Week 16: FIRST BAPTISM/Goodbye Xinzhu, Hello ZHONGLI (November 20, 2016)

My dear friends and family,

THIS WAS THE CRAZIEST WEEK OF MY ENTIRE LIFE. You think you know where I am right now? NOPE. Both Sister Cullen and I got transferred to a new area this week and life is nutso. But let me start at the beginning. hah 

This week contained some of the happiest moments of my entire mission. Namely, sweet Serena Xu GOT BAPTIZED. AH my heart. We met Serena my second week on island, and had the special privilege of meeting, teaching, and baptizing her in just a short month! She was so prepared, and so ready to accept the gospel in her life. Over the past month, I have seen the gospel change her. She was already so faithful, but I have seen the gospel shape her life to be much happier, more successful, and more full of love. She has grown so much, and truly become like a sister to Sister Cullen and me. WE LOVE HER! She bore the most sincere and beautiful testimony at her baptism this week on how the gospel has changed her. She said that as she learned about and lived the principles of the gospel, she has learned what her purpose is and how to gain a perspective through trials. Um, OK do some members even know that? hah We all go through trials, but she has learned to fully rely on the Lord and has received so much strength from Him and answers to her prayers. I know that this gospel changes people for the better, and am so grateful I could learn from Serena's example and get to know this amazing girl! 

Next comes the craziness. This past week was the end of my first transfer here in Taiwan, and with this came some changes. On Wednesday morning Sister Cullen and I got a call from our mission president saying, "Sisters you are on fire. Time to take that fire to a new area! You BOTH are moving to Zhongli!" We were SO shocked! I am in the middle of training, was only in Xinzhu for 6 weeks, and BOTH of us are being transferred?! Plus the President called us himself, so it was all super crazy! This is mainly happening because of a recent change in mission rules. Right before I got here, the Asia Area 70 changed the rule that Sisters could only teach sisters, and Elders could only teach boys. With this, President needed to get some more sisters all over to teach the women. Zhongli hasn't had sisters there in a very long time, and there were so many women that simply couldn't be taught because of it, or sisters from way far away areas were having to come here to teach them. So Sister Cullen and I gladly accepted that call and packed up and moved to beautiful Zhongli! It is only about 30min train ride north from our last area, but our new area is huge! We cover two different ward boundaries and both of these are huge! hah Pray for our legs right now. But we have a beautiful new apartment, AC (our last apt did not have any), and so many new wonderful people to meet! 

In preparation to leave Xinzhu this week, Sister Cullen and I made our rounds of goodbyes with so many people that we have grown to love so much. Members that have become like family to us, investigators that have become our best friends, and our sweet brand new convert Serena. It was hard to say goodbye, but it is the Lord's plan! Our cute members and friends threw us a little "going away party" and gave us cute gifts and cards and so much love! Though so tough to leave, we have already been so welcomed into Zhongli! Our district is so nice and are helping us get all situated here! We've also only gotten lost once, so I count that as a blessing! We also have a great zone! We had stake conference yesterday, so we were able to see all of the missionaries in our zone! I was so happy to see some familiar faces from the MTC, from the choir, and from my past zone! Mainly so pumped because Elder Holderness from my MTC district is in my zone! So many tender mercies. We had the chance to meet some awesome members yesterday, and they were all so good to us! They all expressed their excitement to have sisters in Zhongli again, and are anxious to work with us! We know we are going to see some amazing miracles here!! 

In my studies this past week, I have been reading about the 2000 stripling warriors. I loved studying their experiences, and about the kind of boys they were. What stood out to me particularly was in Alma 56 when Helaman calls them to fight. He says "Therefore what say ye, my sons, will you go against them to battle?" They all took great courage and said to Helaman, "Father, behold our God is with us, and he will not suffer that we should fall; then let us go forth." They answered the call of their father and went forth with faith. As I was reading this, I thought of my own call. I have been called by my father to go to battle for Him, to fight against Satan and save His children. As I thought about this, I applied Helaman's invitation to a personal invitation from the Lord. "Therefore what say ye my daughter, will you against them to battle?" And my resounding cry "Father, behold, YOU are with me, and I know you will not suffer that I should fall: LET ME GO FORTH." 

