Just got the notification to start the online course My Plan, which is for missionaries getting ready to go home. I'm now on "death row," I can't accept it, I don't want it to end. It really has been the best 18 months of my life. I learned God really takes advantage of the time He has with His missionaries. He pretty much crammed in life-long lessons for me in 18 months, which is pretty remarkable. I go home July 29th.
It's been a week of miracles, from baptisms to eating Doritos with chopsticks and coming up with anti-flirting combats. We are going to start off the week with reorganizing bones (yay).
I have been with the Sisters, and they have the FUNNIEST anti-flirting comebacks. For example, there was this Vietnamese guy we tried to offer to share the gospel. He wasn't interested, but tried to practice English by saying, "I love you." My comp then said, "You speak great English!" So we joked at BYU whenever a guy would say, "I love you," we would hit it down hard with, "You speak good English."
Another example, "Do you want to come on a hike with us?" Sorry, I'm getting my bones reorganized (we are heading for a kind of chiropractor; in Chinese it translates to "bone reorganizer"). We should really hold an anti-flirting class when we get back.
Elder Jensen, who is going home this week was the joke of Ward Council. He is totally anti-trunky, which was super amazing. The members and his companion Elder Heaton kept saying he's gonna get married in June, he's gonna find a wife, all that good stuff. The best part was when they were talking about the activity they held two weeks ago showing 17 miracles and how we will show it for pioneer day, and Elder Heaton said,"If he get's married, that will be the 18th miracle." Hahaha, Jolly good show, everyone laughed and thought it was pretty funny.
We had a stake choir concert, where everyone performed two songs. Some of my favorites: "Come Thou Fount" in Chinese, "You Raise Me Up in English "(they did great), a traditional Chinese song, The Prayer, and Be Still and Know that I Am God. Before the concert, one elder was being funny and said, "It's like pitch perfect, everyone is trash talking each other" but in reality it's not. Gotta love drama added by the elders.
So two days ago, we attended the baptism of Harry, who my companion, Sister Huang, and I contacted. The story:
When we first came to taoyuan one day, Sister Huang was like, "Let's go to this small park." It was really random and unexpected, but we went. We were there for a bit, no success, but finally we found a young dad who wasn't happy for some reason. We talked with him, said a prayer, and he felt the spirit. He then set up for a chapel tour.
A few days later, gave him and his two little boys a chapel tour. They were energetic and naughty, but i think they felt the Spirit and God's love, because at the end of the tour, the dad prayed in gratitude for direction in His life. He then was taking the boys to go, but they wouldn't leave. He kept dragging them out of the church but they kept running in, and finally he had to pick them up and march out of the chapel.
He met with our elders, and found out it was his parents, not him that lived in our area. So we gave him to some nearby elders. Fast forward two months later to a few days ago, and I'm sitting at his baptism. Yay! :) He got up to speak after he got baptized, and said that one day he was sitting at a park by his parents' house, being angry for some reason, and we came up. He wasn't interested in the message when missionaries approached him in the past, but for some reason, we were different. We prayed with him and He felt the Spirit. He then talked about the chapel tour, then the Elders teaching about faith, and now he is baptized. I am so grateful to be a part of his path to baptism.
One thing that blew my mind this week was the special training meeting the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders had for the district leaders. They taught them how to do member missionary work. They asked the Zone Leader's bishop's wife to do a demonstration with the Sister Training Leaders to show how it was done. The Sister Training Leaders started talking with her, and the bishop's wife gave them about 15 referrals, who live in three different districts in Taoyuan. It was amazing! Even after the roleplay, she just kept going on and on, giving more referrals. Afterwards, she came up to the Sister Training Leaders crying and said she has been waiting two years for missionaries to teach her how to do missionary work. She really wanted to do it, she just didn't know how. I was really grateful to be a part of the training and really wished every missionary was able to see what I saw in that demonstration. It was truly miraculous and got the district leaders really pumped about member missionary work. It was pointed out that information trickles down from the head to the body- what the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders get from MLC, by giving the same information to the District Leaders, they get their District Members excited. I thought it was a great training. The missionary leaders encouraged us to start working with the bishop and other church leaders.
