Note 39 from My Daughter’s Chinese-speaking Mission in Vancouver: 🤍 I need thee every hour 🤍 我時刻需要祢 Wǒ shíshí xūyào Zhǔ

Hi everyone!

The past six-week transfer has been great! We just got transfer news today and I’m staying in Langley with the same companion, I was really hoping to stay so I’m super happy!

I’m making progress on my Mandarin Chinese and the apps are always funny

General Conference — the twice per year event when members of the Church and friends all around the world hear directly from each of the Apostles in the Quorum of the Twelve, and the First Presidency and the Prophet — last weekend was super good! We had a potluck for the Sunday morning session and it was so good! It’s such an amazing opportunity that we have to hear the words of a literal living Prophet! That the literal Creator of the entire universe, with infinite power, loves and cares about us so much that he wants to talk to us directly! And He doesn’t just do so one way, but multiple different ways, He talks to us through the spirit, through scriptures, through a sunrise, through cherry blossoms and spring rain, and through a Prophet who He calls to give guidance to us all for this time. General conference is one of those things that because we are used to it happening two times a year sometimes we forget how important it is! It becomes casual, but it’s not a casual thing!

I think sometimes that happens with Easter too, it happens every year and sometimes we forget that it’s not just a day on a calendar, but a day to remember Jesus Christ and his literal physical Resurrection. We should be shouting for joy every Easter because of the miracle of His life and death and Resurrection. Every injury, every divorce, every disability, every disappointment, every fear will all be healed because He rose again. My dad’s three fused vertebrae, my uncle who passed away unexpectedly five years ago, my relative’s ADHD, Autism, and other challenges, the cancer and cancer treatments of friends of mine at church, the pain and suffering throughout the world and throughout history — ALL of it will be healed because He was healed.

**Alma 34**

40 And now my beloved brethren, I would exhort you to have patience, and that ye bear with all manner of afflictions; that ye do not revile against those who do cast you out because of your exceeding poverty, lest ye become sinners like unto them;

41 But that ye have patience, and bear with those afflictions, with a firm hope that ye shall one day rest from all your afflictions.

His Atonement is infinite-without an end. It was also infinite in that all humankind would be saved from never-ending death. It was infinite in terms of His immense suffering. … It was infinite in scope-it was to be done once for all. And the mercy of the Atonement extends not only to an infinite number of people, but also to an infinite number of worlds created by Him. It was infinite beyond any human scale of measurement or mortal comprehension. (Russell M. Nelson, “ The Atonement,” Ensign, Nov. 1996, 35)

Celebrate Easter this year! Celebrate it a little different than last year, spend a little bit more time thinking about the holiday and experiencing this time of Jesus Christ. Tell me how you’re going to make Easter different this year! I want to remember Jesus Christ better this Easter season, so send me some ideas!

He is Risen!

Bei Jimei

Also: the His grace videos are so amazing and make me cry every time, you should all watch them all, here is the most recent one I watched:

His Grace: Organ Donation and Answered Prayers

Back home -

My mom went to a child’s baptism at the American Sign Language (ASL) branch and was very moved by the Spirit and by the 8 year old’s faith and her parents’ faith.

My little brother in 12th grade earned a new personal record in outdoor track! Honestly, he runs like the wind!

My younger little brother and his little league baseball team, the Dodgers, played VALIANTLY in the rain and drizzle and came off conquerors. 😃

My lil’ sis’ is in an art club (and cheer squad) and created this BEAUTIFUL picture of Snickerdoodle / Bean:

Our family’s pets — three cats named Tiger (the mom), Midnight (the dad), and Snickerdoodle (nicknamed Bean, the boy and only surviving kitten of his mom’s first litter of three) somehow started keeping journals. Read them here. 😃

My Dad gave this talk in church:

My daughter sends her love — and she asked me to share that her stake president asked the stake to fast for China to open to the missionary work. I invite you to add China and the Middle East opening to missionary work to the reasons you are fasting, the next time you fast — OR — “Join me in fasting for China and the Middle East to be opened to missionary work. Let’s pray for God to open doors for the Gospel in these regions.”

A few years ago a friend invited me to visit the Persian branch in McLean. Persia is part of Iran — where Daniel and the Lions Den happened and where the Three Wise Men came to Bethlehem from. They haven’t had Christianity there for about 12 centuries.

