Typhoon!!!!!

Ni Hao!!! 

Alma you got to go to Boston? lucky!! For Zhong qiu jie we had a kao rou at a member's house. They had an outdoor brick oven and we made pizzas! Yes, I thought of alma and rachel the whole time. so cool! Veronica let me know when you have the baby!!! :) Mom, have fun with baby mia!!! 

Let's start off with i can now cross off knocking doors in the middle of a typhoon on my bucket list! The zone leaders called us right before 11AM and said they thought it was okay for us to go out until noon and then they would let us know if we needed to go home. I personally thought...are you guys crazy?! The winds and rains were crazy all night. The typhoon was to hit Taidong really hard this time. I felt like we were the guinea pigs for the rest of the missionaries since they all had studies until 12. However we obeyed and headed out the door. We started knocking and the winds and rains picked up even more and everyone thought we were crazy. No one wanted to open their doors. My umbrella kept flipping inside out and i finally closed it since it had no use. We could barely walk in the wind and the rain was literally horizontal by now. We got soaked and the zone leaders called us around 11:45 and told us we should go home and stay home. I was thinking, how in the world are we going to bike home in this?! By now the typhoon had gotten much worse. We said a prayer and headed home. It was so scary riding my bike in the typhoon. My bike kept shifting towards the winds and i almost ran into a parked scooter. However I made it home safely. It was frightening but I knew we would be protected. Probably one of the most ridiculous/funniest/scariest experiences of my life. My companion and I were literally laughing the whole time we were outside because it was so ridiculous. I was like how could the zone leaders do this to us! Apparently the other sisters who stayed home since they were still in studies called our zone leaders and asked them why in the world they would let us sisters out. Everyone was worried about us. When we got home, we were soaked and dripping from head to toe. The sisters just laughed when they opened the door and took pictures of us. We didnt wear our rain ponchos while biking since we were already drenched. It was definitely a once in a lifetime experience. No worries, we stayed home for the rest of the day. I never want to do that again! yay for typhoons!!! 

Anyways, other than that, this week went pretty well. We found some good new investigators. We met with our new investigator Xue JM. She is one of our L.A.'s daughter's friend. She wanted to learn more about God and so we shared with her the Restoration and the BOM. We had our R.S. president peike. She was awesome. The whole lesson went really well and we could tell the spirit was definitely there. We invited her to baptism and she accepted right away! Miracle!!! She works for the army so it is hard for her to come to church sometimes since she has to work. But we are helping and preparing her for baptism. She told us that she was praying and reading the BOM. We are off to a great start! 

Next miracle, we were out knocking on Tuesday night and right before we said the prayer to start, there was this little girl walking down the street. I decided to say hello to her and she was so happy to talk to us. Her name is Cindy and she is only 9 years old. We talked to her about prayer and gave her a BOM. We also invited her to English class the next day. We asked if we could meet with her again and she said she would have to ask her grandma and grandpa. The next day I see her at English and I met her grandparents. We set up a time to meet with them next week. It gets even better, she came to church with us yesterday! We went to her house and rode our bikes together to the chapel. Dropping her off in primary was so sad because she looked scared. I felt like i was leaving my child! But i think she liked church. However, when church ended, her grandparents were outside looking for her since she didn't tell them it would be 3 hours. They were worried. I hope this doesn't stop her from meeting with us. She is such a good little girl and I can tell she loves us already. 

We found another great investigator while finding on Thursday. Usually no one is home at 11AMbut since it was a holiday, we wanted to take advantage of it. The last house we knocked on, this lady Zhang JM, opened her door! She went to school in America and went to a couple of Christian churches. Her mom is really Buddhist and told her daughter she doesn't want her to get baptized. However Zhang JM set up with us for the next day and we taught her about the Restoration. I'm hoping for a miracle and that her mom will let her get baptized. She is 30 but she really respects her mom. 

