Sister Cecily Roberts: Week 15: Earthquake & Sick Companion!

Hey everyone!!!!

This week was so fast, but the beginning of it felt so long ago. Time is a weird thing out here... haha. So.... the week started off with an AWESOME p-day. We went tandem biking by the ocean and the weather was incredible!!! And it was sunny and just perfect! So great! Everything else that day was pretty normal. Groceries, lunch, ice cream, you know. The missionary p-day stuff.

Tuesday started off so crazy! I was running, you know for exercise, and this dog starts running behind me. It scared me at first, cause there are a lot of loose dogs here and strays and they are just scary. But anyway, it starts running with me... literally running with me! It was so cute. He ran a whole two laps with me. So fun! Then he just went on his way. I was running on a track...and just kept following me. So yea, I made a friend.

THEN!!!!! I was in an earthquake!!!! We were in comp study and the desk and everything starts shaking!!! I was like "what in the world?" And Sister Beeston just looks at me and goes "Oh look, your first earthquake" And I'm sitting there thinking I'm about to die. My heart is pounding, and if you can just imagine. I'm sitting there with both hands on my desk, frozen, and my eyes are wide open. Sister B just looks at me hahaha. It wasn't very big so don't be worried, and it lasted for like 5 seconds. But holy smokes, wow! At the end, as soon as I realized I wasn't dead, I was like "Wait that was kind of fun. Let's do it again!" Haha my life... :D

We didn't meet too many people this week because Sister Beeston was sick. She lost her voice... which would have been fine normally except that I'm a trainee... so um, yikes! But it didn't start off with just that. She was biking, and hit an Ama (an elderly Taiwanese lady) . She had a bruised foot for the rest of the night. Both were fine though. The lady was pulling out and didn't see Sister B. So interesting. Then Sister B gets a cold, then she loses her voice. First Sister Hughes, now Sister Beeston. Who's next? :D Haha so fun though. Never a dull moment.

Without Sister Beeston having a voice, we didn't do too much finding. But we were productive anyway. We organized the area book and did some things for members. Our stake has this awesome stake mission plan. The goal is to have every family to bring 5 people to church/church activities. But it doesn't have to be 5 different people. Hope that makes sense. It's awesome and Sister B and I are working on spreading it throughout the ward.

Wednesday was another "sick day". We had English class though, which I had to teach by myself. But it's a good thing that we teach kids. I love kids. It went really well. We taught colors and shapes. We also spent a lot of time contacting people and trying to set up.

Thursday: We visited a referral from our Elders. Her name is Juliet and she's from the Philippines. Her English is broken but we set up with her. Her whole family is Mormon and the Philippino lady before her (a lot of Philippine and Indonesian ladies care for the ama's...the grandma's who can't take care of themselves) left a Book of Mormon for her. So she already has a Book of Mormon. We are meeting with her on Wednesday so hopefully she can understand us enough and hopefully she will want to keep meeting!

Friday: We met a really nice man who makes windows. We had a lesson with him but he wasn't willing to pray himself, at least not right there. Everyone is getting ready for guo nian and everyone says they are really busy which is unfortunate. But he said we could call him on Monday to set up with him. yay :D We also had a huge dinner! We went to the member's restaurant that we always go to, and she just kept giving us free food! She's amazing! All the members here are amazing! We were chi bao le. Full :)

We also had a lesson with Yang JM and her daughter. We had an awesome pei ke. Her name is Zoe. She's awesome! Well the lesson went fine, but I was really stumbling over my words, and I just couldn't speak. So I was frustrated by the end. But it's a good thing we had a member there.

We also had du jing ban (scripture class) and only 3 RC's came. Which is great and that's not bad. My point is they were all RC's but I just sat there and looked at them and was in awe. Here were these wonderful Taiwanese people who had been recently baptized, and they were marking their scriptures. And they took time out of their day to come read the scriptures. And it raised a question that I think is a question of a lifetime haha. But what is the best thing that I can do to help someone develop faith like that? I know that developing faith comes from their personal study, but how do I make the gospel important enough to them to do that. Sister Child was like "That's like the question of every missionary" True fact.

Saturday: We met this super super sweet college student while finding around some dorms. She was seriously the sweetest. She came out of her apartment with two rice crackers for us haha. She didn't seem too interested though, but hey, no effort is wasted. We also saw a cool little miracle. We had about 30 min to contact, so we had planned to go to this bike path. Well it was raining and like no one was there. But we found a LA who doesn't have a phone so we haven’t been able to get in touch with her. We knew that that was the reason we were there. She also ended up coming to sacrament meeting (she usually does) but she was late and she just walks in and gives us a box of food. Haha. Then she walks out and walks back in with another one. They are small and they are like to go meals that you buy but man, we have to make sure we tell people not to walk in the middle of sacrament meeting and give us things.

Sunday: So many people gave us things! Liu JM printed two talks for me, which was so nice. We had someone give us shi jia (buddha fruit), mosquito repellent and medicine stuff (cause they saw my legs...haha), these cracker things... every week this happens though :) people are just so nice and giving. And they were all different people too.

So I had a cool experience on Sunday after Sacrament meeting. I had invited someone I met at English class to church. Well sorry I didn't. She had already been invited but I talked to her about it. And she ended up coming! Which is awesome. Her English name is Yolanda. She's super cute. We talked after sacrament meeting and she wants to go to America really bad and she told me she found this good opportunity. But she goes "But I don't know if this is right for me" and I was like "Oh oh oh oh let me tell you!" Not actually like that but that's how it went in my head haha. I told her about prayer and how God is her loving Heavenly Father and that he wants to help her. I told her that through prayer she could feel and know what to do. She goes "So you mean to tell me that if I ask Him, and you said Him right? If I ask Him a question, He will answer me?" I was like "YES!" She says "How?" I continued to explain. I didn't explain too much though because it wasn't the right setting. So we set up time with her. It was awesome! And all in English which is also awesome haha.

Oh I forgot to tell you about our new investigator. Her name is Zhang Mama. She has two grandkids that she cares for like her children. But she's doing well. And her grandkids (they are pretty young) came to church thanks to some awesome members. She's doing well. She doesn’t have a baptismal date but I know she will. Yang Mei Mei also came to church and she loved it! She is 16 and actually already kind of knew one of the members. So great! Her mom dropped her off and wasn't able to come because of some last minute thing but next week!!!! Those are the only two progressing investigators we were able to meet with this week. Wen JM canceled on us two weeks in a row so yea :( We have to see about her.

With Sister B not having a voice, I learned that I can actually do and say a lot more than I thought and it was a great learning experience. I was "forced" to call people and to talk more to people. I didn't think that I was holding back at all, but I just didn't realize all that I could do. It was good for me :)

I am so grateful for this mission. I have already learned and grown so much. This church is true. Everything fits together like a puzzle, and I know that there isn't anything more true than the Book of Mormon and this church. The Book of Mormon is true. I want to encourage you all to read from the Book of Mormon a little everyday, because nothing in the gospel can replace it. You can't go to church, pray, read general conference talks, etc and still expect to have a testimony. You need to study that book. Also, I encourage you to INVITE someone to something... church, church activity, seminary, institute, something where they can be involved with the church, and give them the opportunity to feel the Spirit. INVITE is the key :)

I love you all so much and I'm so grateful I chose to serve a mission. It’s the best thing I've ever done in my entire life, and I've only just started. Also, try to live your life always in the middle. If you want to know what I'm talking about, look up President Uchtdorf's talk "always in the middle" from the July 2012 Liahona. I love you all!!!!

Love,
Sister Roberts