Week 20: 3 days to Chuan Jiao

Hi Hi Hi!!!!!

So I hope that last week I wasn't too like "This is hard" or sounded like complaining. I was so grateful for the experience and just the heartache I felt. Especially because I just had such a better attitude this week. 

This week started off soooooooooo crazy!!!!! Monday was the lantern festival or Han Dan Ye. BUT this is Tai Dong's most celebrated holiday and the biggest celebration of Han Dan Ye is in Tai Dong. It was insane. So I've heard that the story goes that forever ago, there was a man and he went around and "changed" people. As in he took their sins or bad things and he changed the people to be good people. Well during Han Dan Ye, they have some volunteers (well they pay them) but these men are put on a holder things that usually carries the Buddhist shrine things, I don't know how to explain it sorry. But they are put on this pedestal thing, and carried in a circle (up in the air) while hundreds and hundreds of firecrackers are shot at them. These men don't wear any protective gear. They wear a face mask and a head towel thing and shorts.... It's so crazy!!! And it's supposed to be that they are taking away the sins and bad things of the people. Basically it's an atonement. It was so crazy, and it just made me so grateful that I have a Savior who has already atoned for our sins. It just made me so much more excited to go out and share the life of my Savior and their Savior. Very interesting. It was super super loud and kinda scary. I love the culture though. 

We then spent the evening trying to get through a mile long parade of Buddhist shrines. All the Buddhist miao's have a float and they shoot fireworks and firecrackers and just snake up and down the streets of the city.....it was so crazy! Sister B had a panick attack because she is apparently afraid of fireworks/crackers. And we were literally riding through them. Or under them. You never knew when they would go off. So we spent an hour and a half trying to get through the city to find some LA's.....it was so nuts and would have been so fun if we had been there to enjoy it. But trying to get through it was just insane. So fun though. At least I had fun. We finally got out of the city area and were able to go to our finding area which was a little out of the city.  It was good. 

Tuesday was exchanges which are always needed. I was with Sister Hendricks and it was perfect. I learned so much about faith and just what I could do to help the area grow. I came back with so much fire!

Wednesday: we spent basically the whole day on the train. We didn't get back to Tai Dong until 5:30 then we had English meeting and English class, which was the rest of the evening. That day was also not too productive of a day.

Thursday: Thursday we had WPS and went through all our people and prayed about who we needed to drop and who we needed to reach out to. Then we went to Cheng Gong which is an hour away from Tai Dong. It's the furthest part of our area. But the thing is, we had 5 seats in the car, and 6 people ended up going. We had our RC drive us but then she brought a friend. And the Elder's were coming with us. So it was just crazy. And the night ended up not being as productive as we wanted because the plan was to go finding, and visit LA's but then the Elder's kept dropping stuff on us and being like "let's go visit this LA" then "oh we have a set up at 5" and stuff like that. We got to visit 2 LA's though. But it just was crazy, and we ended up getting home late because the Elder's dropped another bomb on us and were like "we have a set up at 8"....ugh anyway haha. It just was bad communication between us all. But it was kinda last minute and Sister B and I prayed about going up and we felt we should, so hopefully the LA's were touched some way. And that they will come to church.

Friday Saturday and Sunday were our 3 days to Chuan Jiao (do missionary work, basically). Because the week was so crazy, we didn't have any numbers. We basically hadn't done any missionary work. Which was so sad because we NEEDED to be finding, and HAD to be in our area! But it all worked out for the best and God truly blessed us. On Friday, while all the other missionaries were at a xi li hui (baptismal service) we went finding, and found an amazing, prepared daughter of God. She was walking for exercise and we walked with her and talked about the gospel. She had the perfect questions and said she would come to church. She did! And she said it's a very comfortable feeling and peaceful. She also told us that she had been really stressed because of a friend who had passed away, and that's why she went out walking, and then she met us. And she said after that, she felt very calm and at peace. Her name is ___ XJ (xiao jie, just means miss). She asked to borrow a gospel principles book (from Sunday school) and she said that she thinks this is her answer. She hasn't committed to a baptismal date yet because she said her parents will fan dui (disagree) and that they say church is a waste of time, but it's not like she's against it. That's just her excuse right now. We'll fix it :) I'm just so excited and I just feel how prepared she is and am so grateful I could meet her!!!

