This week, I hit my year on island mark. Now when people ask me how long I've been here, I can say over a year. I got my Alien Residence Card Renewed, and my companion bought me a cheese-bake (rice with stuff in it covered in cheese, so the closest you come to a casserole in Taiwan) for my anniversary marker. I remember when I first got here, and Sister Hill would tell everyone she was just over a year in Taiwan, and they'd praise her Chinese. I remember back then, I didn't think I'd ever be able to understand what the teenage girls were gossiping about on the bus/train next to me were saying, or what people asked me in a basic sentence even at times...but here I am, understanding a large majority....watching the young woman's broadcast in Chinese...and still getting most of what they were saying. There are still works I don't understand, but when I'm diligent, I just write them down and they commit to memory after looking them up, they usually are just there. That is not how it was to start with...so I'm just here to testify that the gift of tongues is real, and that Heavenly Father really does bless us when we are doing his work.
This week was a lot of fun with conference going on. Since the Taoyuan church here that we serve at is the stake center, I saw a lot of missionaries and old Zhongli members on Saturday when it was just broadcast here. It was really awesome to see everyone. It also was just a really unique experience to watch conference with a group of missionaries. We laughed really hard, like when they called names, and 2 peoples uncles got called...then Sister Hintze, was like, "Man...everyone's uncle" then...a Carter was called, and everyone high fived Elder Carter...and we were like, "Is that your uncle?" "Nahhh.". Boys will be boys :). Yet we were reverent when the time was appropriate for silence. No crying children...no people snoozing off and bored. We were all intensely listening, and it just brought a special spirit, so even when Elder Holland brought up a serious topic, we were able to laugh at the jokes he dropped in, while still seeing the pertinence in what he was talking about. Of course the Sisters got a lot of slack and the Elders kept a watch to see that we were taking notes on what they found important...haha, but we were thankful for the counsel for us...may we be good mothers when the time comes.
This week has been a pretty good week. After e-mailing, we went to Window on China in Longtan for Preparation day. It was a lot of fun, and we were able to become a lot closer as a district as we just went and took pictures and played together at the tiny theme park. My companion had never gone before, and she loved it.; I was grateful for the opportunity to become closer to my district. They wanted to hang out again this week and go to the beach together, but I had to go to the doctor in Taipei, so that wasn't an option...but I was just really glad that they wanted us to hang out with them. At the beginning of the transfer, they didn't want to go with us, but then last week they did, and we just all became closer friends. That's important in a district. When your district is close and has unity, you pray for each other, and you just see so much success and miracles as your district works together doing this wonderful work the Lord has allowed us to do.
With investigators, we've been following up with our investigator Vera every day. Her faith is so big, but it's not easy to overcome addiction. Nicotine is killer. On Tuesday the bishop attended our lesson, and he was a great help for her. He himself understands what is is like to be addicted, so he was a great benefit to the lesson. Vera has improved a whole lot. She is almost there. She is stressed though, and I was a little at a loss for words as she cried into the phone about always giving in to Satan and how her head would feel like she needed to explode. I've never been in that experience. I can't tell her I understand at all. I've never touched what we call the "big 5" in the Word of Wisdom ever. My struggles are just that I need to more diligently exercise and I eat too much sugar especially lately...just whenever I feel stressed...kind of problems. But yeah, basically I can't really understand what it's like. I'm not going to tell her I do. But yeah, Sister Tedjamulia and I have just been really emphasizing the relationship she has with Jesus Christ, and how when nobody else can understand he can. I really love Vera, and every day, even when she doesn't do as well as she might have hoped, she commits to trying again. I know she will do it. I just know that it takes time too. So we are doing what we can to be encouraging. She's changed so much lately, and there is more of a light in her eyes. She's awesome.
We also had a really amazing lesson with Joline this week. Sister Hong came out with us, and Joline really opened to us. Before we were really worried because we thought she went to the liliangtang this church a lot of Christians here go to. We've had some not too positive encounters with people from there, because, well, they didn't like us...so we just really wanted to help Joline. She really opened up to us. She asked a ton of questions and shared about how church eventually became a negative experience for her so she hasn't attended. We hope to address more of her questions, since we had no way of getting to them all, next lesson. We also hope we can help her in developing faith so she can have positive experiences at a church and be willing to come attend. I'm excited to continue teaching her. I've taught Christians before, but never one whose understanding of the Bible is as clear as hers, but she's so willing to listen and ask questions. It's a unique experience for me here in my mission, as most people I have taught are more exposed to the Buddist or Daoist religion, and so teaching is a lot more simple, and usually doesn't get too deeply into the Bible.
Crystal's mother said she might want to wait until she is older to be baptized, since she is so young and her sister who takes her to church might go to college soon. We are now leaving it up to the members to arrange rides for her and talk to the mother, and whatever else needs to be done. We will continue working with the ward on anything they want us to do, and still visit them, but we figure this is a situation best to leave to the ward for the time being. Luckily we have a pretty awesome ward, so I'm sure things will get done.
