Week of joy

Dear Family,

First off the happy news! Tina, one of my investigators from my former area is getting baptized this week. Oh I could cry. I love her. She said her big change was she knows now that she has a Heavenly Father. That's what it is all about. Once they know that, they progress like crazy.

I feel like this week I read over and over again in the scriptures, talks, and in school that keeping records and writing things down is super important and I didn’t do it and now I can't even remember what happened this week. It was so busy crazy. We had exchanges this week and I got to show Sister Adams around. She is an absolute angel. She looks like one and acts like one. The exchange helped me learn just what I needed to prepare for this week. Mainly being:

1. love your companion and serve her like crazy 2. follow the spirit and just step back.

Jia Yi is so busy. So many needs. I wish we had that time stopper thing Herminie has in the Prisoner of Azkaban so we can just have the time to do everything, but oh well. That's why we need to get members on board. They too are Christ hands. I didn’t realize it until Sister Adams pointed it out but our relationship with the ward has changed dramatically. She had been on exchanges here 4 months ago so she saw JiaYi 4 months ago and then this week. When I first got her just 3 months ago the relationship with the ward was pretty zao gao. There wasn't much trust and relationship. Well, my sweet companions and I worked hard. Met with leaders. Planned activities. Served. Did what they asked. Smiled and loved and hugged. And now Jia Yi is becoming more alive. There's a light here again. It's hard to explain, but there is just a light about this place now. It's getting ready and there's going to be some major kingdom building going on soon. You can just feel it! It's the Lord's Kingdom as some like to say. The Bishop is considering our advice and listening to us and helping us and working with us now. It feels so good!

Let me tell you about the sweet woman of faith Chen Yue Wen. CAN YOU PLEASE, PLEASE PRAY FOR HER? She is a true woman of faith. She is the mom we started teaching about a month ago. She has read the Book of Mormon every day and is now in Mosiah. It has helped her overcome all that stupid anti-Mormon stuff she read on the internet. I'd never been so angry with the internet the day she told us she looked up all this anti-Mormon stuff and temple stuff. Ah! Yikes. It was so rough. She said she couldn't believe Joseph Smith anymore. We told her to pray about it and read the scriptures and stop looking at that stuff. Then the next day we saw her and she had the light again and everything was okay. She said that she read the BoM and it said to stop rejecting the words of the prophet and so she did and she was okay. THAT is the power of the Book of Mormon. She came to all 3 hours of church yesterday. Her husband wasn't too happy about it. She is supposed to be baptized on the 31st. She is good, but her family absolutely opposes, but she knows it's what she needs to do. She can't be baptized without spousal consent and her husband said he'll divorce her if she is baptized. See this crazy mess? But she has this amazing awe inspiring faith and knows the Lord will help her. Tonight we are taking the Elders to meet her husband. Honestly, I'm nervous and a little scared but so excited to see what happens. She is amazing.

Next is our sweet Yang Mama. She is our running buddy. She also plays the erhu (look it up!). She came to church for the first time and loved it. SHE taught us about faith in gospel principles. Her and her husband's relationship is really zao gao, but she is excited to learn to make it better.

Also, remember crazy Ivy? She's back! She is the one whose parents I met in the hospital when I was there. She isn't crazy anymore! She wants to be baptized and came back because she said her life was missing something and she prayed and realized it was church. Cool. The Lord does work in his time.

Well my dear family. This week was so tiring, but so awesome it really felt successful and it was super rainy. I love you all

xoxox

Sister Burr

Try and guess what I'm saying with my eyes. The scarf is from a former investigator (Willy) from Gangshan (my first area) that came and visited today. The mask is from one of the other Gangshan members. I loved that area.

It's us at Cafe Grazie (or crazy because it's where I ate snails. fancy snails). Some Gangshan members came up today so we went out to eat.