Week 32 - Whata week :)

Oct 3, 2011

Hi Hi Hi family...

We went to an amusement park today. SOO much fun! The weather was kinda cloudy today and so there were only 5 other people at the park. We got to ride every ride as many times as we wanted, and we definitely took full advantage of that. The bumper cars man let us bump into each other for an hour and a half. I am so sore….so worth it though.

We had a good week. Every week is a good week really. We had Zone Conference, which was a spiritual pump up. We talked about the importance of covenants, and it made me grateful for my own convents I had made, and made me super excited to help my investigators prepare to make the covenants of baptism.

So we are still having a really fun time trying to find investigators. I know that there are prepared people everywhere, but the trick is that they don’t even know it. We talk to a ton of people everyday, and we set up lots of apts. People just don’t show up all the time, but that’s the life of a missionary. :)

We decided to start going places where no other missionaries have gone. Our thought process was that maybe more people would be more receptive to our message because they have never seen us... The places include the mountains, and little tiny roads that are inconveniently out of the way. We have been seeing success though, and so our strategy is working!! ha We got chased my a three legged dog, had a lesson with an Amah who thought I looked like Joseph Smith, and met a couple of really cute families, along with cute girls our age. It’s also been good because we have gotten to know our area better.

We have one cute investigator who is a nurse. She is so spunky, and her family is so Buddhist. We met with her right after Zone Conference and so we were pumped. We were really frank with her about reading, praying, and our purpose and it was such a great lesson. She agreed to read, and pray. Due to her crazy schedule we only get to see her once a week, but we have been following up with her, and she is doing great. (Her name is Yi Chang)

Our other great investigator didn’t come to church yesterday. I was about to cry/strangle her. She promised. We ran over to her house 10 min before sacrament meeting started and she didn’t answer her phone when the security guard called her. He wouldn’t let us go upstairs and pound down her door. She promised that she was going to come. She loved church last week!! I don’t know what happened? We were sad, and because she doesn’t have a house or cell phone we haven’t been able to get a hold of her. I’ll keep you posted.

All right, well I am super glad everyone had a wonderful conference weekend. Our goal this week is to get all our investigators to at least one session of general conference. I am SO excited I can hardly wait... :) Ok. Well I love being a missionary, and I wouldn’t rather be doing anything else right now. This message changes people and it’s changing me. I am learning so much everyday. What it means to be bold, and loving. What it means to sacrifice, what it means to listen and to find and teach by the spirit. What it means to study the scriptures, and how rewarding it is when you reach your goals.

Study conference. Read it on line. Eat it up. It’s the best thing in the world right now. Literally.

I love you all so much. Can’t wait to talk to you next week.

xoxo

Love, Sis Lee

Week 31 - Bats, Heart Attacks and Fat Cats!

Bowling on P-day!

Sept 26, 2011

I just copied the subject line from my companion. She is way more creative than I am. ha

I shall explain: Bats: We have them everywhere.... She is terrified of them, and she sometimes wont bike behind me because there are bats in the road. haha So funny.

Heart attacks: This week we went and visited a ton of less actives in our ward. It was good because we got to know our area a lot better, and find their houses so next time we are by there house we can go visit them. At each door we left three little hearts in a cute little cluster on their front door so they would feel loved. We haven’t been able to get a hold of any of them, so we don’t know if they saw them. But it was really fun, and who doesn’t feel loved when they come home to a heart surprise on their door from the sister missionaries. :)

Ok speaking of less actives, and heart attacks... Last night we went to go visit a recent convert we have never met before. Her mom answered the door and we talked to her for a second. She wasn’t home so we were about to leave, and I asked her if I could give her a hug. She laughed and smiled and totally was not into it. She told me she didn’t want a hug, and that Taiwanese people aren’t used to that. So I backed off and was like ok no biggie. Well for some reason she lingered and kept asking us questions about our church and the gospel. I love it when people ask questions. :) Anyways we ended up teaching her and saying a prayer. It was really cool. Well we were getting ready to leave a second time and I again asked her again if I could give her a hug. She said no again with a big smile on her face, so I started to head toward her with my arms stuck out and she started to back up and kept smiling and shaking her head, so I just chased her down the street and gave her a big hug that she didn’t really want. I’m pretty sure I gave her a heart attack. haha

Fat Cats: We went bowling as a district today, and it was a lot of fun. Sister Riby destroyed. 131. I got 48. haha It was great fun, and we took a lot of classic pictures. Oh and the best part is that its seriously seconds away from our house. We totally gotta go again.

