Taiwan Week 23 - Jan. 14 - Gratitude for Good Teachers

 Little miracles this week....

Hey you wonderful folks!

Happy 3rd week of January!! This week went by so fast....we had some exciting things happen this week: some new investigators, happy lessons, guidance from the Spirit, learning, eating delicious food, and just another great week of sharing the Gospel :)

I felt really guided by the Spirit especially this week. Our mission president has asked us to focus on our own conversion this year( geng hao it's also a personal goal :) ) He has asked us to focus on recording thoughts and impressions we receive from the Spirit after praying and reading.......I really really like this because I personally find it easy to just get up and start moving again.......but when we take the time to stop, listen, and feel.....that inspiration really comes into our hearts. My trainer was a super good example of this...she would always have a little notebook next to her and write so much every night! I remember wondering how she wrote so much down, but she just payed attention to the small impressions which really guided our missionary work. I shall eternally be learning the principle of stopping and listening.... it is definitely one of my weaker points.;)  I'm an always on the move kind of person, but I know as we pray and read with earnesty and really seek revelation......in the quietest moments and ways, it will come!
....
Suprise Sister Exchanges this week! We were in the middle of companionship studies on Tuesday when the Zone Leaders called us and said Sister Exchanges are today! What! Everyone thought they were next week so we weren't expecting them at all, and we needed to be ready in the next hour or so to switch..... just another day in the life of a missionary :) After everything got settled, I headed off to Yong Kang with Sister Yen who is awesome! She is from Taiwan, only active member in her family, and a super great missionary :) We had two ward councils that night.......( found ourselves sitting at the big meeting tables with all the ward leaders) and I learned a lot about ward and missionary relations....they are so crazy important! One ward was really willing to help the missionaries with their ideas, and the other one wasn't quite as chipper about it......but it just helped me to see that we really all have the same purpose of helping others come unto Christ and how important it is for the missionaries and ward to work together to build the kingdom in their area.

Miracle: A long time ago last October (it really does seem so far away...) Sister Gibson and I met with an adorable college student from Hong Kong named YJM. She had been to a church in the U.S. and had really liked it so she was really interested. She committed to reading the B of M and praying.............and then we could never get a hold of her again! Then my companion asked me to try her again last week and she answered! She set up to meet with us this week and we had a ittle lesson on coming to know God through our faith...........then the best part was that she came to church on Sunday and seemed to really like it! She is super great and I feel that she is an honest seeker of truth. I love that Heavenly Father never forgets or gives up on His children :) Even if it has been 3 months, it has only been a minute to Him.....she has a really beautiful light about her and am excited for her to begin on this wonderful path of the Gospel!

Sister Liang got a call Tuesday night while I was in Yong Kang from the assistants telling her our companionship has been asked us to teach one of the training lessons at Zone Conference on Tuesday! We were both a little shocked by this, but I wasn't worried because Sister Liang is an awesome teacher :) Our southern zone conference in on Thursday, but we will be going up to Taizhong tomorrow to teach about helping Recent Converts. After some pondering and planning, we have decided to focus on how every Recent Convert's goal should be the temple and what we can do to help them get there............because in all reality, that's what it's all about. Baptism is so wonderful, but we are baptized so we can go to the Temple and take hold of the greatest heavenly and earthly blessings. I'm grateful for great leaders, parents, and friends who have helped me to see the importance of actively going to the temple. If I can help these new members here prepare to enter the temple, I feel that is about the greatest thing I can do to help them.

Have a stupendously, wonderful, week!!!! This Gospel is the happiest thing in the whole wide world!! (Even over here in little Taiwan where 1 person can ride on a motorcylcle with 3 large dogs.......I love Taiwan :) )

Love,

Sister J.

 

Taiwan Week 22 - An Awesome Week!

Sister Jarvis had many great experiences with her recent convert and her family.  She is currently the only non-Taiwanese member of her Zone and says she is learning to be "more Taiwanese."