Later in the meeting, we talked about working with members. Elder Welker quoted Pres. Jergensen, saying that If something doesn't work immediately, don't give up, just keep trying even if it takes weeks. We talked about that with member work and with green key indicators. It was pointed out in the meeting that we could have green key indicators all transfer and have no baptisms (Elder Shumway then bore his solid testimony that it was true). We figured that what was best overall is working with members. Even if it hurt our key indicators for now, the numbers will definitely skyrocket after a period of time. Our stake has a goal of getting 170 people baptized this year, since in 2015 we had about 89 baptisms and in 2016 about 92 baptisms, and we agreed most of them are from street contacting. If we all just got one referral from every stake member, we definitely will hit above 170, and those people will be solid RC's, because they have family and friends in the church. I noticed that all but one of my RC's are member referrals. I testify that the members are the best source of new investigators.
One elder pointed out that it will be hard to change this mission culture of doing member missionary work instead of street finding, but we are just going to have to be the pioneers that get it done. We are used to street contacting, because it doesn't require as much work or thinking. But overall it's not as effective as member missionary work, because those people don't have church connections, and it makes it a lot harder to be friends with the members, so they are a lot more likely to go less active . The Sister Training Leaders mentioned yesterday that members want to do missionary work, and we missionaries want to do member work, we just don't know how. Us missionaries in Taoyuan will start to change the culture and work with members more.
This next transfer I will dedicate the time to working with members, and whatever free time I have I will dedicate it for finding. It's interesting, what I learned from being away from my area is that green key indicators don't matter as long as our actions will result in baptisms. I think if we changed that mission culture from wanting to get green numbers to working with members for baptisms despite temporary bad numbers (but keeping in mind our actions will result in baptisms and future green numbers), our baptismal numbers will skyrocket.
Later in the meeting, we talked about working with members. Elder Welker quoted Pres. Jergensen, saying that If something doesn't work immediately, don't give up, just keep trying even if it takes weeks. We talked about that with member work and with green key indicators. It was pointed out in the meeting that we could have green key indicators all transfer and have no baptisms (Elder Shumway then bore his solid testimony that it was true). We figured that what was best overall is working with members. Even if it hurt our key indicators for now, the numbers will definitely skyrocket after a period of time. Our stake has a goal of getting 170 people baptized this year, since in 2015 we had about 89 baptisms and in 2016 about 92 baptisms, and we agreed most of them are from street contacting. If we all just got one referral from every stake member, we definitely will hit above 170, and those people will be solid RC's, because they have family and friends in the church. I noticed that all but one of my RC's are member referrals. I testify that the members are the best source of new investigators.
One elder pointed out that it will be hard to change this mission culture of doing member missionary work instead of street finding, but we are just going to have to be the pioneers that get it done. We are used to street contacting, because it doesn't require as much work or thinking. But overall it's not as effective as member missionary work, because those people don't have church connections, and it makes it a lot harder to be friends with the members, so they are a lot more likely to go less active . The Sister Training Leaders mentioned yesterday that members want to do missionary work, and we missionaries want to do member work, we just don't know how. Us missionaries in Taoyuan will start to change the culture and work with members more.
This next transfer I will dedicate the time to working with members, and whatever free time I have I will dedicate it for finding. It's interesting, what I learned from being away from my area is that green key indicators don't matter as long as our actions will result in baptisms. I think if we changed that mission culture from wanting to get green numbers to working with members for baptisms despite temporary bad numbers (but keeping in mind our actions will result in baptisms and future green numbers), our baptismal numbers will skyrocket.
So the elders showed the movie, "17 miracles." I haven't seen it since last year. I wasn't able to see it with them, but lately I've been thinking of the song from that movie because it sums up my mission:
1. Savior, Redeemer of my soul
Whose mighty hand hath made me whole,
Whose wondrous pow'r hath raised me up
And filled with sweet my bitter cup!
What tongue my gratitude can tell,
Oh gracious God of Israel.
2. Never can I repay thee, Lord
But I can love thee.
Thy pure word,
Hath it not been my one delight,
My joy by day, my dream by night?
Then let my lips proclaim it still,
And all my life reflect thy will.
3. O'er rule mine acts to serve thine ends.
Change frowning foes to smiling friends.
Chasten my soul till I shall be
In perfect harmony with thee.
Make me more worthy of they love,
And fit me for the life above.
It's interesting, the beginning of the movie the main character leaves for his mission to Thailand, and at the end, he comes home from his mission in Thailand and helping the pioneers in the handcart company. I liked one part after they sang this song, where he stated his only two desires were to be with his son and do God's will.
I am so grateful to serve my mission. I love it with all my heart. I love the people in Taiwan, and will enjoy every second of it. It is indeed an island of miracles.
I love Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, and I grow closer to them every day. Please pray that my last transfer I can be a pioneer and start establishing a culture of member missionary work.
I love my mission in Taiwan!
Love you all, have a great week!
-Sister Brinkerhoff
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