My Dearest Family

Mar. 19, 2017 email

My most favorite family in all the lands:) This might not be the longest email in the world but I just want you to know how AWESOME this week was. It was great in the physical facts, our investigators are all doing awesome, we met great people. But the best part of the week was all the things that I was able to feel and learn in the spiritual parts of the week. So dang great! Heavenly Father loves us all so much and is so excited to help us learn more and more every single day. I learned so much this week and could feel the spirit constantly guiding me. 

Now for a lowdown of the week.:)

Monday! Sister Miller and I threw the most legendary of all P-days! We took our district on a beitou camping adventure in the mountains! We had a campfire, smores, games, and a mystical hike! It was the best thing ever. The only down side was that I got SO SICK. Oh man. it was terrible. 

We got up to the campsite and then about an hour later I was feeling weird. The day got even more fun as it went on but I just got sicker and sicker as the day went on. Oh man. By the time we got back to our apartment I was dying. super hot, super cold, achy to the touch, shivers, all of it! We still had some time left in pday so I crashed for an hour. I woke up and still felt awful. WE went to our lessons and then came home. I was up all night long throwing up and wanting to die.

Sister Miller with her Smore:)

Mystical hike area.

Beautiful girls!

I HATED IT. first time ever sick on my mission SUCKED!

the next day was zone conference so that was a miracle. I was so weak so it was nice to just sit and be spiritually fed:) Our mission nurse loaded me up with medicine. I just got food poisoning or a 24 hour flu. so by tuesday night I was better than ever! Zone Conference healed me! It was so great. We talked a lot about The atonement. I really know that Christ lives and that he can take the worst, dirtiest things and turns us into the best, most pure things. YOu guys! We are so lucky!  We gotta quit waiting for our lives to change. Act and turn to Christ and he can turn the dirty water into wine.

One other thing I learned from this experience of being sick. Pepto bismo is some scary stuff. I dont' think it's safe. It turned my poop black like the night! stay away!

Anyways,

Our beloved Zhong family is doing amazing, but they are being hit up and down with trials recently. Please pray for them! Zhong DX mom is in the hospital and will most likely die this week. We want to be as tender as possible with the situation while still helping them prepare to be baptized;)

other fun tidbits from week:)

-met some cute little old catholic sister missionaries this week:)

-met a martial artist from new york. He was way special. His name is Love.

-met a cute mom from America that wants us to start teaching her sister:)

Lots of sister missionaries!  The cute little old ladies are from the Catholic Church:)

This week really was full of miracles. ONe of the most tender things happened this weekend. We are teaching this family right now. The Li family. We have known the dad for a while through english class. This week they invited us to go out to dinner with them in Danshui. We were excited to be with them and share with them about Christ. It totally got turned into an FHE at he dinner table! The 2 little girls taught us some fun games we shared a spiritual message, it was a blast! The mom has a harder time being serious. Jack the dad has been softening her heart a lot I think. Now here comes the tender part. As we were walking back we were talking with the family. Jack looked a little concerned, He was looking at the ground. Then out of nowhere he looks up at sister Miller and I and says, "Do you know what happens to us when we die? Where do we go? Where are my parents? I have wanted to know for the longest time and I have no answers."

You guys. The Plan of Salvation is the greatest comfort to all mankind. Jack is very in tune to the spirit and recognized us 2 little missionary girls as messengers from God that could help him find these answers. Through the restored gospel we are able to have these restored truths of the Plan of Salvation. I love you all so dang mcuh!!!!!

have a fab week!!!

xxooxoxoxo

emma

Families That Play Together Stay Together

Mar. 12, 2017 email

Hello my beloved familia:) I love you all so dang much and am glad to hear that you all had an awesome week! I'm glad spring is finally coming for you all. Its the raining season starting up here now. I have officially lived in Taiwan for over a year now! Crazy how fast time flies. Sister Miller and I have been preparing ourselves for the rain we know will be coming this upcoming month or two. It was so hard last year when we were in training. We are just so grateful to know that the sun does actually come out and that everyday can be a happy day in Taiwan! Hallelujah! 

This past week has been a ton of fun:) P-day this week....was a joke..hahah it was super funny. so here is what happened. We had planned to meet our misison leader at this place called Jin shan to go on a hike. We road a bus their and it took a little bit longer than expected. We called Chen DX and asked him where he was, he said that he was already in Jin shan waiting for us. We could not find him anywhere though! I asked him again where he was and he said "Jin shan" But then I realized his tones were a little different..We then realized that he was at a shopping mall in taipei city....

oops! 

