Monday, May 18, 2015

Hello!

This might be my last email in Toufen! Transfers are this week and I might be moving.  We'll see. It's getting super hot here and our AC is still broken.  But it's a work in progress. We spent about 30 minutes yesterday cleaning all the nasty black dust off it with my old toothbrush.  It still sounds like a dying cat.    

Lai DX is getting ready to be baptised and it's really cool meeting with him. He has a friend that's taking the lessons with him and he pretty much teaches his friend everything we tell him. We're so excited to help him prepare to be baptised. It's also good to see how much he's grown and his testimony. When we first met with him he was super baibai and was stuck on the fact that he can't worship his ancestors. It was so bad that we decided not to go back. Fortunately enough he called us and we invited him to church and he CAME! He's been coming to church for about 4 weeks now and even has a long lost friend in our branch so it's instant friendshipping. He even came to stake conference! This past week we taught him the 10 commandments about not baibai stuff and he totally agreed with us and said he doesn't baibai anymore. What an amazing turn around. The Lord gives us miracles every day and it's amazing to see the power of the spirit working in him. It's really cute when he  prays because he opens up by, (translated)"Dear Heavenly Father. Hello, I am Lai Dixiong. ...." every prayer.  Super cute. 

Something I've been learning lately is the power of doing your best and being okay with what you can do.  A lot of times we focus on what we don't have and what we can't do and sometimes get down on ourself because of our weaknesses.  God gave us weaknesses for a reason.  We need to rely on him to overcome our weaknesses and challenges.  Remember, we won't reach perfection on earth.  It's a process. 

I don't know if any of you remember Fan DX.  He was super golden and we shangwan ke with him (we pretty much finished most of the lessons with him) and found out he lived in Zhunan.  He got baptised this last week! And we got to go!!! 

Other than that we had a really fun time taking apart bikes and DVD players in service. So much fun :) Last P day we went to our MM leader's house and did bubble bending :) It was pretty sweet. 

 

I had an awesome birthday surprise.  We were getting chinked at a huoguo and then they asked us to go to the church and they had a cake waiting there for me and sang happy birthday to me. It was awesome. :) I love the members here. All of them came up and sang happy birthday to me.

Well, that's all folks ;) 

Yu Jie Mei

Fan DX baptism

Bubble benders

Birthday cake for the birthday girl!

Taofen birthday.

Monday, May 11, 2015

Hello everyone!

 

This week was slow in the beginning but raced through the last couple days! I feel like since I'm half way done I'm racing to the finish line. I still have 8 months left, but the last month went by in the blink of an eye, so crazy!

 

This past week we went to zone meeting and the new vision is HUGE! I think because it's president Day's last two months he's really pushing us to get a baptism a month.  one in may and two in june.  We now have a lot of new rules like we have to go finding for at least 2 hours a day.  It's a little strict but me and my companion know that exact obedience brings miracles. so bring it on!

 

We met with Lai Dixiong this last week and his christian friends have all of a sudden started talking to him about how us missionaries are lying to him and are 30 years old and married and our boss is forcing us to come here and teach him...I'm like oh joy. I look 30.  but we hopefully got it cleared up.  The lesson was filled with the spirit as we taught him about the Plan of Salvation.  Our peike was amazing and really kept him on track.  It's amazing how when the spirit is there everything flows and I know EXACTLY what to tell them.  We are really focusing on him to get baptized in may because we feel like he can do it. 

We went to Liu Jie Mei's house to help her put the second coat of paint on her roof and I just went bare foot.  We decided to start and paint a little section of where we were going to go down so we wouldn't get stuck.  It didn't work.  I was painting in my area and I turn around and the Elder's had painted me in. so I was stuck.  so I got paint all over my feet...it's still there.  check the picture out! 

 

10 months!

Second coat of paint on the roof AND on me.

Rooftop fun.

Never judge a book by it's cover.  This guy named Eric kept calling us asking us if he could take us out to eat and so I just kept inviting him to church. well, he came to church...and stayed and wanted to meet with us afterward so we met and taught him the first lesson and he's been looking into religion and wants to know if ours is true and we invited him to baptism.  this week was full of miracles.  It was awesome! 

