The Adventures of Sister Jessica Meeks: November 2018

Tuesday, November 27, 2018

Fan Dixiong Got Baptized

Hello Everyone!!

This week was power week (meaning we go to the temple in the middle of the week) so that's why you are getting an email from me on a different day!

But hope you all had an amazing week! Ours started off by going to the zoo ! I got to see a panda for the first time ! It was incredible I loved it! We also got to see some elephants, penguins, camels and a bunch of other fun animals! To make it even better, a bunch of friends/recent converts from Zhubei (my first area) came with us! It was so good to see them and to hear how everything was going. I love every area on my mission and my first one for sure hold a very special place in my heart!

The highlight of this last week was Fang Dixiong getting baptized! He is such a stud! He was so so willing to keep all the commitments we gave him. He was so happy during his baptismal service and does this little "yaaayyy" whenever we teach him something or encourage him! It's adorable. He has totally changed since his baptism! He surprised us at the church after district meeting by coming to say hi and he was so happy and energetic! It honestly threw us off but also made us smile because he was just so happy! He's already a changed man and we are excited to see him progress even more in the church!

So much has happened this week I don't even know how to explain it all! So I'll just give you the highlights!!

1. Went on exchanges with Sister Jensen! She is adorable and so fun to be around! It's impossible not be smiling when you're around her 😄

2. Had Zone Conference! We had this HUGE zone conference with almost everyone in the misison there. I was so fun to reunite with so many people and we also got Thanksgiving dinner! Pumpkin pie and all! So fun 👍

3. I fell over in our broken chair and my companion started laughing at me from the other room...Savage!

4. On Thanksgiving day, we went to 火鍋吃到飽 (all you can eat hot pot) becuase we wanted to FEAST! Then we realized that was the farthest thing we could have gotten from American food so we went to McDonald's for dinner and ran into our district there becuase they had the same idea! #taiwanthanksgiving

5. Went on exchanges with Sister Zaitz! I LOVE HER! We served in the same Zone for awhile and I was her companion for a few days inbetween transfers! I have missed her so much so it was a very sweet reunion!

That's all I have time for this week! LOVE you all and hope you have a fantastic week 😊😊

Sis. Meeks

P.S. CHRISTMAS IS OFFICIALLY LESS THAN ONE MONTH AWAY!! WOOOOO #LIGHTTHEWORLD

I would love to hear from you!

Sunday, November 18, 2018

Linda Got Baptized

大家早安!

Hope everyone had a good week! Ours started off with an awesome Pday in JIUFEN! It was way way cool! You basically ride on a bus for eternity until you get to the top of a mountain and then there is the old street that is PACKED with cool stuff you can look at and buy! There is famous old cream, this old guy that paints with his hands, and much more! We spent a long time there and didn't even get to it all! I can understand why my brother Andrew has been trying to get me to go there my entire mission!!

But the highlight of this week for sure was LINDA GETTING BAPTIZED! She is so cute and so so funny. Watching her walk into the font was so happy 😄 She looked so beautiful and gave a fire testimony. It's been incredible to see her grow in such a short amount of time. She is very very excited to be able to go into the Temple and I know she will continue to do amazing things in the church!

Also this week, we went on two different exchanges! The first was with Sister Garner! She is super cute and we had a really good exchange together. We talked to tons of people and saw miracles because of it! We ran into this store called "5 Loaves, and 2 Fishes" and are really excited to go back and try it sometime!

My second exchange was with Sister Hayden! She is such an amazing misisonary! We met them, had a quick planning session, and then my companion called me and said someone needed to get into the church but she didn't have the keys. So we quickly rush out to go open the church, and Sister Hayden smiles big at this mom (who had her 4 year old son with her) and says hello. She started speaking to us in English and we got super surprised! After talking for about 30 seconds, the son looks right at us and asks, "when are you coming over to out house?" It was a little awkward so we kinda all just laughed and kept talking and then he asks again! I responded and said, "We would love to come visit you." Then ended up continuing talking with the mom until she looked down at her son and said, "Would you like to invite the sisters over to our home?" I was so happy and surprised!! Such a prepared person and we are so excited to meet with them!

1. My companion almost crashing her bike becuase of gross roadkill outside our apartment!

2. My companion almost dying while we were decking out our apartment with Christmas decorations

3. Somehow eating Italian food almost everyday

4. Mashing up the Primary and Hymn version of Away in a Manger with Sister Elliott 🤘🤘

That's about it for this week! HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE ❤️

LOVES!

Sister Meeks

1. Dangerously decorating for Christmas

2. Mirror selfie with Linda after she got baptized!

3. Linda ❤️❤️

4. Going to dinner with our RC from Banqiao! Zhan Dixiong!!

5. Jiufen for Pday!

6. Lot of peeps from our Zone as Pday was ending celebrating Christmas!

7. Some of our Christmas decorations 🎉

8. Taiwan Taipei Temple !

9. Sister Garner and I getting some good pasta on exchanges !!

Sunday, November 11, 2018

RUAN ZHI LING GOT BAPTIZED!

Hello Everyone!

First off, my email has been being crazy this week so if you sent me an email and I haven't responded...It's becuase it didn't go through!! Shoot me a reminder email and I'll send it again!

Ok, I gotta catch you all up since my last weekly email was pretty short!

I got transfered to Yonghe! So awesome!! When I was serving in Banqiao, we went on exchanges there so coming here gave me some major major flashbacks ! What makes this transfer even cooler is that I'm back with Sister Hurst! We served together for two transfers in Banqiao! We came on exchanges here and now we are Sister Training Leaders here! It's been super super cool to see how we have changed and grown! Sister Hurst is fire so we are going to kill it in this area!

But this week has been crazy and awesome! Besides all the random/crazy things that happened, we saw a ton of miracles!

The biggest miracle was Ruan Zhi Ling getting baptized! She is so cute and so prepared. She is a 16 years old and is so funny! Her laugh is adorable and is super contagious! It's been awesome to get to know her and teach her the last few things she needed before baptism. She loved hearing about the temple and set some goals to get there! Her baptism was so awesome. It was filled with the Spirit and she just looked so so so happy! She is totally prepared. I'm excited to keep helping her learn and progress 😊

Another exciting thing was Linda passed her baptismal interview! Her baptism is next week and the ward is so so so excited. She is super cute and also really prepared. It's been cool to see how willing she is to accept everything and follow Jesus Christ. She is going to do some amazing things in this church!

Other highlights of this week!

1. Going to this adorable Corgi themed restaurant!

2. Going to mission leadership conference! Both my MTC companions were there as well and it was cool to have a reunion. It was nest to see how much we have all grown becuase we all started super low together! Crazy we go home do soon!

3. Giving a short talk in Sacrament meeting then sitting down and having my investigator give me a fist bump and said I did an awesome job. 😊

4. Eating Macaroni and Cheese for our fancy Sunday dinner ! (Shoutout to mom for sending it to me!)

Well, we are off to Jiufen this week! (A super famous old tourist spot in Taiwan) So sorry this week is short again! Hope you have an awesome week and hope to hear from you as well!

All the loves!

Sis. Meeks