Sister Winters - September 24, 2012 I'm a monkey's neighbor

Editor's note:  Please don't forget Rebecca's birthday!  If you email her by 3:00pm MDT next Sunday, September 30th, she will get it on her birthday!  Her email is rebecca.winters@myldsmail.net.  Thank you!!

Dear family,

 

Time is short but the stuff that I want to write is long so we'll see what happens. Thank you for all of the great emails (and birthday stuff) this week! I'm really excited for next Monday. Not quite sure where we'll go yet but I know it'll be a party.

 

This week, like all weeks in missionary work, and its ups and downs. :) But there were some pretty awesome ups, so I'll tell you about those. Number one is there's this mountain behind our apartment that we hike sometimes in the morning - we always go there the first morning after everyone's moved to Taidong and then introduce ourselves and say a dedicatory prayer. Well, I'd heard that monkeys live on that mountain but had never in my almost seven months here seen one. Until last week! We were hiking and then saw two monkeys! Right in our backyard! How cool is that? It was really funny because Sister Marler hadn't seen one since she had been here and someone explained it was all about not hoping to see a monkey... and then you'd see one. Well, he was right! We didn't expect it, and then we saw it. Too fun.

 

Yesterday I got to go to Hualian for their district conference - a church meeting with the church members from Hualian, Yuli, and Taidong. There are two each year, and I was actually in Taidong for the last district conference! Wow. Anyway, I had the opportunity to play violin for the meeting's prelude (some things never change, right?) and look out at everyone. I teared up a little bit as I saw so many people that I love and that I've been so blessed to serve, all sitting in the same room together. I love Taidong and Hualian, and I love the Lord for sending me here. And I love that I've had the opportunity to touch some lives while I've been here. One of my converts in Taidong was sitting next to my convert in Hualian in one of the meetings and she turned around and said, "Wei Jiemei, you're in both of our baptism pictures! Thank you for all that you do." I was so happy, it was hard to contain it! Wow. So great.

 

I asked Sister Marler what she's learned the most this transfer, and she said it's been faith. I feel the same way. I've felt very inadequate - more than usual - this transfer, which has meant that I've felt like I've needed the Lord's help more than ever this transfer. Now, I always need the Lord's help, so I shouldn't have that attitude, but still - I know more than ever what Alma was talking about in Alma 32 when he said that humility had prepared the people for having faith. I've had a few "being ground into the dirt" experiences this transfer, which has made me more ready to have faith and rely on the Lord. So it's really good. :) Anyway, this past week we had a really cool one with Becky. We were trying to help her get baptized next Thursday - probably not going to happen. She had a mood swing and said that she didn't want to get baptized and that she didn't want to go to church and she felt like we were forcing her to do things that she didn't want to do. This was on the day of her baptismal interview. We were already fasting for her and praying with all of our hearts that she would be able to have spiritual experiences to prepare for baptism. I know you were praying too, so I relied on those prayers as I pleaded with Heavenly Father to help Becky. It was interesting to get Becky's call and have it seem like it was all for nothing. After Becky hung up, I turned to PMG pg. 10 and read to Sister Marler: "Remember that people have agency to choose whether to accept your message. Your responsibility is to teach clearly and powerfully so they can make a correct choice. Some may not accept your message even when they have received a spiritual witness that it is true. You will be saddened because you love them and desire their salvation. You should not, however, become discouraged; discouragement will weaken your faith. If you lower your expectations, your effectiveness will decrease, your desire will weaken, and you will have greater difficulty following the Spirit... When you have done your very best, you may still experience disappointments, but you will not be disappointed in yourself. You can feel certain the Lord is pleased when you feel the Spirit working through you." I then looked up and asked, "Do you feel the Spirit?" Sister Marler half-smiled and nodded. I looked at her and gave her a small smile back and said, "I do, too." We decided to keep fasting, even though Becky had given us an obvious answer of NO. But then, that night, we had a miracle. Becky called! She said that she wasn't able to return her tickets to the train station since nobody was there. I asked if there was anything we could do to help, and she said no. I said, "Well... why did you call us, then?" She said she didn't know. I said, "Well, maybe it's a sign that you weren't able to return your tickets." We chatted about it more, and she said that she was sorry for how she had acted, and said that she would think about whether or not she wanted to go the next morning. I knelt by my bed and thanked Heavenly Father for helping Becky change her mind and pleaded with Him to let her go with us to church the next day. Well, it worked. Becky was there at 6:15 the next morning, ready to go on the train to Hualian. And there was such a strong spirit in the meeting. I'm not sure if Becky will get baptized next week, but I AM sure that when we have faith, Heavenly Father will work miracles. And I'm so grateful He's letting me see so many.

