(This is not a good morning picture. This is a member in our ward who was being sarcastic and I thought it was funny. The caption says "I'm so glad we have you!")
This week, we explored further into the outreaches of our area. Actually, our area is quite large, so we weren't anywhere near the edges, but we were farther away than we've been, so it felt like an adventure. We visited a tiny village named 'Small Foot Leg'. Had we gone farther down the road, we would have encountered an even tinier village called 'Big Foot Leg'. I'm not making this up. We didn't have a ton of time when we got there, but we did have time to eat some very yummy noodles, have the owner of the noodle shop offer his youngest son's hand in marriage to both Sister Bast and I, and meet a delightful family with perfect English. On the way to and from Small Foot Leg, we got to bike along a delightful road lined with beautiful trees.
On Friday and Saturday, we got to go down to Tainan and exchange with the STLs again! This time, I got to go with Sister Taylor! We had an amazing time tearing up Tainan just like we used to two transfers ago. One of the sweetest moments, I got to teach one of my old investigators, Claire again, and it was amazing. One of the best things about a mission is the opportunity to love so many people with all your heart. Claire is one of those people.
Missionary work this week was a roller coaster. On the one hand, one of our people who was preparing for baptism decided she didn't want to meet with us anymore because she didn't want to stop drinking tea. She changed her mind a few days later, but then she got in a car accident and got a little banged up, so we still weren't able to meet with her. Sometimes it's frustrating to be able to see just how much Jesus Christ's restored gospel can help someone, and then have their own decisions, misinformation, and even freak accidents get in the way of connecting them to these blessings.
On the other hand, we met with a really sweet mom this week! She's a police officer, so she sees a lot of kids who are in bad spots because of poor family situations or other circumstances. She has an intense desire to help her kids have the best possible future. We shared the Proclamation to the World on the Family (read it here) with her a few weeks ago, and she really identified with its teachings. We were able to meet with her for a few minutes at a park yesterday, and she is super excited for us to teach her and her family more!
I was feeling kind of emotionally exhausted with the various ups and downs of missionary work and life in general, but watching General Conference this weekend fixed that. I especially loved Sister Joy D. Jones' talk. She taught how if we do everything we do out of love for God, it will help us find joy even in challenging or menial tasks. I especially loved this quote she shared:
“If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight. Build anyway. The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow. Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough. Give the world the best you’ve got anyway. You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God … anyway.”
Also this week, we started reading the Book of Mormon as a mission. Our goal is to finish by the end of the year. Following President Nelson's invitation, I've been marking every verse that references Christ, and writing at the top of the page what that specific page teaches me about Him. I'd done something similar a few years ago, but I've still been astounded by just how present Christ is on every page of the Book of Mormon. I have yet to find a page that doesn't reference Him. He truly is the center of our message, and the center of God's plan for us. He is present in every one of our lives, and if we let Him, He will send us miracles.
Sister Bast and I realized the other day that we can flip up our ponytails and instantly become members of an angsty Korean boy band
Love you! Have an amazing week!
Sofi
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