tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44413730090857998252024-03-13T23:29:32.621-07:00Sister Pao in the North Star StateMinneapolis Minnesota MissionAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07083480771511666974noreply@blogger.comBlogger54125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441373009085799825.post-32526651283710162992015-03-18T01:56:00.001-07:002015-03-18T01:56:23.910-07:00New Brighton: Week 9 (74) "After the Trial of Your Faith"<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">
Wow another week down on the countdown. Time doesn't make any sense on the mission! I bet on your receiving side, it still feels like an eternity away until I get home. I know I know, and I'm sorry it feels that way. If it makes any of you feel any bit better, THIS IS REAL LIFE. Something that I don't mention as often as a missionary is that there are actually a good amount of moments all across my mission where I have felt like time couldn't be any slower. However, from all my emails home, I'm sure you haven't been able to catch on to it, because, well, straightforwardly, I don't talk about those moments as much. Why? I can promise that I haven't been lying or hiding these REAL feelings with you all, but simply one answer, these seemingly blatant, slow and hard times are just simply ALWAYS over encompassed by the fast paced joys, and goodness of the week! Example A: THIS WEEK!</div>
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Guess what? Pretty much all our investigators, and progressing investigators dropped us earlier on at the start of this past week. Cute little Vietnamese Vinh broke our hearts, actually the day of my birthday by writing us a letter saying that he needs extra time. Initially, he felt prompted to be baptized on <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_332563371" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">March 31st</span></span>, but his battle with cigarettes has just been a really difficult one. I am grateful that he gave me a moment to realize that time is okay, and that a break from our visits will be a good time for him to evaluate, to soak in all that he's learnt, and to learn to rely on the Holy Ghost for himself. I learnt that even when we are not physically there meeting with him, God's plan is still going according to plan, as He continues to work miracles in His life. It proved to be true because out of the blue, we invited him (very last minutedly) to a fireside that night, and he jumped right on board. He has a great heart and desire to be right with God. His time will come according to God's time.</div>
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Two of our other progressing investigators, Xu Pu, and JingBo have been way too busy with school and student teaching. With zero people in our teaching pool, we had a lot of work to get done. By exercising our faith, we invited God to work miracles in our lives.</div>
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This past week, I set a personal goal of seeking to talk to literally EVERYONE within my reach planned or unplanned, and to share about Christ and to invite all to come closer to Him WHENEVER and WHEREVER I have the opportunity. Funny thing though, I made a personal deal by promising Heavenly Father that I'd talk to everyone possible with the 20 days that I had left to being a full time missionary, but I cannot remember what I hope that He'd promise or bless me with. Within me, I guess that I have always had an unspoken goal of teaching Africans and to teach a little family with kids. As I have sought to testify of Christ at all times and in all things and in all places, LITERALLY, in the gas station, to our waiters/waitresses at restaurants, to people sitting off the side of the street, Heavenly Father has blessed us with a new investigator! Sylvia, from Togo, AFRICA, and her little 6 year old son, Given. I am beyond excited to be able to keep teaching them. Africans are just oh soooo very faithful and has sooo much Trust in God. I hope that I can go through life with the same amount of trust that Sylvia has shown me from all the struggles and challenges that she has had in her life.</div>
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While on the tangent of teaching Africans, while we stopped by to pay Sylvia a quick visit last night, we met some African Americans sitting outside in her parking lot soaking in some sunshine. We said hi to the one lady, and made our way to knock on Sylvia's door first. We made a mental note to stop back by to talk to the lady sitting outside after we got in touch with Sylvia. Without us even having to do anything, the African American lady approached US on her own. She said that she recognized who we were, that we were angels and that we are doing a good deed. She came and petitioned our help in praying for her. LaDonna, is our new friend that we will be planning to visit with again <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_332563372" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">on Thursday</span></span>. She expressed how she has definitely gone down some wrong paths in her life right now and just needs all the help she needs to get back and to be right with God. We testified to her of the healing power of our Savior's Atonement, and how by making promises with Him, we can be fully healed and learn how to truly change our nature. She was filled with the spirit, and we prayed with her (all the while she chanted "Thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus as I prayed...oh and of course we held hands in a circle.. ya we did not look like a cult or anything). haha Despite it all, the spirit was strong, there was light present, and she definitely was drawn towards it. We were so blessed to be in the right place at the right time.</div>
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This work is amazing. I am so grateful to be able to shed the light of Christ all day errday, ESPECIALLY WHEN THEIR IS REAL SUNSHINE OUTSIDE. Minnesota is warming up and my hopes and dreams as a dying missionary is for it to turn green before I peace out!</div>
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I love you all and pray that your faith may continue to increase each and every day. Our faith increases as we speak and hear and read the words of God. So share your testimony, study the scriptures and listen to the words of our prophets and apostles. We gain real peace, and divine direction through that. Don't miss out on His love and quiet whisperings to us!</div>
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Love you all!</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Sister Pao</i></b></span></div>
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Sharonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00044352887773459448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441373009085799825.post-8822099969100211432015-03-10T18:43:00.000-07:002015-03-10T18:43:03.409-07:00New Brighton: Week 8 (73) "Blessed of the Lord, [I've Been]"<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">
Dearest fam bam and me lovely poppets and friends from all around.</div>
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Wow, and wows again. That is all that I can repeat over and over again. I am so blessed. To all of my friends, and family from literally ALL around the world, thank you and thank you again. I literally feel like a chicken with my head cut off right now, because I don't even know where to start to respond to all the love that you have all PERSONALLY expressed to me this week.</div>
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The video from the fam and Songshan Ward, man! I looked like a crazy lunatic sitting at the public library, bawling my eyes out. But boy did that birthday video prick my heart good...oh man, doesn't help at all in that whole getting trunky aspect of my last transfer. haha!</div>
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Opening my inbox this morning was literally better than CHRISTMAS MORNING...well okay, nothing trumps Christ's birth..but yano, I wasn't literally there for it. This has been the most love and JOY that I have felt in...my whole life. I officially mark this morning, 11:20am of March 9th, 2015 to be my MOST current MOST JOYOUS experience of my life so far. I am sure that will soon be trumped by the day that I return home and SEE ALL OF YOUR LOVELY FACES AGAIN. Oh how my heart swells with so much joy. Thank you Rach all the way from Canada. Thank you Nina from all the way in WHAT?, DUBAI??, Thank you from everyone in Taiwan. Thank you to my fav Chan family in Canada as well. oh and shout out to Megan! all the way in Seattle. You all are the BEST. What more can I say.</div>
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LOVE, SISTER PAO</div>
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Sharonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00044352887773459448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441373009085799825.post-88742924655537028802015-02-02T09:51:00.005-08:002015-02-02T09:51:44.077-08:00New Brighton: Week 4 (69) "But all things are done to serve to strengthen our faith in Christ"<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">
This has been a blast of a week! Such a successful, busy, tiring, and joyful week. Emotional swings up and downs were inevitable as well haha. But why is it when weeks are so hard and tiring, that they become some of my MOST worthwhile weeks?! Heavenly Father is still oh so good to us, and HURRAH FOR TENDER MERCIES IN OUR LIVES.</div>
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Well, as my email title has given a hint into what I wanted to share, I wanted to share a cool experience that I had this past week as I have been studying more about the Gospel in the Book of Mormon and in the New Testament.</div>
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I bore my testimony yesterday in sacrament about a scripture that I found in the New Testament. I was studying that morning and also came across a scripture in the Book of Mormon that basically helped me to refocus on all the little nitty picky reasons of why oh WHY we do certain things in the Gospel EACH AND EVERY DAY. Why do we pray, why do we spend THREE hours going to church each week, why do we study the scriptures why do we keep the commandments and why do we stay strong and suffer thru trials and temptations even though sometimes it is easier to just give up and to live recklessly? The list can go on, Why do we seek to magnify our callings, why do we spend hours and hours over preparing for a lesson or a talk? Why why why do we do so much!? The thought that came to my mind is " all these things that we do are for one purpose. They are to only, and solely strengthen our faith in our Savior Jesus Christ."<div>
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And then I read the scripture in the Bible, Matthew 11:28-30</div>
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"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.</div>
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Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and <strong>ye shall find rest unto your souls</strong>. <strong style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">For my yoke is easy, and by burden is light."</strong></div>
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That is why we do all things, because this life is meant to be a test and trial. I need to live the rest of my life recognizing and remember not to be so shocked and taken back when trials and challenges come my way! I should know better by now that they ALWAYS come! haha Easiness thru the Savior does come though! That easiness does not mean that life is a piece of cake all cupcakes and icing and frosting all the time, but that easiness means Peace and Rest unto our souls. That peace of mind, <strong>a buoyant peace</strong> (isn't that such a beautiful imagery and choice of words) <strong>with a light of "eternal perspective that shines on our struggles and trials"</strong> that ONLY comes through the knowledge of the restored truths of the Plan of Salvation. I am so grateful for that full eternal perspective. I am so grateful for administering angels that minister to me all day, ones that God has sent, and living ones, and also my family members that have past. They live, and they don't want us to forget them. Christ and God don't want us to forget them as well, they were our family first after all.</div>
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A final thought of a tender mercy story that came just last night came from a Less Active girl named Patricia who is in about her mid 20's. Patricia is the best. I have loved getting to know her. She is such an angel and a woman of pure goodness. We met with her last night at the church building at about <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1725287308" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">6:30pm</span></span>. It was fast <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1725287309" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Sunday</span></span> yesterday, and without knowing, she was still fasting after all her church services and as we had the chance to meet. To be honest, we were not very prepared for her lesson because we had not seen her for a long time and with church in the morning, we did not have a really good study session. Despite all that, as we sat down, with her. We got to talking and just hearing about some of her recent going abouts. She mentioned something about being confused about the proper way to fast, and then Sister Smith thought to the fact that we could share a Mormon message with her. However, the thought only came because Patricia had asked earlier about the YSA Institute's activities and where she could find them. Because she had gone to church earlier that day, her friend Larissa was able to tell her how to find it on <a href="http://lds.org/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">lds.org</a>, and so we spent some time while we met with her seeing if we could sort it out and find it for her. We went into it kind of halfhearted because we knew that it was always hard to connect to the internet at the church building. But lo and behold, It worked out, she sorted out institute classes on line and then we were able to show her the Mormon message "Hope of God's Light." As we watched it in the dark, we realized how she started to wipe at her eyes, over and over again. When the video finally ended and we flipped the lights back on. The spirit was pressing upon each of our hearts as we just sat in the silence for a little while soaking things all in. Finally we asked, what were your thoughts? A little bit embarrassed with all her tears that she had shed, she said, Heavenly Father just answered my prayers that I had been praying for in the car as I drove here. I went to church today fasting with a specific purpose in mind, but didn't really get any answer, but all I took away from someone's testimony was how they pray and drive at the same time. She decided to do the same continuously praying for answers even as she was driving to meet us at the church. Finally, as we watched the unexpected video of Hope of God's light, so many things were just answered about how she needs to take time and not lose faith over the fact that Heavenly Father did not answer her question right away throughout her fast. She finally even expressed to us how she has felt impressed that she needs to go to the temple to make more covenants with God but how she doesn't want to think about it. We were able to spend some time to answer and resolve some of her questions and concerns, and finally on her way home as she continued to pray in the car, she texted us in the evening to say that she has finally received a resolved answer from Heavenly Father that she needs to get to the temple. Hurrah Patricia! WE are so excited for her and for the faith and testimony that she has built up.</div>
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HAVE A TERRIFICAL WEEK EVERYONE! I SURE WILL HAVE ONE OVER HERE IN THE MMM!</div>
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LOVE,</div>
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<b><i>SIS PAO</i></b></div>
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<br />Sharonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00044352887773459448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441373009085799825.post-61923615103642805442014-10-20T12:40:00.001-07:002014-10-20T12:40:09.079-07:00Cottage Gove: Week 7 (54) "Lift Where you Stand"<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
Another week has gone and past, and each and every day, Sister Amis reminds me of how much closer it is that our mission will soon be over. I don't like those thoughts but it sure drives me to want to do EVEN more and to dedicate even more of my heart, might, mind and strength!!</div>
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One of my favorite things about being in a family ward is the opportunity that I truly have each and everyday to serve, to lift where I stand. Whether it be to clean an overwhelmed young mother's kitchen, to folding 5 baskets of children's laundry, to bearing testimony to a young mother of the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to waking up at <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1397811583" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">3 AM</span></span> in the morning to decorate for my lovely sister's birthday, the work of Christ is all the same. Christ always lifted where He stood. He was about to go forth to do His Father's will of ministering to the other lost tribes of Israel after he appeared as a resurrected being to the people of the American continent, but instead he paused and lifted where He stood. </div>
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"But now I go unto the Father and also to show myself unto the lost tribes of Isreal, for they are not lost unto the Father, for he knoweth whither he hath taken them. And it came to pass that when Jesus had thus spoken, he cast his eyes round about again on the multitude, and beheld they were in tears, and did look steadfastly upon him as if they would ask him to tarry a little longer with them. And he said unto them: Behold, my bowels are filled with compassion towards you. <b>Have ye any that are sick among you? Bring them hither. Have ye any that are lame, or blind, or halt, or maimed, or leprous, or that are withered, or that are deaf, or that are afflicted in any manner? Bring them hither and I will heal them, for I have compassion upon you; my bowels are filled with mercy." (3 Nephi 17:4-7)</b></div>
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After this, Christ healed all who came unto Him, and then He tarried with them for MUCH longer, chapters after chapters where they continued to instruct and to teach them. BUT FIRST he loved them, he gained their trust, HE CARED FOR THEM first. He did not come to teach them about the sacrament, or to teach them about baptism, just to teach them, but He came to love them first. </div>
