Baptism!!

Hello!!!!

Mom and dad, i can't believe you might be coming to Taiwan!!! thats so crazy. I probably wont see you on the streets though. Dad, you just want to come for your birthday huh? haha. So i've been sick the past 2 weeks and i can't seem to get rid of this cough that i have. I've just been so exhausted lately probably because of my cold but I just want this cough to go away! I'm fine now except for the cough. Aborn and Keely, I can't believe Mia is walking!!!!!!!!!!!! yay! she is so cute!! I went on exchanges with Sister Miao. She is from Taizhong. She is also vegetarian so we had a good time eating on Wednesday. haha. We went to all the vegetarian restaurants, one of them being a vegan one. It was fun. So delicious. My companion got to go to Hualien for the exchange. I was slightly jealous since I wanted to go back to my birthplace and see everyone but im glad she got to go there. :) I got to ride the train for 3 hours to go pick her up in Hualien. So I was there at the train station for about 45 min. We got to buy mochi in hualien. Hualien is known for their mochi. So good. So i rode a train for 6 hours that day and did 3 hours of WPS after. SO MUCH SITTING. haha i almost went crazy...not really though. but close. :) 

We had a baptism AND confirmation yesterday!!! Shi JM, our Vietnamese investigator, finally entered into the waters of baptism. I was so happy for her! Although it was a slightly stressful and crazy baptism, I could still see how happy she was. Her son wouldnt stop crying through the whole baptism. Shi JM called me earlier that week and told me she didn't want to get baptized anymore since her family and her husband weren't too happy with it. I told her to pray about it and a member called her and talked to her. I'm so glad she came to her own baptism because I was getting a little worried when she showed up a little late. You can just see the light in her eyes. Yay!!!! Mom you should call her again and see how she is doing. 

We went on exchanges this week with the sister training leaders. Sister Miao was my companion in Taidong. We had such a great time and saw so many miracles!!! The biggest thing I learned from her was that I wanted to follow the spirit more and recognize the promptings of the spirit during lessons so that i can act on those promptings and help my investigators. I feel like that has always been a challenge for me. The zone leaders asked us to do the training during the zone training on Tuesday on listening to the spirit and languages of the spirit. I felt like it was the perfect topic for me. I learned so much and I've been praying everyday so that I can recognize the spirit and follow the spirit more as I teach. Sister Miao and I met with one of our investigators from English class and we invited her to baptism and she agreed to set a date! She is so great and I'm so grateful for English class! Anyways, the exchange was awesome and I love Sister Miao and her example to me. She is a great missionary!

So this week, I've also realized that most of our investigators who are not progressing are either not interested or lack the faith to keep all the commandments or commitments. I've been trying to figure out who we need to put in a different pile for later missionaries to contact them and who needs us to help them with their faith so that they can progress. It's been a little hard but I know through prayer, we can make the best decision and know how to help them. Sister Miao said something in Zone Training that I really liked. She talked about how they are focusing on the investigators who can actually come to church. Because people who can't come to church, can't ever progress towards baptism. That's what I've been thinking about lately. Who can really come to church, because those are the people who will progress. Some investigators need more faith so that they will make that decision to come to church. 

Anyways, Lily, our investigator from English class that we set a baptismal date with, came to church this Sunday! She is 22 and she just graduated. At first, she was super busy with 2 jobs but then she decided to quit one of them and now she has time for church. I was so happy....not that she lost a job but her not having that job allowed her to have more time for church. :) She stayed for all 3 hours too. She really likes us missionaries and talking to all the missionaries. I'm hoping she doesn't become converted to us. I'm really excited to prepare her for baptism!

Another miracle of the week, we met with one of the tsunami investigators Lu JM. She is actually from Vietnam as well and she has lived in Taiwan for 17 years. Her chinese is pretty good, but sometimes i think it is difficult for her to understand us. We taught her the Restoration and invited her to be baptized on the first visit! She was hesitant at first but she agreed to set a date! My companion both had a feeling that we should invite her on the first lesson and that 12/21 would be her date. It's crazy how the spirit works! Truly a miracle. We had a lot of investigators from the tsunami who ended up not being too interested so teaching Lu JM was awesome. We meet so many Vietnamese people here!

We met with Liao JM this week and we had a couple from our branch peike. Liao JM is the one with the LA son that the elders are working with. She really has a desire to get baptized but it is hard for her to come to church because of work. She loves to talk and I was so grateful we were able to get through the first lesson finally. We are having an FHE with her and our peike familynext Monday. The elders will be coming since her son will be home. I really can't wait to see Liao JM get baptized. She just wants to help her son and that is what is motivating her right now. It is a little hard for her to read the BOM since she doesn't know how to read that well. We are going to get her a simplified BOM. 

Our teenager investigator Chen JM who had a date, but now doesn't, still has a desire to learn about the Gospel. Her friend from the 2nd branch helped peiked. Her mom was there too and sat in on the lesson. I had a feeling to reinvite Chen JM to baptism and her mom as well. Although they didn't want to set a date, I know that they know what our purpose was. Chen JM's mom told me that she had a little desire to get baptized and become a Christian but her family and husband would be against it and that she would disappoint them. I invited her to read the BOM and pray specifically for this and the BOM. She agreed. Chen JM didn't want to set another date because she feels too rushed and she wants to take her time learning. Both of them are so wonderful and I can just see both mom and daughter getting baptized.  

Chen JM (the gangster) told me about her story from the past without me asking her. She just shared mostly everything with me and i listened so carefully my brain was going to explode, but I UNDERSTOOD HER! Finally! Wow, she has a crazy crazy past. 

okay im out of time!!! ill be sending lots of pics with this email. 

love you all!

sister chao