Saturday we met another awesome guy, who had a beautiful understanding of baptism. But we met with him again on Sunday and you could just see him thinking about everything we said. And you could tell that he was listening and really thinking. But it didn't quite click. Didn't quite click that this would fix his problems, and his heart ache. He sat there for a long time trying to pray, but he couldn't? I don't know how to explain it, but he's moving to Hua Lian and didn't want us to give the Hua Lian missionaries his number. Some day he'll be more prepared.

Sunday we had a lesson with ___ XJ and her two kids! And it went well! She committed to learning more! She also didn't accept baptism because her husband is a strong Buddhist. But it'll work out. I'm excited to see where it goes. 

This week was such a testimony builder. I had faith, and enjoyed finding, and it just felt different. My attitude is different and my testimony is stronger. It's great! :D 

The language is also coming along well. I'm almost done with phase 1 and I'm working so so so hard to finish by the end of the transfer! Like getting up at5:30 to study hard....it's hard because I love my sleep and I need my sleep. But I know if I don't finish it by the end of the transfer like president wants us to, I'll regret it so much. But as long as I'm doing the very best I can (like I am now) I know I'll be ok. I know the gift of tongues is real though. 

I know that this church is God's church again on the earth. It's just as simple as that. We have Christ's church once again. Like, it's the same as it was when he was on the earth. I can't express how grateful I am for a loving Heavenly Father and this plan. I learned this week that we are on the earth to prepare to meet God. Which I knew, but we are here to make covenants and have experiences, and that the covenants that we make here are preparing us for eternal life. Such an amazing plan. 

Sister B is amazing as usual and I'm so grateful! I can't believe this transfer is almost over! I'm almost done with training! AHHHHH!!!!!!

Love from Taiwan,

Sister Roberts

Enjoy some great pictures of Han Dan ye and some fun this week.

Sister Beeston - Bugsy B

Bugsy! Playing with some glasses we found outside the church

Crab cracker ... literally a crab deep fried into a cracker. Salty!

Fireworks - smoke on the street

Han Dan Ye street performance

Buddhist displays - Han Dan ye

Han Dan Ye

Han Dan Ye men & fireworks. Crazy!

Han Dan Ye performers

Han Dan Ye men ... crazy!

We decided to sing an English hymn and both had our mom's hymn books!

Awesome smoothie!

Thousand year old egg - ... um, yum?

My first time trying a thousand year old egg!

Paintings by the train tracks

Week 19: A Week of Faith

Hi Everyone,

This was definitely the hardest week of my mission. We officially have no one to teach. Ok we have potentials, but no progressing investigators. We have one person (_ JM) kind of dissolve her baptismal date in this awful lesson we had with her. And Wen JM set up to meet with us again, but she canceled again. Which is like 4 times now. And we have other hai hao (so so) people. 

The whole time I've been here in Tai Dong, we've been looking for people, and it's a hard because no one ever sticks. We find plenty of new investigators each week but something always happens. They don't come, or stop answering us, or who knows. Or Guo nian strikes or you know. But no one has made it up to or past the third lesson. And it's really discouraging. Especially seeing all the other missionaries in our area being successful. Sister B and I have talked a lot about it, and we both feel like we are doing everything we know how to do. Obviously there's always room for improvement but we know that we aren't doing anything wrong. We are as obedient as we can, we pray about finding, we try to use all the time we have, etc. We just don't know what else to do. But the discouragement has been good for me. It's stretched me a lot and yea, I've learned a lot. It's taught me to rely 100% on the Lord. 

I've learned this really is His work, and it doesn't matter what I do. As in, I can do everything I'm supposed to, being obedient, key indicators, etc. But it ultimately comes down to the Lord. He's the one who puts the prepared people in our path. He's the one who prepares the heart. We just need to rely on Him. 

I've also learned how to be humble. I've been completely stripped of my pride. I want so badly to be a good missionary, but Heavenly Father decided to show me that it has nothing to do with me. 

