So this week marks my 5 months of being home from my mission… that means 5 months of not getting weekly LONG letters from me about every detail of missionary work you could ever imagine… I’m sure you are all dying of boredom with all the free time I’m saving you, so I figured I’d share with you a mission miracle, that happened 5 months after the mission ended. That is the wonderful thing I’m finding about my opportunity to serve a mission, it didn’t just bless me for 18 months, it is blessing me DAILY! I thought people were joking when they say not a DAY goes by without thinking about their mission, but I have found its true. I even dream about it and dream about going back. But the hardest thing about coming home from a mission is the lack of purpose, especially on a spiritual level. My whole life I prepared to serve a mission, then it came, and in a blink of an eye 18 months was over and now I’m home…. so now what? Obviously as far as school goes and the general details of my life are concerned, I got a basic plan and LOTS of goals, but as far as Spiritual things go, I feel like I’m lacking goals. That’s rough sometimes. And this last week it was especially rough. However, Friday I got a HUGE tender mercy in the form of a facebook message.
I hope you all remember the story I told at my homecoming about a Guo Jiemei (Sister Guo). I met her on her scooter at a stop light when I was serving in FengYuan. She had the same Chinese last name as me, which I felt was rare, so I go, “Look we are sisters!” and began to testify to her about God and ask her about church. She was golden. But she didn’t live in our area. Just another referral to add to the list. A few weeks later is when a district leader in the other area told me about her baptismal interview and how she had been thinking about going to church but didn’t know why there were so many different churches and didn’t know where to start. She wanted a change, thought that learning more about Christianity would help, but had no idea where to start. There she was pondering this question the VERY moment I pulled up to her on my bike. She thought it was so weird that this white girl had the same last name as her but was touched by what I said. She was so excited she lived close to the church in her area and she met with the missionaries that same week. Now just a few weeks later she was prepared for baptism and had a REAL testimony of the gospel! Her life had already changed. She was originally the biggest tender mercy of my mission, she showed me that the small effort I was making was worthwhile even if I didn’t get to see the effects, good things were happening because of my willingness to serve God. I wrote her after hearing this story and we corresponded a few times until I came home and we became facebook friends, messaging occasionally. I love this woman. I hardly know her because I never got the chance to see her in person for more then that few minutes we talked on that day that we met. However, she touched my life significantly and I am so grateful I got to be a vital part of her conversion process and I LOVE her! The story didn’t end there… it was picked up Friday just at the time I needed it. She messaged me and told me that it was a year ago this month that she was thinking about which church to join and she wanted to thank me for finding her on the road that date and declaring we were sisters and testifying to her about God’s love. She told me she was eternally grateful for that and it has changed her life and the life of her children. She told me she is preparing to go to the temple to take out her Endowments next month and get her patriarchal blessing. She feels that her life has so much hope and great things await her and her family… and she wants to thank ME for helping her get there. Me. A little foreign girl in Taiwan who couldn’t speak perfect Chinese and didn’t always have the perfect attitude or the perfect thing to say…me. Words can’t describe to you how much that little message meant to me. I imagine in the pre-existence I sat next to this woman, she really was my sister then. I bet we knew each other well and I promised to be in the right place at the right time so I could FIND her and help her find the missionaries. I bet God inspired my MTC teacher to pick the Chinese last name Guo for me so that when I met this sister of mine, we’d recognize our special connection from before we came to this earth. I hated that name my whole mission until I met Guo Jiemei. Then I understood why I had it. I hated that area I was in… until now when I understand why I had to be there. I was just fulfilling a promise I made long long long ago. I feel like I truly understand the scripture in D&C 18:15 “And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring save it be ONE soul unto me, how great shall be your joy…” I have felt that way about many of the people I served in Taiwan, but especially with Guo Jiemei as she prepares to make these life changing covenants and endure to the end. I hardly know her, but she considers me a vital part of her conversion as well as a true sister. In my setting apart as a missionary, I was told to recognize that my efforts would have eternal consequences, I feel like this particular woman was exactly what he was talking about and this particular instance was what God wanted me to recognize. If I had served for 18 months and not helped another soul, I know I would still feel like my mission was successful because of this wonderful woman. I know her children and her grandchildren and everyone she comes in contact with will be changed because of her fervent testimony in our Savior Jesus Christ. This week she more than returned the favor to me as she became another tender mercy and filled me once again with hope, the fire of missionary work, and a new spiritual goal: I want EVERYONE I come in contact with to be better off because of MY testimony in Jesus Christ and His restored gospel. I hope she inspires you to recognize and remember the eternal potential of all our interactions with others. I know that God has a perfect plan for each one of us. If we have the desire and are keeping His commandments, He will put us where we need to be so we can help/serve/influence/meet/etc. those people we need to meet.
Guo Jiemei and sons and husband
Guo Jiemei on her baptism day June 2012
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