How is SCHOOL Treating Everyone?

I'm so glad that I don't have to go to school. I am being schooled the the language of the Spirit and in the knowledge of the gospel...so much better;)

Right up front, please pray for our investigator LuoJiemei who is having heart surgery right now. She has 6 kids that really need here and she also wants to get baptized in October!!:)

So this week was CRAZY AMAZING. Like, last week was good, but this week was literally MIRACULOUS AND HILARIOUS.  I feel like I have been blessed beyond measure and ability to describe. I actually was sick this week, I have been having really bad headaches and dizziness and nausea, so we had to stay inside some time this week, but we still saw AMAZING miracles!!

Prepared people were EVERYWHERE this week, we were truly either led to these people, or them led to us. For example, on Friday, we got fang'd by all of our lessons and so we decided to find in a totally different area than we were in. We stopped to talk to some men, turns out they were drunk so we left. Then we tried to visit a former investigator but she wasn't home. And all of these little setbacks put us right in the path of finding two sisters, 13 and 16 years old. The younger one had been taught how to pray from one of our members, Tang Jiating!! She had wanted to go to a baptismal service, but never had the chance. She taught her older sister and 2 younger brothers how to pray and said an AMAZING prayer for us! She also already has a copy of the Book of Mormon and occasionally reads it! We ended up setting baptismal dates with them, and they can come to the baptism we are having this Saturday!!

Another miracle on Saturday...we were cancelled on AGAIN, so I let S. Haacke take the lead and find a place to knock. We found an amazing wonderland of new investigators, 3 prepared people on this one little street!!! One of the people, a 25 year old Qiu Dixiong, said he knew about Joseph Smith and prays every night and wants to follow Christ's true church!! He was fascinated with the Book of Mormon and committed to read it!!

Then Sunday was CRAZY!! We got cancelled on by two investigators, so we just found in a small alley that was across the street from one of our investigator's house. First family we talked to, 4 kids, all were interested and let us in!! The older brother was SO focused, so intent on everything we were saying. We set baptismal dates with all of them, and in the closing prayer that the older brother said, he prayed that his school wouldn't have any kind of activity so that he could be baptized on the 26th! Then that night we met with one of our progressing investigators, a Wang Dixiong. His wife had been super hostile to us before, but we got to sit with her for a little while, waiting for Wang Dixiong to be done switching light bulbs in the kitchen. She seemed to get a bit friendlier and even gave us wintermelon tea! Wang Dixiong is a father of 2, but takes care of his niece and nephew like his own. He is originally Catholic, and family means everything to him. We shared the Family Proclamation to the World and the Restoration. He said he not only believed, but FELT that what we said was true!! In his closing prayer, he thanked Heavenly Father that we could help him slowly understand God's will for him, and that he can walk the way of the gospel. Despite the noise of his house with all the kids, we testified and taught with the Spirit and the Spirit testified to his heart that what we were saying was true. So inviting him to be baptized was so simple, he accepted:)

Funny moments from the week:

-We met a totally golden guy who was biking his way around Taiwan. We wanted to give him a copy of the Book of Mormon, but he didn't have anywhere to put it, literally not just an excuse! So I pulled my hair tie out of my hair and fastened to book to his water bottle holder!! Haha he took it because I provided a way:)

-We saw a cool statue head outside of someone's house and I wanted a picture with it. Sister Haacke was like "what if someone sees us on their front lawn?" but i was like I think the door is closed, it's fine, we'll share the gospel with them. So we took pictures and as soon as we turned away to knock on another door, the man whose house it was came out...TOTALLY saw us:)

-This past Friday was 中元節 or Ghost Festival. Everyone believes all the ghosts of their dead ancestors come out to wreak havoc unless you worship them or something like that. So 98% of the population in Taiwan worships their ancestors, so proselyting at people's doors was not super effective on Friday!! Haha as we biked down the streets, EVERYONE had huge tables set up outside, sacrificing TONS of food to ward off and appease these ghosts. We would bike through huge clouds of smoke produced from the fire pits people throw money into to appease these ancestors. Crazy stuff huh?

-rain all day everyday. I think I have forgotten to mention that because we are so used to it! Haha it rains more recently than it did when the typhoon was here!!

-I got told by YET ANOTHER PERSON that I look Taiwanese!! I guess I was meant to be in Asian!! Haha:)

-Not funny, just fun, I saw 鍾姐妹 this week, a Taiwanese returned missionary that I served with at the very beginning of my mission!! Love her!

Our only down point of the week was that Zhu JM, who was supposed to get baptized this Saturday, did not pass her interview because she hasn't stopped chewing binlang. She was crying a lot and seemed really sad, but she came to church the next day, so it was good:) We are a bit worried that she will give up, but we are planning on just showing an increase of love and helping her role play how to tell her husband that she can't help him work at his binlang stand. But the lesson we had before her interview was incredible. She is just so ready to make this commitment with Heavenly Father, she just has this one thing to overcome, a habit of over 30 years. We are going to try fasting with her and helping her feel yet another way that Heavenly Father has provided for us to obtain His help.

I also realized it is such a blessing that I have never questioned my purpose on my mission. I never really realized it before, but when there are so many hard things and trials and challenges and heartbreak and rejection and changes going on on the inside and outside, how could you not sometimes doubt? Well...I never have and I know that is a blessing. It also is a blessing that Heavenly Father is helping me learn Chinese super well. I have started carrying around my full-Chinese character triple combination. It was terrifying at first, what if I wanted to read a scripture or share it with someone and I couldn't read it?? But I have found that I can read a lot more than I thought I could and it's so cool:)

This week was just miraculous!!! I love my companion, we have fun together. We are so similar and get along and laugh:) It makes the work and life more enjoyable:) I really feel that through my efforts and the help of the Savior's Atonement, I am learning to be happier, no matter what. I am learning to be more patient, with myself, with others, with circumstances, with His timing. I am learning that when I am humble, things always get better:) I really also am loving the Book of Mormon more and more, I'm almost done:) The scriptures are so true. I can feel them converting and consecrating me. Things like obedience and diligence that seemed hard at the start of my mission are natural now. It's like magic, but better:) I invite you all to try it. 

Love,

Sister Wright (Taiwan Taipei Mission)

Rèn Jiěmèi 任曼欣姐妹