Hello my dear family and friends!
This week was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! Ok, our numbers weren't high - but I don't regret one thing that happened this week. It was all part of God's plan.
Monday:
We went to the Science museum with Amanda. Amanda was so nice to take us there. That place was huge! We weren’t able to go through the whole thing but I took some nice pictures. My favorite part would probably be the Ocean Island section. So cool!
This week was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! Ok, our numbers weren't high - but I don't regret one thing that happened this week. It was all part of God's plan.
Monday:
We went to the Science museum with Amanda. Amanda was so nice to take us there. That place was huge! We weren’t able to go through the whole thing but I took some nice pictures. My favorite part would probably be the Ocean Island section. So cool!
Tuesday:
Ok to be honest I was not very happy when I woke up. I did not want to get out of bed. But I turned my attitude around and now I am a VERY HAPPY camper. Like I could not be happier.
Today we visited a less active member, Gao Jie Mei. She is soo cool! We had a lesson about faith. She feels like other peoples faith is greater than hers. Do you feel like that sometimes? Like you hear other people's testimonies and then you're like, "uhh...I like chips?" So we are helping her see her faith. I know that she has faith she just needs to stop comparing herself to others.
Ok to be honest I was not very happy when I woke up. I did not want to get out of bed. But I turned my attitude around and now I am a VERY HAPPY camper. Like I could not be happier.
Today we visited a less active member, Gao Jie Mei. She is soo cool! We had a lesson about faith. She feels like other peoples faith is greater than hers. Do you feel like that sometimes? Like you hear other people's testimonies and then you're like, "uhh...I like chips?" So we are helping her see her faith. I know that she has faith she just needs to stop comparing herself to others.
We went to our new investigators little tea shop, Chen Jie Mei. It was our first "official" sit down with her. She is super cool. She is very curious about the church because her family members are Christian. But she doesn't have that real desire to take what she learned and apply it to her life yet. That is ok. She told us that she wants to believe what we say but she hasn't had the "spiritual experience yet." She said that once she does and she finds out FOR HERSELF she will believe.
We ate dinner at the Bishop's house. They always get pizza. It is totally Asian pizza: seafood, corn, chicken nuggets and lots of Mayo... it was really good!
And then we had our exercise class...ya that hurt my stomach. We did T25. There is an elder here who is OBSESSED with working out. T25s are "his babies". But he let us use the DVD's for our class. It was pretty fun. Hard, but fun :) And we had a great turn out! There is a sister who likes to takes pictures of activities and I invited her. I haven’t seen her in a really long time - it was so nice to see her. She is going to take us out to dinner next week. She said that if I stay another transfer that she would take me out to a roller coaster park. Man, I wanna go but I think I will be transferred out.
We had companion exchanges. I was with a sister that I really wanted to go with. Her name is Chiang Jie Mei and she is soooooo cool! I love her so much! Her English name is Roxy and that fits her so well. She is an amazing artist (well she likes to color.) She is Taiwanese. She doesn't like to speak English but she can understand it. I only spoke Chinese to her though. And it helped with my speaking confidence. I feel like I could have a native companion next transfer and I would be fine with communication. We had so much fun just goofing around and telling stories. It was cool to be with her in lessons to see how she teaches.
We ate dinner at the Bishop's house. They always get pizza. It is totally Asian pizza: seafood, corn, chicken nuggets and lots of Mayo... it was really good!
And then we had our exercise class...ya that hurt my stomach. We did T25. There is an elder here who is OBSESSED with working out. T25s are "his babies". But he let us use the DVD's for our class. It was pretty fun. Hard, but fun :) And we had a great turn out! There is a sister who likes to takes pictures of activities and I invited her. I haven’t seen her in a really long time - it was so nice to see her. She is going to take us out to dinner next week. She said that if I stay another transfer that she would take me out to a roller coaster park. Man, I wanna go but I think I will be transferred out.
