As my subject title says, I finally left the Eternal city (YongHe) and didn't just move a little... I moved down to THE furthest area of our mission. hahah TAIDONG. I was so stoked. It is the perfect wrap up to my mission. With this added transfer, I will have spent a nice 6 months (four transfers in each) on each coast of our mission. How perfect is that? I honestly feel like my mission has been perfect. Obviously, because it was the Lord's plan. But also just the variety I have had on my mission. I have seen it all! The rurals, the country side, the suburbs, the city, the coast, the heart of it all, the boonies, and have been to all the most beautiful places! So pleased.
Now, let me tell you all a little about TaiDong. It is the furthest south point of our mission, a very rural place, along the eastern coast of Taiwan, so beautiful, and SO far away from the rest of the world. haha I thought HuaLian was rural and kind of out there.. but then I got sent to Taidong. ha I love it here so much! I was SO stoked to be called down here to break a cute, fresh out of training, Sister Hurst! She is from Sacramento, CA, the cutest girl ever, and such a fire missionary. She is such a hard worker and has such a desire to do this work to the best of her ability! We are already seeing so many miracles together!
The transition to TaiDong has been a fun one. I feel a little like I just came down from the high life of living in the center of it all- the heart of the city, the most populated place in Taiwan, people everywhere at all times, members at your fingertips, everyone and everything just a 5 min walk or bike ride away, the most convenient area close to everything and anyone, the mrt and public transportation system to get us anywhere we needed to go, a super nice home, a chapel right next to us, being a sister training leader, working with many very experienced missionaries all the time, being so close to the bu and working very often and closely with other mission leaders and president...... TO the more humble life to the furthest from the center of it all- the literal boonies, very few people out at any time, everyone and everything pretty far away, the only form of transportation is biking or mooching a ride off of members, a perfectly average missionary apartment (aka super gross hah), working with very young missionaries, and being so far away that we cannot attend any kind of mission activities- temple day or conferences or anything. But you know what, I love it here. There is something about the work here that just feels so pure to me. Just full on give it your all all the time, work till you drop kind of work. It is the kind of experience I think of when I think of missionary work, and I love it. These people are very humble and I am so excited to see so many miracles as we work our butts off this last transfer. President is definitely not letting me slack off down here! With breaking a young missionary and being the English unit leader, my responsibilities are not few. hah I have never broken a missionary before, but what I am learning is it is a little like glorified training. hah These are freshly trained missionaries so they somewhat know what they are doing, but still don't feel too confident in anything yet or leading. And so this is giving me a great opportunity to help Sister Hurst build confidence in herself! We live with two other sisters too, who are both super young in the mission. It is so fun being surrounded by these young fire missionaries! It's a blast! But they don't cease to remind me how "old" I am on the mission. haha
It was sad leaving YongHe, but I had a great feeling of peace leaving that my work there was done. Everyone was so kind to me as I was preparing to leave, and people fed us like it was Chinese new year already! SO MANY MEALS and DOUBLE MEALS it was nuts. Gave us a little preview of what will be happening in a little bit... I am not ready. hah It was hard to say goodbye to so many dear friends, including my sweet companion Sister Zhong, but it was nice to be able to say "I'll see you in a month and a half when I bring MY PARENTS with me back here!" So crazy that that is creeping up! So many mixed feelings.
On my beautiful and very long train ride down to my new area, I decided to take some time to prayerfully make a vision for my last transfer. I thought about who I wanted to be, what I wanted to do, what kind of missionary I wanted to become, what kind of example I wanted to give, and how I wanted to spend my last transfer in 100% service to the Lord. It was so special to me as the Lord truly opened my eyes to the possibilities of what this time could be. As we have started this transfer, I have taken time each day to evaluate how I am doing and if my actions and behavior are taking me closer to hitting my vision or not. It has been so incredible to me that as I have truly been accountable to the Lord and constantly evaluating myself, I have been able to SEE and FEEL myself changing even more into who the Lord needs me to become. I am making a conscious effort everyday to be my own ideal missionary, and through the help of the Lord, I am becoming it!
