Week 67

DEAREST LOVED ONES!!!!!

 

WOW!!!!! What a week!!!! I have a new companion!!!!!! She is just off the plane.... Yep, I'm training again!!!!! She is so great! Seriously so great! I love her so much already! Her name is Sister Tanner. She is from Canada! CANADA!  I love Canada! She plays rugby and she is super cool. I love her so much! She is so great!!!! She is such a trooper! She has such a huge desire! She wants to share the gospel with everyone! She loves the people so much and I love her dearly! She really is so amazing! I know we are meant to be together.... She has helped me so much already.... Her mom passed away a few years ago and I believe this is a reason Heavenly Father wants us together. She has already helped me so much....I am so grateful for her... so grateful! She is doing great. I love her!!!!!

 

We had some wonderful miracles at church yesterday. The cute little new member and his mom are truly helping their family come unto Christ. Both her mom and her sister started meeting with us this past week and came to church yesterday. It is so amazing to me that this sweet sister use to be less active and now look at her... there every Sunday and trying to help her whole family receive the same joy she is experiencing. Both her sister and her mom really felt the spirit at church yesterday. It was amazing!

 

It has been such a great week! It always is! I love this work so much! I love this gospel. I am continually amazed by it everyday. EVERYDAY! I am so grateful to be a missionary here in Taiwan. I love these beautiful people so much. I can't believe this time has gone by so fast... too fast.

 

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

 

 Until next week!

 

P.S. We had hot pot with some wonderful members today.... here's some pics!

 

P.P.S. I met Elder Tang (Teng) from Cali.... He came in with Sister Tanner and he showed me the picture of the Thompson/ Bray family and said that you are the best member family. He loves you so much.... I love you so much!!!! The picture was worth so much... it brought tears to my eyes! You all look so great! And your new home is beautiful!!!!! Thanks for sending him with that! Love you!

Week 66

Dearest Loved Ones!!!

 

It has been such a great, great, great week!!!! I LOVE this work!!!!

 

Sweet Sister Ye got baptized on Saturday. It was a beautiful service. She is so amazing. I know I use that word a lot but seriously.... she is just fabulous and I love her so much. She bore a very powerful testimony. She also shared how the day of her baptism she didn't have the best of feelings. She didn't understand why... It was her baptism day. She started getting nervous... She kept praying and praying but the feelings didn't go away... Then she came to the church and she said right when she walked in the feelings went away and she testified of how she knows that the church is the Lord's home. She said it feels like coming home. She feels the spirit there. And when she received the gift of the Holy Ghost she was like "your right, this is a good feeling." Oh I love her so much!!!! So much!

 

We also had some really amazing things happen with new members and less actives this week. So you remember cute Tong Didi? The little boy that was baptized the first of this year... (I love him) Well he is quite the little missionary. Through his baptism his mom has started to come back to church. She bore her testimony in church yesterday and it was amazing. He has also started helping his older brother and sister. We were able to meet with his brother on Sat. and he came to church on Sunday. The Elders are going to start working with him too. Tong Didi is such a good bot. I love him.

 

Also the Luo family. We have been working with them for a bit but helping them come to church consistently has been hard. Well we met with them on Sat. and the Spirit was so strong. We shared about the sacrament and the HUGE blessing it is. Sister Luo (mom) shared how she has good feelings at church. She is away from the world and she can just think. She also talked about how we are not perfect and how partaking of the sacrament helps us wash away the guilt. It was a great lesson and .... They came to church!!!!!!!

 

Such a great week! I love this work so much!

Well... I know this is short but we had an awesome zone activity of kickball, volleyball, and food... so we are short on time.... but here is some pics....

 

I love you all soososososooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooosoosooosooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Until next week!

Week 65

Dearest Family!!!!!!!

 

Wow! What a week!!!! We were busy, busy, busy with a lot of power!

 

Power week was so great! It started with a great Sister exchange. We go on sister exchanges every transfer and it is always so great. This time I had a sweet new missionary come with me. Her name is Sister Hsiao. She is from Taipei. It was her 4th week in the mission. It was so fun! It was also really great because my first time as senior companion her trainer came with me and at that time it was her trainer, Sister Yen's first transfer. So It was so much fun to see Sister Yen and to work with her sweet companion. I learned so much from Sister Hsiao's humble spirit and her desire to learn and improve. She is so loving. It was so much fun and a great learning experience.... Guess where my companion went? She went with Sister Smith, my MTC companion! They had way too much fun! I love them both so much! It was really good to see Sister Smith for a few minutes.

