Weekly Miracles (Sep 24, 2012)

Hi MOM!!!

I think the emails are weird today, so if you didn't get the pictures, check hotmail
So, you are finally back in the U.S. now :) Make sure you eat well. Still need to eat even though grandma is not there to cook.

 How about grandma? Did grandpa know what was going on?

I got letter from both Faith (Sister Goimarac) and Emily this week, so happy :) Did  you know it takes a month for letter from here to get to Paraguay?

This week, there was lots of miracles. We had lots of things that were on the edge, but was resolved. One of our investigators' mom didn't want him to get baptized so soon, but he wants to, so we had to talk to him and figure out what he really wanted to do and help him to make the decision.

We had a investigator we are about to drop because it seems like he was on drugs half of the time and really don't have the desire to change, even though he feels great every time he sees us and even asked us, when am I seeing you again? It's really sad when you see people who knows there is something special about this gospel yet they refuse to change. :(

But, we had a great miracle. Last week we got a call from our eternal investigator, he says he doesn't want to meet anymore because he has lots to do. We were so sad because we know he is SOo good. He believed and knows everything is good in the church, but just have to regain his testimony. So we were so sad. We prayed for him a lot. I specifically prayed for him, asking God to create opportunities for him to reconsider his decision (I don't remember exactly how I worded it).

Anyway, so in sacrament meeting yesterday. It was our ward mission leader's turn to speak. He literally answered my prayer. He said he didn't know who his talk is intended for, but after he is done, I knew, along with many friend of this investigator, that the talk was for him. So amazing, God answers prayers. :) Anyway, after his phone call on Thursday, he agreed to meet yesterday to talk, so we sat down together with another member who was his friend before. It is really an inspiration to get her to come, and she had the prompting that she needed to come. We sat down and really, I thought this was pretty much the end of us meeting him. I really had hope that it wouldn't be the end though. We had fasted for him and prayed for him and pretty much I don't know what more we can do. So anyway, our member had a great idea for him and made a plan to do some things and pretty much everything is ok now. He is gonna search around, but will still keep God a part of his life and keep seeing us. :) We were so happy last night.

We also had a miracle meeting one of our new investigators. We were trying to contact one of our referrals. We were outside the apt complex and couldn't get in, there is passcode. We tried a few times before but nothing worked. This time, we were about to give up, and I pretty much punched the keypad randomly. And, I was Soo surprised that the screen said "Please Enter" rather than "Wrong Passcode." I pretty much stood there for a second not believing it, then just grabbed the door and went in. :) The thing is, the person we were trying to visit wasn't home.

So we were pretty much wondering what is going on. Why God let us in if we can't visit him. So we came down and there was a man sitting outside of one of the restaurants. We talked to him. Pretty much, he is the reason we were there. If we didn't get in to the apt complex, we would've left already and he would never had the chance to hear the gospel that day. But we did get in and he got to hear about the Church and we taught him the Restoration later that day and he is now looking into the church in addition to his own beliefs. It's amazing how God works huh? :)

Anyway, lots of good things happen this week. It was good. :)

Loves, Kisses, talk to you next week. :)

Mengmeng

Pictures in front of Oakland temple (Sep 17, 2012)

 

So Mom, you are on the plane right now. :(

You know I always like packages :) I have lots of drawers just for food my Mom sends me. Especially the big packages, they take some time to eat and enjoy. :)

Did I change? I don't feel like I've changed at all, at least physically. We don't have a scale, so I might've gotten fatter for all I know. But then we have to exercise almost everyday so I'd say that might work the extra weight off. I like yang2 da4 wan3, hmm...we should eat it when we go back. Don't forget to send me your picture.

I get to eat lots of different food here. Because Berkeley is a university town, there are lots of people who come from all over the world. We get all sorts of food, including Middle East, so I get to eat felafels and kabobs :) They are actually quite food and almost authentic. I'll take you here when we come back :)

Yes, I'm used to talking to people first. In fact, we did a booth this week too. I remember my first time doing it I was afraid to talk to everyone, now I'm just thinking. Hmm, that person might be interested, and just go for it. Cuz really, all they could say no. If they do anything worse than that, we'll just laugh later. :)

So this week. It's been intense. We fasted for one of our eternal investigators. He is so ready, already has all the background, already living the gospel, all he needs to do is to get dunked. :) He has two RMs as roommates, not to mention others as close friends. One of his roommate spoke in sacrament today. It was so good. There is something about how he talked that just lets you know that this person is speaking with the spirit. He talked about perspectives. We all have our purposes, but how we approach our purposes is different.

