Week 34 Rui Chen

This week was probably the most memorable of my mission, mostly because of an amazing miracle with a 25 year old guy from China named Rui Chen.

It all started last Friday night, we received a call from a member, Luis Lopez. Luis told us that he had just seen a guy named Rui outside of the church, Rui had come up to him and said "Excuse me, do you attend this church? I would like to learn more about this church." He gave Luis his information and told him he would love to meet missionaries. A few minutes later was when Luis had called us and passed off the information. That night we tried calling and texting, with no answer, so we didn't think much of it.

A few days later, we were going up to Luis Lopez's house, and I remembered this guy named Rui he had told us about. I texted Rui and asked if we could come see him, and he immediately replied this time, saying that he was home and that we could come over. So we drove up to his house, knocked on his door, and met him for the first time. He invited us in and we started getting to know him, asking about his religious background. He explained that he hadn't been very religious, but lately he had been looking for a church. He had visited the Temple Visitors Center with his dad a few weeks ago. He started asking multiple questions about the church, rumors that he had heard, other things that he had been wondering about. One of his questions was "Do Mormons make their own furniture?" Which was actually a question I hadn't got before! But the Spirit started to come into the room more and more. He then asked us how he could serve a mission. He explained that he was also looking for people to date that had good standards and someone that he could marry and have a good family with. We started explaining that there was a YSA Branch, where people between 18-30 met, and he liked that idea. He started to talk about baptism, and we explained the process of baptism and how everything works. He loved everything about the church, and by the time we got out of the lesson, I was so excited for him!

Within a few hours, we had called the YSA Elders and told them all about Rui and that they needed to go see him. The next day, I'll never forget this, we got a call from the YSA Elders. They talked about how prepared Rui was and how amazingly ready he was. They then said "oh and he is getting baptized August 8th, and coming to the YSA Activity tonight." I was so excited!!! Rui came to church yesterday and is on pace to be baptized August 8th, it was such an amazing experience to be a part of.

Another quick miracle was that we were walking down the street, looking for people to talk to, and this truck passed us and something that was in the bed fell out of the truck. We went and picked it up and a few minutes later the man in the truck realized something had dropped out and so he returned. It turned out to be a guy from Honduras who was super appreciative of our help and agreed to let us come over to his house! Miracles like that are so amazing, I'm so grateful for God guiding us to where we need to be.

I've learned throughout my mission how diverse this place is. I meet people everyday from so many different countries, and it is so cool to get to know their culture and language and get to meet so many different people from different backgrounds. It has helped me realize how much God cares about every single person. This last week we met people from India, Iran, Pakistan, Chad, West Africa, Shri Lanka, Ghana, and more! I've had so many experiences with so many different amazing people and I love it.

Victor is getting closer to baptism, it's just been hard to get his family to be able to come to church because of his parents work schedule! But we will be seeing him again tonight and we are super excited about that!

My family attended my good friend, Gabe Reid's farewell yesterday.
He was sought after by many Universities and has chosen to attend & play football for 
Stanford University. He is putting that on hold for now so that he can go and serve the Lord for 2 years in Samoa! He is an amazing young man and is going to be an incredible Missionary!
http://www.samoanews.com/content/en/son-leone-signed-stanford

The last week or so for my studies I have been reading a lot in Joseph Smith History and in the Pearl of Great Price. I have found so many amazing things that I had never realized before! I love in verse 6, Joseph Smith explains that one of the reasons he wasn't agreeing completely with any of the churches was because the persecution they gave each other and the people if they weren't baptized. I've realized that many of the people that I meet on my mission, won't ever be baptized, but I still need to show them the love that God would show them in everything I do.

Another thing that I have always loved from JSH is Joseph Smith explaining that Satan must have known that he would "be an annoyer and disturber of his Kingdom." I love the way he explains that, and as sons and daughters of God, we should always try to be an annoyer and disturber of the kingdom of Satan. I'm so grateful for the opportunity I have on my mission to disturb the work of Satan, and assist in the work of the Lord!

Have an amazing week!

- Elder Leavitt