Work Progressing in Zhongli

Wednesday, September 9, 2009 1:48 AM

Okay, I just wrote an entire email in an hour, then the website got all messed up, so this won't be nearly as long or detailed...and I had to spend another 25 kuai to type this. Sigh. We went and got lunch and now have to spend another hour in the internet cafe so I can write...But what can you do?

This week was really good. I had the best lesson of my life last night. Or at least it felt really good. Sister Hill will be excited to read about it if she reads by blog. We were at Huang jiemei's house, with Jasmin, Leilani, and Petrea, the Ge girls. Well, Jasmin has been getting really comfortable with the Young Woman's and attending the Friday activity, and Wu Mujun has been our pei ke and really being their friend, in fact, we went over last night, and Leilani was like, "mu jun jie jie zai nali? " Or, where is Mujun? We felt bad because we hadn't asked her to come that time, because we have been meeting with them twice a week these days, so we just wanted her to take time out of her busy schedule once a week, not every time, but now they are accustomed to her, so they were like, where is she? So yeah! When we meet with them on Friday, we will definitely see if she can come. But yeah! All three girls were there for the lesson, and it was just an amazing lesson. I was very STRAIGHT with them. At the beginning when nobody wanted to be the one to pray, I was like "Why are you guys so unwilling to pray?" and then eventually Jasmin repeated a prayer S. Chen said, then I taught them again how to pray, but I feel like they really listened this time. Then mom brought up a concern about them believing in God, so I had us read Mosiah 4:9-10 and I was like, "I don't want an I don't know answer from you..Do you believe in God?" and we went aroudn the room. Leilani and Petrea said yes, and Jasmin said she honestly was unsure. I said that was fair, and asked Leilani why she believed. Last week she was also testing it out. But we asked about her prayers and she said she prayed and prayed and prayed, to get a feeling to her prayers once or twice. And we talked about how you have to have a desire to prayer lots of times so you can get a feeling once or twice sometimes, and then you will know by that once or twice that God is listening. Leilani really progressed since last week, in a week since she committed to read the Book of Mormon, she read to the Book of Jacob. That's amazing for an investigator at all, but ESPECIALLY for a 12 year old girl. She's incredible. She was a great help in the lesson this week, because last week she went to unsure, but willing to commit to baptism because we told her it was really good for her, to this week, praying every day, so many times, and reading her scriptures. She still has a concern about Joseph Smith seeing God, but that will be easy to follow up on this week, because we told her about how the Book of Mormon connects to Joseph Smith, and she already believes in the Book of Mormon. She thinks it's "hai bucuo" which is really a compliment for her.

But yeah, so in the lesson we shared in Mosiah, then with Jasmin's concerns, I took us to Alma 32, and passed off to S. Chen who shared about faith is believing in something you can't see and how you just have to have a desire at first. Jasmin said she had a desire and was willing to start praying multiple times a day to find out if God was really there, but then talking about Leilani's concern about Joseph Smith really seeing God, Jasmin runs and gets out the children's book of Mormon and tells us that she read it all, and she believes it. She was showing us Joseph Smith's story in it. She said she believes he saw God and Jesus. So I think she believes in God, she just doubts whether or not he will seriously answer HER individual prayers. But she sounded very willing to find out now. It was just an amazing lesson! She committed to prepare to be baptized with her sisters also. So yeah! Now we just have created some very interesting lesson plans for this next week because they all attended different lessons, only Petrea has finished the missionary lessons, so now we just have to teach Jasmin part of a 3rd and Leilani part of a 1st, and a commandment here and there...but it's totally possible and I think they will be prepared for their baptism interviews in the coming week as long as we make sure to address all concerns on Friday and they keep their commitments like they said. So yeah! That's all I have time to talk about. I'm excited so excited for the Huang girls. I was really sad about Jasmin last week, and now I'm just so happy all three girls have this desire together. I felt like they were part of the reason I was still here in Zhongli, so I'm just really happy, like I mentioned like 10 times. :) They are doing really great! I remember when I first met them, they would hid behind mom, and not even say anything to me, or my companion. Now I can just act like I've known them forever and ask ridiculously bold questions, or if I hear one of them moving around during the prayer, I can just lean over and hit their knee to remind them to be more respectful...and when us missionaries come over, if they don't come straight out, I can just go in their room and be like, "We're here! Now we prepared a lesson and you guys will come listen" haha. I love it. People who respond well to my nice silly, bold personality.

Chen yiting is doing great too. She's on track for September 26th. She also is good for my attitude. She's sassy with me sometimes, because I'll be ridiculous and happy back. She went with my district last week on our P-day activity and had a lot of fun.

Gu Junru...I don't know about her, she has her goal for the 25th and we are excited, but I don't know what will happen there because mom says no way dad will agree if she has to ask, so it's up to the bishop. If the bishop says it's okay to baptize her without dad's permission, we will, our rules just say we need a guardians signature, so we left it up to bishop. Mom says it won't change their relationship, it's just if dad knows he has an option it will be no. Or something like that. So yeah, Zhang jiemei needs to talk to the bishop, and we'll see what happens, but if no, she can just get baptized at 18. She wouldn't be the first to have to do that.

My district is also doing good. This week I was concerned about set-ups. This Elder in my district gets like 4 a day, whereas my companion and I got 4 last week. It is what we need to improve, so the Elders really helped us, we did role plays in contacting people on the street in 30 seconds and stuff. So I don't see us getting 4 set ups a day or anything, but maybe this week we can get 5 or 6 set ups, instead of 4, and go from there. We don't want too ridiculous amounts, because then we lose focus on the investigators we do have because there is no time to meet with them, but we do want around 7 a week, so we can be filtering through and find progressing people, and have options instead of nothing to do for 2 hours on this day, and 2 hours on this day. Next week is going to be crazy though, we have 2 days we will be in Taipei, presidents interviews, regular district mtg and WPS...and a baptism to prepare for, so next week is going to be insane, we are trying to do as much this week to prepare for the craziness of next week. I'm excited! I love crazy weeks :)

Okay, until next time!

Fu Jiemei.

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!