How Being Hit by a Car can Affect a Missionary's Performance

Hellooooooooooo again. This week has been quite a week! Full of  stress and miracles all mixed together to make an excellent week.  Something amusing...Thursday, was a really stressing day for me, like  really full of dramatic peaks...like, for example, it was my first MM  meeting as senior companion, so I spent a LONG time on the progress  record, trying to make it really good and respectful for the ward...but  the MM leader wasn't even there for my reporting, he was late that week, the Elders were really rude to me about some things, and I just had  gotten hit by a car, just about 2 hours earlier, so I took their criticism really really bad and had a hard time even talking in MM  meeting because it was my first time and I was nervous and the Elders were mean to me, and a car just hit me and my leg hurt...haha, so i just  thought the whole world was crashing down around me, you know, those  days where everything just, doesn't go right. But don't worry, it was  all okay in the end, the MM leader got my progress record...the Elders  and I talked and got back on the same terms, and the lady that hit me apologized and my bike wasn't hurt, just my leg, so I told her to not  round corners so tight or fast and be careful...and everything worked out in the end.

Besides that day, this week went really well. When I came here, we talked about everything in WPS, and realized we were going to have to  work really hard this week to try to find some new investigators.  President has asked us to try to get the standard of 5 a week, and so  even though that has been a week point for both of us in other areas in  the past, we knew we needed to go out there, and make goals, set plans,  and expect to see miracles. So we did! We tracted a lot this week, and  even at one point circled around a stoplight making scooter contacts  when we got home about 15 minutes early...and we saw miracles.

Like, on Monday night, our appointment fell through, so we made some goals before going out tracting, said a prayer about our goals, and  went out there and knocked doors. And, we made our goals, Heavenly  Father let us see that when we are willing to make goals, he is willing  to help us see them achieved if we go out there and do our part to get them done.

...Also people we talked to on their scooters came to church,a  person I talked to on the phone through referrals and old potentials  lists came to church and set up to start meeting...and we got an amazing referral from a Zhongli member, who we both have met and we happened to  run into on Saturday to meet with her coworker...a Li Jiashan, or  Sandy, who is really great. We met with her this week, and ended up having a little bit of a long lesson because she had a lot of  questions. The reason she is interested in the gospel lately, is that her 10 year old daughter and 11 year old son saw 2012, and it really  scared them, and she didn't know how to help them not be so scared...so  her friend gave her a Book of  Mormon and told her about our church, so she was willing to meet  with us and talk about church and the blessings it has for families,  and about the Restoration. We set up to see her again this Saturday,and go to her house so we can meet her children as well. I'm excited to teach them!

We also met quite a few people who will start progressing next week  when we will meet with them the second time, who came to church. It  was a miracle, and at the end of the week, we were able to not only get  our goal of 6 new investigators, but we surpassed it. We got 9. In  fact, every number this week except one either met our missions "golden  standard," or surpassed it. I know Heavenly Father blessed us and helped us do His work. I know that as long as we are just doing our  best to talk to everyone, we will see these kinds of miracles every  week...so Sister Messenger and I have just been talking to  everyone...and it's going great. We met some awesome people and saw some unique experiences.

We also got the opportunity to go to Temple Tours this Saturday. I  had the special opportunity of doing a tour for the Assistants and  their investigator while my companion took some other sisters on a tour at the same time. Although it was a little bit nontraditional, because  you usually lead around on a tour, and they lead some, and I lead some,  it actually was a really great training experience. Elder Lysenko did  something really cool. They lady was concerned to know where Moses, etc (prophets) authority came from. He told her an example about cops, and  how anyone could wear a cop suit, and you would believe them, perhaps, but you have no real way of knowing until you go to the department and ask if your ticket is valid or not. Then, he showed her his order of ordination card, which starts, of course, with Jesus Christ, and showed  his authority came from Jesus, who gave it to his disciples, and we were  at a picture that showed the disciples passing authority to Joseph Smith. It was  really cool, I don't have a card like that, but I just really liked his  teaching methods. They also were just really powerful working off one  another. In the end, the lady still didn't want to set back up, because  she doesn't have much of a desire she said, but she gave me two  referrals at the end of the tour, and took a Book of Mormon. There is  still hope for her. One of the Assistants apologized, because he  realized it could have been hard on me to have someone who rejected most of what we taught, because they said they had no desire at this time to  know for themselves, but it wasn't heartbreaking for me. I took the  tour as a learning experience...and mentioned to him they could have  trusted me a tad more...since I already felt so small next to 2 over 6  feet tall Elders....who both had leadership positions over me...and he took my advice really well. I like Elder McClaws. He's a good Assistant, so it was a positive experience. He also helped me a little on direction advice. I like that about the Assistants. Everything they do, they let it be a learning/growing experience for us missionaries...so I know they are good at what they do. (training us)

