Taiwan Taipei Mission

Taiwan Taipei Mission

Monday, February 23, 2015

Tomorrow is the Big Day--Taiwan Bound!

Family and Friends,

I don't have much time because we are stuck inside (yes, today is the day I am supposed to travel to Colorado Springs)  because of the huge amount of snow we have gotten this weekend and my companions also need to email but my week went great. 

So here is what I know about my travels to TAIWAN tomorrow!!! Today, Monday Feb 23, I will be traveling down to Colorado Springs and meeting with the Mission President and AP's at 4:30 at a SpringHill Suites Hotel. We will be staying there overnight and getting up really early to go to the airport. At the hotel is where I will be getting my passport and flight itinerary. I will call home as much as I can :)

For those of you who I won't be able to talk on the phone with I'll give a quick run down of my week

Tuesday evening we had an appointment with a part member, less active family. We talked about the Good Samaritan from the Bible. We were able to bring Sister Bull, our Primary President, with us. Our lesson went very well. The family we taught are still a little bit iffy about having the desire to read the Book of Mormon and coming to church. But, they keep setting up return appointments so we will keep teaching them and getting to know them. 

Wednesday, Sister Grant was really sick and so we had to stay inside all day to get her better :). We did weekly planning and Sis. Cook went on Splits with a Young Women, Maryn, to teach our nightly appointments while I stayed home with Sis. Grant. Got in some extra studies. 

Thursday, we went to lunch with our investigator, Cami. She took us to this little local restaurant in Palmer Lake called Safeway. It was really good and we had a good conversation with her about our church and her church. We then had an appointment with Sis. Liggett. She is doing really good. She is excited to enter the Temple soon. She set a goal to have everything prepared and be able to get her temple recommend by April 1st!! I am really excited for her. She did explain, in tears, her fears about her family situation. She is the only active member in her family and her husband is a nonmember. But she has decided to go to the temple is a good step for her to take in her life. I hope that day comes soon for her! We also went over to the Allen's. There was a death in their family and Sis. Allen is the ward choir pianist and she asked Sis. Grant to cover for her on Sunday because she would be gone. While we were there getting the music, Bro. Allen showed us the weather report for this weekend….we were estimating to get anywhere from 10-24 inches of snow. It has been so warm and nice and then it turned to FREEZING!! We had a couple stop-bys, dinner with the McEwen's and then we went to this Neighborhood Bible Study with Cami and her husband Stefan. It was interesting…But I'll tell you more about it tomorrow on the phone. 

Friday was a great spiritual uplifting day for me! We were in meetings all day but they were really good! We had Specialized Training with our zone and the East zone. President Rehm talked about the changing mission and what changes are going to be made to this mission. The AP's, Elders Burton, Madsen, and Potter taught about becoming a consecrated missionary. It was really powerful. After Specialized Training, we went to lunch together as a district and a couple other missionaries to Panda Express. We were able to eat lunch outside it was so warm! It was our last day eating lunch as a district. Elder Wasden and Sister Grant go home this transfer (tomorrow) and Elder Diepeveen and I are headed out to Taiwan. After, we had District Meeting back in Monument. Elder Wasden gave a great lesson and we ended up basically sharing our testimonies. The Spirit was so strong and I learned so much from the missionaries I have been able to work with for the last 9 weeks being in Colorado. 

Saturday and Sunday we were stuck inside due to the amount of snow we have. The Mission has had cars parked and they are still parked today. No worries though…I'll get down to Colorado Springs one way or another :) 

AND CHURCH WAS CANCELLED YESTERDAY due to so much snow….how crazy is that?!?!?!?!

I will miss Monument, Colorado so much! I have come to love this area so much! the people here are absolutely amazing! I have come to be really good friends with some members here that I hope to stay in contact with while I continue my mission in Taiwan. 

I can't wait to talk to you tomorrow!! I sure love and miss you like crazy!!

LOVE YOU ALL!!

Sister Haacke
 All of my district with a couple of extra missionaries after our last district meeting together.

