Concerts, Road trips, and Exhaustion at its Finest

Hello everyone! Hope you are all doing well! This week was busy busy ;) we started doing our Christmas concerts and we have done one in Xinzhu, Taoyuan, and West Taipei so far. There were a few hiccups and technical difficulties, but it was good, and we got lots of referrals for each zone! The spirit was so strong at each one. We have been exhausted though all week, so we've just been vibing! Sleep deprivation makes life more exciting :) 

Thursday was exchanges which was good! I went with Sister Layton for the day, we had a good time! Also, miracle alert, we were going to be calling people that night and I was a little worried because I've never really been with another foreigner and my Chinese is kinda trash, so when we did it, I prayed really hard for the gift of Tongues and that we would understand what they were saying. Get this, THEY ALL SPOKE PERFECT ENGLISH. LIKE WHAT. HOW. HEAVENLY FATHER WHAT A CHAMP. We would start by going "Qing wen zheshi (zhege ren) ma?" And they would respond by saying "Um yeah sorry who is this?" Heavenly Father seriously has our backs all the time! He was probably chuckling from Heaven like "look at these kids tryin" so cool though! That literally happened like 4 times in a row!!!

Other things, this week is Huang Yi Shuo's baptism, so excited for him! He's so solid and I'm so grateful that I have had the privilege of watching him turn his life toward the Savior. 

Spiritual thought for the week: After we are baptized, we receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost, or the constant companionship of God's Holy Spirit. The Holy Ghost is one of the greatest gifts our Father could ever give us; He literally gives us the constant companionship of a Member of the Godhead. What more could we ask for? We are in a fallen world, but through the Holy Ghost and taking small actions to continually keep its presence, we can keep that connection with God. That is why with every ordinance and covenant we make; Heavenly Father promises the presence of the Holy Ghost. With the Holy Ghost, we are sanctified, protected, led, and strengthened. Through the Gift of the Holy Ghost, Heavenly Father shows us that He wants us to succeed, and He has provided the ways to do it. 

 

I thought I only zoned out for a second but somehow the month flew by without me noticing

How is it already P-day again, that's my question! Every week, day, month, and transfer passes by so fast. It's not even okay. This week was busy but fun and I don't really remember what happened! I'll just give a quick summary. 

Wednesday, we spent pretty much all day putting up Christmas decorations at the church, that was fun! It looks good! Thursday, we had a mission-wide zone conference which was great! We even had a thanksgiving dinner (there has been a turkey shortage in Taiwan so there was only one turkey that we all got a little piece of, and then we had 30 chickens).  It was great and very American! I really appreciate American food, even if the chickens still have heads :)

At zone conference they gave us little slips of paper and write down 1. How many times we had broken our daily schedule this week and 2. How many times we had broken phone rules this week. We wrote our responses and gave them to the AP's, who counted them up. When they finished counting, they announced that President, his wife, and the AP's would be doing push-ups for each one. The number they had counted was more than 530. We all watched in silence as my President, his wife, and the AP's accepted the number and right then, began doing push-ups. It was sobering to see their strength exhaust slowly, and to watch them then get back up and do more push-ups to pay for our disobedience. It broke our hearts to watch them struggle and yet turn away anyone who offered to replace them. Afterward the AP's went up and quickly summarized that this represented the Atonement of Jesus Christ. To me it also meant that our actions, especially as missionaries, affect so many people other than us. Actions speak louder than words, and they definitely got their message across. 

Other than zone conference we just had lots of lessons, meetings, and decorating Christmas cards! Also, I didn't even need to use the translation at zone conference! Granted, I didn't know they were doing it which is why I didn't use it, but I actually understood like 87.43%! The gift of tongues is real cause my Chinese (especially speaking) is pretty garbage haha. But we're just vibing haha, slowly but surely! 

Spiritual thought for the week: read the zone conference push-ups part above and consider the Savior's sacrifice for you personally. What does it mean to you? What does it show you about God's love? Why do you think the Savior Jesus Christ is the center of the gospel? Record your thoughts somewhere safe, where you can look back on them often! Those records can prove to be an anchor in times of need, and as we treasure our spiritual experiences, the Lord will give us more :) 

Okay that's all for this week! Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas everyone! 

 

Yaoqing-ception

This week was full of miracles and was crazy busy! It's probably going to only get busier from here haha. Also, I hit my one year this week. AHHHH SCARY. How did it happen so fast? On Monday we did nothing worth mentioning, but on Tuesday we met with our friend Huang Yi Shuo and also taught another potential which was good! Ah Huang Dixiong is so solid! His date is December 10th. 

Wednesday was a tad crazy cause we had MLC and then a choir practice (for the Christmas concert, we have them like twice a week now) right after, and then ECG (MIRACLE ALERT! We had 5 kids, and their families showed! We don't even know how some of them learned about it, but it was great, and we learned about farm animals and sang Old Macdonald, it was a vibe) and then a lesson that night with A Xiang right after and taught him the plan of Salvation! Needless to say, our studies have happened after hours a little too often this week :/ Also the other sisters surprised me with SnowBro for my One Year-iversary 

Thursday, we had to clean an apartment for a new Senior Couple coming in, and were kind of back and forth all day from that because we had lots of lessons. But the poor Xinan sisters ended up having to be there for 7.5 hours! 

