Taiwan Taipei Mission

Taiwan Taipei Mission

Monday, August 17, 2015

New Area

My dear family and friends!!
HHHHHEEELLLLOOOOOO from the beautiful EAST COAST of TAIWAN!!!!! Yes, I got transferred this week!!! I am now serving in YuLi. It is absolutely BEAUTIFUL here!! It is a tiny small town--literally like no people but it is amazing!!! So, I won't be up to Taipei again for a really long time.Thanks in advance for the birthday package family! I believe we have zone conferences next month so when President and the Assistants come down, they will bring our packages and mail!
I have no idea where to begin. This week has been crazy! Last Tuesday was my last full day in TouFen. We had many lessons with investigators and I said goodbye to Akin. It was really hard but I have gained such a strong testimony on my mission that this isn't the last time I will see these wonderful people. Goodbye's are still really hard for me but definitely not as hard as they were before! All day Wednesday we were in Taipei for our Temple Tour Training. This is a meeting all the Sisters go to except for the East Coast Sisters. We had great trainings. At the end, President Jergensen had a great training/talk on Identity. The worldly things DON'T matter! We need to build our foundation on the knowledge we have that we are all daughters and sons of a Loving Heavenly Father. Nothing else matters! Wednesday night we headed back to TouFen for our English Party. I had to say goodbye to Wen TongXue (Erica) Wednesday night. It was really hard. I only knew her for a week but I felt like I have been best friends with her my entire life. I hope and pray she can come to the knowledge of this gospel and Sister Cardon and her new companion can help her make her first covenant with our Heavenly Father. I promised her as soon as I could, I would line/Skype her :) She's adorable.
Thursday morning we left early again for Taipei with all my luggage. During the day, I was asked to be in the hospital and be Sister Juarez's companion for the day. She had just gotten her gallbladder out and her companion was transferring and needed to head back to ZhuBei to pack. It was crazy but it was a great day of extra studies and catching up in my journal. Her companion came back around 5:30 and I was on exchanges with Sister Hadley. We spent the rest of the night out on the streets of Taipei sharing the gospel with others. It was weird for me street finding in Taipei. I wasn't used to that many people but it was a great experience!
Friday was transfer meeting!! We welcomed about 23 new missionaries to our mission and sadly said goodbye to 4 Elders who honorably completed their missions. This was the first transfer meeting I was going to that I was getting transferred to a new area. To be honest, it is probably one of the most nerve racking things! I honestly haven't been so nervous in such a long time! I was so excited when my picture came up to serve in YuLi with Sister Wright. After transfer meeting, the 5 missionaries getting transferred to the east coast got our train tickets from the Assistants and headed with all of our luggage to the train station--that was an adventure in and of itself!! Thanks to two loving Member young adults who were so willing to help us all the way to our platform. Since it is very expensive to travel from the east coast to Taipei, only the transferring missionaries come up for transfer meeting and the rest of them stay down--so I met my new companion, Sister Wright, on the platform in YuLi!!
Sister Wright is such an amazing missionary. I have already learned so much from her in the 3 days we have been together! She is very dedicated, hard-working, and really knows how to relate to the people here. I can't wait for this transfer with her!!
Friday night we went to the Night Market to hand out English tracts. On our way there, Sister Wright told me we would probably see all of our investigators, members, and LA's there--which was just about true :). Great daily contact! :). Friday night, we met with one of our most progressing investigators--Jiang DX. He has a baptismal date for the beginning of next month. He is a farmer and about 24 years old. We taught him the plan of salvation tonight. When we asked him what he thought his earthly purpose was, he said, "to get baptized!" haha it was really funny! He is super sweet and so prepared! We also asked him how much he understood about Adam and Eve. He went on to basically explain the whole story. We asked him how he knew and he said, "I read the pamphlet you gave me last week, duh!!" haha he is so awesome!!
Saturday, we had WPS since I didn't get to YuLi till about dinner time on Friday. We also had some finding time where we were able to teach this cute 9 year-old girl how to pray. We had a lesson with a family-a mom, and her 4 boys. The 12 year old and one of the 8 year old twins has been baptized. The mom is not a member--she is really manmanlai. But their family is amazing. We shared with them the Family Proclamation and invited them to write down two things they could do to strengthen their family. The 12 year-old is such an amazing member. He is so strong and knows his responsibilities very well. Other members are taking him up to Taipei this Thursday to attend the temple for his first time! Sadly, they are moving to TaiZhong area next week :(. So I don't get to have much time to get to know them. :( We also went and visited a couple Less Actives at night and reminded them to come to church.

Sunday was a day full of miracles! The branch here is so cute! Our chapel is above an Internet Cafe but it is really nice. The members are really sweet. Each Sunday after church, we eat lunch as a branch and today we celebrated August birthdays so everyone sang to me! haha it was so cute! In the afternoon time, we met with Zhu Hui Ling and her daughter, Zhu Yu Zhen. We taught the Word of Wisdom and we made a plan for Zhu Hui Ling to give up bettlenut. They are a cute family with a lot of hardships and challenges but Zhu JM has really seen a change since she has started coming to church. She also has a baptismal date in September. I hope and pray she can start to follow the Word of Wisdom so that she can get baptized on her goal. We also had a lot of finding time--we saw so many miracles. We were able to share the Book of Mormon with many people. We met Chen JM. She is a mom of 2 boys and seems really depressed. We taught her how to pray and when we asked her what prayer means to her, she explained how she likes it because she feels like someone is actually listening to her talk. We set up for next week to come back and share more about Jesus Christ. Her schedule is crazy though.
YuLi is such a special place. The people here are amazing! YuLi has three large mental hospitals so many individuals send their family members to YuLi to live in these mental hospitals. We do service once in a while there and visit a couple people in these hospitals. I look forward to having the opportunity to meeting these wonderful children of our Heavenly Father. I am so grateful Heavenly Father has given me this opportunity to serve here in YuLi. I know I will learn so much here!
I hope you all have a great week! I loved reading all the family emails!!
LOVE YOU!!!
Sister Haacke
  
Sister Wright, the boys from the family we visited on Saturday, and I at church yesterday!
 
Sister Wright and I!

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