Hello!

Ni Hao!! 

Happy Birthday to Aborn on the 18th! Any fun plans for your birthday? Also, Veronica when are you due? How is everyone doing back at home? Update me on life. I would like to know. :) Funny story that happened yesterday at church. Dad, you would appreciate this story. It made me think of Thailand. So the elders have this investigator who is a transvestite. He looks like a girl and dresses like one too and his hair is super long. Anyways, he/she comes to church pretty much every Sunday. After Sacrament meeting i had to use the bathroom and I walk in and he was in the bathroom fixing his hair and i felt super awkward and hurried into one of the stalls. After, I talk to Elder Huang and was like your investigator is here. He told me that his investigator didn't come to sacrament meeting. Then i was like i saw him in the bathroom. He was super surprised and was like wait...in the women's bathroom? and I was like yep. He hurried to go find him but i told him he couldn't because he is still in the bathroom. Anyways, it was super funny and awkward. It reminded me of the time i was scared to use the bathrooms in Thailand because of that very reason. I thought you guys would appreciate this story.

Anyways, this Tuesday, all the missionaries in the Taipei mission are doing a special fast. The work has been slow lately and not very many people are getting baptized. President Day wants us to fast for more baptism invites on the first lesson and being bold about it. Also, we want to hand out at least one BOM everyday. Last week we handed out 11. I know that we will see many miracles after this fast. Lots of missionaries are struggling here in Taidong and we are all going through our own challenges. I'm still trying my best with my companion. It's been hard on me, but being happy and positive has been helping. Keep praying for me! I really feel the love from home out here! 

I want to start off with the biggest miracle of the week. We met with a Ding JM that we got from the phone referral system. We thought she was an investigator but turns out, she is a less active.  She got baptized over ten years ago and moved to a different city then moved back to Taidong a few months ago! She has been less active pretty much since she got baptized. We had a peike, Cai JM, and she was awesome. She got her number and invited her to church and we called her and invited her to church. Next thing i knew, I saw her sitting in the back for sacrament meeting and i invited her to sit by us. So cool. I'm excited to continue meeting with her and helping her come back. It is such a good feeling to have L.A.'s that haven't been to church in years come to church! 

We met with another L.A. Lang JM who started to come back to church 3 weeks ago. Ever since then, she has been at church every Sunday. She is older and knows a lot of members and the members are really good at inviting her to church and giving her a ride. When we met with her, she told us that coming back to church has really been a good change and makes her feel happier and more at peace. She really sees the importance of church and how it can affect our lives. 

Another miracle, during English boarding last week, we were walking back to our bikes and there was a lady on a scooter that was slowing down and we hurried and said hi to her and she stopped to talk to us. She asked us a lot of questions on why our church was different and was super curious. We set up a time to meet with her. When we met with her, we took the challenge of inviting her to baptism on the first lesson and she committed to a date! She really has a desire to learn more. I know questions can be kind of intimidating but i love them! It shows me that they are really interested. She has been really busy with work lately, but hopefully we can meet with her this week. 

Another investigator we are working with is Chen Yun Fang. She is a teacher at the college. She has been through 3 sets of missionaries now. We are reviewing lessons with her. She has read up to 1 Nephi 8 since last week! I was so proud of her. She told us she really wants to finish reading the BOM. She too has lots of questions. We invited her to baptism and tried to set a goal but she said she wasn't sure. She said she would get back to us on it next week. We really want her to pray about the BOM because I know the BOM has so much power to it. As she is reading, I know she will find out the truthfulness of the Gospel. She is super intelligent and takes meeting with us very seriously. I feel like she is someone who is prepared for baptism. 

We met with a Zhao JM and we found her from the phone referral system too. She is an older lady and is single. She just works in Taidong. She has met with missionaries before in Taipei. She seems really interested and our first lesson with her went really well. The spirit was so strong and she committed to baptism too! Then we found out that she lives in the other sisters' area. We were super bummed to have to hand her to them,  but we know we are all playing for team Jesus! So good to see her make a baptism goal.

Alright, I'm out of time. I love you all and keep me posted on life. Dad tell the ward i say hello. Sorry i'm bad at writing letters! no time! love you!

Sister Chao