Rise of the Planet of the Mosquitoes

We keep getting mosquitoes in our house, we don't know where they are coming from!

Anyway, with that being said, this week was so full of miracles! Heavenly Father is amazing. Last Monday we went hiking at Elephant Mountain for P-day which was a bop, except all Taiwanese hikes are straight stairs so my calves suffered hardcore a few days after. It was fun though! Tuesday, we did some service for a member. I typed up recipes for her! 

Wednesday, we had some tours and ECG, and then after ECG we had a tour with our friend 阿翔and the whole lesson just ended up being about faith and addressing a lot of his concerns about it, and at the end we invited him to be baptized and he accepted!!! He is still struggling with the concept of faith and has lots of questions, but even the fact that he was willing to set a date shows so much faith on his part. At first, I wasn't sure if we should go for a BD but the spirit really changed his demeanor and even though there's still a long way to go, Heavenly Father loves this child of His and He will not let him fall! Miracles!

Thursday, we were able to meet with our friend Andy and help him set a baptismal date too! He also has some concerns but is willing to try. It's amazing! The field is white and already to harvest!

Friday, we had a lesson with a gray dot and made her a new friend; she wasn't progressing before, so we aren't sure how it'll go but we'll see! Saturday we were able to help a friend reschedule a baptism date that had already passed, and she wants to wait a long time for it. We'll try to work with her ;)

Saturday night we went finding with the AP's and Xinan sisters and it was super fun! We went to a crosswalk by a college campus (we each took a corner) and when people would come to wait for the light, we would talk to them! It was super fun and the AP's had a great idea of starting out in English and seeing how far they could get. I think it just surprised them into a conversation, and a lot of young adults don't know how to say no haha. We got lots of flyers given out and gave a Book of Mormon too! 

Sunday had lots of miracles too! We had two friends come to church and our recent convert passed the sacrament for the first time. it was precious!

Today we went to a Buddhist temple which was cool! 

Spiritual thought for the week: This week I have really been focused on prayer. I have always known prayer has so much power, but I've never really known how to access it fully, I guess. Last district council we watched this video:

We were given the invitation to say our prayers out loud. I started doing this and prioritized my prayers more, and the difference has already been so evident. Prayer in general has been so much more refreshing and rejuvenating for me. I have no doubt that so many of the miracles we have been experiencing are due to the faith and prayer of those of our zone and the support and prayer from those around the world. Through faith and prayer, the Lord's power will break through onto the earth like it never has before.

I Beat You All To 2023 #thankstimedifference

Hello everyone! I hope you had a fantastic week and a fantastic New Year! 

Not too much happened this week! Last Tuesday was pretty average, we had a temple tour which was good! Wednesday, we had MLC (Mission Leadership Conference for the Zone Leaders and STL's) which was really good! We had some great trainings about preparing our friends for baptism, which is a big focus this transfer. Then later that night we had our English Group which was fun! We talked about transportation :) Days with long meetings are always a little chaotic haha.

Thursday, we had exchanges! I went to Xinan with Sister Bailey for the day. It was good, and we experienced lots of blessings! For a part of the day, we went to a college campus to go finding (we did the English Challenge). It was raining and when we pulled up, nobody was in sight. We walked around a little, hoping there would be some people, and lo and behold the college had a Christmas activity that had booths set up everywhere like Swiss days! There still weren't a ton of people out and about, but the timing was definitely a blessing and allowed us to talk to a lot of people that we otherwise would have missed!  We also read scriptures with one of their friends and did some service. It was a good exchange! 

Friday, we had zone council and weekly planning, that was pretty much everything that happened. Li Jiemei and I planned our zone council training literally 30 seconds before we had to do it, but it worked out okay! 

Saturday, we had some lessons and tours, and we did a spiritual thought at a ward activity. It was fun! Imagine my president getting called up to sing karaoke...in the chapel...only in Taiwan, haha. It was a good time! 

Sunday, we had church which was good! Update from last week: The interesting guy came again and was telling me stuff, but on the plus side he didn't stay and bear his testimony. I was only slightly worried about that! Also, I decided that 2 PM church is not my favorite thing in the world, but you know we are making it work! 

Spiritual thought for the week! It is a new year! A new start! A new opportunity to try again. The Savior always offers us opportunities to repent and try again, and we should be willing to offer that to others too! After all, He is the same Savior who saved both us and those who have hurt us. I know that through Him, forgiveness is possible. In this new year, I would like to invite you all to do President Nelson's invitation from a while back! Solve a conflict that is weighing you down. If you don't seem to have one, make the decision now that you will forgive later. He can enable you to do it! 

🎁🎅🎄 聖誕節快樂! 🎄🎅🎁

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!! WE HAVE CHRISTMAS. WHICH MEANS. JESUS. WAS BORN. AND LIVED. AND DIED. AND WAS RESURRECTED. SO WE CAN LIVE AGAIN!!! YAYYY CHRISTMAS DFEOWIJFEJWEFIJF. 

I hope that you all had the most wonderful week and Christmas! Let me know how it all went!!! This week was good! We didn't do too much this week; we had some temple tours and such! Zone conference was Thursday and that was awesome! My president really hammered baptism and the importance of being bold in challenging our friends to receive that ordinance. It was really good and helped me remember that there is so much more we can be doing! The real difference between being bold and overbearing is love. If our friends can feel our love for them and our desire for their welfare, you can never be too bold! 

After zone conference we went caroling as a zone and passed out a lot of flyers (not me, I sang the whole-time cause there weren't a lot of sisters and they made me do a few solos), it was fun! On Saturday we also did a caroling activity with the YSA where they were going to sing and we were going to contact...but it turns out we weren't allowed to sing in that spot, so we just sang and walked, and yeah so nobody got contacted. It was fun though! I pretty much just hummed because I couldn't read the Chinese and walk at the same time haha. 

This week we also had a situation with someone who was a little too close to preaching some extremely interesting beliefs/anti to the whole ward at a Christmas party and then at church the next day, but blessings cause he got there late and didn't Our church building is not really a safe place, I'll let you know what happens with that. He was kind of following us to our activities...we'll see. I told the bishop. 

Christmas was great! That morning we had church and then went to a primary activity which was good. They gave us lots of food haha. Afterward we were doing our planning outside and helping lots of people take pictures in front of the nativity and temple. We were talking to a family of Americans from the English Ward, and they were like "do you have somewhere to eat tonight?" And we were like "um our apartment" and they were like "do you want to come over for dinner tonight? It'll be a small Christmas dinner, but we'd love to have more than just us" and I was like awwwww my heart!  keep in mind we had never really talked to them, and they weren't even our members! It was really great and I think I needed it. Taiwan doesn't really do anything for Christmas, it was pretty much a normal day, so I was super grateful that Heavenly Father gave me a small American Christmas and made it special. So that was super fun! I always feel bad for my comps in English lessons though haha. Heavenly Father knows all of the needs and even the smallest concerns of His children! He loves us all individually and wants us to feel that love. We can if we look for it! 

Spiritual thought for the week: watch this video.

Why We Need a Savior

 https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/video/christmas-messages/2015-12-1000-why-we-need-a-savior--a-christmas-message-about-our-savior-jesus-christ-asaviorisborn?lang=eng

What does it mean to YOU personally to know that we have a Savior? How has that knowledge affected your life? Hope? Security? View of the world? 

There are people who don't know this. Lots of them. They are all around us. They might be searching and don't even know it, at least until they find what they are looking for. We can offer it to them. How can you help another person know a little bit more about what the Savior can do for them this week?