We also had a really good lesson with Ji Rushuang this week as well. She finally opened up and shared some of the pressure and stress she had been feeling with us. It was the first time she had a question for us, so we were happy to answer her concerns. We also taught her about the sabbath day, and she will come to church this next week she said.
Also, something fun this week, was that on Thursday we did splits with some members, and Sister Zhang and I went out to visit Li Yijing. She has been coming to church for quite some time, to the wrong ward. Lately though, she's finally committed to coming to this ward, and always even brings a friend. Sister Zhang and I taught her about the plan of salvation and set a baptism date with her. She said she doesn't know if she will be prepared so fast, but she trusted us and Heavenly Father would help prepare her, and made goals, and committed to coming to church and activities. On Wednesday, we saw her and her friend, Xu Jialin, at English class, and Jialin said she didn't have a BOM, so we were able to give her one. It's great to see Jialin's interest grow as Yijin progresses. She is a great friend, and already a wonderful missionary. The members like her a lot, because she's very cute and just very interested in the gospel. She told SIster Zhang she likes to go to church because she always finds the lessons very educational and learns new things. We like hearing that.
Times running fast so that's all I'll say about investigators this week.
Tuesday we had Zone conference in Zhubei (Xinzhu county). It was a good conference. It's the first time I have been over in Xinzhu. It only became part of our mission recently. As it just so happened, all the sisters going home this transfer were all there in the same zone conference. I was happy to see Sister Kunzler giving her last zone conference testimony. She's really a sweet girl and I was glad I got to see her again. I thought when we left Jilong, i wouldn't see her again since she was going so far away, and I was staying over in Danshui, but in the end, I saw her at least 4 more times, before at zone conference we said a goodbye...for now. When she's in SC and I'm in SC, we can just set up to go to the temple the same weekend. Of all my companions, I'll probably most likely see her again.
That's pretty much all that went on this week, and the computer will turn off in 1 minute, so great timing. Haha. Love you guys!
Sister Flora Bruno.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Monday, April 5, 2010
Missionary Email: Great Ward Mission Program
Oh man, how time flies. It feels like just yesterday that I was in this email cafe writing in Taoyuan for the first time...now we are officially half way done with the transfer. In start, I didn't think this was going to be a very easy transfer for me, to be back in Taoyuan, probably just Satan telling me that, because I'm not even sure why I felt that way. I'm glad that was just a weakness/fear of mine. Lately I've been having a lot of fun!
Taoyuan is slightly a place with stress because the ward puts a lot of stress on the missionaries, but it's due to their mission ward program being the best mission ward program I personally have ever seen...so good stress! What both (not just one) of the wards here do, is that everyone has a "tithe" of their time, and once a month, they put aside a couple hours to do missionary work...this may mean visiting inactive members, accompanying missionaries for lessons we have scheduled if we have some at that time, inviting the missionaries to share the gospel with their friends, etc. So here, we work with a lot of members. At first I was worried about how intense the ward missionary program is, especially if my companion leaves next transfer, since Sister Tedjamulia has been here 7 transfers...but I'm realizing that things will take care of themselves, and I'm just doing my best to memorize peoples names and get to know the members since they are so great about working with us. The investigators we do have are very well taken care of in both the wards in Taoyuan. It's really awesome. I've had really good wards before, but usually if you have 2 wards, one is stronger than the other, but here in Taoyuan both ward programs are pretty similar, the differences exist, but both programs are awesome.
In mission news for this week, we had a really great week. We really saw a lot of miracles with how many people ended up attending church yesterday. We had set a really high goal at WPS and we followed up on getting people to church really well, but the 4 of the people we planned on told us they couldn't come, so we figured there was not much way of accomplishing our goal for that week, but Heavenly Father showed us that if you work hard he prepares a way. Despite the many people who couldn't come to church, we had some miracles and still had our goal exactly accomplished. It was pretty amazing. Sister 邰 Tai and I are just doing our best. And things are going well.
With investigators, 周静阑 Zhou Jinglan or Vera...came to church. We have pretty much taught her almost all the missionary lessons are are just focusing on overcoming the Word of Wisdom trials she's facing. She is really great. We feel the spirit really strong with her every time we meet. She has a lot of faith, but it's not easy overcoming an addiction of almost 20 years. We are trying to be as encouraging as we can. We know she can do it. Her goal is 4/24, so her goal is to quit this week so that she can be addiction free for a week by baptismal interview, and 2 weeks by her baptism. It's not an easy process, but she's doing what she can. She's really amazing. She has read the Book of Mormon, twice I think, and loves to read it, and reads a lot at once...she's also , finished reading the gospel principles book. This week I lent her my English copy (because her English is really good)of Our Search for Happiness and she called us this morning, and was like, "where can I buy this book?" and we told her we could buy it in Taipei next Saturday when we went for tour...and she said that was so long away! So I told her she could just mark in my book. She loves to mark stuff up. I've never even read it before all the way through...I'll have to. I'll probably just end up giving her my copy and buying a new one since she thinks next week is so far away.
