Taroko Gorge National Park

FAMILY AND FRIENDS

I know the start of my emails are always the same...but I never know how to begin...It was an amazing week! And I absolutely LOVE being a missionary!!

This week was filled with some amazing experiences.
First, this past Tuesday, we had OUTDOOR ZONE CONFERENCE!!!! And the best part is that we went to TAROKO GORGE NATIONAL PARK!! It was BEAUTIFUL!! 2 Zones went together so my zone--台東 (Taidong) and the 花蓮 (Hualian) zone came together. We met really early at the Hualian Chapel all got on a bus and went up to Taroko Gorge National Park. And can I just tell you, it is so beautiful here in Taiwan. The trainings were absolutely amazing. I loved every part of it. The real focus was on who we are-Disciples of Jesus Christ and what we do. We also discussed the importance of being happy and enjoying the time we have on our mission. We would hike a little, stop, have a training, and hike a little bit more. the Pictures don't even do it justice but it was such an amazing experience. 

  Toroko Gorge
  

We were able to set a new baptismal date with one of our investigators, YuZhen. She is 14 years old and has a really strong desire to get baptized but coming to church is the hard thing for her. We had a really spiritual lesson about our purpose and the steps we need to take to reach our potential and enter the Celestial Kingdom. She was really moved and personally set a new goal for October 17th--the week of her birthday. We had a really neat experience this week visiting with a less-active. She is about 70+ but literally acts like she is in her 30's. She is full of energy and takes care of her two small grandgirls. Her son lives with her and her daughter-in-law works in FengLin which is about 45 minutes away from YuLi. Her daughter-in-law, Ba JieMei, is a former investigator and from what I have heard, when she was taught the first couple of times, she told the missionaries she had absolutely no interest and basically said religion was dumb. BUT when we went to go visit Li JieMei this last week, Ba JieMei was there and sat in and PARTICIPATED in our lesson!!! It was a HUGE change. The thing that was also really cool was that Ba JieMei came to church with Li JieMei last Sunday-September 13. Ba JieMei husband is also a less active and the entire lesson she was telling us we need to help her husband come back to the church!!! What a huge change of heart this woman has had. So neat. The only hard part is that where she lives in FengLi there are no missionaries--it is part of our area--and so we wont be able to teach her very often--only when she comes down to visit her kids which is about once a month. Friday while finding we had a really neat tender mercy. We went knocking for about an hour or so and had no success. As we were heading back to our bikes to leave to go have dinner, we both felt like we needed to go talk to this lady holding a baby and playing with her children on a little park in front of a Primary School. On our walk across the street and then onto the grass, we saw this other mom who was sitting being a scooter (she was blocked from our view when we were standing by our bikes) pulling out a cigarette. We both walked straight to her, sat with her and talked. She used to go to a Christian church several years ago but left it because they were changing some things in the church and she thought it was really weird. We prayed with her and taught her simply some of our church's teachings. The Spirit was so strong and I know she felt it very strongly. She is going through some really hard times right now--infact, in her prayer, she listed all these things she is struggling with--raising her daughter, a health issue, something with her home, not having work, etc. The Spirit literally came pouring onto all of us. This woman is so prepared to hear the gospel. I can't wait to continue to be able to help her. We never had the opportunity to talk to the lady we were originally planning on talking to but I know Heavenly Father told us we needed to walk in that direction to meet this sweet lady.  This weekend, we had Stake Conference in Hualian.  It was the FIRST EVER Stake Conference here on the East Coast. Right before President Day went home a few months ago, he came and organized the Hualian Stake. It was neat to be able to be a part of it. I had to translate the last talk on Saturday night to Rebecca--from Ohio teaching English in Hualian. It was so nerve racking but it was neat. Even though I didn't understand everything I really could feel the Spirit helping me help Rebecca understand what was being taught at Stake Conference. 

This is an investigator from Taidong and we met each other at stake conference and she changed my life. I will probably never be able to see her again but she is amazing!

 
 Most of our Branch that was able to go to Stake Conference.

 

Sunday afternoon we had exchanges with our Sister Training Leaders--both of us staying in Hualian. I exchanged with Sister Belnap!!!! (I played tennis with her step-mom the summer after high school) and I LOVED every second of it. We saw so many miracles and had a BLAST together!!
  

Us and the sister training leaders.
   

 Last preparation day.