Sister Samantha Haacke: General Conference

My dear family and friends!

This week has been amazing! General Conference was definitely the highlight!

I can't believe I just finished my first transfer in Taiwan! It is crazy! I still have so much to learn and so many areas I need to grow and develop but I am grateful for how much I have learned over the last 6 weeks! It has flown by!

General Conference was by far the highlight of the week! It was amazing! I was able to listen to all of it in English except for most of the Saturday morning Session. During lunch or dinner sometime this week, we will be able to watch it in English hopefully :)

Conference talked a lot about families and the importance of families here on the earth. I love this message. The family unit is getting attacked from many difference forces but if we stay firm in the gospel and apply the principles we learn from the gospel, we can face those forces and overcome the adversary. I'm grateful for the family I have. I love you all so much! I have learned so much from you all! You are all amazing! Mom and Dad, thank you so much for the values you taught me I look back and I am so grateful for the lessons I learned and the love and direction I received from both of you!

I also loved David A. Bednar's talk about 1. Looking to Christ; 2. Building upon a foundation of Chirst; & 3. Pressing forward with faith in Christ. Our lives need to be centered in our Savior Jesus Christ. Through him, I know we are able to overcome our sins and physical death to be able to return to our Father's presence. Elder Bednar expressed the importance of putting our fears behind us and to doubt not, fear not. His talk gave me the answer to my question I had going into conference.

Here are some other highlights I enjoyed from conference:

LIVE IT. SHARE IT. DEFEND IT! -Cheryl A. Esplin (Women's session)

A saint is a sinner who keeps on trying. -Dale G. Renlund

He perfomed the Atonement for you and me. For everyone. -Quentin L. Cook

As we enter the doors of the temple, we leave behind all wordly things and concerns -President Thomas S. Monson

Hold fast to what you already know. -Rosemary M. Wixom

Seek the Lord in every thought. Doubt not. Fear not. -Jose A Teixeria

Using the resources we have to learn of Jesus Chirst will allow us to have a fruitful life. -Jose A Teixeria

1. Never Stop rediscovering the Gospel.

2. Anchor your faith in the plain and simple truths of the gospel.

3. Seek and Cherish the Holy Ghost. -Gerald Causse

"The gospel is a foundation of knowledge that never runs dry." -Gerald Causse

The entire sequence (Plan of Salvation) is for us to have eternal happiness. -Jeffrey R. Holland

Grace unlocks and opens the gates of heaven -Dieter F. Uchtdorf.

We obey out of love for Him. -Dieter F. Uchtdorf

We have the freedom to live our faith! Don't walk, run! -Robert D. Hales

Study the Book of Mormon everyday, everyday, everyday. -Kevin W. Pearson

1. See our own salvation; 2. Help others seek their salvation -Jorge F. Zeballos

We can learn so much from conference! I invite you all to find one thing you learned from conference that you will apply in your life. Just like Russell M. Nelson said, "How will I change because of this conference?"

As for a quick run down of my week. It went really fast!

Tuesday we had zone meeting where It was focused on using the Book of Mormon in every way-finding, teaching, everything. We were invited to give away atleast 5 Books of Mormon a week.

Our investigator, Fan Zhu Song, is doing really good! We taught him the 3rd lesson this week and he understood all of it. When we asked him what he thought it meant to endure to the end, he looked back at the 4 previous steps and said, well its applying all of these! Fan Zhu Song also was able to attend Saturday Morning of General Conference. He was able to watch the Priesthood Session and part of the Saturday Morning session and then he had to leave because he was going down to Taoyan to visit his family. He said he really liked it and he learned a lot. It is pretty much like he is a member already! The only problem is his work schedule and not being able to come to church on Sunday. While we were eating lunch inbetween the two sessions Fan Zhu Song was there for, he was sitting at a temple with some members and I was eavesdropping ofcourse. (I'm a missionary...he's an investigator...haha what do you expect :)) A member asked him if he had a baptismal goal and he told her April 16 and she said oh that awesome but thats really far away! He said yeah it is but I'm really busy with work and school!. He also came to our English class on Wednesday. It was our English class party-every 6 weeks we have a party and a potential investigator in the Elders area asked him if he was a member and he told her not yet, but I am preparing to be baptized right now! It is so neat to see how he is progressing and to be able to help him prepare for baptism.

This week we also visited a potential investigator and we were able to give him a Book of Mormon. He asked us why we don't bai-bai our ancestors and he is afraid to come to our church because other people told him if he came, he can't bai-bai his ancestors anymore. He has no background in Christ or God so we will be starting really slow with him. However, we were able to get a return appointment for this coming week. Another really neat miracle was Saturday afternoon, we had about 45 minutes to knock some doors after conference and before we had to be back at the church for an activity and we met Deng XianXiang. It was raining really hard outside. We knocked on his door and no one answered. We decided to knock again and 'give them a second chance not knowing if anyone was home or not. We waited for a good couple minutes (well, it felt like that) and then he answered the door. We talked to him in his doorway for a good 30 minutes. We were able to talk to him mostly about prayer. He asked us really good questions about prayer and if God really exists. We told him the only way he can find out for his own is to pray about it. He asked us to share an experience in our lives where we have seen our prayers be answered. Right before Sister Fisher was about to share her experience, he said, Wait hold on. He ran upstairs and we were thinking oh he is grabbing like a camera, paper or pen, but then he comes back down with a cigarette and a lighter because he needed to smoke...haha thats a habit we are going to have to help him break. :) Over all, we were able to give him a Book of Mormon and invite him to read it. We called him our General Conference, Rain Miracle haha.

Also, we were able to meet with Rose and Dinosaur last night and talk to them about the first part of the Plan of Salvation. They are such a neat little family-mom and son. However, after earth life, we got really off topic because they were amazed at my chinese...I met them one of my first couple days in Taiwan and I felt so bad becuase they probably couldn't even understand what I was trying to say. Learning a language definitely has its ups and downs somedays are better than others but the progress is all that counts. I'm grateful for these small moments everyonce in a while when I feel like I'm not progressing at all but that is when others notice and remind me of all the help I am receving from above.

Sadly, last week when we were on exchanges, Sister Fisher and Sis Su found two students and gave them both baptismal dates but they both won't anwer our phone calls after we talked to them once on the phone. We will keep trying but we believe they don't have any interest.

CRAZY NEWS!: This last week, was transfers on Friday and we got 21 NEW missionaries!! Today in President Days Email, he told us he has 18 more NEW missionaries coming in this week and there will be another transfer meeting on this coming Thursday!!! The Brethren in Salt Lake are not having missionaries stay in their temporary assignments to wait to leave on transfers now. As soon as missionaries get their visas, they are off! I think this clears all missionaries who are on visa wait for our mission now!! It's crazy! The work is truly being hastened here in Taiwan!!

LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Love,

Sister Haacke

P.S. On an ending note, here are some pictures of our bathroom in our apartment at the moment--yes we have no tub, no sink, no toilet...they are finally fixing the tub that has had a huge crack in it for over a year! When they took the tub out, it was so gross. there was so much water underneath it and the water was moving there was so many leach looking like bugs in it...and the mold...yeah it was great :) haha

We also got locked out of our apartment because we went out a door that goes to the apartment below us one morning to use their restroom instead of going out our main door so we forgot to take the deadbolt out...It was a great bonding moment with our landlord (nonmember and his daughter returns this friday from serving a mission in Canada) where Sister Fisher was hanging in the small window above our door with a broom wacking the deadbolt to try and move it over...what memories we have :)