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My goal for the rest of my mission is to lift where I stand. My goal for the rest of my LIFE is to lift where I stand, and to learn to be a lifelong disciple of Christ. To learn how He would think, learn how He would feel, to learn how He would act, and to learn what He would do in all circumstances. </div>
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<b>Fun times this week!</b></div>
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Alrighty, on to some joyous once in a lifetime events of this week! So ya, haters don't hate, judgers don't judge, but WE, the missionaries, got to go watch a movie in the movie theatres this past week!!!!!</div>
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Okay, without explanation, that might sound a little apostate, so hear me out! So have you all heard of the new movie produced by the Church, or even more, the FIRST EVER MOVIE produced by the church that is being played in the movie theatres? Meet the Mormons made it's way to Minnesota and <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1397811584" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">on Saturday</span></span>, we gotta bring some of our investigators to go watch the movie/documentary, right in the nick of time for Sister Amis' birthday. Wow, that sure was a fun treat, and an once in a lifetime missionary opportunity. </div>
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But it amazes me over and over again of how a real life movie of six different real life Mormons around the world have the opportunities to share a little of what we believe in, who we are, how we live our lives, and what our faith means to us, on the big movie screens. It was indeed an inspirational movie. Shar and Robby, you should go check it out in Philly! Because of our faith, I literally feel like I have a tie to ALL these people, with all walks of life and all different backgrounds and cultures. From the Mormon infested grounds of Salt Lake City Utah, to the hidden, mysterious tall Himalayan mountains of Nepal, Mormons are everywhere and we are all united in the same faith. It is beautiful to see! We truly are a part of a world wide family, a world wide family of God.</div>
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Have a blessed week everyone! Smile all the while and turn to help someone in need today!</div>
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Love,</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Sis Pao! </i></b></span></div>
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Sharonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00044352887773459448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441373009085799825.post-55793278084947410932014-09-09T10:20:00.003-07:002014-09-09T10:20:21.100-07:00Cottage Grove: Week 1 (48) "Adventure TRULY is out HERE!"<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Last picture of Dinkytown. The sky is literally on fire!</td></tr>
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Ya, when I told you that I was venturing outside of the city away from the U of M campus, I wasn't kidding when I said that adventure TRULY IS OUT THERE!</div>
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I love Cottage Grove with every bit of my heart already. It truly is my new Sacred Grove. The work is indeed very different here, but can I please tell you that every day is an adventure! There ain't a boring day over here, I tell ya, my friend. And adding to all that excitement, or may I say, completing that is my new beloved companion Sister Amis, or aka, Sister "friend" for those of you who don't speak French. haha I LOVE THE HECK OUTTA HER.</div>
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So before I dive full fledge into the going abouts in my new area,</div>
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I'll go through a slight recap of my week earlier. </div>
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Monday night, I literally was broken-hearted. We spent the day at the Institute building just relaxing, and playing the piano and playing ping pong, and soaking in the last of Dinkytown. We then went home and packed packed packed! (and hey Shar, I really was quite impressed with myself, I didn't have as much as I expected to have especially since I stayed there for a whole year! Sis. Huang surprisingly had WAY more stuff than i did!, so ha! I'm doing better...although i'm sure all my suitcases are still overweight for when I do have to hop on a plane...haha, but that's something to worry about later.)</div>
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Ekitzel Wood (Kitz) then came and brought us out to dinner, one last chance to get some pretty authentic Chinese food at Litte SzeChuan before going out into the wild of Minnesoota. </div>
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Monday night, Elder Wall also found out that he won't be extending his mission so a bunch of the YSAs and the missionaries sang God Be With You Til' We Meet Again. Saddest thing ever. broke my heart all over again. Seriously, moving areas after staying there for one whole year literally felt like leaving home all over again. I probably didn't even feel so sick leaving home, than I did leaving Dinkytown and all my new converts, my children!</div>
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But anyways, <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1042434198" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Tuesday</span></span> night, we had our Last Supper at the Institute dinner with almost all of our Chinese and other YSA's. It was lovely to get to see them all again. Then out of nowhere, Preston, one of our Chinese converts brought us bubble Tea! 撞奶style! So yummy! and then even more out of nowhere! Karem brought me a package that Sister Huang and the rest of the everyone in Dinkytown had put together for me to open on my one year mark! I was so shocked. Sister Huang, that stinker, always going behind my back doing secret combination works. She is just the most thoughtful, charitable person ever. I think that I am forever indebted to her as well. </div>
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The morning of transfers came and it didn't feel as hard to be leaving, surprisingly. I think I was numb to it all until I stepped foot into the Bloomington Chapel for transfers meeting and then I realized that "This is Real Life!" But lo and behold transfers happened and now i'm ka-Powing it up in this new area of mine. </div>
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The work here truly is different. No more Chinese. No more student carefree lives. No more constant flow of people to talk to on the campus. But now it's real life. Real family life situations. Real struggles (not that the students didn't have any) but it's just different. These are people dealing with families, children with autism, marital problems, divorces, addictions, deaths, sicknesses, debt, poverty, work, wayward children, you name 'em all. I feel like I have been in a bubble all my mission, living in a state of innocence and carefreeness. But now I feel even more alive, as I recognize that these are real life situations where the Gospel and healing powers of Christ's Atonement can literally extend to as well. Numbers and reaching goals of how many lessons taught just became so much less important, because these are real children of God, real people, real brothers and sisters that we are working with, that we are serving, that we are uplifting. I am glad that I had felt the importance of this scripture all in preparation of getting to this new area. Now I see the truth and significance of this scripture that much more!: I have learned the power of that scripture right off the bat through my lovely Sister friend, Sister Amis. She's Real. </div>
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Here's the story of our friendship:</div>
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Once upon a time, two naive and innocent Sister missionaries stepped off the plane in Minnesota, cluelessly picked up their bags and was shuttled off to the Mission Home in Bloomington Minnesota. Neither knew any of the other missionaries that had come out with them because both had been on a different campus in the MTC. Realizing that, they decided to stick together for a little while even though neither one of them knew each other too well as well. Both however found out that they had both studied at BYU and knew some mutual friends from living in Helaman Halls Freshman Year. One was from Seattle WA and the other from Vancouver, Canada. Both had an appreciation for Fossil Watches ;)</div>
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After that first day of brief introductions, they went their separate ways for a whole year of their mission, neither living even within close distances to each other. Little did they know, a year later, they would become companions! And now the rest is history, waiting to be written!</div>
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Sister Amis is so great. She is half Mexican and half White, she studied at BYU before coming out here, she is from Seattle Washington, and loves the colour orange. </div>
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So far, it's been a blast! Within the 4 days of being in Cottage Grove, we talked to a shirtless guy at his door, a few drunken people, got caught biking in a thunderstorm, ate 2 dinners in one night (full fledged dinners as well), acted out the story of the tree of life in a family's backyard, learned to knit with Grandma Gallus, met a man who in turn, prayed for us to find truth, Heart Attacked 3 families doors in the dark, and loved and taught two autistic little boy and girl. This place is the place to be. And as much as the ward is struggling with a lot of less-actives and trust issues, we are going to do all within our ability, seriously giving me all, to help build their trust, to help lift their burdens, to serve them in a way that I could've never been able to serve in Dinkytown. Prepare for great miracles and stories to be told my friends. </div>
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I love you all dearly!</div>
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<i><b><span style="font-size: large;">Sister Pao</span><br />
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Sharonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00044352887773459448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441373009085799825.post-85404372800322190222014-09-08T09:22:00.001-07:002014-09-08T09:22:57.827-07:00Dinkytown (not for long anymore): Week 47 "Adventure is Out There!"<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">This has been the most exhilarating crazy and eventful, and unique week of my whole mission, filled with unexpected adventures.</span><br />
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Wednesday afternoon, the two Taiwanese Elders, Elder Chou and Elder Tseng moved into our area early, before transfers! They moved in early to have us train them in the Chinese work and to help them transition smoothly and to pick up smoothly right where we'll leave off. I have full faith in them that they are choice spirits prepared by our loving Heavenly Father to be here for all the many new Chinese converts, and moreover, the future ones to come. I am so excited for them!</div>
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Although I am wholeheartedly excited for them, it is still quite bittersweet to be leaving Dinkytown. This has been my home for the past year of my life! Getting transferred feels like leaving home all over again. Despite all that, Sister Huang and I were so blessed to have been prepared before hand for this change. Sister Huang and I had the opportunity to speak in Sacrament meeting this past Sunday. The Spirit was strong. I was filled with happiness and comfort that all will be okay.</div>
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On to new and exciting adventures! Everything will be terrifical, as Cynthia Peski Pao would put it :)</div>
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So with that, I will officially be moving on to the Cottage Grove area to become a Sister Training Leader with Sister Amis (I came out with her!) I am beyond excited to have the privileges of going on exchanges with other sisters serving out in the Minnesota Mission and to help uplift and strengthen different people. Change is good. Change allows us to go through the process of repentance and to become more and more refined. I can't wait to tell you all the new events that will take place. By the time you hear from me again next week, it will be bye bye to Dinkytown, and hello to Cottage Grove, Minnesota! </div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="background-color: #e7e6e2; color: #666666; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.8999996185303px;">Dear President and Sister Forbes,</span><br /><span style="color: #666666; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 16.8999996185303px;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: #e7e6e2; color: #666666; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.8999996185303px;">Happy Transfers week! This has definitely been the most exhilarating transfer of my life/ my whole mission! So much unknown was ahead of us this week, but yet it was also probably the most unique week so far with the experiences that we have gained. We hope that we have done enough to help the Chinese Elders transition and become familiarized with all of the Chinese new converts and investigators. I just know that they are going to impact so many people's lives here in Dinkytown, and that God has prepared them to be here exactly in this moment. </span><br /><span style="background-color: #e7e6e2; color: #666666; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.8999996185303px;">"Therefore, dearly beloved brethren/ [sisters], let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed." (D&C 123:17) This scripture kept reoccurring in my thoughts this week, as we've continued to face all these changes to come, head on. I know that as we wholeheartedly devote all our heart, might, mind, and strength into doing the will of God, that Christ will make up for the rest of what we cannot do on our own. I can say that I have felt that assurance all week.</span><br /><span style="color: #666666;"><span style="line-height: 16.8999996185303px;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: #e7e6e2; color: #666666; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.8999996185303px;">As I've reflected upon my mission so far this week, I wanted to share with you the joys and re-confirmation that I have gotten of how much I know this scripture to be true: "For it shall come to pass in that day, that every man shall hear the fulness of the gospel in his own language, through those who are ordained unto this power, by the administration of the Comforter, shed forth upon them for the revelation of Jesus Christ."</span><br /><span style="background-color: #e7e6e2; color: #666666; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.8999996185303px;">So many people have been prepared to come to the promise land, where they can freely learn of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I have witnessed that over and over again on my mission.</span><br /><span style="color: #666666;"><span style="line-height: 16.8999996185303px;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: #e7e6e2; color: #666666; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.8999996185303px;">This past week, we had the privilege of teaching a Chinese family, Brother and Sister Zheng (Lei, and Lina). Sister Lina Zheng had moved to Minnesota about a year and a half ago, and her husband just moved here 3 months ago. Lina has always believed in a God, but she never identified herself as any specific faith. She attended multiple different Christian churches here in Minnesota, but never felt like any of them had the "full truth." She recognized all the good, and basic truths that are in all religions, but was always confused about which of them is real. All up until about three weeks ago, when the Plymouth Elders contacted them on their way home from the store. As she heard the message of the Restoration unfolded before her, she was overjoyed to hear the analogy of the broken mirror, of how she truly did believe that there are bits and pieces of truths in all religion, but because of the Restoration, she has finally found the place where the fulness of truth can be found. Her husband, a Christian for the majority of his life as well was very intrigued with the idea that we lived before we were born onto the earth. His wife had always believed in the Pre-mortal life, coming from the Buddhist faith, but her husband had always disagreed with that fact, just up until we shared with him the scripture Jeremiah 1:5. He was amazed. We were astonished at how prepared they both are to hear of this message. Moreover, the reason why they had decided to move to the U.S. is mainly because they hope to provide a better educational environment for their two year old daughter, and they also hope to have more children. They are a very special family indeed, and we can't wait for the growth that they will experience as the Chinese Elders continue to teach them.</span><br /><span style="color: #666666;"><span style="line-height: 16.8999996185303px;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: #e7e6e2; color: #666666; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.8999996185303px;">With the new area and new companion that I will soon be having as this week continues to unfold before us, I hope to better live the attributes of this scripture, as I seek to constantly ask myself "What more can I do, or how can I be better?"</span><br /><span style="background-color: #e7e6e2; color: #666666; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.8999996185303px;">"And now I would that ye should be humble, and be submissive and gentle; easy to be entreated; full of patience and long-suffering; being temperate in all things; being diligent in keeping the commandments of God at all times; asking for whatsoever things ye stand in need, both spiritual and temporal; always returning thanks unto God for whatsoever things ye do receive. And see that ye have faith, hope, and charity, and then ye will always abound in good works." (Alma 7:23-24)</span><br /><span style="color: #666666;"><span style="line-height: 16.8999996185303px;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: #e7e6e2; color: #666666; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.8999996185303px;">Thank you President for the brief but meaningful counsel that you gave to me over the phone last night. I am looking forward to serving others, and lifting others above myself. We love and support you! See you Wednesday!</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.8999996185303px;">Love,</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.8999996185303px;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Sister Pao</span></i></b></span></span></div>
Sharonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00044352887773459448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441373009085799825.post-55657724518311783732014-08-26T09:26:00.000-07:002014-09-08T09:29:23.826-07:00Dinkytown: Week 46 "God Be With you 'Til We Meet Again"<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
It is somber news to hear about the passing of those two fine, stalwart Elders in Taiwan. My heart and prayers goes out to them and to their families. Mom, thanks a lot. I bawled when I read your email this morning about the news. Don't worry about me though, I am safe here and still kicking and screaming. It is extra saddening to me to hear their news nonetheless, because although I don't know them personally, one of the Taiwanese Elders is Sister Huang's good friend. As her companion and since we are one in unity, I weep with her, but at the same time, we stand assurred that he is well and that he still is serving an honorable mission on the other side of the veil.</div>
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With that, a little insight of why I decided to title this email God Be With you Til We Meet Again, to add to all the sentimental effects, we received a personal call from President Forbes this past Wednesday, that Sister Huang and I will officially be moving and transferred out of the Dinkytown area Wednesday Sept. 3rd. It was the weirdest calmest feeling that swept over me after we had hung up, which was very surprising because neither of us were expecting this. We were both expecting to stay for one more transfer to train and overlap with the Taiwanese Elders, but nope, Heavenly Father has greater plans in mind for us.</div>
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To be honest, I didn't know what to think after the call. This has been my home literally for the past year of my life. But after much praying and pondering, and evaluating, we both saw a glimpse into how perfect Heavenly Father's plan is for each of us. Why He timed it for now for us to leave, why President called us earlier to give us a heads up about the news, why He allowed Sister Huang to serve next to each other for half a year, why He allowed ME to serve here for ONE year, EVERYTHING, that we could think of benefitted me as a missionary, as a friend, as a daughter, as a sister, as a student, as a future mother, and then moreover, how this will benefit our members, our investigators, our recent Chinese converts all for the better! It is just absolutely astonishing how God manages to make everything work. I could just sit for days explaining how perfect this has been, but I won't bore you all anymore.</div>
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Instead I wanted to share my email to President this week with you all because I think this will give you a slight glimpse of all the miracles and JOY I have been feeling. I LITERALLY FEEL LIKE IM EXPLODING WITH HAPPINESS!!!</div>
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<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Dearest President and Sister Forbes,<br /><br />First off, sorry this email is SO long, but we just have soooo many miracles that we want to share with you.<br />We are just overflowing with blessings, and miracles, and an abundance of joy. I literally am enjoying a taste of what it feels like when God promises us to open the windows of heaven to pour down blessings upon us, that we will not even have enough room to receive it-- don't get me wrong, I am not complaining about all the blessings, but just recognizing and realizing the hand of the Lord is so many aspects of our lives. It really is overwhelmingly beautiful!<br /><br />President, we truly do appreciate you letting us know ahead of time of our move. That was a miracle in itself. As much as we want to be the "perfect" absolutely "consecrated" missionaries that we strive to be, our heart and mind will still sometime fall short, and it's definitely take some time to wrap our minds around the changes to come. Don't worry though, it is not hindering any of our work and effectiveness because thankfully for the Sabbath, I was able to more fully come to terms that it's okay that I am sad about leaving, it's okay that I may not fully want to change, and it's okay that perhaps if by my own terms, I cannot feel well about it. But because my Savior can instill in me hope and ennable me to come to terms with anything, I trust and have faith in Him, and hence, He has ennabled me to move forward continuously. We have seen countless miracles because of it.<br /><br />Our most recent convert just arrived back from Salt Lake City a couple of days ago. Cedric Shan went to Salt Lake with his family that was visiting from China. Right at the start of their trip, they found out that his grandpa back in China had passed away. He was very close to his grandpa, and thought that he would feel devestated and would not have the mind or energy to continue to bring his family around to tour the U.S., especially since none of them understood English, and none of them could drive in America, all their accomodations and needs ands concerns were thrown upon his shoulders. He came to tell us that to be honest, if he had not learned about this Gospel, and the Plan of Salvation and had been baptized just a little more than a month earlier, he would not have been able to function properly and to enjoy the rest of their family's trip here. Because of all these trials right after his baptism and how he so calmly took care of and handled the situations, his family saw a difference and recognized that it must have been the Church and it's teachings. Because of these events, it made their visit to temple square that much more special and meaningful. They loved learning about the Plan of Salvation and felt a tangible sweet spirit surround and comfort them as they were learning from the Sister missionaries on the temple grounds. This truly is God's work, He has a perfect plan in how He wants each and every one of His child to learn of His Gospel and of His plan. He is sooooo gracious in allowing us the privilege of being His hands, and to take part in this great and marvelous work. Cedric is excited to go forth and share more of his joys with his cousin in Boston, his good friend in Washington D.C., and many more of his friends who will be promptly returning to Minneseta after the summer break.<br /><br />President/ Brother Clements, before he had left the mission field had committed Sister Huang and I to start working with our Chinese Recent Converts and getting them excited about missionary work. We labored diligently, although sometimes felt discouraged because we did not see the immediate results. President Clements PROMISED us many, many baptisms and people who will come into Christ's folds will be because of member referrals. Sister Huang and I truly believed that we have sowed patiently, and we are SO EXCITED to see what miracles will come about as Elder Tseng and Chou pick up right where we left off and reap those who have been prepared by the Lord.<br /><br />On top of blessing us with much success amongst our Chinese Recent Converts, Heavenly Father blessed us with more success as we continued to work and find and contact diligently. Two days in a row this week, we found two PREPARED and SEARCHING souls, who will become new investigators for the Zone Leaders to teach. A little insight of how we were all blown away by their comments, is first, when Nick prayed at the end of sharing the message of the Restoration with him, he expressed gratitude to God for giving him the opportunity to investigate the Church, and then he asked for the Holy Spirit to guide him to discern truth, and then he prayed to know God's will for him. Justin on the other hand said that after he had heard the message of the Restoration, he felt like a heavy load that he had been carrying for the past 20 or so years, had just lifted off of him. We were blown away by their amazing testimonies! These are REAL people! REAL searching people.<br /><br />Thank you for providing such a wonderfully enriching training last week. We are so blessed and grateful to have your leadership and your stalwart example. We love you and Sister Forbes dearly! Have a miracle filled week and just know that angels will be lifting you, round about you this week as you continue to prepare for transfers.</span><br />
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ANYWHO! LOVE YOU ALLLL SOOO MUCH FAM BAM AND FRIENDS. TAKE CARE, LOOK UP WHEN TIMES GETS HARD, BE GRATEFUL AND HUMBLE, AND JUST LOVE LOVE LOVE! HERE'S TO MY LAST WEEK IN DINKYTOWN! PREPARE FOR MORE EXCITING STORIES AS I ENTER A NEW AREA!....PRAY THAT PACKING WILL GO SMOOTHLY. HAHA</div>
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Love,<br />
<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Sister Pao</span></i></b></div>
Sharonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00044352887773459448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441373009085799825.post-81053955186971824842014-08-11T12:07:00.000-07:002014-09-09T12:08:04.231-07:00Dinkytown: Week 44 "Serve til you drop!"<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
Dear friends and family,</div>
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You all are so kind to me and write me such wonderful emails. Also, dearest family and friends, you all have such exciting and adventurous lives and sooo much going on, that I just am engulfed in so much happiness for all of you as I read about your lives and going abouts each week. Because of that, so sorry that my email will me super brief and short this week.</div>
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Since I have four minutes left, I just want to express my favorite learning experience from this week and that is: So often we talk about letting our faith show to others around us, but how often we prevent ourselves from seeing our own faith and our growth and progress. That's my favorite lesson of this week and this is, we are all on our personal journey and road of progression. Let your faith show to yourself by patting yourself on the back once in a awhile, by taking a step back and recognizing the good you have done, but getting right back on doing more. We are all imperfect, and we need not be overwhelmed by that fact. That's why we have Christ's Atonement and love and His help in our lives. I have soooo much more to learn, but boy, am I always in for a ride of my life, each and every week as I push myself a little farther in remembering and becoming more like my Savior.</div>
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I love you all dearly, and until next week!</div>
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Love,</div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Sister Pao!</span></i></b></div>
Sharonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00044352887773459448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441373009085799825.post-45938222236576419042014-08-04T12:06:00.000-07:002014-09-09T12:06:52.169-07:00Dinkytown: Week 43 "Be thou Humble"<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
Helloooo all me lovelies!</div>
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Wow, time sure speeds by and by and by when I'm not thinking about myself, about school, about my friends/associations and etc.</div>
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It's something about the mission that makes me feel like we're in some sort of time warp or something. Are you all feeling that out in the real world? Or does the mission really suck you into some kind of vortex?</div>
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This week has been filled with a lot and a lot and a lot of blessings from all of our lovely new converts, investigators, and members.</div>
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We are getting fed SOOO often now! Seems like every week we have big gatherings and meals with all of our wonderful new converts and investigators and members.</div>
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Minglong, our investigator who I literally met when I first got out here last October is leaving soon to go back to China..booo :( He still won't be able to be baptized here because of his school contract that he had signed when they started funding him to come to school here for this past year. Minglong is practically a member already though since he's been teaching us a lot of the lessons now and sometimes even coming in to sit in our lessons with other investigators.. He fed us a delicious meal this past week and spoiled us with Tang Yuan. Ya, in Minnesota! I am gonna miss that kid, but good thing God has placed him in our lives, and thank goodness for technology, we'll get to keep in touch with him. I really really hope that he will be able to find time to go to HK to get baptized!</div>
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We had the wonderful opportunity on Saturday to go over to Sherry and Howard Chan's family's (Chang Qing's sister's) home to enjoy dinner and Family Home Evening with a bunch of other Chinese families and our recent converts and investigators. Biggest gathering of Chinese people here in Minnesota probably for a longgg time! haha</div>
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It was amazing to have our recent converts there meeting the other members and sharing their stories and being strengthened by each other's faith and testimonies. I love seeing the growth of our Chinese! Sometimes, I just wished I could see the future and fast forward just a little to see what greater things they'll be doing with their lives in the future. Will they continue to stay faithful, will they build up righteous families? Will they enter the temple to be married and sealed for all time and eternity? They have so much potential and I just know that Heavenly Father is preparing them to become great leaders in His kingdom in China one day. Also, I just know that Heavenly Father placed them in my life for a reason, perhaps they will be of great help to me in the future, who knows? I can sense it though! And I'm grateful that I have been able to work with so many of the people of mainland China so close-knitted these days. Heavenly Father is still giving me the opportunity to continue my redemption /repentance process from those years where i was prideful and rude while living in China. What was I thinking, Sister Pao? haha</div>
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Guess it takes quite a lot to finally knock some sense into me to continue and STAY humble. That truly is the way to be in this life. I still have a lot of work to do, but I am grateful that Heavenly Father is mindful of my weakness and continues to refine me through my investigators, through the experiences that I face here, but most importantly through my loving eternal companion Sister Huang. WE are just oh sooo the same in so many things, hence we clash at times. But because we have been able to work through so many ups and downs, you know, fighting off fire breathing dragons, and falling ice daggers, and scaling walls and such, my future husband should be very very happy and should be EXTREMELY grateful to Sister Huang for helping me overcome and continue to triumph our weaknesses, and to become the kind of person that our Heavenly Father wants us to become. It's a journey. It's hard. But it is sooooo worth it!</div>
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Love you all long time, and miss you tons, but would not want to be any other place but here at this time! Until next week me loves!</div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Sister Pao</span></i></b></div>
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Sharonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00044352887773459448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441373009085799825.post-12656250797248015752014-07-07T12:09:00.000-07:002014-09-09T12:11:16.574-07:00Dinkytown: Week 39 "Every Member A Missionary"<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
This week has been quite an eventful week!</div>
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We had two P-days in one week because of July 4th!</div>
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On top of the unusual schedule, I felt like Sister Huang and I had unusual teaching experiences, unique opportunities, and an unusual amount of different opportunities to see a lot more of Minnesota than what we usually have.</div>
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<b><u>Update on Cedric Shan:</u></b></div>
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WE have a baptism coming up this Saturday! Woot Woot! -- well that's if Cedric remembers to wake up in time and decides to join us for his baptismal interview later today. Cedric was found by the elders on campus about a few months back in April, he was searching for inner peace in his life throughout his school semester and thought that God was answering his prayers when he had met the elders. Since he's Chinese, we got to teach him! He is such a cool, humble, obedient, and xiao shun to his parents, guy. We've loved hearing about the things that he has done to better himself. For example, he quite all caffeine including coke and other pop when he found out that there is caffeine in coffee AND in pop. He said that he felt like he was deceived by the manufacturers all this time. This past week, as we reviewed the baptismal interview questions with him, we asked him how he feels like he came to and believes that God is our Eternal Father. He thought for a very long time and then he started to tell us a story of what had happened to him and his parents this past week. He said that he has been praying for his dad to quit smoking for a while now. Finally this past week, his dad suddenly called him and told him that he is officially quitting after being a chain smoker of 30 years as of that day. The reason why his dad feels like he should do that is because he feels like he should be a better example to his son. What sparked this sudden thought and motivation was because Cedric had sent a letter about him and his dad's relationship and memories growing up to him for fathers day after attending an FHE activity where they invited everyone to write letters to our fathers. Cedric was overjoyed when he heard his dad's call, and felt like God is continuously guiding him and his family, moving them all for the better.</div>
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Funny story though: He had missed his baptismal interview this past Saturday at 10:30am because he was completely dead asleep and and slept through all of his alarms and our phone calls and banging on his door. WE literally found his student apartment, somehow managed to sneak in, banged on his door for 25 minutes, and got ZERO reply. He felt sooooo horrible when he woke up. Man that boy is a deep sleeper. I think he gets the award for being the deepest sleeper that I have ever met in my life. And fam, you think I am a deep sleeper, well you all just gotta meet Cedric. haha</div>
