This week went by faster than I could comprehend almost. It just flew. On Thursday we had weekly planning like we do every week and I looked at Sister Holm and said, "didn't we just do this?" Well we sort of did, a week earlier, I just didn't know where the time went. The days are just so filled here that they go by without much time to think about it. Probably because we have to balance so many wards that we always are having meetings. It seems like we have a ward correlation meeting every night. That is ok though. It means that we don't get bored with our area, because we have three in one! Ha.
We saw several miracles this week. We had a lot of new investigators. Several of these people just walked into the church this weekend and we sat down with them. It goes to show that the lord is mindful of his people. When I got to xinxhu it was sort of in a hole, it was not doing well. Sister Holm says she hasn't seen numbers like these in a while. We are just doing what we can here. We definitely have a lot to improve on, and any success we have is all the work of the Lord. But we are seeing the slow revival of this place. We hope to have another Baptism this month.
Yang Jia Ru, the one that was scheduled for baptism but then didn't get baptized is sort of flat lining a little. She came to general conference this week but she didn't seem too impressed. We are trying our best to figure out how to help her. Maybe time is just the thing she needs more of.
This week had a beautiful culmination. Conference. We get to watch it a week later with the rest of Taiwan. The delay is due to the translation that must go on. We gathered in the kitchen of our chapel with some members looking to polish up their English skills and were grateful to listen to the word of God in English. It was a good conference. As a missionary we really are blessed to be able to wring out every last drop of goodness from these talks. I remember before my mission falling asleep during conference, or just not really getting the point. Now I listen to these enlightened men speak and scramble to scribble down every word and inspiration. I don't know where the 2 hours of each session go before they abruptly just end. When the Sunday afternoon session ended with finality I was a little disappointed. I wished they could go on a bit longer. But that's ok, the Lord said what he wanted said. We just gotta wait on his time. It was interesting that this conference not too much at all was directed at marriage or the family. It seemed like so much was directed at the Book of Mormon and Missionary work. Maybe that's just me though.
I had sort of an interesting experience after conference on Saturday, the Elders and the Men were all gathered for priesthood and we were waiting for a lesson. I stood outside of the chapel and listened to a part of Elder Holland's talk and then realized that it was dubbed in Chinese and I was understanding it. It was a startling moment of clarity on the miracle the Lord has wrought on my tongue. My ability with the language is not perfect, and it may never be perfect, but it is getting better and better. I find that I have seen changes in the fluency of the lessons that I am called to direct and such now as well. I am to the point where it is not a struggle to carry a conversation, even so far as almost natural to speak to someone in this foreign and difficult language. I can also read and write a fair amount of characters, though I'm not by any means amazing. I will no doubt be focusing on the written part of Chinese much more post mission. There just isn't time to study it as in depth as I would like to now.
In other news, well, there really isn't too much for other news besides that. Time is going swiftly. I'm down to 20 weeks left out. Time to push harder than ever.
I hope you all are well, and happy. I pray for you all. Study those conference talks when they come out in the ensign people. They are your guidance and direction from God for the next 6 months! And don't forget to remember your missionaries out here! :)
Love,
Sister Melissa Thiessen
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