Pages

Monday, March 14, 2016

New streets, Zone Conference, Nature of God rings true to me, We are his children, Sister Chen

Fun Family Home Evening last night--our investigator Ruby came!
14 March 2016
Monday
Tainan

Hello!

New streets, new people
We are staying busy in Tainan! Went on exchanges this week and there's a new system which was exciting. Before we would switch companions for a day and one companionship would stay in your area, and the other would go to the other companionship's area. But now all 4 of us stay in one area and divide up the work there and all sleep together in the same apartment. 

Had a fun time learning from those sisters and it was cool being able to see another area, even though it was really close to ours. Because Tainan is so small, I haven't left my area for a long time, so it was fun to see some new streets and meet new people. 

Found this cutie tracting


Zone Conference
We also had Zone Conference this week. It was a privilege to be able to spend some time with the Blickenstaffs and other missionaries. Sister Beus and I were in charge of the musical number, so we ended up doing a medley of 3 songs: "O My Father", "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing", and "A Child's Prayer". It was neat to see it come together and we even had an Elder on a violin!

It was a great Zone Conference this week.  Loved being with the Blickenstaffs.
Felt strengthened by so many missionaries all gathered together.
Nature of God Rings True to Me
It was a powerful start to our discussion about the Godhead. We talked about how important it is for our investigators to understand the nature of God, Christ, and the Holy Ghost, because this is something that especially in Taiwan is hard for investigators to understand. They have grown up with very traditional Buddhist beliefs, so they are used to worshipping idols, ancestors, and believe in many gods. 

I love our doctrine about God as our Father; it rings true to me. 

I love that we have someone very specific to picture when we pray and we have a very clear goal of something we want to work towards and become-- a physical being that we have the capacity of becoming like. It makes me work hard and have something I want to be like, an actual person, not a mist or wind or nature or something like that. 

It also logically makes sense to me.  Who do you know who doesn't have a father? Most of all, I love that when we teach people about prayer and the reality of the godhead, we are not offering our word against their tradition. We promise that they can know truth for themselves and that they can personally experience the things we teach them about and that they need to learn truth for themselves. 

We studied a wonderful talk, "Knowing the Godhead",  given by Elder Holland. He says: 
We are to know these Divine Beings in every way we can. We are to love Them, draw near to Them, obey Them, and try to be like Them.
I love that he says before we move on to prophets or apostles and testify of mortal leaders, we need to testify of Celestial ones. And just like every quorum of our church has a presidency, Heavenly Father also follows this pattern and the Godhead functions as an Eternal Presidency.  I hope you have the chance to read the entire thing. 

I learned a lot at Zone Conference and am really going to try to incorporate it into my teaching this week to try and help investigators grasp this concept about the godhead that I know must be confusing and new to them.

We are his children
Lastly, I love this quote by President Monson about our Heavenly Father:
"God our Father has ears with which to hear our prayers.  He has eyes with which to see our actions.  He has a mouth with which to speak to us.  He has a heart with which to feel compassion and love.  He is real.  He is living.  We are his children made in his image.  We look like him and he looks like us."
I'm on my last planner! Bittersweet.
Sister Chen
And Sister Chen is getting baptized this Friday! I'll send you pictures next week! I can hardly wait!

Love you all!

Went to help a less active member clean her house
Savoring goodies we received in a package this week.  Trader Joe's salsa and sweet potato chips are precious!

1 comment:

  1. I enjoyed reading your thoughts and testimony about the nature of God and how it rings true to you. I agree with all my heart! You're really a wonderful missionary Sister Hancock, and we pray for your safety and success.

    ReplyDelete