Everyone. Pay attention to your tones:)

So basically we didn't know where to go and were short on time anyway so we went and explore this little ghost town, got persuaded into buying some really delicious apple vinegar, bought a bag for jane that looks like a strawberry, road the bus back home, and then got some hamburgers. 

haha. funny day. Today will be better! We are going to make a campfire in a campsite in beitou! fun.

The rest of the week was full of all sorts of awesome adventures and fun lessons. This week we were meeting with the Zhong Family and shared with them all about Repentance. We read from Enos together and all of us identified things in our life that we need to change. We all wrote them down on a piece of paper and then read Enos to see what we should do to fully repent and receive a remission of our sins. The spirit was SO powerful. The coolest part was that Zhong JM stopped dead sentence and said to all of us, "Do you feel that? That is the power of the Holy Ghost here in the room with us!".

YES! 

They are doing so amazing. They really have become the greatest examples to me and teach me so much every time we meet with them. Keep praying for them!

We have another awesome investigator right now, Xie JM. This week we read together, The Family a Proclamation to the World. Oh man, she got PASSIONATE about this one! She then went off to explain how everyone in taiwan is crazy and just gets married has kids and then give the kids to their parents to take care of so that you can go to work all day. 

Then she asked the best question I've ever heard on my mission. "What is your purpose in having a family?" So. Powerful.

Xie Jm, will change taiwan:) she absolutely loved the family proclamation and I am so grateful for the things that she was able to teach us about having a family:)

Other fun things this week included,

-visiting our investigator at the hospital, don't worry, she just had a cold...everyone goes to the hospital here!

-Met a Kind american named Dave when we were out running on morning:) yes, he was kind.

-Made Sister Jergensens homemade Chocolate chip cookies for our investigators and just died cause they were so delicious.

-Got to meet an LA family and help them start coming back to church! Their

Sister Jorgensen's World Famous Chocolate Chip Cookies!

son isn't baptized yet!!!! #almosteternalfamily

-got to partake of the sacrament. Best part of every week:)

I love you guys tons:) have a fun safe week!!!!

xoxoxoemma

Ikea, mlc, the holy ghost, repentance. all good things here in beitou!

Mar. 5, 2017 email

This week was fabulous! So DANG BUSY! Literally Sister Miller and I are exhausted! this week every single day was just packed with lessons and activities, such a huge blessing! I'll go through some of my favorite highlights from the week.

This past monday we went Ice skating for pday! It was so much fun but absolutely PACKED with people. It was a national holiday in taiwan and everyone was off school and work so all of taipei was ice skating with us. It was a ton of fun though. I was super scared that I forgot how to ice skate, but then I was fine:) #blessed. Still not as good as dad, but I'm getting their! Afterwards we went to Ikea!! That's right! Taiwan has an ikea! It was super fun and we got some delicious ice cream. Afterwards we had dinner with a family from our ward:) It was a huge pot of NOODLES! Literally just a massive bowl of noodles that 9 of us all ate together. It was delicious. I have found some pretty delicious foods here in Beitou.

That is a HUGE bowl of noodles!

Ok, now for a food side story. So sister Miller told me about this magical waffle place that she found when she was on exchanges and I was bound and determined to EAT one. I don't know why, but I went to go buy one 4 different times this week and they were either sold out or closed. I was ticked! They literally looked so good, but I just had the worst luck in the world! But, we finally went back for the 5th time and I was able to buy one. And it was delicious:)The end!

Ok now onto better things for this week:)

Thursday was an absolutely crazy day! we were traveling all around beitou to different appointments from the morning until the evening! Thursday morning started out on top of the mountain in a place called Xiao pingding. It was NUTS. So fancy. I literally felt like I was in a james bond movie or something! One of our investigators doris lives up their and wanted us to teach her in her home that day. It was quite the adventure! there is only one bus that can take you there and you have to have permission to ride on it! So neat! After that one of our members called us and asked if we could go with her to her little brothers juice store and share the gospel with him! It was a blast and her little brother was awesome. He is 28 and really just wants some guidance in his life. This Members name is Sister Lin, she has two kids. Her son is 9 years old and has really funny english. He always grabs his little sisters hand and yells, "Come on baby, lets go!!" Agh! Its so dang cute. That day we had so many fun lessons:) The best one was that night with the Zhong Family. sister Zhong has been SO sick and hasnt been able to meet with us for over a month. She finally was able to come to church this week and had a priesthood blessing. She called us wednesday night and was so excited because she had been healed!!! Her and her husband were both freaking out and wanted to see us ASAP! We  met with them the next night and reshared with them about the restoration. The spirit was so strong and they both set baptismal dates for the end of this month. Sister Zhong also bore the most powerful testimony in church this week! AGH I LOVE THEM!

