In Which the Chinese Missionaries FINALLY Arrive.

They are here. :)

Yesterday Sister Lee and I went up to the mission home to welcome the
arrival of Sister Chan, Sister Chen, Sister Astle, Sister Palmer, Elder
Atkinson, and the ASL Elder Anson.  It was awesome.  I was so happy to see
the 陈s again, and the new missionaries are fantastic.  It was special for
us to see them come out of the terminal and welcome them to the mission.  I
love Sister Astle already, and I am super excited for her, Sister Chan, and
I to start doing missionary work together.

I can't let this week go by without saying something about General
Conference.

It was amazing.

Also, I loved how in Russell M Ballard's talk he challenged the whole
Church to invite at least one person to come unto Christ before Christmas.
What an awesome invitation!  We get to help someone that we care about, be
it a friend, a family member, or anyone else we know, feel a little bit
about how we feel about our Father in Heaven and His plan for us.  I'm in,
how about all of you?

Today is a short letter (lots to do!) but remember how much I love all of
you.  We are so loved by Heavenly Father.  He wants the best for us, and
for you.  Don't forget that.

Love you!

Sister Beer

We use these little bags from a store called Muji to store
contacting materials, and I bought new one last week because the one I got
when I arrived in Chinatown was starting to break.  Also, it may have been
a bit dirty.  Oops.

New Sisters!  From left: Sister Chan, Sister Lee, Sister
Palmer, Sister Astle, Sister Beer

Today's Weather: Sunny, with a High of 79

Someone flipped the switch for summer here in the city.  We went from temperatures in the 30s to the 70s in a manner of days!  We have enjoyed the warmer weather so far, but I hear things will cool down considerably by Friday.  It has given us a small taste of what summer in New York City will be like... it's going to be a hot one.

This week has been a week of miracles.  I am convinced that General Conference brings them.  Last General Conference, people just appeared out of nowhere, and this one was the same.  On Wednesday after we emailed, we went to the chapel and a girl in her early 20s walked in and asked for an English flyer.  She came the next day to class and heard the message we shared about prophets and told us later she wanted to go with us to General Conference.  Since that time we have met with her several times, she came to two sessions of Conference, and she brought her mom with her to her last lesson.  I was amazed.  She has been great about keeping commitments, too, which is awesome.

We also met a man on the street last week who told us that he was willing to try anything we told him to know if what we are teaching is true.  The best part? He was completely sincere.  It was incredible.  I am so excited for these people, and look forward to seeing them progress in the gospel!

General Conference itself was, of course, amazing.  I especially loved President Uctdorf's talk about light.  All of us are at some point on our progression towards eternal life with Heavenly Father.  It doesn't matter where we are on that progression, just that we are moving towards the light and towards Christ.  So often in the scriptures we read that Christ is the light of truth, and the light by which we can judge.  When I think about this, I often imagine someone holding a paper or a money note up to light to make sure that it is authentic.  Without the light we would not be able to see the watermark that indicates the authenticity of the bill.  The same is true with what we learn in the gospel.  Without the light of Christ to guide us, we have no way of knowing for ourselves through prayer whether or not the things we learn are true.  I am grateful for the modern revelation that tells us that God does communicate with us, and that He actuallywants to talk with us.

By this point many of you may be in the midst of or through with finals.  Good luck to those of you who are preparing, and congratulations to those who are already finished.  For those of you who don't have to worry about school, congratulations!  One less thing to worry about.  Regardless of your schooling status, you are amazing!

Love,

Sister Beer

Resolving to be Happy, and Other Wonderful Things (Or: In Which Sister Beer Learns a Lesson)

Okay, everyone, this week has been amazing.

Let me just start by saying I LOVE General Conference.  Every six months I look forward to listening to the words of the Prophet and figuring out how I can apply them in my life.  This time was no different, only that I had the wonderful added bonus of being a missionary on top of the usual spiritual feast.  To start off, we had five of our investigators attend at least (note, at LEAST) one session of General Conference.  They got to benefit from hearing the awesome talks given and feel the Spirit that is at conference.  Also, the content of this particular conference was pretty much amazing.  Let me explain:

1. The age at which young men and women can go on missions has been lowered.  I am so excited for all of the 18 year old Elders and now 19 year old Sisters that have the opportunity to go serve.  I know that if that had been announced when I was 19, I would have filled out my application papers that afternoon!  I am predicting an influx of missionaries over the next year, which is exciting to everyone who participates in missionary work. (Which when you think about it, should be every member of the Church.... "Every member a missionary," anyone?)

2. Two new temples have been announced, bringing the total to 139 operating temples and 29 in progress.

3. There were some incredible talks given, including Dieter F. Uctdorf's talk about happiness (where the title of my post comes from) and David A. Bednar's talk about true conversion (which was a part of his Character of Christ talk that I have referenced before).  Here's the part where I learned a lesson, and my week became amazing.  The past week has been challenging.  Learning Mandarin and how to teach the Gospel to people in Mandarin is hard.  And I was complaining about it.  Not necessarily to my companions, but inside I was.  I kept thinking how sad it was that I couldn't do anything, how I was so frustrated with myself. Then Dieter F. Uctdorf spoke, and I felt like my questions I had were answered.  He talked about serving others and finding joy in the service, and how as we obey promptings of the Holy Ghost, the Lord will open pathways and talents we did not know we had.  He reminded me that we choose for ourselves to be happy, as is stated in 2 Nephi 2:27. "Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man.  And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all me might be miserable like unto himself." We are free to choose between the two, and I would prefer the first one, myself.  I am happy to say that now things are looking bright. I am finding Mandarin is still difficult, but my outlook on it has made things better and I am noticing more the resources that Heavenly Father has given me to learn. (Including two wonderful companions who know what they are talking about!)

Story time: On Sunday one of our appointments didn't show up (in China they call that catching a pigeon) and we were trying to figure out what to do next.  As we were sitting there, a woman walked in with her daughter.  She said she had come to check out our church and that her friend had told her about us.  That friend, it turned out, was a woman that Sister Chueh had contacted months ago who stopped taking lessons.  In any case, she was excited to learn about our church and agreed to come to General Conference with us.  She and her daughter ended up staying for both Sunday sessions!  They are wonderful people and I am so excited to start teaching them!

Also, I had dim sum for the first time this week.  And it was delicious.

Okay, that's all for now.  I hope you all have a great week!

Love, 

Sister Beer

P.S. One of my investigators this week told me I look like Lady Gaga... I'm not sure how I feel about that.