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