Love

My dear family and friends!!

I can't believe another week has already gone by! Time seems to go faster and faster every week!! Overall this week was pretty good. It was a bit harder of a week work wise. 4 of our investigators became former investigators this week and this next week more are probably going to become former. It is really hard to former them but as we have been praying and pondering about them, we have figured a lot of our investigators haven't been progressing and especially are not willing to come to church--whether church be too early and they think sleeping is more important or earning money is more important etc. But, Sister Coleman and I know there are prepared people out there, we just need to find them!!

Sister Coleman and I saw some pretty neat miracles this week.

We began teaching a lady from the Philippines who has totally accepted the gospel. (Side note: When ever we go visit her, Bryan, I think of you! Tagalog sounds so cool but super hard to learn!! She prays in Tagalog and it is so so neat!!) She is in a really hard situation here in Taiwan--she misses her family so much but is here so that her children have money to go to school. She has 8 children back in the Philippines and the youngest is 6. Her older sister is a member of our church, she is a Catholic, and her husband is a Jehovah Witness. Our first time meeting with her, we taught her the first lesson and in tears she explained her family situation to us. Marieta is such a humble woman. She is sacrificing her entire life right now for the welfare of her children. Her boss is rude and she can't leave the house in which she is taking care of an ama.  But she knows this is what she needs to do for her family. As we met with her yesterday for the second time, she said she told her husband she started meeting with us and he was totally fine with it and she said the LDS chapel is about 5 minutes away from her home in the Philippines! She is hoping she will be able to take her 2 week vacation time this next month and go visit home for that time. Getting her to church in Taiwan will be a bit harder because she will have to ask permission from her boss to leave the house for an hour but she is willing to do so. She told us yesterday, she already knows the church is true. She has been wondering her whole life which church is true because even in her family everyone has different beliefs but that now she finally has found the truth.  I love Marieta!!
She also has been telling us about the Typhoon that hit the Philippines. Where her family lives, they were hit really bad. Their home was completely filled with water. They didn't have food, electricity, or anything for days and had to drink the dirty water. But all of her family was safe.

We are continuing to help a family come back to activity and her daughter-in-law is an investigator--she is one who is on the edge of becoming a former--but it was neat this week when we went to go visit them. Ba Yong loves the Book of Mormon but she won't read it on her own. She only likes to read it when with us. This week as we went to go over, she asked us to wait for her to bathe her kids and then if we could read a chapter from the Book of Mormon. We read Moroni 7 with her and it really invited the Spirit into the room. She asked us to explain it verse by verse so it took all the time we could spend there but it was totally worth it. We talked about having faith and hope because she believes she needs to know everything perfectly before she will accept it to be true. And then about having charity. It is hard to visit her because she doesn't care about her two children. Her mother-in-law is having to take care of them. They are not shown love or anything. Sometimes I feel like I am teaching her how to be a mom instead of the gospel. But it is helping her and her mother-in-law is so grateful for us.

This week we also went on exchanges.  I went with Sister Belnap and stayed here in my area. We had an amazing lesson with Shao Yi Ting. We read 1 Nephi 1 with her. Shao JieMei is amazing. I love her so much. At first, she said she just wanted to meet with us because she is really curious about our church. She comes from a really traditional Buddhist family. At the end of our lesson, we invited Shao JieMei to baptism. We asked her when she knew our message is true if she would be willing to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized. She said no. We asked her why. She said, "My mom passed away last year. On her death bed, she told me in my entire life I could never change religions." We bore powerful testimony that I knew her mom is currently in the Spirit World learning the exact same things she is learning here on earth. Shao JieMei set a date for the 12 of December. She told us she believes what we are teaching her is true but that she can't because she honors, misses, and loves her mom. (Which I totally understand!!) We promised her that as she says her own prayers and does her own study, she will receive an answer from Heavenly Father and her mom that baptism is something she needs to do here on this earth. What a powerful, humbling experience this was for me.

This week with 王志文 family, we had a big family scripture study!! With his son, a niece, and two nephews we read the Book of Mormon. I LOVE family scripture study!!

Yesterday at church, I was asked to give a talk in sacrament meeting. It was a neat experience. I was asked to talk on Heavenly Father's Unchanging Standards. I know that Heavenly Father gave us commandments on the earth not to restrict or force us but to protect us. He is our creator. He knows us perfectly. He knows what is good for us and wants us to be happy. He has given us commandments so that one day, we can RETURN to His presence! This morning in personal study, I studied the first half of Helaman 5. Nephi and Lehi REMEMBERED the words of their father, Helaman. The first thing written that they remembered was to keep the commandments of God. Keeping the commandments is so vital to our exaltation! Heavenly Father LOVES us SO much and is so eager to give us the blessings of eternal life, we just must do our part :)

WOW, I LOVE my mission! Everyday is so so amazing. This is definitely the best experience of my life. So grateful everyday I have this opportunity to serve.

I LOVE YOU ALL!!! Have a great week!!!
Love,
Sister Haacke

 So here, in the Taiwan Taipei Mission, you cant do your hair..and then when you put it in a pony tail, wear a bike helmet, sweat, and a full days of work just makes us look fantastic...ignore the hair.

 

 We take our recycling to a members mom. :)

 

 Our Filipino investigator, Marieta, and Sister Coleman and I.

 Sister Belnap and I.  Yes it rained a lot this week but nothing else. :)

  

 Dingo Drinks!!

   

 卓溪！！ One of the mountainous tribes areas.

  

Some really unfortunate things occurred in a family in our Branch this last week so we made NO BAKE COOKIES during our lunch break for them...it has been so long since Sister Coleman or I have had No Bake Cookies...can I say, they were AMAZING!!!