I've learned how to work hard. Saturday was hard. We had an awful lesson with _ JM. Everything was set up to go well. We had a member that she gets along with and everything. Well everytime we tried to teach something, she interrupted us and asked another question, and then goes off on the question. And before we could bring the lesson back, she asks another, or the member starts answering it. So we could hardly get a word in. She's really awesome though. She asks good questions, but if she would just let us talk and teach her, she wouldn't have questions. Well at the end of the lesson, the member sort of chewed us out and was like "She's going to keep having the same lessons if you don't teach her". Well yea, we know! Anyway, it was hard. Then we had two other lessons (with members) set up and they canceled. So the whole day was finding. And we found NO ONE. Literally found no one. I've never been rejected so much and so fast in my life. I don't mean to rant, I just wanted to explain that it was a hard day. But because of this day and this week, I learned that the only thing you can do is to keep going. I had the thought that working hard means that once you think everything is done, or that you've done well. DO MORE. Always do more. When you're tired and when you think you deserve a little rest, do more. It's been an awesome lesson, and I think it can be applied to literally every aspect of our lives. 

The last thing I've learned is to be positive and have faith. I'm kind of a negative person when it comes to thinking of the future. In that, I mean I would much rather be realistic and say "the chances of that happening are ..." but I've learned that this thinking gets me absolutely no where. And I'm a lot more positive than I thought I would be but it's true. We can't be negative because that only leads to discouragement. 

I'm really grateful for this time, and for the hard time. Especially because it helped me to understand the sacrament better. I had a great experience with the sacrament on Sunday. As I partook of the bread, I just felt something. I can't explain what it was, but for the first time in my life, I understood that when we partake of the sacrament, we are showing God that we are willing to keep our covenants. All of them. And I don't know, I just felt understanding. It finally really meant something to me.  It was just such a wonderful feeling. And I felt spiritually strengthened which is also something I have never felt. And I came out of church feeling motivated and ready to go find the prepared people. 

I love this gospel so much. I don't know what else to say. I know that God is our loving Heavenly Father, and that He is watching over us. I know that in the midst of our trials, our sorrows, our tribulations, He is there walking with us. If even not carrying us. Because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we have hope. We never have to feel hopeless or helpless. The Savior knows how you feel. And the comfort that brings me, is so incredible. I love the Book of Mormon, and I can testify that God answers us and comforts us through that book. So read it. :) I love you all so much. My invitation to you this week is to work hard. WORK HARD. And when you think you are working hard, WORK HARDER. Fight the natural man to do less, instead of something you should do. God will bless your efforts. Even if it is just the little things in life. 

I love you all!

Love from Taidong,

Sister Roberts

Fun art

Dinner with Christine - Mexican Food Yum!

Missionary Bikes

Street art - fun!

Week 18: Happy Chinese New Year & Valentine's Day

Hey you !!!!! Hey all of yoU!!!!!!

Sorry I didn't e-mail yesterday. I spent the whole day in bed....and in the bathroom. I was throwing up every hour. There's a bug or something going around the mission. Xing ku wo. I just felt bad for Sister Beeston because she just sat in the apartment. On P-day...while all the other missionaries went up to this amazing beautiful bridge thing. She's amazing though. At the end of the day, I was feeling better and we were just talking and she gasps and says "I know why you got sick!!!!" i was like "Oh yea?" She goes "It's cause I've been praying for opportunities to serve you!" Isn't that just the sweetest? She's amazing and I absolutely love her!!!! 

So this week was Chinese New Year which actually was a lot more normal than I thought it would be. I love it though because Sister Beeston and I realized that Chinese New Year is like our Christmas. Except better (minus the fact that we celebrate our Savior's birth) but Christmas is very materialistic, and Chinese New Year, it's all about family. It's so amazing. The Taiwanese people are amazing. I will admit though I was a little disappointed with the fireworks. Or I should say lack of fireworks. I slept through the whole night and didn't hear anything. So sad. Chinese New Year in China was definitely crazier. But it was so awesome to be here and to see all the families together. All the families walking out on the street, and just seeing everyone so happy. It definitely lifted everyone's spirits. 

