Friday, May 8, 2015

Why did the pig cross the road? To get to the gospel, duh


Heavenly Father definitely provided me with this heading today as we were followed by a pig this morning while trying to exercise. 

THIS WEEK WAS INCREDIBLE. I have never worked so hard to have inspired goals and plans and it DEFINITELY paid off:)

Liao Dixiong is having his baptismal interview this week YAY!!! We were able to figure out through revelation and a change of perspective that his detached attitude and femininity is just, in fact, his personality. He actually is really ready to be baptized!!! It was surprising this week, a lot of our investigators spontaneously bore incredibly powerful testimony in our lessons...and as much as I know that sounds like something that should always happen, our investigators right now are all comparatively quiet and don't share very much. Liao Dixiong shared that our lessons have really made an impact on him and he feels that our church has a lot of really amazing things that other churches don't have.

Wang Dixiong should have his baptismal interview next next week!! He is SO excited and he would be getting baptized sooner except he is so busy with work we don't have time to meet as often as we would like. We taught the plan of salvation this past week and he LOVED the Atonement and that we get the chance to repent. He also loves following the Word of Wisdom because it gives him the chance to avoid committing sin! He actually took his friend (the one who always asks him to drink with him) aside and told him that he doesn't do that anymore. AMAZING!! He also gave us his mother as a referral this week because he thinks it would make her happier!!! He got hit by a motorcycle this week because he didn't sleep for two days so wasn't driving very carefully...then he met with us right after the accident and we just did a super short lesson so he could go home and sleep!!

This week I tried to eat less junk food and so i ate only fruit for breakfast and lunch. In Taiwan, that means that my diet consists of mangos, entire pineapples, peaches, pears, bananas, wax apples (its a real fruit in Taiwan look it up!), apples, tomatoes, etc. SO MUCH fruit. But hopefully my birthday present to myself will be to lose a little weight:)

Pan Dixiong came back from Thailand this week and brought me a necklace and Thai chocolate. That was my cheat this week, SO GOOD!!! Also Duncan bought us Costco chocolate muffins and delivered them to our door! OUR RC'S ARE AWESOME <3





Sister Haupt ate pig's blood cake this week, a famous Taiwanese delicacy....we told her that it was chocolate tofu so she tried it and we didn't tell her what it really was for 2 days;) We also saw guys from Paraguay this week. Super weird seeing people from that part of the world to be honest haha:)

We set two new baptismal dates this week!!! One was with the 李姊妹, the deaf lady I found while I was in my first area and turns out she lives where I am now!! We were thinking what a crazy miracle that was and how prepared she must be. After a super crazy 苦難 lesson with us telling a member what we wanted her to write and then showing and then writing and using hand signals and us not speaking any sign language, let alone Chinese Sign Language, we committed her to be baptized and she accepted. 5 hours later, she texted us saying she wants to be Jehovah's Witness instead because they have people who speak sign language. BUT that's ok because we know where she lives and someday she will be ready to accept the gospel:)

This week we went to 大溪。 I know that I have talked about the miserable 鶯歌 hill. Well the 大溪 hill is like FIVE TIMES AS LONG. Yah it was miserable to get up but super fun to go down:) We spend the day in 大溪 with the elders trying to find LA's! That same day we had SUPER spiritual lessons, one of which was JJ's friend, a super awesome member referral. He actually came to General Conference all day that Saturday 3 weeks ago. We gave him an introduction about baptism and he was a little apprehensive but we just felt the Spirit so strongly in that lesson and I knew then that he would get baptized, even if it took time. Same with our investigator family 邱Family. She rejected the invitation to be baptized yet, but I can just feel that she wants this, she just needs time. But everyone on this earth accepted Heavenly Father's plan and they just need to be reminded of it. 

One of my favorite moments this week was our recent convert Debbie bearing her testimony. She was baptized in the Baptist church a long time ago and at first had a really hard time accepting that it didn't count and that OUR church is the only true church on the earth. But we reviewed the Restoration and priesthood authority with her (revelation in and of itself because we were planning to discuss something else) and she just burst into this glorious testimony about how she knows that our church is the TRUE church because she didn't feel any different at baptism, but when she was given the gift of the Holy Ghost, and when she started reading the Book of Mormon, she could just feel it. Debbie is a very quiet person and doesn't share very much, so her sharing this testimony with us was one of the most special moments of my mission. 


I just want to testify of the reality of asking Heavenly Father to help us strengthen our weaknesses. I have felt and seen a literal and real change in myself as I have turned to the Lord in humility and faith and asked Him to fix my broken parts. Digging deep and finding that faith that you know you are lacking is hard. It is not easy and it takes a lot of soul searching to see if you are willing to admit things are wrong. But I also know that when we turn to the Creator who has given us weaknesses so that we will rely on Him and become better, He will not leave us hanging. I am still learning and loving and growing and climbing and reaching and stretching, but every day we see miracles and every day is full of improvement, whether for myself or for someone I am teaching. I love you all so much and challenge you all to do what you need to do to feel this same power of which I testify. 

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


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