It's Ma Burfday!

Nov. 27, 2016 email

Hola Familia!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Emma turned 20 this week!!  Some favorite friends in Muzha brought a beautiful cake and came to celebrate her birthday!!  She had the best day!

This week was truly amazing. Mom I am so sorry, because I got overloaded with so many awesome pictures, stories, mexican adventures, and birthday wishes this week, I am low on time!!! But I'll give the deets on some awesome highlights from the week:)

A beautiful friend in Beitou shared the birthday love with Emma too:)

So Monday we decided that we would go and have Kao Rou Chi dao bao since it was mine, Elder Dong, and another missionaries birthday this week. This is basically an all you can eat barbeque with hot pot and haagen daaz ice cream.

HECK YES.

Kao rou is my favorite food in all of taiwan:) 

Emma's favorite food in Taiwan!

So we were all eating there having an awesome time when all of a sudden one of our favorite members from the Jinhua ward walks in! She was so excited to see us all that she qinged all of our meals! That means she paid for ALL OF US!

It was a true tender mercy. nuff said.

The next tender mercy was on tuesday afternoon. We had just finished up with our district meeting when Elder Clark yelled, "Wait! Everyone go down to the kitchen!" We all scuddled down to the kitchen and Elder Clark pulled this massive Costco pumpkin pie out of the fridge. He told us he found it at costco and couldn't resist! "happy thanksgivng!" We split it into 8 pieces and ate hearty. It was so wonderful:)

Can you tell food is a really big deal to me? I am grateful for delicious food. It is a straight gift from God.

Next tender mercy. Our beloved investigator Chen Hui Zhong:) this week we finished sharing with her commandments. She is so incredible. She truly understands who her savior is and that this is the path that she is meant to be on. It was so cool, she told us an experience she had reading the book of mormon this week that really touched my heart. She said that she made a goal for herself that every time she finished reading a chapter from the Book of Mormon she would pray right away and really ask God to help her know that what she read was true. She said that this week she has had several experiences where she was able to know without a doubt that this book is true. Sister Kho and I had been praying and wanted to invite Chen JM to be baptized this weekend instead of on the 17th. We told her that we knew she was ready to be baptized. We asked her how she felt and she started to cry. She said that this is something she has been waiting for her whole life and now she gets to do it 2 weeks early.

:) 

We are so pumped for her. Her interview is tomorrow so we are hoping for a baptism this weekend to kick off the Christmas Spirit:) I know that this gospel is so true. the Secret is out! its all true! I love it so much and couldn't be more grateful for my Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ.

The Thanksgiving Feast!  Some quick dumplings and then...........

Little Egg Tarts for dessert:)

This thanksgivng was CRAYZZZ. We were super duper busy but celebrated with some yummy little egg tart pies for planning that night:)

the next night we saw another awesome tender mercy. We did a service project at a home for these people who have slight mental problems, but no family to take care of them. We went over and did a thanksgiving party with them! It was so much fun and so cool to see them all smile so much:) 

Muzha friends!

Emma said it was so good to see these people and it was really hard to see them leave.  Thanks to these kind people who love Emma:)  

My birthday was one of the greatest days ever. We were on exchanges that day so me and Sister Langley got to mission it up together. The best part of the whole day was when 4 of my favorite muzha friends came and took us out to lunch! It was awesome! huge cake and everything! I love them all so much. Sister kho wrote me like 20 little notes and hid them all around the house for me to find during the day. She is so amazing and I'm just so dang blessed to have had the most special bday ever!:)

This is from the Thanksgiving service these cute missionaries did, and then 8 of them were Emma's Little Ducks who followed her to church on Sunday!!

