Death by soy sauce

Herro Family!

I'm writing a little early today. Today for preparation day we are going to...LIU FU CUN!!! It's some sort of Taiwanese DisneyLand...except with Monkeys named "Happy" and "Honey" instead of "Mickey" and "Mini". Apparently it's pretty sweet. And since a season pass is cheaper than one day, we will likely go more than once this transfer. Woohoo!! We're actually going with an investigator, Kiki, who is 19 years old and the Bishopric's teenage girls. It'll be sooo fun. We're excited.

This week was our first week in JUST Tao 2 Ward being the only missionaries here. The ward is trying to be good about it...but some are still wondering why their ward is so "picked on" to not have Elders. But they've been very supportive and are helping us alot with the transition. I actually LOVE this new change. It's amazing to live SO close to the church and the ward and not have to bike a .5-1hours to get places. On the flip side, I will get fat here. The ward is really great and feeds us every night. The RS Pres made an announcement in RS about how they need to be really careful when feeding me because I will "die if I eat flour and soy sauce." I really hope this new arrangement stays for a while. However, it's been hard for other reasons...we've both been a little overwhelmed with the pressure that comes from being the only ward missionaries. Sister Messenger and I are trying to be the best we can, and both of our "bests" are different and we're both stressed. I love my companion. She and I get along really well and we have a lot of good laughs together. It's been a growing week for us. We've had a good time as we work through getting used to things here.

We've had some really neat things happen this week!! Kiki, has been an investigator for a long time. Sis Messenger prayed to find someone like her, then found her a few transfers ago. But because of past experiences with missionaries, she's been afraid to push Kiki. But this week we finally tried to just lay a baptismal commitment on the table. She didn't commit but we found out that she does believe that God has lead her to missionaries time and time again. Sister Messenger cried because she knows she was lead to her. It was a powerful lesson. We will start to teach her commandments to try to help her develop her faith.

THEN!! The coooolest thing of the week! We started teaching our first MAN! So Friday I was just frustrated because we both didn't know where to go, what to do. I think much of my mission I've been falling back into the whole thought that *I* have to make something out of my mission instead of just being God's instrument. God WANTS to put people in our path, He's not tapping His foot and saying, "I'll only give you investigators when you're WORTHY of them!" Anyway, so Friday I just prayed and said "We really don't know what we're doing, we REALLY need Your help. Help us find someone today." We went and tried to visit a recent convert and while we were stopped and looking at our map, I happened to look across the street to see a man in a pink shirt watching us. I smiled, he smiled. Then he went into the coffee shop. But he still was looking at us through the window. So I waved, and he waved back. Then he came back outside and I walked across the street and gave him a tract. Turns out he had taken the missionary lessons 10 years ago at 23 yrs old and invited us into his coffee shop (he owns it) to teach him! He offered us coffee and we said we didn't believe in drinking it and he said "now there's NO way I can accept!" Haha. But he was really kind. We taught him the Restoration and he had some really deep great questions. It was soooo good!! And as miracles would have it, we didn't have an extra BoM to give him, but we had borrowed a triple from the chapel and let him borrow it. So we gave him Alma 32 and D&C 89 (Word of Wisdom chapter) to read as homework. THEN, we out of chance ran into him on the road and he was with his adorable 2 year old daughter. So we found out he has a family. Then last night we stopped by his shop to set up an appointment for tonight with him and his wife and found out his wife DIED last year of ovarian cancer! It was so like a movie...humble, nice dude running a coffee shop with his 2 year old daughter playing with her dead mother's high heels and talking to customers, Nora Jones playing on the radio...We both almost cried. We feel like this man is ready. So we will came back tonight with a member and teach the Plan of Salvation. Pray for us and him! His name is Charles Li, or Li Zhi Zhong.

Anyway, life is great! Hope everything is going so well with all of you! Sorry I didn't get a chance to write back to any individual emails today. :( We have less time today because the Bishop is picking us up soon. I LOVE YOU ALL!!

Coley

Yucky Elder Apartment

Hi Family!!

