Happy st. Patrick's day!

Hello! 

I hope you are all wearing green! Hope mom had a good birthday. Did you guys eat pie on Pi Day?! I didn't...I couldn't find any. I went on exchanges that day and rode my bike forever away, that was fun. This morning I cleaned mold off of the kitchen sink....it was NASTY. I was scrubbing at it for a good 15 minutes. Hopefully I don't get mold poisoning like Alyssa. :) It has gotten a little warmer lately but it still gets cold. The transfer is almost over. 2 more weeks! I probably won't be moving or getting a new companion. I love Sister Bennion. We have a lot of fun together and we see so many miracles. Our faith has definitely been tried but we always see success nonetheless. Like the little boy who never showed up at his baptism 2 weeks ago GOT BAPTIZED on Saturday. YEAH! so awesome. The elders forgot to turn off the water so part of the church was flooded. it was hilarious. Our prayers were answered and he if finally baptized and now the ward can take care of him. He was probably the most stressful investigator to get baptized. The ward helped out a lot and it went really well. We have this awesome 34 year old guy named Zhang DX that is progressing fast. he reminds me of Clinton. haha. He lives by himself and we found him knocking 2 weeks ago. He is really cool and he might be the first guy investigator (besides the little boy) of ours to get baptized! Only problem is, he works on Sundays. ahh. But he for some reason had it off yesterday so he came! He dresses super hipster and is super asian. This Gospel can definitely help him! He is awesome!!! 

Side note: Sister missionaries really have a different effect on people. if you read at the end of the email, we got an LA man to church that the elders have been working on for awhile. yay! chenggong! Go sister missionaries! :) 

As for Xinzhu, we had a baptism on Saturday with the little boy that didn't show up 2 weeks ago! It was successful this time and the members really helped. We couldn't have done it without them. This time it just felt right and lots of little kids came to support him. It was a different feel. The ward was ready this time. His dad and someone else helped baptize him since his dad can't use his right hand. It was so cool to see it and the spirit was so strong. Funny side note, the elders helped us fill the font but forgot to turn the water off, so it flooded part of the church. We got it all cleaned up though. :) I'm so happy that Chen Yan Xian got baptized! Finally the day came, after the trial of our faith! 

We have a progressing investigator Zhang DX that we found 2 weeks ago and he came to church! We met with him last night and taught him the Plan of Salvation. He had a lot of good questions and the lesson went really well. I felt like the spirit was leading the lesson the whole time. We talked a lot about faith and desire. We asked him if he had a desire to know if these things were true because he kept asking how we knew if we've never seen it before. He said he DID have a desire and that he was willing to do all our invites. However, he can't come to church these next 2 weeks because of work. He is awesome though and I really do see him getting baptized next month. The members were all really helpful on Sunday. We just need him not to work on Sundays! 

Our next really awesome investigator is Lin JM, our 14 year old YW. She is progressing really fast and will be done with all the lessons tonight. The ward knows her and the YW are great to her. She loves church and we don't even have to take care of her at church since the YW do. It's been really good. There is a YW that sits by her and they were looking at Personal Progress things and a card about prophets during Sacrament meeting. I think she really wants to get baptized but she is afraid her dad will say no. We met her dad real quick again after church since he came to pick her up. Her dad doesn't seem to mind her coming to church but baptism might be a different story. She is so ready to be baptized! Sister Bennion and I love her so much. Zhang DX and Lin JM were both found by knocking doors. 

Another cool miracle. Last week, we found an LA that we have never met before when we were knocking doors and he came to church! He could only stay for Sacrament meeting but he said he could come to FHE. I'm so glad we went finding in his area so that we could find HIM! So cool. Also, another LA that the elders have been working with came to church. We went to go visit him this week and he told me that he would come to church. I called him in the morning to give him a wake up call and he came! The elders were so surprised and asked us what we did differently and I didn't know what to say. Miracle!

We have a few other investigators with a date that are progressing but we need more to be progressing. We really want to find the prepared out there. I love inviting everyone to baptism. I feel weird if I don't do it. Sister Bennion and I were playing for team Jesus this week. We set 3 new dates for other missionaries, but it's okay. They are all really awesome people. We had a harder time finding this week but we know we will find the prepared this week. I know they are out there. I'm ready to start this week out great. We have 2 more exchanges this week then it will be over for this transfer!! Yay! 

Love

Sister Chao

Miracle week

Hello!!!! 

