Transfer 8 Week 6: Translating Materials for Lady Met on the Bus

Monday, March 8, 2010 12:07 AM

First off, question, around Christmas time I sent a big envelope to the bishop, and wrote letters back to everyone in our ward who wrote me during Halloween/Thanksgiving/Christmas time, like to every priest and young woman who wrote, and to a cute little Griffin family, to the ward, and the bishop, etc...but I wasn't so positive I could read his handwriting on the address...but it never came back to me, did the ward get my letters? Nobody ever told me.

Okay, so now we are in the last week of this transfer. Once again, I feel like I don't have a whole lot to say about this week, but I'll think diligently and try to send at least a couple paragraphs. Today we are emailing in the library, so I just spent the last 20 minutes scanning in a couple pictures that I only have one copy of. If I don't move next week, I have quite a few more pictures others have given me, that I only have one copy of that I will try to scan...but I'm at a university library, and even getting on the computers took some time with figuring out a password and how to boot up in an English system...so not too much time...

What I do think was really unique this week that I want to first mention, is we had an interesting experience yesterday. Sunday during church we get a call from a lady, a Ms. Liu who said one of us gave her our number on the train. She was doing some translation work for someone, as a service, but thought her grammar was bad, and was hoping we could find time to do some service for her and help her edit her translations. We happened to have some time that afternoon and agreed to meet with her over in Danshui by the MRT station.

We didn't know if either of us would remember contacting her, or remember who she was, since we talk to plenty of people and see lots of new faces daiy, but when she arrived, I remembered vividly in my mind that contacting experience, because first of all, I sat down on the MRT (Metro) and was going to talk to the lady on my left side, when a member on my right asked if I remembered her. I didn't know her well, but after her giving me her name, I remembered her family, since her brother was accompanying our lessons once or twice a week, since his best friend was our investigator Chen Zhirou. So then, she was a little sad I knew Li Wenqi and not her, so she introduced herself a little, then, after our conversation was dying out, she motioned to the lady next to me and said she'd let me get back to missionary business...well, I felt a little pressure to have a member sitting right next to me staring at me contacting, but no sweat, I just turned the the lady and started talking to her. She was already Christian so she was really accepting of me, and the Sister Li by me, we very nice and told her she was a member and this church was great, so it was a nice little side testimony..well, I told the lady I was about to have to get off the train in 2 minutes and gave her my track with our number, and took her business card...and she started to SING to me...haha, I totally got serenaded on the bus by this woman. Well, with our new referral system and having a lot of pressure to call people, I admit a weakness of mine occasionally is to take a longer time to contact my own contacts, since we have our investigators to call and the referral system people. So then, her card sat in my desk for a little while, until she called us, especially because she didn't express extreme interest in meeting with us when I asked, but did say we could call her sometime. But it was cool that she ended up calling us when she needed some help, and we really were able to go and help her. We ended up getting half way through the translation work, then having to go because we had the Fireside in Taipei that evening, but she set up to meet with us again Tuesday morning. We shared a small message about family history and how the gospel blesses families on Sunday, and are going to try to gauge if she will be willing to listen to our message Tuesday when we finish up the translation service...I just think it's a really unique blessing how the Lord really puts people in our paths. I mean, sometimes they don't accept the gospel, but you have the opportunity to help a lot of people and put some joy in their lives, and move them on their way to be more receptive for missionaries in the future. Plus I liked the Sister Liu, she was a character...we got up and said thank you for her kindness in giving us some bookmarks, and left, and we weren't far before she came running behind us calling our names, and said, she forgot to hug us, so she had left all her stuff on the 3rd floor of the McDonalds, and ran down to hug us, then went back in McDonalds to gather up her stuff. HAHA. Interesting.

