Hello from 鐘恩曦- August 4, 2014

Nimen Hao!

Well here are the latest updates:

~I moved!!!!!  I really, really, really miss Hualien. It’s the most beautiful place I’ve ever been in my life and I really miss the people. Such a privilege to have served with such amazing people and to have seen such amazing miracles...But I didn’t feel too bad leaving because I know that I will be back one day!

I will miss Sister George

I Will Miss these people so much!

I will Miss them all so much!

~I moved from the country to the city! I am in Xin-Dian! It’s really close to Taipei in North Western Taiwan. It’s different...but thankfully, I have experience because I was in JiLong for awhile too...so my street contacting techniques are coming back to me ha-ha.

~We’ve taken on a challenge. This transfer they have temporarily shut down the Elders’ area so we are in charge of working with all of their RCs and LAs and investigators. Plus we need to find in their area. Elders should be coming in next transfer so we need to maintain 2 different areas...pray for us ha-ha. But it should be good! We’ve already seen miracles left and right. And we both love exploring this place and finding new people to share the gospel with. The key is DON’T GIVE UP. Last Saturday it took us 90 contacts until we found a miracle new investigator! Don’t get discouraged if you get rejected the first 89 times. KEEP GOING. You’ll see miracles. Missionary work is like a treasure hunt ha-ha.

~The members here are BOMB. Seriously super-duper awesome and excited about missionary work. I love their fire!

Taking the train to Xin-Dian!

~I GOT MY FIRST NATIVE COMPANION! FINALLY. Her name is Sister Fan. She is 23 and she’s from Gao Xiong. She is a rock star. She got baptized about 2 years ago. Her family doesn’t support her being out here. They don’t talk to her at all. It’s really sad, but she has an amazing attitude about it! She writes her mom and brother cards every week and bears her testimony. She also took all her family names to the temple. We pray together every day that her family will accept the Gospel in God’s time. She’s also just a really good people person. She’s been on her mission for only 4 transfers but when we serve together it feels like much longer because she’s a pro! Also she’s super hilarious. I LOVE HER.

Sister Fan and I

It’s a little tiring speaking Chinese more often now. I haven’t spoken a lick of English in the past 36 hours (my companion doesn’t speak any English). Plus there are a lot of times I’m not quite sure what she’s exactly saying...BUT it’s actually real good because its forcing me to focus. So in the end its actually really awesome :)

Also, she is showing me a whole different side of the culture. Turns out, living with a Taiwanese is a lot different than going to church with one. I’m learning that if you learn to be open minded and just accept the culture it’s super fun!

I guess I say all of this because before moving here I was told by a few different people that having a native companion was a bad experience. Not gonna lie I was scared at first when I found out I had a native companion. But as I’ve been keeping this gratitude journal every day and studying the words of Moroni in chapter 7 about charity...I’ve been learning that we have full control over our situations. We have the Atonement of Jesus Christ and gratitude to brighten our lives and change our perspectives. Ultimately we have prayer and our Heavenly Father. He will comfort us. He will allow us to feel more love for others and to be grateful in our situations. I am so thankful for this mission because its opened my eyes to these things in a special, unforgettable way.

Love you all!

Sister Tracy

p.s. I always told myself that I would let my first native companion give me a Chinese name...so here’s what Sister Fan picked:

鐘恩曦 (Zhong En Xi) (Pronounced Jhong Un She)

So En-Xi is my first name. It means "A gift of daylight" :)

I typed this in 1 minute- July 28, 204

So we are going to Taroko Gorge again this P-Day which means I have like no time to email. but this week was very eventful. Here is a list of reaons why:

We had a MASSIVE TYPHOON!!!!!!

I go home on December 31 officially.

Li Shi Hao got baptized and it was the greatest miracle of all time!

Last P-Day Sis george and I biked to a Peacock Sunflower Deer Farm and it was the greatest thing of my life.

Sis George is training which means I am moving :( I DONT WANT TO LEAVE HUALIEN. Just look at all these photos!!! who would want to leave :(

Any guesses to where I’m going? I have no idea. I’ll have to let you know next week what happens!

Love, Sister Tracy

HUGE ANNOUNCMENT- July 21, 2014

So I have a huge announcment...dreams do come true.

The father I have been working with since I got to Hua Lien is finally getting baptized!!!!!!!!!!!

