Transfer 9 Week 1: Sister Bruno in Taoyuan City with Under Four Months to Go

This week we did Temple Tours again. We had a really touching experience with 3 members. 2 mothers, and one of their husbands. They were from Taizhong and came up to Taipei for a tour. Well, we went up to show them the temple book we have, which maybe one day I'll take pictures of it. What it is, is pictures that kind of run through a plan of salvation in some ways, so we review plan of salvation with the temple for our members. Well, we did this for this lady, and when we get to the place with a memorial and a lady laying flowers I usually just explain we will all die one day, then we move on to talk about resurrection and returning to God...the more important parts, but in this tour I felt prompted to mention sometimes people around us die also, then my companion testified about the comfort of knowing we'd be resurrected and return to God, and the lady, since I had talked about death had been sobbing, her husband was patting her...then I testified also about God comforting us and welcoming us home. I was a little worried, but we just continued on, to show them a movie put out by our Mission called Believe, which talks about how we need to believe in the growth of taiwan, and the gospel, etc. It's good and has pictures and music. At the end, the lady shares with us, that her oldest son recently passed away after suffering for 2 years, and that she felt some comfort in doing this tour, even though sometimes she didn't know what her son was doing. By the end, there wasn't a dry eye in the room, and Sister Collyer shared her testimony on eternal families. It was really a faith building tour. I was glad to be a part of it. That woman had some strong faith. She's been through some hard trials. I was glad to see she had such a loving and supportive husband, who could go to the temple with her, and stay by her side in her trials. So yeah. They were really wonderful and even gave us these onion cakes that were absolutely delicious after the tour. It was a special experience.

In other news, I moved again, this time to Taoyuan City (Taoyuan 1 and 3 ward). Zhongli is in Taoyuan county, so I'm back to around the same area I was born in, but not too terribly close. It's still a good 12ish minutes train ride. And the bike ride to the train station of course. I've been moving a lot lately, but not too much and I don't really mind moving. I just don't care anymore. I only have a very short time left on a mission, so I could stay here the rest, or I could move again, I'm okay with whatever. My new companion is Sister Adrienne Tedjamulia. Yeah, from the MTC, the one transfer older than me Sister Ted. Sister Ackerson is down in Danshui training...the only missionary, elder or sister, that came in this transfer, a Sister Amy Collyer. I thought this transfer would be a big massacre and kind of dramatic with so many people going home, but it was kind of smooth, only one missionary came on, they closed a couple areas...basically sister transitions were very few for some reason we all thought they would be, but it wasn't. Although, now we all think next transfer will be what we thought this would be, with some 6 new sisters coming on. This mission is seeing a lot of drawbacks in missionary numbers I think, but soon I will be home, so I won't even see the dramatic changes from what I hear. Today, from not too reliable sources, they said with my group, 45 elders were leaving. Maybe a handful are coming in. I'm not sure, but I know a lot of people will leave with us to make it home in time for school, so we won't see a lot of Elder extensions to that next transfer. That's for sure.

Within my district though, there was a lot of change. The Bali Elders were whitewashed, and just Elder Smith and Sister Ackerson stayed from before...so they will get a lot of change... My old district leader, had a hard time leaving I think. He was only there 3 months like I was, I think he had settled in. And it is not easy to hear you are going co-senior...with the way the mission has been lately, there isn't spots for people who are older on a mission and qualified to be seniors, to go senior, or stay senior companion...so with Elders they've started experimenting with co-senior. Elder You is going to be one, and in Danshui, I'm pretty sure Elder Smith is in that situation too. I bet he'll have a lot of fun though. His companion is funny. I've met him. Also Taiwanese, so they'll have no language barrier or anything. They haven't done this kind of thing with sisters (yet anyways), but it will be interesting to see how that goes with the Elders. Elder You is in Taoyuan as well, just a different ward, so I'll still see him now and again.

As for my new district, not much change happened I'm now with 4 Taiwanese Elders in my district, so that will be interesting for my companion and I to be the only Americans in our entire district. That's all on the whole mission move call madness front.

