WEEK 32: post Chinese New Year food coma

Well my friends and family, I do not want to know how much weight I gained this week. This past week was Chinese New Year, which means every lunch and dinner is like a 6 course meal...so yah YIKES. But our
ward members are AWESOME!!! :) I loved getting to know them all!

On this past Tuesday, I passed off Phase 1 FINALLY!! Our mission has language phases and it's a huge accomplishment for me I think:). Wednesday, Sister Peng got to call home! Since she is Taiwanese, the
bigger holiday is Chinese New Year. Friday, we got to water the Relief Society President's garden! Most
people here grow their own vegetables, the garden was HUGE and like 200 different people have their own little plots of land there!

Saturday, 黃威儒 PASSED HIS BAPTISMAL INTERVIEW!! WE HAVE A BAPTISM THIS SATURDAY!!! Butttttttt transfer meeting is Friday, so I might not even be there:( But he is so incredible!! We were really worried about him because he is a very special man...who hardly ever remembers the things we teach him. But his faith is incredible and so we thought an interview would be a good way to see how we could continue to help
him. Right before the interview, we went through the baptismal interview questions with him and he KNEW IT ALL. It was such an incredible answer to our prayers. He is going to be a fabulous new convert :)

Sunday was Elder Sullivan's birthday and the bishop made him a chocolate banana cake yummm:). Monday we had interviews with President Day so no emails!! But interviews were awesome, President Day is just a champion and I love him. Sister Day is adorable and I love her. It's always just what I need to hear when we have interviews. We also had our last district meeting:( Maybe the last one with me, Elder McNeil, Elder Jacobsen, and Elder Taulepa all together. We have all been together since I've been on island. Not to mention Elder McNeil and I have been together almost 8 months...haha it's sad that we all have to separate!!

Last night we ate dinner in GuiShan with Chen Mama and some Tao 2 members!!! It was SO good to see her<3

Well this week was a lot of personal discovery and a lot of spiritual experiences and pretty much I am just SO grateful that I am a missionary and I am representing Jesus Christ and learning to be like Him. I hope you all can know for yourself that Christ knows you and loves you and if you don't, PRAY and READ the scriptures and you will know it's true. Share this wonderful message. Share the truth that we KNOW why we are here and we KNOW that we can live with God and all of our loved ones again, all we have to do is live His wonderful happy perfect gospel. I am so grateful to be a part of sharing this incredible truth with the people of Taiwan. It doesn't matter that I'm not perfect, that I am still learning Chinese, that I make mistakes, it only matters that this is the truth that people need and it is our responsibility to share it! Our stake's goal is 1 family, 1 baptism...every family with a baptism!! if you ever post anything on Facebook or Instagram, use that as a hashtag and spread this amazing
goal!!! I love you all so so so much!!

Sister Wright (Taiwan Taipei Mission)
Rèn Jiěmèi 任曼欣姐妹

WEEK 31: 過年快樂!

Well everyone, 過年 is this week, Chinese New Year!! And you know what that means?? LOTS of members feeding us which is good, but NO ONE on the streets, NO stores open, and NO ONE talking to missionaries YAY:)
haha this will be an interesting week, but I'm super pumped for the miracles God has in store for us!!
Oh right and Valentine's day was this past week....our investigator who is getting baptized in two weeks gave us chocolate with cute little notes!!! He is the most unlikely person to do that, so it was pretty awesome! I also got a package from my amazing family the night before Valentine's Day, it actually got delivered to our house and
that NEVER happens!!! Little miracle <3 Using Facebook has been weird, but I'm slowly xiguanle...getting used to it!

Last Monday we went to Costco, that was fun. I bought a HUGE bag of chocolate...yep so like me, I know.
Tuesday and Wednesday, I went on exchanges with Sister Smith, who trained my MTC companion Sister Morris!! She is AMAZING!!! So cute and funny and the world's most loving person <3 We saw so many miracles and got to meet with a recent convert who lives in Tao 3 boundaries but MY companion baptized when she was in 竹東!!! Cool huh? Thursday, I found out that my name in Chinese name means elegant and romantic and beautiful...cool :)

