Peruvians Come In All Shapes and Sizes, But Mostly Small WEEK #1 Aug. 16, 2018

Saying his final goodbye!

Hey guys so this week has been awesome but also really busy. I got on the plane to go to Atlanta and the kid I was sitting by was from Grace Idaho and he was also going to Cusco! We sat by each other on the next flight to Lima as well. While we were on that plane, there was this 21 year old guy who was flying to Peru for the first time, and it was also his first time out of the country! We talked with him for a little bit which was fun. He was really confused why there were so many of us wearing suits and all going to Peru. We told him that we were all missionaries for the church of jesus christ of latter day saints, and that we were going to peru to teach people the gospel. right after, he said  ok, tell me about your church. Me and elder campbell looked at each other and were like ok! we shared a couple things with him and he was super nice about it all. He did have some difficult questions though and i wish we could have had a couple days to teach him more but we did an alright job for our first lesson. It was kinda fun teaching him, but at the same time it was also really hard because he had some difficult questions. We got to the airport in lima and kinda didnt know where to go, so we just kinda walked around looking for a guy holding a jesus christ sign. Funny thing, everyone is really short here. Most peruvians are super short and have really small hands and really small feet. Just a really small person. And its weird because we were on the plane with some peruvians and they were not dark skinned at all, they were like white people!! it was weird! Peruvians come in all different shapes and sizes, but mostly small.

Last family photo for a while.

Brotherly love!

Most of our days have been the same. wake up, study, breakfast, classes, lessons and more studying, lunch, classes, dinner, classes, study and then go to bed. I felt like i have been here for so long and the language is hard. especially when some peruvian man or woman all of a sudden comes at you with like 100 words per minute. But im getting better with phrases and words and kinda of talking to the latinos. 

On monday we had to wake up extra early to go to interpol so we could work on our visas. It was going to be our first time outside of the walls since we arrived and we were all freaking out!! This littel taxi driver guy comes to pick us up in one of those little vans that can hold like 10 people in it. Just a fun fact, everyone that drives here drives like there are no rules and they can do whatever they want, im pretty sure we almost died 5 times on our way to interpol which was only 10 minutes away. We were actual missionaries and it was our first time out in the real world. the CCM (its what they call the MTC in Lima) is exactly what the mission presidents wife said it was. A paradise in the middle of a crazy world. that is totally true! we have these huge walls that surround our building to either keep things out, or to keep us in. the weather is usually really cold and today was the first time we have seen the sun all week. But the CCM is not just a paradise, it is also a spiritual prison, lots of rules and they are very strict on pretty much everything. But honestly it is amazing here. the grounds are beautiful and the physical activity area is huge and awesome!! We have like 3 small soccer courts, one full size and 2 basketball courts that are only for our use and have huge walls surrounding them. it has everything we need here. all of my roommates and mi compañero are so awesome. my companions name is Elder Boyle and he is from Eagle Idaho.  Elder Abrath is 20 years old and from salt lake city, elder chamberlain is 18 and from salt lake as well. and then we have too elders who are already fluent in spanish and are awesome. Elder Salazar y elder Dahl. all the elders in my district are awesome as well. I love them all and they are all so fun, and they are totally as lost as i am at times. I have met An elder spackman who is dennis spackmans nephew, (Dennis is our favorite bus driver at home) and i have two friends from school that came down here with me!! and i also met up with Elder Nichols from ridgeline, I dont know if you know jackson Nichols but hes a good dude and hes here!!

Jake and his favorite friend Tyler shared a mission farewell.  These two girls have been in Jake's primary class since they were BABIES!  Love these kids!

we have had many devotions and i love it when we have choir practice. Yesterday we had an Elder Held from colombia talk to us and that was awesome. today for prep day we went to the temple in lima and it was so awesome! the session was all in spanish but we had those little translater things. And we took tons of pictures of the temple and i bought a peruvian tie form some guy on the street! I dont think i was supposed to do that but me and my companion did it anyways. Then we did a flippin ton of laundry. and I was feeling sick today but i took some advil and now I feel great. I have a testimony of advil! I dont have a lot of time but I love you guys and miss you all.

I know that I came here to be a messanger of Heavenly fathers message and I know that the scriputres are true and that jose (Joseph)😁 smith did translate the book of mormon and restore this gospel.