Besides that, really not much to say. I guess mostly because moving is a transition. I just got here to Taoyuan only moments ago, and we needed to directly come email since it took awhile to get here. I took my luggage down to Taipei, then waited around and said goodbye to the leaving missionaries, such as my fun little Sister Chen companion, from back in my Zhongli days...for like almost 2 hours. Then, when they got there, we went to lunch with the member who was helping Sister Allen come down, and me come up...and then finally came here. Now Danshui feels like awhile in the past, even though I just left this morning, but I've known since Zone Conference on Wednesday when President told Sister Ackerson she was training, that I was going to move. I just had to wait until Friday to know where. I've been telling people all week that I'm going to move, even before I knew where to...so yeah...it's just been another moving week. And now, I will spend the next 6 weeks trying to figure out how to get to basic places, and trying to memorize important leadership names...etc. Sister Tedjamulia will be able to help me a lot with that drill though, she's been in Taoyuan about 11 months now, so that will help a lot.

Well, that's all I feel like writing for today! I'll send pictures or something in my extra time. BYE

Oh! P.S. Funny scripture moral for the week that the Elders shared with us: Ether 15:31. Even when you feel like Shiz in the morning, you still have to try to get up. That's Elders for you. Always finding fun little principles like that. I appreciated it. Hopefully I shared that sentiment correctly.

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

Missionary Email: Chinese New Year in Danshui, Taiwan

Hello, Hello. Today we created our new email accounts. It took me personally a ridiculously long time because it was having issues and didn't recognize who I was, but I finally got it. Woohoo.


This week, there hasn't been a whole lot that went on to talk about. I have bronchitus again...I got it in the MTC, and then I got again about 2 days ago. I went to the doctor right away about it, because it got pretty extreme pretty fast, but the stuff he gave me isn't working I don't think. There has been no status change...I cough so hard I start barfing and my lungs hurt really bad. People are really concerned about me, Whitney made me some kind of soup stuff and milk and brought it to me today...so yeah, that's what's up for the immediate. It's been raining for this last week, and I think that my socks always being soaking and my feet being cold all the time is probably the reason I got sick...who knows. All I know, is I hope I get better soon, because on the mission being sick is the worst...

This week we did not do a lot of investigator work, we pretty much spent the whole week going from lunch to dinner appointments. It was Chinese New Years. We ate a LOT of good food and really were able to become closer to the members. I feel like I know more members now in this area than in any other area on my entire mission, because I spent the last week with members...I just really felt the importance of member work as we sat around the table last Sunday at the Beitou ward MM's leaders table and shared our individual conversion stories. Since that was early into the New Years (it lasts 8 days) I was able to just see how going to members could be an uplifting experience from the beginning, and was able to just have a good time the rest of the New Years. I didn't fair too bad...I weighed myself before and after, and even being fed lunch and dinner for a straight week, and eating until I couldn't eat anymore, I only gained 1.4 lbs...which I probably am in the process of losing with this dreadful cough I have.. Not too shabby! One of the Elders gained 11 lbs, but he could use it, he's a skinny guy.

I know that's not a lot, but that's really all that went on this week...nothing really new to update about...Whitney got confirmed Sunday, and is actually to my left emailing with us...well playing on facebook and MSNing while we email. haha. She came to Zhuwei to give me stuff for my cold...We've been calling people to meet with us, since the new years is over...and slowly we will transition back into a regular schedule...

I'll send pictures now because not much to write. Love you guys


Sister Flora Bruno

Writing Mission President More Regularly and Whitney's Baptism

Time is flying! I'm going to write really fast this week because I finally have a jump drive, but I'm in Shipai in between New Years eating appointments, so this place is doubly expensive, so I couldn't buy 2 hours like I would normally if I wanted to send pictures. The good news though, is, like most missions (as I've heard) our mission is switching to the new email system. It was a little annoying as I got the pre-email to register in my account, despite having all the correct information, it said none of us are in the system, and when we tried to sign up, it took us to a Chinese page, and kept showing an error. We are with Shipai Elders right now (Elder Weinberger and Shumway) and none of us really understand the message, so we'll check into it again next week. President is requiring an email (previously president's letters were not TOO enforced, and most people did them every 2 or 3 weeks...but now it will be enforced) because the new system will make it convenient for us to email him, and help him know how everyone is doing (numbers wise especially) with a new graph system or something. I think it will be nice to get the new email system, it takes me like 4 minutes a picture when I send them.

