Dec. 18, 2011

Oh family how much I do love you. I loved your letters today. Thanks

I just love the mission. It is so great; I can't believe it just keeps getting better. We had our second baptism this week. A Zuang Dixiong, It was so great. In Taiwan generally not to many members attend the baptismal services, which is sad but makes the story better. On Friday we meet with one of our most golden investigators Selina, and shared about tithing. She had a lot of questions and wouldn't commit to it, but set up for the next day, the day of Zhuang's baptism.  We also had only found 3 of the 7 investigators we had hoped to find.  Saturday was going to be super busy, my companion and I  fasted that the baptism would go well, we would find new investigators and Selina would accept tithing. Well we started with Selina and she committed to obeying the law of the country, obeying the prophet, and god, and TITHING!!!! It wasn't the strongest commitment she was like I will definitely start off paying but if I don't see the promised blessings then we'll see. Then we got fanged (investigators didn't come to the set up) twice but one came, and was great. One of our members at the lesson said she received inspiration that this women (the investigator) would get baptized.   A little awkward but I hope it's true.  Then we meet with another investigator that told us he was bi-sexual and wanted to hear our view point, we luckily had the gospel principles book on us and shared with him from it. Then we went to the baptism, and we had so many miracles. We had 7 investigators besides Zhuang come, There were as many investigators as there were members, lol. We had forgotten to remind them about it that day but they all still came. I performed the baptism which went well the first time, no re dos (I was so glad), and then after the baptism all our investigators loved it so much that they stayed another30-40 minutes, approximately the time of the whole baptismal meeting. Some of our investigators are more active than almost any of the members. We are so blessed.

  Another highlight was a women who is living with a member but isn't divorced from her husband out of fear of him has committed to baptism. I felt we need to and I had her commit, and when she accepted she felt to spirit so strong she started crying. It was so great.

Then we had eight investigators at church and in weekly numbers we had 12 progressing investigators. It is definitely not me or my companion working here, there are many other missionaries better than us getting worse numbers. Angels are working here announcing good tidings of great joy, and I get to come and witness the greatest miracle of all, the birth of Christ in a person’s life, and see them themselves be reborn. I loved dad's letter. Fear not was announced to the shepherds miry and Joseph. "Fear not, only believe" a great quote of Christ.

Love you all

Elder Sabey

I will call at 8 our time so 6 yours

ps Can you send Ian an email saying I can't email but can read his, and got his and loved it and will write him back?   ian.darcey@myldsmail.net

Letter to Grandpa Blair Dec. 10, 2011

Hey, Grandpa.

Was just thinking about you. I love you so much and am so glad for your steady testimony. If it weren't so strong, I don't know if I would be on a mission. I heard you're not doing well. I pray for you.love your humor and positive attitude. You're such a good example. I hope you get better.

I'm loving my mission. I just had my first baptism, and it was so rewarding. I was so happy even though there were a few funny faux-pas, it all ended great. I love being a missionary and living a missionary life. I want to ask your advice. What's the most important thing I can learn on my mission, and in life. Also, what's the thing you're most proud of in your life. Also, if you could give me one piece of advice, what would it be?

I love you and pray for you. Your Grandson.

Elder Sabey

Dec. 4, 2011--First Transfer done, miracles abound

Hey family,

What time do you read your emails? We generally do it at 6:40. Do you have a computer in your apartment? No! That would be crazy cool but probably to much of a distraction. What do you do for P-days? It's never the same but the best part is your letters. Tell us a little about the city you're in- Longtan is a relatively small city, there are trees, gardens, lakes etc.. It's a beautiful area; because of the smaller population contacting everyone God puts in your path is a lot easier. How's Chinese coming? It's coming slowly but surely. I hope next transfer I will get a native companion because then it will improve faster. It is just slow to learn a language. Are you still working on characters or mostly just vocabulary? I am working on phase one, trying to get it done in two transfers; this is phrases, teaching, vocab, etc. It will be great, then I get to do phase two (vocab), then three which is just characters, but everyone in the BOM. The president’s goal is for us to finish phase 3 by the end of our first year. So no characters now. Sad.

 What a weird thought, my first transfer is done. Time truly flies. I am a part of a new training 12 week program so I knew I was staying with my companion in Longtan, your wish came true. I am loving it most of the time. We are being so blessed, my companion says I don't even realize how blessed we are. This was our best week yet. We taught 31 lessons and 16 member accompanied lessons, and 7 investigators at church. We saw so many miracles this week.

