Hello!
Mosiah 42:13-14 reads:
13 And it came to pass that the voice of the Lord came to them in their afflictions, saying: Lift up your heads and be of good comfort, for I know of the covenant which ye have made unto me; and I will covenant with my people and deliver them out of bondage.
14 And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions.
I shared this scripture pretty much every day this week. In visits with members, in contacts on the street, and every experience was pretty memorable.
We have a member here from Cambodia. She has lived here for almost 20 years, and it was in Taiwan that she first met missionaries. In the past year, she has taken on the responsibility of caring for her two teenage sons by herself. She feels lonely a lot, she feels she has let her boys down, and at a time when she was wanting to give up, we had the impression to visit her house. We were able to share this scripture and tell her that she can pick her head up because she is a good mother and the Lord is on her side in helping her raise her kids.
We have another member who is here from the Philippines. She moved to Taiwan about 5 years ago and has been baptized for about 2. When we stopped by her house to visit, we found out that she left 4 kids behind in the Philippines in order to earn money so she can support them. This woman has not had an easy life, but being the one to be able to tell her that God still loved her and was aware of her was an incredible opportunity. The goodness of God is always immediately available to comfort us and to guide us in our times of trial.
We also spent a lot of time singing and playing violin and piano in order to bring the Spirit into our member visits. There is some special kind of feeling that comes when singing about the love of our Savior, Joseph Smith’s first prayer, or being a child of God. There is power in bearing your testimony. It only strengthens your own. Every time I bear testimony of truth, it reconfirms what I know to be true. If you feel like your testimony is struggling, I encourage you to share it with somebody else.
Funny things that happened this week:
1. I went to go to the bathroom and grab some toilet paper, and as I was pulling on the toilet paper roll, a gecko thingy just dropped to the floor and then ran across my feet to run away. It scared the living crap out of me.
2. We were biking down the street when we stopped to contact someone we were walking next to. She leans over to me, drapes her arm over my shoulder and goes, “I drank alcohol, I need to go home” haha keep in mind, it is only 5pm. She’ll be ready for the gospel a different day.
3. I got switched finally from teaching the kids English class to teaching intermediate adults. We were talking about foods, and some guy blurts out, “I don’t like hot food, but I like hot girls” haha we all had a good laugh, at least those of us that understood.
This week we spent a lot of time in different meetings up in Hualien, so there is not much to report on, and right now we are watching the sunrise, so that’s all from me this week.
Talk to y’all next week.
安姐妹
I love you all so so so much!!!
Sister Kara Andersen 