"When you are cast out..."

This week Sister Jenkins and I decided to call "cast out week" It's been a little rough....

To sum it up:

Sadan de Kiddi (a mix of Pohnpeian and Chinese, means Satan's dog) tried to chew us up. That's the closest I've ever been to getting bit by a dog. It was funny though, I grabbed Sister Jenkins' shoulder strap, yanked her back, and yelled, "Get back, get back!!!" We bolted to the car and climbed in so fast....

We were teaching one of our investigators, Tianbo (who is AWESOME, by the way) who lives at another investigators apartment complex. Her husband got real mad at us, yelled and screamed, dropped some F bombs, and told us that this was our last night, then we could never come back. Later he told the Elder's investigators that live there, if anyone listens to the missionaries, he will kick them out. That was fun... not. We are going back Tuesday to talk to him though, try to work stuff out. 

Of course the usual, shut the door in the face when we knock.

We went to follow up on someone we left a pamphlet with, walked into the apartment compound, said "Ni hao!" real loud, only to see a guy doing this prayer ceremony... we were shushed pretty quick. Bowed and said, "Bu hao yizi, bu hao yizi!" Then we walked over to her door, knocked, and this guy yelled at us, "What are you doing here?! This is private property!" "We just came to see our friend." *comes out, sticks his head in her house, calls her name once, doesn't wait, "She's not here." 

Had to put 5 investigators on the shelf (meaning stop teaching them for a bit) because they aren't progressing. 

You know that talk, by Elder Holland? He basically says, When you are cast out, smitten, spit upon, rejected, just remember you weren't the first. Someone a lot greater, and a whole lot grander, walked this path before you. Missions are not easy, because Salvation was never easy. Super true. 

Sister Jenkins and I are still doing really well though. We are pushing forward, even with these set backs. And this week wasn't all bad.

Monday, we picked coconuts with Steve and William, some of our favorite people. (pictures to come if I can ever get them off my camera. Having issues with my SD card)

In English class we played hangman, and another time we had a obstacle course and the Chinese had to direct us in English with our eyes closed. 

Hope is given by the Holy Ghost. This week I will work on Charity. 

Sister Springer

Ni Hao Maing Koaros!

How's that mixed language for you? I said, Hello (Chinese) to all of you (respectful Pohnpei)

This week I have determined that I am coming home with the WEIRDEST accent. I hope ya'll are ready hahaha. Chinese/Pohnpeian/Utahn.

Li TianBo is our golden investigator. He asked us if he could be baptized on our first lesson. He reads the Book of Mormon a ton. He also asked us if he could come to church. Yesterday was his first day at church. Even though he doesn't speak hardly any English, he can read it ok (doesn't understand, but does read), so he was singing as best he could to all the hymns in Sacrament. It was really cool. We ordered some hymnals in Chinese, so that will help our investigators too, hopefully. TianBo also prayed in Sunday School (we have a Sunday School class for our Chinese investigators) and he asked God to help his landlord and her husband stop fighting. His landlord is another one of our investigators, and she needs all the help she can get. But that's another story.

Sister Jenkins and I are doing our best to prepare our investigators for church so they have a good experience. It's hard because they typically speak hardly any English, so they don't have a lot of motivation to come. We found some scriptures for the Sacrament prayers (Moroni 4:3, 5:2) and for an explanation of the Sacrament (I think it's 3 Nephi 18: 5-11) This week on Friday during weekly planning, we contacted ward leaders to find out the topics for Sunday. Then we found scriptures so our investigators would have an idea of what they were saying in Sacrament. We also used the pamphlets. In Relief Society, we watched the Women's Session of Conference, so we asked one ward member to download it in Chinese and we played the in the other room. In the ward council meeting, the Elders told bishop about our struggle to get investigators to church because they can't understand hardly anything. He said they would work with the only Chinese member to reactivate him, and call him as a teacher. Then as we get a small group of new members, he could call him to be a teacher. In all, working with the ward has been a blessing, even if it is a lot of work. And our investigators are enjoying and understanding church a little more!

Sister Jenkins is the best companion ever! We laugh every day, and always say ridiculous stuff that probably is only funny to Chinese speaking Sister missionaries... so I'll spare you. Or try too. One funny thing was

Sister Springer

Ni Hao!

Hey all!

This week, like all the others, has flown by!

