Happy Birthday and Hello

Hi!

First off, Happy Birthday Veronica and Alma!!! yay for being old! 

Second. I sent you guys the email for the calling/skyping rules. no more conference skyping. only calling/skype to parents and whoever thats family is there can talk to me. so since mom is traveling on christmas and will be home by herself christmas eve, i wont talk to her. so dad and Aborn....i will probably skype to Virginia. I can skype christmas day and have to be done by the 26th TAIWAN time. Can you guys figure out a time for me to call home in that time range???? i know this is lame but i have to be obedient. i wish i could talk to everyone. im so bummed. i asked president if i can call home for chinese new years next year since we can call home twice a year and ill be home for christmas next year. we will see. hopefuly EVERYONE WILL BE HOME next new years....or mothers day. oh well. PLEASE FIGURE THIS OUT FOR ME BY NEXT WEEK....i need to plan and ask members if i can use their computers. 

This week i drank something nasty. its called Luo(4) Shen(2) Hua(1). its a nasty flower drink. they love it here. i hurried and just drank the whole thing and she saw my empty cup and poured more. so grosss. i wanted to puke. anyways. we are hoping for a white christmas this year....meaning lots of baptisms. so far i have 2 or 3 on Christmas planned. we will see. one for sure. 

Lily passed her interview. She changed her date so she could get baptized on Christmas. She was the one who had parents who didn't want her to get baptized, but since she is old enough she decided to anyways. Such a miracle. She was set on not getting baptized for awhile but something changed her. We had really good peikes share their experiences with her who were in the same situation. They were awesome. She is really excited and nervous about her baptism. She has also been a really big influence on Becky. They have become friends and they both go to FHE with us. Becky has progressed these past 2 weeks. She is willing to go to a few members' homes now. I think she sees Lily progressing so fast. Lily asked her if she would get baptized with her on Christmas. This made Becky really think about it and she didn't object to it. So we will see what happens. Becky has been reading and praying again. She agreed to pray about if she should get baptized on Christmas. I feel like Becky has been my working project ever since I got here. I love her so much and I just want her to know how much this Gospel can bless her. I feel like since I got here until now, she has progressed a lot. Maybe this will be it for her. I'm hopeful that she will get baptized on Christmas. I can't give up on her. She is SO close. I think Heavenly Father placed Lily in our hands not only to learn the Gospel but to help Becky. What a huge blessing it has been. I'm SO excited for Christmas! 

Tsai JM didn't end up coming to church again. Her son was sick with some flu. She is done with all the lessons and just needs an interview now. She was scheduled for 12/22 but she needs to come to church 2 more times. We are hoping to move it to the 25th. She is so busy with work and kids and moving. But she said that she wanted to get baptized. I'm praying that she will go to church these next two Sundays and nothing will come in the way. She is so great and I really want to see her get baptized on Christmas. We have been teaching her for awhile now and she just has this light in her. 

I felt like this week, we had a ton of miracles but also a lot of new investigators died. Our golden investigator we just found and started teaching and was set for baptism on Christmas called us and told us her dad told her not to go to church anymore. Gao JM is 19 and respects her parents a lot. I was so sad to hear that. She really wanted to learn more and get baptized too. We met a few people under the age of 20 who's parents won't let them come to church. I feel like this has been the biggest trial. So many young people are ready for the Gospel but their parents won't let them hear it. 

We have a new investigator Luo JM. She is 12 and she was willing to set a date for Christmas. However, she couldn't come to church this Sunday so she won't make that date. I'm not really sure how interested she is, but we are hoping she will continue to meet with us. 

Recently, we have found a lot of potential families. One of the families were not home when we came over. They had forgotten supposedly. But I'm hoping that these potential families will turn into our investigators. They all seem really great. It has been a miracle this week when we knocked into their houses. I've been wanting to find a family for awhile and I think we might have found at least one. 

Love you all!

Sister chao

New Transfer and Half Way

Good morning everyone!!

Happy Thanksgiving this week! Hope everyone is having a great thanksgiving. I'm so grateful for everything you all have done for me. I'm grateful to be in Taiwan and serving the people here. They are all so cool! haha. Thanks for all your support. Veronica, send me some pics of the baby! I want to see how big he is now. What is everyone doing for thanksgiving? Its the beginning of my 6th transfer! wowza! I hit my halfway mark on Nov. 20th. Time goes by so fast! We got a few new missionaries down here in Taidong. 

FUNNY STORY this week...actually kinda creepy. So this week we knocked on this gate door thing. This guy opens his door and stands behind the screen of his door and inside is all dark with the red buddhist lights behind him. It's daytime by the way. Then he decides to come outside to talk to us. Mind you he is in a tshirt and short boxers....haha. His eyes are constantly scanning back and forth without his head moving. Then when a car passes by or a scooter goes by, he ducks behind the gate and is in an asian squat position while talking to us. Um...a little awkward. Then he stands up and he keeps scanning. I asked him what was wrong. THEN he asks me "How would you feel right now if someone who has killed 20 people was standing right in front of you?" I really didn't know what to say "scared???" it was creepy and my companion didnt understand anything so she has no idea. Then he says "I can kill someone with my bare hands in 3 seconds. It only takes 3 seconds. Are you scared?" haha. I was a little scared then, but I knew he couldnt do anything to us. I also dont know if what he was saying was true. He said that he is scanning his eyes because the government is out looking for him. He cant go outside during the day time. We gave him a BOM and he prayed with us. When he prayed, he was in the squatting position. so funny. Then he asks us if we wanted to come in. YEAH RIGHT. no way. So just wait....it gets better!!! I wrote his address down and then we gave it to Elder Kang and Elder Huang. Elder Kang was like oh yeah he's going to become our new investigator. So the next day, they go over to visit him. They even went inside and wahlaaaa he is their newest investigator!!!! WHat the right?! he gave them this apple milk thing but they didn't end up drinking it just in case. haha. Then he asks if I would be at church. Sure enough, he came to church on Sunday! And after church he went to go buy dinner for us and dropped it off at the church. we all decided it was safe to eat. what an interesting contact. Oh and he was sweating the whole time while talking to us. it was not hot outside. haha. he is now known as the creepy guy. Elder Kang and Huang will take good care of him. The END. 