Love elder clawson.

Packing and going to visit Grandma Roberts before the airport.  As she hugged Jake he just burst into tears.  Grams looked at him and promised she'd be here when he got home!  She'll be 90 in a couple weeks.  We love you Grams!!!

MOm, I love you and miss you tons. I dont have too much time but Thank you for all you do for me and feel free to send me packages of stuff if you would like! but probably dont cause it might take alittle bit and i forgot the address. I love you all and I cant wait to email you all next week. 

I love you mom!.

Last Email EVER!! Holy cow!

July 23, 2017 email

This week was a lot of fun, full of great memories. 

ok, first really funny story from this week. :)

This tuesday morning, sister xie and I were just coming back from exercise and we see this old grandma babbling with the grandpa that lives below us. We overheard their conversation and it turns out there was some dead animal that they were trying to clean up but both of them were too scared to do it. They saw us walk past and they were like, "the missionaries! They can help us!" So of course we put on our brave face and followed the grandma to wherever this animal was. I was expecting like a rat.. or a kitten maybe. we get to this part of the road and lying in the gutter is an ENORMOUS badger.

WHAT?! 

This is taiwan?! A BADGER?! are you kidding me?!!!!! i was dying. They badger seriously looked like he just got really tired, laid on his back, and then died. it was hilarious. Literally massive.

then...I had to pick it up and throw it away.. 

aghghghghghghhhgghhhh! Xie jm, this grandma, and me were like three squealing 6 year olds. I was so dang terrified, but I knew I just had to man up and pick it up!! Top 5 bravest moments on my mission.

the grandma was super grateful and then we had a really good laugh about it later:)

Agh taiwan is nuts.

:)

Now for some other cool miracles from the week.

This wednesday we had a pass off lesson with the 2nd ward elders, it was with Lin Wen Jie Dx. He is amazing and basically the most prepared person in all of Taiwan. So earlier in the week I was talking to Lin DX on the phone and he told me about how he actually has  a 4 year old son that died 3 years ago in a motorcyle accident. We planned with the elders that we would teach him the plan of Salvation when we met with him instead of our original plan. The lesson went amazing. We all taught it together so simply and the spirit was so strong. Elder Johnson shared a scripture about how little children have eternal life and he testified to Lin DX that his son was with God in a place of peace and happiness. Lin DX just burst into tears, then I burst into tears...AGH It was so sick! He just understood the plan and how important it was to him! I'm so grateful that Heavenly FAther gave us the chance to meet Lin DX and get to help learn about our Savior.

I love this gospel. It is so dang true!

This week I also had my last interview

and last sunday

and last coordination meeting.

gonna have  a lot of lasts this week! kinda scary but really exciting:)

I have loved serving a mission in Taiwan. I know that God lives, He LOVE US!! I know that we have a living prophet on the earth today that receives revelation directly from God. This church has been restored! The Book of Mormon holds the restored truth. I know that if we live Gods commandments and follow Christs example we will be HAPPY. Dad told me something super awesome and true today. Missions don't change lives, purely living the gospel changes lives. 

I have seen a lot of unhappy people and a lot of happy people. The ones who are happy are the ones that choose to trust in God wholeheartedly, follow his son, repent, and keep his commandments. I love you tons)

SEE you all in a hot minute!!!!

xoxoxoox

emma

I Love Being A Missionary!

July 16, 2017 email

My beloved family and friends!!!! This week was great. I think last week I had one of the coolest pday in maybe my whole mission. We woke up early with our Member Zheng JM and her family and went to a little town on the outskirts of TAidong called Luye. It's beautiful and SO GREEN. So we went up there to see a performance. It was done by the aboriginals of Taidong, They sing and dance together! It was one of the coolest things I have ever seen and I may or may not have cried at one point because I thought it was so cool.......Agh I am a baby now...I cry really easily. but for reals it was the sickest thing in the world! afterwards we drove around and saw all sorts of cool mountain scenery of Taidong:) and then before we went home we stopped and saw Hot air balloons!! IT WAS THE MOST MAGICAL THING OF MY LIFE!!!

