After the Rain Comes the Rainbow

We like jumping! 

Last week was rough, yes it's true. But this week....THIS WEEK WAS INCREDIBLE. We were under the rain clouds being hammered by the rain and then it was over and now we are under the rays of sunshine and seeing the rainbows!!! Not to mention we had a wonderful adventure last Monday, we were unexpectedly invited to go to the mountains with our members!!! We went up to the very very top of this HUGE MOUNTAIN. yes people lived there, mountain men:) I can only send a few pics at a time, but i hope my mom will post the other pictures! It was so beautiful, and then we got mint ice cream on the way back, the FIRST TIME I'VE HAD IT IN OVER A YEAR!!!

I believe that the miracles we have seen this week are because we have really been trying to follow the Spirit, more than ever before. We have to pray about every single little decision because there are so little places that haven't been knocked or explored here, at least in the city. Sometimes I doubt my own ability to follow the Spirit, but when I follow my promptings, or even just have faith that something even IS a prompting, we see miracles. 

For instance, we got stood up by an investigator so prayed 

to see whether we should visit a non-progressing investigator 

or a potential. We both felt good about either one, but we 

decided to go see the potential first to set up a time to come back and meet with her. Well, she wasn't there, but on our way, I had seen a family I wanted to talk to. We went back to the place that I thought I saw them, and instead met a 23 year old who was feeling very alone because his job was boring and who has recently been going through some health problems. He had actually been praying on his own for some time, and had heard about the Book of Mormon but couldn't remember why or where. He was our miracle lesson on the street, set up and became a new investigator on the street, my first one like that in Yuli!! People didn't reject us as much this week, which I must admit felt pretty good 

Another miracle this week, we were getting back from Taidong and it was really late, like 8:15 and we were just going to go home and make some calls for the next day. But we saw a couple on a bench and even though there were really into each other and not anything else, we decided to utilize our authority to butt into other people's business and talk to them:) Turns out the boy had met with missionaries 2 years earlier but then moved and lost contact with the missionaries. The girl was Catholic and very religious. 

The boyfriend left but the girl stayed and talked to us..and really opened up. She just turned 20 and suffered a car accident in February of this year. Her father is dead, her mom is not around, and she lives with her grandma taking care of her grandpa who is in the hospital. She lives out in the middle of nowhere and doesn't have very many friends and even her boyfriend lives all the way up in Taipei. She really needed us as a friend and we truly believe that she will be baptized!!

Yet another miracle was Ma Jiemei. She was a potential from about 2 months ago. We have been calling and calling her and finally set up a time to meet her in RuiSui, a town we have to take a train to. She picked us up and she is amazing, just the cutest mom of three kids....but she is divorced and only has custody of one kid. She says that when she was in high school, missionaries would read the Bible with her and then use the Book of Mormon to explain some parts, so she really respects our church and already resolved the problem of reading two volumes of scripture! Then her mother said we couldn't meet at her house, so we went to her friend's house.

 Yet another miracle because this friend knows a lot about how missions work and how we help other people because she had a friend who started meeting with missionaries because of marriage problems, but she herself just doesn't know a lot about the doctrine. So we had a meeting with her at her friend's house and the friend stayed in the lesson with us! At the end, the friend's daughter came up and started looking at the Restoration tract, so we gave her her own and a copy of the Book of Mormon too! It was such an awesome lesson, and at the end, Ma Jiemei said the most sincere prayer I've ever heard any beginning investigator give ever. She poured her heart and soul out and truly understands the communication she is having with Heavenly Father. So cool!!!

One of the biggest miracles this week is that I still fit into my skirts. Just kidding, its the fact 

With Sister Day!

that we had branch conference with President and Sister Day came!!! We had a dinner on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon we also had a luncheon! On Sunday, we had FIFTY PEOPLE IN OUR BRANCH FROM YULI!!! That is the record number that have ever come! We had 70 people in attendance, including the members of the district presidency and the mission presidency. It sounds like a tiny amount and yes it is, not even enough to build our own chapel, but I was overwhelmed with the Spirit at having that many people in our tiny little one floor church. 

The priesthood holders got up and sang Ye Elders of Israel...there were 15 of them, including the missionaries and THAT is an astounding record. My dearest loved ones, appreciate the members where you live. We must stand together. We are SO excited for this next Saturday and Sunday, we are all going to HuaLian for it to become a STAKE!!!!!!!! Wooooooo!!!

This was an amazing week and I am overcome with gratitude that Heavenly Father gave us all of these blessings and the ability to push through last week to just make it into this week!! I love this work. It's hard. It's really super hard and I am giving everything, but there's still more to give. We all still have more to give. I am learning how to be converted to Jesus Christ so I will give all I have every day for the rest of my life. I love you all. 平安!

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

"How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation;" Isaiah 52:7