Finding, Finding, Finding - June 17, 2013

 落其实者思其树，饮其流者怀其源 ——庾信

luò qí shí zhě sī qí shù, yǐn qí liú zhě huái qí yuán

When you eat fruit, remember the tree; when you drink from the stream, remember the source.  -- Yu Xin

Sara had a great week and is full of gratitude - enjoy her email today!

"I love you all and I am so grateful for all your prayers!  You are all such a blessing to my life.  I can't even express to you how grateful I am for all the things you have taught me.  As credit to you mom... and especially dad on Father's day, I had a bunch of people tell me what I good child I must have been and how they were telling their kids to follow my example.  Ha ha yes! you did succeed in some things... they all THINK I must have just been a golden child ha ha.  So in the end, all that worry is paying off. 

This week has been a good week, but exhausting!  We were so busy because we had a ton of meetings and stuff.  It was fun, but also hard to do missionary work.  Our finding was really low, but we actually still did really good and saw lots of success... just not quite what we were hoping for.  I know the Lord's prepared children are out there... we just really need to find them.  This week we are really focusing on finding families and through our LA's.  We had some really neat experiences last week as we visited LA's they weren't home, but their families were and 2 of the mom's were excited to say a prayer with us.  So cool to tell their children after and encourage them to take their part in this missionary work.  One of the girls was so excited when we told her and so surprised.  So cute and she will definitely be stepping up to try and help her mom out. 

Sister O.... and I are growing and learning more and more every week.  It is so fun to see her progress and though mine may not be as apparent I know I have learned so much as well... especially about training.  She really helped me see some of my weaknesses and I am so grateful because as I worked on developing Charity this week I was really able to change and become a better trainer that could really help her grow and myself as well.  She has taught some powerful lessons this week that were led by the spirit.  I have never felt so happy as walking out of a lesson that my companion had just blasted our investigator with the spirit.  Our investigator went from maybe getting baptized to she will be getting baptized it is just about when and where.  She is actually from the USA and she is going back to Virginia on the 1st.  She will probably be adding me on facebook so you should give her a hello ;)  her name is xxxxx.  I seriously adore her!  She is like 18 and just an exchange student over here.  She happened to spend her last 4 months at one of our members houses.  The other sisters tried to teach her, but she really needed us.  She has opened up so much to us and really come closer to Christ.  So cool to see the spirit working on her to help her change.  We have also found some other pretty solid investigators lately through member referrals and stuff, but we really really need some good solid investigators coming up here.  I think that is every missionaries most difficult problem is finding.  Luckily I have learned that finding time doesn't just mean going to an area and talking to people for an hour.  There really are many ways to find and for us finding on the street was not an effective use of time, but we are perfecting the art of getting street referrals and this whole finding when you teach and teach when you find.  Preach my gospel is seriously the best thing ever!!! 

We also had an awesome privilege to go to Hualian for a zone conference.  Sooo fun and their area is seriously like heaven.  So fun to go and see a little bit and be in such a wonderful chapel, with such wonderful speakers.  I hope everyone really is catching this wave in missionary work.  The missionaries need people to teach and you are the ones who have friends and family that need the gospel and can open doors and hearts that otherwise would have been closed.  It is really a great lesson for us to learn how to strengthen this ward through the LA and RC and part member families.  This is our huge focus recently and it has been cool to see the miracles start to come.  It is hard sometimes with so many with Buddhist traditions, but I know the spirit can change those with that Buddhist tradition and can teach them truth.  

Well that is pretty much it for this week.  I love you all!

I have to say a special I LOVE YOU to father for father's day.  Thank you so much for the example you have set of Faith, Diligence, Charity, Humility, Obedience, Virtue, Hope, Patience... all of the Christlike attributes I have truly seen in you.  I am grateful for a father who did his best to teach by example.  It was a much more effective teacher and is still teaching me today.  The best is it is not only teaching me, but is affecting many lives over here in Taiwan as I try and share it with others.  Thank you and as I was looking back through my journal I saw how many times your small note or thought had a huge impact on me that week.  Thank you!  

