Week 50: Prepared people in Song Shan

Hello hello hello!!!!

So this week was fantastic. Surprise we are having 3 baptisms this week!!! :D Sorry I kinda didn't mention them earlier...don't know what I was thinking. One is Chen Ye Ye. He's 85 years old and we aren't really sure how much he understands because he is hard of hearing but I think he understands as much as an 8 year old so we will see. If he passes his interview we will see him be baptized on Sunday :) 

The other is Eago who is our miracle of the month/transfer!!!! She's famous Sister Trouble's older sister and sooooo amazing. But she didn't have a baptismal date because she had to accomplish some personal goal first or something. I'm not sure, she wouldn't tell us. She went to Shanghai last week and we hadn't been in touch with her. WELL this week she called us this week and was like "Hey I want to get baptized on the 29th". She had her interview and she passed and is getting baptized on Thursday!!!! AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! PRAYERS ARE REAL AND MIRACLES HAPPEN!!!!! That's what I have learned this week is that miracles are real and I really feel it's because of prayer. And faith. Honestly. I've been trying to have better prayers and just have more faith and I feel like it's made a difference. At least in the way i do missionary work. 

The last one is Serene. She is a referral from JinHua. And just let me tell you her story (that I just found out yesterday). So she was bullied in high school. Well she found the Bullying mormon video and she was super gan dong (moved) and she contacted the actor to say thank you. The actor e-mailed/responded back and said "you should meet with missionaries... actually i have a friend in Taiwan right now." So the friend ended up being our previous AP, Elder Johnson. So Elder Johnson was given her contact info which then went to the mission office, which then went to some elders. They were teaching her and then hou lai (turns out) she lived in our area. So we get this miracle girl who is sooo prepared. Oh and I forgot, one lesson while the elders were teaching her, they felt prompted to teach the commandments, Word of wisdom and law of chastity. And it turns out that the reason Serene was bullied in high school was because she already followed these standards. Isn't that the most miraculous thing you've ever heard??? I just was so gan dong and I just can't express how grateful I am that I have the honor of teaching her. She is soooo sweet. She came to church and she was like "Hey Luo Jie Mei I have something to give you. Do you wanna close your eyes?" I said "of course!!!" and she pulls out a picture of Taibei 101 that she took herself. She handed it to me and I freaked out!!! She is soooo sweet and I just love her a lot a lot a lot!!!! :D :D :D 

So basically, this week was full of miracles because we had 6 actually 7 investigators at church this week....what? Unheard of! :D One was Pan JM who origially told us she couldn't come because she goes to visit her mom every week in Jilong. Well this week she decided  "I want to come to church" so she came! And she loved it! I don't know if she can come every week and I think she might be moving to DanShui for a little which is super sad but oh my goodness she is amazing. She pulled out her BOM during church and it was covered in a beautiful book cover and she had read until 1 Nephi 15!!! I was just so gan dong!!! AHHHHH! :D :D :D 

Actually funny story, there's word from the APs that one of the Song Shan companionships might be pulled out of Song Shan. So that means either the elders or sisters will be moved out of Song Shan... Sister Wang and I think it's fine. But it all depends on what God wants. We will see!!! We find out next week! Can you believe that next week is transfers????? WHAT HAPPENED TO THIS TRANSFER!!! UGH UGH UGH!!! TIME GOES SO FAST!!!

I will admit I got a little frustrated with Chinese this week. I just still don't understand sometimes and just feel like I'm not learning the things I want to. And there's so much I have to learn and so little time. I’m not saying that I have to speak 100% perfect Chinese by the end of my mission. But I don't know, it's just such a special time to learn and the best time to learn and I'm afraid it's running out... 

