Dear Family,
This week was pretty incredible. Of course it was still a week of ups and downs, but that's how it is every week. We did see a ton of miracles though! Hopefully I can remember them all. I always feel a little bad because there never seems to be time to write in my journal! I don't want to forget all the precious experiences.
Lately we've been calling a lot of phones trying to find more people to teach. We went through all of our recent converts that we have now and determined how most of the converts were found here. Come to find out most of them are from formers and english class. So like I said we've been calling a lot of formers, and it's been working!
We ended up setting up so many lessons! We are praying and hoping that they all show up and work out. We've already met with a few people who have a lot of potential.
One was a girl named Sally. I think she ended up just getting busy when the sisters were meeting with her before, but she is really great! She has had a really hard life, but trusts in God and is willing to seek out truth. She showed up half and hour late for our lesson and when she walked up to the church she was smoking. Sister Chang and I were a little apprehensive about what was going to happen, but she was really sweet and was surprisingly open with us.
She told us about how her parents were divorced so she used to live with her dad. While she was there her dad beat her, so she moved in with her mom. While she was living with her mom her mom also beat her, so with some encouragement from her teachers she applied to live on her own. So now she is living near our church, working two jobs and trying to get schooling in when she can. She said she is Christian and feels that God has saved her and helped her so much, but that recently feels that her relationship with Him is getting more and more distant. She is incredibly talented, is super sweet and really willing to learn more. I hope she progresses and feels the joy that the gospel can bring. She needs more happiness and comfort in her life.
Later that same day we had a miracle lesson! Because our lesson with Sally ended up being later than we expected we didn't have much time before we had to go back home, so we decided to call some more phones and confirm the lessons we had set up for later on in the week. I had had some people that I called the day before that said to call back later so I started going through the list. Usually when I have lists like this most of the people really aren't interested, but feel too embarrassed to say anything so they just tell you to call back. Most of the time they don't really expect you to call back.
Anyway I called one of the numbers and the lady who answered asked me if we were at home or at the church. I told her we were at the church, and asked if we could find a time to come visit her. She then replied, "come over right now." I was a little shocked and didn't really know what to do because it almost time to go home, but I decided to take the miracle that Heavenly Father was providing. I asked if that was convenient for her, and she replied, "very convenient!" So we went.
She ended up being an investigator that has met a lot of missionaries, but was never willing to keep any commitments. Her husband is actually a less active and is the sweetest man. We walked into the house and sat down with his wife, then about a minute later he shuffled down the stairs (on account of a lame leg) and was so excited to see us. He then proceeded to proudly show us this birthday card that the ward had sent him a few days before. He and his wife are pretty much polar opposites. For most of the time we were sitting with them she kept getting up and doing other things and trying to be as loud as possible while doing it. Sister Chang and I both had the feeling that she was doing it on purpose and was trying to stop us from sharing.
We kept talking though and had the blessing of listening to her husband talk to us, in his quite and shy voice, about how his son and daughter are both members of the church, how he loves praying and the missionaries that taught him the gospel.
We did end up getting his wife (Chen Jiemei) to sit still and quite down for a little bit. We had probably been there for about half an hour when we invited them to pray together as a family. She kind of scoffed about the idea and talked about how the missionaries always tried to get her to pray and how she thought we had all these rules about how many times you had to pray and then you would get all these blessings. After she said this Sister Chang and I both stopped for a second, looked at each other, then started talking about how it wasn't how many times we prayed, but the sincerity and desire behind our prayers. I then told her my experience about how I received my answer that the Book of Mormon was true and she got completely quite. That was probably the most intently she was listening to us for the whole lesson, but you could see the wheels turning, and the spirit was definitely there.
I think she just feels frustrated that she hasn't received and answer yet. Everyone keeps telling her she will and she doesn't feel like she has received one, so doesn't want to keep trying. We invited her to start trying again. She said she would try, but wasn't making any promises. If she's home tonight we are going to try and go back over. We'll she if she is willing to work for an answer this time.
We also met with a Cai Jiemei who is also a former that we called earlier in the week. She actually called us the day of our appointment with her and told us that she had already heard what the missionaries are sharing before and that she doesn't feel like it is what she needs so she didn't want to waste our time in meeting with us. (I hate phone calls like that.) We assured her it wasn't a waste of our time and that we would be happy to meet with her. She ended up being really cool. She was baptized into another Christian church a few years ago and had incredibly strong faith. She is willing to do whatever God guides her to do and said she would be willing to read the Book of Mormon and ask if it is true. I hope we can keep working with her. Last time she only met with the sisters a few times and then disappeared. So pray that she stays with us this time!
Oh man, there is so much to talk about. So many miracles and there is just not enough time. We had one that seems to stick out to me more than the others though. We had planned some contacting time and had planned to go Book of Mormon contacting and this intersection on the way to the train station. We started contacting for a little while and it seemed like people were even more rude than usual. I started getting pretty let down and started to say a prayer. I think Sister Chang noticed so we decided to say another companionship prayer. We prayed and asked Heavenly Father to help us, that we were having a hard time and that we would love to have at least one person who would be willing to take a Book of Mormon and set up a time with us to learn more. The very first person Sister Chang contacted after that prayer pulled over! The person I was talking to didn't have any interest so I gave her a tract and ran over to talk to the lady who had just pulled over with Sister Chang. She ended up taking a book, setting up a time and saying it was destiny that we met on the road that day. After she drove off Sister Chang and I were stunned! I turned to her and said in chinese, "prayer works!" We said another prayer and asked for another person to pull over, but that one didn't happen. I guess Heavenly Father was waiting for when our faith was low to show forth His hand and tell us that this is His work. It really is incredible!
I talked about Mei Lin last week. We were able to meet with her and she has been praying! We taught her about the restoration and will hopefully meet with her again today. She is really great and seems really sincere in her desire to learn.
As far as Mery goes she has been stuck in the hospital taking care of the person she watches over so we haven't been able to meet with her. She should be able to get out after this week, so we are hoping we can meet with her again.
Well I love you all so much! Thanks for not making me go through a dry spell! Although it was pretty close this week, haha. Have a great week and remember to see the miracles! I hope Jemma gets better too! Love you!
Sister Fernley
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