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!

Transfer 6 Week 6: Death and Personal Trials

Wednesday, December 16, 2009 3:43 AM

It's week 6 of the transfer!  That means next Preparation day is Monday, not Wednesday so you need to email me by Monday night.  And I need everyone's phone numbers.  I don't know them.  And how it will work when I call.  Like will you guys three way?  I used to be the one to figure all that out, does anyone else know how?  Who should I call first?  Who will be together? 

So yeah, so for all we missionaries know, we'll be with different companions, districts, etc for Christmas, and we still don't even know them!  They don't have a Christmas party this year, but I guess our district will get together and do service activity and then we will proselyte at night.  Nobody will be sure what their area will be until Friday night, and we won't know our new district (area if we move) until move day Monday, so it will be quite a Christmas. 

There is so much that happened this week, but I think I'll actually travel back to last Wednesday after I emailed, the long day that happened there.  So...last Wednesday, we emailed and then all the Sisters (all 4 of us) biked back to the church, went to the bathroom really quick, and ran and bought lunch to eat on the bus to Taipei.  It was our zone's temple day, so we were all excited to go to Taipei, go to the temple, etc.  Well, we get on the bus and I start to eat my fried rice, just eating, talking, all good. 

But lets back up to last transfer in week 4.  Something I never mentioned, because I forgot because a mission goes by fast, is...well, I have one root canal right?  It fell out when we went on exchanges last transfer.  I was with a Taiwanese missionary, Sister Zhang.  And I freaked out.  Teeth are expensive, and I don't think you guys can afford for my tooth to just be falling out.  I remember what a hassle Gen's teeth were on a mission.  And mom's teeth too.  Teeth are expensive.  So I cried.  I don't cry a lot or often, but I cried a little when my tooth fell out.  I told Sister Zhang, "I'm going to look like a Taiwanese man with no house, with no teeth, teeth are expensive." And another reason I was scared, is partly because  I'd never learned dentist words, I only learned tooth because sister Zhang kept saying my "yachi" fell out.   Well, it was too late to do anything, so we planned to find a dentist in the morning.  The next morning we went running, and on the way to the school track, we found a dentist right next to our apartment.  We found out it opened at 10 and went and moved language study to the afternoon.  Well, lucky that I am insured in Taiwan and Taiwan has a government run medical health care. It cost 150 kuai to get in and see the dentist.  That's like 5 dollars.  Well, he took my tooth, looked at it and talked about how my American doctor didn't put in a good support, and he hoped to save me money so he'd see what he could do.  He popped it back in, said it was still at risk because it wasn't done well in the first place, but it'd cost around 200 American dollars to fix (I think cheaper than America though?), but he hoped I wouldn't have to spend that... and Sister Zhang and I  were out and on our way to normal missionary work.  The dentist knew a little English and we were able to use Chinglish to communicate. It ended up being fine.  After that day it was fixed, I forgot it happened, minus a picture I have.

So yeah, I'm sitting there, last Wednesday, I'm finally not paranoid about my tooth, it's been a little while.  And I'm eating, and I swallow, and there is a HOLE in my mouth.  I swallowed my tooth.  (Which, now I know how to say swallowed in Chinese).  I got a little emotional, and maybe shed a tear or two (but not outright crying) my first reaction was, "Sister Kunzler!  I've been through this trial, but last time I didn't swallow it, why did I have to swallow my tooth." I didn't think you guys could afford 200 dollars right with Christmas coming. Then I was a little freaked out as I tried to figure out if I should puke it out on the bus.  We were stuck on a bus for 45 minutes.  My companion and Sister Chen said THEY would puke if I forced myself to barf in front of them.  I prayed and ended up not barfing, I couldn't imagine how people would react. I thought maybe we'd get on the bus and I'd puke right before going into the temple.  I hoped in 45 minutes it wouldn't digest too far.

Well, we get to Taipei and we are in between the temple and the big chapel, my companion and I are on our way to the big chapel so I can see if I can puke it out...well, we run into my old companion Engela Chen, and she gives me an envelope with a hymn book I left in Zhongli and a letter.  My companion stopped to talk to someone, so I take out the letter to read it.  I read the first sentence.  It says, "Sister Bruno, sorry this is kind of abrupt, but Chen Huiping passed away."  I didn't continue the letter at that time.  I just had a break down.  I seriously sobbed.  In a LOUD voice, in front of tons of missionaries headed to the temple.  It was a combination of the new member that got baptized when I first got to  Taiwan passed away and I never wrote her a letter after I left Zhongli, and I swallowed my tooth and my dad was going to be really mad at me.  And I cried and cried.  I couldn't get ahold of myself very well.  And then, there was no time to go puke, it was time to go to the temple session, or we couldn't go to the temple at all.  And so we went in, and got dressed, and I just was crying (softly now) and everyone kept looking at me, and I felt like an idiot, because I think crying looks dumb.  But once the temple session started, I felt at peace and calmed down, and stopped crying.  I'm glad we can find peace in the temple.  It is an amazing place and I'm glad I got to go.

