Fire and Stone

Celebrating the World Cup in Taiwan! 

Sister Lyman

We survived English class... Barely 

Celebrating the 4th of July! Shoutout to mom for the glowsticks 

We went to Costco this week!!! Felt like ones back in America 

My two favorite people in this entire world !! (Sister Nielsen and Hurst)

Taipei 101

Hello Everyone! 

This week was crazy! It all started out with a super fun Pday where we got to celebrate Sister Elliott's birthday by eating at Chille's! HAPPY BIRTHDAY SISTER ELLIOTT! We then did a little shopping and I got to hang out with a lot of mission friends. I have been so blessed to make a lot of lifelong friends on the mission and it always makes me very happy to spend time with all of them!! ❤️❤️

But this week was full of adventures! On Tuesday, we had our first district meeting as a new district! There are just four of us so it makes district meeting very interesting! 😁 We talked a lot about finding prepared people. Sometimes it's very hard to tell if someone has interest in the gospel, or if they just have interest in being friends with two Americans! But we talked about how following the Spirit is the way to know who to meet with and what we need to share with them. After that, we had the chance to meet our new mission President and his wife. They are incredible! They are so excited to be in Taiwan and so excited to get the work of the Lord moving faster! I am very excited to continue to get to know them and learn from all of their experience! 

On Wednesday night, Sister Lyman and I switched to teaching the kids English class! 哇塞 Was that an adventure or what?!? We posted on Facebook about the class earlier in the week so TONS of new students came. We were trying to find a way to keep million little kids entertained and at the same time teach them English. It was an adventure but we ended up talking to a lot of families about learning about the gospel! 

This week was also full of so many blessings! We had a lot of errands to run (getting Sister Lyman's bike, fixing my phone, etc.) so we didn't have as much time as we wanted to find new people to teach. But so many people gave us referals! We got some from other missionaries, members, and found lots from English class! We seriously were so so so blessed! 

Biggest miracle of the week was meeting the Xie Family! They came to English class and set up to meet with the Elders because they originally thought they lived in there area. The first lesson went SO SO well! The Elders set a baptismal date with them and they were on their way! But by the end of the lesson, they found out they actually live in our area! We were a little worried because they already met some people in the other ward, but we met with them to try and help them understand why we have ward boundaries. They were a little hesitant to switch but they came to church anyway and LOVED IT! They are so excited to learn more and couldn't be more happy to be meeting with missionaries. We have very very high hopes for them. Love them already! 

Ok, now to explain the subject line of the email! We were eating lunch after church at the chapel when we met an investigator from a different ward. We started off a conversation and we became fast friends. She thought it was so funny how different me and my companion are. Sister Lyman is a very loud, outgoing, lively person who laughs and is super energetic around everyone! She this new friend (her name is Sloan) described her as fire because she is crazy and out of control! 🤣 Then she looked at me and told me I was the stone of the relationship! (Never thought I would hear that!) She said I have a very solid testimony and communicate in a very clear and kind way. It was an interesting way to describe our companionship but we thought it was super funny!

It's been fun to meet with lots of new people this week. It's interesting to see all of their different reactions when we tell them about our misisonary life. Most of them are shocked and don't believe us when we tell them what we do everyday. I've been thinking about the misisonary life more, and I've realized it does sound kind of crazy! We leave our families, learn a foreign language, save our personal money, give up technology and most of our hobbies, bike around in the rain while wearing a dress, and get rejected by people all day long. I totally understand why people think we are crazy! But I love talking about the misisonary life with people because the ONLY reason anyone would ever live this crazy life, is because we know what we are sharing is true. Being a missionary is a sacrifice but a huge blessing. We have all of these crazy days, but we are sharing about why we are the people we are today. People see the Light of Christ in us, and I'm more than willing to give my time so others can be filled with that light. ❤️

Love you all! Have an amazing week!
Sister Meeks

One Week... Four Companions

  1. I LOVE SISTER HURST

3. First lesson with me and my new companion! 

Visiting this cute Sister in the ward! 

Have I ever said that I love Sister Hurst?? ❤️❤️

2. Sister Zaitz and Keeney! Had such a fun time with them! 

Laser tag for Pday a few weeks ago! 