All in all it was a super duper fun pday:)

you guys this week saw a lot of cool miracles. But I just don't have time to write the nitty gritty details. But I promise I will tell you in person soon. I'll give you the quick run down of the amazing things that Heavenly Father was able to help us see this week:)

First off was the LA's that we were able to contact this week. The first was Chen JM. We simply got to know her and shared with her a mormon message about healing. She cried and cried and said that she hasn't felt the Holy Ghost for such a long time. she said she has the biggest desire to start coming back to church. 

the next Was Fan DX. He said that he hasn't been contacted by missionaries or members in 18 years. He has a big desire to quit smoking and drinking again but doesn't believe in himself. We invited him to come to church. Yesterday he was flooded with members loving him and welcoming him! AGH THIS WORK IS SO GOOD! LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR PEOPLE!

This week I also went on my last exchange! I went with Sister Austad. It was a lot of fun:) and we treated ourselves to not one, but 2 MANGO ICES!! the best.

I actually feel like this week was also just full of a lot of delicious foods.

And we got HUGE news for the week. Guo JM finally set a baptismal date!!!!!!!! She has been to church 4 times, reading the BOM, praying. agh she's awesome. But she was always just a little unsure about setting a baptismal date. This week we shared with her the Gospel of Jesus Christ and asked her how she felt about baptism. She just smiled and said she was excited about it. We then invited her to be baptized on August 26th and she just so pumped and said, "Ke YI!!!!!" 

perfect!! We are so excited for her and her cute cute cute family:)

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!

I know this gospel is so true. I'm know that Christ lives. He's the perfect example. Literally all we have to do everyday is ask ourselves,What would jesus do. If we can all have this attitude and follow his example and use the  Atonement daily in our life, we will be happier and see miracles everyday:) I LOVE YOU GUUS!!!!!!!! ONE MORE EMAIL!!!!!!

OXOXOXOX

EMMMA

You Are Cute And The Mangoes Are For Free!

May 21, 2017 email

Hello my beloved family. This week has been a blast and a half. This week was full of so many cool tender mercies and miracles. We were also so dang blessed to get to have the SICKEST mission conference with Elder Cook. I swear every time I get to see an apostle I get so stinking excited I can't even handle it. ! Ok, I'll share more about the conference in a hot minute. 

This week has poured rain! Absolutely dumped! It's been nice and wet, but even though it rained we still got to meet some sick new people.

P-day was the usual, went to the glorious park with all the other missionary friends and played capture the flag. It was a blast. The best part of Pday happened when we went to go and buy fruit. They had some mangos for sale and I FLIPPED out I was so dang excited. I went to go and grabbed some, but then I saw how expensive they were....:( They were ridiculous expensive! So I passed and bought some apples and guava instead. As the cute little lady was grabbing my fruit for me and then she grabbed two mangos and tossed them into my bag for me:) She smiled at me, told me I was cute and that the mangos were for free. 

AGH!!!! I was so dang excited. She was so kind. I feel like so many little things like this happen all the time and make me want to cry. Their is a God in Heaven and he LOVES us! He puts angels all throughout our path:)

This week we met so many cool new people. All of them are so dang young! The large majority of our new investigators for this week were all between the age of 14-17. It's a golden age gorup! they are all wanting to know what there purpose in life is and how they can be happier. The only way that this can be done is through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It literally will flip our lives around for the better and make us the happiest people in the world. 

I love this Gospel!

Our beautiful investigator Zhang Yue Mei got baptized this week and it was the happiest thing ever:) There was a lot of awesome lessons, stories, and smiles that all lead up to her getting baptized. YAY! Now I am going to share with you the absolute HELL FIRE that happened before the actual baptismal service started. We got to the chapel at like 6 oclock to get everythign ready for 7. As soon as we started preparing everything just went down hill. First we went into the baptismal font to see how the water started, then we had to clean up the 10 huge dead cockroaches that were in it!! ewwww! Then we started the water, it was FREEZING, then it stopped running completely,NOOOO! it's almost 6;45 now and NOBODY had showed up yet! It was me, my companion, Yue Mei, and David our ward mission leader. A Baptism of 4! at about 6:55 we got the water to work again, people finally showed up, and then I went back into the baptismal room and like 400 giant moths had somehow made their way into the room and we are buzzing around the lights!!!!!!! SATAN!! We then took the next few minutes to KILL all of them and clean up the mess. Finally everything was ready. We got a couple close members and our investigator together in one room to say a kneeling prayer together. It was weird, we were praying and for some reason I had the feeling to open my eyes. So I did.

