Longest week so far...

Really though.  This week has probably felt like the longest week since I've been out in the field.  We had a lot of travelling and made time to meet a lot of different members.

This week was Power Week.  The funny thing about this is that we would always plan the time into do the specific challenge (ex. hand out 13 Book of Mormon's)  But do to unexpected appointments or situations, most of our Power Week time fell through.  The biggest cause would probably have to be the Leadership Fireside that we are holding this coming Saturday.  Elder Yeh, as a last great event before he goes home next week came up with the idea as a way to help further strengthen the Branch.  So, this past week was a week of planning and meeting with members to invite them to the event.  We really are hoping it is a success and that all the people we invited attend.  I guess instead of Power Week, we had a Power-Up Douliu Week.  :]  

This past week I also had my first experience where an investigator 100% has no desire to know more and feels the message has and won't have any affect in her life.  It was a bit of a blow.  But, it's okay.  I still love her a lot and she said she will continue to come to English Class.  I just hope one day she will have the opportunity to know this Gospel. 

On Saturday we were invited to help with Missionary Day in Jiayi, a Young Men and Young Women activity where they can go out with missionaries and have a missionary experience.  Because of the turn out, I was one on one with a Young Woman from the Douliu Branch.  I was pretty concerned about street contacting in Jiayi because I am not familiar with the area and I would not have Sister Ting there to help me if things got a little bumpy.  But, when the time came, I kind of had this "just suck it up" kind of feeling and just went for it.  I feel like the Lord definitely had a hand in giving me the courage to talk to so many people.  It was really a good growing experience for me and the YW had said she realized missionary work is harder and a bit scarier than she originally had thought. 

On Sunday we went to Taizhong for a Mission Conference.  There we had the opportunity to hear from the Presiding Bishop of the Church, Bishop Stevenson and his wife.  Our very own President Blickenstaff and Sister Blickenstaff spoke to us as well.  It was a very good conference.  One part I'd like to share is PRO.  How to be Pro for Heavenly Father

P - Pray - Over and Over (Alma 37:37) 

R - Read - Time after Time (1 Nephi 15:24)

O - Obey - Again and Again (Mosiah 2:41)

Something that we have been challenging our members to do is to pray for missionary opportunities.  Pray for them and you will receive.  But you must also pray with real intent so that when the opportunity presents itself, you will actually go and take it.

Bishop Stevenson also invited all of us to diligently invite others to come unto Christ.  If you feel a prompting to invite someone to church, or take missionary discussions.  DO IT!!  

Wah, this time around there are so many invitations.  But, I promise you that if you diligently try and become PRO and pray for missionary opportunities, you and your family will be blessed with even greater faith, happiness and conviction.  

Keep the Faith!

Sister Hsu

Pictures

1. On some Sundays, we go to our bikes and find food.  I love Douliu.

2. Li Jiating, their dinners are not only healthy, but are restaurant quality.  :]  Super Yummy!

3. My favorite chocolate bar.  It's super popular here and you can hardly find it anywhere anymore.  So, I love having such a supportive District. 

So much to say, but so little time.

What happened this week?  Feels like so much happened, but at the same time so little.  I suppose I'll start by mentioning a few miracles I was during the week.

I was able to meet with one of our former's that we had been trying to get in contact with since I came to Douliu.  I gave her a call, once again hoping to be able to meet up with her.  She had said she was busy but would call us when she found some time.  In all honestly I was thinking it just wasn't going to happen.  But, a few hours later she calls back and sets up with us to go out for breakfast the next day.  We discovered she not only still prays, she also still studies the Book of Mormon.  She is unable to come to church because of some family reasons, but other than that I feel like she is wanting more of the gospel, but in her current situation she is just isn't able to.

Another tender mercy happened in XiLuo.  We had tried calling one of our less-actives to set up a time to meet her while we were in XiLuo, but never ended up getting a hold of her.  So, upon arriving in XiLuo we went to her house and was told that she headed out earlier and they weren't sure when she would be back.  We were a bit disappointed in not being able to see her and went to our bikes to get ready to go, when I look up and there she is, walking towards us, just after getting out of a car.  In the end, she had time and we were able to meet with her and share a message and invite her to some of our church activities and to come on Sunday.  If the Lord wants us to meet someone, He will make it happen.

On another note, Elder Long went home yesterday and found out Elder Turner will be going to a new area as of today.  So Elder Dawson will be Elder Yeh's companion until the next move call (in two weeks) when Elder Yeh will also be going home.  Another change is that our Douliu Branch is closing a set of Elders.  So from now on there will be one set of Sisters and One set of Elders.  It is all so strange.  So many large changes are happening just as I'm about to finish up my 12 weeks training, which also means I'll most likely be getting a new companion this next move-call.  

