Putting the TRAINING WHEELS ON

Forget about counting the weeks, I'm done with that. Now that I'm over the HUMP, just like a camel, I've got all my knowledge and everything I need stored up in order to keep on going on this journey!!!!

Well this week was a whirlwind in the best kind of way. 

Thursday (MY HALFWAY MARK, NO BIG DEAL) we went to Taipei and I got my temporary companion of Sister Luo, the cutest funniest little Taiwanese sister and we were companions for like 24 hours but I LOVE HER!!!!!! The funniest thing that happened was the mix-up about where we were going to sleep and how we were getting there, so we waited in the Taipei chapel until like 9:30pm and finally found out that they WEREN'T coming to get us, we had to take a train and meet them somewhere. Then we get there and they don't pick up the phone and the temple sisters thought that the Xin-An sisters were meeting us there, but THEY thought we knew how to get to their house. 

Finally we get the address of the apartment, and we ask a taxi to take us and he says to WALK, it would waste his time and our money to take us. 好吧 so we walk and we get lost cuz neither of us had ever served in Taipei so its 10:25 at night and Sister Branch and Sister Wu run to find us and we finally get inside at 10:27 pm and it was TERRIFYING to be outside that late, so uncomfortable, how did i EVER pull all-nighters in college????? But yes, i got to spend the night with MY trainer and I LOVE HER SO SO SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!! Friday morning, I picked up the amazing Sister Haupt!!!!! She is a ballroom dancer, graduated last year, and took 3 years of Chinese. How LUCKY am I??? 

Saturday, we had conference!!!!!!!!!! My favorite talks were the one about music and dancing of course, it spoke to my soul!! And the one about Shiblon, SO GOOD!! What were everyone's favorite talks?:) THEN we had the world's most stressful, quickest baptism in the one hour break between sessions!!!!!!!!!!! We ran and took like a 2 second picture, We filled up the water during the beginning speakers and no one had hymn books and turns out his friend who baptized him--the one who introduced him to the church!!!--was a recent convert and so we FREAKED out, not knowing if he even had the priesthood, so they had to ask as they went into the font!! Haha he did so it was fine though:) Anyways,

Pan Dixiong was dipped slowly and gracefully into the water and came up just GLOWING!!!!!!!!!!!! HE GOT BAPTIZED GUYS, HE GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sunday was awesome, Liao Dixiong is excited to learn commandments so he can keep them, which is SUCH  good attitude. Wang Dixiong is just immersing himself in our church culture, he was at General Conference ALL day Saturday and ate dinner with us too!! We also saw a miracle visiting Gao Family, who we have visited a million times, but THIS time, the 3rd oldest and 4th oldest daughter were home and had a lesson with us and the 6th daughter!!!!!!!! We gave them copies of the Book of Mormon because they didn't have one!! Then the 4th oldest daughter is our age and wants to come to English class and church! We read about faith in Alma 32 and she was IMMERSED and so focused and it was magical, SUCH a miracle that we met them both, because they are NEVER there!!!! 

Sister Haupt is already racking in the miracles:) She is so cute and just READY to go!!!!!! She ate seaweed already and rode her bike down a Taiwanese highway at night on her first real day of proselyting!!!!! We have been so busy, we have hardly had time to talk at all!!! But I am excited to get to know her more and I am determined to get to know her thoughts and desires and what she likes and all of that and just LOVE her. I think one of the only things I did to prepare to train was filling my heart up with love for this new missionary even before I met her, and it really has helped. I just want to do what she needs in order to feel like she can DO THIS. I really am just incredibly blessed to have Sister Haupt though.

I also have been made aware of a lot of my weaknesses as well, and this morning in personal study, freaking out about teaching a super awesome lesson to a less active family offended by the bishop and worrying about how my companion wouldn't be able to say anything, I was hit with the recognition that Heavenly Father has different expectations for our companionship now. His expectations for me now are to be more patient and more loving, helping this new precious soul accustom to this new life. His expectations for her are to learn and soak it up as much as she can, and my expectations of her canNOT be to bike fast, speak Chinese fast, and make phone calls while I update teaching records or fill out a progress record. 

