Jasmine's Baptism

Sunday, December 27, 2009 11:32 PM

This week has been fine, not a whole lot to update on.  This week has not exactly been the most productive and we have the lowest numbers of my whole  mission, but when I got here my companion was SUPER sick.  She felt really bad about being so sick, but the thing about a missionary, is if you go out in the wet and cold when you can't even talk in the first place day after  day, it never gets better.  Which, is what she'd been doing for 2 weeks and kept getting worse.  We went and saw a doctor who put her on a lot of drugs and stuff, and now, a week later, she's a lot better, so next week should be a lot more busy, at least I hope so...I'm not sure what it is, but a lot of times I move to areas that aren't exactly dead, but they are in transitions, so I get there and it's a rare investigator or 2 that are coming to church or progressing.  We supposedly are the sisters for 5 wards.  I know we technically go to two, and I'm not sure what our rights are on the other wards I know we at least have investigators passed over at times, if we find someone in those areas we teach them, and the Elders ask us to help withlessons such as the Law of Chastity for their females... so I'd like to find out, and if I'm in this area long enough, if we really have the rights to attend the wards too.  At least the Shipai one.  With so many different wards, I think a lot of good membership work could be done in this area.  I just by no means want to step on any Elders toes.  I'd just like to do more finding work through members, which means get to know more members.  It's all not certain how long I'll stay though, and it's going to take a lot of thinking, since all the chapels are in 4 different places of 5, and even the two wards that meet together are at the same time...so we switch off going to Danshui or Beitou every week, so that's already hard to get to know the members, if I'm only here a transfer, they would have seen me 3 times only at church.  So yeah, we'll discuss it more at WPS what we can do to pump up such a large area that doesn't have a whole lot going on right now.  I see a lot of contacting next week, but if we do things right, plan and stuff, after a week of contacting, and planning we should be able to fill up our schedule with appointments, especially since there is a lot of travel involved, so eventually contacting should be on way to appointments.  That's always the ideal, but its just not the case right now.  I'm not sure why, but that's how it was when I got to Jilong too.  It ended up being built up.  I guess every area goes through it.

As for any information of anything we did this week, the news is in Jilong.  Saturday I had permission to go to Jasmine's baptism.  It was amazing, but quite an interesting experience as well.  I felt really self concious because it wasn't my area and I didn't want to get in the other sister's way, but they were both really good.  They had me introduce her and sit next to her.  They sat next to her mom so they could get to know her mother better.  I felt the spirit so strongly at her baptism and I know Jasmine was one of the most prepared people I have had the opportunity to meet on my mission.  It was actually really not the perfect baptism for her, but she responded positively to pretty much everything.  First, the boy she asked to baptize her, has a bad habit of being late.  I remember last last week when she asked him to baptize her, she asked if he was going to be late.  He even laughed at that.  But then, he was honestly late!!!  I got up and introduced her after a song and prayer...I got to talk about how helpful she was, from the first moment she met us how she wanted to know if we were lost and help us out, and how she would teach us as she learned to apply the scriptures in her life extremely fast...then I sat down and a new member Yiting gave a talk.  I noticed towards the end of the talk Michael was still not there, and told the Elders to call him.  They got up and stood in the back.  After
Yiting, us missionaries did a little musical number from the primary hymn book.  He finally showed up in his clothes during the musical number and sat in my seat.  Then, it looked messy as we all had to change chairs since he was sitting in one of ours.  Right after the number was the baptism, so he was barely in the nick of time...but he didn't show up early like he was supposed to!  So, they never practiced.  They get in the font, which was cold, and he baptizes her good, totally under, but then E. Leavitt is like...Um, you are raising the left hand to the square!  So then, they had to do it again, but her knee came up, so they had to do it a third time.  In the locker, she was cold and was like, OH MICHAEL, it's all his fault, I couldn't breath.  But she got over it really fast and told me she was scared the first time, so God gave her the opportunity to do it so she wasn't scared and so that she was extremely clean.

