Sister Cecily Roberts: 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)