1. On her mission my daughter was led to Persian investigators. She helped them connect w/ the Persian branch missionaries who taught them up until they were baptized.
2. One of our neighborhood families — the mother has a hobby of landscaping and told my wife and I that our front yard was messy….which…it was. Sorry, honey. That was me. Our attitude toward our neighbor changed when we learned she is Persian. We’ve invited them to parties at the branch a few times. 0 for 7, so far.
3. Some people move here, don’t speak the language, rent a car and drive for Uber for +12 hours a day. Last Spring break, Uber driver — he fled the Taliban — went into hiding for 6 months with his family before moving here. With his permission, we were able to share his contact information with the missionaries who spoke his native language. Uber driver from our Puerto Rico return trip our drive was also from Afghanistan. He had lost his wife and his daughter in the war before moving here.
4. When I drove up to YM camp last summer to pick up my boys, the car was having engine problems. I pulled into the nearest gas station and asked if the mechanic could check it out. He was Persian and I invited him to their linger-longer parties and new year’s party.
5. Instead of questioning medical practices at Kaiser, I started inviting my doctor to the branch’s activities. So far, I’m 0 for 10 but she appreciates my invitations, which I email to her as attachments and which are written in her native language because of the missionaries. She hasn’t said yes yet but eventually she will.
6. One of the mom and dads at the school bus stop is Persian. So we invited them to a couple parties. 0 for 4 so far.

· No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing.

(full quote: The standard of truth has been erected. No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished and the great Jehovah shall say the work is done.

-Joseph Smith the Prophet, 1842)

Usually when friends want to be baptized, they have a baptismal interview with a missionary. In the Persian branch, that interview is followed by an interview w/ the mission president, who briefs the First Presidency. If there is a risk that a friend might get sent back and be in danger due to their new faith, then sometimes they need to wait.

The Persian branch had elders since inception, about 5 years ago. Due to the culture, the elders asked if sister missionaries could be transferred to the branch. The prior mission president said no, since serving there often means you have the same companion and work with the same 30 people, for a year or more. The new mission president asked his father in law, Elder Rasband of the Twelve, about this. Now — the branch has sister missionaries and it’s growing because of them.

1. Because of missionaries — 3 weeks ago my friend S. was baptized in the Persian branch. She was born and raised in Iran. She’s also in wheelchair. A missionary picked her up and carried her down the steps in the font. The water was maybe one foot deep. The missionary kneeled down, baptized her, and a sister missionary who was also in the font helped Some rise up out of the water. Then she was carried up the steps of the font. I had the chance to stand in the circle when she was blessed to: Receive the Holy Ghost. This reminded me of how dependent we all are on God — it’s just harder to see “Sorrows that the eye can’t see”
2. A man named Reza — he and his best friend went to a protest in Iran — his friend was injured and rushed to the hospital — Reza told God there: if you let him live I’ll be faithful all my life — his friend passed away then Reza moved here, found the gospel, because of missionaries. I was there when he was baptized. Next month we’ll be helping his best friend have an eternal family.

TEMPLE

10. Couple weeks ago the branch president invited us to what he texted would be a “Live Sealing.” I left Fitz’s baseball practice early and after arriving at the Temple, I learned that our Ali, our branch president was being sealed for his grandparents, his parents, then for his siblings — three of his siblings died before they were 8 years old. I was asked to serve as proxy for his brother that lived into his early twenties but passed away from kidney problems. Because of missionaries who taught the Temple doctrine, redeem the dead, my Dad joined the church over 60 years ago. He asked a bunch of churches where his older brother was. He’d died from Scarlet Fever during WWII when the medicine was rationed for the military.

“…In this world ye shall have trouble: but in me ye shall have peace.” John 16:33 Due to the French Revolution and Napoleon, my 3 rd-great-grandpa moved his family from France to the US. In the Temple my Persian friends and I have done work for these ancestors. A few months later, we did Temple work for my Romanian ancestors — who fought against the Middle Eastern Ottoman Turks.

1. 8th great-grandchildren of the Persian Magi — Sassanian Empire royalty — for that one, FamilySearch asked me to not do it 😃 their Temple work. Don’t tell them — we did it anyway. I’m sorry — I’m spiritually selfish and I want to experience all of it that I can.
2. Brother S. and Sister B. invited us to their sealing in the Temple. It took a while for everyone to arrive, sit down, the Sealer to arrive — after getting the page in Farsi that had the words of the ordinance. As each minute passed, the Spirit continued building — little by little, line upon line — after the couple was sealed, a sister Temple Worker brought their 5-year-old daughter into the sealing room. I don’t know how to describe the Spirit that entered the room when their daughter entered. It was as if Innocence itself entered the room. Many of her ancestors must have entered the room with her because everyone started weeping. If you get a chance to go the ASL branch when the primary kids sing — it’s like that feeling. A stark, high contrast, rapid elevation from a calm place where the Spirit is present — to a palpable feeling of the Spirit that’s so strong you can almost cut it with a knife. The Spirit grows so strong, so thick and so dense, very quickly.

I hope those of you who are serving missions or planning on it — I hope you know the power of the message you share.

I testify that everything that the Savior loves you, you are a child of God, what happens in the Temple is true and divine.

Originally published at https://loadestone.substack.com.