Elder Uchtdorf's Visit

Hello from the Island of Formosa!! :D

I 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! :DI 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

Saving Dogs

HiFamily!

Thank you all for your emails!! I was so happy to get them!

Taoyuan is still good! We are teaching an amazing girl named Heidi. She's 28 and speaks English really well. She is pretty much the golden investigator. She already knows half the ward because she tutored their kids in English. She promised she would go to church every week, and she bought a skirt because she felt like she should dress nice when she meets us. She said every time she prays, reads the Book of Mormon and goes to church, she has a special feeling. We explained that was the Spirit. Then we taught her about repentance and baptism and how we commit to keep the commandments. She said "Yes, you've told me about commandments. Can you just teach them all to me? I don't know what I'm doing wrong until you teach me. I will do everything you ask me to do." My companion and I joked that never again in our life will we ever have someone tell us they will do everything we ask them to. She's really amazing. She set a baptismal date for August 7. She has quit coffee. She's sooooo good!!

We are also teaching a little family, Shandi and her 2 kids Ryan and Katie. Heavenly Father loves us because she also speaks really good English. Haha. She is really neat. She was doubting the need for another God because she is VERY religiously Buddhist. But this week she's been saying she doesn't like going to the Buddhist temple because she feels guilty like she's betraying God. And she said whenever she goes to the temple to "bai bai" it doesn't work, but praying works, and works fast! She's really neat and really a good person. We're excited for her.

This week was a little stressful. I don't know...there are a lot of sisters going home next transfer and there aren't many other sisters over me, so people keep saying there's a possibility me and others me "age" will go senior next transfer or the transfer afterwards. That would be fun and all, but being senior is so much more stressful than being junior. I've been so paranoid this week about how I'm doing as a missionary because I feel like I have to know everything now. We'll see.

So we had a really funny experience yesterday! We were biking to a teaching appointment at the church when I saw a stray dog trying to claw his way out of a little irrigation ditch. The ditches have little concreted walls that rise about a foot and a half about the water (which is about a foot deep.) There's no incline for the dog to use to climb out. He started barking frantically when we biked fast, so I was pretty sure he was stuck and couldn't get out. We didn't have time and I didn't want to get clawed to death helping him out [see Lady Hawke] so I just said a prayer in my head that the poor dog would get out somehow. About an hour and a half later, we were biking back the other way and I glanced at the ditch to make sure he'd gotten out. The poor dog was just standing there in the ditch, his pitiful white head and top of his back showing above the BLACK disgusting water. I felt so bad, we stopped and tried to cheer the dog on to jump out. We encouraged him to jump up the side and he just gave us this look like "don't you know I've tried that already?" He looked so sad, defeated and hopeless. It was so hot he probably had heat exhaustion. So we said a little prayer and my companion knelt down and lifted his belly out of the water and I grabbed his front paws and we yanked him out of the canal. Half his body was dyed black from the grime and he had leaches all over him. He pitifully hobbled away, without any thanks at all. But we were glad we saved his life. Haha. But I learned that sometimes we pray and think "Heavenly Father, please help such and such will go well." But just because you prayed for it, he won't take away dirty work you don't want to do. For instance, I REALLY wanted the dog out of that ditch, but I REALLY didn't want to touch him or the water, so I prayed A LOT. But I don't think God will answer prayers that we make only because we're lazy or don't want to do something ourselves. Haha.

I saw a spider the size of my hand the other day. So gross!!! They are fast too.

I love you all! The Church is true! Keep living the gospel and you'll have peace and joy and life really will have more purpose. I love this gospel!

Wuv, Poohface

Monsoon Season

Hello!

Thank you all for the emails!! That made me soooo happy!!

This week was fun. Much different from what I expected, missions have their own "culture". A part of that strange culture, is "move calls" and all the talk that is included with that. My last district had what's called "Move Call Madness" where everyone guesses where the missionaries in the district will move to. Then for the first time I heard the phrase "Transfer Trunky" which means exactly what it sounds like...being really anxious and lazy for the coming move call. So strange, but I find myself getting sucked into this funny, strange culture too. So much of your little experience as a missionary depends on your area and your companion. It's really interesting. Anyway, so we had our interviews with the President this week. It pretty much led to my companion and I guessing WAY too much about move calls in a couple weeks. It's interesting, this mission is getting LESS and LESS missionaries. Makes me so sad! Next transfer 8 sisters and a bunch more Elders are going home and the ONLY missionary coming in, is 1 sister! Sad! This is leading to areas being closed, or areas having less missionaries, etc. Anyway, from interviews, we know that something will change in Taoyuan next transfer...either our area will close, the Elder's area will close, we'll serve over 4 wards instead of 2 wards...it's all unnecessary to think and guess about, but the change will be interesting, that's all. Not only that, but with so many older sisters going out, us newbies will go senior sooner. NO!! My stress-free days are soon coming to an end. Fun ends when you're senior, I feel. Anyway, unimportant, unimportant.

There was a monsoon yesterday!! And apparently there will be one everyday this week. Pretty much, it gets super hot in the day then when it approaches evening, the heavens open and we are DUMPED on! Last night the water was so high in some places that we were biking through WAVES created by cars. The lakes in the intersections were almost halfway up our bike tires. SO wet!! I'll take a picture next time.

We're teaching some really cute little girls. Yu Wen is 15 and Pei Yi, her little sister, is 12. They also bring their little 6 year old sister Jia Long. SO CUTE!! They all go home and read the Book of Mormon and the 3 of them pray together. The 2 older sisters set a baptismal date but their dad said it was too quick. Which is fine, I can understand that. I'm excited. They are really sweet. Oh yeah, and I contacted a dude on a motor cycle at a stop light the other day and he's been going to church and meeting with the elders! Maybe this is an obvious dream, but I've always wanted to contact someone on the street that was eventually a super strong member. So cool.

So I never wanted to serve a visitor's center mission, but I get the opportunity a couple days a month and it's not too bad! All the sisters in the mission who live close enough to Taibei take turns giving people "temple tours". They give them little tours using paintings and videos in the chapel next to the Taibei temple, the give them a little intro to temples. I was pretty nervous at first, but they are actually kind of fun. And there's a lot of Spirit when it's a one time encounter. It has kind of a Temple Square feeling, which is pretty special.

This week I've been called to repentance a little bit. We are teaching about 6 people who ALL have concerns with the Word of Wisdom when we taught them this week. I kind of get frustrated when people "disappear" after we teach WOW and wonder why something so small as something you drink would scare someone away from the church. But then I realized one day, as I was eating a bagel, that I am a hypocrite! Haha. Why is it SO hard for me to stay gluten free for longer than a month?? I get soooo tempted by delicious bready things! Then I feel like GARBAGE and can't feel the spirit (which is why we follow the word of wisdom anyway, right?) and am treating my precious gift of a body badly. So I realized, the higher law of the word of wisdom is to protect your body and keep it healthy. But the thing with that, is that all our bodies are different. Mine gives me horrible stinky farts and a fat gut when I eat wheat...haha. So I decided that I will be better and obey my own little word of wisdom and I made a promise to Heavenly Father that I will not intentionally eat gluten the rest of my mission. I think that if I'M better about this, it will help investigators too. Haha, really funny though. We were "qing-ed chi" for lunch the other day by a member "Su Mama". She was all "Oh, you can eat just a little! Like little kids with Mango allergies will be itchy for a little bit, but if you keep forcing them to eat it, they grow out of it!" (all the while I'm feeling so sad for her children.) I insisted that I couldn't. I felt SO sick after lunch and I'm thinking she told the waiter to put a little soy sauce in the food to "ease" me into it. Then afterwards she bought me this little bread thing made mostly of rice flour but partly of wheat flour. She lectured me again then I finally just ate it to make her stop. I was way sick. Then yesterday she asked my companion at church how I felt after eating it and my companion (so Su Mama didn't feel bad) said "oh she felt fine!" and Su mama said "I knew it! Next time, I'll have her eat noodles!" Grr...I'm never eating with her again. Haha, she'll sneak poison in my food! Really, she was the funniest sweetest lady. But eating with her was dangerous. Haha.

I can't remember if I told you about our name. One time in Zhubei I told a little kid my name was sister Dowdle and he said "Doedoe?" Which means "zit". So now I have a few people calling me Sister DoeDoe. It's funny.

Anyway, I really love you all!!

Coley

Killer Railroads

Hi Family!

