I Luh Taiwan!!

Aug. 28, 2016 email

Looking for packages!!!  Hopefully Sister Clawson's package full of Dr. Bronner's Minty soap made it!!! 

Oh man this week felt LONG! I don't know why. It was still fantastic but I was pooped this morning and grateful for a good ol P-day:) 

we will start off with the adventures from last pday:) Last week we all went up the Maokong Gondola again! But this time we went exploring around all sorts of super duper sick temples! We took a lot of pics. Sister Eyre is basically Mulan;) we were up there exploring for hours! So much fun and so dang pretty! Pday adventures are always a blast.

oh and cool news! I'm the new English Unit leader! So basically I'm in charge of all our english classes and trainings with them so that we can effectively get new investigators while helping others learn english:) How fun! I'm kind of nervous...because My english is getting worse day by day...but is my desire to teach repentance and baptize converts worse? NO! So it should be lots of fun:)

I'd say these two are enjoying their watermelon.  Yellow Watermelon:)  It's dripping off of Emma's chin!

This week we had temple tours and it was full of all sorts of neat experiences! We shared with people from all over the world! It's super hard when you meet people that don't speak english OR chinese.....SHOOT! But that's ok, the spirit does all the talking. :)We taught 3 guys from Korea and then a chinese man and his wife who is from Poland! It was such a cool tour. We taught it in chinese and then he would translate to her in polish...what?! I'm so glad I'm not learning polish! it sounds SO HARD! His chinese was really hard to understand as well....polish chinese..hahaha:) And now they are all meeting with the missionaries! Temple tours for the win:) We also got to see all the new missionaries that came in this week! 36 new missionaries!!!! WOW! Both Muzha companionships have trainees now cause elder Jackson is training now too! So much fun")

This weeks pictures all came from "other people".  Either members or Sr. Missionaries:)  Thank you!!!

The First one was on Thursday night. So in Taiwan you have to take out the garbage everyday when they truck comes. Except thats sometimes hard as a missionary cause you are always out talking to people being busy and what not. so....Sister eyre and I had 9 MASSIVE bags of garbage in our fridge and freezer.....this is so we don't get cockroaches!!!! We decided that we HAD to take out the garbage tonight! We gathered all the heaping bags, arms straining from how heavy they were, and hauled them to the street. We waited. No truck. 5 Minutes pass. no truck. 

Oh crap! We MISSED THE GARBAGE TRUCK! but now we are standing outside with 9 bags of garbage....what are we gonna do?! WE cant just leave it! And we CANT put it back in our house!!!!!!

I looked at Sister eyre and said, "Lets pray!" hahhaaha oh man.

I prayed that Heavenly Father would help us to know where we needed to go or what we needed to do to get rid of our garbage.

2 minutes pass. and we hear someone laughing....

I'm like, Who in the heck would be laughing at us?! 2 cute american girls with a ton of garbage is NOT funny! (hahaha ya it is:)

A scooter pulls up to us and guess who it is? 

Ji Pei De.

WHAT.

hahahahha he was out for a night run to Mcdonalds and decided to take the backroads:)

He jumped off his scooter, we each grabbed 3 bags, and he said, "The garbage truck will be at my house in 5 minutes, run!" so we booked it up the Alleys of muzha to the garbage truck and plopped it in just in time:)

GOD ANSWERS ALL OUR PRAYERS NO MATTER HOW WEIRD THEY ARE!!!

I know that God lives and he loves us:) 

I've been reminded so much of that this week. God will always answer our prayers and the Holy Ghost will always guide us. We just have to listen!

 

Last night we were on the street and met this lady. We had shared with her a message of the restoration and set up to meet with her again. I was scared to talk to her about baptism because I didn't want to scare her away! I had the strongest impression to open up my mouth and tell her about the blessing of baptism, Like Im supposed to as a representative of Christ! Before we left we invited her to baptism. 

