Sister Richards takes Taiwan: Week 25: The Ups and Downs of Missionary Work (January 23, 2017)

This week was SO busy and full of SO many fun times, miracles, and again the heart breaks. Mission work for you in a nutshell people. Gotta love it.

To start, this week in general was just nutso because chinese new year is around the corner, and people take this very seriously... Chinese new year here is like Christmas in America. Everyone gathers with family, eats way too much, and has lots of good times. But unfortunately for us, Guonian is a week and everyone goes to their families homes in the south... SO this next week is going to be a little slow on the teaching side.. AND... We are about to gain 1300 lbs because during that week, all of the shops and restaurants close and so our members are feeding us lunch and dinner for like 8 days straight... Now remember that Sister Cooper and I are in TWO wards. This means the possibility of being fed FOUR MEALS. FOUR CHINESE NEW YEARS HUGE GIANT MEALS WHERE THEY EXPECT YOU TO EAT EVERYTHING. Yes so long story short, pray for me and my sweet little tummy. I'll keep ya'll updated on that. Just expect no pictures next week and reports of a food coma.

But as I said, this week was chalked full of dongxi. Wow, where to even start. Maybe with the good stuff. Ok well first of all, it was Sister Cooper's birthday this past week! Being the companion of the birthday girl is HARD because 1- you've gotta make it awesome and 2- you're with them 24/7 so you have to be so sneaky if you want to do anything, but you know I delivered:) haha Just kidding. But pretty much that day our members just helped me so much. I reached out to our ward mission leader for some help, and by the end of the day we had 6 different members give her birthday treats including dark chocolate fudge cake (11/10. best cake i've had in Taiwan), chocolate cupcakes (6/10), homemade fortune cookies with messages inside saying happy birthday (11/10 cuteness), brownies (6/10- Taiwanese actually hate sweet things so their desserts are usually less than par), cookies (7/10), and last but not least, VEGETABLE CAKE. Yes! We had a member make her cake with literal green veggies in it. That is just sweet Taiwan for ya. haha But it was such a fun day. We took her out to her favorite meal, got her fav drink (the drink places here are unreal), opened some presents, and laughed about the wide range of treats force fed to us in the span of 12 hours. haha I think her 20th birthday was one for the books!

Another fun note this week was exchanges, because... du du du dunnnnn I GOT TO BE WITH MY TRAINER SISTER CULLEN. I cannot even express to you how fun it was to serve with my sweet trainer again! She is such a stellar missionary and truly a best friend. Love love love her! We enjoyed a day full of singing on our bikes, kicking each other under the table when people would say funny things in our lessons, and eating our favorite red bean soup and Vietnamese food:) Tender mercy to say the least!

Ok one last highlight. We got to go to the temple with sweet Serena this week! Serena is my RC from Xinzhu, and Sister Cullen and I and got to take our sweet girl to the temple this week! Such a special feeling to be in there with her and see her feel the peace of the happiness of the temple. It was like watching her get baptized all over again! So special. And the best surprise yet, was what she told us while she was there. We started teaching Serena because her mom was investigating the church in Pingdong (southern part of Taiwan) and she was curious about what her mom was learning. After meeting with her, she got baptized, a week later her mom got baptized, and on Saturday she told us her dad was getting baptized THAT SAME DAY. ALMOST HER WHOLE FAMILY IS BAPTIZED. She still has one sister that hasn't yet, but how special is that?? Her dad was a devout Buddhist his whole life, but after seeing the changes in his wife and daughter, his heart was opened and his spirit was changed. It is so incredible. And the happiest part is that I will still be here a year from now, so fingers crossed I will get to see them all sealed in the temple together:))) I'm telling you. So many blessings.

And now here comes the heart break.... Our dear Yu Ting was supposed to be baptized this past Saturday, and unfortunately was not:( Why you may ask? WE DON'T KNOW. We haven't been able to get a hold of her since last Sunday... We have ZERO idea in the world what happened. We have finished teaching her everything, she loved it, was keeping every commandment, had such strong faith, and then just dropped off the face of the earth... Last Sunday, she was supposed to have her baptismal interview, but called us an hour before church saying she was so sick and so sad but she couldn't come to church today and she would have to reschedule her interview. We were sad but not too worried, because she is so stellar and easy to set up with... or so we thought! That was the last time we have heard from her and we are heart broken. We have no idea what happened, but are just praying and fasting our little hearts out. It is so so sad. But we are keeping up the faith. The Lord is still so mindful of us and helping us to accomplish his work. We were really blessed to find six new investigators this week, 3 from English Class, 2 from members, and 1 from street contacting. These people are all incredible, and we are so excited to continue to teach them these next upcoming weeks. I'm telling you, Chinese new year (Guonian) really puts a stop in our plans, but we have high faith for these people!

Like I said, the Lord really does bless us all in so many different ways. He knows us so personally and so individually, and is always taking care of us. A reoccurring theme for me this past week was faith. Faith to the finish, faith in the Lord's timing, and faith in His plan. I had the chance to reread President Uchtdorf's "Fourth Floor Last Door" talk from conference this past week. I am sure many of you remember his incredible story about the missionaries that found his wife many years ago. I personally remembered that story very well, but had forgotten a little about the context of sharing that story. As I restudied President Uchtdorf's words, what stood out to me the most was this idea of faith plus works. He shares with us about faith, about what it is, what its powers and limits are, and then reminds us what it means to have faith. I loved that he reminded us that everything God does for us is for our benefit. "Every blessing He gives and every blessing He, for a time, withholds is for our eternal happiness." This was something I kept in mind a lot this week with Yu Ting and some of the other lows of the work. The Lord has a plan for me. For my life and for my mission specifically. There is a reason I need to experience this, and part of having faith in Him is having faith in that. After President Uchtdorf shared these remarks, he then shared the fourth floor last door story. I loved this story because it directly portrays this principle in action. We have faith in the Lord and His plan for us, but we use that faith to lead us to action. Faith+work=miracles.

I invite each of you to think about that this week. Having faith and then acting. Show the Lord your faith in Him and in his plan for you!

I love you all so much and hope you have a wonderful week and Chinese new year!

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- the district

2- forced the elders to buy us our fav drinks...thanks!

3-crazy fire in zhongli that forced us all to wear these crazy masks for days

RC Serena at the temple.

Just blending in with all of Taiwan--they all wear these. If they are even a little sick, they feel it their public duty not to get others sick. So, they'll wear these masks.