We had companion exchanges. I was with a sister that I really wanted to go with. Her name is Chiang Jie Mei and she is soooooo cool! I love her so much! Her English name is Roxy and that fits her so well. She is an amazing artist (well she likes to color.) She is Taiwanese. She doesn't like to speak English but she can understand it. I only spoke Chinese to her though. And it helped with my speaking confidence. I feel like I could have a native companion next transfer and I would be fine with communication. We had so much fun just goofing around and telling stories. It was cool to be with her in lessons to see how she teaches.
Wednesday:
Oh and the food? Guess what she made me for breakfast: a big Costco chocolate muffin, chocolate cake and a glass of milk. yum, my stomach was not settling during studies. And for lunch she took me to this pudding place. They make pudding out of soy bean and it is super good! And I had ZhiMi which is like this purple rice stuff. Super yummy!
She also told me about the Taiwanese Valentine's Day that is on the 20th. There are female heavenly angels up in Heaven and they are in love with earthy boys. And the boys are in love with the angels. (duh) But because the females are in heaven and the boys are down here on earth, they can't date or anything like that. They can’t even see each other. But once a year magpies will make a bridge extended from heaven to earth. On that day the angels and humans can come together on the bridge for one day. So that is the Valentine's Day here in Taiwan. Cool, huh?
She also gave me a new name. Ok, I like this name out of all the ones that I have gotten. Gui YuJie. When she explained to me what it means it kind of made sense. She said that Yu is like Chong man (full) plus mei tain (everyday) and Jie is clean. So full of cleanliness everyday :)) awwwww!
English class was awesome as usual. After class I was talking to one of the girls who took a Book of Mormon last week. And I was asking her how she liked it but then another student cut in to get a picture with me. Then the first girl left. Man - she was totally interested! Hopefully we’ll see her next week.
Oh and the food? Guess what she made me for breakfast: a big Costco chocolate muffin, chocolate cake and a glass of milk. yum, my stomach was not settling during studies. And for lunch she took me to this pudding place. They make pudding out of soy bean and it is super good! And I had ZhiMi which is like this purple rice stuff. Super yummy!
She also told me about the Taiwanese Valentine's Day that is on the 20th. There are female heavenly angels up in Heaven and they are in love with earthy boys. And the boys are in love with the angels. (duh) But because the females are in heaven and the boys are down here on earth, they can't date or anything like that. They can’t even see each other. But once a year magpies will make a bridge extended from heaven to earth. On that day the angels and humans can come together on the bridge for one day. So that is the Valentine's Day here in Taiwan. Cool, huh?
She also gave me a new name. Ok, I like this name out of all the ones that I have gotten. Gui YuJie. When she explained to me what it means it kind of made sense. She said that Yu is like Chong man (full) plus mei tain (everyday) and Jie is clean. So full of cleanliness everyday :)) awwwww!
English class was awesome as usual. After class I was talking to one of the girls who took a Book of Mormon last week. And I was asking her how she liked it but then another student cut in to get a picture with me. Then the first girl left. Man - she was totally interested! Hopefully we’ll see her next week.
Thursday:
We ate lunch with Vickie and some other missionaries. We went to a Mexican restaurant. I was really excited to have tortilla chips with salsa. But they didn’t have any … they gave us Doritos. I was a little disappointed and the food took forever! I think I will just stick with the Asian food from now on.
We had a lesson scheduled but they didn’t show up so we had an active member lesson with our PeiKe, Hong Jie Mei. SHE IS SOOO COOL! She is my model no joke. Her husband is not active and she has three little girls. She is so hard working with her family and yet finds time to help the missionaries. Her testimony is so strong in the Gospel and she is helping others come unto Christ. I really look up to her.