My favorite one was when God used me. My companion told me to find a place to track for 10 minutes, so I found a place that was relatively small, my companion said it was too small but if I wanted we could try. I said I wanted to. Then we rang on door bells and were rejected the first few times. Then we rang another and no one came but we could hear voices which we realized were around the house. I looked and saw a little girl waiting expectantly. I told my companion that there was a little girl waiting for a parent over there and he said, "If you want to go contact them you can?" Shortly after the mom came out on the scooter and I went and contacted them. They were interested and set up for the next day, she said she wanted to forget some things of the past, and we told her we could help. We set up with  the bishop and his wife as peikes (members to help). When she came we started off on our average first- time meeting using teaching phrases like "Every person we teach has individual challenges and concerns. No matter what your concerns or challenges are the savior and his teachings-the gospel- can help them." We proceeded to explain prayer and asking question when she just opened up to us. She has been abused by her husband, and so has her daughter "half to death." So moved away once, but he found her again. So she went to the government and they moved her here from Taizhong. She has no job, and is struggling with the past. It was so sad, but the spirit was so strong. I love helping her. Our Bishop is trying to get her a job, while we had a lesson on the atonement and I could testify that the atonement can heal anything. She once said "Every time we set up I want to not go, but I follow my heart and come." I had no idea I was being lead by the spirit to find her that day until looking back but now I know. I hope you guys will pray for her. Also as a missionary what can I tell you when people tell me stuff? Is this acceptable?

Another miracle was we had an appointment at someone’s house, who was new so he told us the street (with about 1000 houses) but forgot his address.  He told us to call when we got there. We did, with no response. We decided to go tracking, but before prayed that he will answer his phone again in ten minutes when we try again. On the third door we knocked and a boy and girl came walking by and stopped and asked if Bai zhanglao was one of us, and we said yeah. He was our APPOINTMENT. They WERE ON THEIR WAY TO the girl’s SCHOOL (and were planning on fanging [not showing up to the appointment] us). We asked if they had time to meet and the girl said we could and she Would just be late. I felt a little bad that she would be late, but this was more important. It was so cool how that prayer was answered, but even better than we prayed for. He was sent to us.

I love you all.

Elder Matthew Sabey

PS If you haven't sent my package I would love waterproof gloves.

Nov 27, 2011

Hey all,

I had a great last week. No baptisms or anything, but a great week.

I first want to talk about the day of miracles. On Tuesday I was on exchanges with a ZL, and we had a full day planned with no finding time. Yet on the bus I decided to talk to the guy sitting in front of me, and he was interested and set up an appointment. Then we had a great lesson, and after we went outside and were waiting for our next lesson, and a high schooler on a bike was riding by and I asked him to stop and he did (first time that ever happened), and I invited him to have a tour, and he had time so he did. At the end we had a mini first lesson and learned that he had a friend die 3 years ago, and is still having a hard time dealing with it. It was a powerful lesson and he set up for 2 days later. He's golden. So yeah, the two people I contacted that day set up, kind of awesome. Then when riding to dinner the Shi Jiating(family) saw us and bought us drinks. We had been worried about them because they haven't been coming to church so it was nice to see them, and talk. It's so great to have all these miracles. Then that night was the best sun set yet. There were a few others but I don't remember them all.

Then thanksgiving, it was a good day. We had a lot of good lessons and John a member, who is in my advanced English class had invited us to dinner, and couldn't do it till after 8 so he helped us in a lesson at 7:30 and was a great help, then went to dinner at 8 in the night market. We got Stinky tofu for the first time, one fried the other spicy. I was starving and nervous, but it really doesn't taste as bad as it smells. I actually kind of enjoyed it. The soup for the spicy stinky tofu was great. The fried tofu was much worse, but it was still bearable. Then we went and got some chicken butt- which was good but super fatty, and whenever you thought about what you were eating, you wanted to puke. Lastly we went and xiao xian cao, a traditional drink/jelly that was super good. I don't tihnk I will ever forget that thankgsgiving dinner. So dad thanks for not describing yours to me. 

Friday we had zone conference and I taught, as the youngest missionary there because my companion is a district leader. We taught on the doctrine of Christ and it went well, I have learned that if you’re teaching by the spirit you can teach anyone, even if your Chinese is bad, or your teaching 2 year experienced missionaries. I knew I was teaching by the spirit because I got a lot of new insights as I taught. I learned/taught about how the doctrine of Christ is a "pattern of living." It's not just 5 steps but a cycle. Earlier that week I realized that faith, repentance and enduring to the end we all are still working on but then I realized the full pattern/cycle. If we develop faith in Christ, he will show us our weaknesses, and we will want to repent, prepare be baptized/take the sacrament and become worthy of a more full measure of the gift of the holy ghost which if we follow its promptings the more faith we develop, and the higher up we get on this cycle the broader the veiw, and more rewarding the view.  It’s just like climbing a mountain.

I love you all,

Elder Matthew Sabey