Spiritual Momentum

Sister DeVictoria writing:

It's been another busy week.  We had zone conferences this week.  There are 4 zone conferences held within every 6-week transfer period.  Elder DeVictoria and I ordered the food for two of those conferences (pizza from Dominoes) and set up for the meals.  We also bought sodas and fresh fruit to serve.  We recently found a really convenient fruit store that has good quality and is not far away.  We have been buying fruit for ourselves there, too.  I have really enjoyed the mangoes this season!  Recently the plums have been so sweet and delicious!

I ran across this little fellow while I was waiting for Elder DeVictoria outside our apartment.

I have been thinking a lot about my own conversion.  I grew up in the church and was taught the gospel by my parents.  I was thinking about how easily I believed their teachings because I saw the fruit of the gospel in their lives.  I trusted them implicitly.  But I still needed my own conversion experience.  I was told by teachers that I needed to pray and ask God if this church was His true church, and if the Book of Mormon was true.  I remember when I was a teenager, several times I knelt and prayed to know these things for myself.  I prayed and waited.  Nothing.  I chalked up my non-answer to my own lack of faith.  I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I did think that there would be some kind of transformative experience.  I did believe the church was true, so I kind of let it go.  

Then when I was about 20 years old someone at church said, "I bet you go on a mission."  I told her that I was not the missionary type.  The only sister missionaries I had ever seen were at least 30 or older!  They were lady-like and mature...so much unlike me.  But that thought planted itself in my mind, and I started to feel a desire to serve, and I had a feeling that this was what I should do.  At the same time I began to feel it was meant to be for me that I should serve a Chinese speaking mission.  I began to pray for this with all of the faith that I had.  When I was called to serve in Taiwan, I was so grateful!

After I had been in Taiwan for about 7 months I got a companion who really tore down my faith.  She constantly said things like, "I don't believe the spirit leads us to people, I think it's all coincidence", or "I don't believe our mission calls are inspired, I think I was meant to serve somewhere else where I could learn a romance language to help with my singing career."  This really wore on my faith.  Also, we were asking people to pray to know if the Book of Mormon was true, to get an answer, when I myself had never had that kind of experience.  Then I was given a new companion who was a breath of fresh air.  She was full of faith and that gave me time to think, and I remembered that I had many experiences of feeling the Spirit in my life.  I had felt the Spirit when missionaries taught my friends in our home.  I felt the Spirit when I listened to talks or lessons.  I realized that I already had a testimony, but it came to me in a different way.

I think of my testimony kind of like a bucket.  Each time I felt the Spirit, it was like adding a little bit of testimony to my bucket.  Each time I read the scriptures, or took the sacrament, it added a little to my bucket.  My testimony didn't come in one fell swoop, but in portions a little at a time.  I think this is common for people who grow up in the church.  Add to those moments all of the answers to prayers and miracles I have seen, and my bucket is now full.  But I've also seen people join the church or serve missions, then fall away.  They forgot that just like a bucket of water that can evaporate, a testimony will dwindle if it isn't constantly added to.  A testimony has to be nurtured.  It occurs to me that we can always add to other people's testimony buckets too!

Last Saturday we went to the temple.  Then afterward we went to go search for some craft supplies that I wanted.  Taking the subway to Beimen station and then walking a ways, after a little searching we did find a place near a HUGE cloth market.  I'm happy to know where to go in the future when I need supplies. 

We came upon this strange street vendor selling paintings on the sidewalk outside the subway station, with 10 dogs and a PRC flag.  I had to wonder how many people would be daring enough to get past his gauntlet of dogs to buy the paintings.   

