Charity Never Faileth!

Finally got an ipad!

A member in Alhambra who treated all of us to burgers and milkshakes!

The five Chinese sisters at dog haus

Hello dear friends and family!
This week has been quite hard. Probably the hardest. We had very few lessons and our teaching pool is shrinking. Not to mention almost getting into a car accident. Also, the three of us really felt Satan’s efforts against us. But through these experiences, it gave us another reminder of how truly important this work is. The only reason he is doing his best in discouraging us is because he also knows how important this work is. I am reminded so often that there is truly no greater work than God’s work in bringing His children to this gospel. It really is a privilege for God to allow me to work in His vineyard.

Although it has been a hard week, there have been many miracles! Heavenly Father blessed us with a new investigator! She is wonderful. She has a very strong desire for religion. She really believes everyone needs a religion and needs Jesus Christ. SO TRUE. We invited her to be baptized in the first lesson and she said yes! We hope to set a date next lesson!

We also set a baptism date with a 13 year old girl from China and we found her through English class. We’ve taught a lot of lessons with her and invited her to be baptized two weeks ago. Then last week we asked her to pray about a date. She didn’t have a set date so we picked one together. April 29! Happy day happy day!

I also went on exchanges! I went to Alhambra and worked with Sister Chan and Sister Gong. It’s so amazing how much you can learn from other missionaries. I came back to Arcadia with a new outlook on how to do missionary work. Also, our companionship is really focused this week on teaching lessons as a four person companionship – the three of us and the Holy Ghost. We are learning how to teach so that we can allow the Holy Ghost to teach as well. I’m excited to see the changes in our lessons this upcoming week.

I’ve studied a lot on charity and Jesus Christ’s example this past week. Through studying and prayer and learning from other missionaries’ example, I have a much clearer vision of the kind of missionary and person I want to be. I’ve also come to know that if we just follow the two greatest commandments – love thy God with all thy heart and love thy neighbor as thyself – the rest of Christ’s attributes and everything else will fall into place. So I’m continuing to work on that – developing sincere charity – because CHARITY NEVER FAILS. I am so grateful to have Jesus Christ as my example. I am so grateful for His atonement and Resurrection.

Speaking of Resurrection, Easter is this coming Sunday! And General Conference is this Saturday and Sunday! How blessed we are to hear the prophet’s voice and counsel! I am SO excited. I invite you all to watch it. And starting today, think of a question and everyday, pray that God will answer it through General Conference. I promise He will.
Also watch and share the new video that the church released for Easter! http://helives.mormon.org/
I testify that He lives! He died and was resurrected so that we can all overcome death and have the chance to return back to him and Heavenly Father!
My heart is full with gratitude and love!
-Sister Huang

Did you floss?

Our new sister fresh from the MTC, Sister Gong!

We like to leave cute surprises 🙂

Hello world!!!

So the subject heading. Sister Huang shared a quote with us today that I really liked: “When you brushed your teeth, did you actually floss?” She connected it to being a missionary. Often times, we bring the spirit in the lesson through the lesson and our testimony and reading the scriptures with our investigators. She said that’s like brushing your teeth. But we also should remember that we ourselves need to do our part in becoming more like Christ so that the investigator can feel the spirit just by our presence. If we are teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ – faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost – are we living it ourselves? We need to live the gospel that we share to others in order to help them truly convert. I remembered at the MTC, we talked about how our investigators are a mirror of how we are as missionaries. If their faith in Jesus Christ is not progressing, we need to evaluate our faith and testimony.

Sad news: Two of our investigators with baptismal dates, suddenly moved to San Francisco last week. It was sad, but we are hoping they can continue to progress in the gospel up there!

I went to my first baptism as a missionary on Saturday! It was for the Elders’ investigator. Although it wasn’t one of ours, I felt the spirit so strongly. I think after spending so much time in teaching this gospel and learning about it, I have begun to truly understand what baptism is. It’s a promise between you and God and God ALWAYS keeps His side of the promise. Isn’t it such a privilege that we have the opportunity to make a promise with GOD?

The gospel is true! I know it! Jesus Christ atoned for us so that we can all be better everyday and so that we can face trials head on knowing that he is by our side. He is my best friend!

