Week 59: Cold, Wet & Thanksgiving

大家好！！！！

Wow i don't even know what to say about this week!!!! But I just want to start off by saying, a member just called us and said "Hey i have a friend" And I was like "uh huh" and then she's like "she wants to hear the gospel" And I was like "HOLY SMOKES NO WAY ARE YOU SERIOUS?!?! YOU'RE KIDDING ME

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 WHAT IN THE WORLD????" Then we set up a time to meet he. AHHHHHH miracles are real!!! :D I'm so excited!!!!! 

This week was pretty stressful. We went on exchanges with our lovely Sister Pillar and Sister McKim who live in XinDian. And that was fun. The exchange kinda snuck up on us though so we didn't really plan for it as much as we would have like but that's ok. This week we really feel as though we haven't been able to stay on top of things. We just have so many people to call and no time to do it. I feel like I don't even have time to think about my investigators...but that's not true haha. 

We had a lot of people cancel on us this week. The funny thing about Taiwanese, is that they are afraid of the rain. It's actually not funny...it's really annoying :( Sister Tinsley counted how many times we were cancelled on and it was 11......3 of those people were new and almost new investigators. BUT that's ok I guess.... I just had a hard time mentally because my body has really been hurting.I haven't mentioned it too much but it's hurt since I was in San 

​C​

hong

​,​

 

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o about my 4th transfer. It's my back and now my feet. It hasn't gotten worse until recently. If I stand up too long, it hurts. If i sit down too long, my tailbone and back hurt. if I wear a bag and stand up too long, it hurts. If I don't wear a bag and stand up too long, my back hurts. I just hurt all the time. So when we had all these lessons cancel it's just really hard mentally to be like "Yes I'm so excited to go finding!" Because 1. it's in the rain. 2. no one is outside because of the rain. 3. my body hurts.... BUT that's ok. 

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edicine doesn't really help and I called the mission nurse about it who gave me stretches to do which didn't help. I'm loving life hah :D I really do love being a missionary and I think the reason I haven't mentioned it before is just because by the time I get to e-mail, I

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m just thinking about all the good things about missionary work! :D 

We have some incredible people we are teaching right now. We saw the biggest miracle on Friday night. Sister Tinsley and I had been feeling a little discouraged. I don't know why

​,​

 

​b​

ut just no

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 really feeling great or wanting to go out

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ide. But we talked about it a little and just went out and worked hard. And we met the most incredible girl I've ever met. She lived in WI for her masters and is already Christian.

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But she asked so many good questions. And side note, before we left our bikes to go find, I had the thought to grab a BOM. So I did. And this girl (qi qi) asks "Wait so i heard you read another book?" So then I

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explained briefly the Book of Mormon, and said "we actually wanted to give this to you." She goes "Wow really? thank you so much!" And then at the end of the contact she asks if she can pray for us. She says the most sincere prayer I've ever heard.Sister Tinsley was crying by the end. She just was like "Thank you for sending these Sisters here. I know it wasn't an accident.....please help me to do your plan and not my plan...." And then she also told us without us even inviting her to, "I will read this book and then when we meet we can discuss it!" HOLYSMOKES!!!So so awesome!!!! 

I think from that night, i learned some really important things. The most important that I learned 

​is that ​

the adversary is real. He puts discouraging thoughts into our heads and feelings of laziness and just thoughts that make missionary work hard. BUT when we recognize those thoughts and just trust in God, miracles happen.I know that to be true. Very true. The adversary is real but so is God. And God will always overcome the bad. ALWAYS. Just like light always overpowers darkness. 

​AHHH I forgot to tell you about thanksgiving!!!!