And Friday we were full ALL DAY. We hardly had time to eat lunch and dinner, we had THAT many lessons! I've never had a day like that, but it was incredible, I focused so much on what everyone specifically needed and it was so spiritually uplifting and fulfilling! Saturday was more like P-day!!! We got permission from President Day
to go to 中壢 for a ward activity! We had 2 investigators there at 羊世界...GOAT WORLD!!! I ate goat meat and we shared about how our ward goal is to have 1家庭1洗禮...every family brings someone into the gospel
through baptism!!! The elders brought guacamole and no one there had tried it before and they all loved...so Elder McNeil tied it in and said that everyone tried guac and loved it but didn't know that they would love it because they had never tried it before. It's like the gospel, so many people would LOVE it but they don't know because they
haven't had the opportunity. So it's ALL of our jobs to bring these people the guac:) Then Saturday night we went to a baptism for 桃一 and we had an investigator come! Jerry, Sofia, Yoyo, Xiao Bao, EVERYONE was there!!! Jerry gave the most AMAZING testimony, about how he felt at his baptism and shared scriptures he loved before and after his baptism...I was so humbled at how amazing he is and how I was so privileged to get to teach him the gospel.

at Goat World!

This week I was very humbled. Sister 彭 is changing and smiling more and things are getting better between us, very slowly but surely. This whole transfer I have been thinking about how my companion needs to change and how I can be the example for her and all this stuff...but this week I realized ALL of the many many weaknesses I still have and how I still have a long way to go before I am the missionary that God needs me to be.  At times this week, I felt so low like I couldn't keep going, so full of weakness that I wouldn't be able to do God's work...but He loves me and so He provided a way for me to see that ways that I can improve. When our weaknesses seem to big to overcome and we are overwhelmed with all of the things we need to accomplish and overcome and be, He provides the peace and the plan to make it through step by step until we are that much closer to being like Christ. I have learned that I need to turn outwards and become like Christ in order to see the changes that I desire on the inside. I also have remembered to see the rainbows this week...little things like it being sunny outside to big things like going to a baptism to see all of my 桃一 members and see my recent convert bear the best testimony in the whole world. God loves me and I know it. God loves us all and I know it.

Another reason I know God loves me....He has blessed me to stay in 桃園 for this entire time. I got to start in Tao 1 and experience love like I never have before. I say that I easily left my heart with those people, but then now I am in Tao 2 and my heart is always expanding, finding room to love each and every one of these people with my whole heart. It's incredible. God has let me meet the world's most amazing people, all with SUCH strong testimonies, all willing to give up everything and anything to come to church, go to the temple, serve the  missionaries. He is also blessing me with being SO busy!!! We have at least one lesson scheduled everyday, if not 4 or 5!! So different from 龜山, I know that God is preparing this area of Tao 2 to amazing things!!

The Tao 1 ward

I love this scripture in 1 Peter 3:15 "But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you" So I want to tell you all, if you feel that your testimony is weak, you can renew your testimony every day through prayer and scripture reading. We need to always maintain our testimonies and ALWAYS share them with others, through words, actions, a smile, anything! But I love that we always are supposed to ready to tell people WHY we are the way we are, happy and full of hope.

I am learning so much. I will not be the same when I get back. God is teaching me so much and I am SO grateful for this opportunity that I get to change and become who God needs me to be and  help bring others unto Christ in the process. It also works the other way around. Through teaching these people, they are teaching me and helping me change too. I love everything about this work. It is true.

Sister Wright (Taiwan Taipei Mission)
Rèn Jiěmèi 任曼欣姐妹

John's baptism

WEEK NINE: where am I going, when am I going?

Best day ever!

Happy missionary!

sup?

Mandarin....oranges

Goofballs

I'm special!

Sister Princess

Characters: Mulan, Arora, Anastasia & Jane (from Tarzan)

cupcakes

More friends!

Sister Jaina Allen from home!

Sore backs!

Elder Hunter Dance - friends when we were in preschool!

So yes, the questions of when I leave and where I go are still up in the air!! All I know is that it will be somewhere in the States! So.....having patience has been a little bit rough! especially with people leaving this week to Canada and Australia BUT NOT TAIWAN. There's 31 missionaries NOT leaving...that means longer lunch lines, more people doing laundry, less teachers, less classrooms…it's a bit crowded for the Mandarins as you can imagine. YIKES! There's well over 70 missionaries on our zone now!!

And yes we got new missionaries! My friends who came in were Stephanie Williams from BYU YSA ward, Ethan Bliss my second cousin, Ben Law my roommate's friend, Jaina Allen from my home stake, Tanner Ward from Aspen Grove like 3 years ago, and Johnny Gathright who did folk dance at BYU! It was totally nuts to see everyone!!! AND GUESS WHAT?! Johnny, Jaina, and Tanner are all going to Taichung...and are all in the SAME DISTRICT! isn't it crazy when people from totally different parts of your life all come together? It was super crazy and exciting! 

