Hello from the Island of Formosa!! :DI 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! :D
I 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
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