Jesus Wept

Sister Barden from Taiwan - June 8, 2014 

Dear Family! Happy almost Father's Day! 

What a fantastic week! We saw incredible finding miracles! The members are on fire and have been more than generous with their time and support. We are feeling blessed! I want to share a special miracle we saw this past week. One of our members happened to introduce us to her 9 year old daughter's classmate a little over a week ago. This shy little girl is named Zhen, Zhen tong xue. As we talked with her, this member explained that Zhen tong xue's mother had passed away years ago. Her father is not very educated and has a difficult job leaving him with little time to take care of her. This Sister has taken time every week to take little Zhen tong due under her wing. After beginning a relationship with the shy little girl, teaching her about her relationship with her Heavenly Father, and inviting her to come to church with this member, Zhen tong xue is now enjoying church and beginning to talk more in our lessons. The member sweetly told us that, last week, zhen tong xue had quietly asked if she would pray for her. In a lesson a few days ago, zhen tong xue's finally father agreed that she could set a baptismal date and continue coming to church with this member family. Hurrah for Israel!!! We know this gospel can change this little girl's life. Praying hard for her! 
I know I don't often share about exchanges, but this week I had an exchange too extraordinary not to include. This was a special split. One Sister in our mission is a very strong, consistent missionary. As we worked and contacted together, I was impressed with her skills and her very positive attitude. She has a great desire to do the work. We had a special moment during our time together. This Sister opened up to me and shared that she felt jarring and rigorous times during her missionary service have caused her to keep her emotions distant. Throughout her mission, she has kept working and not allowing herself to express a lot of emotion. We talked about how being strong and consistent is what God wants us to become, but He also desires us to be gentle and human... compassionate and tender. It is okay to let our emotions show sometimes. Loving others can be difficult when they decide to reject our message or do not treat us well, but as representatives of Christ we need to keep loving them. This sweet sister began to cry. She has not had an easy mission and she has become tough as nails. "I don't cry" she told me "It hurts too much... sometimes feeling hurts a lot". I remember putting my arm around her and just holding her as we sat on the bed. Sometimes, missionaries experience very real discouragement and very real trauma. The light and darkness break against our heartstrings in consistent waves. Empathy and understanding from my own black times bubbled up in my soul and I felt the strongest desire to help this sister, to see God give her the warm, clear perspective that would allow her to positively process her pain.
When we turned off the lights at the end of the evening, I kept thinking about this intense experience. Suddenly, one, single sentence of scripture came very clearly to my mind.  John 11:35  "Jesus wept". The next day, as I shared this scripture with her... and we talked about how we are made in the "image and likeness", including "emotions and feelings" of God, her tears came afresh. It was a sweet and wonderful moment that I will never forget. God wants us to be strong and courageous... but He hopes that, like the Savior, we will also be gentle and human. Beautiful, beautiful lesson. We must not only be the "Rock", but the "Lamb" also.
Have a wonderful week! Happy Father's day.  

(Sister Barden)