On a funny and yet slightly kuazhang note.  Yesterday we were invited to have dinner with Li Jiating in XiLuo.  It's about an hour bike ride, and initially, all of us (all the Douliu missionaries) were supposed to ride our bikes from the church together since we'd all be there giving Elder Turner a going-away surprise.  Se Sister Ting and I head out, hoping to get a bit of a head start since the Elders usually ride faster.  We are about 15-20 minutes out when I hear someone yelling, "Jiemei!  Jia you!"  I look back and it's the Elder riding in a members car to XiLuo...  Wah.  Really.  How Bu Gong Ping! (Unfair!)  When we finally get to the house, we find all of them prostrating themselves and welcoming us. Hahaha.  

Okay, well I'm about out of time.  (spent too much time figuring out music stuff.)  

There was so much more stuuf that happened, like being able to see Jane again before she started school and there was also the Music fireside.  So much, but so little time.  Haha.  

Love all of you!  Keep the Faith!

Sister Hsu

A week of traveling

So this past week there has been quite a bit of travelling.  On Monday we went to Jiayi for P-day with one of our members.  On Tuesday we went to Jiayi for Zone Training Meeting.  On Wednesday we went to Jiayi for interviews with President and Sister Blickenstaff.  On Saturday I went to Tainan to pick up Chen JM from exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders.  I loved having all these opportunities, but recently any form of transportation other than a bike leaves me feeling really nauseous and dizzy, so they were great opportunities but also very tiring opportunities.

On Monday we went to Jiayi to have lunch with a members family for guo nian as well as to get some color put into my hair by her niece.  She really was so nice.  She offered to do it for me, I just had to provide the dye and foil.  It's quite a long process putting highlights all throughout my hair.  It was so good except for the fact that I had woken up that morning feeling a bit queasy.  So I was actually unable to really eat anything they had prepared for lunch.  I felt really bad about it, but was pretty sure if I had anything but soup, I'd vomit.  That night we were invited to dinner by another family of members and I was also unable to eat very much there.  But, while we were there I was beginning to feel quite terrible.  By the time we got home by whole body hurt and I had a fever.  I ended up turning in early only to wake up about an hour later to go and throw up.  It was one of the biggest, most horrible, best vomiting experiences I've ever had.  The vomiting part of course was the horrible part, but right after I was done, I felt almost completely better.  My stomach finally felt comfortable and I was able to have a comfortable sleep.  The sad part is after I was done, my companion started, and hers went on for several hours...  It was a night of illness alright.

On Tuesday we were both feeling weak and pretty crappy and couldn't make it to breakfast with our Ward Mission Leader.  But we rested well enough to make it to Jiayi for ZTM.  ZTM was really good.  Our Zone Leaders really are inspired and always seem to address things that I had been wondering or concerned about.  I was also able to get the first boxes of Phase 2 and Phase 3 for my language study.  After ZTM I started to pass off Phase 1 Lesson 1-3 with the Zone Leader, Elder Chia.  He is from Singapore and is the best at role playing.  It is hard to describe...  basically his charater portrayal is basically perfect, but at the same time there is still some Elder Chia in there and it just makes the whole pass off a bit more interesting.  After about an hour we still weren't done so we scheduled to finish on Wednesday before interviews.  

On Wednesday we went back to Jiayi for interviews with the President and to have area book and planner checks.  The interview with President Blickenstaff went really well.  I had originally been a little bit nervous about it, but really it was a chance for him to know how we are doing and how he can help.  I really am so glad that I have come out during President Blickenstaffs time.  It really is a blessing.  Because I had to finish my Phase 1 pass off (which in the end we still have a little bit more we need to finish on another day) we got there about an hour early, but due to the schedules slowly getting pushed back, we didn't get back to Douliu until about 6pm.  The rest of the night consisted of English meeting and English class.  It's been really different being in Xiao Pengyou Ban (The little kids class)  I really do miss being able to talk to my previous Gao ji ban (Advanced class) students.  But!  Kirt, a student from the advanced class gave be a bag of treats for Chinese New Year.  It really was so nice.  

