I would like to share with fellow practitioners my experience in writing a letter to the editor of the local newspaper.

I used to think:

1. I'm not good at writing
2. I cannot speak well
3. I don't know Chinese, so I can do very limited Dafa work
4. I'm not good at English, so I can do very limited Dafa work

Recently I thought:

• Writing a letter to the editor of the newspaper is a great way to let people know about Dafa
• Many Chinese practitioners are overloaded with work
• American people are also too busy because their English skills are desperately needed
• I'm the only one who has a time to write
• So, why not? Master will surely help me.

For a long time I have wanted to thank all the government officials and citizens who have supported us in the past. This seemed like a perfect chance to do that. Besides, a thank you letter would be more likely to get published than just telling people about Falun Gong.

I wrote a brief letter and asked an American practitioner to check my English. She helped improve the writing in my letter by changing the grammar and making some suggestions. I rewrote the letter and sent it to her again. She was very thoughtful of my feelings and tried not to hurt me by changing too many words. She said my letter was ok, however, I had a feeling that the letter was not good enough to be published in the paper. Then I remembered Master's recent article "Hurry Up and Tell Them." There was not even a moment to waste. I sent it out. In a few days the editor called me for verification. I confirmed that my letter would be published.

A few days later I realized that I had made a big mistake in the letter. Originally I thought of sending it to the weekly newspaper, which was circulated in several counties. My thanks was addressed to the mayors and councilmen only. Upon deciding on sending it to the daily newspaper that covered the whole state, that should have been changed to include the senators, assemblymen, and freeholders. For a few days I was thinking what I should do about it. One day I went to the grocery store to purchase the paper thinking "If it is not published today, I will send out a correction." But instead, I walked out of the store with my bags of groceries and without the paper. I forgot to purchase the paper. The next day the letter was published. To my surprise, I could not see the words, mayors and council members. The wordings were all changed to show appreciation to all the government officials. Further more, unnecessary words were removed and some words were even changed to look much nicer. The whole letter looked perfect.

That really made me feel the mighty power of Dafa -- as long as you are doing something for Dafa from your heart without any pursuit, things will turn out to be good.

Posting date: 9/13/2002
Original article date: 9/12/2002
Category: Practitioners' Insights

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