quadpanionship

Hello everyone!! 

This week was a little crazy and super fun! We were in a quadcompanionship and we had a super fun time. I switched my companion everyday between Sister Pangan and Sister Rodriquez! They are so awesome! They are both from the Philippines and it was their first week in Taiwan! They have been visa waiting in Utah for 4 months (and actually served in the same ward as my grandma!) BUT they finally got their visas, came mid-transfer, and got to spend about 10 days with us. It's been super super fun and I'm sad they are getting their official companions this week! 

This Saturday was one of the funnest and craziest of the mission ! It started out normal, then it got busier and busier! The Elders in our ward had a baptism but they live far away so they asked us to fill up the font. I don't know what it is but I can never fill the font correctly! I always go into it thinking it will be ok, then something crazy happens! Haha long story short the water was pretty cold but the cute Grandma getting baptized was still very happy 😊 

Then after that we had a ward Halloween activity! SO FUN! All the missionaries in Hualian decided to dress up as characters from the Book of Mormon and it turned out awesome!! Everyone loved the costumes and SO MANY PEOPLE CAME! About two weeks ago, we printed off around 500 flyers and went crazy passing them out. We didn't think a lot of people were going to come but we were WRONG! Our whole third floor of the church was packed and us missionaries were going crazy trying to figure out who was a member and who was there for the first time! We met so many people and set up so many people for chapel tours! I am excited to start seeing the miracles from this activity! 

Other fun things of the week! 
1. Taking Sister Enriquez and Pangan for their "firsts" in Taiwan! (For example: Taiwan Steak, hot pot, shaved ice, English class, biking in the rain, Family Mart ice cream, boba drinks and so much more! 
2. Contacting someone on a motercyle and they started laughing at me! I asked why and he said, "I'm already your church member!" and then drove away like a savage haha 
3. Teaching our new sisters how to bike! It went about the same as me learning how to drive a stick shift car...So it was an adventure 😊 

Love you all and have an amazing week ! 

Sister Meeks 

Pictures!! 

Halloween activity!!! 

Thank you Sunset Hills First Ward for sending me a package! 

Exchanges with Sister Lee ! 

Eating lunch with Duan JM 

Ping pong for exercise time 👍👍

各位弟兄姊妹們大家早安! 

MONDAY NIGHT WAS FULL OF MIRACLES. Becuase of our preparation day, we only proselyte on Monday for about three hours. But those short three hours were jam packed with miracles!

To start off, Because of some health problems, I've been told to avoid biking as much as possible. But we had two appointments pretty far away. Just in time, we had a memeber who said she was willing to drive us and stay for both lessons! That was the first miracle!

And then, we go to visit an awesome person we met last week and it turns out that is entire family is there with him! There were 6 people + us + our member friend. It was pretty loud for the first part of our lesson and we didn't know how to control. So I just decided to continue and start telling the story of Joseph Smith. As I started speaking about his experience, the room went completely silent and as I shared the first vision, the room was FILLED with the Spirit. Incredible. We finish the lesson and they are all in complete awe. They told us they all want to learn more and we are going back this week to share more with them. INCREDIBLE! That was the second big miracle.

Then we go to visit the Xu Family. We have been meeting with them for awhile but have been struggling helping them understand why baptism is important and why the Preisthood is essential. We decided to try again to help them understand and they also felt the Spirit so strong while we reviewed the story of Joseph Smith. We invited them to be baptized and becuase of language/education level barrier, they didn't quite understand.

This is when our member friend takes over! She starts speaking in Taiwanese (which if you didn't already know, is a completely different language than Chinese). So my companion and I have no idea what she is saying, then she asks us to confirm the date we wanted them to be baptized, she invited them again, and they all said yes!! WHAT?? My heart was just so full of happiness as I saw this family of five, one by one say they wanted to follow the example of Jesus Christ and have their own personal new start. I'm getting goosebumps again just writing this! I felt God and Jesus Christ's overwhelming love fill that room and I know this family is never going to forget that feeling. Ah I love them and love this work!

On Tuesday, I got the chance to go with Sister Lee again for exchanges! She is such an amazing missionary and we had so much fun together. We saw so many cool things happen! We were sitting in a convenience store (across the street from the chapel) and both had the feeling to talk to the same guy! We started talking to him and he was super nice. We pointed out the chapel and he said he had never been in before. I had the prompting to be bold so I asked him if he would be willing to walk over right then and let us give him a chapel tour. He said yes! WHAT? He loved the paintings in the church and is excited to learn more this week!