As for my tooth situation, I won't go into extensive details, but I will say, I have the tooth in my mouth (although it's still a risk) and it's sterilized by me 3 different ways and the dentist sterilized it and said I didnt need to worry, it was perfectly clean.  So I trust in that and figure I'm a stronger person for it, and we don't have to worry about it...for now.

As for more details about Chen Huiping, she was hit by a car and needed surgery.  They called the missionaries in search of family.  She got surgery and it didn't go well.  The family decided to pull the plug a week later.  (nobody in her family was close to her, she lived alone and just had a daughter and grandson in the Taipei area 2 hours away) I know before she passed away she wished to see her grandson. That wish came true while I was in Zhongli and she was very happy that day.  I still remember.  She really wanted her daughter to join the church and their relationship to become better.  Her daughter gave Sister Enge Chen her number at the funeral.  She said her husband wasn't ready to hear our message, but at least her number is in our records now.  I know one day Chen Huiping will see her daughter/grandson blessed because of her decision to be baptized. In a way it was, she'd wanted to see her grandson since he was born. She did back in August. 

In other news, we've had quite the week!  Lin2 Li4zhen1 and her 2 sons are doing great.  We taught them the law of chastity.  And oh. my. goodness.  My old district leader told me we HAVE to teach no masturbation in the LOC, so, we did.  Well, I know the formal word for it, but Chen2 Sen1 didn't understand that word, so the mother says, "Ni bu ke gen ni ziji xiao jiji wan."  And to make it even more awkward, the older brother loves English and translates something we already understood into English, "You caunt play with your own little chicken!" And I was so red and felt so awkward, the rest I don't need to explain, but pretty much, Taiwanese people are very open and I know why Elders teach boys the law of chastity and not sisters!  But in great news, the boys are obeying the law of chastity and doing SO GREAT.  They set a baptism goal for my BIRTHDAY.  Let me tell you, when they set that date, it was like one of the happiest days of my life.  I don't even care if I stay here this transfer or not, but I will try my hardest to be here when they get baptized.  They are just so great and progressing and keeping all the commandments.  I love them so much!

Also, Jasmine is doing AMAZING. I love her so much.  She teaches us more and more every week.  She talked this week about how she never felt the protective love of a father in her life until she came to THIS church.  We taught prophets and listened to the prophets voice and all felt the Spirit SO strongly in that lesson.  Her interview is this Saturday.  Also this Saturday we are singing 12 songs and doing a Christmas pageant, time is running out, talk more about that next week!

Love you guys so much!

Sister Flora Bruno
Fu jiemei

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!

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

Unwinding As Missionaries

Tuesday, November 17, 2009 11:26 PM

Hello from Rainy Jilong City.  It was nice to get your guys emails finally!  This week when I introduced my family (Here in Taiwan it is standard to introduce your family, and as a missionary you carry around pictures, which by the way most of you look bad in the pictures I show everyone because nobody ever wanted to give me a picture of us all at the wedding like I used to ask for back in my first transfer! So I collected random pictures you sent me and stuff already on my camera and I show people those...with Franny drinking pickle juice and other such pictures...hahaha) then I was like, yeah, my sister is pregnant, except probably not, she probably has a baby, but i don't know it's gender or anything about it...then people would laugh because you know, I just make really interesting comments all the time. That's so cool I have a niece.  Why did you guys pick the name Chiara like Nikita's middle name? Nobody told me. 