We saw so many miracles this past week, but my overall great impression from this week was that of following the spirit. That is something that I have been really focused on lately. It is SO easy, especially as an older and more experienced missionary, to be tempted to rely on yourself. we've taught these lessons a million times, contacted people two million times, and are no stranger to the missionary life and daily responsibilities. BUT it doesnt matter how "old" or "experienced" you are, your skills or abilities will never be enough without the help of the spirit. I have been really studying about and focusing on always following the spirit to really allow me to do the work Heavenly Father wants me to do. And we saw SUCH cool miracles from it this week. We had a cool lesson with a 17 year old girl where we had planned to teach one thing, and felt very clearly to teach another as soon as we sat down. SO we did. and it went so well because it was 100% led by the spirit. She committed to a baptismal date and to come to church, which these sisters have been trying to do for a month now. I think one of the experiences that stood out to me the most was a lesson we had yesterday with Zhong DiXiong. He is the husband of a recently baptized member in our ward! He is working toward baptism, but we were feeling like he was doing this a little more for his wife than for him. So we went into yesterday's lesson really wanting to know what HIS desires were. We started teaching and again felt the lesson starting to take a different direction than we planned. We had planned some scriptures but they all of a sudden were a little out of context to where the lesson had ended up. I really wanted to share a scripture with him to help him find that desire he was looking for, but didn't know where to turn. I said a prayer in my heart, and was impressed to share with him one of the verses we all know well. ! Nephi 1:1.
1 I, Nephi, having been born of goodly parents, therefore I was taught somewhat in all the learning of my father; and having seen many afflictions in the course of my days, nevertheless, having been highly favored of the Lord in all my days; yea, having had a great knowledge of the goodness and the mysteries of God, therefore I make a record of my proceedings in my days.
Now I know what you are all thinking. That's an interesting scripture to share... Why did you want to share that? Well, let me tell you. We read this together, and the Spirit just put words into my mouth. We helped Zhong DX to see that because of the great example and teachings of his righteous parents, Nephi was able to look to them to know where to turn. He was able to develop a relationship with God, and was able to face adversity and trials with faith and with a positive attitude. Because his parents taught him how to follow the Lord, he learned to recognize the Lord's hand in his life and see the tender mercies and blessings in every day. We promised Zhong dx that these are blessings that can come to him and his sweet family as he accepts and follows the teachings of the gospel. We were able to promise him that his 5 month year old daughter, would one day be able to say the same things about him as he, right now, decided to follow Christ full heartedly. It was amazing to me as the spirit just filled the room, and you could literally see Zhong dx's desire grow instantly in his eyes. He was willing. He wanted that. And because i listened to the promptings of the spirit, I was able to help him find that. It was such a special experience to me, and helped me gain an even GREATER desire to always have the spirit as my guide. I just love this work.
In my studies of the spirit this week, I came across a great talk by Elder Rasband called, "Let the Holy Spirit Guide." Super awesome, everyone go read it. But I loved this specific thing that he said.
"The Spirit speaks words that we feel. These feelings are gentle, a nudge to act, to do something, to say something, to respond in a certain way. If we are casual or complacent in our worship, drawn off and desensitized by worldly pursuits, we find ourselves diminished in our ability to feel."
Think about that. Think about the role of the spirit in your life, and if the way you are worshiping is affecting that.. The spirit is not just important in missionary work. It guides us to salvation. Whether that be for our own salvation or the salvation of others. Listen to it. Follow it.
I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week, full of the spirit and wonderful experiences to serve those around you! Love you all!
xoxo
Sister Richards
李姐妹
Lǐ Jǐemeì
Taiwan Taipei Mission
4/F, #24, Lane 183
Jin Hua Street
Taipei, Taiwan 106
1 and 4- Lots of bye bye meals - pizza with Betty and ken(investigators) yes we are using plastic gloves to eat it hahaha
2-3: Last week's excursion to Yilan for the day!
5-7: Me and sister Zhong gave our two grandma RC's aprons with our picture printed on it! They LOVE them!
8: Last district pic
The start of Taidong
9- rc and her husband zhong dx
10- Peanut butter burger:).
11- Our cute investigator Irene!
12- Members already so awesome.
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