I am used to going fast fast fast and right now it is a good reminder to take things a little slower,ease my new companion into things, because it will not benefit anyone if I remain high stressed and impatient. Heavenly Father will provide for the weak things, He will most definitely make this weak trainer into His tool. I believe that with all my heart and soul as I have seen it happen in my mission. Yes, I still have a lot A LOT to work on, and most of the time I expect too much of myself even. But I am learning what Heavenly Father expects of me and how everyday, we just have to make sure we are living up to His expectations and pleasing Him. I cannot set higher expectations for myself than God does, and if I do, I will ALWAYS feel inadequate. I don't know if any of this makes sense because my English is failing me, but I hope you understand that I am trying to help this new missionary and totally forget myself. I have had 9 months for myself, these last 9 months are for others. 

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

HALFWAY AND LOVING EVERY MINUTE!

WEEK 38: WE DUNKED DUNCAN

DUNCAN GOT BAPTIZED THIS WEEK YEAHHHHHHHH!!! he is our 4 week miracle. Literally he just gets it ALL and what he doesn't get, it clicks for him as soon as we explain it!! God leads the prepared to us and us to the prepared. Duncan listens to the scriptures because he hates reading haha. So we made him a special little calendar for his last week before baptism and he read all of those scriptures. He understands the scriptures REALLY well which is always hard for new members, but not him!!! 

AND - HIS PARENTS CAME TO THE BAPTISM!! We went through the beginning speakers of the baptism and he was already changed, and then his mom calls, and everyone is sitting in the room with the baptismal font waiting for him, and he runs outside in his white clothes, no shoes, to wait for his parents!!! haha it was awesome, we just waited on him like he was a super star late to his own concert or something. 

He was held under the water a little longer because he wanted the full feeling of it and wanted to pray underwater haha he is awesome. Everyone was freaking out though, like WHY is he under the water so long?? His confirmation was pretty cool too, he said he felt a warm feeling starting at his head and he really soaked up the feeling during the blessing. It talked about how his family would come in contact with Jesus Christ because of his example and that he would get married in the temple...SUPER cool promises!!! He just understands the gospel and understands how lucky he is that his first contact with Jesus Christ was THIS church. 

This gospel is really just so simple, and he is the perfect person to understand and love it in its simplicity. He bore his testimony in sacrament meeting and talked about how Heavenly Father is so close to us and that his relationship with God is so close and He sends him miracles all the time. After church Duncan also told us that his way of receiving inspiration is just like a light bulb, he knows what he needs to do or has an idea. He never questions, just acts on it and THAT is what inspiration is all about. 

Speaking of another person who their first contact with Jesus Christ was our church....miracle 王傳龍!!!!! He was ANOTHER referral from the 桃二Sister (Duncan was too) and he met with us having no idea who Christ even was but he wanted to learn more. He pretty much already accepted our message when we first started teaching. He believes that we all have spirits so it makes sense that Heavenly Father created us and that the Holy Ghost can communicate with our spirit and help us feel comforted and stuff like that. He wants to pray and read the Book of Mormon. He also wants to meet THREE times a week!!! 

The only problem...he has class on Sundays. We were really worried that his problem would be coming to church. But since this Sunday is also a Chinese Holiday, he had this Sunday off. We asked him if he could come to church and originally he said no, he was going to celebrate with his family. BUT Saturday was a chapel open house so we were having chapel tours, and he wanted to look around anyway. So we sang with him and showed him around, explained sacrament and bearing testimonies, and classes and Jesus and all this stuff....

THEN he stayed for another 2 hours as we went around handing out English fliers and waving a sign around about chapel tours. He met members and felt the spirit that is within the walls of the chapel of the Lord. THEN he CAME TO THE BAPTISM THAT NIGHT TOO!!! literally at the chapel from 2-8 besides like an hour he went home for dinner. WHAT yes this was our first time meeting him and his first time stepping foot into this wonderful gospel. At the end of the night, he said no, he wasn't going to celebrate the holiday with his family, HE WAS COMING TO CHURCH INSTEAD!!!!

Ok, this is so out of order, but I have to mention some other miracles from this week: We met a lady on Sunday so we went to find her on Tuesday...turns out she doesn't live there, but someone who lives on the floor above where she said she lives was a PREPARED SOUL!!! 