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<b><u>July 4th dinner:</u></b></div>
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Happy America Day! haha funny how we completely flipped it around and celebrated with Chinese food, and with two Chinese families instead. Sister Huang sure had a memorable first July 4th here in America...nothin new though, just more chinese and taiwanese food. haha</div>
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I don't know if you have all heard about Clayton Christiansen. He's an area seventy, and he also wrote a book called an Everyday Member Missionary or something like that. Well, we met one of his previous students Connie Zhang, who is a member here in the Eden Prairie area, and also good friends with Sherry and Howard Chan (Chang Qing's sister!) They invited Sister Huang and I over for dinner, so we could share a message and get to know her (Connie's) parents who were in town from Beijing. She so badly wants her parents to join the church, but her dad, has been quite resistent all this time. Wonderful people, wonderful philosophical and moral opinions, and just the cutest little old people. We had such a spiritual and enjoyable time with them, Sister Connie Zhang was introduced to the church by Elder Clayton Christiansen of the seventy. She is actually one of the people that he writes about in his book, except her name is Natasha in the book. They all just have the coolest conversion stories, and as I continued to study more about the talks given by Elder Christiansen, it just made me think more and more about you! FAM!</div>
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For example: mom, because you shared with your friends the fact that we go to church, and the blessings that have come to us because of the church, Lawrence and his mom had the opportunity to learn from missionaries and to be baptized! The family in shanghai that you had befriended, her and her daughters were able to learn about the church as well. Shar, because of your faith, you were able to talk to more people on the plane about your belief and what missionaries do. Many more people around us are waiting to hear the Gospel. We should all take on the challenge of Elder Ballard and many more leaders of the Church to set goals and to make plans of how we can invite more people to learn about the church through meeting with the missionaries. I'll write more of my thought next week, but for now, read this talk <a href="https://www.lds.org/ensign/2005/02/seven-lessons-on-sharing-the-gospel?lang=eng" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">https://www.lds.org/ensign/<wbr></wbr>2005/02/seven-lessons-on-<wbr></wbr>sharing-the-gospel?lang=eng</a></div>
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It's changed my view and literally have gotten me excited about becoming a member missionary after my mission.</div>
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We are working with our ward missionaries to have them extend this challenge to the rest of the members and YSA's in our ward. Seriously, if all of us can become more like Elder Christiansen and his wife, then we seriously will be fulfilling our covenants and commandment from our SAvior to go spread the Gospel to all nations.</div>
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<b><u>Miracle from last night:</u></b></div>
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We've been praying and fasting for new investigators and one came our way last night! He's also Taiwanese!</div>
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I love you all tons! Until next week!</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Sister Pao</i></b></span></div>
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Sharonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00044352887773459448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441373009085799825.post-51739476652979305862014-06-30T11:49:00.000-07:002014-09-09T11:49:29.402-07:00Dinkytown: Week 38 "10 Shades More Colourful"<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
Where has the week gone. Another week has come and gone, and I have, not only been out for half of my mission now, but 9 months is slowly creeping down to only 8 months left. Can you believe it?!</div>
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My heart hurts and cringes whenever I see a plane passing over head, and the EVER SO familiar voice of my lovely companion, Sister Huang creeps into my mind, saying "That's going to be you on that plane in 8 months, or a year from today, you'd be home for 3 months already!" Ah! it blows my mind. I guess these thoughts are coming through my mind once again because changes on the mission always cause me to re-evaluate, and to self-reflect.</div>
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Speaking of change, President and Sister Clements are officially no longer "President" anymore (please keep them in your prayers as they continue to become associated to 'normal non missionary' lives). We have been blessed with a stalwart, faithfilled, proactive mission President, and a loving, joyful, steadfast President's wife for these last three years, or half of my mission. I cannot even imagine how it feels for them to see all the changes that have happened here in the last 3 years, and also how it feels to have loved, labored with, mentored, lead, admonished, and nurtured 700+ young sisters and elders. Their efforts and examples have definitely touched the lives of many and many more that will come after. They MUST have labored in the strength of the Lord, because I cannot simply imagine and believe that any person can do all that they did, by their own strength.</div>
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We are excited to be moving into another new era and experience of missionary work with the starts of getting to know our new mission president, President and Sister Forbes. We got to hold a mission prayer last night, and finally got to hear their voices. Without a doubt, they speak with the same authority and love, and bless their hearts, I cannot imagine how nerve racking it must be to be thrown into a calling where the welfare, spiritual and physical, questions, concerns, and etc. of 300 missionaries plus their investigators are all pretty much directed and dependant upon them. I would explode. Luckily and hence that is the reason of course that I am simply still a missionary who can focus on doing my part for the very least.</div>
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Yesterday at church, I was asked by a Young single adult, about how I felt I have changed on my mission, since I am now half way through.To be honest, I couldn't really give him much answers until I took some conscious effort to ponder upon that question. But as I took the time to evaluate, Sister Huang and I talk about how we literally do change every single day, and I see the fruits of what 9 months of dedicated missionary work can do to a person. This truly is the greatest one and a half year of my life. I have learnt how to plan, to organize my time, to be punctual, to be exactly obedient, to hold my tongue and temper even with the sun burning upon you, to turn the other cheek, to persevere, to trust, to love, to love OTHERS, to FOCUS on others, to be sensitive to others needs, to trust in the Lord, to replace FEAR with FAITH, to LOVE the Book of Mormon, to teach, and converse all in Chinese, to know how to study effectively, to LOVE people, to love TALKING to people (every person has a unique story), to recognize the Spirit, to never give up, the essence of hard work, and being hardworking, to look forward with faith, to be persistent and patient, and to be quick to observe.</div>
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Oh gosh, the list can go on foreverrrr! What would I have done without my mission. Well, I know for a fact that I definitely would've still been able to live happily, but oh how I would've limited myself on the blessings that Heavenly Father has in store for me. I realized here on my mission that although I was a pretty obedient member of the Church all growing up, I had placed limits on the Lord and My Heavenly Father on the things that they wanted to bless me with by not 'searching, pondering, praying' at all times, and daily from reading the scriptures, from not fully understanding my Savior and His infinite Atonement, from not even fully understanding my baptismal covenants! My life was colorful in the past in the Gospel, but because of my mission, I can say that it is 10 shades and 10 times more colorful and vibrant these days. (This connects with Minnesota too I think. Something that puts me to awe is how just whenever I think that Summer's in Minnesota cannot get any greener, a huge thunderstorm washes over, and I swear, all the green around me just gets 10 times more colorful and vibrant!)</div>
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Each day and week I have a renewed desire to learn something new, to work a little harder, to not give up. I love that I get to tap into more of my Heavenly Father's wisdom and power, as I pray always, as I spend more time on my knees praying, and then as I get up and get to work.</div>
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Along with prayers, I have learnt and gain a testimony of the power of fasting. Don't let that commandment go to waste! A fast of gratitude brough me greater strength and the power of God truly was manifested. "therefore they gave thanks unto the Lord their God; yea, and they did fast much and pray much, and they did worship God with exceedingly great joy." That is how I feel at the end of this past week.</div>
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Fam, all I can say is that my eyes, heart, and mind, have been opened to so many greater wonders and awe of this world we live in, of the eternal and infinite Atonement of Christ, the Savior of all mankind, of our purpose and roles here in life, of our relationship with every living soul here on earth (people seriously! get off your phones and electronics, and for once travel on the streets and TALK to people, have PHYSICAL SOCIAL CONTACTS!), and of what gratitude means towards my family, towards those that support me, but most importantly towards my Heavenly Father.</div>
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I LOVE YOU ALL!</div>
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PEACE AND BLESSINGS,</div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">SIS. PAO</span></i></b></div>
Sharonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00044352887773459448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441373009085799825.post-17216540390441350332014-06-23T11:38:00.000-07:002014-09-09T11:47:19.014-07:00Dinkytown: Week 37 "Connections all around the world"<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
All I can say is that: "When you are a member of the worldwide Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You literally are connected all around the world. It is the most joyous, most comforting, and glorious thought ever! I love this GOSPEL!"</div>
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This week I talk of this mainly because first, Heavenly Father truly answers prayers and guides obedient, and worthy missionaries to uplift and find those who are seeking His Gospel.</div>
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Long story short, this week we were out contacting on campus and Sister Huang and I felt prompted to take a different path than usual. We walked down the road and immediately we saw someone that we could talk to. We approached her and found out that she was a Chinese mother currently living in Oakland, California, and was visiting her son here at the U of M for the summer. She also told us that she is an LDS member and that she was baptized in California about a year ago! She had arrived in Minnesota about a week ago, and could not find out where the closest meetinghouse for her was here in Minneapolis. Her and her son had been scoping out other church buildings that they had found on <a href="http://mormon.org/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">mormon.org</a>, but since she doesn't speak much English, she was hoping that at least some of the missionaries here would speak Chinese. Despite her search, she could not find the missionaries numbers. Funny story, her son's roommate had met Sister Huang and I on campus about three months ago, and had told us about this mother that would be coming into Minnesota in the summer. He said that he would get our information to her so that when she came, she would be able to get in touch with us. Unfortunately, our phone number had changed, and because of that, she still could not get in touch with us. Finally, the Lord guided us all to meet Friday morning, to answer her prayers, and to help out a fellow new convert that was obediently trying to live her baptismal covenants. We were overjoyed to have been led her way, and also through meeting her, she was able to invite her son to join us for our sacrament service! Although he is not very interested now, we are hoping to work with her and her son throughout this summer, to help him learn a little more about this Gospel that has so miraculously changed his mother's life. (her conversion is the most awesomest thing ever and I will be sure to share it next time!)</div>
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Even better to add onto this, after getting to know her more yesterday at church, I found out that Zhou Yun! Sister Zhou from Taipei Taiwan song shan ward is also in her ward! We all know the same people! Mom, you gotta let them know that I saw a picture of Sister Zhou in her iPhone! Coolest thing ever!</div>
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Through these experiences this week, I have just been thinking over and over about how powerful of instruments we can all be in helping each other along in this life, if we were always worthy and constantly seeking to be sensitive to the promptings of the Spirit. And through this experience, it once again proved to me that my claim of not believing in coincidences is in fact so TRUE! Heavenly Father DOES indeed guide us in this life. We just have to be willing to be humble, and submissive-- and no, that does not mean that we are weak, and helpless, but that we are willing to glorify this life, and this work, and our future along with our Heavenly Father.</div>
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As I have continued to study about humility, I have truly seen how it is the catalyst of all other Christ-like attributes-- attributes that we know will bring us all happiness in our lives. The qualities, of charity, of love, of patience, of diligence, of seeking out knowledge, of hope, of faith. Even for those who do not have a belief in God, I can already see and know that one way or another, they will try to seek these things out in their lives, and finally find, some may be ten years, some may be a few months, some may be their life time, that nothing other than the Gospel of Jesus Christ, or following the teachings of Christ can most fully allow these qualities to be a part of your life.</div>
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All these attributes round us up as a more fulfilling and well rounded person, and I am grateful to have a knowledge and an ever growing testimony of this gospel.</div>
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Until next week!</div>
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Love,</div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Sis. Pao</span></i></b></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: start;">Karem went to Florida, we did too! ;)</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: start;">Getting worse and worse....uh oh.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: start;">Our closest to a good Taiwanese meal that we can get.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RVjD1X2DcY8/VA9JxEwGT4I/AAAAAAAAESc/le474XaW7jE/s1600/IMG_0607.JPG" height="480" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="640" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sister Luo from Oakland California</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me lovelies</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-N5pqUkXNTvQ/VA9JxutdhaI/AAAAAAAAESs/q6DMWlqxsw4/s1600/DSCN9863.JPG" height="640" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="480" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: start;">Sister clements leaving us :'(</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-y-DHL2_VQ9w/VA9JyD1WsFI/AAAAAAAAESw/v4MF885tYTs/s1600/DSCN9974.JPG" height="480" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="640" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Last pic</td></tr>
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Sharonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00044352887773459448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441373009085799825.post-55047461252404186322014-06-16T11:36:00.000-07:002014-09-09T11:37:47.498-07:00Dinkytown: Week 36 "Half Way Mark already?!"<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
Sorry fam and friends, my update this week will yet again be my letter to President Clements.</div>
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BUT HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO ROBBY AND DADDY AND TO ALL THE OTHER FATHERS OUT THERE! You're example to me teach me more and more about my relationship with my Heavenly Father. Hope you all had the best week ever!</div>