In Chinese, the word for mission is chuandao, which translates to "go forth." I have literally taken this promise to the Lord and gone forth to fight. We truly all have. As members of Christ's church, we represent Him. We are on His team and are enlisted in His army to bring the world His truth. "We have been saved for these latter days, to build the kingdom in righteous ways. Daily we'll learn for NOW we are called, to take the gospel to all the world." Whether we are in Taiwan or Canada or Europe or Africa or America, the Lord WILL be with us. He will not leave our side, and He will not suffer that we should fall. I know, that as we take Helaman's invitation in our own lives, to go to battle for our Father and bring about His righteous purposes, that He will, like the army of Helaman, deliver us and preserve us and give us success. Let us all go forth and bring the world His truth!

The Lord is so good and the work is amazing! I love you all and hope you all have a wonderful week! 

Also HAPPY BIRTHDAY HERMANA HEALY. Everyone send her some birthday love:)

xoxo

Sister Richards

李姐妹

Lǐ Jiéměi

Sister Micah Richards

Taiwan Taipei Mission

4/F, #24, Lane 183

Jin Hua Street

Taipei, Taiwan 106

1- our last english class with our favorites:(

2/3- sweet girl got baptized:)

4- Sister Cullen and my goodbye party

Week 15: Christ is the Center (November 13, 2016)

Hello dear friends and family!

It was another wonderful week out here in the land of Asia. I am literally in Asia right now! haha crazy man! This week absolutely flew by, and we truly saw so many miracles! We met some awesome people, and saw some great progression with our investigators! Our biggest miracle is with our dear sweet friend Serena. This is our investigator who brought her dog to church a couple weeks back. ha! She is the best. This past week, we got her all set up to be baptized this Wednesday! She had her interview on Saturday and PASSED! So, 11/16 is about to be the best day of our lives:) Serena is so incredible, and is so ready for baptism. Yesterday, was fast Sunday for us here because we had stake conference the week before, and she got up and bore her testimony!! She bore the most beautiful simple testimony of the Savior and of her knowledge that God lives and answers her prayers. She shared some experiences of Heavenly Father answering her prayers and helping her through her trials. She was so confident up there, you wouldn't have ever known she was an investigator! I loved her stories she shared of feeling comforted by the Lord, of Him easing her pain from an illness, and helping her mom (who is also an investigator in another city and will be baptized the following week!!) This gospel is truly one of change and of new beginnings. I have already seen so many people become transformed through this message, including myself. As I come to more deeply understand the gospel and come to know and emulate my Savior, I am changed and bettered everyday. What a blessing the gospel is in my life. Serena is a great example to me of being faithful and truly relying on the Lord! 

This week I had lots of fun things from hearing country music in a 7/11 (BIGGEST BLESSING. TIM MCGRAW FOREVER), hitting day 100 as a missionary, running into a lady with a pet raccoon, and receiving my new name tag:) I am an official Taiwan missionary now:) One of my favorite things of this week was going on exchanges with Sister Bain! 

Once every transfer, each missionary goes on exchanges with the leader over them, so for us sisters, it is our Sister Training Leader. We spend a day with them and go to their area, teach their investigators, and do all that fun stuff! The point of it is to be trained and to learn from these great missionaries! I learned a ton from sweet sista bain, but my biggest take away was this: Keep Christ at the center of everything you do. In every contact, every lesson, every testimony, everything should come back to Christ. He truly is the center of our message and the center of our Heavenly Father's plan for us! It is His gospel that we are preaching and Him that we are representing (whether we are full time missionaries or not). Sometimes when meeting people on the street, we are tempted to just talk to them about one specific gospel principle and leave it at that. Yes this is important, but every time it needs to come back to Christ. We are talking to people with the goal of bringing them unto CHRIST. Helping them start to develop faith in Him and His gospel and a desire to follow Him. 

