Really quick. 3 months from today is my 21st birthday... and my last PDay. SO WEIRD. I literally feel so old lately. and I don't like it. I love being a missionary.
This week was kinda lame, but also miraculous. I was out for 4 days with a dumb cold. BUT our investigator passed BOTH of her baptismal interviews this weekend and is getting baptized this Saturday! YES! Also, yesterday the weather was awful, but one of our investigators still came out to Sacrament, toting 2 toddlers! She had told us earlier in the week that she probably wouldn't make it, but she still came and loved it(: Such a big miracle!
As far as the work this week, it was a little rough, but somehow it still managed to not look too bad. We were in all day Thursday, then we had 1 lesson Friday afternoon. Later Friday night, I tried to bike 40 min, up a huge hill, to the city that 3 of our most progressing investigators live. We made it up to our first appointment, but our investigator's mom, who is a member, saw the state I was in and insisted that she take me to a doctor that night. So she drove us back into the city to see a doctor. He gave me some medicine for my normal, but annoying cold and we went home.
But one good thing did come out of going to the doctor! I got a full Chinese name finally! :) The receptionists couldn't understand that I was just, "Sister Ou" and demanded that I have a first name. So our member picked, "歐家妤" "Ou Jia Yu" for me. It is so perfect and I love it. :) "Jia" means "home/family" and "Yu" means "beautiful/fair". I've been waiting almost a whole year for a Chinese name and now I have one!
We then stayed in again on Saturday, because I was so beat from the huge trek up to Er Chong Pu the day before. We did go out to our chapel for our investigator Xiao JM's baptismal interview. We were so glad to be there when she came out of her interview, telling us that she's passed and was excited to get baptized this Saturday. She was a little nervous about her 2nd interview the next day with President Chang, but still faithful. Yesterday she had her interview, and passed! She will be getting baptized this Saturday! We are so lucky to get to see this miracle. She has come so far in just the month that we've been teaching her and that I've known her. She started out having no interest at all, to now being excited to become a spiritual daughter of Christ and have a new start. She's been a huge example of humility and faith to Sister Tan and I. A big testament that this gospel does change people and families! Next, we're really going to work on her daughter, who is preparing to get baptized 2 weeks after her mom. We're hoping she'll realize the blessings the gospel has given to her mom, and then have the faith that it can change her, too. I'm so grateful for this opportunity I've had to meet both of them!
I hope that today will be my last day of having this cold, then the rest of this week we'll be able to get out and work. There's a lot to be done out here in Zhudong, but none of it is impossible. I really feel like this is where I'm supposed to be right now. I'm so grateful for the lessons I've learned thus far in my mission to get me where I'm at today.
"Forget yourself and go to work" is literally the best piece of advice I could give anyone preparing to go on their mission, or on their mission right now. The only way to find yourself is to lose yourself.
加油!!!
-Sister Oviatt
No comments:
Post a Comment