Hiii

Hello everyone!!! 

This week has been great. I feel like everyday is kind of the same and blends so it's hard for me to remember what happened. My bites are getting a little better, my legs are just really scarred up from them. I ate stinky tofu today at the night market. It wasnt even bad or stinky...just tasted like fried tofu with pao cai! people said the one i ate wasnt really stinky,,,just a little. it was yummy though. I still eat my favorite vegetable a lot. I havent eaten anytthing too crazy. A family invited us over for dinner and the weirdest thing on the table was duck tongue....i did NOT eat it. no one forces us to eat anything so thats good. we probably only go to a members house for dinner like once a week, other than that, we just go out. Oh....but i did go on exchanges this week and a member invited my companion and our zone leader out to dinner at this really fancy, huge hot pot place. it was all you can eat and it was so good. way too much food. there were appetizers, drinks, and desserts galore too! it's watermelon season and the watermelons are huge too. i love the fruit here. Its the best. 

As for baptisms, we had none in May, but if things go as planned and our investigators progress and go to church, we should have like 4 baptisms or more in June. We are praying for a miracle that these investigators will continue to progress. i feel like we will have at least 2 for sure though. Our mission president made it a goal for the Hualien and Taidong area to have 100 baptisms in EACH branch. we currently have like 7. The goal may seem impossible, but I have faith that we can make it! 

(This is part of my letter to the mission pres. so i dont have to retype it.) 

Heavenly Father has really blessed us this week. One night we were going to visit an L.A. and they weren't home since they moved to Taipei for school, but their aunt was there. She wouldn't let us in and wasn't very interested in talking with us for too long, but we just stood at her door and started sharing the Restoration with her. She listened and she became more and more interested. She even said a prayer and we invited her to be baptized but she didn't want to commit to a date. However, she is willing to meet with us again. Isn't it so cool how powerful the Restoration can be?! I love it. We have this other investigator, Yu JM, who is on the road to baptism. Her friend in Hualien branch gave us the referral. She asks really good questions about the BOM and is reading and praying. I have realized how referrals from members are so effective. They trust the members and can see how the gospel has changed their lives. Yu JM wants what her friend has. 

Another investigator we have that is progressing quickly is Lin JM. She is 16 and has already read past 1 Nephi 10 in one week. She says she prays everyday and she goes to church too! She is someone I see that has been so prepared to hear the message. I only pray that her parents will be okay with her getting baptized on June 22. She says that her parents are fine with her going to church and meeting with us, so that's good. I love her sweet spirit and diligence to learn. 

We met with a L.A. (less active) this week, Tian JM, and followed up with her on our invitation we extended to her last time we met with her. She was really struggling to know if this is the Gospel she should follow and believe. We asked her to start re-reading the BOM everyday and to pray everyday about it. When I asked her if she did it, she said yes!!! I could not have been happier. It gets better too. She said that she finds herself crying when she reads the BOM and she really feels the Holy Ghost. WOW right!? She said that she has been happier and she feels like the BOM and prayer has really been helping her life. The only problem still is that she works on Sundays and can't get it off. We are still working on that. Hopefully her whole family can come back to church. Best follow up ever though! 

We have another L.A. Dong JM. Her daughter is our investigator but is really shy. Usually our lessons with her start to focus on her mom, so we think we are going to separate them when we teach them. But anyways, during the last visit we had with them, the mom expressed to us how she doesn't want to go to church because she doesn't feel worthy. She has a smoking problem and is afraid people will smell it. We told her that no one is perfect and that is why we need to go to church. It we were all perfect, there will be no need of church. She also told us she didn't know how to pray, even though she has prayed for us before. We taught her again, and she still says she can't do it. We just told her it is like talking to your daughter, except you are talking to Heavenly Father. Prayer is from the heart and your own words. You can literally tell Him anything! She reads prayers out of a Namaste book and I think she is used to that and won't put it down when she prays. I invited her to pray from her heart this week and to ask Heavenly Father to help her quit smoking. She said she would try it. I really hope to see her back at church with her daughter. 

Well, i know all these miracles come from God. I love how strong the spirit can be during lessons. I'm so grateful to be here. It is such a blessing. I really want to see all our investigators get baptized! Heavenly Father really does prepare his children to hear the message. We are the mouthpiece. Love the work, despite the hundreds of bites. So worth it! 