New comp Sister Lyman

Hello Friends and Family !! 

This week to was a crazy one! It started off with us getting our transfer calls ! We found out that Sister Hurst was leaving, and I was staying in Xinpu with a new sister. It was incredibly sad to see Sister Hurst leave. We had a really fun time together and saw lots of success!! She is the best! She is now companions with my trainer and they are already having an amazing time. So happy for them 😄😄

Then! My companion hadn't gotten to Taiwan (she is new to the island!) by the time Sister Hurst had to leave so I got to spend two days with the sisters in Tucheng, Sister Zaitz and Sister Keeney! It was such a party ! I got to teach English class with the adorable Sister Zaitz and learned a lot from Sister Keeney. I was also sad to leave them as well but even more excited to meet my new companion! 

On Thursday morning I traveled to the mission office and got to eat an awesome breakfast with all the trainers and trainees. We got to eat some amazing Cinnamon rolls and meet lots of new people. We had some trainings and then we got assigned to a companion! My companions name is Sister Lyman! She is from Lehi so we are basically neighbors back home! She is majoring in Fine Arts so she likes to sing and dance! She has studied Chinese for a long time so her Chinese is great! We are excited to work hard in this area 😄😄

But Sunday was great!! I was sitting in Sunday school with the biggest smile on my face becuase on my right was our investigator Jerry and my RC Zhan Dixiong, then on my left was my RC Wang Jiemei. It was such an awesome feeling to be surrounded so many people I love! 

On Sunday night, we went to the monthly RC fireside! There were some beautiful musical numbers and awesome testimonies. It was so fun to see a lot of my missionary friends and also eat some Costco cookies! 

Well, I love being a missionary and I'm so grateful to be here in Taiwan!! I'm so blessed that I have the chance to serve in this amazing country and learn so many amazing things! It's a good time to be a missionary!

Anyway, love you all! Have an amazing week!
Sister Meeks 

Transfers

Making cookies for our members

Sister Hurst and I! 

At the temple with Zhan Dixiong

Pday with the Jergensen's! 

Korean food with the district 

大家早安! Good morning everyone!

This kweek started out great with an awesome Pday at the Jergensen's! Sister Jergensen offered to teach us how to make cinnamon roles so we could take them to our members, so we went and learned how to do it! It was so fun! President and Sister Jergensen are leaving for home this week so it was nice to spend a few hours with them before we have to say goodbye. They are both incredible people and we will miss them so much!

We also went to the temple with Zhan Dixiong this week ! It was so incredible. It was his first time and he loved it! It is always a special experience to see an investigator progress, get baptized, and then go to the temple. He has progressed so fast! His calling is to greet people at church and he's so cute when he does it! He's doing to do some great things in the church!

This morning, we got transfer calls!! So so so so crazy! I am staying in Xinpu and I have the awesome chance to train a new sister! AND! My awesome companion Sister Hurst is going to be STL with my trainer Sister Nielsen!!! So so so crazy! Basically both of us are shocked but really really excited at the same time 😄😄😄

I don't have tons of time today but love you all lots and hope to hear from you soon!

Sister Meeks


Address: 

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

Singin' in the Rain

English Class! 

Sister Hurst unplugging the fan so she can plug in her phone!

I love the food here...So much !

Pday last week in the rain!  

Our investigator Remus!! His English is perfect and always has awesome questions 

Hello Everyone!

This week started off with a super fun Pday! (Despite the rain...And the rest of the week!) We went laser tagging with a few other companionships and it was awesome!! We got to play a bunch of different games and it was fun to get to know some other people better! Solid 10/10!

On Tuesday, we had an amazing district meeting where we talked about ways we can receive revelation for ourselves. As missionaries, we are always relying on God's guidance through the Holy Ghost so it was cool to discuss ways we can more fully trust in the Lord. A little later that night, we had a lesson with Jerry and he decides to treat us to a really nice dinner!! He is always so good to us. He has grown so much in the 10 weeks I've known him and I can't wait for him to progress even more!! We love Jerry! 

