I was reading through my mission journal the other day and I found this bit of advice my mtc mission president gave me: "There is a reason beyond your comprehension as to why you're learning mandarin Chinese. The lord has his time table and the world is being prepared, China is getting prepared to open."
We have a Stake calling to serve in the Chinatown ward here in NYC. It's been very challenging for both of us. Jon-David is the ward mission leader and our ward has 15 missionaries + a senior couple. And I teach the little 5-7 year olds, and I murmur...
We've been in this ward over a year now and we've seen it turn from a branch to a ward, we've seen the youth program go from non-existent to full-functioning(mutual, lessons on dating, and all that)! And the primary has grown 4 fold since I've been serving in it.
We're supposed to be getting a new building or possibly renovating the office space that we're in now because we are busting at the seams!
The missionaries are spectacular(especially the sisters, but I'm biased:). This month they've been given the go ahead to start using Facebook as a missionary tool and within the next few weeks they'll all have iPhones and iPads.
I remember when I got home from my mission I didn't know what an 'iPod' was and everyone had cell-phones, and I went to the USU bookstore asking for a floppy disk the guy was like 'Whoa! I don't think I've seen one of those in ages'...
I think it's just so incredible to see missionary work go forward and I feel like everyone has there own special timing for serving a mission. When I was in the MTC they had just got rid of memorizing the discussions and Preach My Gospel hadn't been published yet, so all we had to go off of for study topics was a list of the chapter headings in PMG. I was in the first group of missionaries under a brand new mission President and thanks to the lack of copyright laws in Taiwan, our mission president copied the first three chapters of PMG(that's all that had been published) and each missionary got a copy with a big yellow square on the cover that says 'DO NOT COPY'...
Anyway, I just wanted to remember how much things have changed and will continue to change and progress!
This guy is so adorable. He sings karaoke like a pro, and hugged Jon-David when he found out his wife(me) speaks Chinese, ha!
Our ward baptizes more than any other zone in the mission.
This new member is MY FAVORITE! She just recently joined the church and has completely embraced it. She even bought herself a ticket to go Utah for General conference and this was her facebook status: "I am in the General Conference! I feel grateful because I saw our prophet. I am a so so ... Lucky girl."
We had a record baptism (at least since we've been in the ward), 7 people were baptized.
Onward, and upward!
5 comments:
This is so inspiring! Our stake has been really pushing member missionary work and I pretty much just ignore it because it's so intimidating to me. You are awesome!
Stay true to the floppy disk.
Hey Becky! This is Lesli (parson) from High School - (I'm okay if you don't remember me:) but - I read your blog sometimes so I thought I should probably tell you hi. I had such big big dreams in my life of going on a mission and traveling all over the world and moving to far away cities with my husband and while those things didn't happen for me - and my life is just how it should be, i like to read your blog and just pretend for a little bit what it would be like:) I think you are awesome and I feel completely inspired when I read your posts - the good stuff and the hard stuff. Thanks for sharing all you do - take care!
"A so so...Lucky Girl." It's like I can even hear the new member saying that in my HEAD with a Chinese accent. Oh how I loved hearing Taiwanren speak English with an accent.
Hah! Who knew - we were meant to be blogging buddies:) The comment you left was so kind and I really appreciated it, thanks Becky. Man, nice AND pretty! And by the way - I teach the 7 year olds in my ward too and even though I speak the same first language as they do I still sometimes murmur....you guys are doing such awesome, important work though - GOOD JOB!
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