Week 53 - Move Calls!

My new area is awesome!

My new companion is Sister Hancock. She is the Sister that I went on sister exchanges with last move call. I AM SO LUCKY. I think that President knew that I was having a hard time and so he blessed me with the coolest companion ever. She is incredible and totally down to earth. She is 25, spunky, really pretty and was a cooperate accountant in her previous life. The middle of my mission was the hard part and the next 6 months are going to fly by and be the best ever.

So let me tell you about my area. I moved to Beiqu. You can drive the whole thing in 25 min. It is kinda like a little fish bowl. It is in the heart of Taichung. TONS of people everywhere all ready to get baptized and hear the good news of the gospel. They have FANTASTIC shopping and lots of fun places to go and eat. Umm what else? Oh I live in the same building as the office couple 5^th floor, and the zone leaders 7th floor. The assistants and President and Sister Bishop, the office elders and the zone leaders are all in my zone. Fun huh! We see people all the stinken time!!! It’s great. It’s like a constant party. I am loving life. My favorite Taiwanese companion has served here before and so she gave me a couple people to go take care of. Fun huh. She is great. We are also doing some huge genealogy project for Taiwan. We get to Skype and use Photoshop and do other cool stuff with Taipei. I will tell you more about it next week. I will also send a cute picture of my companion. :)

Umm the last week in Tanzi was really cool. I got to say goodbye to a lot of people and a lot of members took us out to eat. They were sad to see me leave, and I was feeling really loved on Sunday when everyone was showering me with gifts and kisses and hugs. I also feel like a can leave that area in the hands of Sister Miller. Mom I remember when I first got there and there was like NOTHING? Now its something, and I am grateful that I could see and help it grow.

Hmm what else can I tell you? I think that is about it for right now. I am happier than I have been in a long time and am really excited for this fresh new start.

I love you all and I hope you have a great week. :)

Love Sis Lee.

Week 52 - I love You!

Hi everyone,

This week was fun. We covered both areas, and we were super busy. We got to meet the Fengyuan members, recent converts and investigators. They are all really great. We actually got to meet with a referral that we sent the Fengyuan sisters. ha Her name is Chen Mei Hong. She is an older lady who works a lot and is super peppy. She ran out of gas on the way to her meeting with us. Luckily she was just up the street so we went and saved her. We walked her scooter to the church and waited with her until her friend came and gave her some more. ha It was funny. Anyways, after she added more gas we walked into the building and had a great lesson with her. We showed her around the church and the spirit was great. After our mini tour we sat down and taught her a simple lesson about the power of prayer. We invited her to keep meeting with us and she agreed that she would meet with us until she understood our message enough to be baptized. It was really great. We are meeting with her again next week. I am really excited to keep teaching her. She went out of that lesson a different person. It’s amazing what the influence of the spirit can do.

On Saturday we had a hike with the ward and it was so beautiful!! We had a couple of less actives and recent converts come and it was a blast. President let us leave early, and we woke up at 5 am to start hiking by 7. My camera broke and so I wasn’t able to take any pictures. :( I’m still trying to get that figured out. But anyways we talked about the Brother of Jared and how God answered his prayers. At the beginning of the hike we all took a rock, and by the end of the hike we traded it for a beautiful stone. It was really fun. Something I never will forget.

Today we went to Taichung for a Zone Activity. It was really really good to see everyone. The Elders in my Zone are really great, and a couple of them are my good friends. We stopped by the mission office and President was there. He pulled me and my companion into his office separately to tell us the same thing that I am leaving, that she is staying and that Fengyuan will be white-washed. Crazy huh...

I sure love you guys. I know that this gospel is true. It’s changed my life, and my mission has helped me so much more appreciative of the blessings of the atonement. Be a good neighbor. Be a good friend. Share your testimony. People need what we have, and the Lord wants us to share it.

I love you all so much. Thanks for all your love and prayers!!

Love Sis Lee

Week 51

What a big week!! Holy cow... let me tell you a little bit about mine. I think I told you last week but Sister Tan was put in our companionship for a threesome for week because of mini move call and her companion got moved. It was really fun being able to serve with her. I learned a ton. She is a great missionary, and a great teacher. We also rode the train to one of their secondary areas and got to ride a tandem bike. Sounds like a blast huh! Well it was... anyways....

