All in A Missionary's Day: Baptizing Four Then Hearing President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

You know what? Yesterday Dieter F. Uchtdorf came to our mission...and spoke to us...and between the meeting with us missionaries and the member meeting, it hit me that I am going home. I guess it hit with perfect timing because I had promised my companion we would not even focus on that I was going home until after all the baptisms...and, they all happened. The baptism by water and the baptism by fire...and only hours later listening to a prophet of the Lord speak to us about how going home was both a happy and a sad thing...and to not waste;our time, it hit me that my time was one more week. Don't get me wrong, it's not like that I think that my mission is over...I will put my heart into this week as much as I can...but now with this Preparation day, and me interviewing with President Sunday...I have the exit interview letter to write...stuff to pack...and about10 people who have reminded me a couple times that if I don't write for their mission bye bye books they will be sad...I've got my lunches and dinners...nights and mornings all cut out for me! But yeah, it hit me yesterday and it was kind of a weird feeling. The last two weeks I said I'd let myself feel that way, but it didn't dawn on me that I really WOULD until it happened. Crazy crazy. I'll have a lot of decisions encountering me when I get home, with the news of the economy, etc etc....but all and all, if I have learned one thing on my mission, it is that Heavenly Father loves me and I will be okay. So onto the stuff you guys all actually want to hear instead of my whole mind thought process...That stuff is boring.

Missionary Letter: Becoming a New Person

Sunday, June 28, 2009 11:28 PM

Hello again from Zhongli. From the looks of it, I will be here forever...my companion leaves two weeks early during this transfer, so either I will go senior for 2 weeks with a native Taiwanese who will become a missionary for 2 weeks, or I will become a three-some with other sisters. That would be hard though because the closest sisters are Bade and Taoyuan. Both are a train ride and then like 10-15 more minute bike ride. So it wouldn't be easy to visit my investigators during that time. But it would be hard to be with a native Taiwanese who doesn't really know the missionary lessons and would be unable to speak to me in English. My Chinese is not at par to be able to handle that yet, and I highly doubt it will until I change companions....But yeah, I think white washing isn't a super common affair, so unless something uncommon happens, I'll be in Zhongli this and next transfer. But that's just my personal opinion...you never know.

President Grimley will be here on Wednesday. We saw President and Sister Nielson for the last time here in Zhongli on Sunday. They came and spoke in the 2nd ward. It was nice to see them for the last time...and we finally got those letters we wrote to them...My companion lost the letters twice...so we had to bike all over the world and waste a lot of time and energy both times just to get them...but I put a lot of effort into them, so that really was a blessing that we were able to find them again both times. The Nielson's told me I looked good and had a light in my eyes and stuff. I guess I was happy to hear that, because its true. I really have changed a lot from when I first got here and I'm a lot better. Still a lot of things I need to change, but as long as I'm making steps and becoming a better person a little every day, I figure that's what really matters. You can't become a new person in one day. I used to want to, and tried, and failed. I mean, maybe some people can, but for me, it's just step by step.

But yeah, it was really cool, President had us missionaries get up and we sang I am a Child of God. It was a really neat experience. I saw a lot of woman crying in the crowd. I think it was a good thing for our ward.

Then later that night, we had a missionary fireside for the other ward. So this was a good week for the wards.

This week has been pretty slow. It hasn't even been a week since we wrote. I guess the cool thing of the week is that 11 people were at church. So that's really good. Especially since we only have 2 people with dates. But honestly, I was still a little :( because I had a goal for 15, since 20 people said they were coming. My companion said she highly doubted that many would come. She was suprised 11 came. So I guess wo de xinxin bu gou. My faith wasn't enough. Maybe one day.

Mom and Dad...I need you guys to send me a family picture I asked for forever ago! Also I need a way to get my pictures from my camera to the computer...I've been borrowing my companions and she leaves in a couple weeks. I told dad forever ago for just a couple bucks you can get something that converts my sd card to a jump drive. So if you could find that really soon so I can keep sending pictures that would be great!