Then on Thursday, I had the chance to go on exchanges with Sister Larson! Can you say PARTY? Seriously so so fun. She is so fire. We have been friends for awhile now and wanted to be companions, but had to settle on just being companions for one day 😊 haha We talked a lot about General Conference and how we can apply the talks to our lives. If you haven't watched General Conference yet, WATCH IT! And if you have watched it, REVIEW IT! It's always incredible and changes my life.

Zone Conference this week was so awesome. President and his wife had so many awesome things to tell us. Sister Lee and I did a musical number with Chen Jiemei and it was so fun! We have so many good sisters in this zone and I've learned so much from all of them!

THEN ! President dropped a bomb on us! There are two Filipino sisters who were visa waited in Utah who came to Taiwan before the official transfer started. So president decided to send them to us! So our companionship became a quadpanionship! They are both literally so so so cute and I already love them. They are going to be with us for two more weeks and its going to be so so fun 😊😊

That's about it for this week! We are excited to see what adventures this week brings!

Love you all! I know The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints is true ❤️❤️

Sis. Meeks 

Pictures !! 

1. Thank you Sunset Hills First Ward for sending me a package! 

2. Ping pong for excerise time 👍👍

3. 

4. 

5. Exchanges with Sister Larson! 

6. Last time seeing Chen Jiemei 😭😭

7. Zone Conference! 

8. Lunch with Grace! One of our super cute young women! 

General Conference

Me eating my 1000th dumpling in Taiwan!!!!!! 

 Our favorite friends at our favorite restaurant! 

MIRACLE of finding Christine! 

Lunch with President and his wife

Sister Peterson taking pictures of us contacting while President watches us 

Pday! 

Pday! 

Exchanges with Sister MacCabe 

Hello Everyone! 

This Monday we went to a all-you-can-eat Hot Pot for Elder Raymond's birthday! Super fun and super yummy! Nothing better than being with fun missionary friends and eating some amazing hot pot 😊 Then we decided to go to the beach (becuase one of the Sisters has never been her whole time in Taiwan!) so we played frisbee there and took some awesome pictures. It was the last time seeing one of my missionary friends so we all said goodbye and he gave us some departing words of wisdom. So bitter sweet!! Then we ran into a misisonary who went home a little bit ago and came back to travel with his parents. Such a fun time! 

Then we had the chance to go on exchanges in Taidong!!! So so so fun. I was with Sister MacCabe and she is fire! We are basically the same person so we got along really well and saw some awesome miracles. Taidong is such a beautiful place and the people are so incredible. I've heard about it all my mission from past companions (you know who you are) and I've been so grateful for small chances to serve with these amazing people! 

Thursday was full of miracles! In the morning, we met with Maggie! She is incredible. She is the one who we met last transfer after being prompted to sit outside when we didn't have any English Class students. She is progressing so well! We wanted her to meet more church members so we invited a sister who lives really close to her. They hit it off really well! She prepared some cakes and drinks for us and was just so excited to share all of her spiritual experiences. She is incredible and I know I was sent to this area to find her. 

Last week, we talked to this sweet mom after playing frisbee and she said we could come visit her at her house! We were so so excited. About a week later, we confirmed her address and realized that it was VERY far away. Almost the farthest part of our area and our area is huge! We tried to get a memeber to drive us but couldn't find, so we started biking! About an hour later, we got to the place that Google Maps took us too and it was pretty sketchy. We heard monkeys in the trees and saw some pretty scary looking dogs. Haha So we called her and we were for sure not in the right place! After a small little adventure, we found the place and she let us in! She has two little boys so we met with her, her husband, and the little kids. Such a happy moment. We shared about the Restoration and she loved it. We explained about the Priesthood Authority and she committed to be baptized ! We were literally blown away. On the 13+ mile bike ride home, we were just full of happiness! God knew exactly where she would be and helped us know exactly what to say. LOVE THEM. 

Then, Friday was also full of miracles. Started the day with an interview with President and that always pumps me up. Then we went to McDonald's for a lesson and she didn't show up 😭 So we started our studies and this cute Phillopino mom came over with her baby and started talking to us. We find out she is already Christian and she invites us to come sit by her. 

BUT WAIT it gets better, she lets us share the first lesson with her and she loves it! She looked me straight in the eye and said, "Sister Meeks, I hear your words but its your eyes that are making me want to learn more." I was taken aback and felt the Spirit so strong. So I felt I should invite her to baptism right there and she accepted. Literally incredible. 