This week was pretty good. We had lunch with a member, Qiu Shi Ting. Both me and Sister Messenger had back aches/headaches so she brought her crazy Chinese healing instruments and did some crazy voodoo on our backs. Basically she pulled out this little gun thing with little suction cups. Then she would stick the cups on our back and suck the living heck out of our flesh and move it all around our backs. It hurt like CRAZY. It causes crazy hicky like bruises...she said the more pain or the more aches you have, the darker your bruises will be. She said something like it helps the "air" flow through our sore muscles...? I did feel more relaxed and my muscles felt good, but my skin hurt like nothing else.
Friday was transfers/move calls. The missionaries in Taiwan are getting less and less. So the mission ended up doing alot of changing in Taoyuan. There used to be a set of Elders in Taoyuan 2nd Ward and a set in the Bade ward, then Sisters who would be over both wards. But this Friday they completely closed down the Tao 2 Elders and now Sister Messenger and I will be the sole missionaries over Tao 2 and will not be working in Bade anymore. It makes me SO sad because our favorite investigators were in Bade. But it'll be a good opportunity. Honestly, I don't think the Tao 2 ward thinks it's a good opportunity. A ward member told us that alot of people were thinking it was as if there weren't ANY missionaries in the ward anymore. HEY! We resent that! But I can see their concern...the 2 Taiwanese Elders were booted and replaced by a set of short foreign sisters with really bad Chinese. Haha. Yikes. It will be strange as well since we will now start teaching MEN as well. CRAZY!! So awkward. The Elders introduced some of their investigators to us since we'd start teaching them and these guys were really awkward and wouldn't leave us alone. They kept trying to practice their English and stuff and it was really annoying. Haha. But it'll be a really good opportunity. It'll be nice to not have to work in 2 wards a million years apart from eachother. It'll also be nice to not be a respecter of persons when it comes to contacting...we will teach all genders. So interesting. Most of all, I just want the ward to trust me/us. I'm not the most outspoken person, so they don't look at me and think, "wow, she knows what she's doing." If any of you have any suggestions on how to better work with ward leaders, PLEASE let me know!

Because of the new arrangement, we have to move into the Elders apartment. I almost cried. It was SO disgusting!!! We walked in this morning and were overwhelmed with a "pee the bed" smell, and garbage ALL over the floor. The fridge was full of moldy food and the bathroom and kitchen floors haven't been mopped in MONTHS. They were brown and grimey. The pillows we inherited have yellow stains all over them. I can't use it...I just can't. We're going to buy new pillows for the apartment today. We were so overwhelmed that we came to do email first...so I foresee a good 5 hours of cleaning ahead of me today. Grrr...those boys. I even told them for 2 days to CLEAN and they kept telling me, "trust me, our apartment is pretty clean." MY EYE!

I was chased down by a dog the other day! I was riding and suddenly saw a dog chasing me! I even saw his jaws open and heard the CHOMP CHOMP as he kept trying to bite my ankle! It was so creepy! I should have kicked him in the face but I wasn't thinking about it. Next time.

Life is so good! The gospel is true. I love being a missionary. I have the Best Two Years stuck in my head all the time. Keep the faith! The gospel makes us so happy. It's ALWAYS worth it to live the gospel. Even if it takes change. Sometimes I've felt that change is painful, but as long as we're moving closer to Heavenly Father, it will have beautiful and happy results.

Love you my wonderful family!!

Coley

Elder Uchtdorf's Visit

Hello from the Island of Formosa!! :D

I hope everyone is having a really fun summer so far!! Sounds like you've been doing some fun activities!! I hope you are all safe and having a good time!

This week has been very nice. On Monday we went to Yingge and made clay pots on a potters wheel for PDay. It was sooooo fun!!!! I vow that someday I WILL have a potters wheel and make my own pottery! It was a blast.

On Tuesday we went to Zone Conference which was back in good old Zhubei. It was so good to see Sister Weng again. I love her so much!! She is having a rough time there. After transfers, all our investigators died and they have spent 5-6 hours a day just tracting and doing finding activities. They work so hard and she pretty much cried all zone conference. I feel so sad for her!! Zhubei was a hard area and I'm so sad she's having a rough time.