This past week's devotionals were amazing! Some thoughts from them:

Find out how the Lord communicates with YOU.

Struggle, cry, fear, THEN OVERCOME.

The way out of this trial is through it.

MTC= My Time with Christ

Galatians 5:22-25 (fruits of the Spirit)

and watch We Need Living Prophets video.

Just some of the amazing inspirational messages from this week! I love devotionals! Speaking of...there's going to be an apostle on Tuesday!! FINALLY!!! President Eyring is the rumor. Over 2 months at the MTC and we finally get one! I've been here for 60 days. Tomorrow marks 2 months (on the calendar at least). BEAT THAT. 

I went to the chiropractor this week! turns out I have what are called rib head subluxation...so I went in to the chiropractor, and he realigned my spine with a little zappy thingy and then popped my back on an old fashioned person-shaped table. Then I had e-stem, which is just electricity running through my muscles to loosen them. I also was prescribed muscle relaxers...DO NOT TAKE DURING CLASS. YOU WILL FALL ASLEEP. Oh man it was so hard to stay awake. So pills are only at night time for me!! Oh and along with rib heads, I have shin splints...cool right?? I guess it will be good to have a car in the states for a little while...

My companion finished the Book of Mormon for the first time this week!! So very proud of her and this giant spiritual milestone!!! Yes, things are much better for us this week. I know that praying for her is making it so much better. I am serving her and loving her and it is only making me a better missionary. I promise that if you have anyone in your life that makes it harder, PRAY FOR THEM. It helps. 

Another spiritual milestone in my life...I bore my testimony this week in Mandarin!! It was actually pretty awesome and felt really good! This fast and testimony meeting was also Elder Shoop and Sister Baker's last Sunday (they're going to Canada) so we sang a departing districts song. We sang Abide with Me 'Tis Eventide and God be with You Til We Meet Again. I didn't think I would get choked up, but Sister Teng and Sister Hardy (wives of the branch presidency) were crying and I just couldn't hold myself together! I love everyone so much! Imagine how much love I will have for my investigators...I'M SO EXCITED!! 

We had TRC last Monday night (and tonight) and it was the first time I've done it with my companion! We had a nice Taiwanese lady who actually spoke English and lived in Oregon! She helped us with pronunciation and words! I asked her to read a scripture but the connection was bad and I wasn't sure if she heard me so I started reading it, but we started at the same time! And that happened about 3 times and we DIED laughing in the middle of this lesson!! Haha aw man!

Funny stories from this week:

Sister Griffin got up to bear her testimony after one of the sisters who has only been here 2 weeks bore hers. So Sister Griffin gets up and says "Wow, ni de Zhongwen feichang bu hao" which means "Wow, your Chinese is super bad" and she says it so sincerely!!!!!! You all have to understand though that we say "bu hao" (not good) SO much because the food, our chinese skills, gaining weight, a lot of things are bu hao. and "Bu hao yisi" means "that's embarrassing" or "I'm embarrassed" so obviously we say that a lot. Soooo haha it was a natural thing to come out of her mouth!! but yah she was SO embarrassed and the poor new sister was just like "no it's fine it's fine!" Haha so great, wo ai Geng Jiemei.

We learned how to give directions in Chinese this week! Our new teacher Wen Laoshi is soooo goofy and tells funny stories and is just so unlike our other teachers, I LOVE HIM!! SO we went outside and had to guide our companions to find him....while they had their eyes closed!!! HAHA so imagine 10 missionaries running around with their eyes closed trying to be the first one to touch our teacher, yelling things like "YOU ZHUAN" and "ZUO ZHUAN" and "ZHI ZOU" Hahaha no one died so it's ok, but it was SO great!!!

Ok so the best day I've EVER had at the MTC was Tuesday and I just want to share why it was so great: 

-I got 4 packages from my family, one containing pictures!!!!!!!!! Yes, I showed them to everyone. 

-I saw THREE of my college roommates!! Breanna Brown, Caroline Neville, and McKayla Traub!!! WHAT THE HECK IT WAS SO COOL! I love them.

-I got pictures with my childhood best friend Hunter Dance!

-I took a picture with Nikelle Reese from BYU

-I was told I look like a modern day Disney Princess, like from Pinterest. Kinda the best compliment ever.

-My roommates and I were talking about our childhoods, and I mentioned how I memorized all of the songs on the Disney Love Songs CD and started singing "doo-wop-ba-boo Mickey and Minnie on a mooooonliiiiit niiiiiiighttt" and my companion started singing it too!!! I've never met anyone else who's heard that CD that defined my childhood!!

