November 11, 2013

The World is Getting Smaller and Smaller

Hello Family and friends!

Another week has come and gone! I can't believe at how fast it has gone by. The weeks are getting faster and faster. I am just trying to get a grip on it all.

We had Zone conference last Tuesday which was AMAZING! The hastening of the work is real and we can really feel it out here being missionaries.  At Zone conference they talked about the new vision President day has for the next 5 months. The goal is to create 5 more stakes in our mission. That means the all the existing stakes would split and Hualian and Taidong would become a Stake, ( right now they are a district) The hope is that if we can create 5 stakes and Taizhong can also create 5 stakes we then could build another TEMPLE in Taiwan. It is a HUGE task but with the help of the ward members it is POSSIBLE! I love being a part of this work with all these changes and new changes.

After that conference we and the other elders in our ward really had a desire to help our ward catch the wave. We were able to meet and create a plan of action. Our plan is to have a huge fireside and get the members pumped about this hastening of the work.  We are going to have one of the ladies in the ward help us make a tree that is bare. Then as people do missionary work, for example pray for a friend to meet with missionaries, help in our lesson, talk to a friend about the gospel, they will put a leaf, flower, orange on the tree. As time goes on the tree will not be bare but full of good works. I hope I can stay here and see the "fruit" of our efforts.

Yanita and Sharice are doing good. We decided to change our style a little for them and start teaching them through videos. We used mormon.org videos to teach them principles. We were able to get Jeff to come with us. he just got back from his mission to Australia. There are not to many options to choose from when we put the requirement of fluent English. http://mormon.org/jenna that is just one of the videos we shared with them.

The other one was http://mormon.org/jenny.

These videos are SO powerful!

We left them with the invite to continue to read and pray about the BOM.

Friday we were able to have our quarterly interviews with President Day. It is fun to see the changes that you make within yourself. It’s only been 3 months but the changes are drastic. We were also able to be trained by the assistants about being a more efficient tool in the hands of the Lord.

We were able to see so many miracles/tender mercies from the Lord.

On Saturday we were able to meet a woman in the park who is golden. We walk over to talk to her and she stands up and is like hello. She talks about how she already has been contacted by us. She was like here is the books you gave me. It turns out she was actually contacted by Jehovah witnesses that very morning. She was so cute and was like what is the difference. We then talked to her a little bit about why our church is different. We were able to give her a BOM and leave her with our number. She did not want to set up but she has lots of potential.

Last night we had about an hour to contact. I was like let's do build a bear before we go out. Build a bear is when we build the kind of person we want to meet.  We decided we wanted to find a

mom in 30's

2 kids

short curly hair

no specific religion

searching for truth

Needless to say we found her!!! It was a huge reminder that God hears and answers prayers. She was awesome. She was not willing to set up but might come to English class!!

I had a cold MIRACLE/ TENDER MERCY from the Lord on Saturday night.  We had dinner at a member’s house. We called the night before to confirm. She told us she was also inviting this other family. I was like awesome.

We get to the dinner and I start introducing myself. She heard me say that I am Virginia and adopted from China. She was like what is your last name. I told her Latimer she was like I think I meet you before.  It turns out she served in the DC South mission in 2003. She then was like you have two sibling adopted from Taiwan and your sister was at BYU when I was there. I was like yep. She then goes I was in your ward my very last transfer your mom made beef noodle soup and for dessert we had watermelon. It made me miss home a lot. I was like that is me.

We then spent some time seeing if we knew any of the same people. I mention Nia and Maia! it turns out she was the sister missionary that helped baptize them! Her name was Sister Yu!! She also knows the Landriths!

The Lord knows exactly what he is doing when he sends us to an area!! I could not believe that I was able to meet her 10 years later in her hometown of Taiwan!!

That is all time allows! I love you all!

The church is true! Just read the book and take the invite at the end! I know that God loves each and every one of his children.

Love

Sister Latimer