I went to Taibei this week because of a trainer/trainee follow up meeting. I can't believe that I'm more than half way done with training! So so crazy!!! But getting tickets up to Taibei was crazy. There were NO tickets. So we weren't sure if we were going to be able to go up. We ended up getting seats up to Hualian (which is about halfway) then we had to stand the rest of the way. Up to Hualian is about 3 hours, then another 3 hours to Taibei because we were on the slow train. Not the best, but it was worth it. I love hearing from President Jergensen and it was just what I needed. I also got to see Sister Hughes and Sister Erickson!!! I love love love them!!!!! I left the meeting with so much faith and hope and motivation! I love being a missionary!

Sister B and I both agreed that we need to have more faith and we saw results withing the next few days. We found four new investigators on Sunday and 6 the whole week! Amazing! We met this lady Shen XJ (xiao jie - it means ms.) She has a one year old son and she let us in to her house and the son was a lot of a distraction but it was alright. He had squeaker shoes on... haha. Reminded me of China and Amelia's shoes. Anyway, she let us come back and we did and taught the first lesson again because the first time wasn't good and we know she didn't get anything out of it. So yea, but it was more crazy than the first time. They just got home (her, her husband, and her one year old son) so they were sitting down for dinner. So they were eating while we were trying to teach, and then the husband turned the tv on for the son, and the we were about to say the first vision and the son falls on his head so he starts wailing. Poor thing. The dad took the boy out and then it was a lot better. We asked to turn the tv off and from there we had an actual lesson. But the rest of the lesson was just bizzar. She asked "Why do you pray? What do you get from prayer?" She said "If I'm hungry, I eat food. If I'm tired, I sleep. If I need money, I work. Why do you pray? What do I get from prayer" And it was so crazy because I couldn't answer it. Sister B and I were both at a loss for words. The thing is, we knew we weren't supposed to say anything. Like we knew that nothing we said would help. She set up with us again, but we will see how it goes. It'll be around dinner time again, so we have to see. 

Chen JM came to Sacrament meeting! She's the one who went to Taibei for Chinese New Year so we couldn't meet with her. But we kept in touch with her daily and she's amazing. She said she was debating on whether she should come to church and she said she just had a feeling that she should come and she said " I think it was the Spirit that they talked about in Church today" She's golden and so amazing. She's our most progressing investigator right now. Her baptismal date is for the 5th of March. So it'll be a bit of a push but we are determined! If she's ready of course by that time. 

We got in touch with Wen JM again so hopefully they will start progressing again! And we met another family who let us in and we taught them the first lesson. Her name is Wang XJ and she also has young kids. So it's kinda a challenge. But she committed to start praying. She's awesome. We also met a 16 year old girl named Huang TX (tong xue - student). She's awesome too. It was the smoothest street contact ever. And we have really high hopes for her. We also have another baptismal date, whose name is Wu XS (xian sheng - mister). He said he is willing to come to church but his work is bu yi ding (not certain) so he's not sure. But yea. He's pretty cool. His brother and another guy were there when we contacted him but they were both drunk. And this one guy kept being like "I like you". It was hilarious. 

So yea that's pretty much it! :D I'm so glad that our area is finally progressing. My invitation to you all is to pray for missionary opportunities. There has been a big push for member missionary work here in the mission, and i've realized how important members are in missonary work. We met with our stake president today in district meeting and he goes "If you are too busy for missionary work, you need to gain a better testimony of missionary work" So simple but so true. Get involved with the missionaries. They NEED your help. I love you all so much!!!!! I know that this church is God's church. Jesus Christ's church has been restored and it is the same now as it was when He was on the earth. I'm so grateful to have this opportunity to share it. I love Him and I love this work so much. 

Love from Taiwan,

Sister Roberts

Big poster

Sisters Hughes & Erickson

Train ride

Week 17: Earthquake on the 10th Floor & Chinese New Year!

So wow....let me just start by saying I'm alive haha.

