This Is Who I've Become . . ." October 22nd, 2011

Street Contacting

Our pday thus far: THREE hours (and then some) cleaning out our apartment. Yes, it's been in missionary hands for quite some time now. But my, oh my--it felt SO GOOD. THEN (best part) we watched the first part of this TV documentary made by BYU about the Bible and how it's come to be the Bible we know and love today. Loads of information about William Tyndale and John Wycliff and Martin Luther and the lot. As silly as this sounds, I think it was the most action-packed movie I've seen in the past year and a half. And I loved every minute of it. Ha. My life is so great.

More on Li Hang (the entire mission is becoming obsessed with him, no joke--President can't stop talking about him and neither can we) :
Weird things keep happening to make him late for our meetings. It's really interesting. He was never very late to meetings before, but in the last few weeks Satan has been working to keep him from meetings, I think. Last week a man who promised to drive him home from the doctor's so he could make it in time to our meeting just changed his mind. Yesterday he was stopped by the police and he didn't have his visa on him, so they made him get it and show it to him. From what I know, that doesn't happen very often. I really believe that this guy is intended to do great important things. He is so determined to become a missionary and share the gospel with others. We gave him "Preach My Gospel" in Chinese this week and he's already begun studying it. Apparently he was reading it on a tram and a man (probably drunk) came and yelled at him and tried to close the book so he couldn't read it. And yet he's always so happy.

Speaking of the musical number at his baptism... we practiced it the morning of at the church building, with a last minute idea of throwing and Elder with his guitar in. President sat there, giving us his opinion. He told us that it was too slow and kind of sad sounding when we sang it without the guitar. Of course, he's the supreme authority as far as baptisms go, so we laughed about it and kept the guitar. But really, who would call "I'm a Child of God" a sad song? Reflective, maybe, but never sad.

However. A few days ago we went to visit a member family and promote our whole concert bring-a-friend campaign. We sang with their children beforehand--I Am a Child of God, every Primary child's favorite, right? However, their 2-year-old daughter burst into tears in the middle of the third verse. They told us that they sing with her a lot, but usually more lively songs--ones that aren't quite so sad. Haha. Needless to say, we quickly abandoned the song and shared our message. :)

We've been teaching a young man named Tonda lately. He's 25, but a financial advisor and initially comes across very business-like. The more we meet with him, the more he surprises me with his sincerity and goodness. We began talking about prophets and the plan of salvation this week after taking him to our Young Single Adult Family Home Evening. Afterwards we gave him the talk "The Three Rs of Choice" from President Monson to read. In the next meeting we asked him if he had any questions about it and he told us no--rather, he'd had questions and found answers in it! Answers to his personal life dilemmas. I love seeing other people come to understand the power and importance of prophets! It's so true! I really know that President Monson has been called of God--that he's been working on developing that relationship with God his entire life and that his heart is in the right place in order to receive guidance for the good of all mankind. As are all the apostles. How cool are our lives, that we are able to teach people about this?
Tonda also agreed to be baptized on December 3rd. :)

Everyone, life is just so perfect. We had specialized training on Friday and talked about setting and reaching worthwhile goals and about how AWESOME Preach My Gospel is. I love this stuff. I love that being a disciple of Christ is something that is forever.

And I love you.

Sestra Dean


Hey Ma. You're the greatest. Isn't sister Stratton just absolutely wonderful? I'm not so sure about housing. It's true, it's stuff I'd rather not think about too much...I trust you.

Sestro Laws--oh my--LOVED your email! Isn't is just so refreshing? Haha, good thing we practiced that out. Although my curiousity is very much piqued...who?? I want to hear about Lumir asayfato (as soon as you find anything out).

Molls--get this: my companion (Sister Emily Anderson) was dance partners with Jared Kelson. How weird. Your letter was like a soap opera and I'm kind of hooked. I can hear the gossip girl narrator now...