Um, why is it that nobody writes me consistently? You guys need to be better about that, especially since I write you EVERY week, even twice sometimes when my email decides to get lost. Nobody answered my question last week about the name, and nobody has told me Nena's address even though I asked a lot of times, I can't find out myself, someone needs to find out for me.
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and they don't celebrate American holidays here (duh), so with the exception of we might spend time searching for American stores to make something tomorrow like a pumpkin pie, tomorrow will not be a holiday in anyway at all for me. And even Christmas here, all the missionaries used to get together as a mission, since there isn't a lot of Christmas here in Taiwan, but they decided missions shouldn't do that anymore as it comes out of the mission president's own pocket I think and they can't afford it, and the stress, so there is no Christmas get together...instead there is a transfer 2 days before Christmas, so there will be a lot of people who are with a companion they've never even met before, maybe in an area they are unfamiliar with...and so the least you guys can do is write me in between playing with a baby and eating cranberry sauce and candy canes, chocolate chip cookies, and chocolate that is actually sweet!!!!!! There is Thanksgiving and Christmas and my birthday all coming up, so you can't forget a week until Feburary.
So yeah, basically start writing me so I don't have to waste time every week telling you guys to write and being sad because the only letter I got was from Gigi and it was all messed up so only 2 sentences sent through.
This week was really amazing and we saw a lot of miracles. Our zone leaders have started an experiment and wanted us to start counting a new key indicator separate to our other ones in addition to everything else, to compare the old way of counting lessons and seeing how we were doing on contacting. They are called seeds. Us sisters made up the name for what they are called though. Haha. Fake lessons didn't sound as good. So anyways, to get a seed you have to share 2 principles from a lesson and invite someone to do something. If it is on your bike to someone on the scooter next to you, and you only have 30 seconds to share two principles and an invite, if they don't want to pull to the side and set up, the invite is usually just if they will read the pamphlet we give them and try a prayer. People usually say yes though. So yeah, it started Monday and my companion and I got 22 so far (Monday and Tuesday). Our original goal was 20 for the week we were counting them, but we went on exchanges Monday and Tuesday, and I went senior in the area for a day, and my companion is a Native Taiwanese, only 3 weeks into her mission, so she was just really willing to go with the flow, and when I told her to talk to someone on the train, and I'd go talk to and point, she'd sit down and try to talk to who I suggested. She's so good. It was fun to exchange with her, we met with our little Lin family (Chen family, the sons are Chen, mom is Lin) they are so good and meet with us 3 times a week. It is a mother and 2 sons, but they are a little scared to set a baptism goal, but they are really accepting and I know if we give them time they will accept this gospel, this family really has seen change in their life learning the gospel. They really had no knowledge of Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father before we met with them. Sister Li shared about her conversion story, and the importance of prayer and realizing God loves YOU individually and knows you. Lin Lizhen started to cry. It was touching, and she really opened up after that. We got to practice the listening skills we had just discussed in District Meeting that day.
Another lesson with them I really liked was, the other week we had a really powerful lesson about Satan. That morning my companion and I decided we should teach them about Satan. I can't even remember what it was about their situation that made us decide that...but we get there and the mother and her youngest son, Chen Sen had just fought, so he didn't want to come and listen to the lesson. He had a test the next day, and his mom was not happy with how he did his homework, so he had to rewrite all his characters. They were both a little frustrated with each other. We told them we prepared a lesson about Satan and asked if they knew who that was. The mom had a vague idea and kept telling her son to come, after about 15 minutes of her and him in there arguing, he finally came out...then we read in the True to the Faith about who Satan is and his desires for us, verses God's desires for us. It was amazing because as we taught them about Satan, they realized the reason they had been arguing was Satan did not want them to get along. They both were excited about the prospect of praying to get Satan's influences out of their life, and that they could know why it was that sometimes they were unmotivated. It was amazing, people who never knew about Satan before, how much realizing God and Jesus have an enemy and adversary can lead us to understand and follow them more, because we understand more why our trials can be so hard if we let Satan control our minds. They responded SO well. The next day Chen Sen had a really big test, he was originally scared to take that hour and meet with us instead of studying since his mom had just yelled at them. After learning about Satan, he went back to the study room after we left and said a prayer and studied. The next day before his test and after he finished the test he said a prayer. He ended up getting a 93. One of the highest marks he's ever gotten on a test. His faith was really strengthened, as was his mothers. The oldest son, Chen2 Jun1 is a little harder to meet with because he buxi's every day. But Saturdays he meets with us and the other two, and although he is progressing more slowly than the other two, he's willing to read and pray. He's already read the whole children's Book of Mormon. He's really good. Buxi here in Taiwan is what most Taiwanese students spend their life doing. What that is, is cram school. They go to school after school. They all go to tutor schools to prepare for tests, so the life of a Taiwanese teenager is test after test after test, and preparing for those tests, and going to class after class, until 9 at night, then waking up at 6 in the morning to go to school again. It's really crazy. But yeah, they are super good!
Also, on exchanges we get a call from Lin Weitong. A really sweet investigator of ours. She has a date and is really diligent in wanting to make it, but last week she told us she had to go to Miaoli for 3 weeks, so she couldn't make her date, and would call us when she gets back and reset a new one. Well, she called me Tuesday at one, and said she decided to come back to time, do we have time to meet today? So I found a 30 minute block in my schedule, and had the zone leaders call my companion to tell her to make sure to be back by 5:30. She had no idea who she was coming back for, but we were both sooo excited to see her. We reset a date for December 20th, and she said she's really excited. She said she knew being baptized was a really good thing for her, and her only concern was doing the Buddist baibai, a form of worship they do here. However, the answer is not what some expect of our religion, because yes, you can baibai, as long as you know you are not worshiping family, you worship God, but you can baibai if it will cause a lot of family contention if you don't, which it would in her family. So as long as she promises only to worship God, and is doing baibai as way to avoid family conflict and knows in her heart she's not worshiping idols. After hearing that she was excited and very willing. She's excited to prepare.
Also, we recently met a girl named Jasmine. She lived in America 12 years and is really amazing! She also set a baptism goal in December and has stopped smoking since we taught her the Word of Wisdom. She hasn't smoked in over a week and carries around cookies. She is the cutest person ever, and really has seen a difference in her life since getting to know the church. I'm so excited! We have some many good investigators and great things are happening here. We also have a lot of fun with so many sisters in Jilong, but this week the other 2 have been sick, they are home sleeping right now to prepare for the rest of the week.
Well, I'm out of time, love you guys. Don't forget to write me!
Sister Fu