 We were able to also go over to the Castles and teach their kids a lesson. This is Quinn, one of their daughters. She was so cute and came and sat by me. She has red hair and blue eyes just like me :)

 The Monument Elders live just up the street from us and since our cars were parked, we decided to take a walk and meet half way. We were singing Onward Christian Soldier and Come, Come ye Saints as we were walking to meet up with them. We talked for like 5 minutes but it was so cold, we all decided to go our separate ways…this is what we do when we are stuck inside for two days straight :/
Brother Cook and sister Cook. Brother Cook has been our ward mission leader and they were so nice to drive clear over to our house and say good bye to me last night. I will sure miss them.
I am hoping to get together with Bro. Jenson to say goodbye to him today as well. He and his family helped me out so much!

  Sister Liggett and I.

 Our last heart attack was to the Sister Training Leaders, Sister Peters and Sister Fisher.

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Taiwan Bound!

Family and friends,

This past week has been incredible!!!! 
1. I got my visa!!! I'M GOING TO TAIWAN!!!!!!!!!!! I leave here on February 25th!!! I am so excited. I honestly thought this day would never come but it's here and I can't wait!!!! I don't have my travel plans yet but as soon as I get them, I will be sure to send you a copy. 
2. CAMI CAME TO CHURCH!!! Cami, our investigator, came to church on Sunday and stayed for ALL 3 hours!!! 

Other than those two things, our week here in Colorado has flown by! 
 
On Tuesday, Feb 10, we had a lesson with Cami. We have started to do Family History with her and it has made her really excited. Tuesday we spent the majority of the time working on Family History. We were able to connect her dad's side of her family to a line that is already complete all the way back to I believe the 1700's. On her dad's side of the family, she basically had no information so it was really exciting for us to find that with her. We had lunch at her home with her and talked more about her Book of Mormon reading. She is currently reading at the end of Mosiah. She always has really good questions for us. I can really tell she is reading the Book of Mormon sincerely and really wanting to come to a knowledge for herself if the Book of Mormon is true. 
 
On Saturday we went with Cami to the Family History Discovery Center in Colorado Springs for her to use ancestry.com and get some help with the volunteers there at the center. I was able to work a little on our family history but I didn't find much so I sat by Cami and helped her.* After, we went with Cami and Maryn Carpenter (a 17 year old in our ward) to Red Robin for lunch. Maryn was so kind and paid for all of us. I really didn't want her to but she insisted. She is so kind and has such a big heart. 

Wednesday, we were busy all day with going to work out with Sister Clay and Weekly Planning. We made "armor" out of cardboard and tin foil for a lesson we are going to start doing with families in our ward. Wednesday night, we had dinner with the Bull family and then went and did some "heart attacks" to some individuals and families in our ward. We wanted to thank some people in our ward for helping us out and so we decorated their door with hearts and doorbell ditched them. One of the heart attacks we did on Friday night, we hid around the corner of their apartment to listen to her and she was shocked. She is a single mom of 3 who went through a nasty divorce. She has no idea it was us and that's what makes it so much better. 

Thursday, we had interviews with our Mission President. They went well. After interviews, we had an appointment with Sis. Liggett. She is looking forward to further prepare to enter the temple. Her husband also joined us with the lesson and we had a good discussion about the Plan of Salvation. We also had an appointment with the O'Brian family. They are potential investigators but are very strong Catholics. We did the Armor of God lesson with their kids and Bro. O'Brian asked us if we had any questions about the Catholic church. We ended up talking mostly about Mass... We had dinner with the Huntzinger family and then went to the Relief Society Activity. Cami came and we were so excited to see her there!! Bro. Ken Jenson was the Priesthood there so that is when I told him about what I heard from you dad and he told me he would be my way of communication :). 

Friday, we had district meeting in the morning which is always amazing and we did some stopbys and had ward correlation with Bro. Cook. Nothing too exciting...We had dinner with the Jones family and did the Armor of God lesson with them. 

Saturday, after we did family history in Colorado Springs with Cami, we went and did service for Sis. Clay. We helped her clean out her garage. We visited Sis. Ruble and had a good conversation with her about Charity and we spent the evening with the Waters family. We made heart shaped pizza's because it was Valentine's day and we played the game, Quelf, with them. It was really fun! They are a really fun family. The Waters just got married about 2 years ago and Bro. Waters and one of his sons got baptized about 1.5 years ago. Ian Waters, Bro. Waters other son is the person we teach almost every Sunday during Sunday School. Since he is deaf, he really has no understanding about God and Jesus Christ. However, Ian loves to build things and so he showed us his room and he has built some amazing things! It was so exciting to see how happy and exciting Ian was to show us his creations. 