Anyways this week was good! We have three investigators! Three more than last week. Yahoo! We are excited. One was a former referral form the Elders. She’s twenty, cute, works, willing to get baptized, and her family doesn’t even oppose. I am so grateful for previous diligent missionaries that planted seeds so I could have a chance to teach our new friend.

Liu JM is also another former from years and years and years ago. She still has an old translation of the Book of Mormon in Chinese. Sister Riby found her on the road. She doesn’t have a home phone, but that’s ok. She keeps her word, and every time she said she would be at the church, she was. She is kinda in a rough patch in life, and so is willing to change. Boy I am grateful for solid members because she had a lot of questions we wouldn’t have been able to answer unless Lin Jm was there. We are excited to teach her how the Atonement can better work in her life.

Our third investigator is a cute little nurse. She came to church all by her self a couple of weeks ago, and she loved it. She’s really busy and we don’t even see her during the week, but we have been teaching her over the phone, and she’s been keeping her commitments. She’s really great.

All week we have been outside coming up with crazy ways we can come up with new investigators and have started noticing when the better times and places we need to be so we can increase our chances of getting people to set up with us.

You would think it would have been a long terrible week, but it was great! We got to know our area, our members, the map, and things not to do, and places not to go. We have a fantastic District Leader and another companionship of sisters that have been nothing but encouraging. :) I’m learning lots, and my companion and I are growing together.

Ok so another highlight from this week was Sister Tan's birthday. All three of my roommate’s birthdays are in the month of October/September. Fun huh! Thank goodness I have an AMAZING mom who has taught me that birthdays are a big deal, and that making them be a big deal is important. She was so spoiled and we had a blast! We get to celebrate two more times before the move-call is over.

I can’t believe that General conference is this weekend! I am so excited, and so jealous!! We won’t get to watch it for another couple weeks, but I am also stoked. Everyone to remember to prayerfully think of a question you wants to get answered. It will and you deserve that revelation from your Father in Heaven.

When we were meeting with Lin JM our member was so great at bearing really good testimony about how individual this gospel is. We can never forget that. It’s about our salvation, our choices, our happiness, our dedication to the Lord, our willingness to keep the commandments, and our personal relationship with him. How grateful I am for that personal relationship. It’s grown a lot stronger on my mission. :)

I love you guys!! I hope everyone has a great week!! xoxo

Love Sister Lee

Week 30 - Week of Mini Miracles and Seed Planting

Us loving the Mac & Cheese her grandma sent.

My legs...my poor legs! I have 62 Bites!

Me and my Companion

My Roommates

Sept 19, 2011

Hi Hi Hi Everyone!

It was a great week. The weather was beautiful and the Lord really blessed us... Because we don’t have any investigators we had a lot of time to go meet the ward, and so it was really great getting to know them better and find out where their houses were. We met the whole Bishopric and the whole Relief Society Presidency, as well and the Stake President and the Old Mormon families in the ward. I am so grateful we have such a great ward!! I’m so spoiled to be here. Once we get investigators I know that we will be so loved and well taken care of.

Here is the week in a nutshell.

Monday: We went to go meet the Bishop and his family! We were worried about getting a little lost and so we actually got to his house early, and so we decided to go tracting nearby. We noticed a lady on a scooter randomly in the road and so we headed over her way. We just started talking to her, and when we were bearing simple testimony that God knows her and loves her and knows her situation and she just started balling! Sister Riby and I were taken a back and just kept testifying. We prayed with her, and asked her if she could give us her information so we could tell her more about how we can strengthen our relationship with God and she refused. She has our phone number and church address and so maybe someday she will call or at least remember the night she met the sister missionaries and so the next time she meets the missionary she is prepared. It was so cool. The spirit was so strong, and we both new that it was all God timing that we bummed into that night. We made it to the Bishops house on time, and had a great lesson with his family. He gave us a lot of names we of people in the ward we can go visit. So cool!

