Transfers! And the verdict is...

I am staying in Chinatown!  Yes, dear readers, this means I have been a Chinatown missionary my entire mission.  Not many missionaries can say that they have stayed in the same apartment building for 14 months.  I have served in the three sisters' areas in Chinatown, and will finish in my current area with Sister Chan and Astle.

In other news, Elder Murray has returned to 唐人街.  (That means Chinatown in Chinese.)  Good thing, too.  I have been needing another music brain to help me handle this Christmas program. :) I am super happy he's back.  He's probably one of my favorite people.

Today is the first day of my last cycle on the mission.  It is going to be a crazy one.  With normal missionary work and the addition of a Christmas program, my companionship is going to have to stay on it's toes!  (I had a nightmare last night that consisted of a mission choir with no tenors. I was quite distressed.)  

That's all for today.  The rest of P-day awaits!

Love you!

Sister Beer

And you thought LAST week was good....

Man, life here just keeps getting better and better.

The evening after I last wrote you all, I received a call from President Morgan.  I have been released as a Sister Training Leader and called to be a trainer in Chinatown.  I am going to train again!  Her name is Sister Astel, and I am SUPER excited for her to come.  What's more is that Sister Chan is coming back from Temple Square and will be the third in our happy tri-panionship.

"Why isn't she here today?" you might ask, "isn't today transfers?"  

Yes, it is transfers today, but the MTC didn't want to let Sister Astel and her companion out of the MTC a week early, so they are keeping them and instead Sister Lee (who is also training) get to be companions for a week while we wait for them.  AND we get to go to the mission home to pick them up.  My life is awesome.

We did say goodbye to Sister Woo today, which was hard.  I love Sister Woo and am incredibly grateful for the example she set for me through her service.  I learned lots from her while we were companions.  With her leaving I am now the senior sister in Chinatown, which is a rather strange feeling.  When did I get old in the mission?

The other incredible thing to happen this week was the baptism of seven incredible people into our ward.  I was reminded of Doctrine and Covenants18:10,15-16 as I saw them enter the waters of baptism and make a covenant with God.  I have never been so happy for anyone before!  I know the change that many of them have gone through to follow Christ, and I admire them for it.  Being a member of the Church is not easy for many of the people we teach, but the people that are willing to make the sacrifice receive incredible blessings as a result.

To avoid the risk of going to long and becoming uninteresting, I will leave off here.  Missionary work is the best.  I am excited for the future with my new trainee, and for the avenues that the Lord is opening for us to progress with His work.  I love you all, and will write again next week!

Love,

Sister Beer

BYU Theaterites.  We're pretty awesome.

One day Sister Woo and I bought matching shoes.  Also, this looks like it belongs in a wedding album.

And the winner is...Chinatown!

Transfers have come and gone, and I am still in my beloved Chinatown.  I switched areas and companions, and Sister Khong and I have been reunited!  By the end of this cycle, I will have been in Chinatown for a full year, serving in all three of the Sisters' areas here.  Pretty cool stuff.

I'm still serving as a Sister Training Leader, and will be over the now 10 (including Sister Khong and me) companionships in Manhattan.  It is going to be a party.  A really tiring, awesome party.

One sad bit of news: Elder Mok, after two years of service, has left us to return to Hong Kong.  I can't really imagine Chinatown without him.  As always, though, we will adjust soon to our new circumstances and the work will go on.  That's kind of how life is.

On the bright side, the incredible Sister Toronto has now joined our motley crew of missionaries!  She is pretty fantastic.  Not only is she a fellow BYU theatre major, but her experience living in Beijing for 13 years makes her an invaluable addition to our zone.  I'm so happy she is here!!

It's hard to leave my old area.  Even though I know that Sister Woo and Sister Toronto (oh yeah, that companionship is happening :] ) are going to do great there, I have really grown to love the people I served.  Sister Woo has been a wonderful companion.  I will always remember how much she supported and taught me in the two cycles we worked together.

But, as they say, onward and upward!  Life goes on, missionary work stands to be done, and the Lord has a plan, so we really just have to trust Him.  As Sister Elaine S Dalton reminds us, the Lord doesn't really like us to be in comfort zones, and knows how to help us to grow to be the people He needs us to be. (See http://www.lds.org/new-era/2012/03/how-to-dare-great-things?lang=eng)

I love you all so much.  Thank you for continued letters and prayers, as well as a willingness to serve in your own areas.  You are wonderful!

Love,
Sister Beer

This is our zone the night before transfers.  I'm going to miss Elder Mok a lot.

The Chinatown Sisters for this cycle!  Sister Toronto is the one right in the middle.

