Sister Caroline Richards: Week 21: Ni Hao!

Hello my people!

What a stinkin awesome week. Too much good stuff to share and I have like .00005 seconds to email (so I probably won't be able to respond to everyone, I'm sorry), but I'll try my best.

So we started off the week with training meetings for all the trainers. Pretty much we were just told that the first few weeks are mission are so crucial for the trainee so we better not mess things up. No pressure, right? Then we got all of our companions! They came in a big group, so all together we were almost 30. My companion is Sister Park and she is the best! I seriously love this girl so stinkin much. She's pretty much just an asian version of myself, so we're having a lot of fun together. She is a really, really hard worker. Like crazy hard. Our area is the size of stinkin Russia so I was praying for a companion that likes to walk. And she does. So we're safe.

SO like I said, Sister Park and I have been having fun together. A little too much fun. She's full Korean, so we've been having fun telling people that she doesn't know any English. The night before district meeting, we called our District Leader and asked him to bring a Book of Mormon, Preach my Gospel, pamphlets, or really any church material in the Korean language because my companion "knows no english". HAH. They fell for it so hard. The next day at District Meeting they bring all these language study manuals and all this stuff and I'm like wow okay thanks this will help so much. So she goes all of district meeting without saying a word, and then they ask her to give a prayer and I say, "oh it will be in Korean, is that alright?". So she gets up, everyone closes their eyes, and she just goes off in english. I opened my eyes and everyone was just like looking up and their jaws were on the floor. It was hysterical. People in the area always yell "Ni hao! Ni hao!" and will keep on yelling until my companion responds. It's not even korean hahaha.

BUT we are focusing in the area, don't you worry. We contacted about 17 katrillion people this week, and have a lot of return appointments for next week which is exciting. We were able to extend two more baptismal dates this week, and get two more investigators confirmed! So all is well in Mabvuku. Our Zone Leader gave us great advice in DM: Expect Miracles. When we are exactly obedient, we can expect miracles. And we for sure have been seeing miracles in our area this week! We're teaching someone new named Allan. We were in an area we don't usually go to that often, and the appointment we had set was a fall through. So we're all moping around so sad that this appointment fell through (we were really excited for it) and Allan approached us in the street and asked if we would teach him about the Book of Mormon. We were able to sit down with him right there, and I seriously have never seen anyone grasp the concept of the Book of Mormon so quickly. It was incredible. Sister Park and I just walked away from that lesson and were like WOW. It was a miracle for us. The Lord knew the previous appointment with fall through, but put someone in our path for us to teach who really needed the gospel. Missionary work is the best!

So I said I had no time, and this was forever long so now I reallllyyy have no time haha. But I love you all! Have the greatest week!

Love, Sister Richards