New Area

My dear family and friends!!

HHHHHEEELLLLOOOOOO from the beautiful EAST COAST of TAIWAN!!!!! Yes, I got transferred this week!!! I am now serving in YuLi. It is absolutely BEAUTIFUL here!! It is a tiny small town--literally like no people but it is amazing!!! So, I won't be up to Taipei again for a really long time.Thanks in advance for the birthday package family! I believe we have zone conferences next month so when President and the Assistants come down, they will bring our packages and mail!

I have no idea where to begin. This week has been crazy! Last Tuesday was my last full day in TouFen. We had many lessons with investigators and I said goodbye to Akin. It was really hard but I have gained such a strong testimony on my mission that this isn't the last time I will see these wonderful people. Goodbye's are still really hard for me but definitely not as hard as they were before! All day Wednesday we were in Taipei for our Temple Tour Training. This is a meeting all the Sisters go to except for the East Coast Sisters. We had great trainings. At the end, President Jergensen had a great training/talk on Identity. The worldly things DON'T matter! We need to build our foundation on the knowledge we have that we are all daughters and sons of a Loving Heavenly Father. Nothing else matters! Wednesday night we headed back to TouFen for our English Party. I had to say goodbye to Wen TongXue (Erica) Wednesday night. It was really hard. I only knew her for a week but I felt like I have been best friends with her my entire life. I hope and pray she can come to the knowledge of this gospel and Sister Cardon and her new companion can help her make her first covenant with our Heavenly Father. I promised her as soon as I could, I would line/Skype her :) She's adorable.

Thursday morning we left early again for Taipei with all my luggage. During the day, I was asked to be in the hospital and be Sister Juarez's companion for the day. She had just gotten her gallbladder out and her companion was transferring and needed to head back to ZhuBei to pack. It was crazy but it was a great day of extra studies and catching up in my journal. Her companion came back around 5:30 and I was on exchanges with Sister Hadley. We spent the rest of the night out on the streets of Taipei sharing the gospel with others. It was weird for me street finding in Taipei. I wasn't used to that many people but it was a great experience!

Friday was transfer meeting!! We welcomed about 23 new missionaries to our mission and sadly said goodbye to 4 Elders who honorably completed their missions. This was the first transfer meeting I was going to that I was getting transferred to a new area. To be honest, it is probably one of the most nerve racking things! I honestly haven't been so nervous in such a long time! I was so excited when my picture came up to serve in YuLi with Sister Wright. After transfer meeting, the 5 missionaries getting transferred to the east coast got our train tickets from the Assistants and headed with all of our luggage to the train station--that was an adventure in and of itself!! Thanks to two loving Member young adults who were so willing to help us all the way to our platform. Since it is very expensive to travel from the east coast to Taipei, only the transferring missionaries come up for transfer meeting and the rest of them stay down--so I met my new companion, Sister Wright, on the platform in YuLi!!

Sister Wright is such an amazing missionary. I have already learned so much from her in the 3 days we have been together! She is very dedicated, hard-working, and really knows how to relate to the people here. I can't wait for this transfer with her!!

Friday night we went to the Night Market to hand out English tracts. On our way there, Sister Wright told me we would probably see all of our investigators, members, and LA's there--which was just about true :). Great daily contact! :). Friday night, we met with one of our most progressing investigators--Jiang DX. He has a baptismal date for the beginning of next month. He is a farmer and about 24 years old. We taught him the plan of salvation tonight. When we asked him what he thought his earthly purpose was, he said, "to get baptized!" haha it was really funny! He is super sweet and so prepared! We also asked him how much he understood about Adam and Eve. He went on to basically explain the whole story. We asked him how he knew and he said, "I read the pamphlet you gave me last week, duh!!" haha he is so awesome!!

Saturday, we had WPS since I didn't get to YuLi till about dinner time on Friday. We also had some finding time where we were able to teach this cute 9 year-old girl how to pray. We had a lesson with a family-a mom, and her 4 boys. The 12 year old and one of the 8 year old twins has been baptized. The mom is not a member--she is really manmanlai. But their family is amazing. We shared with them the Family Proclamation and invited them to write down two things they could do to strengthen their family. The 12 year-old is such an amazing member. He is so strong and knows his responsibilities very well. Other members are taking him up to Taipei this Thursday to attend the temple for his first time! Sadly, they are moving to TaiZhong area next week :(. So I don't get to have much time to get to know them. :( We also went and visited a couple Less Actives at night and reminded them to come to church.

Sunday was a day full of miracles! The branch here is so cute! Our chapel is above an Internet Cafe but it is really nice. The members are really sweet. Each Sunday after church, we eat lunch as a branch and today we celebrated August birthdays so everyone sang to me! haha it was so cute! In the afternoon time, we met with Zhu Hui Ling and her daughter, Zhu Yu Zhen. We taught the Word of Wisdom and we made a plan for Zhu Hui Ling to give up bettlenut. They are a cute family with a lot of hardships and challenges but Zhu JM has really seen a change since she has started coming to church. She also has a baptismal date in September. I hope and pray she can start to follow the Word of Wisdom so that she can get baptized on her goal. We also had a lot of finding time--we saw so many miracles. We were able to share the Book of Mormon with many people. We met Chen JM. She is a mom of 2 boys and seems really depressed. We taught her how to pray and when we asked her what prayer means to her, she explained how she likes it because she feels like someone is actually listening to her talk. We set up for next week to come back and share more about Jesus Christ. Her schedule is crazy though.

