This week was transfers... But Elder Ficklin and I are continuing the legacy!!! yeah! I love this guy. But the rest of the zone got super messed up (in a really good way). We love all of our new missionaries. There are three newbies in the zone!!! We love newbies so much. One is this ridiculously trendy elder from Midway, UT. The other is a Mexican sister, and the last is a PERUVIAN! The first ever in this mission! We´re so happy about it. I love Peruvian people. I taught one in the MTC, and their Spanish is super awesome sounding.
We are preparing everything for this Musical Fireside that we´re doing this week. My comp is playing piano, and I´m singing a couple of songs. We also have a choir that´s a lot better than I´d thought. In the end, the best part is that Elder Ochoa of the first quorum of the 70 is going to be there with the mission president! I´m excited!
The new missionaries in the zone are all really positive (by new, I don´t mean they´re starting the mish, just new to the zone). they are way excited, and I can already tell that the zone is going to improve a ton.
Basically, being a missionary is the best things ever. This week has been crazy just shaking things up, opening areas, finding new houses for missionaries, etc. All nuts.
But I´d thought that I´d share a super cool experience that I got from my dear friend Elder Matt Bradley who´s serving in Hong Kong.
"Every once in a while the Mandarin missionaries in Hong Kong have the privilege of teaching prepared souls who come down from mainland to hear all of the missionary lessons and get baptized in the same day. These experiences are usually really unique and refreshing to hear how the Lord blessed them with testimonies and provided them a way to first hear the gospel and then hear their usually pretty remarkable stories about how they were able to come to Hong Kong and meet us. Last Thursday's visitor baptism (picture included) was a special one.
So my companion and I are on the left of the picture then in the middle is the visitor's older sister, than it's the visitors husband Zhang dx, and then our visitor Chen Huan, and on the right is my former companion Elder Woods and his trainee Elder Dy. Elder Woods and Elder Dy taught and baptized the husband and the older sister two weeks ago (I actually didn't know that until Elder Woods came for the baptismal interview). Their story starts from last June and goes as follows:
In June her brother-in-law's older brother got back to Mainland having just lived in Canada. In Canada he got baptized and has a wonderful family. So when he moved back and met with his relatives there they were all impressed at his wonderful and unified family. They started asking him questions and learning about the Gospel from him. Then at the start of July their two year old daughter had a fever that wouldn't go away. It was really frightening for them and they didn't know what to do. Unlike previous fevers their daughter had it wasn't going away and so one particularly bad night they rushed her to the hospital and found out that she was actually in fatal condition. They prayed together as a family and Heavenly Father miraculously made her fever go away. After this experience they both knew that it was the right thing to be baptized and to join The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and they determined to come down on July 27th and all get baptized together as a family. When that day came though Chen Huan wasn't able to go with them and so the father and her older sister went without her. They took the lessons with Elder woods and got baptized that day. The Sunday after their baptism Chen Huan was really discouraged because she hadn't been baptized with them but she took courage when one of the sisters (who came and watched her get baptized) said that the Lord would let her get baptized at the most suitable moment for her. After she heard this then she took courage again and started to plan on coming to Hong Kong on August eighth. When the Branch President heard this he had the inspiration to have her husband baptize her on August eighth as well. They got everything prepared and while we were teaching her on Thursday she found out that her husband was actually going to come down and baptize her, and that he had all the things necessary (membership record, Aaronic priesthood ordination certificate, etc) that he needed to baptize her. While we were teaching her she also found out that a lot of the branch members would also, unexpectedly, be there to watch her get baptized. And another thing that just proves the Lord is in the detail of our lives is that Elder Woods was the only elder available that could help us with the baptismal interview. I had tried to schedule two other companionships to come and help us with the baptismal interview but he was the one that had time. During the baptismal service everyone was so happy, and I was elated to see a newly ordained Priesthood brethren baptize his wife. What an amazing experience it was! The Lord's spirit was definitely there with us, and I just felt so pleased and happy to be there.
In difficulties and outside of difficulties we sometimes make it so complicated and get so discouraged, but God is bigger than all our problems, He loves us and knows what's best for us, and will give us the best things according to His perfect timing. What a great comfort to me."
I love missionary work. But I´m getting away from calling it that. It´s all the same work of salvation! We can and must all participate if we expect to gain our own.
Elder Thalman
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