Changes to the Saipan Zone

Ni hao wo de jiating he pengyou! (Hello my family and friends)

Transfer call!!!! Drum roll please....

Sister Jenkins and I are still companions, and teaching Chinese!!! (YES!!!!!)

Elder Mesa and Elder Joseph are still the Capitol Hill Elders (Elder Joseph will be the new district leader)

Elder Ieru and Elder Tanaha(?? New Elder from Guam) are the Zone Leaders. Elder Tanaha is replacing Elder Palmer, who is dying (AKA finishing his mission). 

Then we have two new Sisters!!! Sister Kaleopa (from Palau, originally from California) and Sister Burton, who was part of Sister Jenkins intake. She is from Riverton, UT. They will be in Dandan, replacing Elder Slack and Elder William. Elder Slack is also dying, and Elder William is going to Guam to be a district leader. He was not excited, but I know he will do good things there. He has grown a lot, and is an obedient, hard working missionary. 

Something cool happened this week. About two months ago a member took us to a place with a bunch of Chinese. When we got there, people were drinking and gambling (playing Mahjong.... Chinese love that game). No one really seemed interested so we left a couple pamphlets and left. This past week, Tianbao, our recent convert, told us he knows a place where 100 Chinese people stay, a few just hanging out during the day, but always tons of them at night after they all get off work. Turns out it was the same place we had been two months ago. Since it was during the day, only a few people were out, and all but one was gambling. The one that wasn't gambling was named Wu Huan Qi. We talked to him for a minute then showed him a pamphlet. He was like, oh, I have that!! And he went a grabbed a small stack of little books and things about Jesus Christ he had been collecting, including the Plan of Salvation Pamphlet. It was a little worn, and he said he has read it often. He is really excited to learn about Jesus Christ. The next day we stopped by to give him a Book of Mormon. We told him it was a book about Jesus Christ. He said, "How much is it?" "It's for you. It's free." "I have been looking all over the island for this book. I saw it on the pamphlet and I have wanted one, but I could not find it." So cool!! God is so great. This just increased my testimony of how much God is in the details of everyone's lives, and guides us to those whom he has prepared. Also, it is so important to follow up, even with those who you think might not be to interested, because you never know! Also, even though we write our number on the back of pamphlets, they don't always see the number, maybe do not have a phone, or don't feel like they can call. So we will always follow up!!

Saturday around 2am our power and water went out (Island wide for 8 hours... Lots of the main places had back up generators though) At about 3am Sister Jenkins woke up and tried to go back to sleep but it was too hot. She saw me sit up, look at her, then look up at the A/C, then back at her. She said, "The power is off". I said, "Oh..... man...." and laid back down. I remember none of this. I do remember waking up at 5:30 and thinking she turned off the A/C, and getting up to turn it back on, then realizing we had no power.... Haha. Apparently the power was out because a Korean girl was drunk driving and crashed into traffic light pole, flipped the car and it exploded. She died. It was super sad..... Don't drink and drive! It's just not worth it. 

I think that's about it for this week. Oh, one more thing. I guess our new Mission President got really sick a couple weeks ago, and so we have a different one coming. He is from Idaho or something. But he will be a week later. He and his wife were a Senior couple in Virginia before, and are getting transfered here. Talk about a hard transfer!!!

Love you all lots!! Have a great week!

Pictures: Last Pday we went to the Japanese Jail and Japanese war memorial. Dad, can you read the Korean? And Grandpa, thought you might like the picture of the old torpedo! Maddy, found this green little lizard guy and thought about you =)

Most beautiful island!! Love the sunsets here!

We got some pictures taken by a member, and there was black tip reef sharks swimming around. That was super cool to see.

We also went to the beach and took some last zone pictures. That was lots of fun =)

Sister Springer

Happy Father's Day!!!

Happy Father's day to all the Father's out there!! I am so grateful for my Papa and all he has taught me. You are the best, Daddy!! Lots of love!!

Let's see... This week absolutely flew by. We were focusing on finding and so did a lot of that. William and Steve went back to Taiwan this week (T-T) so our pool of investigators dropped a bit. Plus Tianbao's baptism (so cool to say that!!).

