Dear all,

I had my first companion exchange this week! Basically, we switch companions with another pair of sister missionaries. So on Monday night, we drove to Brantford and I continued with Sister Dayton(she's a Sister Training Leader). It's so funny because she recognized me from Toronto YSA since she served there in April when I came back from school haha. So it was really fun being with her. Our first lesson that evening was with the Wu family (maybe we're related...from way back) and they were so sweet. They were baptized a few years ago and have two sons; George, the younger one, was born blind and didn't really want to play the game we planned. But we taught them about keeping the Sabbath Day holy and eventually George got a little more comfortable with us being there. His parents were always patient with him and were such great examples. It was also my first time teaching a Chinese family on my mission, so it was really exciting :) And also one of the few times I actually got a chance to speak Mandarin on my mission haha (although they spoke Mando and Canto)

1) On Tuesday, Sister Dayton and I were originally planning to have four lessons but two of them cancelled because they were sick. I know that there are no such thing as coincidences on the mission because despite the cancellations, we got the opportunity to share the restoration with two people we met outside! The first person was an old man and we sat down beside him in the park and just had a nice discussion about what we believe in. He had some really great questions and accepted our invitation to listen to the prophet during General Conference this coming weekend! And the next guy was in those travelling wheelchair things and was really really excited to talk about Jesus with us. We talked about the Atonement and how to love as Christ did and set an appointment for the next week! Since this is happening in Brantford, I'll never see them again, but it was my first time having such long discussions with people we met just contacting!

2) On Thursday, we taught a returning member named Ana. Her husband Sol isn't a member but is super supportive of her beliefs. Before we began the lesson, she shared an awesome personal revelation experience with us. The day before, she was just at work, and she saw a woman personage dressed in white, saying to her, "It's been 3 years." But Ana didn't recognize her, or understood 3 years since what? Turns out that woman in her vision was Sol's mother, who passed away 3 years ago. This experience truly reminded her that if it's been 3 years since she passed, then Ana needs to start doing temple ordinances for Sol's parents. Because both of them have been waiting for that long!! Crazy right? Personal revelation is such a real thing, and it's interesting because she had to call Sol's sister to confirm the anniversary of their mother's passing because Sol didn't know. It worked out perfectly with the lesson because we were teaching the plan of salvation! We really discussed our life before and after earth and some about family history work. By the end of the lesson, although Sol still didn't have an interest, I'm sure he was touched by Ana's experience. She's now determined to find more of his family's names to perform temple work and is committed to coming to sacrament meeting every Sunday. I love hearing member's experiences because it really strengthens my testimony, especially on family history work.

3) Lately, it's been hard finding new people to teach because we don't have much time to contact. And when we do contact, not too many people talk for long. Understandable...But Saturday night, I prayed that we would meet people that were ready to learn about the gospel and Sunday, we met Yohan! After sacrament meeting, he walked into the chapel and told us he was curious about what we believe in! He's Ethiopian and was really pleasant. God really does answer prayers, and we desperately needed someone new to teach too haha. We set up an appointment with him for this week so I'm excited :) Our other investigator Gerald doesn't seem to be progressing since he's not keeping any of the commitments we extended, like reading the Book of Mormon. And before he even came to one sacrament meeting (he slept in last Sunday), he's already seeing his friend's church this week. Sigh

4) The General Women's Broadcast was Saturday night! I love General Conference because there are so many great speakers and they're truly inspired to say what we need to hear. Before it began, our Relief Society had a potato bar for dinner (it was delicious, I love homemade guacamole and mango salsa as toppings) and I talked with Ariana most of the time haha. I'm so grateful she lives her and is always willing to come teaching with us! During the broadcast, Sister Linda S. Reeves from the Relief Society Presidency talked about staying virtuous. A few things she said that really stood out to me was (paraphrased),

"This life is a time to prepare to meet God, not a time to receive ALL the blessings" and

"How small are our sufferings, if those trials are what qualify us for exaltation?" (okay this one, I'm sure it was phrased better when she said it...so look it up)

I love these quotes because sometimes when we live according to the commandments and seem to do everything right, we still might have challenges that seem more difficult than those who do not do all they can to feel the Spirit. But if every person challenge we face strengthen our faith and help us come closer to Christ as we rely on him, isn't that worth the experience itself? And everything we experience is something we can learn from, because our earthly life is a probationary period, to prepare to live with Heavenly Father once again :)

So as we put our faith in Him, all that is wrong in our lives can be made right. I'm so grateful for the Atonement because we are able to repent and become better.

I'm super excited for General Conference this weekend because we get to listen to the prophet and his apostles! I hope all of you can watch all the sessions and prepare any personal questions you might want answers for as you watch.