She talked as she bore her testimony about how she was scared and it was really dark so she said a prayer, and before she even said Amen, S. Kunzler and I said hi.  Then she talked about how she went to church a lot, but it never felt RIGHT.  But, when she met us she was really able to read the Book of Mormon and feel the love of a Father in Heaven, a love she was never able to feel from a Father growing up.  It was a beautiful testimony and I was touched that we got the opportunity to teach such an amazing girl!  She really strenghted my testimony.  I know that God will put us in people's paths who are prepared and willing to hear the gospel if we are doing what's right.  That night we met her at the bus stop, we were just on the way to another lesson.  Jesus performed miracles on the way, and I've noticed that us missionaries can do a lot of good on the way as we open our mouths and use the Spirit and faith.  The Spirit is so important in our lives!  Always live worthy of his guidance. I've learned it is just so important to have the Spirit as our guide.  And that's the promise after baptism, is the Spirit.  It's so important to us as we do the endure to the end part of our lives.  How blessed we are that Heavenly Father gave us such a happy path to follow his Son.  The only way.  I read an article this week that helped me realize that the only intelligent way to do things, is the obedient way in which we give our will to God.  I'm in no way perfect, but every day I'm trying to be a little more better.  I hope you all can do the same.

I'm excited that I'm still in this area, I should see Jasmine Sunday at the monthly Taibei fireside, so there were no tearful goodbyes like with Sister Kunzler when she went far to Xinzhu.  Just a see you all Sunday. We left
right away after the service because I did not want to be home late.  We go t home in plenty of time.
At church this week, we went to Beitou and the member support there is really amazing.  I was happy to meet people who are so supportive of the missionaries.

That's my week here!  I love you guys! See you next week!

Sister Flora Bruno

Transfer 7 Week 1: Moving to Danshui (near Taipei)

Monday, December 21, 2009 2:53 AM

Okay, not a lot of time to write this week, especially because I'm MOVING IN................Yeah.  So I have quite the news to tell you all this week.  That is, my area is being whitewashed!  Okay, well half way, because both my companion and I moved.  Sister Chen Shuting stayed in the area to take care of it.  Sister Olsen is her new companion.  They are going to do great, My area was not REALLY white washed, Chen jiemei was in half the area, but she is a little stressed because she wasn't teaching a lot of our investigators, but she has met them, so it's a little better than white wash, and they are doing great!  President Grimley is the best and he gave me permission to go up to my area this Saturday for Jasmine's baptism, especially since Sister Kunzler went to Xinzhu's Jubei, so she's too far away to come back. 

Now for the exciting news before I have to go (but worry not, I will call Friday) my new area is...DANSHUI.  But even more exciting, my new companion is my own truely, MTC companion, Sister Mackenzie Ackerson! We both were shocked, in the best way possible.  In this area, we don't ride bikes, so I went from the rainy, hilly Jilong, to Danshui, Betou, Shipai, Tianmu, Shilin (yeah our area is huge so we ride the Metro (MRT) a  fast bus throughout the Taipei area.  The rumor is Danshui is the coldest place in the mission, but I don't care...I'm cold but happy, and Jilong was pretty cold, so far not a HUGE difference.  But to tell a super fast exciting experience, on move calls my district leader said I'd freak out, I was like, "I will not unless I'm going to Danshui to be with Sister Ackerson" and he was like, WHAT?  How did you know you were going to Danshui to be with her?  Hahaha.  Too great.  I did freak a little.  Sad for my area but too excited.  We put my bike in the dark garage down in B3 for the transfer, and now we have much to plan and do. OH!  And Elder Bret Smith is back in my district!  We were together 4 in Zhongli, so I thought that was too cool.  So many good friends here.  My district is already awesome.  we have a brand new taiwanese district leader Elder You.  Talk more later!  Love ya!

Thanksgiving Report from Jilong

Gigi, thanks for giving me Nena's address, I actually finally got her letter yesterday with the address on it.  haha.  But the thing is I wrote her like 3 transfers ago, and keep seeing the letter sitting there every week, so I kept asking.  Yeah, I realize there are a couple people I'd like to write I don't have addresses for every now and then...but my opinion on writing letters has changed completely from when I first started a mission.  I used to want to write people I was used to communicating with often...Not sure why, probably because I wanted to still feel an attachment to the outside world or something...Now as my time is more pressed (the older you get on a mission, the more responsibilities you have to take on) I focus on taking the time to write those I know are wondering how I am, so I put the letters I get in a pile, and slowly work on responding.  It is nice to hear that a large majority of my friends keep up on my blog from time to time.