Our Vietnamese investigator, Shi JM, is awesome! She brought her 2 kids to church this Sunday. However, she didn't come until the end of Sacrament Meeting. She is so ready and needs the Gospel in her life. She is still excited about baptism. We just need her to come to church on time. We taught her about the Plan of Salvation and she said that she really wants to help her family out right now. That is her purpose. She seems to be learning fast and understanding what we are teaching her. She knows a few people from the other branch. Everytime I see Shi JM, I just have the best feeling and want to do everything I can to help her. She has a few family problems, especially with her husband, but I know that Heavenly Father can bless her so much. 

Finally, Becky had her baptismal interview yesterday. Unfortunately, she didn't pass. We were all hoping she would pass and I really thought she would. I had such a good feeling about it before. I knew she could do it. But apparently, she still had problems with members not keeping the commandments and she told Elder Teshima that even if she passes, she didn't want to get baptized next week. She said she wants to get baptized just doesn't know when. She doesn't have the best attitude towards our members. Also, she doesn't have any special feelings when she reads the BOM. I feel like she is scared to admit she knows it is true. She knows that Joseph Smith was a true prophet though, so it is kind of confusing to me. Anyways, we were all really sad she didn't pass this time. She was crying after and it broke my heart. Sister Thomsen took it really hard and felt like it was all her fault. I tried telling her it wasn't but i don't think it helped. I don't really know what to do now. I want to help Becky keep progressing because I have faith she will pass that interview one day. I know she can. I just hope she doesn't disappear from us for awhile like she did with the previous missionaries. She is in my prayers everyday! 

I love you all! hope all of you are doing well!!! 

Love

Sister Chao

Ni Hao

Hello family!! 

How is everyone doing? Veronica your belly is getting so huge! Maybe by next week you will have your baby! I can't wait to see pictures. You must email me them and tell me his name. People here in Taiwan are so amazed that you have 4 kids and are so young. It's fun to see there faces when I tell them how many kids you have. :) Aborn and Keely, so happy to see your family all back together again! Kira and mia are so cute. I remember when i was taking care of baby Mia when she was just 2-3 months old! She is huge now and probably doesn't remember her Gugu. Mom, we have an investigator who is vietnamese but speaks pretty good chinese. I want to see if i can get permission for you to call her one day. She has a baptism date but i think it will be good for mom to talk to her and share with her your testimony! So i will let you know on that...maybe on a sunday you can call her. She is struggling with her husband and family right now and just really needs some good friends. We are having an outdoor zone conference this friday with all the east coast missionaries. They are all coming down to Taidong and we are probably going on a hike somewhere with President Day. Heard that there might be a typhoon this week, probably won't affect taidong at all. What are you all doing for Moon Festival this Thursday? We are getting so many youzhi's (i think in english it is a pomello) and so many moon cakes!!!!!!!! some of them are good and most of them are nasty. haha. The missionaries are going to someone's house for a BBQ on Thursday. Oh and we meet the weirdest people when we go knocking. this 7 year old girl grabbed my hand and pulled me into her house and fed us her birthday cake. haha. her mom was in the kitchen cooking and didn't even care that we were sitting in her house. we talked to the grandma who said she saw this weird god 2 times. Very interesting experience. Anyways, i love taiwan!!! :) 

This week flew by so fast! I went on exchanges with Sister Marler and had a great time. I stayed in Taidong this time and it was fun seeing how she taught. You just learn so much on exchanges. The main things i want to work on is to ask better, thought-provoking questions when I teach and I want to be better at street contacting. I loved when Sister Marler asked our investigators these deep questions that made them think even more. Sister Marler is an amazing missionary and I hope to become just as good as her one day. Doing missionary work with her was so happy because both of us were happy and had good attitudes. 

On Monday, we found out that one of our less actives was in the hospital. She had some bleeding in her in stomach area. I don't exactly know but we went to go visit her with our R.S. president. We had just barely visited her a few days before and she seemed to be just fine. We called her a few days ago and she is doing much better and is at home now. While we were at the hospital visiting with her and sharing with her a scripture, her daughter's friend was there too. After we left, our R.S. president talked to the friend a little bit more outside and ended up getting her number. We contacted her and we are meeting with her tonight! I'm so excited. She said she wanted to learn more about God.

