THIS beautiful new convert was baptized on February 7th, 2015 by Elder Hilyard and Fu and her story is incredible!! It starts back in Taiwan when she had some sort of contact with the missionaries. It may have been English class but that was enough for her. She wanted more!! So when she got to Australia a few months ago she told us she tried to call the church about 7 times to find out how she could go. After not having any luck, she bumped into Elder Boychuck, then serving in the Brisbane Ward, and we saw her at the church one Tuesday, ready to learn some more English. Then the following Sunday, even though no missionaries invited her to church (our mistake…) she showed up at church!!! A member named Alice brought her into the chapel because she was really nervous. Everyone was dressed up and she wasn’t, so a member kindly brought her in sat with us. She later described Alice as her “angel” because she “saved” her that day.
Fast forward to the lesson we invited her to be baptized – we were talking about the Plan of Salvation and we asked her what her goal in life is and she said “to go to heaven”. We were so shocked! The idea of baptism terrified her for whatever reason, though, so she declined. Skip ahead a few lessons and, after praying to know how to help her and how to invite her to be baptized, she opened up. She had an accident that made her scared of water so that’s why she didn’t accept the previous invitation. The Holy Spirit is so fantastic though because Elder Hilyard and Elder George (the Elders before transfer time) were told exactly which scriptures to go to. We turned to Ether 12:27 then Luke 1:37, which, coupled together, testified to Emma that God gave her this fear to help her learn to rely on Him and that through Him she can do anything. After we both bore strong testimony, she accepted the invitation to trust God and overcome her fear on January 31st.
Many doubts came, we had to move her date back one week until a few days before she returned to Taiwan, and even the day of her baptism interview she was 1 hour late and expressed doubt about the baptism interview. That day the idea of her baptism seemed very dark, but Jesus Christ teaches us to be full of light so we didn’t let it get us down. We had Allison there, ready to help us teach her. Surely enough, she showed up and she powered through the last lesson and she excelled in her baptism interview!!
Fun miracle that occurred during the teaching process, while she was on holiday she had the chance to swim… and she did it because of her favourite scripture, Ether 12:27!!! She even helped another friend swim to her husband because the other girl couldn’t swim well, all because of the firm seed of faith she had planted in her heart.
She’s now back in Taiwan and it sounds like she is connected with the Church there. All is well. God lives and He lets it known to those who are searching, as Emma found out :)
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