Fun! Fun! Fun!

Sister Zhu! The end of our time together. :(

This week we had a the wonderful Sister Zhu with us!  She is so cute and amazing and was always so happy.  She adapted quickly and was willing to try everything.  We found a new investigator with her as we were tracting and also had a great time speeding around through the streets of Beitun trying to make our appointments.  But, now she has returned home, and is preparing herself for the day she can really come out on a full-time mission.  Love that Sister!

Our investigator pushed her baptismal date back one week.  She will be getting baptized this Sunday.  We are doing all we can to help her fully feel confident in the decision she has made to be baptized.  Developing faith and desire is so important!

With Xie JM and her two girls at The Morphis Family concert.

On Saturday we went with our recent convert Xie Jiemei and her two daughters to The Morphis Family concert.  They are a family of 10 who go around singing and sharing a great message about the love of God and the importance of families.  It was a great opportunity to get to know her better but especially good for us to have the time to better know her two daughters.  They are such cute girls and their moms wish is that her older one will grow to love the gospel and be baptized.  The concert was also a good way for us all to be able to feel the Spirit together.  

This week I've also learned many things that I personally needed to be reminded of.  One of which is to really pray.  Meaning, think well and hard about what it is that I want to communicate with my Heavenly Father.  My prayers had gotten lazy and less meaningful because my focus was not on communicating, it was on finishing so I could go to sleep, or get out the door, etc.  I received a needed and appreciated chastising from the Lord during one of my personal studies.

I encourage all to think about and reevaluate what their thoughts are focused on when praying and making what ever changes are necessary. 

Love you all!

Sister Hsu

On the way to The Morphis Family concert, we saw a man riding a horse. Super strange to see in Taiwan.

Not much to say

Kat: My apologies. I completely thought that I had already posted this one.

Other than the fact that our investigator passed her baptismal interview!  Yay!  She really is so amazing and really ready.  She just really needs to be able to feel it herself.  We are praying that in this time between her interview and her scheduled baptism, the Lord is able to wipe away all of her doubts and fears. 

Other than this amazing news another cool thing started this past week.  We have a "duanchuan" with us for the next week. (duanchuan=short term missionary)  Taichung holds a "duanchuan" opportunity for the Young Men and Young Women of the stakes and send them off to live and work with us missionaries for a week.  It's very cool.  I have never heard of such a thing back in the states but here in Taiwan it's all too common.  Anyways, the young women with us is Sister Zhu, she is 17 years old and is also planning to go an a mission when she turns 19.  She's really cute and willing to bike her bum off to keep up with us.  Funnest part so far I think has been having 6 girls sharing 2 bathrooms in our little apartment. (Our roommate Sister missionaries for DaKeng also have a "duanchuan" this week.)  So far things have worked out pretty good though.  :)

Well, I think that's all... here are some pictures.

Sister Funk with Sister Zhu and Sister Zheng (we picked up Dakengs "duanchuan")

Move-call party with chips, smores and mangos

Sister Funk made me this awesome planner cover for our second move-call together. Love her!

Start of the 6th

Another Move-Call has begun!  I am still with the amazing Sister Funk!  (I absolutely love her)  There were quite a few big changes this time around because there are many missionaries going home, and not very many coming in.  So, a few areas had to close.  Our precious Daya Sisters closed, so both Sister Ting and Sister Grigg are leaving us.  There is really not much else to say...  Things are good.  Our investigator is going to have her Baptismal Interview this week, we are hoping all goes well.  She really is so amazing, she really quickly accepted and began keeping all the commandments we shared with her.  But, her she says she hasn't received confirmation of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, she is continuing to pray as are we that the Lord might give her the answer she needs.  As for the other amazing investigators we had, for some reason or another they are all currently no longer in our area for the time being.  

Recently there have been a few big changes in the mission and although they make things a little bit harder, I've already seen the blessings of being obedient and trusting in the inspiration that our amazing Mission President gets for the Taiwan Taichung Mission.  Obedience is key!  Being out here has really taught me that obedience really does develop faith.  

"First I obey, then I understand." - Marjorie Hinckley

Love you all!

Sister Hsu

P.S.

Lin JM gave me all the photos from our LiPao Land adventure, here are a few.

So many great things!

Last Monday I went to LiPao Land (an amusement park) with Sister Ting, Sister Grigg, Lin JM and Guo JM.  It was a really fun time.  But, I will say that we were there for 2 and a half hours and I was dead tired by the end.  I really gained a lot of respect for those parents who do all day trips at Disneyland.  At least at LiPao Land every single ride had a zero minute wait.  It was awesome.

This week (earlier today) Li Family from when I was in Douliu came to find me and Sister Ting!  Loved seeing them and was able to meet their daughter in person for the first time.  Their family really is amazing and I just love them! 