As for news that happened this week...lots of stuff went on. We had Zone Conference on Wednesday. The theme this week was Using Time Wisely. We talked a lot about the importance of planning and was given examples of how to plan. The most amusing (although I think slightly apostate in some ways) part was that President's Assistants did a role play, where they were God, except they "didn't want to call themselves God" so they called themselves angelic messengers (who happened to not be able to go down personally to earth, so sent someone instead...haha so they were executive angelic messengers I guess!) Angel Worthen and Lysenko (my companion and I refer them as such these days). The content of the role play, was, they were planning on how many people they could save in the highest kingdom...in the what not to do section, they said Peter, James, and John were good...Steven perhaps could be good, but Saul potential was not high. They made some ridiculous goals and just kind of threw Steven in as Saul's peike...then ended. In their better role play, they put names to goals. They wanted to increase their numbers, so Angel Worthen showed confidence in Saul...said to help he would maybe have a rock fly out of the heavens and hit him, a messenger to talk to him...and see what they could do about converting him, since their Peike Steven couldn't peike now due to unfortunate circumstances.  Something to that effect. It was just funny and had a lot of scriptural references to it. Sister Ackerson was cracking up with a small part of the crowd, but other people weren't laughing. I think it's because people didn't know how to react. Haha I personally thought it was amusing to watch the reactions of everyone around us.

Also had Presidents interviews this week, that's always fun to go talk to the Grimleys for a time. That day was a little confusing though, because we had a tour at 3 and interviews in the morning, but it ended up being fine with us doing studies at the church, it just ended up being inconvenient because our 3 o'clock didn't show up! And I'd left my stuff at the chapel! As luck would have it, Elder Carter and Elder Robertson? showed up at the MRT right then, and happened to have their bikes, and they did some service and went and got our stuff so we didn't have to walk there and back. It was tons faster. I'm thankful Elders and so willing to do service, especially since we had been waiting around and totally rescheduled stuff to be able to, only to have the girl not come because she said she was uncomfortable.

So onto something interesting, or maybe at least slightly because I am rambling, and at this rate no way I'll send pictures (especially since the Elders keep talking to us (about how fat they are getting from the new year and how they will die if they eat at our McDonalds appointment in and hour) and asking me how to spell definitely etc etc) So!

This week Yan Yuhang got confirmed! But we weren't there, because we were in Beitou/Shipai for Whitney's baptism! It was seriously a fun service!; The night before the MM leader called and asked us if we could do a musical number. He didn't want Sister Ackerson to play, because he said that would make girls too small, so Elder Mao (Beitou elder) to the rescue! He is amazing at the piano, and brought in some amazing accompaniments (which I can't spell, and neither can the others, despite the fact that Elder Shumway tried to help me out and maybe even got it right, who knows, i'm sticking with this way)...so we sung Sweet Hour of Prayer to an amazing piano part and the spirit was good. The Service went well and Whitney did a nice testimony, as did the MM leaders wife, Sister You. Haha, so onto the amusing part of the ceremony, every baptism needs a comic relief...Whitney was really cute, she brought HUGE leopard skin bag with all her stuff, even a complete change of clothes, because she didn't want to take hers off so she wore them under the baptism suit...it was cute, when she was baptized she went in and one time was enough...after we are in the bathroom, and since she completely soaked a whole outfit, it took a little while to get back to the chapel...lucky for Elder Weinberger...I hear the blowdryer going quite some time, and finally peek my head out and ask Elder Shumway if Weinberger forgot an towel. Elder Shumway laughed and said, "Worse. He forgot a little more than that!!!" HAHAHA i cracked up so hard and told my companion what happened. We both were laughing in the bathroom, and the other girls were like "What what?" And we were just like, "Nothing..." So that was the amusing part of that baptism. Everything else was really smooth. I loved that we had a baptism that went so well. The spirit was there and we were just all really excited.

As for the Chinese New Years news, I'm doing pretty good. We've been fed every lunch and dinner (and even one breakfast this morning) since Saturday, and will continue that pattern until this Saturday. I like it because I'm pretty good at just eating until I'm comfortable, but some people are not doing as well as I am, it's not the easiest thing to eat until you can't eat anymore every meal...fortunately for me I've been good and I'm handling it fine. The only drawback is I'm scared I'll be gaining some weight, but It's okay, I love doing member work and really have felt the spirit and closer to the members these last couple days as we go to their houses. It's really good to get to know them better.I love this area a lot more as I know and love these members.And plus I've been eating some good food! I'll work on getting it back off after this Saturday. For now I'm handling it fine. :)

So that's that! I have to stop writing now! Love you guys, be back on Next week!