LI SHI HAO!!!!!!!!! He hasn’t smoked in the past week and he got interviewed yesterday and he is getting baptized this Saturday!

This whole process has been a miracle. I remember when I started teaching him my faith in him was super high, but as time went on and he kept relapsing my faith got lower and lower. I had a really hard time trusting him, and soon I had a hard time trusting anyone for that matter. But the important thing I have learned and am still learning is that...God doesnt give up on people, and neither should we. That is easier said than done. But I think what helped bring about this miracle is that we never gave up on him. We tried every idea possible from calling a Smoking Rehab Center to calling him everyday to fasting...for awhile no immediate changes...but, we never gave up.

The other day on exchanges I was with my Sister Training Leader, Sister Peay, and I told her that lately I felt I had developed trust issues. She said something really inspired. She said, "Do everything with your people to show them you have faith in them." I really felt the Spirit tell me to work on that. So my companion and I set some goals to show more faith in Li Shi Hao.

We prayed for him every day in every prayer, we fasted, we called every day and rather than asking "Did you smoke today?" we asked, "How did not smoking bless you today?"

Then this last week, he did it. He didn’t smoke. And now he's going to get baptized!

 We cannot give up on people! We just can’t. God doesn't and neither should we. We do our best and then God takes it the rest of the way. We cannot lose trust in others or in God. We just can’t!

I am so thankful for this mission. I think the biggest blessing has been seeing more and more every day how REAL this Gospel is. It is so real. And it is the ONLY thing that matters ever, forever.

I will never forget the bright feeling I had when Li Shi Hao came out of his interview beaming with happiness! It will be an even greater feeling when he's baptized!

Me in my Taiwanese outfit

I realized more and more everyday what a blessing it is to see people change for the better. Nothing else can replace that degree of happiness.

Have a beautiful week! Don’t ever lose faith!

 

We are eating Mango Ice!  Yummy!

Yes, These are FLYING Squirrels!  So Fun

Sister Tracy

Moroni 7:48- July 14, 2014

This week was a party and here is why:

1. IT WAS SISTER GEORGE'S BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We did a lot of fun things as you can see from all of the photos that I sent home this week, including an epic hike (I cannot get over how beautiful this place is). 

Eating Ba Bao Bing (basically fruit and milk and sugar on top of ice--forget shaved ice, this stuff wins.) Drinking lu dou bing sha (Green Bean smoothies). Eating frozen mangos. Eating lime slices with brown sugar. Eating fan tuan (rice burrito). Eating a PB&J for the first time in over a year. Eating cake. yeah......eating fun things is a good way to celebrate.

We also found these massage chairs at the mall and that was fun. HAPPY BIRTHDAY SISTER GEORGE!

Us being silly at the Mall 

2. We set a lot of baptismal dates with new folks! Seriously this week was full of miracles when it came to setting dates with new investigators. There a ton of solid people what we are teaching/found this week. One includes this 50 year old man named Yang di xiong. He said that he’s always been looking for God's church. He rocks. Then we set a date with a 13 year old girl. She was a member referral. It will be a little harder to teach her because she’s a piano prodigy and has to go to competitions and classes all day every day. But we are working it out. She has so much faith. Also God led us to a lot of prepared folks on the street this week. I’m way excited to work with these folks!

3. In terms of investigators preparing for baptism...Zhang An Fu should be getting baptized next week! He had been taught all of the lessons. He just needs to go to Sacrament meetingonce more. He has come to church every week...he's just missed the sacrament part recently. But he can do it! Pray for him! Also Li Shi Hao is really close! Smoking is becoming less of achallenge. He got a priesthood blessing and it did miracles. Went without smoking for 3 days straight which hasn’t happened in YEARS. Pray for him too!

4. I got a few letters from my RCs back in JiLong. They are doing so well! I will never forget these people.

Also a visit from my MTC teacher!  

5. This last week we met with a man named Cai Di Xiong. He was a referral from the missionary tsunami. This last week was our second time meeting with him. We came prepared to teach him the Plan of Salvation. He is in a really messy divorce and is depressed. When we got to the part about the Atonement we asked him what he thought the purpose of life was and he said, "Nothing. Its empty." We showed him Alma 7:11-13:

 11 And he shall go forth, suffering pains and ^aafflictions and ^btemptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will ^ctake upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.

 12 And he will take upon him ^adeath, that he may ^bloose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to ^csuccor his people according to their infirmities.

