This week was crazy. And when I say week I mean 11 days (because of weird pday schedules). And when I say crazy I mean like....crazier than Ever before hahah. So it started out with Serena and Sister 蔡(cai) on point for baptism on the 20th. We began to meet with Serena and her Mom separately and continued to bring out their fellowships to lessons. However, Serena started cancelling lessons due to some trouble she has been having due to her medication (after being in the psych ward for 3 weeks) and her boyfriend....There were many times over the course of the week where I though "we are not going to have this baptism. It's going to be cancelled and its going to be all over and they're going to go back to China." Well fast forward and we have taught all of the lessons except for the 5th lesson. We figured that as they had the baptism interview the following day and then the baptism in 2 days that if it cancelled again, we were finished. But they both came and we decided to teach them together. At the same time. Lisa, our really good member was there and she knew both of them. So it should have all gone smoothly....but it didn't.
After about the first 3 minutes, Serena went on a huge tangent about how her mom didn't support her boyfriend and she hates her mom and yeah...it was crazy....but her mom to too polite to say much back and we continued on with the lesson. At that point Lisa stepped in and started calming Serena down. Then it continued for a while and Serena got on her mom again.....It was starting to get excessive and we totally lost control of the lesson. At that point, Serena started questioning her mom's faith and commitment to Jesus Christ. Elder Liao and I didn't know how to respond and Lisa was doing everything she could, but it wasn't working.....then I received a very solid and forceful prompting that said "this has to stop". So I followed it and turned on Serena and in mid sentence basically told her that she needed to stop talking....So yeah. Not your ideal lesson eh? haha. I then proceeded to, under the guidance of the Holy Ghost, testify to the changes that I had seen in Serena's mom. I think they both felt it and they walked away with a commitment to improve their relationship.....after the fact, Lisa told me that actually most families in China are like that...especially between mother and daughter. SO I have nothing to worry about....but I was worried....
After that, Satan continued to press them to not be baptized. But they ended up making the decision and they did it! I confirmed them both. Serena's mom in the morning ward and then Serena in the afternoon ward. I did serena's mom's in Chinese and then bishop invited her to bear a testimony and asked me to translate....so I stood up on the stand and translated Sister Cai's Chinese to English....It went really well! I was so grateful for the gift of tongues! Well my time is pretty much up, but the plan is for Serena and Sister Cai to do baptisms for the dead today.
Have a great week!
Elder Jackson
After about the first 3 minutes, Serena went on a huge tangent about how her mom didn't support her boyfriend and she hates her mom and yeah...it was crazy....but her mom to too polite to say much back and we continued on with the lesson. At that point Lisa stepped in and started calming Serena down. Then it continued for a while and Serena got on her mom again.....It was starting to get excessive and we totally lost control of the lesson. At that point, Serena started questioning her mom's faith and commitment to Jesus Christ. Elder Liao and I didn't know how to respond and Lisa was doing everything she could, but it wasn't working.....then I received a very solid and forceful prompting that said "this has to stop". So I followed it and turned on Serena and in mid sentence basically told her that she needed to stop talking....So yeah. Not your ideal lesson eh? haha. I then proceeded to, under the guidance of the Holy Ghost, testify to the changes that I had seen in Serena's mom. I think they both felt it and they walked away with a commitment to improve their relationship.....after the fact, Lisa told me that actually most families in China are like that...especially between mother and daughter. SO I have nothing to worry about....but I was worried....
After that, Satan continued to press them to not be baptized. But they ended up making the decision and they did it! I confirmed them both. Serena's mom in the morning ward and then Serena in the afternoon ward. I did serena's mom's in Chinese and then bishop invited her to bear a testimony and asked me to translate....so I stood up on the stand and translated Sister Cai's Chinese to English....It went really well! I was so grateful for the gift of tongues! Well my time is pretty much up, but the plan is for Serena and Sister Cai to do baptisms for the dead today.
Have a great week!
Elder Jackson