Hi all you wonderful people, friends, family, acquaintances!

Hope everyone had an awesome first week of January! We had a really happy, super great week filled with Stake Conference, lots of lessons, the Tian Family, broken bikes, awesome members, and seeing the love of Heavenly Father :)

Let's begin with our super awesome new convert, ZJM and her family :) When we went to visit her Monday night the first thing she asked us was when we were going to start working on Jia Pu( family history)....she had only been baptized for 2 days and was ready to go! Due to my not being Taiwanese ability, Sister Liang immediately helped ZJM organize all the family names she had. Her husband, T DX, has also been meeting and sitting down with us every time we are there so we asked him if he would help us write down the names on the family history sheet. He at first, of course, rejected, but then he started writing.....(small TDX introduction: He is like a nut, really hard outside but you find that you really like it once you start eating :) He is a very vibrant, loud personality, your typical man who sits on the couch kind of man, but he loves it when we come over because he feels different and he has also recognized the huge change in his wife :) He is hilarious, sometimes gets us so off topic, but we love him.  Anyways, I took a step back from our family history moment and marveled.......here was a brand new member and her non-member husband working on both of their families' history! We came back the next day and TDX and ZJM had filled out the entire papers with all the right names and info! It's just amazing! She doesn't want to waste any time :)

Funny Tian Family story: We came over Saturday night and we all read Alma 41 together. TDX was roasting nuts at the same time so he was walking in and out of their living room. We were talking turns reading verses and it was his turn but he had left the room so we said, "Well we had better wait for him to come back...." and then all of a sudden in the kitchen you hear this booming voice, "And it came to pass!" and in walks TDX holding the B of M in one hand and reading in his most powerful voice.......it was hilarious :)

Miracle Tian Family story: Yesterday we had a little Stake Conference miracle :) (I am a strong believer in them because my last stake conference here was my first Sunday in Taiwan when Nitti's aunt saw her at church for the first time!) ZJM said we could ride with her and her family to Stake Conference. TDX said he would drive us but would not go in with us. He has refused the invitation of church for about 4 months now :) Well when we got to Yong Kang he got out of the car with us, and then he kept following us, complaining all the way that he would not go in. We kept telling him to come and just look inside and he kept saying no.....but was still walking behind us. He followed us all the way in the front doors, up the stairs, and then sat down in the chapel and stayed! He has been telling us for so long that he won't come to church, but there he was....it was so wonderful to see him sitting there with his wife. He left 30 minutes early, but it doesn't matter because he came! I know by "small means are great things brought to pass"....this is only the beginning of his own conversion :)
**Everything is about the Tian family this week, but we love them so much!

There is a sister in our ward who I have visited a few times who is awesome. She is about 50 and has been battling cancer for over 10 years. She is so strong, but recently she has become more sick. Her husband is not a member, but he has been coming to church with her every Sunday for about the last 2 months. Last Sunday he came by himself because she was not doing well at all. She has been a member for a long time so she is friends with the majority of the ward. Our Stake President is a doctor at the nicest hospital in our area and he was caring for her. She was in the hospital on Tuesday and then on Wednesday she passed away. There were a lot of ward members at her bedside when she passed away and know it was a really emotional time for them. The beautiful part of this story is that her husband came to Stake Conference yesterday :) When the Stake President spoke, he shared this past week's experience with this Sister and how much help the stake members had given her. Her husband eyes were red, but you could see a small smile on his face. I was so touched and marveled at this beautiful plan. We know his wife is at peace and is going about doing a new work and now here is her husband who is also opening his heart to the gospel. I know I've said it before, but I can not express my gratitude for this amazing Plan of happiness! It unites us to our loved ones eternally, no matter where we or they are :)

I am currently the only wai guo ren (foreigner) sister in my Zone right now- kind of crazy, but I'm learning how to be more Taiwanese :) I'm learning a lot more about the culture, how to interact with the people, when to say yes and when to say no.........my companion has helped me to recognize I just answer yes sometimes even when I don't fully understand what they are saying....it's caused some good laughs :)

Thanks again for so many Christmas cards and packages!!! I felt so much love from home and it only makes me want to go out and share with everyone here! I love you all so very much and hope you have an amazing week filled with the happiness and love that this Gospel brings!

