Week 16: Half-way done with Training

Hey Hey Hey!!! 

Transfers were this week. I'm half way done with training! And Sister Child is now training which means Sister Lafevre is gone. But I was thinking how crazy would it be if Sister Child trained Abby or anyone else I knew from the MTC? But she's training a sister from the other zone who I don't know too well. Oh well haha. This week went by super super fast.   It feels like just yesterday I was sitting in the wang ka drinking hot chocolate while I e-mailed because it was cold haha. But that was last week. So this week was a pretty straightforward week. Nothing too crazy or exciting happened, but at the same time there were a lot of cool little miracles. 

So Monday: After we e-mailed we had a pretty chill p-day. We got the errands done that we needed to. It was great. That night we met this awesome lady. We were contacting and walking to another house to knock at and this lady pulls up next to us on a scooter and says "backpackers?" in English. We were both a little stunned. We said no and she asked if we were full "chi bao le ma?" and we said yes and then proceeded to explain that we were missionaries. Turns out her English is awesome and talking to her more she was just amazing. She learned English from watching CNN and CBS... what? Looks like I need to watch movies/TV in the next language I want to learn haha. We talked to her and she wasn't really too interested in the gospel but she asked for our help with her English class, and she actually did set up to meet with us again. So I think she secretly is interested haha. Anyway, she is super cool. The rest of the night was normal haha. 

Tuesday: So we had an awesome worldwide missionary broadcast! It was about "teach repentance, baptize converts". And it's the new focus of missionary work. But it's so cool because repentance is what is taught in the scriptures. That's how the amazing missionaries in the Book of Mormon taught and it's just awesome because now that's how we will be teaching. I learned a lot about repentance though this week. Growing up a member of this church, I also thought/felt that repentance was really only necessary if you made a big sin. Or that repentance was confessing to God and sometimes your bishop if you did anything wrong. I didn't understand as well how it applied to me. But this week I learned that repentance is a change of heart. It's a change of attitude and turning your heart to God. It just put a new perspective on it for me. The way that we use the Atonement and apply it to our daily lives is through daily repentance,  it is through daily change and progress. I invite you all to think about that and learn how to apply that to your lives. 

So after the broadcast we all went out to lunch and we were walking out of the restaurant and this lady calls out after us saying "Mormon jiao" (Mormon church). We turn around and she's like "My mom wants to invite you all to dinner, and we will bring friends to hear a message from you" And we were blown away. This lady wasn't a member and we have no idea where she came from but later this week she brought us all dinner. And when i say all I mean all 10 of us Sister and Elder Missionaries. And she invited us next week to a barbecue...where she is going to bring friends. Haha… How cool is that? She even said she was going to come to church! I don't know if she actually did cause she went to a different ward but WOW. She was so amazing. 

Wednesday: We had an awesome English party and a cool spiritual thought. We combined all the classes, and it was super cool. We talked about talents and gifts and our identity. I had the chance to bear my testimony and I felt the Spirit testify to me that what I was saying was true, and that I was testifying to these beautiful Taiwanese children of God, that THEY really are children of God. I just love being a missionary because I love teaching others of their identity. And their purpose in life, and that they have a God who loves them and has given us multiple opportunities to be happy. I just love it! 

Thursday: So Thursday we had WPS so we were mostly inside, but we met another MIRACLE lady. It was a referral from her neighbor. We had been knocking in that area the day or two before and we met a man who wasn't interested but we asked for a referral and he pointed to the house across the street. So we decided to go back the next day (to the referral) because they didn't answer when we knocked the first time. And it was definitely a miracle because this lady answers the door and invites us in and basically teaches us the first lesson through her questions. She had all these questions about Adam and Eve and the first sin, and about infant baptism, and the Bible and she talked about how people have taken so much out of it. WHAT??? Who is this lady?? So cool right? Well she actually lives in Taibei so we can't call her our investigator but right now she is an Elementary school teacher and is on winter break, and is super busy. But she actually set a baptismal date and is so prepared!!! We met with her again later that week and she had been reading the Book of Mormon and said she didn’t' really understand but then was asking about why Nephi had to go back three times for the plates. She's just amazing. I'll just leave it at that. Her name is Li XJ. Other than that we just had more people reject us. You know all in a day’s work. J

Friday: We were contacting and down the street was this crazy and cool Buddhist ceremony.  And there was music and firecrackers and we just didn't know what to do (haha) because it was so loud, but we had to contact so we just kept going. It was fun. We didn't find anyone on that street though, so maybe we didn't need to be there (haha) who knows.  We had a lady who wasn't at all interested in our message give us 4 shi jia (buddha fruit), so that was nice. We also met a cool 19 year old young man who spoke English. It was cool, and he was Christian and you could tell that his faith was really strong. He said that he would come to church and seemed open to it all. So cool :) But he lives in the third Elder's area.

Saturday: We had an awesome lesson with Yolanda. She is the girl who speaks English and came to sacrament meeting last week. She said she wants to meet with us because she's curious about God. And as I was telling her about God she goes "But how do you know?" it was an awesome lesson. And I'm really excited for her. She's a new investigator :) We also met this crazy lady who just "yelled" at us and told us to stop visiting other Christians. I didn't understand everything she said but that was basically it... it was a little rough. 

Sunday: Went by so fast. Usually Sunday's go slow but not this one. We met this awesome, hilarious lady who started singing “In our lovely deseret” (hymn) in Chinese but with different words. And she was just so energetic and hilarious. It made my day! She kept rubbing my arm and asking me how I wasn't afraid of the cold. She was just awesome, I can't describe it. She didn't have much interest in the gospel but we had a little lesson with her anyway. When we prayed with her and asked her to bow her head and close her eyes, she like bent half way over and said 'like this?' J so so cute!!!  The rest of the day was straight forward. 

So yea, that was my week. We had a lot of lessons on the street which was great and we had 6 new investigators this week. Oh I forgot…we had a lesson with a lady who was an English referral and it was awesome. She asked all the right questions, and you can just see she is so prepared. What's even cooler,  I understood almost the whole lesson, and I was even able to respond to her questions! The gift of tongues is real!!! I love this work!!!! 

We only really have one progressing investigator right now because Wen JM is out of town and we haven't met with her for three weeks. And we had to pass on Yang JM and her daughter to the third elders because they live in their area. I’m sad we don’t get to teach them but they were at church on Sunday and I know they are going to get baptized!!! I just hope I get to see it! I love them! 

Well that's my week! I love you all and I encourage you all to discover what repentance means, and to apply the Atonement every day. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and He is the Redeemer of the world. Because of Him, we can and will return to God. We will find happiness and joy in this life no matter our circumstances. Have a great week!!!!

Love,

Sister Roberts

FHE with wonderful members!

Amazing Rice Cakes!

Patriotic :-)

Miracle dinner