Wednesday we got to teach all of our favorite investigators. Heidi is 28 and the golden investigator. She has the most loving family and when they found out that she was going to get baptized they were opposed. She wasn't sure if she should still get baptized or not, but we taught her about faith then after she went to the Taiwan meeting with President Uchtdorf, she decided she wants to sneak and be baptized. Then we met with the little Wu girls. They are still doing well. Yu Wen, the 15 year old, got work off on Sundays and Pei Yi, the 12 year old, wont' have to watch her grandmother next Sunday so they will go to church. And their adorable little sister Jia Long (6 yrs) will come with! They are SO cute!! Their dad is a taxi driver and really nice. He doesn't oppose to them being baptize as long as he feels like they understand what they are getting baptized into. So they have a date for the first weekend in August. Then we taught Shandi and her two kids. She is doing great, and has a lot of desire. She reads and prays every day, which is amazing since not long ago she would go the Buddhist temple and "bai bai" daily. So amazing. She bought Sunday clothes too. But her kids HATE primary. :( So she didn't go to church yesterday...we're trying to figure out what to do about that. If any of you have any suggestions on how to get these little kids to like primary...let me know. They are 10 and 11 years old.Thursday we did "temple tours" in Taibei, but not a single person came for a visitors center tour. Sad! Oh well, it was a thursday. On Friday we taught a Vietnamese woman. We showed her the Restoration movie in Vietnamese and I decided never to complain about Chinese again. Vietnamese is reeeeally ugly. But it was pretty cool to teach someone from another background.

Sunday was sooooo goood!!!!! All missionaries were bussed to a church in Taibei for mission conference with President Uchtdorf! We all got to shake his hand! He was very dignified and sweet and looked a little bit older in person than on TV. It was soooo neat. His talk to us was so good and needed. His sweet wife Harriet was also amazing. She's so cute and her German accent is adorable. She sounds like she came straight from the Sound of Music or from the 3 little bear's house or something. She talked about how she gets a yearly Christmas card from her missionaries who converted her. Then she told us to keep our apartments clean, be obedient, forget our girl/boyfriends, feel good about ourselves, not leave the apartment angry at our companion, etc. She was so great.

Here's some of the things I LOVED about President Uchtdorf:
-He said the language of the Celestial Kingdom is German so we better all start learning now. Haha
-He told about how he was called to be in the Quorum of the 70. He said he was just on vacation in Utah and out of no where President Monson called his hotel room and called them in to his office. He said he was planning on golfing and skiing but met with a prophet instead.
-He said at many times we will feel very inadequate (which I do) but not to be discouraged because we "are the foundation of something wonderful to happen in this part of the world." Isn't that so cool??? China??
-The process of study and learning new things is:
1) write down question in a book
2) study it in the scriptures
3) pray about it
-As missionaries, we get to learn some pretty neat things because we get to teach the same lessons of the gospel over and over and over and over and over and over again. I thought that was cool because I realized that the other day when we were teaching a 1st lesson (for the billionth time in my mission). The member said something about the Book of Mormon that made me realize that the Restoration could NOT have succeeded without the BOM. Without the BoM, Joseph Smith was just another arguing Minister of the time. But I only realized that after I'd taught that lesson a ton.
-Then he commented that we shouldn't be afraid of talking to people because in Taiwan, you are very "sweetly rejected." He said pretty much we have it lucky here and we can be "sweetly bold" and have a lot of success. It's really true. The Taiwanese NEVER yell at you or say you're evil or hurt you or whatever. The worst I've had is someone pretend I'm not there when I try to talk to them. That's pretty good. Pres Uchtdorf said it's pretty nice of the Taiwanese that they are well mannered enough to not scooter off with our pens and planners when we try to get their information. Yeah, we ARE pretty lucky here. After he said that, I just felt alot of love for the people here. They really are precious little lambs. They have problems like the rest of the world, but they are very sweet people. He said something that made me feel better about rejection too. He PROMISED us that someday in THIS life or the life to come, everyone we have talked to on our mission will remember us and say "yes, I will accept, and when you were testifying to me, I DID feel something." They will thank us and generations to come will praise our name. He was very emotional when he said it. I hugged Sister Weng after the conference and told her he was talking to her and she cried a lot. It's hard not to see fruit from your constant testifying. Sometimes you just put your whole heart into testifying to that person on the scooter and you just don't know how they still chuck your pamphlet in their scooter cup holder and ride away. What he said increased my desire and motivation a lot.
-He told us to be our first and strongest convert.
-Then! So cool!! He gave us an "Apostolic Blessing" and promised if we worked hard and did our best that we would receive "physical, emotional, mental and spiritual blessings beyond comprehension. That our families at home will be blessed, even things we worry about. That family problems will find satisfactory solutions." So cool.

