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