Things are good in Taiwan... the work is good and I love it!

Love, 

Sister Sara Gummow

Wen Jei mei ^_^ "

Hot, Hot, Hot June 10, 2013

Sister Gummow is feeling the heat! It was a good week this week and she sent pictures!  They are worth a thousand words!  

 Sooo this week has been the start of summer!  Hao wan... ha ha it is sooo hot!!!  It apparently is only starting too.  I do like it, but it is tiring to be out in the hot sun and many people aren't outside either.  Good thing is the members give us referrals out here.  They are all anxious to share their testimonies and we are excited to help their friends come unto Christ.  

The lord has been helping me grow so much as well as my companion.  She is so organized and her Chinese is getting so good.  She is able to talk to many more people and always contributes a lot to the lessons.  It is fun to see her grow.  I must admit... I am sometimes that perfectionist mother that gets all upset over little dumb things and really expects ridiculous things, but we are slowly getting the communication up.  I am learning more and more about what Charity really is and learning a lot about my own weaknesses.  They often refer to Trainers as mothers and though I don't feel like that at all with Sister O.... I can also see a lot of the parallels... I'm glad I am having this time to figure these things out... I know it will help me become a better mother someday, or at least that is the hope if I can figure it all out.

I have to tell you all about one specific miracle.  This week was pretty average, but we had some awesome experiences where I felt the lord testifying through me and I was just so grateful we could be there to answer people's prayers.  We taught one of our investigators on Friday.  She hasn't met with us in a while.  She is actually a member referral.  The member invited us to their work and we taught her there.  She was AWESOME but the next two weeks, disappeared.  We didn't really know what was going on until Friday.  Friday she called the member and said she had time and wanted to meet, so we changed our nighttime plans to go meet with her.  We taught her about the plan of salvation.  As we taught one of our recent converts 2 sons were preparing for baptism, so as she waited she asked if she could sit in on our lesson.  

This was probably one of the best lessons I have taught since my mission.  Last month's invite was to focus on Teaching Skills and it has really payed off for our companionship.  What was cool was that as we taught we brought in a few things we don't always talk about.  The examples we used were new and we brought in a few more points about our life on earth than we usually do.  Our recent convert told me on Sunday she loved it.  She said she had never understood the kingdoms before and stuff until we taught her.  Even better at the end of the lesson I just felt a small prompting to refer to the 5 step process (faith, repentance, baptism, holy ghost, endure) and let her know that next time we would be talking about how she could develop her faith and come unto Christ.  We gave her the gospel of Jesus Christ pamphlet and assigned her to read Alma 32 and think about how this chapter would help her develop her faith. (I have never done that before in my mission btw)  She just gave me this look and started to explain that she had met with us that day because she knew she needed to develop her faith and she didn't know how.  She has been praying for it and she knew that god had heard her prayer.  

The spirit taught me a powerful lesson that day.  As I looked at this precious daughter of God sitting next to this member friend who desired her salvation.  I knew that this was my privilege to teach her.   The lord knows who His prepared children are.  It is not us finding them, teaching them, baptizing them...  This is ALL the Lord's work.  I knew that He loved His daughter and He was letting me take part in teaching her.  I knew without a doubt that this was the Lord's gift to me to let me take part in His work.  I'm so grateful for the opportunity I have to be a tool in the Lord's hand.  I know that you all can have the same experience.  You never know when the Lord will use you to answer someone's prayer.  Mom and Dad I have seen that over and over again as I have seen you serve and love those around you.  Thank you for your wonderful examples to me.

Dad you are the best in the world!!! HAPPY FATHERS DAY next week ^_^  Thank you for your amazing example.  You don't know how many times I use your example to teach people about obedience to the commandments and the faith to see miracles happen.  Thank you for teaching me that when we trust in the lord everything works out.  Our family has seen it over and over again because of your example.  