Friday, we had a temple tour in English with the Miaoli Sisters! It was pretty good! I discovered that I somehow can't talk in English or Chinese haha, it was good! Then we had zone council and did a training activity about invitations which was fun :) And weekly planning of course 

Saturday morning, we had a lesson with our new friend Huang Jiemei and she's super solid! Yayyyyy. After that we had a Christmas concert practice (message me if you would like to hear one of the songs!) and then we helped set up for a ward activity where they would be watching The Testaments movie outside at temple square. We also had a big temple tour and I forgot a lot of words but it's all good! The activity went pretty well, and we had a pretty good turnout! 

Sunday, we had so many miracles! AXIANG BROUGHT A FRIEND TO CHURCH. HIS NAME IS AKAI AND HE IS SO SOLID. What champs! It's Jinhua's time! So yeah, we did a tour with them after church and then taught the Restoration!! So good. The church is true and it's amazing to see people begin to recognize it. One of my favorite things in the world is watching people say a prayer for the first time, knowing how much their Father wants to hear from them. It's incredible.

We also taught the bishop and his family, which was good! Then later we got a call from someone saying that there was someone at the church right then who wanted a tour (it's not an uncommon thing actually). So, we went over, and it turns out she actually was at the wrong place and was looking for the college across the street, and she had ended up sitting through our ward, a stake conference, and another ward. She was probably mega confused, but she liked it and we got her contact info! Fun times! Afterward we helped set up for a stake YSA activity, and the speaker for it was someone who was famous for shooting bows and arrows and other fighting things while on horseback. He demonstrated shooting for us which was really cool! It was a day full of miracles! We had to have another day of after-hours personal study though. I swear every time we sat down to start it something came up! Being a missionary is the best thing in the world. 

This week 2nd Nephi 4 was really standing out to me. I found a quote that relates to it by Kyle S. McKay that says, "The prophet Alma taught that we must both repent and be born again—born of God, changed in our hearts (see Alma 5:49). As we continually repent, the Lord will take away all our sins and He will take away that which naturally causes or allows sin in us. But, in the words of Enos, “Lord, how is it done?” (Enos 1:7). The answer is simple, yet profound and eternal. To those who have been healed from any condition, physical or spiritual, the Lord has declared, “Thy faith hath made thee whole” (see Mark 5:34; Enos 1:8)." I love how he mentions that which "naturally causes...sin in us." The Lord can not only redeem us from our sins but will change our hearts. Yes, we may have struggles, but we can show Him that we have the FAITH for Him to change us!!! He can replace our desires with better ones. He can remove the natural man within us. He can teach us a higher, holier way. His way. 

 

中文 sleeptalking 💤

Hello! Welcome back to your weekly Taiwan Taipei update! Not much happened this week, one of the sisters in our apartment got Covid so poor them had to quarantine, but my comp and I were still able to leave. Transfers were Thursday, but Chen Jiemei got moved on Monday, so nothing really changed on Thursday :) It was good! 

This week we had lots of lessons and lots of blessings! On Sunday we were going to meet with our friend 黃弟兄, but realized we didn't have another third female, and right before the lesson we ended up talking with a member who was like "Oh, if you ever need someone to join a lesson just let me know," and we were like "Great, how about right now?" And it totally worked out, so that was a big blessing! Please pray for him! He is getting baptized in December but has some things to overcome, but he will get there! Another one of our friends, Xiu Mian, is starting to get excited about the Book of Mormon (she has basically been taught everything but didn't understand the Book of Mormon, so we went through the first few chapters with her) and she is going to lead our next lesson about it! Yay! 

I don't think anything else really happened! I was trying to ask someone for referrals and accidentally said something along the lines of asking if they knew anyone who would be interested in me, and then corrected myself and asked if they knew anyone who was interested in our information...the poor guy was hopelessly confused but luckily Li Jiemei knew what I was trying to say haha. We love being a foreigner, it was honestly really hilarious. 

Spiritual thought for the week: This week I spent a lot of time studying 2 Nephi chapter 2. I love at the beginning when Lehi tells Jacob that if he remains faithful, the Lord will consecrate his afflictions for his gain. That is one amazing aspect of the gospel of Jesus Christ. While it doesn't make our trials and struggles disappear, depending on the Savior allows us to grow. It means Jesus Christ can enable us to handle our challenges much more than we ever could on our own, which is what earth life is all about. I am always in awe that the Savior chose to feel our concerns, sicknesses, and pains of His own free will. No matter how hard our struggles become, they would be infinitely harder if he hadn't done that. I am forever grateful that He did, and because He did, challenges are consecrated for our gain!

Hope you all have a great week! Love ya ;)