And gigi, can you try to get me the following addresses, I would like to write....Amanda Lowder, Sara Medina, Nick Drake, and Cole. Matt Moses will probably have Cole's address, the other ones have facebook. So if you could do that for me, it would be great. I thought of other ones before, but now that's all I can remember.

Okay well time is up, byebye.

Missionary Letter: Haowan (Progress in Zhongli, Tawain)

Wednesday, June 24, 2009 6:06 AM

This week was a lot of fun, and I want to send pictures, so once again I'm going to write as fast as possible. And since you put important information up front in things like newspapers, next week Preparation day is going to be on Monday, or your Sunday night, we get move calls Friday. So only Annika and Gigi emailed me, and I still want to hear from them again, but by Sunday night I would like Desi to write me that long email that disappeared I was promised a LONG time ago, and I'd love to see pregnant pictures from Gen and Stuart, I know you have them! And since I can't be there I need to see the pictures! hehe. And mom and dad!!!! You guys are supposed to email me every week! So you can't forget.

This week went by pretty fast. President Nielson is leaving here pretty soon, so we had our last interviews with him as president. It was a sad and happy occasion. I got to talk to Sister Nielson for awhile and I really got to see how a mission presidents wife can be involved in the missionary work. I found out that she receives inspiration about missionaries health and stuff. So yeah, the wives have a really big part in this work. We had lots of laughs. She's such a smart woman. I like the Nielson's a lot. I bet I'll love the Grimley's too. I'm so excited to meet them.

This week was just a happy week. Yesterday we didn't have a very planned out day and I thought it would be really slow, but it ended up being a lot of fun, and we visited an awesome family, and our last appointment was with the Li family, with Yvonne and her husband, and the Shan family did it with us. It was so good. The Shan family talked about how the mom and dad had split up and how they both ended up investigating the church, how the mother was a member referral, and the father saw a flyer about families and thought it was really great and realized his family had fallen apart, and they both investigated, but went to 2 different wards, so didn't even know. Then she eventually was told she has to call her husband for permission to be baptized and they were investigating the church...they got back together and now they are the cutest family I have ever seen and they love each other so much. And the Li family just really needed to hear their story. Yvonne was crying and her husband said he didn't realize how important families were before, and how he knows that studying about the church should bring them closer, but he has to slowly try to find a belief in God. Which the Elders are working on that with him! And doing great. So I'm excited for them. They are both progressing now and it is now something I see happening in the next few transfer that they get baptized.

My other favorite investigator we have right now, Rita, is just so great. I am happy when I visit her. She's willing to make a lot of changes in her life, but last lesson I think we threw too much on her at once, but it's okay, because now we know her problem is the Sabbath because it's her husbands only day off, so clearly we need to also get her husband interested to really help her. But for now she's just so cute and great, she was willing to keep every other commandment except the Sabbath day we told her about so far, and she even told us she'd invite her husband to church and see what he thought about the Sabbath day. So I'm excited for her.

Today we went to a theme parklike place with our new investigator, Lin Yuting and 2 new members, and all the Zhongli 2nd ward missionaries. I think it really helped her get to know us, and she likes church and is really good friends with the 2 boys baptized last week, so I'm excited to start seeing more of her. She's so cute. So now I will try to send pictures of today! Bye bye!

This Week: Missionary Letter

Tuesday, June 9, 2009 10:45 PM

Hey everyone!

I don't have as much time to write this week because first I took care of some business for my ward mission leader and an activity that I hope works out for our Young Women's, but since I can't email non-family members, I had to send it to gigi to have her forward it to the people I needed it sent to. Haha. So funny how many paths I had to go through to send 2 short emails. Thanks for doing that for me Gigi! But yeah I told our ward mission leader about having this testimony sharing opportunity with a ward from America, so I hope that it ends up being something they are able to do, because I know it will help them to be able to express their testimonies and everything. Some of the mothers here have expressed a concern about their children not having testimonies of the gospel, so it would be a good way for their parents to see that they really do have testimonies, written out and all. The only concern is time, so we will see what time frame she's on.

