April 7, 2013
A few things, my birthday is in a while but I already
have a few requests: I can't find my patriarchal blessing. I have no idea where
it could have gone. So if you could send me a copy. Then I also have a woman in
the ward who feeds the missionaries every Sunday and literally spoils us. She
gives us free Chinese book covers, and is the cutest nicest woman ever. She has
never had a Butterfinger before and should love one. So please send some
butterfingers. Also I love the family picture from the wedding you emailed me,
but we can't print these pictures. So please send me some more family pictures.
If there are any with all you and Dia and Ali that would be great. Lastly I
sent my cameras memory card to mom for her birthday. Please send that back
asap. I can't find the other one I bought.
How is your
companion doing? He is such a great
guy. I love him. He truly desires to do what is right and what
god wants him to. He seems to have gotten better. Tell me the best and the most
frustrating things about your zone. The best thing about m zone is the
missionaries are all great people and friends I feel we are unified. The
hardest thing is dome missionaries are not feeling the joy of the work. So
tomorrow we will be doing a training to help them enjoy the work by working
through the spirit. What’s up with your
investigators this week? My
investigators are so great. I love them. This week we had quite a few
miracles. Zhou Dixiong told me on
Saturday that he would go to the ward at 2 because he has to put his card in
for work, but the next morning I felt to bear my testimony and when I got up
and saw him there I was filled with joy. God helped so many people come to
church this last week. We had a LA, 3 investigators, an investigators dad and a
a member brought a friend who I was able to meet with and became a new
investigator. The first thing that came out of my mouth was how happy I was
today to see so many friends there. I felt so blessed. Then I testified of
having a living prophet and invited everyone to conference next week.
Conference is so great. I think that everyone in the world should watch it. It
is so full of goodness. I hope that everyone could listen and feel god’s love
toward them. I am so glad god loves us enough to give us prophets. Have you
watched conference? NO! I am so excited. Please tell me all your favorite parts
and insights! I will watch it this
Saturday and Sunday.
Letter to
President:
President Day!
Thanks again, I am
so excited to report today. I had some of the coolest miracles ever this week.
It shows how much god is everything and we are nothing. On Tuesday night we
went to San Xia but because we had to give an Elder keys and grab a baptismal
record o bring to the but the next day for Zone Leader council. So we went back
and one of the recent converts we had been working with said one of his
classmates said to him his dad wants him to get baptized, and asked if he could
bring him to the church the next day to meet with us. We of course told him
"NO!" Not really, we said of course.
He then told us he was a former investigator and we found his record. A
great kid. We meet with him on the 3rd.
We set a date for the 27th. I have never set a date for with in a months time,
but we felt he could make it. Then asked if he could meet again the next day,
and he said ok. So we did ad made a baptismal plan and gave him a baptismal
permission form so we could get the dads permission while he wants his son to
get baptized. On Sunday his dad brought him and attended all three hours! He
was asking for all these details about the baptism and was as much if not more
excited then his kid. He has already signed the permission slip! We have had so
many family opposition problems lately, it was a huge huge miracle and tender
mercy! I have never set a baptismal date for within a months time but I have
confidence this kid will make it. When doing the plan we went over the basic
commandments (also a thing I have never done, share all the commandments in the
second time meeting with someone.) and pretty much know the only one he has a
problem with is the Word of Wisdom, tea and coffee. So pretty much God is
everything and we are nothing. Then we hadn't had any new investigators on Saturday
night and prayed that someone could come to church, and someone came! A member,
He Dixiong brought his friend. I asked his friend, Gao Dixiong where he lives
and he told me banqiao (not our area), but obviously still meet with him. Go
team Jesus. He friend committed to pray
and to baptism, but I didn't set a date because I didn't want to set a date for
other missionaries. Then asked If I could have the BanQiao missionaries meet
with him and He Dixiong said that he lived in our area, just closer to banqiao.
So God gave us a huge tender mercy and answer to prayers. Also that Sunday we
had an LA who hasn't been to church for years come back! I was just so full of
joy. Then Sunday afternoon we had an LA father bring his 2 year old daughter to
meet with us at the church. He told us that he has been wavering in and out of
activity for years because of his self-weaknesses, and said that the crazy
thing was every time he started to want to come back he would run into the
missionaries on the street or they would call him. He said he was glad to
answer our call. We had an extremely spiritual lesson where he committed to
read the Book of Mormon by the end of the year and to come to general
conference. Then we asked if there was anything we can do to help and he said
"Please just keep meeting with me." We promised him we would. I was
filled with so much love for this man and his daughter it was crazy! God is a
god of miracles. We are nothing, but a tool in his hands. It is our privilege
to see him at work. I believe all around the world missionaries are in awe. It
is great to think about how many miracles must have happened this week all
around the world if three huge ones happened this week in TuCheng!
