Another great week has come and gone here in Zhongli! Zhongli is in the North West part of Taiwan, which means that it is actually freezing.. ha! So, to all of you people that told me Taiwan was exclusively hot, YOU LIED. I'M FREEZING. hah! Winter is definitely coming and I am definitely going to need to go and buy a huge jacket. Zhongli is beautiful and much less windy than Xinzhu, but instead it rains here every single day! Biking is always a super fun experience. ha!
There were so many really fun things about this week, and a whole lot of miracles. First of all, Happy late Thanksgiving to all my homies in America! Still grateful even without the official holiday. Our cute bishopric actually put on a Thanksgiving dinner for us missionaries this week because they knew we would be missing it! It was a cute Taiwan rendition of a Thanksgiving meal with turkey, potatoes, dragon fruit, chicken feet, tofu, fruit, apples, pumpkin soup, someone attempted a casserole, and some other crazy dishes. ha! I love it!
We have such great ward members who are all SO excited to have Sisters! Apparently, Zhongli hasn't had sisters in over a year! So, all the moms are losing their minds. hah They all are so willing to help us missionaries and they all want to feed us! And with covering two wards, we have multiple appointments every single day this upcoming week... pray for our stomachs. hah
We also had our Trainer/Trainee follow up meeting this week up in Taibei, so it was so fun to see all of the missionaries in my generation (MTC district plus everyone else that came out the same time as me)! We got to all gather together and be trained by the assistants and President Jergensen and his wife! They are so awesome and have so much love for us missionaries! I am always so pleasantly surprised by how well he knows each of us! It's pretty incredible actually.
Sister Cullen and I have seen a lot of miracles this week, some big and some small. There are two that I specifically want to share.
The first one is a smaller but still very meaningful one. Because Sister Cullen and I are white washing, we are starting fresh with no old investigators. So each day we spend a lot of time out finding and street contacting. There was one day that we had a good chunk of time and weren't entirely sure where we should go. This day my bike happened to be broken, so we were restricted to proselyting by foot only, so we couldn't go far. Luckily, our apartment is only a 5 min walk from the church, and there are some good areas around there to find people! In trying to decide where we wanted to go, we offered a prayer and asked for the Lord's guidance. In this prayer, I had the impression that we should go to this bakery across the street from the church. I thought this was a little odd because it was a small bakery and it wasn't like there were loads of people there. Especially because just down the street there was a big grocery store and market that we knew would for sure have people... But, we acted in faith and decided to go to the bakery. We were there for about 20 min and just not finding any success. People weren't really willing to talk to us, and the people that were didn't want to set up with us. I really starting questioning that prompting and wishing we would've just gone to a place that we knew would have a lot of people when ..du du du dunnnn we found her! We found the reason the Lord had prompted us to go there. A girl walked by us and looked at us, kept walking, and then looked back and kind of stopped before she crossed the street. Once she turned back we knew we had to talk to her. (If they express any kind of interest you just have to go for the gold). So we kind of waved to her from across the street and she waited for us to cross! She totally had the opportunity to keep walking, but she waited. We caught up to her and started talking to her to find that she was golden. We gave her a chapel tour right then and set up with her on the spot. This small experience was such a testimony builder for me that this truly is the Lord's work and we are on His errand. He will direct us to find His prepared people. It doesn't matter if we are in a place with 100 people or 1 as long as it is the Lord's one. So cool.
My second experience is one with our #1 golden investigator right now. Her name is Sun Ti, and we met her last week. Let me just tell you, that in the past week we have met with her 3 times, she has come to all three hours of church, and been to our ward's "Scripture Study Class" TWICE. She is so solid and is getting baptized on the 17th! We wish we had church more often so she could get baptized sooner (investigators have to go to church 3x before they can get baptized), but it is so ok. This week she shared with us this really special experience she had. She told us that she was praying and was asking God if He was there. She said "I asked him if I should believe in him and if he was there. And then I just felt this warmth and peaceful feeling and just started crying. I don't know why I started crying, I just did and I think it was God telling me he was my father." YES SUN TI YES. People, prayer is so real and God is so good. As she told me this, "A child's prayer" ran through my head. I imagined this 21 year old girl just talking to her Father in heaven saying "Heavenly Father are you really there and do you hear and answer every child's prayer?" She had the sincere desire to know and so she was answered. What a special experience.
My thoughts this week have been turned to my Savior and about how we can become like Him. In my personal study this week, I decided to focus on Charity and Love as a Christlike attribute I want to better develop. I have studied it in PMG, the scriptures, and other materials as I have striven to become a better representative of my Savior. At the Trainer/Trainee follow up meeting this week, Sister Bernhardt shared this line that really stood out to me. She said,
"As we look outside ourselves, We find Christ."
I loved this, and it is so true. Christ was our perfect example of looking outwards. Never once did he take thought for himself. So many times in His life he was trying to do something or sleep or even just mourn the death of His cousin, but when His people needed or even wanted Him, He put His own needs aside and helped them. He served them and He loved them. We can learn so much from our Savior's example. This week as I have tried to look outside my self, I have found this to be more true than ever. I know that as we all try to look outside of ourselves, our desires, our needs, we will find Christ. Because that is exactly where He'll be.
I challenge each of you this week to study and focus on how you can better look outside of yourself. Look for opportunities to serve others and put them first.
I love you all and pray for your happiness and success! Remember always to rely on our Savior. He will carry you. Have a wonderful week!
xoxo
Sister Richards
李姐妹
Lǐ Jiéměi
Taiwan Taipei Mission
4/F, #24, Lane 183
Jin Hua Street
Taipei, Taiwan 106
1/2- desperate times call for desperate measures
3- last of our xinzhu investigators! from last week
Last of Xinzhu investigators from last week.
Our lives in the rain!
Our homie Marcel (Hayden Magness' RC!)
MTC squad reunited again
Sweet Sister B
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