So basically thanksgiving was a miracle. We were on the street on Wednesday or something and we met the coolest member ever (Yo) on the street.Earlier all of our plans had fallen though and so we prayed about where to go. We picked a spot and met this member on the road. He's a RM and is always so so happy! He's one of the happiest people I've ever met! All the missionaries know him and I have the honor of going to his same church building. He's in a different ward but that's ok. He saw us and comes to talk to us. He says "When is the next time you're going on exchanges?" We said "Thursday" He said come over to my house and I'll feed you!" We were like "Yo do you know what day it is????? THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!" And sister Tinsley and I said earlier that day that we didn't have any plans for thanksgiving and were kinda sad. But then this miracle happened!!!!! We all freak out and it was an awesome thanksgiving!!! He just bought a bunch of food from Costco!!!! And it was so awesome! He even bought pumpkin pie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHH So so grateful!!!!! I'm just so grateful for him and for his kindness towards the missionaries!!!!! ​

The rest of the week was just as I explained.We just are working on building our area without getting lost and over our heads. I am so excited to be a missionary and am so grateful I still have so much time. I think the only reason I'm excited to come home is so that I can take care of my body again. ANYWAY. I

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love you so much. I

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have been studying the Savior's life because of Christmas coming up. I've been studying His birth and using Jesus the Christ to study and it's been awesome. I know that the Savior is real. That God's plan is real. I feel like I say the same things every week but it's just how I feel. It's not just something I

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believe. It's more. I know that it's true. God lives and He loves us all. 

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e created a perfect plan for all of us and if we hearken to the words of the prophets, and the scriptures, and if we follow the teachings of them and the Savior, we will always be protected and we will always be able to deal with our life's challenges. I love you all and I

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hope you all know how much

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i love the gospel!!!!

Love from

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Taiwan,

Sister

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Sister Tinsley - 6'2"

Thanksgiving!

Nancy our wonderful investigator!!! And Kay (with the blonde hair) who was baptized 3 months ago and is the most incredible person ever!!! 

The world famous zhua bing

I love learning Chinese, especially when it involves my dad (Rod) :-)

Sister Tinsley and I

Spicing up study time :-)

Week 58: Transfers & Thanksgiving

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Well first of all!!!!!! 

我就搬家到永和！我也有新的同伴！！！！

I was moved!!!! On Wednesday Sister Miller and I got a call from President himself!!!! We missed the call because we were in a lesson with our incredible Iris! We told her she was more important but as soon as we finished the lesson we called him. He didn't pick up and didn't call us back until the next morning, where he told us that he was moving all the sisters around and that Sister Miller would stay in Song Shan and that i would be moving to Yong He.

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t was really unexpected and for a Sister Missionary, I've been moved a lot. Sister Tinsley is my new companion and she's awesome! We knew each other in the MTC and I just adore her!!! She's also super super tall :) Like 6'2 tall! :) We

​ a​

re definitely a sight to see. Well it was super sad leaving Song Shan. I didn't have the chance to say goodbye to anyone :( but that's ok. This is my 5th area...Sister Miller and Sister Tinsley both have only had 2 areas

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 like the area they are in is number 2....so

​it's 

kind

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 crazy but that's ok. I guess i'm used to it. sorry that i stopped using the shift button cause it doesn't work very well....this internet cafe is....gross. i was pretty spoiled in song shan. we had a really really nice internet cafe. in fact i just watched a little cockroach crawl on the wall behind the computer....yuck. oh well. 

yong he is actually awesome. i'm really excited and i'm still a sister training leader. so what happened is that the STL position in song shan was "closed" and now the yong he sister training leaders are over the south zone and east zone. so we have 6 sister companionships that we get to go on exchanges with!!! so so fun!!! 

since i've been here we've seen so many miracles! saturday we had english class. I guess they started a saturday afternoon english class here which is cool. well we got a new investigator from it and we met with her afterwards. her name is jessie. then she came to church! she didn't set a baptismal date because she doesn't want that restriction

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 but she's willing to learn. she's super cool. well after the lesson we continued our day but realized we forgot to give her a book of mormon. we were finding at the park later that night and guess who we met? Jessie!!! We gave her a Book of Mormon and it was cool!!! 

then all the really incredible miracles happened on Sunday... we started off church with no investigators. The ward here is relief society first, then sunday school, then sacrament meeting. because the building is shared with 3 wards (which by the way we sisters are over because we are the only sisters in the area. so it doesn't count for our area as in we don't go find in those areas, but we teach any sisters that the Elder's find for us). anyway, by the end of church we ha

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 8 people attend sacrament meeting. the standard of excellence is 3!! so cool!!! We literally did nothing though it was definitely God.

