Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Happy Summer!

I'm so excited for this next transfer because it's going to be amazing. We got our new assignments yesterday morning (we had to be on the square at 7:15 am, which is quite early) so drum roll ... Next transfer Sister Williams is still going to be my companion (that's a "YAY!") and I'll be at West Gate! There are two companionships assigned to West Gate and that is the place that coordinates all of the motor coaches and VIP things (I think). So we get to hand out microphones, pens, and referral cards to the sisters taking motor coaches and page for language tours and probably other things that I don't know about right now. I think it will be pretty exciting with the summer season coming up and we're told that there will be a 30% increase in motor coaches this summer compared to the previous summer. Lots of Mandarin motor coaches! I also have to move apartments too...that's a bit of a pain, but it was going to happen sometime.

This week we had another miracle IRC. His name is Grant and he lives in Utah. He referred a while ago and it had been a long time since we were able to get in contact with him. He agreed to meet with the missionaries when I called him. He picked up the phone a few days ago when Sister Williams and I called to teach him (miracle) and he told us that he had met with the missionaries twice and was going to church this Sunday (which has already passed)! We didn't get to hear back from him yet after church, but it's always an incredible thing to know that the people that you had a ten minute conversation with on the phone are able to meet with missionaries and feel the Spirit.

We also had a summer kick-off mission meeting this past week too (super early as well) and they announced that we would be able to carry around Bibles on the square too! Before, everyone would carry around their copy of the Book of Mormon in its plastic cover. Now one companion carries the Bible and the other carries the Book of Mormon and we don't have the plastic cover on our books anymore. We haven't been carrying around Bibles for very long, but it's neat to be able to show people that we read the Bible too. Sometimes people would ask why we only carry around the Book of Mormon because I think they might have been thinking that we give higher precedence to the Book of Mormon than the Bible, but the Bible is amazing and has so many wonderful scriptures that we can share with guests. I'm going to have to learn where all of those great scriptures are, but that just means that by the end of my mission I'll know the Bible better than when I came on my mission.

We took a tour with about 20 primary kids and their parents this week (total about 40). They were a crazy bunch. Their ages ranged from about 3 to 10, so really short attention spans. They wanted us to stress eternal families and temples. I'm not sure how much those kids got out of it...

This transfer we have 26 new sisters coming. That's a lot of new sisters! 

This week I've been thinking about how I can be a better missionary and there are a lot of things that I can improve on, but during personal study this week I was thinking about charity especially towards the people that I talk to on the Square. I read in Moroni 7 about charity and one of my favorite phrases in verse 46 is "charity never faileth". I've heard that phrase tons of times but when I thought of it within the context of my work on the Square, I realized that if I have charity -- or Christ-like love -- for the people that I talk to on the Square then ever contact I have will have been successful...charity never fails, even in awkward contacts. My goal is to be able to have every guest or member I talk to walk being able to feel the Christ-like love I have for them, especially while I'm at West Gate. Charity never fails.

1 comment:

  1. Samantha - I love reading your posts each week! Thanks so much for sharing pieces of your mission with us. I have grown as you have shared your insights with us. Have a wonderful week and enjoy your new assignment.
    Love,
    Ant Chovey

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