With this in mind, I've thought a lot about keeping Christ at the center of our lives, and how important it is to do so. This week in personal study, I studied some of the war chapters in Alma. I studied all about Moroni and the Nephites, and their battle against the Lamanites and all of the craziness that that entailed. While studying, I came across this well known verse about Moroni. In Alma 48:17, it says "Yes, verily, verily I say unto you, if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men." This is a pretty crazy statement. If we were all like Moroni, Satan himself would have no power over us. We would be too righteous for him to conquer us.

Reading this made me think a little bit about the why behind it all. Why was Moroni so awesome? What made him so strong that the devil had no power over him? As I studied, I realized that it is because Moroni always remembered his Savior. He kept his eye single to Christ, and because of it was able to do incredible things. He was faithful, diligent, and humble, and the Lord delivered him and his people time and time again. 

How can we become more like Moroni? How can we become so strong that Satan won't even be able to touch us because we are too righteous? Keep Christ at the center of everything you do. We are all followers of Christ, and I know that as we keep Christ at the center of our lives, we will not only be delivered from our afflictions, but will about to work mighty miracles just like Moroni. That is a promise we see time and time again throughout the Book of Mormon. And God doesn't lie! 

I invite you all to think about how you can apply this principle in your life this week. How can you better follow your Savior? How can you better remember him everyday? What do you need to change/give up in order to keep Christ at the center? I love in John when the Savior asks "Do you love me more than these?" I think we all have our own personal "these". Maybe we need to be better about reading our scriptures or praying everyday. Maybe we think we are too busy with work or school or are just "too tired" to do these simple things. When we do these things or have these thoughts, we can imagine our Savior asking us, "Do you love me more than sleep?" Or "are you willing to show your love for and faith in me by giving up a little sleep to serve me? To keep my commandments?" Think about this this week, and I would love to hear how you all are coming closer to your Savior!

I want you all to know that I know Jesus is the Christ. He is our Savior and Redeemer, and through him we can become the sons and daughters God knows we can and wants us to become. I know that He loves each of us and is constantly cheering us on. I know that he atoned and died for us to save us and also to be able to succor us. To strengthen us in our afflictions and allow us to lean on Him for support. Rely on Him. Use the atonement to strengthen you and allow you to become more like Christ. 

The work is moving forward here in Taiwan, and all throughout the world, and how lucky are we all to be apart of it! Look for ways to share this sweet message! Love you all and have a wonderful week!! 

xoxo

Sister Richards

李姐妹

Lǐ Jiéměi

Sister Micah Richards

Taiwan Taipei Mission

4/F, #24, Lane 183

Jin Hua Street

Taipei, Taiwan 106

1- Serena is literally the cutest ever

2- church with Serena and our ward mission leader

3- just the sweet biking life:)

4- exchanges:) with Sister Bain

5- like WHAT. please care that this is a pet raccoon

6- new name tag official:) 

7- beautiful Taiwan

8- Taiwan Costco lol

Week 14: THE LORD IS SO GOOD (November 7, 2016)

Well people I think this has just about been the best week yet! We saw so many miracles and really the Lord is just so good. 

We started our week in beautiful Taibei to attend a choir practice for this Christmas performance thing happening in December! Coming up for the practice also meant we had some time to explore around the city, so we were not complaining. We got to go to Shang Kai Sheik Memorial, and see some other super beautiful buildings and places in the heart of Taibei! These were the places you think of when you think "Asia." Super super cool.

Things are starting to cool down around here, and it is making us a little scared for winter. I am currently serving in Xinzhu (pronounced Sheen Jew), and they don't call it "the windy city" for nothing. hah We had some fun biking experiences this week with skirts flying and us pedaling as hard as we can and not even moving because of the wind and all that fun stuff. Leg day everyday people.

