From: Braydon Carter <braydon.carter@missionary.org>
Date: Sun, Apr 28, 2019 at 8:42 PM
Subject: 鐵骨生春 [ Iron Born Spring ]
Well Howdy Y'all,
Sorry I had to change that up I feel like I always say "Hello Everyone" and I just needed to be a little bit different today. In fact my whole email is going to be a little bit different today.
This week I came across something that helped me realize a very important gospel truth. What made it more interesting is that this painting that I had pulled out is something that I found in an apartment that was recently sold as the Elders weren't going to live there anymore. When I grabbed it I thought it looked cool and that it was Chinese so I decided to keep it. But just last Monday I had pulled it out and my companion and I started to look at it a little bit more closely.
As I looked at it I noticed that there are 4 characters along the side, which probably mean't that it was an idiom. For those of you that don't know what a Chinese Idiom is, it is where they put 4 characters together that have a really deep meaning that could go back to a story, or even an event in history. These are something that almost all people from China are familiar with and know. It special to their culture. To make a long story short I tried to search through dictionaries and find out what did this idiom mean? I couldn't find it anywhere. So I thought I would ask some of the members in the branch, and they weren't sure either. I had kind of gotten all excited about it and was disappointed that no one knew what it was. But then I remembered that we had a friend that works in a mall nearby that is from China and does Calligraphy. I asked him what it mean't and he gave me an immediate response. He said that it had the meaning ( 鐵骨生春 ) Those characters mean Iron, Bone, Life ( Or bring to life ), Spring. I started to put the dots together and realized it probably meant that as you are strong at the core that it brings happiness around you.
But I asked the man to explain what it mean't and he did. He explained to me that there is a flower in China called a MeiHua. That is the flower depicted on the left side of the painting, the cool thing about this flower is it flourishes in the roughest weather conditions. He had mentioned that it was a lot during snow storms that these flowers would bloom. He then had mentioned that the meaning of the painting and idiom was that we can grow the most in the hardest times.
I LOVED THAT.
I started to ponder and think about what that could mean to me and it brought me back to the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Through Christ we can turn some of the hardest moments in our life, to some of the most life changing.
I know for me this week that was so true. My companion and I went out and worked so hard. We talked to many people. Taught a good amount of lessons. And got rejected a lot. It was difficult. We were giving it our all, and we kept getting told no. But just like the MeiHua, we were able to grow because of it. Sure this week may have been a challenge, but my companion and I were able to grow in testimony. This week we talked to more people than we have in the previous weeks, we loved and spent good time with them, we shared the gospel with all of them. A lot of them still rejected but my companion and I were able to look past that and grow. Because I know that through Christ we can all have Iron bones that bring about spring. That's why we are here on earth to grow and learn. And through Christ we can grow in the hardest times. Just as the MeiHua grows in the winter.
I have many stories and even miracles that I would love to share for this week, but I'm going to leave my email at that. I want to challenge all of you who have made the time to read this far to think about how you are going to be a MeiHua, how will you take the hardest conditions and turn them into growing grounds. There was many beautiful talks by our living Prophets and Apostles talking about our game plan and repenting for growth. I encourage you to read and think about those things. I know that we can all be a MeiHua, it's in all reality the primary reason of why we came to earth.
I love you all and I know that the gospel is so true. So can you.
Love,
Elder Carter
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