Ok I wasn’t really in my area all week because we were in Fengyuan with Sister Tan , but it’s a blessing because for right now we are taking care of the area until we get new sisters here. We won’t have new Sister for the next couple of weeks so we will see how it goes.

AH!! :) I got your Valentines Day package right on time. I was so grateful!!! I have the best mom in the whole WORLD. I shared the Chocolate with my companion, and she was happy. Thanks for making everyone write me a little note. It was so perfect and so needed.

Umm other random things that I want to tell you. Sister Hancock came to my area for sister exchanges and it was a blast. She is so cool.

Ok I think that is everything for right now.

OH...

I talked to President about my endorsement. He says he needs my NetID number and he can go on and fill it out for me. Cool huh. I will give it to him next week, and he will do it on his computer right there and then.

I love you!! I will wirte you more next week about everything that happens and that will happen. My emails arent very spiritual anymore and I am sorry. ha

3 Nephi 5:18 That is how I feel... Love you..

Have a great week. Sorry to hear bout the house..

Love You

Love Sister Lee

Week 50

It was a good week...

Miracle #1. We started teaching a family! The mom is from China and married a to Taiwanese man. They are a referral form the neighboring ward. Her older Sister is a member, and introduced them to us. Lin Family has two adorable kids who are so well behaved! We met them on Monday, and had a great lesson. We brought one of our members with us and they hit it right off! It was a great lesson and I was so grateful it all worked out. We are meeting with them again this week. Mom has been praying and reading. They are so great.

Miracle #2. We increased English attendance by 300%!! We had 11 people come last week instead of the usual 1. I was so happy, and felt so blessed that we had so many members willing to come and support us. Thanks to our wonderful members our adorable Lin family came, and they had a great time. We gave them English names and played the "animal game".

Miracles number three. Friday we had planned to go and visit some members so we could finish an assignment the Bishop gave us, buy instead we decided to go contacting so we could meet more investigators. As we were parking our bike next to this intersection a Pilipino mans come towards me and says: "Hello Sister! I am a Mormon." His name is Omar and he introduced his fiancé Recee to me. They are working here in Taiwan and have plans to the Philippines return at the end of the year and get married in the Temple. He didn’t know where the church was here in Tanzi and was really grateful to bump into us. His wife isn’t a member yet, and so we are excited we can start teaching her. They are great, and were troopers at church. We were so happy to have them come.

It really was a good week. We visited a ton of members again this week and got to know our ward better. The Bishop loves us now and is so grateful for how well we have been getting the ward involved in missionary work. I love being a missionary. It’s hard work, and sometimes discouraging but so so worth it. It’s like being at school each day. ha You learn tons about your self, and the Lord and his love for us.

Thanks for your prayers and support. I know that I wouldn’t be safe everyday or my companion wouldn’t be as happy as she is without your prayers.

Love you like a lot.

Love Sis Lee

Week 49 - XinNian Kuaile!

Jan 30

Hello Everyone!

I hope you all had a fantastic Chinese New Years just like I did... ;)

My companion and I got fed by the members for one straight week! Lunch and Dinner Monday through Sunday.... It was so awesome. I am so happy, and I enjoyed every single bit. I am also so in love with Chinese food. More then my companion is. ha

All of our investigators went out of town, which was a bummer. They all have stopped progressing really, and I feel like we are starting all over again. ha Because we didn't have a lot of lessons this week we did tons and tons of stuff with and for the ward. It makes me feel like a missionary in the States and I love that feeling. :)

Probably my favorite part of this week was preparing a present for the ward. The Bishop has this great plan for the ward and we typed it up and put it on a cool cut out for everyone. We laminated it the Bishopric passed it out on Sunday. The Bishop was so happy and pleased with our surprise. I know its a little silly thing, but I feel like it made a big difference and it really showed the Bishop that we love and support our ward.

Another fun thing that happened this week was that President and Sister Bishop came to church this week! They spoke in Sacrament meeting about missionary work, and I actually got the opportunity to translate for Sister Bishop. It was cool. It also helped me realize that my Chinese has room for improvement. ha They shared a great message about the spirit of missionary work, and it was fun having them there for the block of church.

