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Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Investigators, a new helper, squid and duck, always a way to accomplish



Scenic rice fields


16 March 2015

Hello!

Investigators
It was a good week this week. We worked hard on hitting mission standards and we're really excited because we found 6 new investigators. They're all awesome and I'm excited to teach them! Hopefully they'll be interested in learning more. 


City street

A new helper
One funny experience this week: a few weeks ago we met Lin Yu Jun. When we called her, she was willing to set up a time to meet with us. She's our age.  It was clear that she mostly just wanted to be friends and hang out with us but that she wasn't really interested in the Gospel. We met with her again this week to give it a try and same thing, which is okay! 

She took us to a cute bakery and bought us some pastries, then started telling us how we should be doing missionary work. She was telling us which streets to go on and where the nice people would be hanging out, etc. It was so funny!

As we were leaving, she asked if we wanted her to go and talk to the 2 workers at the shop. Of course we said yes. She walked up to them and introduced us then asked if they would be willing to meet with us this week and they agreed.

Carrot art!
It was awesome because we basically just stood there and she did it for us! If we had asked them ourselves, they would have never said yes. We'll definitely be keeping her around :)

Squid and duck
I tried squid and duck this week too! Definitely did not enjoy the squid, but the duck wasn't half bad. I'm not sure if I'll ever like seafood, but I was proud of myself for at least trying it!

One member this week handed me a piece of fish jerky (yes that's a thing).  I didn't know what it was, so I sniffed because I was curious. That was a mistake. It smelled like these treats we used to feed our dog, Whitney.

I knew that if I were to eat it I might gag. I didn't want to make a scene, so I just sort of held it. She asked me why I wasn't eating it.  We both just started laughing. She understood and said I didn't have to try it.

Besides that experience, I have been trying to be brave and be polite in people's homes! Maybe by the end of my mission I'll eat meat and seafood... "man man lai." [slowly it will come]

Always a way to accomplish what He asks
Samuel on the city wall
I read Helaman this week and I enjoyed reading the story of Samuel the Lamanite. This is a story we all love hearing as kids about how brave Samuel was to go and preach repentance to the wicked Nephites. He preached to them on a wall. While they shot him with arrows and threw stones at him, he survived. I enjoyed reading it this week from a missionary perspective. 

In Helaman 13, Samuel was cast out of Zarahemla but the Lord tells him to return and preach again. Real life equivalent would be like if after tracting a road of houses in Qiwei and no one was interested, would I be willing to go back and try them again if I felt prompted to do so?

1 Nephi 3:7 from the Book of Mormon
I would probably be hesitant, but he immediately obeyed and returned but "they would not suffer that he should enter into the city." Most of us at that point would leave and give up saying at least we tried and followed the prompting.

But Samuel didn't give up and got creative. They wouldn't let him into their city? No problem, let me just go and climb up onto this wall then. He wasn't lazy about it and knew that there is always a way to accomplish the things the Lord asks of us (1 Nephi 3:7). 

He took matters into his own hands and thought outside of the box. When we are given promptings, often we are not given all the details and steps along the way. The Lord trusts us and sometimes it is up to us to figure out how to accomplish the things He asks of us, but they are always possible. 

Sometimes it might be easy to to sort of give a half-hearted effort and to fall into the ineffective routine of saying "Hi I'm Sister Hancock, we're the missionaries in this area. Have you ever seen missionaries before?" But this doesn't always work. 

Qishan elders and sisters
I love Samuel's example of being creative and not giving up after his first attempt wasn't a success. It will not always be easy. People cast stones at him and shot arrows (Helaman 16:7). Sometimes people laugh at us or might be rude, but he kept preaching and found a way to escape safely. 

When he returned "even unto his own country [he] began to preach and to prophecy among his own people". It would be reasonable for him to rest after all that he had experienced and to want some time for himself. But he kept on preaching. I hope I can follow his example and keep on doing missionary work even when I'm home. I'm excited to be able to teach in my own country and among my own people too!


LOVE YOU ALL! Have a great week :)


Sister Sinclaire Hancock

My bed in our apartment
My desk

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