We are hoping to have a white Christmas with tons of baptisms. We should be having at least  2 more baptisms in December...maybe 3!!! Yay!!!!! Pray for a white christmas! My companion and I are going up to Taipei on Wednesday for a trainer/trainee follow up meeting. I dont really want to go because we are leaving our area for about 2 days. All this traveling for a short meeting. Oh well. Then we get to go to Taipei for Christmas eve. Cant believe its already december almost! 

Chen JM the gangster got BAPTIZED on Saturday!!! It was a glorious baptism and she was so happy. She has patiently waited for November 23rd and finally it happened. Wow. She is going to be an awesome member. I wish you could have been here to see it. I just don't really know how to describe it. She was in tears before she got in the water and so excited and happy when she got out. She is truly a miracle. I'm glad I was here to witness this special day. 

Well, i think the lastest update is that Becky set a new BAPTISM DATE!!! Yes, miracle I know. I was really scared she would disappear for awhile if we bring it up. We went out for waffles with her and just talked about the BOM and Joseph Smith. Then we talked about how the Church was perfect but is filled with imperfect people. I felt like the spirit was just leading me the whole time and that it wasn't me talking. We talked about our purpose as missionaries and I asked her how we specifically can help her. She didn't really know what to say. But I could feel like she felt something during the whole lesson. I invited her to set a new goal for January 19th. She accepted. I know it's still a little while until then but I think she was so willing to accept it because it wasn't apart of this year's numbers. We invited to re-read the BOM from the BOM and pray about her baptism everyday. After we left, I felt so happy and I couldn't believe what just happened. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be since last time we invited her was really difficult. This just testifies how powerful the spirit can be! Now lets pray she can finally make this date. I have faith she can and I'm excited to help her. 

Our fastest progressing investigator Lily is awesome! I love her so much. She goes to FHE with us at a member's home every Monday. She is almost done with the lessons and I can just see how happy she is. She loves getting to know the missionaries too. She struggles with some commandments but with prayer, I know she can keep them. Also, even though she is 22, she doesn't know if her parents will let her get baptized. I'm praying that her parents won't be an obstacle here. She is just so great! 

Tsai JM is progressing towards baptism except for the fact that she needs to come to church 2 more times. She was supposed to come yesterday but she didn't end up coming. I'm not sure why. She didn't answer her phone. She has been reading and praying. We asked her how she felt about baptism and she said good and that she could do it. She knows she has to come to church though. I think she has just been really busy with work and her husband gone for the week. I'm hoping she will make her date. She is awesome and I know this can really bring happiness to her family. 

Liao JM, a less active's mom, told us she didn't want to get baptized anymore and that she wanted to go back to her other church. She said she liked it more there and that she knows the people better there. We asked her to pray about it. We will see what she decides next week. She just doesn't really have interest in the BOM. We read with her in the BOM and talked about baptism and how we need the priesthood authority. I'm hoping we can continue to meet with her. 

We have a new investigator from a referral from the elders. Her name is Gao JM and she is 19. She was willing to meet with us and she came to church! She said she liked church and hopefully she can have a baptism date by next time. I'm excited to start teaching her. She seems prepared and hopefully she will feel the spirit testify to her. 

This week I made an appointment with Lai Jiating. I did what you told me and invited a member to go with us. I invited Lin JM, the district R.S. president. When I called Lai JM to confirm the appt, she asked if anyone was coming and I said Lin JM. I couldn't lie to her of course. But when she heard that, she told me she doesn't want her to come over. She only wanted us to come by ourselves. She said that Lin JM can make her own appointment if she wants to see her. I was so sad to hear that. Then I told her what should I tell Lin JM? So she decided to cancel the appointment. I told Lin JM everything and she understands. She apparently is her Visiting Teacher. She understands her circumstances. We will try to reschedule with her next week. 

WEll everyone. have a great weeek and stay safe. i love you all!!!! 

Sister chao

Thanksgiving!

Hello!!!! 

This week was one crazy week. OUR GANGSTER PASSED HER INTERVIEW WITH PRESIDENT AND IS GETTING BAPTIZED ON THE 23rd!!!!!!!!!! MIRACLE. She had to wait 6 months to get baptized and President got the OKAY from the Asia Area Authority. I'm so excited for her. She was literally jumping up and down after the interview. Anyways, we had interviews with President and it went really well. We also had our thanksgiving activity this week with both branches. The missionaries did a thanksgiving play and I was a native american and got to wear these aboriginee clothes. so cool. My companion also had her birthday on Saturday. I'm going to send lots of pics. OH and we got these new safety vests from president. We HAVE to wear them at night. its a new rule. Alll of us missionaries hate them and we took a picture to show all you guys the new fashion for missionaries. Its great. we stand out even more now. hahaha. so funny. 

First off, Chen Shi Yun is SO excited for baptism. It was announced in church and everyone is so happy for her. She has waited so long and the time has finally come. She has been so patient and faithful during this time. I am so lucky to be apart of her baptism. She is awesome and I don't really know what else to say besides that. I'm sure you got to see her desire to be apart of God's church during the interview. 

One of our fastest progressing investigators we have is Lily. We met her a few weeks ago from English. She meets with us almost twice a week and has a baptism goal for 12/14. She is awesome. She has come to church twice now and loves the missionaries. She just seems so happy and she loved the Thanksgiving activity we had. We do FHE with her and a member family every week. I just love her! Can't wait for her to get baptized. English is such a great finding tool! She literally feels like my best friend. She is someone I will definitely always keep in contact with. She just has this light/glow every time i see her. 

Tsai JM, the one related to Tsai Huizhang's wife, has been slowly progressing. She meets with us almost every week and has a baptism goal of 12/14. She still needs to come to church 2 more times but she has been busy traveling back and forth to Kaohsiung. Her and her family just moved here from there so they still have some stuff to take care of over there. She also works full time and has 2 cute little kids. She has been reading the BOM and praying everyday. I'm hoping she can come to church this Sunday. She is really great and i could see the Gospel blessing her family so much. 

