XiaTian Daole! - June 30, 2014

Summer is here!

It is super hot. Wow. And I have an epic missionary tan. My face and 3/4 of my arms are super tan. I have a watch tan too. And part of my fingers are tan and the other part are white because of the way my hands hold the handles on my bike, ha-ha. Also got an epic croc tan going on. Oh, the life of a missoinary. Also we’ve been drinking smoothies like every day because we just aren’t in the mood to eat anything hot. The fruit here is soooo gooooooooood.

Few items of business:

Happy birthday Stephen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!email me more.

Also FAMILY! thank you for your letters. I finally got letters for all of the month of June! It was awesome! And my roommates always love the funny ads Mom sends from the catalogs. Keep ‘em coming.

Last night we had a typhoon! It was amazing. There was sooo much intense thunder and lightning and then all of a sudden out of no where all of this wind started up and it poured rain. Woke up this morning and it was completely normal..super hot and sunny. Sometimes I forget I'm on an island in the pacific ocean. I felt like Tom Hanks from Cast Away last night. WILSON!

I love Sister George SOOOOO much! She is a PARTY that girl. She is very chill and also wants to work hard. We work realllly well in unity. The Spirit is so strong when we teach! Also she laughs at everything which always puts me in a good mood and want to laugh more. She helps me realize how beautiful the mission is. She always says, "I've never been happier in my life than when I've been on a mission." She has such a good attitude. Her attitude of gratitude really inspires me. Also, her knees have been super hurting lately. EVERYONE PRAY FOR MY COMPANION'S KNEES TO HEAL QUICKLY!

Sister George and I on the beach

We found a Puffer Fish!

Don't worry, we gave it a proper grave

speaking of knees...thank you for the prayers for my knees. My knee is feeling A LOT better lately and I can finally run again. I can feel your prayers. Thank you.

We had a lot of miracles this last week!

~We had people fang our ge zi (bail out on a lesson) last Tuesday and then suddenly I got this impression to go visit Wayne (our investigator from a few months ago who almost got baptized.) We bought him a gift of treats and biked to his house. When we got there we said a quick prayer to know what to do and say. we turned around and Wayne, his wife, and his kid were right outside! I got super nervous cuz I had no idea what to say. Finally, we went up to them and met his wife (she totally ignored us) and then she took her son and went inside. Wayne stayed out and we talked to him for a bit. Suddenly, I got this huge feeling of peace that said "He is going to be baptized. Don’t worry." I told Wayne we still loved him and were not going to give up on him.

He got really quiet and said, "Why me?"

I said, "Why not you?"

Then he smiled and said, "I've been praying lately asking God whether or not He's given up on me...I guess He hasn't."

I know God doesn’t ever, ever give up on us. I know God loves Wayne. I invite everyone to keep praying for him.

~Vicki and Zhang An Fu came to church yesterday! They are probably both going to get baptized next Saturday! Keep praying for them too! The gospel is changing them. It is so fantastic to see.

~After knocking for 3 hours straight and getting rejected by everyone (and spit on by an old man chewing Bin Lang)...we hit the last door on the street and BAM...God gave us an incredible new investigator named Lu Yi Lu. She is a doll. She will probably get baptized here real soon. :)

A mission Lesson at the beach!

I gave a talk in sacrament meeting yesterday on Young Womens and how the program helped me prepare for the mission. I know that Young Womens is inspired from God. Back in middle school and high school I didn’t even really want to go on a mission...but I know everything about that program..The leaders, the Personal project activities, mutual, friends...it allprepared me very well. It kept me in line. It kept me worthy. It kept me happy. It kept me on the right track and when the time came that I needed to make a decision about serving a mission, I was ready to know what to do.

The stake made this cool slideshow about some of the sister missionarys. I’m in it! check it out!

  http://1drv.ms/1wXWJ3V

Our Zone leader lost a bet

Ha!

Okay I gotta go. This mission rocks.

An old friend, Sister Brown, came to visit!

A missionary from my first district sent me this before they went home. it says "success"

I love you all!

Sister Tracy

Year Mark List- June 23, 2014

Hello!

Well quick update on my life. Transfer #8 started last Friday. Four more transfers to go. Weird. I am still in HuaLien THANK GOODNESS because I am obsessed with this place and would be perfectly fine never moving for the rest of my mission! #thisisthepromiseland. I am done with training.  Though I miss Sister Williams, the people of Zhong Li really need her right now. That’s where she got transferred.

My new companion is Sister George. SHE IS A PARTY. I love love love her. She’s from Idaho and lived in China for a few years. She went to BYU I and is an English major. She is an amazing teacher and I am sooo stoked to work with her. This is transfer #7 for her. She loves Hualien too :) Who wouldn’t?