I hope everything is good with everyone. How's school, work, etc? When is school out for the summer for all the chillins? Any fun vacations planned? How's looking for jobs and all your current jobs and all that fun good stuff? Let me know how you all are doing!! I'm sorry I'm not very good at personal letters. I'll try to do better.

This week has been really good. I'm used to Taoyuan and Bade and really like it now. Sister Messenger and I have a good time. We had some miracles. It's interesting, I think this area is a little more open to the gospel than Zhubei. I heard Zhubei was a "rough area" but never believed it while I was there because it was my first area and stuff. But now being in Taoyuan, I believe it. I feel like everyone is ready for the gospel here. We had a neat little miracle the other day. We wanted to find a former investigator who seemed to be pretty good back when she was being taught, but the missionaries stopped visiting because her husband opposed. So we were expecting her to be pretty good still. But when we got there she was kind of rude and said she didn't need it and don't stumble on the way out pretty much. But we figured Heavenly Father put us in her neighborhood to find someone else. So little miracles and inspiration got us inside this apartment building. We didn't have much time because we had an appointment so Sister Messenger just pushed the elevator button for the 3rd floor and we knocked on the first door. It was a pregnant woman whose family was Catholic and husband is Jehovah's Witness but doesn't know what church is true. We taught her a first lesson and she seems like she really wants to know what's true. It was really perfect. It was the first and only door we knocked on and it was totally inspiration. Really neat. We also were given a referral for a 15 year old girl who was interested in the church. She came to the first lesson with her 12 year old sister and the second lesson with the cutest, squishiest little 6 year old Sister. She was SOOO cute!!! Those girls are sooo sweet. They have already prayed and read and want to be baptized but their Dad said they have to wait until they are more sure.

Hahaha, so one really fun thing about my companionship with Sister Messenger is that our Chinese is probably very close in ability. It's good because it helps motivate us both and we've learned some stuff together, which is always fun. I've always wanted to learn Chinese WITH my companion. So the fun thing is, that sometimes we make really hilarious little mistakes. I have to tell you about a little language error in a lesson the other day. We were teaching the Word of Wisdom and used a little "parable" or whatever with a paper crane. In the little parable, one companion with give an awesome little paper crane to the other with the charge that they should protect it and take care of it (like our bodies). Then the other person will show the crane to everyone and say, "look! Look at my little bird! It's special. God gave it to me. etc." So the word for "bird" in Chinese is "niao", but the word for "brain" is "nao" which is easily confused. So Sister Messenger ended up saying in the lesson, "Look! Look at my little brain! It's special. God gave it to me." The little kids we were teaching were laughing so hard. It was hilarious!!

This week the rain went away, which is nice. But it was replaced by intense HEAT. It's SO hot!!! Not to mention SO humid!! So with it being like a million degrees and 100% humidity I feel like I'm getting boiled alive. It wouldn't be so bad if we didn't bike so much. We end up being wet where our backpacks were, so we have a "sweat backpack". It's gross. Then we take our helmets off and look like wilted rats. I need to drink A LOT of water. It's easy to feel light headed and nauseated and get headaches and stuff. Yesterday was "xinku" or rough. We had to go back and forth between the two wards we oversee, and the two chapels are an hour apart. Ugh. It was soooo hot too. It was bad too because the ride is so long that we accidentally stood up one of our appointments! She reset up, but still. It's so hot, and apparently it will only get hotter.

Oh! Something kind of creepy happened the other day! We were all in district meeting when this loud siren went off outside. It was an air raid siren! No one was hitting the ground, so I tried not to freak out, but I was way scared! It was just a drill, so it was nothing. But still! Creepy!! It reminded me off Iron Giant or something. "When that bomb comes down...everyone will die." "You are who you choose to be." "SoooooperMaaaaaaan." Haha. But I guess the mayor just decides when they have those little drills and stuff.

The other day I got really creeped out while I was biking. You know that music that plays in horror movies when someone is behind someone with knife or something? It's like shrill violins and goes "dun! dun! dun! dun! dun!" Well, I all of the sudden heard THAT music, really loud! A car and a few scooters were nearby so I almost peed my pants. I thought they were playing the music and going to kill me or something. But it ended up being the railroad crossing alarm. Haha!! I was SO scared!! Hahahaha.

We are teaching (or trying to teach) a couple really cute South African kids. Their mom is from South Africa but married a Taiwanese man and has lived in Taiwan for 20 years. Her name is Dorothy. She divorced the Taiwanese man so she really wants to move back to Africa. She's a member, but less active. The ward loves her so we're trying to get her back to church and get her little kids baptized. The kids are SOO cute!! They are like a bunch of little Tiger Woods all over the place (get it? Asian/African...that's so racist.) They have the most precious curly hair and their beautiful dark eyes are a little slanty. They're adorable.

So there is definitely a plus with Taoyuan by the way...they aren't jerky to me about my Chinese. I have gotten more compliments on my Chinese in the past week than I did in 2 transfers in Zhubei. It certainly is confidence building. Maybe I don't stink that bad after all?

So our plans for preparation day today is to go to a CHOCOLATE FACTORY! Haha. We're so excited. We want to see real-live oompa loompas.

My spiritual thought for the day comes from the Book of Acts. I found this today and thought it was hilarious!! It's pretty much saying what happens when someone works unworthily or without proper authority in the name of Jesus Christ:
Acts 19:13-16
"13 Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, 'We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth.'
14 And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chieft of the priests, which did so.
15 And the evil spirit answered and said, '[Wait a second], JESUS I know, and PAUL I know; but who are YE?'
16 And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded."

I don't know why, I think it's kind of funny.

Anyway, I love you!! I hope everything is going great at home! I always pray for you all!

Nicole

Wet Rat Sisters

Hi Family!!

Things in Taoyuan are good! I love my companion Sister Messenger. She's a lot of fun and has a cute little laugh. She comes from a very interesting background and I really respect her a lot. This is her first time being Senior companion, so we're figuring things out together. She's awesome. I wonder how I've been so lucky with companions...sometimes I worry...my day is coming in which I will get the crazy companion. Haha. Maybe I'M the crazy companion!! Haha. Anyway, Sister Messenger is from Washington and is also 23. She's alot of fun. When I moved, my bike came a day late, so we got around Taoyuan with me sitting on the metal thing on the back of her bike. It was so funny!! It bruised my bum like crazy and Sister Messenger had to pedal a heavy 120 lbs+ load but it was sooooo fun!! We got a big kick out of it. I'm sure the Taiwanese did too. I could only get on the bike by making a running jump onto it while it was moving. So when we came to an intersection, the people waiting for the red light saw 2 foreigner missionaries --1 of them pedaling like crazy with another one running after her, making a leaping jump onto her bike. It was so funny. She got a flat tire later in the week...too much stress on the tire I'm sure.

It's been raining like CRAZY!! I HATE rain! Actually, I like it, but I just hate being a missionary in the rain. Wearing a skirt and biking in a total downpour is pure misery. And I have a lot of pride so I hate wearing the "yoo-ees" they have here and it's too hot to wear my raincoat. Yoo ees are big rain ponchos. I HATE them. They always ride up so your skirt gets soaked anyway and they are hot so you sweat and get just as wet on the inside. But everyone is telling me the acid rain is going to make my hair fall out and give me skin rashes if I don't start wearing them. Ugh. There are some better yoo ees that are more like windbreakers with pants that I can stuff my skirt into, but I don't have the money. The yoo ee I have smells like fish. Haha. I need to wash it. I came to church wearing pants because I would rather ride an hour in soaking pants then change into a dry skirt for sacrament than sit in sacrament in a sopping wet skirt. Some member women were mortified to see a Sister Missionary in pants when I walked in. Hahahaha.

So we've had some really good times in Yaoyuan, but it's been a little hard too. I've heard it's hard for a lot of missionaries to leave their first area. You just finally get over culture shock and love your first area, then you're quickly booted out. Whenever I feel out of my element, my old enemy perfectionism comes back with full force. Then I learn to overcome and it's all good. There is a trend, it seems, that every transfer when a new missionary comes in, current investigators in that area "die" or stop meeting with you. So right now we don't have a whole ton of people to teach. On top of that, the Elders are supposed to give women to the Sisters to teach and we give them men, but I guess in this area the Elders don't like to do that. So we don't get many female referrals. I've been praying a lot for us to find people to teach. We've been contacting at every light and I've been going crazy wondering WHAT I'm doing so wrong that makes it so hard to find people. I was having a REALLY hard couple days just not knowing what it takes to bring people unto Christ. But I think Heavenly Father isn't such a harsh being as to let us go crazy without helping us. For example, after those hard couple days, I had a cool experience at a stop light. All I said was "Hello, I'm Sister Dowdle. I have a message about the gospel of Jesus Christ" then the kid on the scooter said "Mormon??" I said, "yeah!" then he pulled over and gave me his name and number and said he'd come to church. I called him the next day and he said "yes yes!! I really want to meet! When?" I said that night and he said yes, he was even willing to drive an hour. He actually ended up having his grandparents come in town unexpectedly so he had to change times. But then I asked him if he knew anything about our church and he said, "oh yes! I just went to Mormon.org, the website on the pamphlet!" This guy is really awesome and genuine. It's a miracle! It's cool because my contacting approach kind of stunk but when someone is prepared to receive the gospel, it doesn't really matter what you say.

