Because Heavenly Father Loves Us

 Tongban

 This man lives in our neighborhood

Good morning! 

It's almost 6 in the morning, and I can't wait to go to the TAIWAN TAIPEI TEMPLE today!! I have missed going to the temple so much.  That's definitely something I will not take for granted, is being able to go to the temple every single week.  Take my advice, and do it!! Don't miss out on those blessings that are so easily attainable! Wow, that was a big word in English.  Anyway, Sister Juarez and I are going to do a session in Chinese today. I figure I still have my last p-day to go to the temple and do a session in English, so why not? As long as we're in Taiwan anyway… (: 

TAIPEI 101

We had an eventful wee. Where to begin... Last P day we went to Taipei 101!! We went up to the top, and it was just amazing.  It wasn't the perfect clear day by any means, but it was still really cool! Also, on the 20th, I hit 18 months as a missionary.  I can’t believe how fast the time has gone.

We've been focusing a lot on working with members, especially from guonian, and we had a cool miracle this week. We had lunch with Sister Xu from our ward, and she's an RM and our gospel principles teacher. She teaches so simply and clearly, I love it.  Anyway, she just sat down and started talking about this friend that she's been preparing to hear the gospel for a long time, and finally gave her number to the elders.  How easy was that?? Haha if only it could be like that every time! Then we used our "who do you know" approach that we were trained on from the worldwide missionary meeting, and we asked Sister Chen who was also there, who she knew that recently had a baby.  Bam! The spirit reminded her of her neighbor, and we set up a time to go visit her.   Our members here are so awesome! Missionary work is the best.

The district

A few weeks ago when we just moved in to our new apartment, we didn't have any gas, and the next day was MLC and exchanges, so we were freaking out a little that we wouldn't have any time to get a new tank. It was late, and we asked a random guy on the street if he knew if the gas place would be open.  Well it turns out that he met with missionaries back in 2009, and came to church a few times! So we taught him and his 11 year old, really smart son this week and we're super excited about them! Pray for the Chen family (: (you won't know it, but at the same time you'll be praying for half of Taiwan! Haha everyone here is last named Chen)

We haven't heard from Chantelle for a while, and we're a little worried.  But we're still praying for her, and we're not giving up on her.  At least for another minute. 

Exchanges with Sister Knapp

There's another Brother Deng, who used to be super less active. His mom is a member and never forced him to come to church or anything, but always encouraged him to go.  We visited him a while back and he finally just started coming, and now he's been really active. We told him this week that I'm going home soon, and that was just enough motivation to accept our invite to meet with bishop for a temple recommend to go do baptisms! For some people, it's just their time! It's literally nothing that we've done, but it's been really interesting to see how Heavenly Father has planned it out so perfectly. We were reviewing the restoration with Brother Deng, and it was cool to see how he made the connection that he had a personal apostasy, but now his questions are starting to get answered, and he's feeling the Holy Ghost again.  The gospel is true!!

These members from Sweden came yesterday.  How cute!

We did temple tours this week, and I almost got to do a tour in Spanish! Hahah Sister Juarez and I were trying so hard to remember Spanish words, but nothing was coming.  We tried to pray in Spanish, but all we could come up with was "we know that Jesus loves us, and we need help at church, and the Book of Mormon is the word of God. Help!" Well, I guess our prayer of faith was answered by us getting fang'd.  They didn't come. But  we were willing to do our best, and that's what mattered (: 

Last dinner with Jiang family. Me, Jia Qi, Elder Facer and Dixon,

Brother & Sister Jiang, Sis. Juarez, Bro. Su,

Yi Ting, and Sis. Zhong (served in Beitou a few months ago but is home now)

You know how when you buy milk, and it expires a little after your birthday, and that means that your birthday is really close? Well, lately we've been inviting people to baptism past the day that I leave.. which means that day is really close. I'm dreading that day I have to leave Taiwan, but can't wait for the day I get to see my wonderful family. I've had experiences this week where two different people told me that they felt the Lord is very proud of my work.  I guess my prayers have been answered through other people this time.  I can't wait to see what miracles are still in store for us, and we're going to make them happen. This week’s ponderizing scripture is 3 Ne 9:12.  I'm so grateful that we have so many opportunities to repent.  It's such a blessing that because of the Atonement, we can have a new start every week when we take the sacrament, and every day when we repent.  Lately I've been thinking as we've been teaching that you could pretty much start out every sentence with "because Heavenly Father loves us..." because it's so true! He loves us so much, and has given us everything and more.  

Hope you have a great week! Love you!

Love, Feng Jiemei