So just a really fast overview since I have only a couple minutes remaining, this week we had zone conference. It was our last one with President and Sister Nielson. It was very touching. There were a lot of tears. But good tears too. Everyone was sad to know this was our last one with them, but there were so many very strong testimonies. I really loved the two zone conferences and one mission conference I had with the Nielson's. Even though I was only here 2 transfers with them, I feel like they really love their missionaries and they are really amazing and great to us, so I am sad to see them go. But I'm sure our new mission president, Grimley will be great. We still have 3 more weeks with the Nielson's, then our mission will change. Taiwan will go down to two missions instead of three, and Taipei boundaries will change. It's kind of bittersweet, you know? Because change is a lot of fun it makes life interesting and each new day unique. But then at the same time change is incredibly hard because you learn to love people a lot. And then in seconds they are gone. Everyone always says the reason a mission prepares you for marriage is because you are with a companion all the time. But I've started to think a big reason people are more ready to get married after a mission is because they know what change is like. You change areas, companions, investigators. Your life changes a lot on a mission. Every transfer. Things aren't stable. I think it makes you feel like when you get home, you are ready for stability. Or at least, in my personal opinion it would. Everyone is different. Haha, just since President and his wife are leaving and wont be able to give everyone parting advice, they have been asking them to give them advice before they leave. So then it was on my mind for a couple minutes during zone conference and that's the conclusion I came to. Although I don't see myself getting married really soon after my mission. But I'll definitely be more ready than I was back in college, when a lot of people my age were getting married.

Okay that subject is boring now for another year at least...lets see something else at zone conference was just they talked about the fire with the baptism covenant. They talked about how we would have fire of adversity/trials. That brought a new meaning to the baptism of fire to us. In District meeting yesterday, Elder Lords asked us why it was that after baptism, it seemed like more adversity was prevalent (sp?) in our lives. The response I gave that came to my mind, although I'm not sure I'm completely right or wrong, was that with the gift of the Holy Ghost, we were then more accutely able to feel the power of the adversary working in our lives. That it was an awareness thing partly. And I said some other stuff I don't remember, but E. Lords responded that what I said sounded good, and another reason he thought it was that way is because when we make correct choices, the adversary isn't happy and is going to work doubly as hard to make us transgress, because he doesn't want us to be happy. He read to us from Moses chapter 1 about Satan. Satan is creepy in the Pearl of Great Price. I read PoGP in my first transfer and decided that. So yeah. That was neat that President and Sister Nielson talked about that and brought it to our attention.

So last Preparation day, we went down to Yingge and made pots. It was a lot of fun. I have some fun pictures I'll send one of these Preparation Days where we have time to pay for more time on the computer so we can send pictures, but today isn't one of them because in 8 minutes we are headed over to Taipei for Temple day. We get one every transfer. How lucky am I to be in this mission and get a Temple day once a transfer on preparation day. Pretty lucky I think :). The other mission gets to come once a yearish. And people in our mission too far away don't get to either. So I'm lucky to be in Zhongli, far enough from Taipei that it's a TAD cooler...but close enough it's not impossible to go for temple tours and temple day. By the way, I found out Taipei is nicknamed the concrete jungle...for good reason. It's hot here and it's not even summer yet! I'm so glad that when it's starting to get this hot next year I'm going home! I think it would be very hard for me to get through two summers here. AHHH. Me, accustomed to Idaho sent here to Taiwan. Haha. I'm hot! And it's really humid. Some days right before and after the rain it's hard for me to breathe. People used to say that about Rexburg, but I didn't feel that way. But now I do in the humidity. :)

Our investigators are doing okay. We found 6 new ones last week so I'm really excited about a new pool of investigators. My companion and I have been praying for new ones. We also fasted for them to come to church and the one we wanted most to come did! So our prayers and fasts are being answered. It's hot and the work is progressing. Life is good!

I didn't hear from mom and dad this week, don't forget to write me!

K bye!

