Sunday, April 28, 2013

Week 57: A New Companion!

Hello Everyone!

What a big week we've had here in Zhang Hua!! I don't even know where to begin!!!!

We'll we can start with the biggest news! If you look at the pictures I've attached, you'll see one with me and my companion, Sis. Jian, and then you'll see one with me and another sister. That is Sis. Wu. We started our missions at the same time. She is from Taibei.

And she's my new companion!!

Yes, I have a new companion. Now, you might be thinking, if you came on a mission at the same time, who is senior companion? Well...

We both are!

Now you might be thinking, how is that possible? Well, have you heard of Sister Training Leaders? Probably not. Why? Because it is a new mission leadership position just announced a few weeks ago because of the influx of sister missionaries in the mission field. 

And, well... 

Sis. Wu and I are one of our missions first Sister Training Leaders!ll

Our mission will be split into three and there are three companionships of Sister Training Leaders, and my companion and I will cover zones (yes, plural...3 or 4, we aren't quite sure...) in the middle of our mission. We are excited, yet a bit overwhelmed at the same time. Because this is a missionary-work wide new leadership position, no one really knows what we are doing, especially us. From what we can tell, we are zone leaders for the sisters. We will be going on exchanges twice a week with sisters in the zones we cover, and will be following up with several companionships every night. We are very excited to have this opportunity to work more closely with these sisters and to learn lots from them!

So that's the biggest news of the week =] 

Other than that, we've had some great miracles this week! Last week our zone leaders invited us to look at our key indicators and pick one to set the goal higher. My companion and I decided to set a high new investigators key indicator. The key indicator is split, new investigators (those who you have a first lesson with and set up a return appointment) over adds (those you meet on the road or over the phone and set up an appointment to go teach them). We generally get 2/3 or so, so this week we set a goal of 5/15. And we blew that out of the water! We were blessed this week with 13 new investigators over 16 adds! I have never had 13 new investigators in one week!!! And how did we do it? We found 3 families this week!!! This is where the miracles come in. Last Sunday night we went tracting and found 2 families who were willing to let us come back last night. So we went and both families are so great!! One of the families actually knows a less-active sister in the ward, so we are so excited to have an instant member who can accompany us to lessons (and who we can help come back to church!) and we think that the bishop and his family will be great to fellowship the other family! We are seriously so excited! One family has 3 children, two over the age of 8, and the other family has two children, one over the age of 8. And both of the boys who are under 8 are 7, so they too can be baptized soon! We will be going back again next Sunday night to visit these families! 

On Saturday, we decided to go to a far away area, one that my companion and I had never been to. We were kind of lost, so we were asking people along the way, but were getting different answers from everyone. So, we see a mom and we ask her, and she said she wasn't sure, but her husband was the postman, so we could go with her to ask him. He helped us out, and then we shared with them a little about our message about families and they were willing to let us come back next week as well! How blessed we were with families! 

We also got a super great member referral this week! Sadly she doesn't live in our area, so we will meet with her once and then refer her, but she sounds so great!

This past week we also had zone conference! We got to go down to JiaYi for the day. We learned all about how to use Preach My Gospel every day, as well as were instructed on the importance of obedience. So great! We also had breakout sessions where we talked about rules clarifications and a new tool we are being given: a map with members addresses already plotted out! These last two things might not seem all that exciting, but let me tell you, I was so grateful for the rules clarifications (it helps everyone be on the same page) and for the map! Oh the little things that make missionaries happy =]

Well, I think that's about it! All our investigators are still doing well. I love being a missionary! I can't believe how fast time is going! I'm nervous about this new position, but I know that the Lord called me to be in this position and He will help and sustain me. How grateful I am for prayer!

I love you all and am so grateful for your love and support!! I hope you all have a fantastic week! I know I will!

Pictures:
#1: Sis. Jian and I (she got to go down to GaoXiong!)
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#2: Me, Sis. Jian, Sis. Shultz and Sis. Jarvis (Sis. Shultz and Jarvis are the other sisters in our zone)
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#3: Sis. Wu and I
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