Also, we have an 11 year old investigator named Zhang En1lin 张恩粼, Crystal, who came to church yesterday. She also has a goal coming up, so since today is Tomb Sweeping Day and they have school off, we are going to go visit her and her member older sister tonight and teach her some commandments. She's come to church a lot, but she just can only meet once a week on Saturday, then if family stuff comes up she can't even meet then, so we are excited we can go over tonight.
We've also been meeting with a Ji rushuang 纪如霜 she works in a dry cleaning clothes place...and lives there...so we go visit her at work. She was a little hesitant to make a goal, but she did in the end with the 陪课 (peike--member accompanying our lesson) really encouraging her. She is a little scared to keep commandments (before we've even shared any with her) but I know Heavenly Father will help her out a lot. She's already went to church once in Zhongli, and she liked it, so that's really great. She's been progressing and I'm excited we can keep meeting with her.
We have started meeting with a 14-year-old named Li yijing 李怡静, Melody,she met with the Bade Sisters for awhile, because she has friends in the Taoyuan 2nd ward, but lives in our ward boundaries...so her mother, and everyone else just tell her to come to this ward because the church is closer and we can go over to her house to teach her...so they had given her to Bade, but they passed her back over. Her mother is SUPER supportive, although not too interested herself. She even tells her to read the Book of Mormon every day. Shes a really good mother, and we even sat down with the mother, and shared. She was touched and there were a couple tears as we read the family: a proclamation to the world. It is wonderful to have an investigator with such a supportive parent. It is a rare parent who is so supportive of their children taking the missionary lessons.
On exchanges (which exchanges were TOO fun this week with Sister Messenger, we just were really good friends instantly, so it was a BLAST) we met with a lady named Sun Beibei 孙. She has been Christian> for many years. She is a member referral. She was a woman with a lot of character. We taught her about the Restoration...and she was so excited to hear there were living prophets, when we told her about General Conference, she immediately penciled it in. She is really sad about the loss of her husband in recent years, and says she doesn't understand why he had to go so early, so I'm glad we can teach her the plan of salvation and give her comfort this week.; She is already a little scared about meeting with us because she says she is too sad and reliant on certain things you'd have to give up to obey the word of wisdom, but I told her not to worry about that quite yet, but about reading the Book of Mormon, and listening her her answer. She was willing and promised to read a little in the Book of Mormon daily.
Last one I want to talk about is a Li Jinlin 李金琳，Joline. She is a mother with one son. We have taught her the 1st and 2nd. She is Christian and attends another church, but she is willing to take the missionary lessons, because when she was young she ran into some missionaries, who eventually lost touch with her, and she is really receptive to what we teach. She is really nice to us and we really enjoy our visits with her. She wants to share the plan of salvation with her mother, who recently came to believe in God because he answered her prayers. We will continue to teach her and help her understand the blessings of the Book of Mormon and a living prophet.
That's not everyone, but I haven't done a real solid investigator update in a long long time, so I thought I'd do one today...That's what we are doing lately. Today we are going to Longtan and 小人国。 I went back in transfer 2 when I lived in Zhongli. It's a lot of fun, so I'm happy to go back. Today should be a lot of fun. I'm excited, and for the night too, to see Crystal and her family. They are really great. Yep yep. Can't remember anything else for now! I love you guys. Happy Easter and Happy birthday a couple days ago Franny...how old is she now? Is this 16?? I've been gone too long, I don't know how old anyone is after Annika these days. I forget. But don't worry, I still remember all your guys birthdays! Easter is my favorite holiday, next year though, I'll be around. ba. :) Oh. p.s. in 3 days, I've been in Taiwan for 1 year. Crazy crazy.
Sister Flora Bruno
傅文馨姐妹 Fu wenxin jiemei
Taoyuan is slightly a place with stress because the ward puts a lot of stress on the missionaries, but it's due to their mission ward program being the best mission ward program I personally have ever seen...so good stress! What both (not just one) of the wards here do, is that everyone has a "tithe" of their time, and once a month, they put aside a couple hours to do missionary work...this may mean visiting inactive members, accompanying missionaries for lessons we have scheduled if we have some at that time, inviting the missionaries to share the gospel with their friends, etc. So here, we work with a lot of members. At first I was worried about how intense the ward missionary program is, especially if my companion leaves next transfer, since Sister Tedjamulia has been here 7 transfers...but I'm realizing that things will take care of themselves, and I'm just doing my best to memorize peoples names and get to know the members since they are so great about working with us. The investigators we do have are very well taken care of in both the wards in Taoyuan. It's really awesome. I've had really good wards before, but usually if you have 2 wards, one is stronger than the other, but here in Taoyuan both ward programs are pretty similar, the differences exist, but both programs are awesome.
