Delicious food, excellent ward, and Charity again

Ni hao!!!

Thanksgiving was excellent! I hope you all enjoyed yours!! We had district meeting, then went to dinner (really lunch) at the Conner's. Had super delicious food, deviled eggs and smoked turkey included!! Smoked turkey is seriously the best turkey I have ever had!! sooooooo goooooood!! I made brownie bottom pie for pie night too. It turned out pretty good, considering the boxed milk and whipping cream I had to use haha. After we went and saw Anbby. She's so sweet... I love her so much. She loves little Miaomiao with her whole heart. 

We also tried to see a new family we are teaching, but they weren't home. We talked to one of the kids, Romeo. He's pretty cool. He's 14 but looks like he's more like 18. Crazy. We went to pie night, and did studies. A lot of people drink here one Thanksgiving, so the proselyting aspect of Thanksgiving was a little hard. 

Friday was super fun!! Our Zone is doing this thing we call the Ammon Project. We are trying to get the church out of obscurity, and this is one of the things we started doing. Basically, just like Ammon, we are just looking for as many ways to serve the people as possible. Friday we did a free car wash. It was a hit!! Sooooo many people came, and it was hard to keep up. But lots of people really appreciated it. Next time we'll get the youth more involved and it'll be even bigger!!

Saturday morning we helped Ana, the Elder's Chinese landlord, clean her house. She was in China visiting family and came back to a house full of rat poop =/ ick! We helped her sweep and mop her floor and clean her counters. Then we helped set up for the Elders and Sisters baptism!!! This one was in the ocean. So beautiful, both the ocean and especially the ordinance. Both were from part member families. It's beautiful to see families get closer and closer to going to the temple.

Church was really good. Tiana, a youth, talked about temptation. She said: avoid it, don't get bored; resist it, don't give in; and pray for help, turn back to God. Sister Ami's(a Philipino) talk was very good too. She leaves to move to Texas next week. Going to miss her, but she's excited to be with her family. She talked about not judging. Basically, "Stop it! Stop. Just stop it! Stop it!.... Don't judge, sing a hymn, love. Just love. And Pray. Pray hard, pray pray pray!!"

Last thing before I go. Just a little more about Charity, coming from Relief Society where we talked about Elder Uchtdorf's talk about the three sisters sad, mad, and glad, in the Women's session of conference. Sometimes when the people we love the most, and who are supposed to love us, hurt us, it's the hardest to forgive. Pray. Pray for you, for them. Pray until you love them again, and don't stop. If Jesus Christ loved the weakest and worst of us to suffer for our sins, I promise you He can help you love them too. 

I love you all lots! Don't forget to read the Book of Mormon!

Sister Springer

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Hey all! Man I always run out of time before I send this email.. So it'll be short. 

Did service cutting down the jungle around a members lemon trees. thats what the pics are from. 

The work is going so good here. The ward is seriously the best. Got a new ward mission leader (the other was called to the Bishopric). Got some new really good investigators in our English area. I'll mention Travis and Patrick. They are sooo cool! So prepared. They both fell down the wrong path and are trying to turn their lives around. They love Jesus Christ sooo much! Travis came to church on Sunday and loved it. He stayed for Christmas Choir too!! (Can you believe I'll be singing in the Christmas choir? No, my voice hasn't gotten any better... but hey, maybe Angels will help me out and drown me out... haha)

Going to the Conners this week for Thanksgiving. Sooo excited!! Going to make Brownie Bottom Pudding Pie for pie night. So cool. 

Trying to get a Visitors center and some other stuff going out here to take the church out of obscurity (what last MLC was about). Super excited for the direction we are going. Also looking for tons of opportunities for service.

Gotta go. Just know I love you all! Also, Sister Jenkins is feeling much better and we're back to work =) So watch out Saipan! Haha just kidding. Watch God humble me this week just for that comment =p

Love,  

Sister Springer

"If ye have not charity..."

Ni hao!

This week I've learned so much. Ok, that's how every week goes on a mission haha. But I feel like I've especially learned a lot about Charity, the pure love of Christ. I cannot tell you all that I learned. I think many lessons you learn in life you cannot share. You can only share what you know. 

What I know is this. Let charity drive everything you do. Obedience, faith, knowledge, virtue, all these, everything, don't matter if you do not have Charity. What I mean is, if you are exactly obedient, to the letter of the law, does it mean anything if you have lost the motive of why you are obedient in the first place? That being because you love God, and so you love His children. Or if you have faith, but do not have charity for those around you, what is your faith really placed in? Is it in the Savior, who has changed you? Do you have faith He can also help those around you to change? Then why do you not have charity? And patience... I could go on for days about that one. But long story short, if you have charity, you will be patient. If you have patience, you will develop charity. 