Also on sunday, it was just a really good day, we had another speaker who talked about where you look is where you go. So the question was, is where you are looking where you want to go? He talked about how if we can see the beginning and the end, then how would we act. It was good to think about. It was a really good sacrament meeting.

We also went to the temple this week. Second time to go :) Always happy. Can't really say much except it was quite spiritual. :)

Our recent convert is doing quite well. She is so nice, she makes stuff for us every time we go.

Yep, that's the highlights of my week. :)

Lots of loves, hugs, kisses, and safe trip.

Meng

Me and my companion (Set 10. 2012)

Dear MOM!

Got your letter. The handwritten one and the dear elder. Good to know you got my card :) Makes me happy. Happy to know you had a great birthday too, so many good coworkers. Like I say, "see, you are so popular."

And thanks for the Costco address. It's funny cuz Sister Poon wanted to go to Costco this week, then I said, well, my Mom just sent me the address :)

Don't forget to eat Beijing duck there for me, and Yang2 Da4 Wan3...

So this week has been pretty much normal. We have three super awesome but tough investigators. One of them knows and believes everything but wants to get baptized when she is back to Chile which means it will be four months later and who knows what'll happen. One of them "knows" there is no God but loves to meet with us, and I think his heart is changing, because we invited him to pray and he finally did, and he loves to read so Book of Mormon is no problem for him. He is a tough case, but it's good to see that he is moving forward, if only a little at a time.

Our other investigator by all definition should be a Mormon except he is not baptized. He has a calling, he is friends with lots of people in the ward, he is in the ward directory, he reads the Book of Mormon, he comes to church, but his family is super opposed to him getting baptized. He doesn't want to break with his family, even though his family tell him they'll respect his choice. He knows if he keep meeting with us he'll be baptized, and he is still doing it despite what he knows about his family. So, lots of wonderful people whose hearts are prepared, at least deep inside. We'll see what happens. One thing I learned this week was that God always answers prayers of faith, but on his timetable.

It's like when Enos in the Book of Mormon prayed and asked for things, but he never told the Lord "I hope this will happen by this date"... So I think it'll all be alright. Also, we heard from someone in stake conference this week who mentioned the scripture "how great shall be your joy if you bring but one soul unto me," and he explained that there is really no way to bring Only One soul, that soul usually touches another soul in some way.

Wami, in her letter to me, mentioned how someone she taught, that person's son is serving a mission. So amazing, that everything you do has ripple effect.

One amazing thing happened this week too. We were gonna teach one of our investigator, and he brought lots of friend. The member we were gonna bring said she was busy, but my companion had the inspiration that she needed to ask her to come again, even though Sister Poon just texted her it's ok not to come. So that member came. It turned out that the member was gonna speak at stake conference that day and was trying to decide what to do, and she ended up speaking on a lot of what she heard in the lesson. So, everything happens for a reason.

Hugs and kisses!

Meng

Got hair cut (Sep 3&4, 2012)

HI Mom!!

How was your birthday? I want to know all about it.

And I haven't asked you much about work, how is that going? We saw in the Chinese Liahona that they are going to have Liahona in Mandarin now, only four times a year or something, but still good news. :) Did you have anything to do with that?

Hmm...this week has not been very eventful, except transfers. Both me and Sister Poon are staying in Berkeley. Not a big surprise. There was a lot of changes in the VC though, with five new missionaries coming and a lot of them going full proselyting. A lot of people going back to the area where they served before, which is unusual. So for them and for those of us who are staying, I guess we haven't found the people we were supposed to find yet.

This is my last week having two hours of companion study. For new missionaries, for two transfers (12 weeks), we have two hours companion study. Starting from tomorrow, we'll only get one. I really liked the 12 weeks program, it's for training new missionaries. I especially like this last week, we had three videos that we watched, all super spiritual. The missionaries in the video talked about their experiences on the mission. All six of them had their own story. One of the elder's story was really touching. He said before he came on his mission, he got cancer. He doesn't know how long he is going to live, but he came anyway. It was a big motivation for him though, that the Lord kept him alive for a reason, so he was going to find everyone the Lord has prepared for him. It really makes me think cuz we are all alive for a reason.