Happy Birthday MOM and Alyssa! Wow this transfer is flying by. We have seen so many miracles...read below. Sister Bennion and I are on fire! We found 9 new investigators and set 4 new baptism dates. Also, that one little boy that never came to his baptism, is getting baptized this Saturday. I KNOW IT WILL HAPPEN THIS TIME! President told me it was a tender mercy from Heaven when he didn't get baptized, because it opened the eyes of the members. Family, do all you can to help the missionaries! We can't do it alone. It doesn't work. I went to Taipei last week for a leadership meeting. We got trained on that. Tomorrow Sister Bennion and I are doing a training with aligning ourselves with the members. It's going to be a 40 minute training for both Xinzhu and Miaoli zones. Yay! We hope it will be fun and powerful! These missionaries really just need more desire. Hopefully we and the zone leaders can help improve this. 

It's been raining and cold lately. I'm dreading rainy season. Lets hope summer comes fast. Its been a little stressful lately helping all the sisters, but the work has been so good! I love it!!!!! 

Dad: Do you know of any LDS people who want to come to Taiwan to teach English? There is this LA that is looking for an English teacher for her bu shi ban. 

Wow, let me just say we had a really good week and I honestly don't know how it happened. I really don't know how we found 9 new investigators. Am I really worthy of all these blessings?! I can testify that I know these invites work and that inviting people to baptism on the first visit WORKS. I've seen it in Xinzhu and I've seen it on exchanges. On Monday, we had 20 minutes of finding after FHE. We prayed to have a new investigator and to set a date with them. Sure enough, we found a new investigator and set a date with him. We met with him again last night and had an awesome peike. He is golden. He said that he would be able to come to church next Sunday too (he works almost every Sunday). I asked him what he is expecting out of us coming to teach him and he said that he wants to know the purpose of life. Perfect answer...we can tell him that! We had a great lessons about the Restoration and I felt the spirit so strong. It was probably the best we have ever taught the Restoration. He has been reading the BOM as well. Our peike invited him over for FHE tonight and he said he would come! I'm so excited to see him progress. I feel like he would be the person that we have been trying to find "from knocking to baptism." We want to see the beginning to end. 

Another miracle day was this past Saturday, when it rained all day and all night. We had 2 hours to find at night and we passed this neighborhood and I had a feeling we should go back and knock there. I yelled at my companion "Stop!" and we turned around and went into that neighborhood. Sure enough, we found an LA that we've never met before, an investigator I was going to former, and a new investigator. Although we were soaked and freezing, we were so happy to be outside. 

Basically Saturday was packed with miracles. We were able to visit our 9 year old investigator X, who didn't get baptized last week. We had the primary president come and a little member boy that he is friends with. The little boy straight up just asked him, do you still want to get baptized? I was so surprised how bold he was. We talked to X for a long time and told him he had to make the decision for himself. We asked him one last time and he thought about it for a long time and we just sat in silence. Finally he answered and said "Ok, I want to get baptized." I was so surprised I couldn't believe what he said. We had to make sure he understood that this was HIS decision. He came to church yesterday and I'm confident he will be at his baptism this time. The members helped a lot with getting him to church and telling him that this baptism will be such a fun day. It really was a tender mercy that Heavenly Father has given us. He wasn't supposed to get baptized last week because members needed to see that we couldn't do it without them. 

We have 2 investigators progressing quickly. We have a 14 year old Lin JM. She is reading the BOM everyday, praying, and coming to church. She loves Young Women's. We had a lesson at a member's home with her that went really well. She is also going to FHE with us every Monday. Her parents are okay with everything, but we are still praying that they will give her permission to get baptized. The other investigator is our member referral Luo JM. I can tell she really wants to get baptized. Her husband might fandui but she wants to show her husband how this Gospel will change her. Her friend, who is our LA, isn't the best example so we are trying to get other members peike more with her. 

I love this work! I know these invites work! Sister Bennion and I love this work and are trying to do our best with missionary work and with helping the sisters. It's been a little stressful but so rewarding. I love D&C 127:4, if we redouble our efforts and are diligent until the end, the reward in Heaven is waiting for us! Yes! Love you all!!! 

Love 

Sister Chao

Best and worst week ever!

Hello! 

