Sister Samantha Haacke: Splits and Findings

My dear family and friends,

Another week has come and gone. Time truly is flying!! Everyday I ask where the time is going. It seems to slip through our fingers every week!

It was a great week filled with miracles and tender mercies...so here are a few:

We started teaching 韓志弟兄 this week! He is such a prepared man! This week we met with him twice-shared the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation. He does have some crazy thoughts and questions we have to clear up but other than that, he is so golden and working well towards his baptismal date that we set with him for January 30, 2016!! He will be the first baptism in this ward (since the ward split in Sept/Oct 2015). The first lesson was with Sister Cardon and I. It was so funny. This man is like my grandpa! The first thing he said to us when we sat down in his daughter's home was that we are his teachers, he is our student, and that he wants us to be very direct with him and answer all his questions. He wouldn't let his daughter answer any of his questions. haha So Sister Cardon and I are in for a treat. :) But, he is a great man and loves church and reading the scriptures!

We met again for the second time with a new investigator we found last week. Last week, we thought she was at least the same age as me, 20, but Thursday night, we found out that she is only 16. BUT, the first thing she told us when she sat down with us was that she told her parents last night that she started to meet with us and her parents support it! (Blessing from above!) And she is really excited to learn. It was really cute and makes me think of when I was her age because she also told us how last week she and her boyfriend got in an argument and she went home and prayed about it and she felt Heavenly Father comfort her! I was really cute! We taught her the Restoration and she accepted it and believed it was true. I love the power that comes from reciting Joseph Smith's First Vision experience. Every time it is shared, the Spirit always comes flooding in to the lesson.

Bitter Sweet Moment: Sister Cardon and I went to McDonald's to eat some ice cream during dinner and a family-dad and two daughters-sat down two tables away from us and before they started eating, they each bowed their heads and said a prayer together. So rare--even rarer in Taiwan.

Friday, Sister Cardon and I had the wonderful opportunity to go on exchanges with the Tao2 Sisters. Since the new changes, they both came to our area and we split the lessons we had and spent most of the day finding. I went with Sister Harvey and our whole afternoon was spent contacting. I loved it though. Being able to share the gospel is incredible. The mission is filled with really neat miracles and also really sad ones as well. Sister Harvey and I met an amazing man-李先生, who has just been diagnosed with some health issues and he was really down about it--knowing that his health is not good at all. We prayed with him and shared the Book of Mormon and Baptism with him. We promised him that Christ may not take away the health issues that he has but that Christ can help him bare the pain and sorrow of it. We pretty much set a baptismal date with him right there for the End of February. He couldn't set up then because he didn't know his work schedule for this next week yet, but said he would text us to let us know. Well, he texted us this morning and sadly, he told us that he doesn't want to meet because he is a devout Buddhist. I am grateful for the small lesson we were able to have with him though and allowing him to feel a little bit of the Spirit. Hopefully we were about to plant the seed and one day, he will have the opportunity again to accept.

We set up with a lot of former investigators for this next week and I am looking forward to meeting with most of them. We met with one on Saturday and the main reason why he stopped investigating was because of his work schedule. He is super willing to meet again and I look forward to seeing what is going to happen.

The neatest miracle probably occurred yesterday evening. Our lesson that was scheduled got cancelled last minute and so we decided to go visit a member at her shop who didn't come to church yesterday. We were there for literally 5 minutes or so and then her friend walks in. The member looked at her and said the missionaries are here so you can talk to them. We were all a little confused because neither us or 洪姐妹` (the member) called for us to go over. We sat down with her friend and she told us how she had talked to missionaries before and that she asked 洪姐妹 a couple days ago questions about the Book of Mormon! Wu JieMei ( 洪姐妹 friend) is having some family struggles and wants to start learning about how Christ can help her. She asked for us to give her some scriptures she could read about prayer. We were more than willing! What a miracle, our lesson got cancelled, the Spirit prompted us to go visit 洪姐妹and that we now got to meet with her friend!

I am so grateful for this gospel and the many blessing that it has giving me. I know with out a doubt this church is true. I know Christ lives and loves and cares for each and everyone of us. He is our Redeemer and our Savior. He know us individually. As I was reading through the family letter this week and the last section of how you were reading through our call letters this last week, I was reminded of Moroni 9:6.

"And now, my beloved son, notwithstanding their hardness, let us labor diligently; for if we should cease to labor, we should be brought under condemnation; for we have a labor to perform whilst in this tabernacle of clay, that we may conquer the enemy of all righteousness, and rest our souls in the kingdom of God."

I know we are all in different stages of our lives--on full-time missions, parenting, a school student, a child, a grandparent...etc. but, we have all been called to come to earth and labor. We all have a labor to perform! We are all called to me missionaries and spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know when we do share and are willing to share, our mouth is opened, and the Spirit will be able to touch the lives of our family members and friends.

I love you all so much!

Love,

Sister Haacke