26 missionaries in TAIDONG THIS WEEK,

Hello!!! 

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

Mosquitos x12!!!!!

Hello!!

I'm starting to get eaten alive again!!! Since the weather has been cooling down, there seems to be a lot more mosquitoes out. One night i got over 20 bites from contacting and then when i was at an LA's house, a mosquito kept biting me everywhere until i killed it. A ton of blood came out of that one little mosquito. GROSS. I don't understand why they like me so much!!! they never eat my companions. You are protected from mosquitoes if you stand next to me because they just eat me! so now im covered in bites and but it's worth it when you get a new investigator out of it. :) Mia is now 1!!!!!! Send me some pics of my little baby!!! hehe. Veronica, how's the baby? Mom is down in L.A. now? fun! This week went by so fast. We got to go to Hualien/Jian again last friday!!! I love going back there. It's my birthplace so of course it has a special place in my heart. It was fun seeing all the missionaries and having specialized training with President. The best part, I didn't get car sick that much on the train!!! yay! Yesterday we watched a Asia conference broadcast. Elder Holland, Elder Hales, Elder Evans, and Sister Reeves spoke to the Asia area. We had to watch it in Chinese because they wanted everyone in one room. Let's just say that I could only understand if I listened really intently and focused on every word they said. It took a lot of energy. haha. so i only understood about half of what was going on. oh well. one day ill be able to listen to it and just soak it all in like it was nothing. :) Taidong is going to split into 3 branches next march and we are hoping to get a stake center building here like the one in Hualien (which is HUGE). They are really emphasizing missionary work with members' help. President wants us to have most of our lessons in MEMBERS' homes. Dad do you do that? It's really hard because a lot of members dont want us bringing investigators over. Anyways, the missionary work is hastening and we need members' help to be successful. we can't do it on our own. I want to work on that here in Taidong. 

This week flew by and we saw so many miracles. Last night during dinner, I was looking at our numbers and starting to count them up. I noticed we were just one short of an other lesson, new investigator, and BOM goals. I told Sister Singh lets leave 40 min earlier before our next appointment and go find someone to teach. I was so excited because I knew it was possible to make our weekly goals tonight. We left early and went finding around an LA's house we were visiting. Right before we were going to pray, we saw a lady outside her house and I said hello and started talking to her. She didn't seem that interested at first but we just kept talking and asking her questions and said a prayer with her, gave her a BOM, and set up with her for next week! She shared with us that her husband died and she just has 2 daughters. But guess what? Elder Huang had told me to go finding on that street because they had a family they were teaching there and he told me that there was a mom who's husband died awhile ago that we should go visit. He wasn't exactly sure of where she lived but the VERY lady we talked to was her! She happened to be the one that Elder Huang wanted us to go visit. So cool!!! We just had to say a prayer of gratitude right then. We met our goals and found someone new just because we decided to leave early. 

Chen JM (the gangster) had her interview with Elder Kang yesterday. She was so excited to be interviewed she couldn't sleep all night. I think her interview went well and she needs to meet with president next i believe. We are hoping everything goes smoothly and that she can get baptized next month. I've never met a more prepared person. 

Shi JM, our vietnamese investigator, is so close to her baptism date. Only 2 more weeks. We met with her on Friday night and last night. We went over the baptismal interview questions with her. She has a little difficulty understanding the vocabulary of some questions but I think if Elder Kang talks slowly and explains to her some of the words simply she will understand. I'm really excited for her and I hope she passes both of her interviews. 

We are teaching a 17 year old girl right now. Chen JM is great and her friend is in the 2nd Branch. She has a baptism date, but her friend came up to me at church yesterday and told me that she doesn't feel like getting baptized that soon and that her dad wants her to focus on her school work and not religion since she has a lot of tests coming up. Her dad wasn't very happy that we came over to visit her. I was sad to hear this because she was so interested before and her dad didn't seem to mind when we were there. I hope we can still come visit with her maybe every 2 weeks and finish teaching her the commandments. It was be good if she could come to church too and keep learning about the Gospel. 

