Chinese New Year

Happy Chinese New Year!!! What are all of you doing for new year's? i know mom is planning a huge activity. good luck! 

Well chinese new year's starts on Thursday the 30th, which is chu xi. It goes until Feb. 4th. We have 10 qing ke's lined up already for 6 days straight! Lunch and dinner! I'm going to die. I'm so grateful i only have one ward this time. Good thing we have to cancel some qing ke's because of meetings in Taipei. yes!! Everyone is "too busy" to talk to us since its new years and everyone is deep cleaning their house and getting rid of old furniture. We offer to help but no one will let us. We know this week is going to be a little hard since the streets will be dead and everyone will be at home eating and too busy to meet with us. But we are spending all week finding and im going on 2 exchanges this week! Also we are going to Taipei on the 30th for a long meeting. Hopefully we will stay busy and see miracles! We cant let Chinese New Years hinder the work. Missionary work still goes on during holidays. We are trying to let members know that. Only an hour at member's houses this week. Pray that we will find lots of new investigators this week and that our current investigators will still progress during new years! Besides me getting fat this week, we aren't doing anything too special for new years. just eating eating eating, finding finding finding. yay! I'm excited...well for the finding part. i love finding. lots of missionaries hate it but i love it! I love inviting them to baptism on the street and telling them our purpose it helping them come unto Christ by BAPTISM. 

Mom, we found a new Vietnamese investigator! she has lived here for 7 years and her chinese is really good. I met her when i went to go unlock my bike. she was right next to me and I just said hi. She was super nice and exchanged numbers and met with her the next day and set a baptism date with her! yes!!! she is so awesome! hopefully she will continue to have interest! if she does, you can call her one day. yay! 

As for the work in Xinzhu, this last week was probably the best week Sister Ashcraft and I had. We were able to find 6 new investigators! We had so much finding time and were able to meet most of our goals. We met with this Vietnamese lady Chen JM that I met on exchanges real quick. I decided to say hello to her while I was unlocking my bike and the next thing we had a set up with her for the next day. We set a baptism date with her as well! She is awesome and I hope she progresses fast. What a miracle. A quick contact led into a new baptism date. We also set a new date with one of our more slowly progressing investigators Deng JM. Her sister is a less active who never wants to talk to us or meet with us. We talked to Deng JM about baptism again and re-invited and she said she would set a date. She started reading and praying this week as well. Even though she didn't go to church this Sunday, I feel like she has progressed more than she has ever progressed. She is just afraid to commit sometimes. 

Huang JM, our investigator who has a date for February, cancelled on us twice this week. She said she was too busy with guo nian. We are hoping she will have time to meet with us after new years. We really want her to be prepared and meet her baptism date. She has a word of wisdom problem that she likes to avoid. She is really great though and told us on the phone that when she reads the BOM, she has a peaceful feeling in her heart. 

We have another investigator with a date in February, Luo JM. She didn't come to church as well because of guo nian related reasons. She is really hard to get a hold of and set up with. We know that she is ready to get baptized. She has come to church multiple times on her own and lives all the commandments. The biggest problem with her is that she is afraid to make commitments like baptism. We are trying to help her realize the blessings baptism will bring to her life. She has a member friend that keeps telling her that she can get baptized whenever she feels like it, however, we want her to get baptized on her date, not just whenever, so that's been hard. But I have faith that she will make it! 

We saw a bunch of little miracles this week while finding. We have met SO many great youth! Some have become our new investigators. Biggest miracle, we decided to follow up on 14 year old girl we met my first night in Xinzhu. She never became our new investigator then because her grandma wasn't too fond of us. However, we knocked on her door to see if she was home and she answered the door! She told us that she has read half of the BOM already!! I was so shocked! We set up to meet with her again the following night but she cancelled on us last minute. Hopefully this week or next week we will be able to meet with her. I'm praying that her family won't fandui. I feel like all the awesome youth we contacted this week told us their family fandui. We have received 3 texts this week saying that their parents won't let us meet with them. I know that family fandui is something out of our control but it makes me sad to see and meet all these awesome youth who are prepared to hear the gospel and get baptized, but their parents won't let them. That has been a big trial lately. However, I know that there are more prepared people out there we need to find. I'm still praying for this miracle person that we are going to meet who wants to get baptized ASAP. We would have to many youth if it weren't for family fandui!!! 

Anyways, I'm excited to go out and find find find this week. Even though it is Chinese New Year, we can do it! Love you all!

Sister Chao

Happy New Year Almost!

Hello!