Here are a few pictures of recent weeks.  

This is when we made some Mexican food and the amazing no bake cheesecake you gave me. SOOOO good and they all loved it!  it turned out super super good.  Thank you!!!  






 My district here.. yes elder T..... is still in the same ward with me and now he is our new zone leader.  Sister Ochoa was just visiting us with her companion.  We got to go on exchanges which was soo fun :)





This in L... JM and O... ZL.  We all got on the island together and were here together for 1 transfer.  We had a big FHE at a members house to say bye to all the missionaries getting transferred.  Very fun night and felt the love of the members here a lot!  They are wonderful :)
  


The pictures I sent before were from when we were making mantou it is a chinese bun thing.  We made it with sister Wang.  She is like my mother here.  You would love her mom!  I must admit we have become a bit of the favorites of the branch pres and his wife.  they are so sweet to us and we have had some amazing experiences with them.  They have so much faith!  

Well I love you all and look forward to reading every word of your emails and letters.  I got one from Lane and Taylor this week and Sister Braithwaite made my life!  ha ha thanks for all the support :)  love you all!!!

Sister Gummow

Wo Chi Bao le ^_^, June 2, 2013

 

 In Taiwan, a typical greeting would include the above Chinese statement and it is asking, " have you eaten yet".  They have some of the most delicious fruit and foods in Taiwan - things that Sister Gummow has probably never seen or tasted before! - The perks to serving on a tropical island!  

She had a really great week but is hoping for some specific blessing and could use some extra prayers!

I love your little Chinese additions to the emails mom :)  it makes me so happy.  I hope you can have a simple conversation with me by the time I get back... keep working with Joanna!  I'm sure you will be able to :)  So I loved all your updates.  Bry- the white hat and shoes was a super cute idea!  Way to follow in your sister's example and be creative! ha ha Jill would be proud too.  I just got your letters with their updates btw and I loved it.  Tell Joseph congratulations as well as Jared!  John will have to give a quick congrats to the others in Hawaii like Jordon and Dallin and whoever else is getting engaged ha ha.  I still can't believe that... so awesome!  
I also can't believe how much Dan has been going through... xinku ta!!!  Tell him I love him and will be praying for him and that his legs will grow like a normal person ;) jk jk  I'm sure it will all be fine.  Dad and mom it sounds like you have some really big plans coming up.. 25th wedding anniversary!  I'm not even sure I'll recognize the yard by the time I get back... as long as the tramp is still, there I will be fine.  Funny story was when I was teaching English class, I was teaching about back yards and I happened to bring up the trampoline... they didn't even know what it was, but that makes sense because they have probably only seen them on TV.  We are really so blessed in the USA.  Even small houses often have yards.  We are sooo blessed!  I think that is one thing my mission has taught me... in the USA we are so spoiled! 

So I have a special prayer request for you all this week.  Pray that my companion and I can find people to teach!  This week was sooo awesome.  I can't even tell you how many miracles we saw this week.  We wanted to visit 10 RCLA (Recent Converts or Less-Actives).  The normal for our mission is around 5.  We ended up getting 9 and each one was a miracle!  We have seen so much success with our RCLA's coming to church and it is making us so happy.  I may not have had any baptisms yet, but helping an endowed member of our church have the desire to come back after years of inactivity is the best feeling in the world!  

We have also been having tons of tracting time riding bikes to places and just in general.  We were able to teach over 30 lessons this week to members RCLA and Investigators (including ppl on the street)  sooo awesome!  the thing is we only found 1 new investigator.  

