Week 19 The "baptism glow" 1/20/2020

Our friend Annie is officially a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!! There is no greater joy than seeing someone have this happiness for themselves!!!! This has been such a crazy journey, and it is truly a miracle. Starting my mission, I thought that there would be no way I would be able to see someone's whole entire journey (finding them, teach them the lessons from start to finish, and them see them get baptized and confirmed, but I did!!! In the 3 short weeks our friend was here, we got the priviledge of doing that!!

Annie is a true miracle. She is the friend I talked about the last time I emailed. Everything that we've taught her is so new, yet she absorbed all of it. This last week, we were planning on teaching her all the commandments. We planned to teach a new commandment every single day. Crazy. That week, we also wanted to take her to the visitors center. So many miracles happened with getting her there, and it ended up happening! After the visitor's center, we were going to teach her a commandment, but we ended up teaching all of them because she just wanted to learn all of them!! 

On Saturday she was baptized, and just yesterday she was confirmed!! And today she leaves to go back home 😭😭😭 Annie truly is so amazing. With her 3 weeks she was visiting, she had planned to go other places in California, be with her friends, go to New York, but she canceled all of her plans and stayed in Los Angeles with us so she could learn the gospel. She's given up many things to follow Jesus Christ and follow the commandments, and I just love her!!! When we went to the visitor's center, we walked around the temple too and explained some of the things that take place in the temple, and she told us she wanted to go before she leaves. Also, she said she wanted to serve a mission!!! (,: She just has this glow around her, which I like to refer to as "the baptism glow" and she is just so happy. 

Home Centered Church:

One of the wonderful members in our ward took Annie in for a couple days, and she loved it!!! She was able to see how the gospel works in the home and it increased her desire to know the truth. I know that home centered church is divinely inspired, so take advantage of it! Remember that "Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ." (The Family: A Proclamation to the World, 1995)

I am so proud of Annie for starting this covenant path, she really knows what it means to be a disciple and enduring to the end. We are so sad that she is leaving and that now we will not teach her anymore, but we will see her again!!

Funny story:

Sister Shay taught me a new word, and we know that every time I learn a new Chinese word, it's a funny story. So 榨 means to squeeze, like squeeze juice from fruit. 炸 means to deep fry, but you say these 2 words exactly the same. Sister Shay always says, "you're so cute I want to squeeze you!!" So I said this sentence in Chinese, and it sounded like I was saying, "you're so cute I want to fry you" and also, that is not even how you used this kind of "squeeze" in a sentence. We were on the floor dying of laughter in no time. 

Remember, home centered church, and nothing is more important than the salvation of the people, including yours!!!!! Love you all!!!