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 after church, the Elder's in the afternoon ward, (zhong he 2) introduced us to a girl, luo jm :) and she was super cool. she was introduced to the church through her friend and came to a few activities and loved it. she also said her dad had cancer but that someone gave her dad a blessing and he got better, not healed but better. and when she came to church, she said that she really loved the feeling and that it felt like a new start. so we set up with her and are so excited to teach her!!! well that was probably the biggest miracle. then as we were sitting there after talking to luo jm, we get a call from sister bradley who just left the area here and said she needed to come get her bike right now. so we are super confused and we find out it's because Sister Hughes is going home......i just sat there dumb founded and so so sad :( i hadn't realized how sick she had been and i just wish that i could have said goodbye. but i know i'll see her again. i just hope she knows how much i love her!!! 

we were walking home to go to lunch (home and the church is really close) and we randomly said hello to this girl. she's like i hate religion. but then after talking to her we ask if we can pray for her and she says yes. she actually ended up setting up with us too. so we are super excited!

sunday evening we had a lesson with an 80 year old ama, chen ama. who is super super cute. she has a baptismal date and is just the most precious thing. i'll show you her picture and you'll understand ;) 

sister tinsley and i get along so well. it's a little crazy actually. I really feel like our comp unity is like out of the roof!

​our

 teaching is just so fluid and 50/50 and just feels

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like it's led by the Spirit and it's incredible. i really feel like a good missionary and the more time goes on, the more i don't want to ever go home... turns out sister tinsley is also going home the same time i am. which is a transfer earlier then expected.  i just feel like i finally know what i'm doing and that everything is great :) i'm so happy but also very sad to have left song shan. oh well. 

this work is real and i can feel it. it's not something i can deny. i hold very dear, those small moments where the spirit just says "this is true" and it's incredible. i feel everyday that i'm getting closer to the Savior, especially a

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 i study about Him. I've made a goal to study in detail His life and it's awesome :) I've already learned so much. I love this work. I love church, I love teaching, I love speaking Chinese, it's a miracle. this...this whole thing is a miracle. I love you all and hope you have a great week!!!

by the way thank you so much to Elder and Sister Toronto who dropped off a package for me!!! And thank you Weddle

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s who also dropped off a huge bag of  candy!!! I'm so blessed!!! and i love you all!!!

have a great thanksgiving and just remember to be grateful for everything :) cause that's the only way we will really be happy!!!!

我愛你們！！！

LOVE

羅姐妹

Song Shan district

Sister Tensley and me having a waffle sandwich

Making an Ama laugh

Week 57: New President & Pride of the World

大家好!!!!!

Well congratulations to Donald Trump... Serene (our RC) told us and we shang ke'd with her as the elections were going on. So we were all nervous about it. Anyway. 加油美國! It was pretty funny we had a lot of people comment about it. They were like "Trump" I had one guy in English class introduce his name as "Trump" Haha we all laughed.

This week we've been working a lot with LA's. And it's kinda worrisome. I realized how easy it is to go LA. and it just made me sad. My heart has been a little heavy this week. We've had a lot of people say "This is my plan...." Or "My plan to go back to church/get baptized is ___" And I just realized how real pride is. It truly is the gateway sin. We had a LA who told us that she had her plan to come back to church (She's an RC of about a year) and she had some members say things to her which offended her and yea. So she said she has a plan to come back in Jan. That she still reads and prays and is happy. And we asked her to do one thing and that was to Pray about what God wants. And she said "I don't want to make you sad when I refuse your invite...." And just went on about how she has her plan. And it just really made me sad. I've just been thinking a lot about what it means to be converted and how I can better help my investigators be more converted when they are baptized. 