My companion and I have been studying the finding chpt and doing all that we can to think of new things to practice, new materials, referrals.. anything!  We have been improving sooo much.  It has been really fun to see our skills improving together and to become more and more like PMG missionaries, but for some reason the Lord has not quite seen it fit for us to find investigators.  We need them though!  It is a great experience and we are learning so so much.  Sister O and I are becoming better and better friends and I must admit... even though sometimes missions can be discouraging, a companion makes all the difference!  Even on the hard days when we come home completely sweaty and exhausted from a day of tracting in the hot sun (and yes, mom, we do try to find other things to do during the hottest hours, but because we don't have many investigators we are always tracting... and riding bikes... in the blazing heat ha ha.)  I am so dark right now - which the Asians don't really like.  They always think I'm from some other country.  Lately every time I say I am American they are so surprised.  The most frequently guessed country is Australia or Spain... random)  We are still so happy and ready to take on the next adventure.  

Our companion studies are also super fun because we have been doing some great role-plays that have really been helping us out on the street.  So fun to take what we did in studies and see it succeed.  I am getting eaten alive by mosquitoes and I am pro at riding my bike since our area is so huge.  Things are good here though and as my companion and I are learning to rely more and more on Christ we are seeing so so so many miracles. 

This week some of our miracles were:

 1. We decided we needed to get in a habit of asking everyone for referrals, but we always would forget so we did a bunch of role plays everyday to practice asking people.  We were able to ask a ton of people and got 1 from a cute high school student who's best friends family has been having problems.  We were also able to get 2 different sets of christian girls to agree to pray for their friends and bring them to a lesson with us in the next 2 weeks (it is the end of school so they are all too busy to meet for awhile). 

 2. We were able to have some amazing member visits where we were able to serve them and bless their families.  Sweet Wang ma ma (our branch presidents wife)  broke down in tears after we blessed her and their home.  Her husband was gone for 2 days at a church conference so she was taking over the bike shop while he was gone.  She was worried because no one had come that day and she was alone.  She was so grateful we remembered her and when we blessed that they would have good business... 20 min later (while we were still there) she got her first customer of the day.  The Lord answers our prayers quickly sometimes, especially when we pray in faith. 

 3.  A lady got offended at church on Sunday and as she stormed out I was able to stop her, give her a hug, remind her of her testimony... then our wonderful branch president pulled her aside for an interview.  Right after we had sacrament meeting.  We just encouraged her to bear her testimony and she bore powerful testimony of the saviors atonement.  Sooo cool! 

4.  We planted so many seeds with so many awesome people!  Helped so many people say their first prayer  

5.  To me this is the biggest miracle... my wonderful companion finally opened up to me and we are now at a place where we can really work together.  I firmly believe that to have power when we teach we need to have all companionship barriers down... complete trust in each other (not only in missionary work, but in every aspect) that way the spirit can testify strongly through both of us.  Companionship unity is essential to success and I feel like we finally have that now and I am so grateful for her willingness to share with me.  

I love Taiwan and I love Taidong.  I may not be seeing the miracles I expected to see, but the Lord is teaching me so much.  I can honestly say I don't have any regrets!  I will keep giving it my all.  Thank you for all the love and support you have all given me.  I hope the lord continues to bless you all!     

I am so excited to see what miracles are in store for us next week.  

BTW thank you Aimee and John for the letters! I got them :)  You are wonderful and I will do my best to get one sent off today.  I finally found the post office in Taidong so you may be getting 2 letters in 1.  so so so sorry I have been terrible at writing.  I will try and send the memory card with my pictures home as well!  love you!!! :)

Also thanks for all the birthday wishes.  G and G Gummow - I got your card and carry the handkerchief.  So sweet and I will be carrying it around with me :) it really made my day to see all the emails and the fb birthday posts mom sent too.  Ha ha thank you all!!!