Love you! ai ni men!

Sister J. :D

Sacrament Meeting Powerboarding!

Sister Jarvis and her bike

Taiwan Week 21 - An Awaited Baptism!

Sister Jarvis got to skype with her family for Christmas (yay!) and is very happy about the baptism of her investigator, ZJM.  See photos below.

Hello everyone!!

Happy New Year!!! I can't believe it's already 2013! New Years Resolution time: Serve a mission in Taiwan.....check ;D The new year is kind of fun here because everyone celebrates it today and tomorrow, and then in another month they will celebrate Chinese New Year which is as big of a deal as Christmas in America so the new year festivities are just beginning!

This last week we had a baptism (last one of the year!). The beautiful ZJM was baptized on Saturday, confirmed a member of the Church and received the gift of the Holy Ghost on Sunday :) The baptism went so well! It was our ward temple day so I was worried about how many people would come, but there was still a great circle of support of people there. The best part of her baptism was how incredibly happy she was the whole time! She couldn't stop smiling after she was baptized- it was adorable! When we were walking back up the stairs for her to bear her testimony we asked her how she was feeling and she said, "Can you see my light?" We said, "YES!" She was beaming :) She was really nervous about bearing her testimony so we had gone over to her house earlier in the day and helped her write it out. It was the simplest and sweetest testimony. She talked about how Sister Gibson and I had tracted in their neighborhood and they invited us in. She said she had previously heard of Christ but never knew what kind of connection He had to her. She bore testimony how church, prayer, and the scriptures had helped her to know Heavenly Father was really there and help her understand her Savior. She said her goal was to go to the Celestial Kingdom because she didn't want to go to the Chinese version of heck :) She said she is so excited to start doing family history so her whole family can receive the Gospel! She knows it is true and she loves it- she is a beautiful daughter of God who is truly one of the most precious souls I have ever met. I am so happy for her- for she has now entered the gate to return to her mansion in Heaven. I know that she will continue to soar as she studies, participates in the Church, and begins doing family history immediately! She is an amazing example of unconditional love and patience...I love her so much :)

We had some amazing miracles with our recent converts on Thursday! One of them has had a job conflict with church for a long time, but just this last week after many prayers, her boss said she could start work later so she can come to all of church- yay!! We also have been trying to get a hold of WJM for about two weeks and then out of the blue she called us on Thursday and wanted to meet that night. I was elated and so so grateful that she had called us! She is so incredible- she has immense faith. She is a designer so she is always thinking of cool pictures and ideas........she told me to write IMPOSSIBLE on the board and then she added a few punctuation to make it I'M POSSIBLE and then we decided to add WITH GOD I AM POSSIBLE with her favorite scripture reference of 2 Nephi 4:26-35....it was super cool :D This is her motto and she lives by it! She is an amazing example of trusting in the Lord!

Christmas was wonderful!! I got to talk to my amazing, hilarious family whom I love soooo much! Sister Liang and I also had the opportunity to share the Christmas story/ message many times with investigators and less-actives, as well as have our faces stuffed (with every Costco food you can imagine) by a couple of families in the ward :D On Tuesday night, there were 24 giant sized Chocolate Costco muffins in our fridge from other people--it was crazy! It was definitely a Christmas I will never forget :)

The New Year is such an exciting time because we have a clean slate to start a whole new year. As missionaries, we are always making goals and I'm finding how important they are--especially those that effect us eternally. I find it really interesting that Heavenly Father doesn't just give us certain pre-baked goals for every individual person, but He lets us make them and then He helps us accomplish them. Our Bishop taught the last hour yesterday and he shared Elder Bednar's talk on Testimony from a few Conferences ago. The Spirit testified very strongly to me about how important our own line of testimony and conversion is, and that our first priority and line is always the Savior. I want to work on this this coming year to strengthen my own line of conversion. I'm grateful for this marvelous Gospel and that we never stop learning :) I know that it is true, I know our Savior lives and it is by and through them that we become Celestial beings. I know our Heavenly Father loves us so much and sometimes He just wants us to grow, but He is always there to lift us. I hope you all have an amazing New Year (loud pans, ball droppings, squawkers, all the good things :) ) and that this year brings renewed faith and strength in your own lives!!