We met with Grace this week and made cookies with her and taught her about the Ten Commandments. Our peike was really great. He helped her realize the importance of church. He shared his testimony about it and how it makes him feel. Grace has 4 jobs and is super busy. She only gets about one Sunday off a month, but she might have more next month. I'm hoping she can come to church soon. She is so great and has so much interest. She said she will pray and read the BOM. Now we just have to get her to church. I feel like people in Taiwan are just always working! They are so busy! 

Chen JM is just happy as can be. She can't wait for her baptism! She is counting down and only has about 2 months left. She literally can't wait. I love her fire and desire to get baptized. She is one of the most prepared people I have ever met. She loves her BOM and D&C. Also, she is excited for General Conference. 

We contacted a referral from the Elders and she became our new investigator! Chen JM is in her 20's and has met with the Jehovah Witnesses before too. We shared with her the first lesson at her work and she was willing to meet with us again this week. She seems really interested in getting to know Christ. I'm excited to see her start progressing. 

Biggest miracle of the week, we got Shi JM to commit to baptism!!! Shi JM is our Vietnamese investigator. We invited a member from 2nd branch who is Cambodian to peike. They got along so great and wouldn't stop talking to each other. It was so great to see Shi JM so happy to meet someone who is very similar to her. Shi JM is also part Cambodian but doesn't speak that language. So they speak to each other in Chinese. Our peike was sharing with her how the Gospel has changed her life. Probably the most fitting peike. Shi JM was like "I'll be at the churchat 2PM on 10/26." I was so happy to see how excited she was. The only difficulty we have with her is having her understand everything we teach. Her Chinese is pretty good but sometimes she doesn't understand completely. She has been to church once but not to Sacrament Meeting. 

Sister Marler and I met with Becky and talked to her about God's love and the BOM. It was a little difficult for Becky to respond when Sister Marler asked her when she has felt God's love for her in her life. She has hard time of admitting if she knows the BOM is true or if the Church is true. She always says "yingai ba." It seemed like from our conversation with her that she knows it is true inside but just doesn't want to say it just incase she is wrong. Why else would she be still going to church, reading the BOM, and praying for the past 1.5 years if she didn't think it was true? I think it is hard for her to realize God's love for her and the influence the Gospel has had in her life. We talked about baptism and she said she wasn't scared of it anymore but is nervous about the interview. We have her scheduled for an interview this week. When we saw her at church this Sunday though she didn't seem very excited about the interview. She broke down in tears and wouldn't really talk to us. I don't really know why she is so afraid of the interview or baptism. We told her that her life will still be pretty much the same and that she will just have the companionship of the Holy Ghost. She was worried that her life would be completely different than it is now. She left before the closing prayer in sacrament meeting. We hope she will come to her interview. We invited her to pray about the BOM and about baptism every day this week. I know she will pass her interview if she just has faith and is not afraid to admit what she knows to be true. We will see what happens. I'm praying for her everyday. I know baptism is the next step she needs to take right now, but it all comes down to her. She needs to choose whether she wants this or not. I feel like we have done everything we can to help her and it is up to her to make the decision. I love Becky so much and I hope she makes the right choice. 

Hope all is doing well. I miss and love you guys!!!!! 

Sister Chao

Ni Hao!

Hello!

How is everyone doing? Aborn, Kira is back in the states! Too bad i never got a chance to see her in Taiwan. Hope she is adjusting to the states. Things in Taidong are still going well. It's definitely a hard area but I love it here. They added four new elders to Taidong so now we have a total of 16 missionaries just in Taidong. So we have 8 missionaries in each branch. So many missionaries coming to Taiwan. It's fun to see the work grow. The gathering of Israel is truly happening. How many missionaries do we have back at home in our ward right now? Dad, lots of people use DoTerra out here. It makes me think of you. They are always so excited to see that I carry oils with me for me mosquito bites. haha. Mosquitoes and xiao hei wens are back because the weather is getting slightly cooler. I dont know why they like me so much. They dont really bite anyone else. I don't really know what else to say. Life is still same old same old. Hope everything back at home is going well. Anything new that I should know about it? dad what are you up to? is yeye doing better? 