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<span style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Dear President Clements, </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">This has been another inspiring week filled with many unexpected encounters. Many things we felt like we were lead to do because of the promptings of the Holy Ghost. However, despite feeling satisfied, and accomplished at the end of the day, our key indicators still seem to express otherwise. I am not worried, but just curious as to why our key indicators are at such a low compared to all our past months. Sister Huang and I continue to inquire with the Lord as to what we can do to improve, and over and over again, we have simply received the promptings, and suggestions from the scriptures and from the WHB that by small and simples means, are great things brought to past, and that we need to be patient and diligent. We will keep moving forward, but for some reason, something still seems to be missing.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">Miracles!</span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">I have many to share as usual, but the most prominent one of this week would have probably been our Saturday dinner with some of our Asian recent converts (Tuan Pham, Dennis Chu and Preston Wei), and Stan Zhong, and Cedric Shan (our investigators) and Harris, Tuan's Indian friend. After dinner, Sister Huang and I decided that instead of having us share a message, we wanted to hear of all the different miracles that people have seen in their lives recently. We started off by sharing a few of our own as missionaries, and then opened the floor up to any of them to speak up. Immediately our investigator, Stan piped up and talked about a small but simple miracle he had witnessed from one of his TA's in his summer class. She was very patient and helpful towards all the students, and genuinely cared for their learning. The last day of class, she brought them all cookies and treats. He said that usually he wouldn't recognize that as a miracle, but now looking back on retrospect, her kindness brought a lot of happiness and impacted him for the better. Cedric, our other investigator talked about him meeting the missionaries on campus had been his recent miracle. He had been questioning himself for many months prior to meeting the missionaries as to why he hadn't been able to find inner peace amongst his school life. He felt like something was missing and he simply didn't have an answer for it. He felt like his silent prayers were answered when he met the missionaries and felt inspired to go listen to what we have to say. Harris talked about how meeting Tuan and becoming friends with him was his recent miracle in his life.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">Progressing Investigator:</span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">Cedric Shan is our date set for July 19th. He is progressing very well, and was able to attend the fireside last night. We thought that it was perfect that he was able to hear Elder Chou and Elder Tseng's conversion stories, AND also to have had the chance to meet them personally. We think that it was a good extra bonus and testimony to him to know that these missionaries were in his shoes not too long ago, learning the Gospel with missionaries just like what he is doing now. Something surprising that came up during one of our meetings with Cedric this past week was how he had taken the Word of Wisdom to another level (BYU campus level). (Don't worry, it is nothing bad!) He learnt that caffeine in coffee and tea are what causes people to become dependent upon it, and so he went and did a little more research upon caffeine. Apparently he had never known that there is caffeine in coke, and when he realized this, he felt like he should not drink coke anymore as well! He said that he felt manipulated by the manufacturers and felt that they have been deceiving him all these years. We laughed, and said whatever floats your boat. Our member joint teacher then said that it's better for us anyways, not to drink so much pop. We are grateful that he is truly applying and processing all the things that he learns here. He surely is a prepared soul.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">This week, I am working on dedicating all my heart, might, mind, and strength to serving the Lord. I know why I need to do these things, and have the desire to do so, but sometimes still struggle to find out exactly how I can do this at ALL TIMES. I am simply grateful that I have this time to deepen my conversion. For one thing, I can say that I have definitely realized how much I may have been living below my potentials as a daughter of God before my mission. It truly did require coming on my mission to learn these things, and I am forever grateful for this. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">My family has just been overflowing with good news and things to be happy about. My younger sister is staying strong in the Gospel even amongst her non-religious high school friends at the American International School that she is going to back in Taipei. She is becoming a lot more independent, going summer job hunting and learning so much out of it. She just finished her ACT exam this past Saturday, and also found a job at a restaurant in a hotel! I just learnt that my older sister and her little family is officially moving from Hawaii back to Utah , and thus, will probably be there when I get back from the mission. Those are some of my biggest dreams, to be able to live with all my siblings close by to each other again, it's just been way too long where all our family members have just been so far away from each other. I am so ever grateful for the Gospel, that has kept our family together even amongst all the hail and mighty storms that have beat upon us. We are a blessed family.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">We love you and Sister Clements dearly. You are family to me. I will be forever grateful for all the things that I have learnt from your examples. See you on Wednesday! :)</span></span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Love,</span><br /><i style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Sister Pao</span></b></i></div>
Sharonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00044352887773459448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441373009085799825.post-9126689394755604572014-06-09T11:35:00.000-07:002014-09-09T11:36:10.756-07:00Dinkytown: Week 35<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
Oh how did another week just slip by?! Sister Huang and I have both officially hit and passed our less than 1 year count. That's what they say, when we our down to less than 1 year, everything accelerates even more! ah!</div>
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TRANSFERS call is today! Guess where I'm moving to??????</div>
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Nowhere, still Dinkytown and I'm loving it! Can you all believe it, I've been on my mission for almost 9 months! And the whole time I have been here in Dinkytown. Coming up on my 7th transfer. Going down in history baby here in Dinkytown!</div>
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Heavenly Father has a lot of unfinished work for me to do here, and unlearnt lessons as well I bet. Excited for what new lessons will be learnt this new transfer!</div>
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Speaking of history, We witnessed history in the making this weekend, and especially yesterday in our Sacrament Meeting, according to the words of Brother Bigelow, the first counselor of our bishopric! Brother WeiHua Li, a convert of just over a year, and who had just earlier this year, been ordained as an Elder with the Melchizedek Priesthood confirmed Sister Wei Xiu You as a member of the Church in her own native language, Chinese! Along with her confirmation, Sister Eva Roberts was confirmed by Brother Bebault, a member of not too long as well. Both new converts were baptizing and confirming these new sheep of Christ's fold for the very first time in their lives. It was truly a miracle! Despite being new converts to the church, their maturity in the Gospel and how the Spirit was brought about by them were simply such strong examples to me! We are so blessed with all these opportunities to witness these tender mercies, and needless to say--miracles from our Heavenly Father. </div>
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This past week was one of the fastest passing weeks on my mission probably, and despite it being a super spiritual week and weekend, it was also probably one of my own most frustrating times. Somehow, despite all the miracles that we have seen in our area, I was blinded by all the 'unfinished' tasks at hand that I failed to recognize all the tender mercies from my Heavenly Father until at the end of our day yesterday. Thank goodness Heavenly Father blessed me with a loving companion, who is very patient and collected must I say, and revelations through church attendance. I have been able to refocus on my tasks at hand and learn what it means to put all my TRUST in God. That means being exact and obedient, faithful, diligent, and we SHALL see results. But most importantly, I need to be patient. I am excited for the miracles that we will get to witness here this transfer, as we make it a goal and all our efforts to building our relationship and trust with the ward members, as we continue to seek out member referrals as we build the faith and testimony of our new converts, and as we continue to Baptize! I am so blessed to recognize what the Lord will have us do in this area, and I am grateful that we can receive revelations to do all that we can to work work and work!</div>
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Prepare for more miraculous stories me fam bam! I love you all and sorry for the short email again, I got so caught up in reading other emails.</div>
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Love love love,</div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Sister Pao </span></i></b></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: start;">Dinner with the Van Heels! Love these girls!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Burgers!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wei Liu!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sandwiched!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Asians!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: start;">Sister You Wei Xiu, love her!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: start;">Reunited with Sister Curtis! Tender mercy.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Baptism!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: start;">The Nook! Juicy Lucy's, now I've officially been to Minnesota, tell ya about them next week!</span></td></tr>
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Sharonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00044352887773459448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441373009085799825.post-21399104588803778092014-06-02T10:51:00.000-07:002014-09-09T11:28:57.787-07:00Dinkytown: Week 34 "Officially Humbled...by a French guy"<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
Well, mom, all I can say is that if I told you the stories of what happened to me this week, you would laugh hysterically and say, serves me right.</div>
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After all these years someone has finally taught me the lesson of not being so quick to slip off my shoes, and to not be so quick in walking around barefeet. haha But more importantly, what I learnt from this experience is First: to follow the promptings of the Spirit at all times and not to satisfy my own selfish curiosity! Second: Humility!</div>
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Wednesday, we were out contacting on campus, and we came in contact with a man from France--take note that he was in about his late 40s. He had broken English, and seemed lost and confused--especially after being approached by two strangers wayy too happily greeting him. From there, he showed us a text message of what he was doing because, I was quick to say 'hey! i know some french' (now thinking on retrospect, i should've just kept my mouth shut! Oh prideful Sister Pao)</div>
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Anyhow, we finally figured out that he was doing an Amazing Race like challenge with some of his friends, because they had all pitched in their money to buy a plane ticket for Brazil, and if he wins, he gets to take it! He was really into the game, and if we had known, we should've just ended the conversation their, wished him good luck, and continued sharing the gospel with others. (That would have been the smart thing to do) but of course, I kept digging for more info, trying to understand more of what he was doing and of trying to figure out how we could help him. Anyway, long story short, the challenge that he was at went something like this "You are to take your shoes off and give them to the first woman you see on the streets, then you are to walk for the rest of the day barefeet."</div>
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So, lucky Sis. Huang and I, we were the first women that ran into him after he received that text message. So basically he took his shoes off and forced them to us. He was really frustrated though because he felt really stupid having to walk around barefeet--something about french culture and not liking the idea of losing face and looking foolish. But we really couldn't tell, because he had broken english and we thought that he was joking! So finally, he remembered that we introduced ourselves as missionaries from a church, and so it clicked and he said, "you are christians right? Will you help me out now then, because I can't wear my own shoes, give me yours. If you are a Christian, you will help somebody in need. I am in need! Give me your shoes." I thought that he was just messing, because in my mind, I thought that it would be even MORE foolish for him to walk around with half of his feet slipped into some turquoise women's flats! He kept insisting and said, oh yes, it'll be ok, i'll show you what I can do, it's okay, and before then, (who knows what i was thinking) but I had slipped off my flats and they were on his feet! ah! imagine that! Too late for me to take it back. SO! yes, i was a very undignified missionary for a short 5 minutes, because I had to walk back to the institute from the campus BAREFEET. Embarrassing huh?! Basically, the story ended with him, borrowing my flats for a short time so that he could go prove to his friends that he completed the challenge, and then he promised to return them to the institute--in which he did. Embarrassingly enough though, I was very humbled by the end of this little adventure, and learned a very important lesson to not be quick to take off my shoes, and to think before i act! Heavenly Father finally taught me a lesson that probably mom wanted me to learn all those years where I even managed to walk around Shanghai China, barefeet (luckily I didn't have to learn through catching some disease or infectious fungus or whatnot in China) Heavenly Father spared me until my mission to learn! haha</div>
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This story took a lot longer than I expected to recount to you all, but I hope that it brought more laughters to your faces and the assurrance that Sister Pao is still Sister Pao. I wouldn't be without my silly stories eh? haha</div>
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Just know that I am learning lifelong qualities through ALL different means on this mission of mine. Be expecting pictures for Sister You's baptism this Saturday! Keep her in your prayers for us, because she truly is our miracle from heaven, brought right over from Qing Dao China. Sister You passed her baptismal interview this week by the way! She is so awesome, we shall all visit Qing Dao when I get back from the mish and she will be sure to bring us all over to tour China.</div>
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Love you all tons me ohana! You are all in my prayers.</div>
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Love,</div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Sister Pao</span></i></b></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: start;">Beautiful Sis. Richardson from my exchange last week. Isn't MN getting so greeeen behind us?</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wild turkeys and babies!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some of my faves.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Popcorn popping on the apricot tree!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: start;">Check out my tan! Yup, we are being called Malaysians, Cambodians, Native Americans these days on campus. hahaa cracks me up!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: start;">Green green campus! :D</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: start;">Sister You and her daughter cooked us noodles! :D</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: start;">Spring Storms! So cool! Swept right over us while we were out!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: start;">Stormy season...might need a raincoat haha. Love em thunderstorms though!</span></td></tr>
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Sharonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00044352887773459448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441373009085799825.post-83488779581172576482014-05-26T10:43:00.000-07:002014-09-09T10:46:41.105-07:00Dinkytown: Week 33: According to the Desires of My Heart<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
Oh how glorious of a week it has been. I probably exaggerate quite a bit, but the sun is out, the air is warm and humid, and the world around me is just OH SO GREEEEN. How can I NOT say it's glorious! It's impossible to imagine that just a couple of months ago, all the grass and plants and trees were still covered in snow. Oh how Minnesota's grass and trees and flowers are so good at adapting to their surroundings. It really is quite miraculous! Weird to think, but the plants and grass and flowers that flourish so well right now are an example to me-- oh of just how TOUGH they really are to so quickly spring back to life after being frozen and buried for like 7 months straight! Weird--i know, but deal with it. They are an example to me. </div>
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I JUST KNEW THIS WEEK WAS GOING TO BE A WEEK FILLED WITH MIRACLES:</div>
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I promised you all with stories this week, and indeed, I am a woman/ SISTER of my words. Prepare yourself to be blown away!</div>
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But before I share the successes of the area with you, I want to clarify that I share these things not to boast of our own strength, but like Alma did, we talk of these things to glorify our Heavenly Father, because in His strength, we truly can do all things--but MOST IMPORTANTLY, what i've learnt is that --we HAVE TO BE WILLING TO GIVE ALL OUR <u style="font-weight: bold;">HEART, MIGHT, MIND,</u>AND<u style="font-weight: bold;"> STRENGTH </u>to Him.<br /></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Like I told you all last week, I set a goal of being absolutely faith-filled and hopeful in all things, and Heavenly Father heard the desires of my heart.</span><br />
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I started this week off with an exchange with the Sister Training Leaders of our Zone. So off to the family wards, and tracting life aka "normal" missionary life of the New Brighton area I went. It's absolutely mind-blowing to me that whenever I leave my areas for exchanges, it usually is only about 10minutes car ride from where I usually am--yet a different area feels like a whole different world to me outside of the campus. Anywho! Miracles after miracles came about here on this exchange. </div>