Remember to not just only brush your teeth, but floss!

Love you all!

-Sister Huang

ENGLISH WORK!

Sister Liu and us Trio

Sister Liu and I

Sister Larsen and I

Hi Everyone!!

There were many exciting moments this week!

-We had exchanges again this week and Sister Xia and I got to go to Alhambra and do ENGLISH WORK. All I got to say was that I LOVED it and it was so much easier to teach the lesson, but I also know that I have been assigned to Chinese work for a reason. And Sister Xia’s English was so good! Too proud of her.

-I gave my first talk in Chinese on Sunday! I didn’t have a lot of time to prepare for it so I was SO stressed. Not to mention the fact that I had to speak for 20 minutes. People who know me know that I can’t speak slow and I don’t think I’ve ever given a speech or talk over 5 minutes. But the Lord answers prayers. I kept praying that the Lord would open my mouth and help me say what I needed to say. I didn’t have time to translate my talk to chinese so I kinda had to wing it. But I felt the Spirit guide me through my whole talk and I wasn’t even nervous! And people understood what I said! And it was 20 minutes! My chinese was still far from great, or even good, but the Lord really does provide.

-We had transfers!!! Us three were positive that we were going to stay together in Arcadia because Sister Xia and I still have to finish our training. We got a call surprisingly (which kind of made Sister Xia and I nervous), and it was because Sister Huang is now a Sister Training Leader!!! I am so blessed to have her as my trainer. She’s so humble and so in tune with the Spirit. I know she’ll make an amazing Sister Training Leader because she’s already an amazing trainer!

    -Elder Zhao moved back to Hacienda and now we have Elder Huang with Elder Simmons! So in the Mountain View Ward, there are three missionaries that are Huangs.

    -We also now have a car that we share with the Alhambra sisters – speaking of which, we get a new Chinese sister tomorrow! We are back to 5 chinese sisters 🙂

   -Sister Larson and Sister Liu are going home 😦 I haven’t known them for too long, but they are amazing and I’m sad to see them go! But happy for them at the same time.

-This week, we decided to talk more and teach less with our investigators and new converts. We felt that we had to take more time to get to know them better. It’s amazing what the Spirit can do when you really focus and listen to what your investigators say, what your companions say, and what the Holy Ghost says.

-We didn’t get to meet with a lot of our investigators this week though. We had a couple of flakes and a lot of our lessons fell through. But I know the Lord has His timing and we just have to be patient and find more people!

-The five of us in Arcadia really want to do better with working with the ward. We re-evaluated the ward mission plan and talked to our ward mission leader and the ward council. We plan to meet with more of our members once we have a car (because everyone lives so far) and teach them how to teach and use Preach My Gospel. To all you members out there, PLEASE find out what your ward mission plan is and do your part! The Lord’s work can move so much faster if members join in and help! Give missionaries referrals! Go with them to lessons! Read Preach my Gospel! Every member is a missionary!

I love all of you so much!!! Have a spectacular week!! BE HAPPY!

love,

Sister Huang

Member Missionary Work Brings Miracles!

Hello family and friends!!

Last Monday after I emailed, our zone got together and had hot pot and it was sooooo yummy. I love Chinese food!!!

Anyway, we had mission conference on Tuesday! It was focused on iPads because we are now using iPads for real now. Before, it was all pilot-testing so now it’s legit! I’m still waiting to get an iPad but I can really see how using iPads will really hasten the work! Everyone is on social media now and that is truly the best way to share the gospel!

I also cleaned out my Facebook this past week. That was interesting. And scary. Let’s just say I was really happy when I could finally log off haha.

We are finding more and more investigators through our English class! This past week, a new family came in and we talked to them afterwards and they were willing to set up a time to do a church tour! And the best part is that it’s a three generation family! Grandparents, parents and kids. After the tour, we invited them to come to church. Actually, THEY asked what time church was. It was awesome! So on Sunday, the grandparents and kids came and they seemed to really like it. We hope to start teaching them soon!

We also baked cookies with an investigator last week. She and her husband have a baptism date coming up around the 29 and we are really hoping they will come to church this coming Sunday!