Well, Becky actually came to church this Sunday and she stayed for ALL 3 hours!!!! Miracle! A member invited her for FHE but she didn't respond yet. Hopefully she will come! We made a temporary appointment with her for Friday. This is slight progress from last week. I was so happy to see her on Sunday. 

We have another miracle investigator. Her name is Su JM. We were waiting for a referral to show up at the 7'11 but she never showed up. Then i get a random phone call from Su JM, not knowing her beforehand who she was. I was a little confused at first and didn't know how she got our number. She asked me how she could learn more about the Gospel. I told her she called the perfect people. She was willing to meet with us right then! She hurried and came over to the seven and we had a short lesson with her. She has been trying to find a church that is most suitable for her. She has gone to Zhanglao jiaohui and doesn't like how they speak Taiyu. We didn't have time to invite her to baptism but we are planning on it next time. She lives with her boyfriend right now. I'm hoping she will continue to have this desire. She said that she had our number from the time she met the missionaries 5 months ago but just never had time to learn about the Gospel. She has had a feeling to call us for awhile and she said she was finally brave enough to make the call on Monday. MIRACLE. The spirit does work in mysterious ways and Heavenly Father has truly blessed us when our appt didn't show up. She is so awesome!!! 

At the Thanksgiving activity, our LA, Hou JM, came and brought food for the party. She has not come to church in SO long but has such a great testimony. Her husband has been sick with cancer. She is this older lady and just so nice. She has told me that she won't go to church on Sundays unless her husband takes her because she feels like it is his duty to take his family to church. I was so surprised to see her at the activity. She couldn't stay long but at least she came. I'm so happy she came!! Everytime we meet with her, I can tell she loves the Gospel so much. I just wish she would come to church on her own. 

Sister Singh and I are doing great. We have been seeing miracles everyday and we are having more baptisms. It has been so fun to see Taidong grow from the time I got here. We had no baptisms for a long time and all of a sudden, we are having lots! Or it seems like a lot at least. The missionaries are having a baptism every week this month. Sometimes even more than one a week. I hope we can have a white Christmas. Heavenly Father has blessed Taidong so much! I love it here and wouldn't want to be anywhere else. You asked why I was happy and it really is because I'm in Taidong. The people here are fabulous and I just feel like I'm in the right place. 

Love you all!!! 

Sister Chao

Baptism!!

Hello!!!!

Mom and dad, i can't believe you might be coming to Taiwan!!! thats so crazy. I probably wont see you on the streets though. Dad, you just want to come for your birthday huh? haha. So i've been sick the past 2 weeks and i can't seem to get rid of this cough that i have. I've just been so exhausted lately probably because of my cold but I just want this cough to go away! I'm fine now except for the cough. Aborn and Keely, I can't believe Mia is walking!!!!!!!!!!!! yay! she is so cute!! I went on exchanges with Sister Miao. She is from Taizhong. She is also vegetarian so we had a good time eating on Wednesday. haha. We went to all the vegetarian restaurants, one of them being a vegan one. It was fun. So delicious. My companion got to go to Hualien for the exchange. I was slightly jealous since I wanted to go back to my birthplace and see everyone but im glad she got to go there. :) I got to ride the train for 3 hours to go pick her up in Hualien. So I was there at the train station for about 45 min. We got to buy mochi in hualien. Hualien is known for their mochi. So good. So i rode a train for 6 hours that day and did 3 hours of WPS after. SO MUCH SITTING. haha i almost went crazy...not really though. but close. :) 

We had a baptism AND confirmation yesterday!!! Shi JM, our Vietnamese investigator, finally entered into the waters of baptism. I was so happy for her! Although it was a slightly stressful and crazy baptism, I could still see how happy she was. Her son wouldnt stop crying through the whole baptism. Shi JM called me earlier that week and told me she didn't want to get baptized anymore since her family and her husband weren't too happy with it. I told her to pray about it and a member called her and talked to her. I'm so glad she came to her own baptism because I was getting a little worried when she showed up a little late. You can just see the light in her eyes. Yay!!!! Mom you should call her again and see how she is doing. 

We went on exchanges this week with the sister training leaders. Sister Miao was my companion in Taidong. We had such a great time and saw so many miracles!!! The biggest thing I learned from her was that I wanted to follow the spirit more and recognize the promptings of the spirit during lessons so that i can act on those promptings and help my investigators. I feel like that has always been a challenge for me. The zone leaders asked us to do the training during the zone training on Tuesday on listening to the spirit and languages of the spirit. I felt like it was the perfect topic for me. I learned so much and I've been praying everyday so that I can recognize the spirit and follow the spirit more as I teach. Sister Miao and I met with one of our investigators from English class and we invited her to baptism and she agreed to set a date! She is so great and I'm so grateful for English class! Anyways, the exchange was awesome and I love Sister Miao and her example to me. She is a great missionary!

So this week, I've also realized that most of our investigators who are not progressing are either not interested or lack the faith to keep all the commandments or commitments. I've been trying to figure out who we need to put in a different pile for later missionaries to contact them and who needs us to help them with their faith so that they can progress. It's been a little hard but I know through prayer, we can make the best decision and know how to help them. Sister Miao said something in Zone Training that I really liked. She talked about how they are focusing on the investigators who can actually come to church. Because people who can't come to church, can't ever progress towards baptism. That's what I've been thinking about lately. Who can really come to church, because those are the people who will progress. Some investigators need more faith so that they will make that decision to come to church. 

Anyways, Lily, our investigator from English class that we set a baptismal date with, came to church this Sunday! She is 22 and she just graduated. At first, she was super busy with 2 jobs but then she decided to quit one of them and now she has time for church. I was so happy....not that she lost a job but her not having that job allowed her to have more time for church. :) She stayed for all 3 hours too. She really likes us missionaries and talking to all the missionaries. I'm hoping she doesn't become converted to us. I'm really excited to prepare her for baptism!

Another miracle of the week, we met with one of the tsunami investigators Lu JM. She is actually from Vietnam as well and she has lived in Taiwan for 17 years. Her chinese is pretty good, but sometimes i think it is difficult for her to understand us. We taught her the Restoration and invited her to be baptized on the first visit! She was hesitant at first but she agreed to set a date! My companion both had a feeling that we should invite her on the first lesson and that 12/21 would be her date. It's crazy how the spirit works! Truly a miracle. We had a lot of investigators from the tsunami who ended up not being too interested so teaching Lu JM was awesome. We meet so many Vietnamese people here!

