Chinese New Year!!

新年快樂! Happy Chinese New Year Everyone! I hope you all found a fun way to celebrate and ate some pig stomach like I did! Good times :)

Here is a fun interaction with our president this week... 

US: Go to mission office to print stuff out... PRESIDENT: "Hey Sisters come see this remix video of a Chinese Grandpa teaching his granddaughter how to sing Chinese opera!" 🤣

Last Monday we had a qingke and went to lowkey the fanciest restaurant I have ever been too! It was a good time! Tuesday, we had interviews with President which was so good! He actually told me I'll be moving. I'm not surprised though; I've been here for a while now. Other than that, we had apartment inspections, district council, and some temple tours/lessons! 

Wednesday was fun, to celebrate Chinese New Year we gathered as our full mission and ate at a restaurant! We also got to do a dragon dance (to every native who keeps correcting me: yes I know it was a lion, not a dragon, but everyone at home would be confused if I said that) which was super fun. After that we had English Conversation Group that we help run every week! 

Thursday I and the sisters in my apartment decided to do an English (or Chinese for the natives) fast. This means that we would go a whole day and try not to speak English. I hadn't tried it since the MTC (and had never had a successful one) but I chose to do it again! It was fun! I definitely still spoke English, but it was fun haha. We also did some service and had a temple tour and a lesson which was good! 

Friday was the first day of Chinese New Year! Basically, we just join the members for their really big meals! So, we did that and weekly planning and that's about all that is worth mentioning haha. Saturday night we ate with members and then went to President's house after to do some fireworks! It was a lot of fun! Not much happened Sunday either haha.

Spiritual thought for the week: Today I was thinking a lot about the priesthood and this scripture in D&C 121: 41: "No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood, only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned." I thought about the purity of the priesthood and the gospel of Jesus Christ. It can only be handled upon principles of righteousness, and it cannot be corrupted. Throughout the dispensations it is clear that if the people in the church became wicked, God would remove His power from them. His gospel cannot be corrupted. If this scripture shows the qualities of someone using God's power, and the purpose of His power is to become more like Him through ordinances and covenants, what does that show you about the character of God Himself?

 

  

Soarin, Flyin, There's not a star in heaven that we can't reach 🎵

I couldn't think of an email title so therefore I did the first random think that popped in my head, as one does. 

Hello goodly people of my email list! I hope you are all doing amazing! My week was pretty good :) I had a little kid ask me if I'm an alien...that's nice haha.

Monday, we went to a Buddhist temple which was cool! Tuesday, we had two member lessons and the power went at the church in one of them which was fun! It turned back on pretty fast, don't worry haha. We also had an on-the-spot tour which was good, and a lesson with one of our friends that night! 

Wednesday not too much happened, we had ECG which was good! We learned about fruits :) Thursday we had exchanges! I was with Sister Bailey in Jinhua for the day. We were kept busy and had a couple of lessons and an on-the-spot temple tour which was good. It was fun! Unfortunately, because of all of the lessons and tours we didn't have lots of time for other things and didn't have a lot of time for our evaluation, but I hope she still got something from it!

Not too much happened Friday! We had weekly planning, and we also went street contacting at Daan park for a sec which was good!

Saturday, we had a temple tour with a member who is preparing for her endowment which was good! After that we went to go meet with a less active member, who told us when we got there that his female friend couldn't come (we have a rule where we need a third female with us whenever we are with men) and then it turns out he wasn't even our member...the whole thing was pretty awkward. We shared a scripture and got out of there pretty fast. At least it was in public haha! Later we had a drop lesson with a friend which was sad. She just wasn't willing to progress and straight up told us she doesn't want to/need to improve as a person. It was really sad, and my poor companion was really sad about it. It is sad because we know how much this could help somebody's life and they still choose not to. But the Lord loves His children, He will give them more opportunities to feel His love! 

Sunday, we had so many miracles! We met with one of our friends and got to see her baby and before we had invited her to think about a new baptismal date (she already has one set for March but we knew she forgot it so we were hoping we could get it sooner) and she told us she is thinking the end of January!! Yay!! That is at the same time as Chinese New Year so we're not really sure what's gonna happen with that but it's progress! One of our other friends has health problems and I've never actually met her in person before, but she came to church yesterday!!! Yay! And then we had two potentials who we had just met come to an FHE activity! Blessings, the Lord is aware of His children! We can trust that He is aware of our efforts, whether or not we see results from it. Maybe He's trying to shape us instead :)

Spiritual thought for the week: Everyone go watch the young adult devotional by Elder Holland, it's so good! I love that Elder Holland talks about the importance of being cheerful throughout challenging times. He brought up the Savior, and how His ability to remain cheerful as He volunteered to take on more pain than we can imagine deserves our reverence. He did it, and He provides a way for us to do it too. Trust that no spiritual blessing is withheld from the righteous, and the Lord will never deny you blessings for something that is out of your control. 

I love you all and hope you have a great week! 新年快樂！-江柔安姐妹

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!