Week 76: MOVED to Taoyuan

Well, 

I've been moved. It was super funny cause Sister Yee and I were sitting at a starbucks doing studies and everyone was telling us that they were getting moved and we both started freaking out because we hadn't received the text yet.... but then we got it hah. We were both like "Man, could we go together for a third transfer? I don't know if we could haha" It was funny. Anyway, I found out I was moving to TaoYuan 2nd ward, and that I was going to be companions with Sister Weaver. Well she was in MuZha before, and I was her STL before. FUN :) Sister Yee's new companion is also one of the Sisters that we were over. FUN. This sister actually has followed me. She was moved to Songshan after I moved out, then she moved to YongHe. :) 

My week was nuts. The week of transfers is always the longest. But , Monday I sent a package home....I will be home before it :) Ha. Then Tuesday was district meeting, then Wednesday we found out where we were going! Actually, before that we had met a super cute mom the day before and then Wednesday we met with her. She was super cool. She cried after we prayed for her then another time when we were in the chapel. Super incredible ! It's funny because I really think that we find the prepared people when we aren't planning to find them ... AKA we're always finding !  

Wednesday we found out I was moving to Taoyuan and we had a qingke right after we found out with a bunch of members so I got to tell the members where I was going and Wang DX and Zhang JM offered to drive me to TaoYuan. AMAZING. It ended up Huang JM (my RC) took me. So I didn't have to drag my luggage!!! YAY! 

Thursday, was good. We got there and then walked all day. I didn't have a bike, so we just walked and found...all day haha. Talked to a couple cool people. My new companion is Sister Weaver. I was her STL for a transfer. :) She's pretty cool. She's from Utah. A little bit quie t , but I love her a lot :) She's been patient with my stress and I'm so grateful for her. 

Thursday night we also met with the Lin Family. They are incredible. It's a mom, dad, and 2 daughters. One is 9 and the other is 2? The mom and dad b oth speak really good English and Brother Lin's family is in Utah right now , right by Sister Weaver's home haha. And they set baptismal dates for the 6th of may!!! Y AY!!!! I'm so excited and really hope that this whole family can get baptized!!! The daughter didn't set a date because we didn't ask her haha and she wasn't really in the lesson, but next time :) They committed to reading the BOM and praying about it. Church will be a little more rough. The mom is kinda stubborn and tired from being a mom but they said this next week they will come!!! Pray for them!!! 

Friday, we had WPS then a qingke. Super delicious and fun. As we were biking there, I turned and talked to this lady on her scooter, and I was completely lost for words. So I just asked if we could pull over and talk. She said "Ok" So we talked and found out that she is a LA and that her husband is a member, and so is her son, but that they don't attend. I don't know why , but it was amazing to meet her . She offered to qing us but we had a dinner already. So we set up with her for next week and she said that she's going to come next week. :D YAY! MIRACLES! We talked to the RS president the next day and told her about it and she was sooooo excited. I'm so grateful. It was just so crazy because before that we were studying Chinese, but I felt like we needed to go to this place earlier, and that if we did we would meet someone. And then we did. And it's just so crazy that God put us at that exact place at that exact time, and right next to her! How else would we have found her??? So cool.

Saturday and Sunday we just did more missionary work :) Had a couple lessons, and just working on finding more people. It's different here ... t here's not a bunch of people everywhere like there were in YongHe so I'm still adjusting. I've been really stressed out and worried this week but I'm just tr y ing to focus and trying to work as hard as I can. I want more than anything to have a successful area by the time I leave it and/or a baptism. And I am trying not to worry. I know that if I just have faith and work hard, that God will send the prepared people our way. 

I love you all and am so grateful to be on a mission. It means the absolute world to me and I know that this is God's work. We see His hand in our life every day, and am so grateful. I'm excited to be with Sister Weaver! And excited to see the miracles of this transfer!!!!!

Love,

Sister Roberts

羅姐妹

My Last Pictures in Yong He.  I love these members and friends so much!

Arriving in Taoyuan

Week 75: Baptisms!!!

大家好！

Well just to start off I just have to tell you that the highlight of my day was HUANG JM AND XIE DX WERE BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!! And it was incredible!!!!!!!!!! It went soooo smooth and it was just wonderful!!!! I can't explain how much I love them!!! The Elder's helped baptize them. Huang JM was soooo sweet in her testimony. She just talked about how grateful she was for us. And how much we helped her. She told me one thing that really stood out to me, she said "No matter where you go, whoever you teach, and whether or not they get baptized, they are grateful for you. And if they get baptized they are even more grateful" It was really sweet. She's incredible... OH but did I ever tell you that they were a referral from BanQiao sisters?  And do you know who are the Banqiao sisters? SIster DeWitt (my trainee)!! Sister DeWitt found her!!! :D So so awesome. I love her!

