Sunday, July 3, 2016

Golden Easter Egg Finding

June 26, 2016 email

Cookies work even in tiny little toaster ovens!!
What a beautiful week here in Taiwan. I am just blown away at how dang pretty it is here in Taiwan. Every day is an adventure, you just prep yourself with your trusty bike, a ton of tracts, your BOM, and a sparkly smile and hope for the best!
Last Monday we actually went as a district to Chiang Kai Shek! This was my second time but it was just as fun as the first, if not more! Know why?! Cause we met a whole family from Utah that were there visiting! The mom and dad both served in Taiwan and wanted to bring their kids to check it out! They were the classic utah fam. 6 girls. 1 boy. Blonde hair and blue eyes. It was so fun to talk with them and explore chiang kai shek again.


Chiang Kai Shek Memorial for p-day.
Tuesday was an AWESOME day. We were going on exchanges with our Sister Training leaders, but before we left we had the best district meeting of all time! Elder Sessions shared a story about easter egg hunts when he was little. The goal was too find the 1 golden egg cause usually his Grandma would load it up with like 20$ and awesome candy. Not the gross candy. He referred it back to us finding everyday. We might have to go and talk to 20 gross candy people (those who aren't quite prepared yet) to find the one golden egg! This is so true. If we are not talking to everyone there is no way that we will be able to find that golden egg:)! After district meeting we headed to Yonghe for exchanges! I went with Sister Denison:) She is one of my favorite people. She was Sister Aplsey's trainer and she is just so dang fun and awesome! We had a lesson together with this guy named Zhang DX. He walked into the church with a hot pink polo with one sleeve missing, Zebra gloves, and a knitted head band. :)

He was awesome:)

Let's just say he doesn't have any desire or believe that God can help him..but he was still great!

All of Gods children are precious, especially the ones in Hot pin polo's...;) Oh man he was nuts.:)


Splits with their favorite Sister Trainer Leaders!
The rest of the night we went finding and had a blast! we laughed with everyone and met so many awesome people. I accidentally called us girlfriends, instead of girls to these two guys and we all died laughing forever. It's so fun to be able to laugh with complete strangers. I have a testimony that laughing and the spirit build relationships faster than any thing else! The STL'S actually live with 2 other sisters so that night we just had a massive sleepover! 6 missionaries all in the same room! It was a blast:)
the next morning during studies Sister Denison shared an awesome story with me about when she was in training.
She had just gotten to her area with her trainer and they had an appointment that was in a neighboring town about 30 minutes bike ride away. Sister Denison didn't have her own bike yet, but there was an old missionaries there that she could use. They jumped on the bikes and were on there way. To get to this town they had to go up this massive bridge! Sister Denison said she started up and said it was the hardest thing she had done in her entire life. She was so frustrated! She said she had ridden bikes all the time, was in pretty good shape, and was ready to go! But this hill was kicking her butt. It took her about 3x the amount of time to get up the hill as it did her trainer. A few more days went by and 1 or twice a day they would have to go up this hill. She. was. DYING! She could not figure out why she just couldn't conquer this hill or ride with ease. The next day her trainer asked her if she would lead them to the church that day. Sister Denison agreed and took off, her companion following behind her. They hadn't even gone 20 feet till her trainer yelled at her to stop!! She said, "Sister Denison, Both of your tires are 100 percent flat..." 



Finding people to teach in Muzha!
WHAT?! She had been riding on completely empty tires for almost a week! That's why it was so bloody hard to bike around!!!! They went and pumped up her tires and she flew around with ease! The hill became her favorite part, she had the strength to fly up the hill and enjoy the beautiful scenery all around her! At the end of the story she told me that having no air in your tires is like having no faith. Its RIDICULOUSLY hard! And you won't ever be happy and enjoy the scenery! Always have air in your tires and you will never lost or sad. Faith in all things!!.

Thurday was WPS and I made Chocolate chip cookies! Thank you mother for the mix!!!!!!!! It changed our lives;) Just call me Betty Crocker. I gave a few to the Elders and all Elder Sessions said was, "wow!  It really worked!" Then I read him a scripture, "Oh ye of little faith...." We had a good laugh and the cookies were delicious:)

Friday we went finding our guts out! We met so many people from every single walk of life. My favorite by far was the 17 year old boy that we met outside of the internet cafe. He was smoking hard core and blowing it ALL OVER MY FACE. He also had at least 15 hickies on his neck. He wasn't interested, but don't worry. He will be one day;) cause He needs Jesus.

