may have the opportunity to have eternal peace, happiness, and life. I know that we obtain these blessings through the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I have felt its peace and I know by the power of the Holy Ghost that it is true.

I also know that the words from 3 Nephi 13 are true. We do not need to worry. Do not let fear dominate faith. God will take care of everything. We must learn to trust Him now. Through the teachings of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ we can. 

Please pray for Elder Xiong and Elder Thredgold's families. Please pray for the safety of missionaries all over the world. Please share your testimony of the Plan of Salvation with everyone around you.

http://www.mormon.org/beliefs/plan-of-salvation

Here are some pictures from last week:

A family from Canada came and sang in our ward!

My Companion and I going on the train to see the mountains 

A member of our ward

I love you all.

Sister Tracy

Talk to everyone!- August 18, 2014

Last week was pretty good!

Highlights

Monday: I went to the zoo! Met a lady from Singapore and got her number and referred her to the missionaries in her area, super cool experience. Also I got to see orangutans and camels and PANDAS...no sloths...but that’s okay. Also I found out in a very embarrassing way that I have been saying "naked bodies" instead of "camel" in Chinese for about over a year now.

Tuesday: we went to the temple and gave temple tours! something I haven’t done in a very long time! we had an awesome lesson about the Melchezidek Priesthood with our RC. We had a missionary couple from America help us give the tour. Shout out to the Petersens! They had such an impact on him! Shout out to the Priesthood brethren!

Wednesday: It POURED rain. Like typhoon status. But we still went out and saw miracles. We saw a man with crutches fall down in the middle of the street and we went to save him. We carried his groceries and helped him limp all the way back to his house. We had a 45 minute walk/conversation with him and ended up setting up to meet with him again. A little act of service can go a long way. Also English class was boss. Lots of members showed up, yay!

Thursday: I woke up in the middle of the night thinking I was hearing a noise in our kitchen. FREAKED out because I thought it was a thief. So I said a quick prayer and grabbed a frying pan and sat in my bed. My companion woke up and screamed because she thought I was going to attack her ha-ha. I told her I heard something outside in our kitchen. So we both got up and went out and saw a RAT on the floor. I flipped out and smacked it with the pan and it completely got smushed. Then we used the frying pan to grill it and eat it...

okay just kidding. no we didn’t eat it. but it was super terrifying and nasty.

Friday: We met with a super cool “former” from the elders’ old area and I learned how to make apple curry.

Saturday: all appointments fell through so we hit the streets all day and NO success until the VERY LAST person we contacted! It was so weird. We were walking down this trail and suddenly I just had this urge to stop. I don’t even know why. My companion said, "Why are you stopping?" and I said, "I don’t know." then she said, "that guy" she pointed to this guy and we talked to him. He was super cool and set up and really excited to learn more.

MIRACLES COME FROM TALKING TO EVERYONE. That’s been the main thing I learned this week. Talk to them when you least feel like talking to them. Talk to everyone and you will see miracles.

Look who is learning how to cook Taiwanese!  

More next week

Sister Tracy