Week #14 Happy Almost Thanksgiving!

HAPPY ALMOST THANKSGIVING! Wow I have SO many things to be thankful for. I feel so blessed, my heart is so full of gratitude for each one of you. It was a crazy week, so many awesome things happened. I feel like so many things happen each day and when I reflect back on it, it is hard to believe that I did all of it in one week! I am excited for thanksgiving this week though, I know it will be a memorable one.

SO I am so excited to be staying with Sister Nez in the Portage Ward this transfer! Which means I will be here through the holidays!! I feel truly blessed to be in the area I am in, we are working hard and are excited to continue working hard. We got transfer news on Saturday and our entire district and most of our zone will be staying! I am so excited :)

Let me tell you about some of the AWESOME things we did this week. I guess these ALL count as highlights, but I will expound on them a little so you can understand why they were all so awesome.

1. SNOW!!! Yes, a snow storm and it was amazing. We woke up at 6:23 am to exercise and there was a good 3 inches of fresh snow on the ground! It was magical and beautiful!
2. Biking in Snow!! IT IS SO AWESOME, it almost feels like snowboarding, you are just floating on the snow (unless you are going uphill....Then it is a different story....but still so fun)

3. Driving in Snow (and ice) for the first time!! it was a good time! I drive like 5 mph (to make sure I'm extra safe) and it wasn't as scary as I thought! People have been giving me LOTS of tips on how to drive in these harsh conditions. As soon as I say I'm from Hawaii, they proceed to tell me ALL the things I need to know about driving in the snow. It's the best.
4. Hula Dancing! Wait what? This past Wednesday sister Nez and I were invited to Activity Days to share about our culture and our family. So I taught all of the cute 8-9yr old girls how to dance the hula, and they LOVED it. It was so so fun! Sister Nez taught them (and me) how to make fry bread and it was AMAZING.

5. Fry Bread!! Aka the best thing of my life!  Haha, maybe that is a little extreme, but it was so delicious, and I made my own!

6. Spam Musubis! Who would have thought that someone in Montana would give me a bag of spam Musubis?! Well, one of the missionaries serving in my zone had a member in his Ward that is Hawaiian and made him Spam musubis as a going home present (because this past transfer was his last transfer) and he had extras when he left so he gave them to me!  He also gave me all this BUTTER MOCHI. It is seriously the best.  #grateful

7. Farm Work: basically I built a fence. Just kidding haha. But I pounded posts into the ground for an hour as service and it was awesome. I was freezing. It was sunny outside so I decided to wear sweats and a light jacket with my Nikes. Probably not the smartest decision on my part considering it was 42 degrees outside hahahahahaha.  Yeah I was cold, but it all worked out and I had a great time.

8. Wall paper: sister Nez and I went to a members home and tore all the wallpaper off of the bathroom walls because she is remodeling! It was super fun and I loved it!
9. I LOVE YW! We were asked to teach the lesson in YW today about how we can deal with problems and challenges that we face. The YW are great and it was so fun to be with them!
10. Pod Ball: let me just tell you, last week we played one round of single elimination (aka you get hit, you're out) and I ALMOST WON, like it was me vs another elder and sadly he got me out... but I was so close to winning!! Maybe this week I will win!
11. Met the missionary who named the pink palace "The Pink Palace" he has been home for a few years now but came back with his family to visit, it was neat to hear some of his experiences and to hear how the pink palace came to be!
12. Our cat statue Salmon died. Sad day. We had like 80 mph winds this past week and we came out the next morning to a broken cat statue, so I guess that wasn't a highlight, but it was a little hilarious.
13. First 12 weeks DONE: I finished my training!!! It is all very exciting, I am excited to be done so now I can completely focus on Sister Nez's training and its gonna be great :) it's hilarious because I literally thought my 12 weeks of training would never end, but now I'm finished! Yay!

We had many miracles this week! One of them came in the form of a referral from church headquarters! We have been trying to contact her for the past month with no success: we had called, as well as stopped by her apartment building, but then found out it was a locked building. We were beginning to give up but felt prompted to email her before we gave up. We emailed her and she replied the next day! It was such a miracle! We set up a time to meet with her and taught her the restoration and committed her to be baptized! We are meeting with her again later this week and although I don't know what is going to happen, this experience has taught me that the Lord truly does prepare people to receive the gospel. We are called to invite everyone to come unto Christ, but with faith, fasting and prayer I know he will help us find those who have been prepared.

The gospel is so good and I am just so grateful for so many blessings I have in my life! I have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving season and I am grateful to be serving a mission at this time. I have been praying earnestly to see the miracles the Lord is performing in this area and my prayers are beings answered. This is truly His work and I feel inadequate, but so grateful to be a part of it.

I know I am where I am suppose to be, there are challenging days but those are the days I learn the most and they make me grateful for the great days! I know I am learning, stretching and growing in ways that I have never imagined. I love seeing the gospel work in other people's life.

 

I remember struggling to write my farewell talk on how the atonement heals unseen wounds, but now I feel like I could write a book on it! And I've only been a missionary for 3 months! But it is true, the atonement really is for everyone. It is discouraging when people don't accept it, but I am reminded of my purpose and calling as a missionary when people accept it. I am grateful for the restored gospel, I know it is true and I know that as we continue to live and abide by the principles taught by Christ, we will be able to return to live with our Father in Heaven again.

 

I love my Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ. I am grateful to be in their service and I am so thankful for this opportunity I have to truly forget myself and go to work. I love you all so much! Thank you for your love, support, emails, words of encouragement. They mean the world to me. You are in my prayers, always! I love you!!

Love, Sister Wong