What did I see?

A POOL OF BLOOD ON THE FLOOR!! My companion got the most killer bloody nose during the prayer!! We booked it to the bathroom and David helped us clean up the bloody mary mess. 

woa. 

about 5 minutes later we started and the whole service went awesome. Smooth as ever:)

Satan tried to sabotage us at the beginning but he FAILED! Yue Mei was so happy and cool as a cucumber the whole time. It was a miracle. The best thing of my mission is seeing someones face when they walk out of the baptismal font. Sopping wet with the biggest smile on their face:)

this week was full of chaos. A crazy english class, old missionaries visiting, insane baptismal services, meeting an apostle of the Lord. wow.

I feel like I've never been so busy in my whole life! I know that God loves us so dang much and that through his son Jesus Christ all the impossible things can be made possible. I love and miss you guys so much it's stupid.!!! agh love you tons

xoxoxo

emma

Can't Wait For Future China Missionaries!

April 30, 2017 email

This has been an awesome week! First off I have to tell you about our fruit friend. By our house there is this massive fruit stand and this not very nice looking, gangly Taiwanren works there and is the fruit master. We have been trying for weeks and weeks to become his friend. Everytime we past him we smile, scream his name, wave and tell him he is awesome. About a couple weeks ago, he completely changed. Now he is the most smily person every and gives us all sorts of free fruit! But only us:) We are the special sister missionaries. mwaaahhhhahaha! But really he is so awesome! This week he gave us 3 free watermelons and a huge bag of pineapple!!

EVERYONE. We must be kind to everyone! Because then they will give you free fruit. Ok, even aside from free fruit we must be an example of Christ everywhere we go!

He's gonna get baptized. I can feel it:)

Last P-day we Went to our member Fly Fish's house to help him build a new roof! He lives in the magical Taidong wilderness. It was a fun day of helping him, we bagged sand, rocks and made a roof made of palm tree leaves. I also learned a lot about Chickens and the importance of eating only your own home grown food. He is a SUPER earthy person. He eats the monkeys that roam around his house..

All in all it was a really fun pday full of adventures.

This week we also saw so many tender mercies and miracles. One from the beginning of the week was with our RC Chen Yu Ru from Vietnam. She had to go to court to finally get a divorce from her husband and she was just sick to her stomach nervous about it. We shared a message with her but she just couldn't find peace. We decided to all kneel down and say a prayer together. The minute we kneeled down together the spirit completely filled the room. Sister Lin started to pray and by the end we were all crying.The gift of the Holy Ghost is so powerful and can calm the most violent of storms. Everything went smoothly for Chen JM at court and our testimonies were all strengthened. 

Sister Lin- This was last P-day when they helped a friend thatch his roof:)

This Thursday we got to travel to Hualian and have interviews with President Jergensen. I LOVE INTERVIEWS. It's the best time to have a one on one and get some serious revelation. I am so grateful for President Jergensen and all that he does for us as missionaries, the Lord, and the people of Taiwan. He really helped me see this week the importance of teaching people one by one. and how I can never dim my own light as a missionary either. I have been called as me to serve the people of Taiwan. Just be me! The Lord will help us see miracles. 

love interviews. 

That night we switched up some of our finding techniques and decided to go grocery store finding. So we hit up our local Carrefour and met the COOLEST family! They lived in the other sisters area so the other night we went on a split to go an meet them! Sister Liu and I traveled all the way to Zhiben to meet with this family.The Wen family. They have 3 boys. and 18 year old, 16 year old, and a 6 year old. Cute family.The dad and the older son were a little more hard hearted and nervous so didnt stay with us. But the mom and her 2 younger boys did. The lesson was so cool, and it was amazing how many questions the son had, I think he really helped his mom open up as well. We shared with them about Jesus Christ, repentance, and prayer. It was such a spirit filled lesson and I now have a testimony of finding in Grocery stores! Talk to everyone!

Do you think 2 girls could eat three of these watermelons in a week?  Wow!

There was a huge triathalon in Taidong this week. It. looked. so. fun. AGH!!! It reminded me of home so dang much!!!! All of the people racing, tons of tents everywhere, you could feel the excitement in the air. It was just like Lotoja or the top of utah marathon. Agh! I wanted to join! My companion couldn't really understand why i was so stoked but that's ok. It was a little tender mercy:) haha.