廖Dixiong, he was already Christian but didn't feel right at the church he was attending. He prays every night already and understand that our church has God's priesthood authority. I LOVE WHEN THAT HAPPENS! You get lied to by someone on the street - and then you find someone else who lives there needs the gospel! Ok so it doesn't happen very often, but it was a huge miracle!!! He came to English class and he came to church and we are so excited!!

Another miracle this week....literally get ready for this....we were on the way to 江家庭's house and it was a Thursday night and there's a gospel doctrine class that night so no one can ever help us with their lesson so we just didn't try to find anyone. We had made them a scripture chain so that they would have homework for the week and for Easter. It fell out of Sister Kunzler's bike so we had to stop and run back and get it. 

As we pick it up, a scooter pulls up and says "Do you guys need help?" and we figure its a friendly Taiwanese man who thinks white girls need help. No, he is a member and he got baptized 10 years ago and served a mission 2 years ago when he was 26! He asks us again "What can I help you with?" and we have no idea, but then he asks "Do you have a lesson right now that I could help with?" and we're like WHAT YES WE DO!!!!!!! he had time to help us peike a lesson that we were noobs for and didn't find anyone. Literally Heavenly Father sent us an angel. Not only that, but our topic for 江家庭 was about the Spirit and he was SUCH a powerful testimony of the Spirit. He helped answer questions we would have had no idea how to explain. 

Turns out that this Brother Joseph Peng was late to deliver something for work and was gonna get in trouble with his boss, but he sacrificed his time to help servants of the Lord and I KNOW it paid off....do you know why??? becauseeeeeee 江Dixiong...HE CAME TO CHURCH AND HE BORE HIS TESTIMONY. DO YOU KNOW HOW AMAZING THAT IS!? We were worried because at our lesson he was prideful and stubborn and it was a little frustrating, but he had a miraculous experience that he shared in his testimony....

Apparently the previous Saturday night he had gone to bed at like 2:30am, so no reason to wake up for church. But at 8:30am, he woke up on his own with lots of energy and he prayed to know if Heavenly Father woke him up so he could go to church...and because we had a lesson about the Spirit and Brother Peng helped him understand, 江Dixiong recognized the voice that came into his head that he needed to go to church as the Spirit, and he came and shared it with everyone. Yeah.  

So church was amazing....well HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!!! It was beautiful and sunshiney and lovely and we only have single adult male investigators. We also met this awesome 高Dixiong this week and he came to church too!!! 

Another miracle from this week, we were biking back from Yingge and this guy stops us and talks to us and we talk to him about inviting his son to English class. We keep riding and 15 minutes later, he rides up to us AGAIN and hands us drinks!! he rode really far away to a 7/11 and bought us drinks!!! I LOVE Taiwanese people!!!! Besides the fact that he bought us tea and we couldn't drink it, it was super awesome:)

Pan Dixiong gets baptized this week and we get to watch General Conference on this side of the world!!!! SUPER EXCITED!!!!!!!!!! He wants to finish reading the Book of Mormon before this Saturday!! He is awesome and his conversion has been truly incredible!!!!

I hope you all kept the meaning of Easter in your hearts. I also hope that if you went on YouTube yesterday, If you didn't go watch this incredible video.

http://www.mormon.org/easter

 2 Corinthian 5:14-15 "For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if  one died for all, then were all dead: And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him  which died for them, and rose again."

To me this means that Christ sacrificed all for us, and so we must live our lives according to His teachings. It is that simple. Also go look at Mosiah 16:8-9 and 3 Nephi 11:7-17. I love the scriptures <3 And I love the fact that we get to be with our families forever with perfected bodies and we can see everyone we have ever loved. I never realized how sad it is, this Sunday was Memorial Day for Chinese people and they take a day to just be sad for everyone who has died. And we come to bring this wonderful news about eternal life and resurrection to people. I love it.

