Last week of transfers

Hello!

This week is the last week of this transfer. I don't think I'm moving or getting a new companion. We will find out tonight or tomorrow. I'm for sure not training! Training calls were Saturday and I never got a call. Somewhat of a relief. I don't think I would be a good trainer. They are supposedly adding 4 more elders to our area! We are all on a look out for an apartment for them. The mission is growing so fast! Oh and dad you asked about the typhoon, well it didn't really affect Taidong. It was just really windy one day and it rained a lot. But nothing big. It cooled down a lot for one day, but now it's back to being really hot. I'm always so sweaty and nasty when we go contacting or knocking. I'm surprised people still want to talk to me. haha. Anyways, for Pday, our awesome branch president is taking our district to San Qian Tai...i think that's what it's called. you can look it up. supposedly if you are in Taidong, you have to go there. I'm excited. I love Taidong and the hot sun. I've really enjoyed summer in Taiwan. I don't like to wear my rain poncho because it gets super hot and you smell like plastic. The work has been a little slow, but I can't wait to find those prepared people. I know they are out there. I'll let you know if im moving or not. Here is part of the update i sent to President this week. 

This week has been a little rough. We had a lot of our investigators cancel on us. I feel like they just don't quite get the importance of meeting with us and coming to church. Some are reading the BOM and praying but never have time to meet with us. These people are always so busy! But we were able to meet with lots of less actives and members this week and of course, go finding. 

This week, we did a fast with our investigator Qian Qian. She is 18 years old and has finished all the lessons. She really wants to get baptized with her boyfriend, who has also been meeting with the Elders. However, her parents wont let her and are really against the church. She agreed to do a fast with us before she would ask her parents to sign the permission slip. Unfortunately her parents said no. They won't let her go out much so it has been hard trying to meet with her. We told her that it was okay and that she could still go to church and meet with the missionaries when she goes to college next month. I'm still praying that a miracle will happen. She is so prepared. 

We met with one of our new investigators that we found last week who actually lives right across the street from us. Li JM loves to talk and ask questions. It is hard and a little stressful to teach her because she won't let us talk much. She is really great though and has lots of gospel related questions. Sometimes I feel like she isn't fully listening, but she seems to have a lot of interest. I think she will take some time to work with, but hopefully she starts progressing and coming to church. 

Another new investigator we met with was Lai JM. She brought her 2 kids and hopefully we can teach them as well. She was really late showing up so we only had a few minutes to talk, but we shared with her how our church was different and gave her a BOM. She had lots of good questions and has been to a few Christian churches before. We had another appointment set up for yesterday and she was supposed to come to church but she never showed up. We called her and she said that she has been having some family problems. Her husband is really Buddhist and is probably not really happy with her for meeting with the missionaries. After our first visit, i felt like she was someone who really wants to learn more about the Gospel and of Jesus Christ. However Satan is very real and is making it really difficult for her and for us to teach her. Hopefully we will have another chance to meet with her.

Our eternal investigator Becky finally set another baptism goal! We've been wanting to set a goal with her so she can pray about it. We re-invited and she accepted! She is still scared about it and doesn't quite know for sure if this is what she should do. We invited her to pray about her date and to pray about the BOM, since she finished reading it. She came to a baptism service the Elders had this last weekend and lots of members were asking her when it was her turn to get baptized. She hates it when people ask her that. I feel like she focuses too much on the social part of church and what people say instead of developing her relationship with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. She gets offended really easily and I've been trying to help her realize this is between her and Heavenly Father, not between her and everyone else. I have faith she can make her date, I just hope she does too! 

We went to go visit this less active family who hasn't been to church in over 4 years. Only the mom and her two daughters were home. It was a really awkward visit. The mom was so distracted and didn't really want to listen to us. However her two daughters were talking to us a lot and the younger one, who is 15, really wants to come to church. The mom told us she didn't want to go to church because she is lazy and too busy. But she kept encouraging her daughters to go. I called them yesterday morning and the two daughters said they would be at church. I was keeping a look out for them all through sacrament meeting but they never came. I was sad they didn't end up coming. I really want to keep working with them, especially the daughters. 