Happy birthday Lucas!! :) oh and the not next week but the next i think...my pday will be changed to Feb. 5! because im going to the TEMPLE FOR THE FIRST TIME! FINALLY!!!!! perks of not being on the east coast! so i wont email until wed that week. next monday is still on. 

This week was hai hao. Not going to lie, it kinda sucked but it was okay. There was some good too. I got the flu...it all started as I was sitting in Specialized Training on Wednesday. I could feel myself get progressively worse. But i didnt throw up or anything. just had a fever and stuffy nose and some coughs. I'm a little better now. I have a nasty cold sore too...I think its from the stress, me being sick, and the weather changing constantly. But enough of me complaining. I'm okay. really. The work still has to go on and im not willing to rest or take a nap or stay inside. I can't! there are souls to save! We had a lot of drama with area changes and stuff. President decided that all the missionaries will have their own areas within the ward. Now we are only in charge of Zhu 1 ward. No more two wards starting this week. Our area is SO small. but after all the drama and what not with dividing areas....i think it has been settled. i know i didnt include that many details but you dont need to know what all happened. I'll tell you maybe when i get home. haha. That was probably the main thing this week that made me super stressed. but its okay. 

I went on two exchanges this week! I got to go on exchanges with my beloved MTC companion Sister Oborn in Toufen. We did a training there at their zone training and it was fun. It was cool to chuanjiao with sister oborn. So fun. Then i went on exchanges with Sister Lu. She came to my area. Im not really familiar with my area yet but it was fun using the map and what not. we got everywhere we needed to!!! yay! 

OH AND biggest news! we can now teach MEN. yes thats true. we need peikes everytime though. but cool huh? dont have any yet though. 

As for the work in Xinzhu, this week we were able to meet with Huang JM. She has a baptism date for February and is progressing pretty well. She is reading everyday and praying and she came to church this Sunday. She has a smoking and coffee problem but she said that she is willing to work on overcoming it. I think the biggest problem for her is that she has been talking to her friends at the other church she used to go to. They don't always say the best things about our church. She also says that she still hasn't received an answer if the BOM is true. We are trying to help her see her blessings. I think she will make her date though. 

We also met with Luo JM. She has been going to church every week and pretty much comes on her own. She is almost done with the lessons! We finally set a baptism date with her for February after Guo Nian. She didn't want to set an earlier one. She is really afraid of commitment. She still isn't super sure about the date we set with her but it has been progress. She has a friend that goes to another church but doesn't want to get baptized. Her friend keeps telling her that you can go to church without getting baptized, which is true, but we want her to receive the blessings of baptism. We focused on the blessings and importance of baptism. Our peike was really good too. I'm hoping she won't get scared and cancel her date. 

On exchanges this week, we found a really awesome new investigator. We talked to her for 40 minutes and she basically already knows about faith, repentance, and baptism. She said that she has a lot of Christian friends and has had a lot of opportunities of going to other churches, but she always declines because her husband and family is super anti-christian. She was really happy to talk to us. We set up for next time and I'm hoping she can set a date soon and that her family won't keep her from meeting with her. I hate how we can't control family fandui. 

Sister Ashcraft and I went finding last night and met this awesome college aged guy! He goes to college in Taipei and is an artist. He comes home every Sunday. He was so cool and we invited him to be baptized and he was like yeah I would love to have a remission of my sins. We talk more about baptism, faith and repentance and he seemed to love it. Then we tried to set up a next visit and he didn't want to set up. I was so sad! But he said he might come to church. I was so hopeful that he would become our new investigator and he would set a date for 3 weeks later. Even though all of that didn't happen, I know that he felt the spirit. We planted a good seed. The invite you gave us makes us more bold and teach with more power. I love it! Although we haven't had anyone set a baptism date with us yet, we know this invite is going to help us so much more and make us more effective missionaries. I've been praying that we will find this miracle person who is ready to be baptized in 3 weeks. I know that person is out there! 

Alright...love you!

sister chao

P.S. pray that we will find more investigators. its been a little rough...not very many people on the board right now. 

Hello!

Hi! 

Happy birthday to everyone in january! lucas, kira, dad, who else? 

Thanks for all the birthday wishes. It was great! I got to wake up at 5 AM and head for the train station and sit in a meeting until 4pm. But the meeting was really good. I enjoyed it a lot. They sang happy birthday to me and this other elder and sister day made brownies. yum. I went on exchanges that day with the temple sisters and Sister Chu and I went to this vegetarian noodle restaurant across from the temple. the bowls were HUGE and they put so much noodles in it. I was going to die. I was so full. But it was delicious. Then we went out contacting and at night we stopped at this really good bakery in taipei called Morita's. She got me a slice if banana bread for my birthday and i got this sesame filled bread for breakfast. yum. so much bread. haha. 

