Sister Cecily Roberts: 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.