I love you all!!

Sister J.

ZJM's baptism

(with Sister Jarvis and Sister Liang)

Taiwan Week 20 - Christmas Eve

Sister Jarvis had a fun time meeting together with all of the missionaries in her mission for a Christmas activity.  See photo below.

Hi Family and Friends!!

I cannot believe it is Christmas Eve!! It is so weird....it just doesn't feel like it at all! But it's a Christmas I will never forget either way :)

Well this week ZJM had her baptismal interview on Saturday! On Tuesday, she still hadn't fully given up tea so we were thinking we would probably have to wait until next week to have it. Sister Liang and I were gone all day on Thursday for the Christmas Activity and when we called her on Friday she said that she had not been drinking tea the last couple of days because we said she couldn't :) ha ha. Well it was a leap of faith but we set up her baptismal interview for Saturday....talked about it briefly beforehand with her and then she had it. She passed! She will need another one with the 1st counselor in the Mission Presidency, but she is scheduled to be baptized this coming Saturday :) For me personally, it's a leap of faith because it just kind of happened! But I will trust in the Lord because He knows her better than I....she has found her relationship with her Heavenly Father and Savior and that is what is most important :) Her son also wants to be baptized and while I was praying this week, I had a strong impression that this wasn't about her, this was about her family and we needed to focus even more on them :)

I want to introduce you all a little more to ZJM: She is an adorable, little, 55 year old lady and such a special and unique spirit. I have never seen her raise her temper once, she has such a loving and serving heart, she loves family history work (and she's not even a member yet!), she is so strong as she has to go do dialysis for her kidneys three times a week, she reads the B of M every day and is already in the Book of Mosiah, she has three kids and a one tough cookie husband :), she comes to church every week on time and brings her kids, she is simple in answering but willing to learn. She says she comes to church so she can learn and wants to be obedient so she can go to Gao Rong Guo Du (the Celestial Kingdom). This is ZJM....and I love her. Keep her in your prayers this week :)

Our Christmas Activity was on Thursday and we went to this Buddhist temple and then to an old train station just south of Taizhong. It was quite the site.....150+ missionaries all together!!! It was super fun to be with everyone and finally meet all these people who I have heard about in our mission! When we got to the sites, we took a few pictures but then pretty much just chatted for a few hours which is what missionaries love to do :) Then we all went and ate at a steak house buffet and went to the Taizhong chapel for a fireside which was so so good! Pres. and Sister Bishop gave us all rocks with the scripture Helaman 5:12 about Christ being our rock and foundation written in Chinese characters- pretty cool :) Sister Watterson is going home in 2 weeks and she gave her reflection and it was so good....it was all about how everything matters, every little thing in missionary work really does matter :)

Well it's Christmas, which is just wonderful :) It definitely feels a lot different here- there are lots of decorations and Santa outfits (we saw a whole motorcycle gang of Santa's on Tuesday :) ) but not everyone knows the full story of Christmas or why we celebrate it.....there's just a little something missing. I sometimes wish we could tell the whole world about their Savior who loves them! Yay for the B of M and the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ....for little by little, one day the whole world will know and we can all praise him together as the human family. Isn't it remarkable that one night in a lowly stable, the prince of peace, our redeemer was born to an earthly mother and father? He was born for us, for every single one of us. Sometimes when I think of His love for us, tears just come to my eyes because it is beyond my understanding. I love the scripture in D&C 76: "And this is the testimony last of all that we give of Him, that He lives! For we saw Him even on the right hand of God...." Our Savior does live! I can not wait until the day I can return to His presence and He will embrace me in His arms. He wants us all to return to Him, and we all can through this beautiful Gospel.

