Pappi! Daddy! Happy Fathers Day! I'm
so sorry I forgot. It's August 8th here (ba-ba which means dad and eight-eight
so that's really cute) but that's no excuse. I've been so excited to
write you this week to tell you all that has happened. No Sister Chen is still
having her problems and she told us she wants to "start over from the
beginning" so we're trying to figure out what that means, but we'll figure
it out because this week was SUCH a good week of leaning. Sososo good.
First things first, let me tell you
how American television has influenced the young Taiwanese school girls. Last
Wednesday we went to an all-girls high school to answer their questions about
American life. The things they asked were about graduation parties, the
"cheerleader popular crowd"", and then I sang "Call, Me
Maybe" to them. Yikes! I knew the words. It was super funny and I was just
reminded how pure and good these people are. Man. I love them. They are so hard
working.
Also, the most dangerous contact
happened this week. We had just parked our bikes and it was on this platform
probably two feet high. To get on it you need to go up a little ramp that is
really steep. There was a lady next to me so I start talking to her and telling
her who we are. She started riding off on her scooter saying she wasn't
interested and missed the ramp and just completely dropped! Oh no. So she was
okay. Just some scratches. We were able to pray with her and comfort her for a
bit so that was good and she was off after resting for a bit. I've been so
clumsy and my clumsiness is just rubbing off and I've been so lame!
And let me tell you WHY. I'm so
lame without the spirit. I know without the spirit we can do the work and yeah
we blow the mission standards out of the water, but it's exhausting and not so
effective. Mission work is so hard without the spirit because without it we do
the work we think needs to get done rather than the work that the Lord needs to
get done. I know He has prepared people and it’s just our job to find them and
we do that by listening to the spirit. It's like a chicken running around with
his head. With the spirit we can know what to do and where to go. I've seen it
COUNTLESS times. It happened just last night! We prayed to know where to go and
the first house we knocked let us in and we taught a sister and her brother. So
cool. I feel like these past few weeks or so I haven't had the spirit as much.
I actually know I haven't because it was so hard to do the work. It's like
swimming with weights just to show how tough you are. dumb. It's exhausting and
there's no point to it. You just need to let go of pride and drop what's
weighing you down.
One of the things was companion
contention. Wow. Man. I didn't know where it came from but it was a complete
brick wall hindering the spirit. It was like a two sided brick wall. I'd take
down a brick and then my companion would put one up on her side and vice-versa
so we couldn't get this wall down and there was no Holy Ghost for us. Yikes.
Elder Holand said this "Unity
is so crucial in this work, and if there is disunity, or a lack of harmony of
any kind, any sort of break between a missionary and his companion, the work is
crippled. We all remember the famous incident in the life of the prophet Joseph
Smith, who, in the course of translating the Book of Mormon, had some little
domestic tiff with Emma. I’m sure this was nothing extraordinary, something natural
to most newly wedded couples, who in their particular case were under an
immense amount of pressure, but we all know what happened the gift of the
Spirit of translation ceased immediately, the flow of inspiration completely
stopped, and the work was for a moment totally thwarted. For that moment, the
adversary had won a victory. Now, rightfully and appropriately, Joseph and Emma
patched things up apologized to each other for whatever the offense had been
and the Holy Spirit returned, with it the power and privilege of translation
resumed."
Unity is key. We worked on it! And
it's so much better. Just love and trust. It's what we were lacking because I
became a MISSION ROBOT.
Oh no. I'm so ashamed I was an
absolute mission robot and the song "human again" from the new Beauty
and the Beast just keeps running in my head because I can't wait to be human
again. What I mean is I was just tunnel vision on missionary work the way I
wanted to do it and numbers. I forget to just "be still" and listen.
Listen to self, companion and the Holy Ghost.
I love what Sister Holland says, "I
believe we can find our steady footing and stilling of the soul by
turning away from physical preoccupations, superwoman accomplishments, and
endless popularity contests, and returning instead to the
wholeness of the soul, that unity in our very being that balances the
demanding and inevitable diversity of life".
WHOLENESS OF THE SOUL. Just
being still. Anne morrow Lindbergh also said, " Not knowing how to feel
the spirit, we try to muffle its demands in distractions... the problem is
how to feel the soul".
How true and what I mean by that is
to just acknowledge our human feelings and be human and further to feel the
Holy Ghost in our lives. Be still and listen to Him. We were averaging 26
lessons a week and we were just back to back busy. It was so hard to have that
stillness and that wholeness and just listening to self and spirit. MOM! And
because of that we were “not so productive busy". It was just fluff that
was muffling and getting in the way of the spirit. But, I'm coming back! I
really just forgot to love and feel the love for the people I think.
Relationships ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT. With self, God, and others. So this week
was SUPER good with learning.
Emeleeyne - a miracle, she is a
member from the Philippines who was looking for the church in Taiwan for 6
months! She found the address through Facebook but doesn’t speak or read Chinese
so we had to go pick her up and I had to translate for her at church. SHE IS A
LIGHT! There have been so many lights lately.
Zoe- Doing good. She is trying to
live the word of wisdom this week! She understands it all but is still working
on feeling the truth of it all
Stella- We are going to Costco in a little
bit with her and she is AWESOME. She recognizes tender mercies already. She is
so prepared and sweet and kind. Man I love her. She is just a light and how the
light. She has a goal for next month but her problem is work :/ she owns a
breakfast store.
Sister Chen - She hasn't picked up
and just needs some time to sort stuff out. We have members friendship her.
FAMILY! It's all good. I love this
work and I love you all sososososo much. Thanks for all the love and support.
Remember in my setting apart when they talked about feeling the prayers and
loves and supports from home, well it's real. I feel them and am so
grateful.
xoxoxoxo
Sister Burr
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