We also have been visiting with this member/less active Lin JM. She has depression and lots of problems to figure out right now. She knows the commandments and what she needs to be doing, but she has a hard time being obedient. She has been really depressed because of her ex-boyfriend. She just really wants to be dating someone right now. She told us she called her ex-boyfriend and told him that she was mad at him and wanted to kill herself. She is just really unhappy right now and we told her that everytime she wants to call him, to call us instead. However that didn't work. She also shared with us she broke the word of wisdom and drank coffee the other day because she was so unhappy. I told her that she needed to talk to Ho Huizhang and that he could really help her if she let him. I really don't know how to help her. We just shared about the Atonement mostly and how it is not too late to repent. I really don't want her to become less active again, because she was less active for 6 years before and started coming back to church last year. I'm going to try really hard to help her get back on the path. 

I know we don't have many progressing investigators right now, but we still see little miracles everyday. I love working with the less actives and trying to get them back to church. Finding that one lost sheep and seeing her come back into the fold is so rewarding. Lang JM is one of them. She is so happy now and I can tell that the whole branch is as well.

Okay, well i miss you all and love you!! Mom, have fun in Virginia! And to all the kids, good luck with the new school year!! :) 

love 

Sister Chao

Hello!

Hi!

Happy Birthday to Rachel and Aborn!!! yay! 

Yesterday while finding, a big black dog chased me when i went to go ring their doorbell. the dog came out of the house and ran after me. it was scary. then the owner just stands there and watches. i asked if the dog bites and he said no. i wasn't as scared after that. so many scary dogs here! Also there might be a typhoon this week? yay for riding bikes in the wind and rain. its fun. anyways...everything is pretty much the same. just trying to find people to teach. the work has been slow, but i know it will pick up. hope all is well!!! 

This week was rough, we spent lots of time knocking and contacting but didn't have much success. I think these past 3 days we did at least 9 hours of finding. We found 2 new investigators. I know it doesn't seem like very many but let's just say I was so grateful to have found someone. We are working really hard on trying to find a family. We haven't found one yet but I know there is one out there waiting for us to find them or they will find us. Maybe this will be the week. I'm hopeful and I can't wait to meet this family. One of the new investigators we found lives right across the street from us. She was the first door we knocked on and invited us in right away. I had a feeling about 2 weeks ago that we should knock the neighborhood right across the street but we didn't get a chance to until this week. I feel like we were supposed to find her and share the Gospel with her. Even though she was the only one we found across the street, it is still a miracle. I actually really enjoy finding and meeting all these different people. Also, you can't give up experiences like big black dogs chasing you. 

We got a member referral this week. We met with Wu JM, who is our member's neighbor. She is very unique and has a Christian background. She has lots of her own thoughts and loves to talk. It is so hard to get her focused. We gave her a BOM and she read almost the whole beginning part of it, including Jospeh Smith's testimony. So cool. I didn't think she would read that much in 2 days. I'm really excited to work with her. She smokes and chews binlang but i have faith she can change! I'm so grateful for member referrals. They are so much better it seems like. 

Our investigator Chen JM who has a date for November is so excited for her baptism. She literally can't wait. When we meet with her, she always says how excited she is. I love her fire. Because of her past experiences, she takes baptism really seriously and knows how important it is. She knows how much it will change her life. She already knows that the Gospel has changed her life completely. She is awesome. 

Our other investigator Becky called us and asked if we were at the church right then and wanted to meet with us. We had an appointment with her later on the week but she wanted to come see us. At first I was super nervous because I thought she would tell us something bad, like she didn't want to meet with us anymore. She is our eternal investigator who is seriously just knocking at the door to baptism. It turned out she just wanted to give us cookies for Valentine's Day. I was so relieved. We had a really good talk about baptism with her. We didn't talk to her about it before since all the other missionaries she has met with pushed her for baptism and it drove her further away. This time we felt good about it and she told us she finished the BOM! I was so proud of her and happy! We invited her to keep praying about it and to restart it. She didn't want to set a baptism date yet but she is praying about it. We told her all the blessings that baptism would give her and how she is so prepared. She is just scared that she doesn't have a strong enough testimony. She shared with us how she has talked to other people who got baptized and asked them why they got baptized. They told her "because the missionaries told me to." That really made her nervous and she didn't like hearing that. She wants to get baptized because she knows it is true. I love that. I know she knows it is true. Why else would she come to church every Sunday and pretty much acts like a member? We gave her two talks from the recent Liahona about moving forward with faith. Hopefully that helped her. 