Sunday was phenomenal! Cami came to church!!! Bro. Goss is Cami's neighbor and he was speaking in Sacrament Meeting. He invited her and she accepted his invitation. Cami sat with us. The entire Sacrament Meeting was amazing. The Spirit was so strong. The Sacrament was the topic. Cami wasn't planning on staying all three hours but after Sacrament meeting, she turned to us and said, "What's next?" Sis Gearhart and Sis. Goss went with her to Gospel Principles and we ended up joining them because Ian wasn't at church. Sis. Clay sat next to Cami during Relief Society. Overall, I believe Cami had an great time. All she said at the end is that our church is very 'traditional'. She invited us to go to church with her and her family this coming Saturday night. After church, we had ward choir, had some stop bys, and a lesson with the Fitt family. We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Their family is starting to come back to church more and more which is really cool! We also visited Jenn and had a really good conversation with her about not giving up and relying on our Savior, Jesus Christ. For some reason, this week has been especially hard with her and her ex-husband. If you could, please pray for her and her kids. 
 
We had dinner with the Atkinson's. Dinner was really good and we had a good conversation with Bishop and his family about the ward and what we can do to further help him. It started to snow really bad, our car is horrible in the snow, and we saw several car accidents. It snowed pretty much the entire night and where we live, in Red Rock Ranch, we got probably 5-8 inches of snow. Because of that, Monday, we couldn't drive so we stayed inside pretty much all day for our p-day. The Zone got together in the afternoon and Sis. Fisher and Sis. Peters were so kind to pick us up and drive us around. We played glow in the dark volleyball, scatterball, and chair soccer with our zone for our p-day yesterday. And since all the libraries we closed, due to holiday, we are emailing today. :)

Overall, this week was amazing! We were able to see our investigator progress and continue to see less actives slowly come back to church. This week is the last week I will be in Colorado so I'll continue to work my hardest to see the work progress here in Monument. 

I sure love you all. Please tell Crystal congratulations on getting baptized for me! I am so proud of her! Marissa, it sounds like you gave an amazing talk! Continue to be her friend and help her as she continues to learn more about the Gospel. 

I can't wait to talk to you all on Wednesday!!! 

Love, 
Sister Haacke
 
 The Bull family.

 The Armor of God we made.

 President & Sister Rehm and I.
 
 The Jones family.

 The Jones family.

One of the doors we 'heart attacked'.
 
 The Snow on Monday.

 Wall Sit Challenge at Glow in the Dark Volleyball with Sis. Peters and Sis. Cook.

 The Gonzalez family.

Monday, February 9, 2015

Book of Mormon Challenge

Dear family and friends, 

This week has gone by honestly so fast! I feel like I was emailing home just yesterday! I loved reading through the emails I received from everyone! It sounds like it was a fast week! 
Bryan, sounds like you had a great week in your new area! I loved the pictures you sent home! It sounds like there is a lot of less-active work that can be done there! Holy cow there are so many in just your area! 
Marissa, congrats on passing your driving test! I'm sure proud of you! I'm also sorry to hear about your phone! That's kinda funny though that it is totally smashed! 
Lachlan, it sounds like you are soaking up all the basketball you can get! I'm glad you enjoy going to the high school games with dad! 
Alexa, I loved the picture mom and dad sent us of you dancing! You're so cute! I'm glad you all also had fun while grandma and grandpa H and Sara C. was there!  
Also, I am so excited Crystal is getting baptized this Saturday! It is so special that she has decided to join the church. I remember talking to her about what I was going to do as a missionary at the Ward Party during the summer at the VanderSloot ranch and now she has taken the lessons and found the truthfulness of the Church. Be sure to take tons of pictures and send them to me! Can you also get her email for me? I'd love to send her a email! 

 As for my week, like I said, it went by really fast and I learned a lot! 

