April 29, 2012

Hey loved ones,

I love being a missionary. It is so crazy how fast time goes by, I sometimes have that longing to go back in time or make it stop. I think I told you about this recently, I think that is my spirit longing for it's true state. Almost proof we are eternal beings.

 Some questions:

Can you send me a cookie recipe?

What is John Moore’s address? I wrote him like a month ago and still haven't sent it because I always forget to ask for the address.

Where did Belize come from? I am excited to hear about it.

For my Birthday present can I buy an odometer, speedometer thing for my bike. It's 700 dollars, that is Taibi. (25 USD)

What is new with everyone?

Rachel please email me! (You can count it as your birthday present to me.)

What's up with my investment with Aunt Sherrie's thing?

Well here is my letter to my president:

  Hey President,
Thanks for all you’re doing. This week has been good. I love how we see miracles daily. My companion is easy to get along with, I think I get more frustrated with myself then he does with me. Which is nice and I am learning a lot. I am working my hardest trying to use time effectively and always finding. I got to go on exchanges with Elder Young and had a great time. I learned how that by focusing on finding and not as much on baptism, we learn to not be so number focused and don't get so many people who go less active that have made covenants with god. I am learning to love finding, as my mom always says "First things first." Finding is first, after that things happen in missionary work. Thanks.
 This week I have better studied for investigators while studying, and hope to get good at that. I have felt recently that my studies are becoming more effective, which is nice. I am still enjoying my BOM studies and am seeing the doctrine of Christ in places I have never seen it before. It’s so fun. I feel that because we are studying teaching skills our teaching has become better. We are now much more unified and are teaching with unity and the overviews are making our lessons way better, the time part is helping not only investigators but my companion who loves to talk. I am going to keep this invite my whole mission now. I am loving my companion, investigators and area more and more. Thanks.

Elder Sabey

 TO answer our questions

What is your goal that you are trying to finish up before then? 

It's called Phase 2 which is a language study plan, of three phases and the third is all the characters in the book of Mormon. So hopefully I will be studying characters soon. :) I am so excited. 

 How are your discussions coming in Chinese? The discussions are going just fine. I think now most my investigators understand what i am saying now and my grammar is getting better. The Chinese is coming, just slower then I would like.

I hope your companion is feeling a little happier. I think he is but now he has another problem, he has dreamed about marrying a Taiwanese girl (On a mission in TaiZhong)(which he has been writing, but not romantically) multiple times recently and is thinking about it a lot.  He is having a hard time focusing, and asked for my help. Any suggestions?

  What's up with the black family?
They are super fun and nice but this week they were busy and we didn't get to meet with them.

Well this week was great. You probably want to hear about some of the miracles. I don't have any quite like Ian Darcey had (So cool) but I had some good ones. Me and my companions teaching transformed overnight and our lessons are way more powerful now. We had Elder Gong of the 70 come and teach us. We learned about being quick to observe and also the importance of the first vision. It is crazy how that one event was the thing that started the stone rolling and all doctrine can be traced back to it. Like the cone theory. Some doctrine: Eternal families -This is my beloved son. Notice how they are not in a distant relationship.  God is full of light and truth/is the light and life of the world: I saw a pillar of light above the brightness of the sun. God loves and knows us: Calling me by name. Revelation, Line upon line "It descended gradually until it fell upon me."

 The spirit was so strong in that room as we were discussing it my mind was truly enlightened and my testimony enlarged. Sister Gong talked about how a caterpillar will make a cocoon and in the cocoon will liquefy and then reshape into a butterfly, and how God's view for what we can be compared to what we are is even a greater difference then a caterpillar and butterfly. Some thoughts I had where trials can be the times when we are liquefied and have the ability to change who we are. We can stay in the cocoon and be stuck or fight our way out and become free and a new person. I think I have heard that the butterfly has to eat and fight its way out of the cocoon, which gives it strength to fly. 

 I also think the sacrament can be the liquefying time where we can choose to be made new again and become a better person or to stay in the cocoon. I read in Mosiah 25 7-8ish king Mosiah has records read to the people and they don't know what to think, they are filled with joy because of the deliverance of their brethren and with sorrow because of the death of many of their brethren. It made me think how often we assume we can only have one feeling. In elder Cooks talk “I hope you know we had a hard time" he talks about how "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" and we learn from trials. He quotes Neil A Maxwell who said something like having the stark contrast of the bitter right next to the sweet is essential in this short time in mortality. It got me thinking and I think I told you this before but like climbing a mountain, the view is made better by the climb. I think that the view our family had at the top of that 14er was very different then the view the people had who took the train to the top of it. Like swimming where you swim painful miles daily for the one minute of the race. Without the bitter the sweet really has no sweetness. The fall was essential and I am grateful to Adam and Eve for it. I am grateful for goodly parents who taught us to eat bitter so we can taste the sweet. I am grateful for the gospel and how it is the sweetest most desirable fruit out there, and through our bitter trials we can come to appreciate it more. This I know to be true.

 I love you and pray for you all.

Elder Sabey.