Missionary Emails: Barf-a-rama

Sunday, May 24, 2009 11:52 PM

Well, it looks like last weeks letter didn't send through. Maybe it was because the computer had only one minute left, I don't know, but lucky you because now you get two letters from me this week! And in less than a week too, so it's okay that I only got one letter from dad a paragraph long telling me how disappointed he was I didn't email him today, when I tried to..haha. Because that's KIND of my fault. I didn't expect much today because I didn't mention that we were getting move calls and so this P-day is a different day. I'm kind of sad though because I was hoping someone would tell me about why my investigator thought that about the DaVinci Code. And mom was probably really confused about that letter I forwarded to her, but now it will make more sense.

This week has been quite the week. Saturday night was a not so great experience. I got a really bad migraine during our lesson at 2. And I had a hard time focusing...but we got through the lesson without it being AWFUL bad...but then it started being a pounding headache once they left. We ended around 3:15 and we had a 3:30 brunch appointment with a lady in our English class, who isn't too interested in church, but she loves us and wanted us to come to her house to eat. But she ended up having a rushed day so she couldn't come to the church until 4. So anyways, we get to her house around 4:15, and I straightaway run into her bathroom and vomit up part of the xigua (watermelon, or literally western melon) drink that our 1 o'clock appointment had us drink. And I was grateful that our lunch was late that day so I didn't have too much to barf up. I thought I was done but was weary about eating anything at her house, because my headache was pretty bad and my stomach didn't seem like it would jieshou shiwu (accept food). So I was just upfront and told her I had just barely tu'ed and didn't think I could eat. She was nice about it. She gave me this drink with herbs and had me put this killer burning stuff on my head. It's like vicks for your head. It was really weird feeling and I wished I hadn't...but too late...hahaah. But it was an awful feeling. I didn't barf again at her house, but I just couldn't focus, and my head was like radiating from the Chinese medicine she had me put on my head. I felt bad because I like her a lot and wanted to talk, but it was hard. But she understood. She tried to get me to go rest, but I just wanted to get back to the church and I thought I would be fine as long as I wasn't barfing. She was in the car with us, driving us back to the church and telling me to take a rest...and I was like, I'm fine I'm fine...we have a 7 o'clock, I'll rest tonight. But then...we were one stoplight from the church and I barf in my mouth...but I didn't want to get it in her car, so I was just praying, please let me not barf anymore until I get out of the car...please please please...because I was just holding it in my mouth with my cheeks all puffed up. And the second we stopped in front of the church I dashed out of the car and barfed in the cute little bush right outside the church. I thought I was okay and went back to get my stuff and apologize, but then more barf came...and I barely made it to the bush..so my companion got my stuff and the lady drove off, and I proceeded to barf all over the bush, all over my shoes, all over myself. In front of everyone on the street because I couldn't make it inside the church. So after I was covered in barf on my arm, shoes, etc etc, we went in the church and called our 7 o'clock and rescheduled...I tried to clean up enough to ride my bike home...then we went home. And I took off all my barfy things, including my shoes and put them in the washer...then I got in the shower and washed off my legs and arms with soap...I mean it was sick because it was everywhere, my socks, my undershirt, you name it, it was covered in barf. Nice visual huh? :) And then my companion and I talked until bedtime because I was in too much pain to fall asleep. I took some Excedrin and it made it a little better, but I wasn't able to sleep after midnight. So that was fun for me! We had biked a lot that day, so it could have been heat exhaustion, it's just weird to think it was heat exhaustion though because I drink a LOT of water..? I have this huge herbal life water bottle and I drink it all day. But one other embarrassing thing too, is the lady whose house we were at was all asking me if I was on my period yet in front of her husband and 16 and 12 year old sons. They are just really open here?