Speaking of investigators, things are going well! President complimented us with our area last week and it was the best feeling ever!!! :D We have 4 really solid investigators right now. One we met last week at temple tours. Her name is Julie. She talks a LOT but she's incredible. She grew up in America and is super cool. She said she has always wanted to be baptized but has never had the opportunity. When we invited her to a date she said "YEA!!! Opportunity dao le!!!" Which means that her opportunity arrived! :D She was so cute! After she said that she high fived everyone in the room. Just me, Sister Miller, and our member. :) Soooo great. 

Iris is doing great! She went to church in her area which just shows she's prepared. I don't know if I already said this but she doesn't live in our area but we have permission to teach her because it's more fang bian for her. So yea :) She's soooo awesome and we love her so much! 

We met with another baptismal date investigator, Qiu JM. She is awesome and has been coming to church for 3 years. She wants to get baptized but she canceled her baptism date this week because she doesn't wanna put a time on it. She prays doesn't really read and comes to church. So she's making an effort. But she's just gotta do a little more. Her prayers are really general so we had a lesson just all about prayer and trying to over come her concern of baptism. Hasn't really done much yet... she just needs to act. 

Other than that, everything is good. I love being a missionary and I've just been working on being focused on the work. Not thinking about how long I've been here and how much time I have left, and I'm just working on being the missionary the God wants me to be. 

I love you all and hope you have a great week!!!! Sorry if I don't say a lot or you really have no idea what's been going on with my life! I just get so overwhelmed trying to tell you how things are going! Sorry!!!! 

I know this gospel is real. Through prayer, my testimony was again strengthened and confirmed that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. Joseph Smith is God's prophet and he really did restore this church. I love this work so much. I have so much faith in God and in Christ, in this work and I know that it's real. They are real. They love us so much. I love you all and I hope all have a great week!!!

Love,

Sister Roberts

Sister Luo

Week 56: English Boarding Miracle

Da Jia Hao! (Sorry too lazy to type characters)

I'm doing well. really well actually :) 

We saw some really cool miracles this week :) I'll just start with those. 

So, Tuesday was zone conference and it went really well. We went on exchanges afterwards the Nei Hu sisters. Which was super fun!!! I was with Sister Zang! And we had a lot of fun. Tuesday night we went english boarding. Because I am the english unit leader I organize english boarding and just try to help our english classes grow. Well I had prayed earlier to know where we should go english boarding. So Tuesday night we went and we all felt it went hi hao. Not too great. But then at english class, this cute girl named Iris comes in. She comes to my class :) Beginner. And I asked her how she found english class. She said yesterday when a tall white guy handed her an english tract. Well I asked her after class if she would be willing to meet with missionaries. she said yes. We met with her the next day. She set a baptismal date and then she came to all three hours of church on Sunday and said that it was amazing. :) I learned a lot from this experience. 1. God is guiding us. 2. I am being guided by Him. 3. English class is awesome. Haha that's just the few things that I learned but i'm really grateful because it was just a testimony to me that God is guiding His children to us and we are being guided to them. Iris actually lives in Ban Qiao but it's more convenient for her to meet with missionaries in Song shan so we got permission from the AP's to teach her. :D yay!!!! 