Ward carnival participants:)

The Holy Ghost really will touch the hearts of everyone. I had a really cool experience with that this week. We had MLC this week and Elder Funk from the 70 and his wife came to share with us. It was so fun! WE had some great training and an awesome discussion about repentance. Then we started to discuss the role of the holy ghost in conversion. Elder funk explained that the Holy Ghost will only testify to us things that are crucial to our salvation. He looked at a chair and said, "This is a chair." then he asked us if any of us had any special feelings. Nope. Then he looked right at me and said, "sister clawson, would you mind sharing with us the first vision in chinese with my wife?"

WHAT?! I was pooping my pants I was so scared. I was so nervous. I got up and looked at his wife, said a quick prayer and shared the first vision. 

This experience changed my mission. I was totally an awakening moment! I was I shared with her I could see in her eyes that she knew that what I was saying is true. She doesn't know Chinese. But the Holy Ghost testified to her and to me that it was true.

I bore my testimony of the first vision to her and then we both sat down. I was SO overwhelmed! the room was just full of the spirit, The Holy Ghost will testify of things crucial to our salvation. And the Restoration of the church is very crucial to that:)

I'm so grateful for this experience!

I love taiwan, I love you fam, this is Christs restored church. 

LOVES!!!!!!

XOXOXOXO

EMMA

Deitou Is Awesome!

Feb 26, 2017 email

You can get Costco hotdogs in Taipei too!!

This week was lots of fun! Toward the end of the week it just poured and poured and poured! Literally just dumped rain and got cold for 3 days straight! Talking with people in the street was a little tough because everyone had a bad attitude but we pulled through!

The beginning of the week was great too. This monday we went with some missionaries down to the beach in Sanzhi and played volleyball together! It was a ton of fun, but the best part was when Sister Miller and I went to get a few groceries at costco. We were going to make chocolate chip cookies this week so we needed to buy a bulk bag of Chocolate chips! Afterwards we went to the food court and went all out! huge hot dogs and churros! oh man it was the best. We were so dang excited. We felt awful later that night, but it was still so worth it!

Volleyball on the beach.

This week we also had lots of exchanges with the other sisters! It is so dang fun to be able to go with all of them and to learn from them. This week I went with Sister Bradley, Sister Yang, and sister Zhong.

Sister Bradley, sister Zhong and I had an awesome time, but sister yang and I kinda a had a crazy experience.

so this all started thursday afternoon. We had just gotten some lunch and we were going to see this lady that we had met a few days earlier. We biked up to this park that we were going to meet her at and there was an old white american sitting on a bench with a beer, we waved to him and then went to talk with the lady. As we were talking with the lady, I realized that she was a little crazier than others, when we were talking with her she started to exercise and asked if we would give her a back massage cause she was feeling a little sore. ugghhh. I'm sorry, but I just can't do that as a missionary right now! We explained to her how we can't massage people and she FREAKED out. she started saying how we were evil people and never wanted to see us again. ya..she was a little cray cray. Sister Yang and I felt a little bad but knew that we had done the right thing by not touching her. We scampered off over to our bikes and the white guy yells at us, "she backed down didn't she?" I replied and said "Thats ok, we love it here." Then, this white man snapped. He started yelling at us at how stupid we are and how everything we believe is a crap. I have never heard so many S words A words F words, in my whole life, He was SO drunk. I was so scared. I knew we had to leave ASAP! He looked at me and started yelling at me, "you are such a perfectly programmed missionary. What do you know anyway! What do you know!!?" There is no way I am going to battle with a drunk man, so I just said, " I know I'm hapy." Holy crap I was so scared.We put our helmets on and biked the heck out of there!!!!!!! AGH!!! He just kept yelling and yelling at us as we rode away! People on the streets started to come and see what was going on but we were long gone! I was shaking so bad and absolutely terrified. I had biking for maybe like 30 seconds and then I just BURST into tears. We biked probably a mile away and then I stopped and took a deep breath for a hot sec. Sister Yang had no idea what had happened cause she couldn't understand, she was super confused. I explained to her what had happened and then we prayed together. 