My body likes to get tendonitis in different places.  Now it has decided to settle in my left thumb.  I bought a thumb brace and wore it all week, it has helped but it's not totally cured yet.  Surprisingly I was able to play the organ on Sunday without any problem.  Then I was asked to play the "As Sisters in Zion / Army of Helaman" FSY medley (long version) for one of the zone conferences.  I only had a couple days notice, so only practiced for about 1-1/2 hours total, but was able to play.  I did make mistakes which is unfortunate because they were recording it!  But I'm thankful my thumb didn't interfere.  I also played the piano for a baptism on Thursday night. 

One evening we went to a bakery and saw these cakes for sale in a display case, designed to look like fish heads.  Doesn't that just make your mouth water?  ;)  

Elder DeVictoria writing:

Yeah, those cakes made to look like fish heads are amazing.  I'll bet those aren't real ice cubes either, they're probably made of sugar.  You better believe these do make some Taiwanese mouths water.  

I'll never forget on a business trip to Taiwan years ago I went out to dinner with the local sales representative office staff in Taipei, and "Fish Head Soup" happened to be available on the menu.  I must have commented about it, because to Americans this dish is just the epitome of inedible food (it's even a cliche with a humorous song about it), but they all decided to order a big pot of it including a portion for me.  I couldn't deal with my fish head and so there it sat in the pot untouched, when one of the Taiwanese ladies in the group begged me for it.  She devouring about 3 or 4 fish heads (they were a little smaller size than shown here), she said it was her favorite food, she's eaten them since she was a child.  When she finished there was a pile of fish bones in front of her completely cleaned of all meat and flesh and skin and everything else.  Just the bones remained.  So that's how they're eaten.  Unforgettable. 

This week I started getting tooth pain.  I first noticed it after drinking a slurpee from 7-11 on a hot day, and all my teeth were super sensitive to the cold and my whole mouth ached (plus brain freeze).  That went away but some tooth pain seemed to come back again especially at night or in the morning.  Seems like it came and went all week long. And it became more localized on my left side, both top and bottom rows of teeth.  I finally went to the dentist on Friday and he poked around inspecting my teeth and took a whole mouth x-ray, he said they look pretty good, even the gums, but by tapping on each tooth he diagnosed that I had one tooth on the upper left (a molar) with a large filling, that is the most sensitive tooth.  He said to solve the problem I need to get a root canal of that tooth. They scheduled me for a root canal next Tuesday.  Well, last night I woke up in the middle of the night with a lot of pain, but only coming from the bottom left row of teeth.  Now I'm starting to figure out what I think is happening.  I must be grinding my teeth really hard in the night.  My dentist in Utah had told me before that I definitely do grind my teeth, he said it clearly shows on the tops of my teeth, and he wanted to fit me with a mouth guard thingy to wear at night.  I refused.  That was over a year ago, maybe longer.  Now I'm paying the price.  I think my unconscious grinding in the night is irritating or enflaming or pressuring the entire row of teeth and gums and bone on the lower left side.  I don't know what to say about the upper left molar tooth that is also sensitive, and for sure right now I can't chew anything strongly on the left side because of pain on both top and bottom.  But now I'm thinking, maybe I can put off the root canal until after I get my Taiwanese national health insurance coverage in about a month, which would save me quite a few hundred dollars out of pocket expense.  I'll ask the dentist what he thinks.  Probably at a minimum I'll need to get a mouth guard right away.

Samuel is coming here to Taipei to visit us on his vacation, arriving Sunday morning.  Can't wait to see him again.  He said he might make a side trip up to Japan for some days.  At the same time Joseph is on a job assignment in Korea for all this last week and through next week.  Four of us DeVictoria's all in Asia at the same time.  That's weird, what a coincidence.  I love my kids, so pleased with each one of them.

"We have never needed positive spiritual momentum more than we do now, to counteract the speed with which evil and the darker signs of the times are intensifying.  Positive spiritual momentum will keep us moving forward amid the fear and uncertainty created by pandemics, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, and armed hostilities.  Spiritual momentum can help us withstand the relentless, wicked attacks of the adversary and thwart his efforts to erode our personal spiritual foundation."  President Russell M. Nelson