"Hola, como estas!", May 27,2013

On Mother's day during our Skype call, we got to meet Sara's companion.  She asked what to do for Sara on her upcoming birthday.  I had heard the cheesecake was really delicious in Taiwan and I knew Sara loved cheesecake.  They were somewhat doubtful that it could be found in Taidong, but from this picture, it looks like they found it!  Speaking of finding, there was a post on Sara's facebook page by a friend who worked with her at the Polynesian Cultural Center in Hawaii who happened to find her brother who is serving his mission in Taichung.  You can see the picture and read more about it on his blog.  Small world!!  She never told us what was happening in the pictures at the bottom, but obviously they are learning to cook something!  I hope it turned out well!  Here are some quotes from her email this week!

"Hey I got the package!  Thank you so much mom!  I loved it :)  We are going to make the cake today and try out some Mexican food with the elders.  Ha ha I still don't love Mexican food, but it is the only thing we can't find over here so I figured it was a good thing to ask for.  Even better we might try and do a Fiesta activity with the youth here so that will be super fun!

This week was one of the lowest number weeks on my mission, but it was still great and we did see miracles.  I absolutely hate knocking doors, but this week we decided to try it out... hence hardly any new investigators, but I could see how the lord put us in certain places, at certain times for a reason.  There are many people waiting to hear this gospel and it was cool to teach people about the restoration.  We have been doing our best to follow the zone and district invites, especially about focusing on the temple.  This has been a huge blessing in my companion and I's lives.  It really has given us a new fire.  Every time we bear testimony of the temple I feel the spirit testify so strongly of our words.

So challenge of the week is that I am realizing trainers really do 1. have to express their confidence in their companion 2. challenge them. I forgot how much the language barrier holds us back from progressing.  I also remember how mad I would get at my companion sometimes because she didn't understand that.  Ha ha now I am so grateful to her.  She NEVER let me use my language as an excuse not to do something.  I am trying to be better at that.  I am so willing to take everything on myself, but I'm realizing that when I do this the miracles stop happening because I am not fulfilling my responsibility.  This is a great lesson for me to learn and I am glad we still have a while together so we can see my companion truly blossom and become a "Preach my gospel" missionary.

So funny story of yesterday.  We decided the best chance to get some more RCLA visits was in this area about 15 min from our house.  We headed over there and as we left one with no success we ran into a lady with very long hair.  She was exercising but decided to stop and talk to us.  She wants to learn English and reminds me of a hippie from the 60's.  She is great and invited us to visit her right then to eat some aboriginal food... we were excited and thought this was a little miracle from God... that is until she gave us the food and it was... probably the most disgusting thing I have eaten since being on island.  Ha ha it was the trial of my life to eat the whole thing and I don't even know if my face was able to fake the smile I tried so hard to put on my face.  Luckily the night was saved as she allowed us to pray with us and told us the time she had when we could come back.  Ha ha we will see how it goes, but it was definitely an adventure.

I love Taiwan and I love being here.  Thank you all for your birthday wishes.  It really was a great boost and just what I needed.  Thank you for your love and support!  Tell Julia "congrats" as well and I can't wait to see her here!

Love you all!

Shengri Kuaile! Happy Birthday Sara!

Today was Sister Sara Gummow's birthday already in Taiwan (since they are 14 hours ahead of us)  Sadly, her birthday package has not reached her yet-  even though I sent it over 2 weeks ago.  I guess it goes to the mission home first and she is far away from the mission home.  She said things are kind of remote there and it takes awhile to get mail and such.  The package contains lots of chocolate  so I hope it doesn't melt too much! Luckily, she has her p-day on her birthday so she can do a little bit of celebrating!  Here are some quotes from this week's email and a picture of her Zone in Taidong:

 Wow I feel so lucky! First I got to Skype with you last P-day and now I get to email right on my birthday.  Skyping you all was so fun btw.  I am glad you figured out the whole 5.0 thing so that we could have a 3 way.  Everyone seriously does look different, but it is fun to see the changes and also see that some things never change.  Ha ha! the Gummow family is the best! 