IT WAS THE WORST! 

Even though this was like the worst thing that's ever happened on my mission, my testimony was strengthened so much. I KNOW that this is the restored church on the earth!! Christ lives! And I'm  the happiest person in the world dang it!

Other than that, the week was really great. Heavenly Father is so good to us. Just when we think that everyone hates us and doesn't want to talk to us he lets us see so many miracles and find willing people who are ready to hear the restored gospel. Agh! love him!

This week we met with a new family that we met and all had greek food together! We shared with them about prayer and it was so cool to see how their attitudes were just lifted after they had finished their own prayer. I know he hears us and will answer all of us.

Church was also amazing this week. I'm so grateful for the opportunity that we all have to partake of the sacrament and to renew our baptismal covenants! We can become clean and new EVERY WEEK! Seriously! Christ loves us so much and is just cheering us on every step of the way as we are preparing to return to our heavenly father.

good week:)

This picture was taken especially for Grandpa Garner and all my Garner uncles who I believe keep Costco in business with their hotdog purchases:)

ok now for a hilarious story. Mom, you might not want to put this one on the blog..hahaha:)

so the other night Sister Miller and I were calling the Jinhua Distric leader Elder Lloyd to follow up with him on the exchanges that we went on with the sisters in his district. I had finished talking to him and gave sister miller the phone to talk with him. She had just gotten out of the shower so we put it on speaker so that she could talk while she got changed. I was in the front room reading my scriptures and had revelation about the sisters! I was like, "Sister Miller I figured it out! I got it!" She then said back, "Ok wait! I don't have a shirt on!" 

And then....I looked at the phone...and remembered, that it was on speaker...

Then Sister miller looked at the phone and said, "Oh no! Elder Lloydd! I'm so sorry!!" 

OH man....

I LOST IT. I quickly ran into the living room and just died laughing!

sister miller took it like a champ and got the conversation back to normal so smoothly:) 

After the phone call we just laughed and laughed together. we felt so bad!

Poor Elder Lloyd:) If anything he probably got a really good laugh.

Always be careful what you say when you are on speaker phone!

We had a fun week:) Love you tons!!

xoxo

emma

The Adventures of Sister Miller and Sister Clawson In Beitou

Feb. 19, 2017 email

This week was another awesome week here in Beitou. We are so blessed to live in the best place in the world and to share the best message with Taiwanese people all day. 

YAY!

Ok so we will start off with pday this past week. I would definitely say that it was one for the books. 

We were craving some delicious American food so we decided to form our pday all around that. Elder Walters from Danshui did some quick little research with a members phone and found this American BBQ called Mighty Quinns. Apparently its a pretty killer place and super famous in New York. America+BBQ, that's all we needed to know to want to go. 

It was in Tianmu, which is really close to Beitou. It has a lot of American things in that area and Is where the American High school is actually. It's where the Jergensens kids go to school. So we got together with our district to hunt down this Mighty Quinns place. We found it and walked on in! It was such cool place! It made me really want to take over the bakery or open a restaurant. So handsome! We were looking at the menu and got up to order, you can pick out of like 5 different bbq meats and pick some sides and then they pare it with all this delicious pickled things and coleslaw, then you put it all on a bun! It reminded me of skiing at Beaver making sloppy joes with coleslaw!

I got the Brisket. Then they doctored everything up for me and it looked like a masterpiece.

Holy. Cow.

It was the best thing I have ever eaten in my entire life.

The end.

LIKE SO DANG GOOD!!!!!!

Best pday ever!!!!!!!!

BBQ

This week we started up exchanges again with our sisters in the zone and it was a blast. Sister Watson and I met the cutest old grandpa and sister Dayton and i met the most prepared family! We really do have some incredible missionaries here in Taiwan thats for sure. I absolutely love the energy that everyone has to do the work!