Last fun tender mercy of the week. So sunday was nuts.... sister Kho and I had to go on splits with members for church cause we had people in both wards that we are over! Sister Kho went to danshui and I was here in Beitou. My companion was Fang JM:) She is so wonderful. It was pretty stressful. not gonna lie. 8 people from the thanksgiving activity earlier in the week wanted to come to church with us but they didn't know how to get there! So Fang JM and I went to pick them up and walk them to the church. I had 8 little ducks following me to the chapel:) I'm so mad I forgot my camera! I was praying so hard. I don't have my beloved companion, I have 8 ducks with me, am i gonna miss the sacrament?, where are all these people gonna sit?, AGH! I kept praying and Heavenly Father SO delivered. We walked into the chapel and there was a beautiful bench in the front row wide open. My 8 ducks slid on in just in time for us all to partake of the sacrament:)

wow.

I am so grateful Heavenly Father is so watchful over all of his children. This week was amazing. I'm so grateful to serve here. I am grateful for literally the best fam in the world. I am so grateful to know about my loving father in heaven.

everyone have a sick week!

ADIOS!!!

SEESTER EMMA

I'm Grateful For The Promptings From The Spirit!

Nov. 20, 2016 email

Sister Clawson and Sister Kho met up with some of Emma's favorite Muzha friends for a picnic this week!    

This week has been a blast and a half! Not going to lie, It was a little tougher than others but Heavenly Father has still helped us see so many miracles. Sister Kho and I are so stoked that we get to be together for another transfer!! She is literally my rock and I love her guts. 

This week we had some cool experiences happen. Last Monday night Sister Kho and I had the thought that we needed to call one of our RC's Sister Ke and see if we could go visit her the next day. She was so excited for us to come over. Tuesday afternoon we headed over to her house in Bali. We went up to her house, knocked at the door, and her 3 little boys came rushing out to see us! It was so dang fun to see them all smiling at us. We went in and sat down with them all and talked with Sister Ke. As we were talking together and sharing with her all of a sudden her second oldest FLIPPED! He had like a rage attack or something and was strangling his younger brother and basically just going 100 percent nuts. It was actually super duper scary. Sister Ke jumped up and grabbed him and just burst into tears trying to help him settle down. She kept repeating to him over and over "Heavenly Father loves you and Mama loves you." After a few minutes of getting him to calm down and Sister Kho and I frantically looking at each other not knowing what the heck we were supposed to do, he calmed down and scampered off into his room. Sister Ke sat down with us and just started crying. Her second son as a head disease and he doesn't know how to control himself, its gotten a lot worse the past few weeks and she has been especially nervous because he always gets extremely violant. She bore her testimony about hoe the holy ghost has helped her so much the past few weeks trying to help him. She said that when we came to visit it was an answer to her prayers. She said that that day she was at the verge of giving up and then we knocked on the door to see them. 

I know Heavenly Father loves all of his children so much. I'm grateful for the promptings from the spirit!

Emma and Sister Kho

This week we had another funny experience. So the night before this experience happened sister kho and I were talking before we went to bed, as we do. We were talking about how its the worst thing in the world when people make fun of your family or insult your family. They can make fun of us or insult us no problem! But then when they talk about our siblings or parents, its  hard to control the rage from within!

so.... The next night we were riding home and stopped to talk to this guy for a minute. He was super duper nice at first and was interested that our message was centered on families. We asked him what he thought could help build a successful family and he said, "just making sure that they aren't anything like your families." ........

SAY WHAT?

He said that we were basically the worst human beings for leaving our families and that our parents obviously didn't raise us right and that all of our siblings would basically have no success in their lives. We tried to share with him and help him see that light, but he just kept hard core shutting it down.

Wow. This was ROUGH. Heavenly Father was testing us for sure! I don't think the 2 of us had ever prayed for charity and patience so much in our lives. I wanted to light into this guy so much, but knew that that is absolutely not what Christ would have done. We both bore our testimonies, thanked him,  invited him to english class, and biked away! 

Did I swear under my breath as I biked away and secretly want to flip him off? Maybe.

don't put that part in the big email mom:)

It was a tough but we are so grateful that Heavenly Father really will give us the strength to do all things.