I was able to finish the Book of Mormon this past week for the first time on my mission. I started while I was in the MTC. I know without a doubt the Book of Mormon is true. It testifies of Christ and brings so much joy and peace into my life. I am so grateful I live in a time where The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been restored to the earth and we have the fullness of the Priesthood. I am so thankful for the prophet Joseph Smith. I am thankful he had a question and after reading James 1:5, taking his question to the Lord. I definitely am humbled by what Joseph went through to restore Christ's Church. Sis. Gearhart in my ward at New Beginnings a couple weeks ago said something along the lines of 'the pioneers gave their lives for the gospel and we just have the live our lives for the gospel.' That quote is so true. God had given us commandments to live by so that we can be happy. 
I challenge you, if you have not yet done so, to read the Book of Mormon and do as Moroni's promise says in Moroni 10:4-5. I know that if you sincerely pray and have a desire to know if the Book of Mormon is true, you can know for yourself, the truthfulness of its' teachings. 

Last Monday, February 2, we had our dinner appointment and FHE with the Taylor family. FHE was really fun. They have 4 kids-the youngest being 6. We split the Plan of Salvation up into 9 different parts and each of us took a part to teach. To mix it up, during your turn to teach, someone else had a white board and marker and wrote words you had to use as you taught your portion. The funnest one probably was their son Cannon, around 15 years old, was teaching about physical death. Sis. Grant had the white board and one of the words she wrote down was 'ginger' So Cannon said, "and yes, gingers have spirits too." It was really funny because Sis. Cook and I are both 'gingers'. So, we all had a good laugh at that. 

Tuesday was an awesome day! It started off with having an appointment with our investigator, Cami. When we got there, her neighbor was there as well! She was interested in what we teach and she stayed for the entire lesson with Cami!! I can't remember if I said this last week but we are now starting Cami on Family History which she is really excited about. This appointment was mostly to help her set up her familysearch.org account and to help her fill in some of her information. We also talked a lot about what she is currently reading in the Book of Mormon. She is currently in Mosiah. The hard thing is is that whenever we talk to her about it, she always brings up the verses that don't make sense and to her, talk about the Trinity. (But, we had an appointment with Bro. and Sis. Goss on Thursday and we talked to them about all the Trinity sounding verses in the Book of Mormon and I learned so much. It all makes sense now! Bro. Goss is a Seminary/Institute Teacher and an EFY director) Colleen, Cami's neighbor, had some really good questions for us! One of them was what our belief was about babies who pass away before being baptized. It was really neat to talk to her!! We gave her a Book of Mormon and she accepted our invitation to read it! We have a return appointment with her too!! I am so excited to be able to talk to her and start teaching her the lessons and what we believe and know to be true! I'm so excited to have a new investigator! 
We also had a door basically slammed in our face Tuesday evening...Looking back, it's all good but I was really sad when it happened. We have been trying to contact a Less-active for months and never had any communication with. Her family is from Utah and she went out to visit them a couple months ago and told them she wanted to become active in the church again. From her family informing missionaries, and us hearing word, we have been looking forward to finally making contact. Well, her husband/boyfriend answered the door and as soon as he saw us, said, "oh, no." before we were even able to say anything and shut and locked the door. He's not prepared yet, but one day, I hope and believe he will be open to hearing the gospel.

Tuesday night we had a FHE with a part-member family. We did the armor of God lesson and had their 7 year-old daughter, Roz, go around the house to find things to represent the breastplate, sword, helmet, etc. We then had nerf guns where each bullet would represent a sin. Sad to say, our lesson was a fail...First of all, I helped Violet, a 6 year old sweet girl adopted from CHINA!! who has down syndrome shoot  3 bullets but then Roz's mom went to shoot, she said, "This is for not eating your broccolli." The pillow was right below her eyes and the helmet was right above her eyes and Roz's mom shot her right in the eye. We all felt so bad. Roz started crying and it took her a while to settle down. Yeah, lets just say that lesson is going to have to be taught a different way...Bro. and Sis. Hyatt just got married July(ish) of last year. Bro. Hyatt's first marriage, he and his previous wife adopted two little children from China. Sadly, I can't remember the city but it sounded really familiar. He adopted Violet at 18 months and Sam when he was 3 years old. Sam was at his mom's when we were there so I couldn't meet him and Violet knows no Chinese but they are so cute! Bro. Hyatt and I talked a lot about China. I guess when you go over there to adopt a child, the agency is very strict on where you can go. He was able to visit the Great Wall of China but he couldn't go to the Terra Cotta Soldiers in Xi'an. It was really neat to be able to talk to him about his experience there. 

