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