Ok well that is all I have to say. I feel like all the fun and silly things have been sucked out of my life, and have been replaced with daydreams of missionary stuff. ha Sorry I am so boring! I will keep of funny things or cool things about Taiwan and tell all you all next week.

I love you!!! Thanks for writing me and keeping me in your prayers. You guys are literally working miracles over here.

Love you!

Sister Lee

Week 48 - This was not a relaxing Pday... It was better. :)

Picking Strawberries

Jan 23

Hi Family!!

I just had a great time today. We went to a BBQ and chit-chatted with some people in the ward, we also went strawberry picking and took pictures in a flower sea. It was so much fun. I love my ward. They are so good to us! We don't have very much time to email today because we played too much today so its going to be choppy and short, but I still hope that you guys get the jist of my week. :)

The ward has us scheduled for dinner and lunch everyday this week. I am so excited. EVerything is closed during Guonian=Chinese New Years.

I found out a couple things about Chinese New Year: If you drop your Chopsticks it means that people are going to ask you out to eat. ha Their New Years Eve they make fish to eat but the don’t eat it all because fish is a sign of good luck and foturne and so they leave some of the fish uneaten to bring wealth and good fortune in the coming year.

Everyone give and gets Hongbaos - Red envelopes of money. We made our Missionary Hongbaos. We put fake cash inside and put a scripture on the back. It was really fun. I feel like this week is way way more exciting then Christmas. Ha

Ok I will tell you guys more about it next week, when I find out more and I have more time.

I feel like it has been a long time since I told you guys about how missionary work is going. I am sorry. It’s going good. It’s going really good. The Elders and Sisters of Tanzi have committed to really putting our heart and soul into the ward so we can have good relations. This week that included: Putting together a service program for the Young Men, going over to Ward Members houses and getting to know them, preparing spiritual messages and hongbaos, have a lot of members help us teach and going out and doing missionary work with them.

Anyways, I will tell you about Zhou Xing Ting next week. She is hilarious, and she wants me to be her daughter-in-law.

Being a missionary is really special. It’s totally different then you think it is, and so better in other ways you couldn’t even imagine. I have been a roller coaster mess this week, but things are starting to smooth out. It’s all apart of growing into that person the Lord wants you to be I guess.

I sure love you guys! Happy Chinese New Year! When I get home we can celebrate it next year ok?

Have a great week!!

Love Sister Lee

Week 47 My So what a week!

Eating Birthday Gyoza!

Birthday Presents!

1-16-12

So here is the deal... The mission gives us an hour and a half to email our family. I usually take 45 min to 2 hours because our family is so big. . We were already doing totally fine, but we raised the standard and so now I don’t have as much time to email. I just wanted to tell you so you can tell everyone and if my email sounds lame-o it’s because I don’t have any time. No worries! We can just write a lot of letters. I would love to get letters! :)

Birthday!! Yay!! It was a good day. My companion gave me a left over Christmas card and some candy, and wasn’t in a bad mood which made me really happy. She even said we could go eat whatever I wanted. haha The Fengyuan Sisters were adorable and oh so good to me. They sang me happy birthday in the morning with the guitar and hit me awake with a pillow fight as my companion was in the shower. They made me breakfast, and put love notes on my bike. When I came home later that night I got home before them, and they came in singing happy birthday with treats and a little cake. :) Because of move calls I sadly didn’t get any letters or packages. They are holding them until everyone moves. It’s ok. I called the office, and it definitely came on time, I just didn’t get it. :) Oh President and Sister Bishop also called and sang me happy birthday. I really had a great day. It was kinda cool because the country election was on Saturday I had my own fireworks show. Definitely a birthday to remember.

This move call I am staying with my companion, in my area. It’s going to be hard, but I can do it. Our wards focus is missionary work for this year. They really want to increase ward attendance as well as baptize more people. It’s an incredible ward. I am so lucky. I can’t wait. My companion and I had a good talk last night about our relationship, and if we want success we need to work on being friends.

I’m doing good. I’m happy. Happier today then I was last week. I am growing and I can feel it. I am being stretched and it’s so uncomfortable, but when things are good between my companion and I, I can feel that Heavenly Father is proud of us that we are making it work. I love my mission and I’m grateful to be here.

That’s everything for now.

Love you all,

Sister Lee