We made a few new investigator friends this week. We went to this Indian restaurant for dinner one night and we talked to the owner who is from Tibet and India and we also got to know his Taiwanese wife. He speaks English and we gave him a pamphlet and set up a time to meet with them. When we met with them, we taught about prayer and the BOM. We didn't have much time because he was a running a little late but we gave him an English BOM and his wife a Chinese BOM. Then on Friday, the A.P.s gave me a Hindi BOM to give to him. He was so excited about it. Hopefully he has started reading it. I'm excited to teach him and his wife next week. It will be in English and some chinese for his wife. We also met this lady while knocking and she went to the English class in Yuli 2 weeks ago! She lives near Yuli for work Mon-Fri and comes home to Taidong on the weekends. Her husband takes care of the kids during the week. We set up to meet with her in 2 weeks. Yay for English class! 

We went to go visit some L.A.'s this week and one of them still says she has witches cursing her. I told Hou Huizhang about her and he talked to the branch president in Ji'an where she got baptized about 6 years ago. He told me that she has been thinking that for a long time and that we just need to keep visiting her and help her come back to church. We also visited a Qiu JM who hasn't been back to church in years. Her whole family is inactive. It's really sad because I asked her if she could come to church and she says she can't because she is too lazy and doesn't feel like it. I want to keep working with her and maybe reviewing the lessons with her. We also went to go visit Lai Jiating. Lai JM just went off talking for over an hour about how the leaders of the 1st branch don't care about their family and her husband. She said it is their responsibility to go visit them and not just send missionaries over. She did go to church with her daughter in Kaohsiung and she loved it. She told me that if she does come back to church, it wouldn't be Taidong 1st branch. Hou Huizhang knows all about their situation and said that he has sent people over before. He said that usually the people he sends over comes back and says i don't want to go back there because they start criticizing the leaders. I don't really know how to help them. They love the missionaries though. 

Anyways, this week was great and Sister Singh is awesome! Training has been a little exhausting but it's good we come back tired every night right? I love Sister Singh's positivity and excitement for missionary work. We have seen miracles because of it! 

Keep me updated on life everyone! Love you all!

Sister Chao

New start with my baby!

Hello!!

Rachel, thanks for the awesome package!!!! Loved it. so much dark chocolate i might die. Veronica, i want to hold your new baby! Aborn and keely, mia is so cute and crawling everywhere! can she walk yet? thanks for the cute video. She is growing up so fast. I remember when she was just a tiny but chubby little baby I was taking everywhere. happy birthday to her soon! I went to taipei for the first time this last week. What an adventure. I'm glad that im on the east coast. I dont know how much i can handle being in the crazy city right now. We actually got to go to an outdoor baptism in Wulai. It was mostly the Taoyuan wards that were there. It was really cool. The trainers and trainees got to go. We rode a huge bus and I was so car sick. I wanted to throw up because we were going up this windy road up the mountain. I dont know why i get so car sick, even on the 6 hour train ride to taipei and back. I just feel so nauseous. Anyways, 5 people got baptized in the outdoor baptism. My new baby (trainee) is Sister Singh. She was on the R.S. broadcast choir. She is part nepalese, hawaiian, japanese, and philippino. cool huh? She is great and I'm happy i get to train her! It has been a little stressful trying to handle everything but i love taidong and i love our investigators and i love our members. We are going to Hou Huizhang's daughter's baptism today. He called me and was like my daughter wants you there. YES. i love her! i just love the kids here! Alma, you should be able to see some pics on FB in a day or so. i bet he will post some. he loves taking pictures if you haven't noticed. Conference was great as always. hope all of you enjoyed it. anyways here is what went down this last week. 

This last week was crazy with outdoor zone conference, p-day, zone training, and then the whole process of going to Taipei. But alas I got my new companion and we are safe back in Taidong. There wasn't very much proselyting time this week because of Taipei and General Conference but we still saw miracles with the time that we had. 

Biggest miracle of the week was that we invited our newer investigator Chen JM to baptism on the second lesson and she accepted! This happened yesterday and earlier that day, Elder Davidson told me to read PMG 94, the quote from President Hinckley. My companion and I read it together and then right before our lesson with Chen JM, we said a prayer outside asking Heavenly Father to loosen our tongues so that we could teach with the Spirit. The lesson went well and we invited her to baptism and she was a little hesitant and worried but then she agreed to set a date. After the lesson, Sister Singh was so amazed at what just happened and said that this was way better than teaching at the MTC. It's real life! :) 

Shi JM is so close to baptism. She just has about 2 more lessons with us. However, she needs to go to church one more time before she gets baptized and she told us that next week she wouldn't be able to make it. As a result, we had to move her baptism date back a week. She is great and I want to help her really understand the Gospel and feel the happiness it can bring. She came to one session of General Conference yesterday and she said she liked it. She is also reading the BOM in Chinese instead of Vietnamese and prays everyday. I'm so grateful to be apart of this whole process. 

