Friday, July 10, 2009

Missionary Email: 13 Investigators in One Week At Church

Wednesday, July 8, 2009 12:11 AM

Hello again from Zhongli. This week was a pretty good week. My companion and I are busy and we love it. This week was a really good week for us. We have definitely been seeing miracles. We had 13 people come to church. On Sunday our MM leader for Zhongli 1st ward, was like, Wow, you sisters have had a really amazing week. And I just realized, he's right! This was an amazing week.

Yesterday was quite the day, we biked all over our area, we started in central Zhongli, and went out to a place that almost is by Guanying 30 minutes away, back to Zhongli and up to Pingzhen, back down to the place by Guanying, then out to Neili, up to Pingzhen, and then back to central Zhongli for our MM meeting for Zhongli 2nd ward. So we spent quite a few hours on our bikes yesterday. I was so exhausted! I'm glad that today is Preparation day! But yeah actually yesterday was a lot of fun. My companion and I got fed both lunch and dinner. And dinner was super fun. One of our investigators is a 10 year old girl named Gu Junru whose mother is a member, Zhang Yutong. We went over to her house and we made pizza like things. We just bought bread that looks like the shape of garlic bread, and put cheese and sauce, and random assortments of toppings on it. It was a lot of fun. Even her sons, who are always unhappy and angry, for awhile came and made pizzas with us. Personally, I get the vibe her sons are depressed..but it's not my place to counsel her. We just told her maybe if she thought her sons had a problem to take them to the doctor or talk to the bishop, because she told us how her sons are always frowning and unhappy, and if she laughs, they yell at her, so she can't laugh or smile too much at home. Yikes. But they are slowly becoming accustomed to us, and even though they never smile, at least they aren't mean to us. And they acknowledge our existence. The first time I met her sons, they pretended I didn't exist. And sat there like a frowning stone. It's just a weird situation because their fathers parents super oppose her being a Mormon, they tell the sons that it is the devils church...and so sometimes her sons get angry and say she is possessed with devils. And even weirder, they don't believe in God. I don't get how people don't believe in God, but believe in devils. So yeah, interesting situation, but I really respect her. She has a really strong testimony, and is really trying to help her children. She has more patience than anyone I've ever seen. She never forces her kids to do anything and is very patient with them.

On July 4th had a dinner appointment with a Vietnamese girl...and we listened to people karaoke in Vietnamese, so that was interesting. We also drank a watermelon drink..so I had some watermelon. woo. They put watermelon in the blender here, and then a little sugar and flavoring and sell it for 20 kuai. It's really nice on a super hot day.

We also went to a fireside in Taipei on Sunday. It was fun, a young woman's from Zhongli came and some investigators, etc. President Grimley had all the missionaries that were going home yesterday get up and bear their testimony. I was happy to be there. I got to see Elder Atwood, my old district leader, and Elder Rice, my old Zone leader bear their testimonies as they prepared to head back home and start life in America. The spirit was really there, and it dawned on me that I understood pretty much every word they said...that their testimonies were something I learned how to understand in the MTC. They prepared us in the MTC for the most important and basic part of a missionary, bearing testimony of truths and principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ and how it came to be in this age and generation. And so, I know that my Chinese isn't anything amazing, but I'm getting to the point I need to be. I know how to bear testimony of basic principles, and I can teach things on a simple understanding. So yay. It also dawned on me that a mission is pretty fast. Pretty soon here, I'll only have a year left. It doesn't feel like 6 months have passed in a lot of ways...but I've been in Taiwan for 3 months today. It's crazy. But yeah, I've learned a lot and I still have oh so much to learn...

Now I have to go though! byebye!

Loveya!

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