We met with Liao JM this week and we had a couple from our branch peike. Liao JM is the one with the LA son that the elders are working with. She really has a desire to get baptized but it is hard for her to come to church because of work. She loves to talk and I was so grateful we were able to get through the first lesson finally. We are having an FHE with her and our peike familynext Monday. The elders will be coming since her son will be home. I really can't wait to see Liao JM get baptized. She just wants to help her son and that is what is motivating her right now. It is a little hard for her to read the BOM since she doesn't know how to read that well. We are going to get her a simplified BOM. 

Our teenager investigator Chen JM who had a date, but now doesn't, still has a desire to learn about the Gospel. Her friend from the 2nd branch helped peiked. Her mom was there too and sat in on the lesson. I had a feeling to reinvite Chen JM to baptism and her mom as well. Although they didn't want to set a date, I know that they know what our purpose was. Chen JM's mom told me that she had a little desire to get baptized and become a Christian but her family and husband would be against it and that she would disappoint them. I invited her to read the BOM and pray specifically for this and the BOM. She agreed. Chen JM didn't want to set another date because she feels too rushed and she wants to take her time learning. Both of them are so wonderful and I can just see both mom and daughter getting baptized.  

Chen JM (the gangster) told me about her story from the past without me asking her. She just shared mostly everything with me and i listened so carefully my brain was going to explode, but I UNDERSTOOD HER! Finally! Wow, she has a crazy crazy past. 

okay im out of time!!! ill be sending lots of pics with this email. 

love you all!

sister chao

November already?

Hello Family!!!

Happy Halloween!!!

Alma sent me an email saying that Danika's brother just died in a car accident from drunk driving with friends. Please pray for their family. Tell Danika through FB or something that I'm thinking about her! I can't believe that happened. It is so sad. so guys...dont drink and drive!!! 

Anyways, on a happier note. SHI JM is getting baptized on SUNDAY!!!! Mom and dad, thanks for all your help! She loves mom. DAD why did you say that you might be here for it if she got baptized in December?!?! ARE YOU COMING TO TAIWAN? Let me know!!! But I probably will not see you since I'm all the way down in Taidong. weird. okay. well MEGAN...i got your package! thank you so much! You are the best! Cinnamon toast crunch cereal?! whattt. so good. and reese's? you cant find that here. We used the fangs for our halloween pictures. thanks meg for the fun break we had during the 3 hour weekly planning sesh. it was much needed. we couldn't stop laughing because one of the sisters kept druling. haha.

We had a million missionaries in Taidong this week...well just ten extra, but still. it was chaotic! our apartment and showers were crazy. But it was fun to have them here. They are awesome. It was a week filled with phone calls and more!

Here is what went down. sorry...just copied and pasted from mission president's email. no time!

Not going to lie, this week was crazy!!! The missionary tsunami was awesome. It was so cool to see so many missionaries here in Taidong. The nights were filled with endless phone calls from Elder Tay and others, set-ups/double set-ups, finding peikes, getting numbers, and more phone calls. These missionaries were so hard working. A lot of the investigators that we met with don't have much interest but we are planting lots of seeds. Their time will come! I'm grateful for the missionaries' efforts.

Shi JM is getting baptized next Sunday before church! I'm SO excited! Finally a baptism! It has felt like forever, especially for the sisters. I feel like the end of the year will be filled with baptisms. Shi JM seems really happy and came to church on Sunday. Her and another guy the Elders are teaching are getting baptized at the same time. I feel so blessed to be apart of this.

Chen JM, the gangster, is still really excited for baptism and interviewing with you. She really respects you. I told her that she may not be able to get baptized on the 23rd but she is still really hopeful. I love her faith. I learn so much from her. I told her that you needed to get permission first from the area president. Does that take a long time? I've never seen someone so excited.

We met with Tsai JM this week, who is related to Tsai Huizhang's wife. She is so sweet and great. We taught her the 3rd lesson and she has been praying and read a little of the BOM. She didn't go the church this week because she was busy but i'm hoping she will come next week. If she keeps it up, I know she can make her baptism date no problem.

Liao JM is the person we set a baptism date with on the first lesson. We had a peike come with us and apparently they know each other. Zhang DX and his wife came with us. They know her less active son. They talked forever and it was a really awkward visit because her and her son were fighting about him having his cell phone for about 20 minutes. Then our peike just tried helping her after, so again, we didn't get to teaching the Restoration because we were almost there for an hour. But she still has a desire to get baptized. We talked a lot about prayer and her setting an example for her son and praying with her son. Even though we didn't teach a lesson, i felt like we helped her a lot and helped her realize the importance of prayer and the BOM and her helping her son. Her problem is is that she can't come to church that often because she only gets one Sunday off a month. I'm praying for a miracle that she will be able to get baptized in December.

Meeting with Becky and having Sister Day peike was great. I think Becky was not expecting that at all, but I'm glad she didn't leave. She actually answered my questions more this time since I think she felt a little pressure that Sister Day was there. The temple sisters talked to us a lot about Becky's situation. We concluded that we just really need to focus on the Atonement and Christ with her. Also, if she doesn't show up or has a bad attitude to just ignore it. We think that we need to back off and give her less attention and then she will realize how much she needs the Gospel. This has happened before and when I don't call Becky, she will end up calling me in a few days. It is really hard to set up with her to meet with her since she doesn't like putting us in her schedule just incase she has something else or better come up. The temple sisters told us that we did everything we could, along with the other missionaries, and all we can do now is wait for her to make the decision and choice to change her attitude. Even with you there on Tuesday at the church you could see her attitude towards the Elders. I'm almost embarrassed about it. She also wasn't really happy on Sunday and wouldn't talk to us. I dont really know what her problem is right now. But all I can do right now is pray for her. Thanks for lunch on Tuesday!!! Sister Day is too nice!

Hope everyone is doing well!!!! love you all!!! keep me updated. i cant believe i hit 9 months this month!!!

wo ai nimen.