In terms of not P-Day stuff, our beloved Doris has left for Canada for 2 months.  :(  I hope that by the time she comes back I will still be here to continue teaching her the gospel.  Better yet, I hope that in those two months I hope she is able to meet with the sister missionaries in Canada, gain a testimony and be baptized.  :)  Love her!

Another move-call is coming to a close, both Sister Funk and I feel and hope that we will still be together in Beitun, but only the Lord knows where we are needed the most and are able to the best work.  I trust the counsel of my leaders and I trust the Lord to know exactly what to tell President when it comes to where every single missionary should be each move-call.  

In my studies:

I've been studying in Doctrine and Covenants and the Gospel Principles book recently and have been really interested in the Millennium and the Celestial Kingdom and the three degrees in the Celestial Kingdom.  It's all so interesting to read for myself the things that Heavenly Father wishes for each of us to know.  It's so much more powerful when you can read and learn for yourself of a gospel truth rather than just hear about it from someone else.  

Everyone! Learn all you can about the truths of the gospel!  Heavenly Father has provided a map for never-ending happiness and eternal life.  All we have to do is go and look.

Love you all!

Sister Hsu

Laa,La,Laa...

Lunch, dinner, and a green smoothie

The week has been a pretty dandy one.  Something that you never would have guessed is that for the past few weeks I have been making my own lunch boxes and recently also preparing my own dinners.  Let's get healthy!  Now I just have to work on the "actually work out to the point of being able to claim having worked out" thing.  Mornings are just so hard.

Miracle!  Our awesome investigator who is afraid of water agreed on a baptismal goal!  She really is amazing and so willing to learn and do all the things we invite her to do.  Now we just need to help her to continue to develop her faith so that she can overcome her fears and hit her baptismal goal date!  Yay!

Well, I've only got an hour on email time because we are going to an amusement park today, so this is be all, but hopefully I'll have some good pictures to share for next week.

Bye!

Sister Hsu

One day the sun was unexpectedly bright and hot...

Need to start taking care of my skin

I can't think of a fun title...

But!  This week has been amazing!  Sister Funk and I have made a lot of good goals related to the work as well as our health.  In terms of health, we now make at a green smoothie a day and take it out with us!  Sometimes they are super yummy and sometimes they aren't all that wonderful, we have also decided to prepare our own lunch and snacks so that we can have a little more control over the things we eat.  Wish us luck!  

As far as the missionary work we have made goals with the hopes of becoming more open and receptive to the promptings of the spirit that we may be guided in our actions and decisions.  Better obedience, planning and even more prayers!  We are also working on our own Personal Purification Projects so that we can also have even more personal growth.  Faith, faith and more faith!

But I also tell myself that "faith without action is dead" I've also got just go out everyday and do what needs to be done no matter how nervous I may be or how scared I am of street contacting hahaha.

But even with all the things I need to work on, the Lord still gives us miracles and success.  One of our amazing investigators is so willing to learn and accept our invitations.  It is a blessing every time we are able to meet with her.  She has the desire to do even more but when thinking about baptism she freezes up.  When she was younger she had a traumatizing experience with water where she almost drowned and now the thought of having her face going into the water makes her shake a little bit.  She knows that baptism is an important step and also knows that Heavenly Father is able to do anything including help her overcome her fear, but she is still in the process of developing her faith.  I tell her and bear witness that if she continues to exercise her faith, the Lord can help her.  It is also a reminder to myself.  When the missionary work gets hard or scary I just need to use my faith and the Lord will always provide a way for us to overcome all of our barriers.

Keep the Faith and Use It!

Sister Hsu

P.S.  We went to Shalu on Saturday to see one of Sister Funks previous investigators get baptized.  It was awesome.  I love Shalu.  :)

The focus of the photo is the camera... It is Elder Mayo's and it is a waterproof, shockproof Nikon coolpix. It was amazing. :)

Liya is geting baptized!

Wahoo!

It's been a great first week of the move call!  We we able to meet with some investigators that I had not seen in over a month, truly such a blessing.  I also absolutely love my new companion Sister Funk.  She is full of love and patience which is exactly what I needed in a companion to get back on tract and really focus on the people here.  I really am so excited to see what kind of new things will happen in this move-call and to see the Lord's hand in the work.  I'm not really sure what else to say.  I feel like I've got a renewed fire in my soul, and I really want to just go out onto the streets of Taiwan and spread this message of truth and love!  

Okay, well that's all I think...

Here are some pictures, oh and I don't remember if I mentioned it before but we live in a four man and love every minute.  :)

Picture 1: My companion Sister Funk!!

Picture 2: Our four-man.  Sister Chen, Sister Packard and Sister Funk!