Friday night we got move calls. The new transfer starts today. This transfer is only 5 weeks long. We'll get a new mission president on July 1st. So they will do the transfers with the new president. It will be sad to see the Nielsons leave, but I'm sure our new president and his wife will be really great! I'm excited to meet them. Our mission will also grow and get some of the Taizhong (Taichung? depending on your pinyin) mission. Kaosiung will officially close. So this will be a fast transfer. I'm excited because my companion is coordinating sister and coordinates splits, and both the Bade and the Taoyuan sisters are training, so I'll get to see my old MTC friends Sister Watts and Sister Olsen. Oh! And I guess it's important to mention in the move calls, I found out I'm staying here in Zhongli with the same companion. Our district leader got moved, Elder Atwood to Banciao. Sad, it's hard to move when you only have one transfer left! Our zone leader E. Huang went home. And Elder McGee got transferred to Taipei 2nd. It was weird to see so much change. E. Atwood was really unique and a fun district leader. We were sad to see him go. And E. McGee has been here in Zhongli a LONG time. The members really love him, and they will miss him a lot. They were all really sad to hear he was going, but they are great, they'll probably love the new missionaries coming in.

I really loved our district and zone! I realize every time I have to say goodbye to people, I get a little sad, but I'll get to see E. Atwood at zone conference once more, and E. McGee has a little while left. So he'll be around. I guess it will be nice because at conference my companion was so excited to see all these people she knew, but I wasn't that excited because I only knew a select few people. I was excited to see them, but S. Ackerson is down in Hualien so I don't get to see her, so that just made me sad to see some of our MTC district and her to be missing. But each transfer I'll know more people and get more and more excited to see old district/zone members when I do! haha. Like now i get excited to see the 2 girls I went on splits with last transfer too. Woo. Now I'm old. Or at least not a trainee. Older than the brand new olds. And now my Chinese is improving lately. At first it didn't feel like it was, but this last week I feel like I'm understanding a lot more. I'm trying to participate in the lessons more. It's coming really slowly, but surely.

The last event I will talk about this week is exciting news...Li Yufeng, or Sister Lee as my companion calls her in her family emails, I just pinyin the Chinese instead of make it into English, but she actually speaks English REALLY well, so her name in English is Yvonne Lee. But like I was saying, Yu1feng made a baptism goal this week! WOOOO. I was really excited because she is special. Even our bishop and mission leader told us her family is special. She had a goal before and it passed, then she didn't want to make another goal for a long time. It was really nice she was willing to try her faith and make a goal. I don't know if she'll actually get baptized on that goal, which is in 2 weeks, because we want to wait for her husband who might a little longer, but we talked to the Elders and they are going to team up with us on this family since they live closer and can therefore follow up in person more often with him at nights. And they are Elders...So I have a feeling he'll start progressing a little faster and I can totally see them being baptized together this transfer. I have high hopes for them. I really love them a lot. And even if it doesn't happen this transfer, I know they will be baptized.

So yeah, those are the things I remember this week, other than that investigators are pretty much the same, coming along slowly. Not progressing in a lot of ways, church is one of the biggest problems. We are starting to feel like we need some new investigators because some of our old ones are less and less interested. We've been praying for new investigators. I'm sure we'll be blessed this transfer and see miracles. We've already met a lady married to a Canadian who is willing to meet with us, and even her husband said he'd meet with us too. She's funny because she said S. Hill's Chinese is better than her husbands, but her husbands Chinese is pretty good when we spoke to him! It's just probably hard to have the language barrier in a marriage and want to talk about your feelings and not being able to. It should be interesting because we talked about it, and he needs the lessons in English and she needs them in Chinese! So we'll just...um translate everything or something!? We'll figure it out. Maybe after a lesson or two with him he'll be willing to meet with Elders too? We'll see. He said he could see about coming to church next week when we told him there was a translation into English.

Okay I'm going to see how much time I have to send pictures now! bye!

Missionary Letter: Need to Learn Scriptures Better

Tuesday, May 5, 2009 11:08 PM

Not a lot of time this week, so sorry. I just sent a picture of Chen Huiping's baptism. It takes a long time to get pictures on here. Daidai is getting baptized this Saturday. We are also meeting really amazing investigators who are ready to hear the gospel. I'm having a lot of fun. My district is really fun. The Elders are very willing to help us if we ask for something. My companion is working on a list to help make a video for the deaf sign language here and they are coming to the church on their p-day in a couple minutes so that we can make the list on Brother Li's computer, since the sisters can't meet with him alone. We are going to Taipei this Saturday after the baptism to tape the video. She's excited.