ZHAO Jie mei

26 missionaries in TAIDONG THIS WEEK,

Hello!!! 

How is everyone? Happy Halloween! Can't wait to see pics next week. Mom, thanks for calling Shi JM. She loves you! She said she really liked talking to you on the phone. She said that your Vietnamese was really good. She is so close to baptism!! Thanks for helping with the missionary work in Taidong. As you can see in the subject line....we are having a total of 26 missionaries here in Taidong this week proselyting. President has made this week a Missionary Tsunami on the east coast. I think 10 missionaries from Taipei area are going to Hualien and 10 are coming to Taidong for the week. Their job is to find find find ALL DAY until Saturday. Xinku tamen. President really wants the east coast branches to meet their 100 baptisms goal by the end of the year. so far, our branch needs about 80 more and the 2nd branch needs 85. Hualien the same too. So the 10 missionaries are going to find a total of 100 new investigators for us this week. We did a fast on Saturday for this. The work is truly hastening on the east coast! President really wants Hualien and Taidong to turn into a stake next year. We are going to have a 3rd branch in March. So exciting! Our apartment is going to be so cramped this next week. Temple sisters are coming today for one night and then 4 sisters come tomorrow for the week. WE are going to have 8 sisters total in our apt!!!!! we only have 4 beds....and 2 showers. yikes. also we have no bedding/towels for these sisters. Im not sure how this is going to work out. just a little crazy. Anyways im still getting eaten by mosquitoes but not xiao hei wens luckily. i dont know why like to eat me. Also its getting so COLD here!!! Biking at night is really cold. The weather changed so much. I actually really enjoyed the summer and hot weather. All the sweat...haha. I can't wait for next summer! :) At least my tan lines have been fading away. OH and creepy story!!!!!!! We went finding one night in this sketch area and we knocked on this door. It was dark inside and all you can see is the red buddhist shrine lights that everyone has here. So creepy. so all you can see is red inside. then a man comes to the door but he just stands behind the door. the door is glass. so all i can see is the outline of the man the red light behind him. so scary. and he was moving his fingers all weird and just standing at the door and wouldn't open it. by this time, my comp and I are just a little freaked out so we decide to leave. Then this little girl that was following us told us that the guy at that house does really "xie'e" things. So basically not good things...im not going to say what. Anyways...we were scared and left and went home. haha. what an experience. knocking at night is usually pretty successful but this time was just a bit scary. just in time for halloween right? JK...

OH AND WE FINALLY GOT DESKS!!!! IVE WAITED 3 MONTHS! 

okay so this week...

This week, Shi JM had her interview with Elder Kang! All she needs now is a second interview which is scheduled for Saturday with President Saunders. My mom actually ended up calling herMonday night and they talked for almost an hour about kids, the gospel, and family. She said she loved talking to my mom and said she really emphasized bringing the kids to church. My parents were happy they could help with the missionary work over here in Taiwan. I know Shi JM still has a lot to learn and the language barrier makes it a little harder, but her Chinese is great. I'm excited for her to make this next step. 

Our gangster Chen JM just needs to interview with President Day and we will see where she goes from there. she is so excited. 

We finally met with Tsai JM again, who is related to Tsai Huizhang's wife. We were originally teaching her and her husband but she told us her husband doesn't want to learn about our church since he has been baptized into another church. He doesn't have a desire right now to learn about this Gospel, but he is supportive of his wife, so that's good. Tsai JM is awesome and we had to change her baptism date to 12/14 since she is super busy and doesn't have much time to meet with us. Tsai Wan Ting helped us peike and the lesson went well. I love teaching Tsai JM. She is such a great mom and just has this light to her. 

We set a baptism date on the first visit with a new investigator! Her name is Liao JM. The elders gave us this referral. Her son is a RC/LA. She really wants to become a Christian and grow and learn in the church with her son. She is worried that her son is turning "bad" and she wants him to go to church. So she is going to start changing her life so she can go to church with her son. She has a smoking problem that we will need to work with. She is from China and speaks cantonese so her mandarin is sometimes hard to understand. I'm hoping to bring a peike with us next time. What a miralce!

We met with another referral from the elders. Her name is Joanne. She used to live in New York so her English is really good. She is just like the typical American/Asian mom. She has 2 cute kids. We talked about the BOM and prayer. She wants her kids to grow up in a church. However, she is a mom that has to schedule EVERYTHING and she says she can't come to church since it's her kids' nap time and she can't change that. I told her she could go to the morning branch and she said maybe. She is really great but has a hard time making room for church. Maybe as we keep meeting with her, she will have a desire to change that. 

English class is really a great finding tool. We found a new investigator from English this week. She is 22 and just graduated from college, but has 2 jobs and is always working. But she found time to come to English. She was going to come to church but she couldn't leave work. We taught her the Restoration after English. She seems really interested. She is just really busy. People just work so much here! 

Probably the most difficult investigator we have is Becky, the eternal investigator. She doesn't like scheduling with us because she never knows if she has plans on that day and isn't willing to make us apart of her plan. She cancelled on us these past 2 weeks. She came to church for most of the 3 hours which has been an improvement. She told Sister Thomsen in an email that she doesn't like how the branch is focusing on the 100 baptisms and such. She just focuses on everything but the true meaning of baptism. She really has to have a desire to change her attitude. It's been hard since i know she wants to get baptized ONE day. She has told me that. She just needs to not focus on the social part of church and really know why she goes to church. We have tried telling her multiple times, but she hasn't changed yet. I'm praying for a miracle. 

Sister Singh and I are loving the work down here in Taidong. She is such a great companion and is so happy. I love her fun personality. The members and investigators love her already. We are going on exchanges with the temple sisters today. I'm so excited for this week with all the missionaries coming down! I know we are going to see so many miracles! Yay! The hastening of the Lord's work is truly hastening on the east coast. Can't wait for a stake to form! 

Love you all!

Sister Chao

Mosquitos x12!!!!!

Hello!!