On a side note, please pray that my visa arrives soon! I report to the MTC on Oct 14 so I really hope it comes soon as October is almost here. It would suck to stay here for the winter...

Have a great week!

Love,

Sister Wu

Dear all,

I feel like I've been on my mission for longer than two weeks, probably because it's what we do every single day! We spend so much time focused on the needs of the people we're about to teach, and how we could teach them with the Spirit. We plan, find, teach, eat, and sleep and the day repeats. Literally haha. Sometimes when we teach the same lesson to different people and it feels a little repetitive, but we teach it slightly different according to the person (does that make sense?). The weather's been kind of weird, super sunny on some days, and a few rainy days. But the sunsets from our window is just beautiful! I seriously need to try another computer in this library and pray my camera connects...Sigh sorry!

On Thursday, we had Zone Conference! Since it was held in London, we could sleepover with the London YSA Sisters! It was fun being with other girls haha. It's held by the mission president and his wife, and the APs(assistant to pres) help train us too. I think there were around 50 missionaries that were there. We did a few different role plays, to focus more on working with the church members hand in hand rather than separating missionary work so distinctly from member missionary work. Role play is kind of scary because I feel pretty inexperienced still at teaching haha. Our first one was asking for referrals from members that were volunteering from that ward. Sister Nabhan(my companion) asked President Clayton to give us an example, and he did it so perfectly and with such Christ-like love, like always :)

I think one of the major lessons I took away from Zone Conference was the way we communicate with everyone - returning members, investigators, and active members. It's so important that we show that we love them and talk to them in a way that shows how much we care! And definitely to talk less awkwardly when asking for referrals. The most important aspect of teaching and communicating with anyone on a mission is that we have the Holy Spirit to be our guide, so we're not really doing the bulk of the teaching. And that it's really important to get to know others so we can teach them better, according to their needs and progress. My testimony of the gospel really was strengthened from the wonderful examples of the other missionaries that attended too, and I learned so much from practicing role plays.

This week, we also had the opportunity to have a member meal (free food for us) with Sister Fox. She shared a ton of stories with us since she's experienced in life (she's in her 70s probably). The first one really stood out to me though. One day, many years ago, she went to the temple to do an endowment session and heard a prompting saying "You need to go buy yourself a house" (sounds weird right? haha) but it wasn't a voice from anyone near her! So for the next few months, she tried to obey this prompting from Heavenly Father and searched for a house not too far from Toronto(where she worked) that fit her budget. It seemed almost impossible because her budget was low and she had to pay back $40K of debt but she finally met a builder in Guelph that could build her new house with her budget. It's crazy how much faith she had, since at any time in those months, she could have just given up. She didn't have ANY money for a down payment, but agreed to pay Terry (the builder) with pre-dated checks every 2 weeks. He was super hesitant, but agreed to do it that way. Little did she know that he hadn't made a sale in nearly 2 years! The next time she came back to meet the architect and see the progress of the house, Terry had sold almost 2 streets worth of houses just by using the method she used to pay. The Lord really works in miraculous ways! Her faith and reliance on Heavenly Father is such a great example to me.

She also shared about her two children, who are adults now too. Her son stopped talking to her when he was in high school because she said he couldn't sell drugs at her door (makes complete sense) and still doesn't talk to her to this day! And he told her that she couldn't attend his wedding or see his children. It really breaks my heart to hear that, because families are so central to Heavenly Father's plan of happiness. I'm grateful for mine and I doubt I could ever just stop talking to my parents. Sister Fox had such courage just to share that and still listened to her son's wishes; I can't even imagine how hard it must've been for her. I could never understand her son, but we can only pray that he understands his parents love one day.

Anyway, sorry that was kind of depressing. I love listening to old people's life experiences. I wish I could do that more often haha. We also met with a returning member named Jeff, and he spilled his story on how he started learning about our church. He was on the worst path of life, doing drugs, and other things that are probably really bad, and he was on probation too, and he was desperately searching for a friend, really. He tried calling all the churches in the area but nobody would talk to him, for one reason or another. But his co-worker said he could meet with the missionaries, and that's exactly what he did. Jeff felt that the missionaries really listened and loved him, despite his past. And he prayed to know the truth for himself, and now here he is :)

I'll leave you guys with a scripture I came across that I really like and it's from the Book of Mormon. :)

" And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them." - Ether 12:27

I know that I have so much to improve to be a great missionary (I mean, duh, I'm still so new), but I know that as I put in my effort, Heavenly Father will strengthen my weaknesses. I know that when I teach, it's the Holy Spirit that helps me say what needs to be said. I love this gospel so much and I know that it can change lives. I'm excited to work hard and teach others so they can come closer to Christ and feel His love :) Have a great week everyone!

Love,

Sister Wu



Hey everyone!