Also another miracle. So we met with Tsai Huizhang's wife's niece and her family last Tuesday night. Tsai JM helped peike since it was her family. It was the first time we taught them and we invited them to baptism on the first visit! Guess what?! They accepted and have a date of 11/23! I was so excited! They have met with missionaries a little bit in Kaohsiung 5 years ago but I think this time they will accept the Gospel and have a desire to learn more. They have 2 little kids who are too young to get baptized. Tsai JM was really happy to see her niece accept our baptismal invite. 

Chen JM is still awesome as ever. She teaches me so much and is counting down until her baptism in November. Does she need to interview with you President? She is the one who is the gangster who had to wait 6 months to get baptized. She is more than ready.

Once Sister Singh and I got to Taidong, we dropped off our stuff at the apartment and had just enough time to go out and meet with Becky. We shared with her a scripture in 2 Nephi 29 I think, about how if you believe in Christ, you will know the scriptures are true. I know she has been struggling with knowing if the BOM is true. She is re-reading it right now. She also came to one session of conference. She still needs to change her attitude a little bit but she is progressing. 

Wow, I feel like I have gained such a testimony of inviting people to baptism on the first or second lesson. I really wanted to work on that this week after the outdoor zone conference. I made it a goal to not be afraid and to be bold. I've seen miracles because of it. We have invited some on the first or second lesson before and have seen some success and some not accept our invite. However, even though they don't accept our invite, they know what our purpose is. 

I have finished reading the New Testament and started the Doctrine and Covenants. I'm really excited to read D&C. I'm a little behind on Phase 2 right now after this crazy week. I really want to take the test by the end of the transfer, but I can't retain all the words! We will see what happens. Sister Singh is great and happy and positive. I love being around someone who is excited about the work and is happy all the time. During my time with Sister Thomsen, I have learned so much and it has prepared me to train. 

love you all!!!

Sister Chao

Training Calls..

Nimen Hao!!!

First off, happy birthday to Alex and baby Mia!!! I can't believe Mia is almost ONE!!!!! I remember when i was taking care of her when she was not even 3 months old yet!! All the kiddos are growing up so fast! Big news, I got training calls on Saturday night. Yes, my worst fear...im training a newbie for the next 2 transfers. That means I get to spend another 12 weeks in Taidong...meaning i get to spend at least 6 transfers on the East Coast! That is over half my mission! yay!!! I'm so grateful i get to stay here. I love the country side of Taiwan. I won't even know how to be a city missionary when i get the chance to serve in Taipei. Anyways, I'm going up to Yilan for one night tomorrow and then up to Taipei Thursday morning for some meetings and I get to meet all the new missionaries. Friday I will find out who my baby/trainee is. Not going to lie, im really nervous and just a little bit stressed out. But all is well. Hopefully everything will work out and that my baby will like me. It's been a rough two transfers so im praying that these next 2 will go even better. On Sunday, we woke up at 4 AM and got to the church at 5 AM to catch a bus up to Hualien! We had district conference and it was so fun to see all the Jian members again! Then on Monday we had outdoor zone conference in Zhiben by Taidong. The Hualien missionaries along with President and Sister Day rode a bus down to Taidong and picked us up and we went hiking all day. We basically went up and down a million stairs and everyone's legs were shaking by the time we got back down. It was pretty funny. It was so fun to see all the Hualien missionaries on Sunday and Monday. I missed them so much! I got to see my mom/trainer. She is going home this week. I loved outdoor conference. We were just all dripping in sweat and having a great time. Sorry today's email is so late. The internet cafe by our house was closed this morning so we didnt get to email until now. 

This week was great, even though we lost one golden investigator. Sister Thomsen and I wanted to make Taidong a standard of excellence area by the end of our two transfers together and we are SO close. We met our peike goal for the first time and even went over. We had 9 peikes this week. We are just lacking in baptism dates. Other than that, we pretty much made every goal. 