We went to go teach Tianbao about the Priesthood when the Assistants were with us. So glad they were with us, too! Tianbao told us how he was feeling really down and discouraged about his life. He felt like he had no friends, and no family, and not a good job. We told him that he has friends and family in the ward, and he will always have a friend in Jesus Christ. That helped a little. Then we talked about the Priesthood and blessings, including blessings of comfort. We asked if he wanted one. He said yes. Elder Carter gave him a blessing after the lesson. It was exactly what he needed to hear, even though it was in English and Elder Carter didn't know his full story. The Spirit was really strong. After, we asked if he wanted us to translate what had been said. He said, "No, I felt it." So cool! He also keeps saying he has the Holy Ghost. On Sunday, he told us his life really isn't so bad and he is finding the blessings that God has given him.

This week I was working on Charity. I've found a new approach to my Christ-like Attributes. So there is a page at the end of chapter 6 in PMG that has an attribute activity for each of the Attributes. Each week, I will complete on activity, then take an avg of my score. Then when I pick that attribute, I will focus on which part of the attribute is making my score lower. We'll see how it works. 

This week, I am going to focus on virtue. 

This week as I was studying charity, I was reading in D&C 42:20-27. It talks about a bunch of pretty bad sins, and what to do if people don't repent. Then the last verse says, "Thou shalt not speak evil of thy neighbor, nor do him any harm." No matter what people do, no matter how bad they are, whether they repent or not, we should never speak bad of them. We should never seek to hurt them. It makes me think of the other scripture that says, you never know when they could come back. We don't help anything, ever, by talking bad about people. Every word that comes out of our mouths should be to uplift, to edify, to build up. Not to destroy. This is Charity. 

I guess that's it for this week. I love you all so much. I am changing so much here.... A mission tears you down to build you up for sure, into someone better than you could have ever been on your own. I love my mission and am grateful every day for the chance I have to be here, serving my Lord and Savior, teaching the Chinese people to know who God is. 

Pictures: walking wednesday, we were sooooo tired!!! Hence the tiredness. Worth it though!! Found some new people, for us and the Elders to teach.  

Elder William was jumping over Elder Slack last Pday. He is crazy Athletic.

Til next time! Love you all!

Sister Springer

First Chinese Baptism!!!!!!!

Saturday we had our first Chinese baptism!!!!! Li Tianbao was baptized!!! He was super excited. He came out of the water and was sooo happy. After the baptism, he was talking to one of our investigators, Yingdi, and he told her she needed to get baptized. He said he felt so amazing. It was really cool! The Spirit was soooo strong, for the entire baptismal service.

Friday we went to do the interview, and we needed to get Tianbao to another investigators house to help translate. We were planning to walk with him, but ran out of time and our member present couldn't walk that far. So he rode his bike. He was almost out of site before we even backed the car!!! Fastest bike rider I have ever seen!! It was awesome. 

The next day we stopped by to give him a white shirt for his baptism, and I barely touched this random pole at his house, and it tipped over... Then the ground started bubbling and all this water exploded out of the ground and it was flooding and crazy..... Didn't know what to do, standing there holding a pipe and a white shirt, going, "Uhmm.. What. Uhhh" Sister Jenkins was like, TIANBAO! SHUI! (Which means water) It was sooo funny. He came over and fixed it. We were all laughing though. Just flooding my investigators house.... No problem.... Haha. 

This week I was reading in Alma 43:1. In the previous chapters, Alma says he returns home after serving a mission, and his heart is grieved because of the wickedness he witnessed. I imagine he is super tired as well. He returns home to counsel his sons. Then in Alma 43:1, it says his sons go back out to preach the Gospel, then Alma also went because he could not rest. I think he was originally planning on just staying home, because he was so tired, but then the Spirit pushed him to keep working. A footnote in Alma 43:1 takes you to Ether 12:2-3, where it talks about Ether went to work to preach because he could not be restrained because the Spirit of the Lord was with him. Sometimes, I feel so tired and just think, "If I could just take a 2 hour nap, I could finish today strong and I wouldn't be so tired." But, just like Alma and Ether, I feel the Spirit wouldn't let me rest. The work is too important, too urgent. There are too many Chinese who desperately need to hear the Gospel. Last night we had a fireside with the youth, and after Sister Jenkins and I were talking to Brother Conner (Brother and Sister Conner as the BEST! They are Spiritual giants!). Brother Conner said that the work Sister Jenkins and I are doing are so important. He said that we are teaching the Chinese, who are going to return to China where the Gospel can't be openly preached, and teach their families. The Spirit was sooo strong. I feel it strong again now as I just retell the story. It's so true. The work we are doing here is so important, and I have loved seeing lives blessed, as well as my own, as the Spirit works through us to bring the truth to those who have been in the dark for thousands of years. I am so eternally grateful to my Heavenly Father for giving me this opportunity to serve him here. I love my mission!!