Lets see...what else? Oh...well, one interesting thing about this  area, is that when I moved in, some members of the ward asked us to meet with this lady, who is, well, literally troubled. I talked to her Father about it even. He said he doesn't understand her, and he doesn't think we can understand her, but we can see if she can progress and get baptized if we are willing to spend the time, but he said not to get too high of hopes. She has been coming to church every week for about 9  months or something and all the activities, so some people want us to see if we can get her progressing, because she really sincerely always talks about her desire to be baptized. She just also prays to have a male child...and stalks and stares at the Elders...but I guess I'm a good person if any missionary to see if she is able to progress. I  taught her the Word of  Wisdom and she kept saying she would see if we all could do it  how to do it, and i was like "NO, You will commit to start living it or I will not meet with you..I cannot afford to waste time meeting with you if you are not willing to try" so I was just really forward with her,  but I'm pretty sure she did good this week, because she said she would  just smoke maybe once every couple days when she was bored in the end...and on Sunday she said she hadn't smoked since we talked to her about the Word of Wisdom. No offense though, I'm going to follow up on that really well, because it's not an easy addiction to give up cigarettes. This week I plan on telling her Elders can't get married,  because that's just against our missionary rules..and she needs to not stare at them so much because that makes them uncomfortable. I hope we can make progress in that area...they Elders would appreciate it greatly. I guess she kind of stalks Elder Mauldwin...and after he told  me, I noticed it on Sunday. But yeah, I'm doing what I can to help out this situation...so...yeah. I have a troubled investigator, but she totally got the 2nd lesson, and could put it back together perfect with  the pictures I scrambled at the end...so she's there in some ways.  That's excellent! ha. It will be a unique experience to meet with her.

And one last cool thing! My companion and I ran into this lady in the elevator who just speaks Spanish. She lives above us, and gave us her address. My companion can get out a conversation in Spanish, so we  will go visit her this week. Unfortunately, I'll have to practice to  even say like a line or two of testimony, because this Chinese business has made my mind unable to translate to Spanish...I still can understand a lot of it...but speak...that's a different matter.When I try to say uno,dos, tres, it usually comes out yi, er, san. ha. So that will be a cool experience. Yay for the upcoming week.

Love ya all,

Sister Flora Bruno

Mission Humor on Being Transferred

Hello from the City of Bade Taiwan. This week, I have moved to a new area. I'm still in Taoyuan county. In fact, I have now served in every single area in Taoyuan County. There  are 3 sisters in this county...Zhongli Sisters, Taoyuan 1 and 3rd  sisters, And Bade and Taoyuan 2 sisters. I just moved from being the 1st and 3rd sisters in the City, to moving over to the side and taking  Bade City. Not a far move at all. Bishop Liao drove me this morning  here...he's such a great bishop, he's been doing so much to help the  work in the Tao 1 ward. I worry about how much he does. I hope he  doesn't overdo it. He's just been doing so much, but I really  appreciate and respect all the work he has done. Haha. It only took me 6  weeks to figure out what ward was what, then I moved.

My new companion is a Sister Messenger. I think she's really  amazing, because she is just a really strong person, and her faith is strong. It's really unique for us to be together for a couple reasons.  One is, right after I left Zhongli, she came and was Sister Chen's  companion. So she taught a lot of the same people as I did. So we  usually can talk about those days :). Also, since Sister Tedjamulia was the coordinating sister, Sister Messenger and I had the opportunity to  be companions on exchanges, which as luck would have it, we had a really  good day that day. We had a good experience. After exchanges, when we  saw her one day, 2 weeks before move calls, Sister Messenger said she  decided that Sister Tedjamulia was going to train, and I was going to  come to Bade to be her companion, since her current companion at the  time is going home to America. She was convinced. And, I kind of  started to think it was very possible. We all knew it was a large  possibility of my companion training, since she is the only Sister going  home this transfer, and thus the oldest sister in our mission, not to  mention she's really great and her trainee really goes with her well.  Although, that would mean I'd have to leave after only 6 weeks in an  area, and that made me a little sad...

But, I started to be convinced of Sister Messengers prophesy too, especially  Thursday. We got a phone called Thursday night, 10 minutes before we  were going to call and confirm plans for that day...from the  Assistants. Of course, because we are both experienced missionaries, we  knew that the "Assistants" on our phone meant. But, the Assistant is  just, interesting in how he asked...my companion, always wanting to get  to the point, said,

"Hello this is Sister Tedjamulia"

"Hello, this is Elder Lysenko, am I speaking to Sister Tedjamulia?"
"Yes this is Sister Tedjamulia"
"Hello, Sister Tedjamulia! This is Elder Lysenko. Do you know what tonight is?"
"What?"
"Today is Thursday, which means, tonight is the night we call out who will train, so Sister Tedjamulia, we would like to ask you to be a trainer..."
"Okay...sounds good"
"Alright, we need you guys to be in the Taipei Jinhua chapel at 10am tomorrow...etc.  etc."

