I Saw the Wind this Week

Hot Pots with our singles branch on Christmas!

Grilled tuna!

Hello Everyone!

So thoughts on this week. First of all attitude makes all the difference. People are much more willing to talk to you when you have a smile on your face! Secondly Christmas is awesome, Hot Pot's are great! I just didn't realize how much food would actually be there... Still eating too much is a big part of Christmas right? Thirdly the language will come, even if you feel light-years behind everyone else just keep trying. We are a church of progress and God delights in our growing if we are really trying the blessings will just keep coming. 

Also apparently my brain has some issues with driving with a TIWI (The mission sponsored driving monitor) I don't think there's been a night here where I haven't had a dream that involved that automated voice telling me that I was never going to be allowed to drive again. (This is amusing since really I've been one of the best drivers so far so...)

Also being on time makes such a big difference. Christmas, starting out with accidentally leaving our phone back at the apartment so instead of being early to our skyping session we were late. That one thing set the tone for the rest of the day and we were five minutes late to just about everything after that. It was awful! We knew that the spirit was still there when we were teaching but it was so much harder to invite it in while we were being late. Having the spirit with you is an effort and once again if you are trying then it'll be there. God blesses those who try.

Also, starting a new area is hard! We had very few appointments this week as our biggest teaching pool is made up of students who all went back home to China for the holidays, so that meant hours of street contacting everyday walking up and down the now very empty streets. Talking with everyone who passed our way. After the first four hour day of walking my feet hurt! Like the really not good kind of hurting, not just the sore but the "I'm worried I might not be able to walk tomorrow if the bones in my feet keep feeling like they are going to break" feeling. I called up the mission nurse and he told me soaking with epson salts and inserts. So I got the inserts I soaked my feet and after passing a natural health nutrition place in the mall I got some peppermint oil. (I just know my dad is out there proud of me!) My feet are doing great now and all is well. 

Skyping was an interesting experience. Kate (the member at whose house we skyped at has three dogs. Luckily they only interrupted me once but let me just tell you those were the fastest forty minutes of my life! I loved seeing my family and feeling like I still got to be a part of Christmas morning. They had so much snow in Utah! and I was sitting there looking at the green grass and the blue skies and just kind of laughing. Luckily my mother had some divine inspiration about my health and encouraged me to buy some boots. I kind of nodded just to agree but the next day was boxing day (Think Black Friday except Canada) so we actually went to the mall parking lot to contact and there were some amazing boots on sale and I got them. Well, yesterday, (Another holiday... I don't know what for but that's why I didn't email on Monday) it did snow! A lot, it was really cool actually for the first hour of the snowing the flakes were so small that you almost couldn't see them and once they were on the ground in windswept piles they looked like white sand. The snow was so fine and the wind so strong that if you looked around you could literally see the wind flowing through the streets. It was beautiful it looked like you were walking on clouds. However beautiful it was also very cold. There were even fewer people out and those out wanted to get back in. Still it was on this day that we finally found a real solid "Yes I can meet with you tomorrow" investigator (The rest of them were more like, try January... Maybe) It was such a blessing. We also met with another investigator yesterday (Not technically our find but still ours) and I extended my first baptismal invitation. It was amazing. I actually knew how to say the words I needed to say and it just happened. Afterwords I could totally fee the Holy Ghost's influence but in the moment I was so focused that I didn't even really think about it. 

Finally I spoke on Sunday to our little singles ward branch and that was amazing as well. I had been praying all week that I would know what to say and that I could say it with out seeking any of the glory for myself, (Knowing that with God's help the talk would be amazing and everyone would love it.) and it worked. I said what that little branch needed to hear and know I just have to figure out how to give that same talk in Chinese and hopefully by then I can use it to help others. 

The thing about the wind is that it's there and we can see it's affects but not the actual wind. This week I got a taste of how God working in our lives is similar to the wind. Watch out for miracles big and small and you'll realize that God is working in your life and you really can see the effects and in time we will be able to see the day when He is revealed Glorious and Eternal. This life is not run on coincidences but on God's power. 

I hope you all have great weeks. 

Love,

Sister Skinner