Address(right now):

Sister Wu
55 Yarmouth St #601
Guelph, ON N1H 4G3
Canada
(I like snacks, and real letters, and anything really)

Oh man, it's so weird to be out on the mission field without going to the MTC first. On Monday evening, I got dropped off at our mission president's home, President Clayton. The other new missionaries came from the airport a bit later and we all had dinner and a testimony meeting after (super short for each person). Could definitely feel the Spirit pretty strong haha.

I still didn't quite feel like one of them since I actually didn't even have a sister name tag yet :( Sister Clayton made me on though, by sticking Wu over her name tag haha.

On Tuesday morning we went to the Brampton Stake Center for training and to find out who our new companions were! My companion's name is Sister Nabhan and she's super funny and really patient with me. The worst part about Tuesday was driving from the mission office (where we went after) to our new home in Guelph! Although we printed out Google Maps instructions, we seriously got lost because the street we were supposed to get on had construction so it ruined everything! After an hour of not getting anywhere...we decided to knock on a lady's house (it's like farmland and all residential areas and we felt like we were in the middle of nowhere) and she gave us instructions to the highway. Thank goodness! Yeah so it took us 3 hours to get to Guelph and we got lost finding our street because the sign was white when all the other street signs were blue. Lame. So imagine our relief when we finally arrived at our apartment :) Seriously, we prayed to get home safely and the Lord definitely answered our prayers and it felt like a miracle just getting home.

The next few days are kind of a blur, but I soon adapted I guess. When missionaries pray together, they always kneel, and I think it humbles our position to pray since we really bow down to Heavenly Father. But waking up at 6:30 on Wed was the biggest struggle! We kind of did some "stretching" but we also have a treadmill in our apartment! (We have yet to go use it though haha). I promise I'll try harder this week. Another sucky part of this week was I think since Tuesday the weather was super humid, our AC was on so Wed morning it actually rained outside so it got cooler. But since the AC was on and I was wearing a skirt, I totally got cold. And I got a cold that lasted the next few days ugh. So I also lost my voice on Thurs and Fri, so I couldn't talk that much when we taught, or talked to people on the street. But Sister Nabhan totally was awesome in teaching by example, but I kind of felt useless in that sense. I'm 90% back to normal today though :)

Teaching lessons didn't feel too bad! But the first lesson we taught was on Tues evening with our investigator Gerald and Donna and I was super nervous when I spoke. But using our planner daily and planning for everyone we were meeting seriously reminds me of how much
"work" we put in because we truly care about everyone and their eternal progression! Weekly planning takes hours because we plan things to follow up on, commitments, and lesson plans for like 18 people. It was a little overwhelming at first but I got kind of used to it. In the mornings, after we work out and shower, we have personal and companionship study. I'm gonna have to admit, I sucked at personal study because I would fall in and out of sleep a little. But it was still a great experience because we could feel the Spirit as we read scriptures and really got inspired to find things to share during the lessons. :) We mostly taught the Plan of Salvation this week and the Restoration, but before that, we just got to the know the people we met since we literally knew no one! Since both of us are new to Guelph, it's called "white-washing" (don't ask me why, I have no idea haha)

On Thursday, we met our district! So our district includes 4 other companionships, all of which are elders. It was really nice knowing that they weren't super far away from here and really, just to have other missionary friends is nice. I guess most of them have met so many missionaries already since they served longer, but I'm such a new sister, they're my first missionary friends I guess haha. We set goals for the district, and did role play to invite our teaches to come to church and take sacrament and keep the Sabbath day holy. Elder Cheng is one of our zone leaders!! (He served in Bayview Ward, my home ward back in June/July). It's so weird seeing him as a peer since I taught a lesson with him once haha. But I love our district, they're all super sweet. We all went out to Pizza Hut for lunch afterwards and they shared some stories of their mission; really fun to get to know them.

Oh man, since Prep day is on Mondays, and we arrived on Tuesday. We literally had to eat what we could find in the fridge haha, so there was homemade bread which was awesome, and jam. But WE FOUND A MANDARIN'S MENU!! So I bought some take out on Friday with my own money. I was super happy haha.

On Saturday, we had a pretty cool experience. We were trying to find a referral contact from one of the members but we couldn't find the house! We tried the address on the east, and west, but a guy was walking on the sidewalk and we talked to him. He said he belonged to the Canadian United Church so wasn't interested but we gave him a pass-along card anyway. We decided it was about time to eat dinner, so drove to the Tim Horton's nearby. And there we saw him again! It was totally fate haha. We ordered our food and went to sit by him. Although strictly speaking, it wasn't a "lesson" we basically chatted about our church and his church and taught him all the main points of the Restoration. Sister Nabhan explained that we didn't believe in the Trinity, because...how could Jesus be praying to himself in the garden of Gethsemane? And that just dawned over his face and he totally agreed. We sat with him for about 45 min until he had to leave but his name was Brad and we gave him the Gospel of Jesus Christ pamphlet! But it was so fun to talk to him in such a relaxed setting. He was so kind; he bought both of us strawberry cheese strudels! Anyway, he said he probably won't be learning more because his parents would be so angry, but who knows? I really hope he reaches out to the missionaries one day! But I'm glad we planted the seed in his heart :)