Let me know what is going on in your lives. Mom and dad, what have you been up to lately? dad, i bet you are bored with out me at home. yep i know it. :) tell the ward i say hello, you can just give  part of this letter to the ward. I dont have time to write one to them specifically. maybe one day, but for now just give them this, 

okay I love you all!

Sister Chao 

Hello family!

Nimen hao ma?

It was so good to talk to everyone last Mother's day!!! So crazy but so fun to see everyone's faces. Hope you are all doing well. Give me an update on life please. What is everyone doing everyday? Happy Anniversary to Mom and Dad! And Happy Birthday to Jocelyn! yay! so update on my mosquito/xiao hei wen bites. I now have over 200 bites just on my lower legs. and i have about 30 on my arms. um...i guess bugs just love me!?!!??!?! i got one on my eye that swelled up. I dont even itch them and they swell...only the mosquito bites swell. the xiao hei wen just get pussy. i know gross right? I went to the pharmacy the other day to pick up some creme for my legs and when i asked the lady what was good for my legs and showed them to her, she screamed and was like Woah!!! What happened?!?! haha. Everyone on the streets and my investigators are always shocked to see my legs. I love everyone's reactions. The picture does not do it justice. just imagine it everywhere and more red and pussy. yum. any suggestions on what i should do? i feel like ive tried so many cremes. Then the sister huang, the native that lives with us, got this liquid thing out and she said that it should stop the itching. so i put some on my arms and legs and it BURNED...beccause i have opened wounds. and guess what?! it was AMMONIA! thats why it burned. but hey, the itching stopped for a few hours. but still it hurt so bad. anyways, today for pday, i want to clean clean clean. our apartment is kinda gross. everyone just needs to be cleaner. oh well. i have an OCD problem. i hate how messy everything is. Mom, you taught me well. Im loving Ji'an. The food is great. hehe. Biking is getting better and the language is coming along. I get asked EVERYDAY by someone if I am japanese or korean. Actually multiple times a day. Then i say im from america and that I'm Chinese. they are like ohhh you are an ABC! haha. Do I really look japanese or korean? so funny. ohhh and we went to this girl's house, she is only 18 and invited the both sets of sister missionaries over for lunch with her friends, and her house is AMAZING!!! it is huge and 4 stories tall and is custom made and super modern. We went to the top floor to eat and guess what?! There is a ballet/dance studio!!! all i wanted to do is dance! ahhh so cool! then i looked at the mirror and realized how bad my legs looked. we dont have a full length mirror so, it was quite a surprise. 

Here is part of my email to my mission president, so i don't have to retype everything to you. time is limited here. 

Once again, the Lord just is so generous and pours out his blessing and miracles to us missionaries. This week, we met with one of our investigators, Zhen JM, and taught her about the Sabbath Day. She got work off last Sunday to come to Church which was a HUGE blessing. We invited her to be baptized and she was really hesitant at first, but then we set a date for 6/22! I believe she will be ready before hand, but the only problem is getting her to Church 3 times before that date since she works on Sundays. I believe that the Lord will provide a way for her to get to church. 

We had a few opportunities to do service this week. We helped the Primary President clean her new house and we helped a recent convert, Chen JM, clean her house as well. I love serving others because it really makes me happy inside and I can tell they are happy too. Chen JM is kind of having a faith issue but I believe she is progressing as she makes more friends in the Church. She told us that she really likes it when we listen to her  and tell her when we don't understand something she said because she has run into missionaries before that would just jump over her problem since they didn't understand. This taught me how important listening is and asking questions! I can't be afraid to ask questions when I don't understand something. Chen JM was really happy we came to help her. She said she doesn't know where to start to organize her house. We are coming this week again to help her with the Elders. 

We have this golden investigator Lin JM. She is 16 and seems so interested in the Church. She is really shy though. We taught her the Restoration and she came to church yesterday too! She started reading the BOM and seems to like it. Her baptism date is 6/22 and I think she will be prepared if she continues to come to church. I love her sweet spirit. Hopefully her parents won't be opposed to her coming to church. 

The Ling Family that we have been meeting with are so wonderful. The mom is still praying to know if our Church is true and if the BOM is true. The kids are also reading the BOM. They haven't set a baptism date yet because the mom still wants to know before she sets a date. We will keep working with them. They have a lot of faith and I always feel the Spirit when we teach or visit them. I have faith that Heavenly Father will answer their prayers soon! 

