Sister Samantha Haacke: One Year Down

My dear family and friends.

Can I say, this week has been absolutely INSANE!!!

Dad, I am so glad you got to meet my previous companion, Sister Wright!! That is so cool! I about died when I saw that picture!!! Family, I am glad you are also doing great! You're all so busy! Crazy!!

So this week was absolutely crazy. Monday night, the Typhoon hit us just a little bit but the lightening was huge. It was insane. We were told we needed to go in and so Sister Wright and I sang and played the piano to practice the song for Zhu Hui Ling's baptism.. We got a call Monday night from our Zone Leaders telling us that Sister Wright was moving. From this news, I cried a lot and was really sad. It was insane because we both thought we were going to have another transfer together but, the Lord had a different plan for the both of us! Tuesday was filled with us visiting some branch members and investigators for Sister Wright to say goodbye to them.. 朱姐妹 had her interview with President Jergensen Tuesday night over Skype and SHE PASSED!!! So, I had a companion leaving to go up to Taipei on Wednesday afternoon and a baptism on Wednesday night.

Wednesday: We spent the morning up in ZhuoXi--a little tribe area in the mountains--doing some finding and visiting some investigators. Wednesday afternoon, I sent Sister Wright off on the train up to Taibei and Sister Komatsu came up from TaiDong to be my temporary companion for a day until my new companion came down.

Wednesday was a day I will never forget on my mission. So much happened!!! So, Sister Komatsu and I got back to the church at around 4 and we started setting up for the baptism. The Elders came to set up our portable baptismal font and asked us to watch it as it filled with water. We thought we would have some time to go upstairs to our apartment really fast, grab some food and send in a couple referrals..as we were heading back downstairs, we got off the elevator, and the door to the chapel was open. I thought wow, why is the door open? Next thing, there is all this water EVERYWHERE and I round the corner, now basically running and our landlord is there standing looking at the portable baptismal font collapsed. Yes, it collapsed and the water was everywhere. It went through the cracks of the floor too and into a side room in his home . So, we spend the next two hours, pushing water out of our chapel. It reminded me of when we went back east and helped with Hurricane Katrina a couple years ago during Thanksgiving time. But it definitely wasn't that bad!! I kept telling our landlord how sorry I was and that he could totally blame me. He was really chill about it...the only hard thing was that this is the third time that it has happened!! We got the water all cleaned up just in time to start our English class. At 8, Zhu JieMei came to the church and we got her ready for baptism AND we had her BAPTISMAL SERVICE from 8:15-9!!! It was honestly the greatest experience. The Spirit was SO STRONG. It was so neat to see her be baptized. As she came up out of the water, I know without a doubt she was made clean. All of her previous sins and mistakes were washed clean. She became a new person, having a new, clean, fresh start. Her baptismal service was so neat. As she bore her testimony, she thanked us as missionaries. She knew without this gospel--the trials she has had--especially over the last 1 1/2 months of her life--she wouldn't have made it and she wouldn't be here. She bore testimony that she knows that Heavenly Father is by her side every day and that she knows this gospel with continue to change her life and the lives of her kids. Zhu JieMei loves to cry but in her testimony, she said, "I don't want to say very much because I love to cry, but this is my share." She is AMAZING!

Thursday, Sister Komatsu and I met with a new investigator who is going to be living here for 1 year working as a special education teacher and then will go back to her home town in Gaoxiong. Shao JieMei is so happy and so bubbly. And she has a really strong desire to learn about Heavenly Father. I love having this special opportunity to teach these people in Taiwan. It is truly the greatest experience in my life--whether we are planting seeds, growing seeds, or harvesting seeds, it is all God's work!!!

Thursday evening, we went back to the train station to exchange back with our new companions. Sister Lindsay, my MTC companion, was on the train heading to TaiDong-she became Sister Komatsu's new companion and Sister Coleman is my new companion! Can I say, she is amazing and such a cutie!! She entered the MTC this February and has been on island about 1 1/2 less than me--because she didn't have to visa wait like I did :). She is from Orem, UT and KNOWS the LINDLEYS!!!! Her and Haley Lindley went to High School together! She plays soccer and went to UVU before the mission.

Thursday night, we had a lesson with 冒姐妹. She is continuing to progress--the only hard thing is for her coming to church every Sunday. Thursday night, we talked with her about Faith and Repentance. As we were discussing the steps of repentance, she said, "I basically do this every night and I lay down to go to bed!!" Every night, she reflects on her day and sees the areas in which she could change and grow--what she might have done wrong that day. She had been doing all of the steps except for praying for forgiveness! It was neat for her to click these two things together! Every since we began teaching her, everything has been so familiar. It literally is like we are reminding her of the things she previously learned in the PreMortal life.
THURSDAY WAS ALSO MY 1 YEAR MARK ON MY MISSION!! It definitely does not feel like I have been serving for one year. I have loved every every minute of it. I have learned SO much and grown in so many different areas of my life. Words cannot describe how much I have treasured the last year of my life. It has been great.

Friday was a day full of usual work-we had WPS and then the afternoon was filled with some appointments and finding time. We met with 朱姐妹 daughter that night and pretty much the whole time, 朱姐妹 was telling us how good she felt after being baptized. She was so happy! She says that ever since she was baptized, there has been a different feeling inside her body. I am so grateful I have been able to see the change and experience the change with this woman. She is truly incredible.

Sunday, we had three investigators and our recent convert at church! It was a great meeting. Sunday afternoon, we had a long coordination meeting with our branch mission leader and discussed a lot how we can help our cute little branch here. We ate dinner with the Singletary's and did some small service for them afterwards and had an FHE with a part member family.

The work is literally on fire here in 玉里!!! I LOVE what I am doing. I have never been SO HAPPY!!! I know this work is true!

I hope you all have a great week!!

LOVE,

Sister Haacke