Sister Miller and I found the most delicious Juice store this week. We went to try it out and got talking with the cute girl that was working there. Her name was Lin Xiao Jie. she is the same age as us and lives in the area. We got to know her a little and asked her about her family. Turns out her family is christian, all of them have been baptized except her. We asked her why she hasn't been baptized with her family(que Nacho libre, "You have not been baptized?!") . She was quite for a minute and then started to BAWL! 

oh crap!

we for sure did not ask the right question!

We tried to comfort her as she was making juice and asked her if she was ok. She then explained to us how much she want's to get baptized, but hasn't been able to feel that the church they are attending is true. She know has all this pressure from her family, feelings of doubt, and thinking that God is so disappointed in her. We talked to her and shared with her briefly about the Restoration. She instantly started to light up and agreed to meet with us again. We are so pumped. Jesus Christ really will put light into everyones life!

other funny bits from the week:)

-Sister miller almost got kissed by a drunk old man on a trike scooter...oh man it was awful!. He reached out to shake her hand and almost pulled her in!!! Then her started making a nasty kissy face and was saying stuff that we did NOT understand! We gave him a tract about family history and took a shortcut the heck out of there! BE CAREFUL ALL THE TIME!!!!

-Our investigator Sophia got to see Linda Burton last night and LOVED it!

-We went to get lunch at this pho place in Taiwan and got interviewed on camera about why we chose to go there, instead of any other pho place. It was hilarious:) So we might be on TV somewhere! haha.

-Sister Miller got asked if she was pregnant on the street by some mom we were talking to. Oh man it was hilarious. I could not hold back my laughter, neither could she. It was just so funny cause sister Miller is literally stick skinny. hahah:)

Taiwan is great:)

Sunday Morning was pretty dang awesome. We had a ton of people committed to coming to church with us so sister Miller and I were stoked! Morning came around and I was getting ready for church. I had this feeling that I needed to say a special prayer for all of our investigators to make it to church safely. After I prayed the phone rang, Zhong jm. she said she was sick so couldn't come. ;( Well shoot!

5 minutes later, Doris called and said her son wasn't feeling good so she couldn't come to church.

WHAT?!

and then we got a text from a mom that was supposed to come saying that she had last minute things come up so she couldn't come!

NO!

I was so confused and sad. sister miller and i prayed that we would somehow still be able to make our goal. We biked to church and were waiting for a family to come that had said they would come. As we were waiting this grandpa walked in! Then I remember that I had just seen him on the street earlier in the week and invited him to church! WHAT?! we kept waiting and our family of 3 showed up as well!! We were just about to go into the chapel when I hear someone yell me name. We turn around and it was Roan! our 9 year old investigator, her mom had helped her get all ready to come to church with us! We saw her and I just started to cry. Heavenly Father loves us all so dang much!! He gives us miracles of all varieties! I love you guys so dang much and miss you even more. Have a fun safe week:)

xoxoxoxxo

emma

Beitou

Feb. 12. 1017 email

Sister Clawson and Sister Miller are together for another transfer in Beitou!  Emma was thrilled:)

Another Transfer is here and gone and i'm still in beitou!! I am so dang excited to be here with Sister Miller still. We are absolutely loving this work and have met some incredible people. This Gospel is so true and puts sparkles into everyone's lives!

:)

The week started off with a super duper fun Pday. We went to a Geo Park called Yeh Liu. It is so dang beautiful! It is a red rock park right next to the ocean. We had to go and check it out! The drive their was for sure one of the best parts. We went with our Ward mission Leader Chen DX. So of course we were out food exploring too. I literally felt like I was on an episode of Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives! We stopped at like 3 different restaurants just to check out the different kind of Zhongzi they had. Zhongzi is like this rice, meat, mushroom triangle all wrapped up in a palm tree leaf! Might sound kinda weird but I promise it is delicious! Chen DX is so dang funny. He just loves food, talking loud, and laughing. He is the best for sure!! We went and explored the national park and it was absolutely beautiful, this is the first time I have seen the beach my entire mission! This park is famous for a rock that looks like a queens head. We were pumped to see it. Turns out it was really really small..but still beautiful:)

some funny tender moments from this week:

-sister miller saw the word "chaos" and looked at me and said, "Sister Clawson , what in the heck does this word mean?!" but she pronounced it chows. She looked at it for a second and then just died laughing. We were both dying laughing! I then told me my famous story from 4th grade about "what's a canoe?" she's the best. (So the story of Emma in 4th grade and the canoe goes something like this:  Emma has always had the tendency to take things at face value.  She was reading a book and the word CANOE was in it.  She looked up from her book and asked, "What is a "CA KNOW?"  She had used the word canoe all the time, and she canoes at Grandpa Barker's house every Summer, but she'd never experienced the word in written form.  We busted up laughing, and still have not let her live it down!  There may be a few other words that this has happened with.  Like being at the DI and asking what is "ling- er- ee?"  Lingerie!!!  BAWAHHHHH!  That's one of the reasons we love Emma!  What you see is what you get, and it is pure gold!!)