I love you all so much, with all my heart. I miss you, I think and pray about you every day. I wouldn't trade a minute of my mission to be home, though. I love it here. I have 18 months to serve the Lord with all my heart, might, mind, and strength. I hope and pray I do so. I'll see you all on the other side and the end, hopefully and changed and better person than I was when I left. 

Lots of love from the Chinese speaking Sister on Saipan, 

Sister Springer

President's Last MLC

This week was President's last MLC. July 1st we get a new mission president. I am really sad to see him go. I personally have learned a lot from him. MLC was extra good this time though. All the leaders in that room respect President so much. One of the office couples, Elder Christiansen, took his training time to invite missionaries to stand up and say why they were grateful for President and Sister Zarbock. It was one of the most Spiritual moments of my mission. I talked about how much faith they both have, because that has impacted me the most. I think it takes a lot of faith to trust that God wants two greenies learning Chinese on a little rock in the ocean, haha. 

Tomorrow we get to see President and Sister Zarbock one more time, when they come to Saipan for Zone conference. (This is the greatest and craziest mission in the world... Most missionaries are lucky to see our President every other month. Sister Jenkins and I have been blessed to see him a little more often, since we fly to Guam every month for MLC, just because President wants us to have some contact with other Sisters.) President stressed how much we are blessed because we will be able to learn from two Mission Presidents. True.... but still going to miss President and Sister Zarbock. 

It's been a little rough. We have a couple newish Elder's that are stirring stuff up.... So much drama. (Decided it's a good thing, maybe, that we don't have other Sisters on the island. We get along great, and don't have to deal with all the drama it sounds like other Sisters, unfortunately, deal with on almost a daily basis). Sister Jenkins and I don't know details: we are kind of in our own little Chinese world here. I don't know if there's anything we could really do to help anyway. But I know it's been really hard for the other Elders, trying to fix all the problems. A little nervous for the end of this transfer, when we lose Elder Palmer and Elder Slack.... But we'll keep working hard. When we are on the Lord's side, who can prevail against us? 

We have an investigator named Yingdi. Don't know if I've mentioned this before... She is super cool! One thing I really admire about the Chinese people is their hard work ethic. I have never met such a hardworking people in my life! One of the struggles with that is getting them to church. But Yingdi, without us even asking, decided her store would be closed on Sundays so she could go to church. (She owns a sewing shop). At church, she said she loves coming because she feels like she can rest from work, and life. She and her husband work sooo much, and so I think the day of rest sounds amazing to her. Her husband is a little harder to get to church. At MLC, the training was on the Sabbath day and making it delicions. Sowith this training, I have faith that we can help him see the blessings that will come from keeping the Sabbath Day Holy. 

My Mom sent me this quote: "Sometimes when you're in a dark place, you think you've been buried, but actually you've been planted." 

I'm really grateful I have been planted here in Saipan. It can be really hard. Mission's are hard. But also the best experience of my life. I love it here, and I am grateful for every minute, the good and the bad. We learn and grow by experience, and the growth best starts in the dark, where we are planted. 

Be grateful for where you are, when you are. Look to Heavenly Father for guidance, and Jesus Christ for help, and both for love. I promise you will receive all, more than you could ever imagine.

That's about it for this week. Oh, I will be focusing on Knowledge this week. So much you can always learn about the Gospel!! Love it. 

Talk to you all next week!! Have a great week! Love you all!

Sister Springer