Faith in God Who Works Miracles

It’s only been a few days since I emailed last, but so much happens every day. Every day

is filled from the moment I wake up to the moment I crash onto my bed at night. It is exhausting, but it gives me so much happiness! Being able to share what gives me joy with other people every day is so worth it! And we see so many miracles, big and small, every day!

Go read Mormon chapter 9. God truly is a God of miracles!

We had an amazing district council meeting this week. In this meeting we were given a paper that had a map, instructions to go to a 7-11 and buy popcorn, a time limit, and the challenge to take our bikes but that we couldn’t ride them. So we took off sprinting with the bikes to the Seven listed on the map, bought the popcorn, and brought it back to the church, in the course of 6 minutes with our 10 minute time limit. It was really funny. But our district leader had a great message behind it. This task was to represent our missions. We have a map, which is guidance from leaders, the Holy Ghost, and the Book of Mormon. We have a time limit of 18 months, which adds a sense of urgency to our work here. We have challenges and obstacles that come up in our way. We have the reward of popcorn, which represents the rewards of helping other people to have their own conversion experience. It is my job as a missionary to turn those stumbling blocks into stepping stones and help other people with a sense of urgency. I’m so excited that I get to do this every day!

We have been getting a lot closer to the members in our ward and spending more time with them. I have been asking them what their conversion stories are because most of them didn’t grow up as members [of the church]. They’re stories are so special! It makes me so happy! With one of the families, they invited us over for a family home evening with one of our progressing friends and her son as well. It was so good! The members of Taiwan truly are incredible people!

At English class we made an obstacle course/maze out of chairs and such. The first time they got to complete it with their eyes open. The second was with eyes closed. The third was with their eyes closed, but they got to have someone lead them. We talked about how we can’t always see how to navigate the challenges of life. However, we have prophets and the Holy Ghost who can give us guidance so that we can successfully make it through. It was awesome!

On Sunday, we attended Young Women’s [class during] the third hour, and I sat there stunned and amazed as I understood the entire lesson that was taught about conversion in Chinese. Sometimes I don’t even realize when we switch between English and Chinese, and it’s crazy!

Spiritual thought of the week: Ether 12 in the Book of Mormon is all about Faith. Now, I’ve always liked verse 12, which says: “For if there be no faith among the children of men God can do no miracle among them; wherefore, he showed not himself until after their faith.” However, if you take out all of the negative connotation words, it’s incredible: For if there be faith among the children of men God can do miracles among them; wherefore, he showed himself after their faith. All we have to do is have faith and God will work the miracles. He truly is a God of miracles, I know this to be true!

Funny things that happened this week:

1. It’s not funny but it was a blessing…after biking up numerous huge hills just to have a lesson cancel, we found a yummy yummy yummy restaurant that sold AMAZING waffles!! (nutella and banana)

2. There’s four gymnasts in my zone, including me. So for the Christmas talent show, they want us to make a video. So last P-day we got permission to go to a gym for two hours. It was so much fun! We played a game of trampoline add-on which turned into the elders and I seeing how many back tucks we could do in a row on the trampoline. And guess who won?! Granted I was the trampoline gymnast and they weren’t, but it was still really fun!

3. I biked for 45 minutes through my first downpour of rain. I told somebody last week that it didn’t rain in 新竹 and it was only windy…apparently I forgot to knock on wood. Anyways everyone wears these Yuyis and it looks super funny. Haha it was basically like biking through a swimming pool. Haha

4. So we have a friend we’re teaching. His English name is Adam. But every time we try and call and schedule he says okay, but I’ll have to go buy peanuts first. He then always gives us peanuts at lessons. So we thought he was just obsessed with peanuts. Turns out he sells peanuts for work. The words for ‘buy’ and ‘sell’ in Chinese are the same sound just different tones. Haha We had heard him wrong every single time. hahaha

5. We have found a scientific theory to test. It’s worked twice as of now. But every time we can’t open a jar, we start filming each other, and then the jar opens almost immediately. Haha So one day after 10 minutes of struggling, we started videoing and the lid immediately came off. Coincidence, I think not!

I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving this week!

I love you all so so so much!!!

安姐妹