This week was so fun. Sister Stevens and I are staying in SongShan! (at least for this transfer) She keeps teasing me that I'll be taking over the area and be a trainer when I finish training, because that's what happened to her. Let's hope not, haha. So, on Tuesday we had a Temple Tour Training with all of the sisters in the mission, except for the sisters in the South Zones because they're like 4 hours away. So I didn't see Sister Oviatt or Sister Good, but I saw everyone else, plus the new missionaries that came in at the transfer! They also waited two transfers for their visas, so they were all so stoked to get here. After the training, we literally had a spontaneous exchange with our Sister Training Leaders (they informed us the night before) and Sister Wu came to SongShan with me, and Sister Stevens went to Xin'An with Sister Branch. I was so nervous. It was my first time being in SongShan without Sister Stevens' help. Sister Wu is so awesome though. She is from Taiwan and converted to the church I think 3 years ago? Her family was Buddhist growing up, and she said her mom always told her to run away from guys on bikes with name-tags. But a friend of her's introduced her to the missionaries and long story short, now she's here!
But anyways, the exchange went really well. We had a lesson with one of our investigators. It was so hard to know what to teach him, because he hasn't kept any commitments....he's still smoking, he won't read the Book of Mormon, but he still has a desire to be baptized. I didn't know how to go about this lesson without Sister Stevens because I think she understands his situation better since she can understand him, and I never can. It's so hard to understand a person through my companion translating for me. But we really tried hard to prepare a good lesson for him. We offered several prayers before I felt like we should encourage him to rely on Christ rather than himself since he feels like he doesn't have the strength to overcome his smoking. So we planned to share Alma 26 with him and really focus on finding strength through Christ. We called a member to come with us and we met with her before his lesson to talk about what we were going to teach him. We prepared really well for this lesson and I was so excited to lead a lesson for the first time, and I really felt like it would go well. I'm a little sad to say that this lesson was probably the worst lesson I have ever had on my mission. The member went off on tangents, and the investigator got frustrated, I couldn't understand what was happening, I didn't know what to say....I talked with Sister Wu after the lesson. I just felt so confused. How could it really have gone that bad? I knew I wasn't a perfect teacher, but it felt like a slap in the face that I have so many imperfections.
But besides the fact that I'm only human, I really tried so hard to just put my trust in the Lord. Essentially, we did everything in our power to have a lesson that would help him. I knew that I couldn't do it on my own especially because my Chinese is nothing that can be relied on, and Sister Wu had never met him.
However, that realization somehow gave me a very peaceful feeling. I had done my part. I had no control over what the member was saying, nor did I have control over the fact that I have only 6 months experience worth of Chinese. But I did everything in my power to have a good lesson.
It's weird how this exchange made me feel better about taking over the area in the future, but it did because I know that my role as a missionary isn't to be perfect. It's much more about my commitment to do my best and rely on the Lord.
Well, that's all for this week folks. Until next Wednesday, I wish you all a happy Monday!
Sister Hendricks
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