I love you all soooo much and hope you have a very, merry, cherry, berry, Christmas!!!

Sister Jarvis :)

Taiwan Week 19 - No Transfer--Staying in Tainan

Sister Jarvis thought she might get transferred, but will get to remain for at least 6 more weeks in the beautiful city of Tainan.

Zao an!!!

Hello my dearest family and friends :) So move call has come and gone and I will be staying in Dong qu for at least another 6 weeks with Sister Liang! I thought that I would probably be leaving, but apparently the Lord has different plans :) There is still work for me to do, people for me to meet, and things for me to learn here in this wonderful white field. Move call always reminds me that our Heavenly Father knows us far better than we know ourselves :)

This week de hua........Our dear sweet ZJM (JM stands for Jie mei which means sister) is doing sooo great :) She is so humble, has so much love for everyone, and reads the B of M every day :) I had a really special moment with her this week. She invited us over for dinner on Wednesday night and made some delicious noodles for us. Sister Liang was talking to her daughter so I went in the other room to share a scripture with ZJM. I kept thanking her for making us dinner and she said, "Don't thank me.....we're Sisters right?" Ah, my heart melted....yes we are :) Then we read a scripture about the happiness and hope Heavenly Father gives us in Ether 12:32-34. It talks about the place which Christ has prepared for us in the mansions of the Father. After we read it, ZJM said, "Wow.....that sounds like a really big place....does He really have mansions for us in Heaven?" I told her He did and she just couldn't believe it....couldn't believe how big and wonderful the Celestial Kingdom must be and she just giggled as she thought about it. You have moments on your mission, just very small, when the eternities and heavens are opened for a brief moment.....that was one of them :)

Other exciting happy/miracle story.........the Ward Christmas Party on Saturday night! (Well first a cookie insert....so I attempted to make chocolate cake mix cookies without an oven......we have a little baby toaster oven so I covered it in foil and then used old oil to make them because we didn't have anything else, but it was ok because they were still eaten :) ) So Sister Liang and I walked in a little late to the Christmas Party and there were sooo many people! Members, less-actives whom we had not seen for a long time, our investigators, family and friends of members....it was so great!! Everyone was just so happy- eating, chatting, listening to Christmas music......it was just such an incredible feeling. It was a huge family gathered together and it made me realize that we are all the same, we are all from the same Eternal family. It doesn't matter if we are long-time members, less-actives, investigators, or a person on the street.....we are all Heavenly Father's children and we are really just one big Eternal family on Earth :)

I learned an important lesson this week.....Heavenly Father has specific work for each of His children to do. I think I have recently been trying to do every aspect of missionary work every day and it just doesn't really work that way. He has specific things for each specific companionship that He wants them to do for specific people or in a specific area. Even though I am still in the same area, I'm finding that the work that Heavenly Father wants Sister Liang and I to do is different from what He wanted Sister Gibson and I to do. This applies to every aspect of our lives too....the amazing part of the Gospel is that it can mean something completely different to everyone. We all have our personal testimonies, gifts, and callings......but we have the same Divine Savior to help us :)

Well I love you all so so much!! Thank you over and over for your prayers and support.....they are always felt :) I hope you have an amazing week of miracles and love! The Gospel is true!

Love you!

Sister J.

Taiwan Week 18 - Christmas Without Snow

Hello all of you wonderful people!