That night, we had the new member, investigator fireside in Taipei, I thought the fireside was fun. It was a little unique at the beginning because they asked my companion to play the piano and said that they would have a congregational choir singing before the fireside to help the reverence level at the beginning. I was excited to see who the choir was. Once there, I am informed that our zone in the choir, so I try to gather up some Elders to start singing, and it's not easy, but finally we get a few, and E. Worthen notices the reverence is not getting any better and invites all missionaries to the front to sing. Well, tons of Elders came, but it was a little, interesting...because for about 10 minutes, I am the only Sister up there singing at all, but then S. Steck and Zheng saw that I was alone up there, and pulled themselves away from their investigators for a few minutes to help me sing. I just thought it was amusing, how as we look out at the fireside, about half the seats in the front are empty, because all the missionaries were up front singing. Quite a few didn't come up thought, or it would have been even more funny, but I understand, because what the fireside is, is lots of new members, members, investigators come to hear the message of the month and be spiritually uplifted, so sometimes it's really hard to leave your investigators who came with you. Ours were fine and happy to watch us sing. The fireside was themed around Temples and Baptism, and I just laughed so hard and appreciated how President Grimley got up and talked about the blessings of the temple, then told everyone, if they hadn't been baptized, to get baptized quickly so they could enjoy the blessings of the temple, and if they had been, to get to their bishop and start interviewing and preparing to receive the blessings of the temple. It was so straightforward and I feel like it was really effective, because Taiwanese people respond to straightforwardness, and one of the new members after had a deeper desire to go to the temple. I saw Jasmine at the fireside, and she shared that she was so touched as she saw the pictures of the temple. I'm glad that they have that fireside to help strengthen the new members every month. I could see the strengthening effects of it.

Okay, well, I have a little bit of a headache and still have to write my President's letters, so that's my email for this week. Hopefully you find some of it interesting. Love you guys, write again next week and tell you if I move or not. There is 8 sisters leaving and some areas closing this transfer, so it will be an interesting move call for some, but you never know. We get move calls Thursday instead of Friday because of Zone Conferences...so next week I can talk about Zone Conference and move calls if anything happens in our district...Interesting little statistics, Sister Ackerson and I have now been together 6 months as companions in all...A LOT...and Elder Smith and I have been in the same exact district for 9 months (he's only got one transfer left, lucky and unlucky him. haha). Crazy how I am put with the same people a couple different times on my mission. Well, talk more next week.

Sister Flora Bruno

New Cellphone Referral System

Sunday, January 10, 2010 8:00 PM

Hello again from Danshui (or technically I live in Zhuwei, but whatever).  This week was quite the interesting week!  This area is way different from my other areas, as that we do a LOT of travelling, so instead of finding ourselves booked at the church all day when we are busy, we find ourselves traveling the MRT from Shipai, to Danshui, to Beitou, etc. It's a new type of busy, and I'm getting way better at contacting.  On bikes you have maybe 30 seconds to plant a little seed and make a fast invite, so people usually just drive off, it's a rare special person who will set up...but on the MRT and Buses, you just are friendly, ask where they are going, and BAM you know how long they are stuck sitting next to you for.  And as such, I can contact accordingly.  It's nice and I've gotten a couple numbers.  This week and next week are finals before their Chinese New Year vacation begins.  Everyone says to call them in 2 weeks, but I hear a lot of people will say call me after Guonian once the new years comes.  I'll keep on it in both cases.

In other news, we have started a new referral system using our cell phones based off the Taizhong system.  I like it a lot, as our area is big, and this is an easier way to track referrals.  That way we know how many times we've called, we know who has no interest, as the uninterested are wiped off the system and just remain in the potential investigator records I diligently keep these days...and if they say call in a month, you can tell the phone they weren't interested for a month, and it will take them off until the time passes.  We are still figuring it out, but it's nice.

This week I had interviews with President Grimley.  He asked about my language study plan and I showed him my character study methods.  Then, I asked him about post mission if he had any advice for me. He asked a lot of questions about what I was doing pre-mission.  His final advice was to follow the jobs because of the economy and my major being more of a big business type.  He suggested, if you guys were willing, to start looking into options for me, so I wouldn't be at a complete loss of things to do when I get home, so i know 6 months is still a little while to be getting home, but yeah, it would be nice if you guys could start looking into my field and see what someone with no job experience and this random technical writing degree could get in America, Charleston area in particular. And particularly, is there any type of job I could get in a law office with my degree for a little while to earn money while I prepare for the LSAT (again) and apply for schools? Not sure what I want to go into, sometimes I think about going into library sciences like dad and looking into that profession too, and I think about law school, but those are the only 2 "thoughts" I really have on the future.  I probably can't be too picky when I get home, I just need a job.