Wednesday went by really fast. It was pretty much just a normal day of work other than having weekly planning in the morning. We had dinner with the Jacobs that night and then an appointment with the Jones family. Bro. and Sis. Jones are the ones that both served missions. What I learned is that Sis. Jones was on  the gymnastics team for BYU on a scholarship. We did an object lesson with the 3rd lesson, The Gospel of Jesus Christ. They kids, Kai, Finn, & Bre and so cute and so educated. The oldest one is 7 and knows the answers to every question we ask! 

Thursday we had a great lesson with Sister Liggett. Her husband is a nonmember but Sis. Liggett has decided after being married for 30 years that she wants to go to the temple and take out her endowments. The lesson we had with Sis. Liggett was amazing. We talked about what she needs to do to prepare to enter the temple and we also discussed the first lesson, the Restoration. We had decided to go through all the lessons with her again. I am excited for her to start preparing to enter the temple. Thursday we also helped Sis. Shirk clean her home . We had some stopbys and then had dinner with the Carpenters. After dinner we had appointments with the Boulander family and the Goss family. 

Friday morning we had Zone Training down in Colorado Springs. We talked a lot about using our time wisely especially during the daytime hours. We had lunch with the district. We went to Five Guys and then came back to Monument. it is about a 30 minute drive. We had some time before our service appointment with Sis. Jacobs-we helped her make Relief Society Visiting Teaching handout things. With our extra time, since it was 70 degrees outside (SO NICE!!), we walked around a neighborhood. While we did this, we were able to hand out multiple mormon.org cards and we were able to give a Book of Mormon to a young mom named Shawna. She was at the park with her 1 year old daughter, Piper, and she seemed somewhat interested in learning about the church. She lives in our ward boundaries as well which is a plus! We are hoping to be able to make contact with her sometime this next week. It was definitely a very successful day! We also ran into Ryan, a Priest in our ward, and he was really excited to see us! He came over to us and told us he was able to give a Book of Mormon away to a girl at school and how they have had two conversations about the church and what we believe! We were so excited for him! The work here in Jackson Creek, is starting to hasten very quickly! It is so neat to see and be apart of! 

Saturday we had appointments all day long. It started with a less-active/part-member family. We taught the Plan of Salvation and had a good conversation with them about the life after this. We then had a lesson with Danielle, a 13 year-old less active. She is extremely smart and we are hoping that she comes around and comes to church. She told us she would come to church this Sunday, but she didn't :(. So we will continue working with her. We also went over to the Germano's had continued to help them with their home, they are staining, putting in new carpet, and all of that stuff. I absolutely love Sis. Germano. She is such a neat lady. Saturday night, we had dinner with the Gonzalez family. We played Bananagram with them. It is a really fun game.

Church on Sunday was really good. We sat with Sis. Hyatt's two children, Roz & Landon because she spoke. They were really well behaved. Ian was also there so we were able to talk more about Christ and the Plan of Salvation with him during second hour. Relief Society was also really good. We talked mostly about Agency and the power to choose but recognizing that we must face the consequences of our choices. Our Sunday afternoon was full with Choir and stop-bys. We had a great conversation with Jenn, we were able to make contact with Sis. Hayes and set up an appointment with her this Wednesday, and visit the Castle's who had a baby about 2 weeks ago. They named her Inga and she is the tiniest thing! We had dinner with the Tuft family. Sunday was also Sis. Grant's 21st birthday so we celebrated all that we could. 

This morning we were able to go to a gymnastics place for 1.5 hours! The owners live next to some members in the Monument ward and they are so nice! We had so much fun as a district. I was surprised that I could still do a lot of what I did when I tumbled. But of course, not the backwalkover..Mom, remember that one competition, our very last one, and I did a back walkover and then I could never do it again? haha that was a good day :) 

I sure love you all and am so grateful for the opportunity I have to serve. Sadly, there are no updates on my visa. I continue to pray for it to come but I guess it will come when it comes but most importantly when the Lord wants me to go to Taiwan. Please continue to pray for my visa. :) 
Have a great week!! Love you!! 