I hope you had a beautiful white Decembery week! I keep forgetting it's December here because there is no whiteness to be had, but it has become a lot colder though! This week was full of exciting things, miracles, tender mercies, growth spurts, all of the above :)

This week was Sister Exchanges so I got to go to Xi Tai Nan with Sister Liu and I loved it! She is an adorable girl from Taibei who joined the church less than two years ago! She is a stellar missionary and I learned so much from her :) She has a great attitude about missionary work, is so humble, and really gives it her all. O best part.....we ate dinner at.....COSTCO! Yes, I had a delicious Costco hot dog in Taiwan- it was mmmmhhhhmmm good :D

I got to go on another Sister Exchange on Saturday with Sister Walbrecht as President Bishop approved a little mini "Dong Qu" Sister Exchange for us 4 sisters. We had a blast together! She is just full of love and we saw many miracles with less actives and investigators. The miracle story this week comes from her......we had gone to visit a member on Saturday morning and I remembered there was a less-active who lived right down the street who we had not visited for awhile. She is from Brazil and is married to a Taiwanese man. We decided to just stop for a few minutes and see if she was home,which she was! She was on her way out, but said we could come in for a few minutes. We sat down and started talking to her and then Sister Walbrecht, being the spirit led missionary she is, asked her if she would come to church this Sunday and help guan xi our investigators. I had never seen this less active sister at church and when I had previously visited her, she still said she wasn't ready to come to church. So I wasn't really expecting her to say anything.....BUT she said yes!! And then she came to church the next day!! The ward was elated to see her and everyone was coming up to her. She said she felt a lot of love and feels like yue lai yue she will be able to become fully active. It was a huge, wonderful, happy miracle :D Helping less-actives is such a beautiful part of missionary work! It always reminds me how much the Lord and Heavenly Father loves His children.....He never, ever, ever forgets them :D O! and remember LJQ? She was a less active we had been working with in the 1st ward before it was split and the other sisters told me she is now officially active! So happy!

Investigators are all just dandy :) Through her daily prayer and scripture study, ZJM's faith is growing more and more. We have an adorable young mom, CJM, who is a sister of a husband of a family in the ward. We have been meeting with her every Sunday and she is recognizing from her brother and sister-in-law's testimony, what a blessing this Gospel is to families. It's an absolute treasure to meet with an investigator and have their family members also help us to teach and bear testimony. I'm always way more nervous for lessons with members' family members, but the Spirit is always there to guide and teach :)

So you've been asking about a typical proselyting day.....well here's how it goes!

Wake up at 6:30....roll out of bed and do some exercising and then get ready for the day
8:00-10:30....Studies! Personal, companion, and language study
10:30....depart for the day! We usually have a lesson at 11 or we will go finding (tracting, contacting, etc.)
12ish- eat lunch and do some more language study!
1ish- lesson time, finding, etc. In Taiwan, a huge mode of finding is through contacting at intersections which I have really come to love! You just pull up to people, meet them really fast, share a 5 second message and try to get them to pull over...it's great :) We also do quite a bit of tracting too....I prefer night time tracting, but this week we are going to try some caroling tracting for Christmas!
5:00- eat dinner :) and then we just have lessons, visiting people, finding, or meetings until 9 and then we plan for the next day, finish calling some people, etc. and get ready for bed.......and that would conclude my 1 minute tour of a missionary's day :)

I am so grateful to be a missionary at Christmas time- it is the best thing ever :) I absolutely love singing Christmas songs in lessons right before we teach about the Gospel- it doesn't get much better than that. I'm so grateful for this Christmas season to focus on the birth of our Savior and let the entire world know that He lives and loves us. Maybe there's no snow here, but His Spirit is. I pray that we, both members and missionaries, will be able to find people in these coming weeks who are in need and searching for their Savior's love and atoning power. Have a wonderful CHRISTmas filled week :)

Love you all so much and am so grateful for all of your love and letters!

Sister J. :)

Taiwan Week 17 - Trust in the Lord With All Thine Heart

See pictures below! We think "shi yi feng xian" is a reference to tithing.

Wu an!!!