We met with a less active, Liang JM. She is slowly coming back to church. She has 3 kids and wants to be a good example for them and wants them to grow up in the church. Her son is 7 and wants to get baptized too. She is really great and she is going to start saying family prayers with her kids. 

We dropped another investigator this week. She just wasn't reading the BOM or praying and didn't seem to have any interest. It was sad to let her go, but she just didn't have any expectations with meeting with us. We also had a lot of appointments cancel on us. It's been hard because we have some good investigators but they are so busy. That is why we had lots of finding time this week. I feel like Heavenly Father is really trying our faith right now. We didn't find a lot of new people, but i know that we planted lots of seeds. I can't wait for that day when none of our appointments cancel. I know that only after the trial of our faith, miracles will come. I feel like this week is going to be full of miracles! I can't wait! 

love you all! sorry this email is lame! 

sister chao

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

Ni Hao!

Hello Everyone!!! 

Happy Birthday Moira! How was her birthday? Happy Father's day baba! (8/8) :] Tell the primary i got their letters and thanks! They were super cute. It's been getting really hot here. Pretty much im drenched in sweat. i love it! haha. Yesterday we went to Tsai Huizhang's house to eat dinner. His house is up on this hill overlooking the ocean. He is an architect and a really good designer. His house is beautiful and huge! Probably one of the most beautiful homes I've been in here. His wife made us american salad, curry, and cinnamon rolls!!!! They were so good. They even happened to have a vegetarian curry for the grandma so i got to eat that. So lucky. Tsai jiating is awesome. Tsai Huizhang is the district or stake president i think. They have a daughter on a mission in Hawaii right now. The ward here is great. We had a father's day activity last Saturday and there was a great turn out. My branch president is hilarious. I'm so lucky to be in such a great ward and they really try to help the missionaries out as much as they can. 

This week we saw so many miracles and found a few new investigators that I'm really excited to teach. We've been teaching Chen JM. She is the one that has been meeting with missionaries for awhile now. She is really great and really wants to find the truth. She had tons of questions and asked if we have felt God's existence in our lives. We shared with her that we've had and knew that He lives. I shared with her how I knew through all the challenges that I have. I really feel His comfort, love, and help when I'm having a hard time and also when I feel the most happy. We shared with her how everyone feels it differently and invited her to pray everyday and read out of the BOM and really have a desire to know. 

We went knocking for about an hour one day and didn't have very much success. We wanted to have 3 lessons and find a family to teach. We only had 5 minutes left and only had one other lesson. It was super hot outside and my companion and I were getting a little discouraged. Then the last door we knocked ended up being a Christian. Meng JM is an older lady and has been Christian for most of her life. She asked us how we knew to knock on her door and find her. She was really grateful to talk to us and pray with us. Sister Thomsen said the prayer and she was like "How did you know what to pray for? It was everything I needed." We told her it was the Spirit that was guiding her. We gave her a BOM and she was excited for us to come back. Unfortunately when we called her to make sure about the appointment, she said she didn't want to join another church and didn't want to meet with us. It was hard to hear that after such a great lesson with her. I know she felt the spirit when we talked with her outside. Hopefully she will read the BOM that we gave her and feel the power from it. Even though we didn't end up meeting with her again, meeting her made every drop of sweat that day worth it! 

Another miracle this week. We met with a Chen JM that was a referral from one of our members awhile ago. We found her in our phone referral system. She has a 6 year old son and was excited to meet with us. She said that she saw the change in her friend, who is the member, and wanted to see what our church was about. She seems like a really prepared person. We talked a lot about prayer since she told us she was nervous to pray since she doesn't know what to say. We just told her that she can really say anything to Heavenly Father and share with Him how she feels or what she needs. She said she would try it when she went home. She even brought her son to English class! Yay! I'm excited to teach her and have her friend peike. Member referrals are the best! 

The Elders also gave us a referral, Shi JM. She is Vietnamese and married a Taiwanese so she lives here now. Her Chinese is actually really good. She is super sweet and seems interested in what we have to say. Sometimes it seems like she doesn't understand but i think she gets most of it. I shared with her how my mom was born and raised in Vietnam and how the Gospel has changed her life. We gave her a Vietnamese BOM and she asked for another one to send to her mom in Vietnam. So cool! So now we are on a hunt for another Vietnamese BOM. Hopefully the Bu gets some soon. 

