Week 50: The One Where Stelann Gets Baptized ♡

 

This GORGEOUS girl we met at target took us out for lunch and it was literally the BEST!! she seriously was a light to our day. 

"and as the Lord liveth he will remember the covenant which he hath made with them. And he knoweth the prayers... and he knoweth their faith, for in his name could they remove mountains" -Mormom 8:23-24 

I think often we think of mountains being moved by literally having them disappear. But as I learn and teach more about the gospel of Jesus Christ I come to understand that mountains don't move, the Lord just gives us the strength we need to climb up them. To stand there and see the beauty at the top, feel the strength and feel the hurt from the climb.  

DESIRE IS MORE THAN WORDS ITS ACTION.  

    NAEA made me wear this lipstick for an hour while finding and I hated it hahahahaha. 

           "Jack with many talents" -Me

"Repeat that saying one more time."-Naea

"My mom always said 10 and 2"- Naea while shes driving 

Me sitting there thinking it through "OH because 10 eyes 2 people!"

Naea looks at me "I want to know what goes through your head"

Me realizing what I said and us both dying laughing. 

Today (12/16) was kinda a long hard day. I woke up with a really sore throat and it hurt to talk and breathe all day but we had a busy day so we had to go go go. And so we had district council and then had finding all day, we stopped to grab some cough drops and I just sucked on a lot of those. But on the way there we saw this homeless lady and the other night in one of our lessons one of the moms at the lesson said something that really slapped me in the face "God is just putting so many struggling people with signs at stop lights to test us and what we are willing to give. Without judging them for how they ended up there or what they are going to do with what you give them." So we see this homeless lady and Sister Naea has a feeling to pray for her so we do and pray that someone can take care of her and I heard a voice in my head say "and why isn't that you?" so I told Sister Naea to flip around and in our car I had the hat and scarf that my mom gave me for my birthday. now this hurt to give because they are presents from my mom and I love them but this lady looked so cold so I gave them to her and Sister Naea asked what else she needed so we ran home and grabbed more warm clothes to give to her. I honestly didn't have the best attitude about the whole thing because we had finding and lessons to get to and also the lady was a smoker. I kept thinking about how this lady has perfectly good working lungs and she's using her money to smock her life away. But sister Naea driving back to give her more warm clothes said something that really touched me, "I had those thoughts for a while to, but my parents helped me understand that we need to give all we can like the Savior did and not judge or think about what they will do with what we give but hope they use it for the best, that's what our Savior does." And lowkey I was still salty. And so we go and give this lady all these warm clothes and she is just SO thankful and asks if we can pray for her. And Sister Naea asks if I can pray, I wasn't gonna say no so I did and in that prayer I was praying for her wellbeing and that we can all love like the Savior and right then and there I just started crying because I felt the love that God had for this random lady wearing the scarf and hat my mom gave me. I felt God's love for her and the love I had for her in that moment praying for her. And I just couldn't stop crying. The homeless lady started crying to and so did Sister Naea because I knew we all felt it. And we gave her a Book of Mormon with our number in it and went on our way. I have as testimony that when we pray for our "enemies" or those we may judge we really will feel a weight lifted off our shoulders and a JOY that we were holding ourselves back from. We saw so many miracles tonight in finding more people to teach that are so prepared and ready for baptism and also I ran into Jack from college and that was a miracle in itself. God is in the details of our lives. I know He is, He's real. And so is our Savior, Jesus Christ. It's like 10:20pm right now as I'm writing this and my throat hurts so bad and I'm so so tired but also so happy and joyful in the miracles and joyful moments we had today. 

Yeah so that night I had to sleep sitting up and couldn't sleep because it hurt so bad to breathe… the next day it hurt so bad to talk but I just drank a ton of water, ate some pho and we went on with our day…. (A couple days later) I literally haven't had a voice for three days now and it's SOOO ANNOYING hahaha. Its Sunday and it's a little better but I still sound like a man haha. But this day is going to be one of my favorite days on my mission! Stelanns getting baptized!!!! So many prayers and love has gone in for this day to happen… I'll write more about it later I just had a minute to sit and thought I would write in my email/journal...

OH MY GOSH YOU GUYS WHAT A FIRE NIGHT!!! WE JUST GOT BACK from literally the most stressful night of my life hahahaha but don't worry Stelanns baptism was literally the best thing ever. So get this Sundays just a grind right, hopping from ward to ward seeing all our friends at church and then we take a second to sit. Okay it's like 5pm now and we are rushing over to Stelanns because his baptism is at 6pm. So we get there and literally NO ONE IS READY. Like his mom is in the living room asleep, Skylar his older brother is like shirtless, stelann is in his PJS and me and Sister Naea are just like wanting to cry. And then Ian comes over the YSA guy that's baptizing Stellan and is like "ready for a haircut bro?" And we look at him like the baptism is in an hour! And hes just like oblivious and like LETS CUT HIS HAIR and we are just like okay go go go. So Ian takes Stelann over to his house with all the rest of the YSA boys and they're getting him ready and we are trying to get Stelanns mom and two siblings ready and it's just crazy. AND THEN the members call us saying that the building isn't unlocked and we just start freaking out because we didn't know if the font was filled (it takes like 3 hours to fill the font) anyways EVERYTHING worked out and there were so many people we had to go to the chapel. It was SO FIRE, the spirit was so strong and Stelanns whole family was there, even his dad facetimed in (his dad got deported because he wasn't nice) and his dad is like ANTI about the church. Anyways his whole FAMILY was there and the mom and Sister was crying the whole time. Me and Sister Naea were able to stand up and bear out testimonies on Loving Sharing and Inviting right after Stelann was baptized and we cried cried. Literally the whole thing was at Stelanns mom, sister and brother and they were crying, it was probably one of the coolest experiences on my mission. We had beautiful musical numbers, testimonies. But my favorite part was seeing Stelanns HUGE smile on his face the whole time. To say my heart was full was an understatement. I was like the proudest big sister that kid has ever seen hahahaha. I love this kid SOOO much and he was glowing this day. I've never had a happier night in my life then seeing this kid at his baptism. Something he has wanted SO bad for so long… being taught by like literally the whole mission and me being blessed to be the missionary to watch God finally make it happen. It was such a miracle and amazing night. Now here's a bunch of pictures:))

Stelann right after he got his haircut 

And success. Stelann never unites his shows SMHHHH

Ian is the one that baptized Stelann!!:)

Oh and right after the baptism we were able to start teaching VOA JUNIOR!! He is so prepared to hear the gospel and we are so excited to start teaching him!! We now have like 20 something people we are teaching and its SOOO crazy but so fun and we feel SOOO blessed. God is so good and he really is in the details of our lives. This week coming up is gonna be so crazy fun and I am so excited!!! Christmas on the mission is like non else. 

This is us Sunday night dead and exhausted and me coughing in the last picture. Anyways sorry for the long email! Feel free to just look at the pictures. Love you all!!

You already know to KEEP IT REAL.

OHHH YAAAAA ANDDDD.                  MERRY CHRISTMASSSS!!!

♡Sister Chan