Oh yea. mosquito bites itch so much. there are these little devil mosquitos that are black and TINY and when they bite you you can't see the mosquito bite, you just want to tear your skin off because it itches so much. Our AC is still broken and our bathroom isn't fixed, but the work continues! 

love you all! stay good!

Yu Jie Mei

 

Found this really cool bridge

Cool bridge in the background.

 

 

Monday, May 4, 2015

Oh the joy of having no bathroom and no AC. It's quite fun. You should try it sometime :)

I found a really good definition for enduring this week. Endure: withstand with courage.  

I also read an amazing article in the Liahona this week called, "It isn't a Sin to be Weak." As a missionary I've lived the gospel more consistently than at any other time in my life. I've really gotten closer to my Savior and understood more of His infinite Atonement.  But I've never been more aware of my weaknesses.  But the thing that I've forgotten that I needed reminding of was that we all have weaknesses.  Christ had weaknesses.  The key is to not let these weaknesses turn into allowance for sin.  I've learned the importance of focusing on the good and trying my hardest to let Christ help me with things I'm struggling with.  He's literally there always. He can help us through anything.

Some highlights from the week is one of our progressing investigators, Lai Ming Jin, we were able to work with last Thursday.  It's really cool to work with him because even though he doesn't understand very much about Christ he has a real desire to learn about him.  He's slowly reading the Book of Mormon and gets a lot from it and has been attending church for two weeks.  Another cool thing is one of the branch presidency is one of his long time friends! It was really cool to see how the Lord works in mysterious ways.  We've also been working with a Li Xian Sheng.  He has really good questions about the Book of Mormon and about the Church.  We also had a really good lesson with Gan Jie Mei about the articles of faith and how we love her and want her to have the blessings of the gospel in this life.  We challenged her to pray about it. For reals.  

Something I've been thinking about this week is me.  Not in a selfish way, but if you want to do the Lord's work, you have to know how He made you so you can most effectively do his work.  Going to the Temple helped me find out a lot about myself.  I've been studying out my weaknesses and how I can make them strengths.  I have a lot of weaknesses and the Lord seems to be ever teaching me of things I can improve on.  sometimes I can really relate to Nephi when in 2 ne 4 he gets super frustrated because his spirit is willing but his body is too weak for it.  I feel like that a lot.  I sometimes feel like I'm not good enough to do His work and nobody's listening to me or why did I decide to go on a mission because I really don't understand His gospel.  But all those are coming from the devil and I need to learn to block them out if I want the Spirit with me to help me teach His gospel.  

Well, everyone. I love you! I know God answers prayers.  He sends us miracles everyday. We just have to open our eyes and see :)

Love you!

Yu Jie Mei

Progress on the bathroom?  Maybe.

Changkai Shek it was SO hot.

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Holy moly this week has been amazing! Seriously though, the Lord is amazing. This past week we've been kept busy and it's really helped me not to think of home or let my mind wander because we're so busy with everything.  We got two referrals from Zhubei and they were awesome super prepared people.  

 

Last P day we got to go to Lion's Head Mountain! It was pretty gorgeous and cool to see the Chinese culture. Taiwan religion is like a mixture of Buddhism and Daoism.  It's an interesting mix.  

Also, I had two dinners last Tuesday...wow it was a lot of food and they kept telling us to eat more.  I almost died.

 

We were qiaomening last week and at this one door a guy came to the door and we started talking about the Book of Mormon.  He told us to wait and then in English said, "Don't worry"...and came back a couple minutes later with an old Book of Mormon that he got 6 years ago from a friend.  He hasn't read a whole lot but he has some really good questions. 

 

When Sister Haacke and I went on exchanges with the STL's they taught this Lai XS and they pretty much had to leave because he kept asking over and over why he couldn't worship his ancestors.  He called us this week and wanted to know why we were so happy so we told him and invited him to church.  We kind of forgot about it until Sunday when he came and brought a FRIEND!!! He stayed for all three hours and answered every question right in gospel principles...and it was bout the WOW!!! Turns out one of the branch presidency is his friend.  The Lord works in mysterious ways.  

 

Well, I'll let everyone go...I got to go anyways! love you all!!!

