RE:  Sister Barden from Taiwan - June 30, 2014 

 

Hello my family!! 

 

What an unbelievable week! Miracles are raining down on Yilan!!  I want to share a special story about one of our new investigators this week. We received a referral for a man living in a small town called wu Jie. When we went to visit him, we discovered he had a relation who was a member of the church. He already believed the Book of Mormon was true and knew God existed. His lesson was one of the funniest, yet remarkably spiritual, lessons of my whole mission. When we went in the door of his little, old house he greeted us with a toothy smile and a dirty outfit. We all sat on a low cot while he poured us thick milk in grimy tea cups. He was funny and almost exuberantly outgoing... until he started telling us about his addictions to alcohol and cigarettes. He told us that whenever he used them he felt bad... he wanted to stop and become a better person. We talked about baptism, we promised him he had the possibility to change because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. He accepted a baptismal date. The spirit was really strong..... then he looked directly at Sister Keung, and in broken English stammered "You look like Obama".  I started laughing until my sides hurt! Sister Keung didn't know what to do.. so she just nodded and smiled back. We're so excited to teach this new investigator! 

 

For the past few weeks, I've been thinking about mighty prayer. I can think of experiences where I've felt I was exerting a lot of spiritual and mental energy on my prayers... I've also thought of experiences where I've prayed for things that I know to be right... such as for a specific investigator's needs. But... I've been thinking... Do I really know what mighty prayer is? How can I become better at it? How can I pull down the powers of heaven? This week, I looked up many examples of 'mighty prayer' in the scriptures. There are some patterns... An increased sensitivity to the greatness of God and gratitude for His love... an expression of an inability to accomplish great tasks without the Lord... a plea for specific requests.. I'm learning a lot from this study exercise. I know I can constantly improve my prayers... to let my prayers be from my heart and guided by the Spirit. 

 

Sister Keung has so many qualities that I would like to emulate! I love her charity and sense of fun. One of her strengths is that she asks great questions when she teaches. When I was a new missionary, I was often too nervous about understanding what our investigator was saying to pause and ask them good questions... Sister Keung is already excellent at this skill.

 

Loving life! Have a wonderful 4th and send me pictures from the SUN Valley reunion. 

Love, Sister Barden