Dear friends and family,

It doesn't feel like a whole week passed since I emailed like 5 days ago haha. Last week we had a ward Christmas party and it was hosted at a zipline place! But you know...as missionaries we can't do stuff like that because it could be dangerous :( It looked like a lot of fun though! On saturday we also had transfer news - to see if we're getting a new companion, if we're moving to a different pad (townhouse), if we're covering a new area. And guess what??? I'M GOING TO BE IN A TRIO! You'd think I'd be with my trainer for the next transfer because she's training me..but nope. Thankfully I'm not moving or switching areas, but we're actually covering three wards now instead of two. I'm really excited to serve with two new companions, Sister Castaneda(from El Salvador, raised in Washington DC) and Sister Yeung (from Hong Kong). And you know what else is cool? Sister Lee(Emily) is going to be training the new sister coming in tomorrow! Sister Lor :) Collin's friend!

So many new changes, but change is always exciting. There are some sisters that are going home from this mission that bore their testimonies yesterday. And Sister Na said something that really got me thinking. They were visiting a guy a few weeks ago, who was clearly drunk, and he said something like this, "You don't even understand our struggles! We have to worry about the mortgage and the prices are going up every year!" There are families that work sooo hard to provide for their kids, to make sure they can still live in their homes, rather than moving to the continental US despite it being cheaper there. We fortunately as missionaries don't worry about paying a mortgage because we ARE blessed that the church takes care of our living arrangements. That drunk guy was seeing the smaller picture, but we know that God has a plan for us, and that's the bigger picture. We know that the gospel helps changes lives, and it can help people overcome any trials they have in this life. So that story really helped me to understand how grateful I am to be living here, and only have to worry about missionary work, not about the roof over our heads. Because living here IS really expensive :(

As I did my personal study last week, I read a letter (more like a talk that's 20 pages long) where the narrator is speaking about his trainer's influence on him. Elder Ricciardi was his name and I learned that if we convert even one soul unto Jesus Christ, how great will His joy be. And that one soul is ourselves. If we consecrate ourselves as missionaries and are exactly obedient, we convert ourselves to Him, which I've never even thought of. A measure of a missionary's success is now how many baptisms you have, but planting the seeds of the gospel. Apparently (statistically) a person has to be introduced to the gospel several times before they actually decide to learn more. And as visitors center sisters, we do that every single day. We might not be converting many, but we're so blessed to introduce the gospel to hundreds throughout the week.

There are some days where I feel a little down because of one reason or another, but last week while we were studying, a package came! It seriously made my day. I think it's from the Churchville YSA Ward(or Toronto? not sure), and it included sweet notes of encouragement from recent converts :)

So huge thanks to you all! And Roni for sending it. And Sister Cheng(Leslie) sent both Sister Lee and I care packages too. I'm grateful for all of your love! :) 

Scripture of the week: Joshua 1:9

"Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest"

We had to take a picture beside the beach :)