<br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">After picking me up at about 8pm Monday night, Sister Richardson and I went back to her area. We were planning to do a stop by to visit a less active but because Sister Richardson was new to her area, we couldn't exactly find the house, so we decided to stop in that neighborhood and 10 by 10 the area. Ever since President's training from last week, I have started to ask for guidance, strength, and the ability to recognize all opportunities where we can find someone to baptize in EVERY one of my prayers. So before hopping out of the car, Sister Richardson and I said another prayer asking for guidance and went about knocking on doors. By this time it was about 8:45pm, closing to the time that we had to head back to the apartment. We did not have to wait long, but Heavenly Father heard the desires of our hearts and with the last door we knocked, we met a man named Gary, who was home alone, sitting in a dark living room, with his beautiful german shepherd Eva. Gary had just returned from the hospital the night before after getting treated for a lung infection. He had just recently lost his wife, and because of some contention with the pastor of the local Lutheran church that he had gone to for many years, all the members of the congregation including his children have turned against him. Gary was at a lost. He had lost his trust in God, and was at a very lonely and sorrowful point in his life. We brought him light and hope and encouragement as we told him that we were representatives of our Savior Jesus Christ to come to bring a message of peace and hope to his life. We taught him a doorstep restoration in a dimly lit, smoke-filled living room, with the door half propped open by Sister Richardson's leg so we wouldn't break the rule of 3 gender rule. We promised him specific blessing of healing and love, and forgiveness. I truly felt His Heavenly Father's love for him as I bore my testimony to Him. I saw in his eyes a sense of hope and curiosity. </span><br />
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Second exchange miracle was the following day. Right before the end of our 24 hours exchange, Sister Richardson and I were stopping by an investigators home for her lesson. Of course, it fell through like all our other investigator lessons that day. Surprisingly, neither of us were worried but we continued to be hopeful and talked to EVERYONE! Sister Richardson had been praying all transfer to find a family that they could teach in their area. Heavenly Father heard our prayers. After being stood up by our appointment, we left the porch of the house and right behind us, across the street, we saw an african lady sitting in the grass, enjoying the sunshine with her 3 year old daughter playing around her. We went over to simply talk to her, to get to know her, and to hear her story. Sister Linda Inaho is from Papa New Guinea, and had just arrived in Minnesota not too long ago with her husband and her three year old daughter, Delahney. Sister Inaho has been searching for a church. She used to be Baptist, but since being here, hasn't found anything that made her feel comfortable. We talked more and got to know her better and through our conversation we learnt that her husband is an alcoholic. We saw fear, stress, and worry in her eyes. We taught her about her Savior Jesus Christ and promised her the blessing of the Atonement, of healing, of confidence, of strength to raise her daughter in righteousness, and with that the Restored Church of Jesus Christ. She was so excited to meet and to attend church that following Sunday. </div>
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<b>Sorry I ran out of time, but the last part of my letter are more miracles taken from my letter to President Clements-- enjoy!</b></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-size: x-small;">. It was indeed a remarkable experience--imagine the scene, a Chinese Sister, a sister from California and an African Sister, sitting in the grass on the side the road, in the middle of Minnesota, feeling the spirit and talking of the same thing--of the Love of our Savior Jesus Christ. The spirit and the light of Christ is truly universal. We truly are ALL children of a loving Heavenly Father. He knows us so well!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Progressing Investigator:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">One last miracle! I truly have been praying and eating and drinking and sleeping baptisms like you told us to President! Heavenly Father truly does grant us the desires of our heart, as long as we TRULY desire it! Sister Wei Xiu You is such a delight to teach. We are edified and enlighten by her examples each time we meet with her. Sister You is the mother of one of our Chinese recent converts, Wei Liu. Sister You had met missionaries in Hong Kong many years ago, but upon returning to mainland China, she was not able to continue attending or learning about the Church. After all these years, Heavenly Father prepared her by giving her the desire to continue to read the Book of Mormon. Heavenly Father then prepared her by allowing her daughter to meet missionaries and be baptized here at the U of M campus. Through an inspired and prayerful mission President, Chinese speaking missionaries were requested to be sent to Minnesota. Sister You was then finally able to visit her daughter for the first time in the states this summer season, and now has been taught almost all of the lessons within a week. She cannot say that she believes in a lot of the things that we teach her during the first sitting, but through her diligent, prayerful, study and pondering every day, she is able to come back and confidently tell us the things that she believes, without us evening following up or asking. Heavenly Father can truly do His work on His own, but simply is merciful, and loving enough to let us participate, hence helping us, the missionaries, His children, learn in the process. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">This week I plan to work really hard on finding member referrals! President, you are very inspired, thats all I can say to have given us those words of counsel last night. Many weeks I have been praying to seek guidance of how we can help our Chinese investigators and new converts become more involved with the ward and with the other ward members. This is the answer! Build up their comfort zone with their own friends! I know that if this becomes the true desires of my heart, that Heavenly Father will grant us according to what we set our heart and mind upon. I am excited to act on these counsel! Thank you for all that you do President. We truly do look up to you and Sister Clements! We love you two and pray for you always!</span></div>
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Family, I love you all so much! I just wished you could be here experiencing the same joys, and life-changing, experiences that I get to be so fortunately a part of everyday! Thank you for all your support. Until next week! Robsters! Don't be down about not getting into the school. Be filled with hope! Pray and fast, and seek out His guidance and His will. I will be praying for you!</div>
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Love,</div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Sister Pao</span></i></b></div>
Sharonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00044352887773459448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441373009085799825.post-88425072278839834742014-05-19T10:31:00.000-07:002014-09-09T10:41:09.569-07:00Dinkytown: Week 32 "Hope--and dodging bullets as we go"<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
I hope that all of you had an amazing past week. I'm sure you are all very very busy; hence, I haven't heard much update from you all. I hope that all of you are engaged in meaning activities each and every day! :D</div>
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My prayers have been answered this past week as I learnt from an amazing zone conference why we haven't been seeing as many baptisms (overall in the whole mission) recently. Our faith and trust in the Lord and the Holy Ghost have been dwindling because we are, an overall more mature and experienced group of missionaries-- we have forgotten that this is the Lord's work!</div>
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Hearing this caused me to re-evaluate myself and the missionary that I have been for these past few months. There has been a lot of days where I have been engulfed in being worried about the retention capabilities of the ward, that I have forgotten my purpose as a missionary-- and that is to invite others to come unto Christ and to enter into the waters of baptism, where from there they can be blessed with the sanctifying power, and strength of the Holy Ghost. I have become a passive missionary, thinking that planting seeds of conversion is but enough. I know that all the people we meet who hear about this message but do not want to actively pursue it are indeed blessed with a small seed of light, but that does not mean that I do not still need to go forth and to diligently pray, and seek out those who are prepared! I have been holding back on the potentials that we have as we heed the promptings of the Spirit!</div>
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"Our worries become self-fulfilling prophecies moving us toward the disaster we fear." This quote struck me hard this week. Kind of like a slap in the face. I worry too much, but why do I worry when all I need to do is continue to move forward diligently!</div>
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Sister Huang has been such a beacon of light these days in my life as together we have been encouraging each other to be filled with HOPE and JOY! And hence through praying for the christlike attribute of hope, we have been blessed with fruits of our faith.</div>
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One of our investigators Cedric Shan is progressing to be baptized on July 19th. Dodging bullets as you see is the name of my post...but just to reassure you all, we are not literally dodging bullets. Sometimes it feels like it though, when we are faced with all of the MOST unpredictable things ever! Life of a missionary-tell me about it! Sister Huang and I have been praying hard for him because we thought last week that he might have a problem with the word of wisdom and with cigarrettes. We prayed for faith and boldness to help him commit to keeping the word of wisdom that very day, and went into our lesson. Heavenly Father answered our prayers, and blessed us with MORE than we were expecting. Cedric didn't have any problem with cigarrettes! He said that he would sometimes only have some coffee when he was pulling all-nighters for his studies, but that recently, he has been trying to commit to changing that bad habit. We were overjoyed--and surprised at first! But ever so grateful. Whew we dodged that bullet there!</div>
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Bullets don't end there though, we are always being kept on our toes these days! With this summer break, people keep unexpectedly telling us that they are leaving for vacation here and there. Makes it a tricky time to help them set dates for baptism. Despite all that! We are dodging each trial that comes our way one step at a time, and NOT LOSING HOPE. This week, I can just feel it, will be a week where our faith and hope will bring about miracles after miracles. Expect stories next week!</div>
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Thank you so much fam for all your prayers on the missionaries behalf! WE are such a blessed group of people. Each and every day, I evaluate the things and lessons that I have learnt in that day, and I just know that My Heavenly Father knows me so well! Otherwise, I would not be here on my mission, and I bet I would not be half as grateful, and knowledgeable and diligent of a person as I am now. I am learning lessons of eternal worth here, and I cannot even start to express my gratitude and joy in words.</div>
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I love you dearly, and looking forward to hearing from you all next week!</div>
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Love,</div>
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<i><b><span style="font-size: large;">Sister Pao</span></b></i></div>
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Sharonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00044352887773459448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441373009085799825.post-29715544480654353812014-05-12T10:29:00.000-07:002014-09-08T10:30:13.986-07:00Dinkytown: Week 31 "Happy Mother's Day!!!"<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
Oh it sure was a delight to have Skyped with all of you last night! I am so immensely blessed with a beautiful, ever changing for the BETTER, family. I am so proud to be related to such beautiful (handsome: didn't forget you, Dad and Robby..oh and Carson! hehe), loving, and awesome people.</div>
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I just love you all so much and all I can say is that, we sure are a blessed family.</div>
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Oh I've got to share with you all the miracles of our wonderful investigator, Ming Long. Ming Long was one of my first miracles during like my first several weeks out in the field. We had met him on campus, and didn't really expect much from him...didn't even set up an official meeting with him. but somehow, amongst all the confusion and misunderstanding, he showed up for an appointment one Sunday evening. When Sister Smith and I had first seen him, we couldn't even remember his name, embarrasingly enough! We met with him consecutively then teaching him all the first lessons and commandments, and set a date with him to be baptized. He said he would prepare for baptism, but he struggled a lot still with the idea of why we cannot drink tea, and amongst that concern, he had a lot more philosophical issues because he had previously studied a lot of different chinese philosophy. Despite all that he was still really willing to learn. Take note that this was all back in October 2013! After meeting with him for a few weeks or so back then, he texted us suddenly one day saying that because of some school issues, he was not a "free man" like he had thought he was (those were the words that he said). He said that he could not get baptized, and because of that, he could not keep meeting with us anymore. We were devestated! However, we knew that he was a great guy, and that he still had a lot of potential, and the want to learn. Fast forward to this new year. We kept in touch with him all these months, inviting him to things, and looking out for him, and shooting him friendly texts all along the way. Because of all these great interactions and friendships that he has felt here, he called us to see if he could meet with us again in March! It was such an exciting moment for me to see someone actively reach out to us and to want to meet with us. Ming Long still cannot be baptized here in the US because his school and governemnt back in China is sponsoring him as a visiting scholar, doing research here in the US. One of the restrictions of the contract that he signed was apparently that he could not be baptized, or be converted or something of that sort. However, we are considering and looking into different options for him, such as going to HK when he does return in August to be baptized. He was all in for that, and we are suuuuper stoked to help him and to see how things will progress from there. Ming Long is sooo cool and awesome! Oh and over the summer, he is going to bring us to give us a tour of his Civil Engineering Labratory which is underground or something. He focuses on the research of Debris Flow, and thus he spends a lot of times calculating the fall of marbles rolling down chute or a tube. Sounds like kindergarten to me! haha Dropping marbles down a slope or a slide. haha</div>
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Sorry that was super duper long, but long story short, I know that despite our purpose as missionaries right now is to invite people to come unto Christ, and not merely to be their friends, but in the end, we are all building eternal friendships here as we truly care for the welfare of each and individual soul and child of God. I am excited to have friends from all over China-- who are all brilliant may I say,-- after my mission here! I pray that they will progress and grow, and continue to flourish in the Gospel as I have seen my family do so. That is the greatest blessing anyone can ever as for.</div>
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I love you fam bam, and I hope you enjoyed this story about Ming Long. He's a cool guy, hopefully y'all will get to meet him someday! With all the Chinese who seems to love Taiwan, I'm sure we'll have plenty of visitors in the future. haha</div>
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But as for now, take care and until next week will I hear from y'all again!</div>
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Oh. and see you at Christmas time. ;) oh how that's gonna come A LOT sooner than ANY of us can imagine.</div>
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Love love love,</div>
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<i><b><span style="font-size: large;">Sis Pao</span></b></i></div>
Sharonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00044352887773459448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441373009085799825.post-60446501403002898652014-05-05T10:02:00.000-07:002014-09-08T10:02:28.047-07:00Dinkytown: Week 30 "Change: The Book of Mormon is like a chameleon!"<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
I have survived yet another transfer here in Dinkytown! I think Dinkytown truly will become my eternal mission, haha. I guess the Lord still has a lot of things for me to learn here at the U of M campus. Can you believe it!? I've been in Dinkytown for a few days shy of EIGHT MONTHS! time truly does fly!</div>
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Every transfer, I feel like everything around me gets switched and changed around while I stay still. It's often sad to see people leave, and sometimes, I can't help but to feel a tad bit left behind. But then I am reminded of all the amazing people that I have come to love here, and the comforts of the Institute building, and the abundance amount of miracles we see every week, and then on second thought, I don't think i'd ever want to leave this place. I think Heavenly Father senses my slight hope of getting to see other parts of Minnesota though each transfer, and so he has constantly allowed me to move at least from apartments to apartments here withing Dinkytown. HAPPY MOVING DAY AGAIN! I have officially gone full circle and now I'm back in the apartment where I started my mission off in! haha We're being kept on our toes here, can't get too comfortable! haha</div>
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<u><b>The perks of the YSA ward:</b></u></div>
