Jan 15, 2012--Wei Jiemei's baptism

Hey family. It's so great to hear from you.

 It's been a strange week, I am moving to Taoyuan city. I am going to be with an elder Denise who is Malaysian and English is his 3rd language, Chinese his 4th. He is a district leader, and I guess a little quirky. I am excited to get to know him and to be in a bigger area. The only down sides is no more teaching women/ leaving Longtan. But I am happy with my work in Longtan.

  So tell me about the classes people are taking, dance, life, our new car, etc.

  Highlights from the week:   Obviously Wei Jeimei’s baptism. It was election day so everyone voted and not many came to the baptism because everyone was watching the results, but we had enough come. She was such a miracle. We meet her at her brother’s house. We had been meeting with her brother for a month and he was not making much progress so we were thinking about dropping him but we both felt we should keep teaching him. I think the next week she joined in on our lesson and then came to English class and set up time for further lessons. Then yesterday her brother set a baptismal date! I am so glad for her and her example to her older brother. She is a humble woman probably 35, unmarried and a hard worker. She was so great to us and always made us amazed by her testimony. We had a single man (who did a duanchuan (one transfer mission)) her age baptize her. It was bad because we only gave him 1 hour notice, but all worked out in the end.

  On Sunday a couple in our ward had an engagement party and we had committed to go about 2 months ago. It's weird how they have huge parties for engagements. It turned out to be in a giant restaurant, and because they were getting married in the temple and wanted their family to feel a part of it, even bigger than normal. We had told them we could stay for an hour, and it turned out that they had alcoholic beverages, and a stripper (not all the way) so we were in an awkward place, on one hand we had promised them we would come and support them (one a recent convert) and we represented the ward, and on the other we were breaking the Sabbath, in an area with alcohol and strippers. We ended up leaving as early as we felt possible. The food was super expensive and crazy. I had my first lobster and sushi, and so far have had giant shrimp, stinky tofu and squid- all of which I didn't hate, but none of with I love. 

    So my companion is training again, and that means I am a mom. My son’s name is Elder Timothy, and he seems really nice, but isn't great about his time. It was fun to get to know him and help him out a bit.

 Spiritual thoughts of the week, when we truly repent we gouge out parts of the natural man, and then in sacrament we partake of Christ’s blood and body which fill in those gouges with him. Over time we can become like him. This is a kind of sanctification.

Also the most welcoming expression I can think of is embracing open arms, and in a scripture it said I was raised up to draw all men unto me. I remember that even on the cross his arms were open calling all unto him. His arms are still open. Let us come unto him. Let us raise him up above ourselves and not, "trample him under [our] feet." 

Love you all,  Elder Matt Sabey

Jan 8,, 2012--One week before transfer 3 begins

Today I am so glad to be a missionary. I love being a witness of christ, while watching the restoration I heard JOseph smith say "I knew it, I new that god knew it, and I could not deny it." I felt the truth in his words and told the investigator the same words. I am so sure god is directing this work and it's not us that can't deny it. No matter how much I wish otherwise my chinese is not sufficent enogh to convince anyone to be baptised, or make any major life decision, but this week Zhong Jeimei got baptised. I was blessed to be theone that contacted her and to extend her the invitation to meet with us. She gave me a christmas letter that said that on a rainy day at an intersection I rescued a lost sheep. She is so great, already one of the most active members, and has given us 2 referals and her security guard yesterday called us up and set himself up. Its great tosee the work move forth. We also have another next week Wei Jiemei who is apart of the "english crew" selina who got baptised last week, zhong jeimei who got baptised this week, and wei jeimei who is next week. They all are great freinds and are lifting eachother up. I am not worried about any of them.

I have few questions for you all, What are your plans for this semester? What classes are you taking? What happened for new years/christmas break? What is andrew gibbs and rachel's adress? What's new?

It's crazy I am almost done with my second transfer, which ends a week from today. Then I will get my "breaker." Suposedly usually a really hard disobedient companion usually. So we will see. WE will also see if I stay or move. I am excited.

Well this week was great as usual. A few highlights were I loved exchanges with a member from my first district, who was great, and it was his birthday. I bought him a dunkin doughnut (yeah it's here : ) ) and we had a great lunch and then I meet a women and we gave her a tour of the chuch, and commited her to coming to church. It was great. It's always a highlight when an investigator passes a baptismal interveiw, also at church we had 4 rcla's come and it felt so good to seethem there. Sacrament meeting went great and they all felt the spirit I bet. The best though was the baptismal service. WE had a few funny part like she had to wear a giant white suit because we were missing our mid sized ones, and her feet came up once so she had to do it again. But the highlights were a rcla giving a great closing prayre, and the joy she had and we had. You can't get that joy from any money. She bought us all cake to eat after. It was such a great experiance.

I love you all and am excited to hear from you.