The best part of this week was a lesson with Huang Xiao Wen. She is a recent convert who does not come to church. She sometimes reads her scriptures and she prays everyday. Sister Voss and I had been working with her a lot and so have Sister Crowell and I. Anyway we had this amazing lesson about the Book of Mormon! We started reading the Book of Mormon with her from cover to cover to help her read everyday. Today we planned to read 1 Nephi 6-7. We read and talked about chapter 6 and then the Spirit totally took over and directed us somewhere else. We started asking questions about her testimony. She told us that she does not have a testimony about the Book of Mormon and she only reads it because the missionaries tell her to. She did say that when she reads with us we open her eyes. And that after today she feels like she understands the Book of Mormon more and how it applies to her. When she said that the Spirit filled the room. You could see the desire she had. She told us that she believes that the BOM is true but she doesn't know it yet. She wants to know. She has never prayed to know if the BOM is true or not. What?? So that was our invite. I can't even explain the joy I felt tonight. Someone I had been trying to work with for so long has turned around and opened up to us. I am so excited to see the growth in Huang Jie Mei.
Friday:
A member took us out to breakfast. And it was like semi-normal as in American" bacon, eggs, hashbrowns, toast with jam. Oh and then they threw a salad on there? The mulberry juice is sooo good though! New favorite :)
In weekly planning Sister Crowell and I talked about our relationship with each other. We have definitely gotten better with each other’s teaching styles. And we have gotten to know each other a lot more. Over this week we have definitely became friends. Real friends … and that’s what has made this whole week awesome I think. We worked really hard together and we were working with a great friend :) I love her so much!
We ate lunch with Vickie and some other missionaries. We went to a Mexican restaurant. I was really excited to have tortilla chips with salsa. But they didn’t have any … they gave us Doritos. I was a little disappointed and the food took forever! I think I will just stick with the Asian food from now on.
We had a lesson scheduled but they didn’t show up so we had an active member lesson with our PeiKe, Hong Jie Mei. SHE IS SOOO COOL! She is my model no joke. Her husband is not active and she has three little girls. She is so hard working with her family and yet finds time to help the missionaries. Her testimony is so strong in the Gospel and she is helping others come unto Christ. I really look up to her.
The best part of this week was a lesson with Huang Xiao Wen. She is a recent convert who does not come to church. She sometimes reads her scriptures and she prays everyday. Sister Voss and I had been working with her a lot and so have Sister Crowell and I. Anyway we had this amazing lesson about the Book of Mormon! We started reading the Book of Mormon with her from cover to cover to help her read everyday. Today we planned to read 1 Nephi 6-7. We read and talked about chapter 6 and then the Spirit totally took over and directed us somewhere else. We started asking questions about her testimony. She told us that she does not have a testimony about the Book of Mormon and she only reads it because the missionaries tell her to. She did say that when she reads with us we open her eyes. And that after today she feels like she understands the Book of Mormon more and how it applies to her. When she said that the Spirit filled the room. You could see the desire she had. She told us that she believes that the BOM is true but she doesn't know it yet. She wants to know. She has never prayed to know if the BOM is true or not. What?? So that was our invite. I can't even explain the joy I felt tonight. Someone I had been trying to work with for so long has turned around and opened up to us. I am so excited to see the growth in Huang Jie Mei.
Friday:
A member took us out to breakfast. And it was like semi-normal as in American" bacon, eggs, hashbrowns, toast with jam. Oh and then they threw a salad on there? The mulberry juice is sooo good though! New favorite :)
In weekly planning Sister Crowell and I talked about our relationship with each other. We have definitely gotten better with each other’s teaching styles. And we have gotten to know each other a lot more. Over this week we have definitely became friends. Real friends … and that’s what has made this whole week awesome I think. We worked really hard together and we were working with a great friend :) I love her so much!
We had a great lesson with our new investigator, Dong Jie Mei. She is so cool! She acts like a little child and is really hard to keep focused. So we prayed so hard that we could keep this lesson in control - and it was perfect! Seriously, total 180 from last time! We focused the lesson on Joseph Smith. It was very simple but very powerful! And then at the end of the lesson guess what we found out: she lives in another area. dang it – we’ll have to let someone else teach her. That’s ok, I think she’ll still get baptized.