Tuesday: Had a wonderfully inspiring DTM about becoming a Preach my Gospel missionary. I am so grateful for leaders that lift, bless, encourage, and inspire. That night we met with Sally! She is our only investigator right now, and she is a former. She speaks English and its so weird teaching and talking to people in English about the gospel. I would so much rather do it in Chinese. ha She is great! She loves Jesus, and we set up a time with her to meet later on in the week.

Wednesday: We went to go visit the Primary President and her cute little boy asked his mom why missionaries were so ugly. It was so classic, and so funny. Kids don’t lie. :)

Thursday passed off Phase 1!! Yahoo! That means that I get to start studying characters. We met with Sally again, and it was a little discouraging. We has an awesome lesson about the Restoration, and she totally believes that Joseph Smith was prophet and the Book of Mormon is the word of God, and that this is Christ’s church, but she thinks that all churches are Christ’s' church. It’s so hard when you don’t know how to help your investigators.

Friday: Met with the Relief Society President. Had a great meeting with her, and she helped us get to know a lot about the ward, and the families in the ward. She is so great. We had a mini miracle happen and we met with an investigator that came to church by her self last week and called to set up with us. She is our age and a nurse. She is super and busy, but really sincere and the cutest thing ever. Mana from the Heavens I tell you. We were so excited.

Saturday: The Elders had a baptism and so we invited Sally to come. She LOVED it, and totally understood the symbolism and totally felt the spirit. When we explained that we are baptized the way Jesus was baptized she was eating it up and we were all pumped because we knew she was going to accept our baptismal invitation. We asked her to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized and she politely declined. She has already been baptized, and once was good enough. It was such a let down and discouraging, but that is missionary work. You live and you learn. You fall down and you get back up.

Sunday: Was a hard day. Sorta a bust. Church was good, but Sally came to church, and then left? One of the members told us.. We found out that because she came during the sacrament and so because she couldn’t go in, she just left. Sad, but there is always next week. After Ward Correlation we left to go to our apts and everyone either canceled, rescheduled or stood us up. We came home for dinner totally discouraged. Before we left the house again we had no plans, but we said a big prayer that we would be led on where to go, and what to do. We decided to go tracting. We both agreed on a spot, parked our bikes and started tracting. The first house we knocked on let us in. We taught their family, asked them to be baptized and we are going back to see them on Tuesday. It was such a miracle. I was so so humbled and thankful that we had such a prepared family fall into our laps. The power of the Holy Ghost is real and he loves his missionaries. The Lord is so good to us. We had a lot of success that night. One other lesson with an investigator that we are visiting later that week, and 6 other people we have apts with. We were so so grateful.

Ok. Ya that was my week in a nutshell. I love you all! Talk to you next week.

xoxo

Love Sis Lee

Week 29 - I like where I live now! :)

The chicken sandwich that brought us together!

Getting ready for the baptism.


Saying good bye to the Zhou Family.

My English class friends.

Having fun with my Comp! :)

Sister Tan and Sister Rigby's convert that Sister Bryce and I got to meet.

Sep 12, 2011

Hi family,

I moved! :)

It was Wednesday night and Sister Liu got the call from President to be trainer. I secretly knew it was coming.... :) I am now in the most northern part of my mission. Tanzi. Its great. I think it still counts as a small city, but its a really big city compared to where I just came from. I am living in another 4 man apartment. Its fun as usual. :) My companions name is Sister Rigby and she is from Utah. She is like an in the closet cowgirl, and she’s absolutely beautiful. She loves to laugh and is so easy to get along with. I just love her. (I love all of my companions.)