Sister Flora Bruno (fu)

Yan Yuhang's Baptism: The Seventh Try Is the Charm

Ugh. Sometimes I miss typing in a program that doesn't have a 5 minute automatic save like my nice little word documents back at home. I just typed Gen a long email, but now I'll write the family one, and if there is time switch back to the email to Gen. It seems like I lose an email at least once a transfer. There are worse things in life though. Since I'm on a mission, I realize that typing an email is lucky, since it means i don't have to write a paper letter home every week. I've been quite awful about writing paper letters ever since transfer 3 or 4. I still write people back, but I don't just write to people I think of, sporadically like before.

Okay, so this week was quite an interesting week...but the mentionable of the week first, and if there is time other things later. Yesterday night, we had Yan Yuhang's baptismal service. The talks went pretty good, and were touching. I just was smiling so hard it hurt when Yan bore her testimony about being grateful for us teaching her how to pray, and why she liked our church and such. It felt good to be part of her experience. She was definitely someone the members took great care of. Her brother-in-law is a member, so she is a referral from him, and his brother-in-laws girlfriend came all the way down from Taizhong to be with her. It was good. But, as you may remember, interesting things have happened the last few baptisms (during the ordinance part) that makes the last few people my companions and I have taught baptism quite the experience. Now, Yan Yuhang was no different. In fact, I have to say that her experience in being baptized by water takes the cake...and here's why:

You see, the church in Danshui has no built in baptismal font. Next week I'll send pictures, but this week there is no drive on this computer for that. So, the baptismal font is this...well, the best way to describe it is to say that it is a blue tank.  It's kind of a weird looking thing.  Nothing like a child's swimming pool in the backyard or anything. Totally unique. Well, to get you a better picture of what this was like, the entire tank itself comes to about my hips. You know, me at 4'11'' and it only comes to my hips. Well, last time there was a service, we actually traveled from Jilong to go to Chen Meishan's (who attended Yan Yuhangs baptism :) ) and the Elders had filled this thing too high, so there was a little flooding in the Primary room. Elder Smith did not want the same result this time, so they didn't fill it quite as full. In fact, I think the water was...pretty darn low. So that was problem one--low water.

Elder Scott Carlson is the one baptizing, he even calls himself Scott the baptist before he puts on his white clothes, funny joke. It's his first baptism service on his mission, so we thought it would be fun to have him be the one to perform the ordinance. He was very dedicated and practiced the prayer and the tones on her name a lot. So, he does a great job, gets through the prayer like a champ, and goes to help submerge her. Unfortunately, Yuhang's body is really tense, problem two...so her legs and arms went in, but for some reason I can't figure out, her stomach floated up. She just couldn't get low enough, it was like they she was playing limbo and not quite succeeding. Let me just tell you, it was a pretty HILARIOUS sight to see. The crowd is cracking up with laughter, I'm not much help, because I'm trying to restrain myself and not doing a good job, and Elder Carlson is a champ and does it again, no luck. Again, stomach still not going in. After three unsucessful attempts, we get enough control of ourselves to start giving advice.  We tell her to relax a little more and get her as she is going down to knee on one knee, which helps him get her deeper. Unfortunately, even with this extra help, attempt 4 and 5 a knee pops up. Poor Elder Carlson, the crowd is so rambunctious, people would interrupt him and offer advice, he'd get nervous he just tried 5 times unsuccessfully and had to pull it out together...he must have started the prayer at least 15 to 20 times I think before the end. Finally, time 6, Elder Broadhead at the left calls it good, her knee went in and everything, so, she gets out of the tank, which isn't an easy task and we usher her toward the bathroom, when we hear from the right...that her elbow was not in. So, she has to get back in the tank, and this time #7 is the charm. Baptism. By complete immersion. 7 times just to make sure. We are lucky it was Elder Carlson and Yan Yuhang, because both of them are just pure examples of patience. Yuhang wasn't even bothered at all after we said it had to be complete immersion...and Elder Carlson said, oh, if she's good I'm good. So that was that, and we all got a pretty good laugh about it. We told her she was extra white and clean. It was fun because everyone there were big picture takers, so there are some good pictures of us back in the bathroom with Yuhang...and as a group at the baptism. It was very excited group, and we ate some fruit together after the service, and it just felt really fun. Yuhang was happy, and so were we. It was a baptism to remember for sure. The last 3 have been! Yuhang, Jasmine, Chen Yiting...all three of them had experiences I'll probably never forget. Too unique. :) So yeah, that was what I was up to yesterday night!