Well our 9 year old investigator Cindy told us she couldn't meet with us anymore and can't get baptized. Her uncle, who is a Zhanglao jiaohui minister, told Cindy's grandparents not to let her meet with us or even come to English class! I was so sad to hear this. He got mad at her for meeting with us and coming to church. Cindy told us she really wants to come to church and to English and that she tried asking again but they said no. We got to meet with her one last time and it was so hard to say goodbye to someone who is so ready to hear and accept the Gospel. I really felt like i had lost my best friend because I became really close to Cindy. The best way to describe this feeling would be....I felt like I had lost someone like Kaitlin in my life. She literally reminded me of KEC everytime I met with her. She is someone i love so much. (So Kaitlin...always CTR! I never want to lose you or anyone else. this goes for all the kids.) I know that one day she will get baptized. I just really wanted to be there for it. 

Shi JM, our Vietnamese investigator, is progressing very well. Her baptism date is coming up. It is sometimes difficult to meet with her because she works a lot but she can come to church on Sunday. I think she really has a desire to get baptized. Her Chinese is really good, but sometimes she has a hard time understanding. Yesterday we went over the importance of the Sacrament. I think it helped her understand it more. I'm excited for Shi JM to get baptized. She is so close and i know the Gospel will definitely bless her life. 

Chen JM came to the District Conference with us. She was so excited to go. She is incredible. I learn so much from her every time we meet with her. She has read the BOM 6 times already!!! She has read the entire Standard Works. She keeps telling everyone she only has one more month until she gets baptized. Because of the Gospel, her life has changed 180 degrees. So cool! 

Becky also came to District Conference. She was a little embarrassed when Tsai Huizhang called on her during the RC meeting before the conference. She doesn't like it when people talk to her about baptism publicly. Since she didn't pass this last interview, she especially doesn't like it when people ask her when she is getting baptized. We talked to her about how the members are just trying to help her and that we can all learn from their imperfections. She doesn't have the best attitude towards members. We are trying to change that. She just likes to judge people instead of seeing the good things about them. But I know that she will get baptized one day. She even told a member that she will get baptized just not for awhile. 

One miracle that we saw this week was during finding right before we had to go home. We were just walking down this street and it was almost time to go. Then we see this lady, Susan, walking and we go up to her and talk to her. She had just moved back to Taidong from Xinzhu, where she lost her job. She basically expressed to us everything she was feeling and she told us she didn't want to be Buddhist anymore. She said that she has been on search of a new religion. She said that right now she is in her own personal hell. She feels miserable and unhappy and she asked us how we were so happy. I told her that the Gospel will give her this happiness. We just shared our testimonies with her and she started to cry. She said that she has met 2 sisters in Kaohsiung before who shared with her the Gospel. I don't think they were missionaries. We met with Susan the next day after English. We tried giving her a BOM again but she said no. She doesn't want her parents to find out and be mad at her and throw the BOM away. That is the main problem we have with her. She won't take the BOM so how is she going to develop a testimony of it if she doesn't read it? Also, it is really hard to find time to meet with her. She asks a million of questions without letting us answer them. But I love her so much! She is someone who Heavenly Father put in our path that night so that we can teach her the Gospel and help her out of her misery. Hopefully she will patient and listen to what we have to say. 

Another miracle of the week. We went knocking on some doors one night and we happened to knock on this 17 year old's door. Chen JM is in her last year of High School. She is getting ready to take a big test for college. The best part is, is that she is a member's friend. The member Jiang JM is in 2nd branch but they are best friends at school. Jiang JM actually invited her to a few church activities. When we went to go teach Chen JM, her mom happened to be home and she sat in on the lesson too. In the end, her mom also agreed to meet with us the next week. Jiang JM was a great peike. She told them how she was going to serve a mission next year! Yay! It would be if we could teach her whole family. 

We went to go visit an LA Luo Hui Zhu. It was our first time visiting her. I must say, it was a really interesting visit. When we got there, she told us that she has not been happy lately and she didn't feel good. She told us that it was because witches were constantly cursing her. I didn't really know what to say. She told us that she started going to a different church after she had joined the church in Hualien and moved back to Taidong. She asked for a priesthood blessing and since we were close to Ho Huizhang's house, we called him up and he was there in less than 5 minutes. She explained to him her situation and he gave her a blessing. I was so glad he was home and hadn't left for Hualien yet. Definitely a blessing. She told us that she would go General Conference. I know that coming back to church will really help her have the spirit back in her life. 