Like I said, this past week has been really hard. I just feel like a bad missionary sometimes. Then I wonder if I'm good enough to be out here and wonder what Heavenly Father feels about my work and me. Does He really love me? Even when I make mistakes, like lose an opportunity to talk to someone, don't go to bed exactly on time, get mad at jerky people, fall asleep in sacrament, etc. I was just feeling unworthy and frustrated this morning and prayed before personal study that I would study something that would help me and someone else. I decided that I'd read Moses that day, since I've actually never read the Pearl of Great Price. I really LOVE it! I really feel like it was an answer to my prayer. I read Chapter 1 of Moses. In Moses 1, God is talking with Moses face to face. Over and over, he tells Moses who Moses is. It's so beautiful and loving. God calls him "His son" (vs 4, 6, 7) and says that Moses is "in the similitude of mine Only Begotten" (v 6) or in other words, he is created after the image of a Perfect, Glorified, Wonderful Being. So in this rare opportunity Moses has to talk to God, God just tells him his infinite worth --a Son of God who was created in the same mold as a God. Then in verse 9 God leaves Moses and he (Moses) has no strength because he is "left unto himself" --a weak being who is the heir of and child of a God but inherited weaknesses of the flesh. Then he realizes that he himself had to be changed to a more glorified state to be able to behold the presence of God. Then! Satan comes. And the FIRST thing he says is: "Moses, thou Son of Man." So God just built Moses up, saying, "hey! You're the actual Son of a God and you're in the image of Jesus!" then Satan comes and says, "hey, you weak son of man." Then Moses is awesome and says "Who are YOU? I'M a Son of GOD, in the similitude of the Only Begotten." Then Moses tells Satan, "wait a second, God was SO full of glory, I had to be literally CHANGED to not wither and die in his presence. But I can talk to you like you were any old schmoe. Where is YOUR glory?" Then in verse 15 he says "I'm not as full of glory as God, BUT I have enough of the Spirit with me to know that you have NO glory. In fact, you are DARKNESS to me." Then Satan basically starts going crazy and gnashing his teeth and Moses gets really scared. But because Moses gets scared, his faith is slipping. Then AFTER his faith slips a little he sees "the bitterness of hell." But he then calls on God, receives strength and commands Satan to leave. WOW!! This whole chapter was amazing to me. This is what I take from it:

1. God will tell us who we are, and who we are is His children. We are the children of a GOD! We have GREAT potential, beyond more than we can EVER imagine.(1 Corinthians 2:9)

2. We are after the image of GOD.

3. Thoughts that bring light and hope are from God. These thoughts will generally be uplifting, encouraging, full of hope and a desire to be the best we can be. They are also thoughts that help us feel loved by God.

4. Satan will tear us down with the idea that we are WEAK and NOTHING and FAR from God.

5. Satan's enticements and temptations will give us a DARK feeling. We will feel like a "no one" with no potential and no way to change.

6. If we begin to doubt what God has told us (WHO we are) we will lose our faith and Satan will have more power over us and we will "see the bitterness of hell."

7. No matter what BAD situation we are in, like standing face to face with Satan, if we call on God, he will give us the strength to withstand and be successful against the devil.
SOOOO AMAZING! I encourage you all to read it. So amazing.

Anyway, everything is so good. It's raining right now, of course. But we are going to have a good preparation day. A member is taking us to a "Chi Dao Bao" or "Eat Until Full" restaurant (basically, all you can eat buffet). Yes, I'm trying to eat gluten free still. It gets hard sometimes though. Like last night we went to a ward Young Single Adult FHE with an investigator and the hostess made noodles. I told her no thank you, I was allergic. She told me not to worry, and she came out with specially-made-for-me breaded french fries. Ugh. Ha, oh well. The Chinese food is still so good.

Anyway, I love you all!! Email me when you get the chance! I always love hearing from you! Thank you for letters and emails!!

Pooh Face

Move Calls!!

Hi Family!!

Today is my first day in my new area with my new companion!

This week has been good! I'm going to really miss my companion, Sister Weng. I really love her. We've had such a good transfer. She has so much charity and love and she's hilarious! She loves Stitch (from Lilo and Stitch), and gets trunky when she sees "Shrek" happy meal toys, makes funny faces that look like the Bull from Bugs Bunny, and always says REALLY funny things in Chinese. Oh!! I'm going to miss her soooooo much!!! I just love her! It's so sad to move!!

This week has been pretty good. We had a really good Zone Conference on Tuesday that really got us motivated. Elder Pratt from the Quorum of the 70 came and taught with his wife. He's a GGgrandson of Parley P Pratt so told some fun stories about PPPratt's mission experiences. He said that it doesn't matter why we came on a mission, it just matters that we start right now making our reason to continue "love". So that we preach because we love God, the gospel, the Taiwanese, the language... Then his wife talked a lot about obedience. I've probably said this before, but since I've been on a mission, my favorite principle I've learned is that of obedience. This is NOT saying "oh I'm the most obedient missionary, blah blah". But I just really love the principle that with every obedient act, there's a blessing beside it. "There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heave before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated --And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated." I think sometimes we may get a blessing when we don't necessarily deserve it--either by the grace of God or just being leaning on our own feeble strength, but most of the time, when we receive something good, it's because we knowingly or unknowingly obeyed a commandments of God which qualified us for that blessing. Sister Pratt talked about that alot in Zone Conference and it really brought me to repentance. Not that I have major disobedience issues, but everyone can always be more obedient. Like I need to be a better teacher. But most of all, I needed to change my attitude about obedience. Sometimes I would get bugged at some of the lamer rules I don't understand, like stretching for 10 minutes after running, and stuff. But if I just remember that every little thing I obey, will give a blessing, or at LEAST the Spirit more so that people will believe us more, than it makes me more excited to obey. Anyway, it was really cool. Sister Weng and I were too happy and having too much fun together that sometimes we would have to snap out of it and stop talking so that we could contact people. Zone Conference was a really good motivation.

So we made a couple trips up the big hill to Hukou, (about 1 hour+) and knocked doors. Every time we went this week, it happened to start POURING as soon as we got there. I like rain...but not if I'm going to be biking in it for 6 hours. Being in wet clothes is one of the most miserable things there ever was. I now have all sorts of sick Taiwan dried sludge in my shoes from walking through grime puddles. Ewww. But it was good. Since Zone Conference, I've just felt way more fire to testify and share, which is great, but is sometimes painful when people still reject you. When you feel that burning in your heart and that love of the gospel even more, it's more sad when people don't care. I just wish I could somehow transplant the feeling I have and put it in that person's heart. I wish so much sometimes that I could just be in that person's shoes for a second and feel if they feel anything. So yeah, I figure that's where study and obedience come in. In the Book of Mormon it talks a lot about missionaries (Alma, Ammon, Sons of Mosiah, Nephi, etc.) and they had more authority and power because they were so obedient and diligent so it carried it to the hearts of the people they taught. Anyway, we talked to some cool people in Hukou. No great success, but we had some good conversations and some good moments. We also ran into this really cute dog that looked EXACTLY like Doug from "Up". He kept following us to doors we were tracting, so when people opened the door, they saw 3 sister missionaries and a yellow dog. haha. So cute!! "Hi There. My name is Doug" "I hid under the porch because I love you." Hah.