Also school update....they changed all the people who were in the MTC for 9 weeks to have one extra transfer. So I'm supposed to have 12 transfers, but that means i wont make it home in time for school. I talked to president about it and he said he will make sure im home before school starts. So thats good. i was a little worried about that. yikes. Rachel and Alma are helping me sign up for classes. if there are problems just tell me. i should be signing up for them soon since i have a million credits at byu. please pick good teachers and times....aka...not too early like 7AM. no thanks. haha unless you have to. but thank you so much for doing this! you will probably have to look for housing for me soon too. but dont worry about that yet. i have 4 classes that i need to sign up for i think....i also might have you sign me up for chinese too....but we will see if i have time after you sign up the classes. i cant believe its almost been a year! time flies!!! 

Xinzhu has been great. Currently we have no water in our apartment. They shut it off until 5PM. Can't use the bathroom! haha. It has been really cold here because its super windy here. I can't ever get warm for some reason. Also riding the bike in the cold wind is fun. Basically very different from Taidong. But i'm starting to like it here. We don't have very many investigators though, which is sad. I want to change that. I want to fill our white board with names. We only have a handful right now combined in our two areas. We are working hard on finding. President gave us an invite to touch our name tags and invite people to baptism from the start. we need to introduce ourselves telling them our purpose is the invite others to baptism! we need to be bold. I have been going on a lot of exchanges recently and will go on two more this week. Sisters tell me that i'm really bold and blunt with these people. haha. I guess i'm just a blunt person. it helps in finding though. i feel like i should be more bold after president's invite though. yay! I get to go to miaoli tomorrow for zone training. we are in charge of the touching your name tag training. yay! so fun. Then i get to go on exchanges with my MTC companion. I'm excited to serve with her for a day. 

This week, Sister Ashcraft met with one of our progressing investigators Huang JM. It was such a great lesson and we had a good peike. The spirit was strong in that lesson. We taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She is still nervous about baptism though. We talked a lot about repentance and the peaceful feeling we get after we repent. We shared a scripture from Alma 36 and she said, "That is me!" so cool. She just really needs someone to love her and care for her. She has depression problems and cries a lot but she made it through the lesson without crying. I love her so much. 

We also went to go visit our other baptism date Lida. She was supposed to get baptized next Sunday but her boss won't let her have work off. We had a member bring us up to her place with her sister and we talked to her about her baptism. She said that she will have 5 days off during new years so we set a new date for Feb.1. We were so happy she could get baptized on that day! It was a miracle it all worked out. 

This week we had a lot of finding time, but the thing we struggled most on was getting these people to set up with us or give us their numbers. We found a really good investigator last night for the Kaohsiung missionaries. She is golden. But this week week we want to focus again on finding and having people stick. We have been more bold every time we talk to people and inviting all to baptism on the first lesson. It's great! We touch our name tags and know exactly what we need to say. Sister Ashcraft and I feel like we teach really well together. It just clicked from the beginning. I feel like we are really unified when it comes to teaching. I love that feeling. 

love you all!

Sister Chao

Goodbye east coast!

Hello!!!!! 

First off, thanks for all the birthday emails. I will get to spend my birthday in a meeting all day in Taipei. yay! I feel so old. 

I finally got kicked out of the beautiful east coast and into the city. Well, not in the heart of taipei but I moved to Xinzhu and Xiangshan! I have two areas and two wards. Yay for 6 hours of church on sundays. The second sacrament meeting was rough. Anyways, I also got called to be the new sister training leader in the Xinzhu and Miaoli zones. Basically the female version of zone leaders, but they have a little more work to do. :) My companion and I get to take care of 12 sisters and go on exchanges with them. When I saw that my picture came up under the new sister training leader, I was so shocked! I'm still a little baby missionary! And I've never served outside of the east coast so it is totally different! I don't really know what I'm doing and I'm still adjusting to city life and all the CARS. yikes. also the fruit is way expensive here and there aren't very many good vegetarian places. oh well. ill find good places to eat soon. :) I always feel lost on the roads though. I think it will take awhile to connect all the roads here. Hopefully I'll be able to do that soon because my companion is dying this transfer (she is going home). So i get to take over next transfer. But we have a ton of meetings in taipei that we have to go to so we don't spend that much time in our areas. also we have to go on a ton of exchanges this transfer. I'm just a little overwhelmed but hopefully i'll get used to it soon. It has been a little difficult moving from a really successful area with lots of investigators and people with baptism dates to somewhere where there is maybe 5 investigators total. It's okay though! It's all going to change soon!!! 