There was a 6.4 earthquake in Tainan which is two cities away from Tai Dong. During the earthquake I was in Hua Lien Which is a blessing. We were on exchanges. Everyone in Tai Dong is fine and no damage was done. But it was scary. It happened at 4 in the morning and we were on the 10th floor of our STL's apartment building. I woke up, and was like "Oh ok, an earthquake" Then it got bigger, and didn't stop. It lasted I want to say for a good 10-15 seconds. But maybe not because I was kinda half asleep. But it was scary. I heard that buildings collapsed in Tainan. Yea, everyone I know is good though. :) 

So that was probably the most exciting part of my week. Exchanges. They were fantastic. They always are. And by always I mean the two that I've had :) I was with Sister Haupt this time and it was just so good. It was a lot of finding but then we had two lessons. The Spirit was so strong, and I just felt my Chinese really flow as I bore my testimony to this investigator that we can say this church is true, but he won't know unless he feels it for himself. I'm so grateful. While at exchanges I learned that I need to have more faith. It's so interesting because faith is the first principle of the gospel. I have faith. of course. I wouldn't be here if  I didn't. But it's so interesting because in the gospel, there is always deeper knowledge or deeper levels of the most basic principles. I realized that I needed to have more faith to find. More faith in my Father in Heaven and that this is His work. That this is Christ's work. I need to have faith that we will baptize. That we will find prepared people. That God will lead us to the prepared. So that's my goal this week is to have more faith. 

Sister B and I are doing a thing called "project purification" it's basically a 40 day spiritual fast. So you fast for a day, and write down a list of things that are "poking at your spirit". That are keeping you from having the Spirit as a constant companion. Once you've made the list, you pray and covenant with the Lord every morning that you won't (or will) do the things on the list. And you ask for the strength to be able to do them. Then at night, when you pray before bed, you evaluate how you did. And figure out what you need to do better. The point is that by the end of the 40 days (basically a whole transfer), you're heart will be in the right place. I think it's a talk somewhere. But I'm really excited because I know this will help me to give my whole heart, might, mind, and strength. I hope that made sense. Oh the reason I said that is because Sister B and I are doing it as a companionship. So we have personal goals, but we also have companion goals. So hopefully this transfer, we just explode, and we just will be able to become awesome missionaries together. 

This week was pretty straight forward. We only had one lesson with an investigator because everyone is "too busy" because of guo nian (Chinese New Year). And this week everyone is going out of town, so all of our investigators are on hold. Wen JM has been really busy the past few weeks and has canceled on us so she isn't progressing anymore which is a bummer. But she is still in contact with us so we know there's still hope. We have another really cute investigator named Yolanda. This is her English name and she's just so funny. She tries to speak English all the time. We haven't been able to meet with her either, and she's also pulling the "I'm way too busy" card. So we have to figure out how to overcome that. Our other investigator Lynn, or Chen JM is the most solid one right now. She's in Taibei, but we know she's praying, and she asked us to send her scriptures because she forgot her Book of Mormon at home. We asked her to pray about her baptismal date, to receive a confirmation, and she said "I already know that this is a big decision, and I've already made my mind." She's just incredible. I can't wait to meet with her more! I love her! I love them all! 

This week we only found a few new investigators, but one specifically is really cool. His name is Ted, I think he's like 20? I don't know. But he's super cool. We were contacting, and we heard a guitar. Sister B looks at me, and goes "you can play for them!" I was like "Yea yea yea!" haha just like that. I was so excited! We go, and their door is open (like most are), and we said hello and I asked if I could try. So I played for him, and he played for us. We had a little lesson with him, and as he was talking I just looked at him and thought "I could see us being really good friends, and being friends beyond my mission". I have high hopes for him. Especially because Sister B said that she had met the Ama (his grandma, who was also in the room, but not a part of the discussion, she's really old) and that her and her companion sung for her and the ama actually said that she had a grandson that she wanted to come to church. So miracle! Yay! :D I can't wait! 

Other than that, it was a pretty straight forward week. We met some cool people and helped a lady prepare vegetables for guo nian, and almost got eaten by a lot of dogs, and met some really cute girls who were down the street and waved at us and then RAN to say hello which was cute, Yea you know, all the normal haha. 

I love Taiwan. This country is amazing. And guo nian is so fun. It'll probably be a really hard week cause it'll be straight finding but I'm kinda excited. I know that it'll be full of experiences. Hopefully we don't get fat from all the food! 

