Who is Sherry and where did February go?

I can't believe February is already almost over?!?! I feel like yesterday was just barely the start of February and now it is almost over!! This week has been so fun and so crazy. I'll start off with the bike ride to Muzha for the zoo... It was an hour bike ride from our area to the zoo. Carol and I felt like dying when we were biking up the HUGE MOUNTAIN and I may or may not have been screaming on my way up some of the hills. It was sooo tiring. The way down the mountain was the best, we went so fast!! We went to the zoo and it was a lot of fun, afterwards we got to go to eat Korean BBQ chidaobao (All you can eat) and I was so excited because...we all know how much I love food. Anyways...on to the miracles of this week!!!

Miracles:

Our English class hasn't really had any new people recently but this week was amazing!! We were having English meeting right before the English class was supposed to start when all of a sudden a girl comes in early! She's all like, "Oh I was googling an English class around here and I found this one!" And we were all like   ok....so we ended English meeting early so we could teach her and we ended up teaching her the first lesson and gave her a baptismal date!!! 

We were also in U-town one day because it started POURING HERE and so we tried doing finding in U-town which is a mall here in Xizhi. We were on the lower floor where all the food is and we met this girl named Yang Kai Ching. We set up to meet up with her the following week and we just slipped in the invitation to go to church. Well yesterday she came to church!! She stayed for all three hours and even though we haven't taught her really anything yet except a little bit about prayer, when she was asked in the Gospel Principles class how prayer can help her she said, "I think it will bring me peace." My companion and I were just like

We also called the phone numbers on some old information papers for the English class student and there was one that I called where I had to kind of guess the last number on. Well on this one we ended up calling a 76 year old man!! It was so crazy hahahaha, well he ended up referring his family to us and we invited them to English class this week!!! 

I also have my first RC!! Her name is Sherry!!!!! She is a 16 year old who has a boyfriend that is in our ward. She said that at first when she starting meeting with us she didn't really know why or why she would do the things we invited her to do. She then said that even though she doesn't completely understand everything, she knows that this is the right choice for her. I honestly am so happy for her and her boyfriend had the opportunity to baptize her! God is so good and it is amazing to see the way that Christ's gospel can change lives. 

Nonspiritual thoughts:

We also had this ward activity where we could invite investigators to and it was how to make Strawberry pie. It was going great and we all are watching this guy in our ward teach us how to bake when all of a sudden our bishop starts wheeling in this huge cart of cups (like a classy cart you see at tea time in movies) and I'm like...okay? Then he wheels around another cart full of herbs and I'm like...what is happening. He then starts taking out his mini boombox to play Canon in D. So...basically our bishop is an herb master and likes to make his own healthy tea.

We with Carol and our District Elders

All of us at the zoo

Me and the panda

 

Sherry, her boyfriend and us

 

Our bishop and his herbs

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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

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