So for updates on this week.  We really have seen some awesome miracles.  The first miracle is that last P-day we met with a member referral, xxx jm.  A member in the 1st branch just stopped us in the hallway on Wednesday after English class and said she set up a time with her friend and asked us to come teach her on Monday   Um... of course! we would love to!  Such a huge blessing and she was so awesome!  She set a baptismal date and was excited to be learning more about God. 

 Later on that week we met with another investigator that the Elders had given us.  She is a cute 17 yr old girl who needs to feel God's love.  When we talked about baptism with her, I have never seen anyone so excited.  Even better she brought her best friend with her and said she had other friends who would be interested in hearing.  She said she would bring them with her in future visits.  

Another great miracle was that last week we met a girl in the street visiting a LA.  She has 5 brothers and sisters and takes care of them while her parents are at work.  She is only 16, but she is so prepared.  We were able to teach her and all of her siblings about the restoration.  They are actually a christian family and go to church every week, but the kids were so cute and it was so fun to visit with them.  The sad thing is we went back to try and meet the parents and the parents rejected us, but we are NOT giving up!   Pray that their hearts will be softened and they will let us teach the family!  

Last miracle was a super cool one.  So on Saturday nothing in our schedule was going according to plan, but we decided we still wanted to go out and find the parents of the family I was just talking about.  We had only a few minutes we could tract before we wanted to go there, so we stopped by a walking path that we had planned to contact people on.  As we pulled up we weren't sure if we should stay there because there weren't very many people.  We decided it was fine, so we went to talk to a lady who had been riding her bike.  Turns out she is from the Philippines and she had only been there for 5 months.  She had just gotten married to a Taiwanese man in the Philippines and then moved to Taiwan.  She is Christian and has been looking for a church.  She has been having a hard time adjusting to all the things in marriage and a new country.  Her husband is Buddhist so that has been hard too, but despite that she has been praying everyday.  She told us that she had just been feeling like her heart was so heavy and she knew it was the Lord answering her prayers that she found us.  She asked us if she could come to church.  We gave her directions prayed with her and she even wrote out a prayer in Tagalog for us so I will be practicing my Tagalog ha ha.  Even better she wants to share the gospel with her husband, but he won't listen... however, he wants to learn English. So as our weekly service, we are going to try and teach him and her English together for like an hour.  I hope this will open some doors for him to hear the gospel!  

It truly is the Lord's work and I am seeing more and more how everyday he is making such weak and imperfect servants tools in His hands.  I am so grateful that I can be a part of His work here in Taiwan.  I love you all and loved talking to you on Mother's Day!  Jia you!!!

Mother's Day 2013

The best part about Mother's day is that we mothers get to talk to our Missionary Children!!  We had a few technical difficulties (Sara called about an hour later than planned because she forgot her Skype password and her companion talked to her family first and went a bit longer than they thought.  Luckily everything eventually worked out.  She looked great and we had a wonderful time being together via Skype.  She loves being a missionary and has quickly begun to build some great new relationships in her new area, Taidong.  Her new companion that she is training is 21 and ready to teach and be a missionary. The companion is really good at reading the map and had been great at all the things Sara was worried about being able to to.

She actually spent more time asking us questions about the family than talking about her experiences, but it was great just to be able to converse.  I was working hard to learn to bear my testimony to her in Chinese, but we weren't able to communicate in Chinese as well as Matthew and I did.  I am pretty sure it is due to my pronunciation so I guess I will keep working on it.  There were a lot more people to talk with when we Skyped with Sara.  Matt called at 6:30am - so there was just the immediate family then.  She loves the warm weather and said to tell everyone "Hi" and that she loves them.

Below I posted the quick email she sent before she called us.


In just a minute I will be talking to you all on Skype :)  I am very excited, but my email time is very short today.  Plan on around 7ish and yes we also only have 40 minutes so I hope everything got figured out with Matt.  I will try and update the Skype  but no guarantees   We are using our investigators computer and she is actually gone so hopefully she already has the updated version. 

