We had a great last week! It was 過年(guo4 nian2 - Chinese New Year) and we were treated out to lunch and dinner almost every day. It was so great! I am so blessed to be in two wards where the members love us so much! So while the week was slow as far as new investigators and having lessons, we got to meet and strengthen a ton of members and that lead to many member referrals.
Last, last Monday was power cleaning day. We cleaned our apartment for 4 1/2 hours. Well, I cleaned the kitchen for 4 1/2 hours. It wasn't super, super dirty, but we were doing a deep clean, and I wanted to do a good job. There were a few things we haven't finished yet, but will be doing this afternoon. And then we will have a super clean house! Yay!
Last week we did find a new investigators! She actually is a former investigator, and she is super great! She already prays every day and we re-introduced her to the Book of Mormon and she was like, it's been a while since I've opened the Book of Mormon and I miss it. So that was music to our ears =] She has a lot of potential and we are excited to help her grow and progress!
Friday afternoon we didn't have any lessons scheduled so we were going to go tracting and looking for former investigators and less-active members. The phone rang, but I didn't know who it was so I had my companion answer it, and she was like, it's Tiffany. Tiffany is my recent convert in Taizhong. I had wanted to call her so bad on Friday because we were going to be in Taizhong on Monday and had about 1 hour for lunch. But I'm not allowed to call her, so Heavenly Father told her to call me. And even better she was waiting at the church for me! Her family lives in GaoXiong, so she came down for Chinese New Year and came to find me =] And she brought her cousin with her, so we were blessed with a lesson as well. It was so fun to see her!
Sunday was full of miracles. We didn't have any investigators confirmed for church, so I was praying that they would all just show up by themselves, because that does happen sometimes. So church starts and no investigators, and then right after it starts a young man comes in and is like, you have an investigator out here, and I'm like, what?! So I go out and its an investigator that we had sort of dropped. She came to the church because she needed a dance teacher and God told her to go to church. So I took her to my companion and she stayed for all three hours! Then after my sacrament meeting ended, I see another of our investigators in the foyer! She had a meeting next door and decided to come to church for a few minutes, so I sent her in with the other sacrament meeting so she could take the sacrament. Then a third sister who is an off and on investigator said she was going to have to work, but then ended up not having work and came to church! So I was super grateful to Heavenly Father for blessing us with 3 investigators at church!
Then Monday was our Special Mission Visit from Elder Watson, the Asia Area President, and Elder Evans of the Missionary department (and both members of the Seventy). We left about 9 AM and took the train to TaiZhong. We got there at 11:30 and I headed to the mall to eat a quick lunch with my recent converts Tiffany and Melody (I had Tiffany call Melody for me). It was so great to see them! Then we went to the meeting! We took a mission picture and received so much great instruction from Elder Watson and Evans. They are both incredible speakers and I enjoyed learning from them. Elder Evans taught only from Preach My Gospel and the scriptures. I learned that I need to study Preach My Gospel more. I love getting together with the whole mission. It is so much fun!
So this week is POWER WEEK! We leave the door at 9 AM, meals are eaten on the go, and we go home at 9 PM. Every day we have a mission and a goal (except today, Wednesday, because we don't have any proselyting time because of preparation day and English tonight). So the goals for this week are as follows:
Monday - Get three investigators to Family Home Evening
Tuesday - Give out 15 copies of the Book of Mormon and exchange information with the people
Wednesday - The mission as a whole wants to get 500+ likes on our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/
Thursday - Get 4 "mashang" sit downs (sit down with 4 people on the spot). Invite them to be baptized on March 23.
Friday - Confirm 20 people for church (adds/investigators/recent converts/less-actives)
Saturday - Dan Jones for 30 minutes and talk to 20 families
Sunday - Teach 10 new people how to pray
So we have already done Monday and Tuesday. We were only able to get one investigator to Family Home Evening, but our district (3 companionships) did the Book of Mormon day together, which means we needed to give out a combined 45 Book of Mormons. We had 3 - 2 hour blocks of time where we went to populated areas and gave out Book of Mormons. We had some posters and such as well. It was super awesome! We had some members come with us and help as well which was super fun! In the morning we had one member, Zhang JM, come with us, and in 1 hour, she gave away 9 Book of Mormons, and got contact information from all of them!!! That was more Book of Mormons than all of us missionaries gave away that hour! She is a rockstar! And at the end of the day, did we hit our goal?? YES! We gave away 49 Book of Mormons yesterday! So we got to call our mission president and say MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! We called him as a district and it was so fun! We are also going to be doing the family day together as a district! Yay! I'm excited to report next Monday on how many we are able to accomplish!
The last place we went to give out Book of Mormons at was the train station. When we got there, I saw this girl sitting down, listening to a guy playing music. I didn't think much of her at first, but I kept feeling like we needed to talk to her. The elders had already talked to the people in that area, so I assumed they had already talked to her. With 30 minutes left, we had 4 Book of Mormons left that we needed to place to hit our goal. We prayed together and went to work. I again felt strongly that we needed to go talk to her. I was like, ok, lets do it. So my companion and I go to talk to her, and she was so awesome! She was very willing to talk to us, and we were able to share about the Book of Mormon and about how it can bless her life. We were also able to teach her to pray and it was just so neat! I was so worried that she had already been talked to, and I didn't want to bother her again, but the spirit kept telling me to talk to her, and I'm so grateful I did. She is hopefully coming to English tonight, and we will be calling her on Sunday to try and set up a time to meet with her. I am so grateful for the Spirit and that I listened to it. I think that was my best spiritual experience of the week.
As for the most interesting experience of the week: We were getting ready to leave the church on Sunday afternoon, and we were the last ones there. As we are about to walk out of the building, this man comes in and is like, in English, "shake hand", so I shake his hand, and then he is like, thank you. Then he says, in Chinese, "President Monson said winter is coming. We need to prepare food, water and money." And then he shook my hand and left. It was super random, and I had never seen him before, but, well, I'm pretty sure winter already left Taiwan...
Ok, sorry this was a super long letter! I am so grateful for this chance I have to serve my Heavenly Father here in Taiwan! I love being able to study about Christ and His gospel everyday, and share it with everyone I meet. It has been such an incredible experience being a missionary, and I'm so grateful that, even though time is going by so fast, I still have time left to help so many people!
I hope you are all doing well! I am! I love you all and am so grateful for your love and your support! Have a great week!
Pictures:
436: Our signs when we went to give out Book of Mormons
434: Tiffany, Sis. Busath and Melody
428: This week is the Lantern Festival, and they have a huge fireworks show every night. And our apartment just so happens to have a perfect view. It gives us a greater motivation to be home at 9 PM so we can see the fireworks =]
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