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

 

 

Staying in TouFen

This week was another fast hot, humid (I don't know how I am surviving the heat here) week! I can't believe how fast the time is going by! I start my 4th transfer in Taiwan (6 total in the field) today! Yes, I am still called to serve in TouFen. On Friday we had transfer meeting and everyone was invited to go because it was President and Sister Day's last time to say goodbye everyone till they finish their service as Mission President this Tuesday. It was a great meeting but I'll get to that in a sec. :)

SO for the biggest news this week, Chen DX got BAPTIZED AND CONFIRMED!!!! It was the neatest service. Being able to see the gospel change his life has been so so neat. He has personally gotten rid of his previous addictions, given up smoking on his own, drinking on his own, etc. the list goes on and on. He is a very nervous and shy person. It was the neatest thing. He wrote out his testimony to share after he got baptized and it was a simple but spiritual testimony. He went through all the commandments--especially the Word of Wisdom and promised he would follow the commandments. He is so grateful for how the commandments have changed his life. 

This last week, while on exchanged with the Sister Training Leaders, we had a great lesson with Huang Qian Wen. We discussed faith and read part of Nephi building the ship and the faith he had even when those around him--his older brothers--didn't believe he could do what the Lord commanded him to do. Huang JM applied Nephi's experience perfectly to her life. She knows she needs to build her courage to tell her parents-in-law she wants to attend church. I'm so grateful for the privilege I have to help Huang JM come unto Christ. 

This week, we have also had tons of time to do finding. Many of the investigators we have been previously working with have become 'other investigators' or formal investigators because of their lack of interest. Sister Cardon and I have really been focusing on finding those who are ready and prepared to hear our message of the Restored Gospel. After many hours of finding and not much success, we had the HUGEST miracle occur. We knocked on a door Saturday night. Zhang XianShang came and opened his garage door and started talking to us. He has many Christian friends at work and seemed really interested. We were talking with him for some time and his wife was watching us from the window. After about  5ish  minutes she came outside and invited us all in. There, we were able to answer some of their questions--what is the difference between all the Christian churches and why there are so many, etc. (basically all the questions that are answered by the first lesson) and we taught them how to pray. Before we left, Zhang XianShang said such a neat prayer. It was his first time. He said in his prayer that he is not yet Christian but that he is grateful for the chance he has to learn about Christianity. Jiang XiaoJie (His wife) is also super cute and really nice. They have a 2 year old daughter. We invited them to Church the next morning and to our branch activity that occurred last night. They came to the branch activity and totally fit in! The members we great to introduce themselves and make them feel welcome. And their daughter loved playing with all the children. Definitely a huge miracle Heavenly Father gave us to end this last week. We have scheduled an appointment with them this Thursday night at 8 and I can't wait! I really feel good about them! 

Lastly, Transfers...We receive Transfer calls Wednesday night and transfer meeting is on Friday. To be honest, I was pretty sure I was going to be transferred from TouFen. I was shocked when we got the call Wednesday night that Sister Cardon and I were both going to be staying in TouFen. At first, it was really hard for me to hear this news. I love TouFen but I had many times this last week where I thought I just didn't know how to help this area continue to progress. But, the words, "The Lord has a lot in store for you in Taiwan" said from President Day in my quarterly interview kept popping up in my head. I prayed for Heavenly Father to give me comfort to know I am supposed to stay in TouFen. I know Heavenly Father has answered that prayer. Over the last few days, I have seen several things take place that have made me realized I am still here for a purpose. I am excited for this next transfer. To continue to help the individuals in Toufen. I love this place with all my heart. I know this is where Heavenly Father needs me to be. 

But, because of what I said up top, we were able to attend transfer meeting. This transfer meeting, we welcomed 4 new missionaries into our mission and 26 missionaries honorably finished their missions--included in that 26 is Sister McKenzie Smith (my college roommate) she gave an AMAZING closing testimony. I will miss her so so much. I was able to go on exchanged with her once during my 2nd transfer on island and I learned so so much from her. I hope she will come visit you when she goes back to school in the fall at BYU-I. President and Sister Day also gave their closing testimonies. I am so sad to see them go. I love them with all my heart. They are such amazing Mission Parents. I know their time is up in Taiwan but I plan to keep in contact with them as they continue to live their lives back in Tennessee. We welcome our new President, President Jergensen and his wife and 14 year-old twin boys to our mission on Tuesday, June 30. 

