One Christmas past, and a New Year comes.

This week trundled by really slowly it seemed. Not due to time itself acting up, as it sometimes does, but because we had nothing scheduled all week really, but for tracting. Tracting itself isn't so bad generally, unless you have no lessons or other activities to break it up and it is a 3-4 hour long experience that you repeat over and over...A slow week indeed.

We did find one new investigator, a woman who had been a previous investigator (years ago) and sometimes comes to English class. She has two little boys and teaches an art class out of her home. We went to her house to meet her and sat at her table...which came up to my knee...the chairs were set to match and they looked like something out of snow white and the seven dwarfs! They were minuscule! Fortunately they were sturdy wood so when I folded my ginormous bulk onto one of them it didn't crumple to the floor. When we started teaching her and we got to the subject of families we discovered a fairly serious concern in Huang Xiao Jie's (this woman's) life. She didn't know if she loved her family enough to want to spend an eternity with them. She whispered to Sister Li while shooting glances at her children studying across the room that she didn't think she wanted to see them after she died, they took so much from her and she couldn't even think about giving that much for an eternity. It would cause her too much concern and stress. And her marriage is very poor, she and her husband do not get along well. She said after she dies she thinks she just wants to disappear into nothingness, like smoke into the air.

This saddened me. The family is such an important unit in this life, given to us to provide us with happiness and a loving atmosphere in which to learn and grow. To think that someone is so unhappy with their situation, its not even a case of extremes. They lead an average life style, there is no abuse, no drugs, no alcohol, no apparent reason for discord except for the general attitude of the mother and father. How sad is that, that two people allow themselves to live in such disdain without trying to improve or change it. They just accept the fact that they are unhappy, and it stifles any love that could be felt even towards the children. We talked with her for a while and set up another time. I really hope we can reach this woman, the gospel could improve her life and her families life so much. She is just not happy, and I really hope we can help her realize that she can be happy. That she can have a good relationship with her husband and children.

Beyond that, Christmas eve we had President Interviews. I rather enjoyed it, we got to see many missionaries that we never see, including one of the elders I went to the MTC with, Elder Herrin. It was fun to catch up a little with him. That night we were pidgeoned (stood up) by an investigator so we went Christmas Caroling with the ward. It was fun indeed.

One of the regulars from our English class, Joyce, surprised us by coming. Joyce is a cancer patient and I really like her. She is a kind spirited woman. She brought me a Christmas present even (I am the teacher for her English class) and we talked for several minutes. Her English if very good so we can actually have a conversation. She had to leave before we started (mormon standard time, we started almost an hour late) but we invited her to come to the Christmas program in church on Sunday. And she did! She called Sister Li and I on Christmas and told us she wanted to be baptized. Sunday we talked to her about it and asked her why. She said her cancer made her realize something. She was blessed in the fact that they found the cancer early, early enough that it hadn't spread yet, like this type of cancer does very quickly. She'd just finished Chemo. She said people expected her to be depressed, to dwell on the cancer and let it bring her down. She tried to stay busy and not think about it but she couldn't work all the time because her health still wasn't good enough. She said she felt like God was trying to tell her something, like he was trying to tell her that she is still here because she has some bigger purpose. She has an addiction to coffee, but she is willing to give it up. She wants this. I really like Joyce.

Sadly, she lives outside our area boundaries, so we aren't sure if we can continue teaching her, or if we have to turn her over too the other sisters. In either case, I hope she continues along this path. She is a good woman.

Christmas day dawned cold and dumping rain. We had absolutely nothing scheduled (except Sister Li's call home) so it was a day full of tracting. I called the mission president and obtained permission to extend our dinner time by half an hour, surprisingly he agreed that because it was Christmas we should have a good dinner. We went to a steak house, and it was delicious. They had a big buffet, very nicely prepared. All the waiters hurried around in Christmas hats and there was a Santa that kept showering people with candy. It was a dandy time.

Today I had my Christmas celebration. Around my little tree with Christmas music blaring I opened the presents provided me by my loving parents and both grandparents. It made my week a little brighter. After we email today we are going back to the apartment for a Christmas brunch, a treat of french toast and strawberries!

Speaking of strawberries, funny story of the week. The fruit stand down the street which we frequent sells the very best guavas in this special salty sweet glaze...but that's besides the point. We were there briefly one night on our way back to the apartment and as we were leaving the man working there stopped Sister Li to have a brief conversation with her. There were many glances in my direction as I mounted my faithful steed. After we left Sister Li told me he'd asked if he could be my "friend" and sister Li had informed him that we were not allowed to have those friends right now because we were missionaries for the Lord. He'd wanted to know if we were going to be nuns, and she'd told him no, after our missions we would go back to normal lives and be able to date and get married, but right now we were serving the Lord. He'd wanted to know about after and Sister Li had told him much to his disappointment that I was going back to America...and that I was only 22...haha. We rode away and left him with a frown on his face.

Well my time is at an end, but I tank you all for getting to the bottom of this looong update and I love you all!

Sister Melissa Thiessen