As I said before, we saw so many miracles this week. We were able to find a lot of new potentials this week, get many new investigators, and commit many of them to a baptismal date! The Lord really provides. We are working hard over here, and He is really blessing us. Some of the most exciting things that happened this week are with Xu ("shoe") Jiemei, Chen Jiemei and Henry, and Ruby.

We met Xu Jiemei about a month ago as a referral from her mom who was investigating the church in a surrounding city. We started meeting with her and knew she was golden from the start. Long story short, she is on track to get baptized NEXT WEEK and we are so so excited! Even cooler, her mom is getting baptized the week after! She is so so awesome and seriously our bestie!

Chen Jiemei and Henry- Sister Cullen and I met these two while street contacting the other day. Chen JM is a single mom, and has 5 year old son Henry. Let me just tell you a little about Henry. He is this huge 5 year old that literally looks like a baby Buddah, and is SO smart. The first time we met them, we invited them to come to our English class at the church, and he says, "Before I say yes, I need to know something. Does your church have a parking lot?.... How many slots?..." hahah THE FIVE YEAR OLD ASKED US THIS. hah It was so funny. They did end up coming to English class, and because of that, we were able to set up a time to meet and we actually met with them yesterday! They have a pretty tough life without having a father, but they are so prepared to hear and accept the gospel. Henry calls us his sisters, and Chen JM has invited us to come to her house every Sunday for dinner because she knows we won't buy food on Sunday. They are the sweetest! 

And the last is Ruby Chen. Ruby was another referral sent to us by some missionaries that met her in another area. She is so awesome and is on track to get baptized at the beginning of December! The miracle with her this week came when she decided to bring her boyfriend with her to a meeting with us. We didn't know he was coming, but within 30 minutes of talking with him, he committed to a baptismal date, and was just telling us how he needs to tell everyone this message! "People need to know how to be happy and how to get salvation!" I'm telling you people, Xinzhu is a blessed place full of SO many prepared people. It takes some work to find them, but the Lord will not disappoint. 

We meet so many amazing people here everyday from 15 year old students, to grandpa's with "dancing queen" as their ringtone. Everyone deserves a chance to hear the gospel, and you just never know where you will find them. 

This week, I've been thinking a lot about this particular line. "Choose to be happy." In our lives, we all face many trials and challenges, but we can choose how we react or respond to these things. Like Elder Nelson said in conference, we can choose whether to have joy or sorrow. Sometimes things are tough. They really are. But we choose how we want to feel. "Oh, it's pouring rain today and 70mph winds? GOOD. I'm going to get such a good workout and won't have to worry about sweating today!" "Oh, our investigator stood us up? Great. Now we can go and find more!" There are plenty of bad and hard things in the world already, let's not let there be any more! Let your attitude be one of joy, of gratitude, and love, and always remember God's plan for you. It is one of progression and growth, and this comes with being pushed and refined. 

I know that God is so mindful of us. I feel it every single day here. I know that He has a perfect plan for each of us, and as we trust Him, keep His commandments, and endure to the end, we will receive all that He has promised us! I want you all to know that the gospel changes lives. I see it happening here every day with these beautiful Taiwanese people, and I see it with myself. I am being shaped and refined everyday. It is not always comfortable, it is not always easy. But everyday I am grateful for a Heavenly Father that loves me enough to chip away my rough edges, and help me become who He knows I can become. I challenge each of you to have this perspective. To have an eternal perspective, and remember that God loves you all so much. Choose to be happy. Choose to find joy in afflictions. Choose our Savior.