On Wednesday, we met with Guo Dixiong! He is so cool! We met him outside of a drink shop right before we were going home for the night. We were kinda being a little silly and we could see him low-key laughing at us so we decided to talk to him! Now, a few weeks later, he is doing great and set a baptismal goal!! He is already Christian and already has a strong faith in Christ. He's awesome! :) 

That night we had English class which is always such an adventure! I was teaching about memory and we played a few games to help them remember a few things! They got so competitive! After that, we spent 20 minutes talking about why a spatula was called a spatula...They didn't believe me that it was a real thing!! (Even though it was right in front of them!) After that, I look over and my companion Sister Hurst is drawing a Jack-O-Lantern on the board...Sometimes we aren't entirely sure how we get on certain subjects but it always seems to work out! :) :) 

On Thursday, we met this awesome guy named Arthur!! He met some Elders in Central Taibei but they they found out he lived in our area. He plays basketball and is well over 6 feet tall! He has perfect English and is very very sassy! (We don't see sassy people very often here so that was very unexpected!) He was born Catholic so he had a lot of questions about how our church as different. He is great and we are excited to keep working with him! 

Saturday was FULL of miracles! The first happened when Sister Hurst and I were doing our language study. This lady sat down next to us with her friend, and immediately asked if we were Christian! We were so surprised and excited! We started talking to her and her friend and we find our they are also Christian. They were super nice (gave us fruit after knowing them for 5 minutes) and we also found out that one of their daughters has been to Utah! So many cool connections :) We asked if we could say a prayer with them and they very willingly said yes! THEN! Right after the prayer ended, another lady came up to us and said she was Christian! Long story short, we are meeting with her and her two kids as well! So many miracles in a short 20 minutes. 

After that, we left to go meet with our recent convert Zhan Dixiong. We sat down and noticed that the two people next to us were doing some find of fortune telling. The one whose fortune was being told was very very distressed and we felt so bad for her. So we stayed close, hoping for a chance to talk to her. Eventually she got up and started to walk away...We didn't know if we should follow. But Sister Hurst, following the Spirit, gets up fast and we run after her down the stairs. We end up finding her, talking to her about God's plan for her, and giving her a big hug. She is so sweet and just needed some comfort. Even though we were hesitant to go after her, it shows the everything will work out if we follow the Spirit. We actually didn't end up meeting with Zhan Dixiong there because there weren't enough seats we knew we were led there just to meet her! 

Church was great this week! We met this really cute girl at the MRT Station a little while ago and she came to church with us! Yay! She got to meet some other Young Women and it was so cool. We also got to see Zhan Dixiong pass the Sacrament for the first time :) He has progressed so much and I'm excited to see what he will do as a member of the church. We are going to the temple with him next week so we are really excited!! 

Other fun things this week! 
1. We got to eat Mac and Cheese this week for the first time in a long time!! (Shout out to Grandma Bunnell for sending it to us) 
2. We got offered a position as a English Tutor from a mom with two kids! 
3. When Sister Hurst's phone was about to die, we had to be creative about a way to charge it. Long story short, the people in the shop we were in were laughing at us...A lot! #struggle (see a picture below!)
4. I have been keeping a count of how many dumplings I have eaten since I got to Taiwan in December...Let's just say it's getting pretty high! Whenever I tell members, they think it's hilarious!! See if you can guess how many ;)

Love you all! Hope you have an awesome week!!
Sister Meeks 

Check out my awesome blog my mom keeps up for me!! 

https://adventuresofisistermeeks.blogspot.tw/

Address: 

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

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Pray. Go to church. Read the Book!!

Exchanges with Sister Hanna

Amazing noodles we ate this week :) 

Amazing curry we ate this week :) 

Amazing dumplings we ate this week :) 

Pday Squad 

Pday Squad 

Pday Squad 

Sister Hurst and I #powercompanionship 

Friends and Family! 大家早安! 