-We met some hillbilly boys from france and prayed with them. They were so pumped about it and wanted to meet with missionaries in their home.

-Chen DX our ward mission leader bought  pepper spray:)

Beef Noodle Soup is a FAVORITE!

This week really was full of so many miracles. We are so blessed to be teaching some of the coolest families right now. Heavenly Father really is so good to us and we are so grateful for the trust that he has in all of his missionaries to teach all of his children the restored Gospel.

One of our investigators that we are teaching right now is named D. She is the most prepared woman I have ever met. She has a seven year old son named Anthony. He is a little fart sometimes but we are loving teaching him and his mom. D has such great faith. She has been learning and understanding so much and really has been relying on God to give her peace and healing. She has had a rough life. When she was younger she met a man and they got married. They were super duper poor together but worked hard. They were married for 12 years and their marriage started to fall apart. When she found out that she was pregnant with her son they got a divorce. She has been a single mom since the day he was born. Her ex-husband has been able to have great success since their divorce and apparently is a very famous figure in taiwan now. D's life has been full of feelings of inadequacy and heartache. She is looking for peace in her life and has really been starting to find it here. She even texted us this morning telling us how proud she was of herself because she threw away ALL her coffee.

she is amazing, this gospel is magic, I love it!

The title for this pic was, "Cute Grandpa!"  Another picture straight out of Mulan:)

I am so grateful for families and that we can all be together forever. This week Sister Miller asked me about one of my favorite memories as a kid and I told her about Grandpa Garner telling us Magic Barrel stories every time we went up to the cabin in Bear Lake. I really am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who gives us all the blessings we could ever ask for, all we have to do is follow and serve him!

I love you all so dang much!!!!!

xoxoxo

emma

Miss Spider's Tea Party

Feb. 5, 2017

Danshui!  Emma is holding either cherry tomatoes, or strawberries that are dipped in a hard candy and then eaten off the stick.  Kind of like candied apples:)  but candied tomatoes?  

This week full of lots of happiness, activities, and lessons learned!
Starting off, this past Pday we went to Danshui and went on a ferry ride. It was absolutely freezing!!!!! I couldn't believe how many people were in Danshui this past week. It was loaded for Chinese New Year. It was super fun to see. People literally seemed even happier to be alive and talk with us because they didn't have work and just got to hang out with their families. How could you not be happy?!

Sunday night at the New Member Fireside.  This is Jewell:)  Emma loves her!  She sends me pictures everytime she sees Emma.  I love her too!

This Tuesday night was crazy, not gonna lie. This tuesday we got a call from this random number during district meeting. It was this woman that we had met on the street earlier named Blacksheep. She was SO pumped to see us, BUT was also a little cray cray. she called us and wanted us to come over to her house that night to eat with her. She REALLY wanted us to come! We were like, we can't say no, we have to teach everyone! so that night we prepared a lesson and head over to her house. We were a little scared but said a prayer that the Holy Ghost would help us carefully discern what needed to be done. We found our house and carefully started tip toeing up the stairs. BANG! We here a door slam shut, some quick scuttling, and then a witch voice cackling.

Miss Spider's Tea Party:) What a kind, generous woman!

PEACE! WE ARE OUT! \

Sister Miller and I booked it the HECK  out of their! We ran so fast down those stairs, ditched our bikes, and hid behind this alley and waited. My heart was pounding so fast. WE looked across the street and two little old asian men that were guards were giggling at us..:)

We peaked around and saw Black Sheep, she was looking for us! We were so dang scared, but as we watched her we noticed how sad she looked not being able to find us. We knew we had to talk with her but were too dang scared. So, we called the Elders:) The elders hustled over and within 10 minutes we were having a nice lesson with her in her home.

