Changes, Miracles and Blessings....Life Continues On....

1). What are your plans for your p-day today?
Go and find clothes that are cute and buy them.  I realize that a lot of my clothes are looking worn, or don't match.... well... they kind of match if you go along with the Taiwanese style of matching things... which means in normal society.... it doesn't look like it matches because it really doesn't.

2). What can I do to support you this week?  What would you like me to pray for?
You can pray that Kathy (Vietnamese investigator) and Huang JM will grow in testimony and hit their baptismal goal of March 22

******************

WOW!!! Hello Mom! Good day People of the world!  Can you believe that it's been 9 months since I've started this journey of being a missionary????  It's been 9 months since I've left home, left my family and friends.... wow....  Sometimes it's felt like an eternity since I left on my quest to serve the Lord.... And other times it feels like a blink of an eye.  

I feel like things have changed so much since I left.  So many blessings and miracles have occurred (both here and back at home).  I'm really grateful that the Lord has been mindful of my needs and the needs of those I love.  I have learned of many wonderful things that have been happening in the lives of my family and friends back home.  

There are many missionaries who just believe they can leave on their missions, and then come back to the life they left like nothing's changed.  But the more time passes, the more I know that that is impossible for me.  And I'm grateful for that fact.  It's not like the life before my mission wasn't great, but I've learned that life can be even better!  And it will be! The Lord has prepared such a wonderful future for me! And I can't wait.  But I know that he has given me this time, my mission, to prepare myself to make the most of the precious time he has given me on this earth.  I am so grateful for His gospel and for His guidance, and I pray that I will never lose sight of the Eternal Goal which He has given me: To come home to Him full of more love, more experiences, more knowledge and more faith.

Anyways, as to this week in Tainan, nothing really grand comes to mind of things needed to be shared. We just had our move call, which didn't affect me our Sister Park.  We get to be here for another 6 weeks, which we hope to be filled with miracles, faith, and happiness.  I really hope that this move call will be better than the last, since last move call was probably the hardest move call of my mission.  But after both Sister Park and I sat down, made some goals, did some soul searching, and talked a lot, we've both decided that we need to change.  We are going to make an effort to be more humble and more diligent   to have more open communication between us as a companionship and with the Lord.  And we are going to make every day a happy day.

Oh! Also, something great happened in Ping Dong!!! Sister Schultz and Sister Highman had a baptism!  I am so happy!  Congratulations to Sister Huang for this great even in her life!  Thank you to Sister Schultz and Sister Highman for their faithful work as missionaries! It made me so happy to hear about her!  I actually called her when going through a "dead stack" of contact cards.  And our first lesson with her was a bit of a flop.... If you remember back to a lesson we had when a member pretty much scolded our two investigators for not believing in Christ, and kept asking them if they saw angels when we were praying.... Sister Huang was one of those investigators! I was always a bit worried that that first lesson might have scared her off, but then she kept showing up at English class and Church, and now she is baptized!!!! Yay!!!

As missionaries we always talk about baptism as a new beginning.  What does that even mean?  To me, a new beginning gives me more hope.  It's a clean page to start writing about life's journeys.  When people are baptized under the authority of God, they are able to put all of their past mistakes behind them.  But I think that "a new beginning" means more than that.  I think that once we truly understand the Atonement and Gospel of Jesus Christ we know that we have the ability to have a fresh start every single day.  I love the characters for repentance in Chinese. 悔改 because they represent an everyday change of heart.  That's all repentance is.  Aligning our hearts and wills to the heart and will of the Lord.  

We need to make the most of every day.  We have been given this time on earth to learn and to change into the person that God wants us to be.  And there is no better time to start changing than right now.  

This week someone shared with us the importance of trials.  She shared that when we come across trials, it is the Lord telling us that it's our time to change.  Just like when we touch something hot.  We feel the pain and then we quickly retract from that which caused us pain.  Pain is the way our bodies tell us something isn't right.  That something must be taken care of.  Trials are given to us, so that our spirits know that something isn't right, that something must be taken care of, and that something must be learned.

I'm grateful to have a new move call to have a new start in Tainan.  I know I could always be doing better as a missionary, and I am excited that the Lord has given me this chance.

I hope you are all doing well, and I hope you all know that the Lord loves you utterly and completely.  Every day, think of how you can make the most of the time he has given to you.  Think of how you can help the lives of others.  And in doing so, you will be able to have lives filled with joy and peace.  Because the secret to a happy life, is to follow in the footsteps of the Savior.

I love you all!  

 

 

 

She finally got my birthday card!!!

Sushi!

Sister Peng