She gave the most solid yes I've ever received my whole mission.

She explained that if she really knew it was true, why wouldn't she get baptized!!!!!! YES!

We must ALWAYS listen to the promptings of the Holy Ghost. No matter what! If I hadn't listened, that Lady wouldn't have set a baptismal date and known about the blessing of baptism. Always remember to have courage and be kind!!!!!

we left that contact with that lady giving hugs and so much love.

10 minutes before she was a complete stranger. 

Be kind to everyone and always testify of Jesus Christ:) Love you guys so dang much:)

emma

How Great Thou Art!

Aug. 22, 2016 email

Emma and Sister Eyre at the Taipei Temple with Willie.  He a recent convert that Emma taught in Zhongli.  It was his first time to the temple, and he came on the day Emma did temple tours:)

What another wonderful week here on the mission:) Taiwan is hot and glorious. The sky has been SO blue the past few days! Absolutely beautiful. Every night at like 5 the light starts to go down and its just pure summer. Know what I mean? Just low late summer light. agh:) from like 5-8 everyones all out playing basketball. Everytime I want to go play with them SO BAD. Looks so dang fun! Speaking of basketball...Im getting pretty good. We play every saturday with the local hooligans and it's a blast. :)

Last week!!! Monday was so dang fun! We all went out to lunch together with some members at this super delicious Thai food place. It was so dang fun! WE just ate and talked forever. Afterwards me and Sister Eyre had some pretty adventurous plans for the rest of P-day. HIT UP CARREFOUR! We are ridiculous..:) Carrefour is like costco. so good:) All in all we had a fun Pday last week;)

T

Dinner at a Thai restaurant

Sister Eyre is beat!

his week has been full of ups and downs, so many miracles, and lots of fun new adventures!

Elder Sessions left us this week so we all cried and stuff. He will be desperately missed. But the work still keeps moving dang it!

Ok, so I just gotta take a minute and talk about one of our cute new investigators. His name is You Rei:) He is 16 years old and fabulous! He is the most interesting taiwanese teenager I have ever met. He has a clothing business with his mom and designs clothes! what?! He's so kind and so open to learning about the gospel. He wants to get baptized and loves reading the book of mormon but doesn't think he should get baptized till he is 18. This is his own decision...not like a parent saying no. He said he decided when he was 14 that he wouldn't make any big choices till he was 18. Ok?! I haven't met one 16 year old kid who thinks that in depth! He's super special and we are excited to keep working with him:) 

Beautiful Muzha! And look Grandpa Garner!!!!  They have McDonalds!!

Now for an amazing miracle this week!! We have this adorable investigator named Yu Xuen Xin:) We have been working with her for almost 3 months now but she has just been moving really slowly. She is so cute, but just hasn't been keeping her commitments and invites. This week we met with her and were going to have to talk to her about maybe not meeting with her anymore. :( We went into our lesson and followed up with her on her reading in the Book of Mormon. Guess what she said....

"Really Good! I read the first 7 Chapters in First nephi! It's a story about this family, and they have this really awesome righteous son that Listens to God and then he's also got two really wicked brothers! I loved it!"

uhhhh,,...

Willie!

YES! THIS IS WHAT WE'VE BEEN TELLIN YOU!

We were giddy little school girls as we continued to talk about the Book of Mormon and Prayer. We are excited for her and this new page she's finally turning. I know for a fact that God will always hear and answer our prayers. He's done it for me everyday on my mission.

I was humbled by this experience and reminded that we always need to have faith and never assume anything. Cause you all know what assume means! hehehe thanks dad:)

Other fun highlights from the week.

-WE got to go to the temple with My RC from Zhongli this week! his first time inside!

-we locked ourselves out of our apartment on sunday....shoot. had to travel all the way to the mission home for the spares..:(

-we play How Great thou Art and blast it at the top of our lungs for WPS every week:) soooo good.

Pancakes for Sunday dinner!!  

