Let your light so shine...
Teresa's baptism on Christmas - the most perfect baptism ever!
I literally don't know where to start with how INCREDIBLE AMAZING FANTASTICALLY
MAGICAL THIS WEEK WAS AHHHHHHHHH!!!!
Christmas was so fantastically amazing. We woke up at 5, and put all our Christmas presents on our bikes, and rode up the mountain to the chapel just so we could have a Christmas tree to put our presents under:) JiaQi came with us and she got her first American style Christmas morning:)
We met with Xie Dx again on Christmas, he said he has been pondering the Holy Ghost and he says the ways he feels it is that he has a clearer mind, and he is in a better mood and he feels like someone is hugging and comforting him. He told us thank you for giving him the keys to unlock the truth and happiness in his life. WOAH. So cool:) He invited his wife to meet with us, but she just sat there look miserable and making rude comments. Haha...it will take some time with her.
We had amazing lessons all day all the way up until we ate dinner with Teresa. I gave her a CTR ring and she freaked out she was so excited and was like "Yes, I'll marry you!!!" kidding around putting it on her ring finger haha AH I love her so much. Also...she COMPLETED READING THE BOOK OF MORMON BEFORE SHE GOT BAPTIZED. Who does that???????? She bears a testimony that sounds like she has been a member for years and years. She is the cutest thing ever and I literally don't know what I did to deserve a miracle like her in my life. Best Christmas present I could ever ever EVER ask for was her perfectly smooth baptismal service. She only had to be immersed one time, her boyfriend attended, there was chocolate cake after the service. So amazing. Get this....Xie Dx and his son came. His son is 9 and wanted to see someone be cleansed from their sins. Rich also came, the man who had to seperate himself from his family and friends because of the government. And RESA CAME. The Resa who stood us up like 5 times and we stopped meeting with her. She never ever ever has time, but then I called her at 6:45 telling her to come at 7 AND SHE DID. Such a Christmas miracle:)
And after we left to go home, we had about 12 minutes. We hadn't had time to contact all day (weird right, we were so busy and none of our lessons fell through, another HUGE miracle), so I said to Sister Facer, lets find a Christmas miracle. I talked to a cute little 23 year old girl named Christina...her family is "Christian" but she doesn't feel like she is satisfied with it. We took a picture with her and she was an automatic best friend:) I LOVE TAIWANESE PEOPLE. I don't think more friendly people exist in the world:)
Christmas Eve: our missionary Christmas choir went to the BanQiao station where there was a huge Christmas light display so TONS of people were there. We sang our regular songs along with some fun Christmas songs too. People joined in and took pictures with us and gave us hot chocolate...it was SO fun, I felt so festive and it was definitely one of the best Christmas Eve's I've ever had:)
The Day After Christmas:
We went to YongHe to perform, and VALERIE WAS THERE!! She's a recent convert from Tao 2 when I was there for only 6 weeks. She and I were like besties and she was so excited to see me...SHE IS GOING ON A MISSION!! We are still waiting to find out where:) On the way home that night, I got to talk to some Mexicans. Yah WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE MEXICANS DOING IN TAIWAN. I have no idea, it was the first person from Central America I have ever talked to in Taiwan!!! One of the men ( i couldnt pronounce his Spanish name, English is Jerry) told me he thought I was so inspiring to be doing this work. Definitely made my day to talk to them:)
Sunday: Zhang Jia Qi GOT HER MISSION CALL, SHE IS GOING TO AUSTRALIA MELBOURNE!!!!!!!!!! ENGLISH SPEAKING!!!!!!!! She is one of my best friends, she helps us every day, she exercises with us and eats with us and supports us in everything we do. She is going to be an amazing missionary. She enters the MTC on May 10th:)
Mission Christmas Conference:
go on taiwantaipeimission.com to look at the video of our Christmas party!! We had a talent show, Sister Facer and I sang "Come Unto Christ" and it sounded really good. But the best performance was definitely our performance of "The Twelve Days of JieKou" which means "The Twelve Days of Excuses"...Taiwanese people have SO SO SO MANY weird excuses when you want to share the gospel with them. These are the most common ones, that happen every single day. You might think some of them are fake, but like seriously. I wont explain it in Chinese because you wouldnt get it, but in English:
12 "I want to get baptized!"......*stands you up at the lesson*
11 It's all pretty much the same
10 I'm too embarrassed
9 I am Buddhist
8 It's almost New Years (middle of February)
7 My body is uncomfortable
6 *silent hand in your face symbolizing rejection*
5 I have no time
4 It's not convenient right now
3 I'm too busy
2 My house has some stuff happening
1 thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you
Everyone loved it, our district made it up:) Anyways, it was SO fun to see all of my friends from all phases of mission life. I loved the feeling we had all being together, knowing we would be spending our Christmas doing the Lord's work. The food was also great too, I GOT TO EAT AN AMERICAN CHRISTMAS MEAL:) minus the pie part:( but that's probably for the better haha
Tuesday to Wednesday:
exchanged with Qiu Jiemei and Sister Chan. I went to ShiLin with Qiu Jiemei, I love speaking Chinese 24 hours a day with a Taiwanese companion:) Haha when we switched back though, Sister Chan didn't give me my bike key, so we had to walk everywhere. It worked out though because we met a Li Jiemei who was so fascinated by our message of the Restoration and how different it is from her Christian church, that she followed us all night, she ate dinner with us and walked all the way up the mountain to English class!!! She told us yesterday that she doesn't want to come to church...but in the moment it was a CRAZY MIRACLE:)
This email is alllllllllll over the place, definitely not in order of events. I don't know why or how that happened, its just the order I typed it in. Well, welcome to my brain haha. I am super good at missionary things, other social things and expressing myself in English, not so much!!!
I want to testify that I know that this church is true and spending Christmas in Taiwan was way better than in America:) I loved skyping my family, but getting back to sharing the gospel was what I felt was most rewarding. I love Christ and I love Heavenly Father and I delight in using the Atonement to better myself and the lives of others. I love teaching others this important message. I love you all and I hope you set some specific goals on how you will improve in this next year!!!!!
Sister Wright (Taiwan Taipei Mission)
Rèn Jiěmèi 任曼欣姐妹
JiaQi's mission call opening plus saying goodbye to Teresa, who is on her way to SLC!
Our missionary choir drew a big crowd!
Making friends at the train station
Christmas morning!
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