 

Okay, I really do need to go, but I know that Heavenly Father loves us so much! I've felt that love for me so much, especially this past year as I've served as a missionary. I'm so grateful I can do His work. Have a wonderful week!

 

Love,

Sister Winters

 

Sister Winters - September 17, 2012 Happy birthday, Sarah!!

Dear family,

 

Hey howdy hey from Taidong! We got transfer announcements earlier this week, and... I'm staying. :) I'm hoping that my purpose in staying in Taidong for so long is to help Becky and Elain. Elain recently's been... well, alright, I guess. Becky's SO CLOSE! Keep praying! But anyway, most of the elders are leaving. We're all such a close family here in Taidong that it's always really sad when people move. But there are good parts too I guess because when new people move in this place really gets set on fire (spiritually). I always love that.

 

But anyway, this week was a good one! So so so many people at church yesterday. It was awesome. And so so so many progressing investigators. People are just coming out of the woodwork - I know that the Lord is preparing people here to hear His Gospel. It's so cool to be a part of it.

 

To tell you the truth, I had no idea that the typhoon was so serious until I read all of your emails. No, the only bad thing that happened here was that I forgot my poncho yesterday night and got so soaked that our member helping my lesson was worried that I'd catch a cold. :) I'm totally fine, though. And, weird truth: I kind of really like it when the weather's super-crazy or hard. It makes me feel like I'm... I don't know, a Christian soldier or something. :) Weird, but true. Speaking of catching colds, though, it was cold when we were riding here to Cyberdome this morning! I couldn't believe it. I wanted to put on a sweater and everything. Maybe I'm just turning Taiwanese and I'm starting to get cold really easily.

 

Apparently I am turning Taiwanese with my food tendencies. Last week we were treated to this seafood restaurant with like 75 courses - the food just kept coming out! Anyway, there was one dish with snails (still in the shells this time), and I just grabbed them out of their shells and started eating them, no big deal. But the thing that impressed the other missionaries the most was when the shrimp came out. They brought out this plate of like 7-inch long shrimp. Kind of terrifying. One elder just sat staring at them and the other picked it up and kept examining it like he was trying to figure out how it was all put together. I just grabbed it, ripped of its head and legs, and then started eating it. I didn't think it was a big deal at the time, but everyone afterwards was really impressed. And by the sound of things a little scared as well. Reading this paragraph it does seem like ripping off heads and legs is a little barbaric. But you know, I feel like as long as I stick to only doing it with dead things that I'm about to eat, I'll be okay.

 

I have an update with my favorite foods here, though. I've already talked about the random drink shops with squishy stuff you can put in your drinks. Well, they also have these fruit shops where they'll make juice for you. It's soooo good. My favorite before was banana milk, where it's, well, bananas and milk blended together. Mmmmmmmm.... But this week I went big and got mango and banana, add yogurt. That, my friends, is what heaven is going to be like. I was so happy as I sipped my mango banana yogurt drink that I couldn't wipe the smile off my face for a long long time. Yum. There's also this breakfast food called zhuabing that's fantastic as well. It's an egg in this tortilla kind of thing with cheese. Then you dip it in this thick soy sauce. Heaven. I've also recently been developing an affinity for kimchi, which is this korean pickled cabbage stuff. I know, sounds weird, but it's actually really good. I think my favorite was when we went to this member's house and we made our own lettuce wraps with kimchi, a little meat, a little spicy sauce, and rice on the inside. I want to make that for my kids, it was so darn good.