We also went to go visit an LA Lai JM. She used to be the YW president in our branch. Her daughter is actually in the Liahona this month or last month. They have been inactive for quite awhile. She has a such a strong testimony and knows the church is true but she has a hard time with forgiveness. Someone in the branch offended her and so now she has a hard time going back. Her husband just got baptized this year and she said that there has not been anyone visiting him besides the missionaries. They love the missionaries and she has had a few sisters in the branch come visit her. She was going to visit her daughter in Kaohsiung this last weekend and said that she was going to go to church with her there. I hope I can get her whole family back at church. She tells me she wants to come back but the hardest thing is actually opening the door to come to church. We told her that we need to forgive others just like Heavenly Father forgives us. That is why we have the Atonement. She cried during our visit with her and we very interested in Tang JM's story on how she came back to church. I think it helped her a lot. 

Well, I was really surprised to get the call from Elder Lindley last Saturday telling me that I was training. I'm not going to lie, I'm a little nervous and scared at the same time. Sometimes i feel like i just got to Taiwan. But I know that this is Heavenly Father's plan for me right now and that He knows I can do it. I just hope I can be a good trainer and example to my new baby. I can't wait to go up to Taipei for the first time since I got on the island! Crazy! I'm so grateful that I will be spending another 2 transfers in Taidong/East Coast. I'm lucky that I get to spend over half my mission on the east coast. I have learned so much during my 2 transfers here with Sister Thomsen. I think this has helped prepare me to train. 

Okay love you all!!! im sending a bunch of pictures!! 

Sister Chao

Parrots like to mimic me!

Hello!!! 

Yes, parrots like to mimic me. We were knocking on this street and there was a parrot in a cage outside and it kept repeating what I would say when people would open their doors. It was so funny. And I'm still deathly afraid of birds here. I get to go back to my old area (Hualien/Jian) on Sunday!!! We are having are East Coast District Conference there. I'm so excited. And guess what?! An investigator who my trainer and I were teaching just got baptized FINALLY. She was done with all the lessons when I left Jian and was going to get baptized then but i think there were lots of problems that came up but she finally got baptized last week and is getting confirmed at the conference and I WILL BE THERE!!! Im soooooo excited to see her!!! She was someone that I really wanted to see get baptized and im grateful that I get to be there for her confirmation. Miracle right there!!! So next week i will be emailing home probably on Tuesday. We might have our outdoor zone conference with president on monday since we never had it last week because of the typhoon. So if i dont email on Monday, its because of that. I'll know if im training this saturday. eeks im nervous. I'll keep u posted. Dad, keep mom safe and don't let her fall again! Veronica, i can't wait to see pics of the baby!!! Ray did you send me the package? I probably won't get it for awhile since im so far away from Taipei. Kiddos, be good and write me!! :) Give Kira and Mia hugs for me...even though mia probably forgot who I am. I mothered her for 2 months and she still feels like my baby. haha. maybe you can show her a picture of me and remind her. :) oh and im cutting my hair today hopefully!! It's so long but im nervous to cut it here. Anyways here is the update for this week. 

This week we saw so many miracles. We are starting to see improvement on the work and I'm really excited to work with all of our investigators. We may not have that many but a lot of them are really good. 

My favorite little 9 year old investigator Cindy came to church for the second time today. She just barely missed Sacrament meeting but she came! She brought 2 of her friends with her too. We taught her this first lesson this week and her grandparents sat in on the lesson. They told us they don't really have much interest in the Church but doesn't mind if Cindy goes to church or to English class. Her parents are divorced so she lives with her grandparents. We invited her to baptism and she said yes! Her grandparents seemed a little skeptical at first but didn't seem to disagree. However, when i called Cindy to check up on her and make an appointment yesterday, she told me that her grandma said that she doesn't need to get baptized. She said that her uncle, who is a Christian, told her grandma that she didn't need to get baptized. This made me so sad as i thought her grandparents were totally on board with everything and then that happened. We just need to explain to her grandparents about the blessings of baptism and really see why the grandma doesn't want her to get baptized. I'm really praying for a miracle here. I love Cindy so much and I don't want to lose her. She really reminds me Kaitlin and I just have so much love for her. Everytime i see her, i just want to hug her. She is tall and has super long legs like kec and does her hair the same! haha. She is just my favorite!!! Pray for her please!!!! I really don't want to lose her!

