Week 15: Earthquake & Sick Companion!

Hey everyone!!!!

This week was so fast, but the beginning of it felt so long ago. Time is a weird thing out here... haha. So.... the week started off with an AWESOME p-day. We went tandem biking by the ocean and the weather was incredible!!! And it was sunny and just perfect! So great! Everything else that day was pretty normal. Groceries, lunch, ice cream, you know. The missionary p-day stuff.

Tuesday started off so crazy! I was running, you know for exercise, and this dog starts running behind me. It scared me at first, cause there are a lot of loose dogs here and strays and they are just scary. But anyway, it starts running with me... literally running with me! It was so cute. He ran a whole two laps with me. So fun! Then he just went on his way. I was running on a track...and just kept following me. So yea, I made a friend. 

THEN!!!!! I was in an earthquake!!!! We were in comp study and the desk and everything starts shaking!!! I was like "what in the world?" And Sister Beeston just looks at me and goes "Oh look, your first earthquake" And I'm sitting there thinking I'm about to die. My heart is pounding, and if you can just imagine. I'm sitting there with both hands on my desk, frozen, and my eyes are wide open. Sister B just looks at me hahaha. It wasn't very big so don't be worried, and it lasted for like 5 seconds. But holy smokes, wow! At the end, as soon as I realized I wasn't dead, I was like "Wait that was kind of fun. Let's do it again!" Haha my life... :D 

We didn't meet too many people this week because Sister Beeston was sick. She lost her voice... which would have been fine normally except that I'm a trainee... so um, yikes! But it didn't start off with just that. She was biking, and hit an Ama (an elderly Taiwanese lady) . She had a bruised foot for the rest of the night. Both were fine though. The lady was pulling out and didn't see Sister B. So interesting. Then Sister B gets a cold, then she loses her voice. First Sister Hughes, now Sister Beeston. Who's next? :D Haha so fun though. Never a dull moment. 

Without Sister Beeston having a voice, we didn't do too much finding. But we were productive anyway. We organized the area book and did some things for members. Our stake has this awesome stake mission plan. The goal is to have every family to bring 5 people to church/church activities. But it doesn't have to be 5 different people. Hope that makes sense. It's awesome and Sister B and I are working on spreading it throughout the ward. 

Wednesday was another "sick day". We had English class though, which I had to teach by myself. But it's a good thing that we teach kids. I love kids. It went really well. We taught colors and shapes. We also spent a lot of time contacting people and trying to set up. 

Thursday: We visited a referral from our Elders. Her name is Juliet and she's from the Philippines. Her English is broken but we set up with her. Her whole family is Mormon and the Philippino lady before her (a lot of Philippine and Indonesian ladies care for the ama's...the grandma's who can't take care of themselves) left a Book of Mormon for her. So she already has a Book of Mormon. We are meeting with her on Wednesday so hopefully she can understand us enough and hopefully she will want to keep meeting! 

Friday: We met a really nice man who makes windows. We had a lesson with him but he wasn't willing to pray himself,  at least not right there. Everyone is getting ready for guo nian and everyone says they are really busy which is unfortunate. But he said we could call him on Monday to set up with him. yay :D We also had a huge dinner! We went to the member's restaurant that we always go to, and she just kept giving us free food! She's amazing! All the members here are amazing! We were chi bao le. Full :)

We also had a lesson with Yang JM and her daughter. We had an awesome pei ke. Her name is Zoe. She's awesome! Well the lesson went fine, but I was really stumbling over my words, and I just couldn't speak. So I was frustrated by the end. But it's a good thing we had a member there. 

We also had du jing ban (scripture class) and only 3 RC's came. Which is great and that's not bad. My point is they were all RC's but I just sat there and looked at them and was in awe. Here were these wonderful Taiwanese people who had been recently baptized, and they were marking their scriptures. And they took time out of their day to come read the scriptures. And it raised a question that I think is a question of a lifetime haha. But what is the best thing that I can do to help someone develop faith like that? I know that developing faith comes from their personal study, but how do I make the gospel important enough to them to do that. Sister Child was like "That's like the question of every missionary" True fact. 

Saturday: We met this super super sweet college student while finding around some dorms. She was seriously the sweetest. She came out of her apartment with two rice crackers for us haha. She didn't seem too interested though, but hey, no effort is wasted. We also saw a cool little miracle. We had about 30 min to contact, so we had planned to go to this bike path. Well it was raining and like no one was there. But we found a LA who doesn't have a phone so we haven’t been able to get in touch with her. We knew that that was the reason we were there. She also ended up coming to sacrament meeting (she usually does) but she was late and she just walks in and gives us a box of food. Haha. Then she walks out and walks back in with another one. They are small and they are like to go meals that you buy but man, we have to make sure we tell people not to walk in the middle of sacrament meeting and give us things. 

