Humility

Hello!

This week seems like it flew by, but it was great! We were super busy, and I really like being busy!

I’d like to preface this email with the following thought from A 1974 Conference talk by O. Leslie Stone called, “The Beatitudes”.

“Now, the first of the Beatitudes we find in Matthew 5, verse 3: “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” [Matt. 5:3]

What is meant by “poor in spirit”? Is it not humility, which renders us teachable and eager to learn? They who feel themselves spiritually poor approach God, asking him to supply their needs.”

We had interviews with our Mission President this week, and he left me with the advice, “Find the poor in Spirit. Find those who need God’s blessings.”

So that’s exactly what we set out to do. I would like to share two of the experiences that we had from following this counsel:

First:

On Saturday we approached a lady (Zeng JM) sitting by herself in a [Seven]. After a relatively longer contact than normal, she had given us her phone number, address, and had committed to coming to church. I had immediately felt this overwhelming love for her and the need for her to know the truth and peace the Gospel brings.

Well, Sunday comes and she didn’t show up. So after church we biked over to her house. Turns out we didn’t have a complete address. We got to her “house” and found a potential 25 doors that it could be. We decided to say a prayer. 30 seconds after our prayer was finished, up she rode on her motorcycle.

Turns out she had had to go to the hospital, for what we would find out later that night was a cancer treatment. We sat with her as she told us her life situation. We shared a few of our favorite scriptures. She cried. We testified of God’s love and awareness of her, and she accepted our invitation to come with us to dinner and family home evening at our bishop’s house.

Zeng JM is poor in Spirit. She recognized that herself. She recognized the need for the healing that comes from Jesus Christ. She wants to learn. I just hope that I can help her truly understand just how much God loves her.

Second:

There’s a cute older lady in our ward named Zhang JM. Her husband has passed away, but she has 4 sons who still live with her. All of them were baptized as children (including some grandchildren), but none of them are active in the church anymore. We had a feeling one night to go visit her.

Turns out she is struggling. She is afraid of her own testimony growing weak. She told us that she has been alone for so long, and she feels like she is simply running out of strength. She wants God’s help but isn’t sure how to get it. She is poor in Spirit.

After simply listening to, ministering to, and singing to her, we offered to say a prayer. You could almost tangibly feel God’s love in that room, holding people up, helping people keep going. It was precious.

There are so many good things that happened this week and oh so many miracles! The time as a missionary is precious, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world!

Funny things that happened this week:

1. We are singing “I Am a Child of God” in stake conference next week. It sounds so good! One of the verses we are singing is actually in a Taiwanese aboriginal language. The arrangement sounds so cool! (I guess this wasn’t that funny, but me attempting to sing in that language is an adventure haha)

2. One of the members we went to visit told me that I knocked on doors too quietly. So he proceeded to show me how to correctly kick the door so I wouldn’t hurt my foot but could be heard Haha. This resulted in him breaking the door because he kicked it too hard hahahah

3. We found our current Stake President’s conversion story in the February 1991 Ensign magazine. They have an incredible story! (Also not too funny, but fun fact I guess)

Well, I hope you all have a great week!

I love you all so so so much!!!

安姐妹