Sister Richards takes Taiwan: Week 61: Two Broken Hearts and One Broken Leg Later... (October 2, 2017)

大家好

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival! This week we have been celebrating this Taiwanese holiday with lots of moon cakes and the smell of a lot of meat cooking in the air! ha I hope you all had a wonderful week! This week was wonderful and just as crazy and busy as usual! The sweet life of a YongHe STL. I love it!

This week started on an awesome note with our power p-day of a morning sunrise hike, visiting Jiu Fen and Shi Fen all in one day! hah Started our week on a great note!

We saw a whole lot of miracles this week starting with finding 6 new investigators! We met some SUPER COOL people this week and are so pumped to start working with these people! They came from all different sources: some from English class, some from our own efforts, and others from members! So we are excited to start seeing more miracles come as we teach these wonderful people!

Well, because I am sure you are all wondering about my title, I'll briefly explain some of our big happenings of this week. hahah ok bear with me. Well, bad news first. Our SUPER amazing Alice has run into some big family fandui (opposition?) and is no longer wanting to meet with us because she is so afraid about upsetting her family:((( We are so sad about it because she was supposed to be baptized this upcoming Saturday and is SO prepared! She has already gained a testimony of the Book of Mormon, had her prayers answered, and reads and prays like it is her JOB. But, her husband and in-laws (whom they live with) have expressed that doing so would hurt their family and have made her feel like choosing the church is choosing against their family:(

We are doing everything we can to help her choose faith and to rely on the Lord, but for now we are just praying SO hard for her.

And now for the, well also, bad news. hah But also a little humorous. Last week we had a miracle potential come to church! We were a little bummed going into last Sunday because it just so happened that ALL of our investigators had things that Sunday, and it was looking like we weren't going to hit our key indicators for church or new investigators for the week. BUT, we still had faith and said lots of prayers and worked as hard as we could. And PRAYER WORKS because 5 min after walking into church, we had a member bring her friend up to us and say, "hey! I brought my friend! She wants to stay for all three hours of church and meet with you guys this week!" OK. THANK YOU HEAVENLY FATHER. bam! Hit our key indicators with that miracle. Super super cool miracle. So we met with her! And she is way cool. Loves God, loves how she feels at church, loves everything we teach! So, we are thinking all is great. And it was! Until after she helped us close with a prayer and went to stand up and then literally just FALLS OVER. Like straight up stands up, makes this face of being in pain and then just FALLS FLAT ON THE GROUND. We, obviously VERY confused and concerned and also not knowing exactly what to do here, run over to help pick her up and see what in the world just happened, and she just explains to us that her leg had gone numb and so when she went to stand on it, it just gave out. Still very confused and wanting to help, we pick her up, pat her head, and send her on her way. The next day we send her a little " Hey, it was so nice to meet with you! We love you!" kind of text and threw in a little "Hope your leg is feeling better!" at the end. Then, she responds and says, "Ya, I loved meeting with you and learning about Jesus! Also, I won't be able to meet tomorrow though because I actually broke my leg, just got out of surgery, and have to be in the hospital for the next week. Sorry!" . . . . . SHE BROKE HER LEG. IN OUR LESSON. AND HAD TO GET SURGERY. And can't walk on it now for 3 months (insert one hundred thumbs up emojis) We DIED. It was the craziest and funniest moment of our lives. Long story short, she is still awesome. We went and visited her this past week, and told her that we would drive her to church when she can move again. hahah So yep that happened. Pray for sweet Lu Jm. haha

Well for the sake of my time and yours, I'll pick my last couple of miracles here and wrap it up.

So many cool things happened this week, it is really hard to know where to start. But one super cool thing happened this week. We had just gotten home for the night and had started calling through all of our people, when a random number called us. My companion picks up and the person on the other line says "Hey, is this the sister missionaries?" - yes- "Hey! My name is Norah and I used to meet with the sisters but have been gone for a while and just really want to come to church again. Would it be ok if I came with you guys this week?" Again, HEAVENLY FATHER. He is so good to us. And she did! She came yesterday for all three hours and then set up to meet this week! She seems super cool! We are excited to see where it heads!

Next is Sandy. Sandy came from getting a random referral from a member in TuCheng. All the text said was her name and number, so I didn't have much to go off when I called. But I did, and she set up! We were able to meet with her twice this past week, and she is awesome! Fun fact, she works for Nuskin and some other Utah company called "Rain" or something and so everyone she works with is Mormon! She has already read much of the Book of Mormon, and has a great idea of our church. But, due to a series of events in her life, it seems like now is really her time to accept the gospel! She has been humbled and is now ready to rely on the Savior. It was really sweet actually in her closing prayer the other night she said "Heavenly Father, I am so sorry for waiting so long to know you. Thank you for your patience. I know it has been a while, but don't give up on me. I think now really is my time." She says all of this as she is crying. So, yep, we are also very excited about her. Just lots of super cool people!

Last one I promise. Ok EMILY. I have shared lots about Emily, but for all of you who have forgotten she is the wife of one of our bishopric members. Super cool. Anyways, ever since I started meeting with Emily, she has always been very willing to learn, but a little closed off. Looking at all of this as a good thing, but not really being willing to let herself fully into it. But this week we saw her take LEAPS and BOUNDS in her progression. She had a cool repentance experience, as well as started recognizing many answers from God. And with that came into our lesson the other night just full of light. We asked her if there was anything that she had read in the scriptures lately and particularly liked, and she shared this scripture:

33 O Lord, wilt thou encircle me around in the robe of thy righteousness! O Lord, wilt thou make a way for mine escape before mine enemies! Wilt thou make my path straight before me! Wilt thou not place a stumbling block in my way—but that thou wouldst clear my way before me, and hedge not up my way, but the ways of mine enemy.

We are thinking, ok this is kind of deep where is she going with this? Then she says this, "I really liked this scripture because I decided this week that I want to be baptized, but I have encountered two stumbling blocks of my own- coffee and tea. I have already stopped drinking coffee, but tea is hard for me. But when I read this scripture, I knew that Heavenly Father would help me to overcome my obstacles and help me to be able to be baptized." SO COOL. The gospel changes people. Seriously, I cannot even explain it. She is amazing and getting so close to being baptized. We are praying hard for her!

Well a novel and a half later, I am just sitting here telling you for the millionth time that the gospel really is true. It is so true and so good. This week, a principle that really influenced me was repentance. Seeing some of my investigators gain spiritual experiences through repentance as well as experiencing it myself. I am so far from perfect, and every single day need to repent. It is amazing to feel the before and after of repentance. I love Alma's description of his own before and after feelings in Alma 36. But, I know that that is something that we can all feel as we repent. In our recent meetings, we have been talking a lot about repentance, and the very real fact that we have to repent for all of our sins if we want to be saved. Every single one. We can put off repentance all we want, but the fact of the matter is that it is still there until you clean it. Until you repent. That fact can seem a little overwhelming. But that is what the sacrament is for. We repent daily, try our best to become better and truly change, and let the Savior's grace and mercy take care of the rest.

My invitation to you all this week is simply to repent. We all need it. Stop procrastinating. Stop justifying and just repent.

I hope you all enjoyed conference this past weekend! I am so excited to see it this coming week! Have a great week and enjoy the sweet joy and happiness that comes from living clean, guilt free, and Christ-like lives! 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

1- my girlies

2/3- our pretty p day destination

4- Sandy!