WEEK 25: last week with 枝姐妹和彭姐妹 is sure to hold lots of surprises...

BEFORE

1. I'm out of training
2. I got a haircut
3. I've been in Taiwan for 3 months now and my 6 MONTH MARK IS THIS WEEK AHHHH!!
4. I HAVE A TAIWANESE COMPANION. TRI-PANIONSHIP YEAAAAA!!

Pretty big starting off news huh?? This week was NUTS, full of many unexpected things!!!

So even though there is also a Chinese New Years here that is the SUPER celebrated one, the Taiwanese still celebrate regular New Years and everyone gets off work/school for a week!!! You would think that means lots of success for us right? WRONG, it means very very many doors slammed in our faces hahaha I've also never had anyone say "我聽不懂" or "I don't understand your Chinese" until yesterday!! So that's good haha:)

So Monday night we are on our way to Family Home Evening and we are told that we will be getting a new companion, 彭姐妹! She is a native Taiwanese person...so stepping up the Chinese game a bit!! So she's with us and her bike is still in her original area and we have no way to get it, so we get a ride to the chapel and have NO RIDE HOME so we make the HOUR AND A HALF WALK home. Yes, we walked home! Then the next day

we find out that 彭姐妹 is going to be getting a duanchuan, or a companion who serves as a missionary for a short amount of time...about 6 days. So she leaves again the next morning. And now she is currently sitting next to me writing emails. So now we are a tripanionship until the 16th, transfer meeting!! Craziness. It's a bit stressful to have to speak Chinese ALL the time, but I guess it's what I should be doing anyway.

Transfer meeting...ay ay ay. I am very much scared for that because Sister Branch and I are most definitely getting separated. All good things must come to an end right? But as to what will happen to me, I have no idea. I have had no feelings as to where I will go, if I'll
stay or if I'll go or if I'll train...Sister Branch thinks I'll train!! But my last full week with 枝姐妹 is going to be crazy, sharing it with a new sister!! We have shared some of the best memories of my life and I am so incredibly grateful for her!

Well this week was BEAUTIFUL weather, winter seems to last only for 3 weeks here! Spring is next month so I guess it could get cold again, but hopefully not!

Crazy things this week:
-There was a fire next door, 3 huge fire trucks barelled down our tiny
street...fun

Firetrucks!

-We were knocking doors and this family let us in and sat down and just stared at us, totally ready to hear a lesson but not telling us they had already met missionaries. They humored us and let us teach a
lesson. We tried so hard to bring the Spirit but they just were being polite and then were like Yah we have no interest, but most people are rude so we decided to be nice. Then the next day we see them at a 7/11 after just having a lesson with someone else and there are all mortified!!! They were so embarrassed and covered their faces haha!! -蔡耀德 fanged us twice in the same day and asked if our parents were coming to church with us...he is a strange fellow. He called us like 35 times in one day. Gross.

              

Crazy spiritual things this week:

-We met with 賴姐妹 and her new work associate was there. We start talking about the Plan of Salvation and the new employee 張筠 starts to cry. She says she just heard about Jesus Christ last week and doesn't

know a lot about him but she already considers herself his disciple. WHAT she's incredible and said she felt the Spirit.

-We went to a members house on New Years Day with our district and ate lunch. Her two nonmember sons were there and she said the closing prayer--the most heartfelt prayer I've ever heard about how her new years resolution/goal is to help them receive the gospel.


-The same members helped us peike for a man named Lu, we call him motorcycle man, who we met on New Years Eve and he said he might come to church. During the middle of second hour, he calls us and runs into church. There was a video playing in Gospel Principles class, called "Todd's Story" (GO WATCH IT, IT'S INCREDIBLE, I saw it in the MTC and I love it) about a man who overcomes drugs and alcohol and says the spirit is more powerful than those influences, and motorcycle man walked in just in time to hear it. 

He has a problem with those addictions so it was incredible. Then a sister stands up and bears her testimony about how it is worth it to give up those things. Then we meet with this man and he tells us that he has met missionaries FIVE TIMES in passing so this must be his time to accept the gospel. He also said that he had plans that day, but they cancelled right before church. He has an incredible story about how he was in a coma for 6 months and recovered and how he knows that God wants him to learn about this because he is still alive. 

That Sunday was Fast Sunday. Fasting truly brings miracles. -Jerry set a date to go to the temple, January 10th!! That is his only goal basically...his number one goal!! We wanted to set a date for him and he said he wanted to pray first...so we prayed right there in 7/11 to know what day he should go. And he decided the 10th. He has so so so much faith.

 -We will finish teaching the after-baptism lessons to TWO of our recent converts this week yay!

-One of our ward missionaries invited her work associate to meet with us and she is INCREDIBLE. She has tons of questions but she really wants to truly understand. She has yet to set a date for baptism but that is our goal this next week. She has two little kids and we hope that by her knowing this gospel, she will bring her family into the church too.

 Please pray for our ward mission leader, his mother-in-law recently passed away. Please pray for our area. I have never seen such a strange pattern....every single soul, and i mean EVERY person we have met in the past 3 weeks who is super prepared to receive this gospel has lived somewhere else. Besides the 2 people we met this week, every single person who even talks to us for a second has lived somewhere else. As a result, we have had an IMMENSE amount of referrals for other missionaries. 

Sister Branch and I believe that through this
incredibly uncanny trial, we are supposed to be humbled because we already had 3 baptisms, and we need to help other missionaries more.

Hopefully the people of 龜山 will open their hearts to us soon instead of slamming their doors, but we can only pray and exercise faith!

My personal revelation this week was to remember my testimony from before I came on a mission. I don't know why, but recently I have been feeling super inadequate and always worried that I am not good enough. But during sacrament on Fast Sunday I had the idea that I need to remember why I came out here in the first place. 

Why? Because I know t's true. Frequently I compare my testimony to others who have crazy conversion stories, but I don't need to do that when I have known this gospel is true my whole life. Before my mission, I bore my testimony every Fast Sunday. I brought other people to seminary, I read my scriptures every day and listened to EFY music for fun. Who I am now is definitely different than who I was before my mission, but who I was before should bring strength to who I am now. I encourage you all
to look at the growth you have made in your lives, especially what has changed this past year.

This week I set very very many goals because this time next year, I've have close to 3 weeks left on a mission!!! So I hope you all are making some very inspired goals for this next year!!! God will help us in all that we hope to accomplish if we prayerfully seek His help.

Remember: Our Heavenly Father expects immediate progression, not perfection. I love you all! This week has been so so much improved!!! I am focusing on consecrating all my efforts, thoughts, and actions to this work so I can be a CHANGED person when I get back. No worries, still crazy, but different.

I hope you all have an incredible week!
愛，
Sister Wright (Taiwan Taipei Mission)
Rèn Jiěmèi 任曼欣姐妹

p.s. are bathroom selfies still a thing? This bathroom was too coolnot to take a picture of!