Happy Birthday to Carli!! sorry i'm late in saying that. but a package should be coming your way. it's just a little s but i hope you like it! i was thinking about you alot on the 15th and we celebrated a little for you. i'm sorry to say that i cant remember how old any of my siblings are any more....lame i know. i just feel like you'll forever be the age you were when i left and when i think about you being older i'm like....."what?? no way. bu ke neng..."
this week has been really great. every week is really great! august i think is the hottest time of the month. but we are loving it! we had a really great lesson with a woman whom we contacted about 1 month ago. when we saw her the first time, she was super pregnant and heading up to her apartment with her 4 year old son. we started talking with her and she invited us up to her home. Her name is Ding JM. her son was scared of us so he was crying for some of the time.....haha. alot of kids react that way to us. not great for the self esteem. we talked to her about families and Christ and she was amazing and funny and we love her. so then we called her the next week and she had given birth! in taiwan, after a woman gives birth, she stays inside with her baby for a month! to rest and relax and take care of the little one. ding jm had gone back to her mothers home for the month with her baby. so we stayed in contact with her and last week, when we called her she said that she was back in Nanzi and we should come over! so we did. the baby is beautiful. it was all i could do to not cuddle her. not being allowed to hold kids is really hard!! Ding jm is amazing and she basically invited herself to church. she wants to come. we talked about Christ and how He can change us and our families. She accepted a baptismal date for the end of september! i'm really excited to continue getting to know her and helping her develop faith in Christ. it's so amazing how Heavenly Father prepares people to accept His message. our job is to invite and seek and have a spirit
i've really noticed the importance of the spirit in our lives recently. we can do many good things and be good people, but when we have the spirit, we will be able to know what is most good and necessary to do. He will teach us all things and guide us in all things. i know that sometimes we may not even know we are being guided by the spirit but our responsibility is to be seeking it and living worthy of it's guidance. i have felt an increased desire for the spirit in our work. I have really realized this week that the presence of the spirit depends in part to how I am reacting to the situations I am placed in. The spirit can still be present when our plans don't go according to plan, but when I get frustrated or discouraged about changed plans, I can't feel the spirit. I am changing through the Atonement and learning how to react in more Christlike ways.With the changes in the mission, I have just felt a renewed desire to seek the spirit and study Preach My Gospel and improve my skills as a missionary. I love the feeling of being more dependent on the Lord. In my contacting now, I'm more concerned with the quality than with quantity. I have always really loved talking with people and I'm grateful for that blessing; however, what I am realizing now is the need to become a better tool in the Lord's hands. I want to improve at talking to people with the spirit guiding my words. I am seeking the spirit more in every aspect of the work. In my personal study recently, I have just felt an increased desire to teach and testify and share. THis work is so amazing!
We had a great experience this week with the Bishop. We had gotten fanged and we were getting ready to leave the chapel when the Bishop pulled us into a little interview with him. He talked about some of his concerns and we talked about some ways to work better with the ward and get the fire really going in Nanzi. We are creating 'area books' for all the leaders in our ward, so that they can be up to date with the less active and recently baptized members of the ward. I have been praying for an opportunity to serve the bishop and I'm so grateful that Heavenly Father gave us this chance to help. I am so grateful that He hears and answers prayers!
Sister Newman
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