We have placed about 7 BOMs this week. I love the spirit I feel when I explain to someone what the BOM is. I think our district has gone through 3 boxes of BOMs. It's GREAT! Instead of the rain flooding Taiwan, BOMs are! 

Well, I love you all so much! The videos of Mia were sooo cute!!! she is growing up too fast! send me some pictures of everyone. 

Love 

Sister Chao 

Pics & a few things

This week went pretty well. I saw a lot of miracles happen and I know that they happen because of our awareness of the Holy Ghost. Without the Holy Ghost, we wouldn't have seen these miracles. 

One of our family investigators, Ma Jiating, is really progressing. They are so ready for baptism and we extended baptism to them again last Tuesday. The two boys said that their dad said they couldn't get baptized until they are 18 and the girl who is 22 says that she will think about it fornext Saturday. The boys are going to ask their parents again. We meet with them tomorrow. I hope they can get baptized!!! I can tell they really want to. 

We have this other family investigator, Ling Jiating too. They are awesome! I love them so much. We teach the mom and her two kids. The mom is golden. She really is such a sweetheart and is such a good example to her kids. Her kids are amazing too. The mom said that she believes in Christ and God but just doesn't know what Church to join. In her extended family, they all go to about 6 different Christian churches, so she says she is really praying about it. She has amazing faith and her kids have been praying and reading the BOM too. The mom really knows and believes Heavenly Father will answer her. Isn't she just the best? I really hope they will find out for themselves that our message is true and that she will feel that it is true. I know that Heavenly Father will answer her. It is all about His timing and I trust that things will work out. 

The other day, I went on exchanges with Sister Huang since Sister Parker had the Flu. We went out to i don't even know where in Ji'an (i'm still directionally lost everyday) and we were going to visit this less active, but she wasn't there. Then we decided to go visit another L.A. who we visited last week. I didn't know why we should visit her and we decided to share a message on faith with her. When we got there, that was exactly what she needed!!! She had been struggling to know if this is the true gospel of Jesus Christ. She said she has only prayed a handful of times in 2 years about it. She doesn't read the BOM either. She felt like she lost her faith because Heavenly Father never gave her an answer. I shared with her that only through the trial of your faith that He will answer your prayers. I told her that if she shows Him that she has the faith that He will answer her. read the BOM and pray everyday, that He WILL answer her. It will just be on His timetable. She committed to reading and praying everyday from that day on. She said that she will give it a try and when she said the closing prayer, she started to cry. I could feel the spirit so strongly in that room. I knew she was struggling so much inside and all I wanted to tell her was "It is true!!! Can't you feel it!?" but I also know she needs to find out for herself and gain her own testimony. I told her that Heavenly Father really loves her and understands what she is going through. It was such a cool experience! I knew we were definitely guided by the Holy Ghost to go visit her. 

This week, we also taught this lady Zheng Jie Mei. She is so close to baptism but can't come to church because of work. Last Monday, I extended an invitation to her to ask her boss if she could get work off and that if she had the faith, she will be able to come to church. Guess what?! The Lord blessed her with a miracle and she got work off! It was SO great to see her at the ward activity AND at church!! I've been praying for her and I know that the Lord is really watching over her. So many miracles! What a huge blessing!

I'm loving the work. My companion is great! She is a good trainer. I'm learning the language slowly but surely. I really want to get Phase 1 DONE by the time training is over. Biking feels a lot better here now and the food is great! I'm so happy I can be a missionary at this time because I know I am here for a reason. I love seeing other people's heart change and their desire to learn more and exercise fatih. Faith is so crucial. Without it, we can't do anything! 

Ji'an

Hey!!!!!

So...I will be skyping on mothers day your time at 6pm and sunday for you. it will be 9AM in taiwan on monday. dad and alma and rachel, email me your skype names...just in case one doesnt work. everyone be at the house at the same time! :) i cant wait to skype!!!! 

I dont have very much time left because we were all trying to coordinate times to skype home because there are only 2 computers for 12 missionaries to use. so confusing. but at last i get to skype home at the time you guys wanted. dont be late. 

It poured all night into this morning and it was super crazy rain outside when we biked over to the internet cafe to email. so funny. we wore our plastic ponchos that this investigator gave to us. i love it. your face gets soaked and your legs and feet and you can barely see anything while riding. thats what scares me. haha. im getting used to the bike more and more. not as scary anymore. still a little though. i sprayed my bike too! it was such a nice bike before i had to spray it. so sad. i need to get a bucket for the back of my bike so i can keep stuff dry. my bag has been getting wet but its waterproof so YAY! except water can seep in from the sides sometimes. but iits a super sturdy bag. thank goodness for osprey right alma? very useful. but usually im wet when i give a lesson. my clothes dont get ruined or dirty....just wet. haha. 

