Chapter 55 - 新年快樂！Happy New Year!

Dajia hao, (Hi everyone!)

That's right, this week was Chinese New Year! It started on Thursday and kept on going until... I don't really know, it could still be going on now for all I know. Haha it was great because all the students were out ditching class and hanging out with friends and going out to eat, but then not as many of them wanted to stop and talk when there were dumplings to be made and devoured. Still, it has been a pretty good week.

Selfie in the bus mirror, so cute.

The highlight of the week was probably getting to go to Leeds for Zone Conference. It was a very fun day, we got to watch Meet the Mormons! Oh my word, so good. I loved how all of the people were so different and I loved hearing about their conversion stories. Because I'm a missionary nerd and I love conversion stories. :) Also, the whole missionary mom segment just made me cry tears. I swear no missionary in that chapel had a dry eye when that Elder said good-bye to his family. Ah, memories... Still it was a great conference and we learned a lot about how we can best improve our areas! I have seen a lot of growth in the mission since I first came out and I know that everyone will just keep on improving in the future.

Yesterday was also transfer calls!!!!!!! So here's the news: I'm staying in Newcastle. YAY! I've already been here for 6 months, but I'm still so excited to stay. I feel like there's so much unfinished business to take care of here and I would just miss everyone too terribly to leave. I am also getting a new companion. Her name is Sister Xie, she's from Sichuan, China. She was just in my old hometown of Hull so it will be really fun to work with her. But where does that leave Sister Chee you might ask? Well my beloved daughter will also be staying in Newcastle and working with Sister Salcedo!!! Yeah everyone was shocked. So she'll be in a different area technically but not too far from me. Wow, 6 months old in the mission and still living with her mom. Embarrassing. ;) Nah, it'll be a great transfer, I'm stoked!

We celebrated Chinese New Year with a ward talent show and dinner on Saturday night. It was super fun, all the missionaries did a fun skit and then my comp and I sang a Chinese song. It was pretty good, if I do say so myself. Then last night we made dumplings with Crystal! Oh man they were so good. And now I know how to make dumplings.

Me with all the hot pot stuff. I love hot pot!
But it was so spicy! She had this spice mix from Chongqing
which is famous for their spicy hot pot. Gah so spicy!

The process of making dumplings along with the delicious end result!

Well I hope that you all had a good week wherever ya'lls are. Happy Chinese New Year! Go eat some dumplings or other Chinese food. I'm so grateful to be a missionary here, right now, in this area. I love you all!!

Love,

Sister Larson

  

Beautiful clouds in Newcastle!!!! Love the sky here, so pretty.

Chapter 54: Valentine's Day Baptism

Dear family and friends,

So this week was basically awesome. I think I say that at the beginning of every letter. But it's true and I can't help myself from saying it! Missionary life in general is just awesome!!!

This week the highlight was Crystal and Mandy's baptism. They were both so cute and so excited to be baptised! The service went really well. Crystal told us as she was getting ready to go into the font that she didn't sleep the night before because she was just too excited to be baptised! Mandy gave a very simple but very heartfelt testimony at the end. She was just so grateful in it and kept saying "I'm so thankful to the Father for all the blessings He gives me." Man. I never thought I could ever feel this much joy. Missions are sometimes seen as a sacrifice, but to me this is no sacrifice. This is a blessing! 

After the baptism, there was also a ward Valentine's Dance. Not like a dodgy, bring-a-date-slow-dance-the-whole-time dance, so we got permission from our leaders to stay. And it was way fun. We basically just danced with the primary kids and got our Chinese friends to let loose and have fun. It was a super awesome ending to a super awesome day. :)

Along with that, we also had a new scheduled investigator this week, Martin! He is doing so great. He came to our lesson having read a chapter in Alma and showed us a verse that he really liked. He'd highlighted it and everything!! It may be a small thing, but this is a guy who's never read scriptures before, or prayed before, or believed in something higher before. So his progress is remarkably quick. I also know that he has been prepared by the Lord. Shortly before he met us, he had started volunteering at a charity shop. He later told us that he had no idea really why he'd decided to do that, but that he felt he should be doing something kind for others instead of just thinking about himself. SO PREPARED.

Well I could go on and on but I only have a short amount of time to e-mail. The gospel is true. Even if I hadn't seen all these miracles, I would still know it is true. Heavenly Father is there, He listens to each of our prayers. I love being a missionary!!! I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day and have a super fantastic week!

Love,

Sister Larson

Heart cookie from pday last week. so professional. 

Shield coins. On the back of each coin is a part of a shield,
and so I finally collected them all at the same time!
Cool, huh? The coins here are way cooler than in America, no offense.
And we use them more often.

Me and my comp and Mandy and Crystal!

Me and Mandy and Crystal

This one also has Freddie, our recent convert who introduced
 Mandy to the gospel and then baptised her, as well as
Elder Chidester, our crazy district leader who baptised Crystal.

Me and Sister Wu. She goes home next week! :'(

Chapter 53: Meagan went to England on a Mission, and you won't believe the awesome things that happened next!

Dear Family and Friends,

This week has been quite good overall. We were super busy with lots of teaching and finding and even a service project, (yay!) but we managed to get lots of things done. We had quite a few really awesome things happen, so I'll just list them all below.