This week was a lot of fun.  Last week we went crab hunting on Preparation day with our district.  I was really determined to catch SOMETHING because I went all the way out there, but by the time I decided I wanted to do it, all the rest of the Elders were done, they had caught about 5 crabs.  Well, they said I could try to catch them but the water was too high in the really easy places to catch a crab, so a native Taiwanese Elder found a crab in a deep hole and tried to get me to catch it...well there was no way, but I wanted to catch something so I kept standing there really still waiting for something to come into the part I was standing in...Well, I finally see one in a really open spot...super easy to get right?  Right, so I put my foot on a spot on the rock, and the next thing I know, I'm totally sitting in the water, my waist down is soaking wet...and the crab ran away. And I was so disappointed I said, "I can't get up!  It's so salty!"  Now...the two thoughts had nothing to do with each other, but the Elders quote me all the time now, they think it was so hilarious.  I just was stuck for a second, and the water got in my mouth and was really strong and gross, and ridiculous I fell because there was hardly any water at all, and i had to fall in and got my behind pretty wet...we stayed on the rocks catching the crabs the whole time, because missionaries cant be in the water and we didn't want to even skirt breaking rules...I'm ridiculously a clutz!  but anyways, in the end, I decided to catch a fish instead and I caught a tiny fish...so I was unique and got something, but it wasn't an edible fish, and so nobody ate it...and it died in freshwater anyways when we went out and got some shaved ice before the elders went back to the church and killed and ate the crabs. 

This week has been a little bit fast, I can't remember much else that happened.  Our investigators are doing pretty good, we have to do a lot more contacting than I'm used to as a sister, but I think it's really good for our area to have a lot of sisters.  It's fun all the time. Today we will probably go into Taibei, it's only 40 minutes away and sister Chen, a native taiwanese being trained here in Jilong with her companion Sister Phillips needs some stuff, so they want it to be together.  I'm excited.  It's Elder Cazier's birthday today, but the Elders are going to TGIF Friday's doing something sister Phillips and her companion don't want to do, so we probably won't go.  We'll make him brownies instead :)

Jilong Area Expands and Gets New Set of Sisters

Nobody wrote me this week.  I'm still in Jilong with the same companion.  However, there are two extra sisters this transfer and so they decided to put them in Jilong.  Now our area is getting split in half.  It really grew a lot since I first got here with no investigators that could progress, because the only ones willing to progress have parents opposing baptism problems and need to wait 2-4 more years to get baptized, and no people to meet with, so like 10 lessons a week..and it was quite a task to get that...to quite a few people with dates and we had 23 lessons last week.  So this area can handle two more sisters.  It should be a lot of fun to have Sister Phillips who goes home, and her trainee, who is a native Taiwanese, Sister Chen Shuting with us in our apartment.  Sisters are so spread out, it's rare to see other sisters except at zone conference and stuff, now we are the only sisters in the same zone in the entire mission according to my understanding.  How exciting.  President said he knows they are supposed to be here, and I know he is an inspired man, so I'm sure this is going to be super great for our area and we will see many miracles.

This is a great and marvelous work.  This work and church is true, and it is the only path whereby we can receive salvation.  Satan also exists and his path is not one of happiness.  He leads people to deny basic doctrine such as that there could be another truth, that families are not eternal, that God is a changing God.   People become selfish and self-serving when they follow his clutches. As a great man once said, beware of pride.  I have really seen how pride destroys every good thing.  Don't forget, God is an unchanging God, only through sacrificing yourself and creating a home of prayer, learning, and love, only through following the one true path and putting off the natural man will you be saved in the kingdom of God.  I hope you can create a home that can be a safe haven.  I remember when Thomas S. Monson was called as prophet, he said that would be his focus, to have members create a home where kids could go to escape the clutches of Satan found in this world, to that safe haven.  I don't remember his exact words, but that was his concept.

I have learned a lot from our favorite investigator right now.  Her name is Lin Lizhen.  She has 2 boys.  She also has a husband...but her husband comes home very rarely.  He decided he liked another woman.  He went out and sought worldly things.  Sister Lin loves her husband.  She prays for him to come home.  She said she used to freak out a lot and call him every day, but since meeting us she said she feels more peace.  She doesn't call him anymore.  When I heard her story, I thought...Zenme keneng?  How is that possible?  After all her husband did and she prays for him to return.  It's like the prodigals son. There is so much hurt and suffering these people caused, and yet, there are people willing to take them back and love them no matter what.  I'm not yet that loving.  Maybe one day, but I don't like the hurt these people cause.  My inital thoughts are usually that I hope their repentance process hurts like....I really do.  Because they are cruel with the way they mess people up...but lucky them!  Heavenly Father will forgive them, and others, who have figured out the gospel better than I have quite yet are ready to receive them with open arms.  How blessed we are to have such a loving Heavenly Father. I can't even fathom that kind of love, but I've felt it, and it's pretty amazing of a feeling.

Hope you are all well, love you guys!  Don't forget to write me by next Wednesday, everyone owes me a letter, especially since i have NONE this week.  I have a hard time writing when nobody else writes me.  It makes me not want to write, but I do anyways because it's a rule.  I'd rather want to do it!  So yeah.  Until next week!

Sister Bruno