I am FROZEN! Coming to you live wearing three jackets and gloves while typing this email. hahah You would think that I would have been prepared for the winter seeing that I have already had one here in Taiwan, but NOPE. Honestly so so cold. hah Me and Sister Zhong are not ok.
Well, another week has just come and gone like that. This whole time thing is too crazy for me. Somehow, we are already halfway through December, and I just got an email today telling me to register for my plan so I AM NOT OK. (my plan is this thing that missionaries do their last transfer to make plans and goals for the rest of their life haha) My time here has been the most precious thing in the world to me, and it is crazy to me that it is slowly wrapping up.
This week felt very festive as we started celebrating the holidays with our ward, mission, and stake as we had many activities and performances to kick off Christmas! We went caroling probably 30 times this week, had lots of ward service activities, and started some of our mission's missionary choir performances, so needless to say we were busayyyyyy. But still saw lots of cool miracles.
This week we were excited to meet with Penny and have a great conversation about some of her concerns. We have been feeling like we are going in circles with her lately, teaching her, her kind of doing things, and nothing really progressing. This week we felt prompted to have her write down a list of things "holding her back from being baptized" and were happy to receive some more direction on where we should go to help her. It was cool to see that, though her concerns were complicated and deep (as everything that Penny thinks is hah), they all came back to needing to receive a testimony of the Restoration of the gospel. It is crazy how everything is so interrelated. I love that, though this gospel has much to be learned and understood, the basics are so simple. We are excited to help her grasp this principle.
Sister Zhong and I had lots of great exchanges this week and saw SO many miracles. From getting new investigators from area book finding (we picked a random potential from years back that had an address and chose to visit her, and she was there, we were able to teach her a lesson, and set up to come again!) To Just talking to everyone and getting some great set ups, sudden chapel tours with people we met right outside of the church, investigators fellowshipping each other at church, and so on so on.
One of my favorite little miracles this week was with our two sweet grandma investigators, ji jiemei and zeng jiemei. Oh my. Those two KILL me. They are the sassiest old ladies I have ever met and are the SAME. Both old, both have a Christian background, both have daughters that are members in the states, both have suffered through cancer, both are learning about the gospel. They sat by each other at church on Sunday and started talking and we're LOVIN it. They chatted for a while between classes and decided they wanted to be friends. Even better, they decided that they want to be baptized on the same day! Haha we still don't know when that will be, but zeng jiemei goes back to America at the beginning of February so sometime before then! We were so pumped. Haha...Love it when investigators fellowship themselves!
One thought that I have pondered about a lot this week is that of happiness. When we live the gospel we are truly happy. Not just happy because you ate a yummy treat or saw an old friend or even got a good grade on a test, because that happiness is fleeting and will come and go. The gospel brings lasting happiness. The kind of happiness that fills you. A joy that propels you to do better and be better. A joy that will last eternally and will carry you through the hardest of times. That is the joy that comes from living the gospel of Jesus Christ. Not just going through the motions. Not just talking the talk. But from living it. Writing the gospel into our lives. Allowing it to become a part of you. Allowing it to change you. I think the key to being happy, whether that is as a member or missionary, is just simply that. Live the gospel. Preach the gospel. If you aren't living it or spreading it, of course you won't be happy! The gospel is simple. The truths are eternal. And the key to happiness and salvation is in our hands. We just need to take it.
I love you all and wish you the happiest week as you spend time with loved ones this Christmas season. 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
Some p day adventures as of late...
Our members have been giving us so so much dongxi it is crazy. Hah Merry Christmas!
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