Last miracle for the week. Last night we met this old couple from China that came to taiwan to bike around the whole Island. They were adorable and so excited to see missionaries. They know where our church is china and have wanted to go and learn more but its against the law. We talked with them for a long time and prayed with them. We promised that as soon as missionary work was aloud there that missionaries would come find them. They were both so touched. I know God loves all of his children and we will all have a chance to learn. I don't know when, but I know it will happen. I love being a missionary. I love your guts!!!!!!! have the best week ever!

oxoxxooxxo

emma

The Best Voice In The Ward!

April 23, 2017 email

Hello my beloved family! This week was full of miracles and fun. We have been struggling to find new investigators this week, but the ones that we do have are progressing really well:) I'll share about one of our investigators to start off. It will help this weeks title make more sense. Our investigator Liu JM had an even huge-er change this week. We taught her about repentance and it literally changed her life. She got so touched and realized that she had been repenting wrong her whole life. She left the lesson with a huge smile, and said, "I'm going to go home and REPENT!" Perfect! hahha I was super touched. I am so grateful for repentance. It's just like white out! We can literally become clean through our savior Jesus Christ. Liu JM also really understood the restoration and why she needed to be baptized again. She full heartedly set a baptismal date and agreed to come to church this week!

This is definitely not Chinese food.  It is my FAVORITE Thai Green Papaya Salad!!!!  YUMMY!!!

Church was definitely the funnest part. She came in in a wool dress and Electric blue heels. She is a little crazy. Just a little. :) But anyways she loved sacrament and class after, but the best part by far was Relief society! She was so dang giddy to start! We sang the opening song," There is sunshine in my soul today." She FLIPPED! Literally jumping up and down as she sang. I had to muster up everything I had to not die laughing! Relief Society ended up being a bunch of giggling old women this sunday:) It really lifted the spirit of our meeting a lot actually:) Liu JM was a huge blessing:) She sang at the top of her lungs. It was just a sweet reminder that we should all sing like that more often! We are members of the Restored Gospel. We should be the most happy jolly joyous people in the whole world!

Grateful for Liu JM:)

This past week really was a lot of fun. For Pday we went to a huge park and all played capture the flag together! It was so fun! Good, Clean fun:) haha.

Wang Ba.  The older gentleman and Emma had a deep discussion about MacGyver!  Who doesn't love MacGyver?!

This week we also had the awesome opportunity to help DEEP clean our church. We have a member named Wang ba that is about 70 years old that reminds me so much of Dad. We had an awesome time cleaning together and talking about MacGyver:) Dad You'd love him!

This week we also went to a magical place called Dulan to plan some new young men and young women activities with the young men and young women's presidents. They literally live in the mountains.. We made plans with them to start getting mutual activities organized and then we got to meet their friend Olivaro from spain! He was so cool!!!! He was really curious about the Book of Mormon, We shared with him the story of how Nephi built a ship, because he really likes to build ships too. :)

It was a cool experience. We are going back to their house today to help them build a roof.

Emma's investigator and her cute daughter.

Zhang Yue Mei is doing sooo good:):) Agh! My heart is just bursting! I love her so dang much. She spur of the moment went to taipei this week with her son but called us the day before she left and said," I have to reschedule our appointment to tomorrow morning!!!! I have to report on Alma 32 before I go to Taipei!" It was so dang cute:) She gets more and more excited about the gospel every time we meet with her:)

Agh! this stuff is all so good and its so true:)

This week my testimony of the Plan of Salvation really grew a lot! We had to help out with a funeral of a member in our ward this week. It was really hard to see so many people so sad, but so wonderful to hear all the testimonies of the plan of Salvation. Families really can be together forever, I know that sometimes that term is almost impossible for us to grasp right now, but we just have to keep having faith and really trust in our feeling of warmth and peace that come straight from the spirit telling us that this stuff is all true:)

Fun activity with the Ward.

Happy Birthday Sister Lin!!

I love being a missionary so dang much!

have the bestest week!

xoxoxoxoxooxox

emma

Happy Easter!

April 16, 2017 email

This girl and her pineapples!  She LOVES them!

This week was a ton of fun. Man, I feel like the weeks have just been flying by, this transfer isn't even real! It definitely was a week chuck full of adventures, hot sun, pooring rain, and all sorts of miracles in between. 