On a happier note, Our investigator Chen Hui Zhong is doing AMAZING! she has been so diligently ready the book of mormon. The Book of Mormon is so true and Heavenly Father blesses all those who are willing to  open their hearts and open this book. We are so excited for her:)

One more awesome tender mercy from this week! Saturday night my back brakes broke and I had no idea how to fix it! (AGH! DAD WHERE ARE YOU?!) but luckily our neighbor owns a bike shop. His name is Brother Liu! I ran down and asked him if he could help me out. He checked out my bike and started to get to work. I was watching him, making sure that I took down note of the things he was doing so I could fix it next time. He was so quite, just smiling, as he worked. 

He reminded me so much of dad!! Just quitely making sure everyones bike was in proper working order:) After about 20 minutes, he look at me, smiled, gave me some bike advice, and then said, "fixed!" We all laughed and I asked him how much it was for his help. He laughed and said, "free!" I literally burst into tears.....

Then I cried all the way to our lesson,....

I was just so overwhelmed and grateful that Heavenly Father has placed so many amazing people in my path on my mission. People who have the same attributes as my family. I know he knows us all individually and I am so grateful:) 

I love you all so much and hope mexico is SICK!!!

XOXOXO\EMMA

Glad To Be In Taiwan

Nov. 13, 2016 email

I am so sorry we are running low on time today but I gotta tell you all of the amazing miracles that we saw this week!!!!!!

Sister Kho at the chapel in Beitou which is at the very top of a very steep hill:)

Last monday we went over to our member Cai jm's house because we have started teaching her daughter. So dang fun:) Her name is Angela, she is 28 years old and paints sets for movies. WHAT/! She is super duper cool. This night we had planned to share with her the Restoration of the Gospel. She thought the part about Joseph Smith was so cool, but just didn't think that God could actually answer her specific prayers. We taught her more about prayer and how to pray. Her mom offered an awesome testimony on the power of prayer and then Angela said a closing prayer with us. You could tell she felt super nervous but said the most wonderful prayer! AFter she was done with the prayer her mom just FLIPPED OUT! She was SO HAPPY! she was laughing and squealing and squeezing the life out of her daughter! it was the cutest thing to see. We are so pumped for Angela and are grateful for her moms entusiasm..:) SO GOOD!!

this week sister Armstrong and I went on exchanges! she is so flipping legit. We had an awesome time together. We traveled to Danshui for some lessons at night at the Mos Burger. I just had a testimony builder that, no matter where you are, you can always have the spirit with you. We were having a lesson about the plan of salvation in a burger place.....but when the spirit is with us we are in our own little world. It's the coolest thing ever! 

The tip top of Beitou or Narnia:)

The next morning we decided to wake up super early for exercise and explore the mountain by our house. We ran basically straight up hill for DAYS! (literally Beitou is ALL hills, my legs are gettin pretty swoll) It was the most beautiful run, we thought we had almost made it to the top but then we realized there were some steps going farther up the mountain. ADVENTURE TIME! We climbed the stairs and when we got to the top, We realized that we had gone through the Gateway to Narnia. Legit.

At the very top was a little temple perfectly surrounded with a stepping stone path all covered with short grass like a Green in a golf course. We just looked at each other and screamed! It was literally the most beautiful thing I have ever seen! You could see all of Beitou. It was truly magical! the next morning sister Kho and I went back up and she taught me some Taichi:) So dang cool:)

Beitou truly is a beautiful place:)

One more quick miracle! Last sunday we received a member referral and felt prompted to call her right away. Her name is Chen Hui Zhong and has a daughter who is a new member that is studying in America. I called her and she was ADORABLE! She set up for thursday and couldn't have been more thrilled. AGH!!!

We met with her and got to know her. We shared with her the restoration and she just started bawling. she said she has been to SO many churches and has never felt good in any of them! She said that she has been praying that God would help her find truth. She said that she knew this was where god wanted her to be:) I know Heavenly Father is preparing people for us to find everyday:)

AGHHHHHH THIS WORK IS SO GOOD!