The goodbyes in Taidong were so sad!!!! I never thought it would be so hard to say goodbye to those people there. I loved them so much. My R.C. Lily that you met was really sad to say goodbye. She was going to taipei two days after I was going but she decided to change her plans and ride the train up with me and the elders. haha. She couldn't leave me. i love her oh so much! also, saddest story, my R.C. the gangster, Chen JM, was going to say goodbye to me at the train station but she was too late and i had to catch my train. I knew she would be so sad. She called me right when the train was leaving. She was crying and couldnt stop crying talking to me on the phone. I didn't know a gangster could cry that much. I had to hold back my tears. She just kept saying how grateful she was to have met me and all this nice stuff. I felt so bad that the train left right when she got there. Oh and I also had to say goodbye to my eternal investigator Becky. She is hopefully getting baptized this month. She has been investigating for almost 2 years now. she is soooo close!!! She almost cried too. ahh. Anyways I know I'll for sure see these people again. I'm just needed somewhere else now. Oh and the R.S. president made this super cute card with all the pictures she had of me from members from FB. She posted on the R.S. FB page that I was leaving and they all left comments and she made it into a card for me. So nice. Also she bought me taidong's famous sweet potato and taro chips. yum. And she made me do a goodbye message to the branch on her phone. i had no idea what to say and she posted on FB. ahhh. haha. 

Anyways this is what I sent to president: 

Happy New Year! I don't even know where to start. Let's back track to before I got transferred and start from there. :) 

Well, Becky finally called me again. Remember how she sent me that sad email and was acting all weird? She called me and sounded like everything was okay again. I met with her one last time before transfers and we talked a long time about church and people and why this Gospel is so important. It was a good discussion. She felt better about it afterwards. I heard she went to church yesterday so that is good. As my goodbye, I told her that she needed to pray about her baptism date everyday and read the Book of Mormon everyday. She said she would. I'm so glad since I was afraid that she wanted to cancel her baptism date. She still might but I'm praying she will hold out strong and succeed this time! I know she can do it. Goodbyes are always hard but i know she will love the new sister that is in Taidong. 

We had an awesome lesson with our investigator Gu JM. She is progressing so much! She has already read up to 1 Nephi 22 in ONE week. We had this lesson an hour before I had to leave for the train station and it was by far the best lesson. We set a baptism date with her and she accepted. She feels like her daughter is really happy in this church. What a miracle. Even though I won't be able to attend her baptism, I have complete faith she will make her date. She is so great and so prepared. Such a great last lesson in Taidong. It was a good ending to my time there. I know Sister Singh and the new sister will take good care of her. 

Saying goodbye was hard to my R.C.'s Lily and Chen Shi Yun. However I know I'll see them again. You really do create such strong relationships with members and investigators when you spend such a long period of time in one area. I will always remember the miracles and people in Taidong. It really is the "promised land." 

Anyways, now I'm in the beautiful and busy city of Xinzhu and Xiangshan. What a huge change from the east coast. I thought it would be a hard transition but it has been fairly alright so far. All I can say is, it is completely different. I'm grateful for this opportunity to serve here. It is a new challenge but i'm so excited. I feel like i'm supposed to be here and help the people here. I know I'm not supposed to compare, but going from somewhere where the numbers were mostly always really good and high to a place where the numbers are not that good made me realize that I'm here to help this area grow and have more baptism dates. Also, I'm here to help the sisters of the Xinzhu and Miaoli zones. I still feel like I don't know much more than them but hopefully I can offer something to them and help them. I pray for them every night even though I don't know some of them. My head sometimes feels like it's going to explode because I've never been a sister training leader before but Sister Ashcroft is great and has been a great help. Hopefully I will be able to take over this place when she leaves. When I first saw my picture come up on the screen as the sister training leader here, I was super surprised and terrified at the same time. My thoughts were, "Are you sure President Day?! Are you sure I can do this?" But I have faith in you and the Lord. :) I've never covered two areas and two wards before. The members are all really nice. I hope to see more members in church on Sundays. From the past few days of being here, I've already seen so many little miracles. We met so many incredible people or people who just needed someone to talk to and cry to. I love finding! My companion was really surprised when I said I LOVE to find. I don't know why, but it is a good opportunity to meet awesome people. Even though they don't always want to set up with you again, you still plant that seed in their hearts. We don't have many baptism dates or investigators, but I'm determined to find them. They are out there. There are so many people here! It's so cool! Also, there are lots of cars, but hopefully I'll get used to that soon. :) 

Happy New Year!!!! love you all!