Yu Jie Mei

 

Food from our awesome landlady

Elder Gong came as part of our training.

 

Monday, April 20, 2015

So 2 weeks down and we STILL don't have a bathroom...toilet...it's fun :) oh joy! 

Oh yea, next week I won't be emailing on Monday because our P-day is switched to Wednesday because we're going to the Temple :) YES!

This week felt like a month! It's been such a crazy week!! We went up to Taipei at the beginning of the week for Temple Tours. Basically when most of the sisters in the mission get together and have a conference...best thing ever.  They talk a lot about love and finding out who you are as a person so you can help others find themselves.  Relax and rejoice in your differences.  

The end of the week we went on exchanges and I finally got to go out of my area to xinzhu :) It was weird because I felt like I was in training again.  crazy crazy.  We found this guy with perfect English who knows about the Church and has 2 Books of Mormons.  He wanted to know more about the church and wanted to know Christ better.  awesome :) Something Sister Murri (the sister training leader) said she noticed about me was that no matter if we'd been talking to a person for 3 min or seconds when I talk to people she feels like I know them and we're best friends...if that makes sense.  She told me when I talk to people I'm very sincere and say what they need to hear.  It was such a blessing to hear that because I've felt like I've always struggled to connect with some people and teach to their needs.  It's good to know I actually can talk to people ;) 

So, big story of the week.  I don't know if anyone remembers Fan Zhu Song.  He was a self contact where he rode his motorcycle up to us and asked us where we were from...we gave him a BOM, and naturally started teaching him.  This was in the middle of last transfer.   He's from Taoyan, works in Taizhong, and goes to school in Zhunan.  When we first met with him we pulled out our map and asked where he lived. He said he had a sushe on campus and an apartment on minzu lu...well within our area. We didn't tell him our boundaries.  Well, this week we were talking to him and we asked him a question and he said, 'I don't have a house in Toufen' So we got the map out again and he showed us where he lived and it wasn't in our area. How does that happen I don't know so we told him he wasn't in our area and explained to him that zhunan elders could help him more than we could and were closer to him...he started crying. So, for those who don't know I get a little freaked out when grown men cry like that and I don't take it very well.  We didn't really realize how attached he was to us and Toufen members until he had to move.  Then yesterday he came to church and asked if we could meet with him during the week and read the Book of Mormon.  We had a lesson the time that he wanted and so we told him and told him the Zhunan Elders would be teaching him from now on.  So for the last hour of church he cried and said goodbye to everyone.  The Zhunan Elders were meeting with him that night and they said we should probably come.  The Zhunan elders were great and really helped him understand why they were going to teach him.  They told him it wasn't goodbye forever and he could still visit Toufen members.  Elder Huang explained it as we were all one big family....it was sad to see him go, but we will get permission to go to his baptism.  

We had around 80 people at church yesterday, which is a lot a lot of people especially in our little chapel.

This week has been challenging, but still full of miracles.  God knows us and loves us.  He cares for each and every one of us and leads His missionaries to the prepared.  Missions change lives, and mine is the biggest life my mission has changed.  I'm my biggest convert.  

love you all! peace out!

Sister Yu Jie Mei

1. beautiful Taiwan! It's starting to get hot

2. we went and got ice cream and among other sorts of yummy fruit...we found this abomination... in the ice cream...what?! (if you can't tell..it's a tomato)

 

Riding through beautiful Taiwan

Tomatoes on ice cream?!?!?

 

Monday, April 13, 2015

So...lets start of the week with some crazy adventures shall we?

So, hopefully everyone knows about the crack in the bathtub...if not, check other emails.  Anyway, this week they came to fix it :)...the bad news? They're not done...so now we don't have a toilet or bathtub.  It was super gross when they first took it out because there was a whole bunch of water underneath that wasn't still at all because of all the bugs-wormy things underneath...gross, not to mention the moth covered walls. Oh yea, this is going to be fun! Our Landlord showed us this secret hallway that connects our apartment to the one downstairs which nobody uses so the landlord uses to store stuff.  So we've been using that for showering and such. So one day we decide to go down there before we leave for the day to use the bathroom and then just got out that way so we of course lock the door behind us.  Well, when we come home our door won't open...yea. so apparently my companion deadlocks the door every night and forgot to unlock it this morning...and it just so happens that the landlord doesn't have a key to the other door...so I spent about 30 minutes on a chair with my head and arms in this tiny window above the door with a broom whacking at the deadbolt until it finally came undone...yea, we were a little late for DPS that night.  

