Power Week!

1. Last Pday with our huge bowls of noodles!

2. An awesome dinner with some members. 

3. Biking in our very very fashionable attire. 

4. My cute companion with her birthday breakfast! 

5. How many Elders does it take to open a birthday cake?? :) 

6. Trying to keep warm in the apartment

7. You can tell we have Zone Conference when there are a million bikes at the church! 

8. My companion taking my bike in for me. She's so cute :) 

9. Some awesome Sisters who made dumplings with us! So fun! 

Hello Friends and Family! 

This week (well week and a half) have been amazing! This is something we call a power week where we don't have Pday on the normal Monday because of Temple day. So we are really looking forward to go to the temple today! It's my first time here in Taiwan so I am extra excited! 

But we have seen lots of miracles this past little while. We helped two of our investigators set baptismal dates and we are so excited to see all of our investigators improve. I can't even explain to you all how much I love my investigators and ward members. They are such amazing sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father and I am so blessed to know them. 

We also had Zone Conference this past week and we learned SO MUCH! President and Sister Jergensen gave an awesome training about how we are compared to medics on the battlefield. It's our job to find people who need help, find our what type of help they need, and get them to the hospital! It was such an amazing analogy. It really made me think about our role as missionaries. Our goal is to teach people and help them progress towards baptism, then members need to accept them and help them continue to improve. Working with members is so important because they really can relate to people in a way that is different then us! It's so so valuable. 

Another cool thing that happened this week was that I passed off the first Book of language study plan and I am really excited to continue to progress in Chinese. It really shows how we need God's help to learn Chinese because we couldn't do it otherwise. We are blessed as missionaries in so many ways, especially in learning Chinese! 

Now for some pictures!!

LOVE YOU ALL AND HOPE YOU HAVE AN AWESOME WEEK! 

Sister Meeks

Address: 

4/F, #24, Lane 183
Jin Hua Street
Da-an, Taipei 106
Taiwan

Miracles!

When our apartment is freezing, we do what we need to do keep warm...and that means dresses and hoodies together! 

Us making cookies for our district! (The Elders love us) 

We are doing this new thing where we take pictures with dogs, but in a way that makes it look like they are taking the selfie. SO FUN! 

 Teaching English Class! 

SO MANY BAOZI! 

Us at the wedding reception (they got sealed in the temple) of two ward members! They are AWESOME! 

These awesome ward members who made us very yummy food! 

Hi Friends and Family!! 

Hope everything is going well with you all! I miss you all very much! 

Once again, we are going to use the words of my amazing companion to describe the week! 

"This week started out great here in Zhubei !!! We went hot potting and ping ponging for P-day and it was a blast !! It was a nice chill P-day with lots of good food and good company, a great way to get ready for a week of miracles !!! This week Sister Meeks and I had a goal of increasing our baptismal date investigators, so with that in mind we worked hard on inviting people to baptism !!! Out of the 4 solid people we invited, 3 of them accepted to set a date !!! It was amazing and so heart warming to see so many people willing to develop their faith and follow the example of Jesus Christ. Something I love about the mission is the opportunity I have to TEACH. And, I've been blessed with areas where we have a lot of lessons and a lot of people to teach !! So, I'm definitely thankful for this last week we had to go out and teach repentance <3 

As our mind was focused on this baptismal date goal we found ourselves hitting Saturday morning with no new investigators for the area. But, Sister Meeks and I had faith that we would be able to find 4 within the coming 48 hours. ANNNNNNNDDDD, the Lord is too good to us. We are seriously so blessed !! We found 1 that very night and we then found 5 new investigators on Sunday!! This Zhubei area is so prepared and I know that as my companion and I work hard to do the work, Heavenly Father creates pathways that we can see success in every aspect of it. He sees the hard work we put in, and for this He really does bless the areas we serve in <3 Being a missionary is just so special <3"

This week really was full of miracles. The Lord blesses us when we have faith to do his work! 

Love you all and hope you have an amazing week! 

Sister Meeks

I love getting mail!!! 

4/F, #24, Lane 183
Jin Hua Street
Da-an, Taipei 106
Taiwan

Staying in ZHUBEI

"Transfers happened! Staying in Zhubei!! WOOT WOOT! 

Also, did I mention ... that it's FREEZING here !! Like ... the wind is just ridiculously cold and when it rains I pretty much just want to curl into a ball under a blanket ... all the time ;) haha But, no worries ... we have exactly 2 small space heaters that keep us warm at night ;) Other than the weather though, all is well out here in Taiwan ! We had 2 pretty big activities this week and they were both a blast, and a great opportunity to draw our wards closer together while also inviting investigators and non-members. 1. We had a Zhubei 1st Ward activity where we had the Filipino members teach us how to make Chicken and Pork Adobo and it was probably one of the best things I ate this week. Even better is that I know how to make it now ... so if anyone wants some Filipino food here in 8 months or so ... hit me up ;) 2. We had our three ward movie night and we watched 17 Miracles. Even better was we had an investigator there who loved it !! We plan on putting her on baptismal date the next time we meet with her, so I'm sure she'll have an extra dose of the spirit around her after seeing that small piece of history. It was a great night with members as well. They were really able to see the desire us missionaries have to help this community, and build the ward families. The effort was all in, and I'm sure it'll bring even more success to the event as we do it next month.

