"You're very compatible with the Taiwanese lifestyle"

With Debbie at the temple

 This week was CRAZY and awesome, but the highlight was probably the fact that 2 Taiwanese people told me that I am a 台灣人 and that the habits that I have are very suitable and 適合 with a life in Taiwan. I LOVE IT. But its a fair warning for how awkward I will be after my mission:)

Well many miracles this week, me and my trainee are just getting even closer, and I think she's opening up a little bit!!! On Thursday we ate a huge watermelon for lunch and just ate it on the floor since we still have no desks....we gave our desks to the new sisters who just moved in! Then we went to a lesson and came back to take out the trash but we ran into a miracle 14 year old who wanted to hear the gospel so we got back to our apartment with 2 minutes to spare, we took the elevator up and threw everything together. We ran down 8 flights of stairs and chased the garbage truck for 2 blocks!!!! That was an adventure never to be forgotten:) Then during WPS, there was a bird pecking at our bedroom window for like 20 minutes! But there wasn't a screen so we couldn't just open the window and shoo it away haha Sister Haupt is super great, I think she's breaking out of her shell a little bit, especially with me as a companion :)

 

Tao 1 ward members at the temple!

Me and Sister Akita (in the MTC together) with our trainees

 This Thursday was absolutely miraculous. We had a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy come speak to us. We were with him all day and got to ask questions and also they bought us Costco pizza and THREE HUGE GALLONS of ice cream and it was great. 

The five main things that I personally got out of Elder Gong's trainings were that we need to find and teach FAMILIES, we need to get to know people first in order to know how the gospel can best help them, we need to pray for the gift of tongues always, we need to show people our My Family Books (its a really cool little pamphlet that you can put pictures of your ancestors and your own family in, look it up!!), and that we MUST contact referrals within 24 hours. I was very humbled and prayed that I would get an opportunity to utilize these things I learned. RIGHT after we left the training and were waiting at the bus stop, I was able to talk to a woman. Instead of just whipping out a Restoration tract, I talked to her. I talked about her family and her youngest son was playing at the park. I showed her my family pictures. She asked me why I left them to come to Taiwan. I told her I was here to tell people how families can be happier. She told me she lives right across from our chapel and can't go in because her husband wants nothing to do with any religion but hopes she can get baptized someday!!! I invited her to English class and she thinks its an amazing opportunity to ease her husband into seeing the benefits of religion. I got to use what I learned about getting to know people first. 

Then we went to the train station to catch another bus and I saw a woman who I had been introduced to but didn't get to talk to and she actually was a referral I had tried to call 2 hours earlier!!! We got to talk to her and set up a time to meet, right there randomly at the train station!!! I used what I learned about contacting referrals. Then we met with a potential investigator and he was a little bit mentally slow, and was talking about a lot of things and using lots of words I didn't understand, but somehow I knew what he was talking about. It wasn't good things he was talking about, but I understood it so I could say something to help him. God helped me have the gift of tongues. 

Then that night we went to find another potential investigator and I felt like we should knock a different house instead. It turns out it was a mother with 2 kids and a husband who was sleeping because he was struggling with work and had to get up super early. She is Buddhist and at first didn't let us in. So I asked about her kids and how she had been lately. She said they were struggling a bit. I then asked if we could pray with her and she invited us to come in and sit down. She continued to emphasize that she was Buddhist, but I  felt like I needed to show her my My Family Book. She then proceeded to ask us how to pray and how she could communicate with Heavenly Father and how she should go about reading the Book of Mormon...WHAT!!! The immediate change and process I saw right before my eyes was incredible. God gave me the opportunity to use My Family Book to FIND A FAMILY!!!! This was just such an incredible day because God truly helped me see how I could use everything I learned to find miracles!!!

Well some other cool things from this week, we went on exchanges and I LOVE Sister Smith, she is just the nicest ever!!! We got fanged by our peike so we couldn't meet with our male investigator, then got fanged by our investigator so we met with our peike and it was awesome!! 

Yesterday we went to find a less active member and her address didn't exist, but we ended up talking to people who wanted to write down their numbers and for us to contact them because missionaries had never been to that area or they had only seen elder missionaries!! We talked to a man who pulled out his little Buddhist radio that chants "Aomiiiiiitoufuooooo" which just means Buddhist. But we're trying to share the Book of Mormon and he is just like "listen, doesn't this sound good??" and we're like ok thank you byeeee haha

Temple tours were also this week. WOW so awesome I got to see Tao 1 members because of a sealing!!!!!! Duncan came and Debbie came and we did a tour with a set of elders investigators. We talked all about the temple all day and I LOVE THE TEMPLE. If you haven't been to the temple or are not worthy to do so, DO IT. I promise you that you can find any help that you need in the temple. 

We also had Stake Conference!!!!!!!! Because I have served in half of the wards in our stake, I knew 200+ members at stake conference!!!!! I am SO LUCKY that I get to see my converts and friends and members so often. In fact, Duncan sat next to me at stake conference, across the aisle from him was 黃威儒 from Tao 2 and then sitting behind him was Jerry and Sofia and 小寶 and YouRong from Tao 1!!!!!!!!!!!!! I literally am the luckiest in the world. I love love love the Taiwanese people, 特別是桃園支聯會的成員 :)

Another miracle was our lesson with Wang Dixiong. He told us that he has been drinking alcohol recently because it helps him forget his abusive dad and hard work and how his mom and him fight. We told him that the true happiness comes from following commandments and then shared the Word of Wisdom, totally not according to plan. And he accepted it. It was like all he needed was someone to tell him that it was a commandment and he said he could do it. So amazing. He wants to be baptized so bad!!!

A shopping area 

 This week I have been thinking a lot about who I really am. I am VERY different from who I was when I left on a mission. I have sacrificed a lot of thoughts, behaviors, habits in order to be a Preach My Gospel missionary and a consecrated missionary. I still have a lot to work on of course. But I am different. So sometimes I feel like I don't know who I am. I was praying last night for Heavenly Father to help me remember who I was, and suddenly the scripture in Matthew 10:39 "He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." popped into my head. 

And it suddenly became very clear to me that Heavenly Father does not want me to remember who I WAS, but wants me to CONTINUE to forget that person and focus only on those around me and that is how I will become the ME that He wants me to be. It was a cool experience. I know that this is what I need to be doing and even though this week was hard and we are still learning how to work with the other sisters, I am reminded of Heavenly Father's love for all of His children daily, and He has blessed with me so much and the opportunity to get to see all of my past members and most beloved friends that I am sure I knew in the pre-existence. It is all worth it, all of it. I want to invite everyone to read April's Liahona "It's not a Sin to Be Weak" because up until not I always thought that we have to REPENT of weaknesses, but no, weaknesses are God-given and an opportunity for us to increase our faith and improve!! Love it. Also think about how you can all be better MEMBER MISSIONARIES!!!  Because the missionaries NEED YOUR HELP. I promise you:) Love you all, 拜拜

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