Sawadii! Suksan wan bee my!! (Happy New Year)
How late were you all up celebrating? If you were up until 12:30 I was thinking of you because I glanced at my iPod that tells me the time in Salt Lake City and Santiago. I think I we had just got home from church. We didn't actually do much to celebrate seeing as it was mandatory that we got home by 6:00 that night to study. They didn't want us getting caught up in any crazy celebrations I guess haha.
Well, Bukie is baptized and now a member of the church! She is so great, I love her so much! Everything went smoothly and we even got to meet her dad. We'll be following up on that in the coming days. One of the best things about Bukie's baptism was that Wan was one of the speakers. Bukie wanted Wan to participate and since it's okay for the speakers not to be members we were all for it. So Wan (the one who is some sort of monk every summer) spoke on baptism and bore her testimony. It was awesome! She was pretty nervous but we helped her prepare and then she did the rest. She talked about how she has a testimony of keeping commandments and how it has made her happier. She said she has seen Bukie change for the better and is really glad she chose to get baptized. I loved hearing Wan's testimony and knowing that she is close to making the same step.
Right now Wan is scared to ask her dad for permission to get baptized. Her parents are separated and when she asked her mom she said no and she feels like her dad will react the same way. Her family is a lot more Buddhist than Bukie's by far and so the change is harder for her. She wants it though, we can tell. We're trying to help her gain a testimony to the point that she will do anything to make it happen. She's so close!
On Saturday we had some very good luck (meaning Heavenly Father organized everything) and had gone on switch-offs (that's the English way we say that by the way, Jordan) so Sister Roper had gone to teach someone with a member and Sister Maxwell and I were preparing for the baptism at the church. We had just walked to a little market to get a bottle of water and were on our way back when we noticed a couple in the church parking lot kind of looking around. So of course we went over to talk to them and come to find out they want to know when we namasakan or have worship service. We told them every Sunday morning and they said they would come the next day. We talked to them a little more and found out that they call themselves Catholic and have two daughters. It's funny how things work out like that because if we hadn't been at the church at the time (which was the original plan), no one would've been there. They ended up coming on Sunday and they brought their two daughters. Pretty awesome considering this will be my first full family interested in learning. We're pretty excited about them because it's the dad, the head of the household, that wants to learn and change. When we talked to him more on Sunday we found out he is the only one who is really Catholic and that he was only really practicing as a child so he is very open to learning and just wants to bring his family closer to Christ. It's funny how much of a difference it makes when the husband is the interested one. I've already had a lot of experiences with an interested wife who we end up having to drop because we can never teach her with her husband and he's not okay with it or interested. It makes such a huge difference. We're really excited about this family though, because they came to us. Those always turn out better than people off the invite.
Funny story; Yesterday, Sister Roper was calling a referral and apparently we had the wrong number. Anyway we were trying to call this 20 year old guy and a woman answered and didn't know the person we were trying to call and Sister Roper was about to hang up and then just asked the lady if she'd ever wanted to learn about Jesus Christ or learn English and that we were missionaries. Apparently the lady was friendly and so Sister Roper told her she was pretty sure she had called the wrong number because this lady needed to hear the message we had because there was a concern or problem she needed help with. Sister Maxwell and I were trying really hard not to laugh and if you know Sister Roper she was just going for it, kind of laughing too. But the lady agreed to let us give the number to the missionaries in her area. So maybe something will come of it, who knows? I guess you never know if those random people you pass by, or smile at, or randomly call accidently are prepared for the Gospel. Good thing Heavenly Father is in charge because we would miss a lot if it were up to us.
This morning I read some General Conference talks from the Ensign you sent me (thanks by the way! It's like Christmas every time I read it because I didn't understand it the first time) and I read the one on the Book of Mormon and the Bible by Elder Callister maybe and then Love Her Mother by Elaine Dalton. Both were sooooooooooo good! I love when he talks about the single point on a piece of paper that represents the Bible and how you can draw an infinite number of straight lines through that point. He compares it to the different churches and interpretations of the Bible in the world. But if you put a second dot on that paper representing the Book of Mormon you can only draw one straight line through both of those points. Only one!!! There is only one way to follow God there is only one true church on this earth! So cool!!!!!!!!!!!! How lucky are we to know that. When I was reading Love Her Mother I thought of Dad and my future husband (weird, I know, but I do have an excuse... I'm a missionary, we're allowed to be weird right! haha) anyway that talk is so awesome and I hope every man reads it because it's true. Good thing the talk described my dad already :)
Anyway, I have to go but I love you all and hope you are ready for 2012!!! Craziness!
Sister King
:D
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