Well, this is weird because this Thursday I hit my year mark of being a missionary. It's been such a ride already! I have learned a lot. And to prove that I have learned a lot..I made a list:

Things I have learned in the past year:

How to better use chopsticks

How to cook veggies Taiwanese style (add oil. lots and lots of oil. they don’t say 加油 for nothing!)

How to better communicate with others

How to get along with people better

How to be a better roommate

How to speak, read, write, and understand Chinese! kinda

How to properly clean a toilet

How to kill cockroaches

How to French braid

How to develop better people skills

How to more effectively preach the gospel

How to better use the Atonement in my life

How to better pray

How to play to ocerina

How to cut a pumpkin and watermelon

Somebody gave us this free watermelon!  

How to be a better future spouse, mother, member

How to ride the bustling streets of Taiwan

How to better study the scriptures

How quickly time passes by

How to stay calm in crazy situations

We parked our bikes to go knocking doors and came back to this...Some guy knocked my bike into a ditch! Ha! 

How to set and achieve goals

How to read a map

Beautiful HuaLien

How to read the bus schedule

How to be a better teacher

How to sew

How to teach English

How to fix a bike

How to carry like 100lbs of stuff on a bike

How to fight off crazy dogs

How to treat bug bites

How to eat shrimp in non-American countries

How to be flexible

How to be a better leader

How to develop patience

My Friends 

How to make curry

How to make the most of what you have

How to survive guo nian

How to better rely on the Lord

How to let things go

Buddism and Daoism

How to better respect elders and why it’s important

Rice cookers are way better than microwaves

How to be healthy

(It's okay to have a Summer Treat!)

How to invite and recognize the Holy Ghost

How to type fast...well kinda not really, cuz I’m almost out of time...yikes!

That’s the list for now. Definitely haven’t mastered any of these but its a work in progress!

We are seeing lots of miracles with our investigators! More updates to come!

Love,

Sister Tracy

My heart will always be in HuaLie- June 16, 2014

Hey all!

#1 Happy Father's Day, Daddy! I wrote you a letter! You should be getting it next week assuming the mail system goes smoothly. For all those that don’t already know--I have the best dad in the world! Especially after seeing all that a bishop needs to do to help the ward..I appreciate you even more! Love you Dad!

#2 Happy birthday/graduation to Mallory! I got her graduation gram. Wow, she is so awesome! You are going to have a wonderful life at BYU-I. Enjoy your summer.

#3 To all the other MIHS grads, congrats!

Not gonna lie, this last week was REALLY hard.

But here's the thing, no matter what happens, I know that in the end it’s all going to be okay. So it’s not worth it to lose faith or hope and be mopey about it. We have the Lord on our side for goodness sake. He loves us. He is called "Our Loving Heavenly Father" for a reason. He's not going to set us up for failure--He just won’t! He doesnt do that!

I've learned a lot from the example of Nephi this last week. 1 Nephi 3:7 rings truer to me than it ever did before.

Our favorite family, the Xie Family!

We love this family!  

One cool miracle from this last week. After weeks of trying to contact our RC Zhang Xing Rou--the Lord placed her in our path! She realized that she really needed church and awesomely enough, she came to every single church activity this week and Sacrament Meeting! She realized that she really was not happy recently and it was cuz she was missing theGospel! She also gave us a referral from English class and she is AWESOME. We are helping her hit the goal of a July baptism. :)

Also we went to this preschool gradtuation thing and met tons of families who all comitted to come to the English party this week. WHOOOO! party!

Musical Chairs!  

Crazy thing: this is the last week of me being a trainer! Still don’t know who's moving. I'm good with whatever is good for the Lord but no matter what happens my heart will always be in Hualien. I love this place like crazy and never want to leave but I know I will come back here someday. Especially since I plan on retiring here.

This huge bug thing was in our apartment 

Love you all!

Sister Tracy

HOLA!- June 9, 2014

#1 Congrats to the 2014-2015 DRUM MAJORS!!!!!!!!!! Emily, Eric, and Zoe: you guys are going to have the time of your lives!!!!!!!!! I am so proud of you guys! p.s. can somebody please send me info on how to be a chaperone for the Austrialia trip? This is not a joke. Somebody, send me this info, please.

#2 BABY BECKHAM IS ADORABLE! Everybody stalk my family on facebook so you can see his photos. He is a Zoolander baby! So much hair!