Anyways I went on
exchanges with Elder Parkinson and he is so great. I was able to serve with him
in Shuanghe and I can tell you he is a solid missionary. He had broken 4 times
now, I think he must be a great breaker. He is so calm and temperate. I know
being a breaker is no easy calling but he is happy to do it. His Chinese is
great. I have no worries about him.
As far as my goals
are going, I finished the D&C this week and am now in 3 Nephi 18. So that
is exciting. Thanks for the invites.
Me and my
companion are doing great.
Love you and
thanks again!
Elder Sabey
Thanks for all your support. Love you all, Elder Sabey
April 14, 2013
To answer your
questions
Did you listen to
it in Chinese or English? English I loved Elder Holland’s talk--Let Faith lead
you. Don’t give up the ground when you
have questions. (Me too!) When does your companion go home? The 27th
How is he doing? He is doing great. He is such a great example of loving
service. I don’t think I have been more inspired by any other companion. Tell
us about your week. It went great. See my letter to President
President!
General conference
was so good! The church is true! Anyways thanks for all you do. I want you to
know I support you and look to you as an example of a good man and father.
Thanks for all you do.
This week was
great for me and my companion. We really wanted to focus on the standards of
excellence and nearly hit them all! However most the zone went down because of
the meetings (Zone training, specialized training and general conference) but
me and my companion have goals and plans to help pick them up. We are now going
to train the BanQiao district on finding, and helping them see that when we
find all categories go up. We are having our district set goals and make plans
to improve on the areas where they are not up to standard. The Zone will do
better this week and better and better.
This week I went
on exchanges with Elder You, and we had some great miracles. On Friday it
rained nearly all day but we had so many lessons planed that we were able to
stay mostly dry. We were able to teach 8 lessons that day! We went tracting for
an hour and the last door we knocked had interest and gave a number! Then we
had 30 minutes between a lesson, and we prayed about what we should do, and I
felt contacting. So we went and found a guy with blue hair and had a lesson
with him on the street and he committed to church. Then didn't come but still I
will call him and set him up. Then we had my recent convert come from zhonghe
to peike and or lesson got canceled because our investigator had an emergency
at work, but miraculously our ward mission leader was there and we were able to
meet with her. We were all uplifted and had a great lesson. Also two other miracles, one of our
investigators told us that night his boss was treating everyone to drinks at a
bar, and he felt he had to drink. I had forgotten where the passage was about
the Lamanite guards who drank and lost the city due to their drinking. But knew
it was Alma 50ish so I opened my Book of Mormon and there it was in Alma 55!
Also we meet with a 22 year old man who wants to go on a mission and we put in
my Mormon message dvd and it randomly started on the missionary message, which
was usually much harder to get to because it is not on the selection menu. SO
god really is doing his work. It was great to see so many miracles on one
exchange. He seems to be doing well and
working hard. His teaching skills are great and he is just fun to be around. I
feel like he could work a little harder though. He passed off Phase 1 lesson 2
with me, so that was great. His English is pretty darn good. So all in all a
good exchange.
A last miracle, on
Sunday we had still not found any new investigators, so we prayed to find one
but we only had one hour of finding time. So we went to a park about 20 minutes
from our house at 7:30 and about 8:32
when we had planned to go home, I told my companion lets contact this last guy
wearing the Nike shirt. We did and he was great. We had a quick street lesson
and he set up for next Friday! God answers prayers! The last contact of the
week is our NI!
Me and my
companion are doing great!
I love you all!
Spiritual thought: A bullet dropped and shot from the
same height hit the ground at the same time. The difference is one reaches its
potential. We all have relatively the same time to live. Let us go far and
reach our potential. Staying in the same place is a waste.
Also Christ is at
the helm. He can calm storms when needed (Like with the disciples), and he can
call them when needed like with the brother of Jared. I know that no matter
what is going on outside as long as we stay on the ship with Christ we will
reach our destination, a Promised land, and the journey will be worth it.
I love you all
Elder Sabey
April 23, 2013
Hey family,
I love you all so
much.
Thanks for the
amazing package. I look forward to reading dads essay. I also look forward to
eating butterfingers and sharing that goodness with all my Taiwanese friends
and taking pictures. Thanks so much.
Thanks Grandma for
the Email. I always love hearing from you. To answer your questions:
Do you remember your first day in country? Yes I do, my
first full day we went running at 6 in the morning, then went to where Taiwan
was dedicated and dedicated ourselves. Then we had training and found out who
our trainers were. I went home with my trainer to Tucheng and he had to pack
some stuff. A pretty sweet first day. Are you getting lots of sisters these
days? TONS!!!!!