We met with two investigators this week. It was very cool. One of them, Zhu Di, or Judy in English...was willing to come to every church activity we have. She's amazing. She was contacted by the zone leader here in Zhongli, Elder Rice, and he passed her over to us. The only problem is she has no job and is living with Jehovah's Witnesses, who give her clothes and a place to live for now...so I don't know what their reaction would be if they knew. She wants to find a job and live independently though, so I'm praying for that. She already made a baptism date.

We also have Wang Zixia who showed up at church last week. We gave her another first lesson and she has her baptism date for the 23rd. She's from China and really nice. She just doesn't really understand why our church is different yet. Hopefully she understands a little more now.

This week was zone conference. It was really good. Our President Nielson is such a nice man and his wife is amazing. She knows her stuff. I learned a lot. They told us to teach our investigators the doctrine, not just the principles and applications, so we need to work on that more.

I realize I don't know the scriptures that well, so I'm going to work on getting to know them more...okay, that's all for this week, I'm calling for mother's day but I still don't have everyone's phone numbers and won't check my email again...So I'll see what I can figure out...I have this phone card with 20 dollars on it it's pin number is xxxx and the toll free number is xxx so if i figure out my phone number I can call you and maybe you guys can call me back with that since I can't use it and it expires in 180 days. We'll see how that all works, I'm not sure yet?

Okay! Time is running out I better send this.

LDS Church Strongly Discourages Parents from Picking Up Their Missionary (Form Letter)

10642
Taiwan Taipei Mission
4F, 24, Lane 183, Chin Hua Street,
Ta An District, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.

March 18, 2009

Dear Mr. and Mrs. F. A. B.,

We extend our warm greetings from Taiwan and express our pleasure in working with Sister B. in this great part of the Lord's vineyard.

From time to time it becomes necessary to clarify policy on certain matters of concern as we have received a new mission president's handbook. It has become necessary to clarify that "Missionaries should travel directly home from their missions...The Church discourages parents from picking up their missionary." (Mission Presidents' Handbook, pg. 67) We encourage all family members of every missionary to be considerate of this policy.

Should you decide otherwise it would be important for you to know the following:

1. Your plans must be based on the release date of the missionary. You should not request a change of release date to accommodate travel plans or commitments.
2. You need to inform the Church Travel Office at least three months in advance if you choose to come pick up your missionary.
3. You are expected to make your own arrangements, including travel, lodging, and meals. The Mission Office and the Area Office Staff or local members will not be able to accommodate anyone making such arrangements.
4. You are expected to make your own travel itineraries or sightseeing activities rather than asking your son or daughter to arrange travel itineraries and sightseeing activities as this greatly distracts from the spirit of proselyting. Please allow Sister B. to keep her promise to devote all her "time and attention to serving the Lord, leaving behind all other personal affairs" (Missionary Handbook pg. 4)

Missionaries are encouraged to serve with all their heart, might, mind and strength until the last day of their mission. "[They] are accountable to the Lord and to their leaders of the Church for how well [they] honor their promise." In addition missionaries are not released until they have been interviewed personally by their home stake president.

We send this letter to request that you support this policy which we know will help your missionary feel they have served faithfully giving all glory and honor to God. They will have completed their mission with honor as they endure valiantly to the end of this sacred time they have had to spend in service to the Lord, His church and His children here in the Taiwan Taipei Mission.

With warmest regards,

President Norman S. Nielson

Missionary Letter: Missions to Collapse from 3 to 2 in Taiwan

Monday, April 13, 2009 12:22 AM

Hey, could someone ask the following people for their current addresses, since school is getting out and I just have people's schools address: Felicia, Matt, Amanda Lowder (I don't have her address at all) ...that's all I can think of for now.

