"The Importance of How to Begin Teaching" by Sister Beer

I am so excited to write you this letter.  This week Sister Khong and I experienced miracles.  By doing exactly what we had been told concerning How to Begin Teaching and working with new investigators, we were able to have a spiritual experience with a former investigator that will probably define the rest of the lessons we teach with him.

A little bit of background.  There is a section in Preach My Gospel in chapter 10 titled "How to Begin Teaching".  This section outlines what should happen at the beginning of every first appointment.  Before receiving our recent training, I thought it was a good way to start out a lesson.  Now, I know it is the way to start out a lesson.  We received training from the missionary department in Salt Lake City about how to better utilize How to Begin Teaching in our lessons.  In the training we were instructed that How to Begin Teaching is not just inspired, as is Preach My Gospel, but is actually revelation that was given to President Boyd K. Packer.  How it is in the manual is exactly how it was revealed to him.  I have read it a little differently since receiving this training, and as we have applied the principles of this section as they should be applied, wonderful things have happened.

For example, with the aforementioned investigator.  We used the principles of How to Begin Teaching to guide how we taught his lesson that day.  There was one point in the lesson where the Spirit was especially strong, and I felt impressed to stop the lesson and talk about what I personally was feeling.  I described the warmth I felt said it was the Spirit.  I asked him what he was feeling at that point, and he said he felt peace.  We then explained that that feeling was the Spirit telling him that our message was true.  At the end of the lesson, he told us that this time meeting with us felt different than when he met with the missionaries before, and that he understood what we said so clearly.  I fully believe this is because of us taking the counsel we have been given and using How to Begin Teaching in our lessons.  It was awesome.  

In other news, we have a new Elder in our district.  His name is Elder Wang and he is from Mainland China, although he lived in California for three years before coming on his mission.  He's awesome, and has the fantastic Elder Murray as his trainer!  I don't think Elder Wang realizes how lucky he is, having Elder Murray train him.  He's going to get a great foundation on how to talk to and work with investigators, members, and people in general as a result.

I love my district, I love my ward, I love my mission.  Also, I love all of you.  Have a great week!

Love,
Sister Beer

Happy Chinese New Year!

Welcome to the Year of the Snake!  Remember how Chinatown wasn't any different during Christmas?  Well, Chinese New Year is much more lively around here.  People have been buying food, spending time with family, and generally happier than usual.  It has been a great week.

For those who don't know, Chinese New Year celebrates the beginning of spring and is 15 days of celebration for the people.  The irony behind all of this is just before the celebration of spring we got a giant snowstorm that froze over New York.  It was crazy, and we had about four inches of snow.  That didn't dampen any spirits, though, and we had a happy holiday.  On New Year's Eve, we were invited to a reunion dinner at a former investigator's house.  She is a very kind older Taiwanese woman who loves the missionaries.  She doesn't have any family in New York, so we went to keep her company for the holidays.  She made us an awesome dinner with two kinds of fish, beef, dumplings, and a fried rice cake called nian gao, which is traditionally eaten at the new year.  We brought some noodles and veggies so she wouldn't have to cook everything, but she still insisted on making most of the food.  It was delicious and we had a wonderful time with her!

On Sunday, since it was the first day of the new year, we had only one hour of church meetings and then all ate food together as a ward.  We invited our investigators to come, and it was nice to see them integrating more with the ward.  In the evening we (the sisters) made a traditional dinner and ate with the other missionaries.  It was fun to be together and to share traditions.

On a side note, I had a wonderful birthday, and am grateful for all of the well-wishes sent my way.  Thank you!

The work this week has been interesting, ranging from entire days of contacting to entire days of teaching lessons.  After teaching all day yesterday, Sister Khong and I were exhausted!  We found an envelope full of former investigators on our bookshelf and started calling numbers at the end of last week, and we have been able to set appointments with several of the people we found.  It has been awesome to see how they have been prepared to receive the gospel.  What a huge miracle that we found them!

I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to serve the Chinese people here.  I have had so many great experiences learning from the people here and helping them to learn about the gospel.  Yesterday as we taught all those lessons, all I could feel was the love Heavenly Father has for these people.  He wants what is best for them, just as He wants what is best for each of us.  I am just beginning to understand how much He loves His children, and I am grateful for that.

I love you all!  Happy New Year!

Love,

Sister Beer

And now it's time for pictures!!!

These are two of the recent converts in my ward. The one on the left is Amy. I taught her and her daughter, who just got baptized in December. (They are the mother and daughter who we met before General Conference.) On the right is Sister Hu, who is one of the best member missionaries I have ever seen. Super solid. They are both from Guangzhou, and are close friends. They met while they were both investigating the Church and have been a huge support to each other. Tammi (from the other picture) is Sister Hu's daughter.

One of the people we found in the folder was named Jackie.  Jackie Chen.  "Chen" is the Mainland Chinese romanization of what many people know as "Chan," which is the Hong Kong romanization.  So there was a former investigator in our files named Jackie Chan.  Awesome.

My family sent me these awesome brownies for my birthday!  Can't you just feel the magic?

The other sisters surprised me on my birthday by spraying me with water guns, making waffles for breakfast, and a couple of gifts.  The book is full of pictures of me and Sister Khong (along with some other people) that she has been compiling for a while.  Pretty cool, right?