-Sister Akita has also seen the Ronald McDonald VHS movies. NO. WAY. 

-Awesome devotional!

So yah I was just happy all day long! Except for when I found out that Morgan Freeman died, which is apparently not true. But someone got a Dear Elder that said that, and that's our only source of news! So that was sad, but then yesterday I heard it was a joke? WHO JOKES ABOUT THAT?!

Anyway, I love you all!! I didn't look at my birthday list this week, but happy birthday to anyone who has one this week!! OH AND SHOUT OUT TO MY AWESOME DAD!! Happy Birthday this past week! You don't look any older and that's a promise!!

Well my dearest friends and family, keep being awesome. And if you feel so inclined, pray for me and the 30 other missionaries who can't go to Taiwan just yet. But I do know that wherever I'm going in the USA, there will be people who need me. I want to go to Taiwan yes, but I want to go wherever the Lord needs me more. 

I love you all very much. Wo feichan ai nimen. 

Suoyou wo de ai,

Ren Jiemei

WEEK 30: Today marks 7 months on a mission....

Well I am almost half way done with my mission MAKE IT STOP!!! TIME IS TOO FAST. Anyway...

This week has been amazing, so full of miracles. I am the happiest I have been on my mission because I am deciding to be. I know that God loves me and my relationship with Him gets stronger and stronger every
day...now I just wish that my companion would be happy. She is very unhappy most of the time and at first I thought it was because I wasn't happy enough, I wasn't loving her enough, I wasn't a good enough example...but I am realizing that happiness is her choice, it is ALL of our choice how we want to deal with the challenges and
weaknesses we have.  But God loves us and knows we all have our own issues and THAT is EXACTLY why we have Jesus Christ's Atonement to rely on!! It's so awesome! I only hope that through my constant reminder that God loves her and I love her, she will start choosing to be happy.

Our investigators are doing pretty well! One of our baptismal date investigators sent us a "break-up" text, pretty much doesn't want to meet anymore. We called her and she said MAYBE after 過年, but it didn't seem very sure so that's disappointing. But 黃弟兄 is really excited for his baptism in three weeks!!!  Our other baptismal date investigator Wendy is trying her first week living the Word of Wisdom and she's doing great!!

We had a miraculous lesson yesterday with a You 姐妹. She has depression and when we told her that God knows her and loves her, it was like too good to be true! We shared scriptures and the Spirit was so strong and she is so prepared that she pretty much taught herself and applied the scriptures incredibly!! I can't quite describe it, but I could feel God's love for her as I was sitting there and I felt so privileged to be able to introduce this gospel to her and give her knowledge she needs to overcome her problems! According to me, the only thing that stands in the way of her being a three week baptism is if her anxiety and depression keep her from coming to church or meeting with us. She told me something that was a miracle to me...that she too was touched and wanted to know more about this gospel because of my 眼神...the same light in my eyes that the member from 桃一 told me about a few weeks ago! I couldn't believe it...I don't feel like I am doing anything special to have a super powerful light, I am just doing what God wants me to and following the rules every day...but because God needs these people to be helped, He has made His light shine through weak little me. I was so humbled and honored that I could make her feel that way.

We are seeing so many miracles, and I am so grateful I got to do temple tours this past Saturday. We asked a member if she would be willing to do one with us and come to find out, she's been less active for 16 years and just recently had come back to church. We started the tour like normal, planning to focus on the temple and missionary work. I had a feeling about 6 or 7 minutes into the tour that we needed to talk about the Plan of Salvation. The other lady on the tour with us was a mom investigating the church and we had planned to share about baptism for her, and what we were talking about could not really super smoothly flow into the Plan of Salvation but whatever I followed the prompting. My companion had no idea what was going on, but we went with it. We showed a video about a boy whose mom had died and how he felt peace because of the knowledge of God's plan for us. After the
video was over, this member told us that her husband had died and she had felt abandoned and that's why she went inactive. Following a prompting helped us really teach to her needs!! Awesome!! We also gave a Book of Mormon to a man who had met missionaries on the street many times but NO ONE had given him one!! Such an awesome privilege!!

