Taiwan - Week 43 - June 9 - Goodbye to Pres and Sister Bishop, Struggles, and Eternal Families

Da jia hola!

Well another week has come and gone! Guess what? We saw President and Sister Bishop for the very last time this week! So crazy! We had an amazing Zone Conference in Taizhong with them and they were able to give their reflections and life advice :) It was soooooooooooooooooo good! President Bishop explained their whole process of finding out and becoming Mission Presidents and helped us prepare for the new transition of a new one. Sister Bishop in her last few words, talked about marriage and it's importance....not going to lie, us Sisters are all excited for that! :) O my heavens I love them so much but also really excited for our new mission president too! (heard they like to ballroom dance ;) )

Last week we went to Lu Gang and had a superbly fun time with the other sisters! It is a little old- historic town...see pics :) O funny story........we went and bought this candy that was supposed to be sour.........opened it up and inside were Warheads! Super funny :)

This week was simply, well, crazy :) It was a tough cookie sometimes! We learned a lot again this week about the importance of teaching people, not lessons. You have to know what they're feeling or thinking in order to know what to teach them. We're trying to help some dear sweet investigators whose baptismal goals dropped this week...........so I thought I would ask for your help and insight :) If you have any talks, scriptures, or experiences you feel that could help these sweet souls, let me know!

-Our 14 year old investigator is still dealing with grandma fan dui to her being baptized, she's super awesome but is scared to talk to her grandma about it, the Zone Leaders were inspired today in telling us to help her strengthen her testimony because nothing is more important than being baptized into the true and living church of God....and I think they're right!
- HJM: Most amazing Less-active ever!! Her faith in Heavenly Father and the Atonement is so strong..........every time we go to her hair shop I feel the Spirit so strongly.....and miracle: she came to Sacrament on Sunday!!! I love her so much and she is so incredible! She just feels that she has lots of temptations in her life and that the adversary's power is strong...........what has helped you overcome temptations in your life? Sister Schultz and I were able to share how the temple has helped us to overcome more temptations in our own lives- it was a super cool lesson :)

Miracle: Remember that little 11 year old I talked about last week? Well her dad brought her church yesterday and she really liked it.........the ward was so great to her and so accepted a baptismal goal! She is a miracle.........we invited her to read the B of M this week......she is the sweetest thing ever!

Young sisters update: They came to church and we didn't even know they were coming!! I sat by them in Sacrament and it may have been one of the happiest experiences of my life :) They brought their hymn book and B of Ms...........doodled pictures of missionaries and the podium.........had one of those eternal happiness moments....love them so much! O BTW.......one of them has passed both Sister Shultz and I in the B of M :)

Ending: Eternal Families is a very, very, real concept. We visited the 2nd Counselor in the Bishopric's Dad with him this week. His Dad has been in a coma and was passing away..........it was such a beautiful experience though.  He kept bearing testimony to his brother (not member) that they would see him again as we all stood at his bedside. He has only been a member for about 3 years, but had absolutely no fear or worry..........just full of faith and spirit. I really felt the power of a righteous priesthood leader. We were able to sing and pray with their family in a kneeling prayer..........it was a very tender experience and I am so grateful again and again for this incredible, true PLAN for eternal families....because it is REAL. I am so grateful for my family.........for all of the little things of daily prayer to the big things of being in the temple together and know that we are eternally united to our grandparents, our siblings, and loved ones forever!! I love you all!!!

Sister J.

 By the biggest sandals ever

Companionship modeling!

 Pumping the water in the historic town of Lu gang

Bountiful Temple painted on a fan by a non-member

Taiwan - Week 42 - June 2 - Sweating, Earthquakes, and Another Amazing Week!

Taiwan had another 6.2 earthquake that shook the island, but once again, Sister Jarvis was in a Church building when it occurred and all was well :-)

hala ala, ala!! (Real Taiwanese words :) ) Happy June to all of you!!

Woweee what another amazing week!!! I'm just loving the work right now!!! It's the best thing ever!! Not saying it's easy, but it's amazing :) I absolutely love these people!