Have such a wonderful week! Love you all!

xoxo

Sister Richards

李姐妹

Lǐ Jiéměi

Sister Micah Richards

Taiwan Taipei Mission

4/F, #24, Lane 183

Jin Hua Street

Taipei, Taiwan 106

1- city hall

2- selfies

3- beautiful buildings part 1

4- taiwan man

5-  shang kai sheik

6- view from top

7/8- selfies

9-heart attacking la's 

10-

11-pumpkin pie from costco with the ward mission leader

12- serena and li's first date- jk he was a member present at our lesson (peike) and he totally likes her hahah

ruby

13- random girls that wanted to take pics with us because we are white haha

14-scarlet (LA) and ice cream

15- english class 

16- the slipper life

17/18- the BEST mochi

19- my homie when someone was cooking something real stinky in the church hahah

Week 13: No Dogs Allowed (October 30, 2016)

Ni hao wonderful friends and family!

Wow this week was THE BEST. We started our week by going to the beautiful Taipei temple, and so we started on a great foot. The temple was so so beautiful and it is so special to me that we can feel the same spirit in the temple no matter where we are in the world. We are so lucky to have a temple here in this mission! Unfortunately, we don't get to go all that often (once every two transfers), but the fact that we get to go at all is good enough for me! It's kind of crazy to go from going to the temple often before my mission, to every week in the MTC, to now only once every couple of months... People TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE TEMPLE. It is so amazing. We spent our last week's P-day up in Taipei, and got to go shopping, have waffles at our mission President's home, and run into some old friends! While at the Jergensen's, I got to see sweet Sister Bernhardt (MTC Comp) as well as Elder Holderness (MTC District)! So fun to see some familiar faces and to catch up with people I love so dearly! Your MTC district really does become your family. 

As I said, this week was the bomb! We saw so many miracles, and had so many funny things happen too. From popping a tire on my bike, to Sister Cullen losing her shoe in the middle of the road, to eating who knows what every day. Good things are happenin and we are always smiling over here! I think what really took the cake though was yesterday's sacrament meeting. We FINALLY had our investigators come to church this week--which we were obviously stoked about. But the trouble came because 1- two of them were literally 30 minutes late and 2- one of our investigators BROUGHT HER PUPPY TO CHURCH. I'm sorry I need to repeat that. SHE BROUGHT HER VERY MUCH ALIVE AND YIPPY PUPPY TO SACRAMENT MEETING...... Yes this was very much an issue. hahahah We were trying so hard not to die laughing as we were trying to figure out what to do. Long story short, our amazing Sister Training Leaders came to the rescue and literally sat outside all of sacrament meeting with the dog so we could be in there with our investigators. They are such blessings. But seriously we were dead. haha But, it turned out to be such an amazing thing, because all of our investigators LOVED sacrament meeting, and kept talking about how touched they were by the messages that were shared and the feelings they felt. Super grateful for great members here!

We had so many awesome lessons this week, and have 5 super awesome progressing investigators right now! We are hoping to get one of them baptized this transfer, and are really thinking we can! These people are amazing and are keeping their commitments and truly have a desire to know if what we are teaching is true. We are working our butts off, and the Lord is really blessing us! 

This week, Sister Cullen and I have been focusing on working with members. Last week I shared with you all about the small and simple things we can all be doing to share the gospel with our friends. This week, we put a plan to that invitation. 

I think that many times with member missionary work, we think of it as a one time thing. "Oh I invited my friend to church! Great now I am done." And we forget the WHY of inviting our friends to church. We do missionary work with our friends, so we can help them to accept the gospel and ultimately get baptized. Sister Cullen and I came up with a plan this week to help our members remember why they do missionary work, and to see the vision of sharing the gospel with the end goal of baptism. We call it "AB123." The A point is picking a name. After this point, we have step 1. This step consists of small actions members can to do start introducing their friends to the gospel. This includes telling them they are a member, inviting them to a church service or activity, and maybe giving them something like a BOM, pamphlet, or tract to help them see what we believe. Step 2 is inviting them to meet with the missionaries. This is the key step here for their friend's progression. Steps 1 and 2 are the member's responsibility and require effort on their part. After taking step 2, the missionaries step in WITH THE MEMBER for step 3 which is the period of time between meeting with the missionaries and the B step of Baptism. This step includes accompanying missionaries to teach lessons, inviting their friend to come to church with them, encouraging their friend, answering their questions, and so on. We really believe that if we all see this vision, understand our role in it, and see that missionaries are here to help, members will be more willing to start this process, and we will all see so much success! Sister Cullen and I have already started implementing this, and have found so much success! 