Because of the special circumstances, I left my area on Friday morning and started move call a couple days early. The other companionship living with us is Sister Tan, and Sister Bryce. Sister Tan is training Sister Bryce. :) One of the members from the Tanzi ward took us out to lunch today, and it was SO much fun. All you can eat Taiwanese buffet. It was so great. The whole mission knows that Tanzi Ward has the most amazing members. I am so blessed to be here.

So yeah... There you go. That’s my new status. I’m up north, I live with 4 girls, and I have the best ward in the whole mission. I like it up here. Don’t get me wrong. I miss my companion, and my area, and my investigators. I went to say goodbye to the Shi Family and I cried a lot. I made them pinky promise me that I would see them next year at the Temple. Oh. Speaking of Temple. I get to go this move call because I am up North. I’m excited. :)

I was SO blessed before leaving Daliao and we has Sandy’s baptism. That was the only day her grandparents could come, and it just so worked out that was the last night in my area. We didn’t have any kid baptism close so she wore a big persons suit, and she looked so cute all swallowed up in it. She was really afraid to get in the water, and started crying before we got into the water. (She has never been swimming before) Sister Liu and I said a prayer with her and a couple of members that were trying to comfort her. After the prayer she wiped off her tears and climbed into the font. She was so brave and did it! She was still a little shaky getting out of the water, but we were so proud of her for still doing it without a big fuss even though she was terrified of the water. The Lord listens to every prayer big or small. It’s powerful.

Afterwards she bore the cutest testimony. She said how grateful she was to everyone who supported and comforted her before getting baptized, and that she knows heavenly father loves her because he comforted her before her baptism and made her feel so warm and happy after her baptism. She started crying and got all emotional. Her grandma was there on the front lines to see everything, and it was just a really special moment I hope they both remember forever. I will miss her, but we will be forever friends.

So I love my new area, but the only thing about it, is that we have zero investigators. None. Nada. Zip. I’m slightly feeling somewhat of a lot of pressure to find people to teach and to hit our goals for the month. My companion was only here for 2 weeks before I was, and so we are practically are white washing the area. Its sorta kinda nuts, and I’m nervous, but I know we are going to see miracles in this area. The ward is incredible, and Sister Rigby is great. We have a lot of faith, and mighty prayers to match. I don’t know what to do or where to start really, but I know it’s going to be ok. I know that I am not doing this alone, and that the Lord knows better than both my and I. He knows what this area needs, and where we need to be so we can find those people are ready to receive us.

Ok... I’m I still funny? Do my emails still sound like my self? Can you still see my talking to you through this computer screen? I sure hope so. It would be terribly boring to read my emails every week if it didn’t feel like me.... I’m ok right? Ok. Good. I’m fine. I feel better. :)

I pray for you like all the time. (Its true cause I really pray all the time. I’m a missionary) I love you my dear little family. Talk to you soon.

Love Sis Lee

Week 28 - My Week

Nina...my atheist friend.

Cold Stone on P-day

Pink: Me, Green: Sister Liu

Sept 5, 2011

Every week Dad writes me what happens each day, and I love it. So that is what I am going to do for you guys this week.

Monday: Wrote you, rode my bike in a typhoon, and played with the sisters in my zone and taught my cute little Sandy. This is my favorite thing that she told us on Monday night. Us: “Sandy why do you want to get baptized?" Sandy: “Because when I prayed about it, it felt good, and I felt warm, and I know Jesus loves me."

Tuesday: Was district training meeting! So much fun. Its great seeing all my friends, and getting excited about each others success. Elder Huang gave a great lesson on the importance of asking questions. Asking questions gives us a chance to let the spirit teach. We did a practice where we could only teach the principle of Repentance asking questions. It was really cool because "the investigator" teaches themself and it allows the spirit to guide the lesson. It was a totally inspired topic, because as we used what we learned this week Sister Liu and I found our lessons were lots more effective. We have amazing leaders in my mission. DTM is always such a great part of my week.

Wednesday: Got a package from Mom!! Such a great way to end my day. I shared my airheads with my Sister Liu, and we both had fun eating American candy. The day was packed with little small miracles. Every single former and less active person we called that day was willing to set up an appointment. We were thrilled. Sandy had her baptismal interview and passed. :) We are so excited for her.