Oh we also had zone conference! So that was pretty cool. Elder and Sister Funk were there and it was super cool. Elder Funk talked a lot about what he talked about in MLC. But President and Sister Jergensen also had incredible lessons and I'm just so amazed by their ability to teach from the scriptures. I also had the opportunity to do a special musical number at zone conference. I sang with Sister Austad, and Elder Walters (who is like a legendary pianist), Sister Clawson (on violin), and Elder Thompson (on cello). We sang Beautiful Savior! Soooo incredible. I'm so grateful to have had the chance to sing on my mission!

This week was just full of great lessons and cool little miracles. We've really been trying to find new people but using all kinds of methods to find. We street contact, we also have been visiting LA and part member families, and we are also asking referrals from everyone we can! We now have two 9 year old investigator boys who are gonna get baptized:) Both in different families! So awesome!

OH MY GOODNESS I ALMOST FORGOT TO TELL YOU ALL, SATURDAY I HAD 4 INVESTIGATORS BAPTIZED!!!!! So I don't know if I said much about Li JM but she was a member's friend in the zhong he second ward. We passed her off to the SongShan sisters because Li Jm moved to Neihu. Well she got baptized on Saturday morning!!! And we got to go!!! Then I get there and Sister Reinhard and Sister Kim were like "Hey did anyone tell you that Chen Yeye is getting baptized today at 3"? And of course I freaked out! Chen Yeye was the grandpa who is like 80 but that understood pretty well. And he really really wanted to get baptized but couldn't because of his living situation. Well I don't know what happened but I think because of health issues and stuff he was cleared to be baptized! Don't know how that worked out but he was baptized!!!!!!!! AHHHHHH and then Huang JM and Leo were baptized Saturday night!!!!!!!!!! Oh my goodness how incredible right???? Miracles!!

That was basically our week. We just teach a lot. We've dropped a couple investigators. But yea. 

Our most progressing investigators right now are Wang JM. I found her on the street with my old companion, Sister Wang's little sister on exchanges. She's sooo awesome. She really wants to get baptized and is just golden. I love her :)

The other one is Qiu JM. Or Ruby. She selt contacted herself. She walked in the church last last week. She went to the Jinhua ward (the biggest chapel, by the temple). And she came because of a friend from Canada who had introduced the church to her. Well she said that she has been so happy since she's come to church, and without us telling her, she told her boss that she wasn't going to work on Sunday. And just like that, she isn't working on Sunday. She's been reading the BOM, and has a baptismal date, and everything!!! Incredible. 

I have loved my time in 永和 so much. I love this place. I love the ward. I love my companion, the apartment. The location (it's only 20 min away from the mission office), it really just couldn't get any better. I am so grateful for this time that we have had success and have baptized. Sister Yee and I had 4 baptisms together! 5 counting Li JM (we taught her together before she moved to Neihu). And I just can't express how grateful I am. And now coming down to my last 6 weeks as a missionary, I'm excited to go somewhere else. I don't know where I'm going yet. I'm a little bummed to be in another place for only a transfer because 6 weeks isn't a long time to get to know the area, but I just hope and pray that we can baptize someone, or a family:) But whatever happens, I just am going to try my best. I want to live every last minute and every last second of being a missionary. I think my absolute favorite part of being a missionary is just having the confidence that I am doing exactly what God wants me to be doing. I am serving Him, and I am doing exactly what the Savior would be doing if He were here. He would be finding, and He would be teaching repentance, and baptizing converts :)

I just want to finish by sharing a scripture that I studied this week. I was looking for scriptures about the Atonement for a lesson. It's in 3 Nephi 27:14-15.

"14 And my Father sent me that I might be lifted up upon the cross; and after that I had been lifted up upon the cross, that I might draw all men unto me, that as I have been lifted up by men even so should men be lifted up by the Father, to stand before me, to be judged of their works, whether they be good or whether they be evil—

15 And for this cause have I been lifted up; therefore, according to the power of the Father I will draw all men unto me, that they may be judged according to their works."