#3 Something cool I've learned this week: How to pray when you are going through trials. The other day we were in a lesson with an LA and we were having a really great discussion about faith and trials. Our member shared a cool story. She said that awhile ago their house ran out of gas and they had no hot water. Her older two kids were okay with taking a cold shower but their youngest 3 year old was terrified. She was crying and crying and whining until finally she said, "I think we should say a prayer." At first, her family was like, "Oh come on..." But then they saw their little 3 year old get on her knees and half crying, half praying said, "Dear Heavenly Father, please help me be brave enough to take a cold shower." The member said, "I think it is interesting that she didn’t ask Heavenly Father for hot water. She didn’t ask Him to get rid of the trial, but rather, to have the courage to overcome." And it turns out that their daughter was able to survive the cold shower. This morning we were out of gas in our apartment and I thought about this story and I realized that I needed to change the wayI pray to Heavenly Father too. I need to ask for more courage. Cool, huh?

Selfie while riding my Bike!  

Yu Jie aka super awesome 15 yr old in our ward went out knocking doors with us 

#4 We met a cool lady named Vicki from English class. She's super Christian in another church but she is diggin’ the Book of Mormon and is on the quest to know whether or not it is true! She came to church yesterday and had a lot of questoins about Ressurection. She has a lot of good questions. I have a lot of faith in her. Pray that she find her answers!

#5 ZHANG AN FU HAS STOPPED SMOKING and he hasnt smoked for a week!!!!!! I am going to get a pic with this man when we meet with him on Wednesday. You guys would love him. He is the most adorable thing. We taught him the Law of Tithing last week and it was the coolest thing ever. He doesn’t talk a lot, but after we shared the blessings of paying an honest tithe he broke into tears and said he believed the law of tithing was real. He came out to us about a few problems he had with gambling in the past and how he lost every thing as a result, including the love of his life. He believes he can turn his life around. It is the coolest thing to see people change like this.

#6 Amazing tender mercy from Heavenly Father yesterday! I was in a bad mood yesterday. Just thinking about stuff and came to the question: “Why am I here? What am I doing on this small island? What's the point?” At church, a member came up to me and hugged me and handed me a stack of cards addressed to me. I was super surprised and shocked. I opened the letters up and they were a bunch of letters from my friends in Ji Long! (my first area!) They were all about how grateful they were for my service and how they were so happy to be my friend. I have never felt so much love in my life.

Letters!

Yep, once again God has reached out and confirmed to me that this is all worth it. There is a point to all of this.

I love you all! Congrats to the class of 2014!

Mallory have a great graduation!

A Cool College here that we pass by.  

Love, Sis Tracy

Happy Dragon Boat Festival!- June 2, 2014

Today is the Dragon Boat Festival! We went to the lake and watched a bunch of dragon boat races and ate zhong zi! (Rice triangles with good surprises inside) 

We are going to the lake!

It is HOT here in Hualien! June has arrived! Not much time to type today but here is a cool miracle I would like to share:

 2 weeks ago we met with an LA about our age named Zhang Yu Yao. He has really good potential to get the Melchezidek priesthood soon. So we’ve been working with him a lot. When we met with him we had this awesome lesson about receiving revelation at church. The Spirit was felt for sure. At the end of the lesson he goes, "Sister Tracy Sister Williams, I’m sorry, but I can’t meet with you two anymore. I can’t go to church anymore. I don’t need help." Then he walked out. After Wayne not getting baptized, Peikes fanging us, and now THIS I was soooooooo disheartened. Like for realz, what the heck! This whole past week I’ve been pretty bitter about it. I pretty much gave up on him for a few days. One day after another investigator bailed on us I just sat down on the chapel floor and said to my comp, "I think I'm devloping trust issues." She told me, "Sister Tracy, what do we tell our investigators when they are down? Have faith!" So I decided my companion was right. From that day on I prayed every day for Zhang Yu Yao, in every prayer. I’d call him and still nothing would happen but it was okay. Well, yesterday after Sunday School I get up to walk out the door and right in front of my face is Zhang Yu Yao in a suit and tie with a big smile on his face. I flipped out. He came!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He came he came, he came!!!!!!!!!!! He said, "are you happy to see me?" Duh! It's the best feelng ever to have prayers answered. Its not always easy to put forward the faith but the miracles are certainly worth it. 

n other news:

~I have a knee injusry and had to stay inside for a day :( But on the upside I reorganized the whole area book. 

~We got free Taro cake from a member

~We have a miracle investigator form English class

~Zhang Fu didn’t smoke AT ALL today!

~I was punched in the face by a drunk homeless man

~I got to hold the cutest puppy ever

~I have the best companion ever

~We ditched a few of our other investigators who weren’t progressing and went knocking and got rejected a lot......but its okay! there are souls out there who are ready to hear this message. Its just a hard treasure hunt is all!

~We did an awesome FHE anaology on patience and I shoved taro cake in my face. There may or may not be photos on FB....

They eat live fish and live shrimp

Yes, some of us tried it!

A live shrimp!!!!

I love you all!

Sister Tracy