YuLi is such a special place. The people here are amazing! YuLi has three large mental hospitals so many individuals send their family members to YuLi to live in these mental hospitals. We do service once in a while there and visit a couple people in these hospitals. I look forward to having the opportunity to meeting these wonderful children of our Heavenly Father. I am so grateful Heavenly Father has given me this opportunity to serve here in YuLi. I know I will learn so much here!

I hope you all have a great week! I loved reading all the family emails!!

LOVE YOU!!!

Sister Haacke
  

Sister Wright, the boys from the family we visited on Saturday, and I at church yesterday!

 

Sister Wright and I!

Typhoon!

My dear friends and family!

Good morning from the Internet Cafe in TouFen, Taiwan where the man next to me just tried to express his love to me in English. 

Besides the fact, This week was a great week!

CONGRATULATION HANNAH MURDOCH for getting your mission call!!!!! Mom and dad, please tell Hannah congrats for me and am so excited she has chosen to serve the Lord for 18 months! Independence, Missouri Mission--Is that where Aunt Michelle's parents are serving as mission presidents?

First, and probably what you are wondering about the most: TYPHOON! So yes, this week Taiwan experienced one of the largest typhoons in 20 years. I'm not sure all the damage or anything that really happened. It started on Friday--TouFen is on the western part of the Island so we didn't get hit very bad on Friday. We were told we were able to go out and work but we needed to stay close to our apartment or church building which was hard for us because our apartment and church are both in the Elders area but we filled our time with doing Secret Service for some members! Friday evening, the winds starting to pick up a little bit and we were informed to make sure we had a 72-hour kit at our home. Friday night at 8:51 was when it started to rain as our branch mission leader would say, Elephants. We were just about to pull into the road where our apartment is so it was perfect timing. We spent a few minutes outside dancing in the rain--taking a few minutes to enjoy God's beautiful creations. Many were looking out their windows--probably thinking we were crazy. 

The typhoon hit TouFen during the middle of the night. So we were sleeping through the entire thing--but we really weren't sleeping. Our entire house was shaking. The first time I remember waking up was about 2:20 AM and I felt like we were experiencing an earthquake. I got out of bed and watched from the window for a few minutes. The wind was absolutely insane! The trees were being forced from left to right and the rain was coming down even harder than at 8:51 and horizontally. It was insane! 

After waking up from a sleepless night, we looked outside and there were thick tree branches all over the road and signs blown off the side of buildings. Large trees were uprooted! It was still raining a little bit but it wasn't as bad as during the night. 

We couldn't go out and proselyte at all on Saturday. Although Saturday was pretty calm here on the West Coast, Taipei and the East Coast were still getting hit pretty hard. MiaoLi County is a mountainous county so the mountains protect this area a lot! So, we stayed busy inside by cleaning up our apartment, going through and organizing our Area Book, and having some extra study time.

We got permission to walk to a members house Saturday night to eat dinner with them. Since we couldn't really do any missionary work, we spent some extra time with Yang JiaTing. It was a lot of fun! 

So sadly, the typhoon hit here during the middle of the night but it was still pretty neat to experience one. 

Also, my camera I believe got some water damage and has been sitting in Rice since Friday night...It started working a little bit this morning but the buttons are all not working. It turns on by rotating the settings...so I might be purchasing a camera today :( but, we used Sister Cardon's so I'll get all the pictures from her memory card! 

Today, I want to share a really neat experience that happened to us Monday night. Last Monday after preparation day, we had a night full of finding. We went to the area where our investigator, Zhang JiaTing lives and knocked in there for the entire night. Our original plans were to be there half the night and then move areas. We were there for about an hour and a half and met a few neat people-none that really had much interest or agreed to having us come back again but we felt it was pretty successful in being able to teach a couple of people to pray and teach them a little bit about Christ. At about 7:30, we went back to our bikes to bike to the next area. We were biking down MinZuLu and I had this impression we needed to go back to that area. I ignored it and kept biking I got it again and then the 3rd time, I'm pretty sure the Spirit was very frustrated with me and kinda yelled saying, "you need to go back". So, about half way down MinZuLu, I turned back to Sister Cardon, and asked, "What are your thoughts right now?" She said, "I don't know I was just thinking about Chinese." I said, "Well, I feel like we need to go back." She agreed and we went back. As soon as I turned by bike to go back to where we were before, the nasty feeling left my body and I literally was filled with peace. We went back, parked our bikes, set goals and prayed. We went knocked a few doors and then we knocked on the last door of a certain road. A woman answered and told us to wait just a second and went and grabbed her husband. Normally when this happened, the husbands comes to the door and tells us they are not interested and to leave but this man saw us and seemed somewhat excited. He got his shoes and came outside and talked to us for a good 10-15 minutes. We prayed with him, explained the Book of Mormon, and talked about Christ. As we went to set up a return appointment, he said, "I am leaving on Wednesday morning for a business trip to China but I'll be back in two weeks and want to meet. Will you call me then?" We agreed and told him we will see him in two weeks. This man, Liao XS, is so amazing. And, the crazy is when we were going to come back on Thursday to knock more doors in this area, he wouldn't have been home. Now, who knows what is going happen in a week when we call him but I know this is the reason why we were supposed to go back to this area. The rest of the night was just the same, and no one was very interested but It is ALL worth it for one-for the ONE that is prepared. 