Then, I thought our interview was over and he asked if I felt I was ready to go senior.  It kind of shocked me he asked I thought that's something they just asked senior companions about juniors, but I guess it shouldn't.  I know Gigi went senior fast, but right now in my mission, I'm pretty average age for coming up for consideration.  Everyone who came on with me (sisters) with the exception of my companion are still juniors, but will come up soon for consideration, and there is one that has been here a considerable amount longer who will come up first, but there just weren't a TON of sisters coming in these last couple...but I realize not this transfer, but the one afterward, a ton of people will go home.  It was kind of a shocking realization for me, because believe it or not, junior companion is the life.  We get to throw in our input when we have it, but we don't have to be final decision makers, we don't have to put together a plan every day...there's just a lot of stress that is given to seniors I've never had to deal with.  But, just in case I do go senior, I'm glad President kind of prepared me by asking that question.  I'd never SERIOUSLY considered I might go senior one day.  Haha.  But I kind of hope to be in this area with Sister Ackerson for 2 transfers, but I can't be picky.  We'll see what the Lord wants.

This week has been really good for our area.  We met with a lady who has been coming to church a Sister Yan.  She's from Mainland China, and she is sooo good!  She had tons of questions about baptism, and after she mentioned she hadn't been baptized at the beginning of the lesson, we told her we'd set a date with her after the lesson.  She then would refer back to baptism lots of times during the lessons, and would ask what she'd be wearing, and other such questions.  We set her for 1/30 this month, as she's already been going to church with a relative.  She also is really willing to meet, so we will be able to be in good contact with her to prepare her.  She committed to reading the Book of Mormon every day before we even invited her.  She said she has a lot of time, she can read it.  Her thing is she just moved from mainland and doesn't have a lot of friends, so I REALLY hope she can make a solid friend base at church.  She needs it with her family so far away.  She has one son. 

In other news, I went to the Shipai ward this week, so my companion and I split and went to 2 wards at once.  As such, I was able to give a talk in both Shipai and Beitou (I skipped out on Shipai for 30 minutes because I knew I was supposed to speak in Beitou sacrament meeting).  I felt like it was a really positive experience and got to know a lot of members.  I also was able to be with our investigator Xie Huiru, or Whitney.  Whitney is really awesome!  She tests this week, but starting saturday she told me she could see us all the time, since she has a 5 week break.  The Shipai Elders met her here at a Family Mart, which 7-11's, and Family Marts, and OK Marts are on every corner here in Taiwan.  They call her the Quan Jia girl (Family Mart in Chinese).  We get along really well.  She wanted to take me out for food on Sunday, but I had to refuse.  When I told her it was a commandment not to buy stuff on Sunday, she said "After I'm baptized, I'll never do it!, but I'm not baptized, so I'll buy you lunch today if you want!" Yeah, we'll have to teach her sabbath soon and commit her to it, but I thought it was amazing she already committed after baptism to keeping it, and nobody's really taught her a single lesson yet, she hasn't had time...but she did already commit to coming to church EVERY week, meeting with us all the time when she didn't have school...and has come to church and the fireside in Taipei the last few weeks.  She's really cute and it's really a miracle to have such awesome people as investigators.

Also, Chen Zhirou is really cute.  She went to an hour of church yesterday and said she really had a peaceful experience there.

Someone is talking to me right now (in English), she's a really friendly lady who lived in America, orginally from Taiwan, so I might not get a lot written...

So back to Chen Zhirou, she just called us and said she had a great time at church, she made a baptism goal for the 27th, but she really wants to get baptized around her birthday, the 5th, so she wants to move it up to the 7th (the first week of next transfer)...we told her we'd discuss it Tuesday...She can do it if she commits to coming to church the next two weeks, all three hours, and meets with us twice a week, but she's really going to need to show dedication to keeping the commandments, so we'll plan a really awesome lesson and see how prepared she is this Tuesday.

Today we are going to the zoo.  It's a really cheap activity here, and we are EXCITED to see pandas.  They sleep in the afternoon, so I had to get permission from the Assistants, I called E. Worthen, ya know, because he's my old ZOne leader, he should be my buddy...and he gave me permission to go early...but he gave me a condition (and I have to keep it for my whole districts permission!!) it was on a point of being more obedient, being my old zone leader he knows me better than the other assistant.  I thanked for his invite to repentence and accepted.  I will be more obedient this week...haha.