I love you all so dang much:P have a fun time in mexico ya losers. Jk i love ya.

soxoxoxo

emma

Miracles Everywhere! You Just Have To Go Find Them!

Nov. 6, 2016 email

Holy Cats! What an absolutely CRAZY week! This week started out on full stress level!!! This tuesday we had Zone meeting and Sister Kho and I had to do all this training and stuff. I was freaking out......and to top it all of President joined us! I was about to barf, but after a little prayer, a trip to the potty, it all went great. :) We are so excited to see this zone continue to grow and teach repentance and baptize converts!!! After our first zone meeting with the Central zone we headed up to Shilin for our next zone meeting with the North Zone. It was a blast! Since we had already gone through it all once in the morning it was a breeze. We all talked and counseled together and we are absolutely pumped to see this work take off. 

That night we went on exchanges with the Shilin Sisters. Exchanges are always so fun, but literally nuts. But this time I had one of the coolest experiences ever. We had all come back from our finding, lessons, and whatnot and had started our daily planning session. Both companionships were on different sides of the room, planning together for the next day. We both finished around the same time and said a closing prayer. Sister Dayton was closing our DPS and Sister Reinard was closing theirs. I was in a chinese prayer sandwich! At that moment I was overcome with the spirit and was just reminded at how much Heavenly Father loves us. He is listening to every prayer in every language at every time of the day.

Exchanges always are full of miracles. This friday and saturday we went on exchanges again with the sisters in Jinhua! They are both so adorable. Sister Lefevre and I were together! We started off by having a lesson with our investigator Chen Zi Rong. She is 18 years old in her first year of college and absolutely LOVES basketball. She has a baptismal date coming up pretty soon. We had planned to share with her about the commandments. We read together, talked and explained the blessings that come from keeping all of Gods commandments. She is always so willing to keep commitments and really knows that theses commandments can help her. After we shared with her I was prompted to talk about her baptism with her. She expressed concern about not feeling ready. We talked with her more and then asked her how she felt about what we were teaching her. She said that she knows that its all true and can really help her, but we knew that there was something that she wasn't telling us. 

Sister Lefevre (most inspired missionary every!) Simply asked her if she believed that God was her Heavenly Father. She replied, "No." You could tell that she was really upset. She then expressed how good she knew these things were but still didn't know if God knew her personally and loved her. We all prayed together and then invited her to pray sincerely every night and Ask God if he really is her Heavenly Father. She is so awesome! I'm so grateful for the guidance of the Holy Ghost to really be able to find peoples concerns and help them feel the love of Christ.

Afterwards we went and grabbed some dinner. We weren't super duper hungry so we just went a grabbed a quick crepe at the night market! Except that this time it was NOT  quick crepe. A dad with 4 kids had just ordered 8 crepes right before we got there. BUT these crepes are delish so we decided to be patient and wait. :) While we were waiting we talked with this dad. Turns out he is christian and LOVES HIS FAMILY! Nobody in taiwan has more than 3 kids...like it just never happens, so I asked him why he has so many kids, he said because kids are straight up gifts from God! We shared with him about the plan of salvation and being with our families forever. He had never heard anything like this before and was very intrigued and hopeful:) WE set him up with the missionaries where he lives and sent him on his way with his 8 crepes:) Such a miracle!!! After our crepes were finished we were about to pay and the owner said that the guy had bought our crepes for us.....

WHAT! FREE CREPES!

We are so excited to hear more about this awesome family:)

Last night was also so amazing. We had the new member fireside and got to see lots of fun faces from muzha! When we got back home we still had about 5 minutes before we needed to be inside. Sister Kho and I were literally POOPED, but we were like, "5 minutes! We gotta do it." There was literally nobody around except for this one little girl. So we went and started talking to this little girl and then her mom comes out of the store. We asked about their family and told them about the importance of families and how through Jesus Christ we can know how to build a  better relationship with our family ever day! We asked if we could meet with them next week and share more and they said yeeeeeessssssssssssssssssssssss.!!!!