I am so grateful for the Spirit--especially in missionary work! This work wouldn't be His work if we didn't do it with the Spirit. 

Saturday night, we also got a call from the Assistants to the President and they told us Sister Cardon will be training in Toufen! So, I am going to be what is called a dad! My current companion is going to be training!! haha. So, this means I will probably be getting the call on Wednesday night that I am transferring out. 

I said goodbye to lots of members yesterday at church and to a few investigators we wont be seeing in the next few days. It is really sad!! I love these people to death! But, I know I will see them again!! 

This morning, I spent some time in Personal Study reviewing my Patriarchal Blessing. What a great tool and blessing we have been given from our Heavenly Father. I invite y'all to review your Patriarchal Blessing this week and take a moment or two to reflect on your life. Ask yourself if you are keeping your life in harmony with the Lord's. Are we living up to the covenants we have made? Are we worthy and able to receive the blessings the Lord has in store for us?   

I love you all and I hope you have a great week!!!! Happy Fathers Day Dad!! Saturday was Father's day here in Taiwan--all the dads--well most of them enjoyed their day being home from work due to the typhoon! 

Love, 

Sister Haacke

P.S Family, I loved reading the family letter!! Mom and dad, the pictures are AMAZING!! I am so glad you had a great time in Europe!!! Marissa, Lachlan, and Alexa and I glad you were able to enjoy the various places you were-Marissa at home, Lachlan&Alexa at grandma&pa's homes. 

P.P.S: Please tell the ward primary thanks so much for the adorable letters I got from primary children! They are so cute! I'm pretty sure, if my memory is correct, Melissa Reed sent them :)

Post typhoon damage.

 Xu JieMei (Branch President's Wife) and I.

Zhou JieMei (Mia) and I. Elders investigator I have gotten pretty close to.

 English boarding.

Walking to Yang JiaTing.

Some more damage from the typhoon.

How they clean up all the trees.

Baptism

My dear family and friends!

Family, I loved reading through all the emails sent since you are all all over the world right now..mom and dad--Europe  is BEAUTIFUL! I am so grateful you are enjoying your time there and being able to travel and visit all sorts of countries--you lucky ducks! Continue taking lots of pictures and send them our way! Lachlan and Alexa--thanks for the emails you sent and for telling me all about your week with grandma and grandpa! It sounds like you  have been really busy and had tons of fun! I am glad you were able to go up to the Conference Center in Salt Lake and take a tour and also swimming, bowling, and everything else! Marissa--I can't believe you are old enough to be home! haha I know you are responsible though! Glad you made it to church :) and your keeping down the house for the family. 

BRYAN: HAPPY 19th BIRTHDAY!!!! Here goes the 20 days we are the same age :) haha :). But I love you! I hope you have a great day tomorrow and miracles come your way! 

Since I emailed just on Wednesday (due to temple day), there aren't too many days to write about...but I continue to love what I do and love what I am learning everyday of my mission!! 

Wednesday after the temple, eating brownies with President Jergensen and his family, and emailing home, we went to an underground mall in Taipei with Sister Fisher, Sister Jenkins, Sister Beeston, and Sister Fan. It was so fun to have a little time to be with them buy some new clothes :)

Thursday--Thursday was an extremely fast day! After studies, we had a quick lunch and started our WPS. We had to stop half way through to go to interviews with President Jergensen. We had a small group discussion--Sister Cardon and I, The Zone leaders, and another set of Elders with Pres. Jergensen. We discussed how each part of missionary work needs to be equal--strengthening members, working with less actives, and teaching new investigators--they all are essential to missionary work and fulfill our purpose. In each section, we are invited others to made sacred covenants with our Heavenly Father-Active members attending the temple and taking out their Endowments, Less actives returning to church to partake of the Sacrament, and Investigators preparing to be baptized. My personal interview with President was also super neat. I know he and his family is supposed to be in Taiwan right now. He is so inspired! 

Thursday night, our investigator,  LIAO PEI RU GOT BAPTIZED!!!! It was such a Spiritual Experience. She brought her dad and her son with her and it was honestly the best service ever. Elder Merrell was asked to baptize her. When she bore her testimony, she shared how she has been preparing for the last year for this day and how Heavenly Father has been very patient with her. She also got super teary eyed (very rare here in Taiwan) and expressed how she hopes and prays in a couple years, her 5 year old son will also make the decision to be baptized and that hopefully her dad will also make the decision to believe in Christ. Is was very moving and really invited the Spirit. Liao JieMei has taught me so much. It honestly has been her teaching me instead of me teaching her. Her relationship with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ is so strong. It is so so neat. 