Sister Chao

Happy new year!

Nimen Hao! 

Happy birthday to Natalie, dad, Kira, and Lucas! Yay for birthdays! Don't know what I'll be doing on my birthday...probably missionary right? 

It was really good to talk to you guys on Christmas and see all of your faces....even though it might have been through 2 computer screens to see you. haha. Time is flying by and I will be starting my 7th transfer already. Transfers are this Friday. I find out if i move tonight or tomorrow night. yikes! I'm pretty positive I'll be out of the east coast. I've been too blessed to spend so much time here. I love it. I'm a little nervous on where I'll go next. Definitely will be a new environment. Mom and dad, I gave Shi JM her present. She says thank you. After the day I skyped you guys, it got super cold here. Biking is freezing. I heard it has rained for like half a month STRAIGHT in taipei. noooo. it hasn't rained that much in Taidong, which has been a blessing. Rain is a hassell when you are a missionary. Lily was really excited to see you all on skype. She is so excited to come to America next year. She really wants to take english classes at BYU. Her english is super good too. So Mom and dad...are you guys really coming to Taiwan in March? That would be fun. No worries on picking me up in August, I know it will be really hot and humid and miserable to be outside. haha. 

Anyways here is the update for the week:

Best news of the week, Lily got baptized! She is doing great and was confirmed yesterday. We had a white Christmas! I must say, her baptismal service was one of the best ones I've ever been to. The ward was so involved since everyone knew her. The Relief Society prepared a musical number for her and gave her a bouqet of flowers and a really nice card. They also prepared a lot of desserts and made the place extra special. I was really impressed. The speakers were really good too. All in all, it was wonderful. I'm so glad I was able to be apart of it. This just shows why attending church at least 3 or more times before baptism is so important. You get to know members more and have a relationship with them. If you are able to sacrifice time for the Lord and come to Church, you will see so many blessings come out of it. Lily loved it. 

On a little sadder note, this morning I received an email from Becky saying, "我一點都不適合教會." Everything was going great with Becky until Lily's baptism. She attended the baptism but she had the worst attitude. I asked her why she was sad and she wouldn't say anything.  We couldn't really focus on her that night since it was Lily's baptism. We called her that night but she didn't answer. I remember when we went on exchanges with the temple sisters, they told us to just let her be and not call until she calls us. It was so hard for me to do that since I care about her so much. I texted her on Saturday night and invited her to church. She came to church on Sunday and was in a bad mood again. I just sent a positive email back saying how grateful I was to be able to teach her and become her friend. I talked about the importance of church and such. I don't really know what to do at this moment. I'll probably try to follow the temple sister's advice and just let her cool off for a little. I know her baptism is coming up. I hope she realizes how much she is loved and becomes more humble. She has investigated the church for almost 2 years now. 

Anyways, we met with Tsai JM this week and had to move her baptism date back again. She just needs to come to church. She is always gone for some reason. She still has a problem with coffee and tea. She said she is trying really hard to overcome that and is praying everyday and reading the BOM. She told us that when she gets baptized, she wants to be 100% committed to the commandments. I was so happy to hear that. She is someone who wants to keep her promises when she says she will. I know that she will get baptized soon. 

We've seen so many miracles this week. I'm so grateful to be a missionary! We set 3 new baptism dates. Two of the baptism dates was with our investigator's 2 little cousins, who are boys. We might be handing them to the Elder's next week. They seem to have more interest than her and we might end up dropping her. We don't think she is quite ready. She keeps cancelling on us and doesn't seem to have a desire. So next week we might have 3 less baptism dates. It's okay though, team Jesus and that means more time for finding. We set a baptism date with one of our investigator's friend this week. They both came to church. This was an investigator that hasn't answered our calls in a month and finally her phone rang and she answered! It was truly a miracle. We also found a new investigator from our Christmas activity last week. She is awesome and came to church with her daughter. She has a desire to learn more and is so nice. 