Sunday: So many people gave us things! Liu JM printed two talks for me, which was so nice. We had someone give us shi jia (buddha fruit), mosquito repellent and medicine stuff (cause they saw my legs...haha), these cracker things... every week this happens though :) people are just so nice and giving. And they were all different people too. 

So I had a cool experience on Sunday after Sacrament meeting. I had invited someone I met at English class to church. Well sorry I didn't. She had already been invited but I talked to her about it. And she ended up coming! Which is awesome. Her English name is Yolanda. She's super cute. We talked after sacrament meeting and she wants to go to America really bad and she told me she found this good opportunity. But she goes "But I don't know if this is right for me" and I was like "Oh oh oh oh let me tell you!" Not actually like that but that's how it went in my head haha. I told her about prayer and how God is her loving Heavenly Father and that he wants to help her. I told her that through prayer she could feel and know what to do. She goes "So you mean to tell me that if I ask Him, and you said Him right? If I ask Him a question, He will answer me?" I was like "YES!" She says "How?" I continued to explain. I didn't explain too much though because it wasn't the right setting. So we set up time with her. It was awesome! And all in English which is also awesome haha. 

Oh I forgot to tell you about our new investigator. Her name is Zhang Mama. She has two grandkids that she cares for like her children.  But she's doing well. And her grandkids (they are pretty young) came to church thanks to some awesome members. She's doing well. She doesn’t have a baptismal date but I know she will. Yang Mei Mei also came to church and she loved it! She is 16 and actually already kind of knew one of the members. So great! Her mom dropped her off and wasn't able to come because of some last minute thing but next week!!!! Those are the only two progressing investigators we were able to meet with this week. Wen JM canceled on us two weeks in a row so yea :( We have to see about her.

With Sister B not having a voice, I learned that I can actually do and say a lot more than I thought and it was a great learning experience. I was "forced" to call people and to talk more to people. I didn't think that I was holding back at all, but I just didn't realize all that I could do. It was good for me :) 

I am so grateful for this mission. I have already learned and grown so much. This church is true. Everything fits together like a puzzle, and I know that there isn't anything more true than the Book of Mormon and this church. The Book of Mormon is true. I want to encourage you all to read from the Book of Mormon a little everyday, because nothing in the gospel can replace it. You can't go to church, pray, read general conference talks, etc and still expect to have a testimony. You need to study that book. Also, I encourage you to INVITE someone to something... church, church activity, seminary, institute, something where they can be involved with the church, and give them the opportunity to feel the Spirit. INVITE is the key :) 

I love you all so much and I'm so grateful I chose to serve a mission. It’s the best thing I've ever done in my entire life, and I've only just started. Also, try to live your life always in the middle. If you want to know what I'm talking about, look up President Uchtdorf's talk "always in the middle" from the July 2012 Liahona. I love you all!!!!

Love,
Sister Roberts

Exercise!

It's a wonderful day!

Jog up the mountain

Framed!

Sister Beeston and her mask

Beautiful Taidong Taiwan

Taidong from the mountain

Tandem bike

Week 14: First Exchanges & Bird Blessings

Hey hey hey!!!!

So I LOVE this place! Just thought you should all know! This week was just amazing! :)

Monday: Was a nice relaxing p-day. So so so nice. We also kinda deep cleaned and organized our apartment today which is awesome. Yup yup.

Tuesday: We had exchanges with our sister training leaders, Sister Hendricks and Sister Haupt. We went up to Hualien (where they live). Apparently this is a little different than before. But we both go up there and work in the leaders area. So that was a little interesting. Well I was with Sister Hendricks, and she is like my long lost sister. Her and I just hit it off right away. And she's going to BYU-I too! So awesome! She is so sweet, and she is just the missionary I want to be. She loves being a missionary, and she just has so much excitement for this work. She doesn't like talking about going home, and she loves finding. Those two things surprised me a little. But I guess that's when you know you really are a converted and consecrated missionary! I just have a lot of work to do ha ha. We had district meeting while we were up there and it was great. Everything that was said just spoke to what I needed to hear. And it helped to resolve some "concerns" or little things that I was worried about. Then we went and had an investigator with this former LA who is now working on putting her mission papers in. She was so sweet and I just fell in love with her! Then we went and did some finding. But it was different then before. It was awesome seeing someone else contact, and I learned a lot. I learned that there can be a structure to a contact, and that has helped me in our area to participate in the contact, because I know what to say. I love it! When Sister B and I got back to Tai Dong, we just exploded. We found 4 investigators the next day and 8 all together this week. Amazing. Absolutely amazing. We have been so blessed. 

