The Reason For The Season

Hello family!

This week has been AMAZING! So many spiritual experiences and so many answers to my prayers.

Sunday Sister Reeves from the Relief Society general presidency came and talked to us. She talked about how no one can leave a mission the same person they came as. Every single missionary’s life will change for the better as a result of their service on a mission. That really hit home for me. I feel the change inside of me and I love it. This is the best thing I could be doing for my life right now. I am becoming the person God wants me to be and nothing could be better. :)

Monday in class Brother Anderson shared a letter with us from one of his investigators. This man had made some mistakes and is slowly making things right and is starting to read his scriptures more. AS he read that we could all feel the love that Brother Anderson has for this man. He wanted to read this to remind us why we are here learning the language. A love for the people starts by learning the language. You need to feel the words you speak not just say them. It really reminded me that there are people in Taiwan who need this gospel and I need to know the language to help them! :) Brother Anderson said from this point on it's up to us to work harder. He can help us learn new things but we have to use it on our own to remember it! How true is that. So we are making goals as a district to SYL MORE!! ( Speak your language)

So Monday in class we read the BOM together but for the first time in Chinese! The spirit was so very strong! We even talked about it in Chinese! Strong testimonies were born about what we had read and I realized the spirit has no barrier to languages! You can feel the spirit no matter what language you speak! I love the fact that I am learning Chinese!

Sunday President Baker gave a talk about how lucky we are to be learning Chinese! 20% of the world knows Chinese! How blessed am I to be a part of helping these people and we have only scratched the surface!! He read us some of David O McKay’s dedicatory prayer at Tiananmen Square in China! There was not a dry eye in the room. He is such a powerful speaker and when he speaks he commands everyone's attention. I love this church! :)

At this time I am reminded so much of the reason for the season. It's all about Christ. Being here is the best place to remember this. I am excited because a general authority who is well known will be speaking at our devotional. I will let you know next week who it is! :)

Our older generation left this morning at 4:30! I am so sad to see them go. I can't believe that I am at my 1/2 way mark here in the MTC! I don't feel ready at all! I feel 20 steps behind in my language study. But I know God will make up the difference when I am in Taiwan.

I went to the temple already and loved it! It gives me peace and rejuvenates me for the coming week. Also some sealing because we are going to go as a district one day and do sealings. So much fun!!

On Saturday we took our "investigator" to a "baptism." It was amazing. She got teary and said she felt the Spirit. All of the district has now set a date with her to be baptized. Sister Anderson and I have her date at the 6th of January and the boys’ dates follow a few days after. We are thinking of doing a group baptism. It is great to be able practice teaching an investigator. We treat them as real and are now attached to ours. We are doing great with our girl investigator. Our boy investigator is having a hard time, but last night we finally got him to pray after meeting with him 7 times!

Another funny story.

Elder Kime was in a lesson and told the investigator that next time they would bring the government but he meant to say husband! Also he said all the churches are true! We get a kick out of telling each other the mistakes we make in lessons! Laughing about it is the only way to go because we are all trying.

The church is true! I know that Joseph Smith is a true prophet. I know that God and Jesus Christ did in fact appear to him. I know that the BOM is true! I know that President Thomas S Monson is the living prophet today!

I love you all!

Remember the reason for the season!

Sister Latimer.