Week 53: ONE YEAR?!? (August 7,2017)

Hey da jiaaaaaaa

Life is just amazing and so nutso. SO MUCH HAPPENED THIS PAST WEEK. 

First of all, SOMEHOW, I have been a missionary for officially one year! Last year, on August 3rd, I started the best adventure of my life! And through all the biking, and sketchy foods, and unpurified water, and typhoons, and Taiwanese traffic, and hills, I AM STILL ALIVE. And, oh so well. In fact, I have never been happier in my whole life. This week was just another great example to me of the power of the Lord and the miracles that come from being a part of this amazing work. 

This past week, I hit STL life running with two exchanges and MLC! These exchanges were a little crazy because I had been in our area all of THREE DAYS before I had to lead around other sisters here. hah So, that was fun. Luckily, our area is pretty small, but oh man. Let's just say the Lord really guided us! But, it brought so so many miracles! I love these cute sisters in our zones, and look forward to keep going on exchanges over these next two weeks! 

This week, the miracles just came rollin in, and all in different forms! Some in the form of SO much free fruit, others in the form of new investigators, and others as just lots of happy things. This week some of our favorites were:

Tiffany- Tiffany came up to us the other day in a 7/11 where we were doing our language study and looks at my companion and says, "You smiled at me the other day on the street. Do you remember?" Of course, in that moment, Sister Reinhard starts racking her brain to try and remember which one of the millions of people we smile at daily this woman was... BUT, the Spirit truly does bring things to our remembrance, and she remembered this woman! Tiffany then came and sat next to us for a bit, and we were able to give her a power lesson on the Book of Mormon. She shared with us that she was already Christian, but was very interested to learn more about this book and our religion! We met with her this past week, and she continues to have a lot of interest! We are planning on putting her on a baptismal date this week! Super cool miracle.

Emily- Emily is a referral from the Tainan sisters (in the Taizhong mission)! She and her member husband were just recently married, and just moved up to YongHe. We met her yesterday at church, and she is SO COOL. She came to all hours of church, our new member fireside at night, and set up mulitiple times to meet with us in the coming week! We are confident that she will be able to be baptized this month!! 

Mistral- Ok. I think Mistral is the biggest miracle of all. Mistral was met last week by the ZhongHe sisters that live with us in the same apartment. They met her WHILE WASHING THEIR HANDS IN THE BATHROOM.(Talk to everyone people.) And, she was interested! So, they got her number and passed her over to us. She came to English class this past Wednesday, and we were able to set her up to come with us to the New Member Fireside that happens every first Sunday of the month. When I called on Saturday night to confirm that she could still come to the fireside, she said, "yes of course! Also, do you have church services tomorrow? I would love to attend that too." . . . . . . . . . . YES MISTRAL YES. So, Sunday comes around, and she attends all three hours of church! But these weren't just any three hours of church... This was probably the CRAZIEST church day I have ever been to. Fast and testimony meeting was nice, but then gospel principles class started and what was the topic? Oh, The Word of Wisdom. And we just happen to have the craziest teacher ever who I don't think spoke slower than 50mph for the whole hour, told everyone that if they drank coke they couldn't go to the Celestial kingdom, and said that chocolate was also against the word of wisdom.... I don't think Sister Reinhard and I have ever prayed harder in our lives than in that hour... oh but there is more. Relief Society came and it all seemed to be going well, UNTIL a sister stopped the teacher in the middle of the lesson to pretty much call everyone in the relief society out for harshly judging others and broke down in front of the whole room... SO again. We were praying so hard. After the meeting THANKFULLY came to an end, we parted ways and were slightly afraid as to what Mistral even thought... But, she showed up to come to the fireside! As we were all on the MRT heading over to JinHua Chapel, we asked her what she thought of church and she said "I thought it was really great. I especially loved the second hour and the high standards you all have. I think it is wonderful." . . . . . . At that moment, Sister Reinhard and I practically died and said so many thankful prayers to Heavenly Father for helping her to hear and most importantly FEEL the things that she needed to from that crazy day. SO amazing. And the great moments just kept rollin in. When we got to JinHua chapel (the biggest chapel in Taiwan that is right next to the temple), we had some time, so we gave her a temple tour and taught her a simple restoration lesson. Though quick and simple, our lesson was powerful and the spirit was strong, and Mistral accepted a baptismal date for 8/26! It is 3 weeks away.. normally we don't put people that soon, but we just had this great feeling that she will be ready by then! It was all just so amazing. SHE IS AMAZING. THE LORD IS AMAZING.

And these are just SOME of the amazing miracles that were brought this week. This is the best work EVER. 

Let's be real, I could go on for days, but I just want to end by saying that I love all of you and the Lord loves you too. This week something that stood out to me was the simplicity of the gospel. Practically every single page of the Book of Mormon reminds us of that. Come unto Christ and be perfected. Have faith. Repent. Be cleansed of your sins. Be baptized by proper authority. Live worthy of those covenants so the Holy Ghost may always be with you. Keep the commandments. Endure. And if we do, the blessings that come are endless. 

This is the Doctrine of Jesus Christ. This is the good news of the gospel. Live it and Love it. Love you all!

xoxo

Sister Richards

李姐妹

Lǐ Jǐemeì

Sister Micah Richards

Taiwan Taipei Mission

4/F, #24, Lane 183

Jin Hua Street

Taipei, Taiwan 106

ps HAPPY BIRTHDAY CINDY

pps Just received my official return date. I'll be returning home Feb 24th 2018! 

1- passion fruit:)))

2- MISTRAL

3- first exchange evaaa
4- Sister Eyring and I after performing "How Great Thou Art" at the new member fireside.
5-JiuFen. Taibei can be beautiful too:)
6- your favorite asian:)