Sister Hendrick's Missionary Blog: We will all fail! :)

The classic temple photo every MLC. I will

never get sick of this view.

I love the Beach!!

Hey family and friends,

We got to go up to Taipei again for MLC this week. I learn so much every time. President Jergensen is so inspired and I really believe his faith has made a deep difference in our mission, and to each missionary individually. It's crazy seeing the change in the last couple months with how many people have been baptized. It would be so hard to understand how it all works without faith. MLC was what I needed this week. President Jergensen shared a story from 1 Nephi 3-4 and talked about how simple faith is. Sometimes we think too hard about whether or not we have enough faith, or when someone doesn't listen to us, maybe I didn't focus hard enough on believing in them, or whatever it is - he said having faith is simply believing, being obedient and action. When God commanded Nephi to get the plates, he did it. And he failed - twice actually. But he believed that God would provide a way, and he worked hard to try again instead of giving up. When he failed, he acted by coming up with a new plan.

One of the coolest lessons I learned from this is that the most important thing is how we respond to the tasks God gives us, with failure and all. Whether it's to get the plates from Laban, or to find a new investigator in the next 30 minutes, or to serve a mission, or apply to college, or apply for a new job. We will all fail in this life. God wouldn't put us into a perfect world with no challenge or trial to face. How would we ever experience joy without them? How would we ever grow? I think it's easy to feel like my failures have outweighed my successes as a missionary when I'm focused so much on the things I've messed up on. But I'm learning how to respond in faith. I could just give up, and see myself as a failure and take the easy way out. Or, I can trust that God will provide a way, and keep trying.

It's been the perfect lesson to learn as we've experienced many cancelled appointments and investigators not showing up to lessons all week. It's pretty tough when we go out to work really hard every day and our hopes are high for the people who set up with us, and then they don't show up to the appointments we set. But I'm glad there's a better way out of it than getting resentful! You just keep going, and hope for the best and be happy with what you can do. Sister Haupt and I have decided that our biggest strength is companion and teaching unity. We're working hard to get even better at it, because there's nothing better than doing what you do well to get your hopes up!

And the good news is, Li Chong Wei is still preparing for baptism!! He's still working on quitting smoking, but he's doing so much to overcome it. He told all of his friends and co-workers that he's quitting so that they wouldn't offer him anymore cigarettes, and is even looking for a new job that has a better environment. We asked him what has been the biggest help for him to quit smoking and he said prayer has helped him more than anything. He said it's amazing feeling like there's another person there to love you and remind you when you're tempted and want to give in. I'm so happy for him! He can't get baptized this week since he smoked once last week, so we moved it back to the 12th to give him enough time to be free from smoking for a good amount of time. But he went to a baptismal service the other day with us and he said after going, he knows for sure this is what he wants. I hope I don't move next week, but either way, I am so happy that I've been blessed to see these changes he's made in his life.

Have a great week!

Sister Hendricks