So we have run into a really interesting religion in Taiwan. We taught an investigator who was a member of it and I'm starting to think it's....creepy...? Anyway, it's a religion that pretty much excepts ALL truth and invites all religions to preach in their churches. So pretty much their way of thinking is "there's a lot of roads to take, and they can all lead to Taibei". (I thought about that, then it didn't make sense because if we all START from the same place... in our case Heavenly Father's presence...then all roads DON'T go to the same place...) Anyway, that's not really the most worst part...although saying that EVERYTHING thing is true is denying God (see 2 Nephi 2:13). What just set us kind of on edge, was when we taught, she would bear her testimony of her religion and we had a really eery feeling. Then we asked her to pray and she refused. We asked why and she said "I'm not positive...but I think that that's something I'm not allowed to do." Apparently this religion makes some interesting oaths and covenants when you get really deep into it that are secret. That also involve secret hand signals and stuff (secret combinations....?). Anyway, interesting.

Recently, I don't know what is happening! All of our investigators are just dropping like flies! They just stop calling us or tell us they can't give up Buddhism. Ugh!! Pray.

Transfer calls were on Friday. I was so excited because I was transferred to Shuanghe. Shuanghe is in Taibei and is one of the most densely populated placed in the world. I actually wasn't necessarily excited about that part, but my new companion was going to be Sister Scott! I love Sister Scott! We were companions for 2 weeks when I first got to Taiwan. But sadly, after I got the move call, I found out that Sister Scott is going home early for medical problems. She has such bad allergies and asthma that she is having major breathing problems from Taibei's air. I've been very fortunate in that area. But yeah, sad! So my move call was changed to Taoyuan/Bade (pronounced Bah Duh) with Sister Messenger. She's really cool so far so it should be a good transfer. It was sooooo sad to leave Zhubei though!!! We were "qing-ed" for dinner a few times and the members were so nice! There are a few teachers who want me to come back to Zhubei after my mission and intern at their school. I'm seriously considering it. I love that place!!

Anyway, all is sooooo good! I love you all! The Church is True! Blessings come from the Gospel! Christ lives! Joseph Smith was a prophet!

LOVE YOU!!!
Coley

Transfers are Coming!

Hi Family!!

This week has had a lot of new experiences and surprises, but has been alot of fun. Sister Weng and I were doing companionship study on Tuesday morning when we got a call from President Grimley. I was kind of nervous, because getting a call from the mission president out of the blue can never be good. Haha. But he was calling to tell us that a new sister would be coming early to the mission and Sister Weng would be training her and we had to go to Taibei that night to pick her up! We screamed for the next half hour of studies. Sister Weng has never trained before and I REALLY didn't want to move away from Zhubei. It's true that Heavenly Father really takes you away from comfort when it's time to learn something new. This past transfer has seriously been one of the happiest experiences in my life. I've learned SO much, and LOVE Sister Weng! Some nights I would just come home and be so happy that I would just pray in thanks. It was sooooo awesome. Zhubei is wonderful and I'm finally getting to know the wards. But I can see that sometimes when you get too comfortable, you're not moved upon to learn as much. I feel like my teaching skills have improved this transfer, but I have other skills that could be built with a change of surrounding. I'm just a little afraid of my new companion/area. Sister Weng and I just had such a good time, it'll be hard to top that experience. Sister Weng is so cute. Sometimes she makes faces that look like the bull from Bugs Bunny and makes me laugh so hard. I just love her. She teases me and I love our companion studies. They are so edifying. She loves the gospel but she's very real. Anyway, I'm really sad to leave Zhubei. It's the "Yingxu Di" or Promised Land. I'm so afraid of being sent to a big city. So many people stresses me out and I'm afraid I'll get hit by a bus or something. Apparently taxi drivers hate missionaries...

ANyway, so Tuesday night Sister Weng and I went to Taibei and stayed in the temple hotel thingy while we waited for Sister Li, our new companion. Sister Li is American Born Chinese, so she speaks complete fluent Chinese and English, her parents are Chinese and she grew up in Provo. So she actually came 2 weeks before the transfer, just like me. So now we're in a trio until next preparation day. It's interesting how Heavenly Father always puts you in situations that help you further understand others. I'm now in the same position as Sister Scott from my 1st transfer. I'm the 3rd wheel missionary sleeping on the floor and living out of a suitcase. Actually, we just separated one of the bed's mattress and box springs so our beds are actually right side by side. It's kind of fun. Like a slumber party every night. My bed is in the middle of the floor, which is nice, because that's the coldest part. Here are the things I'll miss most about Zhubei:

1. The Hotpot restaurant (restaurant in the loose sense of the word...) with the all you can eat ice cream and pop
2. The Leprechaun Man. That's actually not a very nice thing to call him...he's actually this really cute handicapped man that hangs out outside of an investigator's hair salon. He has fluffy hair and side burns and always wears shorts and a green vest, so he REALLY looks like a hobbit or a leprechaun. But he always waves at us when we pass and he's so excited to see us. One day a man was just giving out peanut butter popsicles and when he gave L. M. one I've never seen a human being that happy. It was so cute.
3. Our huge beautiful chapel
4. The Relief Society President and the 1st Ward Bishop who collects the stamps.
5. Lai Weiting, my first transfer baptism.
6. Sister Weng!!
7. The BEAUTIFUL scenery in Xinpu, Xinfeng and the Haitan.
8. My own bathroom and a clean, new apartment.

Anyway, that's really not the best of even a small part of how much I love Zhubei. But anyway, I know where ever I go, it will be because the it's the Lord's will and I'll still love it. I find out on Friday where I'll go. Scared!!!

So we had a neat experience the other day during exchanges. We got kind of lost looking for a less active member's house because it was dark, and the address was wrong. So we were biking in an old part of Zhubei, surrounded by very old homes and rice fields, when we passed a woman who just walked out of her house. Sister Collyer contacted her and the 3 of us (Me, Sis Collyer, and Sis Li) bore testimony and tried to get her to set up a time, but finally she just said no and we left. But I told the Sisters that while we were trying to convince her to meet with us, I had had a feeling that we shouldn't ask, we should just start teaching. But we'd lost our chance since she now didn't want to talk. But we then decided that the NEXT person, we would just start teaching. Two minutes later, we stopped to check the address and saw a man smoking outside his house. We acted on our decision and taught the man the first lesson. He was 67 years old and we gave him a Book of Mormon and will meet with the Elders! It was just neat because the Spirit was really strong in the lesson and all 3 of us are very new missionaries --Sister Collyer and I with horrid Chinese and Sister Li only out for 2 days. It was neat. I really know that when we depend on the Lord, the power of the Atonement can enable us to do great things. The other day an investigator asked why missionaries who are so young go out and preach the gospel and we shared with her Alma 36:6-7. And this scripture is very true:
"Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise.
"And the Lord God doth work by means to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and be very small means the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls."

Missionary work and life is just a miracle sometimes. I think Heavenly Father works in every detail of our lives to try to bring us back to Him. It's just our choice to follow Him and listen/notice His enticements. Over a month ago, Sister Weng and I talked to this man cleaning out his van. We tried to set up with him but he kind of laughed at us and said "here's my card but I'm not interested". So we took his card and just held onto it and thought nothing would ever come of it. Then we laughingly gave his card to the Elders the other day and the man came to church and is now taking the lessons! Miracles! I fully believe that in that month, the Lord used that time to prepare him to be more receptive to the gospel, so when the Elders called him, it was the right time.

Anyway, life is good! I love you!! I'm working on my handwritten letters to all of you!! Dad, I need your physical address! Love you!!

Coley

Teach me all that I must do

Hello Jiating!

How is everyone? Happy Birthday Danny! I hope everyone is having fun and getting ready for the summer!! I bet everyone is so excited!

Here's the latest from Pooh. By the way, I hope my emails aren't really pointless and boring. If they are, please tell me and I'll try to shake it up or something:

*I found out that I have an unpleasant sun allergy. I know Rachel and Jessica do as well, and I thought I did before too, but as I've always had the Madam Mim approach to the outdoors ("I hate horrible wholesome sunshine. HATE HATE HATE!!!) I never really knew my skin was this sensitive. Last week the sun came out really bright and my forearms are in the direct light as I ride my bike all day. At first they just itched like crazy then I started developing a rash with little white blistery bubble things. So now every morning I put on a lot of sunscreen and every night I put on a lot of Aloe Vera. I'm pretty proud of the fact that I tan so well (even if the tan is only from my sleeve to my wrists...) but every Chinese person (even mid-lesson) points to my arms and says "tsk tsk, Hei hei!" Or "black black!" Every sunny day my companion says "I hate being black!"