Friday we had a normal day of missionary work. We did service in the early afternoon for Zhang JieMei and after the Elders asked if we could help them with another new investigator, Mia. She is also one of Cai JieMei friends but she lives in the Elders area. She previously attended the Presbyterian Church until her older brother forced her to stop going. She now lives far away from her brother and wants to start attending church again! We also invited her to baptism and she has a goal for September 5th!  I am excited the Elders will have the opportunity to help her prepare for that date! Friday night we did some stop-bys and had dinner with the Scheese family. 

Saturday, we did some Less-active finding, met with Gan JieMei, Akin, and had lots of finding time! 

I love our lessons with Gan JieMei. Her lessons are definitely the hardest for me to understand because she uses really advanced Chinese but the Spirit is always invited so quickly when we are with her. Hong JieMei helped us peike. We spent pretty much our entire time with her today following up on her prayer whether the Book of Mormon is true or not. She said every time she prays about it, she either falls asleep during her prayer or all the criticism she has heard about our church comes rushing into her head. As we explained how those thoughts are from Satan she completely agreed and Hong JieMei also told her she believes Gan JM is afraid of the answer she is going to get and that when she does get the answer, she is going to have to change churches which will be really hard. Gan JM agreed. She believes she isn't ready to receive the answer yet but that Heavenly Father is slowly preparing her. She is so so ready--she just doesn't realize it yet! 

Our night time was filled with finding. We were able to share a little bit with 2 people and one person asked us to come back on another day. We didn't get any new investigators Saturday night but planting seeds are also really important right?! 

Sunday afternoon, we went back and visited Huang JM, the lady that asked us to come back another day and as soon as she saw that it was us, she was so excited and invited us in quickly. We explained why there were so many Christian churches and why ours is different than everyone else. She was super interested and we are going back on Wednesday afternoon!! Sunday, we also found a new less active we are going to start working with! When she saw us, she was like, "My name is still on the Church records?" We were like yes..haha How long ago did you get baptized?" She told us about three years ago and she attended church for about a year and then stopped going. She works everyday except for on Sunday (which is super great) and we believe she just got lazy and out of the habit of going. She still prays but doesn't read very often. After all our Less-active search, we found some success! 

We also invited Li JieMei to baptism tonight, she was really excited and said yes until we invited her to September 12th and she declined and doesn't feel like she can join a church right now. 

That was pretty much the rest of our week. I continue to LOVE what I do. The time goes by so so fast. Today, we are starting our 5th week of this transfer. It is crazy! We are going with our Zone today to the ZhuNan beach and playing some games on the sand. 

I am grateful you are all having a great time at home! I love hearing from you every week! Thanks so much for the emails every week! I LOVE YOU ALL!! 

Sister Haacke 

 Liao JM's baptism!  (Above and below.)

 

OH...our bathroom finally got fixed and re-done! Yes, it is literally a 5-star hotel bathroom in a 1/2-star apartment. :) I love Taiwan :):)

Love, Love, Love!

FAMILY!

Sorry, I would have told you last week but we didn't know..this week was temple week and so our preparation day is today, Wednesday, instead of on Monday! This morning we were able to go to the temple and it was FABULOUS! I LOVE the Temple. The peace, guidance, comfort, you feel there is absolutely amazing..and it is so rejuvenating! I just love it! 

The last week and a half have been incredible. 

Our investigator, Liao JM, is getting baptized TOMORROW! I am so so excited. The first time meeting her was on July 15 and she is getting baptized 15 days later. I have never every met such a prepared person. The member, Cai JM, who is her friend and been 'preparing' her over the last year and so Liao JM pretty much already knew a lot of things. One of the most touching experiences with Liao JieMei this week was that yesterday we met with her and watched the Joseph Smith Restoration video with her, Cai JM, and she also brought her 5 year-old son. The Spirit was so strong the entire time. At the end of the movie, we looked over at her son and he was crying a little bit. At first I thought it was because he was scared of Sister Cardon and I because he is really shy but after Liao JM took him to the restroom and came back she said her son told her he was crying just because he felt like shedding a tear...PRICELESS! Her 5 year-old son felt the Spirit. SO neat. I can't wait for tomorrow. 

Sunday was definitely a highlight! President Jergensen and his family attended TouFen branch! It was mostly because he came down Sunday morning to meet with Liao JM to give her her interview and then since our sacrament meeting was at 9, he stayed. The branch LOVED having him and his family there. (We also took a picture all together and it should be on the blog). Pres. Jergensen bore his testimony in sacrament meeting and invited all the members to work more with the missionaries--invite all their friends, family members, co-workers, everyone to come to church with them and meet with the missionaries. It was a great invite because I feel like TouFen would really benefit with the help of the members. Member missionary work in every ward/branch is SO important. Especially when friends bring friends into the church--it is so neat. 

Last week, we also went on exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders. I spent a day serving in XinZhu with Sister Jenkins. She is an amazing missionary and I learned so much from her. We laughed so much together. She is so fun. Probably the thing I learned most from her was how to laugh more and have more fun in missionary work. It was honestly one of the funnest day on my mission--with miracles on the way. We met a new family they will begin teaching, and a woman, Tong JM, who has so many questions and right as we were about to leave, Tong JM said, right now I am Buddhist but I am totally open to changing my believes. MUSIC to a missionaries ears! 