Just love the people around you. Jesus Christ did, enough to die and then rise again for them, for us, despite and because of our weaknesses. 

On another note, I have a request. With this whole "flooding Saipan with the Book of Mormon", I came across a talk that this was based on. I can't remember who it's by, but basically the General Authority was encouraging everyone to send Book of Mormons with their testimony to all the missionaries. So I want to ask you all to do that. And make it as personal as you want, because I want to place them carefully, with someone who can relate to you. How cool would it be to give a Book of Mormon with the testimony of a 25 year old young mother, or a 15 year old boy, to someone who is that same age, or a middle aged man or woman trying to raise a family and work, and probably dealing with similar struggles? Also, we are working in a small English area now too. Just sayin =) write a note in a Book of Mormon and send it to me!!

Ya'll remember Steve and William, the Taiwanese father and son? Well Steve is back on island for a couple weeks! (William stays here for school. Can't remember if I've mentioned that)  I wasn't there for church, but the Elders said when asked who Christ was to them in Gospel Principles, Steve said "He is the bridge between me and Heavenly Father" Steve is so cool!! I wish he would just get baptized... he's practically a member as it is!! 

Almost out of time, so just gonna end with a quick note about this week. We stayed in for a few days because Sister Jenkins was dying with this awful virus. I think it was what I had, but hit her worse. She had a crazy migraine for two days.... we ended up going to the hospital yesterday and they gave her meds through an IV. Poor Sister Jenkins =( She slept a lot. The only plus is I got to read my Book of Mormon so much!! It was really cool to see how the story goes when you read so much in one or two sittings. I decided to start making geneolgy trees at the begining of each book. Up til Mosiah it's pretty easy, but when you hit Mosiah it's a little rough. I'll take a picture when it's done =) Also started a comic strip thing of the allegory of the olive tree in Jacob 5. Did ya'll know that it's symobolic of the scattering and gathering of Israel, yes, but also at the end of Jacob 4 he says, essentially, how can a person who has fallen so far from the path get back on? Read it with that in mind, especially if you are struggling/having doubts of fears about the truth. I just love the Book of Mormon!! Keep reading it every day!!!

Love you all so much!! Have a wonderful week!

Sister Springer

Sisters setting up the Christmas tree in the mission home

Sister Temake

Sister Behling

Sister Kumkee

Happy Halloween

Hey Ya'll!!

Feeling kinda sick today... almost all the missionaries have been sick all week. Kinda sucks. But I think I'm on the up and up. Just gotta get better before MLC next week. It's on a Thursday again, so we fly out on Wednesday night. This time Sister Jenkins is coming with us since we are in a trio... she can't be the only Sister on Saipan, after all =)

An old Chinese investigator, Shelly, came to church yesterday!! A little back story: our last lesson with her was clear back in April, I think. She gave us back the Book of Mormon and said that she only believed in the Bible. Fast forward to a couple weeks ago, she texted us and asked if there was anywhere she could do a Bible study, and if we were still teaching English class. We told her about institute and church, as well as English class. Didn't hear from her again, and she wasn't home when we tried to stop by. Then she showed up at church yesterday with her husband, Tian Min! It turns out he wants to learn more about Jesus Christ. She is strong Christian, but he has always been busy with work and never really learned about Him. In class, we had a memory game based on The Doctrine of Christ. One match had the English word and a scripture, the other had the Chinese word. When someone got a match, we would look up the scripture, read it, and talk about it. It was really cool. Tian Min loved the Book of Mormon; he would continue to read after we finished the scripture. We gave them a new copy of the Book of Mormon, and they said they would be back on Sunday. It was a reminder to me of how much God plays a role in people's lives, and bringing them to the Gospel, and how little we do: we are just instruments in His hands. 

Anbby got her first calling! She is going to be a primary teacher. She is sooo excited!! It'll help her learn more Bible/Book of Mormon stories and more English. 

I'm bout out of time... Sorry this week's email is so short. Just know God loves you and Jesus Christ can help you out of any dark hole you or life has thrown you in. You're never too far gone, too far lost, in too dark of a place that "the light of Christ cannot reach". Love you all and thank you for your thoughts and prayers! 

Smile!!

Sister Springer