We had huo3 guo1 with the Chinese district on Wednesday. Lots of good food, not enough time to eat :) I think I'm eating a lot faster now though, had to. :)

A cool thing happened in testimony meeting this sunday. One of the people me and Sister Sampaio visited before went up to bear her testimony. That day we went unannounced because felt like so, she was a little upset that we went. We had a short thought and then Sister Sampaio asked her, are you reading the Book of Mormon? She said she is not, and she'll not commit to reading everyday because she won't do that and God knows her situation so He'll understand. So we left rather surprised. Yesterday, though, she said that she thought about it a lot after we left. She then bore her testimony about the Book of Mormon as the word of God. It really showed me that the things we do, they might have effect now that we can see, but sometimes afterwards we'll understand why we went where we went and said what was said.

So yeah, that's pretty much my week. :)

I cut my hair today. The guy was really good, so I think I look ok :) Sent you a picture of the after. The other pictures is one I took earlier today at a random place in Berkeley that had Here and There, don't know why. And where is YOUR picture? :)

Say hi to everyone :)

Tons of Love, Meng

Ashling attends the byptism 8/29/2012

Mom!! 

Well, Mom. Since I can't talk to you for the next few days, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!  You are a super super awesome Mom and I'm SOOOO glad to be your daughter. You are AMAZING, Mom, and always remember that !

Hope you have a Great great week!

This week, two general authorities visited. I got a picture with Elder Rasband from the church missionary dept and who is in charge of visitor centers, we got a picture with him (we didn't even ask for one, our mission president just told us to stand in the picture :)

The best thing this past week is our zone conference. It's been so long that we get a whole block of time set aside for us to learn. We got it in MTC a lot--devotionals and firesides, but not so much, so zone conference is great. We have Elder Gay from the 70 to talk to us. He is soooo good. Our zone conference is 8 hours long, we took breaks, but even though he talked for 2-3 hours at a time, we never got bored. What I liked most about his teaching method is that he finds out your needs, then he asks you questions to make you teach yourself. It's an art.

One of the things he taught us was to work smart, not just hard. It's like what you taught me before--use your time wisely. :)

We actually got a little lost getting to zone conference because Concord wasn't on our map so we didn't know where to go and actually just went off of the directions of our district leaders. Ended up going to Martinez, beautiful drive, but not where we are supposed to go, almost went out of mission boundaries actually. It's ok though, we got there before Elder Gay. (He was late :)

Remember how I wanted to be a teacher when I was younger? Now I'm doing a lot of teaching, mission is teaching, and I didn't even realize it until now. :) Funny how the Lord works.

Baptism was great. Everything worked out. Lots of ward members showed up. There was refreshments afterwards. Program was printed and everything. Everything just went really well. It was short and sweet. We did it in 50 minutes. The talks were creative. I almost cried when I saw her and her friend in the baptismal font. Even our other investigator who was there said she felt something special, she felt very emotional. So good. I don't really know what to say, it's hard to express, but you know :)

We had to hand off one of our investigators. She is from Chile and speaks Spanish. She has been meeting with us cuz she wanted to learn English, but we and she agreed that it would be best to learn from the Spanish elders. This is right after the baptism, so we really know that she is not just here to learn English anymore, she is here to learn the gospel. So we handed her off on Monday. It was sad. It's hard to let her go but we knew it was best for her. It's kind of like having a child and sending her off to another family and hoping that the new parents are good ones and will get her to where she can be. But the elders were awesome. They are soooo nice and great. They told us that she should keep coming to our sacrament meeting since their meeting is far and she walks. They will teach her in Spanish, but because she comes to our ward her numbers count for our numbers (# of investigators attend sacrament and # of lessons taught). The elders were still willing to do this, they really are super awesome. They teach for the Lord, not for their numbers.

Also, our district are super awesome too. We did booth again this week, but we did it on university campus since so many students are coming in and don't know about the church. They did this purely for us because nearly everyone they would talk to here are students, since the other two companionships serve in family wards, they don't get anything. It's amazing, this mission. The people really do this all for the Lord, they don't care if they are the ones to baptize, but as long as they are part of the work. So great. I love our district. So yeah, we got 6 referrals that day, all done in less than one hour, which is amazing, a miracle in itself. So many people who don't know the gospel. I'm getting better at talking to everyone though. :)

Anyway, just so many miracles this week to tell. So many amazing people. A lot to learn still. :)

Transfers is next week, so we'll see what happens. :)

Ashling had fun P-Day (castles houses from neighborhood) - Aug 20,2012

Hi Mom,

Sorry, today we do actually get email time. Everything is so messed up. Next week we have p-day on Wednesday, so I don't know if I'll email on Monday or Wed, probably Wed 29th.

Of course I remember Dad and the things we did together. I have our picture there still, and one in back of my Book of Mormon. And sometimes I tell people about Dad.  :)

Hope Yolanda is ok with her sister loss.