Other than that, it was just a normal week of proselyting. We had to drop a few of our investigators this week because they are not progressing at all and one of them also broke up with us..it is always sad dealing with this but it just means that miracles are going to be seen. Our family, Zhang JiaTing continue to learn more about the gospel. Zhang DX has been to church 3 times and has brought his 2 year old daughter twice. Jiang JM hasn't come yet though..we aren't quite sure why...They are both taking this very seriously though and I can't wait for the day they are going to accept a baptismal date. They are going to be great members some day. :) 

Just yesterday I had a really big testimony strengthening experience. We knocked on a door I knocked on quite a while ago and didn't get let in. But yesterday, we got let in and got to meet Lin TaiTai. She attends the Zhanglao Jiaohui (Presbyterian Church) and as soon as we started sharing about the Book of Mormon, she got really freaked out and started telling us how we worship Mormon and how in the Bible it talks about how there should be no other books of scripture other than the Bible. When I heard these words, my heart dropped. We bore powerful testimony and explained more about the Book of Mormon. The spirit literally came flooding into the room and Lin TaiTai seemed to understand a bit better. We are going back next week and hopefully will be able to clear up all the rest of the false anti she has heard. I love the Spirit. It works miracles. 

I know The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is TRUE. I know this because I have studied, pondered, and prayed. I love what I do. I love being a missionary. I love Taiwan. I love the people here. I love being able to represent my Savior, Jesus Christ, every day! 

Have a fantastic week!! 

Love, 

SISTER HAACKE

 

 We went to the beach last week with a Less-active on preparation day. This says Jesus loves you!

 

 Sister Jenkins and I while on exchanges.

 

 Sister Cardon, Liu JM (a less-active), and I eating dinner together a couple nights ago. 

 

 My beautiful companion, Sister Cardon, and I this morning while we were waiting for the MRT. 

We were able to visit a member on the 11th floor of the hospital this week (she takes care of an old lady and she is currently in the hospital) and this was the view. I love where I serve!

Amen!

Family and Friends,

I loved the family letter this week! It made me laugh! And the picture of Marissa and her friend is priceless. haha :) I am so excited for Tyler to be leaving on his mission this week! That is crazy! So excited for him! 

I don't really know where to begin today. We had another great week this week--filled with adventures and miracles. 

This last Wednesday, we were out in one of our farthest areas knocking doors and we got a call from the Elders who asked us if we could come to the church and help them with their lesson because their member present didn't show up and they were teaching a female. It was her first lesson with missionaries. We went, and during the lesson found out that she lives in our area! She is a friend of a member, Cai JieMei, who got baptized about a year ago. During our first lesson on Wednesday, Liao JieMei expressed how she came to believe in Jesus Christ and how she has a huge desire to get baptized! For about a year she has been struggling. In her heart, she has believed in Budda and Heavenly Father and she has been trying so hard to get rid of her belief in Budda and last week, that belief finally left her heart and she came to church with Cai JieMei to start learning more about the church. She is very sincere and already has a huge testimony. At the end of our "get to know you" and how to begin teaching from preach my gospel, Sister Cardon asked her more about baptism and her desire. Liao JieMei responded how she wants to be baptized. The Spirit came flooding into the room. Sister Cardon (later told me she has no idea why she said this) but said, "Do you have a day you want to be baptized? (because normally we invite for a specific day) and Liao JM responded by saying, "Yes, July 30." As soon as she said that, I had the hugest filling of the Spirit. It was probably one of the most spiritual experiences on my mission so far. It was incredible. It took be a minute to calculate in my head..when she said qi yue, I was like wait, right now is qi yue. She wants to be baptized in 15 days!!!!! So, we set a plan. She works two days and is off two days and we will be meeting with her every day she doesn't have work! We are definite she will make her date. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to help her prepare for baptism. When we taught the first lesson on Thursday, she basically knew everything already! She has really done her personal study! When we got to the part about Joseph Smith, she basically told us his entire story and basically quoted the First Vision. It was incredible. Her member friend, Cai JieMei, is also an amazing member. She has been to all of our lessons so far and has some amazing input and incredible stories and experiences.  We are eating dinner with Cai JM and Liao JM tonight and sharing more about the gospel. I can't wait! Liao JM was honestly a HUGE miracle we saw this week. Just when your faith is starting to decrease, Heavenly Father provides a miracle, in this case a HUGE miracle, to strengthen your faith and help you keep going. 

Our family, Zhang DiXiong and Jiang JieMei continue to progress. We taught them Word of Wisdom this week and the hardest part for them is coffee. They have a cup every morning and they believe if they quit, they will fall asleep at work. We invited them try promising them it will be hard at first but Heavenly Father will give them the extra strength and energy when they rely on Him. Zhang DiXiong came to church again on Sunday and he brought his 2 year old daughter! She was really good for the first half of sacrament meeting but the last half he took her out and didn't come back till the closing song. :( She'll hopefully adjust to it. :) But, she went to nursery and LOVED it. We are not quite sure why Jiang JM is not coming to church with Zhang DX. They have a really good relationship but we will hopefully be able to figure out this week and help her also start coming to church with her family. Their testimonies continue to grow and I feel like as soon as their faith is a little bit stronger, they will accept a baptismal date. 