I'm starting to get eaten alive again!!! Since the weather has been cooling down, there seems to be a lot more mosquitoes out. One night i got over 20 bites from contacting and then when i was at an LA's house, a mosquito kept biting me everywhere until i killed it. A ton of blood came out of that one little mosquito. GROSS. I don't understand why they like me so much!!! they never eat my companions. You are protected from mosquitoes if you stand next to me because they just eat me! so now im covered in bites and but it's worth it when you get a new investigator out of it. :) Mia is now 1!!!!!! Send me some pics of my little baby!!! hehe. Veronica, how's the baby? Mom is down in L.A. now? fun! This week went by so fast. We got to go to Hualien/Jian again last friday!!! I love going back there. It's my birthplace so of course it has a special place in my heart. It was fun seeing all the missionaries and having specialized training with President. The best part, I didn't get car sick that much on the train!!! yay! Yesterday we watched a Asia conference broadcast. Elder Holland, Elder Hales, Elder Evans, and Sister Reeves spoke to the Asia area. We had to watch it in Chinese because they wanted everyone in one room. Let's just say that I could only understand if I listened really intently and focused on every word they said. It took a lot of energy. haha. so i only understood about half of what was going on. oh well. one day ill be able to listen to it and just soak it all in like it was nothing. :) Taidong is going to split into 3 branches next march and we are hoping to get a stake center building here like the one in Hualien (which is HUGE). They are really emphasizing missionary work with members' help. President wants us to have most of our lessons in MEMBERS' homes. Dad do you do that? It's really hard because a lot of members dont want us bringing investigators over. Anyways, the missionary work is hastening and we need members' help to be successful. we can't do it on our own. I want to work on that here in Taidong. 

This week flew by and we saw so many miracles. Last night during dinner, I was looking at our numbers and starting to count them up. I noticed we were just one short of an other lesson, new investigator, and BOM goals. I told Sister Singh lets leave 40 min earlier before our next appointment and go find someone to teach. I was so excited because I knew it was possible to make our weekly goals tonight. We left early and went finding around an LA's house we were visiting. Right before we were going to pray, we saw a lady outside her house and I said hello and started talking to her. She didn't seem that interested at first but we just kept talking and asking her questions and said a prayer with her, gave her a BOM, and set up with her for next week! She shared with us that her husband died and she just has 2 daughters. But guess what? Elder Huang had told me to go finding on that street because they had a family they were teaching there and he told me that there was a mom who's husband died awhile ago that we should go visit. He wasn't exactly sure of where she lived but the VERY lady we talked to was her! She happened to be the one that Elder Huang wanted us to go visit. So cool!!! We just had to say a prayer of gratitude right then. We met our goals and found someone new just because we decided to leave early. 

Chen JM (the gangster) had her interview with Elder Kang yesterday. She was so excited to be interviewed she couldn't sleep all night. I think her interview went well and she needs to meet with president next i believe. We are hoping everything goes smoothly and that she can get baptized next month. I've never met a more prepared person. 

Shi JM, our vietnamese investigator, is so close to her baptism date. Only 2 more weeks. We met with her on Friday night and last night. We went over the baptismal interview questions with her. She has a little difficulty understanding the vocabulary of some questions but I think if Elder Kang talks slowly and explains to her some of the words simply she will understand. I'm really excited for her and I hope she passes both of her interviews. 

We are teaching a 17 year old girl right now. Chen JM is great and her friend is in the 2nd Branch. She has a baptism date, but her friend came up to me at church yesterday and told me that she doesn't feel like getting baptized that soon and that her dad wants her to focus on her school work and not religion since she has a lot of tests coming up. Her dad wasn't very happy that we came over to visit her. I was sad to hear this because she was so interested before and her dad didn't seem to mind when we were there. I hope we can still come visit with her maybe every 2 weeks and finish teaching her the commandments. It was be good if she could come to church too and keep learning about the Gospel. 

We made a few new investigator friends this week. We went to this Indian restaurant for dinner one night and we talked to the owner who is from Tibet and India and we also got to know his Taiwanese wife. He speaks English and we gave him a pamphlet and set up a time to meet with them. When we met with them, we taught about prayer and the BOM. We didn't have much time because he was a running a little late but we gave him an English BOM and his wife a Chinese BOM. Then on Friday, the A.P.s gave me a Hindi BOM to give to him. He was so excited about it. Hopefully he has started reading it. I'm excited to teach him and his wife next week. It will be in English and some chinese for his wife. We also met this lady while knocking and she went to the English class in Yuli 2 weeks ago! She lives near Yuli for work Mon-Fri and comes home to Taidong on the weekends. Her husband takes care of the kids during the week. We set up to meet with her in 2 weeks. Yay for English class! 

We went to go visit some L.A.'s this week and one of them still says she has witches cursing her. I told Hou Huizhang about her and he talked to the branch president in Ji'an where she got baptized about 6 years ago. He told me that she has been thinking that for a long time and that we just need to keep visiting her and help her come back to church. We also visited a Qiu JM who hasn't been back to church in years. Her whole family is inactive. It's really sad because I asked her if she could come to church and she says she can't because she is too lazy and doesn't feel like it. I want to keep working with her and maybe reviewing the lessons with her. We also went to go visit Lai Jiating. Lai JM just went off talking for over an hour about how the leaders of the 1st branch don't care about their family and her husband. She said it is their responsibility to go visit them and not just send missionaries over. She did go to church with her daughter in Kaohsiung and she loved it. She told me that if she does come back to church, it wouldn't be Taidong 1st branch. Hou Huizhang knows all about their situation and said that he has sent people over before. He said that usually the people he sends over comes back and says i don't want to go back there because they start criticizing the leaders. I don't really know how to help them. They love the missionaries though. 

Anyways, this week was great and Sister Singh is awesome! Training has been a little exhausting but it's good we come back tired every night right? I love Sister Singh's positivity and excitement for missionary work. We have seen miracles because of it! 

Keep me updated on life everyone! Love you all!

Sister Chao

New start with my baby!

Hello!!

