Sister Samantha Haacke: Rain!

My dear family and friends!!

To start, I loved reading all the emails I received today! Wow, getting emails from my previous companions who are now home living their lives is so crazy. Glad you are all doing great! Love and miss you all!

Family, thank you for all the chocolate I received this week! I'll be sure to share it! Also, please tell Jennie another thanks for hauling my extremely heavy suitcase back to the states. That is so nice of her. Yes, you can just put it in my room and I'll go through it when I return. Sounds like everyone is staying busy with activities. Marissa, congratulations on your first tennis matches! Lachlan, with basketball! Have so much fun this week during Spring Break!

As for another week in SanChong. We continue to see miracles. Heavenly Father gives us a miracle every day. We just need to keep our eyes open and not allow our pride to get in the way! This week it rained extremely hard on and off. Pretty much it was a week of constant rain. Because of the rain, it made finding a bit harder because not very many people were on the street, but we used this time to contact and visit some less actives in which we saw so many miracles and met some great people.

Monday: We celebrated our mission leader, Hong Rui Cong's birthday by going to an American restaurant in Taipei and eating cake. Monday night, we ate dinner with a family in our ward whose dad is a less active. We had some really good hot pot!

Tuesday: We met with Joy. She is not progressing as fast as she was a few weeks ago. She still has a baptismal goal but her biggest concern is coming to church at 8:30 in the morning. She has many excuses we are trying to help her overcome right now. Tuesday night, we also met with a LA, Zhang Guo Cui. She has been on and off LA for the last few years. Well, we went into her apartment and it smelt really bad like cigarettes. There were lighters all over but we couldn't find any packs of cigarettes. We shared about the spirit and what we can do to feel the Spirit more in her life. We also met with her later in the week and talked about obedience. She never confessed to smoking and committed to coming to church, which she didn't but we will continue working with her.

Wednesday: We went and met with the beloved Liu Zhu Mei in whom we met last Sunday in the park. She is so amazing. She has had a really hard life and has a lot of negative thoughts and opinions but shows a lot of interest in learning more. We had English class and also met with Bruce afterwards! We haven't been able to meet with him for a while and now he has some more time while he is waiting to hear back from a company in ZhongLi whether or not he got the job there. Tonight, we shared the Plan of Salvation with him. He totally understands it and has a huge desire. He wants to be baptized! When we asked him what he needs to do now to prepared to go to the Celestial Kingdom, he responded by saying following the example of Jesus Christ and being baptized!

Thursday: During finding, we met the cutest midget, Cai Jm. She is a high school student and her chain was stuck in her bike, so, after getting my hands all black, and helping her out, we were able to share a little message and invite her to English class. We also met a lady named Grace who had a crazy experience with prayer about 10 years ago. She had gone into an interview for a job and then was told a few days later she didn't get the job. After being told this news, she said a prayer and literally 5 minutes after saying that prayer, she got another phone call saying that they changed and the man couldn't do the job anymore so she got the position. A few months later, she found out it was because this man got in a car accident. She thought it was her fault because she asked God to help her get this job and she thought that is what caused the car accident. Well, she said a prayer with us tonight and set a baptismal date!

Friday: While contacting, we met a man. Huang DX. He was waiting outside of a doctors office. We ended up having a lesson with him. He comes from a Buddhist background but has experience with Christians. He currently mostly takes care of his parents. He loved the message we shared about our church. We invited him to baptism and he said he is waiting for the day his parents pass away so there won't be conflict between the two religions. But, he said he wants to continue learning more! As we went to set a time to meet, we realized he didn't live in our area but lives in the neighboring area. We were really sad...BUT, team Jesus!! We also went and stopped by Chen Xi's home. Her abusive husband just moved out and she is much happier. The only thing now is she is going to have to pay all the bills and she doesn't have the funds to do that yet. She wont be able to come to the church for a few weeks because she got a cleaning job Sunday mornings for the next month or so. We also met with Bruce again and shared the gospel of Jesus Christ! Bruce has been praying everyday but he hasn't been reading. Well, today, we found out he wasn't reading because we didn't clearly tell him that reading everyday is what will help him understand more fully our message and that the Book of Mormon is true. (Yep, we aren't perfect teachers!) When we asked him if he would read every night, he readily accepted and I'm excited to follow up with him! We also shared with him the importance of church and committed him to church this week.

Saturday: It DOWN POURED this morning. Like literally cats and dogs. I don't think I have seen such a down pour in a very long time. Today, we went LA finding, we went and knocked on a door and got let in through the security. When we went in, only the mom was home--her two kids are the less actives. She told us one of them is currently working in Australia and the other one was at work. We asked if we could come in and share a short message with her. She did. As we were just about to close, her son, the LA, walks in from work and we were able to meet him. We learned that their dad is very against the church and missionaries. In fact, he doesn't even know that two of his kids got baptized. Su Bo Yang (the LA) used to attend church but then about a year and a half ago when he did his required military service he couldn't go and then now he has been busy trying to find work. Saturday night, we had a small ward activity put on my us missionaries and Su Bo yang came!!!

SUNDAY: Literally, the miracles FLOWED in today. An LA, Wu Shu Min, who we have been working with for about a month or so came to church for the first time in forever! AND Bruce came!!!! AND Zhou Ming Yu and her two boys.

I am not sure if I wrote about Zhou JM a few weeks ago, but she is a friend of an LA in our ward and her friend told her to start going to church. Well, today she came for all three hours and then we shared a lesson with her after church. Today we shared about the restoration. Zhou Jm is coming from a background of knowing nothing about the church but desires so much for her boys to have successful lives. We shared the restoration with her today and invited her to baptism. She didn't even think twice about setting a date. We set a date for April 16th. She is worried she won't be ready by then but was willing to set that as a date. We can only meet with her on Sundays so we will see what happens!!

We also ate dinner with our relief society president and her two cute boys Sunday night and had FHE with them.

This week was great. I continue to love every second. Despite the challenges :) Missionary work is absolutely AMAZING! I can't believe how fast time is flying by. I am soaking it all in these last weeks! I love it so much!!

I hope you all have a great week!

LOVE YOU!

Sister Haacke