In mission news for this week, we had a really great week. We really saw a lot of miracles with how many people ended up attending church yesterday. We had set a really high goal at WPS and we followed up on getting people to church really well, but the 4 of the people we planned on told us they couldn't come, so we figured there was not much way of accomplishing our goal for that week, but Heavenly Father showed us that if you work hard he prepares a way. Despite the many people who couldn't come to church, we had some miracles and still had our goal exactly accomplished. It was pretty amazing. Sister 邰 Tai and I are just doing our best. And things are going well.
With investigators, 周静阑 Zhou Jinglan or Vera...came to church. We have pretty much taught her almost all the missionary lessons are are just focusing on overcoming the Word of Wisdom trials she's facing. She is really great. We feel the spirit really strong with her every time we meet. She has a lot of faith, but it's not easy overcoming an addiction of almost 20 years. We are trying to be as encouraging as we can. We know she can do it. Her goal is 4/24, so her goal is to quit this week so that she can be addiction free for a week by baptismal interview, and 2 weeks by her baptism. It's not an easy process, but she's doing what she can. She's really amazing. She has read the Book of Mormon, twice I think, and loves to read it, and reads a lot at once...she's also , finished reading the gospel principles book. This week I lent her my English copy (because her English is really good)of Our Search for Happiness and she called us this morning, and was like, "where can I buy this book?" and we told her we could buy it in Taipei next Saturday when we went for tour...and she said that was so long away! So I told her she could just mark in my book. She loves to mark stuff up. I've never even read it before all the way through...I'll have to. I'll probably just end up giving her my copy and buying a new one since she thinks next week is so far away.
Also, we have an 11 year old investigator named Zhang En1lin 张恩粼, Crystal, who came to church yesterday. She also has a goal coming up, so since today is Tomb Sweeping Day and they have school off, we are going to go visit her and her member older sister tonight and teach her some commandments. She's come to church a lot, but she just can only meet once a week on Saturday, then if family stuff comes up she can't even meet then, so we are excited we can go over tonight.
We've also been meeting with a Ji rushuang 纪如霜 she works in a dry cleaning clothes place...and lives there...so we go visit her at work. She was a little hesitant to make a goal, but she did in the end with the 陪课 (peike--member accompanying our lesson) really encouraging her. She is a little scared to keep commandments (before we've even shared any with her) but I know Heavenly Father will help her out a lot. She's already went to church once in Zhongli, and she liked it, so that's really great. She's been progressing and I'm excited we can keep meeting with her.
We have started meeting with a 14-year-old named Li yijing 李怡静, Melody,she met with the Bade Sisters for awhile, because she has friends in the Taoyuan 2nd ward, but lives in our ward boundaries...so her mother, and everyone else just tell her to come to this ward because the church is closer and we can go over to her house to teach her...so they had given her to Bade, but they passed her back over. Her mother is SUPER supportive, although not too interested herself. She even tells her to read the Book of Mormon every day. Shes a really good mother, and we even sat down with the mother, and shared. She was touched and there were a couple tears as we read the family: a proclamation to the world. It is wonderful to have an investigator with such a supportive parent. It is a rare parent who is so supportive of their children taking the missionary lessons.
On exchanges (which exchanges were TOO fun this week with Sister Messenger, we just were really good friends instantly, so it was a BLAST) we met with a lady named Sun Beibei 孙. She has been Christian> for many years. She is a member referral. She was a woman with a lot of character. We taught her about the Restoration...and she was so excited to hear there were living prophets, when we told her about General Conference, she immediately penciled it in. She is really sad about the loss of her husband in recent years, and says she doesn't understand why he had to go so early, so I'm glad we can teach her the plan of salvation and give her comfort this week.; She is already a little scared about meeting with us because she says she is too sad and reliant on certain things you'd have to give up to obey the word of wisdom, but I told her not to worry about that quite yet, but about reading the Book of Mormon, and listening her her answer. She was willing and promised to read a little in the Book of Mormon daily.
Last one I want to talk about is a Li Jinlin 李金琳，Joline. She is a mother with one son. We have taught her the 1st and 2nd. She is Christian and attends another church, but she is willing to take the missionary lessons, because when she was young she ran into some missionaries, who eventually lost touch with her, and she is really receptive to what we teach. She is really nice to us and we really enjoy our visits with her. She wants to share the plan of salvation with her mother, who recently came to believe in God because he answered her prayers. We will continue to teach her and help her understand the blessings of the Book of Mormon and a living prophet.
