Dear family,
Gooooooood morning! Thank you for all of your lovely emails - they really do make me so happy. This past week I finally got to watch some movies that Daniel made for me and sent and I seriously almost cried with sheer happiness of seeing him and hearing how he's doing. He's amazing, as you all know! But really, going on a mission and seeing your support every week has made me know even more how 100% blessed and lucky I am to have you. Thank you!
Speaking of Daniel, I'm thrilled that you were able to see the picture that Peggy posted. She's such an answer to prayer! We've been pleading with Heavenly Father to find a way to help Cindy come back to church, and I'm sure Peggy is it. She seems so strong and so loving - I know that she really is an angel sent to help our family. IT IS SO CRAZY to see the connections that Daniel and I have... and on opposite sides of the world! Heavenly Father knows us and loves us, that's all I can say.
Alright, I have a lot of different subjects that I want to write about today and I'm pretty sure my brain doesn't have the power right now to make sensible connections between all of them. So if anything I'm writing seems a little random, then just roll with it.
I passed Phase III! I was a little scared though when President Day opened up to Alma 60. I am not looking forward to reading all of the war chapters in Chinese...
We're starting a new plan for our areas - "Spring Cleaning." There are a lot of people who aren't progressing, so this week we cleaned them up! So now our white board of investigators is looking a lot more blank than we would like. But we've already seen some miracles, and we know that more are on the way. One of them was when we rode to Tianmu to go and visit an "eternal investigator." She wasn't at her shop (even though it was normal working hours), so we called and found out that she had some family issues that she needed to work out. So we prayed with her on the phone and then decided that it would still be nice to write her a note. Surprise, surprise... Writing notes in Chinese takes a little bit longer than writing them in English. :) But we still thought it would be a good idea to show her that we care. And we were right! In the time it took to write her a note (which probably wouldn't have been that long if we hadn't been interrupted), we met this lady who came up to us and said, "You are so wonderful for coming to Taiwan. Thank you for serving us. Here, take this fruit." and then gave us two guavas and two starfruits! Yeah! And then we also saw this lady with a stroller and ended up talking to her for about 20 minutes. She's a Christian and is very interested to know what we believe. We set up with her for this Tuesday and then she invited us to come to her church to share our beliefs as well. We'll see! Anyway, that was the day that we had decided to start spring cleaning, and I know those small miracles were evidence from Heavenly Father that He supports our actions. It's been a long time since these areas have had baptisms, but they're coming! Pray for us!
In other news, remember that model girl, Vivian? Well we finally met with her this past week... after an hour of waiting! Wow, I normally do not do that. But she actually was really great. A lot of people here say that they're Christian but actually don't have much of a relationship with or understanding of Jesus Christ. But it was really apparent that Vivian believes in Christ and wants to come to know Him more... and when we told her that the Book of Mormon was a way for her to do that, she was eager to start reading. Yes! This is how things are supposed to be.
This Saturday, the week-long celebration of Chinese New Year will begin. I know, it's been a year already. Crazy, right? I feel like I've already eaten pretty much everything crazy that there is to eat, so my descriptions of everything probably won't be as exciting as last year's - sorry! But this year I've got a little bit of a better grasp of the culture and can actually tell you how Chinese New Year came about:
A long time ago, there was a terrible monster named "Year." At the end of each year, he would come and would invade people's houses and eat their children. But then someone found out what Year was afraid of - fireworks, and the color red. So at the end of each year, the people would set off fireworks to scare Year away. But that wasn't enough - he still made his way into people's houses. So everyone would put up red on their doorposts to scare Year - and it worked. He would come to people's houses, and if the red was there on the doorpost, then he would pass by. If not, then watch out.
Sound familiar? If you guessed "the children of Israel and the last plague of Moses," then you're right! Stories like these (and there are a lot of them) make me believe that these people really did have the Gospel, a long long time ago. I love this culture, and I love these people.
Of course, another part of Guonian (Chinese New Year) is it brings in another year of a different star sign. Last year was the year of the dragon, and this year is the year of the snake. Funny story - yesterday we had a fireside for all of Taipei and one of the speakers decided at the close of his talk to quote a scripture about how we should be "wise as serpents" in order to bring in the celebration of Guonian (the year of the serpent, get it?). I thought it was a little weird, but then I talked to a member who was freaking out about it. She said, "Those star signs are witchcraft (and I'm not talking about Harry Potter, Rachel). We don't believe in those things! I mean, what are investigators going to think?" I guess I've turned Taiwanese, because I didn't think it was that big a deal. It is pretty funny to think about, in hindsight...
It was also fun at the fireside to see my old MM leader from Hualian. We actually Guonian eve dinner at his house, which was awesome. I used to be terrified of him (he was one of the few members I knew who had served a mission when he was young, so I felt like he was aware of every single mistake I was making), but then we had one time where I had like a fifteen minute conversation with him (without my companion's help!), and I wasn't scared anymore. It was sweet to see him and his wife yesterday and to think about how things have changed since a year ago.
Last but not least, here's this week's spiritual thought. Tomorrow I'll be training my zone on "the prayer of faith." I'm really excited about it. I was trying to think of some personal examples and then realized that there were so many - every miracle I've had has been because of a prayer of faith. I take a lot of comfort from Mormon 9 where we read that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, which means that He is still a God of miracles. I know that that's true, and I hope you've been able to see that as I write about the miracles He gives us each week. If we pray, He will hear. And He will answer.
Alright fam, time is running out. I love you all. Happy New Year (D&C 111:11)!
Love,
Sister Winters
[This photo was taken of Chi Tan, a sister in Daniel's branch in California with Becca in church yesterday. It is such a small world in the Church! Such a testimony that Heavenly Father is mindful of us wherever we are. Sweet tender mercy for me!]
Becca, Sis. O'Brien, and Anny, one of their investigators.
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