Sister Kho and I were dying we were so excited. Miracles everywhere, you just have to go find them!

Love you all so dang much:) have a fabulous week!

xoxoox\

emma

Now We Are Real Church People!

This is Sister Vatcher whom Emma LOVES:)  And I love her too!!  She is serving with her husband in Taipei helping with medical needs.  And just all around helping of missionaries.  She posts all sorts of pictures of missionaries that she sees during the week onto the Taipei Mission FB page.  I know there are a lot of very thankful parents:)

 Another week gone! Time just flies when you are having fun and teaching people about Jesus!!!

The next few pdays will be spent singing christmas songs as we are preparing for some killer Chistmas concerts coming up this december!!!! It's so fun. We have a missionary choir organized and practicing christmas songs on pday for an hour:) It's starting to feel nice and festive. 

This week was full of challenges and miracles. This week I was just reminded at how important hard days are on your mission. If we didn't have hard days or any challenges, we would NEVER know how amazing  and sweet the good days are:) This week we saw a lot of agency. We've been keeping up our goal of talking to everyone but this week we just got a lot more rejection than usual. Sister Kho and I were so dang sad! This message is so true and so good but what it really comes down to is we all have our agency and we can choose whether or not to accept. I know that Heavenly Father will keep guiding us and helping us find his prepared children:) 

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Our investigator Chen Qian Pei also dropped us in a way this week. She was supposed to be baptized next week but just found out that she is going to Taichung to start her military service for 4 months. She doesn't see the need to be baptized anymore and has stopped doing the little things of reading and praying everyday. We love her so much!!!!!! We bore our testimonies to her and promised her blessing that come from keeping God's commandments and finished our lesson. We were a little disheartened but know that she will be baptized. Maybe not this week, but she will someday.

Sister Kho and it looks like a delicious ice cream and Bing stop.  Except for those red beans on Emma's Bing.  

On a happier note we had  MLC this week to prepare for our Zone Trainings that we will be having this week!!!! We are so dang stoked! I'm stressed out of my mind but I know that It will all turn out awesome:) President and all of us had a big discussion about receiving personal revelation. He talked a lot about prayer. I was lovingly reminded that prayer is a 2 way communication, not just me telling Heavenly Father what's going on and asking for help. God will literally answer our prayers while we are praying, we just have to listen! He challenged us all to take a notebook and pen with us every time we went to pray and promised us that we could receive direct revelation and answers. It was amazing!! We even got to eat with the Jergensens at their house:) Sister Jergensen made minestroni soup and bread and it was absolutely to die for:)!

This week we also went on exchanges with some sister in their area! It was so crazy! They live in Wanda which is about right in the middle of Taiwan city! I almost died on my bike!! It was so lively and busy and such an amazing experience to work with these sisters in their own area:) 

Dinner at a member's home.  Thank you!!!

This sunday we were out visiting a member and had the feeling to stop by this LA's (less active member's) house to take her some brownies. She never lets us set up with her so we were so happy when she was so willing to let us in! We talked with her for a while and then her daughter walks in! We got to know her and she just completely opened up with us about concerns she's been having at work. (She makes sets for big movies! So sick!) She's been married for a few years and expressed the desire to be able to slow down her life and start a family. But she doesn't know what to do! Family? Work? We shared with her #becauseofhim (here's the #Becauseofhim video you can click on and watch. It's only 2 1/2 minutes and  Emma shares it a lot!)and promised her that through Christ she could be able to receive answers and guidance in her life. 

We are meeting with her next monday:)

This stuff is literally so good and so true. 

Ke JM and her son also got confirmed this week in church and it was beautiful. Afterwards her son came up to us and said, "Now we are real church people!" It was the cutest thing ever. I know that gospel can help us have hope in our lives and give us guidance that we won't be able to find anywhere else! I love you so much fam:) have the best week ever and eat tons of candy for me.

xoxoxoxo

emma