Christ was lifted up upon the cross. He suffered that pain, so that we wouldn't have to. So that we would be lifted up from our burdens, and our grief, and our sorrow. We was lifted up so that He might draw all men unto Him, so that we could be lifted up to the Father. That is the joy of the Atonement. We come  unto Jesus, to become free from out sorrows and pains and sins, and so that we can be clean and stand before the Father to be judged and rewarded. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. I don't think I understand completely how great He is, or how amazing He is, but I know that what He did was real. I feel it, and I've seen it change and bless others lives. I know that this gospel is real. This is God's plan for us, and each of us have a unique and divine identity. I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week! 

I'll have a new companion and new area next week....wish me luck. Haha just kidding :) 

加油

Love,

Sister Roberts

羅姐妹

Week 74: Another Busy Week

Hello, 大家好！

The reason why I love 永和 so much is because we are so so so busy. Well there are actually a ton of reasons why I love this place, but one of them is because we are so busy. We teach a lot, and hardly have time for studies. But when we do have time to find, we find miracles! 

This week started off by going to YingGe for p-day. It's this little city that is famous for it's pottery. And they let you spin your own pottery. So that's what I did for p-day. Spin pottery :)

Then on Tuesday, we got 2 new investigators which was super cool! One has already dropped us though. That's ok :( Just a tip: if you ever hear someone is meeting with missionaries, encourage them to keep meeting with them! 

Tuesday night we also met with our beloved Huang JM and Leo and taught them the Law of Chastity. They love it. THEN ON FRIDAY THEY PASSED THEIR BAPTISMAL INTERVIEW SO WHO IS GETTING BAPTIZED THIS SATURDAY?!?!?! THEY ARE!!!!!!!!!! :D YAY!!!!!

Wednesday, we had a lot of lessons. We had a lesson with Rachel, and found out she had a bad experience after church. She accidentally used the men's bathroom to change her son's diaper and someone got mad at her. Then her son was running around the halls after church and ran in between these two sisters and the sisters kinda got mad at Rachel and asked her to "control" her son. She was offended. We were really really sad to hear that and that's the first time that I've had an investigator have a bad experience. :( She told us she doesn't want to go back. But after talking to her and sharing a lesson with her, I think she was reconsidering it. I had a really special moment where I just bore my testimony of how much I loved her. The Spirit was really strong and it was really powerful. After Sister Yee and I talked more about the lesson afterwards, we realized that some things were just kinda off. We prayed about what we should do and just felt that she needed a little time. We actually had the key to her house, so we had to go back and give it to her. So later that week, we went and gave it back. But she started to cry and say "I don't want to say goodbye" and it was actually kinda hard to explain that we just thought she needed some time, and that we would come back in a couple of months. We exchanged contact information. It was really strange though. She was really dramatic and just cried and cried... :(poor thing. I love her a lot. 

Sorry for the long paragraph on that one haha. Wednesday's English class was also rough. My children's class has gotten to be a little crazy and I can't seem to find the balance between games and teaching, and I think I've lost my little kids skills... oh well. I have learned that being an English teacher isn't the thing for me. 

Thursday-Friday we went on exchanges! We went to JingMei and went on exchanges with Sister Wong and Munsee. (I was Sister Wong's breaker) It was really fun! I was with Sister Munsee this time and we just went and chuan'd the jiao :) Made some good goals, talked. I learned a lot and I hope it helped them. I love them a lot. 

Saturday, we had an awesome ward activity!!! It was sooo incredible to see all these members that I love sooooo much, all together, and to be smiling and having fun. I love YongHe so so much!!! 

Sunday was full of miracles! We had 7 investigators at church!!! So so so crazy! We had ward conference and so the stake president was there, he complimented us on how well we were doing and we also had a couple other members just say how awesome we were doing. They are so excited for the baptisms and for the awesome investigators!!! I love this ward and I'm just so so so grateful that the Lord has been blessing us with so many people to teach! 

I know I mentioned this last week, but I've really been trying to make the Sacrament meaningful in my life.  And how I can personally apply Jesus Christ and His Atonement in my life, and last week, I really wanted to have more desire, and charity, and just give myself, and as I really focused on those things this week, really prayed and tried to have more love, and not think of myself so much, it happened. I have been happier, and not so worried because I've been focused on others. And I know that it's not anything that I did. I know that the Atonement of Jesus Christ allows us to be better, to overcome weaknesses, and to be strengthened. I love this gospel so much and I have just felt much more strength and spiritual power in my life. I'm so grateful to be a missionary and I'm just living every last second of it :)

Have a wonderful week and I hope everything goes smoothly!!!

Love,

Sister Roberts

 羅姐妹