One Year Mark!!!!!

Well, this week hasn't been crazy eventful...Thursday was my 1 year on my mission mark though. That's soooo crazy to think I've been out that long. It's made me ponder a lot about what's happened in the past year. I've loved it. Maybe I didn't love EVERY minute of it, but I love even looking back at the hard times and seeing how much it helped me and how much I needed that growing time. I love looking back at the MTC and remembering my fun district and teachers (even though in all, I hated the MTC). Then it's soooo cool that I got to serve in South Salt Lake and especially that I got to teach Brewy. Then my first transfer was hard with the transition from SLC and it was rough, but I love Zhubei and the people I met there. My second transfer with Sister Weng was such a blast and so fun and I really loved her a lot. 2nd and 3rd transfers in Taoyuan were soooo much fun with Sister Messenger and I really loved the members and investigators there. I love that part of the country. My companion taught me a lot and I learned to let my hair down and relax in a positive way. Then last transfer with Sister Stenquist was a growing transfer as I got to know Banqiao and learned some humility. This past transfer was a BLAST and soooo wonderful with Sister Bready. We have SO much companionship unity. It's so great because we can just focus on our teaching skills and personal progression instead of working out what lacks in companionship teaching and stuff. It's so good. When we share scriptures or plan for lessons, we have the same references and plans come to mind. It's soooo nice. I'm starting to love Banqiao and the members as I know them and the area better. It's just been a good mission so far. I'm excited for what more lies ahead...although I'll be very sad if I move or Sister Bready gets transfered next week. I don't know if I've been the best missionary ever...there are still things I wish I could do or have done better...but in all, I've really loved my mission experiences so far.

Any how...on my year mark on Thursday we didn't do anything too different... but during our morning exercise time we ran to the Carrefour and bought some pancake mixings and made berry pancakes. So good! Then for dinner we ate tacos. Pretty good!

I love biking. I think it's so much fun. Last preparation day we biking to Shulin, a neighboring city and biked up a HUGE mountain, which, I'm pretty proud of. Before Taiwan, I would have been panting like crazy to just go up a slight incline, but we conquered a huge mountain with only a few stops. There were some HUGE graves and Buddhas and temples that we got some good pictures of. It was sooo fun. But it really destroyed my knees for a few days. I need to be careful. I never knew why the "old" missionaries always complained about their knees, but now I'm understanding...after biking so much for so long they really start wearing down. After biking up that mountain my knees are starting to pop and creak and hurt when I run. But it's been feeling better the past few days. After we biked the mountain we went to a "chi dao bao" which literally means "eat until you're full." Aka, all you can eat. It was all you can eat barbeque and hotpot. Soooo good. They bring out little barbeque grills and propaine burners with pots of soup to your table. Then they just keep bringing out plates of meat and you can either boil it in your hotpot or grill it on your burner. And they just keep bringing out the meat. Sooooo goooooood. Today for Pday we are going to Danshui, which is north by the coast. Apparently it's cool but I have no idea...we're just going to explore. Sister Bready also did ILP in China so she and I have similar views on sightseeing, which is, "it's better if you don't know where you going and you get lost."

Anyway, I really love you all! Thank you always for your letters and emails! Sorry writing back is always a slow process. :S

Love you! Coley

Swiss Miss(ionary) Addictions

Hello Family!

Wow, crazy!! This Thursday is my official 1 year anniversary of being a missionary. Can't believe it. It really has flown by. It makes me sad, mostly...I'm not really trunky. I think some days, like Monday nights after PDay ends, I think too much about life after my mission, but I'm mostly just incredulous that the end is so near. It's been very motivating. I feel a stronger drive to be a better contacter, teacher, finder, and listener of the Spirit. It's been such a good couple weeks as I've just focused more and dedicated myself more than I did in the past. These past couple weeks were actually kind of rough in some ways. I have an AWESOME companion, and we have SO much fun together. We are SO similar. But we've just had such a hard time finding people to teach, and all our investigators are just falling off the teaching vine. We worked really hard but were seeing no fruits. It was so stressful. BUT! It was all for a good cause because in the end, we saw some really neat miracles!

We saw such an awesome miracle this past weekend! So, we were waiting to cross a street and there was a woman standing next to me. I said hi and introduced myself. She was nice, but didn't make any crazy gesture that she was interested. We crossed the street together and I taught her a tiny bit from the pamphlet and testified that I knew it was true. But I had a very special, strong feeling in my chest and I knew that she was going good. She wrote down her phone number and walked away. I told Sister Bready about the experience. Then the next day we went to our investigator, Sister Ye's home, to read the Book of Mormon with her. Then her friend walked in and looked at us with shock. I didn't recognize her at first, but it was the same woman from the night before! She sat down with us and we gave her a Book of Mormon. Her name is Sister Li and she is Christian. She asked me, "I have a problem that's really been bothering me recently. Why does God only love the Jews? Why doesn't or didn't he speak to the Taiwanese or Chinese? Why are the Jews the only ones with a record?" We got so excited and opened up *I think* (I don't have my scriptures with me) it was 2 Nephi 4:11-13 and told her God DOES love all His children and He spoke to everyone. There are records from the Nephites because He loved them. And I told her that very long time ago the Chinese also must have had the truth and have their own record but it hasn't been found yet. She just said, "really? He spoke to them too? What about my ancestors and my father who passed away? They never had a chance to hear about Jesus Christ. Are they lost forever and won't be saved?" Our cute investigator just said, "No, they have that answer too. They have beautiful buildings called temples were you can be baptized for your ancestors." It was soo cool. So we are meeting with Li Jiemei tomorrow to teach her the Plan of Salvation. Such a miracle!!