 13 Now the Spirit ^aknoweth all things; nevertheless the Son of God suffereth according to the ^bflesh that he might ^ctake upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverance; and now behold, this is the testimony which is in me.

We then testified about the healing power of the Atonement, that through faith and action in Jesus Christ, every bad thing about life would be resolved. Cai Di Xiong didn’t say anything for a long time. Eventually I asked him, "What are you thinking?" He said, "Why would God want me to be divorced? Why would He allow me to be sad? Why...?" he got really angry and started yelling at us. We sat there for awhile in silence. I kept thinking, "What the heck am I going to say..." I thought about a scripture in Moses 6:32 that I read earlier that day:

 32 And the Lord said unto Enoch: Go forth and do as I have commanded thee, and no man shall pierce thee. Open thy mouth, and it shall be filled, and I will give thee utterance, for all flesh is in my hands, and I will do as seemeth me good.

So I opened my mouth waiting for words to just come out...but then I just started crying and crying and I couldn’t stop. I don’t even know why I was crying honestly. But then I thought about how when Jesus visited the Amercias and saw the multitude of people who were sick and burdened and it says: (3 Nephi 17) 

 19 And it came to pass that Jesus spake unto them, and bade them arise.

 20 And they arose from the earth, and he said unto them: Blessed are ye because of your faith. And now behold, my joy is full.

 21 And when he had said these words, he wept, and the multitude bare record of it, and he took their little children, one by one, and blessed them, and prayed unto the Father for them.

Jesus felt so much love for these people that he actually cried. I came to realize that I was crying because I was literally feeling God's love for this man. It was a surreal feeling. I’ve never felt that much charity at one moment before. It was such a good feeling. I ended up just testifying that God loved Cai Di Xiong and that he would help him.

After the lesson we were getting on our bikes and Sister George told me that she prayed her guts out during that lesson that Cai Di Xiong would feel God's love for him. She said God must have used me as an instrument to show him because when I was tesifying his countanence changed. "It got lighter," is what she said.

That was one of the most “scripture story” like experiences of my mission. Every day I learn more and more how REAL this Gospel is. I know that it is real.

More miracles to report next week :)

Love, Sister Tracy

 Moroni 7:48 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, ^apray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true^bfollowers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall ^cbe like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be ^dpurified even as he is pure. Amen.

A place of refuge- July 7, 2014

Hey family and friends!

Awesome/Random things from this last week:

A. I got told that I have a poker face again...(?)

B. Got the door slammed in my face for the first time by this SUPER SUPER old lady.

C. An old man on the street taught me how to play "Israel, Israel God is Calling" on the harmonica

D. I was told that I have a Singaporian accent.

It is so HOT here!  All we eat is fruit and Smoothies

E. I ate dragon fruit 

F. I bought new running shoes! but I had to buy men’s running shoes because they didnt have my size in women’s #iaminasia

G. Oh we also had this awesome thing happen called the "East Coast Tsumani." No, not a real tsunami. Basically, 28 missionaries from Taipei took a week to travel down to our areas and contact all day to help us find new investigators. We’re trying really hard to build up a stake in the East coast so this little project REALLY helped. We got 20 new investigators this week! Super awesome! But the hard part is going to be keeping track of them all...BUT we can do hard things!

We are doing so much Biking!  

The investigators from the Tsunami efforts are pretty amazing miracles.

One miracle is a woman from Indonesia named Rebecca. She is Muslim. She reminds me of my RC from JiLong (Sun Jie Mei) because she doesn’t speak a lot of Chinese or English so it’s hard to teach her. We met with her for 15 minutes in our chapel last Saturday and after a very simple lesson on Jesus Christ we gave her The Book of Mormon in Indonesian. She said she didn’t have a lot of free time so she wouldn’t be able to meet with us until next week. The next day, Sunday, we're sitting in Sunday School when we get a text from an unknown number saying "Call me..." We went outside and called the number but no one picked up. We turn around and suddenly there is Rebecca...We were astonished! She told us in very broken English, "My boss got mad at me today and I felt really scared. This was the first place I thought to come to."

It reminded me of this scripture:

2 Nephi 14: 6

“And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge , and a covert from storm and from rain.”

I know that this is God's church. It is a place of refuge and ultimate peace. I’m glad that I was able to see someone else recognize that for the first time. :)

Love you all!

We Celebrated July 4th by buying American FOOD!  

Sister Tracy