Chapters 66 and 67: When the going gets tough, the tough get going AND I become famous X3

Happy September!!
Lol I'm so dead I can't believe it's already September. I think I say that every month. Haha.
This week was definitely one of those growing weeks as a missionary. Our friends have like literally all disappeared or texted us saying they don't want to meet with us anymore. Like. Literally all of them. Except for this one really cute family (they are really cool). It's been pretty hard for me and Sister Cajilig because we've been working so hard and having great, spiritual lessons, but then these people just disappear. All at the same time. It's been of one of those "Do I falter or do I finish?" kind of weeks. And we decided to finish! So we are going to go ham this week on the street contacting and finding, it's going to be great!
In other news, we've recently been working with this really old man in our ward named Brother Chen. He's 94 and was baptized probs over 50 years ago and has been inactive ever since. We've been meeting with him almost every week since Sister Cajilig got here at the end of June, and this week, HE CAME TO CHURCH. For the first time in decades!! The bishop saw him walk in, then turned his head ever so slightly to us, and gave us this most subtle, proud nod of approval. You wouldn't have noticed it if you weren't paying attention. But it was like the best feeling in the world! Helping someone who hasn't been active for years and years come back to church is worth every disappointment and every dropped friend! Our focus as missionaries is not just to find, teach, and baptize people, it is also to help bring people back to the fold. And Brother Chen is coming back! He's so great, he's reading the Book of Mormon everyday now too!! #gottagetthat持守到底
I'm so grateful everyday to be a missionary! I love this work, even when it's hard. Especially when it's hard. That's when we get to learn and grow the most.
Love,
Sister Larson

Pics!

1. Raincoat selfie with Sis. Hong.

2. I found a giant snail on the sidewalk. Not the biggest one I've seen though. But I just wanted to take a picture with it.

3. Found my old (and I guess now dead) friend Chad right outside our apartment. I guess I won't be seeing him at the bachelor party #poorrebecca

4. It rained. Like really really hard. And we got soaking wet! And we were freezing! But then the next day it was really hot and our bodies and minds were confused as to why the temperature changes so quickly. #taiwanlife

Hello.

Looks like I just get famous on my mission. The first was when we filmed those missionary safety videos (coming to a missionary portal near you Jan 2019), then when we ACTUALLY got famous on YouTube #neverforget #thanksshuting. And now from the video we shared on Facebook of Sister Cajilig and me singing. #10shares. Just kidding we didn't actually get famous I am just bad at coming up with email titles and so I kind of just made something up #gottagetthatclickbait

But for reals though.

What a happy happy week! Time seriously flies when you're having fun! So many miracles this week that happened. One is that we thought two of our friends, Evie and Jessie, (who are sisters) weren't able to meet with us anymore, but then we met with them this week and we also put them on baptismal date!

Our friend Sister Li finally attended church on Sunday! We've been teaching her since I got to Muzha and she lives here for work on the weekdays, but on the weekends she goes to her hometown. So this week she finally went to her church in her hometown!!! Sister Cajilig and I were soooooo happy with the progress she has been making lately! Especially since we have her on baptismal date for October 14th!

Something funny that happened this week is when Sister Cajilig and I recorded a video of us singing the hymn "Nearer My God to Thee" for our investigators. (See above about how we didn't get famous from it). And when we were recording our voices kept on cracking so we laughed so many times and recorded the video so many times. If I was good at technology and sharing videos (which we found out from last week that I am not) I would edit a video of all of our messups bc they are actually way funny, but I'm not good at technology so that'll have to wait for a few months.

During companion study one day me and Sister Cajilig read the talk by Elder Uchtdorf from a young adult devotional called The Adventure of Mortality. I love the quote he shares from Steve Jobs that says, "You cannot connect the dots looking forward; you can connect them looking backwards." I know that if we learn to just totally, completely trust in God's plan for us that we don't need to worry! Because in the end it will all work out. When we look back we will see all the dots beginning to connect and it will all make sense why we went through certain trials and hardships in our lives. I know that God's plan for us is perfect and if we trust in Him, our Heavenly Father, that everything will be ok. I'm so grateful for God's plan of happiness for us!

Love you all!! Have a great week!!

Love,

Sister Larson

Pictures:

1. We had district meeting on the Maokong gondola ride with the zone leaders. It was so sick.

2. On top of Maokong mountain during district meeting drinking calamansi juice

3. Sister Cajilig and I kept messing up singing and got this way cute still from the video haha

4. My super sick Book of Mormon with characters in the left column, Hebrew in the middle, and English on the right. Did I mention I was learning Hebrew? Lol just kidding it's pinyin which means the phonetic version of the characters. But I had like 3 people ask me what language was in the middle column this week and one of them asked if it was Hebrew so,,, you learn something new everyday I guess.