This week was okay. Long because P-day was different last week, so we had to go a lot longer without a little break, but it was fun in a lot of ways too. I'm going to update you in reverse order because that is the easiest to remember. This morning we went to Taoyuan to do our ARC residence cards. It took awhile since we had lunch really quick, and now emailing at 1 is the next thing we are doing. My companion has to register for school, so by the time we get out of here, it will probably be 2:30 and only 3 hours will be left of preparation day...so much for having time to both shop and write the letters I feel like I should...seth, paul, christian, amanda, matt, felicia...I don't have most of their addresses anyways though, so next week will have to suffice for most of them. Oh yeah, I opened my first snail mail letter in Taiwan today. All that it had was one picture. From Christian. Man, some Elder's are so lazy, they send a picture and expect to get a letter in return, my friend James did the same thing back at the MTC, and some of my friends in college had the same thing happen...but I'm thinking he'll get a picture in return. It was actually pretty thoughtful though...it was Christian Burstall downing a bag of Flamin' Hot Cheetos. Given that I still have a bag in my suitcase it was funny and I wasn't envious, but if i got a picture like that in 6 months, it might be a different story.

Yesterday we went down to Taipei...we actually spent since last Sunday in Taipei..we spent the night Sun-Mon, but Yeah Tuesday morning we went into Taipei to do temple tours. It was a lot of fun because it's a different pace, and you aren't rained on all day. We got a really awesome guy, and he came in and he was like..."I'm Buddhist but I believe in Jesus Christ (in Chinese mostly of course), history shows he exists." We walked him through the chapel and showed him pictures of Jesus and he talked to us about how one day he started to wonder his purpose on earth and all these other GREAT questions that we happen to have the answer to. We didn't get to talk about everything because he had stopped in on his way to class, but we told him about Joseph Smith being similar to him and got his number. The obstacle (zhang'ai) though is that his mother fandui's (opposes). That's a word I had to learn here my first day. A lot of mother-in-laws or mothers fandui...so people who even want to be baptized never are because they are very respectful of what their elders say. We have a lady who is pretty much a member, minus being baptized because the mother-in-law won't allow it. Hopefully one day she will soften her heart...But if not, I'm sure as long as she stays strong, the time will come that she will be baptized.

So, now to go further back in history...Elder Bednar came to Taiwan and did meetings with all the missions here, and also he did a broadcast for the members in the cities the mission offices are at, so Kaohsiung, Taichung, and Taipei with the members (which by the way, next month, Kaohsiung and Taichung missions are combining and Taipei will expand and take part of the current Taichung mission if you hadn't heard, so there will only be 2 missions in Taiwan...I'll have to write my friends in Kaohsiung and see what they think of the change and what exactly has been going down...when I have time to write hand letters at all that is)...so anyways, us Zhongli missionaries were told that we weren't exactly allowed to go to the member meeting, since we would go on Monday to mission conference, so we had no plans to go, but on Sunday after going to our 2 wards that our area covers, we went home to eat and do personal study...and we got a call from the assistant's saying that they needed sister Hill to come interpret for a deaf girl at the conference, so we packed our bags and went to Taipei. We spent the night in the mission housing, then the next day we listened to Elder Bednar and asked questions at mission conference. It was amazing. Both nights he let the audience ask questions and answer them. The time went by really fast, and I was totally intrigued. It was a really spiritually uplifting time. He said a lot of things that I need to improve on. OH! and after mission conference, a man in the front, so some kind of bishop or VIP in Taiwan who had spent the last week with Elder Bednar turned to me and was like "Sister Bruno, so nice to meet you!" Or something to that effect...so basically from the conversation with him I found out he is a nice man from Taiwan...who happens to know me through my online blog. EMBARRASSING. I mean, he was nice, he said he had wanted to answer some of my questions about Taiwan he had seen, but it was still embarrassing. And the second time some stranger told me they had seen my Taiwan blog. Gaaah.

But I want to send videos from the MTC and pictures so I'll do a quick quick thing on what Elder Bednar talked about...he told us that our goals as missionaries were to eventually have our members be independent in their faith. That they relied on the Lord and not the missionaries or anyone else. I think that was something really good to hear at the beginning of my mission, because he said we need to teach our investigators one by one...like Jesus did when he let people feel his wounds one by one...it was unique for everyone. So right now before I've ever been able to coherently teach a lesson in Chinese, I already want to be able to make my lessons unique to individuals, because E. Bednar is right, the gospel is a unique experience for everyone, everyone gains and individual testimony, so we need to let our investigators do that by giving them lessons unique to their needs.

