2 weeks left

dear family,

ni hao! i hope everyone is doing well. sounds like the dog is an adventure. she is a cutie though. mom- make carli and luke walk her. haha. luke- thank you so much for the pictures! you look awesome!! i'm sure rugby is great and that you have so many cool kids on the team. when we moved around so much, i learned that the best way to love a place is to get involved in everything!! you guys are doing great at that (i just typed elders instead of guys....haha they are training me well here). luke i am so proud of you and all you are doing. international school is hard but it is so much fun and you'll be so much smarter than everyone else haha. carli- i heard you hung with some friends this weekend. how did it go? tell me all about everyone in your life. sometimes it takes a little while to get used to a place- especially one half way around the world- but have faith that God has a plan and that you are living that plan. i have so many moments when i think to myself "wow- i am actually a missionary" and i think about how i decided to become a missionary. any time i question my desicion or start to get distracted, i pray so hard. i ask God to comfort me and guide me. and He always does. He sends His spirit. sometimes it doesn't happen immediately but as i keep going and seek happiness and comfort, God puts it in my life. this week i was really missing school (weird right?!). i don't want to dwell on it too much but know that i know this is where i am supposed to be. change is hard and when i go to taiwan i feel like i'll be better able to sympathize with you all. the culture, the language, the food, the people- everything is different. i want to bear testimony to you that God loves our family and has a plan for us. i know one of the reasons we lived in china before was to prepare blake and I to serve mandarin missions. maybe God is preparing you for His work to. we are in His hands and as we seek to serve Him and others, He will make us tools in spreading this gospel. i am so excited for wang ayi and her family. oh my goodness. they are so dear to me and to all of us. this week is practice teaching, we were practicing the word of wisdom and i was pretending to be an investigator. i pretended to be chen shifu. this was a very touching moment for me as i thought about how much we all love him and how he is now receiving the gospel. i hope he has amazing missionaries that are helping him come unto Christ. I know that our family was a great example to him and i'm excited for the day when we can see him again.

we had a meeting with a general authority this week. all the mandarin speakers were called to meet with elder perkins of the 70. it was great to hear him talk about china and the gospel work progressing. one of the missionaries asked when china would be "open". He said it already is. the Lord is doing the work in china in a very different way. His ways are not our ways. instead of sending us in, as missionaries, He is taking people out of china and bringing them to places where they can learn, accept, and live the gospel. then He is sending them back, to help establish the many branches that are developing all over that nation. i am so exctied to be a part of this work and to be planting seeds that will one day change many people's lives.

i was so happy that i was able to see Blake this week. i have been praying that if it is God's will, to let us see each other. and i walk out of the MTC and there he is on his bike. it was so wonderful. i feel so blessed to have you as an example of faithful missionary service and love. i am so grateful that i was able to share my testimony with you on sunday and just feel so much joy. i love this language and i know you love this language and i am so proud of you. i pray for you every night and think about you and your diligence. the Lord will bless you during this semester and seek for His help.  

i have learned so much this week about the sacrament. i really felt the sacredness of that ordinance this week. i have been really working on repenting daily and striving to be better. i know i receive forgiveness everytime i sincerely repent. through the Lord, this is possible. because of Him, we can start every day fresh. we don't need to let what we did yesterday (that we have repented of) distract us from living today. as i seek the Lord in prayer, He shows me what to repent on, what to work on, and how proud of me He is. because of the Lord, we can be completely clean. as we strive to daily repent, then on Sunday when we partake of the sacrament, we can truly be washed clean of our sins and shortcomings that week. we can truly be made as clean as when we were baptized. with investigators, they must first bring forth fruits of repentence and be seeking to change. then, when they enter the water of baptism, they can begin a new life, completely independent of who they used to be. the baptism finishes their repentence progress. as we are striving to endure to the end, we must weekly bring forth fruits of repentence and be seeking to change. through this, we are worthy of the sacrament and it's cleansing power on us.

 let the Lord cleanse you. let Him influence your life. and forgive yourself when He has forgiven you. i know that His power is real. I know that wants to help us improve and CHANGE. only through Christ can we be clean and ONLY through Christ can we return to God's presence. 

i love you all very much and i am so grateful for our yongyuan jiating. i am so grateful for temples. i am so grateful for the power we receive as we are faithful to the covenants we make. we are praying for you all by name daily. i love you and i am so grateful for your support.

keep praying and keep loving one another.

i love you all

Sister Paige Newman