Tripanionship of Power!

Sister Good is so crazy! These are all the sisters in the mission at the temple tour training except for the ones that were on the east coast.

This week was so amazing! Yesterday was probably one of the most exciting and fulfilling days of my mission so far. I've been on my mission for almost 11 months (in Taiwan about 6), and I still haven't had the challenge of taking over an area, other than when going on an exchange for about 24 hours. But today after we email, our companion Sister Luo (and several other missionaries) was invited by the President to participate in a "Taipei Mission Tsunami". Basically they get a bunch of missionaries from different areas together and send them to an area that really needs help for a whole week to build up the area. So for the next week, it will be Sister Haupt and I in MuZha. I'm only one transfer ahead of Sister Haupt, so it will be great practice for both of us to take over the area. I've always been a little scared to do so, but after yesterday, I have a lot of confidence in God's work, no matter what missionary is in charge of the area. 

So, yesterday. There's this neighborhood up in the mountains in our area that has a bunch of people, including a LOT of less active members. It takes a lot of time to ride our bikes there, and taking the bus there is pretty expensive. Basically, missionaries seldom go there because it's super inconvenient. But we had this awesome member drive us there yesterday to visit less-active members. And since we are so blessed to have 3 of us, we went on splits to double the work. So Sister Luo went with our member, and then Sister Haupt and I went knocking on doors in the neighborhood. At first, there wasn't much success. We walked passed this lane and I had a feeling to go there but we just kept walking. About 15 seconds later, Sister Haupt said "what are you feeling?" and I immediately turned and pointed at the lane and said "there" haha and we started knocking doors and then this lady walked out of the apartment building that we were knocking doors on, so we started talking with her. We asked her if we could say a prayer with her and she said she'd love to and then it immediately started pouring rain, so we stepped inside the doorway of the apartment building. Then Sister Haupt started to say the prayer and then the lady's husband suddenly steps out of the elevator and the lady (her name is Zhou), starts talking to him all excited that these two missionaries from America were helping her say a prayer. So we invited him to pray with us too, and he looked so amused/confused. Then Zhou invited us to come inside because of the rain and at first I said "Oh no it's okay, we don't want to interrupt your afternoon" and right after those words from Satan left my mouth, a small voice told me 'Sister Hendricks, Sharing the gospel is not something to be sorry about. Be a little bold.' and I quickly said "Actually if we could just have 15 minutes of your time, we'd love to share this message that will bless your family" and they agreed and let us up to their home. Just like that. We sat down, introduced ourselves and shared a simple but powerful overview of the Restoration of the gospel, completely lead by the spirit. These people are INCREDIBLE. The father, Qiu, said he has so many friends who are Christian or Buddhist and they are very dedicated and guided by their religion and he envies that because he's never had a true "feeling" towards any religion or belief in anything. 

The amazing thing was that the whole time, I didn't think once about what I needed to say, or how to say anything in Chinese. I truly understood everything they said to us, and I truly felt the Spirit working through Sister Haupt and I as we taught and testified. The reason I say that this day was the most exciting and fulfilling day of my mission thus far is because I truly felt and experienced the power of the Spirit guiding us. Telling me where to go, telling Sister Haupt to talk to this lady, telling us what to say at just the right time. I seriously get chills as I think of the promised blessing in D&C 84:85 "Neither take ye thought beforehand what ye shall say; but treasure up in your minds continually the words of life, and it shall be given you in the very hour that portion that shall be meted unto every man." I can truly testify with all my heart that I KNOW this is true. I absolutely know that God guided my companion and I to these people.

Our companionship has been so so blessed. We were a little discouraged starting out our week with several visits to the doctor, taking us away from proselyting time, but I really know that God is guiding our companionship. We've received a crazy amount of member referrals and had the opportunity to do splits yesterday. I know that God won't stop His work in MuZha just because of a sickness that I can't control. We all have faith in this area, and are looking forward to a week of miracles ahead!

Sister Hendricks

Sister Oviatt, Sister Good and Me together again :)

Sister Good, Me, and Sister Haacke