Sister Singh and I are doing great. We both love Taidong and never want to leave it, but I have a feeling my time is almost up here. I have been so blessed to serve on the East Coast for this long and I will always remember the experiences I've had here. I've met so many great people and I can feel God's love for these people. I know that I will be placed where ever the Lord wants me to go. I've had a good time training Sister Singh and have learned so much. She is awesome and is such a great missionary. Right now in studies, I'm almost finished with the D&C and will be starting the Pearl of Great Price. As for language study, I'm trying to memorize 25 new characters a day and review. It's been a little hard though. I'm just really bad at memorizing and it comes slower for me. You'd think I would be good at it since I'm Chinese but I'm as white as you can get when it comes to Chinese. It's a work in progress right now. But I do enjoy learning characters. 

Love you all!!!! 

Sister Chao

Merry Christmas!!!

Hello!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!! I just got back from Taipei a few hours ago. A total of 12 hours on the train. so fun! Probably the best trip to Taipei ever. we had a Christmas zone conference there. It was fun to see all the missionaries again. When you are out on the east coast, you dont ever see them. So many people i dont know. I got the packages. thank you! SO HEAVY MOM!!!! An elder carried it for me all the way back! i felt so bad so im giving him lots of the candy in there. We will be sharing the candy with the zone. Thanks! also, mom thanks for all the food!!! i dont know how im going to fit it in my suitcases. haha. i might be getting transferred. Transfers are on dad's birthday. Everyone thinks im leaving since ive been in taidong for 6 months and on the east coast my whole mission so far. I dont want to leave though. i like the slow paced life out here. i feel so stressed when i get to taipei. but we will see what happens. Thanks for the package Alma and Rachel!! i happened to fit everything you guys got me in my backpack! thank goodness. do you want to know the best christmas present ever?!?! President Day made all the missionaries and Character, pinyin, and english Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great price. We have one that the church made for missionaries of the BOM but there was no D&C. President spent a whole year on it and had it made into a book. so cool. we are the first missionaries to receive it and its not for resale. i love it!!! i'm in the process of learning characters but its really hard. haha. its coming slowly. We had a huge christmas feast and had a talent show and listened to the christmas missionary choir. it was really good. so much happened!!! i cant wait to talk to you tomorrow. sorry i can't talk to everyone. 9:30AM tomorrow morning my time! aborn ill be skyping you but im not sure if i remember my password. eeks. hopefully. if not ill use another skype name. okay thats all for today. baptism tonight!!!!!! yay! 

We are having a baptism tonight! Lily is getting baptized and I couldn't be happier. Best Christmas present. I'm so excited for her. She is someone I have seen progress so much. She used to not believe in God and now she see's the blessings in her life. So cool. 

I'm glad to say that Becky is progressing. Although she said she didn't want to get baptized on Christmas, she said that she is still good for her goal on 1/19. She also told me she went out to lunch with a member Tsai JM. I was so proud of her for going out to lunch with her. She said that Tsai JM really intimidates her but she went after all! She has been staying for all 3 hours of church too. I really hope she passes her interview this time! I love her so much and I don't want to send her into an interview not prepared. I'm praying everyday for her and for a miracle. 

Another miracle. Our investigator Tsai JM answered her phone finally and we were able to meet with her. Tsai Huizhang's wife helped peike. She is done with all the lessons but she still hasn't come to church 3 times. We had to extend her baptism date. We talked a lot about families and church. She didn't come this Sunday even though she said she would. I was a little sad. I thought we had a really good discussion about church last time and I was hopeful that she would come. We will still work with her and hopefully she will get baptized soon. i think church is her biggest problem right now. She also doesn't answer our phone calls which makes it hard. Tsai JM is really great though and I don't want to lose her as an investigator. 

We are teaching this little girl Luo JM and her two cousins. The two cousins came to the Christmas party! I feel like her cousins might be more interested than she is. They didn't come to church even though they said they would. We even biked to their house before church to make sure they were coming, but found no one there. I'm hoping all 3 will progress together and get baptized together. So far only Luo JM has a date. 

This last week we had an amazing Christmas activity. We met a new potential investigator. We set up a time to meet with her too. Last week was also one of the hardest weeks. A lot of our appointments cancelled on us and we had a ton of time to go finding. Well more time than usual at least. However, we only found 2 new investigators. I feel like Heavenly Father is really testing our faith right now. We found a few good ones for the Elders. We tried to use the BOM more in our finding efforts and shared a few scriptures. However no one wanted to set up with us again. They were all really good people to talk with. We had some really good lessons on the street. I know that we need to continue to have faith and patience. We are supposed to learn something from this. Even though this week we don't have much time, I know we will see miracles.

Love you all!!!!! 

Sister chao