That's not everyone, but I haven't done a real solid investigator update in a long long time, so I thought I'd do one today...That's what we are doing lately. Today we are going to Longtan and 小人国。 I went back in transfer 2 when I lived in Zhongli. It's a lot of fun, so I'm happy to go back. Today should be a lot of fun. I'm excited, and for the night too, to see Crystal and her family. They are really great. Yep yep. Can't remember anything else for now! I love you guys. Happy Easter and Happy birthday a couple days ago Franny...how old is she now? Is this 16?? I've been gone too long, I don't know how old anyone is after Annika these days. I forget. But don't worry, I still remember all your guys birthdays! Easter is my favorite holiday, next year though, I'll be around. ba. :) Oh. p.s. in 3 days, I've been in Taiwan for 1 year. Crazy crazy.
Sister Flora Bruno
傅文馨姐妹 Fu wenxin jiemei
Monday, March 22, 2010
Having Fun Doing Missionary Work in Taoyuan City, Taiwan
Okay. Welcome to the writings of my week two in Taoyuan City. Still getting used to the area and I still am not super familiar with where we are going or the investigators yet, except 2 who we have just chanced to see a lot lately...but it's been pretty fun. Still getting back into the whole bicycling thing. I forgot how much I hated hills. Haha. Luckily the hills here are not like Jilong, and I think in another week or two after getting back into shape, they will be no problem.
My district, being all Taiwanese, doesn't really have the same idea of fun as us, not to mention, at least one person in each companionship...is quite...older. Haha I like how I'm calling them older but when I get home I'd probably date boys older. I guess I'll just say they are older than the 19/20 year-old Americans I'm used to being with, who are always up for fun. I'm just used to doing district activities on Preparation Days..But these ones are a little bit less willing to do much but nap and bum around on Preparation day, so Sister Tedjamulia and I, a little opposed to doing that more than about once this transfer, are going out to find some fun ourselves. Today we are going to Yingge with a member who has the day off. Sister Tedj has never gone, I went back with Sister Hill as a Sister's activity when I lived in Zhongli, but I think she'll like it, and maybe I can make different pottery this time.
In investigator news, yesterday we were able to set a date with an investigator here named Vera, or Sister Zhou. She attends the Advanced English class, which, I am now going to be teaching in this area. Sister Tedjamulia told her she would be able to progress more towards baptism by attending the correct ward, since she goes to the wrong one, and by meeting with us twice a week, so we have set a time twice a week now. I think she'll be great. She's already read in the book of Mormon to Alma, and they had only met with her once before I got here, so she's a really great investigator. She really believes in the Book of Mormon. She just has a couple hard life problems, with a broken family and an abusive brother who she feels like she can't forgive, so at our lesson this week, we talked about how even when she felt alone and abandoned by her entire family and wanted to run away like she was talking about...if she was willing to pray and realize she had a loving Heavenly Father by her side, her views would be able to change, and she would be a happier person. She talks about how unhappy she is a bit. I hope we can help her. She really needs the gospel. I know it will help her a ton.
We also have a young girl named Crystal with a baptismal date. She is 11, and her sister is about 19 and a member. I still haven't met her because this week we did Saturday temple tour and Sunday she had to visit her grandparents, but I'm positive I'll meet her soon. We go visit them at their house, and their mother is very nice to us I heard, so I'm excited to get to meet Crystal and her member sister. It's been awhile since I had a child investigator, since Zhongli actually.
We also spent some time Friday, Saturday, and Sunday with an investigator, Sister Lai Yu Chun. On Friday we called and went to her mother's store and they fed us. We didn't get to teach a first lesson or anything since the purpose was just to introduce us to her mother, but we did get to share a small message and pray with them. Then, on Saturday, Sister Lai took her kids to Taipei to play, but her member friend, Sister Zhang wanted to go to the temple, and said they could play together if they just waited for her while she was in the temple. So, Sister Weng and I were able to take her on a temple tour while my companion, and the other temple tour sister, Sister Beus, went on another tour. It was an interesting experience, but she had a lot of questions and loved looking at the pictures and at the temple book. Then, she said she couldn't come to church Sunday, but ended up showing up for 2 of the 3 hours. That was a nice little surprise. She really likes church. We just need to get her taught the actual lessons. With her having 2 really small kids, she's always running around after them, and it's hard to share a lesson, but we talked a little Sunday, and will call in a day or two to set up a time she can sit down and hear a full lesson. I'm excited to teach her because she is just already really curious about the church and asks a lot of good questions and has made some friends at church in additional to the member friend that referred her.
That's about all the investigators I'm super familiar with. We've had some good people and miracles lately. Once day I called a referral on the missionary referral system, and she set up for a week later, then called back and asked if we were at the church, and said she'd just come see us. I was able to share with her about Joseph Smith a little in the chapel, while my companion and Vera talked about some stuff, since we had a lesson with her that night. A Sister Chen Wei, who I met when I came to Taoyuan for a stake activity, and loved me then and said she wanted me to come back and serve in this area, had found I was back that night, and wanted to hang out with us missionaries, so she helped me talk about Joseph Smith and truth and we invited her to come back for church. That was really cool she just came right down to the church. Her little sister is a member. I hope to see more of her.