So yeah thanks.  As for this week, it was actually not as bad on Thanksgiving as I thought.  I was actually really sad.  I mean, I am really blessed because I'll only be gone one Thanksgiving, Christmas, Birthday, etc.  A large majority of missionaries miss 2...but yeah, it was my first one away, and in a culture with people who don't celebrate Thanksgiving or Christmas really, so I was thinking Thanksgiving would come and go, and hardly be recognized.  However, we have the most awesome Elders in our district ever.  We decided to have a Thanksgiving dinner.  Something simple.  Every companionship would make one of two things.  Well, we had a lesson that started late, we were all supposed to meet up at 5, make our things, eat at 5:30, and the Elders had lessons at 6 and 7.  We had a lesson at 7:30, and had to bus out.  So yeah, we get there ridiculously late, like 30 minutes, we can't help it!  And the Elders have really gone out of their way on this dinner!  There was a nice blue table cloth, flowers, plates and chopsticks, with name cards on each plate, candy corn on the plates...and the Zone Leaders (E. Cai Zonghan.or actually he says his English name is E. Cael C. Carter... and E. Adam Hammer)had cooked a chicken ...and E Hammer had even stuffed the chicken with bread and celery...which I hear was a hilarious endeavor they have on camera.  And E. Westin Leavitt and E. Cazier (sorry dad, I still haven't ' asked him his first name, he's newer) had made corn and mashed potatoes.  They mashed the potatoes themselves, without any kind of masher, so that had to have been hard!  When we got there, we started making pies, the Elders hadn't eaten at all...well, we keep waiting for the other sisters to eat, but they don't show up until 5:50, and the Elders had a lesson at 6.  So yeah, they go downstairs to try to start the lesson early, but then we called them upstairs really fast so we can take pictures together, then we decide we will probably just all eat separately when we have time.  Well, the funny thing, is S. Tawny Phillips thought she and S. Chen Shuting were on time, it was 5.  So she was super confused why the Elders all left right after taking pictures.  So we were just talking, they were making the fruit salad they were doing, and we were finishing up the pies, and Sister Phillips is like, "Hey, is it 5 yet?" And we were like..."Um...it's after 6!!!" and she was like "HOW DID I LOSE AN HOUR OF MY LIFE?" It was so funny.  She felt really bad, and she really just didn't know how she didn't know how she mistaked it for being 5, not 6, but it all worked out in the end.  We got to take pictures together, and eat together for like 10 minutes, and the Elders came back later and were able to eat, and it was really good food, and we loved it sooo much.  And we made all our lessons on time, every one of us.  I'm really glad, even though it was all staggered out to eat, that we were able to all make a dinner together, even a small and simple dinner like it was made us all extremely happy. 

This week has just been amazing!  Seriously.  My companion and I have just been having a really great time together and our investigators are sooo good!  We have a really golden investigator.  Her name is Jasmine, or Li Wen.  She lived in America for 12 years growing up.  Not sure if I wrote about her last week or not.  She's just so good and sooo cute.  We taught her the law of chastity, and she was totally willing to follow it.  We even mentioned that we only only wear one set of earrings in each ear, and she had absolutely no problem, she immediately took out her extra set of earrings after the lesson, and the next day at church, she had one set.  She told me she'd been wearing 2 for a long time, she didn't need to wear them anymore.  I am just really impressed by her faith.  I learn so much from her.  She really applies the scriptures to her own life...and teaches us from what she learns.  I've never had an investigator who just could read a scripture and teach me from it after reading it once.  She's an English teacher here, and she always has ideas how to help Sunday School be more interactive and everything.  She's so cute, she even was quoting the bishops ward missionary plan to help us see why questions during the Gospel Principles class is essential and important.  I love her!  Her baptism goal is the 26th of this month.  It's right after transfer calls, but that's okay, if we move, we are going to ask President if we can come to her baptism.  It's that Saturday.  I think he'll probably let us, as long as we don't move 3 hours away or something ridiculous.  So yeah, Sister Kunzler will probably move, she's been here for 10 months in Jilong!!! So she's like...oh!  I will go where the Lord wants me to, but I really hope I can see Jasmine get baptized!  She's so excited because her mom is coming into town from America and can attend (her mom really supports her) and her birthday is the 28th...so it's right after Christmas and before her birthday.  Yay.  She's even joined with us missionaries and single adults in practicing for the ward Christmas performance, we are singing 8 songs, so we practice twice a week, so we get to see her a lot, and it's great!

We are also still working with Lin2 Li4zhen1 and her two boys, and they are really progressing.  She has a lot of questions and her and the youngest talk late at night and have started discussing how they are really coming to believe in God and Jesus Christ as they have seen answers to their prayers and seen his hand in their lives.  They are really great!  They come to church every week.  The oldest boy is a little slower in progressing because he's busier, but he is very willing to read the book of mormon and loves church!  I know they are really being prepared by the hand of the Lord.