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Last Preparation day, Sister Huang and I were pampered by Kitz. She brought us out for manicures! Never ever did I think that we'd get to enjoy such luxury on a mission! Yup, we are quite pampered. The best part of the manicure besides the fact that I have clean nails again is meeting the owners of the Nail Salon. And yes, they do talk like the veet-na-meese. Sparko laike dye-mond een dee sky! Kit or gel? I help you get boifrend"</div>
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It was great! I think I've made some eternal friends that day in the nail salon. The vietnamese couple looove Taiwan, and said that they visit quite often because they have a niece who is half taiwanese that lives in Taipei. She kept saying that I looked so much like her niece. They loved us so much, and were so impressed by what we do here in Minnesota- as missionaries, that they even told Sis. Huang and I that we could get free manicures anytime that we wanted. Woot woot! Unfortunately, they didn't quite fully understand our schedules here because of the language barrier, and thus we couldn't teach them a lesson, over them fixing our nails. However, I did get their emails and will definitely hope to get in touch with them after the mish!</div>
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Perks of being based at the institute is that we get to attend all the CES fireside as long as we have an investigator with us. I learnt so much from Elder Ballard's talk to all the Young people in the church last night. He focused on three main topics. First is the use of technology, second, the dangers of Pornography, and the third the importance of marriage. What really stuck with me was what he talked about with the use of technology. He asked us all if our smartphones and ipads, and computers have become our masters, or do we have control and use them as our slaves. It made me think about my time spent before the mission. How often I went onto my phone to check facebook and to check instagram, and pinterest and etc. the list goes on forever. I marvel to think how easy it has become to acces information , but how much time we also spend on unimportant scrolling , and "likeing" and posting. We have distractions coming from every angle these days. Elder Ballard talked about how our generation today no longer get to enjoy the heavenly light, the comfortable darkness, and the natural silence that Nephi, and Christ, and even the Pioneers/ Joseph got to enjoy in the past. People have so many distractions that we no longer get to be spiritually uplifted or feel the presence of heaven close by as we stare at the dark star lit skies at night without the disturbance of a nearby jet flying by overhead. I miss silence, and I know that's something I personally loved before my mission. To be out in nature on my own. That's something I want to preserve in my future life. Those spiritual moments we get from being STILL.</div>
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<u><b>Ups and Downs of this week:</b></u></div>
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Ming Ming, our dear friend Ming is so awesome. She's grown so much, and has truly had a change of heart. However, just poor timing is causing her to move her baptismal date back...for 3 months! Yup, unfortunately, so many of our progressing investigators are leaving for the summer, and because of that, we don't want to have them be baptized and go off for 3 months! Ming comes from truly an awesome family I personally believe. Her parents are so supportive, reasonable, and loves her so much. Although they didn't agree 100 percent to her being baptized, they gave very logical and respectful comments. Her dad and mom are coming in on May 20th, and I just want to meet this Dad of hers. Maybe I'll be able to win them over somehow with my charms...bahaha what charms. just kidding! I'm excited for Ming though because she will be traveling around the US with her parents all summer..and guess what's planned into their itinerary!Utah and Temple Square, yeaayah. We're going to pray hard that her parents will have the chance to talk to missionaries and have a super spiritual experience!</div>
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<u><b>Highlight of the Week:</b></u></div>
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Sister Huang, Sarah Quass (a high school Senior from a nearby ward), and I went on a little adventure this past Saturday! We went to visit the married Student housing up at the St. Paul campus. We heard that there are a lot of Chinese young families over there, and of course, with ALL the Chinese that we can get, we will go scout them out! This has been my very first self planned door knocking experiences here on my mission, and guess what...with two and a half hours in mind, we only successfully knocked on 5 doors...yup 5. wanna know why?</div>
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Well on our fifth door of the day, we ended up meeting an Egyptian family. Yup. Egyptian, not Chinese may I emphasize...like we had hoped to.</div>
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This Egyptian young couple lovingly invited us into their home. They respectfully listened to us share our message of the Restoration, and when we had concluded that...they literally went into an hour lecture about the Islamic faith. Yes! They pulled a missionary "let us convert the mormon missionaries to the islamic faith" move on us! We sat through an hour of him telling us about the Islam faith, the Qran's history and before long, he even whipped out his electronic Qran and started to sing the Qran to us. (Did you know that they sing their scriptures?? What? I was clueless! ) We literally were pretty much bull dozed over by his intense personality. It is truly after lessons like that on the mission where I just felt defeated until I think of the seeds that we have planted...and also at the fact that I have yet gained another funny, memorable, awesome experience to my mission memory bank!</div>
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Long story short, we bursted out in laughter after that lesson, then went and treated ourselves to some Mexican food and Bubble Tea. haha!</div>
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Despite all that, we left a copy of the Book of Mormon behind and hopefully one of these days, he will come across it and read it for good for himself. Funny last thought, all throughout the lesson, he kept telling us about how he has read every bible out there and that finally when he came to the Qran, he knew that the Qran was the only right book. But of course, when we asked him " Have you Read the Book of Mormon though?" He said no. Well sorry sir, you are never going to know the truth of it if you don't read it!</div>
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Missions are filled with such great memories and planting seeds here and there! Loving every minute of the work over here me loves. Happy MOther's day to all you lovelies, and I can't wait to see you me fam bam in less than a week! Until then, stay awesome, and enjoy the nature around ya and go have a meaningful conversation with someone this week! Get off those phones once in awhile...and you know who I'm talking about! ;)</div>
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Love always!</div>
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<i><b><span style="font-size: large;">Sister Pao</span></b></i></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Byebye Sister Curtis! :(</td></tr>
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Sharonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00044352887773459448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441373009085799825.post-35412457997815376612014-04-28T10:20:00.000-07:002014-09-08T10:25:21.666-07:00Dinkytown: Week 29<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
Sorry this week's email is so short! Got carried away looking at Transfer's call and replying other messages that time just slipped between my fingers!</div>
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Just know that I am yet still in Dinkytown! and Loving it! Sister Callister and Curtis are leaving us. Boo :( And now we are the only Sisters in this ward along with the Zone Leader. WE have no idea how are teaching pool will be changed up, and if Sister Huang and I can even handle all these people that will be sticking around for the summer. Many exciting changes ahead of us, but we will keep moving forward!</div>
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Since I don't have much time, let me just share with you some photos. We went to the St. Paul Cathedral last Monday for District P-Day. It was quite the cool experience, but further strengthened my testimony of the truth of the Church of Jesus-Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I'll be sure to share more about the experience another time.</div>
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Here are some thoughts from my letter to President Clements this week:</div>
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<span style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">President, I just wanted to let you know how excited I am every time to hear from one of my youth friends, who are (Chinese-English speaking) like me that get called onto missions and share with me that they, as well, are serving on university campuses. And likewise to what we have here, are teaching an abundance of Chinese people from China. I have friends in England (Elder Wu), in Australia (Elder Shum), in Indiana (Purdue campus) (Elder Ma), in California, in New York (Elder Law), in France, who are all witnessing the SAME experiences that we are having here in Minnesota! It is again a witness to me that the Lord is building up his kingdom in China from out here.<br />President, I don't know if you've had the opportunity to look into those other mission's plans of action, vision for the area, and infrastructure for helping these Chinese investigators grow, progress, be converted, and trained to become future leaders. I think we could all really benefit by learning and sharing with each other. Sister Huang and I had the opportunity this week to work up a little project of our own to help our ward become more and more involved and accustomed with these Chinese converts, and vice versa. We put together a little Chinese-English-Pronounciation cheat sheet with basic chinese introductory phrases, the first four lessons, the first vision, how to pray in Chinese, how to bear testimony, and other useful church vocabulary. We planned it out with the ward and with our ward mission leader, and we plan to print out these notecards and laminate them, and give them to all the members in our ward. That way they can start to be a little more acquainted and can have a little more clue of what Sister Huang and I are saying as we teach our lessons in Chinese. We are excited to see how it turns out! If you want to see a copy, shoot us a text message, and we can email it to you?<br /><br />Since I've already said so much in this letter, I just wanted to share with you what I am working on this week. In my morning studies, I read about Alma and his brethren as they go to teach the apostate Zoramites in Alma 31. Before they go forth, Alma prays for strength at the end of the chapter. It was really neat to me to see the order of his prayer. He starts off by asking the Lord for strength, and to have comfort in his soul in Christ. Then he goes on to pray for his brethrens (his companions) to have the same things--all in Christ. He doesn't end there though. From there, he goes on to pray for companionship unity! Oh and it doesn't end there as well, he goes on to pray for the people that he will come to teach. He then prays for specific knowledge to know how he can help his investigators. After all that, him and his brethrens go forth to serve without any delay! Because of Alma's faith, as it is said in the last verse of this chapter, their pains and afflictions were SWALLOWED UP IN THE JOY OF CHRIST. Isn't that a beautiful thought? My goal this week is to pray like Alma.</span></div>
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Enjoy this beautiful weather and pray that we stay dry!</div>
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Love,</div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Sister Pao</span></i></b></div>
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Sharonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00044352887773459448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441373009085799825.post-7486009983409002802014-04-21T09:50:00.000-07:002014-09-08T09:56:32.191-07:00Dinkytown: Week 28 "Happy Easter-- the world is Alive!"<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
Happy Easter everybody!</div>
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Happy Happy days and beautiful Spring weather here in Minne"soooda"!</div>
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Well actually, it was still snowing earlier this week, but our lovely Mother nature was just getting all the coldness and bitterness, and white fluff out of her system to prepare for the Glorious Easter Sunday! The temperature sky-rocketed to a record of 70 F ! Oh Hosanna to the Lord! For He truly is Risen!</div>
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As the world around us is springing to life after 6 months of hibernation, my heart is overflowing with joy, and my testimony of my Savior Jesus Christ and of His Atonement is springing to greater depths, appreciation, and admiration. This week, or even so this month, the biggest lesson that I have learnt is the ENNABLING power of Christ's Atonement. He truly provides us the source of power that gives us hope, motivation, and determination; to become better, to become stronger, to reach higher.</div>
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Only He can know how to help us because even in our deepest and darkest times, the Lord has never forsaken us because no matter what, we are all born with the Light of Christ. No matter how wicked, or how drug and alcohol, and guilt ridden we can ever get here in this life, God will always be with us in the form of the Light of Christ. But that wasn't how it was for Christ. What I've learnt this past week, was that there literally was a space of time where God withdrew His presence from His only Begotten Son, where in those moments, Christ literally sunk to the lowest place a mortal man can ever be, and thus, took the inifinite burdens of God's children upon His shoulders. HE WAS UTTERLY ALONE!-- something that my puny human brain cannot even start to wrap my head around or understand.</div>
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Funniest moment of this week was probably the lesson Sister Huang and I had Saturday evening. So lemme tell you the story of Shen. We met him on campus a few months back and got his contact information and all, but he was not very interested to meet with us again. Friday night, we ran into him again on campus and he stopped to listen and he expressed a lot of interest in religion. We taught him a Restoration and set up an appointment to meet again the next day. Keep in mind that this guy is an Archeology Masters' Student, who studied A LOT of history in the past. While expressing to us briefly his thoughts about religion Friday night, he kept bringing up the TV show Supernatural, or Van Heusen. Anyhow, we didn't really think much about that. We met him on Saturday and attempted to teach him the Restoration. But as we sat and talked a little more, he started going into different stories about how none of us have the right to claim that we know God and his true appearance and nature. And that there are only certain chosen ones on this earth, that have the power to work for God. He says that we all have specific roles, but that God is mysterious, and so we have to study and think carefully about what he wants us to do. Then he went into talking about how he is working for the left hand of God, and that he has been called in this life basically to help God banish those evil and wicked spirits down to Hell. Basically, to sum up this story, he believes that he is Van Heusen or seomething...Hell Boy or something to that sort! It was an epic lesson! I felt like I sat through that whole lesson thinking that I was in some sort of movie!</div>
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Funniest part of this lesson comes here though! As we continued to listen to him with as much empathy and love as we could, the inevitable thought that he might be a little not all that there kept popping into my head. I pushed it out of my head, and simply went on and ended the lesson. RIGHT after he stepped out of the building. Sister Huang and I stared at each other, and bursted out in laughter. Then she quickly whipped out her book of Mormon and showed me what she had flipped to by accident in her book of Mormon during the lesson. These are the words that she read midway into the lesson: (Mosiah 13:1) "And now when the king had heard these words, he said unto his priests: Away with this fellow; and slay him; for what have we to do with him, for HE IS MAD."</div>
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We're not claiming that he is mad, and don't worry fam, we will not slay him, but continue to love him and help him to learn about his Savior. But lemme tell you, I do know for a fact that our Heavenly Father surely does have a delightful sense of humor; or otherwise, sister Huang and I just truly know how to entertain ourselves. haha</div>
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Other fun highlights of this week! We were visited by some lovely easter bunnies saturday morning bringing easter baskets aka easter plastic bags to us!</div>
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We had a delightful Easter dinner with the Senior couples in our ward whom I love and adore with all my heart.</div>
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Yan spoke at the President's Fireside! Oh she is my hero!</div>
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...and so many more that I guess pictures will just have to do!</div>
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Sharonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00044352887773459448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441373009085799825.post-77255062601259190912014-04-14T09:47:00.000-07:002014-09-08T09:48:09.956-07:00Dinkytown: Week 27 "Lamb of God"<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
Another spectacular week has come and gone. Our weeks are always so jammed pack with exciting events and spiritual moments.</div>
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This past weekend was especially special, as Sister Huang and I...actually let me rephrase that, ALL the missionaries have been looking forward to going to listen to the Lamb of God Oratorial performed by the Minnesota Mormon Chorale, plus guest vocalists from around the US. It was spectacular, and mesmerizing, and so so beautiful! If you haven't heard of this before, go look up the cd, go buy the cd, go listen to the cd! It will change your life! It was originally composed and created by Rob Gardner!</div>