Oh and the train ride back to Tai Dong was amazing. It was just so beautiful and Sister Beeston and I had a great talk about everything we were going to do and just about the gospel. That was basically Wednesday.

Thursday: The weather was beautiful!!! Even kind of chilly but that's how I like it! But unfortunately we had WPS so that was an extra three hours inside. But that day was just awesome. I started realizing all the guo nian  (Chinese New Year) stuff that's being set out. I also realized how funny Sister Beeston is. She just says the funniest, most innocent, hilarious things! I love her!!!

Friday: Sister Beeston almost got eaten by a dog. That's happened a lot though. Oh not actually though...let me explain :) So we just knock a lot and it just happens that she just walks straight up to a door and doesn't see the dog sleeping in the corner, so when the dog sees her they bark and run to her. Luckily most people tie up the dogs...otherwise we would not exist anymore. It's terrifying but so funny to see her jump. It scares us both so much though!!! :D Gotta love it!

Friday was a pretty straightforward day. We had an awesome lesson with one of our investigators. Yang Jie Mei and her daughter who is 16. (Btw Hallie, when i showed them pictures of you, she said you were beautiful). They are awesome. We taught the plan of salvation and I didn't say much cause I don't know too much of the vocab but I did share my testimony of the Atonement, and how much we need a Savior. How much we need Jesus Christ, and I don't know about her but I felt the Spirit so strong. As I was talking, I just looked at her, and she had this look on her face, like it clicked or something. But it just seemed to be that she was soaking up the words I said. In my pretty eh Chinese J. I was so grateful for the experience. She said a beautiful closing prayer and it was amazing cause I felt the Spirit so strong. I'm so grateful. When we invited her to baptism the first lesson, she laughed and she said "My husband can’t know" so that might be a problem. But hopefully it all works out. I can't wait!!! I love them!!!!

Saturday: This is when we found 4 new investigators in one day! So amazing!!! We have been so blessed!!! We met this super sweet girl by the beach. She literally came up to us. She was pretty shy though and it was so cute because as we were talking to her, she was like "Is it hard?" I was like "What? Is what hard?" She said "This mission" And I was kind of taken aback by her question. But I was touched that she thought about it. Oh btw she speaks English really well, so I got to talk a lot more haha. I invited her to baptism (in Chinese) and she accepted!!! But she's 15 and she doesn't have a cell phone so it'll be hard to keep in touch with her. But it'll all work out. Hopefully we can meet her family and yea. I love her already!!! 

So oh my goodness...let me tell you about the funniest thing that has ever happened to me in my entire life. As Sister Beeston and I were eating dinner, we were sitting at a table outside. And we were eating shui jiao (dumplings…it's interesting cause they don't call them jiao zi here). So we were sitting outside and we see this huge swarm of birds. They are just flying around above the street. It was crazy …there were like 50 of them. Anyway, by the time we finish they had all settled down and were sitting on the buildings and edges of windows and stuff. Well we were going to go to a 7-11 to go to the bathroom and as we start to walk away and Sister Beeston turns around and says "I just got pooped on" I look down at her hand, and yup, sure enough there's bird poop on her hand. Well, she walks back to the table, wipes her hand off, and she goes to her bike and pulls her bike under the cover of the building. She says "What are we gonna do? I have to go to the bathroom, but they are gonna poop on me." Then she thought for a second and goes "Good thing I have an umbrella". So she grabs the umbrella, and I just absolutely died laughing. We stood at the corner waiting for the light so we could walk across, and literally I was crying because I was laughing so hard. If people didn't notice the two wai guo ren (foreigners) before, they sure noticed us now. I was absolutely dying. Partly because of the way she said it. You just have to know Sister Beeston and her cute little Sister B voice. So funny! So we walked across the street, under our lime green pop up umbrella so that birds wouldn’t poop on us on. Literally I was dying laughing!!! I just hope you think it was as funny as I do. That night I was still laughing about it and she goes "It was necessary. Did we get pooped on? No we didn't. It worked" Hahaha I love her!!! 

That was pretty much my week. Sunday was church, and all finding. Our one lesson with our other progressing investigator, Wen JM and Gabby (her 5 year old daughter), weren't in town. But we did have an investigator that we were considering dropping come to church, which is awesome! And we had a LA come!!! Yay!!!

This week I really felt my Chinese flow, but only during certain parts. Like when it was important, and when I was saying important things, that's when I truly felt like I could speak Chinese. It was amazing. 

