I have survived yet another wonderful week here in Xinzhu,Taiwan! I love it more and more every day, and I am getting more acquainted with the culture, area, food, language, and missionary life every single day! I truly see the Lord's hand in my life every single day here.
As missionaries, we have a lot of "Plan Z" days. Days where everything falls through, and even our back-up back-up plans don't work. But these seem to be the days that we see the most miracles. This week I saw SO many of them. We found SIX new investigators this wek, and all were found through miracles. Some we met because our investigators showed up late to lessons, some we met on our way to visit members, and all just prove the fact that we are on the Lord's time here. There is a purpose to every single thing that we do; where we eat lunch, who we visit first, what roads we take. It is really amazing to see the Lord working through me.
One really funny one was with Yang Jiemei (sister Yang). We met this lady coming out of a lesson with an investigator, and she seemed slightly interested, but kind of blew us off. We got her contact info, and when we called her to set up a time she said she was "too busy" -surprise surprise. The next day, we were doing some street contacting, and what do you know... WE RUN INTO HER! hahah She almost died. She looked at us and said, "either you sisters are stalking me, or this is God telling me I need to talk to you." hahah It was so awesome, and we got to talk to her a little right there! We taught her a bit, and she happily agreed to meet with us again! That lesson is actually happening tonight, and we are going to invite her to be baptized, so I'll keep ya'll posted!
We have a lot of incredible investigators right now, but, like all Taiwanese people, they have this problem of being "too busy." People's lives here are absolutely nuts. Many work 15 days in a row before getting a break, kids go to school all day, and go to study classes after class, and it just is a busy and not very fun filled life. So everyone's initial reaction to our invitation to meet with us is, "oh sorry I'm too busy." It is hard to work around, even with many of our investigators. Many of them can only meet with us once every week or more,and only for a small period of time, so it is hard to keep people progressing. Sister Cullen and I are working hard, and are trying really hard to have daily contact with them- through texts,calls, pop ins, and what not- to keep up our relationships with them, and let them know that we love them. We've been singing to members and investigators lately, just popping in and singing a hymn to them, and the result has been really cool. Singing invites the spirit so strongly, and it has been really cool to hear all of them, no matter their state of conversion, be able to recognize the spirit, and thank us for the peace and happiness we brought into their home. Little things people. It is just the little things that make the biggest difference.
Other things Taiwan wise... Our area is huge and hilly and you bet we bike hours every day. haha My legs are so sore every morning, but you know what. With the amount of noodles and nice and fried everything that goes into my body everyday, I am grateful. My bum.. not so much. But it's all a work in progress. Everything is here. It is so different. The culture, the time difference, the food, the weather, THE LANGUAGE, and just about everything in between. But the Lord truly strengthens and helps me every single day. The language is coming. Slowly but surely. And the Lord is blessing me in all aspects of the work- being able to understand words that I don't know when talking to someone, not being tired, getting a free scoop of ice cream, receiving a note when I needed it, and countless more. I know Heavenly Father is so mindful of us all.
This week I have focused much of my studies on faith. Faith is truly the first principle of the gospel for a reason! It is the why to everything we do. In missionary work, I have faith in the Lord, faith that he will qualify me, faith that he will lead me to people to teach, faith that my investigators will accept baptism, and so on and so forth. But sometimes faith isn't just believing that he can, but knowing that it is his will. In district meeting this week, an elder in my district said, "You trust in God's will, but you have faith that he can do all things." I believe that this applies to every single one of us. We know that God has a plan for us and we trust in that. But we also have faith that he can do ALL things. He can allow us to learn Chinese, but in his time. He will help us overcome our trials, but when He knows that we are ready.Often times it is easy to want to force God's will to how you would like things to happen. But we need to remember that he sees the full picture. He knows that he could allow me to learn Chinese over night, but what would I learn? How would I grow from that? Would my relationship with him be strengthened? Trust in God, and trust in His will. He will not lead us astray.
I love each of you so much, and I apologize for all of my unanswered emails to all of you. Please know that I love you and appreciate your kind words SO much, but really just have ZERO time. I will respond when I can!! I can feel your prayers, and for that I am so grateful. Have such a great week, and remember that you are so loved and are being looked after by a loving Father in Heaven.
xoxo
Sister Richards
李姐妹
Lǐ Jiéměi
1- Sister Training Leader and Roommate...Sister Bain
2/3- meals we make for ourselves
4- meals we are fed.
5- Sister Cullen
6- Sister Cullen on her bike
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