New Cycle, New Expectations

Hello all!

Transfers were this week, and boy, are we seeing some change in Chinatown.

Possibly most significant is the fact that Elder Murray and Elder Ling are going upstate.  We are really going to miss them here.  I realized also that Elder Murray and I have been in the same district or zone for the last eleven months.  That's a long time.  He is a fantastic missionary, and someone who's work and dedication (not to mention musical ability) I greatly admire.  Upstate is going to love him.  In return, though, we are getting Elder Zander back, and he will be training Elder Leung from Hong Kong.  Hooray for new missionaries!

I have been transferred out of my area, but am still in Chinatown.  I will be working with Sister Woo as a Sister Training Leader in Manhattan.  What that means is that we will go and do exchanges with sisters in the four Manhattan zones to help train and evaluate their work.  It should be a great experience, and I have been wanting to work with Sister Woo essentially since the beginning of my mission.  She is from Singapore, rock climbs, is studying mechanical engineering at BYU, and is lots of fun to be around.  I'm super excited!

Looking back at the last cycle, I have seen an incredible amount of change.  Sister Lee (who I am really going to miss being companions with) and my area went from a mediocre to a strong area.  We have solid investigators who are progressing towards baptism, great less actives who are coming back to activity, and solid members who are willing to help us do missionary work.  What more could a missionary ask for?  It's incredible.  Beyond that, I have seen incredible personal growth and have felt an increased connection with my Heavenly Father.  It has been a great cycle, and one that has shown me that it really is through small things that great things come to pass.

For example, this last week we had one of our less actives officially come back into activity.  I have been teaching her since January, when she was not attending church, seldom praying and not reading scriptures at all.  Since then she has started reading, praying every day, has changed her work schedule to come to church, and has seen miracles in her life as a direct result of keeping commandments.  She is worthy and willing to partake of the sacrament.  Her testimony is incredible!  

As I was talking with one of my zone leaders this week I wondered how it was possible she hadn't become reactivated earlier.  He said "Maybe no one took the time to really focus on her like you two have."  It made me stop and think.  Our making the effort to go and visit, even when it seemed like she wasn't making progress at all, was an act of faith in her and in the Lord on her behalf.  That faith resulted in a miracle. (See 2 Nephi 27:23 for more on that note.)

I love you all.  You are amazing, and I am lucky to have your love and support!

Until next week,

Sister Beer

Comings and Goings and Comings and Goings and Comings......

Today was my trainer's last day in the mission.  Sister Chueh has served wonderfully, and I am so happy that I had the opportunity to work with her, even though it was for a short time only.  Sister Chueh was part of the tri-panionship in which I started my mission, and I am grateful for the guidance she gave and the example she was to me.  She is off to a new adventure, and it's going to be awesome!

In the meantime, I am still in Chinatown, which is as crazy and awesome as ever.  We had a couple of changes in our zone, with Elder Williams leaving and Elder Foley returning.  One of the strangest changes to me is that for the first time on my mission, Elder Murray and I are no longer in the same district!  Nine months later... crazy.  He's still in my zone, so I'll still see him all the time, but it will be a change.

The other big news from this week is that we have a new sister in our midst!  Sister Chen from Taipei, Taiwan joined us in the mission and is being trio-trained by Sister Woo and Chan.  Yeah, that's going to be confusing.  (Chen and Chan are the same name in Chinese, only with different romanizations.)  They are living with us now, and Sister MacKay and Khong are moving out.  Hopefully Sister Khong and I don't experience too much separation anxiety.  We have lived together since we came into the field. All the same, I'm excited to be living with another native speaker again.

Today in transfer meeting, President Morgan posed a question that really made me think.  Every once in a while, it is important to refocus on what is really important.  I like doing self-inventories from time to time, and I think I will add this question to my personal list.  He asked us "Who do you love more?  What do you love more?  How can you better show your love [to the Lord]?"  I think the answers to these questions are some of the most telling of a person's character and their focus than anything else.  Can I really say that I love the Lord more than anything, or anyone, else?  Do I love Him enough to study His words every day?  To talk to Him on a regular basis?  To give up, as King Lamoni's father put so eloquently, "all of my sins to know [Him]?"  As missionaries come on their missions, leave behind their former lives, that is one step in telling Him how much we love Him.  The next is through exact obedience to His commandments.  Even though not all of you may be on missions, I would still encourage you to look for ways to be exactly obedient to the commandments of God.  He gives them to us so we can show our love for Him, and as a direct result of our obedience He blesses us more than we can imagine.

Whew.  Hopefully that meant as much to you all as it did to me when President talked about it this morning.  I love all of you, and I am grateful for all you do!

