Sister Richards takes Taiwan: Week 26: 新年快樂 [HAPPY NEW YEAR] (January 30, 2017)

Well ya'll it is here. Guonian has indeed daole. And aren't we feeling it! haha Our worst nightmares came to life and we did indeed have FOUR meals planned for us each day.. Luckily, we were able to get out of most repeated meals, but there have been a couple cases that have required double lunches or dinners.. like yesterdays double dinners with both ward's bishops.... literally RIP my soul. But we are still alive, just barely breathing. hah Guonian is all pretty fun and has some fun little traditions- fireworks, red envelopes with money in it, giving away oranges for good luck (Sister Cooper and I now have enough to start our own orange juice stand), firecrackers... all night, deep cleaning the house, and just lots and lots of food. I will let it be known though that I now eat sea food on a daily basis and even like it (well some of it hah), and I ATE STINKY TOFU THIS WEEK. Alright that is all.

This week really was a good and crazy one. Partly because we have about 100 cool things this week. Last P-day, our ward and a neighboring ward took all of us missionaries to an amusement park! haha good times people. On a scale from Lagoon to Disneyland, it was about a -3, but still such a fun time. Chill people, chill(Y) weather, and free food. So definitely no complaints coming from over here!

We also had a wonderful mission conference this past week where we were trained by our mission president, as well as watched the world wide missionary broadcast for this year. Maybe all of the world has already seen it because I've been reading about some of these changes in your emails, but for us, we just got it this week. Probably just because we needed it translated in Chinese for our natives here, and you know, Chinese isn't easy. ha But it was incredible! The Brethren of the Church pretty much did a Q&A session discussing some of the most commonly asked questions among missionaries. They talked a ton about the Doctrine of Christ and the importance of remembering that conversion is a continual process that comes from living the doctrine of Christ (faith, repentance, baptism, holy ghost, endure to the end). I loved something Elder Bednar said. He said "We are proclaiming CONTINUAL dependence on Christ." We are helping people learn to rely on their Savior. It isn't just a one time thing, be baptized and that's it. It is teaching them to live the holier way of life. I think this is a great reminder to all of us really. We need to be consistently living the DOC to help us to be continually converted and to build our faith!

The craziest thing that happened though was the Brethren announced some big changes to the missionary program throughout the world! Mainly regarding our schedules! We now have freedom over when we want to have studies, have a 30 minute lunch instead of an hour, have daily planning in the morning instead of night, and now have more time before bed to write in journals, do whatever we need to do, and have the flexibility to go to bed earlier if we want! Pretty cool things! They also have given us longer p-days by cutting out some studies and exercise to allow us to really get everything done on that day and be able to focus throughout the week! We are really excited about the changes! The Lord is giving us more agency here to decide how best to do His work in our areas, and is giving us the chance to show Him our dedication and faith in Him! We are excited to live this new schedule! They also changed some of our key indicators to help us focus on what is the most important!

Lots of big things happening here. But each week is also full of so many small miracles. This week the bulk of our work was slowed because of the holidays and everyone going home to be with their families, but we were able to meet with a few investigators still. We were grateful to get some of our people on a date, as well as help some of our current investigators continue to progress. Slowly but surely. Sometimes, I think this is the hardest part of the work. Having patience in the Lord's time and His plan. Sometimes, I find myself wanting to force the hand of the Lord to help these people move faster or accept it or things like that. All righteous things, but if our desires are not inline with God's will, what is the point? We are here to do His work aren't we? So we need to trust in His will. Christ is the perfect example of this. Pleading with the father to take away His pain, but trusting in His plan. "Not my will, but thine be done." I think we can all apply this principle more fully in our lives. Trusting that when we have trials and challenges, that it is all a part of God's plan for us. How grateful I am for a Heavenly Father that knows me better than I know myself, and has laid out a perfect plan for me. Trust him. Align your will with His, and you truly will always find happiness and peace.

We applied this principle this week with our dear Yu Ting. She still hasn't answered our calls, but we had our elders call her and she picked up, but as soon as she heard it was a foreigner's voice, she hung up. We don't know what happened to cause this reaction, but at least we know now that this is her deciding not to talk to us and not some weird freak thing. It is so hard to let go, but it is all in the Lord's time. I know that one day she will be baptized, but right now just might not be her time.

I am so grateful to be a missionary. Truly it is the best thing I have ever done. Plus it is so fun!! I'm serious people. Missionary work is not all tough and hard and long and tiring. It is a blast! Of course it has its moments, but it is the bomb.

I love you all and hope you all have such a great week! Happy 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- amusement park

2- like kids with candy haha

3- sweet comp on taiwan's version of "teacups"

Bestie Erin (Shen Yen)--she recently visited our family here in Provo and made us all a yummy curry dinner. She just returned from the Taichong Taiwan mission and lives in the ward where Sister Richards is serving in now. She's the sweetest!