 We moved apartments this week with the Berkeley elders. They had all girls in the complex so the president asked us to exchange apartments. We moved on Thursday. Took 5 hours to move all of our stuff :) But we had to wait for the elders because they also use our car to move their stuff. Anyway, so our new apt is smaller but brighter, so we are cool with it. We have gas stove now, more fitting for Chinese cooking.  Hmm...we used a lot of the soup things you sent because we pretty much didn't want to cook since we just want to get all the boxes unpacked. It's good.

 Hmm..this week is pretty busy too. Now that everyone is coming back from summer, we have lots of investigators and a lot of people bringing their friends to church. Yesterday, I hardly knew half of the people at church because there were so many new faces. But I love of the members, she came up to us and pretty asked us to tell her if we need her for any member present lessons. I think I'll probably be doing the same thing after I go back. :)

BUT, I have GREAT news. Guess what, Mom? WE HAVE A BAPTISM! It's this next Sunday the 26th. It's really amazing story. We got a call on Monday night from one of her friends. He said her friend has been reading the Book of Mormon over the summer and knows the gospel is true! She had met the missionaries before but her boyfriend didn't like us, so she stopped taking the lessons. But she broke up with him, and now she wants to get Baptized as soon as possible! Yep, so we taught her three times last week and will have four lessons next week so she can be baptized on Sunday. SO amazing. We about jumped around the room :) Oh, and guess what, she is Chinese.

I definitely think I'm in Berkeley for a reason. Yep. So as of yesterday, I've used every single language I know --- Mandarin, broken Cantonese, my high school level Spanish, Russian, even Hebrew and Arabic. It's really amazing. I think my Spanish is better than my Cantonese still, but I can understand lessons in both language now, roughly.

I had exchanges with Sister Smith on Tuesday in San Leandro. She is from London. :) And she made a really pretty breakfast for me. Fruit and waffle.

We did the booth again this week. We were only there for about 30 minutes, but had two really good conversations. One of them left her number. Most of them are quite interested in what the Mormons believe, and that's the question we posed on the blackboard so it was good. I learned that you really need to talk to Everyone because the most unlikely people at first glance sometimes are those who will leave their info to meet the missionaries.

I didn't have time to write journal this week, so everything is a little unorganized. Remember to take care of yourself, and ask others to help if things get broken or need help.

Love you Mom! Hugs, kisses.

Meng

Aug 13, 2012 -- crazy week! (She ever has not time to say love me...poor mom)

So today is really crazy, we just got to the family history center to write email. Next week, we don't have p-day on Monday. We don't know our schedule yet, so just watch for my email sometime during the week next week, possibly on Thursday.

One of our sisters, Sister Lavea, who was my roommate in the MTC. She got a tumor in her chest and is going back to New Zealand next week, so all the schedules are changed.

We got a new sister from MTC a few weeks ago, her name is Sister Garcia. She was companion with Sister Lin. She would like me to tell you thanks for all the food you sent her because she got to eat a lot of it too.:) She really liked your dried vegetables, I think it's the one where you put in the soup, so could you send some to her and me too? She told almost everyone about you, so you are already popular here in the visitor center. Everyone loves you already :)
Also, could you send me some piano music? They are on the black shelf where all my music stuff is, they are in the folders. See if you can find Savior Redeemer of My Soul for violin and piano (there are two different sets), and walk tall you are a daughter of God.

So this week is a little crazy. We've been busy pretty much all the time. I found Aloe juice here in C-town, so I'll be ok with that.
I never got to write Cameron, Jerin, Lauren yet....I'll try next week.
I don't think I'm eating too much. is my face really getting fatter or are you just saying it?

We had YSA Conference this past week. It was really good. Speakers talked about the story in Matthew 14. The story is just like our life. We see the Savior, at first some investigators are afraid, but when they realize who he is, they want him to ask them to come. When we do go toward him, we realize that it is really hard and the waves crash around, and it challenges our faith, and sometimes we start to sink, but the Lord is there to help immediately. It is important that what Peter probably remember from the experience is not the fact that he walked on water, but that the Savior was there to lift him when he needed it. It was such a good analogy.

Two of our investigators came to church this week, YSA Conf and had Good  experiences. They are so awesome. Don't have time to tell much more, but it was so good.

The work is really picking up speed as everyone comes back from summer to school. We are getting lots of referrals from church headquarters. So good.
It's surprising how many Chinese people are here. We have so many of them come to VC and we see so many on the streets. A lot of them are super prepared and just needs the lessons. I got to talk to a few of them through email in the VC.

We had zone activity today and took lots of pictures.