People, this principle is true no matter where you are in the world. The gospel needs to be shared with others! Look for ways you can start doing this, and just start small! Pick a name, do little actions, and don't be afraid to get missionaries involved. The gospel is truly one of joy. It is joy that we are bringing to the world, so why not share?

I love you all so much, and most of all I love this work. I feel so lucky to get to put on a name tag everyday and go out and teach about Jesus Christ. I love it here and the lord truly looks out for me every single day!

I hope you all have a wonderful week, and keep looking for ways you can start to share this wonderful message with those that you love! 

xoxo

Sister Richards

李姐妹

Lǐ Jiéměi

Sister Micah Richards

Taiwan Taipei Mission

4/F, #24, Lane 183

Jin Hua Street

Taipei, Taiwan 106

1- Taibei Temple

2- so happy to be there

3- whenever you go into someone's home here, you take off your shoes and they give you these slippers to wear. hah so cute

4- THE DOG.

5-it was a really cute puppy

6- ward mission meeting with zone leaders, mm leader, and ward missionaries

7- just a little mid water filling up selfie

8- the happiest missionary after a day of miracles

Week 12: Small and Simple Things (October 26, 2016)

My dear family and friends... what is up?

This week was one of the best. Honestly, I grow to love this place, this people, and this work more and more every single day. It is truly such a blessing to be here and serving. AH.. I just love it.

I don't even know where to start, because this week was one of so so many miracles. First and foremost, I GOT TO SEE SISTER BERNHARDT. I live with the Sister Training Leaders here in Xinzhu, and so when they go on exchanges with sisters in our zone and the neighboring zone (because they don't have enough sisters to have STLs for every zone), we get to see all the sisters because they come and stay at our apartment! So, imagine the happiest little reunion and that was Sis B and I this past week! It was SO wonderful to see her for the first time since being here, and to talk and catch up and strengthen each other. She really became my sister in the MTC, and I feel so lucky that I still get to see her periodically out here in the field! What a blessing. 

The work here is seriously booming. There are SO many prepared people. I know I keep saying that, but it is because it is true! And in the craziest ways you could imagine. This week we had four investigators commit to a baptismal date, and we are SO excited for all of them! And we have even more wonderful people that we are hoping to commit this week! We are hoping November will be full of baptismal services! Our biggest miracle this week was with our dear friend Chai Jiemei. A little background on her. She met my companion a little before I got here, and met her because she ran out to them on the street and literally said "I know you are missionaries, and I want to know what you teach." Any missionaries dream, right?? Right! Until the next Sunday, when her grandpa died. This is a big thing here, because in the Buddhist culture if you have a family member die, you literally can't leave your house for like 100 days to mourn them.... Yes so issue #1. Issue #2, she found out her husband was cheating on her the next week. Long story short, lots of terrible things have been happening to her, and she hasn't been able to meet with us or frankly really talk to us for a long time. This past week, after much effort, we were deciding whether to put her on the back burner or not. We had been trying so hard to get in touch with her and help her, but she just wouldn't pick up or wouldn't let us see her, so it's a little hard to help her and keep her progressing. But, I had this feeling we should leave her up and keeping trying. On Monday, after dinner, we had an investigator bail last minute on a lesson, so we had some free time to go tracting. Instead, I had the thought that we should call Chai JM. We call her and for the first time in weeks she PICKS UP. She is on the road and we cannot even hear her, but in a quiet moment we yell "DO YOU WANT TO COME AND GET ICE CREAM WITH US RIGHT NOW?" and she says, "YES!". WE WERE SO STOKED. Long story short, so sorry for the novel people, we ended up having a SECOND dinner with her and her son, and she told us the extent of her story and her problems. Her relationship with her husband had been abusive, and she finally got out. In the first 10 minutes of our meeting with her she says this. "My main priorities right now are 1- raising my son 2- church and 3- work." Now granted this woman has only met with missionaries ever for 30 min... all they taught her was about God and prayer, and she had so much faith to put it as a priority in her life and told us that she has been praying twice a day ever since the missionaries taught her how to. She is so solid. Although her story is such a sad one, she is being strengthened by the Lord, and her faith is growing every single day. She told us that she wants the fresh start she can get from joining our Church, and wants to do it as soon as possible. Um okkkkk???? YES. We are so excited to work with her, and her cute 9 year old son! The Lord works in mysterious ways people. 

