Sister Cecily Roberts: Week 50: Prepared people in Song Shan

Hello hello hello!!!!

So this week was fantastic. Surprise we are having 3 baptisms this week!!! :D Sorry I kinda didn't mention them earlier...don't know what I was thinking. One is Chen Ye Ye. He's 85 years old and we aren't really sure how much he understands because he is hard of hearing but I think he understands as much as an 8 year old so we will see. If he passes his interview we will see him be baptized on Sunday :)

The other is Eago who is our miracle of the month/transfer!!!! She's famous Sister Trouble's older sister and sooooo amazing. But she didn't have a baptismal date because she had to accomplish some personal goal first or something. I'm not sure, she wouldn't tell us. She went to Shanghai last week and we hadn't been in touch with her. WELL this week she called us this week and was like "Hey I want to get baptized on the 29th". She had her interview and she passed and is getting baptized on Thursday!!!! AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! PRAYERS ARE REAL AND MIRACLES HAPPEN!!!!! That's what I have learned this week is that miracles are real and I really feel it's because of prayer. And faith. Honestly. I've been trying to have better prayers and just have more faith and I feel like it's made a difference. At least in the way i do missionary work.

The last one is Serene. She is a referral from JinHua. And just let me tell you her story (that I just found out yesterday). So she was bullied in high school. Well she found the Bullying mormon video and she was super gan dong (moved) and she contacted the actor to say thank you. The actor e-mailed/responded back and said "you should meet with missionaries... actually i have a friend in Taiwan right now." So the friend ended up being our previous AP, Elder Johnson. So Elder Johnson was given her contact info which then went to the mission office, which then went to some elders. They were teaching her and then hou lai (turns out) she lived in our area. So we get this miracle girl who is sooo prepared. Oh and I forgot, one lesson while the elders were teaching her, they felt prompted to teach the commandments, Word of wisdom and law of chastity. And it turns out that the reason Serene was bullied in high school was because she already followed these standards. Isn't that the most miraculous thing you've ever heard??? I just was so gan dong and I just can't express how grateful I am that I have the honor of teaching her. She is soooo sweet. She came to church and she was like "Hey Luo Jie Mei I have something to give you. Do you wanna close your eyes?" I said "of course!!!" and she pulls out a picture of Taibei 101 that she took herself. She handed it to me and I freaked out!!! She is soooo sweet and I just love her a lot a lot a lot!!!! :D :D :D

So basically, this week was full of miracles because we had 6 actually 7 investigators at church this week....what? Unheard of! :D One was Pan JM who origially told us she couldn't come because she goes to visit her mom every week in Jilong. Well this week she decided "I want to come to church" so she came! And she loved it! I don't know if she can come every week and I think she might be moving to DanShui for a little which is super sad but oh my goodness she is amazing. She pulled out her BOM during church and it was covered in a beautiful book cover and she had read until 1 Nephi 15!!! I was just so gan dong!!! AHHHHH! :D :D :D

Actually funny story, there's word from the APs that one of the Song Shan companionships might be pulled out of Song Shan. So that means either the elders or sisters will be moved out of Song Shan... Sister Wang and I think it's fine. But it all depends on what God wants. We will see!!! We find out next week! Can you believe that next week is transfers????? WHAT HAPPENED TO THIS TRANSFER!!! UGH UGH UGH!!! TIME GOES SO FAST!!!

I will admit I got a little frustrated with Chinese this week. I just still don't understand sometimes and just feel like I'm not learning the things I want to. And there's so much I have to learn and so little time. I’m not saying that I have to speak 100% perfect Chinese by the end of my mission. But I don't know, it's just such a special time to learn and the best time to learn and I'm afraid it's running out...

Honestly, that's pretty much it for this week. We saw a lot of cool little things happen and I feel like I've grown so much as a missionary. I can feel a complete difference in who I am and the kind of missionary I am. We went on exchanges this week with the XiZhi sisters who are Sister Fenlaw and Sister Li (native) and it was amazing. I went with Sister Fenlaw and it was literally a match made in heaven. It was amazing because I felt the Spirit with us as we chuan'd the jiao, and honestly I felt like we were in such unity. It was incredible. We also met so many cool nice people and just had really good contacts. She is an amazing missionary and is going home in Dec. She was recently companions with Sister Hughes in Hualian and I learned a lot from her. She's also Abby's trainer (I mean Sister Toronto haha). Ah it was just so awesome.

I know that this work is real. I know that God is leading us and I can't explain enough how much I love this gospel. I am so grateful for the peace and joy it has brought to my life and....I can't express how grateful I am to be a servant of the Lord. I don't ever want to go back to the real world. I'm literally living a dream. I am closer to my Savior than I've ever been. I'm serving among the most amazing people on this planet, I'm doing the work of salvation, and I am God's servant. I don't have to worry about anything except being worthy to teach God's children. I don't have to worry about anything except God, doing what He wants, and loving and teaching His children. I am so grateful.

I love you all so much and I hope you all are well!!!

Love from Taiwan,

Sister Roberts