Chapter 24: On her feet again!

Hiya!

Well this week we have been picking up our work a little bit more. Yay! We've gone out every day and been out almost the whole day, just like normal missionaries. It's been great. My foot is getting better and I can walk on it a lot more now, which is just fantastic.

So this week we have focused a lot on working with our less actives and recent converts, since we still are searching for investigators. One of them that we went and visited was a Chinese family. The dad works at a Chinese restaurant and so he makes really good food. When we went and visited him, he made us baozi, which are basically bun things with stuff inside. My favourite one he made had butter and coconut in it, or so he said. It tasted like tropical heaven and I wish I could eat it all the time.

We also went and visited lots of members. One of them that we visit quite regularly is a Lithuanian woman. She has two little kids who just are starting school and they are quite the picky eaters, so whenever we go over there she loves to make us food. This week's dish was cold cucumber, beetroot, boiled egg soup. It was quite interesting. Not bad, but a little bit weird.

Aside from the interesting international food I've eaten, I have also had the time to think on trials. Especially since being on a mission I've seen the harsh trials people are put through and sometimes it makes me wonder why such things happen to good people. Then this morning I was flipping through the hymn book and found the fifth verse of Hymn No. 85, "How Firm a Foundation." It goes:

"When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie
My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply.
The flame shall not hurt thee, I only design
Thy dross to consume ... and thy gold to refine."

So basically, trials aren't given to us to hurt us - they're there to help our strengths get even better and our weaknesses to either become strengths or go away. I know that it is through the grace of Jesus Christ that this can happen. I've seen it in my life and in the lives of others. So if your pathway is going through some fiery trials right now, know that when you rely on Jesus Christ, His grace is always in supply for you!

I hope you have all had a great week! Lots of love from 'Ull*!

Love,
Sister Larson

*Here in Yorkshire, the accent is to drop all "h" sounds at the beginning of a word. So Hull is pronounced 'Ull. If it's hard to imagine, just picture Hagrid saying it. I'm pretty sure he's originally from Yorkshire.

Chapter 23: Flat Fever

Hey all,

This will probably be a bit short because we are still stuck in the flat all day. We've been able to get out a little here and a little there, but unfortunately my broken foot came at an awkward time - right before we baptised our investigator and right before our other investigator left on vacation for a few weeks. So since we have no investigator pool, Sis. Huang has been going out with the other sisters in our flat while one of them stayed with me. It's like I'm 5 again, having to be baby-sat! But it's been fun and I'm still alive. :)

The one time we saw Leah and Ting Ting this week, after having a lesson with them, Ting Ting made us wonderful Chinese food. Somehow we got onto the topic of tongue twisters. I taught them one in English, the one about selling seashells I think, and they taught me one in Chinese. It goes: "Chi putao, bu chi putao pi. Bu chi putao, dao tu putao pi." Translation: Eat grapes, don't eat the grape skin. Don't eat grapes, spit out the grape skin." It makes literally NO SENSE but it was fun trying to say it as fast as I could in my less-than-stellar Chinese, haha. 

Well, other than that, I've memorised the lyrics to almost every song on every CD we have, I've read every book in the flat at least once through if not twice, and I have cleaned and organised my room every day. Hopefully within this next week we'll be a bit busier and I might be able to get out and walk around a bit more! 

This week I was reading in the Doctrine and Covenants about why we go to church on Sunday. The reason given in D&C 59:9 is that it might keep us more "unspotted" from the world. I thought about how we shower and brush our teeth regularly to keep ourselves physically clean and healthy. Likewise, we attend church weekly and read scriptures and pray daily to keep us spiritually clean and healthy. If you didn't shower for a week, people would notice and you will feel icky. So make sure that you're keeping up with scriptures, prayer, and church, or else you might feel a bit icky on the inside. 

I love you all! Thank you for the prayers and encouragement, I appreciate it so much. Have a good week!

Love,

Sister Larson

Chapter 22: Meagan discovers the magic of Cinderella weddings

A bit of a slow news week from Meagan, as her foot continues to mend.  She confirmed in other messages that she is off crutches and able to get around a little bit in her "boot."


Hello everyone!!

Well I would like to say that this week has been eventful.... but it hasn't. Haha we've been stuck in the flat a lot. However, we've managed to get out and do something worthwhile every day, which has been awesome.

The best thing we did last week was have Ting Ting be our member present for a lesson with Leah! It was awesome, we kind of told her last minute, but she did so well. She was eager to share her testimony, make comments, and just be a friend to Leah. Oh my goodness she is doing so well. Leah has been doing pretty good too, I think it helps that the YSA here have really reached out to her and have fellowshipped her. She's leaving soon unfortunately, but I know that miracles happen and so we'll keep trying to bring her into the fold of the gospel!

Other than that, this weekend I went to a wedding of one of the members here. In England, by law, you need to have a civil ceremony before you go to the temple to be sealed, so we went to the ceremony. The most cultural thing was the fact that like all of the women wore funny looking hats. Like hats that the Queen would wear, or that Princess Kate would wear. Yeah, that's not a stereotype, that actually happens. I thought I was in Cinderella or something. 

I hope that you all had a great Independence Day weekend! I had to be careful about what I said, because it's not exactly a popular holiday around here haha. But I ate American pancakes for dinner that my companion made for me (she's awesome) and I sang the national anthem. By myself. :)

Real quick spiritual thought that Sister Huang found today during personal study - 
D&C 42:51 - The lame who hath faith to leap shall leap. 

She thought it was hilarious, and it was pretty funny, but just remember that it is by faith that every miracle happens! In Chinese there's a saying that goes, "You xinxin, you banfa!" Which means "Have faith, there's a way to make it happen!", roughly translated. So exercise that faith and move some mountains! Love you all!

Love,
Sister Larson