I hit 6 months on island last week and I hit my halfway mark next week. Not cool. oh also, I was sick this week and spent some time asleep and some time with a raging fever and a pounding headache, including riding to and from Yingge, that 45 minute ride....but this week was obviously amazing anyway:) This week was full of so so so many miracles, 

I love taking the time to look at all of the big and little blessings Heavenly Father gives me, including being companions with Sister Kunzler cuz she is freaking hilarious and knows how to have fun and we are just crazy and fun together but get stuff done and I love her! with that I'll break the news, I'm training. I will get my missionary baby on Friday. Requesting extra prayers for me and this new missionary. Bye. 

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

WEEK 37: It's what you DO with what you HAVE that makes you who you ARE.

This is real life!

This is a brilliant slogan and I want you all to ponder it.

This week, Sister Kunzler was sick, ALL WEEK (she is still a little sick) with the most terrible cough I've ever heard, and stomach hurting and fever and a cold and just all of it. So this week we stayed inside most of the time and I was alone a lot of the week. So I had A LOT of time to ponder and do stuff. As I was all by myself, feeling really accountable for the time that we were at home but that I still had a lot to do, I was very keenly aware that this is the Lord's time, not mine, and I signed up to fully serve Him. So as I was alone sitting at my desk all day for about 3 1/2 days and a lot of random time in between, I got a lot done, organized a lot, talked to a lot of less-actives, a lot of member, potential investigators, and current investigators. But let me tell you, I WAS SO STRESSED OUT. That is why we have companions, because missionary work is NOT meant to be done by one person. I have a testimony of that now haha. 

We did have cool miracles while Sister Kunzler was sleeping. We had a member call us and give us a referral for someone who lives in Yingge, so we prepared all week for that visit. It went pretty well, but because the member who referred her was there, they just talked A LOT and we could hardly focus on the lesson. But hopefully it will be more focused in the future. 

Waiting for a new member to meet us

I did Weekly Planning Session by myself this week. That is a long lonely 3 hours...very hard to focus too. But I received revelation for our investigators and it was super cool. God was relying on me to plan for our whole area, and through Him, it got done. We met with Duncan that night because S. Kunzler felt better and it was AWESOME. He told us that he used lds.org to find the chapel by his house. That is SO COOL!! He also asked us if he was with a girl and she was wearing something immodest, should he ask her to change. He literally asks these kind of questions on his own and it's SO COOL!!! This week he also said in one of his prayers "Sister Wright follows "choose the right" so I know that what she says is true" and it was just super cute how sincerely he believes!!!

Friday, S. Kunzler used her first squatty potty. 4 months in Taiwan, I don't know how she managed to avoid it until now haha. We went knocking and we found a little tiny old lady who was picking bricks up out of a muddy pile of debris. She spoke 台語 so we couldn't understand her, but we realized she wanted the bricks to hold down a tarp so we got down in the mud and helped her. it was awesome:) 

Yingge "world famous" shaved ice helps Sis. Kunzler feel better!

We went to Yingge on Saturday and it was SO fun!! The weather was amazing and beautiful and there were tons of people on Old Street. We met with Duncan and he told us how he was in a coma for 2 months because of a car accident and he thinks the reason he survived is so he could get baptized. HE IS SO COOL. Then later that night we went to find a less active who had given us their address...well we found the address.....up a steep hill, more like a cliff that went down one side, with broken tile on it, up to this creepy old shack that was the only house at the top of this hill. When we knocked (we prayed before we knocked to make sure we had a good safe feeling about it) an old mountain man came out with a long beard and a crazy look in his eyes. Don't worry, he was just an old guy with a beard, but it was pretty scary haha. 

Duncan, Sis Kunzler, Debbie, Sis. Wright and 符姐妹

Sunday, DUNCAN PASSED HIS BAPTISMAL INTERVIEW AND HE IS GETTING BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY!!!! Everyone keeps saying they have never met someone so excited to get baptized!!! And it's true. Seriously a miracle.  Sunday we also went to go find a potential investigator and she gave us the wrong address but at that address was someone who wanted to come to church. MIRACLE!! We also knocked on the door of a former who wants to meet with us!!! So cool. Also 潘Dixiong's baptismal interview is this week so please please pray that he won't drink tea so that he can pass his interview!!! 