She is so dang crazy, but so full of love. It actually turns out that she is an LA! She got baptized 15 years ago but hasn't been to church because she feels like she is the odd one out. We invited her to come to church with us. I felt like I was reading the Miss Spider book, (here's a link to the Miss Spider book.  It was and still is a favorite book at our house!)where all the little bugs are terrified of Miss Spider but all she really wants to do is have a tea part with everyone! That was Black Sheep to a T.  She is adorable and we totally misjudged her. This is why we leave judgement to God. 

Street food in Danshui.

But to make the night even crazier, right after we got out of Black Sheeps house we got a call from the Danshui elders! Somehow during district meeting we had left our keys in Danshui!!! Agh!!! So we quickly all jumped on the MRT and met half way. We were all running our butts off so that we could do the exchange and all make it home in time! As we were on the way we met this couple from OREM UTAH...WHAT THE HECK! they were just visiting and wanted to go see the chapel in Danshui! They laughed when they found out why we were on the MRT at such a late hour in the evening..hahaha. Anyways we got to our meetup point and had the sickest pass off. the elder had to jump on the MRT to get home and we were running to where they were to grab the keys, Right as the doors were about to close we snatched them out of Elder Finsters hands and the doors shut and they zoomed off to Danshui! 

OH MAN IT WAS SO SICK! I wish ya'll could of seen it. I felt like James Bond or Mission Impossible or something like that.

Oh wait, Missionary Impossible . Yaaaa! It was a crazy night that's for sure.

I love being in Taiwan. 

Looks like they play Pie Face in Taiwan too!

The rest of the week was awesome. Heavenly Father let us see so many miracles and meet so many new incredible families this week. I am so grateful for the Atonement in our lives and how we can literally use it to change and become more and more like Christ each day!

I love you all so much! be safe this week!

xoxoxox

emma

Happy Chinese New Year!

Temple Tour sister's!!  

This week was a ton of fun! Mom forgive me but we have a lunch appointment soon so I will do my best to help you see how great of a week it was! :)

Tender mercies and adventures of the week:

-Last Pday we went shopping In Taipei with our member friend Nikki! Mom It was so fun! It totally felt like shopping day with you and Jane in City Creek our Station Park! We even got some yummy food after:) It was a tender moment for me!! I love my fam!

Chinese New Year decorations.

-Tuesday we went to Wanda on exchanges with Some sisters:) I was with Sister Zhong. She is amazing and the cutest taiwanese girl I'v ever met. She really taught me how important it is to share personal experiences with people on the street. She is an incredible missionary!!

-This week was the start of Chinese New Year! Friday and Saturday ALL the shops were closed!!!!

Like all of them! We have member meals for lunch and dinner every day for 5 days. We are working on day 4 right now and we are dying. I don't think I have ever been so dang full in my entire life!!!!! so much good food but I might throw up tonight! They just keep feeding you. pray for us. This is a good problem to have:) It's also been an awesome opportunity to get to know our members even better! they all have the funnest stories ever!!

Sister Clawson and Sister Miller.  They both are named Emma too!  

Thank you Chang family for having the missionaries for dinner!

-Thursday we did temple tours and met the cutest girls from Korea! they were excited to meet missionaries their too:) Afterwards we put together 75 cleaning kits for all the missionary apartments with the AP's. That was nuts. I just realized how much busy work has to go on in the mission home to help our lives flow more smoothly.

-Friday was our worldwide Mission Conference!! YAY! We are so pumped for all the awesome changes to our schedule! 

-Saturday was our missionwide cleaning day. Oh my goodness. 

IT WAS INTENSE!! sister miller and I were absolutely exhausted afterwards!!!!

there was so much CRAP from who knows when piled up in our apartment! But we are happy to say now that it is sparkly and beautiful! A place where the spirit can reside!

Mission wide cleaning day.  Em says it sparkles now!

 

I'm so grateful for all the awesome things that we have been able to see this week and so many miracles over Chinese new year:)

We are also teaching this cute girl named Shanelle from the phillipines! She is so cute and her personality is so sparkly! It's been so cool to watch her change slowly as she learns about the restored gospel!  I know that this church is true and will bring so much happiness into our lives;) I love you guys so dang much!!!!

oxoxoxoxox

emma

She takes after her dad:)

Chinese New Year Is Upon Us!

Jan. 22, 2017 email

P-day fun in MUZHA!!

