Hi everyone!
This may possibly have been one of the best weeks of my mission thus far. It started and ended with a bang. There have been several times where I've had to pinch myself to make sure I didn't just hallucinate everything.
First off, we had our last exchanges of the transfer at the beginning of this week, and look who I was with:
That's right, I got to spend an entire 24 hours serving the Lord with Sister Barber!! We spent the whole time just marveling at how incredibly lucky we are. We got to catch up on all the things that have happened in the last 9 months of serving on opposite sides of the same island. We shared our struggles, our successes, and the joy that we'd found. We also got to go out and do missionary work together! And oh my goodness, Sister Barber is a wonderful missionary. She loves these people so much, and she taught me a lot about being excited to go out and contact on a blazing hot morning. Serving with her was an absolute joy.
The other big event of the week was on Saturday: Roy and Ding Ding got baptized!! Let me introduce them a bit to you. Ding Ding has been golden from day one. Even though she is an insanely busy high school student (students here are busier than I thought humanly possible), she still managed to bike over to the church in the dark a couple nights a week to meet with us and learn about the gospel. She was a little nervous about baptism, mainly I think because about half the ward came to support and she was nervous to have that many people watching her. When she came out of the water though, she said her feelings were hard to describe, but that it was kind of what she imagined the feeling of a newborn baby coming into the world to be like. Sort of bigger than she could comprehend, but also joyful and full of hope and possibility.
Roy more or less baptized himself. He walked into the children's English class one day last transfer, stayed even though his English is perfect, and then at the end said he wanted to learn more about Jesus. Even though he is studying to be a surgeon and is really busy, he has been on fire ever since. He loves the Book of Mormon and the strength he gets from Heavenly Father. He really understands just how unique and precious the Gospel of Jesus Christ is. After his baptism he told us that he feels completely clean both body and soul. He said that Saturday was probably the most important day of his life, and one that he'll never forget. Neither will I. When we asked him what song he wanted us all to sing at the baptismal service, he picked the song 'Called to Serve'. He has spent every minute he can since his baptism telling everyone what an amazing thing baptism is, and sharing his experience.
Wait, you may ask, who is that third sister missionary in the picture? Aren't there just two of you? In the picture above, in addition to me and Sister Hancock is Sister Moderzitski. Sister Mod just went home, and Tainan was the last area she served in. She and her family happened to be visiting Taiwan this week, so they were also able to attend the baptism. She had the chance to teach Roy and Ding Ding before she left, so they were both super happy to see her. The whole ward loves her, so her presence just added to the happiness of the baptism.
Here we are with even more ward members and Sister Mod's parents. Don't Roy and Ding Ding just fit in perfectly? The whole ward just adores them, and they've been so excited to friendship them, support them, and help them come closer to Christ. A large percentage of them came to the baptism, making it feel like a party. The most interesting thing for me though, was that as happy as I was at the baptism, it wasn't a new kind of joy. I think I'd built up baptism into such a huge thing, that it was the be all end all of missionary work. But the joy that I felt at their baptism was a feeling that I've had so many times over the last few months when I've seen an investigator finally comprehend a principle of the gospel, felt the Spirit testify through me, or suddenly understood why I was called to a certain area or to meet a certain person. The joy of missionary work isn't from baptisms, but from acting as a representative of Jesus Christ and helping people come closer to Him. Any act that fulfills this purpose brings joy.
That's all I've got for today! I hope you all have an amazing week!
Lots of Love,
Sister Hull
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