Well folks, this week was rough because being alone as a missionary is weird, especially feeling like the salvation of every soul in your area is upon your shoulders. But I know that I did the best with what I had, and that is what makes me the kind of missionary I want to be. I KNOW that regardless of our circumstances, if we pray to Heavenly Father to know what He needs us to do, He will guide us to the best way to make use of what we have. He gives us circumstances because He knows it will help us grow. When we face challenges and trials that are NOT in consequence of our disobedience, we can be SURE that it is because Heavenly Father feels we are ready to grow, and that we can handle what He throws our way. It's so cool that He trusts us enough, that we can make our own choices. I love it. 

I love you all and hope you have an amazing week!!!

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

WEEK 36: This is all about them.

That's how we roll

OK HI ANOTHER CRAZY AWESOME INSPIRING MAGICAL WEEK!! I went on exchanges this week with Sister Miller, our last exchanges together in the mission!! I've been on like 4 exchanges with her since we've been in the same zone my entire mission. AH I love her so much and she is so inspiring!!! She taught me to not want to be "better" because that means you are comparing yourself to someone else! We experienced lots of miracles, including finding a super amazing family and the mom let us in and let us pray with her and we talked about the Book of Mormon and she LOVED it!! Plus we only found these people because our back-up plan to our back-up plan cancelled for the night so we went knocking!!! Also the weather was beautiful and sunny:)

Sis. Miller

 Wednesday we met with the relief society president and she is AMAZING. We ate lunch with them, a solid meal of just BREAD, all different kinds. Haha super healthy.!! She actually had her cousin approach her and ask what our beliefs were, so we practiced with her how to invite her to church!! She felt the spirit and power of our message and started crying!!!  Then we visited Zhang BeiBei, he is 89 and retired from the military and he is THE CUTEST OLD MAN EVER!!! so fun to talk to this cute little spry old man...and he got baptized only 9 years ago!!! Seriously amazing!!!

Zhang BeiBei!

Friday we went to Yingge and did service for a returned missionary's grandma and cleaned windows and stuff. Then they fed us and we had BAKED POTATOES uhhhh so yummy:) first time eating that in Taiwan!!! Then we went to Huang Dixiong, the elder's investigator's, baptism!!! Duncan came and he loved it!! We met with Duncan after the baptism and we taught the Plan of Salvation. He read about how we come to this earth to learn to make choices and how it is up to us if we want to accept what Jesus teaches, and he just gasps and goes "IT'S ME!!" and started talking about how God is always by his side and that now that he is choosing to follow God's plan, God answers his prayers, even the smallest ones. He is INSANELY prepared. We told him if he wanted to get baptized on April 4th, he would have to meet with us like 5 times next week and we all were going to pray that he would have work off the next day so he could meet with us, but he said it wasn't likely at all. then....

Duncan took a picture of us with his phone

He calls us Saturday morning and says; I HAVE WORK OFF, I CAN MEET WITH YOU ALL DAY!!! And that was a HUGE miracle!!!! God wants this guy to get baptized! So Saturday was incredible because JJ, our amazing JJ, decided she wanted to be with us all day and be our third companion, riding around on Sister Hammer's old bike and being a full on missionary!!! So we were with JJ all day and we ate at a delicious steak house and it had a buffet of all sorts of every food and unlimited ice cream. 

Yellow Watermelon at the buffet!

JJ, our "new" third companion!

Then we met with Duncan and were with him from like 3pm-6:30 and ate dinner together and taught him the 3rd lesson and the commandments...literally he has no problem with anything and he understands it and his only problem is that he wants to get baptized SOONER. He always says that this is HIS church, this is where he belongs.  his faith and desire are INSANE. Then that night we went knocking with JJ and I saw this rough looking guy and i was like "I don't really want to talk to him, he won't want our message" but I talked to him anyway...turns out HIS LITTLE BROTHER IS 江dixiong!!!!! And he said his daughter would want to join our church!! Because I followed a prompting from the Holy Ghost, i was able to talk to someone who really needs this gospel and was super willing to learn more and pray and read the Book of Mormon!!!