I can't believe it's March already!!! Happy Birthday Mom and Sister Bailey! Love you both! I got my "death" letter. My return date is Aug. 2. That is so soon! I still have lots to do and learn! I went on exchanges with the temple sisters and on Friday, we had to go to Taipei to exchange back. I rode the train with Sister Barden and the train lines had problems mid way and it took 2.5 hours to get there. Then when we got to Taipei Main Station, we got lost trying to find the other sisters for 1 hour. I don't know taipei main station at all since i usually take the bus to taipei. Then when we took the train back, it was still having problems so it took forever. It was packed too and stuffy. I felt so claustrophobic. We ended up sitting on the ground eating our dinner since our feet hurt. But all this was hilarious and we just laugh about it now. Anways you can read below why this was the best and worst week. 

I really want to work on bringing the LA's back. We have SO many great LA's that have testimonies but are just lazy to come to church. They know it's true, they just need to be reminded of it! 

We have had 2 miracle member referrals from LA's! The first one is from our LA Jiang JM. She introduced us to her friend Luo JM and we shared with her the Restoration and invited her to be baptized. She set a date too! She has heard a lot about our church from her friend. She really wants to be baptized but she thinks her husband will fandui. We told her to keep praying and to have faith. She says that she has seen her prayers answered before in her life. She was able to come to church but just one hour of it. Our LA Jiang JM came with her too! The biggest worry with Luo JM is that we think she will follow the ways of Jiang JM, who thinks that she doesn't need to come to church because Sunday is a day to do what her husband wants to do. Luo JM has the same thoughts too. We are going to try to get other peike's and members to help us with our lessons so that she has other examples to follow. But I think through Luo JM, we will be able to bring Jiang JM back to church. 

Our other referral was from our LA Yao JM. She loves us sisters a lot and we made cookies at her house. She invited the person who just moved into her house and is renting a room to make cookies with us. He is 28 and his name is Kila. He is a software engineer. Yao JM's 2 sons are super active members. We all sat down and we shared a scripture with Kila and he agreed to come to church. After he agreed, I turned to Yao JM and asked if she would come to church and she said yes! She wasn't expecting us to start teaching Kila and I know Kila wasn't expecting it too. It just happened to be the perfect situation. We will get to know Kila better next time we officially meet with him and invite him to baptism. I'm really excited to teach him. It's the perfect missionary opportunity for Yao JM and her two sons. Also at church, Yao JM's son bore his testimony and I think it really touched her. I think it was good for Yao JM to see how awesome her sons are in the Gospel. What a great Sunday! 

Probably one of the hardest days of my mission was this last Saturday. We had a baptism all planned for and ready to go for our 9 year old investigator Chen (X). His dad is a member, but has mental disabilities and no one really takes care of little (X). The little boy passed his interview with flying colors and told us he wanted to get baptized. However, on Saturday, his cousins came over and all he wanted to do was play with them. When it came to 7PM, he still wasn't at the church. Our MM leader and a few members and a primary boy went to go pick him up but he still didn't want to come. He wanted to play with his friends. Our little primary boy told him that he really wanted to see him get baptized. I was so grateful for the members that went over there to help with this situation. The water was ready and people were waiting. I felt so embarrassed and so bad. We decided to cancel the baptism and the MM leader said that the ward needs to work with (X) more and that it wasn't our fault. When I heard the final news of it's canceled, me and my companion's hearts broke. I was so sad. I felt really bu hao yi si. We all prayed that he would show up, but in the end, the miracle we wanted didn't happen. Sister Bennion and I were both really sad, but I realized that Heavenly Father maybe wanted this to happen to open the eyes of the members and let them know that we missionaries can't do this alone. We NEED their help. Members weren't as willing to help with (X) before but after this happened, it seemed like they were all on the boat to get this boy baptized. I know Heavenly Father works in mysterious ways. I know He wants (X) to get baptized, but maybe he is testing our faith and our members' faith first. Anyways, I learned a lot from this experience. But I never want to have a failure baptism again! I know he will get baptized one day, maybe he isn't quite ready yet. 

However, this week was really filled with miracles, despite what happened Saturday night. We were able to find 6 new investigators and set 4 new baptism dates. I know that when we do the mission invite of inviting everyone to baptism on the street, you will see miracles. This week, we almost hit all the standards of excellence. I don't even know how we did it. I was pleasantly surprised and I know the Lord really helped us. I've been waiting for this day since I got to Xinzhu and it finally happened. I hope we can keep it up. I love being a missionary and Sister Bennion is awesome. I love her so much and I feel like we work really well together. 

we get to go to the jedi meeting in taipei again this week and I'll be going on exchanges in Toufen. Yippie! 

Okay Love you all! 

Sister Chao