Vow to answer Moms
questions:
How are you? I am great! Seriously happy! How is the
mission doing in morale, baptisms, retentions . . .? It is an amazingly
exciting time to be on a mission as the Lord is hastening his work. This week
there is a new official sister leadership calling in missions worldwide! Do you know your return date? Yes, August
30th. (But I think if BYU starts before that then I may go home earlier. When
does BYU start?)
Now my Questions:
I would still really appreciate another print out of my patriarchal blessing,
and some pictures of the full family. I have none of Rachel or Ali. I want to
share with people my full family. My old picture got lost.
My
letter to Pres.
President,
This last week
has been amazing. We had the same thought you did about the Standards of
Excellence, so we worked our tail off to reach them. We reached it in every
category except baptism (Our investigator who had an interview didn't pass and
needs a little more time. We set a new date for him. May 18th.) and baptismal
dates. But we had 30 lesson total. Which was exciting and also 15 of those were
peikes! We want our zone to reach these standards and so we felt we had to
first be the example. I think we will hit them all this week.
As far as
exchanges go I went on 3 since last time reporting. I went with Elder Kunz,
Elder King, and Elder Norris. We saw great miracles each time. With Elder Kunz
we were able to set up a former and his family! There was a Student who goes to
the church to study with his friend and he walked by. I asked Elder Kunz if he
was a member and he said no, we went and meet with him and he became a new
investigator. They went and meet with him on Thursday and he brought a
classmate and he also became one of their new investigators. We also had quite
a few set ups. It was so great. He was just in Awe at the miracles we saw. Then
we had the district stay after district meeting and find for an hour, during
that hour Elder Beck and Elder Huang found one New investigator for them. Also
Elder Papritz and Kunz found a New Investigator for themselves. I am so glad
that they found. Last transfer they didn't find any by themselves. Elder
Papritz has been calling and thanking us and saying "The winds have
changed." With Elder King we were able to meet with 3 of their
investigators and I felt I was able to help the one who had dePression because
I have had family members who have had dePression before. All the investigators
I meet with were not your average person. One had a mental handicap, one was
dePressed and another was old and was losing her ability to remember or focus.
If you have once been normal but then get like altimeters and lose the mental
capability you had, can you still get baptized? We also meet with 2 LA family’s
which was great. Actually one was just a visit because our Peike canceled and
the husband wasn't home but it was great to see them working with LAs.
Then I went on
Exchanges with Elder Norris in our area. We were English boarding and ran into
an investigator who we had met on Saturday and he came to church on Sunday. It
was Monday! He was going to a small Library which I wanted to go see because I
had no idea there was a library by our home. We were able to get service set up
at the library and the worker committed to English class, and we were able to
get time to use those computers which is a billion times better atmosphere them
a internet cafe. That night we were also able to find a New Investigator, and
visit 2 members. So a pretty great exchange.
I am finished
with the D and C and also the POGP! I am also almost finished with the Chinese
BOM! I am in Ether 7. Thanks for the invites. I believe I am becoming more
converted and a better tool in the lord’s hands. I also love the diligence
attribute. I felt shocked when you told me to do it but it is really what I
needed. I love reporting on it at night to the lord in prayer.
Thanks for all
you do,
Elder Sabey
5/12/13
Happy Mother’s day! I am so excited to talk to you all in
2 hours! I love you all so much!
Spiritual
thought:
I learned recently
that in the temple we become heirs with Christ and can receive all the Father
has. An attribute of godliness is to not hold anything back, to be willing to
give all you have. I learned that is why the law of consecration is so special.
If we give our all to God, God will give his all to us. What a great
trade.
I was thinking
about what to say to Mom for mother’s day and I felt I should write down what
my mom has given me. I first wrote all her heart. All her love. All her
knowledge. All her time. She has that godlike attribute. She is willing you
give all she has to and for her kids. She wants them to receive it. She wants
to give us her all because she is full of Love, pure Love for us. I am so
grateful for her example. Through knowing Mom I have better come to know God.
Mother I love you
to. Thanks for diligently writing me every week! There are some missionaries
whose mothers have never written them or talked with them on the phone. I am so
grateful for the time you spend on me in prayer and typing letters. Thanks for
your love. It means everything to me.
well here is my letter to President.
Hey President!
I am so happy! My Zone has picked it up! Elder Chen and
King got 40 lessons and 25 peikes this week! Elder Papritz got the goal of 20!
