All I want for Christmas

Hello Everyone!! 

Hope you all had an amazing week! Mine started with some good old 烤肉 (where you go and grill your own meat for two hours) after our Christmas Choir practice! Super fun and got to see lots of good mission friends! 

CHRISTMAS IS COMING SO SOON!! We had lots of Christmas singing this week! We want at a Carefour (kinda like the Taiwan version of Walmart) as a district and invited tons of people to our Christmas performance at the end of the month! It was very fun to share "Light the World" with so many people and talk to them about Christmas. It's so easy to talk about Jesus Christ during Christmas time.

This is my second Christmas in Taiwan and it's crazy to see how much I've changed. I had been in Taiwan for just a few short weeks last Christmas and here I am getting close to the end. It's been an awesome time to reflect on all the miracles I've seen in the last year.  It seems like sometimes went really slow and other times went really fast! I've loved talking to members about Christmas and teaching them some of our fun family Christmas traditions! My companion and I have been listening to Christmas music none stop and totally decked out our apartment in Christmas decorations. Everything around me reminds me of Christmas and even though most Taiwanese people don't know very much about Christmas, I still can feel the Christmas spirit every day in the small things 🎄🎄

On Saturday we had our first official Christmas Performance! We were in an outside theater at a school. It was SUPER cold but also really fun. It was awesome to look into the audience and see how excited they were to hear us sing and play! I had the awesome chance to play a piano/cello duet of "The Holiest Night." Super pretty and it was fun to play with another instrument! I'm excited that we get to perform again in a few weeks 👍👍

I would like to invite you all to check out LIGHT THE WORLD and see what you can do this week! The videos are adorable so that's a bonus! Let me know what you find out 😁😁

Have an amazing week! 

Sister Meeks 

I would love to see your Christmas cards or cute family pictures 😊

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! 

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 !!

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 

Last Pday at the beach in Hualian! 

Me fixing my companions bike #inadress

Reunited with my RC Xie Jiemei after a LONG time of not seeing her! 

Saying goodbye to everyone in Hualian! 

I got transfered back to the city! I am back with my old companion Sister Hurst!! We are so so excited! 

Hey everyone! I ran out of time this week to email so I hope you enjoy some pictures! 

Love you all! Have a good week ❤️

Sis. Meeks 

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!