 

The rest of the week was go go go!!!! I love busy days. We saw many great miracles even with the wet and cold rain.

 

First miracle: Sister Zeng. She is a former investigator that was taught by my previous companion Sister Wainright. She had her baptismal interview and everything was going so great and then a week before I came she just disappeared. She wasn't at home and she wouldn't answer her phone. Sister Wainright would try to call or go out to her house (she lives in the country so it's quite the bike ride there) but never any luck. Well this week we went out there and there was luck. She was home but busy so we set up for another time this week. We went back with a great member that we found out lives right by her :) This sweet sister remembered Sister Zeng and actually remembered a question that she had had before that she went home to study for. It was such a miracle that we found her again and that the member we called knew her and prepared for her without us even knowing... The Lord's hands are truly in His work!

 

Second miracle: Lisa. She is super cute. She actually self contacted the Elders a few weeks ago and said that she really wants to come to church. So the Elders referred her to us but when we called her she said that she couldn't come to church and didn't seem to interested. Well every Wednesday we have free English class. I went into my class that had only one student and it was Lisa. It was so great because I was able to sit with her. She asked me all sorts of questions about my family, my mission, why I'm here, and the church... so we skipped right to the spiritual share and I shared with her the beautiful message of the restoration. The spirit was really strong and she was quick to commit to praying and reading. She even set up for the nest day. She is so great! It comes to show  that you really can't read a book by it's cover.

 

Third miracle: Sister Ye. Wow I just love this girl so much! Her faith is growing so much! Yesterday morning she called us and said that she wouldn't be able to make it to church because she had a family thing. We were really surprised and talked to her for a bit and tried to see if there was any way she could come to sacrament meeting and promised her the blessings she would receive if she came. She said that she would talk to her mom and try to change the time so she could come. We were sitting in sacrament and we just kept praying and praying that she would come... Then she walked in and she stayed all 3 hours! It was so amazing! She is so amazing! She is preparing for baptism on Saturday and really needed to come and receive the blessings and help from church attendance. Her faith is growing. I love her so much!

 

Fourth miracle: Mrs. Xu and Mrs. Jiang. Last night we were riding around contacting when I went to talk to this cute little old lady. She seemed lost so I asked if we could help her. She is from China and showed me the address of her Hotel and asked if I knew where it was. I told her I knew where the street was and asked if we could walk her home. Her and her friend were so grateful. They were so cute and just lost on the streets of Taiwan. Her friend is a Christian. We were able to share a short message with them as we walked. My heart was so full of love and pure joy helping these 2 sweet children of God find their way home.

 

I feel so blessed that that is what I am able to do everyday. Help God's children find their way home. I love this work and I love this gospel.

 

I love all of you so very much!!!!!!

 

Until next week!

Week 64

Hello sweet family!!!!

 

I love you all so much!

 

Warning: this might be a short email because this week is power week and today was power cleaning which means Sister Bray is exhausted and would really like to take a nap... I'm sorry.

 

It has been a really great week!

 

We saw many great miracles.....

 

First, I just want to tell you again how much I love my companion. She is so sweet and so amazing! I am learning so much from her and so much about myself. I love her!!!!!

 

Second, sweet Sister Ye is so great! Her faith is just growing and growing. She always has something great to share with us. I just love her so much. It is amazing how she is changing and how you can see it and feel it. It's so beautiful. She is truly doing her part to prepare for baptism. She is amazing!

 

We have seen many blessings this week with less actives. We have been working with Sister Liu since before I came to the area... we have been trying to help her remember her testimony and the "why" of the gospel. The ward has also been very involved. Our Branch President invited her and us over to their house for a great lesson. She kept telling us she would come.......... and she finally did! It was so amazing! I really was so happy and so in awe! WOW! The members were so welcoming to her... Oh it was just so great!

 

I love our Branch!!!!! (so I know I often say ward but I'm really serving in a branch:) ) They are so great. They are very willing to help and have a great desire to share the gospel. But we still have some of our branch family missing. There are many less actives here... but we are doing all we can to help them come back and endure to the end.

 

This week is power week...  That means we leave earlier because there is no language study and we eat on the go so we will have more time to be active in the work. I'm really excited for power week! Mighty miracles come during power week!

 

I'm sorry this is so short.

 

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

 

And I love this work! And I love this gospel!

 

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!

 

Until next week!!!!!!