Some tips for the week.......you know you're a missionary in Taizhong when:

1) The continued sweat drops on your face become a distraction in the lesson as your investigator hands you tissues over and over again to wipe off :0
2) Practicing singing the EFY Song with the ward after church when Earthquake hits and room starts shaking and priesthood leaders are assuring everyone that the church building will not fall :)
3) Trying to say a prayer with a little A ma (grandma) outside her house who keeps talking during the prayer and asking where Heavenly Father is, "Is He in Zhang hua?" haha so funny :)

We watched the Restoration with the little girls this week........they thought Joseph Smith was handsome and was so sad when it was over.....they thought it was really special :)

HJM had her baptismal interview yesterday and is asking her mom again today for permission to be baptized! She has waited a long time so you can pray for her :)

Ward Miracle: A family in the 1st ward brought their co-worker and her two kids to church yesterday!! So cool! They are also friends with one of our investigators whose Mom has said she needed to wait a few more years to get baptized, but they invited her mom and brother to church and they came too! Members are amazing! We could not do this work without them! Another map miracle! We went to visit a LA couple and pulled up outside of their house. As soon as we finished praying, we looked up to see a young girl getting off her bike. We asked if this was their house and she said the DX was her uncle but they didn't live there anymore. She was really hesitant to talk to us at first, but we kept chatting and then showed her a picture of our church. She told us her uncle had taken her there before and she really liked it :) She came closer and closer to us and soon we were discussing prayer and she had so many amazing questions! She asked if Heavenly Father would answer her prayers about finding more friends and we shared a scripture with her that really touched her. We prayed and afterwards she said she felt something and knew He would answer them :) It was amazing.........truly one of the most special contacting situations I have ever had on my mission. She wants to bike with us to church next week and was so excited to pray....I know Heavenly Father sent us to her :)

I have truly learned so much from my Heavenly Father in these last few weeks. I feel that He is helping us soooo much, I know we could not do this work without Him. I feel that He is really teaching me personally how to chuan the jiao, and specifically how He wants us to do it here in Zhang hua :) It's been very special, very spiritual, and very amazing :) Yesterday I read Sister Dalton's talk from Conference....."What e'er thou art, act well they part" What a beautiful reminder of our potential. I am the first to say that I know I make so many mistakes and have so many ruo dians (faults) and there is no way I could be a missionary on my own.......BUT as we rely on the Lord and pray to our Heavenly Father earnestly and do the best we can.....He will bless us and help us immensely. This week I read about Captain Moroni, truly one of the greatest men who ever lived. His faith and dedication to liberty and freedom and to God is absolutely inspiring..........may we all press on and be Captain Moroni's in our own battlefields :) The Lord is with us always as long as we trust and turn to Him :) Love you all!!!

Sister J.

Taiwan - Week 41 - May 27 - Pouring Rain, McDonalds, and Maps

Sister Jarvis had a great week :-) She references her last interviews with her mission president as the Taiwan Taichung Mission will be getting a new mission president the first of July.  

Ni hao, hola, como estas!

How is my most amazing family???? :D We are excited with joy today because we had an absolutely amazing week last week!!!

This week we hit the pouring rain....and when I say pouring rain I mean pouring rain! Example: Your biking down the road, beautiful sunshine, then suddenly!! in 30 seconds dark cloud comes over and starts raining.........10 seconds later it starts pouring!! And I love it because everyone pulls over to the side of the road to take cover or put on their neon-colored rain gear :) We biked up to the Shi family when it was pouring rain, but it was so beautiful! Lots of vegetation and open skies with the beautiful sound of rain......aren't Heavenly Father's creations so beautiful? :) We also had quite the hey-day biking down the hill afterwards throwing our legs up in crazing jumping poses as we went over the puddles tehe :) Only in Taiwan :D

This week in summary: last interviews with President Bishop, came so fast! He is so amazing and I am a better missionary and member because of him. We love him and Sister Bishop dearly! We also saw miracles with working with the ward this week! We have started asking some new sisters for member present lessons and the sisters in these wards have been so willing to come to so many lessons......we also saw how much the members help the investigators, it completely changes the lesson! I love these wards sooooo much! The members are probably my favorite part about Sunday......it's so fun and joyful to be with them and to learn from them :) We have a 15 year old investigator who's mom said she could not get baptized until her test was over which is next week! She has been waiting since February to be baptized and she comes every week :) She loves the Gospel and shared with us that she prayed that Heavenly Father would help her to be baptized whenever He thought she was prepared so she felt like she wasn't prepared in February, but is now :) She is going to ask her mom again this week and hopefully will be baptized in about two weeks!