On Friday we had exchanges.  This time I stayed in Douliu and Chen JM went to Tainan.  I was so nervous about it.  I felt like I would get us lost and would be a huge disappointment without Chen JM to help pull me out of trouble when I felt like my Chinese was lacking.  But, something strange happened.  Sister Adams got her and I thought I heard a click go off in my head.  It was like "She doesn't know this place, she doesn't know your RCs, she doesn't know your LAs.  Just do it."  And I did.  She got here, I told her we had an appointment with He Mama, told her what we planned and we were off.  I got us there, started talking to He Mama.  I was doing all the talking that Chen JM usually did.  We shared our lesson, when things got off tract I puled it back as best as I could.  It was a very strange feeling, just talking and talking and keeping the lesson and conversation going.  Over all it went pretty well.  After that we had planned to do maps around the area.  I had never been the one to navigate maps before, but I pulled the book out, started looking at the road names and nearby places that I knew and I got us to the next destination.  After that we had correlation.  This meant I'd have to update our Ward Mission Leader on the progress of the people we were meeting.  My first time!! But, surprisingly enough it went fine.  There were a few parts where I wasn't sure how to explain something, but Yeh Zhanglao was there to help me translate a bit.  After that we went to an appointment with a LA and it was one of the best lessons I've been able to be a part of.  The Spirit was so strong and it was the first time where I felt like the responses I was giving to her questions were coming from a source other than myself.  The most amazing part is that the lesson had gone so well, and I was the one leading it.  Ever since I had come out to the field, leading lessons had been the hardest thing for me to do.  Basically what I learned form the whole experience is that maybe I'm not as terrible of a missionary as I think and that I can do it.  I am able to do stuff.  Yay!

This week was also a good week of change.  One of our RC's who we had really begun to start worrying about was able to meet up with us and we were able to help her take notice of how she was doing spiritually and committed her to come to church on Sunday.  We were also able to go and visit one of our LA's whose husband had been in pretty bad condition in the hospital.  She was doing surprisingly well, but was able to share a bit of her testimony with us.  On Sunday one of our potential investigators from English class came to church for the first time.  She said the experience was normal, but was willing to find a time for us to meet with her.  On Sunday He Mama, also not only came to church, but also brought a friend with her.  It was awesome.  A miracle from the exchange would have to be Sister Adams contacting a girl who was a former that loved church and said the reason she didn't get baptized was because she was just too busy.  

So, all in all this past week was jam packed with a lot of new and fun experiences.  

I hope all of you are taking the time to do some daily scripture study.  Even one verse a day is good if you are busy.  Get in the habit!  It's one of the things I regret not having done before the mission.  I love the Book of Mormon!

Sister Hsu

More Chinese New Year Photos!

The point of the photo of my face is to show that the rain was so intense it completely washed all the makeup off of one of my eyes (although its a bit hard to tell because of my puffy, sleep deprived eyelid)  I'm thinking my other eye was okay because it was protected by my bangs...

Happy Chinese New Year!

My first real celebration of Chinese New Year.  Basically that means eating a ton for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Our Branch was so sweet to make a sign up list to see who could have us over for the meals during the 4 main days of Chinese New Year.  At first I was feeling pretty Bu Hao Yisi about it, but the President said if they didn't take care of us, we'd just have to eat ramen at home for Guo Nian because all the shops are closed and that would just be way to sad.  Hahaha.  So the pros, we got to spend time and eat a ton of yummy food with different members.  The cons, I needed to figure out how to eat a ton of food with just a few hours break between meals.   I quite literally prayed for the Lords help in making it so that my body would be able to eat a ton and keep it all down.  Don't get me wrong, the food was absolutely delicious, but when you eat so much there comes a point where it wants to push itself back out.  Miraculously I was able to eat heartily and keep it.  Although keeping it also means keeping all the weight that comes with it, it's worth it if it is for Guo Nian.  They all say that Guo Nian is the exception and after, we can all focus on losing the weight we packed on.  Hahah.  

On Sunday we had one hour of church and then went to Gukeng for a Branch Hiking Activity.  Xu Family has a house up on a "hill" that they occasionally go to and offered to have the activity there,  So basically, a small hike and then dinner.  I got pretty car sick on the way up the "small" hill (small mountain more like it) but after we arrived my brain slowly stopped spinning.  We pretty soon started our hike.  It was oddly overcast and had even started sprinkling a little bit on the way but once we got to the peak of our hike it was like an Arizona monsoon.  Really, the heavy rain came out of no where.  So we all pretty quickly went from really warm and moist from the humidity to really warm and soaking wet.  Luckily the rain didn't stay too long.  :]  It was still a pretty good hike albeit harder than I was expecting.  We got back and they had a bunch of food prepared.  Probably had the largest pot of seafood soup I had ever seen.  It's good we got back when we did because shortly after an even more intense rain started.  I felt so bad and grateful to the priesthood leaders who were grilling meat for us outside under the protection of some metal sheets and large leaves...  

On another note, we currently have an investigator!  She is actually a Christian of another church.  Our largest hurdle with her is the fact that she has no desire whatsoever to read the Book of Mormon.  She absolutely loves the Bible and studies it everyday, but says her goal is to finish the Bible so she doesn't want to spend the time to read the Book of Mormon.  Sometimes it is hard to watch because we can invite and promise blessings, but it of course is only up to the person's desire if it is to be done.  AGENCY!  One of the greatest gifts given to us.  

In the end, Guo Nian has been amazing, but it has also been a time when no one has the time to meet up with us to discuss the gospel.  So it's been a fun, interesting and strange week.