Then another cool little miracle that I was super 感動 (gan dong) by. Sunday night. The night of miracles :) Especially fast Sunday. Well we had 15 min to find and we prayed and felt to go to this park. So we get there and before we start, I grab a Book of Mormon. Which I don't normally do. I don't know why. But yea. We talk to these two girls walking. High school age. We talk to them and prayed for them and they asked us specifically to pray for their school. We did and one TX (tong xue) was like "It's really peaceful". We teach some more and ask if they can set up. The one TX was like "I can't. My mom will think it's a waste of time because I'm supposed to be studying" Well yea. So Sister Miller writes our numbers down on these chuan dan's and as she is doing that I'm kinda debating on whether or not I should give them the Book of Mormon. I haven't explained it at all or anything like that. But I was like "What the heck why am I questing whether or not I should? what's the worst that could happen?" So I did. I offered her the Book and just explain briefly the different between the Book of Mormon and Bible. And promised that she could read it whenever she felt stressed or anything like that. She takes it without hesitation and says "Wow thank you. I'm really glad you gave this to me because I really want to feel that peace. Just like the prayer you said" It was super cool. And I'm just so grateful God led us to be there at that time. She said that next year she would have time, and we were like Oh awesome when? She says September. So we grabbed her number and yea. 

We had a great week. We have some great progressing investigators. Lily, who was found from English class, and Iris, from English class. And Qui JM. She's a former and has come to church for a couple years but I don't know that missionaries have really met with her or not. But she set a baptismal date and is progressing :) And we actually had 8 investigators at church! Which is a lot!!! Sister Miller and I want to work on finding families this week. We as a zone made a goal to baptize a family before the end of the year. And I know we can do it. We just have to find them soon! 

Sorry this e-mail was so random. I just have so many thoughts... haha. 

I've really been praying for love this last week and I just want to testify that God hears our prayers. I've been praying for more love for this work, for God, this people, etc. And I have felt a difference just in a week. I have started to understand the magnitude of this calling. I have felt more love for what I'm doing, for this gospel and for Taiwan. I know that God hears our prayers no matter how small or insignificant they seem. I know that we can find peace and comfort through prayer and scriptures and church. I'm so grateful for everything that God has given us in order to be happy. I'm so grateful for this opportunity I have to share the joy and peace that this church brings and I know that this church is God's true church once again on the Earth. 

Have a great week! And I promise I'll write a better e-mail next week!

Love,

Sister Roberts

羅姐妹

Who loves the Taiwan 101 building??? I do!

Taibei East Zone

Taibei East Zone Sisters

Zang JM

Iris (left)

My 101 again!

Week 55: The Reality of Referrals & Schedule Change

大家好!!!

​W​e were at MLC this week (Friday) and we were given a training about referrals and sending them through this super sweet computer system. Well Elder Richards (our office elder right now) was giving the training and he told this story/experience, or a referral that was given to some sisters. Then he said "This was about 5 weeks ago. Since they received the referral, she's been to church 4 times, including general conference, she is shang wan keing today (finshing the lessons) and is getting baptized in the next week" We were all like "wow that's so cool" then President Jergensen said "Who sent the referral" Elder Richards goes "Actually I just looked it up and shout out to the *pause while he looks around the room* SONG SHAN SISTERS, Sister Roberts and Wong!" Everyone was like "YEA!" and cheered and stuff. And I was super gan dong (moved). I realized that the little things I do such as meet someone on the street and send a referral can lead to baptisms. I just think I'm someone who wants to see the difference I"m making. But I've probably already said this recently, but I was praying the other day just telling God how I felt and I am constantly praying to be an instrument in God's hands. That's all I want really. And I had the thought "That's what being an instrument in my hands means. It means that you won't always get to see the results, but that you do what I ask". And I also had another though that "You are doing more than you know/can see" And I know that's true. It's just hard to remember sometimes. I know that if we let Him, God will use us to help His children and that no matter who we are, what are life circumstances are, we can always serve others. And through our service, we are serving God. 

Ice skating :D with our district and some R.C's from another city.

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This week was pretty good. We got a lot of new investigators but no one who is really solid except maybe one. I've been working hard to increase our English class numbers. Just trying to think of how to have a better English class (because I'm our English unit's leader) and this week we got a new investigator from English class and she set a baptismal date and everything! Super sweet. 