*We went to a ward activity on Saturday at the beach. It was so windy the sand stung our skin so bad! We cleaned the beach of all the garbage and junk. It was kind of gross and scary because there were sick stuff like syringes and drug paraphernalia all over the place. The Relief Society President, Dai Jiemei that I told you about last email, was SO funny!! She was afraid of getting black in the sun, so she wore some sort of flowery head covering that resembled a ski mask with only a rectangle opening for her eyes. She looked like a ninja. Then the wind was so strong it kept blowing her shirt up. She's really the funniest, most wonderful women. I really look up to her. After we cleaned the beach, we played volleyball and relay games. It was so much fun!! That ward is so good. Us missionaries obviously couldn't go anywhere near the water (which was fine, it wasn't that warm plus the foam that kept washing up was some frothy puke color) but it was still awesome! The waves were really pretty since it was so windy.

*We knocked some doors last night before going in. It was pouring rain and we were both soaked so no one let us in. We spoke to a man through his intercom and he said he was Christian already so he wasn't interested. We didn't have a BOM to leave, so we put a whole gospel principles book in his mailbox. Haha. We had it left over because we'd donated a few of them to the local library. We'll see what happens with that!

*The other day we were teaching Li Pei Qi, a 27 year old girl who is the daughter of a woman I met at a stoplight. Mid lesson she looked at me and said "I don't want to ruin your lesson, but you have a little spider on your head." Haha. Our member who came with us, Jessica, who is REALLY funny, grabbed a tissue and instead of flicking the spider off, squished it on my head! Haha!

*Early last week Sister Weng and I were going around in the evening and contacting people on the street. That specific day I just felt especially afraid of contacting and speaking in Chinese. In my mind I just prayed and said "Ugh, I just can't do this. My Chinese isn't good enough and it's just too hard." I then had a thought come strongly in my mind that said something to the effect of "Do you actually think I'd let you do My work alone?" That was a big moment for me. It really taught me something important about God. I have often had the thought that I am doing missionary work and Heavenly Father is looking down on my like this is some big test and if I don't do it just so, then I'll fail and He'll be disappointed or someone won't get baptized or something. But at that moment I just realized that Heavenly Father isn't scrutinizing our performance with a clipboard but that He's always in the action with us--as if He's contacting as well, if you will. And the reason He wants us to be obedient, to work hard, to talk to everyone, etc. isn't because "if we don't he'll be REALLY REALLY ANGRY!!" but because if we do those things, we'll be eligible for blessings according to the laws He's already established. So He's always encouraging us to do better and be better so He can bless us because that's all He really wants to do. Bless us and help us bless other people He loves. He's a lot like the sweet Chinese fathers I see around Taiwan, taking their little toddlers out on their little tricycles or with their little toys, holding their hand or pushing them along. Heavenly Father is always there helping us like we're just little kids. But sometimes, we're like the little kids who have delicious candy in a hard to open wrapper and we "just wanna do it ourselves" and we struggle and struggle and whine that we can't eat the candy. Then finally we say "fine, Dad, will you open it for me?" I'm still working on that part. Sometimes you walk into a lesson, then walk out and realize that you taught that whole thing depending totally on yourself. And you know that that's why the Spirit wasn't quite there, or your Chinese wasn't all that understandable. But then there are the occasional lessons where you feel like you can't do it, and pray your face off as you bike to the appointment and the lesson just works out because you gave it to the Lord.

*As far as learning Chinese goes, that ALSO has taught me a big lesson. 1) That despite the fact that I'm NOT good at studying, I really have learned alot. That alone has taught me another thing about Heavenly Father. That He sometimes blesses us even if we don't necessarily deserve it. He just does it because He loves us and cuts us some slack. 2) If you're grateful for what you HAVE learned, you'll see that you HAVE learned! 3) Sometimes it takes a while to learn something not because Heavenly Father is thinking "I just want to humble you for a little while so just figure it out by yourself, bye!" But sometimes it takes a while because again, He has to operate by His own laws and sometimes He just needs something to work with. If I pray every day that I will learn "a lot of new words today!" but then don't choose the words I want to learn and provide a way for it to happen, then Heavenly Father's "got nuttin' " to work with. He won't just magically plant 30 new chinese words in our memories every day. I'm sure if we were brain damaged and it was His will to do so He could. But really He just wants us to learn how to learn and He'll expedite the process. Anyway. It's been a good week. I think I've learned this lesson about God's merciful character dozens of times, and I will still keep learning it over and over again. I think it's the hardest thing for me to learn and have faith in so I'm really grateful that He's patient enough to keep teaching me.

I love you all!! The church is true!! Joseph Smith was a prophet!! The other day in a lesson we watched the "Restoration" DVD and I remembered my trip to Nauvoo with Mom, Dad and Michael and was really touched by the Spirit. I know Joseph Smith was a prophet and restored the full and living gospel of Jesus Christ to the earth. Love you all!!! I love every one of you!! MUAH!!!

Coley

Apostle Visits

Hey Family!!!!

I can't tell you how amazing it was to talk to you on Monday!!! I loved talking to all of you and hearing about all you're amazing things that are going on and your new goals and desires in life. I'm glad everything is going so well for everyone!! What a big blessing!!

Well, things have been really good! Last week we had a mission conference and Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve came! We all got to shake his hand. I told him I was from Sandy and he and his wife were excited because I guess they are too. I wish I brought some notes with me...but he basically did what Elder Holland did in the MTC and just answered missionary's weird questions. Haha. One of them was "what God's hand was in other religions?" He said a lot of stuff, but one thing in particular I liked was that he said that some people receive all sorts of blessings because as the scriptures say, there is a law in which all blessins are predicated ...or something like that. So it doesn't matter if people know they are keeping a commandment or not, they will still receive the blessing. That makes alot of sense to me. He and his wife then spoke in our Stake Conference. Their talks were about building faith and getting people to the temple. He said he was really sad that only 14% of the adults in the stake had been through the temple and said that people needed to do all they could to get there. Sister Christofferson's talk was amazing!! Maybe you've all heard this story before, but I hadn't. She talked about a bishop who always helped people who were stranded on the side of the road because he trully wanted to live the gospel. But one day he was robbed and thrown in his trunk and driven across town and left in a parking lot. By the time the police found him, he'd died. But he'd managed to open a little can of house paint and with his finger write "It's true. He lives." A lot of people were crying. So good.

We went on exchanges yesterday. I went with Sis Collyer from the MTC and we had a BLAST! We had some miracles happen. I felt like we should find an open place to eat dinner and someone would come up to us. We went to a park to eat, the lo! A woman came up to us and said, I want your Elders to visit my son in the hospital. AMazing!! Time is up!! Gotta Run! The picture is of Sis Collyer. If I had more time I would have added more pictures or a picture of me. :S

Love you all!!

Coley

Chi Bao le ma?

Hi Family!!

The first week of my 3rd transfer is over and all is swell in Zhubei! Hey, just for clarification, my mailing address never changes. I used to think that when someone was transfered you'd have to mail to a different address, but I guess it always goes to the mission office. I know Jessica had mentioned needing the new address, but it is the same! :)

This week has been SO GOOD!!!! I LOVE my companion, Sister Weng. She's so cute and so much fun. She loves Stitch from Lilo and Stitch, which is funny, because she kind of reminds me of/looks like Stitch. She's really random and scatter brained, very down to earth, and just funny. She's VERY clean, which is good for me. We spent 5 ours of our P-day scouring our apartment. It looks and smells so nice! Haha. She is a very picky eater, which is funny too. She thinks everything is so "exin". Funny, you'd think she's not from Taiwan. She really loves "cute" things. So she bought the little happy meal toy stuffed rabbit at McDonalds and sometimes buys little toys at 7-11. She's so funny. She's also very humble and spiritual. We have some good conversations. She has a lot of faith and is very honest about her feelings. I love it!

