Temple Day!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MELANIE. I DIDN'T FORGET. ONE PIC IS FROM THE DAY YOUR BDAY WOULD BE IN TAIWAN AND THEN I ACCIDENTALLY HAD THE DATE WRONG BUT I PROMISE IT WAS THE NEXT DAY SO IT WOULD'VE BEEN YOUR BDAY IN AMERICA. I am also wearing my guang light we have to wear at night.

So the reason I am emailing on a Wednesday this week is because today is our Pday instead of Monday and we are going to the temple!! I am so excited because it will be my first time going to the temple in Taiwan and we always see a lot of miracles at the temple...so who knows what will happen??? Also we are going to try and get Mexican food while we we are there because in Taipei there's one place that actually has real Mexican food?? I forgot to tell you guys that last time I was in Taipei for temple tours I got to try the famous beef noodles and mango shaved ice. I love everything here. 

Honestly can I just say I love Xizhi so much??? The people here are really nice even when they are rejecting you and we have the amazing opportunity to teach FAMILIES. I love teaching families so much...like SO MUCH. I am just so blessed to be in the area I am and to have the amazing ward and companion I have. They are all so supportive of me when I try and speak Chinese and am scared haha. I didn't introduce myself the first week because they had too many speakers so I thought I was in the clear till my talk (on the 29 and I don't want to talk about it because I am so scared) but then this past Sunday they called me up to introduce myself along with one other Elder and my eyes were like O.o. My emotions went a lot like this -- :D → :)  → :|  → D:  → O.o  → (~o.o)~ (Me wanting to run away). I went up and people knew I was shy so they gave a comforting laugh. Okay it wasn't that comforting of a laugh but it wasn't mean so it's all good. Anyways I introduced myself and bore my testimony...it wasn't too bad and people were really nice to me afterwards. We also just have awesome peikes (where we teach with a member present) people are just so willing to help us missionaries out. 

MIRACLES:

We are teaching a lady named Guo jiemei and she used to be a former in our phone. She's the one we called because she had miracle right next to her name. So we have been trying to teach her and she would cancel a lot until she started calling us one day?? She smokes a lot and so sometimes she forgets a lot of what we teach her but we have been trying to work with her to start quitting. So we made the goal for her to cut down to 17 a day by today and we would give up chocolate with her. We call her everyday to ask her how she is doing and two days ago she went to bed only smoking 10 that day!!! WHAT A MIRACLE BECAUSE SHE DIDN'T THINK SHE COULD DO IT ALL.  We have really been trying to motivate her and to help her have the desire to give it up. Ever since she's been meeting with us, my companion and I have been able to tell a difference because she is becoming so much more coherent and talkative with us. She also came to the full three hours of church this past Sunday! We invited her on Saturday and she kept saying maybe...but we said we would save a seat for her and when we got there on Sunday after our MM meeting she was already there waiting for us!! 

Yesterday a lot of our lessons were being canceled but we were meeting with Pan Jiemei who is a mother from our Mommy and child English class (which is honestly one of the smartest ideas I've ever heard of in Xizhi because it gets all the stay at home moms to come with their tiny children). She understand the Holy Ghost SO MUCH. Like it's almost mind blowing how clear it is to her. She's super buddhist but she is so open to our gospel. We were also meeting up with her later in the day because she had to give us something and we were going to give her the Book of Mormon. On our way to meeting her at the 7/11 (which there are so many in Taiwan but conveniently there is one right behind our building) we saw this really cute family that was so happy. We ended up setting up with them and it turns out they are Christian?!?!?! WHICH IS A MIRACLE IN TAIWAN CAUSE YOU DON'T MEET A LOT OF CHRISTIAN FAMILIES. I am so excited to meet with them because they seem so cool. 

We also got to meet Liu Jiemei's husband!!! Which is a complete miracle because he usually is at work and so we have only been teaching her and her daughter. So he's kind of Christian?? We were on our way back from doing splits with the STL's and everything was just so perfect it had to be God's doing. We usually have to wait a long time for the MRT and train since they don't line up on schedules but that day everything was conveniently there waiting for us. When we met them (they live like two buildings away from us) in the giant courtyard behind our building, they were about to go in for dinner before we stopped them!! We are teaching their entire family tomorrow!!! AHHHHH GOD IS SO GOOD.

We also teach an English class every Wednesday and I have the opportunity to teach the children's class which is an awesome opportunity to find parents since they sit in with their children. I was teaching how to say different sounds and one of them was "ch" so I asked the questions "What church do you go to?" So I was able to get a background of what religion they believe in. Most of them said Buddhist but two of them said they were "free". At the end of English class we always close with a spiritual thought and I decided to talk about prayer. I taught them how to pray, and while I was teaching it one of the mom's who said she was "free" was following along and prayed!! It was a total miracle!! 

On our way back from the hospital in Taipei to the mission home (don't freak out just read the first part of my nonspiritual thoughts) we got in a taxi with these other two senior missionaries and it turns out the taxi driver was a Christian and that he thinks family is super important and he wants them to have so much happiness. (bonus he also thinks our temple is really pretty) We ended up giving him a pamphlet thingy and we have him as a referral for the missionaries in Neihu!! 

I LOVE TAIWAN AND I JUST REALLY LOVE XIZHI.

nonspiritual thoughts:

Okay if you ever tell anyone that you have a problem here, everyone flocks to you and has their own solutions...and none of them are ever the same. Don't freak out but I went to the hospital last pday (they don't just have doctors like in America..you have to go to a hospital to see one) because I was having a weird reaction to a bug bite on my hand and the mission nurse suggested going to a doctor. So I had told a couple people about it (they might had already seen billion of bug bites like the one I have) and after that I was given like 10 different medicines for the next three days. People here are too giving.

I also almost slipped on a tortilla wrapper yesterday. Why is my life like this?

I also totally fell from my bike LOL and because of that I am now officially a biking missionary! :-) It wasn't that bad though but it was bound to happen at some point. Don't worry it wasn't in a busy street or anything. I just laughed at myself like I usually do when I am embarrassing. 

Also there are so many tiny steps in Taiwan and I don't ever look down at where I am walking so I always trip. I am just a walking ball of clumsiness. One day I will have a day where I don't slip or trip. One day. 

I accidentally missed a word in the first vision and so I said that Joseph Smith said Jesus Christ was his son....SO CLOSE SISTER CHAO. SO CLOSE. It's okay cause I realized it like two seconds later and my sweet companion helped me out. SO CLOSE. 

Bye, got to get ready for the temple trip. Love you all. Be safe and stay healthy!

Love,

--

趙姐妹

Pictures:

So this one is from when we were in Taipei to go to the doctors.

Pics for Melanie's bday.

With Jia Lin. She got converted a year ago and she leaves today for her mission!