Sister Cecily Roberts: Week 24: Best & Hardest Week Yet

Hey hey hey!!!

This week was so up and down! It was great because our key indicators were fantastic and God truly blessed us. Which is so so amazing! This is the best they have been since I've been here! I'm so so grateful! We found 9 new investigators this week and we had 9 member lessons! Wow! Anyway sorry, that's kind of a weird way to start off my e-mail. But just know it was absolutely nothing we did. It was all God, completely, 100%. I know with all of my heart that this is God's work and that we are just instruments in His hands. I'm so grateful for this opportunity to serve Him.

This week was hard… It was amazingly but hard. I just wasn't myself all week. Sister H is great but we clash a little. I wasn't myself I guess because I am just really working on loving her and getting along. I do love her and she's a great missionary. I have a lot of self-improving to do. I'm working on not focusing on myself and just serving others and her. It always makes me feel better but sometimes it's hard. Anyway, things are fine it just takes extra effort.

This week, the Elder's gave us a referral who is golden. Her name is Huang JM. She literally is the most perfect investigator and she's getting baptized on the 16th! She literally has no problems with the gospel or commandments and is just so awesome. She has all the right questions. She came to a baptism on Saturday and she was so gan dong (touched) during it, especially because the man who was baptized was someone who is paralyzed from the waist down. So it was very very special and she was crying a little. So so precious! She even has connections in the ward and is just perfect!!! I love her!!!

We also have another great investigator we met this week. Her name is Dora (Xu JM). She's 14 and when we met her and she already had a BOM and said she reads it every day. WHAT? Who does that??? She's so awesome. She set a baptismal date and she came to church on Sunday! Only problem will be family fan dui. Her dad is ok with it, and even sat in on the lesson with us. But we will see! She's so so amazing and when her dad declined baptism (for himself), she stood up for baptism and us. Like she said what we would have said. It was a very special moment!

So I hope I've talked about Juliet, she's the Philippine woman and she's awesome. And we had the RC Suzette translating for us because she doesn't speak any English or Chinese. Well, Suzette left Tai Dong last week. Not for good, but her Ama has to go to the doctor in Gao Xiong...so yikes. It'll be hard to teach her. But she's so prepared. The problem is getting her to church and getting her Ama and the Ama's daughter to say ok. Other than that we have a lot of other people we are teaching which is such a miracle! Seriously this week was amazing and God is blessing us and this area so very much! I'm so blessed!!!

I gave a talk on Sunday...in Chinese....what? haha three months out and I already had to speak in church. Sister H said she hasn't had to speak in church yet until now and she's been out a year. But it went so well and I truly felt the gift of tongues. It's amazing because I looked less at the paper (which was in English) than i do when I give a talk in English. Let's just say I didn't look at the paper much. Unfortunately, the talk wasn't on Easter. It was on sharing the gospel because that was the topic for the week. Easter kind of snuck up on me and then it was gone. I plan on studying it more this week.

So I have to share the best experience ever! I've been struggling a bit with thinking about home and a normal life. It's not necessarily that I'm homesick or that I miss home, but I'm just not focused like I want to be. I just think about normal life all the time. And I don't want to. Well on Wednesday, I ended up seeing a returned missionary (actually Sister B's old companion), her name is Sister Stephens and her whole family all came to Tai Dong. Well I expected to be really sad and wish that was me. But it was such a blessing because it was the opposite. I left feeling so grateful to be a missionary and the life I had. I left and for the first time I could say "I don't want to go home, I want to stay here" And for the first time I felt excited to have so much time left and I was excited to be new so that I could have more time. It was such an answer to my prayers and I'm so grateful. I just left feeling so much more at peace and excited to be here!

Chinese is coming along well and the work is moving forward! I know that the Savior lives. I can't put it any better way. I looked up at the sky this morning, and at the beautiful sunrise and clouds, and as I had been thinking about Easter, I thought about how when Christ died, there was no light, none. And I just looked up at the sky and the light, and looked at all that the sun touched and it was cool because the sun was perfectly behind the clouds that there were light rays coming out and it was amazing. I looked at the clouds and I just felt the Spirit testify that the Savior lives. The Spirit testified to me that He truly is the light of the world. And it felt as if I could look behind the cloud and see my Savior. I have never felt so personally and so definitely that Jesus Christ lives. He came to Earth and atoned for our sins. And then He overcame death and rose after the third day. He is the light and life of this world and He knows everyone and everyone's pain and joys and sorrows. I know this with all of my heart!

I love you all and I hope all are well! You're all amazing!

Love,

Sister Roberts