This last week we've really noticed the Assistants responsibility for inviting people to repent...as we've gotten it a little from both Assistants, and heard stories a lot this week. They did training after Presidents interviews and we talked to them for a few minutes as we waited for the Zone leaders to train with us.   It's interesting, but I will just say, E. Scott and Worthen are good at their jobs.  Haha.

Yep, that's pretty much what's going on in my life, I'm going to go invite this lady to church while she's here in Taiwan for the next month before she goes to Mainland, then the zoo, see you next Monday!

Speaks at Zone Conference in Chinese

Hello, Hello from Keelung City, Taiwan.  This week has been going really good!  Yesterday we had Zone Conference and it was very touching.  Not even kidding.  I think it was my favorite zone conference with the new President.  President changed his method of people giving talks.  In the past, you were usually called on the phone and told you would give one, then there was one person who was surprised every time and asked to give one on the topic they asked us to prepare.  However, Elder Watson came and did a Zone Conference a couple weeks ago, and he picked names from a hat, and he had anyone on a mission longer than 6 months give their talk in their second language.  Well, this zone conference, we all had an assignment to read one of the four gospels studying how Christ taught, what kind of questions he asked, what revelations we recieved reading it, and record it in a study journal.  I had the gospel of Mark.  I had just finished Matthew when the call came telling us the assignment, so it was perfect.  The talks were to be on what we learned in the process, or what we learned because we were studying the Savior.  Well, I wasn't expecting to have to give the talk in Chinese, and in my personal opinion, the old language in the Bible is a little more complicated of vocabulary.  So, I was a little scared of being called.  But, well!  I was!  Haha, actually he said "Elder...well, this says Elder Bruno, but we don't have one!  So we will hear from Sister Bruno!"

So yeah, I changed my talk to less of a focus on the actual study itself, and more of a focus just about my feelings about Christ lately.  I shared how Sister Kunzler and I were watching Finding Faith in Christ with an investigator last transfer, and it just dawned on me...people ask who your hero is all the time, and I never know how to answer, but I realized, Jesus Christ is my hero!  He was really awesome.  In the movie, there's a part where he heals a man with leprosy (sp?)  and I just thought in my mind, that man looks so gross, I wouldn't want to go near him at all, but Jesus Christ just loved him, and healed him according to his faith.  Sometimes it's easy to get caught up in the ugliness a person has, like in a mission it's you see a companionship having a hard time, and a lot of missionaries will take one side or the other, and hope they don't get put with the "bad companion" but Jesus Christ wants to heal people.  He suffered for them.  He wants us to forgive them, because he promised he will forgive them.  And so, I want to be more like Alma and the sons of Mosiah.  They were great missionaries and it says they did impart the word without any respect of persons in Alma 16:14.  When I read that, I wanted to be less discriminant in who I contact.  A man came to the church yesterday night, we had just gotten back from Zone Conference and 6 missionaries had lessons at the church, so we were all there.  This man was persistant in pleading us to buy him a ticket back home.  We couldn't of course, and kept saying he didn't want money, just a ticket, and we kept saying we had no way to help him.  He wouldn't listen to us sisters, so Elder Cai4 our zone leader, came out of his lesson and talked to him for a couple minutes.  Thank goodness for Taiwanese missionaries!  He was able to tell him another opinion he could TRY to use, which gave him a tiny bit of hope, that i'd never heard of.  Well, usually I wouldn't think to invite him to church or anything at all, but after Zone Conference and reading that scripture just a couple days ago, I felt impressed we should invite him.  So after the Elders had fully explained there was no way we could buy him a ticket, Sister Kunzler and I told asked if he'd ever been to church.  He said no (there are a lot of people in Taiwan who just find a church when they are in a really hard spot because they think the church will help them, which of course we desire to help them, but usually they just want money, and we have no way of helping them in that way) and so Sister Kunzler and I testified that we had no way of helping his money and financial situation, but we could help his soul if he was willing.  We invited him to go to church when he got back home.  I felt good about that.  I want to be more searching for the good in people, and their opportunity to change.  I know my first companion was really good at that.  When I first got here, I was not very good at a lot of things.  She really had to just see my opportunity for growth to love me, since I was a hard person to love at times.  Good thing I got a companion who already knew how to do that.  I'm just barely figuring that out over the last couple days! 