Rachel, thanks for the awesome package!!!! Loved it. so much dark chocolate i might die. Veronica, i want to hold your new baby! Aborn and keely, mia is so cute and crawling everywhere! can she walk yet? thanks for the cute video. She is growing up so fast. I remember when she was just a tiny but chubby little baby I was taking everywhere. happy birthday to her soon! I went to taipei for the first time this last week. What an adventure. I'm glad that im on the east coast. I dont know how much i can handle being in the crazy city right now. We actually got to go to an outdoor baptism in Wulai. It was mostly the Taoyuan wards that were there. It was really cool. The trainers and trainees got to go. We rode a huge bus and I was so car sick. I wanted to throw up because we were going up this windy road up the mountain. I dont know why i get so car sick, even on the 6 hour train ride to taipei and back. I just feel so nauseous. Anyways, 5 people got baptized in the outdoor baptism. My new baby (trainee) is Sister Singh. She was on the R.S. broadcast choir. She is part nepalese, hawaiian, japanese, and philippino. cool huh? She is great and I'm happy i get to train her! It has been a little stressful trying to handle everything but i love taidong and i love our investigators and i love our members. We are going to Hou Huizhang's daughter's baptism today. He called me and was like my daughter wants you there. YES. i love her! i just love the kids here! Alma, you should be able to see some pics on FB in a day or so. i bet he will post some. he loves taking pictures if you haven't noticed. Conference was great as always. hope all of you enjoyed it. anyways here is what went down this last week. 

This last week was crazy with outdoor zone conference, p-day, zone training, and then the whole process of going to Taipei. But alas I got my new companion and we are safe back in Taidong. There wasn't very much proselyting time this week because of Taipei and General Conference but we still saw miracles with the time that we had. 

Biggest miracle of the week was that we invited our newer investigator Chen JM to baptism on the second lesson and she accepted! This happened yesterday and earlier that day, Elder Davidson told me to read PMG 94, the quote from President Hinckley. My companion and I read it together and then right before our lesson with Chen JM, we said a prayer outside asking Heavenly Father to loosen our tongues so that we could teach with the Spirit. The lesson went well and we invited her to baptism and she was a little hesitant and worried but then she agreed to set a date. After the lesson, Sister Singh was so amazed at what just happened and said that this was way better than teaching at the MTC. It's real life! :) 

Shi JM is so close to baptism. She just has about 2 more lessons with us. However, she needs to go to church one more time before she gets baptized and she told us that next week she wouldn't be able to make it. As a result, we had to move her baptism date back a week. She is great and I want to help her really understand the Gospel and feel the happiness it can bring. She came to one session of General Conference yesterday and she said she liked it. She is also reading the BOM in Chinese instead of Vietnamese and prays everyday. I'm so grateful to be apart of this whole process. 

Also another miracle. So we met with Tsai Huizhang's wife's niece and her family last Tuesday night. Tsai JM helped peike since it was her family. It was the first time we taught them and we invited them to baptism on the first visit! Guess what?! They accepted and have a date of 11/23! I was so excited! They have met with missionaries a little bit in Kaohsiung 5 years ago but I think this time they will accept the Gospel and have a desire to learn more. They have 2 little kids who are too young to get baptized. Tsai JM was really happy to see her niece accept our baptismal invite. 

Chen JM is still awesome as ever. She teaches me so much and is counting down until her baptism in November. Does she need to interview with you President? She is the one who is the gangster who had to wait 6 months to get baptized. She is more than ready.

Once Sister Singh and I got to Taidong, we dropped off our stuff at the apartment and had just enough time to go out and meet with Becky. We shared with her a scripture in 2 Nephi 29 I think, about how if you believe in Christ, you will know the scriptures are true. I know she has been struggling with knowing if the BOM is true. She is re-reading it right now. She also came to one session of conference. She still needs to change her attitude a little bit but she is progressing. 

Wow, I feel like I have gained such a testimony of inviting people to baptism on the first or second lesson. I really wanted to work on that this week after the outdoor zone conference. I made it a goal to not be afraid and to be bold. I've seen miracles because of it. We have invited some on the first or second lesson before and have seen some success and some not accept our invite. However, even though they don't accept our invite, they know what our purpose is. 

I have finished reading the New Testament and started the Doctrine and Covenants. I'm really excited to read D&C. I'm a little behind on Phase 2 right now after this crazy week. I really want to take the test by the end of the transfer, but I can't retain all the words! We will see what happens. Sister Singh is great and happy and positive. I love being around someone who is excited about the work and is happy all the time. During my time with Sister Thomsen, I have learned so much and it has prepared me to train. 

love you all!!!

Sister Chao

Training Calls..

Nimen Hao!!!

First off, happy birthday to Alex and baby Mia!!! I can't believe Mia is almost ONE!!!!! I remember when i was taking care of her when she was not even 3 months old yet!! All the kiddos are growing up so fast! Big news, I got training calls on Saturday night. Yes, my worst fear...im training a newbie for the next 2 transfers. That means I get to spend another 12 weeks in Taidong...meaning i get to spend at least 6 transfers on the East Coast! That is over half my mission! yay!!! I'm so grateful i get to stay here. I love the country side of Taiwan. I won't even know how to be a city missionary when i get the chance to serve in Taipei. Anyways, I'm going up to Yilan for one night tomorrow and then up to Taipei Thursday morning for some meetings and I get to meet all the new missionaries. Friday I will find out who my baby/trainee is. Not going to lie, im really nervous and just a little bit stressed out. But all is well. Hopefully everything will work out and that my baby will like me. It's been a rough two transfers so im praying that these next 2 will go even better. On Sunday, we woke up at 4 AM and got to the church at 5 AM to catch a bus up to Hualien! We had district conference and it was so fun to see all the Jian members again! Then on Monday we had outdoor zone conference in Zhiben by Taidong. The Hualien missionaries along with President and Sister Day rode a bus down to Taidong and picked us up and we went hiking all day. We basically went up and down a million stairs and everyone's legs were shaking by the time we got back down. It was pretty funny. It was so fun to see all the Hualien missionaries on Sunday and Monday. I missed them so much! I got to see my mom/trainer. She is going home this week. I loved outdoor conference. We were just all dripping in sweat and having a great time. Sorry today's email is so late. The internet cafe by our house was closed this morning so we didnt get to email until now. 

