RE: Sister Barden in Taiwan - Oct. 5, 2014

Dear Family,

This week, I kept thinking about the word "magnify" and what it means to our callings and our lives. I know God has magnified the work here in Yilan, magnified Sister Graham's Chinese (She's speaking so well!), magnified our finding efforts in beautiful rice fields, magnified our members as they testify (boldly!) to those we teach. Watching things be magnified beyond our ability to move them forward helps us understand we can’t do anything without help from heaven. … And heaven can do A LOT OF THINGS!

We had unbelievable lessons with some of our Less Actives this week. One of our sisters had tears pouring down her cheeks by the end of our lesson. "I just feel so much love from you sisters. You give me such hope and faith". She is excited to attend Conference next week. We ran into another less active sister as she waited for a bus. We've met with her for many weeks trying to help her and her children come to church. Sister Graham and I have often felt she had some concern that she still had not shared with us. Answering a prompting led us to where she stood, alone and waiting. Surprisingly enough, she began telling us her real concerns, explaining that she was beginning to feel that she didn't need to attend Church to have a relationship with God. At that moment, 3 Nephi 18:12 came to mind. The sacrament is a commandment! The spirit led a bold and loving conversation that concluded with her also expressing excitement at being able to take her children to Conference next week. WOW! Magnified.

We've seen incredible miracles with our investigators too! We felt prompted to pick members to help us teach who had specific experiences that related to our investigators. One particular lesson resulted in our investigator, a father, looking intently at a mother in our ward who testified about how the gospel and young men's program has blessed her son's life. She shared that the church had changed her relationship with her son and that he now knows he can pray to God for anything he needs. Our investigator resolved to more intensely investigate the church from that moment on! She was magnified!

Stunned at the blessings! In the Topical Guide, 'magnified' is also described as "exalt, glorify, praise". I know as we magnify our responsibilities to the best of our ability, the Lord will glorify our callings. I know that as we participate in the work of the Kingdom, all our abilities will be lifted to new heights, all our efforts will be redoubled, and miracles will come.

Have an incredible week! I'm excited to see Conference this weekend!

Love,
Sister Barden