Honestly, that's pretty much it for this week. We saw a lot of cool little things happen and I feel like I've grown so much as a missionary. I can feel a complete difference in who I am and the kind of missionary I am. We went on exchanges this week with the XiZhi sisters who are Sister Fenlaw and Sister Li (native) and it was amazing. I went with Sister Fenlaw and it was literally a match made in heaven. It was amazing because I felt the Spirit with us as we chuan'd the jiao, and honestly I felt like we were in such unity. It was incredible. We also met so many cool nice people and just had really good contacts. She is an amazing missionary and is going home in Dec. She was recently  companions with Sister Hughes in Hualian and I learned a lot from her. She's also Abby's trainer (I mean Sister Toronto haha). Ah it was just so awesome. 

I know that this work is real. I know that God is leading us and I can't explain enough how much I love this gospel. I am so grateful for the peace and joy it has brought to my life and....I can't express how grateful I am to be a servant of the Lord. I don't ever want to go back to the real world. I'm literally living a dream. I am closer to my Savior than I've ever been. I'm serving among the most amazing people on this planet, I'm doing the work of salvation, and I am God's servant. I don't have to worry about anything except being worthy to teach God's children. I don't have to worry about anything except God, doing what He wants, and loving and teaching His children. I am so grateful.  

I love you all so much and I hope you all are well!!!

Love from Taiwan,

Sister Roberts

Exchanges with Sister Fenlaw

Sister Fenlaw and me with Seren and Xu JM

Biking in Taipei

My beginner English Class

Yes, I got to have your favorites today in Taipei and I thought of you!

Pan JM at church

Chen Ye Ye

With Sister Trouble waiting for Eago to finish her interview

Week 49: Two Typhoons

大家好!!!!

Who knew Taiwan was capable of two typhoons in one week? I didn't! The first one hit GaoXiong really hard...obviously you know better than ​I​ do cause I don't watch the news. But that day we felt the wind pretty bad. Sister Langley and I were on exchanges (Sister DeWitt's companion) and we were talking to this lady and were about to pray with her, when suddenly this huge huge gust of wind comes and for like 20 seconds we are standing there with our backs to the wind trying not to get blown away, and at the same time being hit with sticks and leaves...who knew leaves hurt when they hit your face...yea I didn't either. Sister Langley said a big stick hit my back (I had my bag on) but it made a hole in the poncho I was wearing....crazy. Luckily the lady afterwards still let us pray for her and gave us her number. She didn't live in our area though, which we knew so that's ok :) Other than that, it was just kinda big gusts of wind and pretty exciting. 

Monday (jumping back) was super fun. We hung out with our investigator Eago (who is amazing) She's Sister Trouble's older sister and we are almost shang wang ke'd with her (finished with all the lessons). But she doesn't have a baptismal date yet cause she says she still has to do something first. But she'll be baptized this transfer. I have faith. 

She took us a lot of fun places that I don't even know what they are called. She drove us and we just followed hahaha. So fun. Monday night we also met with our awesome Xu Hao Wei (a RC from before I came). He's rockin. Goin to seminary and all the good stuff. 

Tuesday holy smokes....guess who walked into our district meeting??? PRESIDENT AND SISTER JERGENSEN!!!!!!!!!! OH MY GOODNESS!!!!! it was so amazing@! And I've said this before, I'm not a fangirl for everyone except them hahaha. Seriously when they walked in I felt like my parents were walking in! It was a great district meeting. I learned a lot. 

Oh so this week we saw a super cool miracle. We had dinner with a return missionary and then had an hour to go finding before going to another member's home. President (and the church) have​ really been pushing that we ask​for ​referrals and spend as little time on the street as we can. That members and their friends are how the church is going to grow. Not so much from people on the street. So we've been working a lot with members and LA's a​nd asking for ​referrals. Anyway,​ we had an hour but our planned spot was about 10-15 min from the

​ ​

member's home and we were trying to decide whether or not we should go to this place to find, or go over by her house to find. Well after saying a prayer...or two. We decided to go finding at our planned place. And what happened? WE FOUND A FAMILY!​ A mom and dad with a little girl! And they set up with us! So so awesome. It was awesome because I really felt like we should go to the place to find and then we found a family!!! AHHH! President and Elder Evans (the general authority that just came) said that what Taiwan needs is families and priesthood holders. So that's our marching orders and that's what we're going to do. Baptize families :) 

The Bu has been getting us more apartments to look at. So we've seen a couple....but I just love the apartment we have now...I don't wanna leave.. Ugh. Oh well. 

