I live in the land of miracles Transfer 7: Week 5

before anything- thank you for your emails. AND i am so sorry for last weeks. 
i'm such a selfish brat sometimes (probably most times). you'd think that the 
mission would rid me of that, but it hasn't completely yet. i'm sorry that i 
complained so much, rather than focusing on the positive things and all of the 
blessings heavenly father has given me and this area. i'm sorry. thank you for 
loving me even when i write crappy emails. 
  
it was so good to hear your voices on christmas. i was pretty proud of myself 
for not crying, i thought i was going to. i'm glad that everyone is healthy and 
that your christmas went well. i hope that next year we can do what you did this 
year. i want to eat chitlins!!!! (last night i ate stewed pig intestines that i 
bought on the street. they were so so. next july i'm going to make mom and dad 
eat them. and duck foot, and pig ear, and moldy tofu. speaking of which, have 
you tried the pidan yet. try it!! tofu, green onion and soy sauce, that's all it 
takes.)
  
i forgot to remind you about the pocky party when we talked on christmas. i hope 
you remembered. if not, there's always next year. next week i'll get a letter 
about sister stratford's pocky party. jiayi's happened to fall on the day that 
we had district meeting, so everyone was involved! 
pocky aside, our district meeting was amazing!! i learn so much from the 
missionaries i serve with. we talked about the importance of talking with 
everyone and doing all we can to find people to teach. somehow the discussion 
turned to referrals and, lead by the spirit, we set a district goal to receive 
ten referrals before the coming up sunday. we decided that every prayer, no 
matter what the purpose of our prayer is (blessing food, leaving the apartment, 
starting daily planning or study) we would ask heavenly father to help our 
district of 4 missionaries receive 10 referrals. MIRACLES HAVE HAPPENED! already 
my companion and i have received 7!!!! the first 3.5 weeks of the move we 
received 1; most transfers i've received 2 max. 
saturday, the day the goal was set, we received 4! a potential investigator 
brought her friend to our potluck, a member brought his sister and gave us her 
information, a non-member brought her children and wants us to continue to meet 
with them! other miracles of that day- we met with yu chun and read one of my 
favorite parts of the book of mormon- 3 nephi 17. the spirit was amazing. she 
stayed for the ward potluck and for a baptism that night, then came to church 
the next day. usually she won't come to church because it's too early. sunday 
was especially cool... her scooter broke down so she walked quite a distance. 
she's changing and progressing! i love her!!!
sunday we had an amazing lesson with a less active huang jiahua. we talked about 
prayer and heavenly father. without us asking for a referral she suddenly said, 
"my sister is sick. i want you to teach her." we're going to teach her sister on 
sunday. when we asked huang jiemei what her plans were for later on sunday she 
said, "i'm going to pray." it was really neat. she looked so much happier when 
she left than when she came in. 
on tuesday we had a lesson with chen lin shujun, a so-so investigator that we've 
been meeting with for a while. we meet in her office. this week she brought a 
friend who brought her daughter. her friend su taitai, was so great! i wasn't 
sure if we should change our plans from a lesson about christ to the basics (for 
su taitai's sake) but felt we should stick to what we had prepared. it was so 
wonderful, i know that what we did was right. su taitai said that when we talked 
about the savior there was something different in us than she's seen in any 
religion. she said she wants her daughters to learn this and that she wants to 
join a christian church and get baptized. she committed to coming to church on 
sunday!! 
  
sister chen and i are busier than i have been in the past few moves. it's so 
great. we're working hard to find new investigators and to help our 
less-actives. i know that heavenly father is blessing us. tonight i have to talk 
to elder chen about move recommendations. i'm torn. he thinks that sister chen 
and i should stay together. he says we have a fire. we do, but i don't think i 
can handle another six weeks after these two and a half. things are okay but 
there are some hard parts. okay lots of hard parts. there are a lot of things 
that she wants to be in control of (time, our lessons, contacting), but a lot of 
things that she doesn't seem willing to do (pray in our lessons, use personal 
study to prepare for investigators, write notes and progress records, close and 
open doors when we enter and leave buildings). over and over i realize how 
horrible at communicating i am. and how impatient i can be. maybe i need another 
six weeks with her, to work on these things. we'll see i guess. 
  
i want to share with your two cool scriptures that others shared with me.
-acts 3:6-7 elder chen shared this in district meeting. he talked about how we 
don't have a lot, but we have the gospel. and we need to lift others with it. 
-this one is my favorite! when i come home i'm going to use it (if necessary). 
mosiah 13:3 elder gong shared this with me once when we were waiting for 
correlation meeting to start. so much more powerful than "i don't like being 
touched". "touch me not, for god will smite thee!" i've contemplating using it 
with sister chen. she is very touchy and it us starting to make me crazy. she 
touched my waist twice yesterday. my waist!! 
  
well i think that's mostly it. things are good. jiayi is kind of cold. christmas 
day i wore short sleeves and sweated. 
lately it seems like everything i study points to selflessness. so i've been 
thinking a lot about that. really, if we want to grow in any respect we need to 
give up ourselves. we can't try to become more christlike for our own benefit 
and get anywhere. we can't pray for our own glory and receive heavenly father's 
blessings. i can't share the gospel to rid my garments of their blood or to keep 
myself from boredom and expect conversion to take place (in my heart and in 
theirs). i believe that as soon as we give up ourselves and start to act for 
god, and for the welfare of others around us, we will start to grow and will 
receive the blessings that we need. our purpose (everyone's!!) is the same as 
heavenly father's and christ's... to get everyone back to the celestial kingdom, 
to see everyone exalted, to be with our families for eternity! only through 
selfless acts can we accomplish these things. i think next move i'm going to 
work on charity and humility and becoming a more selfless person (let's face it, 
i am pretty self-involved and that's not cool.). 
  
i love you all and miss you. thank you thank you thank you!!
  
love,
jade
  

oh! the other day i got to talk to my friend/acquaintance fu fan. i don't know 
if you remember her. she brought her french boyfriend to the party at the wayne 
pettys before i went back to vegas. i might get to see her next week because 
she's in taiwan. cool, huh?! i don't know her very well, but i was really 
excited to talk to her (in chinese!). 
<3>