Got a little sick this week.... Probably from the food we ate at a ward party. But I'm all better now. Elder Ieru gave me a blessing. Between that and sleep, my body was able to kick it pretty quick!
Which brings us to faith. Faith is sooo important. If you do not have faith, you will not have hope. Faith is the beginning of everything, and it has to endure throughout our conversion for us to continue on the path back home to our Heavenly Father.

This week I will work on Hope again. I'm going to try harder to incorporate these characters of Christ into my teaching, too.

Something cool Sister Jenkins and I started to do this week: We made a sort of game out of who can recognize a prompting to go talk to someone first. So if, for instance, I say "We should talk to that guy" Sister Jenkins has to be the one to initiate the conversation. This has helped us improve both our Chinese use, and our obedience to the Spirit. Plus it makes finding a whole lot more fun!!

Our investigators have noticed our improvement in the language, and many have commented on it this week. That made us both happy, but we also know we have a lot to learn, and improve on what we know now. One thing specifically we are working on is understanding them when they talk to us. We noticed as we were talking in Chinese to potential investigators, they listened more: apparently our Chinese was decent enough because they figured they could talk fast in reply.... We aren't quite there yet though, so we kept having to ask them to repeat what they said. But we noticed a lot less doors shut after 5 seconds as they realized we could speak at least a little Chinese.

Sad story: for some reason my SD card won't be read on any computers anymore.... I'll try to figure it out, but for now, I'll share pics from Sister Jenkins camera.

That's it for this week. Love you all! Stay strong, enjoy every minute of every day. You only have this time, right now, once! Live it to the fullest!! No regrets!

Sister Springer

PS forgot to mention...

Last night had a lesson with one of my FAVORITE families, Ji and Yingdi Shi. They have one son with them here and the other is still in China. Hardest working people I know. They both want to do what's right soooo much. Ji is the sweetest husband to Yingdi, always helping her with her sewing shop where she makes cushion covers and stuff for couches, even after working 12+ hours at the tire shop. So sweet. Family is super important to them. We taught them about praying as a family last night. Their son said he would teach his dad how to pray. It was cute ^^

Sister Springer

So little time, again... Sorry all.

This week I studied diligence. Basically, if you aren't diligent time is wasted. Also, you have to be diligent in everything or Satan slips his way in.

Drugs are the WORST. Don't do them. All they bring is pain, I promise. The worst thing is they tear up families. Don't, don't, DON'T even try them.

On a lighter note, every time you read "Isles of the sea" in the Book of Mormon/bible, it's talking about my mission. So basically, I do have the best mission in the world. Sorry, ya'll. Haha just kidding... but really. I absolutely love my mission!!!

Here is a scripture I read this week in particular: Isaiah 24:14-15. Make sure to read the footnotes!

Didn't you all love conference? I know I did. How did I ever fall asleep watching it before?? If you did (like I think we are all guilty of sometimes), watch it again. Watch it again, even if you saw all of it. It's beautiful, and every word of every message I know is inspired.

Also, Dale G Renlund referenced Les Mis. I almost died, I was so happy!

Family, any way you can get me a copy of the song How Will They Know that was sung by the family choir? Doesn't have to be that version, but I really like that song.

The language is a funny struggle! I find myself translating in my head from English to Pohnpeian to Chinese. So that's fun. It makes me teach slow, and wait upon the Lord for sure!!

Something I didn't mention last week: Last week we had MLC, so Sister Jenkins and I again spent a couple nights in Guam. The training was on overcoming addiction. President said that if our environment is familiar, that's when we are weak. We need to make our environments sacred. So I invite you all, if you are struggling with anything, if you are trying to change a habit, whether it be drinking, negative thoughts about the world or yourself, pornography, depression, a habit you don't like: whatever it is. Turn your environment sacred. Put pictures of the Savior all around you. If the addiction/habit is 25 seconds away, your brain generally says you don't need it. Likewise, put the sacred things within 25 seconds reach, or you won't turn to them. Sing a hymn, read/recite scripture. Doesn't matter what. Just do it, and change. I promise Heavenly Father loves you and will help you.

Bout to get kicked off again, so better go. (internet is still down at the church)

Bye!! I love you all so much!! have a great week!

Sister Springer

Short on time again...

Whoops. Here is my email from last week. Got kicked off by the internet cafe last week.

I literally have no time. So I'll make it fast.

On a comp at an internet cafe cuz the internet is down at the church. THink they forgot to pay the bill again.

Learned lots about patience, I'll share next week. This week is diligence.

Read the Book of Mormon. If you have questions, it has answers. If you wanna know what we believe, read it. If you haven't read it in a while, read it. No, if you haven't read it to

Sister Springer