 

Okay, miracle for this week: the Qiu girls. We were biking somewhere and we wanted to get there fast if possible but contacting was okay too. Anyway, I saw these two girls and yelled out, "Hello!" They kept biking and didn't look at me, which is my personal way of knowing whether or not I should go and talk to them - they didn't pass the test. But then one of the girls looked - not at me, but looked around, as if trying to figure out who had talked to her. First I thought, "No big deal, they didn't look at me," but then I began to wonder if maybe the Spirit was prompting her to look around for me. So I knew we had to go back. Unfortunately, with traffic it was hard for both me and Sister Marler to turn around. I was looking desparately at the corner where those girls had turned around, trying to figure out whether or not we should go after them. Then all of the sudden, they came back! I was already on the other side of the street, so I yelled for Sister Marler to "TALK TO THEM! IT'S THEM!" ...So she did. And she did great. She just rode up her bike next to them and started chatting. Then I rode up too and invited them for a chapel tour. They looked kind of uncertain, but then their other sister joined them. I invited them all once more, and the sister said, "Alright, let's go." It was incredible. I felt like we had a little parade, all five of us riding to the chapel together. Then the tour went so well. The Spirit was very strong, and the girls committed to be baptized. Then they came to the elders' baptismal service that night, and church the next day. SO PREPARED. When I meet people like that, I think, "How did they not meet the missionaries before?" Then I feel so grateful that Heavenly Father let me be the one missionary that they didmeet. I love my life.

 

Okay, I've got to go, but I just need to tell you all that the Gospel really is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He is in charge. Have a wonderful day, everyone. I will, too - every person that we're meeting with tonight all has the same last name of Yang. Just imagining a missionary in the states meeting with a bunch of people all with the last name "Winters" makes me smile. Have a good one!

 

Love,

 

Sister Winters

Sister Winters - September 10, 2012

Dear wonderful, fantastic family,

 

Thank you for your emails (and pictures!) this week! I really can't describe how happy they make me. I'm just sitting here with a big smile on my face because of how awesome you all are. Just in case anyone is interested, "Forever Young," hamster-dance style, was just playing on somebody's computer as I was typing. He has interesting taste in music, I'll give him that.

 

This week was good! Still pretty crazy, but we saw results for our crazy hard work! There were a lot of people at church and we have people that are progressing. I am sure that it's coming from 1) your prayers, and 2) our trying to follow our mission president's advice on how to prioritize. He told us that we should spend about 80% of our time on six or fewer investigators that are really progressing and then 20% on the others. He's also been encouraging us to visit at least five member families each week, which before wasn't a priority at all. So that was a little weird at first, but this week we actually tried to do it, and we saw success because of it! Plus we had some great experiences because of them as well.

 

One of them was with the Lai family. Sister Lai has been a member for a while and two out of her three kids are members, but the youngest (who is eight) hasn't been baptized because her dad, who used to meet with the missionaries, keeps saying that eventually he'll join the church so he can baptize her.

 

...But he still hasn't.

 

So that's where we come in. Sister Lai came up to us and told us that her husband's birthday was coming up, and she asked if we could come with a cake and just randomly show up on the doorstep - and then do some sort of performance. I'll admit that I thought it sounded weird, but I knew that Lai Jiemei really was set on it, so I agreed. But of course with the whole missionary work thing, we forgot about the whole "performance" aspect until the day of the birthday party. So we and the elders got together to practice the afternoon before that evening's performance. Lai Jiemei told me especially that she wanted me to play violin, so I had to make sure I played that. That's great, but that left our district leader on the piano. Okay, that sounds bad - our district leader used to be a piano teacher and he's awesome at the piano, but just wait. Sister Lai suggested we maybe play/sing a few Primary song versions of Happy Birthday, and then the real thing. But the Chinese Children's Songbook only has like one birthday song... and Sister Lai's daughter had already prepared that one. And whereas our District Leader's note-reading skills are excellent, his whole playing-by-ear area needs a little bit of work. So I got into "music teacher mode" as I explained the chord progression to him, played the melody repeatedly with him, and then constantly corrected him as he played (*singing the note* "E-flat and not E-naturallllll"). You get the picture. Well, I think everyone was kind of shocked - it was like they were seeing a whole other side of me, because, well... they were. It was kind of hilarious to me, because I totally know that that side of me exists, but they had had no idea. Anyway, eventually they seemed to get a kick out of it too and had a great time calling out, "F7 chord! F7!" or "Move that D to an E flat!" and stuff like that the rest of the night.

