The week of uphill battles

This week was a crazy whirlwind!! We finally officially moved out of our old apartment, it took a long time let me just say. We thought that things would finally calm down but that turned out to not happen! This week has just been climbing mountains (not literally thank goodness *flashback to the time that we rode up a mountain to a member's house*) but just a lot of things have been happening. 

Investigators/miracles:

Cai Jiating is still on board for getting baptized, the only thing we are working on is really just trying to meet with them. They have a three year old son that has been really sick lately so they haven't been able to come to church or meet with us. We had a really good lesson with Huang Jiemei (his wife) and she is so ready for baptism, we are meeting with them on Thursday to see how Cai Dixiong is doing. If all goes well, then they will have their baptismal interview this coming Sunday!

Sherry, wow she is my first convert!! Her baptism should be this Saturday! She did her baptismal interview last Sunday! We had some struggles figuring out her baptism because we hit some road blocks. She has been attending our ward for a while but she doesn't live in our area. We were scared at first to tell her she couldn't be baptized in Xizhi, but she actually took it really well! That's how we know she is truly converted, she's so sweet...she just wants to know what time her baptism is . I am so excited and I can't wait for her to be baptized, she is just...so ready. 

On Monday we decided to go to the church at the end of our P-day time to watch the one and only Bonner Family "I am here" video and we were about to leave when my companion said she had to go to the bathroom. While I was filling up her water bottle, we both hear this voice saying "hello??" and it was a Mexican lady named Mirella! She is here in Taiwan because her son married a Taiwanese girl and she saw that our church was open (she is Catholic) and decided to come in! We taught her the first lesson and she totally was like "I believe you!"

Liu Jiemei has been really hard to visit with lately because she is ALWAYS working, but yesterday she said she could meet with us! It truly was a miracle because we have been trying to set up a time to meet with her for the past two weeks and nothing has been working. We originally went in with the plan to teach her the ten commandments, but we followed the spirit and taught a whole different lesson. It was turning point for her, this was the first lesson that SHE was actually interested in. We figured out that she was only meeting with us for her daughter and that she was going to convince herself to be baptized, but because of this lesson and our peike she actually took interest and is willing to work towards her own baptismal goal. 

We also did temple tours on Saturday and it was so fun (not only because I get to eat some really good food but cause we see miracles). We taught Mirella and then later in the day we were going to teach the Elders' investigator. We taught their investigator the Plan of Salvation, which by the way is actually kind of hard when there are no pictures dedicated to the explain it. So we just used pictures from the Jesus Christ hallway, videos, and different light settings to explain the Plan of Salvation. It was honestly so fun and took a lot of creativity to teach it, but we were able to give their investigator a baptismal date!!

Another one at temple tours is after we taught our Elders' investigator we were all going to go to dinner, but then the AP's were like "Can you Sisters give a tour to these three guys from the Taichung area?" It was so conflicting because it was like food or tour???? So we decided to do the tour and wait for dinner. It turns out they hadn't arrived yet so we were waiting when all of a sudden one of our awesome ward members appeared!! We had seen this member the day before we had temple tours with his mom (who isn't a member) and told them if they had time to come do a temple tour. He brought his mom and his sister to the tour!!! How amazing is that?? If we had gone to dinner, then we would have missed the opportunity to give them a tour!!

Nonspiritual stuff:

I had to build a closet this past week. This is the second thing I have had to build on my mission. I've built a chair and now I built a closet. What is this coming week's item? A desk. I have to build a desk. 

So I had to say the prayer in district meeting and me being the dummy I am instead of saying thanks for letting us have this district meeting....I said thanks for letting us have this earth meeting. UGH. One day. One day I will get it correct.

We are biking to the zoo today. THE ZOO. It should be about an hour bike ride. Now you may be thinking, "Why are you biking to the zoo when you could take the MRT or the train?!?!" Let me tell you why, it's because a member of the Yonghe ward who loves missionaries promised my district that if we biked then he would qing (treat us) us to Korean BBQ!!

Me with the closet and chair I built. Next week expect a pic of me and a desk. Though my legs still have scars from the mosquito bites, but they are getting better.

Six week follow up with the MTC Asian squad.

Sister Chu and I

Doing weekly planning outside the train station

With one of our new investigators

Eating Mexican food with Mirella

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趙姐妹

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Sister Tiffany Chao

Taiwan Taipei Mission

4/F, #24, Lane 183

Jin Hua Street

Da-an, Taipei 106

Taiwan