I have also come to realize this week that people here know Christians as "Amen" haha. This has happened so much recently as we say, we are missionaries and share about Jesus Christ, they say, "Oh, your Amen." haha It's pretty funny :). This last week, we were walking through a neighborhood and we talked to this young boy probably about 9 or 10 and told him about our English class. When he saw our name tags, he said, "Amen." It was SO cute! We explained to him who we are and what we do. The children here in Taiwan are absolutely adorable. I love them with all my heart. 

Liang Man Ting, the 14 year-old teenager we have been working with for awhile had a baptismal date for the end of this week. But, yesterday, when we met with her, she informed us her dad told her this week he isn't going to let her get baptized till she is 18 years old. It broke my heart but we invited her to continue to discuss it with him and show him how the church has blessed her life. She just now has to wait 4 years :) 

Finding is still a struggle. We talk to many everyday but very small number are willing to talk to us and those aren't interested. We are keeping the faith and knowing when we are continuing in diligence, Heavenly Father will guide us to those who are prepared and ready to embrace and receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I love being a missionary. Each week keeps getting faster and faster. It is crazy. I know without a doubt, this church is true. I love being able to have the opportunity to see the gospel change not only others' lives but also my own. 

I love you all and hope you have a great week!!! Thanks so much for all the support and prayers! 

Love, 

Sister Haacke    

**SISTER MOE!! Thanks so much for your letter! I am completely out of time to write you back but I thank you! Your letters are amazing to read. I love all your detail--you are an amazing writer! Sure love you and miss you!!!

We went finding out farther away in alot of older, more traditional Taiwanese homes. They were beautiful! 

 This house totally reminded us of the book/movie Series of Unfortunate Events! hah
 

 

I love what I do :)

I Love My Mission!

FAMILY AND FRIENDS!

My mission now has a mission blog! it is   taiwantaipeimission.com 

This week has been a great week. It has honestly been a life changing week!* 

A lot happened this week so I hope I can sum it up :)

First, mom and dad! Tell Lindsay Loveland hi from me! I love her! She has always been such an amazing example to me! And now she lives in our home ward! Aw so cool! Also, tell Tyler congratulations and I am so excited for him to enter the field! What a neat experience he is going to have. 

As for my week, we started Monday night by visiting a less active and his family and shared the plan of salvation! It was a great lesson--the kids especially loved it! We have these fun circles for every step in the plan and they had fun moving their body and spirit along the path. We hope as we continue meeting with them, Wang DX can remember the feelings he had at church and have a desire for his family to also one day join. They are the family who Wang DX wife's parents oppose to the church. Monday night we also met with our most progressing investigators, Zhang DX and Jiang JM. When we first got there, Zhang DX told us he looked our church up online--so he had several questions about the things the internet says. We promised him that if he prayed, he could know for himself what things are true and what things said are false. He was very open and really wants to know for himself what is true and what is false. We taught the message of the Restoration Monday night and focused mostly about Christ and his earthly ministry. 

 

Monday night was also a really sad night. Similar to what Bryan experienced a couple weeks ago. One of our investigators, Huang Qian Wen sent us a text while we were on our way to Zhang DX and Jiang JM's home informing us that she was very grateful for the time we were able to meet with her but that she no longer can meet with us. We called her to see if we could meet with her just one more time to say goodbye. She accepted and we met Wednesday afternoon. We were very confused because we had confirmed with her 2 hours before she sent us that text for our appointment with her on Wednesday.  But when we met with her on Wednesday, we couldn't even go to her home. We met at a bakery and she wasn't very open like she normally is. We shared Moroni 10:32 with her and invited her to continue coming unto Christ. She didn't tell us why but we believe her husband has now opposed to her taking the lessons even though he was very excited about it in the beginning. It was a hard goodbye but knowing that this is God's plan for her, I hope and pray she will have an opportunity in her future to accept the Gospel. 

Tuesday we had a great zone meeting and practice teaching in Zhunan which took the majority of the day. Tuesday night, we met with Lai Ming Jin. He is continuing to struggle finding a job but is hopeful God can and will help him. The Gospel has really changed his life and I am so grateful I have been able to be apart in him coming to know our Savior and His teachings. 

Wednesday--other than meeting for the last time with Huang Qian Wen, we met with a member in the morning-Chen Ping Rong-and our investigator from China in the afternoon. Chen Ping Rong was baptized a couple years ago and her daughter was baptized a couple weeks ago (she just turned 8). Chen JM has a huge testimony of the Gospel. It is so powerful. She is a huge example to me. Zhang Li Mei is continuing to progress. She comes to church every week and loves it. However, she is 7 months pregnant and is probably going to have to wait until after she has her baby boy to get baptized. Her husband returns at the beginning of August from working in China so we are really hopeful we can start teaching him here in a few weeks.  