Sister Bready and I have an ADDICTION to Swiss Miss hot chocolate!! Our amazing Ward Mission Leader Brother Gu took us to Costco last week so we each have our own tub of powder, then an employee of Swiss Miss in Taiwan donated a bunch of almost expired Swiss Miss to all the missionaries. We drink cups and cups and cups!! It's soooo bad!! I pick out the crusty marshmallows or just eat the powder plain. I put it in my Costco frozen berries too. SOOO good. We are trying so hard to cut back. Sister Bready put a sticky note on the containers that says "Don't offend your spirit." Haha. Mmmm...so when we went to Costco we also bought hamburger meat, taco seasoning, chips and salsa. So every so often we make the most amazing Mexican nacho feast. Sooooo good. I don't know what it is, but whenever I'm out of the country, I just want Mexican food. This week we were also treated for dinner a couple times by members, which was nice. Sister Chen made hot pot, which was soooo good. Some day, we should have a family hot pot dinner. You just get a couple little portable stoves (plug in, or whatever) with boiling water in huge pots. Then you have bowls and platters full of all sorts of stuff you just throw in the pot to cook and pick out at your pleasure. You can put in raw meats, vegetables, tofu, all sorts of strange little processed balls they make...so good. When you chopstick your food out of the pot, you either put it on rice, or straight onto your soy sauce mixture and eat it. It's hard to describe, but it's soooo good. Dado, if you go to Da Zhong in Salt Lake, I'm sure they have hotpot mix-ins. When I get home in a long time...

Well, that's about it! Oh, except that I found out that the people I helped teach that got baptize are all active still! That made me sooo happy. It's the biggest worry so it's soo good when you know they are doing okay.

Anyway, love you all so much!!
Coley

Stiletto shoe malfunctions

Hi! Sorry this letter is a little later than usual. We went out to lunch with our Bishop which took longer than expected. Now half of PDay is over and we haven't done anything. :S

How was everyone's Halloween??? I hope it was good!!! What was everyone and what did you do? Send pictures!!! We dressed up as pioneers for Halloween. We wore really ugly, long gray skirts, button up shirts and wooly scarves...but wait, that's what we ALWAYS wear. Harhar.

So this week was good! On Tuesday I went to a Trainer's meeting with other trainers and the district leaders and the mission president. We just had some good training about what Heavenly Father wants us to learn for our investigators and stuff. It was soooo good. Before, District Leaders and stuff could just make up whatever he wanted to train people in his district at district meeting, but now the entire meeting has a set topic and agenda. So everything comes straight from President Monson. So cool. What "the top" is wanting us to learn is how to receive personal revelation through prayer and the Book of Mormon. Sooooo good. We watched Elder Holland's talk "Safety For the Soul" (look it up on mormon.org) and it got the fire going! So we've started reading the Book of Mormon more with our investigators and have felt the power coming from it. The Book of Mormon really is so amazing. We felt like we shouldn't address the messy investigator's messiness, so we only talked to her about the scriptures...but it was one of the most powerful lessons we've ever taught. We just read the Book of Mormon and testified with all the energy we had and it actually seemed to penetrate her. Read the Book of Mormon! Get kids to love it! It's really such a miracle we have such an ancient record with so many practical life's answers in it.

While we were walking to the metro from the meeting, I heard a ripping noise and saw that the strap on my shoe totally ripped off. I hobbled on, then suddenly I heard ANOTHER ripping noise and the strap on the other shoe ripped off! So I looked like I was crippled because I had to drag my feet to keep my shoes on. The straps were flopping all over the place. When we got on the metro we had a few people giving me advice, like "tie them back on with a rubber band" or "cut off the straps and make them into inside slippers" or "throw them away and buy new ones". The unfortunate part is that a while back my other pair of shoes did the same thing so after those shoes ripped I had NO shoes to wear. Fortunately I found a shoe repair shop where I got both pairs fixed so all is well, but until then, I biked and tracted for a day and a half in flowery orange $3 stiletto heels I'd luckily bought the day before. It was so very painful and embarrassing.

On Wednesday I challenged my whole beginning English class to be baptized and one woman said yes! She's a very interesting woman. She reminds me of a Chinese version of Mammy's little helper girl on Gone with the Wind "I's scared! I's scared!" She's a fun woman, haha.

I can't believe it's NOVEMBER!! I'll have been on my mission for ONE YEAR on the 11th. SO crazy!! Time has passed by SO quickly!!

Love you all! Coley