I want to wish you all a Happy 4th of July! Have so much fun! Make sure to send lots of pictures!!

Love you All!! 

Sister Haacke

Us and Chen DX, Qiu DX baptized him. Lai DX is also pictured. He got baptized a couple weeks ago. Chen DX and Lai DX are pretty good friends and have be taking the lessons together since the beginning of my 2nd transfer here.

 

 Sister Cardon and I and Chen DX after his baptism.

A member Xu JM and an investigator, Maggie, from Miaoli that came with our District Leader and his companion to attend the baptism. Xu JM said she might know you dad..?!

 
We went to Lion's Head Mountain again last Preparation day!  (Next four pictures.) It was really fun! Yes, and there were spiders everywhere! 

At our branch activity tonight, we had a talent show and this little girl, Wang Zi Wei (8 years old) played the cello! It reminded me of all my musically talented siblings at home! Love you all!!

New Tastes In Food

I FIRST HAVE TO SAY HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!!!!!! I know you were in Taiwan. We were so close! haha I'm glad you were able to relax on Saturday and spend some time with some co-workers. Also...I believe it was Father's Day yesterday (Well, atleast it was for the Philippines) Taiwan's isnt until August 8th. So, HAPPY FATHER'S DAY! I love you dad! 

This week was great! It was a little rough some days but I feel like I learned more than ever this week. I learned more about myself and the love that our Heavenly Father has for each and everyone of us! 

Family, I was so grateful for the letter sent today. It really really helped! 

Yesterday was honestly probably the hardest day of my mission. We had a day full of finding after church with no success. The blessing and miracle we received yesterday was the weather. haha It was hot and you are dripping sweat every second you are outside but yesterday it was a little more overcast so it was heaven sent. Dad, I laughed when you talked about the weather in Taiwan. It hits about 36 degrees everyday by about 10 am here in TouFen. It was crazy because last week as we were riding to church at 8:30 in the morming, we passed a thermoniter thing and it was already 35 degrees. And, July and August are even hotter. Heavenly Father is really helping me get used to this weather! I can honestly say...I have never been so hot and disgusting in my life! I laugh now when I think back to the family vacations we went on--specifically to Mexico last summer when we were doing a day of going around Mexico and it was so hot--yeah. Just think of that, a little worse, 24/7, inside and outside and that is Toufen's weather for you..haha! I love it though. 

This week was a little bit more challenging but it still had its miracles! 

A few neat expereinces this week. Our Monday night appointment got cancelled so we had finding time. We went to this neighborhood to do some finding and no one wanted to talk to us. I felt really strongly we needed to be in this neighborhood and I didn't understand why. Our miracle came on the last door. We knocked on the door and this little boy came running. Through the glass, we asked him if his mom was home. He just stood there and we didn't know what to do! Haha! As we were walking away, the mom opened the door. We told her who she was and she let us in her home. We had a really good discussion about God and who He his. Half way through, her husband walked in from dropping their daughter off at piano lessons and sat in on the rest of the lesson. It was such a huge miralce. There are prepared people everywhere.  The Lord knows where these people are. We just need to learn to listen to the Spirit!! 

Tuesday night we learned Chen DX has completely quit smoking!!!!!! It was hard because he didn't ever want to talk about it and he didnt want help from us so we never really knew how he was doing. Tuesday night, he told us he had been clear for 2 days!!! I was SO happy! He had his baptismal interview Saturday night and is getting baptized this coming Thursday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He loves reading the Book of Mormon and is already in Alma! 

