This week was so interesting. I've been working on prayer as
I shared last week, and at first it seemed to be working. Then we hit
wednesday. I think it was probably the longest day of my mission thus far.
NOTHING was happening. We couldn't teach, we couldn't study, we couldn't even
speak Chinese! It was like the spirit was being cinched like a hose. We were
straining to feel it the whole day, but it just didn't seem to come all day. We
got home, and we were so confused. Had we sinned? Was there something we had
done to offend our Father in Heaven? We couldn't come up with anything, so we
looked at our planners for a long time and decided to close the day in a
special way. We sang a couple of hymns and we set some specific goals for the
next day. We closed with a short prayer and both knelt there in silence,
feeling the strain that was there release somewhat. It was not a flow of power
surging into us. We both felt that God was kind of telling us "that's
pretty good, but can you keep it up? I think you can! Let's try..."
Then the miracles started.
We started getting a few phone calls...then more...then
more. Soon, our phone was exploding with texts and missed calls, people asking
us for help, priesthood blessings, surprise new investigators, former
investigators and less active members calling us after as much as 20 years of
literally ZERO contact with the church.
A special one was on Friday. We got a call from the
assistants saying that there was a man originally from America that had been
living in mainland China for more than a decade. He was in a hospital and one
of his friends called in a favor from the mission to get someone to visit him.
The man's name is Dirk (pretty fun name😊). We went and visited,
found out he's not a member, but his father was a less active and his
grandmother was the wife of some former general authority. Nothing crazy
happened, but we became pretty good friends with him. We went home. The next
morning, Elder Johnson, the one out of us two who seems to listen to the spirit
more, felt a prompting that we should go visit him again that morning. We had
done no planning or study. We just went.
Turned out that his family had come to visit him as well, we
walked in and heard him talking about these two nice guys that a co-worker had
sent to visit the other night...so the phrase "speak of the devil and he
shows up" is obviously not only applicable to the devil. He broke out
laughing when he saw us and introduced us to his son and his wife. He then told
us that he wants to take us to lunch sometime this upcoming week when he got
out of the hospital. Hopefully we will still be able to do that. His son speaks English, Cantonese and Mandarin all fluently. Reads both simplified and
traditional Chinese...I feel useless sometimes...BUT I'm grateful for the
blessings that I do have.
I will tell you all how it goes with Elder Cook tonight. I
AM SO EXCITED!
Also had a baptism yesterday. He is an awesome kid who went
to his grandma and told her "grandma, I need to learn more about Christ
and get baptized." She came and found us after 12 years of not talking to
anyone from the church. We had his grandma, his mom, and his nanny who are ALL
less active members of the church at his baptism and all three hours of church.
THIS IS A HUGE MIRACLE considering that they are all single moms that have to
work almost every day and find difficulty in getting just one day off in a
month. It happened though, and there are miracles happening in this family of
struggles and trials.
God loves ALL of his children and provides for their needs
so that they can grow. That is my testimony. Love you all and pray for you by
name and by night. This is the greatest work ever. I don't want it to end.
I'm sorry that I haven't been sending very many pictures
lately. Apple doesn't even have USB connection anymore on their laptops...:(
--
Elder Taylor
Notes from Mom: Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and 5 or 6 of the Quorum of the Seventy are in Hong Kong. All the missionaries get to be taught by them. The mission is abuzz with excitement!
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