 

Wednesday started our search of Less Actives. This week we really spent a lot of time going to the less actives homes that live in our area. There are a lot! Our ward list is about 8 pages long--about 450-500 people and about 60-70 of them or less are active. We came to realize our ward list is very very outdated...individuals are on there that moved 10+ years ago. But, this was a great finding tool. Since we went knocking with a name to find, so many people--mostly family of the individual let us in and we were able to have a short lesson with most of them about Christ. Although most of them didn't want to set up a return appointment, we were able to plant another seed for the future. 

Wednesday night, we have our English class. Lai Ming Jin's son who lives with his aunt has been coming for a couple weeks and we gave him an English name tonight! We gave him a couple choices, and he chose Bryan! haha So, I told his dad we named his son after my younger brother :). Hopefully Lai Wen Yi as cool as Bryan is :)

Wednesday night, Fan Zhu Song also told me he is preparing to go to the temple on July 18th!! He will be able to go to baptisms for the dead! It brought music to my ears! I am so so so excited for him. The temple brings so many blessings. Fan Zhu Song just graduated from college so he will be returning home to TaoYuan in the next month to start his required military service. 

Thursday-Thursday night we met with Lai Ming Jin and Chen Wen Xun our two recent converts. They are both doing well. Tuesday night, Lai DX told us he is worried Chen DX has started smoking again. It was cute, because Thursday night, Lai DX like drilled the word of wisdom at Chen DX. So Sister Cardon and I just sat there and Lai DX was a great teacher :). 

Thursday nights we also meet with Zhang DX and Jiang JM. Tonight we taught the 3rd lesson and invited them to baptism. They loved the lesson, had so many questions, and were willing to be baptized if they come to know the church is true but they don't want to set a date yet. I love how open Zhang DX and Jiang JM are. They ask the questions they truly are thinking--they asked about baby baptisms (they loved the fact we don't get baptized till we are 8). about worshiping ancestors and cleaning graves (here in Taiwan, when they go clean the graves of they ancestors, he believe it is part of the worshiping part when they go to worship them. We we explained how the States has a holiday for us to visit and clean the graves of our ancestors they were shocked. They only thing we do that is different is that we don't ask for blessings from our ancestors. They seemed to not have a problem stopping the worshiping part from ancestors! ) It is also really cute-every time we go, they are always so nice to have fruit or drinks for us and they always ask before they give it to us if it is okay for us to have. They are very aware of Word of Wisdom and don't want us to 'break it'. 

Friday we went to ZhuBei and met the Jergensens! Presdient and Sister Jergensen, our new mission president and his wife are AMAZING! As I was talking to Sis. Jergensen at the beginning, I asked if she by chance knew Tonya and John Brenchley and she did! They said they have been good friends with them forever! It is such a small world!!! They also have 15 year old twin boys who will be here with them and a 19 year old daughter will be here during her breaks from college at BYU. They have 3 older kids who are married. They have info about themselves on the new blog you can read :)

Saturday was another great day. We had a lot of less active finding time and we also met with Lu Pei Ling. We haven't been able to meet with her in about a month. We really feel like giving her another week or so before we stop making contact with her.  She seems to be doing really well and the only two big issues we need to solve with her is her desire to give up tea and how far away the church is from her home. She just needs to build her faith and then she'll be good :)

In the afternoon, we met with Gan JM and had a really good lesson on 2 Nephi 31-33. She finally told us the full truth as to why she isn't coming to our church**. She told us how much she loves the doctrines of the gospel. She believes they are pure and simple. Hopefully her issue can be solved so that she can start attending church. 

Saturday night, we visited a less active and it was a correct address!! Zeng XS is an active Christian in another church that meets in XinZhu. We were able to talk with him and give him a new Book of Mormon since his got destroyed in the last typhoon I think a couple years ago. He got baptized in his current church last September but is willing to meet with us. We have a return appointment with him this coming week.

Sunday was a great day! Church was great. Sacrament meeting was all based on homosexual relationships and mostly they talked about how America legalized gay marriage and they talked all about the American government but other than that, it was great! Zhang DX CAME TO CHURCH! It was his first time and the members welcomed him in and talked to him every second they could! He asked great questions in Gospel Principles and was really involved! A member, Lin Zhi Qiang, came and talked to us after church and told us how in priesthood he got to know him and thought how great of a man he is and that he really has interest in the church and the church's teachings. It is great how the members are seeing his potential and almost all of them invited him to invite his wife and bring his daughter next week! I can't wait to see what happens with them!! 

During our less active finding on Sunday, we went to go visit Liu Qiu Yi. She wasn't home but her mom was SO excited when she saw us standing outside her door! She let us in and fed us pizza that had been sitting on the counter for who knows how long and told us how much she loved when then Elders used to come over to her house. She talked about Liu Qiu Yi who is about 34 years old and is not yet married she said that her daughter doesn't think she can get married because she is fat--so a self confidence thing. Liu MaMa was so excited when we asked if we could come back a later time to meet her daughter! She told us how much she liked when her daughter was going to church--so at least we have the family supporting us?! 

Well, congrats to whoever made it through all of this!! Sorry its so long!