This week stared off with an awesome Pday with our favorites Sister Elliott (MTC Roommate) and Sister Warren! (Former companion) We went to Taibei and looked at some stores for a little bit before going to Chile's!! Yes, I said Chile's! It was amazing and I got real Mexican food for the first time since coming to Taiwan. So amazing. I also got to know Sister Elliott's recent convert Sherry! She is adorable and I loved hearing about her story of meeting the missionaries. I really feel so blessed to have the chance to meet so many cool people on a daily basis! 

Then on Tuesday we had Zone Conference! So so so amazing! It was our last one with President and Sister Jergensen and it was so sad! I have come to love them so much and learned some amazing things from them. I'm so happy I got to have them guide me the first half of my mission! But something that Sister Jergensen talked about really touched me. She talked about how when hard things happen to us, we should NOT ask ourselves "why is this happening?" "Why do hard things always happen to me?" "Why is ------- so hard?" Instead, we should ask ourselves 

"What am I to do?"
"What am I to learn?"
"What am I to change?"
"Who am I to help?" 
"How to remember blessings during time of trial?" 

When we change our mindset to fit these questions, we can better learn from our trials...Instead of being miserable and just simply enduring them! So interesting and caused me to think a lot! 

Then on Wednesday we had English class! Sister Hurst and I decided to combine classes so it was a big class! Our investigator, Jerry, sells hair products for his job so he asked us the week before if we could teach more about that. He walked in this week and was shocked and totally excited that we actually were going to talk about it! Our class was really fun and we got to see a funny side of some of our students that we hadn't seen before! 

Side note before the next part of the story. Everyday as missionaries we want to help our investigators improve and develop their own testimony. One way we do that is helping them do C.P.R. Church. Pray. Read. By coming to church, praying, and reading the Book of Mormon everyday, those we teach can develop their own personal tesimony. We follow up on these things in every lesson so our investigators know them well!

Now back to the story! As we were transitioning into the spiritual part of English class, we asked the question, "what can you do to develop more faith?" Our investigator Jerry smiles at us and says, "Pray!" Sister Hurst and I both smiled and nodded for him to continue! Then he says, "go to church!" (He's grinning and kind of laughing at this point) and finally he says, "and read the book!" (Meaning the Book of Mormon!) Sister Hurst and I are so happy and Jerry is so proud of himself. :) :) He leans forward and high fives our recent convert Zhan Dixiong (who got baptized about three weeks ago), leaving everyone else in the room a little confused about why they were so excited. I love them both so much and it's cool to see them progress together! 

Then we had a slow few days because for about a week, I had a pretty high fever but we kinda kept going regardless. It didn't go away so our Mission Presidents Wife told us we needed to take it easy for two days, and see what happened after that! Long story short, I feel tons better and we got back to work! Despite taking it a little bit slower, we saw some cool miracles and found even more people to teach! It really does show that God will direct our work, no matter what our circumstances are. 

Sunday came around and it was great! We had to give short talks in church and despite being very nervous to give a whole talk in Chinese, it went pretty well! My companion KILLED it (she's so 厲害）and the rest of the day was full of compliments from the wards members. In Sunday School, we talked about the Holy Ghost and how we can feel the Spirit in every aspect of our lives. Hearing other people's experiences was a great way for me to remember all of the spiritual experiences I have had on the past. The Gift of the Holy Ghost is a huge blessing in my life and I've resolved to recognize that more and show more gratitude for all the guidance it has given me! 

Last thing I wanted to talk was World Wide Youth Fireside given last week. Talk about INCREDIBLE!! Whether or not you are a youth, please go listen to, watch, or read what was said at this historic event. It was amazing and 100% inspired by God. In his address, he gives 5 very specific invites. 

1. Hold a seven-day fast from social media.

2. Make a weekly sacrifice of time to the Lord for three weeks.

3. Keep on the covenant path. If you are off, repent and get back on the path.

4. Pray daily that all of God’s children might receive the blessings of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

5. Stand out. Be different. Be a light. Give to a friend one copy of the booklet For the Strength of Youth

So powerful. As I was listening to this conference, I was overwhelmed by the Spirit. These invites were given by a prophet of God and because of that, should be taken seriously! I invite all of you (not just the youth) to watch this broadcast and think of what you need to do in order to accept these invites! Please let me know if any of you have, or already have had, cool experiences with this! I'm excited to see this work progress! 