Anyways this week was also full of miracles.  We also had a few more challenges.  Ha ha our area is huge!!!  There aren't many people on the streets, but there are prepared people everywhere!  The best is that the members are so so awesome and do missionary work at every opportunity.  One of my favorite members here is Wang Ma ma.  She is the branch Presidents wife.  she is the most humble sweet lady and a mother to all the missionaries.  She was one of the first people I saw in this ward.  It was great because when I saw here I stopped worrying about whitewashing and stuff.  I knew that this ward was in good hands and their were very good people. 

This weeks most fun but difficult challenge was when we ended up wasting almost a whole day riding our bikes to a crazy area.  We asked one of the Elders and he was like "ya probably like a 40 min bike ride."  We decided it was worth it.  After we started, we realized quickly that 40 min... no way.  We also got lost and a very nice lady and man brought us out to the main rode... bikes and all.  Then after we started biking again....2hours later.. and a few hills... who knows how many miles... we found her!  We taught her for 30 ish min and turned around and headed back so we wouldn't be late for our appointment that night.  Our hour dinner break has quickly turned into 15 or 30 min this past week.  It is awesome and I love being so busy and having a companion ready to take on anything. 
 
I was very sad about the waste of time, but the next day we met with a member and found out she lived right by her.  She was super willing to help her come to church and befriend her.  Yesterday she told us they are already facebook friends.  She also told us she posted up the picture of us and a ton of people said how awesome we were for going so far to find her.  Ha ha... not as much of a waste of time as I felt.  The lord is giving us blessings and maybe a little facebook publicity will be good for missionaries all over Taiwan.

We are also still teaching an exchange student here.  She is so great, but this week is gone with her program touring Taiwan.  pray for her! 

Sorry I don't have more time.  I'm excited to talk to you all in a minute.  I love you and am so grateful for all you do for me!  Everyone is looking great.  Good to hear about Nicole's endowment and I did get her card as well as Aimee's letter.  Thank you!  It was fun to see and they look so happy together.  Aimee you are also looking more and more beautiful.  i loooove you!!!! HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!  Muqin jie kaile!!!

Wo ai nimen :)

Mountains, May 5, 2013

Sister Sara Gummow has already grown to love Taidong!  Some missionaries are overwhelmed by the heat, but she has not complained a bit.  She loves the warm/hot climate! She finally sent a few pictures!  The one at the left is from Neihu with her last companion before she was transferred.  She seems to be great with the training process and is gradually finding her sense of directions despite language obstacles in addition to her usual challenges.



"Thank goodness mom was right about how climbing those other mountains made me stronger to climb this one.  It was seriously so hard coming in, but I have already adjusted and I love it here.  I mean there are still challenges... such as I only have a map in Chinese and so finding places is like a game of matching... and I can't tell people where I want to go because I only know what the characters look like... not how to say them.  Ha ha but regardless of the language restrictions we have seen so many miracles!

First, my companion Sister O is fantastic!  Her Chinese is not amazing, but super good for just getting to Taiwan after only 9 weeks in the MTC.  She is very dedicated and it was easy to get on the same page with goals.  The cool thing is that we have decided that a great way to strengthen our branch here was to not only focus on the living work, but the work for the dead.  We have a family history activity planned for the 25th.  In my other area I would have great ideas, but it felt like it was always hard to get things started because we didn't have much support... here it is not the same!  The little branch only has a few strong members but as a lady on the street told me in the darkest places is where the people shine the most.  Sooo true!  The branch may only have about 60 active members out of their 200 ish members but the thing is they are golden!  