Thursday: There is an old lady that sits in a wheelchair in front of her house everyday, and watches traffic go by. Because she lives on the same road the church is on we see her every single day and wave. :) She loves seeing us, and we love seeing her. One of our morning apts didn't show up, and so we decided to go say hi. She has three kids that are all grown up and live in Taipei. She is 86 years old, and has the most beautiful smile. It was really great getting to know her. We prayed with her before we left, and invited her to church. I am grateful that we had time to go and see her. She’s great. Last week we met a great couple on the road. We invited them to church, but they weren’t able to make it. We invited the wife to a relief society activity instead. She came and brought the whole family, and we were thrilled. On Thursday we went to go visit the family and it was so great seeing them. They live in a part of our area we had never been to before and so it was fun taking a long summer bike ride out to their house. Nothing beats teaching families.

Friday: Nins my atheist friend went off to college and so the last time we saw her was Friday for lunch. She is great. She is getting baptized....just not yet. :) The sisters in the district next to us baptized a family of 4 girls two weeks ago, and we found out that they actually lived in our ward boundaries. So Friday night we met with the Yuansan sisters and our great new recent convert family. It was a miracle that we found their house. Totally 100% a tender mercy. We were just riding around and bumped into it. We beat the other sisters to the house, and got to meet the family before they got there. The mom has such great faith. It’s amazing how quickly you can fall in love with strangers.

Saturday: We ate lunch with Sis Zhang. She is one of our great eternal investigators. We ate at some place off the side of the road that was out of control good. I ate Pig colon, pig foot, and pig liver. I was really proud of myself.

Sunday: Sundays are the most rewarding day of the week I think. You work so hard with your investigators and members all week, and work hard to help them come to church. When they come to church you are SO excited because they get to take the sacrament and get super blessed. Sunday is like taking a big breath of air, and just spiritually relaxing and letting every part of you just enjoy sitting in church and helping your investigators just soak in the goodness! We met with the Shi family, and talked to them about their temple goal. I just love them. :)

Monday: Sister Liu and I went to Cold Stone! On the way we bought awesome matching watches and cute new skirts for 50quai?! So cheap. So great. ha It was really fun, and relaxing. Later tonight we have plans to get stuff ready for Sandy’s baptism on Wednesday and meet with the Ward Coordinator to figure it all out. We are also going to go visit her and have a lesson on Enduring Conversion.

I love being a missionary. So many tender mercies happen each day. Its so great meeting new friends and helping others follow Christ and seeing how they get to grow and realize how this gospel can bless their life. I love you all soo much. I pray for you, did you know? Until next week… :)

Love Sis Lee

Week 27

Yummy!

All the Sisters in her Zone.

Nice!

Stinky Tofu...it tastes as bad as it smells.

The track where she runs. (picture taken from her window)

Well I love my whole Famdamly... So much fun hearing from you guys. Everyone is so healthy, and doing so good! I am really grateful that the Lord is taking such good care of you guys. I am so lucky to be able to not worry about "things back home". Thanks for your love and support. I hope you liked my pictures! :)

I experienced my first Typhoon today. Sooo much fun! Loved every second. :)

Anyways...

I am doing way good. I love my companion, and she inspires me to be better everyday. We work hard and play hard. Our favorite thing is chocolate and singing while we ride our bikes. I can’t get enough of her.

Good week, good week! Everyday we pass a cute couple that sells chicken sandwiches. They are delicious and we will buy some from them at least once a week. We have been inviting them to church and to English class for a while now, and this Wednesday their daughter finally came! We were so excited. She is so cute. Her name is "Abby" and she is 17. She said her parent’s sandwich truck has been opened for 17 years. Anyways she met with us and we had a great meeting, she has great questions about the restoration, and she was curious about if we were scared about the end of the world. It was cool being able to tell her how because we have the restored gospel, and through Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon we know that Christ will come again, and those who follow him won’t be scared.