This past week, Sister Huang, Sister Xia and I really wanted to up our numbers in lessons with members. Every lesson we had with a member was awesome! They can touch people’s hearts in ways we can’t and they really bring a special spirit to the lesson. And it’s great because when the investigator comes to church, they’ll have someone to sit with and talk to!

I think we have zone meeting this week. There have been so many meetings and conferences and it really makes me feel grateful for inspired leaders!

Hope everyone has a great week this week! Even if it seems like it’s not that great, you can make it great!

Love,

Sister Huang

Attitude changes everything!

Sister Xia, Sister Liu and I

HELLO WORLD!!!

I feel like the days and weeks go by so fast!! I can’t believe it’s pday again already. Anyway, this week was great! Some highlights that happened this week:

-We had a zone conference on Thursday! A lot of it was focused on iPads. I think I forgot to mention in last week’s emails, but our mission is an iPad mission. I still haven’t gotten mine so I’m still using the handy dandy missionary planner and handwriting everything but I think I should get mine tomorrow at MISSION CONFERENCE! I’ll miss handwriting everything down but I’ve seen how effective and useful iPads are for missionaries. IF used properly of course.

-We had companion exchanges on Saturday with the Sister Training Leaders! Sister Xia and I worked with Sister Liu here in Arcadia and Sister Huang worked with Sister Atkins in South Pasedena doing ENGLISH WORK! I love the Sister Training Leaders and I love all missionaries! I learned so much from Sister Liu and I hope to one day be somewhere close to the kind of missionary she is. She’s going home in 2 weeks which is so sad because Sister Xia and I have just gotten to know her and love her. In my opinion, she has mastered all of the christ-like attributes in Preach My Gospel – patience, humility, hope, faith, charity, knowledge, obedience, virtue, diligence (i might have forgotten one or two). And she teaches by example and with love! The best kind of leader! Ahh it was such a privilege to work and learn from her.

-I did street contacting for the first time on Saturday! We went to a park and our main way of starting to talk to people is by giving them a little flyer we made for our English class. It’s super effective! Also, I don’t know if this is a good thing or not, but I talked to several people in English. It’s good because I can truly express everything I want to say and be more like myself but bad because I need to still learn the language haha.

-We had stake conference yesterday and President Villanueva and Sister Villanueva spoke! I feel so blessed to be able to have seen them so often! And tomorrow is mission conference so I get to see them again! I love them both so much. They really are the cutest and the nicest. Also, two of our investigators came to stake conference which was awesome! The conference was in English so Sister Huang and the Elders translated. Too cool.

-Sister Xia, Sister Huang and I were doing some planning in a room at the church building the other day. We heard a fly buzzing around and after a couple of minutes, we decided we had to try to get it out because it was so distracting. So the three of us each had a book in our hands and were running around the room trying to swat the fly out. It was hilarious! Except Sister Xia hit her hip but it’s okay. It took us a while to figure it out, but we realized the fly likes the light so we just turned off the light and it left right away. So silly of us.

-The beginning of this past week was great because we had so many lessons and set several baptism dates. But the second half of the week was slow – a lot of our appointments cancelled and we had some days where we had zero lessons. However, everyday was still a wonderful day. I’ve learned that attitude can change everything! Hence the subject line 🙂 Even when you have a day where it seems like everything is going wrong, there is ALWAYS something to be happy about. And I think that yes, everyday will have bad moments, but there are always MORE happy moments as long as you pay attention and recognize them. The good always weighs out the bad and that’s why everyday is a great day!

-I love love love my companions!! We have really grown to love each other more this week and it’s been so wonderful. There are definitely some cons to being in a trio, but I loooooove having two mentors, two people I can rely on, two chinese teachers and two friends I get to spend 24/7 with! But technically, I have THREE companions: Sister Xia, Sister Huang and the Holy Ghost. Three gifts that Heavenly Father has given me.

So just remember, if you feel like you are having a bad day, think of the good things and blessings you have in your life. I PROMISE you, there is always more happy and positive things than negative. It’s just that sometimes, you have to look a bit harder 🙂

Love you all too much!

-Sister Huang