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