So once upon a time, we went to use the bathroom at McDs. We were sitting down for a second and looked up to see this super cute girl smiling at us. She was about to leave with he friend so we ran over and gave them an English flier and invited them to come.......well they did! And then the other Sisters invited them to church and they came to church too and brought a friend! They stayed for all 3 hours yesterday, really seemed to love it, and now we are meeting with them this week! How amazing is that? I never cease to be amazed at the little details of Heavenly Father's plan :) A 30 second English invite at McDonalds could turn into 3 new investigators at church....they are so cute and we can't wait for them to begin to feel the blessings and joy that this Gospel will bring to their lives!

Our mission has these brand new maps that are absolutely incredible!! A member in Taizhong started making them and then the office decided to make them for every area.........it's like a lot of little google maps with the ward list.....has every one's names and pin-point map of where they live so it makes it really easy to find people's houses and easy to look up any members in whatever area you are in! I absolutely LOVE them..........it's going to change missionary work forever!! We were able to meet three less-active families this week from finding them on the maps who either invited us in or set up a time for us to come back......so many families are going to be rescued through this inspired tool and helps us to get to know the ward so much better too! & it's super fun to use because it's like going on a treasure-hunt :) I just love them so much and truly so many people will be brought back into the fold of God because of them!

This was a week of faith :) Last night the Zone Leaders called us and asked us how we were able to accomplish all we did this week.....we had 3 answers: Heavenly Father, Faith, and Planning! Truly we saw the power of faith this week....it brings success and it brings miracles. We owe it all to Heavenly Father and our Savior. We also realized how much more faith we had this week and how much better it made the week! As my dear companion said, maybe we didn't move mountains or part the red sea, but we were able to help save some souls which is quite an exercise of faith. An amazing scripture of faith I found this week, Alma 44:4 "Now ye see that this is the true faith of God; yea, ye see that God will support, and keep, and preserve us, so long as we are faithful unto him, and unto our faith, and our religion; and never will the Lord suffer that we shall be destroyed except we should fall into transgression and deny our faith." I love this scripture exemplifying Captain Moroni! This is true faith and it is powerful! It's not always easy, our faith gets tried, and it may be a long time before we see the results, but if we put our faith in Him that power increases ten-fold. The Gospel is true! Faith is real and is eternal! Keep the faith.

Sister J. :)

Taiwan - Week 40 - May 19 - Bug Bites and Testimonies

Wu an!!! My dearest, darlingest family!

Hope you had a stupendous last 4 days! Has the heat come yet? :)

Fun facts that you learn only in Taiwan: My dear companion Sister Schultz is very sweet, sooo sweet that she literally gets bit when she steps outside :) At the end of this week her legs looked like a combination of chicken pox and an allergic reaction of little red dots....bless her soul. She literally has about a million bites on her legs and everyone just wants to help her! There was one day when every person we visited gave us their secret ingredients for itchy legs haha it was so great! So when itchy, bug-bitten legs arise here's what works: mouth rinse, Chinese orange medicine, sesame oil, fermented brown sugar, and many more! They work! Her legs have now become an effective finding tool as they attract people's concern on the street...you can find souls in miraculous ways! :)

Miracles: A child's answer to a prayer :) We invited the little sisters we have been teaching to sincerely pray to know if the Book of Mormon was true after they shared with us that they weren't sure if they had really felt the Spirit confirm that to them yet. Well, we went back and followed up..........suddenly D (who tends to be more quiet in the lessons) popped up and said she had just been praying upstairs before we got there. She said she had prayed to ask Heavenly Father is the B of M was true and suddenly felt the feeling of a hand on her head pushing her head down and telling her "shi! shi! shi!" which means "Yes! Yes! Yes!" She said she felt like it was God telling her that the B of M was true and now she knew it was :) We were so gang dong and touched by her experience. I feel I understand a little better why we are taught in the scriptures to humble ourselves as a child to be "submissive, patient, humble and full of love."