Our Vietnamese investigator Shi JM is awesome. She is progressing and she came to church yesterday with her kids. She understands a lot of what we are teaching her. She reads Chinese pretty well so we give her the pamphlets of the lessons we teach and it helps her a lot. Reading it makes a lot more sense to her. She is really excited to get baptized. We have a peike who is from the other branch but has a similar experience as Shi JM. She is from Cambodia and she told Shi JM that she feels like they just have this connection and that she really loves her. I could tell she also really cares for Shi JM. I'm excited to see her progressing towards baptism. She is such a hard working mom and just wants the best for her family. 

We met with our newer investigators Zhang JM. We taught her about the Plan of Salvation and at the end she asked about what happens to children who are born with a disability. We talked about the resurrection and about Heavenly Father. She seemed to be really touched by that part. She shared with us how she has cerebral palsy and that her legs don't work as well. We told her that her body will be made perfect at the resurrection and that Heavenly Father gives people different challenges to deal with so we can learn and grow. We invited her to baptism but she said didn't want to since her mom wont let her. Maybe there will be a change of heart here. She is so great! 

We got to visit a few LA's this week. Lin JM, who went inactive recently, came to Sacrament meeting FINALLY! She left right after but it was still good to see her there. She has a lot of personal problems like depression but I really want to help bring her back. I feel like a lot of our LA's are all really nice and willing to meet with us but they just have a hard time getting to church. They still believe that the Gospel is true and everything and some even have really great testimonies. I'm just trying to figure out how to get them to church. 

Speaking about church, we had 5 investigators at church and 3 who made it to church right after the sacrament was passed. It was a miracle to see so many people at church this Sunday! I was so happy, even though it was a little stressful taking care of all of them at the same time. Becky finally came and called us this week. That is a miracle in and of itself. She is willing to meet with us again! I was so happy to see her. I know that she will be able to get baptized one day. We had a family come to church who was a referral from Tsai Huizhang, the District President. It was Tsai JM's niece's family. They just moved here  and they used to meet with the missionaries in Kaohsiung. We are meeting with them this week and I can't wait to invite them to baptism! Heavenly Father really answered our prayers. We found a family to teach and it was all through a member referral! yay! I'm so excited to get to know them better. Tsai Jiating are such great missionaries!!! 

We might have not found very many new investigators this week, but we found a lot of potentials. I can't wait to meet with them all. These past two transfers I've developed such a great love for Taidong. I love the people here and all of our investigators. Not to mention, our members are so awesome! There are so many investigators I love working with and teaching. Seeing them grow in the Gospel and seeing how it has changed their lives makes me so happy. I don't want to leave this beautiful area filled with even more beautiful people! Transfers always make me so nervous!

love you all!

Sister chao

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

Ni Hao

Hello family!! 

How is everyone doing? Veronica your belly is getting so huge! Maybe by next week you will have your baby! I can't wait to see pictures. You must email me them and tell me his name. People here in Taiwan are so amazed that you have 4 kids and are so young. It's fun to see there faces when I tell them how many kids you have. :) Aborn and Keely, so happy to see your family all back together again! Kira and mia are so cute. I remember when i was taking care of baby Mia when she was just 2-3 months old! She is huge now and probably doesn't remember her Gugu. Mom, we have an investigator who is vietnamese but speaks pretty good chinese. I want to see if i can get permission for you to call her one day. She has a baptism date but i think it will be good for mom to talk to her and share with her your testimony! So i will let you know on that...maybe on a sunday you can call her. She is struggling with her husband and family right now and just really needs some good friends. We are having an outdoor zone conference this friday with all the east coast missionaries. They are all coming down to Taidong and we are probably going on a hike somewhere with President Day. Heard that there might be a typhoon this week, probably won't affect taidong at all. What are you all doing for Moon Festival this Thursday? We are getting so many youzhi's (i think in english it is a pomello) and so many moon cakes!!!!!!!! some of them are good and most of them are nasty. haha. The missionaries are going to someone's house for a BBQ on Thursday. Oh and we meet the weirdest people when we go knocking. this 7 year old girl grabbed my hand and pulled me into her house and fed us her birthday cake. haha. her mom was in the kitchen cooking and didn't even care that we were sitting in her house. we talked to the grandma who said she saw this weird god 2 times. Very interesting experience. Anyways, i love taiwan!!! :) 

This week flew by so fast! I went on exchanges with Sister Marler and had a great time. I stayed in Taidong this time and it was fun seeing how she taught. You just learn so much on exchanges. The main things i want to work on is to ask better, thought-provoking questions when I teach and I want to be better at street contacting. I loved when Sister Marler asked our investigators these deep questions that made them think even more. Sister Marler is an amazing missionary and I hope to become just as good as her one day. Doing missionary work with her was so happy because both of us were happy and had good attitudes. 

