I hope you all had a wonderful week and spoiled your mommas rotten! Moms are the absolute best things out there! I love my own mom so so much and am so grateful for her and everything she does! LOVE YOU MOMMA ANG! Taiwan goes HARD for mother's day. We had two huge ward and stake activities that included the men preparing a meal for everyone, dancing dads, karaoke, talent shows and performances, slide shows of everyone in the ward talking about their moms, videos, and more! It was crazy. hah Plus your normal flowers on Sunday at church. hah Mother's Day was more celebrated here than Christmas!
This week was so crazy and busy and we are so exhausted but happy. That right there pretty much describes us missionaries every day. Tired but Happy.
This week was such a good one as it was Sister Birch's first full week in Taiwan! We saw so many miracles as we worked hard and trusted in the Lord. Sister Birch is such an awesome missionary. She is so hard working, diligent, and faithful! This week we set some awesome goals for this transfer ahead of us, and I know that through our work and faith and relying on the Lord fully, we will be able to achieve them! Sister Birch and I have so much fun together as we go about doing this crazy work. This week has been especially fun as she is getting used to riding a bike everyday in a skirt, eating lots of "questionable" mystery foods, and slowly being able to understand more and more. One thing that I love about her though is how wonderfully she relies on the Spirit. Right now, she is still having a hard time understanding a lot, but she is always tuned in to the voice of the Spirit and it has brought so many miracles!
Some of the greatest miracles this week have been just the small ones. A church lesson being exactly what an investigator needed, progressing investigators finding their "ah-ha" moments, members working hard to share the gospel, and finding some really cool people through the guidance of the Spirit.
We saw a lot of great progression with Cindy this week, and are hoping to see her baptized by the end of this month! Cindy is such a miracle in and of herself. When I met her, she was atheist with absolutely no religious background. She now prays and reads the BOM everyday, and believes in God! The downside is that she is a "sciencey" kind of person, and needs a big answer to be able to go forth and take that last step into baptism. We are really going to work hard to help her and know the Lord will bless our efforts and hers and she sincerely seeks to know the truth!
We've been trying a new finding technique lately that we like to call "7/11 sit downs." Here in our mission, we do a lot of street finding and knocking. Depending on where you are, one or the other is more common. On my mission, I have personally found a lot more success from finding on the street than knocking, but in the area I am currently serving, the street finding areas are more limited. Plus, there are a lot of really touristy places that make finding locals out and about a little more tricky. BUT, lately we have been doing something new. Here in Taiwan there are a million and a half convenience stores. These people live off of these things! We tried this week a new finding approach of going into these stores and sitting down and talking to the people there. We found that more of the people sitting in there eating, studying, working, etc.. live in Hualian, and because they are already there sitting down, it represents that they have some time that they could potentially talk! Our approach method changes every time. "Hey, can you help us read this?" or "Hey, do you know how to get to this place?" or whatever it may be. But we just start a natural conversation with them that eventually leads into the gospel. It creates a very safe and comfortable environment where we are less of the "weird foreigners stopping people in their tracks" but more of "nice missionaries asking for help and then sharing something directly for them." It has been incredible the success that we have been able to see from it. Our coolest one this week was last night!
Yesterday, was a bit of a bummer because ALL of our plans fell through, so we ended up hitting the streets for most of the day. It was nearing the end of the night, but we decided to stop at one more 7/11. We went in and found that there was only one lady sitting in there and was busy doing some sort of work. There were papers all over the table and she was pretty diligently reading these documents. I'm going to be honest. When we looked at her, she didn't look too promising to have an awesome conversation with... but we still tried. We tried an approach with her and she was nice and helpful, but didn't seem to want to chat. So we sat back down at our table and wondered what to do. I wanted to leave to go and find some more "productive" places to go find people, but Sister Birch and I both had this feeling that we should stay. Sister Birch grabbed an English tract and just walked over to her and handed it to her and said "hey, we have this English class. You should come." And then started walking away, when the woman turned back to us and said, "Hey, you guys are Mormon right?" We don't hear that very often! So we started talking to her. LONG story short, that small intro led into a long discussion about our church and her asking a question relating directly to the Plan of Salvation, giving us a chance to sit down and teach her the whole second lesson right on the spot! It was so incredible and she was so so invested! And to think we were about to leave... all we did was invite her to English class, but the Lord is really putting those prepared people in our path, we just have to be brave enough to open our mouths! She loved what we shared with her and set up for this Wednesday, so I'll keep ya'll posted on that;)
This week I loved my studies in the New Testament. I am currently really trying to study about the life of our Savior and His character, to know how to better emulate Him and represent Him in this work. I read so many awesome things and wish I could share them all, but one thing that particularly stood out to me this week was a verse in Matthew 12:30 where Christ says "if you aren't with me you are against me." This really stood out to me because Christ is so clearly telling us, you're either all in or all out. There is no gray area. I think there are many of us that sometimes create too much gray area when it comes to living the gospel. Lowering our standards just a little to fit the standards of the world or even just of those around us, or selectively obeying the commandments. I think we are all guilty of one thing or another, but Christ tells us so simply. Choose to be on my side. Follow me. It is our faith and actions that sign us up for either team. I invite you all to think about what side you want to be on, and what team you are currently playing for. Choose team JESUS.
My friends and fam I love you all dearly. I am so blessed to have so many wonderful people by my side while out here serving the Lord. Thank you for all that you all do for me! I am praying for you all! I hope you all have a wonderful week!
xoxo
Sister Richards
李姐妹
Lǐ Jǐemeì
Taiwan Taipei Mission
4/F, #24, Lane 183
Jin Hua Street
Taipei, Taiwan 106
1- Mom and baby on mothers day;)
2- mosquitos taking a hit on Sister Birch as well- she really is my baby hah
3- Day one with Sister Birch! (plus Taiwan humidity at its finest hah)
4- Exchanges with my bestie Sister Apsley
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