Chinese New Year starts Sat. Jan. 28th.  Everyone is working late on Thurs. to prepare for 5 days off of work.  They will have a huge dinner on Friday night (kind of like Christmas Eve for us) and then have loads of fun and eating for 5 days!  Everyone goes back to work on Tues. and then the Lantern Festival will cap off the 15 day New Year celebration on Feb. 11th.  Emma has lunch and dinners planned with members and their families for the first 5 days!  Other than all the eating she will be contacting people out on the street and sharing the gospel with anyone who will listen. 

What a fun week! fam I am so sorry, I feel like my emails are getting crappier and crappier. Just so much fun stuff, so many miracles, so many crazy people, and not enough memory space!!!! Agh I promise I love my mission with all my heart and it really is the coolest experience everyday.:)

This wednesday we had the opportunity to go to the temple. It was perfect:) The only hard thing about going to the temple is that my body completely crashes right when I sit down. It was a straight struggle this time. I don't think I've ever prayed so hard as I did in the temple asking Heavenly Father to please just help me stay AWAKE! Oh man. But, it turned out really well, when we went into the celestial room it was so freezing in their it was impossible to fall asleep. LIke it was freezing! We are talking about like 40 degrees celsius. So we did some quick pondering and praying and then went to warm up real quick:) I'm so dang grateful we have a temple in our mission!

AFter the temple our district and some other missionaries went to the Maokong Gondola in muzha.

That's right.

Muzha:)

I was FREAKING OUT THE WHOLE TIME!

It was so fun to be there again. I swear Muzha really is the most special place in all of Taiwan. Dear to ma heart I tell ya. 

We went all the way to the top of the mountain, went on a mini hike, and then bought one of all the fun little foods they had in this littler market. It was delicious. I think Taiwan has the most delicious sausages in all the world! mmmmm:) It was a fun temple day.

This week we had a crazy miracle! Sister Miller and I were doing our daily planing together on thursday night and saw that we both had this Wu Tai Tai scheduled for 4 the next day. but we could not find her phone number ANYWHERE! We were so scared that we were gonna leave her hanging at her own lesson because the next day our assigned time to do interviews with president got switched so we wouldn't be able to make it back in time for her lesson! 

CRAP!

So we were completely flipping out thinking that this mom was gonna show up to hear about Jesus but we weren't even gonna come. We looked and looked for her number and couldn't find anything:( We prayed and prayed that Heavenly Father would somehow help us find this moms number so that we could change times with her. 

We went to interviews the next day and it was awesome. President Jergensen is an amazing leader that has been called of God to help  and guide us! It was my turn to be interviewed. After President and I were done, we walked back to switch off with my companion and I see that Sister Miller is on the phone with someone. She finishes the call, hangs up, and then looks up at me with a huge smile and says, "Sister, GOD IS SO GOOD TO US!!!!"

The person on the phone was Wu Tai Tai! She had saved our number and called to tell us that her son was sick so that we would have to change times to meet:)

MIRACLES!!!!!

Man its so dang fun to be here:) This week Chinese New Year starts! Everyone is preparing super duper hard core. We are so excited, and nervous for all the craziness. More stories and details to come next week I guess:)

This week we also met the cutest new family to teach. They are named the Zhang family! It's a cute Mom with a 12 year old son and 2 year old baby girl. Their dad works China most of them time. They all seemed pretty bummed about his work, but are super pumped that he is coming home for chinese new year! They really want their family to be eternal. It was so fun to get to know them and to testify to them about how through Jesus Christ and Baptism, we can be with our families forever. 

Taiwan is the Best!

Now for one last crazy story from last night.. hahah:)

Sister Miller and I planned last night to go to the night market english boarding. After being there for a little bit we wrapped it up so that we could make it home on time. We went back to our bikes and what did we see?

Sister millers beautiful bike standing proudly waiting for her, and mine,in a pile on the ground. I don't know what happened.....but basically my basket was off, my water bottle has a HUGE dent in it (it looks pretty gnarly:) It's got some good character now) and my helmet was a pancake..

But my bike is still perfect! Thank heavens!

So I think someone just might hit it, ran over it, man I don't know. So that was a fun adventure, Now I've got a spicy blue helmt!:)

I love this work so much! If we constantly are striving to live the gospel of Jesus Christ we will be happy:)

xoxoxxox\emma