So next week will probably be titled, miracles of Power Week or something haha but for as of now, TODAY STARTS THE POWER WEEK! For those of you who have not served in the Taizhong Mission; Power Week is the week most looked forward to by ALL MISSIONARIES!!! We are givin' these assignments or small missions to do, some MUCH bigger than others, but all focused 100% on bringing people unto Christ in a BIG WAY! the coolest part though is when at the end of each day, if you have accomplished your mission, you call President and say "President, Mission Accomplished!" How sweet is that! I can't wait to call every night!#Elder007
Oh....I totally forgot 100% that there was this holiday known as Valentines...haha. I forgot all the way until the very end of the night when some member came to help us teach and the whole time would just not stop talking about the "cutest marriage proposal ever" and how perfect it was that it was on Valentines. haha. You know...it is funnny. Sometimes I see cars, or some small things that make me a little trunky (always quickly over it though). But for some reason the thought of marriage and dating has no effect. (HALLELUJAH!Sweet blessin's!) I thought is was just a funny thought :)
Well as for what happened in the week past.....No knife fights but still some BIG THINGS! And by big things I mean BIG HUGE BLESSINGS!! This last week is the best that this district has done for much over a year! It was so incredible to see what faith and obedience will do! We all made some pretty big commitments last week, we carried them out in faith and BOOM we were blessed huge! Some of the miracles happened in ways that are so hard to notice, but some of them are just SO CLEAR! For example. We had lessons set up for about every hour slot last Friday....now that on its own was unheard of for our Area...but Elder Smith is a missionary Monster so, props to him! :) Anyways, we were working super hard and finally got all the lessons set up. Most of them set up on Thursday for FRIDAY meetings. Well....Friday roles around and one person after another don't show up...Needless to say I was pretty dang frustrated! But we decided to go out and keep working. So Elder Smith decided he wanted to go check out mans house that we had talked to recently. We biked forever to get there only to realize that it was a huge apartment that we couldn't get into and that he wouldn't answer his phone.
Well...I had just been ditched by people I was so excited to meet with and then biked forever for nothing....now getting Volcano-like frustration juice running through my veins. But I decide to let it out with a small bathroom break at the nearest FamilyMart. So we went there and sat for maybe 5 min. or so calling people and letting the other companion take a small bathroom break. While we were calling, our SUPER PROMISING 7 o'clock called to cancel...HOLY MOLY. The volcano erupted! I just decided that I was gonna go talk to every person and get SOMEONE to talk to us. I saw a guy sitting outside smoking....the perfect victim! haha. So I went down and sat next to him. Started chatting and very quickly found out that he had ZERO interest. Especially when he said that he wouldn't believe God even if he appeared right in front of him! First off....what the heck? That makes no sense...that is like me saying "I can pick up this hundred pound weight" Then you saying "no you can't" Then me picking it up and saying "Hah! Told you" Then you saying "....no you can't" haha. I was baffled but decided to just bear testimony and encourage him then leave. Well the next guy I saw was standing outside a laundry mat smoking...another smoker. So I LEANED into the discomfort I had after just getting totally rejected (Thank you awesome Trainer). I asked him how he was doing and he said "Not good." Well....if that is not the best thing for a missionary who is carrying the GLAD AND HAPPY MESSAGE of Christ then I don't know what is. Well as it turns out he had rejected LOTS of missionaries but had recently had come across trouble in his life and was looking to learn more about Christ. We sat with him and taught him, encouraged him and set up. He is AMAZING and we are so excited to keep meeting! The thing that is EXTRA cool, is that if we didn't get dropped by everyone, then have Elder Smith have the idea to bike forever away to visit someone, then for me to want to go to the bathroom, we would have missed him. He had just come out for a brief moment to smoke and was almost done when we found him....SUPER MIRACLE! I love this work so much!
Other than that we have started meeting with a lot of different amazing people and been doing really hard work to bring them to a knowledge of the greatness and love of God!!
So needless to say we are having fun and loving it out here and so excited to light it up during Power Week!
Invite is to make THIS WEEK YOUR POWER WEEK! Go do something that might be a little out of your comfort zone that will help bring someone unto Christ! I won't tell you WHAT to do, but I hope that you will do something :)
Lastly SHOUT OUT TO CHASE GISH!!!!!! ELDER CHASE GISH Will be leaving for his mission soon! If you think that some of the things I send home are miraculous wait till you start getting his emails! He is the most righteous, obedient, faithful, goodlooking missionary on this side of the Milky Way! haha. Please pray for my amazing Brother as I also will be!
Shine Bright! I love you all!
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Ge Sheng Long ZhangLao
葛勝龍長老
