Sister Samantha Haacke: Taiwan Bound!

Family and friends,

This past week has been incredible!!!!

1. I got my visa!!! I'M GOING TO TAIWAN!!!!!!!!!!! I leave here on February 25th!!! I am so excited. I honestly thought this day would never come but it's here and I can't wait!!!! I don't have my travel plans yet but as soon as I get them, I will be sure to send you a copy.

2. CAMI CAME TO CHURCH!!! Cami, our investigator, came to church on Sunday and stayed for ALL 3 hours!!!

Other than those two things, our week here in Colorado has flown by!

On Tuesday, Feb 10, we had a lesson with Cami. We have started to do Family History with her and it has made her really excited. Tuesday we spent the majority of the time working on Family History. We were able to connect her dad's side of her family to a line that is already complete all the way back to I believe the 1700's. On her dad's side of the family, she basically had no information so it was really exciting for us to find that with her. We had lunch at her home with her and talked more about her Book of Mormon reading. She is currently reading at the end of Mosiah. She always has really good questions for us. I can really tell she is reading the Book of Mormon sincerely and really wanting to come to a knowledge for herself if the Book of Mormon is true.

On Saturday we went with Cami to the Family History Discovery Center in Colorado Springs for her to use ancestry.com and get some help with the volunteers there at the center. I was able to work a little on our family history but I didn't find much so I sat by Cami and helped her.* After, we went with Cami and Maryn Carpenter (a 17 year old in our ward) to Red Robin for lunch. Maryn was so kind and paid for all of us. I really didn't want her to but she insisted. She is so kind and has such a big heart.

Wednesday, we were busy all day with going to work out with Sister Clay and Weekly Planning. We made "armor" out of cardboard and tin foil for a lesson we are going to start doing with families in our ward. Wednesday night, we had dinner with the Bull family and then went and did some "heart attacks" to some individuals and families in our ward. We wanted to thank some people in our ward for helping us out and so we decorated their door with hearts and doorbell ditched them. One of the heart attacks we did on Friday night, we hid around the corner of their apartment to listen to her and she was shocked. She is a single mom of 3 who went through a nasty divorce. She has no idea it was us and that's what makes it so much better.

Thursday, we had interviews with our Mission President. They went well. After interviews, we had an appointment with Sis. Liggett. She is looking forward to further prepare to enter the temple. Her husband also joined us with the lesson and we had a good discussion about the Plan of Salvation. We also had an appointment with the O'Brian family. They are potential investigators but are very strong Catholics. We did the Armor of God lesson with their kids and Bro. O'Brian asked us if we had any questions about the Catholic church. We ended up talking mostly about Mass... We had dinner with the Huntzinger family and then went to the Relief Society Activity. Cami came and we were so excited to see her there!! Bro. Ken Jenson was the Priesthood there so that is when I told him about what I heard from you dad and he told me he would be my way of communication :).

Friday, we had district meeting in the morning which is always amazing and we did some stopbys and had ward correlation with Bro. Cook. Nothing too exciting...We had dinner with the Jones family and did the Armor of God lesson with them.

Saturday, after we did family history in Colorado Springs with Cami, we went and did service for Sis. Clay. We helped her clean out her garage. We visited Sis. Ruble and had a good conversation with her about Charity and we spent the evening with the Waters family. We made heart shaped pizza's because it was Valentine's day and we played the game, Quelf, with them. It was really fun! They are a really fun family. The Waters just got married about 2 years ago and Bro. Waters and one of his sons got baptized about 1.5 years ago. Ian Waters, Bro. Waters other son is the person we teach almost every Sunday during Sunday School. Since he is deaf, he really has no understanding about God and Jesus Christ. However, Ian loves to build things and so he showed us his room and he has built some amazing things! It was so exciting to see how happy and exciting Ian was to show us his creations.

Sunday was phenomenal! Cami came to church!!! Bro. Goss is Cami's neighbor and he was speaking in Sacrament Meeting. He invited her and she accepted his invitation. Cami sat with us. The entire Sacrament Meeting was amazing. The Spirit was so strong. The Sacrament was the topic. Cami wasn't planning on staying all three hours but after Sacrament meeting, she turned to us and said, "What's next?" Sis Gearhart and Sis. Goss went with her to Gospel Principles and we ended up joining them because Ian wasn't at church. Sis. Clay sat next to Cami during Relief Society. Overall, I believe Cami had an great time. All she said at the end is that our church is very 'traditional'. She invited us to go to church with her and her family this coming Saturday night. After church, we had ward choir, had some stop bys, and a lesson with the Fitt family. We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Their family is starting to come back to church more and more which is really cool! We also visited Jenn and had a really good conversation with her about not giving up and relying on our Savior, Jesus Christ. For some reason, this week has been especially hard with her and her ex-husband. If you could, please pray for her and her kids.

We had dinner with the Atkinson's. Dinner was really good and we had a good conversation with Bishop and his family about the ward and what we can do to further help him. It started to snow really bad, our car is horrible in the snow, and we saw several car accidents. It snowed pretty much the entire night and where we live, in Red Rock Ranch, we got probably 5-8 inches of snow. Because of that, Monday, we couldn't drive so we stayed inside pretty much all day for our p-day. The Zone got together in the afternoon and Sis. Fisher and Sis. Peters were so kind to pick us up and drive us around. We played glow in the dark volleyball, scatterball, and chair soccer with our zone for our p-day yesterday. And since all the libraries we closed, due to holiday, we are emailing today. :)

Overall, this week was amazing! We were able to see our investigator progress and continue to see less actives slowly come back to church. This week is the last week I will be in Colorado so I'll continue to work my hardest to see the work progress here in Monument.

I sure love you all. Please tell Crystal congratulations on getting baptized for me! I am so proud of her! Marissa, it sounds like you gave an amazing talk! Continue to be her friend and help her as she continues to learn more about the Gospel.

I can't wait to talk to you all on Wednesday!!!

Love,

Sister Haacke