Love, 
Sister Haacke




Monday, February 2, 2015

Mini-Miracles

Family and Friends!!

Fam: I loved reading the family email this week! Marissa, it looks like you had so much fun in Los Angles with mom and the Voice! I am glad you had a ton of fun and got to visit all over LA...lucky duck! Lachlan, congratulations on winning your basketball game! I'm proud of you! Alexa, I'm glad you had fun at your friends baptism!! 

As for the Superbowl, we couldn't watch it but when we walked in to the Nickol's home, they were watching it and there was 6:32 left in the 4th quarter and the Patriots were down 21-24. We live in their basement and about 20 or 30 minutes later, There was pounding on the floor and we figured the Seahawks lost (the Nickol's are Seahawk fans). I was really excited! haha. This morning, Bro. Nickol's told us how the game ended and he wasn't very happy..haha. It looks like Lachlan, Alexa, and dad had a fun time watching it...well except for the fact that Alexa fell asleep..haha. 

As for a visa update, I got no new information except for an email from Salt Lake basically saying thanks for being patient and faithfully serving in Colorado Springs. 
Speaking of Taiwan...Chinese New Year is coming up...I hope I don't miss it...but if I do, there is always next year...right? :)

Bryan, I'm glad you are already loving your new area! It sounds like you have a lot of work to do--especially with less-actives! Keep us updated on everything! Sure love you! 

As for my week, this week went by extremely fast!! 

We had a less active come to church yesterday! Her name is Sis. Ruble and we have been visiting her weekly for about 3 weeks. I was so excited when Sis. Cook leaned over to me and said Sis. Ruble is sitting over in the corner! I was so happy the rest of Sacrament Meeting. After, I ran over to talk to her and she seemed really happy but said she was going to go get a Priesthood Blessing from Bishop and then was going home because she was in a lot of pain. She is still recovering from some surgeries she has months ago. I have really bonded with Sis. Ruble and I have loved our visits with her. She is a strong woman who I have learned so much from and truly treasure our friendship. 
Another family, the Fitt's, are less active and have started attending church again. Most of them were there yesterday. We were also able to go over to their home Sunday afternoon to teach a lesson. Bro. Fitt served a mission in Finland and told us many experiences he had there. It was neat. 

It was kind of a slower week lesson wise but we were able to see so many miracles. 

Tuesday was New Beginnings in Young Women's. In the morning, we helped the leaders set up and get ready. During the day, we went to Danielle's home and invited her. Danielle is 13. Her family is all active but she is less-active. Danielle came and had a great time. She loved it there and the girls really included her and welcomed her. It was so neat. 
Tuesday, we were also able to come in contact with one of the Melville neighbors we met at their home back in December. Her name is Karen. She is Catholic and her husband past away February of 2014 from cancer. She welcomed us into her home and we were able to talk to her for about an hour! She was so happy and we had a great uplifting conversation. She is very religious and we talked a lot about the Spirit. She told us to come back whenever to talk to her! I think she was also really happy to talk to someone because she lives alone. 
Something really neat about coming in contact with Karen. She just moved here in September-ish and Sis. Cook tracted her door in October and she wasn't interested..After meeting her at the Melville home and being able to talk to her a little there, when she saw us this week, she was so happy we came to stop-by and talk with her. It really strengthened my testimony of Member Missionary Work. It really does work and Karen is now a potential investigator.  

Thursday we had a lesson with Cami. She is doing well but is still not coming to church. She is still reading the Book of Mormon--currently in Mosiah--we have taught her basically everything. We were considering having to drop her as a investigator because she isn't progressing but she told us on Thursday she loved our visits because it holds her accountable to reading the Book of Mormon. She is learning so much and has so many questions. She strongly believes in the Trinity and she has been pointing out scriptures in the Book of Mormon that she believes goes back to the Trinity--such as Mosiah 7:27. We explain that the Godhead is one in purpose...I hope that as she continues to read, she can gain a personal testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. 