I love you all and I invite you all to work on your faith this week. Trust in God. Put your confidence in Christ. I also invite you to read the church magazines. The Liahona and Ensign. They are amazing! I was joking with Sister B and said "Why didn't anyone tell me about these sooner?" It's one thing to hear the apostles speak and another to read their words and study them. It's so awesome. I know that this church is God's church on this Earth. My heart burns with that knowledge. I know that when you hold the Book of Mormon in your hands, you hold the word of God. When you hold that book in your hands, you hold the very piece of information that testifies that Joseph Smith was a true prophet. That Jesus is the Christ. And that this Church is God's kingdom once again restored on the Earth (refer to Book of Mormon intro for the complete promise of the Book of Mormon). That book is true. And I invite and encourage you all to find out for yourself. GOd has challenged us and told us to ask Him. He asks us to TEST HIM. Our Creator has asked us to TEST HIM. He promises us that He will answer us if we ask sincerely. I don't know what's more amazing then that. This Church, His plan, is such a gift. It is so pure and so perfect, and I don't know what I did in my life, or before this life to deserve the opportunity to have this gift. AND to be able to share it with others. How lucky am I? I love you all! Have a good week and Happy Chinese New Year!!!!

Love from Taiwan,

Sister Roberts

luo jie mei ( I still haven't taken the time to figure out how to write them in characters. Some day :) )

Beautiful landscape

Taidong

Beautiful blue sky from the church parking lot

Sister B and English Class

English Class

Guo Nian lanterns

awesome fruit juice - may favorite thing about Taiwan!

Liu Family - James is home from his mission!

Um ... yum???

Week 16: Half-way done with Training

Hey Hey Hey!!! 

Transfers were this week. I'm half way done with training! And Sister Child is now training which means Sister Lafevre is gone. But I was thinking how crazy would it be if Sister Child trained Abby or anyone else I knew from the MTC? But she's training a sister from the other zone who I don't know too well. Oh well haha. This week went by super super fast.   It feels like just yesterday I was sitting in the wang ka drinking hot chocolate while I e-mailed because it was cold haha. But that was last week. So this week was a pretty straightforward week. Nothing too crazy or exciting happened, but at the same time there were a lot of cool little miracles. 

So Monday: After we e-mailed we had a pretty chill p-day. We got the errands done that we needed to. It was great. That night we met this awesome lady. We were contacting and walking to another house to knock at and this lady pulls up next to us on a scooter and says "backpackers?" in English. We were both a little stunned. We said no and she asked if we were full "chi bao le ma?" and we said yes and then proceeded to explain that we were missionaries. Turns out her English is awesome and talking to her more she was just amazing. She learned English from watching CNN and CBS... what? Looks like I need to watch movies/TV in the next language I want to learn haha. We talked to her and she wasn't really too interested in the gospel but she asked for our help with her English class, and she actually did set up to meet with us again. So I think she secretly is interested haha. Anyway, she is super cool. The rest of the night was normal haha. 

Tuesday: So we had an awesome worldwide missionary broadcast! It was about "teach repentance, baptize converts". And it's the new focus of missionary work. But it's so cool because repentance is what is taught in the scriptures. That's how the amazing missionaries in the Book of Mormon taught and it's just awesome because now that's how we will be teaching. I learned a lot about repentance though this week. Growing up a member of this church, I also thought/felt that repentance was really only necessary if you made a big sin. Or that repentance was confessing to God and sometimes your bishop if you did anything wrong. I didn't understand as well how it applied to me. But this week I learned that repentance is a change of heart. It's a change of attitude and turning your heart to God. It just put a new perspective on it for me. The way that we use the Atonement and apply it to our daily lives is through daily repentance,  it is through daily change and progress. I invite you all to think about that and learn how to apply that to your lives. 

So after the broadcast we all went out to lunch and we were walking out of the restaurant and this lady calls out after us saying "Mormon jiao" (Mormon church). We turn around and she's like "My mom wants to invite you all to dinner, and we will bring friends to hear a message from you" And we were blown away. This lady wasn't a member and we have no idea where she came from but later this week she brought us all dinner. And when i say all I mean all 10 of us Sister and Elder Missionaries. And she invited us next week to a barbecue...where she is going to bring friends. Haha… How cool is that? She even said she was going to come to church! I don't know if she actually did cause she went to a different ward but WOW. She was so amazing. 

