I live in a tent

I feel like I say every week is a roller coaster but this week really was. So much happened in the span of what...Four days? So first off we watched 17 miracles with investigators and stuff for a missionary activity. Angelina came and afterwards she sent us her testimony of what she was going to share at her baptism. It was absolutely beautiful. Here it is: 3年前回到台灣定居時，在中壢遇見傳教士。當時我們生活遇到瓶頸，傳教士們偶爾會來拜訪我們，教導我們如何禱告，還有讀摩爾門經。
我昨晚看了17個奇蹟，我發現我們身邊其實每天都有奇蹟，我怎麼會這樣說呢?因為我們每天的禱告時，或乞求神的幫助時。縱使祂不是即時給我們回應，我相信祂有聽見。最近苹安妹妹的手被哥哥拉傷，有一整個晚上她是哭個扶著手睡著。星期日的早上也是哭著來找我，說手好痛。我抱著她躺在我旁邊。聽著她的哭聲，我握著苹安的手腕，我禱告著，我親愛的天父，乞求祢請幫助我，我想要帶孩子們去教會，但我真的需要祢的幫忙，我沒有辦法帶著受傷的苹安還有兩個小孩去教會。然後苹安跟我休息幾分後，跟我說她想喝牛奶，然後就扶著自己受傷的手腕去讓爸爸餵她喝奶。然後喝完之後手就不痛了。活潑亂跳的跟哥哥在玩，那天我們順利的到教堂參加聖餐聚會。我在內心直覺神聽到了我的禱告，祂知道只要我乞求就給予。
我是很敏感的人，而且是最近才發現原來自己那麼敏感，我有次好想吃肉粽，我也好像有在心中想我好想吃肉粽，但是因為某種原因我不知道為什麼我沒去買來吃。在台灣買肉粽是那麼容易的事。然後有一天我二哥二嫂來拜訪我們，竟然帶了一大串肉粽送給我吃。我心想，親愛的天父祂沒有忘記我真的很想吃肉粽。生命中真的有很多大大小小的奇蹟，只要對神有信心，奇蹟就在。這是我的見證 奉子耶穌基督的名。 阿們.
She basically says that there are miracles everyday. Why? Because we pray everyday for Heavenly Father help. Her daughter's hand was hurting one day and she thought there was no way she could go to church, so she prayed and told Heavenly Father she wanted to go to church and to help them and then a couple minutes later the daughters hand was fine! There's also a story about how she wanted meat dumplings but she didn't buy them even though she really wanted them and then later her brother came by and gave her some. She said she knows that God hears our prayers and that as long as we have confidence in God, He will provide miracles!
It was so touching and I was really proud and happy of how far she's come. Some stuff happened with her though and her husband does not want her to be baptized right now so she's going to wait a bit longer for her husband to agree and so she can have her children attend her baptism. But I have faith that she can still be baptized sometime soon, she is so loved by the ward and everyone is praying for her!!

This past Saturday and Sunday were full of miracles, despite the heartbreaking news of wanting to cancel the baptism less than an hour before it started Heavenly Father was still so aware of us and helped us with our missionary work. We started off with no new investigators this week which was really rough and we were unsure of where we were going to get them from. This past Friday we tried the new way of doing planning and setting goals. We set out some plans and were committed to trying to reach our goals. We called up some potentials and one of them answered. Her name was 魏小姐. She was super cool cause she had checked the little I'm interested in English class and we've never been able to meet with her but then she made time to meet with us. She liked it so much that she was like I want you to meet my grandson and teach him too!!

A super cool miracle we had was at church. A members two sisters came to visit and they are all members except for one of the older sisters. (there's three older sisters and two came to church) They brought the older sisters children to church and they referred them to us and we set up with them!! It was such a cool member referral cause our stake president comes up to me and he's like do you have time right now and I am like of course and then he introduces us to them and the sister just set it all up and we are teaching them at the members house!!

I am super excited cause right now we are getting an okay amount of member referrals and it's the most I have ever received in any area!!

One of 謝姊妹's (Sister Xie) 學妹 (classmate) moved to 中壢 (Zhongli) to go to school and it was so cool cause she didn't know my companion moved to this area and now she was interested in learning about our church. she is in 台中 (Taichung) for 過年 (New year) but because we have phones we have been able to Line her and video teach her!

Nonspiritual thoughts:

You don't know my name? Do you want to receive my punch? - 謝姊妹 to an elder in our district that forgot her name.

I plucked my 同伴's (Companion) eyebrows and tamed them lol. 

I sleep inside the mosquito net so they won't bite me

Temple day at the Taipei Temple

"This is not my day"

Hello!! What is up? This week was definitely better than last week. Some adjusting period and just working together, Sister Xie and I have been able to see some real cool miracles! This week we made some big goals to work with members and visit a lot of them and it was super cool to see some progress with them! 