We also saw the love and guidance of ward leaders help our recent convert LJM..........I know that Bishops are called of God and our ward leaders truly represent the Lord in their stewardship.  The sister we are working to rescue also came to church yesterday again! I have a testimony of never giving up........when we go out and find those lost sheep with the power of the Lord behind us, we can find them and bring them back :)

This week my testimony was strengthened of reading the B of M over and over again! I read Alma 32 which I have read so many times, yet learned something completely knew! I was able to understand a little better the connection between faith and knowledge. After we use our faith and see/feel something take place........we come to know it and therefore it becomes our knowledge...."Yea, your knowledge is perfect in that thing, and your faith is dormant; and this because you know, for ye know that the word hath swelled your souls..." No wonder we are commanded to read, pray daily and attend church weekly! As we act and grow in faith, it turns into true knowledge and we will have knowledge forever and forever :) I also read a lot about the Atonement in Alma 35 and again so touched by the power of the Atonement for each one of us. As it says in 35:9, we get to leave our old world behind, and come unto Christ to receive nourishment and be given all that we need for a new life :) And that is the miraculous beauty of the Atonement..........which I'm still learning about!

I asked President Bishop last week in my email how he has found he has accomplished his goals, I want to share his response with you : "Elder Evans taught that we accomplish what we incessantly work for.........we must be relentless. Never give up on the quest for finding, teaching, and baptizing families." Wow.........so inspiring!

I love you all so so much!!! I love this Gospel with all my heart and know it leads us home and helps us to truly be the happiest we can be! I know that the Atonement is real and the Savior can help us with absolutely everything, it's amazing :) I'm so grateful for all of your examples and pray for you daily!!! Love you!

Sister J. :)

Taiwan - Week 39 - May 15 - The Taibei Temple!

Sister Jarvis was able to skype with her family for Mother's Day. She was also able to take a temple trip to the Taibei Temple which was a wonderful experience for her.
Hi Fam!!

Well it was so great and wonderful to Skype with you!!! I can't believe how much everyone has grown up...zhen de!!! It's crazy! I haven't been gone that long have I? ;) It's just so fun and wonderful to hear that everyone is doing just dandy.  I could really see that all of you are just so happy.....what greater blessing could I ask for!

So I really don't have too much to say today because all that's on my mind right now is the Temple :) It was so wonderful!!! It was definitely worth waiting 9 months! The Taibei Temple is absolutely beautiful. It's a pretty small temple, but the visitor grounds are just beautiful with palm trees and tropical plants. When you walk in, everyone removes their shoes, just like what you do in people's homes here, and I really like that because it makes it feel even more sacred. We had the wonderful privilege of doing initiatories before our session and I was able to do them in Chinese! The Sisters which I did them for were all from China born about 1660-1750. These are the ancestors of the people whom I am serving among......how incredible is that. It touches my heart so deeply every time I think about it. Then we went and did an English Endowment Session with some other foreigners who live in the area and it was just beautiful. We had some time to sit in the Celestial Room and just soaked the Spirit in :) It was also really special to be their with my fellow missionaries, reminding me that we are all children of a so loving Heavenly Father on their pathway home to him......and helping our fellow brothers and sisters so they can come home too :) The temple is so beautiful! The furniture is all Asian design in simplicity and by the baptismal font they have a very traditional Chinese painting of people by a river...really cool.  I love the temple! If I could, I would go there every day...I really would! I'm so grateful for the covenants I have made and now I may not be able to go to the temple all of the time, but can help my fellow sisters and families to go and receive their own eternal covenants. The Temple brings it all together.....I know that it is the house of the Lord, for He does walk those halls. I know that is why I am a missionary and why we work hard every day.....so that more people may experience these blessings.

