Sister Richards takes Taiwan: Week 20: A Week of RC's ( December 18, 2016)

Hello Dear Family and Friends!

MERRY CHRISTMAS! I can't believe Christmas is upon us! I hope you are all celebrating well because we are just too busy over here to think about it! hah I hope you all had a wonderful week! I'm apologizing now because I have very limited time to email today, but I'll try to get in all the best parts of this week!

It was another great week here and we are getting excited for Christmas! The weather here is so bipolar. It's hot one day and freezing the next, so I still feel like I am in Utah...without the snow though. ha! You should see the Taiwanese people though. It'll be such a nice day outside, and they will all be wearing parkas and scarves and bundle up like they are about to live up on Timp for a year. hah They always get so mad us at when we are just wearing a sweater. ha! Love them.

This week was full of so many miracles, from awesome LAs coming back out of the dark, finding AWESOME potentials, and investigators setting baptismal dates. But for times sake, I want to talk about two.

The first is that our dear sweet Ye Yi Chen (Anna) was baptized!! I talked a little about her last week, but she is our 15 year old investigator, that met the church through her friend! Over the past month, we have seen her testimony grow so much, and she truly loves this gospel. At her baptism, she shared the most beautiful simple testimony that she knows this church is true, and she knows Christ is her Savior. We all got a little teary eyed as this sweet 15 year old that has already had to deal with a lot in her short life, shared that she is so grateful to have met the gospel so she can have Christ to lean on when she goes through hard things. She said this gospel gives her so much light and hope and happiness, and she has already changed for the better because of it. People she is FIFTEEN. She's seriously so cool. And she got her nonmember dad to attend her baptism! He is way cool too, and we are already starting to work on him:) hah love this work.

The second, was our RC Serena (Xu Cheng Wei) from Xinzhu and our old Ward Mission Leader came to visit us yesterday at church! OH my my heart was so happy to see her. The love you have for RCs is how I imagine parents feel about their children. You love them all so much and equally, but differently and uniquely. Ye Jm is like our little sister, and Serena is like our best friend. It was so good to see her, and hear how well she is doing. She loves the gospel more and more everyday, and feels it strengthening her every day! The Taiwan work scene is so tough, and she is so so busy, but still finds time (after a 13+ hour work day) to pray and read her scriptures every day... No one has an excuse... ha do the little things people! It makes all the difference!

This week in my personal study I was reading in 3 Nephi, and I came across a passage that I really loved. In this verse, it talks about the state of those that are living righteous lives. 3 Nephi 22:14 reads, "In righteousness shalt thou be established; thou shalt be far from oppression for thou shalt not fear, and from terror for it shall not come near thee." These are Christ's words when he is teaching the Nephites. He has just taught them about all these amazing things and how to live a righteous life after the manner of the Father, and then gives them this promise. If you establish yourself in righteousness, you will be free from (not only free from but FAR from) oppression, sadness, fear, terror, and really just Satan. Christ invites us all to come unto Him and be free. I don't know about all of you, but these sound like some pretty wonderful promises to me. Especially in our world today. There is so much destruction and terror and sadness all around us. But we have the promise of our Savior, if we live lives established in righteousness we will be free of those afflictions. We can't just be "half foot in the door" kind of members. We need to be established in Christ. Built from the bottom up all rooted in the gospel. I invite all of you to think about how you can be more established in Christ. What can you do to better show Him your devotion and your faith? What do you need to change to become more rooted in our Savior?

I love you all, and want you to know that I love my mission with all of my heart! The time is going by too quickly! For all those thinking about serving a mission, DO IT. I promise you it is the best thing you will ever do. I am grateful everyday for the people I have already met and the experiences I have been able to have. There is truly nothing better than serving the Lord!

LOVE YOU ALL MERRY CHRISTMAS

(fam see you in a 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- district!