Wow, his talk was just so good. So amazing. It's interesting, Elder Christofferson had a lot of power when we listened to him last month, but there is something special about being in the office of the First Presidency. President Uchtdorf spoke with A LOT of power. That night he spoke to member of all of Taiwan in a huge auditorium. He told them something similar, that they would be "praised by future generations for establishing the kingdom in this part of the world." They were laying the foundation, etc. He said great things were coming for future generations. It was neat because as he said that, I looked around at the rows of members above me and there were a ton of really old people who I recognized as temple workers and Stake Patriarchs. They were the originals when the Church first came to Taiwan. It was so touching and amazing! They are the pioneers. Several of those people are in our wards that we serve in so I am going to try to muster out a letter to them and thank them for being so cool basically.

Anyway, life is so good. Today we're hopefully going to rest a little bit, go to a chocolate factory (haha) and eat dinner at a little restaurant called "Nicole's Naked Coffee". Haha. (The name is deceiving....there is nothing naked and they have much more than coffee). It's actually a really pretty place with pretty gardens and stuff. And it's called Nicole's! :DI love you my wonderful family!!! I really do!! I miss you and can't wait to see you again and play games and make delicious food with you and go on walks and all sorts of stuff!! Love you!!!

Coley

Nicole's Companion

Saving Dogs

HiFamily!

Thank you all for your emails!! I was so happy to get them!

Taoyuan is still good! We are teaching an amazing girl named Heidi. She's 28 and speaks English really well. She is pretty much the golden investigator. She already knows half the ward because she tutored their kids in English. She promised she would go to church every week, and she bought a skirt because she felt like she should dress nice when she meets us. She said every time she prays, reads the Book of Mormon and goes to church, she has a special feeling. We explained that was the Spirit. Then we taught her about repentance and baptism and how we commit to keep the commandments. She said "Yes, you've told me about commandments. Can you just teach them all to me? I don't know what I'm doing wrong until you teach me. I will do everything you ask me to do." My companion and I joked that never again in our life will we ever have someone tell us they will do everything we ask them to. She's really amazing. She set a baptismal date for August 7. She has quit coffee. She's sooooo good!!

We are also teaching a little family, Shandi and her 2 kids Ryan and Katie. Heavenly Father loves us because she also speaks really good English. Haha. She is really neat. She was doubting the need for another God because she is VERY religiously Buddhist. But this week she's been saying she doesn't like going to the Buddhist temple because she feels guilty like she's betraying God. And she said whenever she goes to the temple to "bai bai" it doesn't work, but praying works, and works fast! She's really neat and really a good person. We're excited for her.

This week was a little stressful. I don't know...there are a lot of sisters going home next transfer and there aren't many other sisters over me, so people keep saying there's a possibility me and others me "age" will go senior next transfer or the transfer afterwards. That would be fun and all, but being senior is so much more stressful than being junior. I've been so paranoid this week about how I'm doing as a missionary because I feel like I have to know everything now. We'll see.

So we had a really funny experience yesterday! We were biking to a teaching appointment at the church when I saw a stray dog trying to claw his way out of a little irrigation ditch. The ditches have little concreted walls that rise about a foot and a half about the water (which is about a foot deep.) There's no incline for the dog to use to climb out. He started barking frantically when we biked fast, so I was pretty sure he was stuck and couldn't get out. We didn't have time and I didn't want to get clawed to death helping him out [see Lady Hawke] so I just said a prayer in my head that the poor dog would get out somehow. About an hour and a half later, we were biking back the other way and I glanced at the ditch to make sure he'd gotten out. The poor dog was just standing there in the ditch, his pitiful white head and top of his back showing above the BLACK disgusting water. I felt so bad, we stopped and tried to cheer the dog on to jump out. We encouraged him to jump up the side and he just gave us this look like "don't you know I've tried that already?" He looked so sad, defeated and hopeless. It was so hot he probably had heat exhaustion. So we said a little prayer and my companion knelt down and lifted his belly out of the water and I grabbed his front paws and we yanked him out of the canal. Half his body was dyed black from the grime and he had leaches all over him. He pitifully hobbled away, without any thanks at all. But we were glad we saved his life. Haha. But I learned that sometimes we pray and think "Heavenly Father, please help such and such will go well." But just because you prayed for it, he won't take away dirty work you don't want to do. For instance, I REALLY wanted the dog out of that ditch, but I REALLY didn't want to touch him or the water, so I prayed A LOT. But I don't think God will answer prayers that we make only because we're lazy or don't want to do something ourselves. Haha.

I saw a spider the size of my hand the other day. So gross!!! They are fast too.

I love you all! The Church is true! Keep living the gospel and you'll have peace and joy and life really will have more purpose. I love this gospel!

Wuv, Poohface