So our second day together we had to make our transfer baptismal goals to send to the Zone Leaders. We went over all our investigators and Sister Weng said, "Let's do 8." I thought that was a very high number, but I thought she knows what she's talking about, so I didn't worry about it. Well, as it turns out, last month our entire mission baptized 37 people and the goal for our little district of 4 companionships is 21! Haha. The Zone Leaders gave a lecture to the district leaders (I was there just because my companion is the coordinating sister in the zone) about making goals too high and stuff. It kind of was frustrating just because who says we can't achieve that goal? Seeing as we only got 1 baptism last transfer you may say it is highly improbable of finding and baptising 8 people. But seeing as Sister Weng and I already made the goal and can't change it, why squelch our faith? Lecture us AFTER we don't achieve it. So anyway, it's been a really good week. We've prayed ALOT and done alot of changing. I've realized that for too long I've allowed myself to be a back-seat companion because I was too afraid of speaking or I figured I would "ease into it". Sister Weng is an amazing contacter. She contacts everyone she sees, which is very exhillirating (still frightening). So I've tried to do alot of changing and am contacting ALOT more people. It feels SO much better. There's no guilt when you're talking with all you can. I still can do so much more. Our district leader, Elder Broadhead, is a very good guy and has alot of faith. Instead of passing on the message that our goals are too high, he's pumped up our district to try our best and have as much faith as we can to achieve the goal. He told me the other day that he had some inspiration that if I watch Sister Weng and do everything she does and "get in on the action" then we'll see miracles. I still have alot to do, but it's gotten better and actually, we ARE seeing miracles!! Our 8 goal had no foundation, but we so far have 3 people that are farely solid with 1 that is almost there. They are really neat people and have alot of faith. It's really neat because we know that really, these people coming to us out of no where has been nothing of our doing. Heavenly Father really blesses us if we believe He will and we do our own part. I know that's true. If we can be as motivated as we have been, things will be great. Here are a couple of the miracles (although small) that have happened in the past week:

1. We taught the cutest 50 year old women named Lily. We set a baptismal date and she accepted it very easily. Then we taught her the word of wisdom and she came to Church the next day very tired because she'd already gone cold turkey on coffee and tea. She's soooo full of faith and so good! She read half of 1 Nephi in a week!

2. A woman named Grace came to English class. Elder Sessions taught about baptism in his after-class "fenxiang" and she came up to him and said, "what does it take to be baptized?" We taught her for the first time yesterday and she set a baptismal date!

3. I contacted a woman at a stoplight but didn't have time to get her info before the light changed. On the other side of the intersection, SHE stopped ME to give me her information and set up an appointment to meet. So cool!!

4. We're just meeting alot of people. I really believe that when we make a decision that we will contact everyone we see, he will trust us to place prepared people in our path so that we will contact them. I fully believe that. I believe that's the case with everything. When I get home I want to try it. If we make a decision to look for an opportunity to serve someone, bare our testimony, whatever everyday, the Lord will put someone in our path who needs it most because he'll trust that you'll do it.

5. We tracted a door of a girl that had wanted to join the church a while ago but hadn't due to family opposition. She set up an appointment with us!

Anyway, despite the miracles and good things that are happening, we've had some let downs too. It's been good though. We had such a good feeling when we prayed for 8 people to receive the gospel that we know that every let down is just a trial of our faith so it doesn't hurt quite as much. For instance, we lost our cell phone...this hurts our work quite a bit...but it's gotta be for a reason, right? And no, I wasn't the one who lost it. Haha. But we also had a really awesome investigator, Liao Ming Hua tell us that her life had changed since she met us so she was thinking of setting a baptismal date sometime--but then her daughter miscarried and she was so sad that she "lost desire and that feeling to continue" so she cancelled her lessons with us!! Ku!!! (cry). So SAD!!

Anyway, it's been a really good week and alot of fun. Haha, an investigator came to church yesterday, sat down, and held my hand!! She held it for at LEAST 3 minutes. It was so awkward!! I didn't know what to do! Haha. Very interesting.

Anyway, life is great! Elder Christofferson is coming this weekend! So excited!

Love you all!!
Coley

I am short, fat, proud of that...

...and looking for things to chew...like honey, milk and chocolate....

If you don't understand, you need to catch up on your Winnie the Pooh..

:) Well, this week has been great! We had a good Zone conference with the President on Tuesday and learned a lot about the power of the Book of Mormon and were challenged to share it on the street. It was really good. I'm still working on my sharing skills, but I got someone's phone number from sharing from the BoM so it's good. I just want to take this opportunity to say, that I really know the Book of Mormon is true. There really is nothing more amazing and powerful as that book. No other book or thing in the world does as much. It testifies that Joseph Smith was a prophet, Jesus is the Christ, God loves us. I know it's true!!

I didn't pace myself today again, so I have 2 minutes before time is out!! AH!!! So yeah, this week was good. Watch conference if you didn't get a chance to on LDS.org. SO good!! I loved Elder Hollands talk "don't serve them tea and crumpets and show them where the silverware is kept. you shouldn't be serving tea anyway. Throw the rascals out!" Haha.

I learned some good lessons this week and had some neat experiences with a "golden" investigator. It was a really good week. Thank you for your prayers. Love you all!! PS. I gave my physical address exactly a month ago and have gotten exactly ONE letter!! Write! :)

Love you all!!

Coley

Nimen Hao

Hi Family!

This week was good and crazy. We had my first baptism in Taiwan on Saturday. Her name is Lai Weiting. She's 21 and pregnant. I can't remember if I've already said anything about her...? She is really funny. She has the mentality of an 8 year old, so she's been really fun to teach. She talks about how "shuai" (handsome) the Elders are, especially the "pang pang" (chubby chubby) ones. Haha. Her baptism went well. She really loves the gospel and was so excited to be baptized. We're worried that since she's pregnant she'll have a hard time continuing to come to church and stuff. But the bishop and RS presidency sat her down on sunday and welcomed her into the ward and worked out rides to church and stuff. They don't want to lose her. She've very innocent and VERY pretty, so the ward is worried about her being taken advantage of (as she is pregnant, that may have already been the case). She's really sweet.
We're teaching ALOT of Young Women still. One of them is getting baptized this Saturday if her dad will let her. She's 17. Her name is Ilka. She is really shy and sweet and really smart. Really, we did very little teaching. She pretty much read the Book of Mormon on her own, so by the time we taught her something, she'd already read something in the BOM about it and knew the answer. She's amazing. She said that from reading the BoM she knew it was true. She really wants to get baptized and her Mom let her but she's afraid to ask her dad because she's afraid he'll say no.
We are also teaching an older woman and her 13 year old son. They live with the father, and her mother and siblings still. It's like they all got married and still live at home. They are a really good happy family. She's REALLY hard for me to understand. She speaks "Taiyu" and/or "Hakka" which are native dialects often and I'm totally lost. Her accent is impossible for me to understand. But she's really wonderful and they are always giving us fruit and making food without "mianfen" (flour) for me. We asked her how she felt about baptism and she said if she weren't married she'd accept it without a problem. But she's worried about family opposition. We found out her husband runs a porn DVD shop. Eeek. Law of Chastity ought to be an interesting lesson...

I LOVE the wards here. The Members are so good! The bishop Wu Zhujiao is so hardworking and fun. He collects stamps, so the other day I gave him some stamps from some letters I'd gotten and he practically started hyperventillating he was so excited. The Shao family went through the temple and were sealed on Saturday, and Wu Cai Jia received her Endowments as well. We weren't able to attend, but it's so exciting when members are so strong and make big commitments. I love it.

Haha, so the other day my companion got in a bike accident. She wasn't going very fast, so everyone was okay, but she was in a head-on collision with a scooter! She and the scooter man both ended up on the pavement. Scooter man's seat fell off his scooter and Sister Kunzler's front wheel was shaped like an 8. Her bike is totalled so she's using the bishop's wife's until she leaves next week.

Speaking of which, transfers are coming up! I'm petrified. Getting a new companion is a scary thing. They could be CRAZY! Or they could think I'M crazy! Either way, it'll be good. I am halfway scared of and halfway hoping for a native companion. It would be so hard but so good for practicing Chinese.

The language skills have been coming on and off. The other day I was having a bad with Chinese. I had 3+ people outright tell me my Chinese was bad. That's unusual for Chinese people...they usually say you're great even if you can only say Ni Hao. That was a kick to the pride. Then our guanli (apt building security guard) made fun of me and said I look like Donald Duck because I wear my bag around my waste and behind me. So every time he sees me he swings his hips and walks like Donald Duck. Grrrr...

Today was fun. We went to a garden on a mountain with a member. It was really pretty but a LONG drive. Ni Jiemei "qing-ed" us or treated us to lunch at a restaurant at the garden. I ordered a seafood hot pot which I thought would be a friendly little bowl of fish soup similar to something you'd get at McGraths or something. Everyone ELSE'S meal looked normal. But when I got my soup, it was in a HUGE bowl and as I stirred through it I found little bird eggs, entire shrimp, mini octopuses, 4 inch oysters and so much more that I had didn't recognize. I kept having to spit out shrimp antennae. Aside from the strangeness, it was good!

