February 16, 2014

Hi Mom and Dad!

This week has been great! It's flown by, as usual, and this week will too because we're all pretty excited about Saturday! Apparently Elder Holland might open it up for a question and answer, so that would be really cool. I'm trying to think of a really good question...haha.
(If you missed last week's post, Elder Holland will be attending Amie's Taiwan Taipei Mission Conference this weekend.  What an amazing opportunity to hear from this sweet apostle in person!)

And as for transfers, nothing changed! Sister Peay and I are still here in Zhu Nan and it's great. Only one Elder in our district moved. So now our new district member (and leader) is Elder G. He's really nice. It's interesting, because he's only one transfer ahead of me. And he and his companion came in at the same time, so they're both fairly young. I'm excited for this transfer, it'll be fun.

Amie's District in Zhu Nan

Good job on the Old Testament! I've gotten into the cool stories part again, I just started Joshua today, and once you get to that part, it goes a lot easier. Haha, the stories are so cool. I love the story of the City of Jericho, it's super interesting. And it makes everything in the Book of Mormon make more sense too, so you'll like it. 

This week's been good, freezing, but good. Haha, you weren't kidding about the bitter cold that they have here Dad. I was hoping that the coldest part of winter was already gone, but it came again this week. It's ok though, I just have to wear lots of layers and remember how cold I was when the hot summer finally comes around. We didn't have any heaters for a while, and we finally gave in and accepted the Elders offer to give us one, so it's nice and warm now when we sleep, but it was pretty cold before that. It's a little warmer today, but everyone says it's going to get colder on Wednesday again, so I'm not getting used to it. I figure this is good, it will just make me extra grateful for the heat in summer, hopefully. 

Probably, the biggest miracle this week (even though we had a lot, it's been awesome) was C W Q. So, we met with him Tuesday, and we had brought a member with us, and it probably wasn't the best choice for a 'peike' on our part, because we were really afraid at the end of the lesson that we just lost him as an investigator. But, as a miracle, we met with him again Friday, and we brought a different member to peike, who served a mission in TaiZhong and she was really great, and basically, he said that he wants to get baptized! It is such a huge miracle, he's been meeting with missionaries off and on for 4 years, and hasn't had a date ever, so it was big. And then he went on, and was like "I know that this is God's church," and even in his prayers he's started to thank Heavenly Father for giving him the second sacred text of the Book of Mormon. It's so awesome. He came to church yesterday, and even asked if he could get baptized today! We told him that he has to be keeping all the commandments first and everything, so his date is still set for 3/8. We're a little apprehensive though, because we're pretty positive he isn't keeping the Word of Wisdom, so we're going to be working on that. But just the fact that he knows the Book of Mormon is true, and he knows that this is God's true church, was amazing. It was by far the highlight of my week. 

Another miracle is H Jei Mei. We've been a little worried, because we're been feeling that she might just like meeting with us, and not necessarily for the gospel, so we met with her on Saturday night and just talked about it. We asked, 'if we were to move, and new missionaries were to come in, would you still go to church?' And after she got over the fact that we would one day move, haha, she was like "Yea, I'd still go." And we asked why, and the jist of it was that she knows it's good and teaches good things. She also wants us to start meeting with her son and get him to come to church too, because she knows it can help his life. She came to church yesterday again as well. So that was also a miracle of the week. This transfer really is going to be awesome! We're going to see lots of miracles, and baptisms. 

Another miracle, was finding 2 new investigators, and setting a date with both of them in the first meeting. One is a Mom, and finding her was a miracle on it's own. We met her contacting one day, but when we tried to call after she wouldn't answer, so we were knocking doors one day in about the same area, and we miraculously found her! She has a daughter and 2 sons, and we shared the message of the restoration and how it blesses families, and she agreed to be baptized! Another one, is a G X S, and his entire story is awesome. He pulled US over (which never happens, haha) and asked us where the church was! This was before the New Year, so we finally got to actually meet with him last week, and set a date, and we originally set 3/15, but then he said he could meet with us more, so we made it 3/8, and went through an entire baptismal planner right there! It was awesome! 

One really fun thing was Valentine's Day, we got roses! Haha, apparently Sister Peay's Dad knows someone in this ward, or has connections some how, so her Dad arranged for us to each receive a bouquet of roses! It was a shock, haha. After taking some pictures and enjoying them, we gave them out to some ward members and random people on the street, haha, it was so fun.

 

English class was also really fun this past week. So many new people came! We were doing our 6 week activity, and we were, of course, doing Valentine's Day. We were originally going to have everyone participate in making cookies, but something happened with the cookies and the Elders, so basically Sister Peay and I spent about an hour entertaining the students with explaining Valentine's Day terms and making cards, and it went so well. A lot of little kids came, and they were super cute. And I taught the students how to make some pop-up cards, haha they loved it and thought it was a lot cooler than it was.

Well, that's been about it for this week. It's been great! We also got a Carrefour market here! (Carrefour is a French hyper mart, similar to Walmart, where we did most of our grocery shopping at in Shanghai.) Haha, it's so big! It opened on Thursday I think, and it was so packed. We're way too excited to go grocery shopping there later today. 

This week has been great. I'm really glad I get to be here for a least one more transfer in ZhuNan. I love this area. I love the smaller town feel, and the people, our investigators, and the members. It's going to be a great transfer. We also have interviews with President Day tomorrow, so I'm excited for that. Interviews are always fun. 

I love and miss you! 

-Qiao Jei Mei