Meeting up at Mission Conference with all of Emma's MTC  companions!!!  Love these girls!!

I love Taiwan so dang much:) this church is so dang true. Like there is literally no way it can't be true. Just read the Book of Mormon and earnestly pray! God loves us all and is just waiting to answer our prayers:) Love you so much fam damily.

MIRACLES! I Love Taiwan!

Aug. 14, 2016 email

The cutest Temple Tour Sister's I've ever seen!

This week was fantastic!!!! I'm so grateful to live in such a special and peculiar place like Taiwan. :) Last Monday, us, the elders and Ji Pei De all went to check out Wulai canyon on the waterfall! Super duper fun. We went super far up past the waterfall and found SO MANY of the biggest banana spiders in the world that had spinned webs in the power lines. So what do 4 americans and one special taiwanese man do. Try and hit them out of their webs with rocks or grab super long sticks and try to make them fall...

We were at this for like 2 hours.... we were so intrigued by the spiders. they are seriously as big as your face! Pei De knocked a big guy out and we studied it for quite some time. NATURE IS SO NEAT. Ji Pei De told me later that night that he was so interested in us 4 americans playing with spiders, he thought it was very strange and just couldn't figure out why we were all playing with spiders! Taiwanese and Americans. We have a very different thought process... ;) But it was so dang fun!

Wulai Waterfall on P-day

Tuesday Was fabulous. we had an awesome district meeting and just all talked for a solid hour on how we can really help our investigators needs, and then I had the coolest phone call experience that night with a Dad that we had met the week before at a park with his 2 kids. I called him to make sure he was still ok with us visiting him the next day. We talked for a second and then he opened up A TON! He told me that he wants more than anything to be with his 2 kids forever and was so touched that we had told him that through Jesus Christ it was possible! We then talked for like a solid 7 minutes, he had so many questions!!!!!!!!!!!! He feels really guilty for his past and for the way his relationship has ended up with his wife:( They got divorced and things are just rough now. (yes he was sharing this all with a 19 year old girl from america!) I prayed for him over the phone and he was feeling a lot better. Then after all the fiasco he told me he actually lives in Taoyuan. hahah. Good luck taoyuan Missionaries! you're getting a good guy!

Wednesday was quite the surprise:) 

CAUSE DAVID ARCHULATA CAME AND WE GOT A SURPRISE CONCERT!

Basically I was smiling like a little school girl the whole time. He shared stories from his mission and sang for us and it was so good:) He is an awesome kid and is going straight to heaven.

I haven't had the heart to tell Emma that her beloved TROOPER back in Utah died!!!  That car gave up the ghost, up in the mountains taking kids on another fabulous adventures!!  Emma's Trooper was exactly like the one in the picture:)  We would always sing "Super Trooper" by ABBA everytime we rode in it.  It really was a Super Trooper in our books!!  RIP Trooper:)

We got to see him again on saturday when we had temple tours and that was neat:) SO many people were there for a concert he was doing. We got 15 Tours in!! Tour days are endless and you are so tired! But we made some awesome friends and met great people. We gave a tour to 4 boys from Japan. They were great. only one of them spoke english and he translated everything for his friends. One of them was in LOVE with sister Eyre. We took a pic with them at the end of our tour and he got real close to her...poor girl. She's just so perfect! Then they all scheduled to meet with the missionaries in Japan next week. So great how small the world gets and how everyone can have a chance to hear about this beautiful gospel! 

These are the 4 Japanese boys that took a temple tour.  Who wouldn't take a tour with those cute girls as your guides!

Temple tours are always great. We gave a tour to Elder Dongs mom and an investigator from Tainan, My RC and 2 other friends from Zhongli, a group on investigators from Taichung. So dang cool.