Something I learned from personal study this month is about Christ.  I finished Luke and was studying about when He suffered in the Garden. Something I thought about was when he asked the Father if it were possible if He would find another way.  Christ is our perfect example.  He knew cognitively (side note, I think that's the most gaoji word I've used in a while) what He had to do but couldn't imagine what it actually felt like.  Even our perfect Savior couldn't help but cry out and ask if there was another way.  In life we all face challenges and hardships and it's okay to ask if there's another way, if we really have to go through it.  But, just like the Savior, we have to be willing to accept the will of the Father because He know what's best.  But God won't let us do things alone.  If we cry out to Him, He will send us angels to comfort and strengthen us.  

General Conference was A-mazing!!! 

Something really cool that happened during the spiritual share of the English party. So we'd been trying during the meeting to get the #BecauseHeLives movie onto the big screen but it wasn't working and so we decided to just have everyone pull out their phones and split up into groups and have everyone watch it that way. It was super cool and amazing to see everyone in their little groups watching it. As soon as the first one started the spirit instantly filled the room. After some were done they started watching the others that popped up such as #BecauseofHim. It was a really sweet experience with the initiative. 

Well, that's about it for this week! Love you all! Jia You!

Yu Jie Mei

check out the pics :)

No more bathroom.

Our toilet is out in the street?

Trying to unlock the door.

Monday, April 6, 2015

Well, another week down and out...wow that flew by.  We went to Taipei this week twice (1.5 hrs both ways). One was for trainee follow up meeting and the other was for exchanges.  So much fun! In the follow-up meeting they talked a lot about Remembering Christ.  Anytime we have a hard time or feel burdened, we need to remember we are walking shoulder to shoulder with the greatest life that ever lived. we are here to represent! 

 

We just came from a hot pot buffet so that's why I'm a little late today.  I tried shark skin and chicken butt...and this lotus flower...yum! Just the lotus flower though, not the others...they're too slimy and fatty.  Not recommended. 

 

Guess what? We got two baptismal date investigators from #becauseHeLives initiative! I love miracles.  It was from exchanges with the Temple Sisters.  I was with Sister Su in Toufen and I learned so much from her about being bold and talking to everyone.  I learned that you can teach everyone about the same message (Jesus Christ, Book of Mormon, Baptism) and able to adapt it to the people you're talking to.  Also, I learned a simple and easy way of teaching the Law of Chastity so it's spirit filled and not awkward.  Now the new investigators.  We were qiaomening and we saw a girl walk by and said hello.  She had her phone out so I asked if we could share a video with her...she agreed and we shared it with her.  She really liked it. She's seen missionaries before and they shared prayer with her so we said a prayer and talked about Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon and invited her to baptism.  She is really busy buy was willing to set up a hesitant date.  The next day we found a tongxue about the same age as the one the night before and we shared the video with him and he thought it was cool.  We also shared the Book of Mormon with him and invited him to be baptized.  The power on invitations is amazing. I gained a greater conviction of the power of boldly inviting and the importance of talking to everyone.

  

I was reading in Luke this morning in chapter 19 and I can really relate to Christ in 42 when He laments about Jerusalem and how blind they are.  There are a lot of people that brush us off and don't want anything to do with us. I wish they could just see us for who we are, but then the point would be lost.  Everyone has their agency and as representatives of Jesus Christ we have to suffer a little bit of what he went through.  But there are still miracles that happen every day that carry me through.  This is such an amazing work and I am amazed by the greatness of God.  How Great Thou Art! 

PS: when it gets hot..eat ice cream! especially when your AC breaks and you don't have a fan ;)

 

Yu Jie Mei

 

 

Ice cream on a hot day.

Ice cream with my companion Sis. Haake

Eating funny fruit

It's actually called pipa fruit.