Saturday was a dang busy day! We were temple tour sisters and were absolutely swamped all day! We had tours coming out of our ears! So many people are outside taking pics, walk in, we ask them if they want a tour, and then BAM! The spirit hits them and then they set up to learn more:) Miracles happen everyday! I'm so grateful for the temple and the opportunity we have to be with our families forever! We also treated ourselves to the most delicious pho of my entire life after we were done:) Mom and Dad we will go and get some next year don't worry:)

Family Home Evening with the best ward!
Sunday was so dang fun! we had a YSA FHE with our ward and all of our investigators:) We all ate together and then we taught everyone how to play Signs and tied it in with a spiritual share. I haven't laughed so hard in my whole life! I've met some of my best friends here and am so grateful for the gospel in my life. That's a wrap for this week!!! Love you tons!!!
xoxoxoxoox
emma

We Bought A Zoo!!

June 19, 2016 Letter

At the Taipei Zoo
This week was stinking awesome!! I am loving Muzha more and more every single day. Honestly it is absolutely beautiful and I am making the best friends I've ever had in my whole life. I have to bring them all home with me!

Well, to start off the week with a bang we went to the Zoo!! It's in our area so we all just road our bikes:) Bike Gang for the win:) We got to the zoo and I just screamed, "WE BOUGHT A ZOO!" It's what the adorable little girls says in We Bought A Zoo. Except no one has ever seen it in my district...WTH?! All you deprived people! So they laughed at me and by the end of the day Elder Dong couldn't stop saying it too:) It was such a blast! It's the biggest zoo I've ever seen in my whole life! We were there for about 3 hours and only made it about half way through! But it's ok, its literally only 2 american Dollars to go so we will be back for sure:) All the Animals we SO COOL! Elephants, monkeys, snakes, spiders, hippos, pandas, butterflies, kangaroos, camels, emus, zebras, tigers, ets....It was massive! We met some people from the phillipines there and they wanted to take pics with us. Cause we are white. So we did! Everyone wants to take pics with us and it cracks me up!


Tuesday was our first day of Temple Tours!! So here's kind of how it works. You have a scheduled temple tour day. You are there from morning till night. Literally all day. Sometimes there are tour appointments set up, other times there's not. When there's not, you stay within a 5 minute radius of the temple and find! Talk to everyone and convince them to do a tour:) It's awesome. 
So we had absolutely NO tours scheduled....oh no!! So we were out finding. all. dang. day. It was pouring rain, we may have got ice cream twice at the 7-11 to rejuvinate ourselves, but we did see a miracle. We met one guy that actually wanted to do a tour. His name is Chen dx! We talked and did a tour and were all touched by the spirit. He knew that what were taught was true and commited to baptism! Then we asked him were he was from, and he said....


Muzha.

What?! Temple tour miracles! The one person we meet actually lives in our area:) Christ is my anchor and if we have faith and are diligent we literally will never fail.
Sister Hughes and a really nice Elder I don't know his name!

The Elder's in Emma's District 

Wednesday we we graced with the most amazing zone conference ever. It was all about Pride. Pride and all the different faces it can take! I realized how much I actually struggle with this and need to become more humble dang it! we had multiple trainings, roleplays, costco pizza, and fun with friends (aka fellow missionaries). Mom I realized something this week. It was an epitome I had in stake conference yesterday. Elder Roe is literally the most intense, driven, impressive, on fire, full of the spirit missionary I've ever met in my life. Just thought I would tell you. Cause you're my more and I can tell you random crap. So basically Elder Roe is my hero and I hope i can become as diligent of a missionary as he has been! anyways. back to mission stories.

Thursday was the start of a new kind of mission experience. My companion got SO SICK. Like sicker than a dog. Poor girl, she was coming out both ends for 3 days! She is a trooper. so thursday, friday, and saturday we were home bound. Lets just say I learned A LOT about chinese culture. I know the difference and beliefs of Taoisom, confucionism and buddhism. Buddhism here is very different than the rest of the world. I read A LOT of scriptures. And me and Sister Hughes basically learned EVERYTHING about each other. Like she knows about the Clawson fam 4th of July and how we once were on the news for dressing up like Obama and being scantily clad women...she knows it all!!!!! I'm pretty sure she wanted to kill me by the end of this week. hahaha:) I sang to her, told her stories, the whole plot of Mary Poppins, the whole shabang! we were both losing it staying inside! The good news is is that she's better and that Sunday was fantastic!
Elephants at the Taipei Zoo

The Tourists.

Sunday was Stake conference and our beloved Ji Pei De was able to come with us!!!! He works all the time but was able to came with us:) KNow why? BECAUSE HE PRAYED FOR HELP AND GOD ANSWERS ALL OF OUR PRAYERS, THATS WHY! His testimony has grown so much and he's made the biggest changes in his life. Stake conference was the biggest blessing. They had a mens choir that was absolutely fantastic! It had so many of our ward members in it so it was a blast to watch them. I was overcome by the spirit while they were singing and just really realized how much I love these people. I never thought I could love the people in Taiwan, but the have my whole heart. I know that Heavenly Father sends us the the places that we are supposed to go and that if we put our trust in him he can help us change the desires of our hearts. Till next time folks! love you all so much.
xoxoxooxox
emma