The best moment of my week though has to do with an investigator; her name is Li Yi Hui. She's incredible and has a baptismal date for this Saturday !! She still has to hear the last lesson, this coming Tuesday, but other than that she has hit all the requirements for baptism. But, she's still not too sure about the whole idea of actually getting baptized. She explained that she knows she's going to have " a moment ". She really believes that within the next week she's just gonna know that she needs to be baptized. When we asked her if she wanted to move her a date to a little later in the month she said no, and that she still wanted to pray about the 20th because she really knows she's gonna have a moment, and receive the answers she needs to be baptized. It's incredible how much faith she has, and I'm sure Heavenly Father is going to give her the answer she needs in the time that she needs it. So excited for her and her progression none the less. It's gonna be a great week ahead ! OH ! And, here's a heads up, I won't be emailing until Wednesday next week because our P-day is moved for TEMPLE DAY !!!"

Thank you to Sister Nielsen for helping explain the week :) 

But some funny stories this week. We met with this awesome lady and gave her a chapel tour. She came to church on Sunday with a ward member and then agreed to meet with us. She is already Christian but likes our church. Anyway, her husband came to pick her up and he was super drunk! But the funny kind of drunk. So we talked to him and he was hilarious! He told me I didn't have eyebrows and I was dying laughing. But they invited us over so we are hoping to teach the entire family! 

Another funny one was this lady was staring at me all through breakfast and so I finally waved and said hi. Then she just straight up asked me if I would take a picture with her. (This happens all the time) so I said yes and she just gets up and leaves! Hahaha people want to take pictures with me so there are just a bunch of random people who I don't know that have my picture. Kinda funny.  I love it though. Whenever I see someone staring, (so every 20 seconds) I wave and it usually makes them smile! Good enough for me! 

Love you all and hope everything is going well! 

Sister Meeks 

The best district EVER! 

Us after finding out we are staying together for another transfer! 

Us with the Filipino Sisters! 

Our awesome Sisters in first ward! 

This Sister made us super cool scripture covers. She is AWESOME! 

Chen Yi Juen got Baptized!

 This picture describes her personality perfectly :)

My companion wrote my name is Soy Sauce...she really loves me! 

Our adorable Chen Yi Juen! 

You can tell when the missionaries go to dinner together!! #allthebikes

Hello Friends and Family! 

This week has been an amazing one. (I mean how could it not be? I'm a missionary and I'm in Taiwan!) I'm loving it here and while my Chinese is slowing coming, I feel like I'm beginning to develop relationships with everyone I'm working with and life is good. While we saw a lot of miracles this week, the biggest one is...

Chen Yi Jun got baptized! I can't express how happy I am for her and her decision to follow the example of Jesus Christ. She is so amazing and I am beyond grateful to be a part of her conversion experience. The baptismal day started off with me and my trainer going to Taipei for a 6 weeks follow-up. Afterwards we rushed home, set up chairs, and after a failed attempt at filling up the font, the Elders came and rescued us. Chen Yi Jun was crying even before the meeting started so let's say the whole thing was a cry fest. After two amazing talks, Chen Yi Jun walked into the font. She was so humble and you could feel the spirit so strong. My companion and I watched from the top of the steps and greeted her as completely perfect person as she walked up the steps. My companion and I then performed "I Know My Redeemer Lives" and gave Chen Yi Jun her favorite flowers. The entire experience was totally perfect and I can't wait to see all of the amazing things she will do now. Love her! 

We also got to meet this awesome lady named Xu Jiemei. We met her at a Waffle House last week and we set up to meet with her, but she didn't come! We were super bummed but we decided to call her anyway. Turns out she totally got the day wrong and felt so bad about missing it! We set up with her for the next day and she showed up this time. We got to know her better and we couldn't be more excited to keep teaching her. It's also really special to me because I was the one to start the contact with her and she actually wanted to meet with us! So pumped ! 

Another interesting experience was we got taken out to dinner and I experienced my first "being forced to eat an unnatural amount of food meal." I can't even tell you how many dumplings she ordered. Lets just say we prepared by not eating lunch and we still left never wanting to eat again ! We are a little relieved because she said she was going to invite the Elders next time so they can just eat whatever we don't :) 

Also has my first real rainstorm here! Literally SOAKED! I came home and had to squeeze the water out of my skirt. Also wearing glasses is a blessing and a curse. You don't get water in your eyes as much but you also can't see very well. Yaaayyyyyy! Actual was pretty fun to just bike around looking a little silly, we for sure get people's attention.

Other than that, just wanted to share some fun things I've learned about Taiwan:
1. Trash trucks blast Fur Elise by Beethoven to let people know they need to bring their trash to the street. 
2. You can't eat or drink of the MRT (kinda like the subway or metro) and it always happens to be that time when I feel the most thirsty. 
3. People think you're crazy if you don't wear a jacket during the winter months...even if it is like 70 degrees. 
4. My life is all about the double look. People look at me once...Then turn back quick again because I'm a blue-eyed, light haired, white person. I wave to a lot of people who just stare at me :) haha 

Just in closing, I want to bear my testmony of living prophets. When I heard about President Thomas S. Monson passing away, I was devastated. I have grown up listening to him and his words have inspired on more than one occasion. But his passing caused me to think about how important prophets are. Our world is full of craziness and temptations of every kind, but through prophets, we can face this challenges with revelation straight from our Heavenly Father. This is such a huge blessing! With all this in mind, I would invite you to take our beloved Prophet's last invitation to us; to read the Book of Mormon. He said, "I implore each of us to prayerfully study and ponder the Book of Mormon each day. As we do so, we will be in a position to hear the voice of the Spirit, to resist temptation, to overcome doubt and fear, and to receive heaven’s help in our lives." I know that as we do this, we will come closer to our Heavenly Father and better understand what we need to do to become successful. 

Well, I love you all and hope you have a good week! I miss you all so send me pictures if you get a chance :) 

我愛你們! 
-Sister Meeks (毛姐妹)