Um, something slightly fun we did, is that the Tao ward has this party called the Elder Smith party once quarterly, because someone named Elder Smith was huge on implementing this party. What it is, is a ward activity specifically geared towards bringing family and friends and introducing them to the church in a non stress atmosphere. They played Chinese Chess with human pieces. The ward members were the pieces and two older men, were the ones saying where to move. It was kind of fun. On and off I was the ambulance who came in a picked up the dead chess pieces. We had a blanket they'd sit in and carry them off in. At first people were dramatic and it was super fun, but it did wear off a little as people got tired, so yeah..I would say it was an interesting activity...but once playing was enough. I still don't get it exactly...but maybe I'll learn eventually. I already forget how to play American chess, so maybe that's a reason it's hard for me to get the Chinese version with all these characters and stuff.
Well! That's about it this week. Love you all. See you next time.
Sister Flora Bruno
My district, being all Taiwanese, doesn't really have the same idea of fun as us, not to mention, at least one person in each companionship...is quite...older. Haha I like how I'm calling them older but when I get home I'd probably date boys older. I guess I'll just say they are older than the 19/20 year-old Americans I'm used to being with, who are always up for fun. I'm just used to doing district activities on Preparation Days..But these ones are a little bit less willing to do much but nap and bum around on Preparation day, so Sister Tedjamulia and I, a little opposed to doing that more than about once this transfer, are going out to find some fun ourselves. Today we are going to Yingge with a member who has the day off. Sister Tedj has never gone, I went back with Sister Hill as a Sister's activity when I lived in Zhongli, but I think she'll like it, and maybe I can make different pottery this time.
In investigator news, yesterday we were able to set a date with an investigator here named Vera, or Sister Zhou. She attends the Advanced English class, which, I am now going to be teaching in this area. Sister Tedjamulia told her she would be able to progress more towards baptism by attending the correct ward, since she goes to the wrong one, and by meeting with us twice a week, so we have set a time twice a week now. I think she'll be great. She's already read in the book of Mormon to Alma, and they had only met with her once before I got here, so she's a really great investigator. She really believes in the Book of Mormon. She just has a couple hard life problems, with a broken family and an abusive brother who she feels like she can't forgive, so at our lesson this week, we talked about how even when she felt alone and abandoned by her entire family and wanted to run away like she was talking about...if she was willing to pray and realize she had a loving Heavenly Father by her side, her views would be able to change, and she would be a happier person. She talks about how unhappy she is a bit. I hope we can help her. She really needs the gospel. I know it will help her a ton.
We also have a young girl named Crystal with a baptismal date. She is 11, and her sister is about 19 and a member. I still haven't met her because this week we did Saturday temple tour and Sunday she had to visit her grandparents, but I'm positive I'll meet her soon. We go visit them at their house, and their mother is very nice to us I heard, so I'm excited to get to meet Crystal and her member sister. It's been awhile since I had a child investigator, since Zhongli actually.
We also spent some time Friday, Saturday, and Sunday with an investigator, Sister Lai Yu Chun. On Friday we called and went to her mother's store and they fed us. We didn't get to teach a first lesson or anything since the purpose was just to introduce us to her mother, but we did get to share a small message and pray with them. Then, on Saturday, Sister Lai took her kids to Taipei to play, but her member friend, Sister Zhang wanted to go to the temple, and said they could play together if they just waited for her while she was in the temple. So, Sister Weng and I were able to take her on a temple tour while my companion, and the other temple tour sister, Sister Beus, went on another tour. It was an interesting experience, but she had a lot of questions and loved looking at the pictures and at the temple book. Then, she said she couldn't come to church Sunday, but ended up showing up for 2 of the 3 hours. That was a nice little surprise. She really likes church. We just need to get her taught the actual lessons. With her having 2 really small kids, she's always running around after them, and it's hard to share a lesson, but we talked a little Sunday, and will call in a day or two to set up a time she can sit down and hear a full lesson. I'm excited to teach her because she is just already really curious about the church and asks a lot of good questions and has made some friends at church in additional to the member friend that referred her.
That's about all the investigators I'm super familiar with. We've had some good people and miracles lately. Once day I called a referral on the missionary referral system, and she set up for a week later, then called back and asked if we were at the church, and said she'd just come see us. I was able to share with her about Joseph Smith a little in the chapel, while my companion and Vera talked about some stuff, since we had a lesson with her that night. A Sister Chen Wei, who I met when I came to Taoyuan for a stake activity, and loved me then and said she wanted me to come back and serve in this area, had found I was back that night, and wanted to hang out with us missionaries, so she helped me talk about Joseph Smith and truth and we invited her to come back for church. That was really cool she just came right down to the church. Her little sister is a member. I hope to see more of her.