We also had a mini MLC (mission leader council?) something like that, but because I'm a STL I get to go. It was really awesome and President and Sister Jergensen are amazing. They trust us so much and they really care about what we think. Amazing. I love them so much. 

That's pretty much my week! We've had some good lessons. And have some good progressing investigators. One is Huang JM. She came to church and has been reading, and has been praying about Joseph Smith and is just so awesome!!! And another is Serene. She is a referral and has been progressing so well!!!!

I love this work!!! This church is true and I'm so grateful to be a missionary!!!! I love you all and I'm just so happy!!!!

Love,

Sister Roberts

cool art from colored bottles

rainbow at rainbow bridge

exchanges ... so good to see Sister D!

101 building ... I love it!

Doesn't this soup just look fun to eat!

District dinner with Sis. Trouble and Cindy

Week 48: Week #2 in Song Shan

​

Hi Everyone,

Well I think I'm fully adjusted to Taibei. I'm even starting to get myself a round a little. 

Sister Wang and I have so much fun! We've been working on teaching 50 50 and I've been working on not just zoning off listening to the Chinese. I've found that here in Taibei I zone off really easily cause there's so much to look at. She's really been helping with my Chinese and I've been helping her with her English. We switch off everyday. One day will be an English day and the next will be a Chinese day. It's pretty cool.

So last week? We went on exchanges with the 

​N​

eiHu sisters, and we had an amazing lesson with Huang JM. She's super awesome and after declining baptism multiple times before, she accepted, and she came to church this week. Sister Wang said that she's changed a lot and I am just so grateful that the Spirit was in that lesson.  It's through little things like amazing lessons that I really feel like a servant of God. 

I feel like I don't know what to say. I'm just living my life here in Song Shan, as a missionary. We teach lessons, but no one is really progressing right now. We just passed off all the male investigators to the Elders because of the new rule. We get fang'd a lot (stood up), and 

​are spending a lot of time

 finding. We find investigators but then get 

​stood up a lot

. So that's basically it. 

I've really learned the difference between having faith, but also following the Spirit. it's cool because sometimes we get to an area and then I realize (after finding for a little) that I don't really feel good about the area. So we pray and ask God where we are supposed to go, and we have other thoughts, so we go to new places to find. And most of the time we see miracles :) It's super super cool. 

On Saturday we did temple tours up at the temple (tours around the chapel) and Sister Wang ran into two of her friends (which actually happens quite often) then I ran into the Weddles! And let me tel you I almost cried I was so happy! I finally got to see Sister Weddle! AND the Sevy's just moved here too!!! 

​I​

t's so funny that I keep running into them! I love these people so much and it was super funny cause I got to go to their chili cookoff (basically an awesome English ward party) then right after we went home and had a ward activity in our ward so I went from English to Taiwan within 30 min. Eating Chili to eating Taiwanese food. Interesting feeling and I wouldn't necessarily say I would do it again, but hey I'm just grateful I'm living here in Taiwan. 

I've been thinking about how next month is my year mark and then I only have 6 months left. It's kind

​ off​

 scary

​, ​

exciting

​, ​and 

sa

​d, a​

ll at the same time. I don't think about it a lot but it crosses my mind every on

​c​

e and a while. In a good way because it has helped me reflect on the missionary that I am, and how I can do better. I know that this work is real and that God is guiding us. I just hope that I can become better so I can be a better instrument in His hands. Sometimes I feel like I'm gaining more from my mission then I'm giving to others if that makes sense, and I hope that's not true. :) 

I love you all and hope you have a great week! This gospel is true and our Savior lives. He truly is the center of our message because only through Him can we repent and change, and become better and clean. I love this work and I love you!!!

