Dear family and friends,
We were informed of the new missionary ages, and that is SO cool! I
honestly think it'll be really weird having Sister missionaries that
are my age and younger out here. I'm only used to Sisters that are older
than me! And that's so excited for all the young men as well. Taiwanese
young men were already able to serve at age 18 because of a military
thing that they're all required to do here, so it's really cool that the
rest of the world can do it as well! There will definitely be a huge
jump in missionary work from this. Get those seniors in our ward out
here! Haha
I got the package yesterday (Sunday) because of a delivery problem
the day before. So I got it right after I broke my fast. And you best
believe I dipped those oreos in that Nutella right away! So good! I
loved it so much. Oh and I think I'm good on animal crackers for a
while. I still had a bit from the last package left over. Hey, I can dip
those in Nutella too! Just thought of that.
This past week has been pretty great and annoying at the same time.
We had a lot of people set up on Monday night and they never showed up.
We even called them and they said they were on their way. After 15
minutes or so, we would call them again and their phone was turned off.
That drives me crazy. So we had to result to our back up plans all
night.
Tuesday we had a really amazing lesson with a new investigator. We
taught him about the restoration and he had a great interest in the 1st
vision. He thought it was absolutely amazing. We also gave him a Book of
Mormon and talked about it. He was even more in shock as we told him
how it came to be and what it contains. Then when we told him that he
can also pray daily to God, he got so excited. I'm really excited to
meet with him tomorrow and share more with him. He's such a great guy.
Wednesday we had our Zone Training Meeting. It was really good.
This month we're focusing on working with the ward. We've set some new
goals for our wards and how we're going to help them get involved. Our
Bishop also set up to take us to dinner the following night. That'll
help! At English class, we had some pretty low numbers, but we had some
new people come as well! Michael came and brought his daughter! They had
to leave early for a doctor's appointment, but I was really glad to
meet his daughter and talk to him for a bit. The Zone leaders'
investigator that has already passed his interview came and loves it.
And the Sisters' quickly progressing investigator that they met at
English class was there as well.
Thursday we biked out to Qieding to visit the Ke family. They had
some friends over who were really cool and welcoming to us. One of them
had gone to English class in my last area (Nantou) 15 years ago! They're
open to all religions and think it's really cool that the Ke family is
liking this church. That night we had dinner with the Bishop, his wife,
the Sisters, and a family that just returned from China. It was at a
really nice traditional restaurant. Of course we had to try everything
that was brought to us. And the Bishop laughed his really awesome wise
laugh when I tried to down the fish soup. It was good because we were
able to set up a time to meet with him and discuss the ward mission
plan. That's also tomorrow.
Friday we had another really sweet lesson with an 18 year old
that's just starting college. He's really cool. He showed a great amount
of interest as well and is excited to learn more. He said he could come
to church, but later had to cancel. But he's still wanting to learn
more! We also got to meet with a really cool less active that we've been
meeting with for a while. He's really cool. He's trying to come to
church, but work always gets in the way. But he said he's going to for
sure get this weekend off to come to conference. He likes conference.
Saturday was rough. We had set up 7 lessons all in an hour and a
half. So we were going to have to split up and teach all of them as they
came, but one by one, they fell apart. It was pretty rough. We had two
of them say they were on their way and then never arrive or answer their
phone after that. So annoying! But we were able to visit this really
amazing member in the ward that's getting ready to go to the temple. I'm
so excited for him!! He's got such a genuine heart. And he said he
wants to help us visit this less active family in the ward. They were
active when he was baptized, and he wants to help re-activate them! That
night was also a baptism of an 8 year old boy in the 4th ward. His
family is American, so all of it was done in English. It was the
weirdest thing to hear the baptism and confirmation in English! Great
family though.
Sunday was really great! It started out really rough because a lot
of the people that confirmed for church didn't come. But after the first
hour, one of our kind of former investigators that we meet with off and
on came because he felt like he needed to. And then the Ke family
arrived right before Sacrament meeting. And this was the best part:
right near the end of the meeting, the Ke dad stands up and is pulled
and dragged to the stand by his kids to bear his testimony (also
something I haven't seen since being in America). And his testimony was
so amazing and so touching! I loved it. It was such a great way to end
the meeting.
And that was my week. It was a lot of fun. I'm really excited for
this coming week! We've got some really great people that we're meeting
with. And I get to watch conference this weekend! I'm so excited! I love
conference! I love you all so much. Thank you for all the support and
letters that help me push on in the work! Until next week!