Um, something slightly fun we did, is that the Tao ward has this party called the Elder Smith party once quarterly, because someone named Elder Smith was huge on implementing this party. What it is, is a ward activity specifically geared towards bringing family and friends and introducing them to the church in a non stress atmosphere. They played Chinese Chess with human pieces. The ward members were the pieces and two older men, were the ones saying where to move. It was kind of fun. On and off I was the ambulance who came in a picked up the dead chess pieces. We had a blanket they'd sit in and carry them off in. At first people were dramatic and it was super fun, but it did wear off a little as people got tired, so yeah..I would say it was an interesting activity...but once playing was enough. I still don't get it exactly...but maybe I'll learn eventually. I already forget how to play American chess, so maybe that's a reason it's hard for me to get the Chinese version with all these characters and stuff.
Well! That's about it this week. Love you all. See you next time.
Sister Flora Bruno
Monday, March 15, 2010
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.
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.
Monday, March 8, 2010
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
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
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Transfer 8 Week 5
Tuesday, March 2, 2010 9:24 PM
Hello. Again I'm sorry, but this might be kind of a fast and not too interesting of an email. This week has been a little slow, and a lot of it was dealing with a couple medical problems, so I don't know how much I can come up with to write about, but I'll try my best.
The only real investigator update that I can really think about is we are meeting with someone named Susana (Huang) who is doing really great. I guess she contacted the Shilin Elders, and started meeting with them, but they passed her over to us sisters when they realized she lived in the Beitou Area. They had already set a baptism goal with her when they passed her to us, so her date goal is the 28th I believe. So far she's doing really good, and it's completely possible that she will be baptized on her first goal. She came to church on Sunday, and just really has a testimony that she knows that God is real and will answer her prayers and comfort her. She shared her testimony with us about how before she didn't think there was a God, but one day, thought really long and hard about it, and realized if there was no God, this earth is kind of a rotten place...but when she realized God really does exist, she realized she had a lot to learn and prepare for in this life. She's really great and I just am glad to be able to teach her. She's been a great friend to us, and just loves to meet and talk. She talks quite a bit, so I feel like we are good friends and know her pretty well, because she shares a lot with us. She just called..haha to make sure we were still meeting tomorrow. So yeah! She's doing really good. We were going to share a third lesson on Tuesday, but ended up changing the lesson plan a little, because not only did neither of us feel good, but Susana just really said she knew an important part of changing is following commandments, and asked us what commandments she needed to follow, so we told her we'd share one with her, and shared just the first principle, faith, of the third, and talked about the Sabbath and its importance. She said she'd do her best to follow that commandment, such as talk to her boss and see if Sunday could be gotten off, since she changes jobs soon. I'm glad we have such an amazing investigator who is willing to put faith into action.
This past week, we did companion exchanges. We also will do them this coming week and next week, as my companion is the coordinating sister for this transfer, and needs to exchange with each Sister once(which means 4 exchanges, and we have now done 2). I stayed in my area and went senior for the day. It wasn't a piece of cake day, but went pretty well despite the fact that we had a full schedule for the exchange, then every single appointment canceled. We were able to get on the bikes, which is a rare occasion in this area, and go out towards Beitou and leave some notes on some members doors that the relief society asked us to focus on. I was able to set with with one of them, and by some kind of divine set-up, we ran into her when we went to do tours Saturday, and she was really excited for us to come over again this next week when she is actually home. I think the note really helped soften her up, because she's usually been a little standoffish towards sisters, and more attached to Elders. So I'm excited to go meet her some more.
Which reminds me, we did temple tours on Saturday and it was BUSY. I kind of liked it...a lot. Even though I've always been close enough to the city to do tours every transfer since transfer one (which means I've done it a good 15ish times now) I've never been in on a Saturday. I mean, I was sick and completely exhausted by the end of the day, with being so busy and so sick, but it was just amazing to see so many tours and miracles. The typical number of tours for us in a week, in the past, was 4 or 5 on a good day. On Saturday, we did 11. More than double what I normally do. We were able to do investigator tours, member tours, everything. We saw 9 referrals that day, and the temple sisters also were doing tours, since it's busier, so the tour saw a ton of referrals that day, and it just made me more appreciative of temple tour, because the point of it is referrals, and we were able to see quite a payout on it. Also, a really cute family walked in and said they'd passed by a couple times, and had some interest in our teachings and in primary. We were able to give them a quick tour, a Book of Mormon, and they wrote down their names to learn more about our church. I was glad I was able to be a part of the beginning of that teaching process. We saw a lot of miracles that day. Also, Chen Yiting, a new member from Zhongli came down to see me and tell me about her dating experience with a recently returned missionary. She's really cute and it was good to see her again. She really wanted to see me, so I'm glad she was able to come to temple tour and get that opportunity.