We met with Wu JM and Wong DX. Elder Teshima and Elder Cordon Espinoza were there at the lesson too since Wong DX technically lives in their area, but we can't split teaching them since they always come together and they are a couple. I think keeping them together is best anyways. They really help and encourage each other. We taught them the 10 Commandments and the Law of Chastity. They didn't really have any problems with anything except for working on Sundays. We explained to them the importance of keeping the Sabbath day holy and they said they would try to talk to their boss about it. Also, Wong DX calls Wu JM and reads to her the BOM over the phone. So cool! They have a baptism date for the end of this month and I really think they can make it. They are so awesome! It would be so cool to see both of them get baptized. 

One of our investigators, Chen JM (she is the one that used to be part of a gang), told us of a miracle she had. A few weeks ago, she asked her boss if she could change her work schedule so that she could come to church from 1:30 to 4:30pm starting next week since our branch is changing times. Her boss said no and she was really sad about that since she wanted to attend the Taidong 1 branch. She prayed about it and asked again this last week and her boss said it was okay! She was so excited to be able to continue going to our branch. She also got a triple combination the other day and she was so excited to receive it. She has read the BOM twice already and loves D&C. She also can't wait to get baptized. Seeing her so happy and the Gospel change her life has been such a witness to me of the truthfulness of the Gospel and how it can do miracles. 

Miss and love you all! Let me know how all the kids are doing. i miss them! We visited this family who have baby twins and all i wanted to do is hold them but i cant. Gotta follow mission rules. anyways wo ai nimen!

Sister Chao

Li4 He4! (dont know if i spelled that right? taiwanese for how are you?)

Hello everyone!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOIRA!!!! 

Thanks for all your emails and prayers! This week has been a lot better. I've made the choice to just be happy and positive and it has really helped a lot. Me and my companion are doing better. I went on exchanges back in Hualien this week with the sister training leader Sister McCune. It was so fun to go back to my old area and see everyone. I got to see my recent convert that just got baptized, Pong JM. She happened to be at the church and we shared with her a little message. Since transfers, I've been back to Hualien 2 times in one week for a meeting and exchanges. So much traveling on the train and money! Anyways, sorry this letter is lame, but ill write more next week. Things are pretty much the same everyday. Missionary work is hard but so rewarding. I love every minute of it. 

This week was full of traveling but I still think we saw lots of great things happening in Taidong. Lang JM, an L.A. that we visited last week came to church! She hasn't been back in years and it was her first time back! So good to see her! A member gave her a ride and sat with her all through church. I was so happy. The members here are great! We also went to go visit San San and her mom Hong JM. San San is an L.A. and is going back to college in Hualien end of August. It was great getting to know her. She has been reading the BOM with her mom lately. She also went to church last Sunday. I told her that she would love the ward in Hualien. She is scared to go because she is super shy and doesn't know anyone there. She also shared with us some of her favorite scriptures from the BOM. I think her mom has been a really good influence on her, always encouraging her in the Gospel. 

We got to meet with an investigator who has been taught be 3 companionships already. Chen JM is a teacher at a college here in Taidong and just moved back here from a different city. I can't remember where. She has only been back in Taidong for a few months and was excited to meet with us. She asked if we could meet with her every week on Monday night. I was super surprised to hear that. She said that she doesn't really remember anything that she was taught and she wanted a review, so we taught her the Restoration. She loves to learn but she is busy teaching all the time, especially on Sundays. She said that she might be able to go to church next Sunday. I'm not quite sure how she feels about baptism. There is probably an underlying reason why she hasn't been baptized yet. I think it has to do with work and coming to church. I'm so excited to help her! I can see her progressing fast if she is willing to come to church. 

We met with our eternal investigator Becky yesterday after church. She is awesome. She basically is a member. I think you have interviewed her before. She just doesn't really have strong testimony of the BOM yet. But she shared with us that she didn't drink tea when she went out with her friends. She ordered juice instead. I was so happy to hear that. She follows all the commandments and reads the BOM. She comes to church every Sunday too. I know she will get baptized one day. I feel like she knows this Gospel is true but is just scared to make the next step. 

We also met with Qian Qian and Ting Ting. They are dating and are leaving for college end of August. They are slowly progressing. We taught them about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and set a new baptism goal for August 24th. They both agreed and have been working on keeping the Word of Wisdom. Ting Ting said that he didn't drink tea for 2 days. Yay! They are both really nice and I hope they can get baptized together. 

Love you all! keep me posted on life!!! 

Sister Chao