The last investigator I'll talk about this week is Lin Weitong.  She's really cute.  She has 2 little kids.  She has just been doing really great!  She's progressing towards baptism.  She's really excited.  She really sees the blessings of baptism and eternal families.  I've never seen someone with such a strong desire to make it to the celestial kingdom, but she really has a strong desire and it's so cute!  I love her a lot too.  I just have learned so much from my investigators these last couple weeks.  I'm so amazed by how much they teach me in the end.  We prepare to be the teachers, but we end up being taught so much.

Our area is really going great.  Our investigators have been progressing, we have a lot of fun in our district, and in our apartment with four sisters we just really have a lot of fun.  I'm so happy!

I love you guys!  I hope you guys are as happy as I've been!

Don't forget to send me hot cheetos and funfetti cake mix for my birthday/christmas.  hahaha.  And write me of course!

LOVVEEE from
Sister Flora Bruno

Buddish Baibai Allowed if Praying to God

Tuesday, November 24, 2009 11:32 PM

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

Baptisms in Zhongli

Wednesday, September 23, 2009 2:27 AM

Hello from Zhongli, although it may be my last week here (or maybe I have a long time left here, speculations and bets have begun to be made).  haha.  I think people always guessing transfers is amusing, and I'm definitely not "too good" to participate in making guesses of who is going where and who is training, etc etc.  It's usually all in good Preparation day fun as districts hang out.  I personally hope I leave, just based on the fact that I have been in Zhongli for 6 months now, my entire mission...but if I don't leave, I won't be too upset because I really love this area and there are a lot of people here to teach.  So we'll find out what happens on Friday night, and I'll be back here online emailing on Monday, so don't forget to write me before then! 

In other news, this last Friday's baptism went pretty well.  Jasmine and Petrea Ge were baptized, but Leilani wasn't.  She had a few hang-ups that were understandable.  We'd like to see her baptized this week, she will call us tonight and tell us after she talks to her classmates when she thinks a good time would be...but even if in the end it's not this week, I know she will get baptized sooner or later.  So I'm not too worried about that. Petrea was really cute at the baptism.  She was like "I'm Ge Boya, and I think getting baptized is really AWESOME."  Then she sat down.  haha.  Kids.  Jasmine is also doing really well, she likes to hang out with our awesome Wu Mujun, who tuesday night just showed up to our lesson, we hadn't even told her about it, because she wasn't at church Sunday, but she must have heard from Jasmine we were coming over, and she came too.  That's dedication.  Jasmine also just really likes the missionaries, so that's good.  She came early to church Sunday because she said her house is boring, so she just sat around well Sister Chen and I ate, and she talked to us and stuff.  She also has started attending the Advanced English class on Wednesday, and thinks the teachers are hilarious.  I think that is due to the fact that her High School English class is too easy, since she lived in Australia growing up and is half Australian, and even though rarely uses her English these days, shes really still quite good at it. 

As for Chen Yiting, she's set-up for Saturday night and she's so super excited.  She's such a funny 19 year old girl, so I'm excited for her.  She's been like, I'M SO EXCITED FOR SATURDAY...whenever we see her.  Haha.  Really cute.

Besides that though, not a lot has been happening, we teach an okay amount of lessons and just try to invite everyone to learn about the church.   This last week we must have had a really good increase in key indicators, because the Assistants called us and told us that they and President were very happy with the work we were doing in Zhongli, and they encouraged us to keep working hard, and that they could see our hard work is really paying off.  That through our work and efforts many people were coming to know their Savior.  That's the 3rd time we've received a call like that from the Assistants on my mission.  I'm not sure how often they do it, but it's nice to hear from them, albeit a little stressing in that it's just a little pressuring that twice that it has happened, our numbers were inevitably going to drop that next week in some ways. But it's not necessarily a bad drop.  So yeah, our mission has very good Assistants that follow-up.  I seriously have never seen people so good at following up as the Assistants.  If we tell them anything, they remember and ask how that is going the next time they see us.  Their memories are almost uncanny.  Gotta respect crazy good memories like that.

So yeah! Time is running out, but don't forget, write by next week on Monday, your Sunday night I think.  I'll tell you then what happened Saturday, and with move calls.  I'm excited to be moving into transfer 5.  It's almost a halfway point for sister's I think.  Time passes fast.  Also with almost being in Taiwan 6 months now, I'm noticing I'm understanding a LOT more than I used to and I'm able to pretty much teach every lesson 1-4 decently and clearly.  Cool!  :)   I can't say "It all sounds Chinese to me" anymore...how sad because I used that phrase a lot before my mission, but now Chinese makes sense...everything not Chinese sounds Korea, or Indonesian, or Vietnamese around here.  Now my ear hears the difference between Asain languages.