Overall we had a great week. And like I said up top. It was a life changing week for me. I realized how happy I really am on my mission. Yeah, it is sometimes hard that I have been serving in the same area my entire time since I came to Taiwan but I love this area and learned more this week that it doesn't matter where you serve, just that you serve. I love the opportunity I have to serve my Heavenly Father and my Savior, Jesus Christ. It is such a blessing. So hard. But So good! 

I love you all so much!!

Love, 

Sister Haacke

 Sister Cardon and I way out in the country contacting a referral.

 Funny Story: We went and ate at Hope Noodle this week and We had the option between small or big bowls. They big bowls were only 10 kuai more so I thought why not? Yeah, it was a HUGE bowl of beef noodle soup! But, I ate it all and enjoyed every bit :)

 

Huang Qian Wen and I.

Celebrating the 4th

Family and Friends!

Seems like you had a great 4th of July--spending time with family, the Osgood Community Breakfast, parade, boating, Melaleuca Freedom Celebration...I'm glad you all had fun! 

It was another great week in the field! Definitely had its' challenges but it was good! 

The most exciting day this week was probably Saturday, July 4th! I was praying all week Saturday would be busy so that I wouldn't miss home and be thinking about what you would all be doing and Heavenly Father answered my prayers!! We started the morning by visiting a potential investigator. She is very Catholic and had some interesting beliefs but was really nice and fun to talk and share about Christ with her. We then ate lunch with Elders Dixon and Merrell and Jeffrey at KFC to celebrate the 4th! Jeffrey brought an American flag so it was fun! We talked about family traditions and what we normally do on the 4th! After, we had a lesson with one of our investigators, Chen DiXiong. He just graduated from High School and is preparing for college starting in September. We shared with him POS. He seemed to have little interest and was distracted by his phone the entire time. So we will have to see what happens with him.  After, we went and did some finding over across the bridge. We had little success but talked to this sweet 88 year old lady who gave us a referral to a Christian home just down the road. We had a lesson with Gan JieMei. It was very interesting. Our member that normally comes with us came today after not being able to come very much so Gan JM and her spent pretty much the entire time 'catching up'. We didn't quite get in the lesson we had planned but hopefully next week. Gan JieMei is continuing to read the Book of Mormon faithfully every week. She just won't come to church. I pray We can find more ways and things we can do to help her know the importance of church. 

 

After dinner, we had a night full of finding. We knocked a lot of doors and were able to talk to many people. None were interested though.  After about and hour and a half. Sister Cardon and I stopped on the side of the road and said a prayer asking Heavenly Father to help us find the prepared. Literally 30 seconds after our prayer, the MIRACLE came! We rounded a corner and saw a cute young girl sitting on her motorscooter. We went over and started sharing a family tract with her. Ye XiaoJie has been to a Christian Church before with some friends, she has heard prayer before but not quite sure how to do it. We were able to pray with her and share the Book of Mormon and have a return appointment for next Saturday afternoon! 

One of the most important things I learned tonight is the importance of listening to the Spirit-being led by the Spirit and saying what the Spirit prompts you to say. Our contact with her was honestly really really awkward. I don't think I have been that awkward since my first two weeks on Island but, she showed so much interest and wanted to learn more about our Church and about Jesus Christ. I know the Spirit was with us and even though Sister Cardon and I were really really awkward (ha) the Spirit testified to Ye XiaoJie of the truthfulness of our message. 

Our new investigators--Zhang JiaTing--are so so neat! They came to English class together and they brought their daughter on Wednesday night. Their English is really good so they attended the advanced class and then we met with them Thursday night at their home. We brought Wu JieMei, a member in our branch, with us and she brought her 11 year-old daughter. We had planned to go in teaching Lesson one about the Restoration. We prayed about it not knowing if we should teach that or the Plan of Salvation first. Sister Cardon and I both felt really strongly we needed to prepare lesson one but when we got in to the lesson and explaining Heavenly Father, Zhang XianShang started asking all these really good questions that the Plan of Salvation answered. So, we switched gears and taught the Plan of Salvation. His Christian friends have all told him that after this life if he doesn't believe in God, he will go straight to hell so we were able to clear that up and explain the knowledge we have about the after life. It was neat to see how he was comforted knowing what is going to take place after this life. 

Overall it was a pretty good week! I love what I do. It is so neat. This week, we were able to teach the Plan of Salvation a lot more than usual. I was able to study more about it in Personal and Companion study. I know without a doubt the Plan of Salvation is true. I know after this life, we will all be resurrected and have eternal life. But the glory and happiness of our eternal life comes from the daily decisions and choices we make right now. I love in True to the Faith it says, "As you ponder your progress on the "strait and narrow path," be assured that eternal life is within your reach. The Lord wants you to return to Him, and He will never require anything of you that you cannot fulfill. All His commandments are calculated to promote your happiness. When you exercise faith and serve Him with all your might, He gives you strength and provides a way for you to do whatever He commands you. Remember that as you give your greatest effort and repent of your sins, the Atonement of Jesus Christ will compensate for you weakness and for the inequities, injuries, and pains you experience in this life: "We know that it is by grace we are saved, after all we can do". 

I love you all!! Have a great week!! 

Love, 

Sister Haacke