Sister Cecily Roberts: Week 12: Start of 2016 with Yu Yi's and Wet Shoes (still wet)

Hey everyone!!!

I get a full year on my mission!!!! All of 2016 will be completely dedicated to the Lord! How awesome is that!!!! I'm so blessed. Well, this week....where to even start. Let's start by saying that this week actually went by fast and I'm so grateful! It feels like I've been here for MONTHS...and it's only the third week in Tai Dong. But all is well!!

So before, we didn't have any investigators. As in, I came into this area with one investigator, and she was baptized that week. It took Sister Beeston and I time to get into the swing of things, but we have been so blessed and have two people with baptismal dates!!!

Last Sunday, we met this awesome family. They weren't interested at first, (it was the mom and her 5 year old daughter), but Sister Beeston kept talking to her. Which is awesome, if they don't seem interested, I'm just like "Alright moving on" BUT I really admire that about her. Anyway, she kept talking to her, and the lady actually invited us into her house. So we sat down and started talking, and we completely followed the spirit. We gave a quick lesson, and left, but we set up a follow up and now she has a baptismal date for the 13th of February! Woohoo!!! The second meet, the first official lesson, we just had yesterday. We had a member, who is also a RC (recent convert) come with us. The lesson was a little all over the place because JM (the investigator) asked a question about our bodies and spirits, the member started going off on the three degrees of glory, and confusing stuff. She also talked about the word of wisdom and what we weren't allowed to do. I just sat there like 'Oh my goodness, please don't let this ruin everything'. I have already grown to love this family so much, and it scared me so much that she would just drop us. But we finally got the lesson back on track and had an awesome lesson about the restoration. I just passed that part off in phase 1, so I was able to contribute quite a lot to the lesson (a lot more than I usually do). She accepted baptism with a comment along the lines of "Yes, not now though. I'm not sure if I'm willing to give up tea and those things yet" But I feel like everything will be ok and I'm so grateful. I love their family so much, and I need to have more faith because I’m just so afraid that they will "dump" us. You xin xin (Have faith).

The second baptismal date is this lady who used to be a former investigator. We contacted her when I first got here and she came to the Christmas party. We taught her the first lesson on the steps of her door and she accepted baptism right then and there. I don't know why she was a former investigator before and what happened but we are going to try our hardest!!!

So we had some awesome contacting this week. Yesterday and the day before were in the rain..it was SOOOOOO fun the first day! Then the second day...can't say the same thing. Anyway, we met two wonderful young ladies this week. Different houses, different days, but they were both awesome. The contacts were solid, and they showed a lot of interest. They both accepted a Book of Mormon, and both said that they would accept baptism. We didn't get a date from any of them, but we were so excited to meet them again! The reason I talk about them together is because a few days after we met them, they dumped us for family reasons. It was so sad because I just already loved them so much! I guess that'll be my weakness and strength on my mission… loving people so much and not even knowing them!!! Anyway, that was sad.

We also spent a lot of the week trying to call people. We have so many great potentials but no one picks up their phone, so it's frustrating. Oh and when I say "we" most of the time I mean Sister Beeston. Well all the time when I'm talking about the phone :). Anyway it's a struggle because we don't know how many times to contact them before "dropping" them, and putting them on a potentials list. I just want everyone to come to church and read the Book of Mormon and experience how amazing this gospel is! It's especially frustrating when people blatantly ignore us. Like when we are standing at their door, and they look at us and continue their doings. This gospel is just so amazing and I want so badly for everyone to get a little taste! Cause once they do, they'll be hooked! I just wish they could feel how much this gospel means from my smile, and from the simple sentences I say in Chinese! So badly, like you don't understand how much I just wish everyone would give it a try.

So apparently when I bike, people like to stop me on the street. So many people say that I'm really pretty too, which is so nice of them. That'll be different in the summer (haha). Anyway, this man pulled up next to me and told me to stop biking. Sister Beeston saw and stopped too, so we stopped. He started (he looked so angry) talking about "why do you go to church", and "What does God do for you?" He had met with missionaries before and been to church, but he couldn't find what he was looking for. Which kills me, because he was so close! I don't even know what exactly his problems were with going to church, but he really wouldn't even let us talk much, and just kept talking. Gotta love it.

I totally forgot to tell you all about an experience last week. We were in Taibei, for the Christmas party. I needed to pay for my bike, and I had had trouble with my card before. It wasn't working (I couldn't withdraw money out of the bank). So I had to call Chase Bank again. We went to three different ATM's and it still wasn't working. At this point I was SO frustrated. But Sister Beeston being the awesome missionary she is, said "let's pray". So we did. I had the thought to go to a 7-11 and try their ATM. I told her, and we were both a little hesitant just cause why would it work at this ATM when it hadn't worked the previous week? But we decided to go anyway, and I told her that that's what I had felt when she started praying. So we went, and it worked!!!! I can't tell you how much of a miracle it was! It didn't work at any other ATM except after we prayed. I know that God was testing my faith, and that He knew I needed to have this experience. To show me what happens when I have a little faith. It's especially awesome because as I put in my pin, and picked the amount I said in my mind, "Heavenly Father, I have faith that this will work". And then the money came. I'm so grateful and I know that God knows what I need. It was quite fun :)

There are so many other things that I want to say but I just don't know how or what exactly to explain! I wish I could explain what it's like living here! Garbage trucks sing to you like ice cream trucks do! It's hilarious! 7-11's are everywhere! Like on every corner. I wish I could explain biking with scooters and cars, and weaving in between cars, and stopping at stoplights and talking to the person next to you. The rain, and biking in a Yu Yi (rain poncho…mine is hello kitty....Sister E would be proud!) I wish I could explain the food, and the people, and everything!!! The frustrations I have :).

I'm so grateful for this time I have to serve. I have been slowly starting to understand more. I can't say I can respond, and I guess I can't say I've been "slowly" learning either. It's only been 3 weeks, and I've been so blessed with the language. The members are so good to us, people give us food all the time. Some even speak English so I can actually use my love of talking to people to make friends. Everything is just so wonderful here! I love it so much! I can't wait until I can speak Chinese and actually converse with people. That will be a wonderful time. I know that this is God's church on the earth. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior. He came to the Earth to make our salvation possible. What He did, He did for us. He did it for YOU. I've been working a lot with the restoration a lot this week, and I love it. In PMG it says "The restoration is either true, or it's not" And that's such a simple sentence, but it's so true. I invite you all to study the restoration this week. To pray about Joseph Smith. Someone told me (maybe in an MTC devo or maybe in a talk somewhere), that what we want our investigators to do, we need to do ourselves. We invite people to pray about Joseph Smith, to know that he is God's prophet. We invite them to pray and read the Book of Mormon, so that they can know of its truthfulness. We also need to be doing the same. I invite you all to do that this week. And I hope that made sense. I love you all so much and I just hope that you all know how much I love this gospel. I can't tell you what it means to me to know that God loves us. That we are His children. He knows us all, and He cares about how we are feeling every second of the day. It gives me purpose, and hope in my life. And I'm so excited to share that with others. I love you all and you are all amazing!!!!

Love from Taiwan,

Sister Roberts

Luo Jie Mei