Nearly every companionship went up (other than ourselves, but I feel like this
week was better than last week as far as the work goes. We had one investigator
pass his baptismal interview! We were finding and teaching a lot anyways.) We
were able to meet with two LA's that haven’t been to church for a long time.
One for 40 years! He joined along time 43 years ago but then became blind and
didn't want to inconvenience the members so stopped going. He will be attending
the baptismal service on Saturday! I am so happy! This week we also found
another family!
So this week I went on exchanges with Elder Hagedorn and
Elder Kattleman. They are both superstars. When I was with Elder Hagedorn we
went to dinner and at the end of dinner an LA called and asked to meet right at
6:30, so we just contacted to the chapel and meet with 2 LAs and 2
investigators from 630 to 8. We had to split up teaching but he did great by
himself and he loved it. At 8 we rode straight to an Members house and had a
great lesson there, then went home. It was a night of teaching and he loved it.
He hadn't ever had to be that busy before. Then when we talked at night we
became good friends. I was way happy to get to know him. The next day the very
first people we contacted set up! It was a family, and they were so nice. We
did service at a library and then went tracting. It was just an overall great
exchange.
Then I went with Elder Kattleman. That night I had to do
an interview and so he also had to teach by himself. He did great to, the
investigator set a baptismal date when before he wasn't willing. SO I don't
know what he did but it was good. Then we meet with the family we found last
week, they hadn't been praying but were still great. I am just so happy to be
teaching a family we found when tracting. So was Elder Kattleman. It was great.
Then the next day we were visiting LAs and I remember preach my gospel suggests
that we tract the doors around those we visit if they are not home so we di and
of course on the top floor the last door we knock there is a grandma and 17
year old grandson who let us in and become New Investigators. The Grandma was
already Christian, and wasn't quite as interested but we shared the restoration
and the grandson accepted the baptismal invite. It was a great miracle.
Afterwards we meet with another great investigator, a Michelle Lin and we
shared the restoration but it went super smooth because we had just taught it
to the family. It was a spirit filled lesson. He does wonder why he is the only
one in his generation who is still a junior companion but he knows it is gods
will and that it doesn't say anything about him. He is such a great guy and
friend. His Chinese could use a little work but it is still really good. I view
him as one of my best friends on the mission because of the 3 transfers we had
together in Shuanghe in the same apartment. He said he really wanted to put as
much effort into his companionship as he did for his investigators because I
talked about the listening skill and Said I need to work on it with my
companion. He had a companion who gave his all for their investigators but not
for the companionship and he said he felt like if this companion had done the
same for him as he had for his investigators then he would have had a great
transfer and learned much more. So it was great.
I am learning to write Chinese now and am loving it. I
also loved pondering on the temple. I love the temple so much!
My companion is great, he is a hard worker and he has
great habits. He is funny and un judgmental and his Chinese is great for a 7th
transfer missionary. He sometimes knows words I don't know and I am on my 13th.
So I have been so blessed! he is also a natural leader. Sometimes he tends to
take over but I told him in companionship inventory that he needs to let me
lead and he took it like a champion. It has gotten a little better to and it is
a super small issue. But overall we are doing great.
Thanks for all you do. I love and respect you. I love you all and talk to you soon.
Happy Mothers Day
Elder Sabey
5/19/13
Dearest family,
First your
questions:
How did your interview with your President go? It went
super good. I got some new goals but he also praised me for my accomplishments
which were so nice. He gave me a goal to sprint to the end. This I want to do
so badly. But it is harder to do then to want. Any suggestions on how to do it?
How did you all do it? What did you
learn about your return date? (And we won’t say anything more about it after we
learn the date.} August 31! That is it. You want me to go back to DIA or Provo?
Should I ask to get out a week early?
When is transfer? In the beginning of June.
How are your
investigators doing? Many are doing good, some not as good. Satan is good at
messing with peoples priorities. I have realized that most people are good and
so Satan doesn't have as much force over them, but he just tries to get them to
spend a lot or too much time on good things but of little value. We should
always remember Charity is forever. Relationships, covenants, knowledge/wisdom,
and Love will go with us beyond this life. It is so sad when investigators feel
that they are too busy at work to meet with us.
But most our
investigators are great. My favorite is a Wang Jun Yu Dixiong who we took on a
temple tour this week. He loved it. He was asked to fill out a basic
information card and on it it had religion. He asked me if he should put his
parents or his own. I told him his own this is his basic information. So he
wrote The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints! I was so happy! He is
only having a problem of not being able to come to church weekly because his
family owns a breakfast shop and he has to work there on Sundays if the staff
is low.
Letter to President:
President,
First, thanks for
the McFlurry! It was so good.
