Mission Humor on Being Transferred

Hello from the City of Bade Taiwan. This week, I have moved to a new area. I'm still in Taoyuan county. In fact, I have now served in every single area in Taoyuan County. There are 3 sisters in this county...Zhongli Sisters, Taoyuan 1 and 3rd sisters, And Bade and Taoyuan 2 sisters. I just moved from being the 1st and 3rd sisters in the City, to moving over to the side and taking Bade City. Not a far move at all. Bishop Liao drove me this morning here...he's such a great bishop, he's been doing so much to help the work in the Tao 1 ward. I worry about how much he does. I hope he doesn't overdo it. He's just been doing so much, but I really appreciate and respect all the work he has done. Haha. It only took me 6 weeks to figure out what ward was what, then I moved.

15 Investigators at Church and Bishop Who Meets Personally with Investigators in Their Homes: Missionary Email

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.

Overcoming Addiction

This week, I hit my year on island mark. Now when people ask me how long I've been here, I can say over a year. I got my Alien Residence Card Renewed, and my companion bought me a cheese-bake (rice with stuff in it covered in cheese, so the closest you come to a casserole in Taiwan) for my anniversary marker. I remember when I first got here, and Sister Hill would tell everyone she was just over a year in Taiwan, and they'd praise her Chinese. I remember back then, I didn't think I'd ever be able to understand what the teenage girls were gossiping about on the bus/train next to me were saying, or what people asked me in a basic sentence even at times...but here I am, understanding a large majority....watching the young woman's broadcast in Chinese...and still getting most of what they were saying. There are still works I don't understand, but when I'm diligent, I just write them down and they commit to memory after looking them up, they usually are just there. That is not how it was to start with...so I'm just here to testify that the gift of tongues is real, and that Heavenly Father really does bless us when we are doing his work.

Missionary Email: Great Ward Mission Program

Oh man, how time flies. It feels like just yesterday that I was in this email cafe writing in Taoyuan for the first time...now we are officially half way done with the transfer. In start, I didn't think this was going to be a very easy transfer for me, to be back in Taoyuan, probably just Satan telling me that, because I'm not even sure why I felt that way. I'm glad that was just a weakness/fear of mine. Lately I've been having a lot of fun!

Transfer 9 Week 1: Sister Bruno in Taoyuan City with Under Four Months to Go

This week we did Temple Tours again.  We had a really touching experience with 3 members.  2 mothers, and one of their husbands.  They were from Taizhong and came up to Taipei for a tour.  Well, we went up to show them the temple book we have, which maybe one day I'll take pictures of it.  What it is, is pictures that kind of run through a plan of salvation in some ways, so we review plan of salvation with the temple for our members.  Well, we did this for this lady, and when we get to the place with a memorial and a lady laying flowers I usually just explain we will all die one day, then we move on to talk about resurrection and returning to God...the more important parts, but in this tour I felt prompted to mention sometimes people around us die also, then my companion testified about the comfort of knowing we'd be resurrected and return to God, and the lady, since I had talked about death had been sobbing, her husband was patting her...then I testified also about God comforting us and welcoming us home.  I was a little worried, but we just continued on, to show them a movie put out by our Mission called Believe, which talks about how we need to believe in the growth of Taiwan, and the gospel, etc.  It's good and has pictures and music.  At the end, the lady shares with us, that her oldest son recently passed away after suffering for 2 years, and that she felt some comfort in doing this tour, even though sometimes she didn't know what her son was doing.  By the end, there wasn't a dry eye in the room, and Sister Collyer shared her testimony on eternal families.  It was really a faith building tour.  I was glad to be a part of it.  That woman had some strong faith.  She's been through some hard trials. I was glad to see she had such a loving and supportive husband, who could go to the temple with her, and stay by her side in her trials. So yeah.  They were really wonderful and even gave us these onion cakes that were absolutely delicious after the tour.  It was a special experience.