Well, I just wrote the subject for this email
and suddenly got sad :( So I will not dwell on the fact it was my last,
but rather on what was discussed.
It
was a great opportunity to get all caught up with all of the protocols
and standards in this mission. I love being here, and President Choi is
wonderful! Something that was very much emphasized was the difference
between sacrifice and obedience. What the Spirit taught me is that
sacrifice (in a mission sense) is passive, and not active. We all
decided to give certain things up when we decided to serve- school,
family, the world. But what matters right now, is being active, which is
exact obedience. I have gained a testimony of exact obedience on my
mission and now love it :) This presentation by President Choi was
impressive though. He just put everything into context, and honestly it
just makes sense. He is a great teacher and I am honored to be here in
this mission to be tutored by him.
One
of my favorite experiences was this last week with a member named Nate.
He is really fun to be with, and I felt impressed that we needed to
commit him to comply with one of the mission rules- to sing hymns in the
shower. You should have seen his reaction! He totally did not want to,
but after being coaxed for a while he reluctantly agreed. Nate is a
champ, and did it for quite a few days this week!
On
Wednesday I was able to go out to lunch with Irene- a friend from High
School! I love her so much, and it was great to catch up. Also she is
willing to meet up occasionally and help us with our Chinese language
learning. She is from Taiwan, and so might as well get tutored from the
expert!
We
had a miracle this week. We have been needing a new binder for our Area
Book, and the Zone Leaders had not been able to get it to us yet. So,
we pestered them a little bit, and they told us if we were able to get 5
member present in a lesson with an investigator that day, they would
hand deliver it. Well, little did you know but I have developed skills
with bartering on my Mission (I have been to China town quite a bit here
;) and so we bartered them down to three. Which by the way, would still
be a complete miracle We knew that we could get at least one that
night, but had no idea for the others. So, we were trying to find a
member that was hanging around in the Institute to go out contacting
with us, when we walked into the Library and met Shaelee. She is a
non-member, and wanted a Church tour! So of course we took her on one,
got to know her, and we were going to end in the Chapel. Well, right at
that moment Michael (who was the perfect person to be friends with
Shaelee) is walking by with his long-board and so we invite him to come
along. Michael bore a pure and perfect testimony to her, and the Spirit
was very strong. Shaelee wants to learn more, and we are so excited!
Total miracle that we met her, and then the fact that someone was able
to walk by, with time to be in the lesson, and who was as perfect as
Michael? God's hand everyone, God is involved in our lives!
Michael
and Shaelee are very hipster, and so Sister Wawro and I had a good time
after the lesson trying to explain what a hipster was. "They like to
wear ugly things, and try to be original but are really just like
everyone else... because everyone else is doing it." "Seesters, that
does not make sense!" "We know Sister Imai, we know!"
We
had a great lesson with Makaela this week. First off, she surprised us
on Tuesday night by just showing up at the Institute with her boyfriend-
best surprise ever! We had a lesson scheduled but at least we were able
to visit with her. Then, in our lesson it turned into a lesson entirely
on the Atonement. I love the feeling when I know that the Spirit is
talking, and not me. Normally afterwards I can only kind of remember
what I said, and mostly I just remember the feeling of peace and warmth.
I love being an instrument in the Lord's hand and being able to share
personal experiences to help strengthen others.
We
had a great experience with an investigator named JW. He is getting a
Master's in Music at the University of Washington, and is very sensitive
to the Spirit. He actually called out to us on the street on our way to
an appointment, and we were able to set up a time to meet with him. For
our first lesson, we decided to teach the lesson through song. A
particular highlight was to the song, "A Child's Prayer". I had
remembered your challenge to us at the New Missionary Training Meeting
to use this song, and the result was quite wonderful. We were on
exchanges with Sister Brooksby at the time, and so she was playing the
piano while Sister Wawro and I sang it for him. The music was out and we
invited him to sing along when he was comfortable. After one time
through, he asked if we could sing it two or three more times! He said
that he felt, "moved upon by the Holy Spirit!" We testified to him that
he was feeling the Holy Ghost because it's role is to witness of truth.
JW truly can receive answers to his prayers, just as it promises in that
song. We sang it another time, and he was overjoyed. Another moment was
when we sang "Joseph Smith's First Prayer". Before we sang, Sister
Wawro explained the story, and recited the First Vision. Then, I played
the piano while Sister Wawro sang a solo for the first verse, and we all
joined in on the remaining verses. JW was visibly touched and we are
looking forward to setting a date with him next time we meet.
Our
service this week was editing English papers for the Chinese students.
Ha! It has been so long since I have done anything like that, but it was
a great refresher. It just cracks me up that that is what we are
allowed to do as service here. I worked on one girl's essay for about 3
hours! But, it is now finished and she has her application to the Public
Health program submitted :)
Moment on Saturday with a member "Eh, after about 45 min I just mentally went, 'I'm counting this as service!' "
Yesterday
girl in the YSA Ward got her call to Jacksonville, FL where Sister
Munro is! I told her to email Sister Munro and get all of the details.
There, one of the Ward members brought his friend Abdul, and Abdul wants
to meet with us. Poor guy, he has been in the
funny
moment: Sister Imai tells everyone that I am old. She goes up to
people and says "she is thirty!" "twenty SIster Imai, twenty!!"
teaching Sister Imai how to say her R's. One of the cutest things ever!
Love you all! Have a great week!
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