Love you all.

This week was really good! We had a lot of rain so we got very very wet but it was also really really fun! It started out with a Pday where we went to the gym! Remember really wanted to take us to the gym so she got us all free passes and we went to this huge gym with all the other missionaries in this area. It is for sure wasn't very relaxing but it was very very fun and we worked out a lot. We all joked that we needed another Pday afterwards because we were so tired! This week we for sure are resting a little bit more haha

I had the chance to go on my first exchange this week! It was so so fun. We have two other sisters living our apartment with us so we know them really really well but we got to go exchanges within this week. I went with sisterly and we had a party. We worked really hard and talked a lot and it was very fun. She is in training right now and I learned a lot about missionary work from her. I think sometimes we get a little farther along our mission and we forget about the simple things that make missionary work important. She reminded me of that that the simple things are the most important and we shouldn't focus on the more complicated things. I am excited to continue working with her in this area!

That night we had English class and it was a little bit chaotic! We teach the children's class and sometimes we have a hard time keeping it under control! But it is still a good experience. We met this awesome Mom who has a baby about 1 year old but she still wants her baby to print English so she brought her to class! She really wants to have a happy family and so we told her that we think families are very important and she wanted to learn more. We are excited too continue to meet with her.

Then the next morning we had our second Exchange! I got to go with sister Bennett and we had a lot of fun. We always have wanted to be companion so it was fun to have that wish come true for just one day. She goes home in a few transfers and has a lot of experience. She helped me a lot and we had a good time. Her companion had never gone to something called "kaorou." This is basically where there is a griddle in the middle of the table and you fry your own meat and other things. It is so good so we decided to take them there. It was fun to get the to know them a lot better and just to have a chill time or we could talk about a lot of stuff and how we can improve as missionaries. SO FUN!

That's about it for this week! Enjoy some pictures! 

Loves! 

Sis. Meeks

Can You Say Rain

Celebrating one year on the misison with some yummy steak! 

Breakfast with the district

Celebrating with Sister Love! She was in the MTC with me. 

Skyping Chen JM before the baptism! 

Chen JM at her baptism!! My trainer brought a picture of me because I couldn't attend in person! 

Yummy Taiwanese food :) 

Me and my comp! 

Hello everyone!!

I hit my one year mark this week!! Crazy that I have been wearing this same tag everyday for an entire year. I feel so blessed to be here in Taiwan serving the Lord. I have made so many lifelong friends and changed myself in ways that I never could have imagined before the mission. I am so grateful to be able to serve a misison! Six months to go!! 😊😊

A huge miracle that happened this week was that Chen Pei Ru got baptized this week! Sister Nielsen and I taught her all the way back when I was in training! She is incredible and I am so happy she made the choice to be baptized. It made me think a lot about my time in Zhubei. Such a happy time and I am so happy I could start my mission there. I really hope I can go back and visit all the amazing people there. #zhubeiforlife

These past few days went by quick but we still saw a lot of miracles! The biggest one happened on Wednesday night, which is when we teach English class. Xie Jiemei and I were a little bit dissapointed because we didn't have any students in our class :( but we decided to call a few people in the time we had and invite them to come next week. We were going to sit in our classroom because it had air conditioning, but I had a strong feeling we needed to go sit on the chairs by the front door. We decided to sit in the air conditioned room anyway, but I got the feeling again so we finally went outside. As we were sitting there sweating in the humidity, a lady cautiously approaches the door so I jump up to go talk to her. She said she has been wanting to come into the chapel for a long time but had been feeling nervous. But she knew we had English class so she waited until then because she knew there would be people inside.

We asked her if we could give her a chapel tour and she was very excited! She loved every part of it and commited to come to church next week and bring her two sons!! She then asked how our church was different so we asked if she had time to sit for a few minutes! She said yes and we shared with her about Joseph Smith and the Restoration! So cool!

BUT WAIT! It gets better. After we finished, she said she wanted to share something with us. She said as she was sitting in her car outside the church, she said a silent prayer and in her prayer told God that if someone came up to her and welcomed her into the chapel, she would take it as a answer that what she was doing was right. My companion and I were blown away. If we had had students come or I had continued to ignore the feeling to sit outside the classroom, we never would have met this incredible person.

This experience made me super emotional! As she was sharing, I felt the Holy Ghost so strongly! It helped build my testimony that God really does lead His church and His missionaries! Everyday, I become more amazed because I really know Heavenly Father loves us and will never abandon us. He knows exactly what each of us need and if we listen to him, he will guide us down the successful road. So grateful for this guidance in my life.

Thats about it for this week! Love you all and hope you have an amazing week 😊😊
Sister Meeks
毛姐妹 

TRANSFERRED TO HUALIAN!

I love Xie JM! 

Saying goodbye to Jerry! 

Skyping with Xie JM and Austin on the night of their baptism!! SO HAPPY FOR THEM! 

My cute new comp and I in the rain! 

Dinner as a district before transfers!

I got a chance to see one of my investigates from my first area!! She is getting baptized this week! 

Eating steak with some cute members from my companion's last area! 

Hey Everyone! 

This week was probably the craziest week of my entire mission! So bear with me, this email is going to be a little long 😊

This week started off with a super fun Pday where we went ice skating! I saw a lot of really good friends and we had a really good time! I had to say goodbye to a few good friends, which is always really sad. It's such a blessing that you can make really good friends on the mission, but its always sad to see them leave!