We have been meeting with this cute little girl named "Sandy". (9 years old, so well behaved, and so smart.) I met her at Abby’s parents chicken sandwich truck actually. :) She was getting sandwiches with her Grandma on Wednesday and so I invited her to English. She came and loved it, we invited her to church that Sunday, and she came and loved it. Remember the day we went on our beautiful mountain bike ride? It was because we were actually trying to find her house. We have been meeting with her and she has been praying and reading everyday. Because she is so little, we were worried that she was just doing what we told her to do because she likes us, and she wasn’t really gaining her own testimony. When we asked her why she reads the Book of Mormon and prays she answered: It’s because I know God loves me. She has such pure faith, and it’s inspiring. Meeting with her reminds me of the scripture in 3 Nephi 11:38 "And again I say unto you, ye must repent, and be baptized in my name, and become as a little child, or ye can not in nowise inherit the kingdom of God. :) Her Grandma is so great to her. We are so grateful that Grandma is willing to bring her to English and to church. (She lives with Grandma because her parents got divorced when she was really young and her mom up and left, as well as her dad.) Well On Wednesday night after English the Elders had a baptism and she was able to go. She really liked it, and is excited for her own baptism. Sister Liu and I love her. She is so full of life, and so willing to be a good girl and follow Jesus.

I love my mission because of the people I meet and fall in love with. :)

I love you guys so much! I pray for you everyday. Did you know that?

Love Sis Lee

Week 26

Sister Guo's Baptism
Sister Liu

Sister Museus and Friends!

She made her bike ugly.

Her church building.

Sister Liu is the best. We have so much fun together.

Last P-day we waited for Sister Museus family to come and pick her up. They never showed up. haha So we got to go back to the Hotel on Tuesday and meet up with them. It was so weird seeing her see her family for the first time in a year and a half. They took us out to lunch after words and we got to meet her family, and tell them about what it is like being a missionary in Taiwan. It was really fun. :)

Because Sister Museus has been so excited to go home all last move call, I felt like I had one foot in America, and one foot in Taiwan. Now I am totally submerged in the culture and language and I love it.

Yesterday I had a moment where I felt like I was in a movie. We had went to go visit one of our investigators and drop off her Book of Mormon, her house is somewhere we had never been before and we had asked a friendly neighbor if the road we were on would take us to our next apt. He said it would, but we would be going up a mountain. We decided to take a chance, and go check it out. Sure enough, it was a full on mountain, and it was SOO beautiful! There were rolling hills, and beautiful trees, and the sun was setting! I was squealing because I was loving it so much. We passed a really cool christian graveyard, and pineapple fields! It was both our first time seeing a pineapple field, so we pulled over and just soaked in the moment. There was a point where we were riding next to each other singing, "I love to see the temple" Sister Liu in Chinese and Me in English. It was just a small moment, but it was a really strong testimony to me of how worthwhile our message is. Two different girls from different sides of the world, with a special bond, because we both share the same testimony. Our foundation in Christ is what wakes us up in the morning and determines what happens to us that day. The truth of the gospel is that real, and that powerful, that we were willing to make choices in our life that lead us up to that moment singing on our bikes, about how we want to have a forever family. I know it sounds really cheesy, and it kinda was, but it was really cool and I will never forget it. :) Our friendly neighbor was right, the mountain path did eventually lead into our next apts neighbor hood. Yesterday was the best day ever.

This week we went to go eat bing, and on the wall were about a hundred phone numbers. We got 2 referrals and one new investigators from the first number that we called off the wall. It was a good lunch. ha We told the Elders about it at English that night, and after class we heard them discussing that they were going to get bing later on that day. ha funny funny. :)

CDTM was on Thursday, and it was great seeing President and Sister Bishop. The topic was on mighty prayer, and what miracles can be produced form praying with a sincere and humble heart. It was really great, and just what I needed.

I love you all so much. Thanks for writing me, and telling me about life and what’s going on. I love hearing about it. You are the best. I have the best family in the world thanks for supporting me in my decision to serve a mission. It is the most important thing I could be doing right now. I love every second of it. :) This message changes lives, and I get to see that first hand everyday. This church is not how I live but why I live.

:)

Love you all,

Sis Lee