I am extremely
happy to report that this week our zone had 3 baptisms and 4 confirmations! I
am impressed with my Zone members and am just so happy! 4 Souls confirmed
members of the church and given the unspeakable gift of the Holy Ghost. It is
truly a great week for our Zone. I hope and believe the success we are having
will continue.
This week I went
on exchanges with Elder King and Elder Kang. They are both super awesome.
Together they would be a power house. Like King Kong. Anyways I will let Elder
Kang report on our exchange. Let it suffice to say miracles! I also saw my
recent convert from Zhonghe there. So it was great.
With Elder King we
had a blast. We were able to teach many good spirit led lessons and his
teaching skills are outstanding. He was full of service. At night when I was
doing calls instead of looking at pictures or just lounging he went and swept
our floor for us and he was a little sick even. The next day was my birthday
and he didn't complain at all about his being under the weather. He just kept
serving me. He is a great missionary and they are doing work in their Area. No
need to worry about him. I trained on How to begin teaching and asking
questions. It was great.
This week my
favorite miracles were Huang Dixiong and Li Dixiong’s baptisms. It was such a
happy day. It went smoothly and the spirit was strong. One blind LA who hadn't been
to church for like 40 years came and attended. I was so happy. Then afterwards
a Convert from LongTan came and visited me which was also a happy experience
and a little miracle she found me. That day I saw 2 of my recent converts and
got a new one. I was so full of joy. I love the Lord and his work. It is
amazing.
Thanks for the
great interview,
Elder Sabey
Spiritual
thought: The temple recommend is not just a recommend to get in a temple but a
certification your body is a temple to the spirit. As long as we are worthy of
a temple recommend we can have the spirit with us.
Love you all
Elder Sabey
Hello dearest family! May
26, 2013
I love you. This
week no questions? Elder Peay wants
my letters so if you could add him to the list of those that get them that
would be great his email is do-the-boogie@hotmail.com
This week we had some great stuff happen. Here is my
letter to President
Hey President,
So this week went well. Our zone got over 200 lessons and
each district got over 100 lessons. It was a sweet miracle. I was so happy.
That meant every companionship was averaging almost 27 lessons this week! I
don't know why the change was so big. I think that the three baptisms last week
pumped us all full of fire. I loved it.
This week I went on exchanges with Elder Norris and You.
We saw some cool miracles. I love miracles! The first half of the fay there
wasn't any great big miracle, to the point I was like "what’s happening?
We always see miracles on exchanges." But the second half had 2 especially
cool miracles. The first was after finishing a lesson with an investigator we
went in to the hall and there was a guy who was standing there who wasn't a
member, so we asked to meet with him and he became a new investigator! Only in
Tucheng have I found investigators by having them come in the chapel
themselves. It was so cool. Then we went to visit LA's and on the way an LA we
had been trying to visit came up to us as we were there for him and asked if we
wanted to go to his house and meet with him! I was like yeah! We went and
shared a great message and in the end he committed to church. It was so cool.
In the end he didn't come because he had a meal with friends far away, but we
will keep working on it and it was still a huge miracle. Elder Norris is a good
missionary. He just doesn't like finding, he feels like it's a burden but he is
a great teacher. I played a finding game with him and he enjoyed it. I think he
learned a lot.
I love this work. Then I went with Elder You and we first
meet with an LA and a great investigator, (member referral investigator who
will get baptized next month.) and the lessons both went well. Then we had a miracle,
we went finding and we talked to this student who at first wasn't super
interested but as we testified he became more interested. We ended up sitting
down with him and having a street lesson. Then he set up and became a New
investigator for us because he lived in our Area. So I was happy. Elder You
also sometimes doesn't love contacting and he said that he really wanted to
like it though and sometimes he does. He set a goal to improve. I also told him
to clean his apartment because it was really messy.
Other than that We had one great miracle! A family that
my companion had contacted on the street and just gave a pamphlet actually came
to church. It was so cool! At first I was a little disappointed at the number
of investigators we got to church but after the Sacrament meeting I went and
said hi to the family because I didn't recognize them, and learned that my
companion had contacted them. When I told my companion he had no memory of
contacting them at first. It was such a cool miracle. I am doing my best to sprint to the end. I
think my zone is helping me as much as I am helping my zone. The fire is
raging. Thanks for the invite. Me and my companion are doing great.
Love you, Elder Sabey
Spiritual thought:
I think that truth is something that never changes, so the ultimate
truth is Pure love for as the scriptures say all else must come to an end but
love lasteth forever. So I hope to have true love. To truly love everyone.
I do love you!
Elder Sabey
PS Please ask
questions!
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