Friday was basically a day full of service. Other than service, we were able to come in contact with Bro. Clark--the only High Priest less-active in our ward. This was my first time meeting him and he seems really nice. He was busy so we could talk to him for very long. We also were able to come in contact and set up an appointment with the Beagley's! Michelle Beagley was home but he husband, Mike, was not. Mike is a less-active, and Michelle is a non-member. They have taken the lessons before and are interested in taking them again! We have an appointment with them on Saturday. 

Saturday was also a day full of service but it was also a miracle! We had dinner with the Jenson family earlier this week and their daughter, Annie (10), invited us to her basketball game at the YMCA. Normally, we wouldn't be allowed to go, but her friend who goes to activity days with her plays on her same basketball game and her parents were going to be there. We were able to go and it was the best finding activity we have done! Honestly, we got a lot of weird looks but, we were able to talk to a lot of people and get to know Annie's friend, River, and River's parents. The miracle is that the Germano's were there as well!!!! One of the Germano girls was on the other team playing against Annie and her team! Only Bro. Germano was there when we got there and he was sitting right by the door. He is 100% deaf so we weren't able to talk to him very well but he recognized us and was really happy to see us. We texted Sis. Germano telling her we were watching her daughter. She walked in late and left early so we weren't able to talk to her because we were sitting at the far end. She texted us back and we were able to go over in the afternoon and help them with their basement. They are re-sorting and moving things around in their basement.  The Germano's are nonmembers. They have taken the lessons many times.  Sis. Germano believes the gospel to be true but she is waiting for her husband to believe the same before she gets baptized. We were also able to have dinner with them Saturday night which was really fun. 

Tuesday, I was able to go to lunch with Wendy Conner! Her daughter, Courtney, who is a senior in high school also came! 

Little fun fact, I was able to go to a dentist in the ward here on Wednesday. The end of my permanent retainer on the top was sharp (I thought the glue fell off of it) and it was cutting up my tongue. What it ended up being was the end just came loose for some reason but the glue was still there and the wire was still bonded to my tooth...Bro. Bull just smoothed it out and it made a world of difference. He said he was really impressed by how neat and clean my orthodontist glued on my top and bottom retainers. Tell Dr. Baker thanks! haha

Another little fun fact, there is a lady in our ward, Sis. Clay. We were at her house last night to have a lesson with her and her four boys. Her husband is currently deployed. Well, Sis. Clay is very vocally expressed, for lack of a better description..haha. I love her to death. She cracks me up...but, she hates the question, "Is there anything we can do for you?" She doesn't like it because she says that you should only ask it if you really mean anything. We say at the end of every lesson. What's funny is that my first ever dinner here in Colorado was with her family and I remember her telling me this and so to never ask her. Well, last night, Sis. Grant forgot about how much she dislikes this question, asked her, and this coming Saturday, we get to go back to her house and deep clean her garage. She told us to block out three hours of our day. Yes, three hours! In her garage, it is set up as a gym. It has those extremely heavy mats laid down and all this equipment. So, we get to take all of that out, clean, and then put it all back in. 
However, Sis. Clay's story to becoming a member of the Church is very neat. She is from France and she was going to English Class in France. It is English class where the missionaries teach it. At the time, she was 19. She said it was really weird that all 4 teachers first names were Elder and that kind of sparked her interest. In  the English classes, the missionaries can't talk about the church unless someone asks a question. One day, she was out walking the streets and she saw some of her 'teachers.' She was interested in the gospel and 2 months later was baptized. 

Overall, we had a good week! I have learned and grown so much. It has been a warmer week. Yes, dad, we got some snow but not very much. Not as much as last week. It is pretty much all melted now. The crazy thing about Colorado is that it snows a couple inches but all of it is gone like three days later. The snow never stays.  I love what I am doing. Some days are hard, but they are all worth it! 

I love you all so much! Thank you for all you do for me!! 

Love, 
Sister Haacke
黃姐妹

 Us at Costa with Courtney (Wendy's daughter)

 This house is in our area and I was amazed by the color when we were seeking out a referral on that street.

Oh, we also took a trip to Home Depot. A member in our ward kinda referred us to a lady who works there and we didn't have an appointment one night after dinner and we can't tract or do stopbys in the dark, so we went to seek her out.