I'm about fresh out of time but I just want to testify that God hears and answers all of our prayers. We have an investigator that didn't want to come to church yesterday because it was too early. I invited her to pray and ask God to give her energy to wake up in the morning. We prayed and prayed for her and guess who showed up to church right at 9?! She did!!!! She said, "weirdest thing ever, I woke up at 7:30 and couldn't fall back asleep!" God Loves all of his children and will always help us.. I freaked out so much when I saw her:) MIRACLES.

I LOVE TAIWAN.

XXOOXOXXOXO

EMMA

Taiwan For The WIN!

Aug 7. 2016 email

Emma and Sister Eyre.

Hello my wonderful family:) I love and miss you all so much and am secretly super mad that you would all go to Jackson Lake without me. You all know that i am the life of the party. 

jkjkjk Sorry I've been working on tuning down my pride...:)

But really that's my favorite trip every and I hope you all have a blast!

This week was a good one! Started off the week by having Zone Meeting. This week was all about how we can become Successful Missionaries. hmmm. Perfect. How fitting. For reals though it was actually super duper great. I also am up to a new level in my chinese learning so I got this massive book CHUCK full of 6,000 new words... the past week has been so fun learning all sorts of new things. 

If any of you want to know how to say "Break up" it's fenshou.

:)

After Zone meeting we had exchanges again! Sister Sylvester came with me to Muzha! We had a ton of fun and met so many people. she is from Las Vegas Nevada and is an awesome missionary.

Wednesday we had english class. I've been trying to spice up my english class some more so this week we played some great games:) 

Taiwanese people are funny.

they don't want games.

They just want to learn.

Well guess what? IM THE TEACHER!

This is the flyer for free English classes.  

So we played a super fun game and they all ended up loving it. :) I'm pretty sure they all think that I am crazy, but that's ok;) The best was that everyone laughed really really hard, so that's all that matters. English class motto: If the learn something and have fun, they will come back. If they learn nothing but have fun, they will still come back. Wise words of Elder Seamons in Zhongli:)

Speaking of English class. WE had quite the miracle this week! We have a member in our ward,Wu dx, Who has a daughter that is 12 years old. Not a member. Her name is Yi Hui but her english name is Yvonne. She is the shyest person I've ever met in my whole life! So the past month has been trying to earn her trust and become her friend through english class, cause her and her dad come to my class every week. I asked her if we could come visit her and she said yes!!!!!

Friday night rolled around and we got to there house to visit them. Except........she had locked herself in her room and didn't want to come out....

NO!

So what do we do?

Write a love note and slide it under the door with a cool sticker.

What next?

We say a serious pray that Heavenly Father would help soften her heart.

Should we have switched the order of those 2 things? Probably ;) My bad. 

After a mini lesson through the door, lots of love and encouragement, we finally got her to open the door and say hello to us!! She is adorable. We gave her a Book of Mormon, said and kneeling prayer with her invited her to come to church. And guess what?

SHE DID!! 

Heavenly Father has blessed us and loves every single one of his children so much. I'm so grateful for the chance I have to be here in Taiwan and help people feel of a Heavenly Love that they've never had the chance to feel.

Such a small world!!  The Elder in the middle with glasses came up to Emma at a conference and said, "Hey are you Sister Clawson?"  He knew all about Emma and had been looking for her.  He's from Sweden and had a seminary class that was taught by our favorite Swedish friend Evelina F.! From Utah to Sweden to Taiwan!!  Wow!

Ji Pei De is doing awesome! We are going hiking with him today and are stoked! He still continues to blow me away. He's helped us with some of our lessons and has such a strong testimony! We visited him and his parents this week and they are absolutely adorable. His mom is 73 and is so spunky, just like Pei De. ahaha. And his dad is 97...he's real old..he just sat and smiled:) LOve that fam!!! 

Love you guys all so dang much:) Today is Fathers day in Taiwan So HAPPY FATHERS DAY DAD! You are the best and I love you with all my heart Mcgyver.

I'm so grateful we all have a heavenly Father that loves and is watching over all of us!!

xoxoxoxo

emma