On Monday, we found out that one of our less actives was in the hospital. She had some bleeding in her in stomach area. I don't exactly know but we went to go visit her with our R.S. president. We had just barely visited her a few days before and she seemed to be just fine. We called her a few days ago and she is doing much better and is at home now. While we were at the hospital visiting with her and sharing with her a scripture, her daughter's friend was there too. After we left, our R.S. president talked to the friend a little bit more outside and ended up getting her number. We contacted her and we are meeting with her tonight! I'm so excited. She said she wanted to learn more about God.

We met with Grace this week and made cookies with her and taught her about the Ten Commandments. Our peike was really great. He helped her realize the importance of church. He shared his testimony about it and how it makes him feel. Grace has 4 jobs and is super busy. She only gets about one Sunday off a month, but she might have more next month. I'm hoping she can come to church soon. She is so great and has so much interest. She said she will pray and read the BOM. Now we just have to get her to church. I feel like people in Taiwan are just always working! They are so busy! 

Chen JM is just happy as can be. She can't wait for her baptism! She is counting down and only has about 2 months left. She literally can't wait. I love her fire and desire to get baptized. She is one of the most prepared people I have ever met. She loves her BOM and D&C. Also, she is excited for General Conference. 

We contacted a referral from the Elders and she became our new investigator! Chen JM is in her 20's and has met with the Jehovah Witnesses before too. We shared with her the first lesson at her work and she was willing to meet with us again this week. She seems really interested in getting to know Christ. I'm excited to see her start progressing. 

Biggest miracle of the week, we got Shi JM to commit to baptism!!! Shi JM is our Vietnamese investigator. We invited a member from 2nd branch who is Cambodian to peike. They got along so great and wouldn't stop talking to each other. It was so great to see Shi JM so happy to meet someone who is very similar to her. Shi JM is also part Cambodian but doesn't speak that language. So they speak to each other in Chinese. Our peike was sharing with her how the Gospel has changed her life. Probably the most fitting peike. Shi JM was like "I'll be at the churchat 2PM on 10/26." I was so happy to see how excited she was. The only difficulty we have with her is having her understand everything we teach. Her Chinese is pretty good but sometimes she doesn't understand completely. She has been to church once but not to Sacrament Meeting. 

Sister Marler and I met with Becky and talked to her about God's love and the BOM. It was a little difficult for Becky to respond when Sister Marler asked her when she has felt God's love for her in her life. She has hard time of admitting if she knows the BOM is true or if the Church is true. She always says "yingai ba." It seemed like from our conversation with her that she knows it is true inside but just doesn't want to say it just incase she is wrong. Why else would she be still going to church, reading the BOM, and praying for the past 1.5 years if she didn't think it was true? I think it is hard for her to realize God's love for her and the influence the Gospel has had in her life. We talked about baptism and she said she wasn't scared of it anymore but is nervous about the interview. We have her scheduled for an interview this week. When we saw her at church this Sunday though she didn't seem very excited about the interview. She broke down in tears and wouldn't really talk to us. I don't really know why she is so afraid of the interview or baptism. We told her that her life will still be pretty much the same and that she will just have the companionship of the Holy Ghost. She was worried that her life would be completely different than it is now. She left before the closing prayer in sacrament meeting. We hope she will come to her interview. We invited her to pray about the BOM and about baptism every day this week. I know she will pass her interview if she just has faith and is not afraid to admit what she knows to be true. We will see what happens. I'm praying for her everyday. I know baptism is the next step she needs to take right now, but it all comes down to her. She needs to choose whether she wants this or not. I feel like we have done everything we can to help her and it is up to her to make the decision. I love Becky so much and I hope she makes the right choice. 

Hope all is doing well. I miss and love you guys!!!!! 

Sister Chao