I've seen His hand in so much that I am doing here. So many times we have had investigators bail, only to find that we needed to go to their area to meet a different person. We have been led to so many amazing people, and so many of them are seeking the truth and light that the gospel can bring them. The Lord is not wasting anytime in the furthering of His work!

Sister Cullen and I are working really hard out here. The other day we were so excited to get out the door that I forgot to take my retainers out before leaving.... hahah, ya my life. Funny things happen everyday here people. We had an investigator try to bring their dog to church, we have had to kill about a million cockroaches this week, and sometimes Chinese just really gets the best of me. ha! The other day in interviews with President Jergensen/training from the assistants, I said the prayer and accidentally called him our mission husband instead of president and you know all good things like that. hahah President Jergensen is so amazing. He is truly inspired. He has so little time to spend with us personally, but each time he sees me he shares with me some piece of counsel or wisdom that is always exactly what I needed to hear. This week in interviews, he reminded me how fun missions are. He reminded me to enjoy the little things. Enjoy being a beginner and not being able to understand everything. Enjoy laughing at yourself when you make mistakes in the language, or when you are dripping with sweat from the heat. Work hard yes, but enjoy yourself! I think sometimes I get so caught up in it all that I forget to take a step back and just enjoy it all. He said that it'll all be over before I know it. I'm not sure I totally believe that last statement, considering I've been here only 3 weeks and feel like I've been here my whole life... haha But if it is coming from his mouth then I do! 

I truly love it here, and the Lord is really looking out for me.  In our ward, we've been really trying to get everyone excited about missionary work and start sharing the gospel with their friends and family. One thing that I've learned from this is how it truly is the small and simple things that bring about the biggest things.(Alma 37:6-7) To share the gospel with your friends, you don't have to jump from 0-100 and ask them point blank to meet with the missionaries. You start with letting them know you're a member, inviting them to FHE or a church activity, have a gospel or religious conversation with them, invite them to church, and slowly get them warmed up to the idea. It is the small things. We have seen miracles in our ward of people that have gotten baptized because of a member taking them under their wing and showing them the blessings the gospel can bring them. It got me thinking about how much work we can all do in each of our lives, and I want to invite you all to think about how you can start sharing the gospel with someone you know. Pick a name and just start doing the little things. I promise you that the Lord will bless your efforts, and you will see miracles. I see it happen everyday here.

Well, I love you all. I hope you are all doing well, and hope you have a great week! See ya'll next Monday. (our pday was different this week because we get to go to the temple today! you bet it is 4:30am currently here... go team) Ok bye!!

xoxo

Sister Richards

李姐妹

Lǐ Jiéměi

1- last week's P-day--district bowling and cold stone hah!

2- Dinner

3- sweet comp

4- Xinzhu

5- district (+exchange sisters) group volleyball

6- SIS B

7- SIS B

8- Buddhist temple behind shops

9- food man

10- teaching about temples at a ward activity

11- comp 

12- church building

13- jeremy my homieeee

14-  my friend Chai JM's son 
15- CHAI JM

16- taiwanese pot luck haha