Until next Monday,

Fu jiemei
Sister Flora Bruno

Week 23 in Zhongli or Transfer 4 Week 5

Hmm...let's see, well, this is currently week 23 in Zhongli and not a lot has really happened that week that I have to talk about.  Most interesting though I guess, would be the situation with the Ge Girls, or the Huang girls, depending on your take.  Their mom is Huang but they are all xin'ed Ge.  It took me like 3 transfers of knowing them to figure that out though...I never knew their Chinese names until recently.  They wanted me to just call them by their English names like Mom did.  Well, this Sunday was their baptism interview with Elder Lords, since their baptism is this Friday.  In the morning, mom couldn't take them to church because she had something going on, so we went to their apartment and picked them up, but only 2 of them came and met us downstairs for their interview.  The 2nd child, Leilani, didn't come.  They said she'd come to church later with mom.

I was so sad, she was the most awesome about reading and everything...she was in Jacob in no time, but because of that responsible personality, she stressed herself out about the interview and didn't want to do it...So Jasmine and Petrea did it and passed fine.  I was excited but still really sad about Leilani.  I sat next to her at church, and she wouldn't talk to anyone, she just cried and slept the whole meeting.  I'm not sure what the situation was.  Then, in Sunday school, I saw her in there sitting alone, so I had Su DX go see why.  The kids here are all really shy and our awesome Young Woman's who comes with us to their lesson, Wu Mujun was sitting by her sister.  I really wanted her to have a good experience at church so maybe we could talk to her and she could interview later.  Well, Su DX figured everything out, and I don't know how Sunday School was, but I went in there during the last hour and her sister and Mujun and I all sat together and Young Woman's was really fun.  We ate prezels and cheeto puffs and talked about how to control our thoughts, and everyone was just being really silly, and Leilani was smiling a lot.  Then, mom and Leilani were together with a counselor in the bishopric after church when we were in our meeting we have every sunday after church, and towards the end of the meeting, Huang jiemei and Leilani come downstairs and Leilani says she wants to meet with Elder Lords.  So yeah!  Then after the meeting, he interviewed her.  It took about an hour, but she passed fine and Elder Lords says her testimony is really amazing and he was so happy after that interview, because he was really able to help her, and he said that's the best kind of interviews, the ones where you really see a change with them from the beginning to the end...so I'm glad for Elder Lords...he helped her a lot, and she looked SO happy after her interview, where as the rest of the day earlier she looked so happy and stressed out.  So I'm REALLY excited for Friday.  I've known these girls for almost my whole mission and now they are getting baptized...

Also coming up on Friday is Chen Yiting's baptism interview.  She's so awesome, she's always like, I'm so excited to be baptized!  I'm so excited to come to church on Sunday!  I'm so excited to get to be interviewed for my baptism!  So yeah.  She's excited for Friday.  Her date is that following Saturday.  Move calls are Friday the 25th for a heads up, so if I forget to tell you next week, Preparation day will change to Monday not next week, but the following one.  People have already started talking about them, maybe I'll be more wondering about them by next Wednesday, but for now I have a super busy week until Sunday with Temple day in Taipei today, then we are going to Taipei tomorrow to do the temple tours, and biking out to Shanziding on Saturday...which is about a 55 minute bike ride straight uphill we've been doing once or twice a week these days for some investigators.  But since it's such a long bike ride...it takes quite a bit of time.  Like yesterday, we went all the way out to Yangmei for an appointment.  It was a 3 hour affair.  Shanziding is like that, but luckily we keep meeting people out there, and now have 3 lessons for our hard bike ride, instead of just 1 like it originally was.  So yeah, I thought briefly about it, but not too in-depth.  I feel super busy, but next week is probably not going to be nearly as busy.  Week 6 doesn't have many activities that happen, so we have nothing but time to try to fill in.  We'll do our best!  That's pretty much it though...not too many out of the ordinary things happened this week, we are just preparing for Friday, and our main focus next week will be Saturday.  We are very blessed here in Zhongli.  I've seen a lot of success.  Not to say we don't have trials, we have a lot, sometimes we have days where everyone cancels the night before and we have like 4 hours to fill in, in really hot weather, but it all ends up okay, and time passes by pretty fast.  Time really isn't the same on a mission as it was before the mission.  It's hard to explain, but yeah...time, it's warped.