I've been thinking a lot about being a consecrated missionary. And I read the talk about being a consecrated missionary, and it was so good. But I was a little discouraged by the end because to me consecrated missionary just sounds like "perfect missionary". And I just want to give my all so badly. I want to make every second count, and just to come home knowing I gave my all. But I think of the long journey I have to get there, as in I have a lot I need to do to be the missionary I want to be. I hope that makes sense.I just worry, but I know that it's just one step at a time. And I think this concept can be applied to a lot of things in life. Obviously we will never be perfect, ever. And we will probably and hopefully never be completely content with where we are in our journey. Hopefully we will always want to improve and always be able to find ways to improve ourselves, so I know that I need to just take it one day at a time, just improve a little everyday and I know God will accept that. As long as I am trying my BEST, my absolute BEST, everything will work out.

Something else I learned this week is just how important the Atonement is. Sister Hendricks told me that in order to make the most of my mission I need to use, understand, and develop faith in the Atonement. Every joy we have is because of the sacrifice that the Savior gave. He gave His life so that we could return to our Father in Heaven. We aren't perfect and never will be. But through the Savior, we can overcome everything. That's my brief testimony about the Atonement. I can't quite put my thoughts into words, but I know that the Atonement is absolutely critical to our Salvation. And Jesus Christ is the center of this gospel. He is the center to God's plan, and because of Him, we can have joy. We can be happy. Our joy and our happiness should come from the knowledge that the Atonement is real. I am so grateful and can't express how much this means to me. I know that it's true. I know Jesus Christ is our Redeemer and Savior. And He is God's son. I encourage you all to study the Atonement this week, and make it personal to you. Learn how to apply it to your own life, it will change your life. 

I love you all so much!!! I love being a missionary and I love Taiwan! I have the best life!!! :D 

Love,

Sister Roberts

Luo Jie Mei (still haven't learned how to do characters on the computer haha)

biking in the rain

Beautiful Taiwan Landscape

Fun plastic bubbles

Chinese hat

Eating on the train ... rice in a bag :-)

Exchanges with Sister Hendricks in Hualien

Exchanges with Sister Hendricks in Hualien

Exercising in the morning

the BEST fried rice ...might just beat my dad's!

Guo Nian Lanterns in Hualien

Train station sign

Week 13: Mosquitoes & Miracles Galore

Hi everyone!!!

So oh my goodness this week was amazing. And it also went by so fast! So where to start.... 

Monday: Holy smokes let me tell you about my day! So after I e-mailed you, a member (actually the stake president) had invited us to go to monkey mountain and to take us to a neighboring city. So all the missionaries in Tai Dong went. It was about an hour away, and it was basically like a zoo except you were a lot closer.  I don't know how to explain it. There were so many cute baby monkeys and a lot of people feeding them. Monkey mountain. Gotta love it. So that was fun BUT THEN, we drove somewhere else, and no one knew where we were going, just cause we didn't ask, but we pull up to this fish market, and we are all like "what?" but we get out and see all these HUGE fish and sharks and we watched people pull the fish out of boats, and cut off the head of a shark and gut it, and there were just fish everywhere. It was actually so cool. I was so impressed with my Sisters cause they were all grossed out by it like most girls I know would be. It was a crazy day! But so fun! And I was so grateful for the stake president. What an awesome man. 

That night, we were looking for less actives but ended up finding a member and it was kinda cool cause we needed to get into the building but we couldn't but then the RS president walks out and helps us in and we go visit this member cause she had just been there visiting her. Definitely Shen de an pai. (God's timing/will?). Yea then we went and had FHE with the ward mission leader and some YSA's, and we gave the lesson then left. Our ward really is amazing and the members are all so willing to help and are just such good people. 

Tuesday: So Tuesday was a day full of miracles, and when I say miracles I just mean that there were so many potentials and awesome people that we met. We met this really cool army girl who loves women's soccer and loves the USA team. Unfortunately we haven't been able to get in touch with her again - YET - but she is awesome, and I really feel like from the things she said, that she will love the gospel. We also met another young man who was going to Australia for a masters program and who spoke pretty good English so I actually got to be a part of that contact, and we had a full lesson with him. He seemed pretty interested and it was great :) But he's in Australia now. We also met another family who just seemed so prepared. They were shelling peas and they said they were looking for a church. We had a lesson with them but I don't exactly know how interested they are because when we called them again, they were a little unsure but we will see. We met a lot more people but I don't know how to explain it to you haha. The day finished off with visiting a 16 year old LA and then seeing the Elders at a family mart and they were meeting with a recent convert and we teach her son in English class so she bought all of us ice cream :-). I was really involved in everything that day, and I just felt like Chinese flowed off my tongue, and I spoke so much more than I usually do. It was an amazing day!

