Haha so the subject line describes my new companionship quite well! Don't you even worry anyone I LOVE my new companion! Sister Gruwell is amazing and having an American companion is way fun as we are able to better be funny in english than in Chinese. Our main source of humor comes from translating our very common sentences we say from contacting into English. Such as the subject line. Here it is very common to ask their surname before their first as everyone here already calls everyone like how the church does as if we are all family so you ask the last name and then they will call them little sister or aunt or uncle. So imagine this- we pull up on our little bikes adust our skirt back down brush our hair out of our face turn with a big smile and happily say, "HI! Where are you going?! they then reply quite astonished we are foreigners talking to them. we can see their are trying to figure out why and what we are so we happily tell them, "I am a church missionary! My last name is Thornley, Sister Thornley! Whats your last name? They then tell us and we smile again and say, Well thats a great name! Do you have a special religion (last name) aunt?" Yep thats about how my day goes here!!! I LOVE it!!!
This week was so incredible and I am seeing so many amazing miracles coming from all the hard work we have put into this area. I want to share a few of them with you. So this week My bike started making a weird noise but we were in a hurry to catch the train we had no time to stop and look at what was going on. I knew the Lord would protect me and that I would arrive safely despite the bikes issues. The next day we returned to YiLan from Loudong and needed to use our bikes which we had left in YiLan to get to our next appointment that would be impossible to walk to. When we got to our bike my tire was completely flat. I was discouraged and frightened. I need to lead the area my companion has only been in YiLan once before and I was completely at a loss as to where we could find a bike shop to fill up my tire. I began to ponder on the danger it would be to use the bike anyways and had faith the Lord would allow me to get to our appointment because after all he created the world he could create a tire! then my companion who is much more realistic than I suggested we would say a prayer to know where to go to find a shop. I was scared. I didnt know where one was and I could not think of anyway to fix this. But as Sister Gruwell began to offer a prayer my mind was instantly opened to a rememberance as I clearly saw two bicycle shops in both the directions we could take to get to our appointment. As soon as the prayer closed I told her what happened and that the fastest shop was to our left. We arrived at the shop and were able to get my tire filled with air and arrived early to our appointment. But thats not all. After the appointment we came back out and of course the air was again gone. This time we turned to a shop owner and asked where the nearest bike shop was he looked at us strangely and then said, Its right next door. And sure enough three steps in front of us and we were at the next shop. He told me I needed a new tire and he would fix it in the next 15 minutes. So we were going to be late again... But then we saw a girl sitting on a bench across the road. We went and talked to her. She had great interest we gave her a book of mormon and she commited to coming to church the next sunday. .I know the Lord will give us miracles. I know he will only give us trials to help us see his hand. I invite all back home to reflect upon this. Among the trials and hard times. The Lord will not leave you! Turn to him allow the trial to do what it is inteneded to do that is to help you become more like Christ. How could we learn to turn to him if we do not ever feel backed up against a wall with no where else to turn but to him.
The next miracle I want to share with you all is... hmmm I have so many but I cant type fast enought to write them all to you. Lets see... OH! Okay so we ride our bikes so so so fast here as missonaries always racing to the next place we need to go but I set a goal to never not contact a person on the street! So I quickly say hello to everyone I can as we ride. We were coming back to the train and it was important we got to that one because it allowed us to bring our bikes back home but we passed another foreigner man sitting on a bench I slowed a little said hello and asked how he was but kept going. My companion then stopped behind me to give a flyer quick to a young girl. I Turned back and heard a mans voice in english saying, "well you must be missionaries." I turned and saw it was the man I said hello to. I said, "yep! We are the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints missionarys I am sister Thornley how are you?!" He smiled and then said I am Elder Tommy i am a member of your church. He was from Finland touring Taiwan. What an incredible miracle to meet a foreigner who was also a member of our church! We had a very interesting talk shared a scripture said a prayer and then had to leave for our train. which we missed. But another was soon and it also took bikes.
The Church is growing! the work of the Lord is hastening and we should all be grateful to be a part of it! do all you can now to help the work grow it is spreading across the earth!!!
I love you all and my prayers are with you!!!
-Sister Thornley
*funny note, So in my personal study this mornign I was reading in Isaiah I was super lost as to what he was talking about and then I thought, "Man I am just like the pirate in pirates of the Carabiane when I read Isaiah, "It's the Bible you get credit for trying!!"" keep studying it will make sense one day!
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