Then... TRANSFER CALLS CAME! Sister Lyman and I for sure thought we were staying together ... But we were surprised that I was getting transferred to Hualian!! I am going to be an STL (a sister training leader) and I'm super pumped to be able to go on exchanges with a bunch of cool sisters in this area! But, we were not expecting that at all! It's really far away (literally the opposite side of the island) so I had to say goodbye to even more people because it's very likely I will not see them again!

At English class that night, I had to say goodbye to my good friend Jerry. I've talked about him a lot in emails! He is incredible and someone who has helped me in many ways. We have grown and learned together and it was heartbreaking to have to tell him I was leaving. A few weeks ago, he helped me pick my Chinese name (which he worked very hard on) and then at English class, he gave me a very cool scarf with my name embroidered on it. Made me so emotional ! It was so thoughtful. Then he decided to come with me to English class (we teach kids class) instead of going to his normal class. He sat by me the whole time and it was just a really good way to say goodbye. As we were walking out, we started talking...Then he started tearing up. So naturally I started to as well. The mission is such an interesting experience. You come to a foreign land, not being able to speak the language very well, but somehow still develop incredibly strong relationships. The friendships I have developed on my mission will last forever and I'm so grateful for the chance to serve here.

Also after class, I had to say goodbye to Xie Jiemei and Austin. Luckily Xie Jiemei held it together but as I was talking to Austin, he started to cry too. I met them about a month ago and THEY GOT BAPTIZED THIS WEEK! I wasn't able to attend because I had already moved but I got to Skype and talk with them about it that night. (I'm so grateful for technology!!) They are very very special and are going to do some amazing things in the church. They are already planning a trip for next summer when I'm home from my mission to come visit me, literally the cutest thing ever.

The next morning, we picked up the new missionary coming in, and I said goodbye to Sister Lyman. This transfer really was a shock so we both hadn't prepared. But I'm excited for her to have this new experience in the good old land of Banqiao! All day Saturday, I was with Sister Eyring! She went home this week but she needed a companion after transfers. I helped her take care of a few things and also got to talk to a bunch of other good friends going home. It was a super chill day and actually perfect because the next day I woke up bright and early (around 4:30) and headed off to Hualian!

Sister Chen and I took a taxi to the train station and were trying to find where to get on the train. Because we got a little lost, I didn't have time to buy breakfast. (My train was a little earlier than Chen JM's) so we hugged goodbye and she went back upstairs to wait. It turns out my train ended up being a little late and I look over to see Chen JM running down the stairs, with breakfast in her hand!! She told me "you can't just not eat breakfast!" She is the sweetest thing ever. We hugged goodbye again and I rode on the train for three hours until I finally got to Hualian!!

When I got there, I met my new companion! Sister Xie!! She is from Taiwan and is super solid. She was baptized about three years ago and has a super super strong desire to share the gospel. She is also super kind and thoughtful. I had a super bad cough this week and she was super patient and kind the entire time. She also makes me super yummy food and is going to teach me how to cook some yummy Taiwanese meals 😄 I'm excited for this transfer together! I'm going to help her with English and she is going to help me with Chinese, we have already seen improvement!

Hualian is incredible!! So different than my last areas. Banqiao was one of the busiest areas in the misison, and Hualian is for sure a LOT less busy. I no longer have the constant fear of getting hit by a big bus! 🤣🤣 It really is a totally new experience and I'm getting to keep getting to know all the people here.

But on Saturday we had an awesome ward activity!! We called it the "Summer Palooza" but it was basically a water balloon activity! My companion and I filled up over 1000 water balloons and we for sure used all of them. All three wards in this area came and it was a lot of fun. It was a great way to meet a lot of new people in a fun way!

Ok, almost done! Lastly I want to share a super huge miracle! As Xie JM and I were riding to the church and started taking to this lady on her way to work. She was really nice and we literally had a two minutes conversation and she was willing to meet with us. A few days later, she came to the appointment...And brought her daughter with her! We had a bomb lesson with them and they are very excited to come to church with us this Sunday. We have a really good feeling about them and are excited to continue getting to know them 😄😄

That's about it for this week! Love you all! 

Sister Meeks

Miracles upon Miracles

Patty and Kris! They are members in our ward who are moving this week. I love them so much and are very sad to see them leave. 

Kris gave me this the last time he saw me before he moved. He is 6 years old and already wants to be a misisonary ❤️❤️ 

Outside the temple with Grace! 

Sister Lyman and I in a sketchy ally! 

Lazer tag crew from last week 

 Me having too much fun on a wooden horse at the ward activity 🤣🤣

Our Bishopric 🤣🤣 

Ward Activity this week!

We went to this special musical fireside and this was one of the performers. Look up "Three Reds" on YouTube! They are awesome ! 

Hello Everyone! 

This week was FANTASTIC! It started off with a super fun lazer tag Pday! I love lazer tag so much and it was fun to do it with a bunch of my missionaries friends. We are all SO hot but it was worth it. Right as it ended, we went and bought a cold bottle of water in an attempt to cool down...It didn't work but it was worth it 😊 

That night we met with our investigator Grace! She is incredible! She knows the Bible better than anyone I know. We gave her a chapel tour later in the week and she was literally explaining all the pictures and the doctrine behind them to us! We went to the third floor of the chapel and looked at the temple from the window. It was silent for a little bit and then I asked what she was thinking. She simply said, "I feel at peace." My heart melted a little bit from happiness when she said that. Can't wait to see her progress ❤️

Also, the Xie Family is doing amazing! We saw them 5 days this week and they always just make my heart so happy. They are getting baptized this week and I couldn't be more excited! They are going to do some amazing things in the church! 

Anyway, love you all! Not much time to write today but hope you all have an amazing week! 

Sister Meeks 

Pictures! 

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