Dear Family and those I love,
I apologize outright that this email
will be incredibly short, please know that I love and care about all of
you, it is simply that sometimes time gets away from you especially as a
missionary.
There are two thoughts I would like to share with you and then my
testimony. First "The Lord loves a cheerful heart-- He must love you a
whole lot" I hope that this can always be said of all of us. This life
sends us all so many unexpected things and challenges whether it be
loss of a job, a car accident, a bike accident, learning a new language,
paying rent, sharing the gospel with a neighbor or facing decisions we
would rather not face. All of these things might cause us to wonder
what pavilion is hiding the Lord, but I like Pres Eyring say that the
only pavilion covering anybody is the one covering us. We don't know
what things are part of God's plan for us, whether it be going to
Cambodia to see naked children in the streets, learning a new language
and not being able to communicate or staying home to face more normal
things that are adventures in and of themselves. Whatever our challenge
might be I know that Heavenly Father places them in our path so that we
can learn and grow. Also this life and especially something this
mission is teaching me is that we are not here just to make good
choices, we are also here to show that we can make those good choices
well. Are we going through the things of this life with a grimace or a
smile? Oh trust me I know that smiling all the time can be exhausting
and isn't always appropriate, but I am curious if given a choice which
expression comes easier to our faces? I hope it is the smile.
Next thought, the past week has been a very full empty one, other than
some visits to members and a really good lesson to Chi Phung our
current investigator who loves the Book of Mormon, but after coming to
part of sacrament meeting and leaving with fussy kids she hasn't come
back. Our first goal was learning if we could communicate with her and
our next is to make sure she understands when we leave a commitment (I
am so grateful for Chi Hoa who actually understands most of what is
going on and if she doesn't asks the right questions to get the
answers). I am thankful for the opportunity I had to share my testimony
of the Book of Mormon with her and help her understand a bit more about
Nephi and the brass plates and why we need scriptures in our lives.
Anyway other than those visits and way too many hiccups in Zone Training
we spent most of the weekend in doors. In the process Chi Hoa and I
got out the white board and made plans for the transfer and our goals
and she reminded me of something in our in field orientation session at
the MTC. She quoted our main man and said "be the kind of missionary
that matches your expectations of what a missionary should be" how often
do we set expectations for ourselves? I know we have plenty of
expectations in our lives, but I promise the only ones that matters are
the Lord's expectations and the expectations we receive from the Spirit
for ourselves.
I know my Heavenly Father lives and loves me. I know that He has a
pre-prepared plan for each of us to find eternal joy. I know that as we
follow His plan for us we will have experiences we never expected and
do more with our lives than we can by ourselves. I know my Savior lives
and he loves all of us. He suffered the Atonement for each of us that
he might know our experiences and our weaknesses personally. Because of
the Atonement he knows how to help us smile, no matter the situation.
So I leave a commitment for all of us, I am a missionary after all. It
goes back to thought number one. Heavenly Father loves a cheerful
heart, so my hope is that this week no matter what may come, we will
have faith and hope in our Savior to smile and share the joy of the
Gospel with those around us.
I love you all, have a truly fabtabulous week
Chi Dao
P.S Remember that every trial is an answer to a prayer, to help us gain a Christlike attribute we are seeking.
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