Wednesday: We had an awesome English party and a cool spiritual thought. We combined all the classes, and it was super cool. We talked about talents and gifts and our identity. I had the chance to bear my testimony and I felt the Spirit testify to me that what I was saying was true, and that I was testifying to these beautiful Taiwanese children of God, that THEY really are children of God. I just love being a missionary because I love teaching others of their identity. And their purpose in life, and that they have a God who loves them and has given us multiple opportunities to be happy. I just love it! 

Thursday: So Thursday we had WPS so we were mostly inside, but we met another MIRACLE lady. It was a referral from her neighbor. We had been knocking in that area the day or two before and we met a man who wasn't interested but we asked for a referral and he pointed to the house across the street. So we decided to go back the next day (to the referral) because they didn't answer when we knocked the first time. And it was definitely a miracle because this lady answers the door and invites us in and basically teaches us the first lesson through her questions. She had all these questions about Adam and Eve and the first sin, and about infant baptism, and the Bible and she talked about how people have taken so much out of it. WHAT??? Who is this lady?? So cool right? Well she actually lives in Taibei so we can't call her our investigator but right now she is an Elementary school teacher and is on winter break, and is super busy. But she actually set a baptismal date and is so prepared!!! We met with her again later that week and she had been reading the Book of Mormon and said she didn’t' really understand but then was asking about why Nephi had to go back three times for the plates. She's just amazing. I'll just leave it at that. Her name is Li XJ. Other than that we just had more people reject us. You know all in a day’s work. J

Friday: We were contacting and down the street was this crazy and cool Buddhist ceremony.  And there was music and firecrackers and we just didn't know what to do (haha) because it was so loud, but we had to contact so we just kept going. It was fun. We didn't find anyone on that street though, so maybe we didn't need to be there (haha) who knows.  We had a lady who wasn't at all interested in our message give us 4 shi jia (buddha fruit), so that was nice. We also met a cool 19 year old young man who spoke English. It was cool, and he was Christian and you could tell that his faith was really strong. He said that he would come to church and seemed open to it all. So cool :) But he lives in the third Elder's area.

Saturday: We had an awesome lesson with Yolanda. She is the girl who speaks English and came to sacrament meeting last week. She said she wants to meet with us because she's curious about God. And as I was telling her about God she goes "But how do you know?" it was an awesome lesson. And I'm really excited for her. She's a new investigator :) We also met this crazy lady who just "yelled" at us and told us to stop visiting other Christians. I didn't understand everything she said but that was basically it... it was a little rough. 

Sunday: Went by so fast. Usually Sunday's go slow but not this one. We met this awesome, hilarious lady who started singing “In our lovely deseret” (hymn) in Chinese but with different words. And she was just so energetic and hilarious. It made my day! She kept rubbing my arm and asking me how I wasn't afraid of the cold. She was just awesome, I can't describe it. She didn't have much interest in the gospel but we had a little lesson with her anyway. When we prayed with her and asked her to bow her head and close her eyes, she like bent half way over and said 'like this?' J so so cute!!!  The rest of the day was straight forward. 

So yea, that was my week. We had a lot of lessons on the street which was great and we had 6 new investigators this week. Oh I forgot…we had a lesson with a lady who was an English referral and it was awesome. She asked all the right questions, and you can just see she is so prepared. What's even cooler,  I understood almost the whole lesson, and I was even able to respond to her questions! The gift of tongues is real!!! I love this work!!!! 

We only really have one progressing investigator right now because Wen JM is out of town and we haven't met with her for three weeks. And we had to pass on Yang JM and her daughter to the third elders because they live in their area. I’m sad we don’t get to teach them but they were at church on Sunday and I know they are going to get baptized!!! I just hope I get to see it! I love them! 

Well that's my week! I love you all and I encourage you all to discover what repentance means, and to apply the Atonement every day. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and He is the Redeemer of the world. Because of Him, we can and will return to God. We will find happiness and joy in this life no matter our circumstances. Have a great week!!!!

Love,

Sister Roberts

FHE with wonderful members!

Amazing Rice Cakes!

Patriotic :-)

Miracle dinner