Angelina had some hiccups with interviews and stuff but she is going to get baptized this Saturday!! It's been really awesome to see how the ward has been helping her and really working to help her work towards baptism! Really...if it wasn't for the ward we would not be where we are at. They have been so supportive and super helpful with taking care of her children at church. She even told us this cool miracle where her child was feeling not so well but she wanted to go to church and so she did a prayer and then all of a sudden her child was okay and she was able to come to church!! Heavenly Father really does help us when we have the right intentions! Let me tell you a little bit about Angelina, she's been searching the church for FIVE YEARS. She's been through a ton of missionaries and with having children and some other stuff happening, it's now her time!! It's amazing how things work in God's plan, His plan is truly not our plan. I'm sure the missionaries five years ago to now would have had her baptized a long time ago, but the thing is we cannot force our time or wants on God's plan. It's truly humbling to see how our will must align with God's will, His will never moves...it's unchanging. I have learned so much this past transfer and this past week to accept God's timing. God knows what I need and it may not be what I want, but His plan and His timing is WAY BETTER than anything I could think of.

​

It's been super cool to also work with some part member families, we've really been trying to focus on working with LA's and part members this week. There is this man in our ward who his wife wasn't super into believing into God. She would say that she acknowledged His existence but would never go as far as worshiping Him. She was never super willing to meet with us. But this past Wednesday was a huge break through!! We got to meet with her and share a bit more about God and she said she was willing to listen to more about Him!! ​

This week we have been sharing a really cool article with our members called "A Yearning For Home" by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf. https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2017/10/a-yearning-for-home?lang=eng It starts off with a family that goes on a trip with their dog but on the trip they lose their beloved dog!! A little while later the dog (well a super skinny version of their dog) comes back and everyone was super amazed on how this dog could find his way home. Isn't that cool that all of us have that yearning for home? a place where we belong? A place where people love us? This talk has really been so important for me this past week. When things get hard it's easy to forget our Heavenly Father and to complain (which I'm going to be honest I did for a bit...) but to always remember that He is calling out to us to return home. How can I return home if I am the way I am right now? That is something that the mission has truly taught me and that I am so grateful for, it's that everyday we can change and we can become better. No matter how far we've gone or how much we've turned away from our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, "The Savior extends His hand to you. And, as He did to those fishermen who stood long ago on the banks of the Sea of Galilee, with infinite love He speaks to you: “Come, follow me.”

If you will hear Him, He will speak to you this very day.​"​Christ reaches out to all of us saying to follow Him and when we do, just like President Uchtdorf states, our lives will be better!!

 Nonspiritual thoughts:

​WHERE TO EVEN BEGIN WITH THIS WEEK HAHAHAHA. So to start off with this "Today is not my day" It's because one day we were biking to all these super far places and then on our way back home my companion's bike chain goes WACK. It just is twisted and we are like how did this happen?!?!?! We call up our Elder's and they biked thirty minutes to come and help us. They fix her bike and they are like you should go to a bike shop and get it fixed. My companion says nah it's fine and so we keep biking. Later in the evening we are biking to this LA's house which is in the opposite direction of our dinner with a member that evening. As we are almost to their house and crossing an intersection, I see her rain poncho come out from her water bottle holder and FLY INTO HER CHAIN. She starts ripping it out of her gear and chain but avast no luck. We leave our bikes on the side of the road, tell the Elders and walk to our appointment. The Elders went and looked at her bike and ended up ruining it even more! They tore off a piece of her bike and it was just a mess. So we got it taken to the bike shop with the help of members and then we went home to grab something real fast. But in the middle of an intersection her bag falls into the street!! Then we got home and I went to the bathroom and then all of a sudden I hear this coughing and a "Sister Chao what is this stuff?" I come out and I see my companion rubbing her eyes and crying/coughing. I look at it and it says "Body Protect" My companion had sprayed PEPPER SPRAY. She thought it was body perfume!!!!! ​

​

​Then as we are going out the door she looks at her watch and starts flicking it. Her second hand of her watch had fallen out and was just chilling in the corner of her watch face. She even melted the spatula during cooking. That day was definitely not her day.

​Yesterday we were doing an all English day and we usually hug before we leave the door. When we hugged I asked her if she had the keys. She then looks at me and puckers her lips and says keys? I realize that she had thought I said kiss!!! I then start saying NO NO NO KEYS. KEYS. KEYS.

She also melted our spatula HAHAHAHAHHAA. Literally so hilarious. ​

This Elder in my district was like look at this. and then he walks out with this outfit

All the yummy food that the members cooked for us.

Eating out in Taiwan is very inexpensive

Bowling on our last Pday

 

Riding the train to Taipei temple

Met up with Sister Lim before going to the temple

 

--

趙姐妹

--

Sister Tiffany Chao

Taiwan Taipei Mission

4/F, #24, Lane 183

Jin Hua Street

Da-an, Taipei 106

Taiwan