How is everyone? Happy Halloween! Can't wait to see pics next week. Mom, thanks for calling Shi JM. She loves you! She said she really liked talking to you on the phone. She said that your Vietnamese was really good. She is so close to baptism!! Thanks for helping with the missionary work in Taidong. As you can see in the subject line....we are having a total of 26 missionaries here in Taidong this week proselyting. President has made this week a Missionary Tsunami on the east coast. I think 10 missionaries from Taipei area are going to Hualien and 10 are coming to Taidong for the week. Their job is to find find find ALL DAY until Saturday. Xinku tamen. President really wants the east coast branches to meet their 100 baptisms goal by the end of the year. so far, our branch needs about 80 more and the 2nd branch needs 85. Hualien the same too. So the 10 missionaries are going to find a total of 100 new investigators for us this week. We did a fast on Saturday for this. The work is truly hastening on the east coast! President really wants Hualien and Taidong to turn into a stake next year. We are going to have a 3rd branch in March. So exciting! Our apartment is going to be so cramped this next week. Temple sisters are coming today for one night and then 4 sisters come tomorrow for the week. WE are going to have 8 sisters total in our apt!!!!! we only have 4 beds....and 2 showers. yikes. also we have no bedding/towels for these sisters. Im not sure how this is going to work out. just a little crazy. Anyways im still getting eaten by mosquitoes but not xiao hei wens luckily. i dont know why like to eat me. Also its getting so COLD here!!! Biking at night is really cold. The weather changed so much. I actually really enjoyed the summer and hot weather. All the sweat...haha. I can't wait for next summer! :) At least my tan lines have been fading away. OH and creepy story!!!!!!! We went finding one night in this sketch area and we knocked on this door. It was dark inside and all you can see is the red buddhist shrine lights that everyone has here. So creepy. so all you can see is red inside. then a man comes to the door but he just stands behind the door. the door is glass. so all i can see is the outline of the man the red light behind him. so scary. and he was moving his fingers all weird and just standing at the door and wouldn't open it. by this time, my comp and I are just a little freaked out so we decide to leave. Then this little girl that was following us told us that the guy at that house does really "xie'e" things. So basically not good things...im not going to say what. Anyways...we were scared and left and went home. haha. what an experience. knocking at night is usually pretty successful but this time was just a bit scary. just in time for halloween right? JK...
OH AND WE FINALLY GOT DESKS!!!! IVE WAITED 3 MONTHS!
okay so this week...
This week, Shi JM had her interview with Elder Kang! All she needs now is a second interview which is scheduled for Saturday with President Saunders. My mom actually ended up calling herMonday night and they talked for almost an hour about kids, the gospel, and family. She said she loved talking to my mom and said she really emphasized bringing the kids to church. My parents were happy they could help with the missionary work over here in Taiwan. I know Shi JM still has a lot to learn and the language barrier makes it a little harder, but her Chinese is great. I'm excited for her to make this next step.
Our gangster Chen JM just needs to interview with President Day and we will see where she goes from there. she is so excited.
We finally met with Tsai JM again, who is related to Tsai Huizhang's wife. We were originally teaching her and her husband but she told us her husband doesn't want to learn about our church since he has been baptized into another church. He doesn't have a desire right now to learn about this Gospel, but he is supportive of his wife, so that's good. Tsai JM is awesome and we had to change her baptism date to 12/14 since she is super busy and doesn't have much time to meet with us. Tsai Wan Ting helped us peike and the lesson went well. I love teaching Tsai JM. She is such a great mom and just has this light to her.
We set a baptism date on the first visit with a new investigator! Her name is Liao JM. The elders gave us this referral. Her son is a RC/LA. She really wants to become a Christian and grow and learn in the church with her son. She is worried that her son is turning "bad" and she wants him to go to church. So she is going to start changing her life so she can go to church with her son. She has a smoking problem that we will need to work with. She is from China and speaks cantonese so her mandarin is sometimes hard to understand. I'm hoping to bring a peike with us next time. What a miralce!
We met with another referral from the elders. Her name is Joanne. She used to live in New York so her English is really good. She is just like the typical American/Asian mom. She has 2 cute kids. We talked about the BOM and prayer. She wants her kids to grow up in a church. However, she is a mom that has to schedule EVERYTHING and she says she can't come to church since it's her kids' nap time and she can't change that. I told her she could go to the morning branch and she said maybe. She is really great but has a hard time making room for church. Maybe as we keep meeting with her, she will have a desire to change that.
English class is really a great finding tool. We found a new investigator from English this week. She is 22 and just graduated from college, but has 2 jobs and is always working. But she found time to come to English. She was going to come to church but she couldn't leave work. We taught her the Restoration after English. She seems really interested. She is just really busy. People just work so much here!
Probably the most difficult investigator we have is Becky, the eternal investigator. She doesn't like scheduling with us because she never knows if she has plans on that day and isn't willing to make us apart of her plan. She cancelled on us these past 2 weeks. She came to church for most of the 3 hours which has been an improvement. She told Sister Thomsen in an email that she doesn't like how the branch is focusing on the 100 baptisms and such. She just focuses on everything but the true meaning of baptism. She really has to have a desire to change her attitude. It's been hard since i know she wants to get baptized ONE day. She has told me that. She just needs to not focus on the social part of church and really know why she goes to church. We have tried telling her multiple times, but she hasn't changed yet. I'm praying for a miracle.
Sister Singh and I are loving the work down here in Taidong. She is such a great companion and is so happy. I love her fun personality. The members and investigators love her already. We are going on exchanges with the temple sisters today. I'm so excited for this week with all the missionaries coming down! I know we are going to see so many miracles! Yay! The hastening of the Lord's work is truly hastening on the east coast. Can't wait for a stake to form!
Love you all!
Sister Chao
No comments:
Post a Comment