We had some really special lessons on Monday after Sister Schultz and I skyped and we really accredit it to the Spirit and the joy we felt from talking with our families :) We are so imperfect, but the Spirit is not and the Restoration is real. I love you all sooooooooooooo much!!! Have a week of joy, laughter, love, service, and the Spirit! Don't forget to share your testimonies because you never know who needs to hear them :) I hope you will all be able to go to the temple soon as well!

Love you forever!
Sister J.

P.S. I'll try to stay away from all parallel parking cars this week ;) **During our phone call, Sister Jarvis shared with us the fact that she had actually been hit on her bike by a truck trying to parallel park.  Her bike was munched and she got a little scraped up, but luckily was ok.  The driver was very  apologetic and paid for her bike to be fixed etc. 

With Sister Schultz at the Taipei Temple

The Sisters at the temple

The Taipei Temple

Taiwan - Week 38 - May 5 - A Cinco de Mayo Party and More Miracles

Good Mornin Fam! Zao an!!!!

Happy week, happy day!! I hope all of your tropical vacationing and field sporting all went just superb this week!

This week de hua...........a lolly oooda lolly gally what a week :) It's May! Yippee! We are having a Cinco de Mayo party this week in English! and have also been teaching our 79 year old RC how to speak Spanish...she's a hoot :) We also had a Sisters' Meeting this week!!! It was incredible--so uplifting and inspiring! Some of the Senior Sisters spoke and it felt like being back in YWs with adorable hand-outs and inspiring music :) We watched this really amazing video on with all the Presidents of Primary, RS, and YWs that the church has made that also really helped us understand our role with the Priesthood and in meetings. I'm so grateful to be a Sister Missionary! It is truly a privilege :)

Funny story of the week: We were biking out to hua tan (more of the countryside) with lots of people on the road.......heard the ambulance siren so everyone is looking around behind us, but no ambulance! We keep hearing the siren and then all of a sudden this young kid comes flying past us on his bike with a megaphone siren hooked to his bike! haha it was pretty funny......everybody was just chuckling.........love Taiwan :)

O the miracles of this week..........sooooo good :) There is no other explanation for them then for the hand of the Lord. Heavenly Father truly made all things possible this week! First off, remember the dear, sweet, adorable young sisters who can summarize the entire Book of Mosiah in detail? :) Yes....well they still have their baptismal date but have not come to church yet so this was the do or die week! Well, after inviting and inviting we realized there really wasn't too much more we could do and decided to leave it all in the Lord's hands. We prayed every day that if it be His will, there would be a way for them to come to church or that their desire to come would increase. We turned everything over to Him.........well we still hadn't heard from them by Sat night so we decided to stop by their Aunt's house and they were there! And they said they were sleeping over so she could take them to church! **AAAhhhh!*** and truly one of the happiest moments ever was when they walked through the church doors at 9:00 on Sunday morning! The Primary President was there to greet them and made them feel so welcome and they stayed for all three hours! (Sister Shultz was prepared with paper and pens for doodling during Sacrament ;) ) It was an absolute miracle. They are still progressing and we will continue to turn to the Lord and know that if it be His will, they can be baptized this month :) We truly must trust in the Lord and His ways and His timing in all that we do and as we do, I know that everything will go according to the Heavenly Plan :)

2nd: Another miracle....the Zone leaders gave us an invite this week to confirm all of our RCs for church by Friday. We had one RC whom we both have still never met, so we decided to go find her! She was our back-up plan for Thursday night and when the other plans fell through we headed to her house. She was home and was so happy to let us in! We had a great little lesson about the Spirit with her and invited her to church and she said yes! AND she came :) We were so grateful for their inspired invite this week because this sweet sister is now on her way to coming back :)