Hmmm...what else is happening here? We had interviews with the mission president...he told me to not stress out. Haha. Hmmm...I don't know. But things are good. I'm learning alot (despite even myself doubting that...) and it's been really good. It's been a test to the patience, but life is great.

Love you all!!! Miss you!

Coley

Ghosts, Gummy Soup, and the Gospel---oh my!

Hello!

Hi! I hope everyone is doing great and life is treating everyone well! Remember to pray always and read your scriptures!

So! Let's see, what has happened this week? This week has been not so great yet great at the same time. We taught alot of lessons (23) which was a huge blessing, but only found one new investigator and one investigator come to Church. :S Yeesh. It's been rough. It's been rough for the work and rough for me personally. Still trying to adjust and fight some homesickness and frustration with myself and the language. But things are better and will be even better. It's less lonely as I get to know the members (even if they don't understand me, at least there are beginning to be familiar faces). Things have been good in other areas though. We have one investigator that is sooo sweet and shy. She's 17 and despite her shyness has come to church 3 times and 2 of those times were completely alone. She reads and prays and stopped drinking tea and coffee and said she "feels good" since she stopped. She has a baptismal date, but she isn't positive if she'll be ready by then. But she's doing everything and is just amazing, so we have faith she'll be baptized. That ward NEEDS Young Women. They have ONE. So we're wanting to fill that area. The YW President is so awesome. She's getting sealed in a couple of weeks and we may be able to go. So exciting! The Shaos have only been members for a little over a year. She had an interesting story as well...it seems like Taiwan has ALOT of "Ghost" stories. Alot of people see or say they see ghosts and spirits. But I believe them. When you have a culture wrapped up in creepy voodoo (not literally voodoo...but just very spiritual and worshipping all sorts of dead things...) then you'll undoubtably see some weird dongxi. The YW President said her 4 year old daughter sees 5 ghosts on a regular basis. 2 Parents, 2 children, and "a king". They are creepy and watch them in their apartment. They got so creeped out by this that they prayed, fasted, gave everyone a blessing, etc. but nothing worked. She even turned to Buddhist "bai bai"-ing and incense junk to get rid of them, but that didn't work either. Then she had the Bishop come over and dedicate their home and LO! The ghosts are gone! Strange, huh??

We went a visited a Less Active Member in Hukou the other day. She's Indonesian and fed us Indonesian food. It was soooo good but so spicy! It's funny, I've found that Asian food cares very little about presentation and texture. The Indonesian food had intestine in it, but tasted great. There was also this saucy hard boiled egg stuff that looked like it was scraped out of the bottom of a dumpster, but tasted great. The crab she made looked like it had been rolled in a mire, but was crazy tastey. It's funny, they put gummy worms in their soup! We ate a sweet potato soup and there were little (less sweet) gummy worms in it. Haha, SO weird. I think I'm getting used to the food though. The first night I was here we ate "Dou Hua" which I thought was sick but now it's my favorite thing in the world!! SOOO good! So light and sweet. I've lost weight the past couple weeks. The first little bit I was here I ate alot of rice and peanut butter and grew an unsightly "Bundt cake" around my belly button, but it's now just a wee little donut. But one of our investigators told me I have "more of a duzi than my companion" and patted my stomache. Grr!! Haha.

We're SO excited for General Conference! I'm so jealous of all of you that already got to see it!! We watched Pres Monson's talk last night, but won't see the rest until this weekend. His opening talk was different than it normally is. I was surprised. We had a woman get up in testimony meeting yesterday hysterical and heated about how much of a blessing it is that we have living prophet who talks with God and people still skip or sleep through conference. I quite agree! She's a good woman.

Today is a holiday. It's "Sao Mu" or Tomb Sweeping Day. It's pretty much like Memorial Day, but they also "bai bai" or worship their dead while they are there. Isn't it so interesting that Sao Mu lands right around Easter? Hmmm...interesting. Wow, the Church is true. Some of their characters even have gospel connections! Like "yi" for the word "righteous" is the symbol of a Lamb over the symbol of Me. So like "lamb over me". There's also some sort of ancient tapestry they found in China that has Adam and Even and temple things on it. Interesting, eh?? I am positive that the Chinese had the gospel anciently. I have no doubt.

The other day we had a funny little event...I can never remember if I already told this in another email...but oh well. I ran over a plastic bag and it got caught in the gears. A guy ran over and helped me pick it out and cut his finger in the process. As that was happening, my companion's bike fell over and her papers full of vital info blew ALL over the road. So while I'm picking trash out of my gears, she's dodging traffic picking up a progress records. Geh. The wind here is SO strong.

Have I told anything about Phillipinos and their "indentured servitude"? It's soooo rough. A TON of Phillipinos come and work here in Taiwan as restaurant employees, field workers, nannies, factory workers, etc. They sign 3 year contracts and work from 8am to 8pm or more. Most of the time they don't get a single day off. They live either above the restaurants they work at, in dorms with other Phillipinos, etc. They send their money home and generally sign SEVERAL contracts. Some people have been working for 9 years. Can you imagine being single, alone, working 12+ hour days, having no day off, sending your money home, not being able to go to church (if you're a member, which quite a few are), and doing all that for YEARS?? And being in your 20s! I can't imagine it. One of our new members, Cecile, is the sweetest thing ever. She's working and doing all this to pay for her cousin to go to college. Wow, I'm a bad cousin, because I don't think I'd ever do that. Speaking of cousins, is Uncle David doing okay??

Well, gotta go. Today we're going to Xinzhu to eat sea food!

Love you all!
Coley

"Stressed out of my GOURD!"

Hey!!

My time short again today. Grrr...but I'll try to remember all that's happened recently! I might have to do it in bullet point presentation though. :S

--It's been a rough couple weeks. I think the culture shock has finally set in and my frustration with Chinese is mounting. I'm blessed that I can understand it really well, but speaking is the biggest headache and I sound like a 2 year old.

--I've been stressed out of my gourd, but so has my companion...so maybe it's SATAN and it means good things are on their way!

--Good things actually have been happening...Last week we had a member bring 10+ of her High school students to a BYU-H info meeting at the church then pull them aside and say, "hey, why not listen to the missionaries?" So we're meeting with 8 of those girls and they are SO cute!! One of them has a tentative baptismal date. The lessons with them have been good and full of the Spirit.

--We had an investigator (a NON progressing investigator, mind you) tell us out of the blue that she had a testimony and wanted to get baptized ASAP. CRAZY. We had a new member explain to us (and I fully believe) that the only way someone will ever have a desire to be baptized and to CHANGE is if they are in a valley of hard times. If they are feeling like they are on top of everything and are doing great without any change, why would they? Hence, WHY we have trials.

BLAST!! Time is up. :( Bah, Sorry. Thank you all for your emails and letters. I love reading them and they make me feel loved and warm inside. :)

Love you!
Poohy

"Good job, it stinks to be you"

Hey!!

FINE, FINE!! SORRY!! Haha, Yes, I completely space sending my address every time! But here it is:

4/F #24 Lane 183
Chin Hua Street
Da An District
Taiwan, Taibei, 106
TAIWAN

Hope to hear from you all soon. :D

Well, life is good in Taiwan. Full of lots of ups and downs. The ups being beautiful bike-rides, people who accept meeting with us, having a moment when my Chinese sounds good, having someone accept a pamphlet; the downs being overwhelmed with the language, lonely when everyone knows what's going on but me, and being occasionally petrified to talk to people on the street. But all these things are part of the process I suppose. I really enjoy it. We had zone conference last week which focused on having a "vision". Having a vision for ourselves, for our areas, for our missions, for our lives. When you have a vision, you have a drive, and goals that keep progressing. So we visited Wu Zhujiao (Bishop Wu) and asked him what his vision for the ward is. Satan is hitting families hard here too, from what he says. So his vision for the ward is for the members to "return to the basics" of the gospel and to let it strengthen their families, THEN for the spirit of the gospel to give them a passion for sharing the gospel. So we're going to visit the member families this transfer and strengthen them and look for referrals. It should be great! My companion is Sister Kunzler (Sister Scott was transfered to YongHe). She is on her last transfer so she has high goals and alot of drive to go out with a bang. And I'm fresh and clueless so we're ready to do big things. We just need to have faith and optimism and things will work out. Really, I'm clueless and frustrated often, but the Lord makes up for our weaknesses and we really do see miracles happening often. We got 13 referrals last week from sheer miracle, for instance. Our goal as a companionship is to baptize a family before she leaves.