Awesome Thing #1: Crystal and Mandy both passed their baptismal interviews!!! They were both slightly nervous but of course they did just fine. Everything is coming together for their baptism this Saturday, so I'll tell you all about it next week!

Awesome Thing #2: We met with all of the guys from the hot pot party a few weeks ago this week. In separate lessons, haha. One of them, Li, is in China for two weeks now but he had a really great lesson that turned into a huge long discussion. It was really great and he seems so eager to learn more and read the Book of Mormon. Another one, Huang JinBo, whom we renamed Stefan*, had a great lesson as well and we scheduled him for baptism in March! He's really funny, he's like a big kid. But he's very willing to learn more as well. And the last one, Yang Yi (English name pending, any suggestions are welcome) brought his friend, Seralyn, to the lesson with him! They seemed pretty interested, not as much as the others, but they still would like to see the baptism on Saturday, so that is good news!

Awesome Thing #3: Martin, our BBC investigator, is doing super well. We had an amazing lesson with him and Darrell, a recent convert here. It was so great, they got along really well and Darrell answered all of his questions perfectly. Martin also came to the senior missionaries' house with us yesterday and really liked seeing what an LDS family dinner looks like. So things are looking good for Martin.

There are honestly so many awesome things that happened this week, I could go on forever and write an entire epistle about them. But I'll spare you guys and just share one last really cool thing that happened.

So on Saturday, I had a kind of bleh day. Good things were happening, but I was feeling sort of lonely and whatnot. My heart was just aching a little bit. But I kept on throughout the day, always asking Heavenly Father to please comfort me and help me do the work I needed to do. As we were finding, my companion pointed to something behind me. I turned and looked and saw the most beautiful sunset ever. The sky was still pale blue but the clouds were fiery pink and orange and it was so amazing. I felt at peace and had the clarity of mind necessary to sort through my problems and find out ways to solve them. It was a very tender mercy of the Lord and showed His love for me. I know that our prayers are answered in personal ways so we can understand them.

I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week!

Love, 

Sister Larson

*Yes, Stefan is named after a character in the popular TV series, the Vampire Diaries. We have a Chinese member here named Damon, who is also a character in the aforementioned programme, and we just couldn't resist. Plus, he just looks like a Stefan. :)

Ice cream selfie with my comp, our investigator Fang Fang, and me last P-day.

Me on a cute little bridge whilst finding in a neighborhood. 

Me with the BYU car we found this week, haha!

Chapter 52: One Year Out and More Miracles

Dear Family and Friends,

First off, this is the real week 52. On the 5th, I'll have been a missionary for one whole year. What the heck? Where has the time gone? Didn't I leave like just yesterday? Wow my life is just flying by. It's been a very tough year but a very rewarding one as well.

Secondly, as you can see from the very enthusiastic CAPS LOCK message subject, we had the hugest miracle in the history of ever this week. So do you all remember Crystal, the super golden investigator we've been teaching for like ever whose parents would not allow her to be baptised? Yeah, that one. Here's what happened this week.

Begin super amazing epic miracle

Well, we had a lesson with her this week that was great. We taught her about endure to the end and then brought up fasting with her for her parents to soften their hearts a bit in regards to her being baptised. Then she surprised everyone and said, "Well I've been talking to them recently, and they say that I am old enough to make my own decisions, and that they trust me to do what is right for me. So while they don't believe in God or think that church is super awesome, they will still let me get baptised." And Sister Chee and I were like ".... EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!" And the member that was with us, Angela, was like "... EEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!" And then we all were excited and happy and immediately began planning her baptism on the 14th of February, Valentine's Day! She will be baptised with Mandy, our other investigator who is super prepared and ready for that day. SO MIRACULOUS! Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers.

End super amazing epic miracle

Along with that miracle, we also had a great hot pot dinner on Saturday night. Hot pot is super delicious. And we ate it with our potential, whom we named Stefan, and his three roommates. At first, we were a bit nervous because he pulled out a bottle of white wine. But then as he tried to open it, I said a quick prayer for what to say and just told him, "Hey, we don't drink alcohol, so is it okay if maybe we put that away?" And he said, "Yeah no problem!" and gave us soda instead. Phew. Then during the meal, we were talking and the conversation naturally turned to church. We ended up teaching them most of the Restoration, the Word of Wisdom, and about keeping the Sabbath day holy! Angela, our member present (again) did a great job of being a missionary with us and explaining lots of things that we believe. So that was also a great miracle. And two of the roommates ended up coming to church with us yesterday! It was so awesome.

Here is a picture of my comp, Sister Davis, Sister Holland (stl) and me. we are so cute!!
I actually really love this photo. We had an exchange this weekend which was way fun. 

Yeah, I still make faces. This one's a gem.
We were waiting for someone to come and open the
chapel gate because we were a bit early to a meeting.
So we took selfies that made us look like prisoners. And weirdos. Heehee.

So basically, this week was rockin' for me and my companion. We were working together in unity, finding and teaching and planning and loving our lives as missionaries. While missionary work is not always this outwardly successful, I am still always very happy and at peace with the work I am doing because I know this Church is true and that Jesus Christ lives. It is He who I represent and I am so glad I have the opportunity to do so. I love you all! Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Larson