Just a few of the miracles we saw this week.  1.  we visited the branch presidents wife.  They have a little bike shop at their house so as we visited her a 18 yr old boy came to fix his bike.  Of course our branch president invited him in to sit and talk with us and eat some food.  As we got to know him he had no interest in the gospel, but we were able to get out of him what he believed and turns out he had some pretty big questions.  I had one of my biggest spiritual experiences as we were able to use the scriptures to answer his question.  He wasn't willing the first time we asked for his number, but after answering his question and feeling eh spirit so strongly we felt prompted to ask him again and he gave it to us.  We sent him off with a book of Mormon and our testimony that it was true.  Hopefully he will be set up with the elders next week.  After the branch presidents wife gave me a hug and invited us to eat dinner with them.  Ha ha so awesome!  They are a wonderful family.  
2.  we were walking home and ran into a recent convert.  Turns out she has been struggling lately.  Her and her friend went to get their hair done and her friend had been struggling lately too.  She met with missionaries a while ago, but hasn't met in a while.  They all felt like it was the lord telling them he loves them that he sent us to them at that time.  She set up with us and her friend will help us teach her!  So awesome!
3.  Last night I called to set up with a member... she didn't have time, but guess what she gave me three referrals right on the spot and told me that she would be praying for them that they could receive baptism.  Sooo crazy!  Even better than Christmas :)

The amazing thing is that there were so many more miracles that happened this week.  This branch is amazing.  The thing is the miracles only started happening after we had a great planning session.  In this planning session we decided the best way to assist this branch was reactivation and assisting the members that are active or are pretty much active haha.  As we came up with ideas to help them and have been doing our best to assist them we have seen soooo many miracles.  

I think my favorite is still the spirit that comes every time we testify of family history work.  We are going to bring up a new goal for our branch on Tuesday at branch council.  We watched a family history DVD thing and they said that they challenged their ward to baptize 2 wards on the other side (about 400 people) in one year.  With all the Chinese family history that can be done we want to challenge our branch to help out the work and baptize 4 wards this year (about 800 people). I know this is the lords work and as we have tried to see His vision for the area all the other numbers have started happening too.  It is not perfect and we still have a long way to go, but it is so much easier knowing I have the lord, my companion, and a branch full of wonderful people all on the same side, all with the same goal.  That is why Taidong has so many baptisms lately... not because the missionaries are awesome, but because the branch out here has members who are on fire to share their testimonies at all times.  I'm so grateful to be here assisting them in the work.     

Family -I love being a missionary and feeling like a missionary!  The best feeling in the world is to hear a question and to feel the holy ghost prompting you on exactly what to say.  To see the holy ghost carrying it into their hearts... seriously nothing better!

I'm sorry still haven't taken many pictures, but here is one from our hike with our district.  Elder M is in our district and he is doing awesome.  Elder T moved with me from Neihu so you will probably recognize him ha ha and the other two are Elder B and Elder O.  Only one native this time and we actually came in at the same time. 

The sisters and us are doing great now btw.  We have developed a great relationship with them.  The Elders have also been super helpful.  Do you remember Elder D from the MTC?  He is out here too so that has been fun to see him.  He loves it out here.

Thank you for the updates.  I actually did hear a little about that (The Boston Marathon bombing) earlier, but not the final verdict in catching them.  We will be praying for America... so many crazy things happening!

Daniel, ha ha your email made me laugh.  I can't believe you are so great at jazz music... can't wait to hear it!  I also can't believe you actually want to date.  you and Matthew .. definitely not the same ha ha.  Good luck just remember to treat every girl like she is a princess "hao bu hao"?  ha ha and wait until next November when you are 16! 

Tell Nicole congratulations for me!  and dad I'm so glad your work is finally valuing you!  you deserve the best and I would know because I'm your daughter :)

Oh Skype .. we have some success with that.  We can Skype at a members house (using our investigators computer ha ha  around 8:00 am on Monday morning which should be about 7ish your time on Sunday night right?  I think my companion will Skype first though and I will after.  I don't know all the rules, but I think I can just use my Skype account... so i'll let you know!  I also have a phone card if needed.  Let Matt know I will be sky-ping at 9:00am Monday morning and if he can join great!  if not tell him "wo ai ta"! Can't wait to talk to you next week!"