Hmmm...anything happen this week? It rained cats and dogs (I explained that term to a fluent English speaker the other day and was so proud of the random knowledge I learned from Pioneer Village) for a few days. We showed up to church with soaking skirts and squishing shoes. I think people are used to missionaries looking like rats. They have this phrase: "oh, hen xinku" which pretty much means "oh, good job, it stinks to be you," in essence.

Thursday was alot of fun. It was the beginning of a new transfer and since I never got arrival training, I got to go to Taibei and have that training with Sister Collyer who just came from the MTC that day. Sister Collyer is the BEST! She reminds me alot of Brewy and Cousin Carolyn, so she is amazing and fun and really a GREAT missionary. We always joke and say we're related because once we went to the Provo temple and an old worker said, "oh, Dowdle, my ancestors were Dowdles in Cache valley." Then Sister Collyer talked to him and he said "Oh, Collyer, my ancestors were Collyers in Cache valley. They married the Dowdles." Haha. So we say we're related by marriage. Anyway, we had our training in Taibai, which was nice. The President is AWESOME! He's SO laid back. Not as laid back as President Laney, but pretty darn close. We are allowed to watch Disney movies on PDay! When we went to pick up Sis Collyer at the airport, we watched a Lakers game. The whole training was so laidback and nice. We got to buy some dictionaries. Oh yeah, and he took us to the dedication site of Taiwan where we all (president and sister Grimley, the Wrides who are a new Sr. Couple, the APs, Sis Collyer and I) bore our testimonies and had private prayers where we dedicated ourselves to the preaching of the gospel in Taiwan. It was cool. Then we saw the Grand Hotel which was AMAZING. It's HUGE and intricate and gorgeous. I will stay there before I die.

So I don't know...not alot of things different happen in a week, so I can't remember what I've already said about Taiwan. Hmmm...everything molds. My closet, food, etc. I had a cough drop MELT. Weird! We have to keep our scrap food garbage in the freezer. We have the biggest chapel in Taiwan. Hmmm...We went to the Temple and it was 2000 degrees in there. We email in a internet cafe full of smoke and the sound of machine guns. Teenagers stay here for HOURS and have their food delivered to their computers. Sick. I'm trying to walk flat-footed...tell that to Heather. We'll both have a goal of walking flat by the time I get home. No one can read my Chinese character. They stare at it forever before they figure it out.

Well, I love you all!
The Church is True!
Sister Poohface/ Dent Jiemei

Missionary work weddings!

It's P-day again! I'm trying to think of all that's happened in the past few days...

The members are amazing here. There was a wedding reception in the ward and the adorable bride and groom turned it into a missionary event. They had pass-along cards and pamphlets at their guest book table and their wedding video was being played to "I know that my redeemer lives". They had the Bishop speak about Eternal Families and the Relief Society sang Families can be Together Forever. It was so neat. There were so many non-members, it was awesome! I love the strong people here. We also had a cool experience with contacting. So, I don't speak Chinese...and this is a probably and causes me much frustration and sadness. But the other day we were contacting on scooters (ride up to a scooter when we're stopped at a light and give them a mini lesson and a pamphlet) and I couldn't say much. Alot of time I just said "I want to give you this. It was will help you find happiness in your life". But I decided to write our phone number on the back of all my pamphlets and we actually had a guy I talked to call us yesterday and he's going to meet with the Elders! Isn't that cool? It's another testimony that as long as we're doing what we should, the Lord will allow someone who is prepared to hear the gospel to be in the right place at the right time to meet the missionaries. Heavenly Father really loves us. And it's really incredible what your eyes are opened up to on a mission. This is one thing that is HUGE that I've seen that has really been a testimony builder. And that is, that those who are active, strong members, ARE happier and have better families and more stable lives. Those who fall into inactivity generally have alot of "mafan" or trials, annoyances, unhappiness, and more family strife. It's really amazing. It goes back to what I remember someone said in testimony meeting in a ward we attended in South Jordan: That people don't change, but the GOSPEL changes people. It really is 100% true.

So we're having some new training on having a "vision" for our mission/area/ourselves. If you have a vision about something, you will most likely make goals that will actually allow you to achieve your vision. My companion pointed out that we are in an area with a HUGE (the biggest in Taiwan) LDS chapel that is beautiful. But our wards don't fill half of the chapel. But that's okay, because the Church and the Lord have a vision for this area. Someday, that chapel will be full and the overflow doors will have to be opened to have room enough to receive all the members. Now the Church and God have this vision, so the missionaries and members now need it too to accomplish it. It makes me so excited to be here. Times are really hard sometimes...I get frustrated with my language abilities and get lonely not being able to speak with people. But I love it and feel so lucky to be in this area with these great people. The Chinese are really something special. I feel like "Gladys Aylward" on a much lesser level. Haha. You should all google and find the Dedicatory Prayer for China by David O McKay.

I always LOVE hearing from you all. I love hearing about your lives!

Love you all!

Coley

PICTURES from serving in SLC!

White board of Missionary Work!
Happily Tracting!

Woohoo!! Emailing family!

Townsend's Baptism!

I can't believe I'm a MISSIONARY!!! WEEEEEEEE!!!

FINALLY in Taiwan!!!

I'm in Taiwan and I love it!! Very little culture shock...it's just like coming home! It's almost exactly like China, except I get to share the gospel, which is a dream come true. In China I always wanted to tell the people about the church but couldn't and now I can! I love it...but my Chinese is horrid so they don't understand me. Alas. But the day will come! I don't have a whole ton of time, so I will just make a wee little list of the fun things about Taiwan.

1. I have 2 companions. Sister Scott and Kunzler. They are awesome. Sister Scott is African American and people apparently ask her often if she's Obama's daughter. Haha. Sister Kunzler is from South Carolina and Sister Scott is from Maryland.

2. I'm in a suburb of Xinzhu called Zhubei. It's HUGE!! My area in SL was about 15 blocks. This is several miles. We biked for 45 minutes to an investigator's house yesterday. I'll tell you. The best way to work off cellulite is biking for a million years. My rear hurts so bad but it looks awesome! haha. I breathe scooter exhaust all day, but meh, oh well. There are a bajillion scooters here.

3. I haven't seen Jay Chou yet, but don't worry, I will baptize him before I leave. :D

4. Little boys are adorable yet evil. They torture their mothers but they are so cute their Mom's can't stay mad at them.

5. My skin is always super clammy because of the humidity. I hate it. I feel so sticky. But I must have hair similar to Asians because I stopped using conditioner too and my hair is awesome. When I first got here I used conditioner and it looked like I rubbed my head in bacon.

6. Sleeping is misery. Remember nice, cozy, dry sheets? Well pretend that every night someone snuck in your room with a spray bottle and dampened your whole bed. It's SO uncomfortable. It makes my skin crawl.

7. I really could like in Taiwan forever. I hope that umm...whomever I marry wouldn't be opposed to living here. Haha. I love it so much. It brings back great memories and feelings of China and the people and atmosphere is so wonderful. I love it!

8. Biking in a skirt is an adventure. Sometimes you have no choice but to flash the world your undies. Some people have said, "oh, I know the Sister missionaries! They are the ones with the white biking shorts." Yeah...Anyway, I'm improving.

9. Oh! haha, I have to tell you about my first two contacting experiences. The first one my companion and I walked up to a man and introduced ourselves. I told him I'd just barely gotten to Taiwan and said "I'm nervous to speak Chinese." But the tones were off or something because it came out: "I'm Bible to speak Chinese." Then the next person I talked to, was a 15 year old boy on a scooter. I asked his name and he said, Zeng. I said, "Oh! Mr. Zeng" He said, "actually, it's Miss Zeng". I was mortified!! It was a girl with a boy haircut!! I was freaking out and apologizing but then she just said, "oh don't worry. I'm gay." Awkward!!

10. They make a drink out of everything. I gagged down asparagus juice the other night at a member's house. I was pretty good at staying composed but accidentally shuddered when the member looked my way.

11. Paddington Bear is all the rage here. Weird.

12. I've experienced the singing garbage trucks. When you hear a pleasant tune in the road below, instead of seeing chubby children with their pennies buying nice little ice cream cones, you see hoards of people running out with sacks of garbage.

13. Their are orange spots all over the road from people spitting "beetlenut", a narcotic wrapped in a red substance. Ew!.

14. It's fun to contact people at traffic lights.

15. Everything looks like it came from a Jay Chou music video. Go to Youtube and type "Terraced Field Jay chou" and that's what taiwan looks like.

Love you! TIme is up!!

COloey