This week we saw a lot of little miracles. I truly believe having a good attitude makes all the difference. We were able to get over 30 lessons this week and 4 new investigators. A lot of our new investigators are Christians. Sometimes I feel like Christians are harder to teach because they hear things from their churches about our church. But I'm excited to teach them the true and complete Gospel. 

We went to go visit our less active Lang JM. She basically is an active member now. She has been coming to church ever since we first visited her beginning of last transfer. I can tell that church has made her happier. We are having an FHE with her and a few single, older ladies that are her friends. I think it will be really fun and good for her to know that there are members who really care about her. 

This week we have been playing for team Jesus a lot. We found this golden investigator for the Elders while out knocking. He has met the missionaries before out on the streets but didn't have time to set up with them. He told us that now he has a lot of time and he was willing to give us his number and set up with the Elders. He is meeting with them this Wednesday. Also we gave him a BOM and he was so excited to receive it! Then we found another guy for the Elders. He met with the missionaries over 20 years ago and has been to church a few times. He was willing to let his son start meeting with the missionaries. Yay team Jesus! 

While knocking this week, we met this girl that is going to college at U.C.L.A. She is studying the same thing I'm majoring in. Her English is really good too. She is Christian and is home until mid September. She told us she was looking for a church to go to while she was in Taiwan. We invited her to church and she said she would come but she never showed up. I want to get her information in California so we can send it to the missionaries there. Maybe my sister will be able to call her up since her husband is going there right now. I love how missionary work is the same everywhere. I also love meeting all these people from different places. 

We met with a new investigator this week Yang JM. She is a Christian and has a daughter dealing with a lot of health problems. It has been stressing her out and she seemed really happy to just talk to us. She is so nice and sweet and said we could come back next week. I hope she starts progressing. She might bring her son next time too. 

Lai JM had time to meet with us this week! Her husband is really against our church so it's hard for her to meet with us. But she has been reading the BOM and is so curious about our church. She was telling us about all the problems she has been having with her husband and his family. I really feel bad for her. Life is really hard for her right now. She said that she has been praying. I feel like she is so prepared to hear the Gospel. She asked if she could go to church even though she was Buddhist. Of course!!! However, she didn't make it to church this Sunday because of family problems. I'm still praying that one day she can get baptized. 

We met with Becky this week again. She is still not sure about her baptism date of 9/28. She said she doesn't have any special feelings when she prays. I tried explaining to her that she needs to pray with real intent and faith and that sometimes we don't get answers to our prayers and that we just have to move forward with faith. She mentioned that she sees a lot of members that don't obey all the commandments and she doesn't like that. We told her not to focus on what others do and just focus of her relationship with Heavenly Father and Christ when she is at church. I still feel like she thinks church is a social game. I'm hoping she will make the choice to get baptized this month. She is so ready and I know she will make it if she just has the faith. 

We taught the YW how to make cookies this week for their activity. It was so fun being around them. They are all awesome. They have such strong testimonies and one of them can't wait until she can serve a mission. I've never seen anyone so excited to serve a mission. 

Biggest miracle of the week, Shi JM came to church! We met with her and her sister-in-law (who became our new investigator) and they said they would come. Her sister-in-law didn't end up coming but she came with her son. She didn't make it to Sacrament meeting but she stayed for the last 2 hours. She is from Vietnam but her Chinese is pretty good. I was so happy to see her at church finally! 

This week we didn't have a chance to meet with some of our investigators. They are all so busy working. Hopefully next week will be better. Some days, it seems like no one will listen to our message but then you get that one that will. Although they may not want to meet with us again, they gave us a chance to plant a little seed in their hearts. I really do love being a missionary. It is so fun to meet all these different people and share with them this happy message. 

Love you all!

Sister Chao

Another transfer in Taidong!