I made dinner for my birthday - teriaki pork roast, mashed potatoes, broccoli, and rolls from Trader Joe's.  Mmmmm.....

The Sisters with the food!

Here are pictures from our ward Chinese New Year party:

First we have Sister Khong and me, Elder Blair, Hou Ya Qing, Elder Blonquist, and Bishop McConkie.

This is Tammi, me, Joy, Sister Woo, and Sister Khong in the background.

My favorite part of this picture is Elder Blonquist creeping in the background.  The little American girl is Bishop McConkie's oldest daughter.

This was the Chinese New Year feast that Sister Khong, Woo, Chen and I made.  Sister Khong and I hand-wrapped the wontons.  It was all delicious.

We steamed a fish!

Chinatown Moves On

After the big changes last week, we are getting along pretty well, I think.  I love the sisters in our apartment.  Sister Chan and Sister Woo are fantastic, and Sister Khong is a wonderful teacher.  I'm glad she is my new companion!

We are all especially excited about Sister Chan's arrival because she is the first 19-year-old sister in the Chinatown district ever!  She is the start of big changes in our mission, and I am excited to see what she will do.  I had the opportunity to teach a lesson with her on Sunday (we were on a split) and I see good things in the future for her.  Her trainer, Sister Woo, is also super awesome.  She is a focused, dedicated missionary who knows what's up.  Also, she reminds me of Tinkerbell with her short hair.  I love it.

Other than getting used to the changes in our district, this week has been pretty low key.  We celebrated some birthdays (including mine, a little early) this week, which was fun.  The district pooled together and bought me a Pinyin (Romanized Chinese) copy of the Psalms and Proverbs.  I love these two books of scripture, and I am excited to learn more Chinese from them!

This morning in personal study I read about the Stripling Warriors, a group of extremely faithful young men who put their trust fully in God to deliver them from their trials.  They were willing to put their lives on the line for many because they knew that the Lord would help them.  Something that strikes me, however, is the use of the word "deliver" in these passages.  Whenever Helaman talks about their faith or about the battles they fought, he said that they believed the Lord would deliver them.  Not keep them safe, not keep them alive, even, but that He would deliver them. They knew that no matter what happened, as long as they kept the commandments and the covenants they had made, the Lord would grant them eternal blessings, because that is what their mothers had taught them.  All throughout Alma 56-58 we see Helaman use the word “deliver.”  As I read these chapters this time, it took on a different meaning, having less to do with temporal things and more to do with spiritual things.  I know that there were a lot of temporal blessings associated with this story as well, since the Stripling Warriors were kept alive through all of the battles they fought, and were able to maintain the lands they gained, but understanding the spiritual aspect as well has helped me to apply this story better to my own life. As I personally have faith in the Lord, I know that as long as I keep my covenants and keep the Lord's commandments, I will also be delivered.  I, and all of you, will be able to receive the blessings the Lord wants to give us.  I am grateful for that.

I hope all of you are having a wonderful week.  Good luck to all of you in the cold - I know it's pretty intense in some places right now.  Make sure not to freeze!

Love,

Sister Beer

Comings and Goings in the Chinatown District

This has been a week of change for the Chinatown District.

Possibly the biggest news is that my trainer, Sister Liu, returned home today.  I miss her already, and it was hard to say goodbye.  China doesn't know how lucky they are to have such a wonderful sister.  I look forward to a time when I will be able to see her again.

Second to that is all the other changes that happened in our district.  First off, my new companion is...Sister Khong!  Sister Khong and I entered the mission field together, and she is pretty fantastic.  We are going to do good work together, I can feel it.  We have a new sister in our district named Sister Chan who will be trained by Sister Woo, another Mandarin speaking sister who has been serving English speaking since I got here.  They are awesome.  Some of you may be wondering (or not...I don't actually know) "but what about Sister Chueh?"  Sister Chueh, along with two of our elders, have been transferred to English speaking areas.  I am sad to see them go, but I know they will bring the awesomeness that is the Chinatown Zone to other areas.

Now that is out of the way....

This week was great.  I felt a lot of support from Heavenly Father as we prepared Sister Liu to go home, as well as doing our normal proselyting work.  One of the most awesome things that happened this week is that one of our investigators (remember the one who quit his job to come to church?) got baptized!  He is so solid, and shared a wonderful testimony with us about how he received a confirmation from the Spirit that the Book of Mormon is the word of God.  It was so awesome.  I love seeing this real growth in our investigators and members.  It is an assurance to me that the work we missionaries are doing is really the work of God.

I was studying this week a lot about commitments.  Commitments are one of the ways we as missionaries help others grow closer to Christ and repent of their sins.  Repentance, as I understand it, isn't just saying "I've done something wrong, please forgive me," but is also a change of lifestyle and thought to the way Heavenly Father wants us to think and act.  As we commit people to do different tasks, like live the commandments or read the scriptures, it is important to follow up with them.  As it says in Preach My Gospel, committing someone without following up is like buying a ticket and never going to the concert.  I think that everything we teach should have a commitment attached, whether it be in FHE, Sunday School, a spiritual thought before an event, everywhere.  What we teach, what we do, should challenge people to be a little better and to live a little more like the Savior.

That's all I've got this week.  I love you all and I appreciate the prayers, support, and love that I feel from all of you!  Thank you!

Love,

Sister Beer