I also got a chance to watch Conference this weekend! (We wait a week becuase we have to wait for it to be translated into Chinese) I learned so much but the thing that struct me most was how President Nelson spoke about us correcting the way we refer to our church. He spoke about how Jesus Christ is the center of our church and he is the one who established our church. He is our Savior and Reedemer. Becuase of that, we cannot take His Name out of church! It is the most important part! 

Our Prophet, Russel M. Nelson, said...

"I promise you that if we will do our best to restore the correct name of the Lord’s Church, He whose Church this is will pour down His power and blessings upon the heads of the Latter-day Saints, the likes of which we have never seen. We will have the knowledge and power of God to help us take the blessings of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people and to prepare the world for the Second Coming of the Lord." 

Pretty powerful promise right? I know as we use the correct name of the church, we will have more blessings than we can ever imagine ! So let's take this challenge together! We got this! 

Love you all! Hope you have an amazing week! 
Sis. Meeks 

Video calling the Sisters! 

Continuing my brother's work

Exchanges with Chen JM! 

Exchanges with Chen JM! 

Yummy dinner 

Running into Doris ! A friend from back in Banqiao ! 

Video calling our favorite taidong sisters! 

My attempt at a meditation bridge picture! 

Hiking with the crew 

Exchanges with Sister ZENTZ 

Exchanges with Sister ZENTZ English class! T

Exchanges with Sister ZENTZ 

Teaching about the Iron Rod through a game 

各位弟兄姊妹們大家早安! 

First off, shout out to my little bro Jacob who landed in South Korea this week! He is gonna be an incredible misisonary and I'm excited to serve at the same time! Love ya bro! 

This week was so awesome !! We went on a beautiful hike on Pday (only had minimal injuries and lots of sunburns) where we saw a beautiful waterfall! It was beautiful weather and such a fun time. 😊 

Then on Tuesday, I got to go on exchanges with Sister Zentz! We grew up together so it was fun to see how much we have changed. We laughed the entire time and found some really cool people! We visited one of their Recent Converts Zhang Jiemei and it was so awesome. When we talked about prophets and General Conference, she got so excited and loved it. She has such a strong testimony of the Preisthood and is so excited to hear the prophet speak. Love her! ❤️ 

On Thursday, I had the chance to go on another exchange with Chen Jiemei! She just started her mission a few weeks ago and is already FIRE! She is an amazing teacher and I learned a lot from her. She is also a expert pianist and singer so she gave me lots of tips. We visited our friend Maggie and the lesson was amazing. She was holding the Book of the Mormon and had a moment where she felt the power of this precious book. She bore her testimony of the Book of Mormon and committed to read it everyday!! Wooooooo! She is doing amazing and can't wait to see her progress more. 

Then on Friday we had the BIGGEST MIRACLE EVER! We went to a super far part of our area so we had to take the train. We met with these super cool college girls and then were talking about the lesson, when we realized we didn't know when the train back was so we looked it up...and it ended up being in like 6 minutes. So we looked at each other and ran (like full on sprint) to the station, bought the ticket, and jumped on the train that had just pulled in! We looked at each other in releif, and as I was about to sit down...I realized this train was going the wrong direction!! So as the doors were closing, we jumped out as fast as we could! We didn't know what to do so we went back to the ticket office and found out the next train wasn't for another two hours! So we decided to eat dinner and do our language study. We went to a drink shop after dinner and started talking to the worker after ordering our drink. After a minute or two of talking, he's like "I've actually talked to missionaries before and it's really cool because the Elder also had the last name of Mao!" I then asked how long it was ago and he said he couldn't remember exactly, but about 4 or 5 years ago. 

This is where it gets cool! My brother Andrew served in this mission about that time so I pulled out his picture (in my mind thinking there is no way it could be him) and he immediately said, "that's him!" WHAT???? I was super shocked. Of all the people in Taiwan and all the places I could be, I met someone who remembered my brother from a long long time ago. 

This was such a special experience! It goes to show that God does lead his work and that no effort is ever wasted! My brother quickly talked to this person, and then years later he still has interested in learning about the Book of Mormon. It really built my testimony this week that God has the perfect plan, and if we trust him and be worthy, he wil guide us where we need to go. LOVE YOU ANDREW! So happy I can continue the work you started. 

That's about it for this week! Love you all and love to see pictures and hear from you!  Hope you're all doing incredible! 

Sis. Meeks