This week was great, even though we lost one golden investigator. Sister Thomsen and I wanted to make Taidong a standard of excellence area by the end of our two transfers together and we are SO close. We met our peike goal for the first time and even went over. We had 9 peikes this week. We are just lacking in baptism dates. Other than that, we pretty much made every goal. 

Well our 9 year old investigator Cindy told us she couldn't meet with us anymore and can't get baptized. Her uncle, who is a Zhanglao jiaohui minister, told Cindy's grandparents not to let her meet with us or even come to English class! I was so sad to hear this. He got mad at her for meeting with us and coming to church. Cindy told us she really wants to come to church and to English and that she tried asking again but they said no. We got to meet with her one last time and it was so hard to say goodbye to someone who is so ready to hear and accept the Gospel. I really felt like i had lost my best friend because I became really close to Cindy. The best way to describe this feeling would be....I felt like I had lost someone like Kaitlin in my life. She literally reminded me of KEC everytime I met with her. She is someone i love so much. (So Kaitlin...always CTR! I never want to lose you or anyone else. this goes for all the kids.) I know that one day she will get baptized. I just really wanted to be there for it. 

Shi JM, our Vietnamese investigator, is progressing very well. Her baptism date is coming up. It is sometimes difficult to meet with her because she works a lot but she can come to church on Sunday. I think she really has a desire to get baptized. Her Chinese is really good, but sometimes she has a hard time understanding. Yesterday we went over the importance of the Sacrament. I think it helped her understand it more. I'm excited for Shi JM to get baptized. She is so close and i know the Gospel will definitely bless her life. 

Chen JM came to the District Conference with us. She was so excited to go. She is incredible. I learn so much from her every time we meet with her. She has read the BOM 6 times already!!! She has read the entire Standard Works. She keeps telling everyone she only has one more month until she gets baptized. Because of the Gospel, her life has changed 180 degrees. So cool! 

Becky also came to District Conference. She was a little embarrassed when Tsai Huizhang called on her during the RC meeting before the conference. She doesn't like it when people talk to her about baptism publicly. Since she didn't pass this last interview, she especially doesn't like it when people ask her when she is getting baptized. We talked to her about how the members are just trying to help her and that we can all learn from their imperfections. She doesn't have the best attitude towards members. We are trying to change that. She just likes to judge people instead of seeing the good things about them. But I know that she will get baptized one day. She even told a member that she will get baptized just not for awhile. 

One miracle that we saw this week was during finding right before we had to go home. We were just walking down this street and it was almost time to go. Then we see this lady, Susan, walking and we go up to her and talk to her. She had just moved back to Taidong from Xinzhu, where she lost her job. She basically expressed to us everything she was feeling and she told us she didn't want to be Buddhist anymore. She said that she has been on search of a new religion. She said that right now she is in her own personal hell. She feels miserable and unhappy and she asked us how we were so happy. I told her that the Gospel will give her this happiness. We just shared our testimonies with her and she started to cry. She said that she has met 2 sisters in Kaohsiung before who shared with her the Gospel. I don't think they were missionaries. We met with Susan the next day after English. We tried giving her a BOM again but she said no. She doesn't want her parents to find out and be mad at her and throw the BOM away. That is the main problem we have with her. She won't take the BOM so how is she going to develop a testimony of it if she doesn't read it? Also, it is really hard to find time to meet with her. She asks a million of questions without letting us answer them. But I love her so much! She is someone who Heavenly Father put in our path that night so that we can teach her the Gospel and help her out of her misery. Hopefully she will patient and listen to what we have to say. 

Another miracle of the week. We went knocking on some doors one night and we happened to knock on this 17 year old's door. Chen JM is in her last year of High School. She is getting ready to take a big test for college. The best part is, is that she is a member's friend. The member Jiang JM is in 2nd branch but they are best friends at school. Jiang JM actually invited her to a few church activities. When we went to go teach Chen JM, her mom happened to be home and she sat in on the lesson too. In the end, her mom also agreed to meet with us the next week. Jiang JM was a great peike. She told them how she was going to serve a mission next year! Yay! It would be if we could teach her whole family. 

We went to go visit an LA Luo Hui Zhu. It was our first time visiting her. I must say, it was a really interesting visit. When we got there, she told us that she has not been happy lately and she didn't feel good. She told us that it was because witches were constantly cursing her. I didn't really know what to say. She told us that she started going to a different church after she had joined the church in Hualien and moved back to Taidong. She asked for a priesthood blessing and since we were close to Ho Huizhang's house, we called him up and he was there in less than 5 minutes. She explained to him her situation and he gave her a blessing. I was so glad he was home and hadn't left for Hualien yet. Definitely a blessing. She told us that she would go General Conference. I know that coming back to church will really help her have the spirit back in her life. 

We also went to go visit an LA Lai JM. She used to be the YW president in our branch. Her daughter is actually in the Liahona this month or last month. They have been inactive for quite awhile. She has a such a strong testimony and knows the church is true but she has a hard time with forgiveness. Someone in the branch offended her and so now she has a hard time going back. Her husband just got baptized this year and she said that there has not been anyone visiting him besides the missionaries. They love the missionaries and she has had a few sisters in the branch come visit her. She was going to visit her daughter in Kaohsiung this last weekend and said that she was going to go to church with her there. I hope I can get her whole family back at church. She tells me she wants to come back but the hardest thing is actually opening the door to come to church. We told her that we need to forgive others just like Heavenly Father forgives us. That is why we have the Atonement. She cried during our visit with her and we very interested in Tang JM's story on how she came back to church. I think it helped her a lot. 

Well, I was really surprised to get the call from Elder Lindley last Saturday telling me that I was training. I'm not going to lie, I'm a little nervous and scared at the same time. Sometimes i feel like i just got to Taiwan. But I know that this is Heavenly Father's plan for me right now and that He knows I can do it. I just hope I can be a good trainer and example to my new baby. I can't wait to go up to Taipei for the first time since I got on the island! Crazy! I'm so grateful that I will be spending another 2 transfers in Taidong/East Coast. I'm lucky that I get to spend over half my mission on the east coast. I have learned so much during my 2 transfers here with Sister Thomsen. I think this has helped prepare me to train. 

Okay love you all!!! im sending a bunch of pictures!! 

Sister Chao