Teaching in China: The Fruits

This week we've been blessed to see some of the fruits of the gospel in the lives of others. We had a strange and wonderful dinner with Michelle Cerdon, one of the Filipina sisters who was about to return to the Philippines. First the wonderful: Her faith to recognize the Spirit prompting her to take this frightening step was uplifting and inspiring to us. She has since confirmed that she was able to find work almost immediately in the Philippines. Yaaah!

Now the strange: We ate dinner with her at Pizza Hut. First, when I wanted to wash my hands and asked for the bathroom, they directed me out of the restaurant and across the street to a mall. Then, we ordered a "fruit jelly salad" because we were curious. What we got was a tossed salad with some small jello cubes--really weird, huh?

Now some thoughts from Laraine about "fruits" of a different kind:

Father's Day: I have never seen a sweeter tribute to men and fathers in my life. These sweet sisters went all out to honor these men in our branch, from the decorations, to the table settings and the banners and of course food. They had a list of characteristics and they numbered them. Then they had the men choose a number. Whatever corresponded was their banner. A little ironic that Chuck got the "The best cook dad" banner. Ha ha. It was a great day.

Yesterday was the first baptism we have had in the branch since we got here. This sweet sister Frendilyn (sp) has been investigating the church for a couple of months. After she was baptized she shared her testimony, life experiences, and challenges. She has been through a lot of trials in the past couple of years and some of them were because of her choices. She had lost hope in God and in her life. The gospel has brought her back to God again and having hope for a better life. She is so sweet.

She had a dream during one of her most difficult times of a place that felt like heaven and was very peaceful. This past month she went to the temple with some of the sisters and just waited there for them. She said when she saw the temple, she recognized it was the place that she had seen in her dream. She inspired all of us. I recognize that having the gospel in my life, my whole life, I take for granted the truths and blessings I have enjoyed. It was nice to be reminded that we truly are blessed to know there is a God in heaven that loves us and because of the atonement of our Savior we can always start fresh and move forward.

Serving in this branch is the sweetest part of our mission. I will be teaching the sisters a course in Self Reliance which will help them in moving forward in their life. It is a new program the church is using.