Last week for Pday our Stake President CaI Huizhang invited all of the taidong missionaries over to his house for dinner. There are 12 missionaries but he only had enough room to take 8 of us in his van. So the taidong 3 elders took one for the team and left earlier to bike to his house:) (don't worry, its not too far. haha.) We all met up at the church and headed on over to his house. He lives on a mountain next to a beach. WHAT?! we showed up to his house and I literally just died. It was absolutely BEAUTIFUL! It reminded me so much of our cabin in bear lake!! just in Taidong! it was so gorgeous. President Cai is an architect and designed his home and a bunch more in Taidong. Pics to come! we had a delicious dinner together:)

The view and all the Taidong missionaries at Pres. Cai's home.  

Ok. all of a sudden I am super duper cramped on time!!!! Now for all the details of the week!.

we had the best zone conference in Hualian this week. We talked all about how we can better listen to the promptings of the Holy Ghost and then how we can better act on those promptings. We studied from 1nephi 2-5. go and read it now! It's all about how nephi went from being a boy into a man.

This saturday we had an activity put on by a member from Taizhong all about how to have a more successful family and business. We made invitations made and our job was to hand them all out to the cram schools in taidong. We had SO MANY! AND NO TIME TO HAND THEM OUT BY BIKE! We called our friend Taxi Liao and He and a member helped us get them all passed out in 1 hour! It was literally a miracle. It was super hilarious. Taxi Liao loved helping us do missionary work, I am positive that he the will get baptized one day. 

The faces of Taiwan.

Easter activity.

AGH NO TIME!!

Other highlights from the week.

-I got to go on exchanges with Sister Apsley in Hualian! (Sister Apsley is Emma's MTC companion!!!  She loves her guts!)

-Our investigators are growing so much:) Zhang yue mei even made a cute little cover for her book of mormon:)

-We had a breakthrough with our investigator Liu JM. She just had the hardest time understanding why it was that she needed to pray about the book of Mormon. We really listened to her and tried to understand what she really needed, the holy ghost touched her and helped us clearly explain the importance of prayer. You could literally see a lightbulb flicker on in her mind! Such a happy moment:) When the gospel is clearly understood it really changes behaviors.

I know this church is true!

Dragon Bridge in Taidong.

Last night we also had a tender mercy. We were out finding and ran into this cute little family out on a walk together. My heart was a little sad earlier in the day because church was just a little melancholy. Still wonderful! But nothing to do with the Resurrection of our Savior and Redeemer and Easter! We went to talk to this cute little family and I started talking with the mom. the first thing she said to me was "Fuhuo jie kuai le!" happy easter. I almost cried when she said this! Turns out she is a faithful christian who would do anything for her savior and do anything to help others learn more of him. It was amazing to talk with her and share with her our special message of the restoration! They are coming to see our Meet the Mormons activity that we are putting on in a couple weeks! Heavenly Father really does answer all of our prayers and loves us so much:) He literally puts angels in our path daily! I know Christ lives and he died for us! Easter really is the best! I love you all so dang much!!!

xoxoxo

emma

Body Malfunctions and Cookies For Jesus!

April 9, 2017 email

These are the three sisters that Emma lives with.  Her companion is Sister Lin in the stripes in the middle.  

This week was really really great! 

It is starting to get hot as sin here and it's only April. Not gonna lie, I'm a little scared for a Taidong Summer. I have heard stories about how hot it gets here throughout my entire mission. Now I am going to live to tell another story. Even though it's hot it is absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!!!! The sky is absolutely massive here and you can even see the starts at night:) The work is magical here and we were blessed to see so many miracles this week!

pday was super simple this week. It was Elder Jacksons birthday so we bought a MASSIVE shaved ice!! Literally we had to have 15 people there so that we could eat it all. Then we went grocery shopping and found some neat little trinkets:) lots of fun.