Thursday night, I was able to watch the Restoration video with Lai Ming Jin for part of his new member lessons. The Spirit was honestly SO strong. I love the Restoration video so much. It has so much power to it. Lai Ming Jin really loved it as well. It is just another testimony to me that Joseph Smith is truly a prophet of God. He was called to restore His church on the earth again! 

Saturday was a great day. Many people were not in TouFen due to the Dragon Boat Festival but we made the best of it! Saturday night was crazy! One of our new investigators, Zhang Li Mei, (she is from China!) invited us over for dinner. She is here in Taiwan till about March of next year. She is pregnant and wants to have the baby in Taiwan. Her husband is Taiwanese but is working in China so she is here all alone. We had some amazing food! (See below.)

 

 

Oh, mom and dad, I love shrimp now. I think it is so good. Especially the small ones. And squid--that's pretty good too and fish eggs, chicken skin (yeah this took a while to get used to). It's all good though! haha. After finishing at her home, we raced over to Yang JiaTing where they invited us and the Elders to dinner. So, we had a second dinner. It was amazing as well! We ate dragon boat festival food. I don't know what it is called in English but we had tons of Zhong4Zi. They are like a rice ball with meat and other things in the middle wrapped in a large leaf. They are really good! 

 

 

Saturday night was also Chen DX baptismal interview at the church. 

Two less actives we have been working with, a grandma and granddaughter, became active this last week! It is so neat! They were honestly ready to come back to church. All they needed was some extra fellowship from the missionaries :) Home teaching and Visiting teaching are so so important. I never realized the importance until coming on my mission. These callings are some of the most important callings. Fellowship and loving those we are called to teach is what keeps individuals active. 

I continue to cherish the hour I have each morning to personally study. This coming week I will complete the D&C. I really came to realize this week that the missionary work we are called to do, whether that be as a full time missionary or as a member missionary, is so so important. We are called to spread the gospel to all the world. We are called to bring our friends unto Christ. We are not only on this earth to help others come unto Christ but to help ourselves prepare to enter the Celestial Kingdom. The trials and tribulations the early saints made for our benefit and for the building up of the church are so precious. Let us all work together to 'pay back' those who suffered for the happiness we have now. 

I love you all so much. Thank you so much for all the prayers. I honestly feel them everyday! 

I hope you all have a great week!!!! 

Love you!

Sister Haacke

 

 Sister Cardon and I while tracting.

 

 Us and Zhang JieMei!

 

 Us at Yang JiaTing's home for dinner Saturday Night.

 

 Yes, I died the first time I saw these tennis courts...:) Marissa--I can't wait to play with you!!

 

 Last Preparation day, we went to NanZhuang. Spent some time there walking around. it's a cute little village:

 

 

Meeting with Investigators

Family,

I loved reading quickly through the family email this week about your fun road trip! It sounds like you had a blast together and being able to go to Mount Rushmore and other National Parks! I am glad you had fun and made it home safely! 

Today I don't have much time because we are going to NanZhuang with the Elders and our Mission Leader, Jeffrey, soon so I will get in all that I have time for! 

This week was another great week in Toufen. It was much harder though. Our success in finding was a lot lower than it has been in the past couple weeks. Infact, we didn't really get any new investigators this week which is always really sad and hard but we made it through and hopefully this next week we will be able to see more success in finding! 

However, we were able to meet with a new investigator this week. The first time since the night we knocked on her door. Her name is Huang Yi Wen and she is absolutely adorable. The night we met her, we asked her if there was anything special she wanted us to pray for her about. She told us for her husband and her to be able to have kids but that it would take a miracle. As we met with her this last week. We shared with her the Plan of Salvation. it was really neat. Her and her husband have an amazing relationship. They have been married for 11 or 12 years and have been so happy. (Extremely rare here.) They love each other so much and support each other in everything they do. He and his family is Buddhist but she told her husband and he supports her in becoming a Christian. She said her husband is really excited and happy we are starting to meet with her. While we shared with her the Plan of Salvation, everything made sense to her. It was as if she already knew it! We extended an invitation for her to be baptized on July 11th and she accepted! When we invited her, she teared up and explained how before, she wouldn't have accepted but that we are her 3rd or 4th connection to Christianity. 1st: Her older sister is a Christian and lives in Taipei. 2nd: When she was younger I guess these two ladies came to her home and 'baptized her'. She feels like Heavenly Father is giving her another chance to really come unto Him. I am really looking forward to meeting with her more.  