黃弟兄's baptism

Then...SUNDAY. Sundays are always, no doubt, the most amazing, most stressful day of the week. I fasted on Sunday morning so that 江Family would come to church...they promise us every week, set 3 alarms, but NEVER wake up. And that Lin Jiemei would come to church. It's 9 o'clock and we only have Duncan at church. Then about 10 minutes later...IN WALKS IN LIN JIEMEI. It was a miracle. Then at the end of sacrament, we turn around and 江FAMILY IS SITTING IN THE BACK!!!!!! I can't fully express what a miracle this is, but they were there and I know that Heavenly Father answers prayers!!! Also, Judy from Tao 1 came to visit YAYY!!! We met with Duncan after church and he wore his CTR ring that we gave him and told us that he was prepared, that Heavenly Father prepared him to receive this gospel and that he is SO excited, he wants to get baptized AS SOON AS HE CAN. Literally I have never met someone so prepared, Duncan is just literally UNREAL. Imagine the most golden person, so ready to receive the gospel....then multiply it by 7 and THAT is Duncan. seriously. he has no issues with anything and thinks that the Word of Wisdom makes so much sense and that if everyone understood it, they would follow it. Crazy. 

Dinner at 林家庭's house

We went to visit a less active lady and her little boy is 8 and going to baptized next week...he told us his life goal is to honor and respect his parents and his favorite scripture is in Mosiah 13, the 5th commandment!! In his prayer, he said thank you for the Atonement of Jesus Christ so we can repent. WHAT 8 year old says that???? haha he is SO cute and he listens to Book of Mormon stories and primary songs for fun <3 Then that same day we were riding our bikes and the phone rang so Sister Kunzler stopped to answer it (which we normally wouldn't do) and I kept going then stopped a little bit ahead. I handed this girl a tract and told her what our message was about and she stops and goes "Can you tell me how people in your church pray? I've been praying the way my church teaches us to pray and I'm not getting any answers." I was like WHAT ok!!!! And she is going to come to church on Sunday and we're gonna get her baptized, no big deal:) 

I mean, literally Heavenly Father is DUMPING the blessings on us and leading all of these miracles our way and I just pray every day that I can be worthy of these miracles and take care of the people He is sending our way. Sunday night we called Pan Dixiong, who is getting baptized on his birthday April 11th and he said he took time yesterday and marked all of the scriptures that we send in our "scripture of the day" texts and he read them and he just said that he knows we need to read and pray every day because enduring to the end is not easy and we have to rely on Heavenly Father.  He is incredible and  the change in him has been mighty indeed. 

Lots of insight this week, but one of my favorite things that I have come to realize is that through my efforts of trying to love these people and teach them according to their needs and feel with them and love with them, THAT is why my Chinese is good and THAT is why I am able to understand this incredibly hard language. 

I read 1 Nephi 17:49 this week and it says  "And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto them that they should murmur no more against their father; neither should they withhold their labor from me,  for God had commanded me that I should build a ship."

and what I got out of this is that we CANNOT hold back our efforts from God. We need to work with all of our labor and all of our might to serving God. 

What if I pass by one person because I am tired, and THAT is the person ready to be baptized? The man we met this week who said he wants us to meet with his family, he said that missionaries had always just passed him by. And WE were the ones to talk to this prepared soul. 

Who am I to stand in the way of God doing His work? I know that if we pray that there will be more of ourselves to give, Heavenly Father will help us give more of our labors and more of our efforts to His cause. As I pray for charity, everything gets better. I am loving these people and my heart is rooted in Taiwan. AHHH I can't explain how much I LOVE LOVE LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY.  Yes, it is HARD and painful and laborious and strange and tiring and exhausting, emotionally, physically, spiritually, mentally, ALL of it. But it is worth it. So so so so worth it and I am now, like never ever before, making the choices that Heavenly Father wants me to make. And I love it. 

Sister Wright (Taiwan Taipei Mission)

Rèn Jiěmèi 任曼欣姐妹

Study time

My desk!

WEEK 35: crazy awesome amazing magical spiritual week

Original Tao 2 crew!

I am afraid I won't have time to write about all of the amazing awesome incredible things that happened this week, but I will try!!!

On Monday I found out that my incredible almost-return-missionary-best-friend-cousin Maddy Whitlock got ACCEPTED TO BYU YAYYYYY!! Also we met with Duncan this week...Duncan, the incredible golden investigator who came to church this past week and it was already his third time and he hadn't even met with missionaries!! We set a baptismal date with Duncan for the 4th of March!!

