Baptisms and a Missionary Prom Queen

Saturday was an awesome day!  The Hsiao family and Wu were all baptized and it was a beautiful service.  Because the senior missionaries and the mission president's wife found the Hsiao family, they (plus the mission president) came to the baptism.  They were really helpful, and it was special to be able to share the experience with them.  We tried to express to them how grateful we were that they were constantly being missionaries, which enabled them to find an amazingly prepared family.   I feel like we just showed up and the Spirit and the Hsiao family worked towards conversion.  They are so great.   

Brother Hsiao is so funny.  He is very intense whenever he speaks.  His testimony after his baptism was about 15 minutes long, followed by his wife’s short and sweet 3 minute testimony.  She is more quiet than her husband, but she is just so sweet and has such a strong conviction of the gospel.  It is so fun to see them work together as a couple.  They have really supported each other throughout the process helping each other grow when one was weak and vice versa.   
  
Wu is doing great. On Sunday, the young women were really great with her and did a tremendous job to help her feel loved and welcomed.  Her dad was stuck in traffic, so they were consequently 35 minutes later than they said they would be to the baptism. That was pretty stressful, but she made it. Her mom came with her, so that was great.   

I don't know if I have told you about Wu's mom before.  When we first started meeting with her, Wu thought we were really annoying, which we sensed, and it was then later confirmed by her mother. Her mother said that she really encouraged Wu to keep meeting with us.  Her mom loves Jesus Christ and cries whenever she talks about him.  She sits in on almost all of Wu’s lessons, and when we first started meeting with them, she said that she could not get baptized because she has this, I don’t' know exactly what it is, but the gist is he is like a meditation guru person who she follows. So, even though she believes in Jesus Christ, she is already following this other guy and can't change.  After some other efforts, we made the decision to focus on teaching Wu. We prayed that as the mom listened she would also feel the spirit, which she did.   

Wu’s grandmother was in the hospital, and Wu’s mom had a really special experience when we sent the elders over to give her mom and dad a blessing.  It was apparently a really powerful experience and about a week later her parents both came home from the hospital – a huge miracle, which Wu’s mom recognized as a miracle from God.  After this happened, we were like, “Ok. It is time to recommit her to study and work towards baptism.” This kind of backfired.  She still had the same reasoning and said that she loves Jesus just as much as those people who get baptized, but her meditation guru person hasn't told her that she can get baptized, so she can't.  Despite efforts to help her see the essentialness of baptism and at least of coming to church, she still thinks that she can love Jesus without really following him.  We are still praying that something will soften her heart. 
  
Today we went to this less active that cuts hair and Sister Lethco got a trim.  She then wanted to do our hair.  I will send you a picture of how mine turned out.  I will be honest I felt like the missionary prom queen.  I can't fully tell if I really look ridiculous or I just feel like I look ridiculous because I am used to having helmet hair.  It is probably a little of both.