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This week has been another week where I have felt even more drawn to learning and knowing about my Savior's life and His Atonement for us. There has been so many days, even today I must say, where I have had to face discouragement, where I have felt inadequate to teach, where I feel like I haven't said enough to help my investigators, or I still haven't mastered teaching in Chinese, where I have had to turn to the merciful arms of my Savior. He lives, and He has experienced it all! Not just the pains and the afflications and sufferings of this world, but of all worlds that have been created. His Atonement is unmistakingly and indefinitely INFINITE.</div>
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This constant reminder has been pounded into me this week as I met with a former investigator who had dropped away because she felt like she hadn't received any answers here. She took a break from meeting with the missionaries, and left to experiment life on her own. Keep in mind that she is only a young 18 year old student here at the U, where unfortunately to say, much temptations of the adversary pulls at these young students immediately once they accidentally mix with the wrong groups of friends. She decided that she wanted to meet with us again, and I could tell that it was an act out of desperation that she came to us for help. My heart dropped to hear of all the pain and sorrow that she had gone through and felt within these past few months where she stopped meeting with us. Just a confused 18 year old college freshman girl, not knowing where her standards and definition of true happiness falls, now comes back to us with a smashed self-esteem, and self worth. There was nothing that I could say to her to comfort her except testifying to her that her Savior knows her, and loves her. Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of all mankind is the only one that has experienced all that you have gone through, and no matter how unworthy you may feel right now, His arms are always outstretched to you. I felt sick inside to know that much of what she experienced could have been avoided; however, I know that Heavenly Father knows her, and will provide a way for her.</div>
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Sometimes, listening to all these pains of the investigators that we talk to takes a real toll on me. But at the end of the day, I am simply grateful for the steady anchor that I have always had in my life. That I never strayed too far from the straight and narrow, even though there were times where I rejected even the help of my Savior. My life is constantly being changed and molded each day as I have come to learn of my Savior.</div>
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With all this heavy talk, I wanted to leave you all with some silly photos.</div>
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All I can say is that...Sister Huang made me...and that we aren't becoming apostate!haha</div>
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Also, the sun is out! That means, A LOT more skin, will be seen on the U of M campus...hahah maybe I do prefer the winter better ;)</div>
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Love you all tonsss and missing you all!</div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Sister Pao</span></i></b></div>
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Sharonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00044352887773459448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441373009085799825.post-87476729043048242352014-04-07T09:41:00.000-07:002014-09-08T09:42:46.582-07:00Dinkytown: Week 26 "Endowed from on High"<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
All I can say is this: I love Conference weekend.</div>
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And, this MUST be God's church here on this Earth, if it's not, then the members of the church, all 15 million 82 thousand and 28 of us are all just insane to be willing to gather from all corners of the earth to listen to some men speak.</div>
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President Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God. This means that he speaks with our Heavenly Father and our Savior, he KNOWS them personally; and because of that, we are so blessed in these latter-day saints. I invite all of you to personally pray and receive a testimony and learn of our prophet and apostles distinct testimony of Christ. They truly are prophets, seers, and revelators of a true and LIVING Christ.</div>
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Here are my insights from this weekend!</div>
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<b><u>Elder Holland</u></b></div>
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"Forsake all transgression; even the slightest advocacy for sin"</div>
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"BE STRONG. LIVE YOUR GOSPEL"</div>
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"DEFEND your beliefs with courage and courtesy, BUT DEFEND IT."</div>
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<b><u>Linda S. Reeves</u></b></div>
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"The greatest and only possible filter of today's evils will only come through your deep abiding diligence, obedience, and testimony of our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.</div>
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"Heed the Counsel of President Monson!"</div>
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"The Book Of Mormon, coupled with prayer will asnwer ALL questions, will protect our families, will strengthen our testimony, and it will have power over all things."</div>
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<b><u>Elder Anderson</u></b></div>
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"There is a TANGIBLE feeling of Holiness in the Temple. It will be your testimony and witness of Christ that will help you to resist the whirlwinds of the adversary.</div>
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"Our spiritual strength is strong. God created our strong spirits personally!"</div>
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<b><u>Elder Nelson</u></b></div>
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"Faith is the antidote for Fear"</div>
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"Is your faith truly tied to God?"</div>
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"Will our religion show during times of trials, or during times of chastisement?</div>
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"Truth cannot be divisible. We do not hid our faith"</div>
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"All truth is truth!"</div>
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"Living the PURE RELIGION OF GOD IS A LIFESTYLE"</div>
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"Evil will never be righteousness. Even if it's popular"</div>
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<b><u>W. Craig Zick</u></b></div>
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"Seek to understand each others perspective, not to define who was more right."</div>
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<b><u>Elder Uchtdorf</u></b></div>
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"We can make life sweeter amongst all the bitterness"</div>
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"Set aside the bottle of bitterness, and lift the goblet of gratitude"</div>
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"Instead of being grateful for what we have, we can be grateful in whatever the circumstances that we are in."</div>
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"Gratitude is a catalyst to all Christ-like attribute"</div>
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<b><u>Boyd K. Packer</u></b></div>
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"Knowledge, which is of eternal value, only comes through prayers, and ponderings, and personal witnesses that come from the Holy Ghost."</div>
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"All answers will come one way or another as long as we stay faithful in making, and keeping sacred covenants."</div>
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<b><u>William R. Walker</u></b></div>
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"Live True to the Faith!"</div>
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And much more to follow, sorry for the short and abrupt email this week, but SHARE WITH ME WHAT YOU'VE ALL LEARNT FROM CONFERENCE, and of course the everyday happenings of your BUSY BUSY life!</div>
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Love you all!</div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Sister Pao</span></i></b></div>
Sharonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00044352887773459448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441373009085799825.post-31909687625152304012014-03-31T09:37:00.000-07:002014-09-08T09:39:58.214-07:00Dinkytown: Week 25 "Secret Agents Pao and Huang"<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
I don't think I ever told you all the story about how once upon a time, Sister Smith and I taught a man named Muhammad who wasn't from the Middle-East- but who's from Georgia actually. Muhammad loves Mormons and will stand as an advocate for Mormons wherever he goes. He simply just doesn't want to and is not ready to be one yet. Nevertheless, He truly thinks that our Church has the most divine (yes not ironic at all) and brilliant organizational structure, and if all companies around the world could work like our church, they would all be beyond successful. Long story short, anyway, Muhammad always would call Sister Smith and I "Secret agents" instead of Sisters. He thought we were pretty cool.</div>
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This week, Sister Huang and I, I personally believe, lived up to that name. Never did I ever think that I would ever reach the point of scaling the buildings of the University of Minnesota campus to find and track down one of our investigators- just so we could confirm an appointment with her. It was awesome! I felt foolish and a little creepy to be doing so, but it worked! Miracles happened due to our faith and diligence! </div>
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The reason why we did do that was because DT truly is someone special. We met her just last week, but it amazes me each week at how many people we can relate to and who are willing to open up to us, two strangers, that they had just met, within just 5 to 10 minutes of meeting them. It further confirms to me that we are not doing this work, but that we truly are acting as representatives of Christ in proclaiming his Good News to all who will listen. And these people, these strangers, these Children of God recognize it coming from us! The Spirit truly witnesses to them, and touches them, which prompts them to share many intimate, and personal things with us. DT is an example of that. She has suffered many trials and challenges, with family sicknesses, and being uprooted from home during her teenage years, and feeling broken here in the United States. As we were able to share with her the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ, and testify of our Savior, who has the perfect ability to empathize with her, I felt a connection with her even beyond the veil that we all live with right now. I don't know her very well, and we still struggle to get in contact with her because her phone is not working, but I won't give up on trying to share this peaceful message with her. I will continue to stalk her at work, if it really comes down to it! haha</div>
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Sister Huang and I were talking a couple of days ago while lying in bed before falling asleep. We both agreed that we are going to age a lot on our missions, and by the time we go home, because we truly spend so much of our time, our energy, our minds, and hearts on worrying and thinking about our investigators each day. I guess once again, this is how it is probably going to feel when we become parents one day. Sorry mom and dad if I ever made y'all worry, and if I still do so now!</div>
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But these gators of ours, they truly are like our children. And if we already express so much love and care for them, I just can't even start to imagine how much our Father in Heaven loves and cares for them even so.</div>
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As I study a talk on the Atonement of Christ each day for a month with my whole mission in preparations for Easter. I am overwhelmed with the idea of how much our Savior and God loves us . Let us all follow the wise counsels of Elder Maxwell:</div>
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"We should regularly apply the Atonement for self-improvement while enduring to the end. If we choose the course of steady improvement, which is clearly the course of discipleship, we will become more righteous and can move from what may be initially a mere acknowledgement of Jesus on to admiration of Jesus, then on to adoration of Jesus, and finally to emulation of Jesus. In that process of striving to become more like Him through steady improvement, we must be in the posture of repentance, even if no major transgression is involved."</div>
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I love you all dearly! Until next week!</div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Sister Pao</span></i></b></div>
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P.S. Thanks Rach Rach for the package!</div>
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Sharonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00044352887773459448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441373009085799825.post-2021946848535552052014-03-24T09:35:00.000-07:002014-09-08T09:36:06.057-07:00Dinkytown: Week 24 "Ghost Town"<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
Happy Spring Break! Yes indeed, spring break is a happy time for all you students, but it can and could have been a tough week for us! The U of M campus was literally a ghost town all week! You may think that we struggled and were not able to teach much this week but miracles truly do still happen in our lives these days! It's true!</div>
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For example: Sister Huang and I were just walking on the empty school grounds yesterday, and BOOM, we found 5 dollars on the ground! Perfect find because we had just fasted together this past week so now we have fast offerings to give! haha</div>
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Other miracles happened last night as we scaled the empty grounds of the campus, and despite the emptiness of the place, we were still able to teach two Restorations!</div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="144f5316675e769c_35"> </a>35 Nevertheless they did <sup>a</sup><a href="https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/hel/3?lang=eng#" rel="https://www.lds.org/scriptures/footnote?lang=eng&volumeUri=bofm&bookUri=hel&chapterUri=3&noteID=35a" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><span style="color: navy;">fast</span></a> and <sup>b</sup><a href="https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/hel/3?lang=eng#" rel="https://www.lds.org/scriptures/footnote?lang=eng&volumeUri=bofm&bookUri=hel&chapterUri=3&noteID=35b" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><span style="color: navy;">pray</span></a> oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in their <sup>c</sup><a href="https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/hel/3?lang=eng#" rel="https://www.lds.org/scriptures/footnote?lang=eng&volumeUri=bofm&bookUri=hel&chapterUri=3&noteID=35c" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><span style="color: navy;">humility</span></a>, and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation, yea, even to the <sup>d</sup><a href="https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/hel/3?lang=eng#" rel="https://www.lds.org/scriptures/footnote?lang=eng&volumeUri=bofm&bookUri=hel&chapterUri=3&noteID=35d" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><span style="color: navy;">purifying</span></a> and the <sup>e</sup><a href="https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/hel/3?lang=eng#" rel="https://www.lds.org/scriptures/footnote?lang=eng&volumeUri=bofm&bookUri=hel&chapterUri=3&noteID=35e" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><span style="color: navy;">sanctification</span></a> of their hearts, which sanctification cometh because of their <sup>f</sup><a href="https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/hel/3?lang=eng#" rel="https://www.lds.org/scriptures/footnote?lang=eng&volumeUri=bofm&bookUri=hel&chapterUri=3&noteID=35f" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><span style="color: navy;">yielding</span></a> their hearts unto God.</span></div>
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I just absolutely love these words. I felt the power of the truths exuding from this verse this week.</div>
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No words can even start to explain the love for the feelings that I have when walking back to the institute in the crisp winter air on a calm, and still night after successfully sharing my soul and testimony of our message with two searching and accepting children of God. I love the empty school grounds when all is still and when the lasting lightness of the sun slowly slips away, being replaced by the twinkles of the stars. Those moments are when I look up at the large, and vast, and wide universe above of me, and am appalled at how individual each person we talk to are, but yet how similar we all are as well. Those moment are when I see how large this universe is, but at the same time feel the realness and the presence of a loving Father in heaven, of a loving Creator, and the love and care he has for EACH of His children. It is so real! He truly is mindful of EACH of us!</div>
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Missionary work is amazing. I love it will all my soul, and are learning to love all the pains and struggles as well. Life is never going to be easy, but why not find joy within the hard times?</div>
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I love you all dearly! You are always in my prayers.</div>
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Love love love,</div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Sister Pao</span></i></b></div>
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P.S. Another baptism this week! Will be sure to update on that next week!</div>
Sharonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00044352887773459448noreply@blogger.com0