A temple trip and a strange religion

Hi my Wonderful Family!

Our P-Day is Wednesday this week because we get to make a Temple Trip to Taibei today. I'm excited! I'm not that excited to take the train to Taibei though...we've gone to Taibei 4+ times in the past week and it's 2 hours each way. Anyway, this week has been good!

*Last Thursday we went to Taibei and attended the Endowment and Sealing session for 2 families Sister Messenger helped baptize at the beginning of her mission. It was really neat! The session was in Chinese and I was surprised at how much I understood. The sealing was so neat! When the little kids were brought in the room it gave me goosebumps. These little families are so cute. Sister Messenger was sealed to her parents as a kid, so it was special for her. I really love the temple. It's so beautiful and going is the best feeling in the world.

*Sunday was really awesome too. Do you remember Shandi, Katie and Ryan in Bade? They were baptized!! It was sooo awesome! I have prayed for them so many times and it was so happy to see them be baptized and confirmed. The baptism was so good! I'm so excited for those little kids to serve missions and stuff. Haha, Katie was so funny. She's 10 years old, so after she was baptized, she wouldn't get out of the font and was swimming in it. We were trying not to laugh so she would get out, but it was so funny.

*We're still teaching Li Jia Lin, who is AMAZING! We taught her last night and she told us all sorts of spiritual experiences she's had recently that we didn't know about. She said she prayed about Tithing because she didn't know if she could afford it or something (?...I don't understand what she says sometimes...she talks really fast) and felt the Spirit tell her to call her friend and something something, now she's willing to pay tithing! Then prayed to know if God exists and felt like she "was being hugged". Then she was having a sad day and decided to pray and she only got as far as saying "Dear Heavenly..." and she was already "peaceful and happy". She really has some sort of gift of the Spirit because she very easily recognizes the Spirit. It's really cool. She knows everything is true because she knows exactly when she's feeling the Spirit. Other people of a ton of different religions keep coming to her and telling her not to get baptized but she's very bold and says "don't worry about it, I know what's true and I'm getting baptized." And the other day Sister Messenger and I went tracting and were rejected at every door (not unusual) and she felt so sad for us that when we saw her last night, she said, "Okay Sisters, don't go tracting anymore. I will find you people to teach. I've already taught a couple friends how to pray and they are coming to church with me on Sunday. And there are a couple that will also come to English class on Wednesday." She's so awesome. She also has 3 of the cutest little boys ever born. They are 10, 11, and 12. They want to learn the gospel really bad and to "become Christian" like mom. They are adorable and hilarious. Jia Lin asked what she should do with her little Buddhist idols in her home and the member at our lesson said, "give it to someone" and the little boy yelled "SELL it to someone!" Hahahahaha, it was so funny!

*We had a kind of strange experience this week involving that strange religion I've mentioned before. Li Jia Lin's friend invited us to a vegetarian food activity with all her friends so we could "teach them how to pray." We thought it sounded cool, but a little fishy. Haha, no one says that! Then later Jia Lin called us and basically said "I'm worried my friends will do some weird voodoo on you to try to covert you to their religion." So she came with us to try to "protect us". The people at this little activity were really nice and good people...but it was a little strange. We got there and they set up chair around us and said, "come upstairs and teach us how to pray!" We didn't know why they wanted us to go upstairs, so we declined. This is how it went:
"But upstairs, there is a light. You can pray to the light."
Us: "Oh, no...that's okay...we can pray down here."
"But the light is like God! Come upstairs and teach us!"
"Let's just pray downstairs..."
"We worship all gods. We will go worship your God too."
"I see."
"But there is only one true cross. And as you go upstairs, you will see there are 3 treasures. And 5 code words."
"Interesting...oh look at the time, we gotta run!"
Li Jia Lin later said she thought we were very wise for not going upstairs. There was an eery feeling and she felt it too. Strange.

So many great things are happening. I'm seeing how MANY people there are who are ready for the gospel. Or people who are ALMOST ready...who are hungering for righteousness but don't yet see clearly but with a little time will accept. It's really faith building.

I love you all so much!! I hope everything is wonderful!!

Coley