Elder Jackson's birthday BING!!  Look at the size of that thing!  A bing is something that I have heard James talking about since the day I met him, almost 25 years ago.  It is a giant shaved ice that is covered in the most lovely ripe, fresh fruit on the planet and then doused with sweetened condensed milk!  He says that a Mango Bing in Taiwan will change your life!!  I am planning on eating one when we pick Emma up in July:)

Tuesday, now that was a funny day. We had scheduled to got to Hualian for exchanges with our sister Training leaders, we went to buy train tickets and were there for 30 minutes trying to buy them. BUT ALL THE TRAINS WERE FULL!!!! WTHECK! It was a holiday weekend here in Taiwan so everyone was taking the train back home....hahahaha. That was a funny phone call to the sisters. "Hey all the tickets are sold out! we can't come! sorry!"  We all had a good laugh together. the only rough part was that since we had planned for exchanges we made sure not to schedule anyone while we were gone. So now we had a whole day of nothing!!!!!! oh no!! But not really oh no, we saw so many miracles while we went out finding. This week we have really been trying to listen to every first impression that we have, cause that one is definitely from the spirit!

We were biking down a street and were stopped at a red light when we looked to out left and saw this little phone store. There were two little kids inside too. We had a prompting to go and just invite them to english class. We listened to the prompting and as a result saw a miracle!! We went in to talk to this little family and turns out that the dad used to be an investigator . The 2 kids were absolutely the best and were so dang cute:) an 8 year old girl and 12 year old boy. We started talking to them about the gospel and asked if we could do an FHE with them! They WERE SO WILLING!!!WHAT?! MIRACLES!!!

This friday we had the best FHE them about families and they are wanting to learn more:)

What do we learn from this?! That we must always listen to the promptings of the spirit!The first one! we just have to humbly and bravely obey and act!

This week sister Lin and I also put on a killer english class. It was How to Bake Chocolate Chip Cookies. Our class usually only has about 4-5 people, but since we announced it last week and got everyone excited we had 15 people come and 5 of them were new students! Cookies for Jesus! it was a blast. Everyone loved it. Cookies+the restored gospel of Jesus Christ=MAGIC.

This week really did have so many fun little moments, here's a few more.

-we went on exchanges with the other sisters in our apartment!

-On exchange sister Liu and I taught an english lesson, that was tricky, but she was way cool!

-Sister Lin and i hugged all the grandmas we talked to.

-A 5 year old boy gave me his number:) he wants to date jane:) hahahaha

-and much more!

Conference was so wonderful this week. I was so filled with the spirit and it was an awesome self check for me. I am so grateful and know that Thomas S. Monson is the prophet on the earth today. He is Gods messenger. Listen to Him! Read your scriptures dang it!

Listening to conference

Sister Lin LOVES Emma's hammock:)

But really, conference was awesome. One of our investigators loved it so much.She came to all the sunday sessions, than when it was done, she looked and me and said, "Was that all true?! Where can I pay tithing!" What?! She is truly awesome. 

Her name is Zhang Yue Mei. We met her earlier this week.She is a referral from taipei that lives in our area. We went by her house this wednesday and got to know her. She is struggling. She is 60 years old and her husband just passed away last year. She is living in pain and sadness and does not know how to escape. We shared with her #becauseofhim and she just started to bawl. All she could say was, "wow. They filmed this really well."She is really cute. She is so ready and excited to keep learning more about the plan of salvation.

Ok! Now for the funniest story of the week to finish all this jazz off. Alright so saturday night we had a pass off lesson with some of the elders from the 3rd ward. I'll cut to the chase and just say that the investigator is a little nuts, a little crazy, and we were dead tired after the lesson. 

Sister Lin and I were pooped, we were going to grab some dinner and sister Lin was like, I know what we can eat! "鹹酥雞 Click here to see a picture of what Emma ate!" I was like "Ok!" I had never eaten it before, Basically it's just a ton of mushrooms, vegetables, meat, and everything you can imagine all put in a fryer and then drenched in seasoning.

Taidong friends!

I was STARVING! We ran home to eat it and I took one bite and it tasted pretty good. Then my stomach started to do backflips, I was like, that's

weird, maybe I just have gas. So I kept eating. I took a few more bites and could just feel the oil running down my throat. like SO much. after about like 5 minutes of eating my stomach was screaming for help! I went to the bathroom and basically died for 20 minutes! I pooped my guts out and then got hives all over my stomach, my eye and mouth got swollen like none other. My comp was dying:)!! So I took some benedryl and CRASHED the rest of the night. the next day I woke up no problem:) They think I have a allergy to high doses of MSG. neat. 

so ya. This week was really really awesome. Till next!!

xoxooxoxoxox

emma