3rd: Super fun night tracting last night!! We found this super steep, long hill that is really forested with all of these houses. We started at the top and went all the way down- meeting lots of cute, old a mas and a bas (we kept on ringing bells, running around as fast as we could AND THEN.........we met an adorable young family who said we could come back this week!! So great, so excited :) Met with a family we tracted into last week again who are formers from a few years ago and they were so excited to have us back and so eager to kneel in prayer! The Dad is hilarious, super happy and friendly, and wanted to be prepared this week so he read up on the Prophet Joseph Smith and Restoration this last week and really understood it! Yay for families!! Teaching families is like having this really delicious, specialty made cake..........so so so good, and every opportunity to "eat" it is so precious and just have to eat it little by little :) We are so grateful that Heavenly Father has given this opportunity to teach a few families!

My testimony this week............turn to the Lord in everything you do! I learned this week that we need to involve Him in everything and to always continue to be more like Him. I love a line from PMG pg. 115 it says, "Just as vital as what you do, however, is who you are. The restored gospel enables you to become like Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ." Words of truth.......Ch. 6 in PMG is amazing! Read it if you haven't, because it will change your life and your relationship with Christ. I know He lives! And as we come unto Him and invite others to do the same.......we will never fear or worry for He will always be with us. Have an amazing week- See you on Monday!! (Monday was when Sister Jarvis was able to call and skype with her family for Mother's Day)

Sister J.

I love you!!!!

Taiwan - Week 37 - April 28 - Cleaning the Baptismal Font and a Baptism

Sister Jarvis had a busy week and a baptism!

Hello my dear and wonderful family!

Hope you all had a happy, dandy week! We had a full week here: Sister Exchanges, Singles' Activity, Baptism, and just the great every day teaching! I'm sitting here trying to remember everything that happened and I'm totally blanking! But I know lots of amazing things happened :) I went on exchanges with an awesome Taiwanese Sister this week and we had a blast! It was a change to speak all Chinese again, but it was super fun! We met lots of new investigators this week......cool stories: one mom from English who's husband told her to come and learn about God and ran into another former family last night who said we could come back! We were also able to visit a few members this week, which I haven't done much before, but we saw miracles from it and I definitely have a strong testimony of doing so now! The weather is hot........then cold.......then rainy........then hot- but we love it!

So this week...........LJM was baptized on Saturday!! It was quite the week of trying to put the baptism together (Sister Shultz and I were cleaning out the baptismal pool in our skirts and crocs an hour before the baptism ;) ) but it all went just right :) LJM was nervous, but excited :) She was so happy after she was baptized and she said she literally just felt so clean. I am so happy for her and know that as she begins the journey of Enduring to the End she will continue to feel the influence of the Spirit and prepare for even greater eternal blessings. We have had some really special experiences with her in just pouring out our hearts in testimony to her, sometimes in English and sometimes in Chinese, in which you can feel that eternal connection of the Spirit. Her home life isn't all that great, but she has felt the love and comfort of the Gospel. She told us once that even if everything else in her life wasn't true or working........the Gospel is the truest thing she knows :) Heavenly Father loves her so, so much and I know that as she continues to continue to read and pray daily, she will only grow in her relationship with Him. She is a music genius so the ward is so excited for her to start playing the piano or performing in sacrament meeting! She is very special and I feel privileged to have had the experience of seeing her become part of the great vine of this restored gospel.

What a week of testimony strengtheners! I'm grateful for an inspired district leader who led me to Moroni 7 in talking about the light and Spirit of Christ. I have a testimony that all thoughts, feelings, or desires that bring us to Christ are from the Spirit. I have a testimony that the Spirit can speak to us in the smallest ways and it does. I know that as we listen and cling to those smallest impressions that they will grow and the Lord's path for us will open before our eyes, but we have to trust it with all the faith we have. I know these things are true! I know that as we trust in the Spirit and our Savior each and every day we can never go astray. Cling to every good thing of the Spirit and He will bless you! He loves us all so much and may we never forget it. I'm grateful for all of your help in missionary work! We really can't do it without the members....they help less-actives and investigators so much! You are all such great examples to me and I love you immensely!

Love,
Sister J.

Bike riding with Sister Shultz

Baptism of LJM!