He screams when we pray

Hellooooo!  We are teaching a new 8 year old boy and his mom. They are both practically fluent in English and the boy doesn’t believe in God and screams when we pray... ha-ha we love him though! We ask him to pray and he goes off on how he doesn’t believe in God. We gave him a page to color and colored all the people orange because he wanted them to die...its pretty interesting. We teach him English/ have conversations while playing English jenga or fishing for paper fish with English questions on them. Our creative teaching senses are almost burnt out! Every time we come with a new game, he loves it and goes crazy and controlling him is the funniest part. He makes us laugh and brings back great memories of babysitting. The time we played basketball Pictionary was great... ha-ha. The mom asks us questions about the church that she had since she lived in America and knew a little about the church. The only hindering thing with teaching the lessons is that the boy (Jackson) runs away and locks himself in his room. At least he doesn’t bite us( another missionary had an 8 year old boy bite him several times while teaching them... oh poor missionary!) 

Anyways, besides that, we are helping a new member (Lilia) of the church stay strong and not get too stressed out with all the things that a new member encounters. I think one thing that I’ve noticed while being here is how quickly people fall away from the church if they don’t have the guidance they need in order to overcome the new world they entered. Callings, giving talks in church, learning, teaching. It can bring a lot of stress and it’s hitting Lilia. She is a young member and the members expect her to already know everything. One skill that every member needs is the knowledge of helping a new member get acquainted into the church. The first few months can be some of the most challenging.

Paraphrasing the PMGpg214 of a woman who felt the pressures of being a new member: "at first the trip was exciting, our mistakes amusing, then it becomes frustrating and eventually the frustration turns to anger. And it’s at these stages of frustration and anger that we leave. We go back to the world form which we came, where we knew who we were, where we contributed, and where we could speak the language."

I feel it’s the little things that make a difference. Teachers who teach simply, leaders who train them in their callings, set things at a basic level to have a good secure foundation to build off of. It not, it’s so easy to fall. I imagine a rock that is big and top heavy but has a small thin base. 

Those are some of the things that happened this week. I wish I could share all but there’s not enough time!

We had a conference this Tuesday with the doctor of the Asia area missions and he was so great! He said no double dipping! But that is so hard when everyone shares food and side dishes... what are we going to do!??

My letter to the mission president:

At the conference this past week, I really enjoyed the importance of our calling by talking about being entrusted in the work. We are His stewards and we have so much to do! I like the word entrusted because it has the word trust in it. If we trust in God, he is able to trust us and entrust us in the work. I believe that this work revolves around our trust and His trust. It is a cycle. The opposite of trust is fear and if we fear, we can’t do the work he needs us to do. If we fear, he cannot trust us. This is something I’ve pondered about during my mission and am grateful we could be trained on this topic.

Sister Wright