Tuesday we had zone meeting and it's a whole new zone and it was awesome. But it was cold and rainy and windy and wet and we rode there for 45 minutes. THEN we had to go to Yingge, which is the other half of our area and its about 45 minutes away from our house, so we had to drive 45 minutes back to our house THEN to Yingge in the rainiest, coldest, windiest weather ever and yes it was awful and terrible but we made it!! 

New Zone!

Well then we met with Bob...and he broke our hearts and got really insulted that we wanted to read the Book of Mormon with him, like "I'm a scholar I can do it on my own" kinda thing. So that was sad. We biked all the way there to get our hearts broken. Then we visited an LA Joy and her dad is hospitalized...well in a hospital bed that is in their living room and theres a canopy hanging from the ceiling surrounding him and its super weird. 

Then we had to go home to Bade and PUSH our bikes up this ENORMOUS hill (push because my bike's gears were broken and I couldnt switch to a lower gear) and it was pouring and dark and cold but we sang "I'll make a Man out of You" from Mulan and it made us feel super legit. 

Wednesday was the worst day hands down of my mission ever. Yep. Haha it was basically just the weather...and a lot of other things haha. So just picture the windiest, coldest day ever then picture rain pouring down from a side angle so it hits you in the face and then imagine wearing a skirt riding a bike against the wind and wearing 5 layers to stay warm and a raincoat that doesn't even cover the skirt so you're soaking wet anyways....it was a BLAST haha. So there's the weather....and then we went to an investigator's house and she just basically had a change of heart for the worse and was insulting our church and broke up with us :( 

Then we got fanged gezi 4 times...or like stood up for our appointments...or cancelled. FOUR TIMES. Then we were fed dinner but it was goat meat and my stomach started hurting. Then we went to English class - and my class AND Sister Kunzler's class didn't' have students!!! We were just like oh my goodness. Hahaha its pretty funny looking back at it now but it was rough!!

in 5 layers of clothes to try to stay warm...didn't work

Then we had a lesson at the church with a former investigator from 4 years ago...we thought it was just going to be the women but she brought HER WHOLE FAMILY!!!!!!!! two kids and her husband who has never even before had interest in meeting with missionaries!! The lesson went SUPER well despite the fact that we were unprepared to teach a family and we're meeting them again tomorrow!!

Hot Chocolate to lift our spirits and warm us up!

Thursday was pretty cool. I SAW ZHONG REN DE. Remember the investigator from GuiShan who looks like Jerry and was ready to get baptized in like 4 weeks and came to church and was super awesome??? The one who disappeared....I SAW HIM IN BADE ON THE STREET. I stopped my bike super fast...and was HEARTBROKEN to see him chewing binlang, smoking, and had a beer in hand. but let me tell you, he dropped it all SO fast when he saw me!!!!!!!! He said his phone didn't work but I gave him our number and told him to come to church. ugh that was a rough experience. 

BUT that night was an awesome miracle...even though another appointment cancelled on us, we went to randomly visit another family on their street, they previously had a baptismal date but never could meet and were never home. well, MIRACLE, they were home and let us in and we reset a baptismal goal - YAY!!! 江 family is awesome <3

Friday we woke up early to go to the stake center for zone conference with our whole zone and President Day!! SUCH a good meeting!!! My favorite part was Sister Day's training on love....I really have been feeling SO SO SO much love for everyone that we are working with and when I feel incapable of loving someone, I just know that Christ's love can fill me up and make up for my weaknesses. 

Also, I SAW JERRY!!!!!!!! ALSO....JOHN FROM ENGLISH CLASS GOT BAPTIZED. remember the punk John from english class who the elders didn't know what to do with him so me and Sister Branch taught him in English class? The guy who laughed at us for believing in God? HE IS BAPTIZED AS OF TWO WEEKS AGO IT'S A HUGE MIRACLE!!! I literally cant believe it still. 

Sofia!

Tao 2 Crew! With Jerry!