Wednesday: We had zone meeting. Which was good but they decided to do it all in Chinese so I didn't really get much from it even though I had a couple sisters translating for me. But they are really emphasizing "teach repentance and baptize converts" in the mission field right now. And it's great because repentance is what will help people be converted for the rest of their lives. Repentance allows you to have a personal interaction with the Savior and His atonement. And it changes you. That's exactly what repentance is. awesome. The rest of the day was good. We met a cute Philippino woman who took a picture with us and we exchanged numbers and she seemed interested. We again, haven't been able to get in touch with her but we will see. The sisters in my apartment all say that if people just answered their phones that missionary work would go so much faster :-). Which is so true! People just need to answer their phones! Sister Beeston and I take 30 min in our day just to call people because we have so many potentials and if they would just answer their phones we would know if they wanted to meet. Anyway :) 

Thursday: We had WPS (weekly planning session) which is 3 hours of straight planning. Which is very much needed but this week, by the end Sister Beeston and I were going a little crazy. That night was awesome. We had a great lesson with a new investigator and we had a pei ke (member) and they seemed to get along well. But on Sunday we had another lesson with him and he fang 'ed us (didn't show up). But he's great. Also, we got a call from a potential we met before the Christmas party (she is a 16 year old girl that we contacted at the library) well we had called her and her mom called us back. Which could have gone so bad but it was a miracle because the mom was like "yea let's meet" so we had a lesson with her I think Friday, and it was amazing. She was so open to everything, and literally that shouldn't have happened. This lady called some random Americans who met her daughter and then meets? Such a miracle. God works in such interesting ways. They actually also came to the first hour of church!!! BUT our schedule was changed around so we have RS first, which means they didn't get to come to sacrament meeting BUT they came! So awesome! They are the best!

Friday: We met some more amazing people. Seriously this week we just met so many people. And there were so many things that went well this week. I'm so grateful. I don't know what else to say about Friday. Good day :) 

Saturday and Sunday: The weather was beautiful!!! This whole week was so beautiful! it was 70's and sunny and amazing! On Saturday we got to sing for these older handicapped people and it was amazing! We just sang two songs but they were so cute. They clapped, and by the second song, one man was crying! Gotta love it!  The Spirit touches lives. 

So this week was just awesome. Sorry I was more brief on Saturday and Sunday. This week something just changed for Sister Beeston and I. it just clicked. I think it was my attitude actually. I realized that every day is a new day and that I NEVER know what the Lord has in store. And I don't know. I've just felt discouraged because we didn't have any investigators but this week we have 4 new ones, which is just amazing and I really think something changed. I just don't know exactly what it was. 

I finally felt the frustration of not being able to speak Chinese. Honestly I haven't been frustrated with myself because I just know that I will learn and I know that I'm doing what I can. Well this week, we were meeting with some less active members (both 16 year old girls) and I just wanted so badly to tell them how much this gospel means to me and how much it'll change their lives, and how much their Heavenly Father loves them. But I just couldn't. But I just trust that the Spirit will speak to their hearts. But I'm really excited to help them and to work with them. 

Oh and about my title, I just woke up one morning with like 30 mosquito bites on my legs.... so it wasn't very fun all week. But a really nice lady who had a hot dog dog ;) gave me some ointment cause she saw my legs...haha. People are so nice here. Seriously every time we meet with a member and sometimes just random people give us things. I love these people!

Well that's about it. I am so grateful for the change in my perspective. It wasn't that I was negative before, or that I wasn't excited to be here, but I just felt stuck. Like I was at the beginning and just running and not getting anywhere. It didn't help we didn't have many investigators but I think I just realized how amazing it is to be a missionary. I'm just so grateful. I know this gospel is true. It all just makes sense. I don't know how else to say it. Everything just fits together, how we were created, why we are here, why we needed a restoration, where we are going, what we need to do to return to Heavenly Father. Everything just fits. I know with a burning testimony in my heart that God and His son Jesus Christ live. I KNOW that we are here for a purpose and that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is God's church here on the Earth. I love this gospel so much. I love the Book of Mormon so much, and I can't wait to help others come to know this for themselves. I love you all and I just invite you to be positive. Know that God is there and is helping you. He will never leave you lonely. Ever. You are His child. You are HIS and He knows you. Just trust in Him. 

I love you all!

Sister Roberts

Monkey Mountain PDay excursion

Fish Market

Real fruit juice made fresh

Construction  zone dummy

Mosquito bites ... yuck

Peanut Butter Burger!!!

Cats love us