So yeah, I shared about the movie and the leper, then I just shared a story from that night before, there is a sweet little Taiwanese missionary, Sister Chen Shu Ting who is my roommmate, and my companion and her companion were going to do a musical number at zone conference, so they wanted to wake up earlier than usual to get to Taipei.  Well, I just wanted to split and wake up at 6:30, but Sister Chen wanted everyone to go together.  I told her, Uuuugh, Sister Chen, I'm so tired in the morning!  You don't even understand.  We can just wake up at 6:30 and get there at the normal time.  And sweet little Sister Chen, she thinks about it for a few seconds, and then turns to me and whispers, "Fu jiemei, mei guanxi, Yesu Ji1du, ta liao jie."  "Sister Bruno...that's okay, Jesus Christ understands!" And then she was like, "Geng kuai qidao! Wen Tianfu bang ni qi chuang" "Hurry!! pray!  Ask God to help to wake up in the morning" And in the morning when my alarm clock Sister Phillips had set for 5:55 went off, I prayed really fast, and ran straight to the bathroom to wash my face.  I was the quickest out of bed.  I know it was through help because I usually don't just jump out of bed! I take a minute or 3.  Haha.  So yeah, it was really great for me.

So yeah!  I'm excited I got the chance to share my talk in Zone Conference and talk about how my relationship with Jesus grew this transfer.  It's been a really great transfer.  Zone Conference was just really amazing focused on the Savior and what he did for us. 

It was especially touching, as Elder Daniels, now the traveling assistant, and Elder Gassin bore their testimonies.  They were sobbing.  Elder Daniels bore a beautiful testimony about how he knows his mission will bless his family, and Elder Gassin talked about how if we remembered nothing else about him as an Assistant, to remember that he truely believed this work, the restoration, and the principles we teach daily.  Elder Daniels companion, my old Zone Leader E. Worthen was also crying.  It was just so touching because it's not like they were putting on a show...they just had so many emotions.  So many of us were just really touched during that and the closing song "I Believe in Christ."  Not many dried eyes.  I myself, cried when Sister Chen (Neihu sister Chen) bore her testimony in English.  She always said she would one day, and did her last one.  It was amazing and sweet and I felt the spirit so strong as she bore her testimony in her 2nd language.

30 seconds! Bye!

Commitments on the Street

Tuesday, September 1, 2009 9:20 PM

Hello and welcome to another exciting week in the life of Sister Flora Bruno. Please stay tuned as this is a very entrancing message about the gospel of Jesus Christ and his work in Taiwan.

This week really has been something else. And exciting is one of the words you could definitely use. This last week was zone conference. Monday morning our district met up at the Zhongli train station and headed off to Taipei. Zone conference was really good, but I have to admit I was a little apprehensive initially at the message, but now I'm really excited. We talked about how President Grimley had went to this conference last week in Hong Kong, and they asked them, "Have you Become it?" So President asked us all if we had become it? So that's something I've been pondering lately. They also talked a lot about the baptism commitment. With the converging of Xinzhu to our area, we got a lot of missionaries from Taizhong into the Taipei mission. Taizhong does things a little differently than we had been and I think they want us to be bolder missionaries, so they had 2 of the Xinzhu sisters do a role play, then our zone leaders E. Worthen and Lu on how to invite someone to baptism on the street. They talked about make commitments as a tool to bring souls unto Christ. They taught us how to help someone understand in 3 minutes the importance of the Restoration and being baptized with correct authority. It was really amazing, because actually people have had a lot of success with it.

I'd never even THOUGHT about ever explaining the purpose of baptism and starting to prepare someone for that ordinance in my initial contact with someone, but I started to see how that could be very effective, that they were working towards their first covenant with the Lord from the very beginning. Especially since some of our biggest problems are a lot of our investigators who we end up stop meeting with is due to the fact that they are too scared of that first covenant and as that fear gets stronger, they lose hope and stop keeping commitments at all...so we end up having to spend less time meeting with them and focusing on people who are keeping commitments, and hope they will keep coming to church and one day be willing to make that jump.