Also at the temple I SAW ALL OF MY MEMBERS FROM 桃一支會!!!! Pretty much everyone I have ever cared about from that ward...EXCEPT FOR SOFIA AND JERRY I WAS SO SAD!!! But everyone is doing so great, it was such a miracle and a way that God showed His love for me that I got to see them all :)

Oh I almost forgot, I got to go to my old apartment in 龜山 this last week to clean it up for whoever lives there next!!! I figured it would be another pair of sisters, but....the 龜山Elders are moving in there TOMORROW!!!! I took pictures but the thing isn't working on the computer...so I'll just have to send them next week :)

I want to share a scripture from Luke 22:32 "But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou
art converted, strengthen thy brethren."
And I want to thank you all for your prayers and know that I am praying for all of you. I want to strive to strengthen those who have not yet been converted. I know that this is what my calling is, to help people know that they have a Heavenly Father and Savior who LOVE them....and I want you all to know that too. I love you and I love
being a missionary.

Sister Wright (Taiwan Taipei Mission)
Rèn Jiěmèi 任曼欣姐妹

WEEK 29: miracles in my life

I have no good title for this week, only just want to report all the miracles I have seen this week because there have been SO MANY!!

Miracles:
-I cleaned the bathroom and kitchen for 3 hours so now you can see the floor and all the hairballs are cleared away

-I went on exchanges with Sister Miller and she helped me realize a lot of things that I can work on to be a better missionary

-Guys...Sister Peng is incredible. We had companionship inventory on Tuesday and I basically told her that she was really hurting my feelings and she has changed SO MUCH this past week. She has stopped criticizing me altogether and often compliments me and even though there are still some challenges, its an incredible change and she is just so humble. Now it is my turn to see how I can change to love her more and show that I am just as willing to make this companionship work.

-I got to talk to a mother who has been having some serious challenges in her family and she opened up to me and I was able to tell her what she needed to here, through the Spirit.

-We had specialized training and I GOT TO SEE SISTER BRANCH!! I also got to see some of my very dear friends from the MTC.

-黃弟兄 HAS STOPPED DRINKING COFFEE!!! My dear friends and family, this man was miserable when I met him 3 weeks ago. He didn't talk, he wouldn't participate in our lessons, he just seemes stubborn and miserable. But we have been teaching him and he has been keeping commandments and he is getting happier and happier!! Last week he was reading in 1 Nephi 8 and NOW HE IS IN 2 NEPHI!!! It's magical.

-胡Wendy has accepted a baptismal date YAY!!!

-劉Jiemei is reading the Book of Mormon!!!! I KNOW this is what is going to be her key conversion factor!

-We went to teach a lesson to a member about the temple and invite her to get her own endowment...well the Lord prepared her and she renewed her temple recommend LAST WEEK and she already has a goal to get her
own endowment!!

-We had 2 less actives at church and 簡Jiemei says she wants to come as often as she can!!

-We met a woman yesterday and she has depression and she said that she felt like she was past the point of being loved and that no one as young and happy as us would ever want to talk to her. I was able to share with her how scriptures and prayer helped me overcome my similar problem.

- I saw THREE MEMBERS from 桃一!!! Yoyo and then Judy came and visited me at English class and also 許Jiemei!!! God definitely loves me:)

-許Jiemei's daughter just got home from a mission in Temple Square and I got to meet her! When you serve in Temple Square, you get to serve in another mission for a short time. So this girl served in ANTHEM STAKE!!!! How crazy is that?? She told me that she got to go to the Tait's house and eat dinner and we didn't have time to talk about who else she knows, but she served in Henderson!!!

-許Jiemei gave me the world's best compliment, that she wants to have the same light in her eyes that I have in mine. I don't always feel like I am helping anyone, or that I am anywhere need where God needs me to be, but then He sends people into my life who tell me that I have made an impact on them. Heavenly Father definitely sends other people to help me feel His love.

-A little bit mixed feelings on this one: FACEBOOK IS COMING!!! So I have to shut down my Facebook and make a new missionary one! I can't be friends with any of you on it, but I think you can still see it...

I also want to invite you all to make your own Family Mission Plans, how you will share the gospel specifically, when, who will do what, and I PROMISE you will see miracles!!:)

Last of all, I would like to ask you all to pray for my dear friend Sister Price because she got into a very terrible bike accident this last week and had to have emergency surgery and has to go home to recover. I love her very very much, we got to be very close in the MTC and I can only imagine how hard this is for her and I know that all of your prayers will help her.

I love you all and this work is incredible. The people here help me WAY more than I help them!!! I am going to come home a better person...a lot more awkward and completely unable to communicate, but a better person:)

Sister Wright (Taiwan Taipei Mission)
Rèn Jiěmèi 任曼欣姐妹

my matching with the Temple Sister, Sister Su!!

Tao 1 member who came to see me at English class!! She cried, she was
so happy to see me<3

I GOT TO SEE MY MOM!! (trainer)