Sister Richards takes Taiwan: Week 78: 持守到底- endure to the end (January 28, 2018)

Hello fam bam and friends,

This week was a good one, but that's not news to any of you! I love my mission here and every week is full of miracles!

Me and sister Hurst worked SO hard this week. Man we went hard. Making a great effort to talk to everyone, be 1000% obedient, and really follow the spirit in our work. And we saw so many miracles because of it!

First of all, this past week was a little crazy because we spent half the week in HuaLian for exchanges, pday, and zone conference! I wasn't complaining though to be back in the area that I love SO much. Seriously one of my favorite places I have ever served. SO beautiful and full of so many people that I love so dearly. It was like coming home! I got to see some of my best friends while there, RCs, formers, members, and even get some of my former investigators re-hooked up with the missionaries down there! Ah it was, as Sister Bernhardt would say, "SO MUCH HAPPINESS." Speaking of my dear MTC companion, our dreams came true last week, and we had the chance to serve together for a whole day! She is now my STL over here, and she got to take me on an exchange! My heart was so happy to serve with her again, over a year after being together in the MTC! This time was definitely a little smoother than the first! hah crazy what actually knowing how to speak chinese, teach lessons, and just be a missionary can do for ya! hah I love love loved being with her again and learning so much from her sweet example!

A really cool miracle we saw this week came on our long road back home from exchanges. We had just taken a 3 hour train ride from Hualian to Taidong, and a 20min taxi ride on top of that, and we were exhausted, but we still had about 10 min left of the night, and we weren't about to waste that! We stopped over at a near by 7 eleven to do some daily contact and made a goal to do one more gospel conversation before the end of the night. There weren't a lot of people around, seeing as the people here in Taidong go to bed at literally 7pm. haha, but we still tried! We ended up talking to one of the workers there, and though it was a great contact, she wasn't that interested to set up again. But we still felt good that we hit our goal, and tried to invite one more person unto christ before heading home for the night. As we started walking home, I noticed a woman that was walking on the other side of the road from us. I waved at her, and she waved back! Obviously, a sign that we needed to go and talk to her. We ran over, and because of our lack of time, did a quick quick contact with her, but she was willing to give us her number and keep in touch. After getting home, I immediately called her and was able to have a chance to do a real gospel conversation with her now that we had time to talk. and she set up! She actually set herself up to come to our English class the next day, and then committed to meet after to talk more about the gospel! Such a cool miracle. As a result, she did come and loved it! And, thanks to a totally spirit filled spiritual share at English class, we had a great little sit down lesson with her after! A little crazy because we ended up having some scheduling problems and had another potential think we set up for that time too so we had to teach them BOTH haha but it was just fine. This Sister Huang was so cool and so willing to hear and accept what we taught her! We are so excited for her, and are teaching her again tonight! I'll keep ya'll posted next week!

Another great miracle was with our miracle role play potential, Amber, from last week! We were finally able to meet with her this past Saturday, and she is awesome! We had a great, spirit filled lesson, and she committed to a baptismal date on my last day in Taidong before I go home! hah We are praying hard that she can hit it! She seems very prepared.

Last super cool miracle I'll share is about our investigator Brother Zhong. He is the husband of an RC in our ward, a super cool, young dad, and a fighter pilot in the Taiwan Air Force. He is so cool but SO busy. The man literally doesn't come home most days a week because of his work, let alone have time to meet with us! So we've had a tough time knowing how to help him progress when we can't even meet with him! We've tried offering video chats too, but he isn't allowed to use anything with a camera at work... So we had to get creative. This week we tried doing a conference call lesson to teach him while he was at work and have his wife on the other line, and it worked out great! We also have increased our texting with him to the point where we are continuously teaching him and sharing gospel messages with him everyday! We are SO grateful for the technology that is allowing us to still communicate with and teach those that are literally impossible to meet with!

I'm so grateful for this time on my mission. I really feel like I have never worked harder in my life to do the things the Lord would have me do, to say the things He would have me say, and work to be who He would have me be. I have truly learned to rely on the spirit and cannot go a single day, hour, or moment without it. We are working SO hard to take of these precious souls Heavenly Father has placed in our hands. Pressures on. Hah but what a wonderful blessing to be entrusted with.

At our zone conference this week, President Jergensen reminded us of the importance of having the spirit guide us in our everyday work. The simple formula for having the spirit with us is literally just being worthy for it, and then asking for it. So repent. Be happy. And trust God. Because He won't leave you hanging.

I love you all and hope you all have the best week! 加油加油

xoxo

Sister Richards

李姐妹

Lǐ Jǐemeì

Sister Micah Richards

Taiwan Taipei Mission

4/F, #24, Lane 183

Jin Hua Street

Taipei, Taiwan 106

1: Exchanges with sister B

2: My girl Cindy!!