Okay okay okay, I wasted so much time fixing my pictures on the computer this week, there are only like 20 minutes left so we'll see what I can type in that time frame, and that's that. And that's life.
This week last Preparation Day I spent in Taipei I went back to the doctor and the problem is still there, so more medicines....I'll go back next month and evaluate again. It's just annoying to me to see the doctor every other Preparation day, so I told him I'll go back next month. He said that's fine. Health issues on a mission are kind of like mosquitoes...if you can imagine what I mean.
After seeing the doctor, we spent the Preparation day...in the park next door that's really beautiful. We took pictures, but I didn't turn out very good in most of them. You can see the extra weight I gained at the New Year's Holiday...and I don't like it. I already made a goal to go on a slight diet next transfer so I can feel better about pictures. Ha. The curse of being short...not a lot for your weight to go.
After the day, at night we went and met with a new investigator, A Sister Lora Luo. She is really good. She came to general conference last week. We didn't even know until then...but that's so awesome she came. She is really searching for a church that is closer than the one she goes to in Longtan. Which, yes, is quite far from here. It was in my zone back when I was in Zhongli. However, she said she has to pick the religion that feels right to her...which is great.I thought she would really identify with Joseph Smith, but she didn't really connect their similarity as I hoped...but she is really awesome because she is completely willing to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. As missionaries, our biggest hope is only that, they will read and pray. That's what this church is about...the testimony that the Book of Mormon is true or not. So, I'm excited to teach her and continue to help her with her studies. She had a really cool experience with prayer that helped her see that God really exists, and now she's just in a learning process.
With Vera, she's had kind of a hard week. We usually keep in daily contact, but starting Thursday afternoon, we couldn't get in touch with her until Sunday. And especially me, because we did exchanges, so I didn't see her all week. It's weird, it's just we are used to talking to her or seeing her, so it felt really odd not to see or talk to Vera for a week. It's not that long, but you just get used to being in certain people's company. I'm keeping her in my prayers, and she's still coming to church, so I know she'll do okay. She's going to have to change her baptism, but that is okay. It's best she is ready when it happens then that she goes too fast and isn't ready. The ward has really been doing their part to welcome her in. The bishop called us himself this morning and asked when the next time we were meeting with her. He told us he would be coming, we didn't even need to ask him to. I think he talked to her yesterday and knows she's going through a hard time. He wants to help her out, so he's willing to sacrifice his busy busy time because he really wants to help as much as he can. It really touches me that the ward loves her as much as we do and is willing to do anything to help her out. Everyone is really rooting for her and praying for her.
This week we really saw a huge miracle. 15 people came to church. Back in a really progressing time in Zhongli, that was always our goal, but we'd be short a person or two every time. This week our goal was just 6, we thought that was optimistic. Last week we made a high goal, and didn't even come close. A lot of people who said they were coming couldn't come at the last minute, etc. The Lord sees our efforts and blesses us when we least expect it. It was amazing. 6 of them were girls who wanted to interview us about our church for their life science class, so we told them they could ask us questions and take some of our time, if we could teach them a short message and they could come to church. Even if they hadn't been willing, we would have done the interview, but they were really great and all came. One of them said after school ends at the end of May, she will think about coming back, because she really likes church. So that was cute. Then, we just had pretty much all of our good investigators we've been meeting with come. It was so amazing and such a blessing.
Ji Rushuang came and I was super super excited because I got to know her in a way I never did before. She's a 28 year old girl who works all the time. We are really similar in age, so we just had some time to have some girl talk in between the meetings and I came to love her a lot more. She's a really great person who is really dedicated to family and to work. She is doing her best to come to church, even though she works 13 hours a day, and has to come to church in the afternoon, after an 8 hour shift. It's a sacrifice, but I know its well worth it.
This week it was fun to see Melody too. We once again had to do splits with members, so I went with the bishop's wife and taught her the 3rd lesson. Her mother joined for the last 20 minutes of the lesson, so then, being a 14 year old girl, Melody got a little sulky that her mom told her that they had to read scriptures together, because the mom really likes to have time together, and sees the Book of Mormon as a way to do that, which I think is awesome. She's not really interested in meeting with us, but she's willing to do anything to help Melody progress and prepare herself for her baptism. But besides her sulky stage, she was really happy to see us, and really does love learning the gospel. She is coming to Young Woman's activities now, and is really consistent about church. Her friend, Jialin, also comes with her. We haven't met with Jialin yet, but I think after school ends she'll have more time...so they both are doing awesome.
I had fun this week on exchanges with Zhongli. I love Sister Ho a lot and I learn a lot from her example. She even contacts the girls who sell betelnut (a drug to stay away from in the Word of Wisdom. This nasty thing that makes their whole mouth red...she just sees the worth in every individual and wants them to know that God loves them. I just was really touched by seeing her contact that girl...and we had a lot of fun, chatting and just discussing things. Not to mention it's fun to go back to my old area. I get to see some people I love from back in the days. Chen Yiting showed up at the church and gave us 2 referrals. It was nice to work with her.
And also, Saturday we did temple tours. Saturday temple tours are really exhausting, but rewarding too. We see a lot of miracles. Towards the end of the day, a member brought in her daughter-in-law. Lately she's had a lot of deaths in her family, but we didn't know that. We took her to the temple book and talked about the importance of preparing to enter the temple, so that we can be with our family forever, and not have to worry about death. Then, we took her to talk about Joseph Smith and the first vision. It's a spiritual happening. As I was quoting Joseph Smith's words, this lady started to cry. She was feeling the spirit really strongly. At the end of the tour, she gave her name to be visited by the missionaries in Xinzhu. It was just a really good tour and the spirit was so strong. It's nice to go to tours twice a transfer and have the opportunity to feel the spirit as you give members and investigators tours for that purpose.
Well! one minute left! I guess no time to talk about the other stuff I could have. This was an awesome week. Love you guys!
Sister Flora Bruno
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