One of my questions for Sister Peng this week:
Any fun foods for the week? Getting fed anymore?
Umm.... Bagels... I love bagels... I also made myself a peanut butter and chicken sandwhich... I've been going crazy for peanut butter stuff... other than that... nothing too fun... We haven't been getting fed... we just feed ourselves...
Now Onto Sister Peng's Update
Hello from the land of stinky tofu,
weird outfit combinations, and electric scooters!
How is everyone? I'm doing well! Especially since I
can sit here and email to my favorite people in the world while drinking a nice
cold class of....... Coke! Haha! I didn't get dong gua cha today. I'm
tired, so I really needed the caffeine... anyways.... :P
This week has been good, as always. It's been very
busy, as always. Though, we are still trying to find new
investigators. Sigh... The work is moving... but right now, we've been
having to push and pull it along... almost like trying to move a large boulder
up a mountain... Sigh... We still have about two progressing investigators,
which is good. And yes Mom, we are still teaching the American (Her name
is Amber by the way... I feel weird calling her the American investigator....)
Oh, speaking of Amber, she came to a branch/stake Activity
thing with her husband and her one year old son. The Gaoxiong East and
West zones had a Yun Dong Hui (Athletic/Sports Activity). It was super
fun! They had different competitions and relays for people of all
different ages! There was a race for the little kids, where they were
pretty much picking up candy off the track while they were running. There
was a jump rope activity, where like 5 people were jumping rope together (and
wards were competing to get the most repetitions). There were a bunch of
running relays, one of which you had to do activities like eat two pieces of
bread and drink a cup of water. I participated in a normal running
relay. Man, I've never run so fast before... I ran so hard that my eyes
went all blurry... weird... And then I was sore for two days
afterwards. Haha! Our bishop really wanted our ward to win the Yun
Dong Hui. And, since you have to do what the bishop of your ward wants
you to do... We got first place! Yay!!! It was so funny to see how competitive
our bishop got. He was planning out everything, and made us practice
before we actually competed. He's a gym teacher... so that probably
explains why... Anyways, it was a blast, and it was good to have a few
investigators, like Amber, attend. :) Cool thing is that Amber even
saw some people that she knew from her work (she teaches English). Yay!
It's a small world!
I guess the biggest thing that happened this week was that
we finally got to watch General Conference. I was super happy that I got
to watch it in English, because there were sisters in the Ward who preferred to
listen to the English version than listening to the Chinese voice over.
Wow,
Conference was amazing! I don't even know where to start! And if I wrote down
everything that I liked about it... well... I would might as well write a full
length novel.... Haha! I always think that Conference has something for
everyone, no matter if you are a member or not. Every time I watch a
Conference I get a spiritual boost. I feel like we are so blessed to be
able to hear the words of the prophet and the apostles! Even half way
around the world! I always feel like they are talking to me. Every
talk can be applied to my life, and every conference I feel like my questions
are answered.
So I guess... I'll share three things that I learned during
conference... It'll be hard to choose... but here it goes...
1. From Elder Ulisses Soares, I learned that I
really need to work on how to be meek. I think many people think of meek
as being weak. But being meek is being humble and being patient in all
things... Yeah... these are things I really need to progress in. So,
number one... Being humble. No matter what anyone else things... I am not
humble... At least, not completely. I have too much pride in my
heart, that I almost never ask for help... even when I really need it. I
always believe in relying on myself first... And I know that's wrong.
Especially since the Lord wants us to all rely and trust in Him in all
things... I also tend to take corrections badly... I always feel
like I'm being reprimanded for things I should already know how to do...When in
fact, corrections are supposed to make us know where we can
improve... Number two, being patient is not my strongest
suit... I'm working at it... Patience doesn't just mean waiting...
Patience also means overlooking the faults in others as well as yourself... It
means being quick to forgive weaknesses, and always having love in your
heart. Yeah... I'm guilty of having negative feelings in my heart... I
might never voice them... but they ruin my mood... Also, they push the Spirit
away... not good!
2. Okay, my favorite talk is probably the one given by Elder
Edward Dube. First off, his accent is amazing! Second, his talk was even
more amazing and inspirational! His talk was on never looking back.
I am guilty of this... I always day dream about days that have already
past, about situations that I wish I could have changed, about happy times that
I wish I could relive... Well, I'm just wasting my time. Never look
back, but always move forward. Looking forward means always progressing
towards goals. It means knowing no matter your situation, the future will
always be bright. I like what Elder Dube said "the past needs to be
learned from- not to be lived in." We need to remember our past so
we can improve upon it. But we can't sit around wishing we could go
back. We can't change it. But we can influence our futures by what
we are doing now. We need to do everything to the best we can, and
exercise faith.
3. Elder Jeffery R. Holland's talk was also very good...
Especially since I have never had so much stress before in my life. He
talked about overcoming depression. All of us will have times were we
feel depressed, but when we linger in depression we become endangered to the
depths of darkness and despair. When coming on my mission, I was worried
about depression. Something I've never told anyone about. I know
myself too well. When faced with a hard task, I tend to close myself off
from the world. I tend to sink when I should swim... I feel that there is
no hope... And I forget something very important... My Heavenly
Father. I forget to have faith.
But so far, on my mission, I have not forgotten, and I think
that has made all the difference. I've learned that I need to put my
faith and trust in the Lord. I've learned to never doubt in Him and his
eternal plan which he has for me. I know that every hard point in my
life, every challenge and every trial has a purpose. Their purpose is to
build me up in faith, so that I come closer to my Father.
Live by faith. Hold on to hope. Never give up.
Yup, not sure if any of that makes
sense, since I don't think my brain is fully awake yet... despite the fact that
my Coke is all the way gone... so sad... Anyways, I invite everyone to
check out the talks in General Conference (found on www.lds.org).
I promise you will find something that will help you, and I promise that as you
read/watch conference, you will feel the Holy Ghost testify to you that God is
your Father, and that he loves you unconditionally.
So that's the spiritual aspects of this week... Something
weird/ crazy that happened this week: So two nights ago, there were a lot
of drum pounding and loud clangs making some sort of loud music outside of our
window. Looking down from our balcony we saw at least 15 people making
that... music?... along with about 5 other people dressed up as Buddhist gods
wearing stilts and "dancing"- twirling around, doing weird
movements. So at first I was like... Okay... interesting...
Cool!... Why are they doing this at 10:00 at night? I've always
been fascinated and open minded to other religions, and I was thinking that it
was a pretty interesting experience being able to watch this... ceremony...
from the balcony of my apartment (which is on the 13th floor... but the
"music stuff" was still really loud. And then this car pulls up
blasting really loud music and had a bunch of flashing lights. Well, the
"gods" started dancing to the music... one of which was Gangam
style... Yup... that was interesting.... They left in time for us to go
to bed, which was good, since the music was really loud... Interesting...
So sad story.... I forgot to bring my camera cord... so I
can't share pictures... of which, I have a lot that I need to share... Next
week....
Okay, well, I probably should stop writing so I can write my
mission president... Hope you all have a fantastic week! Also, AUDREY!!!
OPEN YOUR MISSION CALL ALREADY!!! I NEED TO KNOW WHERE YOU ARE GOING!!!
Love you all!
Sister Nicholle Peng
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