So yeah, I have to admit, when I first heard them giving us these examples I was apprehensive, but they had us do roleplays, and Sister Andreason who was with me in the MTC was my partner. She was great for me because she knew me and she's similar to me in personality. She got transferred to Xinzhu this transfer, so in the 3 weeks she's been with her companion she's gotten a lot of practice on this kind of contacting, so she gave me a really great example, then I was able to do it following her example. It made me excited to have a new way of contacting, and I told my companion yesterday (Tuesday) we should invite at least one person to baptism. So even though we barely had time for dinner at all, we grabbed a really fast meal, and invited someone to baptism on the side of the street before we went back into the church to shove the food down really fast before MM meeting. It was cool. She didn't accept, she was too busy with school, but I think maybe one day she'll remember that when she has more time and maybe come back. I invited her to English class if she ever needed help with her English, so maybe we'll see her again! She said her brother is a member who stopped coming because of the lifestyle of a student in Taiwan. But the point is, I felt good about it.

It may sound like some crazy thing us Taiwan missionaries are doing, inviting people to baptism on the street...but its an effective way to find people genuinely interested in learning about the gospel and getting to know their Savior Jesus Christ. And fulfills our purpose to invite people unto repentance. It's not like I'll use it every time I contact, especially not when I have maybe 15 seconds on my bike talking to the scooter next to me to get out an invitation, but now that I know, I can use it and slowly ease more into letting the Spirit tell me which way to use to contact each person. My goal is eventually be able to have a different contacting experience with every person I contact, but right now my Chinese isn't all that great, so a pretty similar one each time is okay, adapted to their comments and questions. And as my Chinese improves, I'll be able to be molded into a more effective tool in the Lords hands.

So in other news besides a new contacting method I thought Dad would be interested in hearing, yesterday we went over to Huang Yujun1's house and met with Petrea and her sister Leilani. Leilani has been coming to church with her little sister most of the time and has been progressing, just a little slower than her younger sister. Yesterday we talked to her and she decided she also wanted to be baptized. So we moved back Petrea's date a week to help prepare her sister to do it with her. Mom is very excited. Leilani is a very sensible girl. Yesterday when we invited her to be baptized on a Friday, because the mom said that's the most ideal day for a baptism for her work...Leilani was like...Hmm I get off school at 4:45, then I have to do some homework so I won't have too much over the weekend and I need some time to watch TV for about 30 minutes, since I'll be very tired...baptism at 7..."It won't go over an hour will it?" She also had a quick conversation about baptism with her mother I really expected. She asked if baptism would be good for her? And her mom said, yes. And she said, " Super good?" And I told her, oh yeah, you weren't here last week when we taught the 3rd lesson to your sister, let me tell you about the gift of the Holy Ghost. So yeah, that's why it's pushed back for a week. She needs to hear the 3rd and I don't want to rush it too much. But she's awesome, she was willing to keep every commandment we taught, and totally had a testimony of Joseph Smith and everything. Leilani reminds me a LOT of Francesca. So yeah! Now if only Jasmin, the oldest would listen to our lesson and just even try to see what it's like to pray...but I think she'll start coming a long a lot more when her younger sisters both are willing to keep commandments and pray together.

This week was a lot of fun with Sister Chen. We laugh a lot together and just have a lot of fun doing normal missionary things. Also it is always fun to go to Taipei and see missionaries who I was in the MTC or in my district or zone in the past. See how they are doing outside of Zhongli. I'm lucky to have spent my whole life in Taiwan in Zhongli, but a little naive in some ways because I've never experienced leaving one area. I was just put here, and have been here since. I'm sure I'll get that experience one day, but for now, I'm happy in Zhongli. We have a lot of people progressing and doing really awesome, and I know Heavenly Father left me in Zhongli to help my new members continue to endure to the end and to help people I've known since transfer one, especially Gu Junru, and the Ge sisters (Jasmin, Leilani, and Petrea) my four kid investigators with mother members prepare to make their first covenant with Heavenly Father. Maybe I won't see all of them baptized, but I know they all will be one day, and I'm glad to be working with them right now.

Also! Chen Yiting is doing great! She's going to come with us on Preparation day today and hang out with us and the Elders...she's really excited...so yeah, now we have to go catch a bus! Later!

Sister Bruno

Jesus Wants me for a Sunbeam/Dan Jonesing

Wednesday, August 26, 2009 12:29 AM

Hello from Zhongli! This week is going pretty good. We met some amazing investigators lately, and even though in some ways for a little while it felt like I was like, not really able to do anything here in Zhongli for the area anymore...i'm starting to see why I'm still here. That's something Satan likes to tell most missionaries, that their area is dying and blah blah blah. But it's just hard to see your numbers take a drastic drop, but as they say in Mandarin, mei guan xi. No problem...that's okay.

