Hello everybody! Taiwan is...well still AMAZING.
I will start with the sad news. We were sad to hear from President that a missionary in our mission got hit by a car and died. We pray for his family and friends. I personally never knew him. Even though he was a representative of the Lord life goes on. I like to think that he came here to prepare to teach the gospel to the spirits who need it in the Spirit world.
Now can I tell you some great news! Someone that I taught in my last area, An Ting, got baptized!! I’m so happy for her. She has been wanting to get baptized for a LONG time. But it finally happened. She is 17 years old and super diligent in prayer, reading and coming to church. I love her so much!
I will start with the sad news. We were sad to hear from President that a missionary in our mission got hit by a car and died. We pray for his family and friends. I personally never knew him. Even though he was a representative of the Lord life goes on. I like to think that he came here to prepare to teach the gospel to the spirits who need it in the Spirit world.
Now can I tell you some great news! Someone that I taught in my last area, An Ting, got baptized!! I’m so happy for her. She has been wanting to get baptized for a LONG time. But it finally happened. She is 17 years old and super diligent in prayer, reading and coming to church. I love her so much!
Now I can talk about San Min. We were able to get 3 new investigators this week. Yang Xiao Jie is a mom who prays but her friends kind of make fun of her for praying and believing in God. She receives answers from God through prayer. She calls it "a small miracle." She has two requests form us. #1 learn the gospel #2 find friends who will support her in praying. Well, we can definitely do that! She was not able to come to church this Sunday, but she will definitely come next Sunday.
Our next investigator is an English student, Kismet. (Pronounced as cas-met). She is 16 years old. She sees that missionaries are always so happy and that we share happiness with others. She wants to go on a mission. Later we found out that she wants to go on a mission just so that she could go outside of the country. She does not like Taiwan. She wants true happiness and she wants to go to another country to try and find it. Well, to go on a mission you have to know the gospel.
Our other investigator is also a mom. She has been to churches before. She is very opened minded. And she will go to things and participate in religious things. But in our lesson was her first time saying her own prayer. It was a great prayer. She really liked it and committed to pray everyday this week. I hope she does. That is one of the first steps.
Our next investigator is an English student, Kismet. (Pronounced as cas-met). She is 16 years old. She sees that missionaries are always so happy and that we share happiness with others. She wants to go on a mission. Later we found out that she wants to go on a mission just so that she could go outside of the country. She does not like Taiwan. She wants true happiness and she wants to go to another country to try and find it. Well, to go on a mission you have to know the gospel.
Our other investigator is also a mom. She has been to churches before. She is very opened minded. And she will go to things and participate in religious things. But in our lesson was her first time saying her own prayer. It was a great prayer. She really liked it and committed to pray everyday this week. I hope she does. That is one of the first steps.
We met with a lot of LA's this week. One was a new one. She is so cute. She was super strong in the gospel but then made some mistakes and felt unworthy to pray, read scriptures and come to church. After sharing about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and bearing testimony she agreed to let us come over every week and reteach her the lessons to develop her faith in Christ.
Zeng Jie Mei is still the best. She is learning and growing and coming back very fast. She came back on her own too. :)
Someone new came to church. We still don't know the ward members very well. When this lady came in I thought she was another member. She looked like it. But then found out that it was her first time coming to church. She has a friend who lived in USA for a time and came back to Taiwan to visit. The friend wanted to come to church and she came along with her family. She loved it and will be coming back. She doesn't live in our area so we introduced her to the other elders. I have seen so many connections between friends, countries and family members that bring us all together unto Christ.
You know those days where you don't get the results that you want? Well, this week was a test of my willingness to endure patiently and with a smile on my face. I have found the joy and satisfaction in just the smallest things. Like last night we went out tracting. No one wanted to hear out message and then on our way to our bikes we met a lady who was not interested. But we started talking to her about English class. She has been to church before and has not felt the "burning" feeling that everyone describes church to be like. She is not interested right now, but I could see the seed planting. Whenever you see the seeds, no matter how small, you just can't help but feel happy that you were able to bear testimony of Christ and help bring someone closer to Him. The mini miracles and light that show you are doing something right. :)
Zeng Jie Mei is still the best. She is learning and growing and coming back very fast. She came back on her own too. :)
Someone new came to church. We still don't know the ward members very well. When this lady came in I thought she was another member. She looked like it. But then found out that it was her first time coming to church. She has a friend who lived in USA for a time and came back to Taiwan to visit. The friend wanted to come to church and she came along with her family. She loved it and will be coming back. She doesn't live in our area so we introduced her to the other elders. I have seen so many connections between friends, countries and family members that bring us all together unto Christ.