You can watch/read the broadcast here! 

https://www.lds.org/broadcasts/face-to-face/nelson?cid=HP_WE-6-6-2018_dPTH_fBCAST_xLIDyL1-A_&lang=eng

Love you all and hope you have an incredible week! 

Sister Meeks
毛姐妹 

Miracles in the good old Banqiao

I love Sister Hurst! 

My cute English class students ! 

One of my favorite meals in Taiwan! It costs less than two dollars so that makes it even better! 

Wendy!! (I talked about her in my email) 

Taiwanese Pizza...My companion and I decided that Taiwanese people don't exactly understand what pizza is...They kinda just throw everything together and call it good hahaha 

Hellloooooo family and friends! 

Highlight of this week was for walking into the chapel on Sunday. Both of my Recent Converts from this area were there, as well as some other investigators. Zhan Dixiong was dressed in a white shirt and tie, passing out programs when we got there. He was so happy to be helping it and it was the most adorable thing ever. Wang Jiemei also dressed up and looked fantastic! The Relief Society gave her a warm welcome and it felt amazing to see her stand up and introduce herself to the other Sisters. Jerry was already in the chapel when we got there, quietly waiting for the meeting to start. Such an amazing site to see so many people I love be able to partake of the Sacrament! Love them so much! 

Amazing story / miracle of the week starts off about 6 weeks ago when our water filter broke! Basically for the past few weeks we haven't had clean water at the apartment so we've had to buy a million plastic water bottles. We tried calling various repair men but none of them were willing to help! So this week, we decided we NEEDED clean water so we texted the Elders in the mission office, pleading for their help! They decided to be the MVPs of the week and come to our apartment themselves and fix it! They said they could come that night, but we decided to ask them if they could come the next day instead. (In reality, we could moved our schedule for them to come that night but after talking a little, we decided not to) The next day, they ended up being a little late and it took longer than we thought, so after they left, we found ourselves trying to decide where to eat lunch. My companion gave me about 7 options to choose from and we took turns eliminating them until we decided on this random Cantonese place we had never tried before! 

When we got there we stood outside, looking at the sign, trying to figure out how / what to order. We must have looked confused because after standing there for a minute or two, this nice man comes up and asks if we want help, in ENGLISH! We gladly accepted his help and ordered our food. When we got in the restaurant, we half got invited to sit with him and half invited ourselves to sit with him. Come to find out, he has lived in lots of different places in America! So cool!We asked him which was his favorite and he said UTAH! Whhhaaaattttt? So basically after talking and getting to know him, my companion pulls our her phone to share a video. She pulls it up and I was dumbfounded because I just barley had the thought to share the same video! (The Spirit really does direct our work!) He loved the video and asked us to share it with him so he could show how students! So incredible! There we so many things that led up to us meeting him. (our water filter breaking, not getting it fixed that same night, it taking longer than expected, going to the random restaurant, and looking confused) All of these things led us to be at the exact place and exact time we needed to be in order to meet Jason! Such an incredible experience and we are excited to keep meeting with him ! 

Another cool miracle was when we were going through our English class roll and realized there was one girl neither of us recodnized. Taking a leap of faith, my companion texts her (having no idea who she is) and starts a conversation! Later, she was willing to meet with us! Her name is Wendy and she is adorable! She brought little cookies to share and loved hearing about our families. We talked about prayer has blessed our families and invited her to start praying everyday! She accepted and was very very willing! So cool to see how my companion's small leap of faith led to us meeting this incredible person. Yay Sister Hurst! 

Other than that, this week was full of teaching lessons, finding people, and having lots of adventures in this lovely land of Taiwan! I love this island so much and could not be happier to be a missionary here. Even though Chinese is very hard and sometimes it's hard to communicate, I can feel the love of the people I meet. While our language and cultures are different, we are all children of God. He loves each and everyone of us! He knows our names, struggles, talents, joys and weaknesses. He will help us no matter what. All we have to do is let 
Him :) 

Love you all so much! Have an amazing week! 
Sister Meeks 
毛姐妹!