This week was insane!!
(In the hardest and yet also some of the most beautiful ways possible!!)
We’re talking about faith…sacrifice…and blessings!
“Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven”
Wow this is true! There’s a talk out there called, “Becoming a Consecrated Missionary”. If you’ve ever been a missionary, you’ve probably read it. It talks a lot about what we are willing to put on the alter of sacrifice.
“What is a consecrated missionary? It is a missionary who is willing to lay everything on the altar of sacrifice and to hold nothing back. It is a willingness to give every ounce of energy, every conscious thought, and every drop of passion to this work – to submit our will to God’s will whatever it may be.”
Some of the things it talks about sacrificing include disobedience, fear, and pride, among other things. But this week I shared the talk with my companions. Then at Zone Conference we talked about giving our will to God. Let’s just say we were feeling very inspired to set some high goals! We sacrificed and had so much faith and went to work and then miracles started to happen!
Let me tell you about a friend named Jo. She moved here with her brother a few years ago from mainland China to live with her grandma because her parents felt their business was more important and they didn’t have time to take care of their kids. Well we were biking one day and Sister Jensen slams on her breaks almost causing us all to crash. She turns her body and says that we have to go talk to that girl. So off our bikes we went. As soon as we start talking to Jo, she knows who we are and asked us if we would share more with her. We gave her a Book of Mormon and set up to meet later in the week. When we met with her a few days later she had already read and understood so much of the Book of Mormon that I was honestly shocked! As we taught her the Restoration she was soaking it in and just wanted to know more. My cute companion felt like we should invite her to be baptized, and Jo set a baptismal goal for December 14. We already know there is a lot of family opposition standing between us and that date, but Jo has more faith than anyone I have ever taught on my mission. Her faith is gonna bring about miracles!
This week in “Come Follow Me” we read about Paul’s sacrifice to be a disciple of Christ. We were invited to ponder our own sacrifices we make to be members of the church. We took this spiritual thought to almost every member we visited this week. Then we brought up the fact of Jesus Christ’s Atonement being the great infinite and eternal sacrifice. We then posed this question, “If Christ was willing to sacrifice so much for you, what are you willing to sacrifice for Him?”
The following member responses were incredible!
1. An LA named Ding JM was actually baptized in March but after getting the Holy Ghost hadn’t come to church since. She still believed everything was true, but she said work made it impossible to come. When we asked her this question, she knew she needed to come back to church, but she wasn’t quite sure what to do about work. We told her we would pray for her. Well Sunday rolls around, and she’s at church. I asked her what happened and she goes, “I called them and just quit! God has to bless me for keeping His commandments, right?” Now that’s some big faith and sacrifice right there.
2. After a dinner visit and share another family, the son said he was willing to sacrifice his comfort zone to try and share the Gospel with more of his friends.
3. Another member who currently has two sons on missions said she was willing to be the example her husband needed to finally help him get baptized. She said she wanted to sacrifice her fear and invite him to church again.
4. A recent convert named Cai Yu Zhe said he wanted to go on a mission. He was afraid of what his nonmember parents would say, but as we were meeting with him he sent a text to his parents that said he wanted to talk that night. That is bold!
There were countless experiences and countless touching responses.
I know that faith and sacrifice leads to incredible miracles!
As [former Church] President Spencer W. Kimball said, “As we give, we find that ‘sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven!’ And in the end, we learn it was no sacrifice at all”
Funny things that happened this week:
1) Went to Ying Ge last week for pday and made cups on a pottery wheel! WAY FUN!! Haha let’s just say, going with five other perfectionist missionaries made the process take a very long time Haha
2) I tried to catch a frisbee, didn’t look where I was going cause I was way too committed, barely missed a tree, and then body slammed a park bench. Let’s just say I ended up on the floor a little out of breath hahahah it definitely would have been a video that belonged on AFV!
3) Got told on Tuesday we have to move apartments and have to have the new one found by the end of the week. So let’s just say, even though I’ve never done it in English, by some miracle, we were able to find an apartment, tour it, and put a deposit on it all in Chinese hahah thank you office Elders for all the stress you gave us this week
4) Sunday we didn’t have lunch until about 2pm, but the Elders didn’t have food either.
Let’s just say, I am grateful for missionary meetings that had happened at the church that week to leave food in the fridge. We had a very interesting meal of leftover spaghetti, soup, and fried chicken. Probably not a combination I would make if I wasn’t a missionary Haha. Anyways we were hiding in the kitchen eating this as another ward is having Sunday school outside the door and I go, “This is so weird just sitting in a kitchen eating food” and all the other missionaries nod in agreement. We all thought about my statement a little more and decided that’s an absolutely completely normal thing to do Haha it just felt weird cause we never do it Haha
I hope you all have a great week!
I love you all so so so much!!!
安姐妹
Sister Kara Andersen 