You know those days where you don't get the results that you want? Well, this week was a test of my willingness to endure patiently and with a smile on my face. I have found the joy and satisfaction in just the smallest things. Like last night we went out tracting. No one wanted to hear out message and then on our way to our bikes we met a lady who was not interested. But we started talking to her about English class. She has been to church before and has not felt the "burning" feeling that everyone describes church to be like. She is not interested right now, but I could see the seed planting. Whenever you see the seeds, no matter how small, you just can't help but feel happy that you were able to bear testimony of Christ and help bring someone closer to Him. The mini miracles and light that show you are doing something right. :)
I took Sister Daknis to Shark Bites Toast (Beau you know this place). It is like more American than anything else here. The food is really getting to her. Don’t worry we still eat a lot of Chinese food. A lot of it is fruit, which makes me happy. We ate hotpot for the first time the other night. And had mochi for the first time too. Oh and Bao zi. She says it is the closest thing to a peanut butter sandwich. So we eat that a lot :))
We taught English class for the first time. We have some really great kids. But they are very different than my last area. Someone new came to class. An older man who chews Bin Lang. (a drug and I can't remember the English name). After English class, we were trying to get numbers and add people as investigators. No one was talking to him. The smell of his breath was SUPER strong and REALLY bad and I did not want to talk to him. But I thought, He is a child of God too. Well, made it through a conversation and he declined the invitation to learn more. Learned afterwards that he is crazy and the elders had to chase him out of the church a few weeks ago.
For p-day we were going to go to Monkey Mountain with the district. (They changed the rule so we can now do activities with the elders on P-days). Then when we biked 40 minutes out there we found that the district leader cancelled. So we went to dream mall with the other sisters. We actually split up with them for the majority of it. We found Toys R Us. Kind of the best place ever. We got a little excited over Ironman, Minions and Toy story. :)) Don't judge. It was a HUGE mall and hardly anyone was there.
So it takes us a 40 minute bike ride back to our area. Hated to be party poopers but we got work to do at 6 and we still hadn't gotten all of our shopping done. And on the way home I realized the God loves us. Small miracle but made my day. So I was freaking out about time. Got to go out and proselyte at 6 pm and we still had to get things and travel home. Well, I asked around to find a bike shop (needed to fix Sister Daknis's bike). We found one. And on that corner was a fruit stand, bread shop, post office. So basically pretty much everything we needed. So while the guy was fixing up her bike we were able to just walk across the street and get all the stuff that needed to get done finished! and still made it out the door at 6 pm.
So it takes us a 40 minute bike ride back to our area. Hated to be party poopers but we got work to do at 6 and we still hadn't gotten all of our shopping done. And on the way home I realized the God loves us. Small miracle but made my day. So I was freaking out about time. Got to go out and proselyte at 6 pm and we still had to get things and travel home. Well, I asked around to find a bike shop (needed to fix Sister Daknis's bike). We found one. And on that corner was a fruit stand, bread shop, post office. So basically pretty much everything we needed. So while the guy was fixing up her bike we were able to just walk across the street and get all the stuff that needed to get done finished! and still made it out the door at 6 pm.
Sister Daknis is doing great! It is hard finding out how she learns. She learns different than I did when I was in training. But we are slowing learning together how to help one another. When I was in training I just copied what my trainer did. I wasn't afraid to talk. So contacting wasn't that hard for me. But I have found that Sister Daknis is a little hesitant with it because of the language. So last night instead of me biking in front and she is in the back and we are both contacting different people I had her be in front. She would pull up next to someone and talk to them and I would be right next to her in case she needed help. Now that I am watching her she feels like she needs to talk and she is not as scared to mess up. She is doing great though! She understands a lot more and is really determined to get the language down. We practice everyday too which helps. But I feel like I haven't done a very good job at helping her get out of her shell in the real work as much as I should. Studies are great and afterwards I feel like "ya! We totally got this!"
"Look my grandma is sitting at the same table where I named my first animal." -Sister Snyder
Love you all and I will see you next week!
-Sister Graham
"Look my grandma is sitting at the same table where I named my first animal." -Sister Snyder
Love you all and I will see you next week!
-Sister Graham