Sister Cecily Roberts: Week 81: The Last Week

大家好！！

這個禮拜過得完美的。我們昨天看到超級多奇蹟。最大的奇蹟就是我們在聖餐聚會有8個慕道們。然後在教會聚會我們有13個！！！

Do you understand??? Haha just kidding. I said, "This week was perfect. Yesterday we saw so many miracles. The biggest one was that we had 8 investigators at sacrament meeting, and 13 at church." WHAT!!!! How??? Well I pulled the whole "It's my last week card" So I think that added to people coming. BUT we also have so many incredible investigators right now. We had 3 families come. 2 whole families come!!! I literally can't even describe how grateful I am. My whole mission I've never had the chance to teach a whole family, and currently we are teaching 4 complete families! Obviously some are more prepared than others. BUT there's this one family, the Zheng Family. It's a mom, dad and 2 kids (6 and 2) We met with the dad last week. And this week they randomly showed up at church! We had been trying to call and text them but they hadn't answered. BUT they showed up!!! AND loved it!!!

We then invited them to a members home for dinner and they came and it was incredible!!! Brother Zheng is so incredible and is so prepared. He stood outside of church and talked to us about how much prayer works and how grateful he is he met us, and then the mom after the dinner, I asked her if she had any questions (we shared a little share about baptism and the sacrament) and she said "Well I'm a mom right now so all my concerns are about my kids. And my little girl, she's special. She asks these questions that only adults think of. The other day she asked me "Mom where do we go when we die?" And "Mom can I live for ___ years?" (She said a number that I didn't understand but it was like more than a thousand, million, etc. Big number) And Sister Zhong (mom and dad have different last names because that's how it is here) Sister Zhong goes on to say "And I just didn't know how to answer her. But I hope that coming here I will find the answers" So what did I do? I gave her a Plan of Salvation pamphlet and told her we would share it with her on Wednesday. I was literally speechless. This family is so prepared and I don't know how. Brother Zheng just kept telling me how he hopes he can have an opportunity to join the church and hopes he can have an opportunity to be baptized! Oh my goodness. Amazing. he also said that he's tried to bring his family to church before and that they've gone a couple times, but that his wife didn't really like it. But this morning, he's woken up by his wife and she says "We have to go!" he asks why and she said "We have to find Sister Roberts, we have to go to church!" He was sooo surprised and they got all the kids up and came to church. Only for the third hour but still!! Amazing! I literally don't have words to describe the joy that I felt sitting there at dinner with that family, just watching them interact with faithful members of the church. I know that I'm going to come back to Taiwan and see the sealed together as a familY! Well at least that's my new dream. But we'll see.

OH and our bishop gave me a Chinese name. I told him kinda what I wanted and he really thought about it and came back with Luo Shan. Only two characters. Most names have 3 but also not really. It just depends. It's just my last name and Shan is Shang hu de Shan and it means coral. strong and beautiful :) Perfect.

In terms of the rest of the week.....I GOT TO GO TO YONGHE FOR A BAPTISM!!!!!!!!!! Sister Wang was baptized!!!!!!!! I found her on the street during exchanges last transfer and she got baptized!!!!!!! AHHHH it was soooo good to see sister Yee again and to see just a few of my Yonghe friends! I definitely think Yonghe was the place I felt most connected to the ward! I love Yonghe!!

Well.... I don't really know how to finish this e-mail...I go home this week....and not really sure how I feel. I actually am so so surprised by how calm I am. I try not to think about it but every time I do, I can't just help but feel like I'm going to be a missionary forever. That this is never going to change. But I know that in just a couple days I will be packing up my life. And getting on an airplane and flying back to America.

I literally can't even believe that this time is over. A year and a half of wearing a name tag and 18 months of representing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.18 months of testifying of the Savior. 18 months of living in kinda scary Taiwan apartments. 18 months of wearing a skit, smelling stinky tofu, eating rice and noodles everyday, having cockroaches climb on me, biking in the rain. Bearing the killer hot summers where it literally feels like the sun is burning off your skin, and then the rain during the summer. Oh man, you wear a raincoat but still get wet, and your not sure if it's cause of the rain or the sweat....Haha there's been ups and downs, but I wouldn't change it for anything in the world. My whole life has been change. And I have learned so much. I can honestly look back on my mission and say I have no regrets. And I would gladly do it over again. I have loved this time that I have had to serve the Lord. I honestly think the best part about my mission was not having to think of myself. My whole life has been other people, and I think that's definitely going to be the hardest part about going home. Having to worry about me and stressing out about my life. Nevertheless, I am so grateful. It's also funny because I feel like I can't wish that this wasn't happening. I can't wish I could stay longer, I can't wish that it would go differently because I just know that this is what God wants. I am so so sad of course. But I know that this is exactly what God wants to happen, and I trust in Him.

I love this gospel with all of my heart. I know that is the true church. I know that God has called a prophet to lead and guide us, just like He did from the very beginning. This is God's way, and this is His truth. Jesus Christ is our Savior. He came to the Earth and atoned for our sins. There is no other way whereby man can be saved except through Him. Through Jesus Christ we can be cleansed from our sins, we can overcome our weaknesses. We can return to live with God again. I love Him so much, and my heart literally burns with testimony of Him and this church.

Words cannot express the gratitude I have for all the people that I have met, all the experiences that I have had, and for Taiwan. I will never be the same, and I just hope that I will remember these experiences forever. I'm excited to see what life brings and I don't know that I"m quite ready for real life again...well actually I'm not at all. But come what may. I love you all and I will see you on Saturday.

Until we meet again...

Love,

Sister Roberts

羅姐妹 or 羅珊姐妹