Haha, we both laughed a lot at the way he asked her. "Tonight is  the night!" And then,we started our trip to Taipei the next morning and  became a 3some for a weekend.

She is training a girl from Canada named Sister Lai. She's really cute, she has 2 degrees and left her job as an accountant to come serve a  mission. Her parents are from Hong Kong, and she's been exposed to  Cantonese...plus she really is diligent and sharp, so even though she's  brand new, her Chinese is already amazing! It was really fun to be with  them on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

At the training meeting, they say that the new people's area will be, and I knew they were still going to be the Taoyuan Sisters,  so starting Thursday after picking up Sister Lai, I knew I was moving, but didn't know where. Then in the about 5 on Friday, we get a call.  The phone says "Assistant"...so Sister Tedjamulia hands me the phone...

"Hello, this is Sister Bruno."
"Hello, can I speak to Sister Bruno?"
"This is her, Sister Tedjamulia handed me the phone when you called."
"Great! Sister Bruno, this is Elder Lysenko...I have something to  ask you Sister Bruno, but first, are you sitting down?"
"Well, I doubt I would need to be, but as coincidence would have  it, yes, yes I am."
"Sister Bruno, I would like to call and ask you to be a Senior companion, would you be willing to accept this calling?" (something  about president and them thinking I'd be the perfect person for this, etc. etc.)
"Okay...that's fine...etc. etc."
"Okay, you will find out where you are moving to tonight through your district leader"

Sister Tedjamulia and I said we both needed to record Elder Lysenko's "Fun calls" in our journals. I'll just type it here and call it good. We might have quoted him a couple times. I think we got a kick out how the calls were delivered more than that we got them. So,starting from five, I was pretty certain Bade was where I was moving.  Sister Tedjamulia and I discussed it in detail about "my district" just  assuming Bade was my district,as we made walks to and from places, since we had no bikes at the time, since we were waiting for Sister Lai's bike to be delivered.

That night, when the district leader, Elder Lu, called and told me I was moving to Bade....I still acted shocked, but I wasn't really.  But it was fun how prophesy came true. It doesn't always. When we called Sister Messenger a few days later, she was really excited and  told us that "she called it" :). She is really cute and has been saying how excited she is for this transfer. She really feels like God  prepared her for it. So, I'm excited to be companions with someone who is so excited to be my companion! It's a lot of fun. I just got here an hour ago, and we have a random lesson at 1 on Preparation day...which  isn't the funnest thing to do on Preparation day, but it's okay.  That's what us missionaries do sometimes. We meet with people who have  no other day to meet for our preparation for the next week.

As for area news, this week was a week of a lot of miracles. We have been having low numbers with new investigators lately, and really doing our best to get the mission "golden standard" the last couple weeks. This last week, we got the goal, and one more! We were really excited, it was the first time we were able to do that in this transfer. I know it was partly due to Sister Lai and her awesome faith  and willingness to go out there right from the start. We got stood up for a couple lessons, and went tracking a couple times....Saturday night tracking, people were listening, and a cute mother even let us in and  invited us to come back...it was amazing...I always just am amazed when  people let us in their doors. I know every time it is such a miracle.  It was an awesome experience for me. I spent Sunday night packing, and  it felt hard to leave an area after only 6 weeks...because it felt like I  barely knew anyone and then I just...disappeared as fast as I  appeared...but I know that to every thing there is a reason and  purpose...and so, I am excited to get to know this area!

Although, I am not used to it...Heavenly Father is even showing us  miracles in the transition. Today, Sister Messenger handed me the phone only moments after I got here, and then, we left about 30 minutes  later...and I left the phone in the apartment...so I hope nobody  important calls while we are down here...but Sister Messenger is also  not used to carrying around the keys, so they were left in the  apartment. Before getting in the elevator, I asked her if she had the  keys. She freaked out for 2 seconds, before realizing, she had a spare  key to the apartment in her bag. She's just not used to having the full  set with the church keys. The hilarious thing, is I did that last week  when we were on exchanges with Sister Pottle (her companion who left today). Good thing there are 2 keys in both these areas and both of us carried around the spare! In some areas, we've only had 1 key. Heavenly Father loves  me! Haha. He loves you guys too. And so do I Keep doing your thing and working hard. I will do my best here, as a Bade Sister.

Until Next time,

Sister Flora Bruno

Fu Jiemei