Love,

Sister Beer

Zone Conference! [Who can spot the Ginger?....]

The Wonderful, Fantastic Sister Lee (and other things)

I have a new companion!  And not only is she a new companion, but she is also a brand new, shiny, clean, fresh-out-of-the-MTC missionary!  Adding to that, she is super awesome and I love her already and I am SO EXCITED to work with her... and so forth.  She is and ABT (American Born Taiwanese) who has lived all over the USA and traveled to Taiwan and China.  She spoke Mandarin growing up, so no worries there, and talking to her is kind of like talking to a different, more Asian-on-the-outside version of myself.  Ah!  I am just so excited to work with her.

The one downside to getting a new companion is that my dear Sister Khong is no longer my companion.  She has moved on to her very own trainee, Sister Mackay from Payson, Utah.  She is also fantastic, and I am sure we will hear many great things from them in the future.

What an awesome opportunity it is to be in the mission field right now, with all the changes that are happening.  We had 40 (that's right, 40) new missionaries come in this transfer.  Our total missionary count in the New York, New York North mission is 209 missionaries.  That is incredible!  There is a huge amount of growth in the mission, and it's only getting bigger.  And I'm a part of it.  I couldn't ask for anything more.

One funny story from this week.  I met this old guy while contacting yesterday.  When I started speaking to him in Chinese, he looked at me and said (in Mandarin) "You speak Mandarin?" "Yes, I do." "That's good.  You should speak Mandarin.  There are a lot more Mandarin speakers than anyone else in the world."  I agreed and brought up the gospel again.  He squinted at me and said "How old are you?" "22." "I am a Christian, and I am 50 years older than you.  50 Years.  That's 72.  Do you think you can teach me?" "I think no matter how old we are, we can learn more how to come unto Christ.  Yes, I do." "Okay.  Good."  And then he gave me his number.  Super awesome.  I love old Chinese people.

A thought I had this week as I was studying:  In John 7:17, it says that, "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself."  I thought that was super interesting as we compare that scripture to D&C 130 20-22, which talks about how as we are obedient, the Lord blesses us.  One of the greatest blessings we can receive is the companionship of the Holy Ghost, which allows us to know, rather than just believe, the doctrine, and also know what the Father wants us to understand.  The Holy Ghost testifies of all truth, and helps us obtain the blessings Heavenly Father wants to give us.  What a fantastic promise.

With that, I have to get going.  I hope you all are having an absolutely wonderful week.  The gospel is true, God loves His children, and he shows that love through continuing revelation to a prophet who leads our Church.  I love you all and appreciate all your support!

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

The Calm Before the Storm

This is the last P-Day before transfers, and it's going to be a crazy transfer.  To start with, Sister Liu, my wonderful, wonderful trainer, is going home next week.  I am going to miss her so much.  She has helped me understand what the MTC couldn't about what it really means to be a missionary.  China doesn't know how lucky they are to have her.

But that is just the beginning.

Next week we get 39 new missionaries in our mission.  39!  That is a crazy number!  To give you an idea of how truly crazy it is, here's a fun fact: it is the largest transfer in North America EVER.  Our mission is starting a time of incredible growth, and as President Morgan told us last Friday, if we get this right, miracles will happen.  One of the 39 missionaries is a new sister for Chinatown.  We are so excited for her to come!  We still don't know who will be training her yet, so we (well, I) and sitting on the edge of our seats, waiting to find out. By next transfer we will have two additional sisters in Chinatown, so all of the Mandarin speakers in South Manhattan will be training.  I never thought I would train so early in my mission!  I guess the Lord has his own plan though, and I should get used to tagging along for the ride.

At our leadership training meeting last Friday, President Morgan (who is pretty much exactly the kind of leader I want to be) talked to us about "locking in truth and locking out the world."  He taught us that it is important to remember what is actually important in missionary work.  We need to be focused on what the Lord wants us to do, not on what we think is best.  I have seen that over and over again in my teaching since then.  We have talked to less actives and investigators about how to let the Lord guide us, rather than thinking we always know best.  Too often we fall into patterns of "I want this now, why isn't He giving me this blessing?" or "That wasn't the answer I wanted - I'm going to go do this instead."  We don't necessarily say those words to ourselves, but I know I have had situations where those thoughts have run through my head.  It all comes down to locking in eternal truths:  the Lord know's what's best, He loves us, and He has given us guidance through personal revelation and living prophets to help us become the best people we can be.  That conference is going to be one I remember for a long time.

Thank you all for the support you give me and other missionaries.  I can safely say we appreciate all of the prayers, love, and kindness you give us.  Thank you for all you do!

Love,

Sister Beer