In other news, the Chinese New Year is starting Saturday. I've heard of people gaining as much as 20 pounds over the 10 days it lasts. Our schedule has already seen a hit, due to the new year, nobody wants to meet. Anyone I call to set up with, says they'd love to meet with us, after 2/21. So, I have 12 names in my planner to call on the 21st and the number grows. That's good news, but I hear our schedule will be a little nontraditional starting here soon. The nice thing is now we get to do a load of member work, as there is a feeding missionary (chikebiao) and members will feed us lunch and dinner daily, and occasionally even a breakfast or two, for the entire guonian. In America missionaries get fed pretty much nightly. Here, we eat outside from the street vendors most days, and maybe at a members once about every two weeks or so. But guonian (the chinese for chinese new year) the feed us every lunch and dinner. I hear sometimes we eat during the new years for 2 hours, then roll ourselves out the door to eat some more. I don't know how it will really be, but we have 3 wards that we regularly attend, so all three wards have put us down to feed us, sometimes we can't go, like when we have temple tour and stuff, but we are going to try to find a way to meet as many members as possible in all 3 wards. We'd love to extend sister's member work. I'm still asked in some wards sometimes "Do we even has sister missionaries in this ward?"...yes, we are them. I say it all the time :) It's because we only come every other week, so I guess it can be confusing...but no problem. Next week should be good for meeting members and an interesting time of the year. I'll tell you how the first two days went next week.

In other investigator news, Xie Huiru is doing great. We told her she was ready to get baptized and asked when she wanted to change her date to, and she wanted this Saturday, chuxi...or the first day of the Chinese New Year. She basically didn't want hardly anyone to come, she's a little scared of a huge baptism...but a bishop representative would not come for an hour baptism on chuxi. The bishop took it upon himself to interview with her and talk about it, and the end result is that since church is one hour next week, they convinced her to have her baptism after church, so next week after church Whitney will have her baptism. We are excited. She's really ready. She's been super diligent about repenting, and has changed a lot. She seems super ready, and since Sunday is guonian, she will probably get her wish, and have a relatively small baptism. Not sure though. The ward loves her. Today, the MM Leaders wife, Sister You called us and asked us to come to her house tonight to meet with Whitney. We hadn't even mentioned we were meeting with her tonight to anyone. She must have called Whitney herself. So that will be good. Sister You is a very cute return missionary with 2 children. I'm excited we can go over there and not only Whitney, but also us missionaries can get to know her better. Good things have been happening lately with Shipai. Good ward.

Chen Zhirou is also doing pretty well, still has a little bit of parent opposition. We had a little experience, her mom called the church and accused of us teaching Zhirou to swear at her and argue with her. I guess those two had gotten in a fight, and her mom was really upset. She called us to probably rant a little, and it sounded like she couldn't find her child, so she was worried. She asked a million times if she was at the church. Fortunately, that night, Zhirou said the Holy Ghost impressed her to write an apology to her mother for the means words they exchanged and gave her the note. Her mother forgave her and gave her permission to come to church on Sunday...so she came to church and the baptism. It was good for her. She got to talk to the bishop for quite some time. She's made good friends with him. The ward will really help her out I think. She played the piano for us and the ward was just amazed by her amazing piano playing skills. She's quite fast. I'm impressed too. :)

Um...let's see...not a lot more going on, Jiang Xiuwen, or Doreen didn't come to church. That made me a little sad because I really would like to see her make friends at church....that and I'd like to see her progressing in the gospel of course. I know the church will help her. She's still really willing to meet, so I think we can get her to church eventually, especially after the new year. We are going to even check and see if she can come up to Beitou for just an hour, or go to church in Yonghe and still make her goal...if not we will just move back the baptismal goal...either way I think she will progress. I've had nothing but good feelings about her since I met her. She's someone I loved very much from the first meeting, so I'll keep you updated on that. We'll go see her tonight at 6.

Hm Hm. I think that's about it for this week. Write again next week. Until then...love you guys. Jiayou!

Fu jiemei. 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!