Also, every Wednesday night we teach English and the last 30 minutes of English class we have a spiritual thought. One of the Elders investigators', Peter, attends the class I am currently teaching--Intermediate--and I shared about faith. We discussed three questions using the Book of Mormon. What is faith (specifically in Jesus Christ)?  How can I grow my faith? What blessings can I receive from having faith? For the second question, we read and discussed Alma 32:28. I really thought nothing about my spiritual thought after class until Thursday night when we were walking up the stairs to our chapel for coordination meeting with Jeffrey, the Elders and Peter were walking down the stairs and Peter said, "Thanks for your spiritual thought last night. It really helped me." I was honestly really taken back and so thankful for the kind words he said to me. Later, the Elders explained how it helped him gain the needed motivation he needs to give up smoking. Peter has been working on giving up smoking for a while now so that he can make his baptismal date by the end of this month. He is currently on 3 cigarettes a day (I guess this is the most challenging number to go down to 2?) and he was at a point where he was about to give up but when we read Alma 32:28, he had a thought that it all comes with time and as his faith and trust in the Savior continues to grow, his habit of smoking will become easier and easier to give up. 

This week, Lai Ming Jin introduced us to his son who is 18 and his Sister-in-law! They were at his home when we went to visit him one night! It was really neat! His son seems really interested but it was really hard because his aunt wants him to focus more on School right now. He is in high school year 1. When he graduates from High school--which is still a couple years--he will be moving back in with his dad but I hope and pray his aunt will give him the opportunity he can come to church with his dad. Lai Ming Jin is so missionary minded right now--wanting to share the gospel with everyone he comes in contact with--with his new boss, friends, and family! In fact, his friend, Chen DX, that has been meeting with us for a while with Lai Ming Jin has a baptismal date also for the end of this month and he is all good to go except for smoking--which he is currently giving up--and Lai Ming Jin keeps asking us to continue helping him make his baptismal date! It is so neat! 

We were also able to meet with a mom and daughter we met while knocking doors 2 weeks ago last night. At first the mom was really nervous to meet with us and one of the first things she says is that she just wants to learn about our church but not join it. We told her that is totally fine and that our purpose is to help her come to know Christ and then it is her choice to choose to join His church. We shared the Plan of Salvation with her and she really opened up, asked some really good questions, and seemed really interested. At first she thought that entering the Celestial Kingdom but after explaining, she now wants to go there! 

Lastly, I have really come to realize this week the importance of personal scripture study. I am so grateful for the hour I have every morning to personally study the scriptures. Great strength and guidance comes from studying the scriptures. I know and I can promise you as you open the scriptures every day, whether it  be 5 minutes or 50, Heavenly Father will give you the extra direction and power we need in our lives to make correct decisions to make it back to His presence! 

I love you all so much! I love being a missionary! I love the work, the people, and most importantly, I love my Heavenly Father and Savior, Jesus Christ with all my heart. I know this church is true!!

Love you all! 

Have a great week!!

--Sister Haacke

 

We ate lunch with the Scheese family and Jeffrey on Saturday afternoon--they are so nice to us! We had tacos with REAL cheese and AMAZING apple pie!

 

 

Sister Cardon, President Day, and I. Last Monday we went up to Taipei for me to have my quarterly interview with President! Amazing experience! President Day is truly a man called of God. I am so sad at the end of this month he will be returning home but I am also looking forward to meeting our new mission President!

 

 OH. and I tried Stinky ToFu this week...yes...it is pretty gross..Definitely something that is going to take some getting used to. Our investigator, Qiu DX brought it with him to our lesson.

 

 It was Elder Dixon's birthday this week. We went out to eat with Jeffrey and Huang JM to celebrate!