Sunday was really exciting because I know Ariana Del Mundo is in our ward!! So awesome to see someone from Toronto. We got to meet a ton of members and we were asked after sacrament meeting to teach Gospel Principles class! I was freaking out. Some of the people we taught this week were in class, which was awesome! We taught on Honesty. It led to some great discussions and I know that we totally taught by the Spirit, because we didn't mess up haha. Sister Nabhan and I communicate pretty well and I just love her! We found out that the sister that makes the sacrament bread also gives us a huge loaf of bread every week. Yay! We met with the Ward Council on Thursday evening too, and everyone is really on top of planning and really care about the members and investigators. I love our ward :)

Sorry this email is so long, I'll probably get better at this as time goes! Oh and it's always so weird whenever I introduce myself because I have to say Toronto Mission isn't my originally assigned mission and I'll be leaving next transfer...but I'm super excited for when my visa arrives!

Lastly, when we were teaching a returning member named Ana, she said something that I really liked. "Without opposition, there is no progression" I know this is so true, because we only grow and progress after trying with opposition in some way. The power of prayer is seriously so great because I'm pretty sure we pray about 20 times a day, but we are always guided to teach with the Spirit and meet people that our put in our paths. As we taught about the Book of Mormon, and the gospel of Christ, one scripture I want to share is from 2 Nephi 29:9

"And I do this that I may prove unto many that I am the same yesterday, today, and forever; and that I speak forth my words according to mine own pleasure. And because that I have spoken one word ye need not suppose that I cannot speak another; for my work is not yet finished; neither shall it be until the end of man, neither from that time henceforth and forever."

This is like the gospel of Christ. The commandments and the scriptures are the same throughout all time. And God's standards is the same forever, never changing. I love teaching the gospel whenever we have lessons because it's what people need in their lives, so that we can all return to be with Heavenly Father one day. I mean, we're only instruments in His hands, but I feel the love towards everyone we meet, and that's so awesome.

I also miss my friends and family sometimes, but I know this is where I'm supposed to be right now. Seriously though, write me! I want to know what's going on with everyone :)

P.S. We got a GPS and named it "bae" because we couldn't survive without it haha

Love,
Sister Wu

asdgadgpaiusdhgaishasdopasduhfpaiuhf!! (mixed emotions of excitement, fear, and joy)

I remember in May when I first received my call letter and thinking that September seemed ages away, but this summer, just like every summer, went by really quickly. And I'm leaving tomorrow! I don't think it's really hit me that I'm leaving home and my whole life is changing, literally. From everything I do, think, and eat (hopefully I don't starve...kidding...ish). You know what I'll miss? All my close friends and family, homemade Chinese food, sleeping in, wearing jeans, being called Michelle/my "endearing" nickname that shall not be named here, listening to my music, watching movies, and probably being at school struggling with my roomies. We'll be out all day, every day, reaching out to strangers and sharing the gospel to others who are curious to learn more. It's really rough and I'll probably get rejected often, but it'll be worth it if even one person comes closer to Christ and is willing to live His gospel. We'll be wearing either dresses or skirts with cute tops every day, so no pants for me unless we're doing a service project or exercising. And how weird is it that I'll be called Sister Wu by everyone I meet? Okay not that bad, but I wonder if my name will sound weird when someone says it again haha.

Okay, let's talk about serving locally. I hope if I end up in London, or Waterloo, I don't see anyone I know. Not that I don't want to see you, it's just kind of weird, because I can't just hang out. I have a purpose as a missionary, to share the gospel...and it's the hardest when you do that to people you know already haha. Anyways! I am excited though, to be starting my mission I mean. 6 weeks is gonna feel long in the beginning, but it'll probably go by quickly too. Let's hope it doesn't get to chilly by October :)

But everything I'm putting on hold, or sacrificing for the next year and a half, is nothing compared to what Christ has sacrificed for us. He died so we could get second chances, repent, and learn to be more like Him. Ahh I love the gospel, I know that Heavenly Father loves each of His children with all His heart, and I know that some people really need to hear that message. Whatever happens in life, good or bad, God is always there by our side, as long as we reach out to Him too. I can only hope to be half the servant Christ was when he ministered on this earth, but I'll be trying every day.

And here's a meme of how I feel and various pictures of people that have become like family to me and that I'll miss dearly !

 High school wouldn't have been complete without these two!

 I love us, candid