The glorious moment of peanut butter ice and being Sister DeWitt's companion again!! #blessings

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So this email is just going to be random thoughts that come to my mind. But yesterday, we met this Jehovah's Witness. And she was super nice and listened to what we said but then we asked if we could share a video with her. She's like yea but let me share one first, and this video was a "This church is great, we welcome everyone" Kind of video. And it was very nice. But then we shared a video of Christ and the feel

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 was just completely different. I bore testimony of the Savior and she's just like "Yea, welcome you to my church. You should come" And it was nice and all. But it left me with the biggest question in the whole entire world. HOW ARE THE JEHOVAH'S WITNESS'S SO GOOD AT SHARING THEIR CHURCH? WHAT DO THEY DO TO MOTIVATE THEIR MEMBER

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? Every JW I've ever met has been super "Come to my church" And I don't understand. As The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, we have the truth. The complete truth. We have the Spirit. The promise from God that when we share the gospel we will have blessings that will exceed our understanding. And yet....we don't. Why is it that we have such a hard time sharing the gospel? I just don't understand. I know for myself, I just need to do better. I need to find the small ways to share the gospel and then follow up. Read Elder Oaks talk from this last conference, and one from November or may of 2014. By

​E​

lder

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allard about following up! I encourage every member to read PMG! (Dad and Mom especially you with the kids) and share what you learn with me! Please :) 

EXCHANGES

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I had a couple cool experiences this week (i can't remember the exact lessons they were in) but the Spirit was just different. I just really felt like I was a missionary and that I felt a little bit of that missionary power. I can't say that I have the burning feeling of th

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 Spirit all the time but I know that He's always with me. I just wish that I could better grasp the missionary calling.

Also....members have been asking me how long I've been out...and they're like "Oh you're old" And I'm like "What are you talking about, no I'm not"....yikes so apparently it's becoming a real thing....

We went on exchanges with the Yilan sisters this week. And guess who I got to be companions with?????? YOU GUESSED IT SISTER DEWITT!!!!

​She

 is still in Yilan. I loved Yilan but I could not be there for 4+ transfers

​ (it's a long time for any area)​

. She's training there so she'll be there for 5....but she said that she's doing great and that after exchanges (after following up with her) she said that exchanges just gave her a huge boost and I'm just so grateful cause I felt the same way. She's my favorite person like ever and it just feels we have been friends for an eternity!!! I'm just so grateful we could go on exchanges because it really boosted me as well. I feel I was dragging my feet a little bit but now I'm just ready to GO :D 

Sorry that this e-mail is so random and stuff. I just didn't really have any specific things to say. I know that this gospel is real. I'm just working on strengthening my testimony and being a better teacher. I know that I'm changing and sometimes it doesn't feel like it. I just hope that I'm making the most of every moment I have here!!!! I love you all so much and hope that all is well!!!!

Oh one more thing...our schedule changed 30 min. The afternoon finding time really is pretty in effective. So President has gotten permission for us to change our schedule 30 minutes. So now our schedule looks like this: 

o 7:00 am arise, pray, exercise (30 minutes), and prepare for the day

o 8:00 am breakfast

o 8:30 am personal study…

o 9:30 am companion study…

o 10:30 am language study

o 11:30 am begin proselyting. You may take an hour for lunch and additional study and an hour for dinner at times during the day that fit best with your proselyting time. Normally, dinner should be finished no later than 6pm

o 9:30 pm return to living quarters (unless teaching a lesson; then return by 10:00pm)…

o 11:00 pm retire to bed

Kinda crazy huh? It's a little different and I know that it'll bring miracles. It might be hard on me mentally at first. i know sometimes at the end of the night, I'm just done. But I'll be ok :) haha. 

Love,

Sister Roberts

羅姐妹

Best bakery in the world!

Love going to President's house!

Sister Wang!!!

How can you not love this!!!!

My Dad's friend Linda. She was on his team when he worked in China

Kellin from TaiDong!  She came to see me!!!!

Yum!!

Sister D!

Sister D and me