One Sister, One Country, One Mission :): Week 4 in Taiwan

Sis. Jarvis has found a new favorite treat - ice topped with chocolate and peanuts!!

Hello Fam!!

I love hearing from all of you and hearing how life is going :) I love you all so much!

Well first up on the list is.....NT's baptism is this saturday!! Am I excited? O yes! Am I shocked that we are already having a baptism? Most definitely........so I am so grateful for this beautiful experience I have had to watch Nitti grow and gain such a strong testimony. She's not just ready, she's super ready........and she really knows who her Heavenly Father and Savior are and will continue to learn. She is also a really deep Gospel thinker.....for example, this last week we were finishing the rest of the commandments and read a scripture to introduce tithing. NT gave this beautiful explanation of tithing being a way we can thank Heavenly Father for all that He has given us and why it is important that we do it...when she was done we were like, "um perfect! On to Fasting!" haha jk, we went into a little more detail on tithing, but she really is so deep when it comes to Gospel principles!

This week was really humbling as the last few weeks we have been very blessed to have a lot of lessons and a lot of adds (people we meet on the street or call who set up a time to meet with us), but this week we had more people cancel with us and didn't get as many adds. It made me very grateful for the little things! :) Our mission leaders just gave us a goal for September to have 100,000 other lessons this month as a mission! This means every companionship needs to contact 300 people a week- that's a lot of people, but a lot of people who will be invited to hear the Gospel this month!

We had this dear sweet lady who is in her 60s or so, has 5 dogs and 3 cats, and we visit her every Wednesday morning in her sewing shop :) She's been reading and praying, but hasn't really been progressing all that much in feeling the truth. She came to church last week for the entire block and in Relief Society she said she received an answer in regards to a family issue she is dealing with her right now......we love it when investigators say that :D When we met with her this last week, we asked her how she could apply the scripture we had been reading to her life and she totally made a personal connection! I feel like she is really beginning to see the love of God in her life and how much this Gospel can help/change her life.........we're hoping and praying that she will continue to stay strong and this could be her month! :)

Another investigator-like story haha......once upon a time my companion and I went tracting down this bai-bai (the main cultural religion where they burn money to their ancestors) road and knocked on the door of T and his wife Z (in their 50s). They invited us in and we have met with them twice since then and every time is quite an experience :) haha T always sits there and makes his tea while we talk to them and Z is pretty quiet as T does most the talking. He has a hard time focusing in on the lesson as he can't quite understand why we can't have tea (he always pours us hot water :) ), so the lessons tend to kind of go all over the place....BUT they are feeling something because last time he told us that he wants his sons to have this Gospel because he thinks it would do something for them and told Sister Gibson last time that he has always believed in God, but never really done anything to show respect to Him or develop a relationship with Him. We had a couple from the ward come with us last night so that was a little more helpful, but hopefully something will click with them and he'll see what we're trying to teach them!

Something big that I learned this week was that happiness doesn't come before the work, it comes after. I was reading the talk by Elder Wirthlin in the August Liahona which talks about fulfilling our duty....we have to be dilligent and fulfill our duty AND then the happiness and joy will come - such a good reminder for every day!

Love you lots and lots!!!

Sister J :)