Sheesh!
How poignant that I end my (rather short) list of thankfuls that I have tried to blog about this season. I meant to write more entries, but just didn't get to them. Grateful for the important ones that I DID blog about! :)
I keep thinking about the important step I took in my life to serve a mission at age 21.
Can't stop feeling thankful for each and every experience.
I think, next to writing a thesis, my mission was the hardest, yet best experience of my life.
I was talking with a friend the other day about memorizing chinese. I briefly felt the pangs associated with that...how challenging and hard that was. I remember wanting so desperately to share the gospel with those sweet people near the beginning of my mission, yet I felt totally useless to do so.
Could not form the words.
Could not teach, inspire, uplift.
And I remember my sweet companion's testimony when she was asked a question she wasn't sure how to answer in chinese. She said, somewhat quoting 1 Nephi 11:17..."I know that He loveth His children, nevertheless I do not know the meaning of all things". I remember as I listened to her, I felt a wave of peace about the simple truths I knew to be true. And how learning the gospel in chinese really helped me to appreciate the simple testimony that I had.
Every once in a while I ponder on this experience, and feel ever grateful that my mission taught me the "simple truths". Like how words mean so much...my most favorite...repentance. "Huigai" (悔改). In this chinese character for repentance, the meaning is so much deeper. It means, "Every day, with your heart, change".
And so I sit here and am filled to the brim with thankfulness for my missionary experience in Taiwan. I'm sure I would have loved serving anywhere in the world, and I would have had amazing experiences. For some reason, Heavenly Father felt I needed to "get back to the basics" and learn this amazing gospel in chinese.
I was truly humbled and totally dependent upon the Lord so that I could, "form the words, teach, inspire, and uplift".
