Refiner’s Fire

March 17, 2014

Hello family!

Here's a cool excerpt from President's Day's email:

Today at the Hualien District Conference, some very exciting things happened!

First, Elder Ruan of the Seventy presided at the District Conference.  He spoke a lot about missionary work and has encouraged every family in the district to have a family mission plan and bring at least one soul into the waters of baptism.

Second, the TaiDong 3rd Branch was created.  I hope it doesn't come as any surprise that this new branch happens to coordinate exactly with the proselyting area of Elder Forbes and Elder Glaittli.  As an additional boost, on Wednesday, we signed a lease for a new Sister apartment in that area.

Third, the boundaries for the Hualien Branch and Chi'An Branch were changed, and the names of these two branches were changed to the Hualien 1st Branch (located in most of the old Hualien Branch area subject now to some adjustments) and the Hualien 2nd Branch (located in much of the old Chi'An Branch).

Those areas have been a district a LONG time! President Day's goal for his mission is to make it a stake. It really will happen. The Lord is truly hastening the work of salvation in Taiwan!

Last Tuesday was Zone Conference. It was fun to see all the other missionaries in our zone. The training was so good! They invited us to think about the reasons we came on a mission. They told us to remember in hard times those reason. This month our mission is really focusing on working with ward and stake leaders. I really enjoyed getting tips on how to involve the ward more.

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Last Tuesday night was good. We were able to have a set up with a Zhou family. We went over there with our member Ye JM. We were originally going to teach them the restoration. However, as we started talking to them the wife expressed how she really wants peace in her life. We ended up sharing with the husband and wife the plan of Salvation. It was really powerful! At the end we invited them to baptism and they accepted!

Wednesday we were able to meet with YoYo and shared with her the restoration again. Sadly, we had to drop her from our investigator pool. She has not been acing or willing to pray, read or come to church.

We were also able to meet with Tang jm who is a less active. She is SO TALL! She has to duck her head to get into building here. Her husband just passed away last year. She is so strong. Her daughter is physically handicapped so that is hard. We shared with her Alma18:32 about how God knows her. She is really close to coming back. I am excited to continue to work with her.

Saturday we were able to go to the baptism of one of the elders’ investigators Xie Di xiong. He is actually physically handicapped. He cannot move one side of his body. It was really a sweet moment to see him baptized.

I feel as if this past transfer I have really been in the refiners fire. It has been really hard in some ways. Things fall through even when I feel that I am doing the very best I CAN! I then realized it really is God's work. No matter what happens it is his work. My weaknesses will not stop this work from progressing.

I have been reading a lot this week from the NT and D&C. I want to finish both of them before I go home. I have loved reading them both. It is fun to read about the life of Jesus Christ from different perspectives.

I love you all. I love this church. I love that I can be a missionary in Taiwan. I know that God is our father in Heaven. I know he hears our prayers and answers them in his time.

YEP STILL SPRINTING!! Even getting some muscle cramps!

Love

Sister Latimer