A Tree in a Field

Hi Everyone! 

(Good Morning. Everything is wonderful)

IT'S DECEMBER EVERYONE!!! CHRISTMAS MONTH!! The most exciting part of December for a missionary is 100% the Light the World activity that our church does every year to help people remember the Savior and follow His example (If you want to know more, click here). Most of the world is focusing on the theme 'Give as He Gave', but in Asia they decided to do things a little differently. Most people here barely know who Jesus is, so we're focusing this year on inviting members and nonmembers alike to learn more about Him, and to 'Live as He Lived'. The focus is on helping people share with their friends and family through service and testimonies so all of Asia learns a little more about who Jesus Christ is, and why He's important.

To kick off Day 1, Sister DeJarnatt and I wrote a bunch of cards with little messages like, 'you're an amazing person! Have a great day!', and handed them out randomly whenever we felt someone needed it. We made several people smile with them, which was fun. At the end of the night, we had one card left to give, and we were headed home. On the way, we saw a woman leading a very tall blind man down the street, and decided to give her the last card. As we got closer, I recognized the man she was leading as a student from a university in Zhanghua, one of my past areas! We got to stop and chat for a bit and reconnect, and his mom was really touched by the card. Yay for service miracles!

We have this one friend we're teaching, Jovan, who is very into star signs. Whenever he introduces someone to us, he'll include their star sign- 'this is May, she's an Aquarius'. In our lesson this week, I asked a little more about the personality traits of people with my star sign, Libra. He gave this analogy: 'imagine there's a field, with a tree growing right in the middle. You're lying under the tree sleeping, and there's a slight breeze across your face. That's Libra's personality'. This is now the only way I will ever introduce myself.

This week a kid in our ward opened his mission call. A lot of the ward turned out to watch him open it, and we had a potluck too. In a weird twist of events, they invited me up to read the call letter. I assumed it would be in English and they wanted me to help translate, but I got up there, and it was in Chinese! Thankfully I knew enough to read haltingly up to where he got called to California, and then a member took over and informed him that he is headed to Los Angeles! It was kind of awkward to suddenly have to read in Chinese, but it was so fun to see him and everyone else so excited about his call. He's going to make an awesome missionary!

It's not just missionaries who are involved in Christmas preparations, the ward also has a lot of plans in swing. On Sunday we stayed late with a lot of the members to practice some songs we're going to go sing at a nursing home next week. We're singing a bunch of awesome carols, including Jingle Bells in English. We helped everyone practice the words, especially the tricky way of singing 'in-a-one horse open sleigh' with the words squished all together. This is us with several of the YSAs in our ward. The one in the very front is Grace, who was visiting from one of my previous wards in Zhanghua! It was super fun to see her again!

One of my favorite parts about missionary work is our ability to connect with people. We have had a couple of experiences this week where we're in the middle of this lesson and people open up to us with very personal, deep struggles. It never ceases to amaze me that they are willing to share with two teenagers they just met about the deepest worries, desires, and sorrows of their hearts. What I love the most about this is that we are able to help. We are here as representatives of Christ, who is the Master Healer. His job is to fix the unfixable, and we get to be here and deliver this message of hope to people who think there is no hope left. The ability to spread hope is probably my favorite thing about being a missionary. 

Happy December Everyone! Have an amazing week, and Light the World!

Love you,

Sofi