There was this guy that came over to us while we were at a 7-11 and he looked kind of scary - and he smelled like … I have no idea how to describe it. Sister Crowell and I were about ready to say, "No you cannot have our numbers." and walk away. But he just wanted to know about English. He was willing to pay us for tutoring. Cool! But hey we have FREE English class every Wednesday night! So we invited him J
Tonight we made pizza after planning. Probably shouldn't have eaten that late at night but it was so much fun! We took flour, water, an egg and italian spices to make a dough, we found tomato paste in our cupboard, sister crowell had some cheese and we cut up my red pepper. It wasn't too bad! I mean with what we had it was really good! Sister Crowell and I have been making some good stuff lately! We really want to make cinnamon rolls. Recipes?
There was this guy that came over to us while we were at a 7-11 and he looked kind of scary - and he smelled like … I have no idea how to describe it. Sister Crowell and I were about ready to say, "No you cannot have our numbers." and walk away. But he just wanted to know about English. He was willing to pay us for tutoring. Cool! But hey we have FREE English class every Wednesday night! So we invited him J
Tonight we made pizza after planning. Probably shouldn't have eaten that late at night but it was so much fun! We took flour, water, an egg and italian spices to make a dough, we found tomato paste in our cupboard, sister crowell had some cheese and we cut up my red pepper. It wasn't too bad! I mean with what we had it was really good! Sister Crowell and I have been making some good stuff lately! We really want to make cinnamon rolls. Recipes?
Saturday:
Today was a big miracle day! This morning we went tracting and while we were saying the prayer Sister Crowell had a strong feeling that there was a girl here looking for God. And the Spirit totally directed us. She said that there was a definite voice telling her where to go. And we tracted into this boys house. He was pretty cool. Never really thought about God before (like 1/2 of taiwan) and then we tracted into an american girl who is visiting family. She is already Christian but she is trying to get her uncle to get to know Christ. Her name is Gloria. She is soooo cool! She lives in California.
We had great success at 7-11’s today. Every time I would start by saying hello while Sister Crowell is in the restroom. The conversation starts with a smile and then we get lessons! boom! And every single person that I talked to were super nice and promising :) I relearned the lesson that talking to EVERYONE is so important. Not just when it is convenient or when you think they will accept the gospel. But literally EVERYONE needs a chance.
Sunday:
For our Sunday meal we made pulled pork sandwiches.
It stormed sooo hard today! I love the rain but it is really hard to be a missionary when it is pouring.
I am so grateful to be a missionary. This life is amazing! I love being so connected to the Spirit and helping others come unto Christ. I love the Taiwanese language and culture. It is so cool and interesting. I love Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I know they live and I am so honored to be helping their work.
Love you all!
-Sister Graham
ps: I should have good stories next week … we are getting two typhoons!!
Today was a big miracle day! This morning we went tracting and while we were saying the prayer Sister Crowell had a strong feeling that there was a girl here looking for God. And the Spirit totally directed us. She said that there was a definite voice telling her where to go. And we tracted into this boys house. He was pretty cool. Never really thought about God before (like 1/2 of taiwan) and then we tracted into an american girl who is visiting family. She is already Christian but she is trying to get her uncle to get to know Christ. Her name is Gloria. She is soooo cool! She lives in California.
We had great success at 7-11’s today. Every time I would start by saying hello while Sister Crowell is in the restroom. The conversation starts with a smile and then we get lessons! boom! And every single person that I talked to were super nice and promising :) I relearned the lesson that talking to EVERYONE is so important. Not just when it is convenient or when you think they will accept the gospel. But literally EVERYONE needs a chance.
Sunday:
For our Sunday meal we made pulled pork sandwiches.
It stormed sooo hard today! I love the rain but it is really hard to be a missionary when it is pouring.
I am so grateful to be a missionary. This life is amazing! I love being so connected to the Spirit and helping others come unto Christ. I love the Taiwanese language and culture. It is so cool and interesting. I love Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I know they live and I am so honored to be helping their work.
Love you all!
-Sister Graham
ps: I should have good stories next week … we are getting two typhoons!!