 

But anyway, the rest of that night is what I wanted to talk about. We got to the Lai family's house, cake in hand, and they all seemed really happy to see us. It was crazy - the family and relatives were all there, the dog (whose name is "Fuyin," or "Gospel") was barking like mad, the garbage truck was going by (have I ever mentioned that the garbage trucks here are musical, like ice cream trucks? Everyone hears the little ditty and knows that the garbage truck is coming, so they go outside and bring out their garbage. SO disappointed it isn't ice cream), etc. Really loud. But Brother Lai seemed very gratified we were all there. Apparently the Taiwanese have this tradition before they blow out the candle of their cake that they announce what all of their wishes and dreams for this next year are to everyone. So we sang "Happy Birthday" - complete with violin accompaniment - and then Sister Lai asked me to keep playing as Brother Lai told us all what his wishes are. It was a little awkward for me at first because I had no idea why I was playing a solo while this man was talking, but it ended up being great. Brother Lai said that this year he wanted to quit smoking and get baptized and then baptize his daughter. Everyone was so so so happy. His oldest daughter, Jessica, even started crying because she was so happy. It was a great moment, and we were so happy we could be there for it. Now the elders are starting to teach him, and life is great!

 

One quick story from another member's house. Last night we went to go have dinner and FHE at a member family's house. They were pretty late in getting dinner to us, though, which meant a lot of time playing with their kids and a little bit of time eating and FHEing. Oh, well. Anyway, they have a daughter who's six and is absolutely adorable. She's very smart but sometimes she talks pretty fast in her little high-pitched voice and I have a little trouble understanding her. Last night she said something about "sha zhu" over and over again. I looked confusedly over at our district leader for a translation, and he said (very confidently, I might add): "She kills pigs with rocks."

 

...Wait, WHAT?!

 

Her parents heard Elder Peterson's translation and knew enough English to say, "She's talking about her piggy bank." Apparently when you put coins in your piggy bank, the Chinese phrasology for that is that you kills a pig with rocks. Who knew? Sister Marler and I got a good laugh out of that as we pictured this little innocent six-year-old girl secretly being a terrible pig-killer.

 

Things with Sister Marler are still going great. Something that's become a new bonding tradition for us is to share the dreams we had while we're exercising. Fortunately, I've had some really weird (and some really terrifying) dreams, including but not limited to: a dream where this scary guy kidnapped me and wanted to marry me, a dream about baby Voldemort, a dream about having my own baby without knowing quite how that happened, and a dream about my dad's long-lost evil sister Victorna who throws lego guys into people's drinks while they're drinking them so that their drink spills all over them. Weird, I know. At least we've had stuff to talk about, right?

 

Okay, spiritual time. We're working really, really hard to have Elain and Becky baptized on 9/29. They've been meeting with us for so long, and I think the time has come where they can really work hard to prepare for that date. Please pray for them! And that date! I know that if we have faith, we can do it. This week I've been extra-grateful for this chance to serve. I really do love serving a mission, and I really do love these people that I work with every day. I love the Lord, and I'm grateful for His patience with me. This work is God's work - we really wouldn't have any way to do it without His help. We see His hand in what we do every day. And I'm so happy that you all see His hand in what you're doing as well. I'm so proud of all of the good things you're all doing. Keep working hard and being good! I'll try and do the same, and I'll keep praying for you every day.

 

I love you all! Until next week.

 

Love,

Sister Winters

 

Sister Winters - September 3, 2012 "That, my friend, was a miracle"

Dear FOB (family/friends of Becca),

Rebecca's birthday is October 1st.  I know that she would love getting a card or note from you!  Considering that it takes nearly 2 weeks for a letter to arrive from the US to the mission home, another 5-7 days until they mail it out, and she can only open mail on preparation day, that date is rapidly approaching!  If you have a moment and $1.05 to spare, please consider dropping her a letter and wishing her well on her 22nd birthday.

Thank you so much!

The Editor

Sister Rebecca Winters

106-42

Taiwan Taipei Mission

4 Fl, #24, Lane 183 Chin-hua St.

Taipei  Taiwan, ROC

Dear family,

 

Um, apparently Happy Labor Day! No, they do not have that holiday here in Taiwan. They do celebrate three different Valentine's Days each year here though, so maybe that makes up for it...