And then the other biggest highlight I'll mention is he talked a lot about the natural man, both to the members Sunday night and to us missionaries Monday. He mentioned the scripture about the natural man being an enemy to God when a sweet Chinese girl asked how she could be bold yet meek, and he told her that you could be bold because you KNOW the work you are doing is of God, so you aren't scared to do it, but meek because you know it is the Lord's work and you are weak and dependant on him. And he told the missionaries that we needed to teach the lesson, bring the spirit...and then GET OUT OF THE WAY. To get our natural man out of the way of the investigators feeling the spirit. To teach them not just applications, but the principles and correct doctrine behind applications so they understand what they are doing and why...he mentioned how this is necessary to teach children as well, otherwise they won't understand and be more likely to fall away because they don't have as strong of spiritual power to withstand if they don't understand the doctrine and principle behind the things they are asked to do.

Oh and to Michael, (and my other Priesthood holding readers) a question was asked by a sister about the keys of ministering angels...and E. Bednar said that God won't send literal angels to do stuff that worthy priesthood holders can do, because the priesthood holders have the keys of ministering angels...so then he said that the Young Men's responsibility is to strenghten members, so you remember that is your responsibility, so make sure to serve the people who need help when they give you an opportunity and make sure to see if there is anything the missionaries can have you do like visiting inactive members or something so that they can spend their time on teaching lessons! Because the priesthood is really amazing and you are blessed to have it! A lot of people don't have the influence of the priesthood in their lives yet...and that's where I come in with my other fellow missionaries...telling people about it!

Also, give missionaries referrals! Like L. Tom Perry said in conference, a lot of time is spent looking. It would be really great if more referrals were given by members, try to pray about who would recieve the gospel in their lives that you know, and give the missionaries their information.

In other words, it rains a lot here, I'm always soaking wet when I come home, I'm either drenched in sweat because it was a hot day, and we cover 2 wards area (because we are sisters, and there are 2 companionships of elders in each ward, but we cover the 4 companionships areas! ...in Taiwan sisters teach girls and elders teach boys...well we both teach families, but for singles, it always works like that, we give our male contacts when we have them to elders, and vice versa so the sisters have a lot of appointments since our area is bigger and we have a lot of inactivity, and we try to go see inactives a lot because sometimes all they need is to know nobody cares)...or I am soaking wet. Weather here is def tropical! It's burning outside when it's not raining...but the rain comes a LARGE majority of the days. But i'll probably miss being drenched when summer comes and it's so hot it's ridiculous. haha.

Yeah now i'm going to try to send pictures, so I'll end with that. Taiwan is unique. The food my vegetarian companion eats is really not good to me yet, but I hear most Chinese food is an acquired taste, so maybe by the end of my mission I'll be sad to leave the food...but so far i've only been daring enough to try pigs feet (yes, not vegetarian, it was at a members, and my comp. didn't try it..haha) and dofu. They were both not so good, but bearable. Pigs foot more than dofu. Everyone wants their own businesses, so we have a lot of options and I've only been here a week, so not tried a lot...but i've also had some of the best food of my life here as well. Really good scones and these things that have bread on the outside and sausage inside, no idea the names for foods yet, maybe baozi? Not sure. Anyways yeah...it's fun. It's def. not like American food! I paid a little extra for my cereal and milk to have every morning for breakfast, but it was worth it to me to have one meal I'm used to a day :).

OH, and one last thing, as we were leaving temple tours last night, we ran into a boy who is in the top 14 of the Taiwanese version of American Idol, Super Idol. His name is Benji, Pan jie ming. I wish I knew how to type characters on a Chinese keyboard, but I can't. If you can figure out how to find the right characters, you can watch him on Youtube. He's LDS from Utah. I was going to have Desi tell me if he sang any good, but then I couldn't figure out how to use bopo mofo..

only 9 minutes to try to send pictures! bye!

Fu Jiemei