Love,

Sister Luo

​ (Roberts)​

Xu Luo JM ... she's an amazing sister!

Sister Wang after peeling a fruit ... they always peel fruit

I love Taiwan!

Beijing Branch Reunion - the Weddles & Sister Harvey!

And another BJ Branch Reunion ... the Sevy's!!! They just moved to Taibei!

Taibei 101 Building

Beautiful & sneaky Sister Wang ... taking selfies with my camera :-)

Week 47: First official week in Song Shan

Hello Da Jia Hao!!

I'm not really sure what to say about this week. It kinda went fast but also slow... I think time goes slower when you are in a new area. I'm still adjusting and don't really know the investigators very well but it was good :) We set a lot of dates on the street this week so I'm excited to see for the next coming weeks. 

One day, we had the whole afternoon to find and we were going from one park to another but Sister Wang got a little lost. it tooks us an extra 15 min to get there. But I had the thought (and told Sister Wang) that maybe it was yuan fen (destiny) and so we started finding. Well guess what? It was yuan fen. We met this amazing girl. She is our age and is a pretty typical college girl... goes to parties, even swore in english which was something I haven't heard in forever, and she's willing to meet with us!!! She is someone that I feel like I'm gonna be friends with forever :D I'm so pumped! And was so grateful that things happened the way they did. Just little things like show me that God is guiding us. Even when I don't feel like it. Who knew I would be grateful for getting lost? :) 

We also went on exchanges this week! I was with Sister Peck who has been here for like a week! :D Her companion is also ben di ren and it was just super super fun! She is an amazing missionary and I loved talking to her about things that I had troubles with too at the beginning of my mission.  I feel like I know what I'm doing and that I'm actually doing it well. Even if I haven't had as many baptisms as I thought I would or as much as I would have liked. I know that God is leading this work and that everything is happening for a reason. 

On exchanges, we also had two lessons and they were amazing. Absolutely amazing. Sister Peck really brought some miracles. We met with a Huang JM who I had never met before and the lesson was really strong. She rejected the baptism commitment before but I really felt that the Spirit guided me and Sister Peck to know exactly what to say and after rejecting baptism again but then teaching more, she accepted and set a date! :D :D :D SO awesome. The Spirit was so strong and was guiding us. Then we had another lesson with a Pan JM who we did a pass off lesson with the Elders with. And I felt like I should ask a question. But I wasn't sure if it was actually a question I needed to ask. So I waited a little but I had the thought again and asked and She answered and it was really helpful and just a good thing to know about her. And I know that I was guided by the Spirit. I feel like there aren't many times that I can recognize I was guided by the Spirit to say certain things but this was one of them. I'm so grateful and I love being a Sister Training Leader. :D Like a lot! 

I performed at the new member fireside that happens every month, which was fun. I learned the piece in 4 days and did ok. I don't ever play things perfectly though even when I've practiced them forever....so that's a thing. ANYWAY :) We've been working with part member families here and it's been good. They are all husbands who aren't members and I don't know that they will make much progress but then again I have faith. 

We have zone conference tomorrow and I'm excited to do some trainings. As an STL we get to see all our zones indicators and get to train along side the zone leaders. It's an awesome opportunity and I'm so excited :) 

I love this gospel so much and I just have so much faith that this is God's work. I know that I'm His missionary and I just work everyday to be better. I love you all and hope all is well!!!!

Love from Taiwan,

Sister Roberts

Us with two recent converts ... one is planning on a mission

sister Wang and a facial mask ... I was making her laugh but she couldn't smile :-)

Girl we met on the street who was so excited to meet a foreigner

I finally gave in ... the green mask

awesome mango shaved ice shacks ... I haven't had enough of these!

exchanges with Sister Peck & Sister Zhang

I got to see Sister Dewitt this week!!! Love her!

Before the haircut

After the cut

After the cut and doing email :-)