Week 47: WOWZA!!

Wowza! Where is the time going!!!! I can't believe already a week has passed us by! This move-call is going to go by so fast because February only has 28 days (though I wish it had 31...I'll tell you why in a minute). 

This week was great. We had a young woman, Wang JM (王姐妺), come be a missionary with us for a week. I was nervous the week would go by super slow, having another person with us, but it turned out to be really great. She was a super great missionary! She had some nervousness, but we practiced everyday how to contact people, and the last day she contacted 10 people! I was so proud of her! She only joined the church last June, so she hasn't even been a member for a year yet, but her desire to share the gospel with others is so big and she did so great. She also prepared lessons for people everyday and she shared some great experiences. It was just so much fun. She didn't want to go home =] 

Also, on Friday, we had a training meeting about our new English Program! We teach English every Wednesday night as a service to the people of Taiwan. There are other missions in Asia who baptize an upwards of 20 people a month from English class...and we want to be like them! So some of the Elders in the mission revamped our whole english program, curriculum, books, method of teaching and retaining, everything! I didn't used to really like teaching english because we didn't have a way to do it, it was all kind of free-for-all. So I am so excited for this new way! Another huge problem we were facing was that people would come once or twice and then leave, but we now have a membership card, and they get a stamp every week, and after 19 weeks, they have completed our course and will get a certificate of completion. So exciting! I know that this will help us to find new investigators to teach, especially FAMILIES! And we are even on facebook: www.facebook.com/taiwanenglishclass (or maybe its Taiwan English Program...try them both =] ) I was super excited for this because right now I teach the advanced class. But then our English leader said he wants me to be the evaluator (a new "position" in English). So I actually won't be teaching English right now, which is kind of sad...oh well! Next move-call!

All of our investigators have disappeared for now because of Chinese New Year, except for two! Wang JM (王姐妺) and Shi JM (史姐妺). Wang JM is so awesome! I love her so much! Last week we taught her about the Plan of Salvation and the Doctrine of Christ (faith, repentence, baptism, Holy Ghost and endure to the end). She readily accepted it all. She is doing so great reading the Book of Mormon every day and writing down what she is thinking, and when she comes to understand something better. It is so awesome to see her learning and growing! She also came to church yesterday! I was so happy! She seemed to really enjoy it. She has some questions about our church compared to other Christian churches, so we are going to see if we can have a member come to one of our lessons and help her answer some of these questions. She still has a February 23 baptismal goal, but that day and the next are Stake Conference, so she wouldn't be able to receive the Holy Ghost in church that Sunday, so we might have to push her baptism back a week =[ This is why I wish there were 31 days in February, so she could still get baptized in February! But, we'll see. 

Shi JM is also doing good. We are getting past some surface concerns and really starting to understand her real concerns. She has two little girls (3 and 5) and we made prayer and Book of Mormon charts for them, and we gave them a Children's Book of Mormon. So if the girls read and pray everyday, they can put a sticker on the chart, and every week, if they read and prayed every day, they can have a prize. We are hoping this will help Shi JM establish a habit of reading and praying every day. We are also working on getting her to church. She has the desire, now we just need to help her have the motivation. 

We also had some great experiences while visiting less-actives. On Wednesday we went to visit a less-active and her daughter, and her other two daughters who aren't baptized yet were there as well. We had a nice little lesson with them. We hope we can help the mom come back to church (she currently goes to another church) and help the little sisters get baptized. Then Thursday we stopped by a less-active who we didn't know's house and she was home! She is normally up in TaoYuan taking care of her mom, but she had come home for a few days. She and her 3 daughters were all baptized a few years ago, but are all less-active. We hope we can help them come back to church. So those are two great miracles we had this week. 

Well, I think that is about it! I am doing great, the work is great, abeit a little slow, but we are going to keep on going forward! Thank you all for your love and support! I feel it every day!

Lots of love!