Hi!
First off, Happy Birthday Veronica and Alma!!! yay for being old!
Second. I sent you guys the email for the calling/skyping rules. no more conference skyping. only calling/skype to parents and whoever thats family is there can talk to me. so since mom is traveling on christmas and will be home by herself christmas eve, i wont talk to her. so dad and Aborn....i will probably skype to Virginia. I can skype christmas day and have to be done by the 26th TAIWAN time. Can you guys figure out a time for me to call home in that time range???? i know this is lame but i have to be obedient. i wish i could talk to everyone. im so bummed. i asked president if i can call home for chinese new years next year since we can call home twice a year and ill be home for christmas next year. we will see. hopefuly EVERYONE WILL BE HOME next new years....or mothers day. oh well. PLEASE FIGURE THIS OUT FOR ME BY NEXT WEEK....i need to plan and ask members if i can use their computers.
This week i drank something nasty. its called Luo(4) Shen(2) Hua(1). its a nasty flower drink. they love it here. i hurried and just drank the whole thing and she saw my empty cup and poured more. so grosss. i wanted to puke. anyways. we are hoping for a white christmas this year....meaning lots of baptisms. so far i have 2 or 3 on Christmas planned. we will see. one for sure.
Lily passed her interview. She changed her date so she could get baptized on Christmas. She was the one who had parents who didn't want her to get baptized, but since she is old enough she decided to anyways. Such a miracle. She was set on not getting baptized for awhile but something changed her. We had really good peikes share their experiences with her who were in the same situation. They were awesome. She is really excited and nervous about her baptism. She has also been a really big influence on Becky. They have become friends and they both go to FHE with us. Becky has progressed these past 2 weeks. She is willing to go to a few members' homes now. I think she sees Lily progressing so fast. Lily asked her if she would get baptized with her on Christmas. This made Becky really think about it and she didn't object to it. So we will see what happens. Becky has been reading and praying again. She agreed to pray about if she should get baptized on Christmas. I feel like Becky has been my working project ever since I got here. I love her so much and I just want her to know how much this Gospel can bless her. I feel like since I got here until now, she has progressed a lot. Maybe this will be it for her. I'm hopeful that she will get baptized on Christmas. I can't give up on her. She is SO close. I think Heavenly Father placed Lily in our hands not only to learn the Gospel but to help Becky. What a huge blessing it has been. I'm SO excited for Christmas!
Tsai JM didn't end up coming to church again. Her son was sick with some flu. She is done with all the lessons and just needs an interview now. She was scheduled for 12/22 but she needs to come to church 2 more times. We are hoping to move it to the 25th. She is so busy with work and kids and moving. But she said that she wanted to get baptized. I'm praying that she will go to church these next two Sundays and nothing will come in the way. She is so great and I really want to see her get baptized on Christmas. We have been teaching her for awhile now and she just has this light in her.
I felt like this week, we had a ton of miracles but also a lot of new investigators died. Our golden investigator we just found and started teaching and was set for baptism on Christmas called us and told us her dad told her not to go to church anymore. Gao JM is 19 and respects her parents a lot. I was so sad to hear that. She really wanted to learn more and get baptized too. We met a few people under the age of 20 who's parents won't let them come to church. I feel like this has been the biggest trial. So many young people are ready for the Gospel but their parents won't let them hear it.
We have a new investigator Luo JM. She is 12 and she was willing to set a date for Christmas. However, she couldn't come to church this Sunday so she won't make that date. I'm not really sure how interested she is, but we are hoping she will continue to meet with us.
Recently, we have found a lot of potential families. One of the families were not home when we came over. They had forgotten supposedly. But I'm hoping that these potential families will turn into our investigators. They all seem really great. It has been a miracle this week when we knocked into their houses. I've been wanting to find a family for awhile and I think we might have found at least one.
Love you all!
Sister chao
