Anti-Smoking Puppet Shows and Hospital Floors

Last week we also participated in a puppet show about smoking.  This is something the stake had asked us to do about a month ago for a blood drive.  Sadly, the zone leaders forgot to tell us about it until the week of and put my roommate Sister Bryce in charge.  It actually turned out ok.  Our puppet show stage consisted of a bed sheet held up by the two tallest elders in our zone while the rest of us stood behind it.  I was "addiction" and attacked the "lung" until it died.  These were actually pretty morbid play. We did not write or have to do voices for the plays.  They were already prerecorded, and we just had to move the puppets’ mouths.   

So Saturday roles around and Sister Jarvis and I are eating lunch with someone after her baptism.  She jokingly said, "Well Sister Gibson, I got baptized so you can go back to America now."  Literally 5 minutes later I get a call from President Bishop telling me that for my last 4 weeks I am being transferred to another area. Sister Jarvis started crying.  The person who just got baptized actually took it quite well.  I am not moving that far away, and she said she will just come visit me.  So yeah, I am in Gaoxiong and Lingya/Shizhong – back to two wards. I am not sure how I am feeling about this.  I was super sad to leave.  I was just so happy and excited where I was and everything was going so well.  I was so excited to finish my mission out strong, and I was so motivated to help some of the really cool people we are working with get baptized.  But I did pray the other day for Heavenly Father to chasten me and to help me learn as much as I can for the rest of my mission.  I guess this is one way of doing that. I am trying to have a good attitude, but I am a little sad.  However, I am also excited to get to work and to have a new challenge.

Sister Jarvis and McKenzie who got their hair done at a salon on a P-day

Sister Jarvis and I went to visit someone at the hospital on Wednesday.  Little did I know that Sister Jarvis is known to get very woozy in hospitals.  We arrive and meet this woman who we have never met before.  All of a sudden Sister Jarvis grabs a chair, which is not that weird, but then she sits on the ground.  I asked her if she was ok, and she said she was.  We started to sing a hymn and all of a sudden she starts to eat a granola bar and lies down completely flat on the floor of the hospital room.  Again, I asked her if she was ok.  She said, yes, just to keep singing.  I finished singing the song after which we quickly prayed and shared a short spiritual thought all while my companion is laying on the ground.  Don’t worry, she didn't actually pass out; she was just on the verge of it.  It was pretty funny after the fact.   

Sister Jarvis and McKenzie at lunch on a P-day

We had some wonderful progression with the Wen family this week.  Sadly, the mom still isn't super interested, but we are trying not to give up on her.  The dad brought his sons to English class.  When he learned that as missionaries we don't receive a salary and pay for our missions out of our own pockets, he was so touched.  He said he really feels how this message is so focused on the family.  The mom just feels like she already knows it all.  She knows a little bit about Christianity and feels like she doesn't needed to study it.  She was excited about her husband having something that he and their sons were studying as a way to have son and father bonding time together.  Plus, it allowed her some time at home to be alone.   

We taught the plan of salvation to them on Friday and tried to help her see how this is about an eternal blessing for the family and that it can unify their family relationships as a whole.  She seemed to understand but then still seemed really skeptical.  We really feel like their whole family can be baptized, so we are not giving up hope on the mom.