I'm really excited because we are meeting with two people I really love with baptism dates, and I really think they will keep them. One is a little girl who is half Australian, half Taiwanese. Nine years old. Her name is Petrea and her mother is a member. Her mom is so excited. Petrea has been a little curious about baptism for awhile, since she's been really good about attending Primary every week, but Sister Hill and I just never had time right before the baptisms to go and pick her up and walk together all the way to the church...but I remembered she wanted to see one, so Sister Chen and I blocked out all the time it would take to walk from their house to the church together and back after the baptism and we did it. She got to see three people baptized, and then she was willing to make the commitment. But only in the summer, because she said fall is coming soon and she doesn't want to be in cold water! Kids are so cute So S. Chen and I will make sure to turn on the water heater in sufficient time that she doesn't have to worry about cold water. She made her date for 9/12. So two weeks from Saturday. I wish her 2 older sisters could be as good and willing to go to church and listen to the lessons, but they are moving along slowly but surely, and we will continue to work with them. I'm sure they will eventually be willing to read and pray, but it will just take a little bit longer to soften their hearts, and find a really solid friend for them. They are all so shy. But we are working on it.

The other girl is Chen Yiting. Her English name is Joanna, so maybe for the sake of not having to type in tones every time I type her name, I'll refer to her as such. Our zone did an activity together where we all did Dan Jones ing...Well, most of us did Dan Jonesing. I didn't. I prefer to contact people who listen, but for some reason I'm a little bit wary of using screaming at the top of my lungs as a contacting method. I fully support others doing it, and will contact all kinds of people on the side lines. Anyways, while our zone leader E. Worthen was up on a bench testifying, my companion and I contacted this cute 19 year old girl. She ended up loving us and asking us if she could help, so while we were doing the Dan Jones activity, she passed out our pamphlets to people listening. We also were able to teach her prayer and reset up with her for that Saturday. Well, she ended up coming to English class that Wednesday...and she's just calls us sometimes and sees what our schedule is like...Monday she wanted to see us and for us to teach her friend who was going into the military this morning about our church before he left. We taught him the first lesson and he was really excited. He was like, of course it's true! I've already seen Joanna change so much since she got to know you guys, she's a lot more patient, and has just changed so much! We asked Joanna if she wanted to be baptized, and she said yes. So we set a goal for the end of September so she could prepare for a month and get herself ready. Then, we had planned to meet with her the next day and invited him along so we could give him the church address down in Kaoshiung where he was...so then yesterday we met with him, and it was really good. We invited Joanna to keep the Sabbath Day holy after teaching the 2nd. We knew that would be a problem since she is coming to church after work Sunday. But her friend ended up being a great help, he is actually her co-worker, and he was like, if you want to "xin momen jiao" or a good translation would probably be.."believe as the mormons do", she needed to be willing to keep God's commandments and be diligent about it. So he said their boss would understand if she needed Sunday's off, since he's Catholic. So she said she'd be more diligent and ask Sunday's off starting next Sunday. Haha, Dai Bang xiu is something else. He also said throughout the space of the time we were together, that his whole family is Buddist, but he decided he wants to be LDS, and be baptized, but he can't until his military time is over. The Elders told him he could come to church on his vacations. He said okay. And that he'd look for the church in Kaoshiung if they let him have a few hours off on Sunday. He said after he finishes military service, he's going to get baptized and then prepare to go on a mission. He has a book of mormon now though. So he said he'd read it so he could be prepared to get baptized next year. Haha. Yeah that was a fun experience to teach him for 2 days! And now we'll continue to meet with Joanna. She's really cute. We'll see her tonight and Thursday, we've been seeing her a lot lately. She's already good friends with the boys who hang out at the church for a couple hours every night, so she's becoming what E. Worthen calls a church rat. haha. I don't think that was a thing in America...but here in Zhongli, there are a group of young single adults who hang out at the church most nights of the week for a couple hours. It's like the social activity to come to the church and hang out.

And yeah! Now I have 9 minutes so I'll try to send a few pictures, if i can move fast enough, if not I'll write a short email next week and send pictures! K bye!

Fu Jiemei

S. Bruno