We have been able to find more food places. we love eating at the night market that is close to the church. there is a less active that owns a little restaurant there and it is so good and ALL the missionaries go there to eat all the time because it's cheap...or he gives us a good deal. i get my favorite vegetable there for only $40 taiwan money where other places charges $80-100. CRAZY! i eat my favorite vegetable at least 5 times a week. haha. and there is this really good baozhi place in the night market that sells baozhi with cabbage, bamboo, mushrooms in this curried sauce kinda and it is amazing. so yummy. also there are lots of fruit drink stands at the night market and i got a smoothie made with just mangoes and papaya. so good. also there is this vegetarian buffet type restaurant by the church with all these different vegetables and tofu and random things. did you know that vegetarian here means that they dont eat garlic, onions, or chives?!?!?!? so i have to ask for no meat instead of say "su" because then they think i cant have garlic and they will say they have nothing there for me. interesting. ive only been to one member's house to eat. i had the skinny clear noodles with vegetables and meat...but i just picked out the meat. there wasnt much in it. not very many members in our ward invite us over for dinner so usually we are on our own which is fine. fruit here and bread is so good. 

i've received about 10 mosquito bites. there is one kind of mosquito or bug, i dont know what, that i get an allergic reaction to even though i didnt scratch it. my leg swelled up super big and got super red and it was huge. its not swollen anymore or itchy anymore but it left like a huge rash/birthmark looking scar on my leg....i never itched it either....all the other bites are prettty much normal though. so i dont know what that was. no i have a huge red spot on my ankle. 

Okay, so enough about all that. Im loving Ji'an more and more. im getting used to the area kinda. still directionally lost a lot but my companion knows where she is going. i just follow. oh and we met this man outside our apartment when we were parking our bikes and he came to talk to us and he said he had a friend who was LDS and served a mission. he told me that he thought i was a young china superstar when he saw me. hahha. i was like nope, im a missionary. we have this investigator, pong jie mei (JM), and she has been coming to church and she worships at this buddhist temple next to the church. she has some crazy ideas and sometimes i dont understand her at all. she wanted us to meet her friend that is a guy who speaks good english and teach him the gospel. we followed her to where he was and she brought us to the huge miao and told us to go up the stairs with her. we felt kinda awkward to go onto the miao grounds and she said it was just up the stairs and we were going to meet him outside. so we didnt actually go inside a room but we still felt weird so we just made a quick contact and left and gave her friend to the elders. we felt like she was trying to set us up with her friend or something. so weird. but she is great and i hope she will get baptized. we have this family, ma jiating, who has 3 kids. the kids are our investigators. they are all ready for baptism but missed their date because their dad said one of them couldnt get baptized since he was busy with school. we are going to see if he can ask again and have the other 2 baptized this month. they are so ready too!!! We also met with a less active and her 12 year old daughter is our investigator. the less active got offended at church so doesnt want to come anymore but she is supportive of her daughter being baptized if she wants to. her daughter is super shy and hasnt been to church yet...she doesnt know if she wants to be baptized either. so we are working with them. we also went to go visit a member family, Zheng jia ting. they are so great. they showed us pictures of past missionaries and i saw a picture of my friend alyssa's brother in law mike dickson! so cool. im loving the work here. we meet a lot of indonesians here who dont know chinese or english that much. they are here taking care of the old people. we met these phillipino ladies at the park and they spoke english. we talked to them for a little and prayed with them. they were crying after we prayed. they really felt the spirit when we were talking to them and we were going to meet them again at the park but it was raining so they didnt come. it was a cool experience though. when we go contacting and knock on a million doors, most are just uninterested or say they dont have time. but we always seem to get one that listens and prays with us. they dont always want to meet with us again, but at least we are planting that seed. 

anyways, taiwan is great!!! hualien is really pretty. It's still dirty but not as bad as the city. lots of rice patties when we go out to the middle of no where to find less actives. ok. cant wait to talk to you next week! dont forget to be watching skype. i might be using the church account...i dont really know how that works here. 

wo ai nimen! 

Sister Chao