The laborer IN Zion labors FOR Zion

Biking to church with 仁平 and 仁傑

My dearest friends and family...what does it mean to you to labor?

To me, it means being outside all day every day in over 90 degree humidity, talking to every person you see about the most beautiful wonderful message in the world, and having them all reject you. But NEVER FEAR! Another part of laboring is the sweat and smiles and laughter you put into making it worthwhile, and knowing that there is a reward of doing a job well done at the end of the day. So keeping faith is anothe part of being "the laborer in Zion" that "labors for Zion" (2 Nephi 26:31). Because here in 玉里, we are laboring for the souls here, we are not just living here and expecting miracles to fall into our laps, like has often happened in other areas of Taiwan that I have served in, but we go out and FIND them. We labor FOR these people.

Why did I start out like this? Well this week was very difficult in aspects of pretty much everything. We went out in to the middle of NOWHERE this week to see if there was anyone prepared and willing to receive the gospel. Well this little tiny town of 大禹 has about 18 houses and 3 businesses and a school....and no one who wanted to listen to us EXCEPT for one amazingly prepared lady 蔡姊妹. She had actually accepted a Book of Mormon from missionaries in earlier years and her husband had thrown it away. She wanted to know how she could help her family and her kids who are all around our age...then her husband came home and said we had to leave. But we planted a seed in her husband's heart that someday will be harvested. 

I can almost tangibly feel Heavenly Father testing my faith, looking down at Sister Chan and I, and NOT giving us the easy way out on purpose, because He knows we can handle it. I can imagine Him looking down at us, pouring our hearts and faith out in prayer, and simply leaving us with our agency and our abilities that He has given us to just go out and WORK. Yesterday we felt very lost, and we just simply said a prayer, left our house, and determined to talk to everyone person we saw while riding our bikes. We didn't meet any new investigators, but we met a teenage girl who had just recently become Christian and a friend had given her a copy of the Book of Mormon and would be interested in learning more. People are impressed with our kindness at least, if not wanting to hear our message. Like I said, we plant seeds here that someday they will be harvested. 

 We had zone meeting this week, and Elder Taulepa is now my zone leader! I still miss our district when he was my district leader back in 桃園! It was really awesome to get to go to Taidong 台東！We found out that we are going to HuaLian 花蓮 for our district becoming a STAKE!!!!! wooooo I'm so excited!!!! 

We learned how to make banana bread in the rice cooker this week...Sister Chan is obsessed with it haha. We actually always come home to eat meals,  I'm SO grateful she is teaching me to eat healthier!

One of my favorite moments from this week was showing the picture of Jesus Christ to a 93 year old man, and him reading "耶穌基督", grabbing the book and saying very slowly but so full of joy "謝謝你！！" He will definitely accept the gospel in the spirit world:) We also attended 劉潔's baptism this week, the elder's investigator! She is SO AWESOME!! We have a blow up font here in 玉里, so the water level is very shallow and she had to be immersed twice because her hair came up the first time!! Her testimony after being baptized was so powerful. She said she knew she had entered into a covenant with God and that she wanted to follow every commandment so that when she returned to His presence, she could confidently say "我回來了" (I've come back). SHE'S SO AWESOME!

I love you all and invite you all to read 2 Nephi 30:5, 8 and think about what it means that the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has been restored and we now know of Heavenly Father's plan for us. What does it mean to you? And if you don't know, find out. Pray and seek it out and act. Because we are given the invitation and Heavenly Father will respond. 

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