Nothing else really going on that I can think of to immediately talk about...next week my preparation day will be normal Monday again. This week it changed because we will head off to the temple in a little while. They changed how temple day works, so we just go every 3 months now, and it changes preparation day to Wednesday that day. So, I'll just have one more temple day on my mission,so I will appreciate it while I can. I know in South Carolina we don't live too super close to the temple, so the weekly MTC temple experience I had might be hard pressed to ever have again, but I think once a month or two can be good if we are focused on the purpose. I'm glad I get to go today....Write again next week.
Love you guys,
Sister Flora Bruno (Fu)
Hello. Again I'm sorry, but this might be kind of a fast and not too interesting of an email. This week has been a little slow, and a lot of it was dealing with a couple medical problems, so I don't know how much I can come up with to write about, but I'll try my best.
The only real investigator update that I can really think about is we are meeting with someone named Susana (Huang) who is doing really great. I guess she contacted the Shilin Elders, and started meeting with them, but they passed her over to us sisters when they realized she lived in the Beitou Area. They had already set a baptism goal with her when they passed her to us, so her date goal is the 28th I believe. So far she's doing really good, and it's completely possible that she will be baptized on her first goal. She came to church on Sunday, and just really has a testimony that she knows that God is real and will answer her prayers and comfort her. She shared her testimony with us about how before she didn't think there was a God, but one day, thought really long and hard about it, and realized if there was no God, this earth is kind of a rotten place...but when she realized God really does exist, she realized she had a lot to learn and prepare for in this life. She's really great and I just am glad to be able to teach her. She's been a great friend to us, and just loves to meet and talk. She talks quite a bit, so I feel like we are good friends and know her pretty well, because she shares a lot with us. She just called..haha to make sure we were still meeting tomorrow. So yeah! She's doing really good. We were going to share a third lesson on Tuesday, but ended up changing the lesson plan a little, because not only did neither of us feel good, but Susana just really said she knew an important part of changing is following commandments, and asked us what commandments she needed to follow, so we told her we'd share one with her, and shared just the first principle, faith, of the third, and talked about the Sabbath and its importance. She said she'd do her best to follow that commandment, such as talk to her boss and see if Sunday could be gotten off, since she changes jobs soon. I'm glad we have such an amazing investigator who is willing to put faith into action.
This past week, we did companion exchanges. We also will do them this coming week and next week, as my companion is the coordinating sister for this transfer, and needs to exchange with each Sister once(which means 4 exchanges, and we have now done 2). I stayed in my area and went senior for the day. It wasn't a piece of cake day, but went pretty well despite the fact that we had a full schedule for the exchange, then every single appointment canceled. We were able to get on the bikes, which is a rare occasion in this area, and go out towards Beitou and leave some notes on some members doors that the relief society asked us to focus on. I was able to set with with one of them, and by some kind of divine set-up, we ran into her when we went to do tours Saturday, and she was really excited for us to come over again this next week when she is actually home. I think the note really helped soften her up, because she's usually been a little standoffish towards sisters, and more attached to Elders. So I'm excited to go meet her some more.
Which reminds me, we did temple tours on Saturday and it was BUSY. I kind of liked it...a lot. Even though I've always been close enough to the city to do tours every transfer since transfer one (which means I've done it a good 15ish times now) I've never been in on a Saturday. I mean, I was sick and completely exhausted by the end of the day, with being so busy and so sick, but it was just amazing to see so many tours and miracles. The typical number of tours for us in a week, in the past, was 4 or 5 on a good day. On Saturday, we did 11. More than double what I normally do. We were able to do investigator tours, member tours, everything. We saw 9 referrals that day, and the temple sisters also were doing tours, since it's busier, so the tour saw a ton of referrals that day, and it just made me more appreciative of temple tour, because the point of it is referrals, and we were able to see quite a payout on it. Also, a really cute family walked in and said they'd passed by a couple times, and had some interest in our teachings and in primary. We were able to give them a quick tour, a Book of Mormon, and they wrote down their names to learn more about our church. I was glad I was able to be a part of the beginning of that teaching process. We saw a lot of miracles that day. Also, Chen Yiting, a new member from Zhongli came down to see me and tell me about her dating experience with a recently returned missionary. She's really cute and it was good to see her again. She really wanted to see me, so I'm glad she was able to come to temple tour and get that opportunity.
Nothing else really going on that I can think of to immediately talk about...next week my preparation day will be normal Monday again. This week it changed because we will head off to the temple in a little while. They changed how temple day works, so we just go every 3 months now, and it changes preparation day to Wednesday that day. So, I'll just have one more temple day on my mission,so I will appreciate it while I can. I know in South Carolina we don't live too super close to the temple, so the weekly MTC temple experience I had might be hard pressed to ever have again, but I think once a month or two can be good if we are focused on the purpose. I'm glad I get to go today....Write again next week.
Love you guys,
Sister Flora Bruno (Fu)
Monday, February 22, 2010
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
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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
