HE'S MY BROTHER AND I WANTED TO HELP HIM

TRANSFER 6 - WEEK 3

Wrote you guys a little note in Chinese.  Love you!
[We asked our friend Thomas Chen to translate the note for us...]
"Hello family:  I am Elder Willes, a missionary of the Church.  I indeed know that I am doing the Lord's work.  I know this Church is true and believe we are all children of God.  God loves and blesses us!  Love you family.  Elder Willes"

"We have started a scripture reading class on Saturday nights and we read the Book of Mormon 

with members, less actives and investigators.  It was awesome!"

Hello! Boy was this such a good week! I saw so many miracles and had some awesome experiences. Elder Jensen and I are doing awesome and working super hard together. We had 20 lessons this week!!

Our member M, who has been an awesome help to missionaries, has been in the hospital for the past 2 weeks.  We went and visited him. He has schizophrenia. The doctor told us that in a few months M should be back to normal but his mind isn't cooperating right now. We went and saw him and shared a little spiritual message. I just felt so much love for him. He's my brother and I wanted to help him. We decided to give him a priesthood blessing of comfort. I gave him a blessing and the spirit was so strong after. Even though he might not remember that blessing in the future I KNOW he felt God's love and felt comfort, peace, and even joy in this time of trial. 

On the street this week I asked a kid if he believed in God and he said no. I asked why? He said because if God really loves us why does he allow us to suffer? Why does he allow trials to happen and bad things to happen to good people. When he asked that it made me so grateful for my knowledge of the Gospel. I shared with him that I know we all face trials but the purpose of them is to allow us to learn, grow, become better, and become Christ-like. I shared that if we don't have trials we don't have a way of experiencing true joy, happiness, or opportunities to really improve. I also read with him Alma 60:13 and in 2 Nephi 2 and talked with him about why God gives us opposition. It was really cool. I would encourage everyone to look at their trials with a bigger perspective and a different vision. What can I learn from this?(type of attitude) We will then be able to improve daily and become more like Christ. The scriptures are our lives instruction manual and can answer any questions we have! I know when I can look at my trials differently, I feel better.

We tried baking cookies in the rice cooker.  Yes this is supposed to be cookies.  A FAIL!!!
We've got cooking problems and oil problems.

Random tank we saw on the street

We saw so many miracles this week. We were hoping to find some service opportunities this week and got one on Monday! We were biking to FHE and saw an older lady pushing this little cart with TONS of cardboard boxes. Elder Jensen and I like read each other's minds and immediately stopped and started helping this 80 yr old woman push her cart. Even though everything fell off 2 or 3 times and we had to pick it up we finally helped her get everything to her house. It was a cool experience and she kept telling us how grateful she was. It was really special. Service brings TRUE happiness. We also were eating dinner at this place on Saturday and I asked the worker if they had water and he just gave me a water bottle for free. The light of Christ is all around us.

FHE

We also found 6 new investigators this week!!  We have a new investigator family with a mom and 2 cute little kids. We met with them last night and they are great! Sister Wu3 is her name. Keep them in your prayers! We also have another investigator Sister Chen2. She is really cool. She is a Catholic but we shared the Book of Mormon with her and she really liked it. She is excited to start reading. Also the guy from Haiti is really cool! We shared the Restoration with Jimmy and he liked it. He was willing to start reading the Book of Mormon and pray about it! Also the Lin2 Family is doing great. The wife has been sick but the husband came to church and has a lot of questions but he really likes our church. We are hoping to go visit them this week! Alisa came to FHE and liked it but was too busy during the week to meet with us. All our other investigators were busy this week but now we have lots of people to work with and are excited for them all!! This week is pruning the vineyard time :) Also, Sean our LA is still doing great and coming to church weekly. So cool seeing him change the past month. 

We have started a scripture reading class on Saturday nights and we read the Book of Mormon with members, less actives and investigators. It was really successful! We had about 10 people come.  It was awesome!

The ward this week also had a primary program. So cute!!! Asian kids are sooo cute! Haha and man they sing LOUD. The "Quality" of the singing I don't know, but "Quantity" was really good haha :) Really great church meetings! We fasted with Ace and he really has a desire to improve. He came to church and is so close to baptism! We invited him to quit his work to keep the sabbath day holy but he told us he doesn't think he can quit work. We are still working with him! He is awesome we just hope to help him see the importance of the sabbath. 

I read D&C 88:63 today and really love it. Heavenly Father loves us. We are all equal in His eyes but we need to come unto Him and Jesus Christ and then they in return will come unto us. Love that scripture.

"Draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you; seek me diligently and ye shall find me; ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you."  Doctrine and Covenants 88:63

Sorry this is a really long one. Love you all and have a great week!

Elder Jensen, Thomas Chen and Elder Willes.  Thomas Chen is a member from XinZhu, a previous city Elder Willes served in.  Thomas, a dear friend, took the train to Zhongli to take these Elders out of lunch.  #thereisgoodnessallaroundtheworld

Elder Willes writing as Thomas was helping him to translate some of the analogies
they are gathering to help in teaching.

Thomas Chen

Elder Willes