 

It's been a monster of a week - one of those "refiner's fires" ones. :) It started out a little rough, but we really saw some miracles and came out on top by the end. So lately with the change in our mission president we've had a lot of changes in the mission - not only the rules, but in the way that we do missionary work, such as working with members and even with finding. It's been a little hard at the beginning to adjust to having the things you've done for the past nine months of your life being changed suddenly... and have somebody who isn't quite as familiar with the work to be your companion to boot. So these past few weeks have included a lot of struggling, and a lot of prayer. I think the "struggling" took its toll this week - I got sick. But not quite sick enough that I felt okay about staying inside, so I've been just "sick" and not "very sick" all week long. It's okay, though, because 1. there were some miracles associated with that, and 2. it's P-day today and I have told Sister Marler (the district's "P-day planner") that I need a nap today on the schedule and she's willing to accomodate my needs. :) So even though I'm not quite well today, sleep should help and I should be in tip-top shape soon. :)

 

Okay, onto the miracles, because there were a lot. First, the sick miracle. There were a couple of days where my voice was gone. Completely gone. Like, I would croak at someone and then they'd say, "I don't understand you," and walk away. A little tough on me, but also more tough on Sister Marler. Poor thing - she wasn't used to having to have to be in charge of everything, but with my voice being gone, she suddenly was in charge of about 80% of the talking in lessons, calling our investigators, etc. I think it might have been a little stressful at the beginning for her, but we were able to clearly identify from my voice being gone specifically what she needed to work on. And so when my voice came back more, we could work on it together. And now our lessons have more unity, and are getting closer to that 50/50 balance. It's great!

 

As you can probably guess, the days where my voice was gone weren't the most "successful" as far as statistics go in missionary work. We were low on lessons and on finding. And we had to go to Hualian on exchanges later that week, so there was another day gone. So you can imagine when we came back to Taidong on Saturday and had only had one investigator that week that we needed a miracle - and we needed the faith to do it. So Sister Marler and I the night before planned out where we would find. Well, I say that, but I actually askedSister Marler where she thought we should go. She said a specific place. I asked her if we should contact on the way there or just ride straight to the place and contact there (we only had about a half an hour and the place was five minutes away). She said that she'd feel more comfortable contacting there, so we wrote it down. The next day when we got back, we prayed and said that we knew that there were prepared people at the place we had planned to go, but we just needed to find them. So we went. When we got there, we were surprised to see this normally crowded area with only a few people in it. We looked around to see whom we could talk to, and we saw a mom and her daughter. So we walked after them, but then I saw a girl walking in the distance and told Sister Marler that she could decide whom she wanted to talk to. She changed her direction and walked towards the girl. She made the right choice - the girl was prepared to hear the Gospel. It turns out that the day that we invited her to be baptized on (October 6) is her birthday. We said if she had a party or something like that we could change it to Friday, but she said, "No, I think that I want to be baptized on that day." So cool. As we walked back to our bikes, I turned to Sister Marler and said, "That, my friend, was a miracle."

 

 There was also a miracle at church as well. We'd been praying all week long that we could reach our goal in having people come to church. We did. A few people that we had planned on hadn't come, but then there were a couple people who surprised us and came. One of them was Meg, Eva's little sister who used to live in China but came back and then was going to move away but surprisingly didn't (long story). I was so surprised and happy to see her! She's really prepapred. Another was a girl named Ling Zhun, who had come last week but we didn't get a chance to meet with her or even get her phone number because she disappeared before Sister Marler could talk to her. Anyway, she came yesterday and I had a chance to meet her. She is SO PREPARED for the Gospel! She's felt the Spirit before, and she likes church - not only because of friends there, but because of the testimonies that were born. Plus her dad thinks our church is awesome, so no opposition there. It was so great, and I was so happy.

 

There really are so many prepared people that we're teaching right now. We dropped quite a few investigators this week, but we put a star next to all of the people we thought could get baptized, and there were so many! Please pray that we will start seeing the fruits of our labors in baptism. It's so possible. We just need faith and miracles - they're already happening, so I know they can happen again!

 

Last spiritual thought for today - I know that God knows us and answers our questions. I tell my investigators that all the time, but it was neat to have it happen to me this week. I'd been thinking about a couple of things this week that I wanted resolved, so I asked in prayer for help. And then I studied, and then I got answers! Just a little miracle that can happen every day. :) I know that Heavenly Father loves me enough to answer my prayers, and I also know He loves you enough, too. Try Him.

 

Alright, that is it for this week. Thanks for your patience with me and these super-long emails. Sorry that there aren't too many funny things in this week's edition, but hey, I'm a missionary - it's in the job description to have some super-spiritual editions every now and then, right?

 

I love you all. Thank you for your prayers, and have a great week!

 

Love,

Sister Winters