This week I believe has quite honestly been the best and most miracle filled week of my mission! So many great and wonderful things happened. We taught 20 lessons this week for the first time ever! We also have more baptismal dates than I've had in the area as well. Things are really picking up so well! miracles just keep flowing in and it's amazing to see. For example, I'll copy what I wrote to President Howes:
For my core experience with God this week, I would like to share with you an excerpt from my journal:
7 months today since I walked into the MTC, and Heavenly Father most definitely gave me a present. I had the most miracle filled day of my whole mission today. First of all, the Lesson with Ting went amazingly well! We taught her in the park and she's really keen to learn more. Then we had a lesson with John that blew me away. He is being taught and nurtured so much by the Spirit it's amazing to watch. He is such a spiritual giant already. He also gave me a tapestry of the history of his city in China. That was definitely a surprise, but I am grateful to have something of such sentimental value. Anissa joined us for the lesson and it was really funny to see her surprised at how John kept answering the questions with Spirit-taught answers. If this were all that happened today, it would be great, but wait, there's more! We then headed out for miracle finding on the street, and we definitely found them. Elder Elder (we were on 24 hour trade off's with the zone leaders) taught someone on the street for 45 minutes and I was able to talk to someone who was very interested in learning about the church. We showed her around, taught her a lesson with Ying fellowshipping, and she came to fun game night as well. She will likely be moving to Canberra, but she is very keen to learn and I'm sure she will meet with missionaries there when we refer her. Then we met with Jodie and found out her concern regarding why she wants to wait 3 years to be baptized. She just needs to understand and gain a testimony more of the Restoration and she will be baptized. I think this lesson was a big turning point for her since she used to dodge our lessons quite often. Then, the last thing to top off the day was that the sisters met with Danny, and he said that he wants to be baptized! I guess it just took some extra time and the right things to be said before he had that desire. It was seriously the best full day I've had here. Baptismal services are always amazing, but this was the largest amount of miracles I think I have seen yet. I love being a missionary!!
If I had a younger sister, one thing that I would help her understand if she were preparing to serve a mission next week is that she need not fear anything, but that the Lord will provide. The opposite of faith is fear, and with faith in the Lord, literally nothing is impossible according to His will. There were several things I feared before coming on a mission. Fortunately, many of those fears have melted away as I have exercised more faith and served the Lord diligently. I would recommend to her to fear not, but be believing. Each one of us has different fears that Satan tries to hinder us with, however, as we overcome them, we become stronger and more like the Savior. He has no fear, and we can have our faith overcome our fear.
7 months today since I walked into the MTC, and Heavenly Father most definitely gave me a present. I had the most miracle filled day of my whole mission today. First of all, the Lesson with Ting went amazingly well! We taught her in the park and she's really keen to learn more. Then we had a lesson with John that blew me away. He is being taught and nurtured so much by the Spirit it's amazing to watch. He is such a spiritual giant already. He also gave me a tapestry of the history of his city in China. That was definitely a surprise, but I am grateful to have something of such sentimental value. Anissa joined us for the lesson and it was really funny to see her surprised at how John kept answering the questions with Spirit-taught answers. If this were all that happened today, it would be great, but wait, there's more! We then headed out for miracle finding on the street, and we definitely found them. Elder Elder (we were on 24 hour trade off's with the zone leaders) taught someone on the street for 45 minutes and I was able to talk to someone who was very interested in learning about the church. We showed her around, taught her a lesson with Ying fellowshipping, and she came to fun game night as well. She will likely be moving to Canberra, but she is very keen to learn and I'm sure she will meet with missionaries there when we refer her. Then we met with Jodie and found out her concern regarding why she wants to wait 3 years to be baptized. She just needs to understand and gain a testimony more of the Restoration and she will be baptized. I think this lesson was a big turning point for her since she used to dodge our lessons quite often. Then, the last thing to top off the day was that the sisters met with Danny, and he said that he wants to be baptized! I guess it just took some extra time and the right things to be said before he had that desire. It was seriously the best full day I've had here. Baptismal services are always amazing, but this was the largest amount of miracles I think I have seen yet. I love being a missionary!!
If I had a younger sister, one thing that I would help her understand if she were preparing to serve a mission next week is that she need not fear anything, but that the Lord will provide. The opposite of faith is fear, and with faith in the Lord, literally nothing is impossible according to His will. There were several things I feared before coming on a mission. Fortunately, many of those fears have melted away as I have exercised more faith and served the Lord diligently. I would recommend to her to fear not, but be believing. Each one of us has different fears that Satan tries to hinder us with, however, as we overcome them, we become stronger and more like the Savior. He has no fear, and we can have our faith overcome our fear.
Today we will be having Thai Hot Pot given to us from the Thai members here. I am so excited! :) Thai food is the best, and hot pot is the best way to eat for sure haha.
Elder Dade is such a good missionary. It didn't really hit me until last night that this is my last week that I will see him since he goes home next week. He and I get along really well and he has taught me so much. He's been a great example to me about where I want to be my last transfer on my mission. Though sometimes I can tell he is thinking about home, by and large he works really hard and is trying to make every last minute here count. He is always a great example and is very obedient. Many missionaries unfortunately slack off their last couple weeks on the mission, but he is working till every last minute is gone. He has also given me a lot of great ways I can improve and things that He wished He had learned earlier on in his mission that will help me a lot. One especially is organization. I need to be more organized when it comes to recording things and keeping it neat and tidy.
One thing I had a greater realization for this week was just how amazing these people are. I know missionaries come home and say that the people they served are the best on the planet. Whether that is from Japan, Chile, Africa, or anywhere else in the world. But this Sunday, As I looked around the church and saw how many investigators there were, it just sunk in more about how amazing ALL these people are. I counted it up, and as of the other week, I have taught people coming from 16 different countries. There are so many people coming from different areas of the world that have been prepared to hear of the gospel here at this time. There was one man on the street I talked to who said "I come from China, and Chinese people dont like to learn about God." I had to prevent myself from saying " I'm sorry sir, but you are very wrong." Because many of the Chinese people are very interested and ready to learn about God. We have 6 people who have a baptismal date right now, 4 are from China, 2 from Japan, and I believe several more will be having baptismal dates soon. My favor to ask would be to pray for the gates to open for China to have missionaries allowed entrance. When that day happens, we will see the true work of God unfolding at an amazingly fast rate.
This last week I have been first hand witness to so many miracles of seeing people who have been prepared I will share just a couple quotes from investigator's prayers:
Sonam- From India- "Thank you for allowing me to meet the missionaries and Amisha (Amisha invited her to church since they worked together) you know I have wanted to follow you my whole life, and I really want to learn more about you."
John- from China, our most progressing investigator- " Heavenly Father, I won't maybe, I wont possibly, I WILL read one chapter from the Book of Mormon every day to know more about you and what you want me to do."
Gloria- from China- " I choose to believe In you." This one was really surprising because it was our first lesson and she had stated just 30 minutes prior that she didn't think God was there, but still was curious about church anyway.
There are several more miracles I could share, but my time is past. I want to thank you all so much for your love and support for me out here. It means so much and I know that these miracles are in large part due to your faith and prayers on my behalf. Please, I ask don't pray for me, but pray for my investigators and the people we meet with that they will follow the Spirit. I am not here to teach, I am here to testify and allow the Spirit to teach. I have learned that more and more. I testify, the spirit teaches, and the investigators choose to accept or reject. I love this work and I love these people so much.
Love,
Elder Shafer
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