Saturday was incredible and miraculous. We had temple tours on Saturday, so of course it was like that. I have yet to go do temple tours and have it be anything short of phenomenal. So it started with our investigator 潘DiXiong who is getting baptized as soon as he can!! the 28th of this month we hope!! And guess who accompanied our tour?? SOFIA AND JERRY!!!!!!!!!!!! AND Chen zhanglao!!!!!!!!!! My first district leader in Taiwan was at the temple and he came with us!!!!!! Literally I cannot express how incredible this tour was!!! 

We also did a tour for 20 members about the importance of temple ordinances. I was really nervous and really wanted to do well so I was praying for the Spirit the whole time. Then of course it came. I was bearing testimony about the importance of families being sealed and I was overcome with the Spirit and started crying and I am just SO grateful that my parents were worthy to be married in the temple so that I can be with them forever. And now I have their example and know that I can do that too. The Relief Society President came up to me after and said she's been on a lot of temple tours, but this one was especially touching, like she'd never felt before. I love the Spirit and I am so grateful we got to be tools to help these members feel it!! 

The MuZha ward

Our wonderful Temple Tour helpers, Duncan and JJ!

The biggest miracle I think was when we had two tours at one time so we had to split and have "companions". One of our members from Bade, JJ, she's freaking amazing came and stayed with us ALL DAY and so she was Sister Kunzler's companion for the other tour. I did a tour for two girls from Mainland China where they have no religion. One of the girls told me that she has always believed in Christ even when people say she's crazy and she has never known anything about him but always believed. So we went through all the pictures and talked about Christ's life. Then we went over the Restoration and I gave them copies of the Book of Mormon and the same girl said she wanted to share it with her PARENTS!!! She said she's been searching for peace in her soul and she felt it that day. What an incredible opportunity I had to share the basic message of this gospel with people who otherwise have NO chance!!!! 

Aska, Sandra and Hu Jiemei

With 2 girls from China who love the Book of Mormon!

Duncan and JJ!

Then we had Duncan...oh Duncan. I literally cannot explain him. We had the tour and now he just doesn't have any doubts that it's true. He always says "He did SO much for me, suffered SO much for me, all I have to do is be baptized and follow commandments." And it's true. What we have been asked to do keeps us safe and happy and it's all that is asked of us in order to receive the greatest blessings we can imagine!!! We watched a video called "Lifting Burdens" and then the always amazing "Because of Him." and after it was over, he just said "I now know that this decision to be baptized is right. Before I was just willing to believe and open up my heart, but now I KNOW it's right. " OH MAN I AM SO BLESSED, AND WE HAVE SO MANY MIRACLES, ITS SO COOL!!!! Also, I saw Sandra and Aska and 胡 JieMei from Tao 1 too!!!!

Well as you can see, this week was INCREDIBLE. So lastly, I wanted to share a super special experience that I hope will be appreciated. This week I had this idea that I need to pray to love my Savior more. I thought it was strange at first. Like, I'm a missionary, of course I love Jesus Christ. But I prayer for it anyway. I wasn't sure how I was going to feel more love for Him, but I prayer for it anyway. Then Saturday, all of the tours we had, we felt like we needed to focus on the life of Jesus Christ and who He is. I got to bear my testimony of the Atonement and how it has affected my life 4 times that day. I got to share my knowledge of the Savior's life and how the miracles He performed so long ago still have relevance in my life today. And yesterday in church, I realized that this was an answer to my prayers. Because I gave all of my energy and soul to helping these people understand the Savior and His teachings, it gave me a chance to remember how much I really love and know my Savior. 

As I sat in sacrament meeting, I was so overcome with joy and gratitude that I was given the opportunity to help people learn of Christ and that it in turn gave me an opportunity to increase my love for Him, just like I had been praying to do. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ know the details of the details of the details and I KNOW that to be true. This week I have had an increase of love and gratitude and because of that, it makes me work harder and care less about myself and truly work to become like my Savior. At first when I came on my mission, I still wanted the things that I left behind. But now, my heart is here in Taiwan and I want to be here forever. It's amazing how the gospel changes people. And I know it's true. I love you all so so so so much!!!!

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

Super delicious ice cream, snow cone mango thing!

I love Sister Morris!

Sprite and Ice Cream Float - yum!