Hello my dearest wonderful family and friends!! I hope you all had a very happy and energized week :) Just realized this week is my 5 month mark---crazy! The weather is changing here and I LOVE it! It's just barely chill, but everyone wears big coats and parkas....but it's nothing compared to a Utah cold so I'm just in my little sweater confusing all of the people I pass on my bike :)

Funny story: We were visiting one of Sister Liang's old members and her brother made his son speak to me in English for 10 minutes before he could play his computer games....poor kid :)

What a wonderful week of blessings! We had some great lessons and also had some great tracting experiences this week!

First off - Dear Sweet ZJM..........This was quite the week with ZJM. She gave up tea on Tuesday and we were elated by her faith! We taught Shi yi feng xian on Thursday with a great pei-ke (member) couple and ZJM had some questions, but it all seemed fine. When we came back Friday, she seemed a little different. She said she felt like there were too many commandments and had been drinking tea that day :( My heart broke.....we found out she had a lot of concerns with shi yi feng xian. As we were talking to her, we reemphasized the Plan of Salvation and other parts of the Gospel to help her understand the importance of commandments. It didn't really seem to be helping her.....we finally asked her how she felt about her relationship with Heavenly Father and she said she still didn't even really know if He was there or if He listened to her prayers. Aha....that was the key :) We realized we needed to focus on her relationship with Heavenly Father, through daily prayer and scriptures, and set everything else aside for a little bit because this was the most important thing. This was one of those "how to be a better missionary moments" ;) Everything just seemed to be good with her, so we kept teaching her the commandments and knew her faith would be fine. The problem was that she had a little foundation of her trust in God, but it wasn't very strong. If an investigator understands their relationship with God, prays with an earnest heart to Him, and reads the scriptures to grow closer to Him....than they will be fine to live the commandments and progress quickly to making a baptismal covenant.

There is an awesome triangle depiction I learned in the MTC: Heavenly Father at the top connected to the missionaries in the left corner, who are then connected to the investigator/less active in the right corner, who is then connected to Heavenly Father. All of the relationship lines are important, but if the investigators line with Heavenly Father is not the darkest and strongest, true conversion won't take place. Now how do we strengthen our relationship with Heavenly Father???? PRAYER, SCRIPTURE STUDY, CHURCH :D Isn't that amazing? The three simplest parts of the Gospel: daily prayer and scripture study and attending church are all it takes to come to know our true relationship with Heavenly Father and our Savior. I feel that Heavenly Father was really helping me to understand this principle this week......if our foundation is not strong, it won't hold our for long......our relationship with our loving Heavenly Father and Savior need to be the strongest part of our faith! So this is what Zhen JM is seeking to do right now and am so grateful for her humble attitude and pure desire to receive an answer from Heavenly Father. I know that I have to continually build upon this foundation every day, so when the rains come (and they do!) I can stand strong through Faith in my Savior :)

We have two other great investigators right now, both moms :)....one who has a Christian background, who is so humble and willing to read and pray - she is earnestly seeking to feel Heavenly Father's love. We have another whose family is Buddhist, but she has always been interested in Jesus Christ and His Gospel. She is also so humble and sweet, and I feel that Heavenly Father is really preparing her to accept this beautiful Gospel :) O we also have an adorable 72 year old a ma and her 12 year old grand-daughter who we are also teaching.....they have had a hard life, and we know this Gospel can bring them much needed love and joy :) We had two Less Actives who came to church on Sunday, who both have not been for a long while :) That is one of my favorite things - to see a less active return to church and partake of the Sacrament :)

I'm learning a lot from LJM :) She has amazing empathy and love when she teaches - you can't help but want the joy of the Gospel when she teaches about it.

Well I love you all so much! I know that this Gospel saves lives....reiterating my favorite scripture (it means way more now then it ever has :) ) "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding, in all they ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct they paths." Our Savior loves each one of you so very much and knows us all so personally.....I'm grateful for this time to share with these people that they have a Savior who loves them!

Love you!!

Sister J.

The Sister Missionaries of Tainan!

Sis. Jarvis & Sis. Liang